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Are you happy with the "visual identity" adopted by modern Final Fantasy?
- Thread starter MYE
- Start date
I'm playing FF XIV, and I think both this and XI felt like spinoffs. They aren't even remotely similar to an FF game. They are both good games and I even renewed my sub to play for another month despite the endgame being garbage.
Not sure why you're in here raging at random people, but you may want to calm down.
BlazingRain
Banned
Honestly I'd rather that style remain dead. Western fantasy in general looks overly restrained and boring to me, but I don't think going back to the He-Man look will help anything.
Torment: Tides of Numenara looks pretty good, on the other hand. But I'd imagine the people complaining about FF's look would probably also complain about that world's mixture of sci-fi and fantasy.
???? JRPGs have been animey forever....just the technology caught up to be more representative of concept art...
Americanmushroom
Banned
Yes i would personnally also prfer a more cartoony ff7and ff9 kinda look. Deformed and cute, bot also more badass like Barett
I seriously can't believe what I'm reading here. If anything JRPG's have become LESS Anime as time goes by. Were you there during the 16 bit era?
MagnaderAlpha
Member
Graphics is a low scale as far as I'm concerned. I'm stating my opinion only because this thread is dedicated to the visual identity. I've said this countless times(not here, but throughout the years in any FF topic where a similar question has arose), it doesn't matter what the game looks like or when it set as long as it gives me something worth my money. And that means a large world to explore, non-cringe worthy characters and dialog and some nice lore to keep that mystery flowing. It could be set in an Amano-looking world with high fantasy Black Mages, and if it's extremely linear, a "point A to point B" type of thing, I'd hate it. I need my freedom. I need my exploration. More earlier than late. None of this "the game opens up much later!". Gimme something to invest in. If it's great, hell, it could be set in a space station-like world with green people, if it's THAT good, who cares?
Meccanical
Member
People are slow to realize that their childhood observations may be slightly disconnected with what is reality.
BlazingRain
Banned
lol at raging.
It's just hilarious to see people perform some crazy mental gymnastics in order to try to explain their feelings in light of what they're supposed to think.
If you like the latest game in the FF series, then the series isn't "dead to you." You don't have to lie to yourself about the game not being similar to previous games to justify your thoughts. That's just sad.
H_Prestige
Banned
It's like they're walking down a catwalk.
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
Yeah no. There are myriads of things to complain about about FF looks that have nothing to do with the mixture of sci-fi and fantasy. In the contrary, it is Project Eternity the one that has gotten criticism for its art for being generic.
What's funny though, is that the western fantasy style you criticize in the previous page is precisely that; a mixture of sci-fi and Fantasy, aka John Carter of Mars. If anything that's been present for ages in western fantasy.
BlazingRain
Banned
It's obvious a lot of the people who comment on Final Fantasy, or JRPGs in general, don't actually play them (or have only played a few popular ones like VII), and just ape common complaints because they feel they are entitled to as self-professed "core gamers."
That's one of the big reasons SE would be mistaken to take fan criticism too seriously. Most of the "fan criticism" isn't actually coming from fans.
BlazingRain
Banned
There are literally people complaining about that mix right here in this thread. Why don't you try reading a few posts before commenting?
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
How would that prove otherwise?
There are still myriads of things to complain about. Look at the first page of the thread, there I complain about how old characters in Nomura's style look like they have make up instead of being actually old. Also in the first page people complain about effeminate characters.
Devilinthiscity
Member
Troy Baker? Is that you?
The character design has never bothered me that much. With the exception of a few characters. I couldn't stand Vaan at all in FFXII. A lot of the character designs didn't age well though.
Meccanical
Member
I always thought he looked like Elijah Wood.
BlazingRain
Banned
We must be misunderstanding each other, because I'm pretty sure complaining about mixing sci-fi with fantasy would be relevant to Torment's mixture of sci-fi and fantasy.
No, I'm not happy with it at all. I absolutely fucking hate it. The fact that we have FINALLY gotten to the technical level required to accurately portray an Amano-esque game and instead have switched to angular manga shit just grates all over my nerves. No offense to Nomura's art style... the guy is a hell of an artist, to be sure... but why have they yet to commission a full game's worth of Amano designs for a classical Final Fantasy title that conveys the gorgeous nature of the concept art the series used to get before technology was able to do so? It's unbearable and frustrating and generally makes me want to punch stuff.
GreggTheGrimReaper
Member
OP, would you like to play as Niki Lauda instead?
FFXIII is the only recent Final Fantasy where I dislike the visual style.
Too bad it's also the only mainline single-player Final Fantasy that Square has shoved down our throats for the past 5 years. It's understandable that people think all "modern Final Fantasy" looks like it, especially since XIV was just "that really shitty MMO" until recently.
Too bad it's also the only mainline single-player Final Fantasy that Square has shoved down our throats for the past 5 years. It's understandable that people think all "modern Final Fantasy" looks like it, especially since XIV was just "that really shitty MMO" until recently.
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
Final fantasy did not invent the mixture of sci-fi and fantasy, so people who complain about final fantasy's art not always complain about the combination of sci-fi and fantasy. In the same way, one can complain about Torments art without touching the topic of combining sci-fi and fantasy. Ergo, people who complain about final fantasy's art may as well love Torment's art and still love the combination of sci-fi and fantasy.
BlazingRain
Banned
Presumably not the ones complaining about mixing sci-fi and fantasy though, which was what I was referring to.
