Deformed Character Designs

[Tetra Master]

okay this topic is about your thoughts on FF9's deformed or chibi style of characters. since this game is made to "go back to the roots" of the series after the futuristic settings of FF7 and 8, what do you think of the characters having big heads and shrinked bodies? (not about being non-humans) did it work well to you on bringing back the old school feel aside from the medieval setting and scenarios? or it only ruined them? and who says it could have been a lot better if they continued the normal size trend of FF8?

 

[Rogue]

Normal size. They acted like kids enough, they didnt have to look like them too. If you think about how beatify, and badass the characters would have looked if they were full size, youd agree.

 

[Howl]

It's not about the physical makeup of the game. In fact, even though the more current video games are even more realistic than FFVII and FFVIII are today, I would still prefer to play a more classic and intriguing game rather than an advanced, proportional one. In fact...I haven't bought any games for my PS2 since I purchased it, other than FFX and XII.

If you're playing a game for physical proportion and realism, then you shouldn't be playing FFIX. You shouldn't play a game and then complain that it isn't what you wanted it to be. XD

 

[Rogue]

The sad fact is that plenty of people play games for realism and graphics. Xbox is banking off that right now. I would play FF whether or not they had good graphics, or looked like dwarfs however.

 

[Rockman X]

okay this topic is about your thoughts on FF9's deformed or chibi style of characters. since this game is made to "go back to the roots" of the series after the futuristic settings of FF7 and 8, what do you think of the characters having big heads and shrinked bodies? (not about being non-humans) did it work well to you on bringing back the old school feel aside from the medieval setting and scenarios? or it only ruined them? and who says it could have been a lot better if they continued the normal size trend of FF8?

Feh, people always whine about this all the time. "ZOMG THEY R BOBBLE HEADS ITZ NOT REALZ OH NOES!"

For one thing, it's a game. It doesn't have to be realist. It's also a fantasy game, meaning it also doesn't have to be realistic. And Zidane is the only one whose head looks large anyway, and that's partially due to his hair. And Zidane looks pretty proportional to his environment:

I mean, there are dwarves in the game, and they make it pretty obvious that the dwarves are the short ones. And honestly, i don't think the taller style would have worked well in this game anyway. And which do you prefer, IX or III on the DS?

Now see, that is what we call chibi.

 

[DL Clyde]

If I'm being honest, I don't really notice it. Even when I first played the game 6 years ago. I only noticed it when I heard complains about the "childish" design or whatever. Unfortunately for this game, it is often judged by how it looks rather than how it plays out. It's a shame really since this is an amazing game.

 

[Edward Elric]

to be honest i don't think how some people can overlook a great game like this because of the character design. its just silly.

if everyone was this naive and picky, then hell, no one would like FFVII beacuse all of the characters have no fingers or mouths.

 

[Rockman X]

to be honest i don't think how some people can overlook a great game like this because of the character design. its just silly.

if everyone was this naive and picky, then hell, no one would like FFVII beacuse all of the characters have no fingers or mouths.

It really doesn't make any sense...especially since i never hear people complain about VII's graphics. Oh sure, in battles and cutscenes the characters were more detailed, but running around on the world map or in town...it's just colored blocks stacked on top of each other. At least in IX the character models are consistent.

And in one post Aztec made in another thread, he pointed out how IX looks so grainy and VII doesn't, then posted a pic of each to show the difference. And yes, while VII is less detailed the characters don't look grainy. But guess what? That's because they didn't try to fit in as much detail. And look, it's just as grainy in VIII as it is in IX:

And christ, Rinoa's joints are like spears. I never hear anyone complain about VIII though, but to me, the people just seem too elongated.

See? It looks like 2/3 of their body is just legs.

 

[Cactuar]

I kinda agree with Vengeful Ronin.
2/3 of their bodies are legs lol, thats sooooo true....

