Am I the only person who finds the character designs bland or just plain stupid?

[Wolf Kanno]

Seriously, I often feel like Nomura was just drawing portraits of people off the streets when he designed the main cast of this game. I could probably go to a thrift store and make all of the playable casts costumes. Sure there are some nice uniforms but you don't see them after the beginning of the game, Edea's design is awesome but Adel is just ghastly and Ultimecia's outfit screams "stripperific" rather than menacing. I just find it easy to feel bored looking at the playable cast, and then simply bewildered by some of the other design choices...

[charliepanayi]

Wolf Kanno in negative thread about FFVIII shock!

I liked the character designs, they're not as imaginative as FFIX, but always liked the outfits for the main cast especially.

[Tigmafuzz]

I think the reason most of the outfits were kinda boring was because of how realistic some of them were. As in, you could actually see someone wearing those kinds of outfits walking down the street in Japan at any given time. That's not exactly what one wants out of a game that has fantasy in the title.

[Wolf Kanno]

Wolf Kanno in negative thread about FFVIII shock!

I liked the character designs, they're not as imaginative as FFIX, but always liked the outfits for the main cast especially.

I actually like VIII to be honest, I just feel it has a ton of problems.

[Sephex]

I've alluded to this before on these forums, but I like it when Nomura designs characters in a more down to earth way because when the guy gets out of hand, the character designs look flat out ridiculous.

[Hollycat]

I hate Adel. As does everyone... Adel is a man....

Has anyone else ever thought oh look, someone put Robin Williams in FF?

[Depression Moon]

^ Oh yeah, I think it's been said plenty.

I've alluded to this before on these forums, but I like it when Nomura designs characters in a more down to earth way because when the guy gets out of hand, the character designs look flat out ridiculous.

You're talking about Nooj and several other X characters aren't you?

[Sephex]

^ Oh yeah, I think it's been said plenty.

I've alluded to this before on these forums, but I like it when Nomura designs characters in a more down to earth way because when the guy gets out of hand, the character designs look flat out ridiculous.

You're talking about Nooj and several other X characters aren't you?

Nooj, yes. But also some Kingdom Hearts and The World Ends With You characters as well.

[Jiro]

I think the main cast was dressed pretty well. It does fit in with my conception of Japanese fashion at any rate.

[DMKA]

I thought FFVIII's character designs were among Nomura's best. The character art he did for FFVIII was beautiful.

[ReloadPsi]

I noticed that with the exception of Selphie the character designs don't incorporate a whole lot of primaries so everyone just kinda blends in. Heck, as soon as I said "primaries" I thought of the guys in sweatsuits around Galbadia Garden, who are minor NPCs.

All the main cast are in such pastely, washed-out colours. It does make them a little bit forgettable.

On a side note, am I the only person who saw that Irvine still came across as being very manly despite the fact he was designed by a really rubbish artist who had no idea how to make a definite distinction between genders without employing facial hair?


I hate Adel. As does everyone... Adel is a man....
Please do a Google image search on "female bodybuilder" before ever saying that again.

[Hollycat]

Adel is a man.

[Jessweeee♪]

Your face is a man.

[Hollycat]

A very manly man.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Has anyone else ever thought oh look, someone put Robin Williams in FF?

You mean this?.....Wait a minute, did anyone else know that Cid had a chin goatee? I'm just now seeing it after all these years.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk48/nmfloropoulos/tumblr_lk3dgkVg5D1qa89s4o1_500.jpg

[Sephex]

Well, I can't tell if the official artwork shows him sporting some gruff, or if those are just pencil marks:

http://www.gamedepiction.com/media/ff8-cid.jpg

Also, concerning the artwork:

http://www.videogamelookalikes.com/pics/cid-final-fantasy-viii-oliver-stone.jpg

[Tigmafuzz]

If they ever made a FFVIII live-action movie (god forbid) the only redeeming quality would be if they cast Robin Williams as Headmaster Cid.

[Hollycat]

I would watch that.

[Jiro]

I always did think they looked similar.

[Mercen-X]

45 minutes of the film would entail Robin Williams acting like a dork for no apparent reason. A fine distraction from the nonsensical plot of a Final Fantasy VIII movie which I can only imagine would be built like Epic Movie.

[DMKA]

If they ever made a FFVIII live-action movie (god forbid) the only redeeming quality would be if they cast Robin Williams as Headmaster Cid.
I have an issue of EGM buried somewhere, from back in 1999 right before FFVIII was going to come out, and it had like 20 pages of FFVIII material, and the last page talked about making an FFVIII movie and who would be good actors for it. I specifically recall Samuel L. Jackson's picture in it though. I can't imagine who they thought he would be good to play in FFVIII. o__O

[Jinx]

If they ever made a FFVIII live-action movie (god forbid) the only redeeming quality would be if they cast Robin Williams as Headmaster Cid.
I have an issue of EGM buried somewhere, from back in 1999 right before FFVIII was going to come out, and it had like 20 pages of FFVIII material, and the last page talked about making an FFVIII movie and who would be good actors for it. I specifically recall Samuel L. Jackson's picture in it though. I can't imagine who they thought he would be good to play in FFVIII. o__O

Every single character.

[charliepanayi]

'That is it! I have had it with these mother****ing sorceresses in this mother****ing school!'

[Flying Arrow]

I thought FFVIII's character designs were among Nomura's best.

I agree with this. The game also has hands-down my favourite summon monster designs too. They look more "down to earth" than anything else in the series, if a summon monster can be described as "down to earth" at all.

