The Best and Worst Character Designs

[Miss Layton]

One of the many reasons why I've always had trouble taking most JRPG's - well, mainly post-VII Final Fantasy mostly - seriously was always due to my intense dislike for its character designs. I've always been of mind character design should always reflect or emphasize personality traits. It should be practical, but memorable. I look at every outfit of every cast of post-VII Final Fantasy with the exception of IX (which I like) - and think, "What does this say about the character? Really? Outside that they're just models for truly silly outfits?"

On the other hand, on the far opposite end of the scale, Telltale's Walking Dead has been a good exercise in sensible character design. After all, unlike SquareEnix, the lead black man here isn't an over the top stereotype. He's more casually dressed. The blue colour scheme reinforces he can be the calm voice of reason, that he's an intelligent man. I can look at Lee and glean a hell of a lot more of his character than, say, XIII's Sazh.

On the subject of zombie games, how about Valve's Left 4 Dead series? Actually, come to think of it, Valve in general has always been on top in this department. Every character has a design, an outfit, that suits who they are and reinforces who they are. I appreciate that.

Now, on your end, what do you find are the best and worst instances of character design in gaming?

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Blue means Lee is calm? You mean the blue outfit he's wearing to go to prison for murdering someone because he couldn't keep his calm?

Anyway, I always thought a lot of JRPGs just went stupidly over the top when it came to character design.

Well, not all

 

[Miss Layton]

Blue means Lee is calm? You mean the blue outfit he's wearing to go to prison for murdering someone because he couldn't keep his calm?

Anyway, I always thought a lot of JRPGs just went stupidly over the top when it came to character design.

Well, not all

Precisely. Hence, "can be." It only adds something else to the character. It's a prisoner's uniform, it hints at his darker side.

 

[Fappy]

Speaking of JRPGs, Persona 3 and 4 are JRPGs that are commonly praised for their well designed characters. Shigenori Soejima is a total baller.

 

[josemlopes]

I think the biggest problem is when characters have so much shit that if you were to remember what he was wearing it would be really hard to. Like this...

Spoiler

On the other hand making the character have nothing that makes him different doesnt help at all either.

Spoiler

PS: Kratos is actually not that bad, he is like super pale white with the red make-up

With the case of Lee, well... the fact that he is a black protagonist kind of makes him stand out.

 

[Miss Layton]

Speaking of JRPGs, Persona 3 and 4 are JRPGs that are commonly praised for their well designed characters. Shigenori Soejima is a total baller.

Agreed. I LOVE the SMT series in general, but the Persona games - well, mainly 4 - hold a special place in my heart.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Worst character designs? Hmm, Bioware is pretty bad a lot of the time, mostly because they often look more like a jumbled mess of textures than an actual outfit. Worst offender is easily Jack from ME3. She was okay in ME2 once you got her loyalty outfit, but in Mass Effect 3. She is wearing a duct tape bra, sideless cargo jeans, a bizarre half shaved ponytail, and a riveted jacket. It's a bad sign when her tattoos are the thing that stand out the least.

Then you have the jumpsuits. The armour I don't mind, since they look like the retro space suits from pulp science fiction, but the uniform jumpsuits. Who thought putting armor plating on your clothes was a good idea?

That's just Mass Effect, don't get me started on how insane the outfits in Dragon Age can get.

 

[shrekfan246]

Then you have the jumpsuits. The armour I don't mind, since they look like the retro space suits from pulp science fiction, but the uniform jumpsuits. Who thought putting armor plating on your clothes was a good idea?

Jumpsuits? Do you mean the skintight outfits in the first Mass Effect? If so, I agree, they looked ridiculous and are part of the contributing factors to why it's so difficult getting a decent-looking MaleShep in that game. Otherwise... I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. D:

OT: One that's both at the same time is the Sonic franchise. Much as I like the games, I'm not one to deny that the biggest reason he got popular to begin with was his design. Then you look at the expanded Sonic-verse and get things like...

