Good character design in videogames.

[Insomniactk]

[small"]My first thread![/small]

Something's been bothering me about ME(2) lately. As the anti-social gaming-addict I am I've played ME2 4 times. After my first playthrough I was in shock, it felt big and complete and I was amazed at how mere humans could make something so complete. It's only happened once before, after my first playthrough of HL2.
But unlike HL2, that feeling didn't last very long.
One of my biggest problems with the Mass Effect games is the character design. All intelligent races follow the same Head on top, walks on two, has two arms-pattern
And then I started to think about other games and their design. They all seem follow the same pattern.
Sometime before the launch of bayonetta I remember that the creator said something like "Creatures from hell has been done before, so when making angels we had more freedom in their design"

This is what they came up with: http://www.8bitninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/bayonetta-ps3screenshots16304bayo_0105_004-3122009-580px.jpg [small]It was a strange experience to google "Bayonetta" with safe-search deactivated <.<[/small]

As you can see, head on top, walks on two legs etc.
So, to the important part:

TL;DR
Discuss games that has original/good character design. Please motivate why you like it. And if someone could say a game that's stepped away from the usual pattern that'd be awesome.

The only thing I remember is The advisors from HL2 http://www.hlportal.de/images/content/hl2-episode2/enemies/advisor_big.jpg

The original title for this thread was "original character design in videogames", but I saw no reason to limit it to just that. So anything goes.

 

[Hazy]

Silent Hill has always been great in the creature department - as many of them are relevant/symbolic to the overall plot.

 

[Insomniactk]

I actually though about the Silent Hill-games, but haven't actually played them. So I didn't want to make a fool of myself by saying something extremely stupid about a series that's held so dearly by gamers.

 

[WINDOWCLEAN2]

Well spore had a good range of Character design

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Darkspawn.
So original!

Jokes aside, I liked the zergs from Starcraft.
They're like the xenomorphs (zerglings, anyone?) , except there's many types of them and are far, far more powerful.

 

[Totenkopf]

I like the character design of Blazblue's Haku-men. It just feels "round" you know, this character has a very unique aura in my point of view.

Spoiler: Haku-men

 

[Space Spoons]

I've always enjoyed the designs for the Pokemon games, not for the monsters themselves but for the trainers. They range from simple and efficient (Red) to elaborate but practical (Lucas). And, of course, they give rise to great pieces of art like these.

Spoiler

 

[TPiddy]

The most popular archetypes in gaming are humanoid and xenomorph. And it's a logical presumption that evolutionary species would require some of the same basic 'parts' that we have.

In defense of ME 2 though, I must say that they also made the Hanar, Elcor and Volus.

 

[Fiend Dragon]

One of my biggest problems with the Mass Effect games is the character design. All intelligent races follow the same Head on top, walks on two, has two arms-pattern.

What about the jellyfish hanar? Or the 4-legged elcor? Both of those are sapient species that are part of the Mass Effect galactic community, but what I think that your problem is not that the Mass Effect races are designed poorly, but maybe that you've played the game 4 times?

Two legs, two arms, head makes a lot of sense for an advanced species, and personally I found the mass effect races to be interesting both *ahem* physically, and culturally. All of the models are detailed and reasonable, and the body types of the races are varied as well; hulking bull-like krogan, skinny salarians, tall, fast turians.

 

[Insomniactk]

One of my biggest problems with the Mass Effect games is the character design. All intelligent races follow the same Head on top, walks on two, has two arms-pattern.

What about the jellyfish hanar? Or the 4-legged elcor? Both of those are sapient species that are part of the Mass Effect galactic community, but what I think that your problem is not that the Mass Effect races are designed poorly, but maybe that you've played the game 4 times?

Two legs, two arms, head makes a lot of sense for an advanced species, and personally I found the mass effect races to be interesting both *ahem* physically, and culturally. All of the models are detailed and reasonable, and the body types of the races are varied as well; hulking bull-like krogan, skinny salarians, tall, fast turians.

Oh, I overlooked the hanar. But the Elcor looks like a mixup between a human and a sea cow.

And I'd say that we humans look as we do because of evolution.
The apes found out that they could see better if they walked on two instead of four legs.
So we evolved to walk on two legs to see farther. I don't think that every citadel race comes from a planet where similar or identical needs exist.

Take the drell, they originate from Rakhana. "a dry and barren planet, covered in rocky deserts"
I can't think of an optimal appearance for them, but I don't think that it'd be human with different skin.

 

[-Seraph-]

I like the character design of Blazblue's Haku-men. It just feels "round" you know, this character has a very unique aura in my point of view.

Spoiler: Haku-men

Spoiler: I kind of like this pic of him better

Dammit I've been ninjad, but you are right about him exhibiting this aura about him that makes him so interesting. I love masked/armored clad characters for that very reason, if done well there is this alluring aspect about them that I just fall in love with.

Final Fantasy has been damn good at this on occation. Case and point:

Spoiler: Golbez

Spoiler: Gabranth

Just to name a few good ones. The feeling of badassery you get from them is off the charts.

 

[MetricFurlong]

-snip-

Can I just ask for a bit of clarification, as you seem to be suggesting that using a humanoid body-type is in some way unoriginal or bad as far as character design goes (something which I'd have to disagree with you about). Particularly in regards to the Bayonetta angels, as they are pretty different from how angels are traditionally depicted. In fact, there's generally very little deviation from the traditional depiction in most works of fiction, which is probably what they meant by saying that using angels gave them greater freedom, as there aren't that many other designs kicking around.

