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How were Xenoblade 2's characters given the green light?

DominicanGlory

DominicanGlory

Member
Jul 26, 2018
4,678
First and foremost the two protagonist have bafflingly bad designs. Pyra being half naked with breast bigger than her head is egregious, but Rex is even worse jumbo armor leg wear with an exposed crotch area revealing a onesie.... I mean....what in the literal hell. Add that to the fact that his face and hair make him look like JRPG npc #32683 no flair whatsoever.

But the worst part of it all is the inconsistent character models... This is something that irks me every time I see a trailer for the game. You have most of the characters stylized in the same way as Rex and Pyra. Anime, big eyes, pointed nose, very thin figures... Then you have the villains and other NPCs in a completely different art and graphical style, being more realistic features wise and seemingly being modeled completely differently art and texture wise.

It's literally like putting Tales of Characters and Final Fantasy XII models in the same game and not expecting anyone to bat an eye. Is it just me or did this bother anyone else?
 
PlanetSmasher

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,549
The character designs had zero quality control. The art director just had a bunch of guest artists shit out whatever they wanted and then they just modeled them in game without a hint of an attempt to ensure a consistent art style.
 
thatjesushair

thatjesushair

Member
Mar 21, 2019
220
The different art styles are completely intentional, having different artists contribute is really cool imo.
 
Sandfox

Sandfox

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,743
I don't really see what's wrong with Rex's outfit. It's diving suit that closes up.

A lot of the designs were also done by famous guest artists. The villains were designed by Nomura for example.
 

Deleted member 7883

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,387
on paper, having a bunch of guest artists coming in to do character/creature design sounds rad!

but then this happens
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it's honestly really hit and miss. And when it misses, it misses hard.
 
Jakenbakin

Jakenbakin

Member
Jun 17, 2018
11,801
The only one that bothered me really was Rex. Pyra was fine outside of the couple scenes that remind me her mammaries can knock a man out. But Rex not only looked dumb, his design actually gets worse.
 
Haze

Haze

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,777
Detroit, MI
There's maybe one character in the game that doesn't look absolutely terrible and it's morag. I would say nia but.... you'll see... or someone can spoil it.

The game is terrible all around but the conflicting art styles and terrible designs on their own are probably the most immediately apparent problems.
 

slothrop

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Aug 28, 2019
3,876
USA
I have no idea. Nintendo clearly gave Monolith too much creative freedom. Who knows how bad the things they actually killed are.
 
Dyle

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
29,915
The design diversity is kind of the point, both narratively/thematically and in terms of the game being a who's who's of Japanese character designers. A lot of them miss the mark but that's kind of inevitable when you give dozens of artists free rein to make pretty much whatever they want

Though even Takahashi himself said they probably should have exercised more editorial control
 
Velocity:Design:Comfort

Velocity:Design:Comfort

Banned
Nov 23, 2017
4,302
OP, ya basic, sorry. And I don't like the huge tits either. But there's like, 100 designs in this game and I thought it worked great overall.

PlanetSmasher said:
The character designs had zero quality control. The art director just had a bunch of guest artists shit out whatever they wanted and then they just modeled them in game without a hint of an attempt to ensure a consistent art style.
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Looks good to me and 2.5 million other fans. You spread negativity in every thread man, it's tiring and frankly got old a long time ago.
 
Yunyo

Yunyo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,824
Well, the game is very fantastical in nature, so I largely didn't spend too much time thinking about the cuhrayzee character designs lol
 
Bessy67

Bessy67

Member
Oct 29, 2017
11,572
Isn't this just kinda accepted in japanese games? OP should be ashamed of his words and deeds.
 
Dice

Dice

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,240
Canada
thatjesushair said:
The different art styles are completely intentional, having different artists contribute is really cool imo.
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I feel these are one of those things cooler in concept than practice. It creates such a hodge-podge of styles made it look so inconsistent from character to character.
Thorn said:
People have different tastes from you?
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It's frustrating largely because the actual majority of main character designs are sexualized women.
 
BionicDreamer

BionicDreamer

Member
Nov 6, 2017
1,510
User banned (3 months): sexist trolling, previously banned for the same thing
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Makes me wish this was still a thing.
 