BlazingRain
Banned
XII and XIII have the same art director and utilize a similar visual style.
I don't think Amano's art would translate that well into 3D graphics, it's something that can only be achieved in drawn art. I'd certainly like someone to prove me wrong, but I don't think a game made in Amano's style would look good in 3D, in fact, I think it could be downright ugly.
Also, if people bitch about effeminate characters, then Amano's characters are all sure as hell a fuckton more effeminate than Nomura's.
ChiefofCitadelSecurity
Member
Don't put much focus into it anymore
*Looks at Lightning*
"Looks like fucking Final Fantasy" lol
More concern about them making a good game nowadays.
*Looks at Lightning*
"Looks like fucking Final Fantasy" lol
More concern about them making a good game nowadays.
Meccanical
Member
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
Well that wasn't specified in the comment I replied to. I though otherwise because the most people usually complain about is how characters look and what they wear.
Sorry you got so confused and upset about this, but I read the OP and it seemed to be mostly about the single player games, and I responded as such. I don't think I'm the only person that thinks of the online games as spinoffs. I enjoy XIV, but it will have no effect on the single player games, which is what most people seemed to be talking about.
Romars202129
Member
Personally, when I saw FF back in the day, it looked overtly flamboyant and unsettling. It was like acid to my kid eyeballs... at first.
Then I got used to it, and came to respect their brazeness in artstyle choice.
Nowadays, with everything they're fuckin up, I feel the art style is the one thing not among them. It pays tribute to the style that made their name, while balancing it with realism.
I'm frickin sattisfied, I'd say any less flamboyance, they'd be moving too far from their heritage, and any more, they'd be stuck in the past.
FFXV looks perfect, from my perspective. Looks, anyways, we'll see about everything else.
Then I got used to it, and came to respect their brazeness in artstyle choice.
Nowadays, with everything they're fuckin up, I feel the art style is the one thing not among them. It pays tribute to the style that made their name, while balancing it with realism.
I'm frickin sattisfied, I'd say any less flamboyance, they'd be moving too far from their heritage, and any more, they'd be stuck in the past.
FFXV looks perfect, from my perspective. Looks, anyways, we'll see about everything else.
Meccanical
Member
Yeah personally I think FFXV has the best art direction I've seen from the series in a long time.
Meccanical
Member
She looks like she wants you to join her Bible Black club.
Weltall Zero
Member
But that's the point; armor is supposed to protect the body, so having a knight wearing armor that exposes 70% of her body is stupid. Clothes don't protect the body (and are worn by classes that aren't "strong enough" to wear armor), so them covering less, if indeed gratuitous in some cases, at least isn't straight out nonsensical.
Also, what's the issue with your FFV/FFVI examples? I don't see them as particularly revealing. Even Rydia in that drawing is not entirely unreasonable.
As for my opinion, it's not particularly original: FF is dead to me since FFVIII, hate Nomura more each passing year, love Amano (have several artworks), yadda yadda. Exceptions include FFVII, where I think Nomura's designs worked well (although perhaps it's just that his style was new to me and hadn't revealed itself as the artistical monotone it is) and FFIX, which I liked for its throwback nature.
Acrylic7
Member
Romars202129
Member
Lol, thank you for saying that.
BlazingRain
Banned
It's very similar. The worlds' have their own visual flair and inspirations, but the style is similar enough that some elements are almost interchangeable. This is in contrast to VII and VIII, for example, where the styles were so different that there'd be very few areas that you could conceivably imagine existing in the other world. I could totally imagine Taejin's Tower existing in XII's Ivalice, or the Stilshrine of Miriam somewhere on Gran Pulse.
I tried.
I only made it to the beginning of disc 2 before I quit because I wasn't feeling it.
The story, the character design, the art, the awfully slow combat. It just wasn't clicking.
Meccanical
Member
The art Amano did for FF9 did not make its way into the final designs at all.
But yes everyone should play the game.
They handed them out at a PAX event around the 25th anniversary thing.
That particular pic comes from a eBay auction I lost
Got out bid by like $200
MagnaderAlpha
Member
I actually think it translates pretty damn well. Sure, with Nomura handling it as an interpreter, it looses the wispy watercolor look, but I think THIS is what most people want out of a FF, the general Amano look and feel, not literal feel.
I mean, I think Amano's concept art isn't that much different than Yoji Shinkawa. Both aren't really heavily defined as character art and are more concept. Still, Shinkawa's easily translates into 3D, nobody questions it. There IS a middle ground to get that. CG modelers have to have something to build off of, and I'm sure they can do the same for Amano's concept art.
I mean, damn, I know FFIV has been done to death, but imagine getting a FF world that LOOKS like this:
Mystery and magic!
SatelliteOfLove
Member
They could stand to back off the metro kick they're on. Yes, it gets Japanese girls hot 'n bothered. No, no one else on earth likes it. Yes, too much of it is a problem.
And it's never the flavor or subgenre of anime, either. It's wierd watching it in action.
Now, a lack of the flavors and subgenres of anime from years past or a lack of variety of anime, that's an arguable, definable position.
And it's never the flavor or subgenre of anime, either. It's wierd watching it in action.
Now, a lack of the flavors and subgenres of anime from years past or a lack of variety of anime, that's an arguable, definable position.
BlazingRain
Banned
Amano's art isn't as good as his older stuff, and the guys who translated it to the game completely ruined it.