Why is Shadow Blue?

[ACardAttack]

Shadow looks sort of blue when you look at his character on the pause screen when he is in your party and then if you see the FMV in Anthology on the PS1 shadow is w/o question blue. Anyone know why/anyone at least noticed this before?

 

[Dionysos]

Good question, and something I have noticed myself.

Shadows appearance seems to be relatively inconsistent.
Like you say, the FMV made him without a doubt blue. But in his sprite he looked black, well dark brown, black coloured (although what I thought was his skin in the sprite was probably the decoration above his face).
However, yet again, his artwork by Amano seems to show him as having a black face, though probably because it is to hide his identity. We know that the actual person is white from the flashback dreams of his past.
On that, I have also seen some 3d renders of Shadow that had him as white, not black or blue.

So basically.... It isn't very consistent at all. My only guess is that he is coloured blue or black in some instances in order to show how his face is hidden and not to be seen. Perhaps it is facepaint, or perhaps there is just a constant shadow over his face.

 

[Daenerys]

I think Shadow is shown as black/blue because they hadn't really got the graphics to show detailed facial features, by painting not showing Shadow's face it shows us that he's wearing a mask or is otherwise concealed - face paint, etc.

I always thought it was a mask -

Only sprite image I could pull up of him, and he doesn't really look all that blue. Definitely a ninja mask, I'd say.

 

[MagicGamma]

It's because there's not enough light on his face. If I painted a box white on the inside and left a small hole in the side when I closed it, the inside would appear back, due to the lack of light. So there.

Plus we can account for hardware limitations...

 

[Sora_lion_heart]

I always thought he was mutated somehow although there wasn't any proof of this in the story. It solved my thoughts on why he is blue. btw what color is Relm? Is she blue too?

 

[SOLDIERis1337]

If you were related to Strago you'd be blue too! *insert uproarious laughter and applause* But seriously, it was just graphical limitations or a lack of light. His actual skin color is the same as strago/relm/etc.

 

[Shu]

Hmm, I had no problem with blue to be honest. At least he wasn't pink or yellow or orange. The darker colors always suit a ninja in my mind. I mean how are you going to be a ninja with bright colors?

 

[Sabre_Vivi]

The darker colors always suit a ninja in my mind. I mean how are you going to be a ninja with bright colors?

I sense a naruto hating reference. xD

But back on topic, in the FMV's he was blue, as we know. (FF Anthology). Buuuuut, if we also remember, he had a single blue horn as well sticking out of his mask. Coincidence? NO! lol, j/k. It's probably shading. The horn is probably simple decoration. But as for the graphical reference... I've recently gotten into hacking my ffIII (or VI, depending on how you see it) ROM. The sprites are only comprised of 16 colors. So why isn't Shadow's skin normal colored there? Turns out there are already 6 shades of black there! D: the 'gold' is really consisting of yellow and a few browns, and so you take into account the other colors... and you don't have enough left to make a realistic looking face. so, it's black to make it at least somewhat realistic.

Just a fun fact as well. A lot of monsters and characters share the same color palletes. I changed Terra's hair red, and suddenly all of Figaro Castle's soldiers were red! xD Monsters do as well, which is why it's so hard to hack a new boss without messing up the other monsters. @__@