I didn't notice that the characters in FF IX are small and child like, they are just all unique, unlike in VIII, it adds character, Squaresoft wanted to make a new FF with a retro style, big castles, knights and dragons, if they made everyone look the same, like in FF VIII, it would all seem too generic, can you imagine Vivi and Zidane with the long body of Squall? Zidane would look like a 60's mod tranny and Vivi like a clown....VIII characters were a bit generic and boring IMO, i liked practically everything else in FF VIII, except the characters and their styles....

 

[Rockman X]

I kinda agree with Vengeful Ronin.
2/3 of their bodies are legs lol, thats sooooo true....

I didn't notice that the characters in FF IX are small and child like, they are just all unique, unlike in VIII, it adds character, Squaresoft wanted to make a new FF with a retro style, big castles, knights and dragons, if they made everyone look the same, like in FF VIII, it would all seem too generic, can you imagine Vivi and Zidane with the long body of Squall? Zidane would look like a 60's mod tranny and Vivi like a clown....VIII characters were a bit generic and boring IMO, i liked practically everything else in FF VIII, except the characters and their styles....

Vivi is tall in the Amano drawing, and guess what? He DOES look like a clown:

And the VIII characters look generic because the Great and Wise Tetsuya Nomura drew them.

I never even noticed the "chibi" characters either. But i didn't start the series with VII or VIII, so i didn't have a bias.

 

[Tetra Master]

haha I believe IX's graphics are better than VIII's because they're more solid and texturized. we're talking about character sizes here so let's be a little more relevant. and we have different opinions okay.
personally I think them being deformed just fits this game right. and their sizes aren't bad compared to other games with such designs. If they were normal sized it wouldn't be this light-hearted and comical. just think of how Steiner would look like when throwing tantrums when he's angry if they were normal sized.

 

[Rockman X]

Oop, sorry about that.

Steiner wouldn't work at all if he was normal-sized, half of what made his little tantrums so funny when he hopped around in his rusty armour was his size. He wasn't even any bigger than the princess. Freya was a little taller, and Amarant actually was tall, he just had bad posture (although i did find his gargantuan hands a little odd).

I think the small size helped add to the charm the game has.

 

[Tetra Master]

I agree Zidane is the only one who looks big-headed because of his hair. and I'm not so sure why but Amarant appears to be normal sized to me. to be honest I also didn't notice they were deformed the first time I played this game. I played IX before VIII and then VII. but in VIII lol, they do look like they have long legs and arms which is exaggerated to real world but yeah it's just a game.

 

[Cactuar]

Geez thats a scary mofo, i bet that as a trance he could do make shapes out of baloons....


*EDIT*

Referring to the concept pic of Vivi

should have quoted.....

 

[Onceman]

Tonally, I don't think FFIX would have worked as well with FFVIII-scaled figures. Personally, I think it probably has some of the best designed characters (and enemies) in the entire series, which is probably why out of the billion FF sculptures I've made, IX is the most represented.

 

[Scarlet]

See? It looks like 2/3 of their body is just legs.

Yes but the character are almost 7 heads tall. The human body is the length of 7 heads. Meaning if you stacked 7 of your heads it will be your body length. The cast of Final Fantasy VIII are almost in proportion, kinda hard to tell since the picture is small.

If you want to talk about gross chibiness than here you go:

World of Warcraft gnome

Anyways, I could careless about chibi characters as long as they look cute/whatever. FFIX characters look fine to me, they fit the game and the scenery.

 

[Edward Elric]

i love love love the character designs, the environment, and the whole world of gaia. in fact i think this thread may just have motivated me to pick up the sticks and give this game another go. good job guys, you've just given me something to do after school and football practice for the next couple weeks

 

[Tetra Master]

glad it helped.

Cerridwen, now this'd make people appreciate FF9's graphics better. lol that's what we call deformed isn't it.

 

[Toshiro Hitsugaya]

The character designs were quite crappy to say the least

 

[Rockman X]

The character designs were quite crappy to say the least

I'm going to refrain from yelling at you for that remark and instead ask if you would care to elaborate as to why you think they're crappy. Typically when one gives an opinion that is bound to set people off, they back it up. Also, let's compare the design in IX:

To that of Dragon Quest VII:

Now the one on the left is obviously a boy...but the other two, they actually do look like real midgets.