When I first saw Amarant, I thought he was a chicken

[Captain Maxx Power]

http://www.ffcompendium.com/art/9-amarant-c.jpg

People keep harping on about how weird Quina is, but for my money the oddest looking FF9 party member is this guy. I mean look at him, he's like a ginger Bob Marley mixed with Garrett from Thief. Plus he has arms like Popeye. Also I'm not sure if I ever saw his eyes during the game; does he even have any?

So anyway, who do you think is the oddest looking character in the odd-looking character parade that is FF9?

[Big D]

FFIX is certainly full of oddball characters...
I'm actually of the (not-so-serious) opinion that none of the main playable cast are truly human. Like, everyday humans with no major physical differences.
Freya, Vivi, Quina and Zidane are non-human by default. But how about the others?

Eiko and Garnet are both Summoners - they have extra organs and brain structures that regular humans lack.

Steiner, unlike other 'human' characters, has no philtrum - the depression in the middle of the top lip - and his mouth doesn't actually have any lips at all. Similarly, his eyes are completely lacking irises.

Amarant - like Brahne, he has blue skin. Actual humans simply don't have blue skin. Then there's the aforementioned gargantuan forearms, which make his gait resemble a gorilla sometimes.

:p So, no-one who could be considered a 'regular human' in that bunch. Though in Steiner and Amarant's case, I think we're just seeing the side-effects of having several character designers working separately, rather than one consistent style for the final in-game designs. Pity, really - Amano's concepts were bloody fantastic.

[Heath]

Eiko naturally stood out as being rather different due to her horn, but the summoner job class in FFV had a horn as well. Admittedly I didn't notice that at the time because I played IX before I played V, but it was something I noticed later on.

I suppose the only playable characters that are properly human (and not discounted for various reasons as Big D pointed out) are the temporary ones. And even then, the only vaguely normal looking one is Beatrix. I always thought Marcus looked a bit like a goblin, I can't quite tell if that is make-up on Cinna and Blank clearly cosplays as Cyclops from the X-Men.

[Breine]

http://digilander.libero.it/squall2002/Brahne.jpg

Brahne ftw! She's big and blue, sort of looks like a man.. and that hairdo is just.. I'm not even getting into that. She's just all-around wicked ugly, and such also odd looking.

[Big D]

Oh yeah, Brahne's also got Steiner's absence of irises.
Considering the number of different advanced species in the FFIX world, it's possible that a lot of the characters had an ancestor from a different species... like, maybe Amarant and Brahne both had a distant predecessor from one of the blue-skinned species, explaining that trait... same goes for Steiner and Brahne's eyes...

[Vivisteiner]

http://digilander.libero.it/squall2002/Brahne.jpg

sort of looks like a man..
No. Just no.

If she's a man, then I'm gay.


Oh, and Steiner isn't human. He is God. We're all made imperfectly in Steiner's image. Jesus, did none of you study religion!?

[Marky Tee]

steiner rocks!!!!!!
probably the most skillfull combatant in the entire series

[LunarWeaver]

I still think Quina is the most out there. Quina eats your choices for breakfast! Hahaha... ha.. ugh.

[Rantz]

A toss up between these two gentlemen, maybe?

http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/3519/engineerheavenguardpl6.jpg

[cloud21zidane16]

When the game came out and i saw that Amarant picture i also thought he looked like a chicken:p
But i like the way the characters are designed, makes them more unique.

[Vivisteiner]

...that looks nothing like a chicken.

This is a chicken:

http://www.nextnature.net/research/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/chicken3~.jpg

[daggertrepe]

Beatrix has unrealistic hair, if I may add that. NO ONE'S hair is that pretty or bouncy or curly at the ends.

[Yuffie514]

Of the entire playable cast, I would elect Amarant. He could use a smaller head of hair.

[Shotgunnova]

He could use a smaller head to reduce his ego's size, too. The oddest character I can think of is probably that half-fish, half-man abomination that runs the Alexandria hotel. Don't even want to know what type of stunt nature pulled to give him breath. Although...the game wouldn't be half as whimsically delicious without these goofy guys.

[crazybayman]

This whole topic the main downfall of this otherwise wonderful game - THE CHARACTERS LOOK FACKIN' RETARDED.

[rubah]

It doesn't help that the designers made them super deformed to resemble the proportions of 8-bit sprites.

[sdm42393]

Beatrix has unrealistic hair, if I may add that. NO ONE'S hair is that pretty or bouncy or curly at the ends.

It was revealed in the secret ending (y'know, the one where a mutated zombie Kuja kidnaps Dagger) that she wears a wig.

[Rostum]

The Nome King doesn't like chickens.

[Quindiana Jones]

Amarant - like Brahne, he has blue skin. Actual humans simply don't have blue skin. Then there's the aforementioned gargantuan forearms, which make his gait resemble a gorilla sometimes.



So is Amarant of the same race as Brahne? As they both have big arms too. Though Brahne's may simply just be fat.

[demondude]

I always wondered how Blank actually saw through that big metal mask.

[Goldenboko]

I always wondered how Blank actually saw through that big metal mask.

http://www.intuitivewebdesigns.com/comics/graphics/xmen/cyclops.jpg

[theundeadhero]

You do see Amarant's face late in the game.

[Vivisteiner]

One of the best shots of Amarant's face is right when he fights Zidane. Everyone who can't remember that shot, replay the game up till there. And if you miss it, replay it again until you spot it.

[Elly]

i never undestood the idea that they made them superdeformed to match the old 8bit days, when the whole superdeformed thing back then was not what most think it is, it was just a topdown view called forced perception where you animate the top to look bigger than the bottom to give the illusion that you're looking at the characters from above at a slight angle, if they were to move the camera down to character level then the illusion of superdeformed would be gone... so, it makes no sense to me as to why they would make them deformed like that when it was just simply forced perceptoin back in the old days... unless the animators didn't get the whole forced perception thing like their predacessors, as the original character designes in the FF IX art book has some beautiful artwork of the characters that is not deformed in the least, it's sad they chose to go with the final wonky designes as opposed to the more beautifull ones that were originaly designed for the game, only Beatrix looks closely like her original designe, Zidane looked like a badass originaly but they made him look like a tool for the final, same with Steiner originaly he looked more like a knight befitting his rank but in the final they made him uber fat, i just don't get decisions like those...
on topic Brahne get's the award for oddest character designe as she is so hideous it hurts the eyes just to look at her...

[Vivisteiner]

Ehhh, I think normal art work can get boring. I liked the fact that FFIX's art style was different. It was kinda cute and pretty cool.

[Laddy]

Isn't Amarant a Coral, or a sea-like person with hair made of coral? And with a name like Salamander Coral, he can't possibly be human.

I think his race is a Coral.

[Christmas]

He looks like the local pimp to me though. A relatively successful one that have at least a few chocobos under him. :chocobo:

[Quindiana Jones]

Eiko and Garnet are both Summoners - they have extra organs and brain structures that regular humans lack.


Hol up. Summoners have extra organs?