Darksiders

[Beardly]

Something that bothered me a bit that wasn't mentioned was the fact that War wears the hood of his cloak over his head. I think a better fit for the personification of war would be a helmet. Its not like his face is so expressive that they wanted to show it off. They could have given him a helmet with angry eyebrows drawn on and it would've had the same effect.

 

[Bobular]

I also have to agree TF2's design is brilliant. I have never had to say 'I thought he was X' after attacking my own team or being attacked by someone.

Well other then with spys

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

Well, since War is not a human being, but a supernatural creature, like Demons and Angels, I don't see anything wrong here.
Perhaps he don't sweat. And don't have any metabolism at all...

 

[SimGrave]

I usually don't mind that not everything in a character design is meaningful, but you are right, War is a visual mess. I like the comparison between comics and games. However, this is just from a art perspective. I didn't mind it at all in the game.

 

[SimGrave]

Well, since War is not a human being, but a supernatural creature, like Demons and Angels, I don't see anything wrong here.
Perhaps he don't sweat. And don't have any metabolism at all...

I agree with you here. He might not sweat at all and the fact is I don't care. Far from being the first thing that comes to my mind when playing the game.

 

[MurderousToaster]

I agree with this. It looks like someone got bored with one sheet of paper, so instead of designing multiple things of which to put all this stuff on, they just had to continually add piece after piece of armour to War's sketch.

 

[-BloodRush-]

you want an example of terrible character design, look at tetsuya nomura and his female-guy belt fetish.

 

[ostro-whiskey]

Lol, I found this pretty amusing. It sounds like an attempt made by Yahtzee to try an justify his comments on design, but the fact that he tries to comment on the PRACTICALITY of a FANTASY character just makes him look stupid.

Fantasy requires a suspension of disbelief, does anyone ask why in Tolkiens Lord of the Rings world that in 3000 years people are still running around with medieval weaponry. The same goes with Warhammer 40k, and I suppose Darksiders.

For a man who got a bookdeal Yahtzee doesnt seem to be able to detract from a shallow aesthetic value, maybe he should look into it.

 

[Herr Wozzeck]

Honestly, I'm not that much of a fan of Final Fantasy's character designs either: hell, other RPGs set in the same kind of setting have all managed to have better wardrobes anyways (especially if you've played the Tales games, which are essentially set in a very similar vein to Final Fantasy).

As for War's design, I honestly would've imagined him in simpler armor. I mean, there's intimidating, and then there's plain silly. War's design in this game is simply silly, and I can think of at least one other way that I would've done stuff.

*first comment on anything Punctuation related*

 

[JusticarPhaeton]

I don't understand all this hate towards Joe Madureira. He's an artist, and like all art, you either like it or hate it. Over-detail is as much a style as minimalism, though i do agree it doesn't always make for the best visual design approach in a game.

I wouldn't mind the look if he wasn't so goddamn fat. The problem with the over-detail approach here is that his girth makes him look like one of those ugly top-heavy WoW characters who collects a lot of junk on his body.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

As ridiculous as War's design clearly is, I like it anyways for the same reasons I like the hyper-ornamented baroque monstrosities present in Warhammer 40,000 - my inner 14 year old thinks they look awesome.

[small]Because they are awesome.[/small]

I'll take impracticality in a character's design any day if it's a choice between that or "plausible, but boring". There is after all a fine distinction between simply ridiculous and bloody stupid looking. You can be ridiculous and yet still awesome in a nonsensical over the top way; you can't really do much with bloody stupid besides not look at it anymore.

 

[Jonesy911]

I like Cloud Strife's clothes from Final Fantasy 7 for the reason that they make sense. It's a SOLDIER uniform which indicates his past but it is also modified which shows he is no longer a member. His uniform is very recognizable due to it's purple colour and the make shift armour he wears shows how he doesn't have lots of money since he left soldier

His sword on the other hand...

 

[Telekinesis]

Your right, Character design in TF2 is completely awesome!

Fuck yes, I'm really glad Yahtzee used it as an example. TF2's cast of characters is so amazingly unique in design and personality and just plain awesome.

