The Best and Worst Character Designs

[Zeles]

OK, how is this guy

Spoiler

not been mentioned yet?! This is the definition of amazing!

*Sneeeerrrk* Ha ha! His belt! And the cloth hanging down- Oh god I'm so sorry, I love you Arthas but- Pfftttt ha ha ha ha! Ohhhhhh. Wow.

Ahem.

Best character designs... Lesse...

Well:
Both of Elizabeth's dresses

Spoiler

BOTH of Elizabeth's dresses

I really like a bunch of the designs in Recettear:
Griff

Spoiler

Griff

Tear

Spoiler

Tear

Charme

Spoiler

Charme

For bad designs... Um... I don't really know.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Best character design - pretty much everything from Valve, but particularly the original designs for the TF2 characters.

You can always tell who any character is at a glance and from a distance and easily differentiate them from every other class in the game. Hell, even with all the bizarre hats and all the other accessories that have muddied up the character designs they're still instantly recognizable from any angle and at any distance.



Worst character design - War from Darksiders.

I mean look at him, what the hell is that?! Why is one arm bigger than the other arm? What's the point of half the stuff that's on him? It's all just an over-designed mess that serves no purpose.

 

[jollybarracuda]

Personally I've always really loved the design of Stranger, from Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. His name is simply Stranger, so it's rather memorable, and he had a great voice actor, some really unique animations, and a really great plot twist that made him rise beyond the simple "cool bounty hunter" stereotype.

As for characters I really don't like the design of, I have to go with Bayonetta. I know a lot of people go crazy for her design, and she's by no means the worst design ever, but every time i see her i get a weird chill up my spine. She looks like a spider, or something. Her legs are just too long, and that stupid ice cream cone on her head just drives me nuts. I appreciate them not going overboard with her other features, though, so she isn't offensive or anything. Just...uncomfortable to look at.

 

[piinyouri]

Shadow Madness.
Shadow Madness has the absolute worst character design I have ever seen.
It's also very inconsistent. Look up the scarecrow character's concept art, then see him in game, THEN see him in a FMV.
Horrid.

 

[Casual Shinji]

This dude right here.

I'd say nearly everything and everyone in Oddysee and Exodus is incredibly well designed.

As for bad designs... More or less everything put out by Blizzard.

 

[SweetShark]

Behold!!!!!

Seymour from FFX!!!! Wrost Character design I ever seen!!!!!

On the other hand his Summon is

F*CKING METAL!!!!!

 

[saluraropicrusa]

Best character design I've seen is the Team Fortress 2 classes.

I'd say they're perfect. Shame they cocked it up with all the hats and stuff, but still. Their base models are pretty much perfect.

I have to say, I agree completely. It was the art style that first drew me to TF2, and it's the mucking up of said art style with the most absurd and dumb hats that drove me away from it. A shame, because that game is a ton of fun.

However, I'm severely disappointed that no one has mentioned this beautiful example of perfect character design yet:

Spoiler

Just gorgeous. Also shout outs to the entirety of Okami, and the colossi from Shadow of the Colossus.

I don't know about bad character design... besides the more recent Final Fantasy games, which have already been mentioned, I can't think of anything that stands out as terribly offensive to me.

 

[major_chaos]

Spoiler

Spoiler

Whoa. Was she in the first game? That was the only one I played and I remember thinking it wasn't all that fanservicey for a Japanese fighting game, but that pic is... kinda really bad in that respect.

OT: I can't think of one specific person to name as best/worst so I'm gonna go with franchises.
For best I would have to go with either the Guilty Gear series for its unique zany cast, or Dead Space for its for its extra creepy take on "zombies" and excellent armor designs. For worst I think its a hard choice between Guild Wars 2 and basicly every 3D Final Fantasy game. With GW it might just be my fault as I never got very far, but from what I saw it was lacking in the epic armor department, which has always been important to me in MMOs as it both looks cool and serves as visual sign of progress. Much of the armor in GW seemed very plain(except for Mesmer starting gear, witch just looks stupid to me). As for FF games as much as I have loved some of them, I have always felt that the 3D entries had rather silly character design, with X XII and XIII being the worst offenders, and as much as I love it to death you could make the argument that IX belongs on that list too.

 

[Sandjube]

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

You wot guvna?

Man I love Yangus Bangers and Mash that game, my brother was on the ps2 playing it like last week while I watched. Gooooood stuff.

As for OT: Worst? I'm gonna go the easy way out and say that Scarlet Blade game from the other thread....just ugh.

Best? Well I've been playing tf2 heaps lately and I love all the classes and their attire in that. Speaking for just the base gear, none of it is really over the top or anything and it all suits whoever it's on...*shrug*

Oh and Zeno Clash. Zeno clash is fucking ridiculous in this department and I love it.

 

[hazabaza1]

snip

Holy shit it's like a living Iron Maiden with a monster dick just waiting to fuck you up. How did I forget that this existed?

More OT: Simple stuff is always nice and cool. Booker [https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS2JjwycAohRQlr3pzgt3x19DprL_zsOk58R9qgJiLHNtye61ZVkQ] and Elizabeth [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130402192602/bioshock/images/2/26/Elizabeth.jpg] from Bioshock Infinite look good, as do most of the cast from Persona 3 [http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/148150-/vuKv9mYui53P11S4v464uKK4MWUbT7i1-noscale.jpg]+4 [http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs47/f/2009/161/1/6/P4_Persona_Users_by_faustysangel.jpg].

