Post some godawful video game character designs

PsychedelicDiamond

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The Zelda series, with its ecclectic shifts between artstyles, produced some pretty... unique character and creature designs. The N64 ones conveyed the more exaggerated designs pretty well, on account of its low polygon artstyle, which is why characters like this guy



or this one

MM3D_Professor_Model.png

come off as exaggerated and cartoony, but not really as jarring. Wind Waker of course went for a super cartoony artstyle, that was pretty controversial at the time, because people were understandably worried that from that point on every Zelda game would look like that, but was, by all means, pretty easy on the eyes. Wind Waker is still a very good looking game, honestly.

And then things got weird. I like Twilight Princess a lot. Between it and Wind Waker I couldn't really tell you which one I overall prefer. But there were quite a few cases where it's very obvious that character designs didn't translate well between concept art and actual ingame model. Not even talking about Midna, whose weirdly sexualised design and body language is a can of worms all on its own, but I'm talking about characters like the postman:

the-legend-of-zelda-twilight-princess-hd-the-legend-of-zelda-majora-s-mask-the-legend-of-zelda...jpg

or Maro



or this dude



and... like, you can tell what these designs are going for, but god do they look hideous in the actual game. It was kind of a schizophrenic period for the series which very much carried over into Skyward Sword, which, aside from being kind of a shit game in general, gave us some pretty outrageous character designs all on its own. Like, come on. This guy?



That's not a Zelda boss. That's a supporting character from Monster Inc.

Or the fortune teller



and while we're at it, this sure is... a design for the first phase of a final boss.




Honestly. What the hell was up with that game? Like, how did any of it ever happen?


And on an unrelated note, let's not forget that one of the first generation Pokemon designs was literally just "kind of offensive cartoon of a black woman"



And no, you're never gonna convince me that this is not what that design was going for.
 

The Rogue Wolf

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or this dude

I have decided that this is secretly a caricature of Mark Wahlberg and nothing you say can convince me otherwise.

And on an unrelated note, let's not forget that one of the first generation Pokemon designs was literally just "kind of offensive cartoon of a black woman"



And no, you're never gonna convince me that this is not what that design was going for.
It's like someone went "What if we had a black opera singer?" and then Japan racism'd all over it.
 
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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.

This.

Also,

I hate this thing with a passion. Main reason I dropped Dust after an hour.
What the hell are you talking about? Those designs are fine. I'm assuming the first is a tribal society so whatever, and the second... What the hell are you talking about?

This thread seems to have gone off the rails, we are starting to see some weird character designs in a thread about "godawful" character designs. Starting to feel like we are complaining about any nonstandard character design and want everyone to look like this guy.
 

Drathnoxis

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What the hell are you talking about? Those designs are fine. I'm assuming the first is a tribal society so whatever, and the second... What the hell are you talking about?

This thread seems to have gone off the rails, we are starting to see some weird character designs in a thread about "godawful" character designs. Starting to feel like we are complaining about any nonstandard character design and want everyone to look like this guy.
Sorry, but naked furries just make me uncomfortable. Look I don't care if you are covered in fur or scales, you should still wear clothes.
 
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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Sorry, but naked furries just make me uncomfortable. Look I don't care if you are covered in fur or scales, you should still wear clothes.
Then that's not "godawful" character design, that's a personal hang-up.
 
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XsjadoBlaydette

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and while we're at it, this sure is... a design for the first phase of a final boss.




Honestly. What the hell was up with that game? Like, how did any of it ever happen?
Gotta admit, as an old school Zelda fan, that design out of everything else gave off the strongest "Ah last hour of work...fuck it I'm leaving early, this'll have to fucking do! And who's gonna question anyway? Hah!" vibes. It's so lazy, holy shit.
 

Dalisclock

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It's not terrible, but otoh this is also just taking a couple people and making them look a little bit like lizards....except still having distinctly mammalian(breasts, belly buttons, presumably a human like vagina since she's wearing a loincloth to conceal it) characteristics that appeal to scalies/furries....which is also wierd when she's holding a child.

Basically a step or two away from the sexy XCOM vipers, though those are very explicitly meant to get the snake fans excited. Venom Sacs....that just happen to be D cups....sure buddy.
 
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bluegate

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6yo in a red turtleneck? Fine. Yellow dungarees? Still fine. Big hole around her crotch? Getting kinda weird. Flesh colored skinsuit underneath. Oh no ...
But she's so independant and mature for her age, didn't you see her cook a meal for everyone?
 
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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
It's not terrible, but otoh this is also just taking a couple people and making them look a little bit like lizards....except still having distinctly mammalian(breasts, belly buttons, presumably a human like vagina since she's wearing a loincloth to conceal it) characteristics that appeal to scalies/furries....which is also wierd when she's holding a child.

Basically a step or two away from the sexy XCOM vipers, though those are very explicitly meant to get the snake fans excited. Venom Sacs....that just happen to be D cups....sure buddy.


Stop nitpicking fantasy races. Pretty much all media no matter how "realistic" falls apart if you think about it.
 
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Dalisclock

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Stop nitpicking fantasy races. Pretty much all media no matter how "realistic" falls apart if you think about it.
I should clarify that I think my issue was that the lizard girl/child felt very low effort. Like they slapped some green paint, a snout and a tail on some humans and called it good. Even the hands/feet are basically human.

I mean, fucking argonians exist and least at this one had some effort put into her.

1677617071820.png
 
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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
I should clarify that I think my issue was that the lizard girl/child felt very low effort. Like they slapped some green paint, a snout and a tail on some humans and called it good. Even the hands/feet are basically human.

I mean, fucking argonians exist and least at this one had some effort put into her.

View attachment 8115
Humans are weird enough as is, let the lizards do their lizard thing.