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[SolVanderlyn]

Look at that. Now you ask, what's so great about those designs? My answer: it's the perfect representation of Final Fantasy. It has the heavily stylized flair made popular by Nomura's designs blended with the high fantasy aesthetic of Amano's art. The designs are fantastical, but not over the top. Their hair is spiky and very "anime," but not overtly ridiculous in design. Their outfits have the buckles that Nomura loves, but are still relatively simple in design.

If Kingsglaive represents an overly westernized version of Final Fantasy...

And FFXV represents a modern aesthetic that's almost too stylized...

I feel as if Exvius is the perfect marriage of styles used throughout the FF series. It helps that the models were based off of Amano's art. Dissidia had designs based off of Amano's art, too, but the designs in Dissidia were even more heavily stylized than in mainline FFs.

Agree/disagree? What makes good JRPG character design? What separates it from western design - should it make an attempt to close the gap, as seen in Kingsglaive, or should it retain its very Japanesey flair? Discuss.

 

[Lights and Waves]

Where? The villain looks good but the heroes are typical JRPG nobodies.

 

[jett]

Where? The villain looks good but the heroes are typical JRPG nobodies.

This is what I was thinking. Sorry OP.

 

[Ken]

I can see her belly button.

 

[Feep]

I thought this was going to be about the decent-to-strong sprite art in the game.

Yeah, designs of the three nobodies isn't really very impressive.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

Yeah Rain and Lasswell are pretty poor.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Man.

I like it. :/

 

[Caronte]

The clothing is ok, the faces are way too generic.

 

[diaspora]

Uh, not really. I mean FF14 probably has a significant better style imo.

 

[KojiKnight]

Character designs aren't anything to write home for... but what I was impressed with was the writing. I actually had a few laughs and it's not filled with the usual jank that usually comes with F2P games, even Square one.

 

[ponpo]

I can see her belly button.

Jacknod

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Generic Loli, Ace-Shulk, Male Fang, and Golbez.

 

[Ultimadrago]

I like the Kingsglaive designs better than the first picture posted.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

Yeah, those teens are suffering from FF Generic syndrome and while the armored man looks nice, he's basically Golbez.

 

[TheGeniusArcana]

It's a good combination of the styles, yes, but the designs themselves are pretty generic.

 

[blankempathy]

That shoulder armor looks really inconvenient. I wonder if he gets them stuck in things as he walks by.

 

[Slamtastic]

I like the Kingsglaive designs better than the first picture posted.

Yep.

 

[Haly]

Only the armored guy is definitively "FF". The rest could've come from C-tier JRPGs no one's heard about.

In particular I have no idea what those gold rectangles are. It's an uncommon shape in Nomura's designs, excepting the obligatory buckles.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

 

[PsionBolt]

I'm not amazed. If you asked me tomorrow to describe these people for a police sketch, I doubt I would be of any help to the investigation whatsoever.

Generic Loli, Ace-Shulk, Male Fang, and Golbez.

Three out of four accurate descriptions here, but the first one... I'd go with something like "recently introduced Tekken character" instead.

 

[Ricerocket]

This? If I saw this, I would never guess FF. That's how generic it is and how common these kind of art are in mobile games.

 

[theMrCravens]

I like the character concept (Amano based).

The problem is your first pic with that realism art is atrocious.
Doesn't do them justice.

 

[Pejo]

I love the in-game sprites, op, don't worry. I think they really nailed the character looks with them. Also agree about the text being pretty entertaining.

 

[Lumpy Onion]

The 3 characters in the first pic have a plastic-like CG look that I am not a big fan of. Especially Fang (Lasswell). I sorta like the armored character in the first pic because he reminds me of Shadowlord from FF XI. He's a bit over stylized though with the winged spaulders. Not too impressed to be honest.

Shadowlord from FF XI

 

[Kagari]

Rain looks like a repurposed Ace from Type-0 and Fina looks like a repurposed Stella from Versus XIII.

 

[wmlk]

Rain's the only good design there. I really don't like the main girl's design.

Feels like neither a step up or step down in design, so it just appears boring to me tbh.

 

[netgrimoire]

Rain looks like a repurposed Ace from Type-0 and Fina looks like a repurposed Stella from Versus XIII.

This!!