Meanwhile I fucking hate stuff like Dark [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1RcvaEDhLZ0/TVFONQpHJ1I/AAAAAAAABmo/MdL3lXDOGYs/s1600/war_armor_newpeek.jpg]siders [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120822015102/darksiders/images/f/f6/Death_darksiders_ii.png]. Over designed unrecognizable horrible looking things that manage to be completely generic yet stupidly nonstandard.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Spoiler

Spoiler

Whoa. Was she in the first game? That was the only one I played and I remember thinking it wasn't all that fanservicey for a Japanese fighting game, but that pic is... kinda really bad in that respect.

She is in BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend, the latest one until Chrono Phantasma hits consoles. Whenever that is.

The only thing I can think of is that since Mu is the ascended version of Noel Vermillion and Hazama turned her into Mu-12. I'm going give a theory that since Hazama hated Noel so much he just took the chance to design her outfit in the most hilarious way possible after her rebirth. Just for the lolz.

It's the only reason I can think of to be honest. I have yet to find a solid reason from the actual team at ArkSys, the general feeling with Mu's design is that it just... Happened. Then everyone rolled with it.

I'm not complaining really, she's my favourite character to play regardless of the weird costume. Would you be surprised if I told you she has one of the lowest health pools in the game? Shocking right?

 

[SSJBlastoise]

(...)

While I like the Spartan design of Halo, if the green parts in the first picture are the protection-providing armor plates, then he's not very well protected, particularly in the crucial and easy-to-hit midriff area.

I'd imagine they designed it so that if it was a real item of armor it would allow for movement. If the green plates connected to the legs it wouldn't be very flexible. Then you could also argue that because the area uncovered isn't as vital as the chest (not really any vital organs) and a shot to the stomach is less likely to be a kill shot.

OT:

My favourite designs

Spoiler: Daedric armor from Skyrim

Spoiler: Big Daddy from Bioshock

Spoiler: Songbird from Bioshock: Infinite

Come to think of it I really like pretty much all of the character designs from the Bioshock games.

I can't really think of some of the worst but some mentioned above are pretty bad.

Spoiler

I'm aware this wasn't put up as saying all these characters are poorly designed but while trying to think of one I searched a few sites to get some ideas and one had Star Killer as one of their worst which annoys me for the simple fact that he looks exactly like his voice actor. I mean fair enough if they just designed a random faced, short brown haired male but I feel Star Killer is exempt from this for the simple fact that he looks exactly like his voice actor (this wasn't an attack at you or anything).

 

[josemlopes]

Spoiler

I'm aware this wasn't put up as saying all these characters are poorly designed but while trying to think of one I searched a few sites to get some ideas and one had Star Killer as one of their worst which annoys me for the simple fact that he looks exactly like his voice actor. I mean fair enough if they just designed a random faced, short brown haired male but I feel Star Killer is exempt from this for the simple fact that he looks exactly like his voice actor (this wasn't an attack at you or anything).

Yeah, that image was just something that was on the internets that showed what I was trying to say in an easy way, still the fact that it was trying to be like the actor doesnt really avoid it from being "poorly designed" in the way that it ends up being bland among all the others.

They could have started the game with him looking like that (since he is jsut a Sith aprentice its obvious that he will probably have to look a bit bland) but at least make him stand out visually by the end of the game too give him some identity (like make him have a piece of clothing that would actually be unique to him, in the way that now everyone associates a white hood with the assassins of Assassins Creed).

In Spec Ops The Line the character is really bland first (just another soldier) and by the end of the game he is all fucked up (like half a face turned into bacon, clothes all messy, etc...), it still isnt exactly a good character design that makes him stand out all that much but it does avoid making him as bland as he was in the beginning

 

[Headsprouter]

Spoiler: Big shock.

He resonated with me very well, was in one of my favourite games of all time. Just a cool-ass critter. Became my avatar on everything. I get it if other people don't see why I like him so much. He's of essentially no significance.

I've even been personifying the thing this whole post, so far. He's more of an "it". He's hardly even worth being called a character. Well, he's default unlocked on the arcade character select, so...that kinda counts? Anyway, I digress. It's all sentiment. Nobody'll agree.

Spoiler: Creator of spandex, herself:

Okay, maybe it's not TERRIBLE, but the combination of perma-hard nipples, permanent wedgie and special suspenders to gear the breasteses forward make this...not as bad as Ivy, but the perma-hard nips is the nail in the coffin for me.

 

[Ralen-Sharr]

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?

that could be awesome....

Slender vs aliens

can't think of any large women off the top of my head, but it could still be funny

 

[Mikoi]

Off Topic: Odd to say, but I actually don't mind Star Trek uniforms, in terms of design.
Straight forward, looks good, all that jazz.

Spoiler: Mostly these ones.

On Topic: I never understood the character design of these guys.

Spoiler: For the ability to blend into crowds, I found this slightly over the top

However these two, I've always liked.

Spoiler: And I've always loved these two little guys

I've always liked the Character of these two guys, and the gear they wear are well suited to who they are.

EDITED: Wording more reflects the image displayed.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

I'd say nearly everything and everyone in Oddysee and Exodus is incredibly well designed.

As for bad designs... More or less everything put out by Blizzard.

Ahh, you beat me to it. I suppose all that's left for me to do is to be pedantic and correct Exodus to Exoddus.

So I suppose I just have to pick the worst design now. Well, one nomination would have to be Ulysses from the Lonely Road DLC for Fallout: New Vegas.

Spoiler: Image squeeze

Everything from the neck up is great, but that duster really gets on my nerves. It looks pretty impractical since I expect it would leave you with very thoroughly sunburned arms in the desert, and the fact that it has an American flag painted on the back after the US was involved in a nuclear apocalypse just reminds me of all the reasons why I dislike Ulysses as a character.