• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

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

That original inFamous 2 Cole model looked fucking awesome in game:

qkJ0x.jpg

Personal tastes and opinions aside it just didn't look like Cole, no matter how bad or good people think it looked.
 
Easily Mitsuru in Persona 4 Arena:

What could have been a classy, elegant, and really spot-on upgrade for her:



Became this:

latest

When you take into consideration the outfits of the other p3 shadow ops field agents then her final design makes more sense. Also if I remember correctly she doesn't pick out her outfits since she has servants for that at least in p3. No surprise her taste as an adult is uhm questionable.
 
Call him Billy then.... it's not like the Cole in inFamous 2 was anything like he was in inFamous 1 in the first place. Different attitude and voice actor.

That would have been fine, but it wasn't what they did. He looks like a "Billy" anyway. They made it a continuing story with the same characters.

But yeah, I was also disappointed at the changed voice and other characterizations in it for the same reasons that I've mentioned. It seemed like they focus tested the first game and just tried to apply everything over top of existing characters in the second game. It's not like we could have complained about those things before the game came out though, all we had to go on was a new completely different looking character model for an established character.
 
Sorry... i liked This Sam WAAAAAAAY better than the short hair Sam they went with in Splinter Cell: Conviction

Concept
i9teId0fRQtbi.jpg



What they went with:
ic5ZAjI13iQFH.jpg
 
Sorry... i liked This Sam WAAAAAAAY better than the short hair Sam they went with in Splinter Cell: Conviction

What they went with:
ic5ZAjI13iQFH.jpg

"Ugh, another 'avoid the snipers' sequence."


I never saw that Nero art from earlier before.
tumblr_nhk7b3uTpn1twxty5o2_500.jpg


Way better than looking like Dante's younger brother or something. Though it would have required a personality beyond "I'm going to kick your ass" and "KYRIIIIEEEEE."
 
Personal tastes and opinions aside it just didn't look like Cole, no matter how bad or good people think it looked.

Yeah. That was my biggest problem with it. As a design for a guy its fine but for Cole it just didn't work. It didn't look like him.
 
"Ugh, another 'avoid the snipers' sequence."


I never saw that Nero art from earlier before.
tumblr_nhk7b3uTpn1twxty5o2_500.jpg


Way better than looking like Dante's younger brother or something. Though it would have required a personality beyond "I'm going to kick your ass" and "KYRIIIIEEEEE."
Which apparently didn't appeal to the ladies either according to Koyabashi... ugh
 
Which apparently didn't appeal to the ladies either according to Koyabashi... ugh

Final Nero is not that different, the main difference/problem is that he looks sligthy more mature on that art, and with a bit more unique clothes, otherwise his final design was fine.
Nero_by_cloudff7ac%5B1%5D.jpg

Although looking like younger Dante would make sense considering they are
related.

Edit: something that bothers me is taking this concept art as a proof of anything, like for example when i see this art i think something like "these would make cool alternative costumes, Nero would look cool with these clothes" while others just say like "This character that looks like Nero is x1000 more interesting, Nero is shit!" i even saw someone say the same for Kyrie, yes, Kyrie would had been a master manipulator with a different dress and other hairstyle :/
Sorry, this was not meant to you, just something i been noticing and dont like.:P

The Final Boss of Bayonetta 2 had some interesting designs, the two on the left could have worked with a few alterations.

latest

latest
 
When you take into consideration the outfits of the other p3 shadow ops field agents then her final design makes more sense. Also if I remember correctly she doesn't pick out her outfits since she has servants for that at least in p3. No surprise her taste as an adult is uhm questionable.

Well, all of the P3 team actually had reasonable outfits at some point in P4A's design. Heck, even Junpei had some regular-looking designs for P4A. Somewhere along the line though, someone thought it'd be a good idea to make the entire P3 team look goofy as hell.
 
Heck, even Junpei had some regular-looking designs for P4A.

He did? I have the P4AU art book, and the only regular-looking design in it of him is the one he ended up with.

The other regular-looking designs like the Mitsuru or Yukari ones were probably simply for when they're required in the story, and not necessarily during battles.
 
Oh, almost forgot this guy:

p4design05.jpg


An early Kanji concept from Persona 4. While I like Kanji's final design (and indeed, he looks to be redesigned from the ground up) this guy oozes cool, and I'd have loved to see him in my party.

Edit: I'm talking about the bottom one.

IIRC (the artbook is packed up with all my PS2 stuff atm), Soejima felt he was out of place like that for a small town teenager and dialed his sophistication and age down a good bit to what we got now.


CM Punk is not generic! :P

Persona has consistently good character design, particularly the fashion and stances, but it's all wasted on children.

I'd definitely go for a Persona game featuring older characters like the design above. The school setting is a real turnoff. >_>

"WoW is the first MMO"
 
Wow, that is... not what I would have expected. I like what we ended up with better.

Theres several concept art/redesigns for midna, some I think look better than that
They're in the hyrule historia, if someone could post the others, that would be great.
 
Street Fighter IV's Rufus.
From this:
To this:

A rare case I do not agree with NeoGaf's first post.
Yes the original designed Rufus might be more visually appealling, but the final product is even more interesting, backed by it's own back story as to why he put on weight.

If we are talking about SFIV, I think Juri would be my choice. The final design is just out of place in many ways.
 
