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Mayu_Zane

After spending 50+ hours in This War of Mine and making it to the ceasefire twice with no casualties on my side (and everyone gett...

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Awful videogame character design: Looking for examples

Being someone who draws and paints for a living, I have a lot of interest in art in videogames, from background assets to weapon designs and character designs. Aesthetic pleasure is a major reason why I replay Uncharted 2 from time to time. The deliciously-detailed and impressively-designed backgrounds are like porn to me.
 
Most of the games I enjoy tend to have what I consider to be fantastic character designs, like Team Fortress 2 and  Odin Sphere. Team Fortress 2 succeeds in giving each playable character class a distinct silhoutte and just the right amount of detail to help players understand immediately what each class does. The cartoony aesthetics help to reinforce the idea that despite the violence, the world of TF2 is one that lives in the realm of humor and silly fun. As for Odin Sphere, aside from the gorgeous painterly 2D graphics, each character is unique in design, loaded with detail and every playable character has his/her own distinct color scheme that suits their personalities.
 
I also have a kind of a morbid fascination with terrible art, and that includes pig disgusting videogame character designs. What I mean by 'pig disgusting' is unintentional ugliness, or a failure to express what the character's supposed to be. Well-designed monsters are meant to be ugly or disgusting, but a badly-designed monster looks like something little children could have scrawled, with little care for aesthetic sense. Games like Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust is home for many terrifying examples of supposedly attractive characters that look like the stuff of nightmares.
 
There are also cases where the character design is bad in the context of gameplay. Example: Brown characters in a brown background under a brown sky. While it may make sense for a military-themed videogame to have characters wearing camouflage to match the colors of the environment, if you're playing a game in third-person and your character as well as other characters look almost exactly alike with little difference in silhoutte shape it can get pretty confusing.

I'd like you to share with me: What game(s) do you personally think have terrible character designs, and is there a reason why you consider them to be awful?

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BunkerBuster

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@Hailinel:  First off, you didn't bother to read the important part, second you didn't read that part that said "probably ".  Not to mention that its all an opinion and that I never actually libeled any one person. 
Fine, so she was drawn by committee on what would be "sexy" to Otaku, great. That still doesn't change the fact that she's dressed in something so atrocious that it shows absolute contempt for anything resembling clothing. 
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Hailinel

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@BunkerBuster said:
" @Hailinel:  First off, you didn't bother to read the important part, second you didn't read that part that said "probably ".  Not to mention that its all an opinion and that I never actually libeled any one person.   Fine, so she was made by commitee on what would be "sexy" to otaku, great. That still does'nnt change the fact that she is dressed is something so atrocious that it shows absolute contempt for anything resembling cloting.  "
Saying "probably" is still an accusation, and a shaky one at that.
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animateria

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@ArbitraryWater:
@BunkerBuster:  Edit: Woops clicked on you instead... This wasn't meant for ya.
 
To be fair, the character design in KOF 13 has shown how incompetent the crew at SNK are (nowadays).
 
I have a real problem with most of the female characters in the game. Their shoulder width to head ratio is too different than the male characters.
 
     
It makes them look like those anime cosplayers that wear full masks of characters.  It looks disgusting, I literally (not exaggerating) gagged a bit once while watching some fights on Youtube. 
 
The earlier KOFs looked much more natural, and therefore superior (Aside from newer ones like Kula I suppose, she didn't quite ever fit in either). Never made me gag.
 
  Smaller images cause they are lower resolution but you get the point. Shoulder widths are much closer to each other and they feel like they are from the same game (The problem isn't that it's not realistic, but that they don't fit with each other in the new one).
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Raven10

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@LiquidPrince said:
" The new Dante from the Ninja Theory Devil May Cry is pretty terrible. "
I like the new look...
 
Oh and the art in League of Legends is awful.
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animateria

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@Raven10 said:
" @LiquidPrince said:
" The new Dante from the Ninja Theory Devil May Cry is pretty terrible. "
I like the new look...  Oh and the art in League of Legends is awful. "
I like the new look as well. 
 
He looks like a punk ass kid around the street corner you avoid cause you know he isn't afraid to fuck up anyone that even glances at him.
 
Seems fitting for an adolescent Dante to me.
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BunkerBuster

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Edited By BunkerBuster
@animateria: I would have to assume that It's probably because they used to steal from Capcom. Ever since then they probably want to change as much as possible to distance themselves from their old selves.
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animateria

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@BunkerBuster said:
" @animateria: I would have to assume that It's probably because they used to steal from Capcom. Ever since then they probably want to change as much as possible to distance themselves from their old selves. "
Oh, and KOF 13 (12 more properly) isn't them copying Street Fighter 4? 
  
Speaking of SF4...
 

Seth Desktop
Seth Desktop

 
What the hell... I love the game but... What the hell.
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meismike

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I see a lot of hate against female fighters but most of the males lack any originality.  Like cody from street fighter.

