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Early character designs you liked more than the final (pics if possible)

Coming for Sonic too...

With so much iterations and redesigns I dont understand why Sonic Team never went for the anime style of Sonic CD.

sonic-cd.jpg


I dream about a classic Sonic with that art style.
 
The early designs for Abel as a girl seemed pretty cool.

091013_conceptabel.jpg

Actually that's a boy, made to look like a girl. But yeah, this was the the first thing to pop up into my head.

I still love Abel's fighting style, but that design would have made me loved the character a lot more.
 
Actually that's a boy, made to look like a girl. But yeah, this was the the first thing to pop up into my head.

I still love Abel's fighting style, but that design would have made me loved the character a lot more.

Dammit SFIV could of had it's own Bridget :(
 
"Screw the rules, I have green hair"

I'm surprised I've never seen these before. I take it that's the design for Edgeworth that was reworked into Von Karma, but who's the guy in blue? Gumshoe?

We had a thread about Ace Attorney concept art fairly recently, too.

I want no part of anything to do with those horrendous early Ace Attorney designs.

And I don't dislike Athena's final design, but the one on the left at the bottom here would have been alright with me:
Man, can't wait for that Udon Ace Attorney art book to be released here soon.
 
Definitely liked the early Bayonetta designs over the skintight homogeneous black leather outfit in the final version:

sbtlwmgumy2giwnc6t8u.jpg


xokymdqrjcgh3kopux6a.jpg
Honestly, the Bayonetta we got is waaaay less homogeneous than those designs. I can't really think of another character that looks much like her. Those designs however look like what you see in every issue of Imagine FX or other character design books.
 
drinking game: every time you read the word "generic" in this thread.

I would've like capcom to have used the black rufus design.
 
While I don't like Rufus' final design, I have to echo another poster in this thread by saying that it's a much more memorable and interesting character design than black Ryu/Ken.
Maybe it would have been better for the SF4 team to find a middle ground between those two concepts at the end of the day, but I think going with the final Rufus design was a much more daring decision.

Midna from Twilight Princess.

Midna-Concept-Art1.jpg

There is a reason why most early character designs never end up making it into the final product.
Everything about this design is too busy; too much of her fur/hair is visible (it ruins the silhouette; it could easily be suggested by putting it in one place), the two colors on her genie pants don't complement each other, and the shape of her ponytail is too misshapen to be readable/appealing.
Also her red/black color scheme and skull mask makes her look more like an evil mini-boss character rather than a mysterious snarky anti-hero jerk with a heart of gold (Which probably says a lot about what their early ideas were)
I guess what I'm trying to say is, the team at EAD3 made the right decision. You can still see elements of this design in the final Midna.
:P
 
I'm partial to the bottom left and right.

I like the one on the right too. White would have been an interesting colour scheme for Nero (and he wouldn't look so out of place in the order). These designs channel Vergil more than Dante, which would fit considering what we know (or think we know) about Nero.
 
I liked the original design for Stella in FFXV more than the new one. She looked more mature.

05a00f64d89bd101bcf83115148f2c2820150103132343.png


Edit: The original is the first one.
 
I for one (and I'm probably gonna take a lot of shit for this one) was really up for the tentative version of Cole in Infamous 2.
Cole_new.jpg

This isn't actually too bad - he's quite a bit more handsome than the original Cole, but the rest of the design changes are not unreasonable. But I do remember thinking that the guy from the first trailer looked nothing like Cole. He had too much hair and his voice was notably changed. They didn't need to revert to the original Cole design, just reign the changes in a bit. Nothing wrong with editing a character between games, but it needs to be recognisable as the same character.
 
Bald white dude = nao skinhead?
He still looks better than generic douche male model.
The redesigned version was way less generic because it would've been made at a time when the majority of male character design=grim face and shaved head and represented the new Cole more. And it looked great in-game.

infamous_2_150518060.jpg
 
I for one (and I'm probably gonna take a lot of shit for this one) was really up for the tentative version of Cole in Infamous 2.

I mean sure, he kinda looks generic as hell, but I'd have much preferred something more representative of some character evolution rather than copping out back bald-gritty Cole due to the fan whiplash. Like if they gave this concept more of a chance, I think they could have tweaked it further to a point where strikes a balance that'll satisfy Infamous 1 fans in some way.

It was even more jarring that his new voice and dialogue for the game was clearly meant for this redesign.

I approved of that backlash, and the only reason why is due to the inconsistency between the designs. Cole doesn't even look like the same person, and inFAMOUS 2 is a direct sequel to the first game.

It's unfortunate that they went with such a generic design in the first game, but they can't just completely retcon the entire aesthetic for the sequel. They did redo his clothing and altered his face a bit, which was fine because I could still assume that it's the same person. With the proposed redesign that's not even close.

Dark Souls 2

The whole game was a "what we thought we were getting/what we got". I'm still waiting for my Dark Souls 2 that heavily relies on torch use, visibility, extreme use of darkness, and lighting up sconces as you discover more of the world.
 
Coming for Sonic too...

With so much iterations and redesigns I dont understand why Sonic Team never went for the anime style of Sonic CD.

sonic-cd.jpg


I dream about a classic Sonic with that art style.

Sonic CD's Sonic was and still is perfect at being the midpoint between the "toon with a 'tude" angle Sega pushed with the character while still being infinitely charming. The round and short stature helped. :lol
 
Actually that's a boy, made to look like a girl. But yeah, this was the the first thing to pop up into my head.

I still love Abel's fighting style, but that design would have made me loved the character a lot more.
Really? That'd have been really cool. I love the SF4 series, but it'd have been nice having one guy that isn't a mountain of muscles.
 
The redesigned version was way less generic because it would've been made at a time when the majority of male character design=grim face and shaved head and represented the new Cole more. And it looked great in-game.

infamous_2_150518060.jpg

OT, but that's an amazing bullshot. The game looks nowhere near as good as that, even in the cutscenes.
 
I actually think final Rufus is the better design for one reason: Originality. How many fighter characters are super obese white dudes obsessed with Kung-Fu?
I agree with this as someone who's almost never played SF. The original design looks really bland.
 
Early mgs4 Meryl was better

From this

6w8jrlU.jpg


To :

w4x6rBY.jpg

Oh please no... in the early designs she was still the qtbabyface that was in MGS1/2/TTS while in MGS4 she has a very mature and experienced look.
Actually I applaud KojiPro for not making her look like a doll since she is supposed to be a strong character.
 
who's that?



face is completely different.
old one looks like from twin snakes.

and old Elena looks way better than the redesign from UC3:

elena_4.jpg

vs
2010145-256px_elena_fisher_render.png

Everyone except for Sully looked weird in Drake's Deception.

I liked the original design for Stella in FFXV more than the new one. She looked more mature.

05a00f64d89bd101bcf83115148f2c2820150103132343.png


Edit: The original is the first one.

When did they redesign Stella? I thought there was no new images of her.
 
I liked the original design for Stella in FFXV more than the new one. She looked more mature.

05a00f64d89bd101bcf83115148f2c2820150103132343.png


Edit: The original is the first one.

Personally I like the right one more, it looks more real. It might be the lighting, but the left one looks like an anime doll, the right one looks more like a real person.
 
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