Spoiler: Big the Cat

Spoiler: Silver the Hedgehog

Spoiler: Wave the Swallow

Spoiler: Jet the Hawk

Ugh.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Then you have the jumpsuits. The armour I don't mind, since they look like the retro space suits from pulp science fiction, but the uniform jumpsuits. Who thought putting armor plating on your clothes was a good idea?

Jumpsuits? Do you mean the skintight outfits in the first Mass Effect? If so, I agree, they looked ridiculous and are part of the contributing factors to why it's so difficult getting a decent-looking MaleShep in that game. Otherwise... I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. D:

I'm talking about their civilian clothing. I liked their armor designs, it's their noncombat uniforms that bug me.

Spoiler

Why do they need all those straps and belts, and a shoulderpad/collar? It looks overdesigned and clunky, and then the camo pattern on the cloth makes it look like a jumbled mess.

Also, Bioware needs to find some better human faces to work with. When they use a model like Vanderloo or the lady who played Samara, they can look good. But their Femshep looks bloody awful. She looks like a mouse wearing too much eyeliner.

 

[shrekfan246]

Then you have the jumpsuits. The armour I don't mind, since they look like the retro space suits from pulp science fiction, but the uniform jumpsuits. Who thought putting armor plating on your clothes was a good idea?

Jumpsuits? Do you mean the skintight outfits in the first Mass Effect? If so, I agree, they looked ridiculous and are part of the contributing factors to why it's so difficult getting a decent-looking MaleShep in that game. Otherwise... I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. D:

I'm talking about their civilian clothing. I liked their armor designs, it's their noncombat uniforms that bug me.

Spoiler

Why do they need all those straps and belts, and a shoulderpad/collar? It looks overdesigned and clunky, and then the camo pattern on the cloth makes it look like a jumbled mess.

Also, Bioware needs to find some better human faces to work with. When they use a model like Vanderloo or the lady who played Samara, they can look good. But their Femshep looks bloody awful. She looks like a mouse wearing too much eyeliner.

Eh... I can see where you're coming from on the latter three Sheps (I never used the default non-combat outfits in ME2 or 3), but the first one looks fine to me. The black straps are a little weird, and I suppose the side-padding is unneeded, but it doesn't look nearly as bad as the other two outfits.

And the one thing that most annoyed me about the character customization in Mass Effect is that I can't pick DefaultShep and then slap a different hairstyle on him. I don't want the dumb buzzcut and silly goatee, Bioware, and all the custom MaleSheps look like they're the spawn of Cthulu and Satan!

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Then you have the jumpsuits. The armour I don't mind, since they look like the retro space suits from pulp science fiction, but the uniform jumpsuits. Who thought putting armor plating on your clothes was a good idea?

Jumpsuits? Do you mean the skintight outfits in the first Mass Effect? If so, I agree, they looked ridiculous and are part of the contributing factors to why it's so difficult getting a decent-looking MaleShep in that game. Otherwise... I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. D:

I'm talking about their civilian clothing. I liked their armor designs, it's their noncombat uniforms that bug me.

Spoiler

Why do they need all those straps and belts, and a shoulderpad/collar? It looks overdesigned and clunky, and then the camo pattern on the cloth makes it look like a jumbled mess.

Also, Bioware needs to find some better human faces to work with. When they use a model like Vanderloo or the lady who played Samara, they can look good. But their Femshep looks bloody awful. She looks like a mouse wearing too much eyeliner.

Eh... I can see where you're coming from on the latter three Sheps (I never used the default non-combat outfits in ME2 or 3), but the first one looks fine to me. The black straps are a little weird, and I suppose the side-padding is unneeded, but it doesn't look nearly as bad as the other two outfits.

And the one thing that most annoyed me about the character customization in Mass Effect is that I can't pick DefaultShep and then slap a different hairstyle on him. I don't want the dumb buzzcut and silly goatee, Bioware, and all the custom MaleSheps look like they're the spawn of Cthulu and Satan!