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sparklykiss

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Edited By sparklykiss
Nier has some extremely unfortunate looking characters (and voices!) They're so bad, that they end up working as some sort of comedic relief or something. A few other unfortunate looking characters are Makoto and Yuki of Enchanted Arms. Yuki's hat drives me insane. 
 
Then there's Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers. Anyone remember that game? It had costumes like this: 

 Uh... What? You kill zombies? In THAT?! /mindblown
 Uh... What? You kill zombies? In THAT?! /mindblown
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BunkerBuster

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@animateria:  Seth was obviously filler to buy them some time. Then they needed more so they released T. Hawk. Capcom wanted you to think it was done with the crazy but they were prepping their coup de gras.

 Rascism is OK if it's Street Fighting.
 Rascism is OK if it's Street Fighting.
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animateria

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@BunkerBuster: 
Yun and Yang aren't that terribly racist considering Kung-Fu movies have had those clothing styles in them, frequently. Unless, you think all those movies are racist...  That hat is to make Yun look different than Yang and that's classic Capcom laziness though. Probably why those brothers were chosen for SSF4 Arcade. Lazy, lazy Capcom...
 
  This guy on the other hand...
 
He was part of the Korean reformed criminal team... The pun being that however Korea is pronounced in Japan sounded like the word they use for prison. 
 
He's also a mix between Freddie Kruger and a midget in tae-kyon-do gi.
 
One of the greatest racist bad design characters ever to be produced by any company. 
 
Congrats SNK, you did it again!
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BunkerBuster

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Jeez, that probably takes the cake. I hope the OP is seeing all this fucking greatness.

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Lemoncookie01

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No Caption Provided
Lulu from FF-X.The lower half of her dress is made of belts.BELTS.
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sparklykiss

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@Lemoncookie01: I'm surprised she can even walk in it. A dress should never be bottom front heavy. You'd be stumbling all over the place! And  if the belts were in the back, it would look even worse. Belt dress is lose/lose no matter what.
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ShadowMountain

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Edited By ShadowMountain
@Cornman89:  Oh Baiten Kaitos. Worst jrpg I've ever played. Almost put me off the whole genre. Everything about that game was awful - but I forgot just how bad the character designs were
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Mayu_Zane

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Edited By Mayu_Zane
@BunkerBuster said:
" Jeez, that probably takes the cake. I hope the OP is seeing all this fucking greatness. "
I am. I prefer to observe while laughing inside.
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jim_dandy

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@Lemoncookie01:  Oh man, I looked at the top and thought, "Well, that seems pretty normal."
 
and then I looked down and burst out laughing.
 
My entry is any armor for females in an MMO. Bare midriffs = protection? Chainmail bikinis?
 
Warhammer Online is maybe the only game whose art design I can recall that had actual armor for either sex. Too bad the game kinda sucks.
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niamahai

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the chick&dude from Quantum Theory.
 
p.s: the game is the most blatant attempt of Tecmo (i thought it was done by Team Ninja) copy&paste Gears of War.

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tofford

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Pretty much any woman from a Team Ninja game

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niamahai

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@tofford said:
" Pretty much any woman from a Team Ninja game "
LIES.
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ProfessorEss

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@ZanzibarBreeze said:
"
 A prime example of terrible costuming.
 A prime example of terrible costuming.
Basically every character designed by Nomura, ever. "
..............just.... I'm speechless.
 
The size of the image just increases it's impact. You keep thinking it can't get any worse, but as you scroll down it just gets more and more terrible.
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Choi

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Edited By Choi

MK4 is absolutely   the worst when it comes to character design. 
  

No Caption Provided
Jarek 
 

MK4 Render
MK4 Render
Reiko 
 
And the father of all bad character design and a complete abomination- I present you: 
 

No Caption Provided
Quan Chi 
 
What drugs where they on and can I have some?
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Romination

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@LiquidPrince: Well, then, that guy should be designed better too. 
 
I can't believe I forgot this one though... 

No Caption Provided
Do I even have to say anything?
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DragonBloodthirsty

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@ryanwho said:
" @BunkerBuster: In defense, everything looks utterly awful when a virgin white 14 year old tries to draw soft porn fanart anime like that. "
Even ignoring the stereotyping, I think you're confusing the artist with the target audence + genre.

Looking back at the original Star Fox and Stunt Race FX, they look pretty bad now.  They were only moderately okay at the time (Star Fox was okay, for a super-low polygon count game, but Stunt Race looks so bad it can be hard to even play).

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deactivated-6418ef3727cdd

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Maffia 2 had some ugly-ass women. The default female Shepard in Mass Effect doesn't even resemble a human being. Women in Dragon Age had horrible proportions and absolutely giant hands. 
 
Also, most Japanese games. 