Also, I love designs for Kingsglaive more than regular FF15 and Brave Exvius.

 

[Crocodile]

All I see are Sakura, Naruto and Saskue. Oh and weird armor guy too

 

[HawthorneKitty]

Has it developed quite a fan art following though?

 

[Svafnir]

I like it, especially the in game character art.

 

[Not Spaceghost]

Fina, Rain, and Lasswell look kinda uninspired and the villain while looking great looks a bit much.

Good FF character design is really simple but also incorporates an instantly recognizable silhouette. Honestly character design is something that FF gets wrong more than it gets right, what it has done well is create memorable characters.

FF7 probably has the most well designed cast of the whole franchise with FF6 as a close second, FFX and 12 as a close third and then the rest. Seriously I can't tell you what any character looks like from FF5 outside of their sprite, Bartz is fucking awesome and one of my favorites but he's literally just a dude with a blue shirt and some anime hair. FF6 is definitely up there because Terra, Celes, Kefka and Locke finally have detailed enough sprites to stand out and be recognized, plus their portraits have sooo much personality behind them

That being said it has created many recognizable characters over time. Even Lightning's design has become almost iconic by now and it's a really simple set up. Seriously it's just a plank with pink hair.

 

[Leafhopper]

Looks like the Star Ocean character designer and Nomura made the cast. Meanwhile you have a typical FF looking villain on the right.

I have to disagree with ya, Sol.

I like the look of them though, dunno about amazing however.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Really? They look like 08/15 jRPG characters.

 

[Enosh]

Where? The villain looks good but the heroes are typical JRPG nobodies.

I kinda think that was OPs point, he enjoys the "standard" jrpg hero design and is happy that the game has it

 

[dramatis]

I don't care much for the male character designs and the female character design is typically bad as usual.

Definitely not amazing character design, OP.

 

[Valkerionseven]

Disagree, those are as generic as JRPG characters get. I don't like the XV characters either but they are both extreme versions of what they obviously are.

Schoolgirl/idol female : check
Teen male protag who is most likely angry and screams "raaaahhhhh" when he attacks: mhmm
Secondary male who is better at everything than the generic protag: you betcha
Big badguy: bingo.
All with straps and buckles that lead nowhere nor connect/hold anything in place: you know it.

Too typical for my blood these days. Might as well slap a Tales of in front of it.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

Rain looks like a repurposed Ace from Type-0 and Fina looks like a repurposed Stella from Versus XIII.

I couldn't put my finger on it, but this is it.

 

[GoldCrusader]

I like them! seeing that Ace look alike makes me want type-next sooo much

 

[Stone Ocean]

Those characters look tacky even by Nomura standards

 

[docbon]

I uh... don't like any of them, tbh. Rain might be the least awful though.

 

[HeelPower]

FFXV designs are much,much better.They're in a different tier.

Its not even close.

 

[Jaymageck]

Of the 3 examples in the op, Kingsglaive is the only one I'd rate close to 'good' nevermind amazing.

I think the last FF game I'd award an 'amazing' for character design was FFIX.

 

[Curry-Hakase]

They don't look terrible, just uninspired.

 

[Dice//]

Maybe I'm reading this funny, but IMO they're "genius" in a smart-ass way.

OP is right, it looks like the perfect stereotype for the FF series...but done by themselves.

• MC is blonde with silly spikey hair
• Darker protag looking guy is the Kain/Zack/Riku/Seifer cool-guy-anti-hero-BFF[?].
• The girl's clothing looks like 5 different FF female designs mixed in with a white mage cloak
• Villain is that beautiful but overdesigned look (Basically it looks like it came right out of Yoshitaka Amana's scrapbook)

 

[Conrad Link]

Blonde guy in the middle looks right out of Type-0 lol.

 

[RefigeKru]

Those are pretty awful. Completely forgettable designs.

 

[HeelPower]

I just noticed a cool touch.

The girl's cape is based on the classic white mage design.That's cool.

 

[Anoregon]

The character design itself doesn't do a lot for me, but I like the actual sprite art of the game.

 

[BennyBlanco]

US iOS release when?

 

[LuuKyK]

The villain and the blonde guy look great. The other two are overdesigned though. Still, they all have more personality than Noctis and crew.