Character designs: THE SUBJECTIVITY THREAD :'D

[Benny The Miraj]

Playing Wild World, I did have a bit of a girl crush on this mouse who was quite the rocker chick named Bella. We probably had the strongest bond in the entire village, to be honest.

I have Bella in New Leaf too. She's kind of adorable in a dopey way. She's kind of creepy when she's happy, though. ...And she's a bit of a narcisist in my game.

[miyabi95_]

I like this resemblance :>

[Jermungandr]

Can I just take a moment here to express how much I've always really appreciated Wario's design. And it's all for one simple reason. Wario is supposed to be the "evil Mario", and with that in mind, you would think they would either make him just a literal dark clone of Mario, or they would emphasize how opposite he is from Mario. But instead of making him the opposite of Mario, they instead do the reverse and take Mario's well-known attributes and emphasize them to the extreme.

For example, what are some of Mario's most well known characteristics?

- Everyone knows how much Mario likes to collect gold coins, THERFORE Wario is a super greedy treasure hoarder.

- Mario is well known for his moustache, THEREFORE Wario has an even more crazy absurd moustache.

- Mario is known for being pudgy, THEREFORE Wario is super fat. Just look at the stress he puts on the buttonholes of his overalls! They're stretched to the point it's surprised the buttons aren't popping!

- Mario is known for wearing bright primary colors, THEREFORE Wario's clothes are even brighter and more colorful. His color scheme is simply ridiculous.

- Everyone knows Mario has a large nose, THEREFORE Wario's nose is even moreso exaggerated. It's even pink to draw more attention to it.

- Mario is known for being happy-go-lucky, with his shouts of "yipee" and "wah-ha" etc. even during times when his girlfriend is in danger and everything is trying to kill him. THEREFORE Wario has a permanent smile on his face, with the biggest whitest pearly teeth you've ever seen.

- Mario is well known for the egotistical "M" emblem on his hat, THEREFORE Wario's is even more dramatic, with his "W" emblem being so ridiculously big it doesn't even fit inside the little white circle provided for it. He even puts them on his gloves to emphasize his egotism.

- Mario is known for his odd dietary habits consisting almost entirely of mushrooms. THEREFORE Wario eats something even more bizarre almost constantly: raw garlic.

- Mario is also a very strong person, having the ability to shatter bricks with nothing but his fist. THEREFORE Wario is even more ridiculously strong. But not only is he just stronger, but he emphasizes it in his visual design by wearing a shirt that shows off his guns, unlike Mario who prefers his long sleeves.


There are probably a lot more things that I could say that don't come immediately to mind. But the point is that I adore the idea that taking Mario's attributes to the extreme results in a bad guy.

[psychospacecow]

I'm liking the Overwatch characters so far. They've almost got this Saturday morning cartoon vibe, but it seems a lot darker.

[miyabi95_]

I'm liking the Overwatch characters so far. They've almost got this Saturday morning cartoon vibe, but it seems a lot darker.

I agree. While I normally refuse to play any FPS, I'd try Overwatch because the characters are pretty well-designed and unique. It kinda reminds me of Big Hero 6.

[SchAlternate]

{this entire post}

YES. YES YES AND YES. IMO, Wario is pretty much the perfect example of an "evil clone". Not by taking the original character and reverse his/her personality (like Shadow's brooding loner personality and mostly dark palette being a contrast to Sonic's amicable attitude and bright coloration), but by exaggerating it to absurd levels, to the point they become a parody of the original.

Not that an "evil clone" with reverse attributes can't be a good character, by any means, but it's just so common these days, and it just nice to see something that breaks the mold every now and then.

[Jermungandr]

It's funny that you should bring up Shadow. The amusing thing about the Sonic games is that they already HAD a "Bad Sonic" character a long time ago in Knuckles, who was far more of a true opposite to Sonic in design.



For instance, blue and red are often used as opposites of each other, at least in video games. Sonic was all spikey so they gave Knuckles droopy soft quills. Sonic was about speed so they made Knuckles more about strength. They also gave him a worse jump and a climbing ability to promote a more exploration-focused approach to levels, unlike Sonic who could speed through most levels super quickly. Heck, even Knux's untrusting loner nature was a negative reflection of Sonic's partnership with his buddy Tails.

But for some reason this wasn't good enough and they decided to make an even darker opposite to Sonic ... and what we got was Sonic with a splash of black paint and a nihilist disposition. Meanwhile Knuckles was pushed back into the position of a meatheaded comic relief character.


*(Mind you, I don't dislike Shadow. I actually think he's a pretty good character when written well.)

[miyabi95_]

*(Mind you, I don't dislike Shadow. I actually think he's a pretty good character when written well.)

I agree. I enjoyed every appearance of Shadow other than in Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic '06 (I fortunately missed out on them at the time they were released). Even in Sonic X and Boom he's not half bad. It would have been interesting if they included him as a playable character *and* part of the story in Unleashed and Colors.

