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[L Thammy]

I'm not a big Final Fantasy fans by any means, but I try to at least be vaguely aware of the series. It seems to me that whenever I see talk about Nomura's work, it's usually mentioned that his character design is terrible and also belts. Going by the people I know, I get the sense that people don't like his art as much since the PS1, except maybe for his more anime-styled stuff (e.g. The World Ends With You). I'm not sure if that's the common opinion though.

Nomura's undeniably had some hits. Cloud and Sephiroth are enduring popular. What I'm wondering is what the actual opinion of his entire body of work is. Do people think he's hit-or-miss? If you know he's handling the art on a game, are you confident that it'll be good?

 

[Garlador]

He's a great artist who has done a lot of great, awesome designs, and also a lot of stinkers.

I veer on the side of liking his work.

 

[Tezzeractor]

I like his stuff even when it's over the top. I guess it's a guilty pleasure of mine.

 

[Sora the Cat]

I love pretty much all of his designs.

 

[DarkChronic]

Yeah, I really like his stuff. It's silly and over the top and awesome.

 

[James Scott]

Not his Batman, but sure. He's alright most of the time.

 

[Nesther]

I like his stuff, but I can see why people find his art off-putting. Still, greatly enjoy his works.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

I prefer amano but nomura is also great.

 

[cloudzack117]

i love nomuras artstyle. im sad they never release any of the KH artbooks in america lol.

 

[bigmac996]

Not a fan of his work, especially his more recent stuff. There's a lot more appeal in his original designs for ff7 back in the day, now it seems like he really has no idea what he's doing.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

His designs are iconic in gaming. His art style is outstanding. He has a massive fan following.

I love his input artistically.

 

[KdylanR92]

Yes, I've pretty much liked most of his work.


Sure some of his work is over the top but that's not a downside in my book.

 

[Icyflamez96]

I love his style for the most part.

 

[Cess007]

Besides Sora, i don't like any of his designs. Like not at all.

 

[Newtype-001]

I like 99% of his stuff probably.

 

[Fury451]

I like him, he's made iconic characters that are instantly knowable, but stuff like his Batman redesign was so infamous because it really distilled all the negative things people feel towards his work into one place, and it highlights some of his design weaknesses too.

His more recent work seems more "generic" though, for lack of a more apt term.

 

[nailbombxx]

His designs are alright, but I do think Amano is objectively a better artist and I do prefer his style.

 

[gatling]

I like the asymmetry he uses in costume designs. I like his work for the most part definitely. Plus it has some sort of chunky charm where Amano's and Tomomi Kobayashi is more graceful.

 

[silvermember]

I generally like Lord Nomura character designs and games.

So yes, I like his stuff. He might have some baddies, but when you make everything for SE there are bound to be some bads.

 

[LiK]

I like 50% of his stuff.

 

[jacobeid]

I like his designs but he shouldn't ever even look at Batman again after what he did to Bruce.

 

[Pagusas]

I like probably 50 - 60% of his stuff, but I think I could say the same for alot of my favorite artist. When he hits it, he knocks it out of the park. When he misses... well thats when we get his batman.

I like his designs when he stays a little constrained — FF7 in particular.
Not so fond of his Kingdom Hearts designs.

I agree wit this, when he's constraining him self he is at his best. He has a bad habbit of going to far with his designs, almost every design looks like the base of it is perfect, but then he adds lots of "unnecessary" stuff into it that drags it down. Perhaps a product of his own success.

 

[Piers]

I like his designs when he stays a little constrained — FF7 in particular.
Not so fond of his Kingdom Hearts designs.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Did he do Lightning's design?

Because I loved it in FFXIII no matter the quality of the game, but what went down in 2 and returns was ludicrous.

Especially when they made her into a dress up doll.

The bishounen boy-group cast of XV isn't doing it for me though.

 

[Crankshaft]

I really liked his stuff during the PS1 era, everything after that though has been kind of "ok or ehh" to me.

 

[L Thammy]

Not his Batman, but sure. He's alright most of the time.

You know, I actually like that Batman. Maybe it's not very good as Batman, but if you put it in front of me and didn't tell me what it is, I'd think it looks good.

Surprised that the response in this thread has been almost totally positive so far. Maybe the sites I've visited have given me the wrong impression, or the hatedom is just more vocal?

 

[Ushojax]

They're generally fine but FFXV goes too far into self-parody. He's literally designed the main character after himself.

 

[HORRORSHØW]

hit or miss for me. didn't really like the ff7 cast. dug ff8's cast. rinoa and the dog > cloud and tifa

 

[Desi]

Last thing I liked of Nomura's was his work on Final Fantasy XI. besides that and his early grounded work ex. PE & FFVIII

 

[HabeeNo]

Really like most of his stuff

But that batman

 

[Pai Pai Master]

He is hit or miss but when he strikes lightning it is a great thing.

As much as I dislike Lightning as a character, her design is fucking fantastic. It makes me WANT to like her.

 

[cyress8]

He made the design for Nooj, so I say yes.

 

[SplitYourInfinities]

I hope not, most part of his designs are terrible.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

They're generally fine but FFXV goes too far into self-parody. He's literally designed the main character after himself.

Uhh...im not seeing it.

 

[entremet]

I only liked TWEWY and FFVIII.

 

[Ishida]

I like most of them.

There are exceptions, though.

 

[gigantor21]

Seymour and Nooj are perennial entries on the "shitty character design" threads for a reason. When he overdoes it, he REALLY overdoes it.

On the whole though, he's okay.

 

[DeSolos]

I love his work, he's got his own style. It was specifically his design of Cloud that sold me on the FF series when I was 7.

 

[Garrett Hawke]

I like a lot of his character designs but his Batman and Catwoman thing was just lol

Also I don't like that he seems to be responsible for the FFXV boyband line up, which I don't think were particularly well designed either.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

I don't like anything he's made except for VIII. Well I do also like Sora's KH II outfit, but that's about it.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

I love and adore the vast majority of what he does.

God-tier.

 

[MrChocolate]

He is a really great belt designer.

Spoiler

He designed Aerith, so he is cool in my book

 

[freikugeln]

He is pretty bad at designing the chothing

 

[daniels]

He has some stuff i dont like but thats just taste and opinion but as a whole i like almost everything.

 

[Ishida]

Seymour and Nooj are perennial entries on the "shitty character design" threads for a reason. When he overdoes it, he REALLY overdoes it.

On the whole though, he's okay.

I think Seymour is a pretty cool design.

I know a lot of people hate his design because "lol that hair", but that "hair" is supposed to be rigid, like the branches of a tree. Guados have wooden-like hair.

Nooj has no excuse, though.

 

[johnnydrama]

Not a fan. His designs are way over the top. Just not to my liking.

 

[Ninjimbo]

I love pretty much all of his designs.

Same here. I don't get the hate.

 

[Caronte]

I like his work until Final Fantasy X. XIII and XV not so much (the characters I liked from XV have all been replaced except Cor -.-).

There are far worse character designers out there anyway, he gets too much hate.

 

[Transistor]

Consistently? No. But I like more of his than I dislike.

 

[BabyFaceKillah]

No I don't like any of his designs.


Like at all