[Jinx]

The summons in this game is actually something I like. I like how each summon has a history and biography to them.

[Phoenix Rising]

I thought FFVIII's character designs were among Nomura's best.

I agree with this. The game also has hands-down my favourite summon monster designs too. They look more "down to earth" than anything else in the series, if a summon monster can be described as "down to earth" at all.

I third this, I like how all of their uniforms were realistic. I really wish Square would have created more alternative costumes though, and let you wear your SeeD and Balamb cadet uniform in the game, like switching between them whenever you wanted.

[Jiro]

I was a huge fan of the cadet outfit and would've loved to wear it more frequently. The SeeD uniform was also pretty stylin'.

[Phoenix Rising]

I was a huge fan of the cadet outfit and would've loved to wear it more frequently. The SeeD uniform was also pretty stylin'.

Square should have taken a note from Capcom, doing something similar to what they did with the early Resident Evil games, where once you beat the game you unlock alternative costumes. For instance you mentioned the Cadet and SeeD uniforms, it appears that a game mechanic to switch between uniforms was implemented in the game, if I recall correctly, but it was only available during linear plot events. Perhaps the developers originally intended to let you swap outfits regularly, but decided against it for some reason?

[Sylvie]

I was a huge fan of the cadet outfit and would've loved to wear it more frequently. The SeeD uniform was also pretty stylin'.

Square should have taken a note from Capcom, doing something similar to what they did with the early Resident Evil games, where once you beat the game you unlock alternative costumes. For instance you mentioned the Cadet and SeeD uniforms, it appears that a game mechanic to switch between uniforms was implemented in the game, if I recall correctly, but it was only available during linear plot events. Perhaps the developers originally intended to let you swap outfits regularly, but decided against it for some reason?
No, it was probably just a monotonous device to make the player do things for unwarranted realism.

[Jiro]

Definitely, but I would have liked them to keep it. I much prefer Zell in his cadet uniform, or even his SeeD uniform; his casual clothes are weird. It would also be good to see if Irvine wears his hat while in uniform.

[Shiny]

While I agree that many of the designs were pretty dumb there was a point. For instance, Squall's ridiculous amount of belts was to keep Seifer from his crotch. So you see, there's a reason for everything.

[Agent Proto]

Yeah, I do actually think the character designs in FFVIII were pretty bland compared to the rest of the FF games. Can't say I hate stupid, since I would imagine most of the characters would be easy for cosplayers to pull off!

[Madonna]

Since we are reviving old topics, I want to say VIII had good costume designs for the kind of time/era the game is set. I grant that not many things are terribly fancy, but neither were a lot of the implementations for previous Final Fantasy costume designs. Amano's work might look super cool, intricate, and fun, but the sprites could not do his vision justice. Nomura designed his costumes for a game that was honking on about how they had more polygons and could make things less blocky than VII; I think more elaboration to the extent that he got with X would have been a very bad, bad thing. Belto Maxon is pretty much the argument against that Nomura should have done things flashier.

[Shorty]

I don't mind the costumes for this game. They could have been a little more flashy and memorable but that doesn't really seem to be the way the overall style of the game was set, anyway.

Edea definitely had the coolest outfit, though.

[Night Fury]

I hate Adel. As does everyone... Adel is a man....

Has anyone else ever thought oh look, someone put Robin Williams in FF?


YES. CID IS ROBIN WILLIAMS. HE REALLY REALLY IS.

[Iceglow]

Costumes for VIII were fairly cool. Though Zell was a weak point in that. It would I agree have been nice to get some different outfits going on. Especially the SeeD Cadet/SeeD Dress Uniforms. Maybe the Gabaldian Soldier uniforms would've been too much to believe except for maybe Rinoa (who knows maybe have some extra side missions where wearing the uniform would allow you to sneak past guards a-la missile base). I know Nomura loves belts, like look at X and how many belts and stuff was going on there but I really don't get the complaints about Squall having 3 belts across his waist/hips. Clearly going by the animations of him drawing his Gunblade outside of battle in the training center for example he's drawing it from behind his back but low as if the blade is slung diagonally down behind him from right hip to left leg. 1 Belt to hold trousers up, 2 belts to support the sheer weight of a Gunblade (it is detailed in the game that the Gunblade is a heavy weapon to wield and quite cumbersome, becoming a master of it takes time and effort) The only other belts he had were a thigh strap with ammo holding capability on his left thigh. This makes sense since his Gunblade from the moment we first see it clearly has 6 chambers and thus must require reloading after that. The biggest issue I have with this character design is clearly whilst Squall has his belts on show when outside of battle or at least in fmv's his sheath/weapon are never shown except for if the blade is in his hands fighting (exclude the intro with the spinning flying Gunblade, which would indicate that at some point Seifer has disarmed him in the "training battle" lol) If we were discussing why X has so many belts in so many unusual outfits then we'd be on to something.

[Christmas]

Think is the Gunblade that got the attention during that time.

"What dude, a gun and a sword together!? Awesome. I am so totally focusing on the sword and nothing else on the characters!"

[maybee]

I hate Adel. As does everyone... Adel is a man....

Has anyone else ever thought oh look, someone put Robin Williams in FF?


YES. CID IS ROBIN WILLIAMS. HE REALLY REALLY IS.

Notice how Cid also gives you a genie in a lamp summon as well ? ;)

[Jiro]

Now that is a neat coincidence!