Chrono Cross art appreciation thread!

[Fynn]

I've never been a big fan of Toriyama's work, and yet his designs for Chrono Trigger were very nice and memorable. And so, when I first saw the character artworks from Chrono Cross I was a bit dissapointed. But later (I mean A LOT later) I got my hands in the game and got used to the art and all I can say is I now think it's beautiful. Nobuteru Yuuki gives his characters a lot of personality and charm. Not to mention the very high quality of the art. He uses a lot of colour and yet I don't think his characters look kiddy or anything...

What are your thoughts on this wonderful game's character artwork? Discuss!

[Vice Nebulosa]

My reception of the CC art style basically runs the full gamut of possible reactions; love parts of it, am indifferent to others, and am inspired to loathing by still others. One of the more brilliant ideas for the character design was to have Lynx be virtually the only character clad stylishly in black, who was not brimming otherwise with chromatic . . . effervescence, I guess. Even Guile (preordained to be viewed as a somewhat "darker" character than most) does not seek to challenge Lynx's design. Viper is the only one with a remotely comparable style, if memory serves, but Lynx has a considerably more imposing height, and his uniqueness makes him easily the most recognizable figure on the screen, when he is there.

On an overall basis, the designs show an extremely creative array of hairstyles; beyond the similarities in length that must appear in a collection more than forty individuals large, no two characters are quite alike. Doc and Pierre are about as analogous as you get, as far as I can tell.

The gold mask was not all that useful for its intended concealing purposes, but Guile's clothing style was appropriately distinct from all others in its flowing abilities, which rule when traversing the "Ancient Dragon's Fort" areas, with all the close-up and angle shots. I prefer Serge's design to Crono's by a good margin, Kid's was a nice streamlined design, which works extremely well for second position in the party . . .

Steena was awesome, and Riddel, Karsh, Glenn, and Viper all made traversing the world map interesting in their way. I have no particular issues with Radius, Sprigg, or Zappa, but then we get indefensibly stupid. Starky and Van piss me off at a mere glance, and anyone from Pip to Funguy, Draggy to Greco, Skelly to Poshul, etc. should never have been included. It is further enraging that the inclusion of these worthless, meaningless little characters is partly responsible for the absence of Magus' presence -- one of the game's most damaging flaws.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Yuuki is an amazing artist (see also: Seiken Densetsu 3), but I think he inevitably burned out on the task of drawing up over forty playable characters, resulting in some extremely gaudy, thrown-together designs. The good ones are great, though, and overall, his talent with paints and use of anatomy redeem any specific conceptual missteps.

As good as the art is unto itself, though, I think it'll always bother me at least a little that Trigger and Chross are so glaringly disparate in this area--even more than in others, maybe.

[Wolf Kanno]

I actually really love the visuals in Chrono Cross. Granted the character designs are a bit hit and miss but I actually loved the choice of putting the story to a tropical setting. I really love the visual cues and the water theme that runs through the world.

The dragons had great designs and most of the major characters had pretty snazzy designs. I commend the Character designer for creating 40+ characters and not have any of them feel glaringly similar.

[Vice Nebulosa]

Yuuki is an amazing artist (see also: Seiken Densetsu 3)

Same person?

*Wikis*

Hm. Sure enough. Not nearly as impressive a feat as Chrono Cross, obviously, but I do remember liking several Secret of Mana 2 designs, primarily Kevin, Hawk, Heath, and the Masked Mage . . .

The dragons had great designs

Kind of forgot those, but . . . yes, totally. ^_^ The Sky Dragon ruled supremely, anyway, and the Black Dragon was certainly ominous-looking enough to work despite its fairly generic design. Dragon God was just unique; no better word for it. As for the Water, Nature (?), and Earth dragons, though . . . I find little to love.

[Fynn]

Dragon God was just unique; no better word for it.

I got a few - horrifying, twisted, disturbing, disgusting? I guess that was the intention, though, so the design is still superb.

[Vermachtnis]

I loved the dragon designs too. Especially the red dragon's transformation. The Green One scared me more than the other ones though. He had a Cheshire Cat smile going on.

[Fynn]

Hey, I loved that guy He seemed really nice for a dragon...