Well I like the first one because it looks like a decent uniform, and the strap looks a bit like a police holster. As for their character creators, Bioware's are pretty bad. Their FemShep face generator is downright terrible, where every face looks the same or atrocious. The Male Shep is okay, in that you can at least make them look wildly different, but their faces all look like they're made of plastic.

 

[Anathrax]

My favorite has to be Abyssal War(Darksiders).

Spoiler: Abyssal war

My worse has to be... GraveHound Anubis from Smite.

Spoiler: Normal Anubis(top) and Gravehound Anubis(bottom)

He needs a better skin.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

My favorite has to be Abyssal War(Darksiders).

Spoiler: Abyssal war

My worse has to be... GraveHound Anubis from Smite.

Spoiler: Normal Anubis(top) and Gravehound Anubis(bottom)

He needs a better skin.

You sure you didn't get those backwards? War's outfit looks like it was built on top of three other oufits, while the anubis monster looks pretty good, with decent color variety and an easily identifiable shape.

 

[Anathrax]

Different tastes. On the smite forums the guys who have been around Alpha and early beta many of them agreed on my description of an "undead chicken".

 

[Tom_green_day]

One thing that really drew me out of XCOM: The Recent One was the way that all males had huge chunky bodies, and all females were slim and elegant. What if I wanted a thin man? Or a large lady?

 

[The Wykydtron]

One thing that really drew me out of XCOM: The Recent One was the way that all males had huge chunky bodies, and all females were slim and elegant. What if I wanted a thin man? Or a large lady?

I think if you could have that everyone would merge together into some massive mess of body parts. I have trouble immediately telling who is who most of the time anyway because everyone needs the latest body armour and weapons and I don't think there are any customisable colours for people. Kind of a massive oversight.

I mean I need to tell apart my Eowyn with Laser Rifle from some random scrub with a Laser Rifle, then one sniper is male and the other female so I can easily tell which is better (no offense ladies, Rookie is best sniper EU) and so on.

OT:As for good character design.

Most of the cast in BlazBlue looks awesome but Hazama is undoubtedly the BEST EVER CHARACTER DESIGN! I will nominate Mu-12 for the most bizzare character design though

Spoiler

Spoiler

For those interested.

I can't think of any bad ones. Oh, no. Hold on.

Fuck this guy. I hate overly big characters most of the time anyway but fucking TAGER, man. The DAMAGES!

 

[IllumInaTIma]

I have to go with Final Fantasy too. Costume, and even more so weapon, designs are freaking atrocious in those games, and this is real shame, since characters themselves are so freaking beautiful!
<img src=http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/337/0/f/final_fantasy_xiii_2_lightning_wallpaper_hd_by_ryokunagasaki-d4i30vu.png>

As for good designs, I feel that good design is the one that makes sense for that character. Something that you will look at and, knowing character, will say "yeah, I can see her wanting to wear something like that".
Case and point, Mitsuru in Persona 4: Arena.
<img src=http://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/P4U-Site-Update_11-21-11_005.png>
"What a hell is she wearing?!" you might ask. Some sort of spy catsuit and white fur coat... looks stupid, doesn't it? However, knowing Mitsuru from Persona 3, it makes perfect sense. She's rich, powerful, strong and, as she admits herself, have no fashion taste at all. So, if you were her, how would you think? "Well, I am gonna fight a lot, so, I should probably wear a catsuit because it's feminine and suitable for battles. But, I'm also president of multi-million corporation... Yes, that fur coat will do. Perfect."

 

[The Wykydtron]

Oh and how on EARTH did I forget Hanako? HOW?!

Spoiler

Hanako is Best Route EU

[sub][sub]So cute![/sub][/sub]

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Blue means Lee is calm? You mean the blue outfit he's wearing to go to prison for murdering someone because he couldn't keep his calm?

Anyway, I always thought a lot of JRPGs just went stupidly over the top when it came to character design.

Well, not all

I used to love that guy's outfit. It was a relief that equipping stuff on him didn't change his in-game look. Except the Super Ultra Secret Ending Armor, but I never got every single little piece.