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DarkShaper

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No Caption Provided
Surprised the this hasn't been posted yet, ouch.
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homewrecker

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Bionicicide

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"War" in Darksiders. As Yahtzee said in the Zero Punctuation review, "It's like someone couldn't stop drawing a WoW character." To be fair, he looks okay in CGI trailers, but the in-game engine does him no favors.

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deactivated-6022efe9ba3cf

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@Mayu_Zane said:
" @HitmanAgent47 said:
"

You can't get any worst than this. The president of ninja theory paste his own head on the character and calls himself dante.  
 

No Caption Provided

 

"
Not having known about this before, I laughed for a good five minutes. Thank you for sharing this with me. "
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eroticfishcake

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Edited By eroticfishcake

Japanese character designs tend to be over the top and stupid most of the times whilst Western designs are rather dull or oddly proportioned (though Women with large breasts are so common in Japanese games). I love how every male character in Epic Games or Blizzard is some massive burly dude whilst Final Fantasy characters, especially the newer ones, have such silly clothes that just don't make any sense whatsoever.

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HowDire

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99.9999999% of anime and characters based off anime, are shockingly awful.

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Hailinel

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@Romination:   To be fair, Rufus was intended to be a parody of the stereotypical ugly American.  Fat, loud, rude, and brash.
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Jadeskye

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@Cornman89 said:
" @ZanzibarBreeze: Goddammit. I knew someone would beat me to Tidus.
 
Well, how about this?!
 
No Caption Provided
"
but she's so damn hot! even if she does need to be gagged...
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TwoOneFive

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@HitmanAgent47 said:
"

You can't get any worst than this. The president of ninja theory paste his own head on the character and calls himself dante.  
 

No Caption Provided

 

"
asssssshoollllleeeeeee 
asssssssss holllleeeee 
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TwoOneFive

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Edited By TwoOneFive
@Old_Corncob said:
"
No Caption Provided
                                                                                                                                                                                                  Winner Douche Bag Olympics!!!

No Caption Provided
"
what?! 
no. 
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Hailinel

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Edited By Hailinel

No Caption Provided
Here we have the prince from Prince of Persia:  Warrior Within as he smolders with generic rage.
 

No Caption Provided

I'm not even sure what's going on here.  I guess her limbs are well protected?  Or something?  I dunno.
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Animasta

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@jadeskye said:
" @Cornman89 said:
" @ZanzibarBreeze: Goddammit. I knew someone would beat me to Tidus.
 
Well, how about this?!
 
No Caption Provided
"
but she's so damn hot! even if she does need to be gagged... "
I don't think she's THAT bad. I can think of at least 5 stupider characters in her archetype :P
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ryanwho

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@Hailinel said:
" @Romination:   To be fair, Rufus was intended to be a parody of the stereotypical ugly American.  Fat, loud, rude, and brash. "
Not sure how that makes anything fair. He looks nothing like anyone on earth. I can find people in Japan that dress like Tidus.
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Hailinel

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@ryanwho said:
" @Hailinel said:
" @Romination:   To be fair, Rufus was intended to be a parody of the stereotypical ugly American.  Fat, loud, rude, and brash. "
Not sure how that makes anything fair. He looks nothing like anyone on earth. I can find people in Japan that dress like Tidus. "
It's called caricature.
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obcdexter

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Wow, it won't be long before every character of every game ever created will be listed here. Great ...

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ryanwho

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My point was that actual people wearing some of this shit really doesn't play into it being more shitty or less shitty. Even if people did dress like Rufus, that doesn't make it less shitty. Putting words of intention into Capcom's mouth doesn't change the shittyness.

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Hailinel

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Edited By Hailinel
@ryanwho said:
" My point was that actual people wearing some of this shit really doesn't play into it being more shitty or less shitty. Even if people did dress like Rufus, that doesn't make it less shitty. Putting words of intention into Capcom's mouth doesn't change the shittyness. "
Just look at him.  His outfit.  The way he gyrates.  Do you think Capcom expected for people to take Rufus's look seriously?
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DoctorWelch

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This thread has just turned into people posting pictures of game characters they hate even if they character looks perfectly fine artistically.

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Mayu_Zane

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@DoctorWelch said:
" This thread has just turned into people posting pictures of game characters they hate even if they character looks perfectly fine artistically. "
Sadly this seems to be the case, though in the end design aesthetics are subjective. 
 
It terrifies me how some people can have such awful taste, not only in the sense of what they like but also what they hate. I'm seeing a few characters who make sense design-wise and yet the person posting it as an example expresses nothing but dislike.
 
I won't say what or who I'm referring to, not going to start an ultimately pointless debate.
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Romination

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Edited By Romination
@Hailinel: He's more of a caricature of a parody. Which is especially odd, it's making fun of something making fun of something.
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MarkWahlberg

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A lot of the faces in Fallout 3 and Mass Effect always bother me, although I still like those games.