Totally turned off by the chibi art style?
Bravely Default
Game » consists of 11 releases. Released Dec 05, 2013
An enhanced version of Bravely Default: Flying Fairy. This edition was localized and released internationally, as opposed to the original Flying Fairy.
Anyone like this game but....
I thought I would be but I'm actually fine with it. After playing the game for a bit I just forgot about it.
To be honest, I'm with you. I love the art work to unhealthy degrees and I really wanted to see that style represented in game with full-bodied models and all. Would've been completely fine with what Golden Sun: Dark Dawn did and have chibi models for the over world and cutscenes, but full sized animations, models, etc. for the actual battles. Here's hoping in any future installments they give it a go (doubt they do so in Bravely Second, but we'll see).
@amani said:
To be honest, I'm with you. I love the art work to unhealthy degrees and I really wanted to see that style represented in game with full-bodied models and all. Would've been completely fine with what Golden Sun: Dark Dawn did and have chibi models for the over world and cutscenes, but full sized animations, models, etc. for the actual battles. Here's hoping in any future installments they give it a go (doubt they do so in Bravely Second, but we'll see).
Yeah, that would've been nice. But while not exactly double the work, it does mean they now have to have two models for any character that exists in overworld/cutscenes and in battle.
I'm guessing that the chibi art style was a way to simplify the character models to fit within hardware constraints, similar to how they took out the feet (thus ankle joint) in Fire Emblem because the game started development before the 3DS hardware was finalized and they weren't sure if their character models were going to have too many joints for the system to handle or something so they figured who looks at the fucking feet anyway and/or now they look kinda chibi. Then it turns out their precaution was unnecessary because the 3DS did ship with enough horsepower that it could support the characters having feet and ankle joints, but it was way too late in development to go back and change all the animation.
I don't really mind the art style, but I do not like the combat screen - the animations are lacking and everyone is all bunched up. You can barely see the two people in the back half the time has the camera pans.
@garfield518: The animations are one of the things I found most impressive about the graphics actually. The enemies especially animate really well.
Honestly, after spending some time with the demo, I might have the opposite problem. I love the art style but am a bit worried about whether I'll like the gameplay.
Sadly I think I'm leaning this way as well. I'm hoping it's just an issue of it being a demo and maybe I'll get into it more once I have the full game.
@garfield518: The animations are one of the things I found most impressive about the graphics actually. The enemies especially animate really well.
I was talking more about the player characters, specifically their idle animations - they just kinda... stand there and fidget.
I'm more put off by the proliferation of witch costumes with garters and barely-there skirts on an almost entirely young female cast.
Where's the outrage anyway? The Polygon review hardly mentions the creepiness. Did the industry get over the sexism hysteria, or does this game get a pass for some reason?
I enjoy the art, its fantastic.
Sometimes I think the hats are too big, but I get over that fairly effortlessly.
Isn't this whole game supposed to be a throwback to Final Fantasies of yore? In that case, the weird proportions are pretty understandable. Remember that tiny, weirdly shaped sprites were standard in RPG's until FFX.
In JRPGs, perhaps. Western RPGs were more like tabletop RPGs. Either out of books, or like painted miniatures. I can't think of an 80-90's RPG on the computer that had a chibi art style unless it was trying to play like a console game.
Though, I don't remember FF8, Parasite Eve, or Legend of the Dragoon having chibi characters. FF8 is where Square started to make their in-game character models consistent. In game and cut scene characters were at the very least very close simulacrum. Unlike FF7, which had chibi map characters, combat characters, nice cinematic cut scene characters, and blocky ass cinematic cut scene characters.
I do wonder which came first. Chibi characters, or JRPGs that used that art style. The big head did allow characters to show expressions that proportional character sprites would not be able to show.
Isn't this whole game supposed to be a throwback to Final Fantasies of yore? In that case, the weird proportions are pretty understandable. Remember that tiny, weirdly shaped sprites were standard in RPG's until FFX.
In JRPGs, perhaps. Western RPGs were more like tabletop RPGs. Either out of books, or like painted miniatures. I can't think of an 80-90's RPG on the computer that had a chibi art style unless it was trying to play like a console game.
Though, I don't remember FF8, Parasite Eve, or Legend of the Dragoon having chibi characters. FF8 is where Square started to make their in-game character models consistent. In game and cut scene characters were at the very least very close simulacrum. Unlike FF7, which had chibi map characters, combat characters, nice cinematic cut scene characters, and blocky ass cinematic cut scene characters.
I do wonder which came first. Chibi characters, or JRPGs that used that art style. The big head did allow characters to show expressions that proportional character sprites would not be able to show.
I did mean JRPG's, though you can't tell me that the character models in late 90's DnD-based CRPG's aren't weirdly proportioned. They're not chibi, but they don't exactly look right either.
I didn't mean chibi characters, either, I meant weirdly proportioned characters in general. Final Fantasy IX still looked weird quite often, especially in the overworld. I'm no expert on mid-'90's/late 2000's WRPG's (or RPG's in general), but I can't name anything else from before Final Fantasy X where the characters were proportioned like real fucking people. Mostly, anyway. Except the hair. And Lulu's boobs.
EDIT: I'm also pretty sure that chibi came before JRPG's. I think early Dragonball episodes occasionally had characters drawn in a chibi style.
I actually don't mind it too much, even though the chibi style is probably my least favourite part of the game. The art direction is superb though, from the design of the classes to the monsters and the cities, they absolutely beautiful.
It just looks like they're emulating the old final fantasy sprites as 3d models to me. What bothered me more is how the woman who appears at the beginning of the quick look just looks like a palette swap Rhinoa.
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