I don't think its' necessarily about drawing things they want per se, but at least drawing things they care about. And yeah, I think it's a good video too, sadly. It's just frustrating to watch business overtake the art. That said, from you've described, it makes me question the purpose of concept art as a design methodology. It seems like it would just be simpler to push something from Blender to a game render engine like Unity, rather than bothering with concept art as all, if its only value is a half a page in an artbook. Again, the more I read / watch / understand about game concept art, the more it seems like it's about developing toys, rather than art. There's art in there, but art isn't the focus in creating video games. And I don't see this as nearly as much of an issue in movies / music / literature / traditional art. TV at one point may have been an exception, and anime is still an exception, but most of the other creative industries have found a balance that allows for the creation of art that isn't just half a page in an artbook. And the thing is, I didn't always feel this way. As time has gone on, video games have felt more like products, like soap or detergent, rather than explorations of a new medium. I don't feel this way about other forms of media, and while I think they also have their problems, I find the game design industry far more fraught.I actually liked Tia's redesign from "sad girly who didnt get the guy" to one with chains, traps, and creepy dolls in a briefcase (and a nice big smile!). Not as keen on the rest (well, besides the artwork being done by what seems like a more talented artist), but I did like the dumb one getting pink hair. We need more guys unafraid to go pink! x)
...argh I hate to say it, but that was a great video with some good tips and pointers. :/ I kinda think you took some of the wrong lessons from the video IMO.
Skill is important, but speed is such a big deal (one of the best practice methods is to do your 20x 1 minute figure drawings). You really can't afford to spend DAYS at a time mulling hours and hours over perspective and design and details on EVERYTHING, especially for concept art where it really won't be seen in any place other than a dev studio and a future artbook (so criticizing concept art for being "quickly done" feels like a strange hill to stand on; but I guess it really depends on what the art is for). People have their limits, and 3D is undoubtedly the future of certain parts of digital artistry; this is sort of just the "evolution" of using real human references or snapping pictures -- but now 3D offers a lot more control. Skill is 100% important, but 3D as a tool is totally invaluable (a small example: I love using a generic 3D skull just to ensure capturing proper proportions of the head/face as the head twists and turns; it's like 5x faster than figuring that out on my own and I still tend to overlay "cartoony proportions" where/when needed). I didn't care what they were drawing in the video (NA studios tend to be less creative for more grounded while Japanese titles almost go the other way completely IMO), but he's got a point about using certain tools to do better work.
I'm not really sure how you're relating this to the Persona art now do I know what you're really trying to say. I mean, Soejima and MANY artists suffer from staying in their comfort zones and giving "same face" (they find that an "ideal look" and tend to keep at it). But also don't forget it's really a process between artist and project director's who approve designs. The Persona artbooks will definitely confirm most characters had radically different design ideas at first (just look at all these "attempts" for Atelier characters) That said, while I was inspired my anime art early on, I've always hated stuff like "dot noses" and simple "line eyebrows" (there's no personality in those!! Eugene Levy has at least 10....no, 20% of his career thanks to those brows! xD ). I'm not sure what "mass produced art" truly means; most art still takes a lot of work....
The thing you said about colour and simpler designs is... more about design philosophy IMO. Some game's go all out on complicated designs, but not all of them really have to. But other game restrictions too; simpler rendering is one thing (we had a few gens of basic hairdos because animating long 3D hair or various complicated/chunky non-clipping objects is a nightmare) but also for easier recognition. Take Xenoblade 2 (sorry, I know). The character colouring works beautifully against the game's huge environments to make them stand out easily from afar. I think the colouring is a ""bad habit" from decades of power rangers media :P , but it does look visually pleasant and makes characters very distinctive.
...But of course art is a business; most artists can't afford to treat it otherwise all the time. It's a sad truth of most art that only a few lucky folk are strictly drawing the exact things they want.
(...if Im wrong about anything here please tell me, I'm sick, my head feel like shit, and I'm...still posting here cuz im bored lol)
It's probably also why the designs tend to be so sexist and objectifying, because if they're just toys (and in Japan's case, toys for boys), people pay a lot less attention, even if there's clear offense (also seems to be why gacha is okay, despite being exploitative in the extreme).
