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Are you happy with the "visual identity" adopted by modern Final Fantasy?

MYE

Member
I'm talking about the "exotic" (nonsensical) futuristic settings and designs they keep cranking out, and mostly the teen anime look with dumb hair styles given to every single character since 7, excluding FF9 (<3) and maybe to some extent, FF12.
Seems like Square-Enix has made it clear that this is what Final Fantasy will look like for quite some time.... and honestly, I've been sick of it for years :(

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Is this a HUGE turn off for anyone else? Its like the design department at SE has a teenage girl making the calls.
Those stupid hairstyles.....and those effeminate faces, they ALL look the SAME!! :/

Yes, Leo DiCaprio in Titanic and Backstreet Boys were huge in the 90s. But christ SquareEnix...
I was going to post images and art from pre FF7 era and FF9, but I think everyone can spot the difference.
The sense of magic and mystery surrounding every new FF world seems to have been replaced by convoluted art styles and boy/girlband characters with uh.... "overly emotive" cliché japanese personalities that one has to put up with rather than enjoy.

Is this type of setting and narrative more popular than the sword and sorcery stuff they did in FF9? Why not switch between both styles? Cuz I'm looking at FF15 and... here we go again :/
 

Atolm

Member
No, gimme old Final Fantasy. Those designs are too Jpop and lack soul, just look at FFXV, everyone is physically perfect and beautiful.
 
It's the one thing that keeps impressing me in the series, I love their character designs..

...now costume designs? Hmm, not always a fan.
 
Not really. There's something about the loose mix of sci-fi and fantasy elements that feels non-specific and haphazard to me. I feel less like a world is being built, and more like the artists just threw together some stuff that they thought looked cool.
 
You're posting the lead characters of every game. There's one or two prettyboys in each game, but you might as well point out how there's a darkhaired girl in each one.

Also, every Japanese anime in the history of ever has a generic 17-yearish protagonist, since the target audience is 17-yearish boys.

Also, Nomura.
 

gwarm01

Member
I really liked a lot of the designs in Final Fantasy 7. I feel like the game's success meant Nomura had fewer restrictions moving forward, which is probably why his style seemed to change so much between 7 and 8.
 

LordJim

Member
Calling designs from 98-99 'modern' is just weird at this point.
They just do not base everything on Amano's artwork now
 

Ishida

Banned
I
Those stupid hairstyles.....and those effeminate faces, they ALL look the SAME!! :/

It's funny that you complain about this. I look forward to your thread complaining about how a lot of western characters look the same.
 
Nope. I liked it 7 and below (maybe 9) when the character graphics were simple, stylized, and/or ambiguous. I LIKED 7's LEGO quality characters!

12 had some OK designs and there are some I've enjoyed in others after 7, but the majority of the characters don't really appeal to me aesthetically as much as they used to.
 

Frumix

Suffering From Success
You're posting the lead characters of every game. There's one or two prettyboys in each game, but you might as well point out how there's a darkhaired girl in each one.

Also, every Japanese anime in the history of ever has a generic 17-yearish protagonist, since the target audience is 17-yearish boys.

Also, Nomura.

Woah there, let's not make statements we can't take back.
 

Skeff

Member
It doesn't bother me, I suppose you could say I'm comfortable with it because it's so familar, I'm really more interested in the intricacies of the battle systems for each one (junctioning, materia combinations,weapon ability synergy, Gambits, paradigm shifts) it's tat which makes the game for me as well as generally getting a wonderful new world to explore each and a polish and lack of clunkiness that can be found in a lot of other JRPG's
 
The "anime-esque" characters are fine. It's a JRPG. It's gonna look japanese. They need to vary the art style so that scifi doesn't get old, and FFXV being in a real world setting accomplishes that well, it appears.

The art and the music are one area where this series really excels.
 

Ishida

Banned
No, gimme old Final Fantasy. Those designs are too Jpop and lack soul, just look at FFXV, everyone is physically perfect and beautiful.

You clearly haven't seen the character renders for that game. They are probably the most "imperfect" characters the franchise has ever seen.
 
I wouldn't say FF VII-XII has the same visual identity as XIII-XV, IX and XII have totally unique styles of their own, as well.

XV is definitely the "worst" style to date. It's a complete absence of style.
 

kunonabi

Member
Not really. I'd certainly like some variety or an older lead it's certainly not nearly as big a problem as the gameplay and writing.

I'd be fine with stick figures or garbage pail kids as long as the games were decent again.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
So basically you don't like Nomura's designs.

But seriously, I think FF7 and 8 were fine because the hardware required them to keep their designs relatively calm. 10 had a uniquely Asian look to it which surprisingly is kind of rare in RPGs, which I appreciated. By 13 though I guess the hardware allowed them to go all over the place with character designs with little real direction. A lot of FF13's visual direction just looks pointless. 15 looks like it might be trying to scale shit back though. Some people might not like the "based on reality" design, but I think FF could use that kind of grounding.
 

Forbin5

Banned
Looks good to me.
Wish they would switch it up at some point though.
A fresh looking final fantasy could get a lot of people super hyped.
 

MYE

Member
You clearly haven't seen the character renders for that game. They are probably the most "imperfect" characters the franchise has ever seen.

These?

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Could be worse. But I already want to punch Noctis. The fuck is he wearing?

Grimløck;86666551 said:
I would love to see a Final Fantasy in a similar artistic vein as Vagrant Story.

YES. In setting and style anyway
 

Ishida

Banned
I'd love to see that too. Specifically to watch how those that complain about Nomura's "effeminate" art react to what Amano's designs were intended to look like.

Nomura's haters:

"EFFEMINATE!!"
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"OMG MASTERPIECE"
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If we talk about "effeminate"-looking characters, Amano is surely in the top spots.
 
I see a lazy eye on the right actually. Lol.

Anyways this is how FINAL FANTASY has been for a very long time. I would call Amano's art and character designs more effeminate than Nomura's.

It's clear you have a bias and that is fine. Just don't veil it in some thread where your trying to prove a point that you have tried to prove a million times before this thread.
 
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