# Best and Worst character designs?



## WTFAust (May 26, 2011)

I've made a thread on best and worst RPG characters( by personality), but now it is just their look.
What do you think are some of the worst (and best) character designs you have seen. 
They can be from any game genre.


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## erasercrumbs (Dec 17, 2009)

I could go on for pages about this.










From a design point of view, I think Earthworm Jim is a quintessentially superb character. The large, gorilla-like arms, skinny legs, huge torso, and jointless motion of the head combine in such a way so as to make Jim's animations bombastic and remarkably fluid, often for comic effect. When he runs, it's like he doesn't know quite what to do with the massive arms (which is true, because worms don't normally have arms), causing his movements to look somewhat like those of an anxious maitre d'. The faux-heroic colors and retro-50's weaponry provide an immediate and jarring contrast with the unnatural weirdness of a fleshy annelid sprouting from a Superman-esque torso. EJ wasn't designed to appeal to any specific demographic--he's pure imaginative weirdness, without being implicitly creepy. Other EJ characters, such as Evil the Cat and Professor Monkey-for-a-head have comparably excellent designs.

An example of a character design I personally dislike would be that of Jak from Jak and Daxter, simply because he was, by his creators' own admission, the product of too much time spent in focus groups, and it shows.


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## Juracule (Aug 10, 2011)

^impressed by the above poster's choice

Probably the Team Fortress 2 guys for me.








They have all been made in such a way that you can immediately see what kind of class a person is, which is crucial in a fast-paced MMO shooter. There are not much MMO's that I have seen that do this. All of the characters have their own tid-bits which add to their personality, such as the Medic's rigid stance, haircut, and boots, which cause him to look a bit nazistic, which automatically gives him this evil feeling. Valve has stated he is not though. The Sniper has a bit of a laid-back stance, which adds to his air of being able to kill people from a long distance with ease. They all have their own stance, which helps recognizing them.
The main part of it's appeal is probably the look. At first it might look a bit childish (although this opinion might change after seeing the "Meet the" videos) but most characters are fairly eloquent, and you will soon see that the characters have been stripped down of excessive detail, such as clothing folds and excessive shadow effects, because that would make it harder to recognize them more easily. The characters have mainly been made up of rough shapes that have been worked out, which again adds to the ease of recognizing them.
Although this was not part of the question, also look at the environments of TF2. Red has buildings made with organic materials and geometric figures with a warm colour, and Blu has orthogonal buildings with a cool colour made with industrial materials.


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## WTFAust (May 26, 2011)

Yep, I agree!
Earthworm Jim and Team Fortress two are amazing!

Best for me:









Pretty much ALL of Etrian Odyssey's Designs, but this one is my favourite. The silhouettes would be incredible, it uses details, but does it well, and the overall design shows that he uses beasts pretty darn well. Also, the style of Yuji Himukai is amazing! So amazing, that I'm trying to draw like him!

Also,








I don't think I need to explain.


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## erasercrumbs (Dec 17, 2009)

WTFAust said:


> I don't think I need to explain.


Mario is a great video game character design in the same way that Mickey Mouse is a great cartoon character design. Every aspect of his appearance, from his color scheme, to his facial hair, to every part of his outfit, was crafted in such a way so as to make him appear striking against the black background of the original Donkey Kong game. It really is impressive that his design has remained so unchanged over the last 30 years.


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## WTFAust (May 26, 2011)

This is the Etrian Odyssey design I was talking about:


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## Nevermind0 (Jul 31, 2011)

pretty much 98% of all pokemon after the original 151 are the worst.


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## IcoRules (Apr 29, 2009)

I always loved the character designs in the Baten Kaitos games.







































I also loved Xenogears, Xenosaga and Final Fantasy 12's designs too.

What I don't really like are the Tales games characters. I've only played a bit of Symphonia, but still don't like how any of them look.

















I also don't like the new character designs in Final Fantasy 13-2 from what I've seen.


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## letitrock (Jan 10, 2009)

this guy, Kalimist, whoever that is, apparently he's from WoW, and he looks tortured and awesome

(though my screen is showing him all neon, so you might have to play the video in order to see him in his normal colors)


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## Genetic Garbage (May 7, 2011)

@ IcoRules

Did you like the character design in all three Xenosaga games? I liked it in Xenosaga 1 and 3 but I didn't like it in 2. I also like the design of Tales of Xillia.


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## IcoRules (Apr 29, 2009)

Genetic Garbage said:


> @ IcoRules
> 
> Did you like the character design in all three Xenosaga games? I liked it in Xenosaga 1 and 3 but I didn't like it in 2. I also like the design of Tales of Xillia.


Episode 1 had my overall favorite designs. Episode 2, I didn't mind that they looked more realistic actually, but I didn't like all the outfits. Episode 3, I didn't mind that they looked like a mix in between. I didn't really like anyone's outfits.


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