A character needs to be immediately recognizable from a distance. The more exaggerated the features, the more it stands out - the more dynamic it looks. This is one of the first things I learned as an artist. Silhouettes. Noses, ears, and eyes tend to be larger than normal on memorable character designs.
A great (and current) example is Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite. Her eyes are about 2x the size of a normal person's. It's also why her boobs were larger initially, then scaled down by Ken Levine when people made jokes about it. It wasn't to sexualize her at all. The artist was creating an easily identifiable silhouette. The player's brain immediately recognizes her as friendly and not a target. Valve used this principle masterfully in TF2. The heavy is designed with an exaggerated torso to draw attention and aggro from other players while the smaller and harder to see spy sneaks past enemy lines.
There's a video of the Bioware artists talking about why they don't have female turians in the games, and it was a matter of not being able to make Turian females identifiable. They don't have breasts, or feminine curves. They couldn't settle on a design that looked feminine, and that is because of the silhouette.
Also, dudes like boobs.
A great (and current) example is Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite. Her eyes are about 2x the size of a normal person's. It's also why her boobs were larger initially, then scaled down by Ken Levine when people made jokes about it. It wasn't to sexualize her at all. The artist was creating an easily identifiable silhouette. The player's brain immediately recognizes her as friendly and not a target. Valve used this principle masterfully in TF2. The heavy is designed with an exaggerated torso to draw attention and aggro from other players while the smaller and harder to see spy sneaks past enemy lines.
There's a video of the Bioware artists talking about why they don't have female turians in the games, and it was a matter of not being able to make Turian females identifiable. They don't have breasts, or feminine curves. They couldn't settle on a design that looked feminine, and that is because of the silhouette.
Also, dudes like boobs.