Aerith vs Stella...

A topic which I've discovered has flared up on other FF forums recently.

Forgive me if someone's already started raving about this, but don't you think theres' something fishy about Stella's similarities (aesthetic) to Aerith. She shares design elements with Rinoa too. Before anyone goes flaming me I'll say what I'm already aware of:

* People jumping to conclusions to 'link things' in Final Fantasy because it is exciting. Yes Reno and Axel were based off the same character refs, but does that mean Reno has ANYTHING to do with KH?

* Nomura has done the character designing since FFVI/VII, and of course it's going to be hard to have enough varation between characters, with archetypes the artistic style, the public and he personally favours creating limitations...

BUT! I still think the likeness is deliberate. (I won't start on the SasukexCloud-ness of Noctis, lol. The multiple swords techinique and dress/haircut is similar though ^^)

1) Because it has already been stated that Lightening was deliberately intended to be reminiscent of Cloud Strife

(When I saw the FFXIII video and saw Stella for the first time I immediately thought 'WTF, Aerith?!' Then I went to watch AC again before I jumped to any conclusions and compared tapes.

2) If you overlap the videos of Stella and Aerith from the final scene in AC, the timing and position matches creepily, as if Nomura traced the frames of Aerith intentionally for Stella.

Stella at 42 secs

YouTube - FInal Fantasy Versus XIII NEW Trailer

Aerith at 17 secs

YouTube - Cloud and Aerith - Final Fantasy VII Advent Children

I'm not trying to sound like a crap-stirrer or a know it all, I'm just trying to provide you with the information on which I based my opinion so I don't get a whole load of replies saying 'BUT! You forgotted thish!!!!' I'm not saying the similarities are a bad thing. I'm not hinting that Nomura is losing his touch or that his designs are too 'samey'- if anything, familiar character designs are what endear us, right?

So yeah... Um, what do you think? Any extra information?

hm sort of, but not enough to fuss about. Stella's hair is blonde and has dark eyes and seems a touch darker than Aeris.
I get what u mean tho, I think it comes down to what they can actually manged graphically

Well, I'm not saying they are identical, but reminiscent of eachother, and the identical camera shots and timing made me intrigued. I'm not invalidating your opinion, I'm saying that obviously if they had exactly the same appearance (I can see that Stella is Blonde) there wouldn't be anything to speculate about would there? She'd BE Arith rather than 'kind of mysteriously being reminiscent of her' which is what I'm getting at. Thankyou for your response, though. ^^

Anyone else for input? (If I sound blunt, I don't mean to come acoss like that, I'm really not trying to be argumentative or anything)

I think it's more the vague archetype the fit under more than anything, it's the sort of look a potential love interest would make. I think the characters are going to have one or two similar qualities, yet they still will be distinctly different characters.

its a game, SE are gonna have to cut corners somewhere. and yeah its a lot easier to im work on new graphics with the plans of old ones. you can see all the time in ff the same movements in the characters.

All the charecters look alike...Why? because they all have the same face shape in an effort to make the charecters look realer they end up looking the same well at least thats my thought on it...hence why I detest "looking like a real person" in vidio games slightly life like is fine but to the point every charecter looks like anouther one is just to much and to me Lighting looks exactly like Yuna and her friend looks exactly like a more life like Selphie....They all look the same to me...

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Originally Posted by Edea's-Ether

All the charecters look alike...Why? because they all have the same face shape in an effort to make the charecters look realer they end up looking the same well at least thats my thought on it...hence why I detest "looking like a real person" in vidio games slightly life like is fine but to the point every charecter looks like anouther one is just to much and to me Lighting looks exactly like Yuna and her friend looks exactly like a more life like Selphie....They all look the same to me...

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I prefer more exaggerated characters than realistic ones as well, it helps to define the characters as individuals and gives games a certain charm. When the characters are more caricatures of people the story usually doesn't become as angsty as it could with people who are dead serious all the time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Calarandir

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Edea's-Ether

All the charecters look alike...Why? because they all have the same face shape in an effort to make the charecters look realer they end up looking the same well at least thats my thought on it...hence why I detest "looking like a real person" in vidio games slightly life like is fine but to the point every charecter looks like anouther one is just to much and to me Lighting looks exactly like Yuna and her friend looks exactly like a more life like Selphie....They all look the same to me...