[Dolphman]

To be honest, Shadow feels a bit too cliche when it comes to rival characters, and I actually find him boring and meh.
Not helping matters is how Boom's portrayed him as a stereotypical edgy character and sort of a Vegeta ripoff.
Boom Knuckles is hated for being dumbed down even more due to his muscular design, turning him into the "dumb muscle" character type.
As a fan of Knuckles, I don't like this portrayal at all. He's basically a stupider and unfunny version of Ralph Wiggum.

On the subject. I'll explain why I like these Capcom fighters over the more popular ones.
I'll start with Blanka.

As a kid, I always liked him due to his feral and monstrous design, and I still do thanks to reading more about him.
He has a tragic backstory, similar to Tarzan. Only it's with a Brazilian boy lost in the amazon. His electric ability came from, no joke, being exposed with electric eels, mutating him. His green skin and orange hair are also mutations thanks to living in the jungle for so long.
Blanka's ending with him reuniting with his mother is one of Street Fighter's biggest heartwarming moments. Gets even better for him after the events of SF4 where's he's viewed as a hero to the townspeople. So that's another slice of happiness for him.
He's even best friends with beloved joke character Dan Hibiki, and Ryu fangirl Sakura Kasugano.

Next, we have Felicia from Darkstalkers.

Originally intended to be the token sexy character but got changed into the cute one instead, which is more fitting thanks to the cat theme.
She's also loosely based on the 1967 Edward Field poem, Curse of the Cat Women, while throwing the youkai Nekomata into the mix.
Being a cute character, she has a fun and dorky personality. Raised by an elderly nun, she grows up to become a singer and actress.
After the events of DS3, she opens up her own orphanage and becomes a nun herself, teaching the orphans who also enjoy her singing.

Design-wise, she has an acrobatic physique which is where most of the her fighting skills come from. The white fur on her is part of her body due to being a half human and animal monster girl, which also means she's 100% naked. She also has blue hair and feline green eyes.
I can't be the only one who notices she shares some similarities with Sonic the Hedgehog. She even rolls into a ball making a skid sound.
That is one of the things I like about her. And yes, I do wish they would officially crossover. I mean, it seems so obvious.

Some official sources say it's established that the cat women in Darkstalkers are a female-only race. That means having children with a human, they will always give birth to a baby girl. And after that, they will slowly mutate into another cat monster as they grow up.
And don't bring up that issue of the Udon comic with the witch and her cat-man sidekick because those comics are not canon.

Another thing to note: Capom's even confirmed Felicia has the largest breast size out of all of the Capcom girls.
They're also about 10 CM bigger than SNK's Mai Shiranui's boobs!   

It's just a shame she's overshadowed by the slutty succubus Morrigan Aensland, which I actually do hate and consider overrated.

[Goemar]

Overshadowed? Whenever a DarkStalker character is in any Capcom VS or X game you can bet it's Felicia. 

Even in the "darker" parts of the web she seems more popular thanks to the whole being a cat. Kids now days and their fetishes...

I still think some of my favourite designs for characters are from Oddworld. Obviously Abe is cool because, well, compared to the usual "white guy with brown hair" he's rather different.

However it's the Paramite that I just find truly awesome. Like the stuff of nightmares with it's hand like head.

[miyabi95_]

Another thing to note: Capom's even confirmed Felicia has the largest breast size out of all of the Capcom girls.
They're also about 10 CM bigger than SNK's Mai Shiranui's boobs!   

Hmm...Largest breast-size, I can see that. Larger than Mai's? Ummm...I dunno for sure, but looking at the sprites here:

Here's Feli's sprite. More or less been her sprite for every 2D fighter she appeared in. Breasts look about D-ish.


Then we have Mai...Early on, her bust was probably around the size of Felicia's (based on the looks). But if you look closely they seem to have gained a lot more...Mass as she progressed through each appearance.


Then there's KOF XII/XIII...She is leaning more forward, so it could be giving the allusion that they're far bigger than they used to be...But still, look at the size of them xD!


I dunno, I just wanted to give input on that matter, cuz it always seemed funny to me how despite how they look in-game, Mai's bust is officially claimed to be smaller than Felicia's .

[Dolphman]

It's true that she usually does appear in crossovers. Including the disappointing ones, Like Capcom Fighting Jam, and Cross Edge.
And to tell you the truth, I always download the safer artwork, because hentai and fetishes just go too far. (Too gross and disturbing)
Heck, I even avoid ones where she's off-model (usually when she has four fingered hands) or drawn in an Americanized art style.

Speaking of Oddworld. I really like the unused animal they officially made extinct in-universe: The Meech

Just look at that crazy-looking middle jaw and the bizarre backwards knees. Kinda looks like a mech turned into an organic being.
They scrapped them due to lack of disk-space at the time, and they were intended to be the third sacred animal.