 

[angel85]

They could have at least made War a little more symmetrical...but you have to admire the heroic efforts of the team that actually had to RENDER that thing as a 3D model.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Nice to see an article with comparison and development of ideas instead of bashing the character with no justification.

Andalso nice to have the reminder that Yahtzee really does know what he's talking about, which a lot of the forumites seem to forget. Aesthetic design is of fundamental importance to recognising characters (hate/love on them all you like, but Master Chief, Gordon Freeman, Max Payne all have instantly recognisable profiles)

Good article

 

[solidstatemind]

I really think that the responsibility of this is still on the producer: after all, he/she had to have looked at Madureira's work and selected him for the position, and then you have the fact that the character designs had to be signed off on...

Honestly, I don't think you can subract the context of the surroundings from the characters: it is exactly why WH40K works: there is a continuity between the style of the surroundings and the power armor: both have a lot of extra adornment, in many instances clearly tacked on after manufacture.

I haven't played the game, so I have no idea if the overwrought, mind-bogglingly complex nature of War's armor fits in the context of the world he moves through.

Personally, I think this art style might have been a result of somebody saying "Hey, I have a great idea! Let's see how many polygons we can cram on the screen at the same time!!!"

 

[Atranis]

When I first saw Darksiders, I actually thought that War was a dwarf...or at least very very short and squat. I thought it might have been because of the camera angle..but maybe it was actually the character design. His massive shoulders particularly made him seem more wide than tall.

 

[Wolfram23]

Yahtzee, you seem to forget that War is not a man. He's a huge bear of a ...something (demigod?), and you can see his ultra muscled, dark skinned chest under his hooded cloak (and that claw thing is called a broach and helps hold the cloak on). The armour pieces themselves make total sense, except maybe the massive glove. However, I'm not sure what you would expect from the Horseman of the Apocalypse known as War... I can't imagine a one-man-army without armour... and it's thickness, well, that increases the toughness of the steel, ie: impact resistance. Also, to assume it's "too big" on any assumptions of how it would affect his agility is whack, considering that he's NOT HUMAN. He can pick up cars and thrown them across a football field... I really can't see that armour hindering him, plus it's not restricting joint movements. My only real issue is the massive left hand thing, as Yahtzee said, makes him have a mutant/huge left hand. Maybe that was the intention - he doesn't HAVE to be symmetrical - but it does seem wierd.

I just wish as much effort was put into his vocabulary and emotions.

You can compare him to Kratos, but it's not the same... War is meant to wage war all by his lonesome (and bring the apocalypse with his 3 other riders), Kratos is similar but not meant to wage an Apocalyptic war, he's more the embodiment of the ultimate killer. And he's actually a god so maybe his skin is as hard as iron. That's the great thing about fiction, you can make up reasons for everything. I think you're just trying to hard to make up bad reasons.

 

[DoanDavid]

Lol, I found this pretty amusing. It sounds like an attempt made by Yahtzee to try an justify his comments on design, but the fact that he tries to comment on the PRACTICALITY of a FANTASY character just makes him look stupid.

Fantasy requires a suspension of disbelief, does anyone ask why in Tolkiens Lord of the Rings world that in 3000 years people are still running around with medieval weaponry. The same goes with Warhammer 40k, and I suppose Darksiders.

For a man who got a bookdeal Yahtzee doesnt seem to be able to detract from a shallow aesthetic value, maybe he should look into it.

It's got nothign to do about what they use, but more how they look like. Besides, we used swords and armor for a nearly three thousand years if you look back to history.

And even so, the medieval settings in Lord of the Rings creates the suspension of disbelief quite well enough, so does the elves and dwarfs, and the magic and wizards. However, when you start wearing a freakin burlesque factory on your body you've gone from suspension of disbelief to just plain stupid.

 

[oppp7]

I was hoping he would trash Warhammer 40k and finally accomplish his task of alienating every fanbase in the world, but a good article nonetheless.

He still needs to alienate Valve fans as well.
OT: I'm not sure why anyone would want something that looks like that. Complexity isn't always a good thing. One of the reasons other characters have become memes is because they have simple designs with unique characteristics.