 

[Neotericity]

I like some of things Alan Wake is doing with facial expressions, and for an open world game red dead redemption has some really authentic looking characters, actually really excited for this game anywho one game that just came out today 04-13 splinter cell: conviction wasn't all that impressed, fisher's model looks uninterestin in my humble opinion, also Dog in Half Life 2 is fantastic, actually every character in that game is fantastic for obvious reasons, and now I am rambling.

 

[Totenkopf]

I like the character design of Blazblue's Haku-men. It just feels "round" you know, this character has a very unique aura in my point of view.

Spoiler: Haku-men

Spoiler: I kind of like this pic of him better

Dammit I've been ninjad, but you are right about him exhibiting this aura about him that makes him so interesting. I love masked/armored clad characters for that very reason, if done well there is this alluring aspect about them that I just fall in love with.

Final Fantasy has been damn good at this on occation. Case and point:

Spoiler: Golbez

Spoiler: Gabranth

Just to name a few good ones. The feeling of badassery you get from them is off the charts.

I know what you mean. And thanks to your post he has come to my mind again:

Spoiler: Nightmare 1

Spoiler: Nightmare 2

Spoiler: Nightmare 3

Nightmare from Soul Calibur, an excellent example of a very well designed and badass armoured character in my point of view. Every of his incarnations has something unique to it, all of those have a very good design.

 

[Fiend Dragon]

One of my biggest problems with the Mass Effect games is the character design. All intelligent races follow the same Head on top, walks on two, has two arms-pattern.

...Two legs, two arms, head makes a lot of sense for an advanced species...

Oh, I overlooked the hanar. But the Elcor looks like a mixup between a human and a sea cow.

And I'd say that we humans look as we do because of evolution.
The apes found out that they could see better if they walked on two instead of four legs.
So we evolved to walk on two legs to see farther. I don't think that every citadel race comes from a planet where similar or identical needs exist.

Take the drell, they originate from Rakhana. "a dry and barren planet, covered in rocky deserts"
I can't think of an optimal appearance for them, but I don't think that it'd be human with different skin.

I understand where you are coming from, but a species with sufficient technology to travel into space needs to be able to precisely manipulate objects. Seeing farther may also be involved, but why would a 'dry and barren planet' reduce the need for increased vision? It may be more valuable, as there is less likely to be obstruction.

The elcor really do look like sea cows, but I don't see a resemblance with humans past the four limbs and a face. Their posture is explained evolution wise in the games codex, as they lived on a high gravity world where falls could cause extreme damage, so they needed more support. They never developed the upright posture because it would be dangerously unstable. I'm not sure if they can grasp with their front limbs but it seems the must be able to somehow. Its very unlikely they built spaceships with their mouth flaps.


In any case, the reason for the sapient creatures to have mostly humanoid forms is likely due to familiarity. We are more likely to see a humanoid shape as sapient, and giving them other differing features is how they stand apart. Mass Effect's civilized races are often surprisingly differed, but from a character design standpoint as you stated, it's more important for creatures to be distinguishable as either people or monsters.

 

[Insomniactk]

-snip-

Can I just ask for a bit of clarification, as you seem to be suggesting that using a humanoid body-type is in some way unoriginal or bad as far as character design goes (something which I'd have to disagree with you about). Particularly in regards to the Bayonetta angels, as they are pretty different from how angels are traditionally depicted. In fact, there's generally very little deviation from the traditional depiction in most works of fiction, which is probably what they meant by saying that using angels gave them greater freedom, as there aren't that many other designs kicking around.

I'd say that using a humanoid body-type is often unoriginal, but not bad. I'd just like to see some more creativity from developers.

I took up Bayonetta because they had the freedom to create whatever they wanted, they did something original. But I think they could've done so much more.

And to Fiend Dragon (Still haven't learned how to multi-quote <.<)
The elcor example was a bad one from my side, what I was trying to say was that they still don't differ that much from the usual pattern. Even if they're better than most.

The drell most likely didn't suffer from the extra height gained by walking on two. But there probably were more important things.
I don't know more about Rakhana than what's said on the Mass Effect wiki. http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Rakhana
But I'm sure some smart biologist could come up with many problems a race would face when living on a planet like Rakhana.

[small]Please note that I never intended to bash on either Mass Effect or Bayonetta, I love both games.[/small]

 

[Totenkopf]

Oh, I've forgotten the Elites.

Spoiler: Elite/Sangheili

They're a really organic mixture between the humanoid type of aliens and the bestial ones. They are dignified, majestic and fearsome at the same time, in my point of view the best alien race yet created.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Kazuma Kaneko

Always loved his take on creatures of lore.
And that certain stoic, pale expression he puts in all his works...
Creepingly beautiful.

Spoiler: White Rider

Spoiler: Lucifer

Spoiler: ???

From Shin Megami Tensei series, of course.

 

[TheDoctor455]

Silent Hill has always been great in the creature department - as many of them are relevant/symbolic to the overall plot.

Oh yeah. Those things.
I can't tell you how pissed off I was at that little girl for locking me in a small room with those bloody things. Since this was after I had spent around 4 and half HOURS trying to find the little brat, I was ready to kill the damn kid. Sadly... the opportunity never came up.
Damn.

OT:
Hmm... I though all of the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus were well designed. And while I did find Wander's running animations to be a bit odd, I thought the fact that he (spoiler warning) seemed to get sicker and sicker after each Colossus fight was a nice touch.

 

[Mordwyl]

Humanoid characters are the easiest to conceptualise, which is why they are so prolific. Sometimes the question isn't about having an original design but to have an appropriate one. It works to have abstract creations in Silent Hill as they are meant to psychological horrors incarnate or in the Half Life series as they are inter-dimensional creatures.