CommodoreKong

CommodoreKong

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,696
I feel like most anime inspired games have 2 types of character designs for the most part, dumb designs and dumb sexy designs. Xenoblade 2 is just a prime example.
 
Beth Cyra

Beth Cyra

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
2,903
Honestly I found the art style so repulsive I skipped the game.

kinda sad as I love Telos and KosMos but I just knew I wouldn't be able to get passed the majority of the casts designs.
 
EatChildren

EatChildren

Wonder from Down Under
Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,029
I fucking adored Xenoblade Chronicles and I refuse to even touch Xenoblade Chronicles 2 entirely because of how utterly repugnant, absurdly incoherent, and jarring the mess they call an art direction is. XBC2 is my litmus test for taste.
 
Velocity:Design:Comfort

Velocity:Design:Comfort

Banned
Nov 23, 2017
4,302
PlanetSmasher said:
If you're alright with a parade of objectification, that's fine, but don't shit on other people for not liking it.
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You didn't mention that at all though? Do you have to move the goal posts to make a point? First it is "lack of quality control" and the art style is inconsistent, now suddenly it's objectification. Look, sorry your schtick got called out but it's transparent you have an axe to grind like most people about this game on here.
 
sredgrin

sredgrin

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,276
"and now I'm glowing....I'm kind of self conscious" says the lady who appears to be wearing armor sculpted around her giant boobs and not wearing pants.
 
Velocity:Design:Comfort

Velocity:Design:Comfort

Banned
Nov 23, 2017
4,302
Beth Cyra said:
Honestly I found the art style so repulsive I skipped the game.

kinda sad as I love Telos and KosMos but I just knew I wouldn't be able to get passed the majority of the casts designs.
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EatChildren said:
I fucking adored Xenoblade Chronicles and I refuse to even touch Xenoblade Chronicles 2 entirely because of how utterly repugnant, absurdly incoherent, and jarring the mess they call an art direction is. XBC2 is my litmus test for taste.
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Uh huh...hey, look at these guys! Their taste is superior!

Just gotta love when people who admit they didn't play something condescendingly lecture others about the content of it.
 
Beth Cyra

Beth Cyra

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
2,903
One I'm not a guy.

Two I didn't in any point of my post say my taste was superior or better than anyone who may like it? I simply found it ugly as hell, especially coming off a fantastic design like Elma.
 
Nanashrew

Nanashrew

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,328
If people are skipping the game, at least watch a long play so you know everything that happens and why it connects to Xenoblade 1. The game is the other half of Xenoblade 1.
 
OP
OP
DominicanGlory

DominicanGlory

Member
Jul 26, 2018
4,678
Whoa, some of y'all are seemingly taking this personal... Anyways... My point still stands. Half naked characters and clashing art styles are no good. I mean...to keep using FFXII as an example that game is pretty much at limit with how much skin the main cast is showing, but the more realistic art style makes it not so bad.

But the different art styles in one game is something that I can't get over. More so than the questionable designs.
 

Li bur

Member
Oct 27, 2017
363
Monolith already has some "questionable" Female design decision from Xenosaga Era hence XB2 design doesn't really surprised me. XB2 is Monolith best selling title to date so I guess they'd continue with their successful formula.
 
Gots

Gots

Member
Feb 20, 2019
1,341
Canada
Yeah it's one of those games that makes you feel embarrassed to be playing when someone walks in the room. Such a bad game
 
Velocity:Design:Comfort

Velocity:Design:Comfort

Banned
Nov 23, 2017
4,302
DominicanGlory said:
Whoa, some of y'all are seemingly taking this personal... Anyways... My point still stands. Half naked characters and clashing art styles are no good. I mean...to keep using FFXII as an example that game is pretty much at limit with how much skin the main cast is showing, but the more realistic art style makes it not so bad.

But the different art styles in one game is something that I can't get over. More so than the questionable designs.
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Xbro said:
Three yeas later and this thread still pops up.
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Like this poster says, its because fans are tired of people trolling about it on here with zero moderation. It would always, always be drive bys about the designs and never really engaging with the actual game.. It's one thing not to like it but the amount of mud flung on fans for daring to got really bad at points.
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,384
The worst part is that they're going to continue with Saito because of its financial success :(

I have not liked his contribution to literally anything ever, so blagh.
 
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