Easily Mitsuru in Persona 4 Arena:

What could have been a classy, elegant, and really spot-on upgrade for her:



Became this:

latest

This is such a good design that it makes me depressed it's almost nowhere in the final game. If there's another Persona 4 Arena game, I hope it's 3D models like Xrd, so that there can be alternate costumes.

God, that's such a good design.
 
Having read Hyrule Historia, I found this to be the case virtually every time. I really enjoyed a whole lot of the character concept art, but every time I can recall -- no matter how interesting I found the art -- I ended up saying, "they made the right choice there." It really shows how much thought EAD puts into these games.

Agreed.
I think the perfect example of how much thought EAD3's artist put into Zelda is this:


This is one of the concepts for Luv and Bertie (two potion sellers in Skyward Sword); they were twins and one of them was going to be a transwoman.
I think it's quite obvious that the artist who made this was probably going for the tired "lolololol look at that confused man in a dress, he's so goofy and manly looking lolololololol" joke, so I'm really happy they ultimately vetoed it. But at the same time, I'm happy that they sort of incorporated the interesting gender elements into the couple (Luv is a large busy assertive masculine lady in charge of selling while Bertie is a calm tiny demure guy who spends most of his time taking care of their baby and mixing potions)
 
I quite liked the original artwork that was released for Perfect Dark Zero:

jodarkoverton.jpg


I felt that this art style really suited an evolution of the tone that made the original game fun. The time and energy wasted making the game more realistic and gritty should have been put into polish and refinement, but instead it just left the game feeling generic and rushed.

Oh crap. Yeah that was perfect. I so wanted that version of the character.
 
2overstrike_600x330_news.jpg

Overstrike (a stylish TF2 looking shooter)

became

FuseInsomniacGames.jpg

Fuse (a generic shooter)

All because they listened to focus group's feedback that it was too cartoony...

One of these games I had every intention of picking up day one, based on a trailer.

One of these games I havent had the slightest urge to play, despite having plenty of opportunities.
 
I recall a fair amount of backlash when Blizzard bulked up the Blood Elf male model during the Burning Crusade beta. They're thankfully de-chesting them a little in the upcoming update.

Old:
BloodElves.jpeg


Comparison:
1682.jpg

oldnew01-1.jpg



---


I love Bayonetta's final design, but her character has so much fantastic concept art that it's a shame the designs never ended up in anything.

latest

latest

latest
 
I love Bayonetta's final design, but her character has so much fantastic concept art that it's a shame the designs never ended up in anything.

latest

latest

latest

Bayonetta has a ton of great unused designs - and Rodin, Masked Lumen and Jeanne have an equal volume of amazing concept art. If only they had chosen a few of those to make into alternate costumes instead of the PE and schoolgirl outfits...
 
Came in to say Cole from Infamous 2. Glad to see it's in the OP.

Holy fuck @ Rufus. Did not know about that one. The original is so much better!
 
I actually prefer the final design.It looks more creepy IMO.The other one looks generic to me and the painted tear looks a bit tacky.
I can appreciate what they were going for but the problem with the new design is that it looks too much like a derivative of the Mask of the Father which makes it harder to take seriously on its own merits.
 
Professor Layton VS Phoenix Wright

I'm not actually sure if I like these designs more so to speak, but having Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton's artstyles shift would've been pretty intriguing.

On another note, there's a treasure trove of concept art to be found of characters in various Ace Attorney games, and while I like their final designs, they're still pretty interesting.
 
If I wasn't using my cellphone to post, I'd link an earlier version of Kratos from the 1st game... Also one of Raziel's early looks from the original Soul Reaver.
 
Dark Souls 2

What in the name of the holy fuck....

Sorry... i liked This Sam WAAAAAAAY better than the short hair Sam they went with in Splinter Cell: Conviction

Concept
i9teId0fRQtbi.jpg



What they went with:
ic5ZAjI13iQFH.jpg

Definitely the older one --- IIRC a bunch of peeps were bummed about this change. He looked more 'hardened' in the older design.

Noctis from FF Versus/XV.

I still prefer his older more badass version.His clothes were a lot cooler too.

The whole "boyz in black" because it's the "coolest colour" is so goddamn stupid looking. I hate this. Also, older Stella was way hotter (if that is indeed the same character; I haven't been following the Luna/Stella thing), now she just looks like a typical big-eyed Jpop idol (seriously, her irises are huge)

But yeah I liked the older designs for trying to less hard and coming out better for it.

05a00f64d89bd101bcf83115148f2c2820150103132343.png


seriously.
p56LXOu.jpg

I'd pay money for them to DLC that. Holy crap, what on earth were they thinking???

Also, while I dig the 'crazy vibe' from Juri, her alternates were so nice too (not the left one):
tumblr_m6ygdupwqE1qfnmveo1_500.jpg

I love the one in the middle particularly --- there is truly a shortage of curly-haired women in gaming
 
Easily Mitsuru in Persona 4 Arena:
tumblr_ngvm0hVs7O1si48w3o1_1280.jpg
That looks so much better than her goddamn awful outfit in Persona 4 Arena.
Always liked the original Sugimori art for Pokemon
Totally with you here. While I don't hate newer Pokémon designs, I didn't like the art style change for the series. The old art had more charm and personality, the new one is almost too close to homogenized anime crap.
 
Top Bottom