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I prefer more exaggerated characters than realistic ones as well, it helps to define the characters as individuals and gives games a certain charm. When the characters are more caricatures of people the story usually doesn't become as angsty as it could with people who are dead serious all the time.

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Exactly!...but I should have added Selphie and Penello for the look alike of lightings friend .......anyhoo...Honestly when I see the preveiws for the games to come for FF I get sorda depressed there is no individuality...Its like waching the same person do different things...its rather sad I think.....Final Fantasy is inovative with theire "leveling systems'' But not so much with story or characters lately...I wish they would get a grip on that....Now I want to write them hate mail lol They need to get it togeather

To be totally honest, I don't think that (for a video game, come on) the characters look all too similar. If you really look at subtle details like the curvature of the jaw, depth of cheeks etc. The first thing I look at when I see new FF characters is 'do they look like a copy of X?' Because if they do, I can't get emotionally attached to them too much if they are just a tweaked clone. I think there are some archetypal features shared between all the characters mentioned but they aren't carbo copies. To say they all look the same, you could also say everyone in a particular family looks the same. Some features may be nearly identical but I'd hesitate to say Nomura is getting to the point he doesn't try any more. I'd rather not have stupidly caracatured characters- that only fuels people's dislike for otaku with 'stereotype ammo'. We'll alsways be 'those kids who like those games where everyone's hair defies gravity' Admittedly alot of them do, but I loved how in Advent children, their designs were toned down enough for them not to look out of place in a semi-realistic world, but they are still recognisable as our luffable characters with all their charm intact.

Sorry, I'll shut up, now ^^

Most Final Fantasy games do re-use the same archtypes for each game, such as having a Brooding Male Hero, a Headstrong Female, Perky Young Girl etc. yet I think Nomura does alter them within each game so that each version of the Archetype is distinct.

A lot of games and media, have cartoony visuals with unrealistic features such as hair, so I don't think we'll be looked down on for liking Final Fantasy by the general populus.

It jus makes me smile when I do find people in real life who look like FF characters, there's a guy in my music class who looks like cloud, dresses like him and even has the hair! There seem to be an awful lot of kids with Noctis hair, but without the bangs framing his face, just the middle part of his fringe.

And back on topic, I thought what I did about Aerith and Stella BEFORE I saw this vid, but I'll use it anyway. Have a look at this YouTube - ♥ Cℓσυ∂χSтєℓℓα - Aє�ιтн тнємє ♥

Now, this is it right here.

YouTube - Stella + Cloud + Aerith - All Of My Dreams

Look at 0.41, especially at 0.43/44 where it morphs perfectly from Aerith back to Stella. Creepy.

I have a feeling that the effects used in the second video may make it harder to differentiate between the two, yet they do look very similar.

Also Noctis has "Emo hair" and a lot of kids are trying to be "Emo" at the moment, it does make sense to have a brooding character look like someone people normally associate with loneliness and depression.

Indeed, the effects added to the uh... effect really ^^

Indeed, Nocitc does have emo hair, but apparently he's not meant to be all emo and brooding, just seemingly passive or just contemplative it looks like. Similar to a way Cloud can play it cool and seem all 'moody' but that's really not his personality at all. He's a very 'light' character with all the emotional appeal of one of those 'dark' characters with awkward silences and tragic pasts....

*cough cough* But anyways, If Stella /was/ meant to be 13's reincarnation of Aerith, what other parallels are there? We already know that Lightening is our Cloud but what else we got? The general style of the environment seems reminiscent of VII.

The environment seems very similar to VII like you said, having one large what appears to be dystopian city and then a much greener world surrounding it.

As for other parallels, in one trailer there's a guy in a suit surrounded by what look like some sort of board of directors, he reminds me a bit of Rufus Shinra. Noctis' fighting style reminds me of Cloud's in Advent Children, and, if I'm honest, Stella is starting to remind me of Celes. Correct me if I'm wrong yet isn't Stella meant to be an unwilling enemy of Noctis? Fighting with a sword and the glowing circles I've seen behind her indicating her being able to use magic reinforce that concept in my mind.

Oh yeah I can see the likeness between Stella and Celes, thats probably why i took an instant shine to Stella

Stella looks like Aerith.I agree.
But there're some people say Stella looks like Tifa , not Aerith.
But I think Stella looks like Aerith more than Tifa.

And I don't think Stella does share any similarities to Rinoa at all.