attempting to understand character design through identity v part II

opening

i'm starting this late at night again, which means i won't be doing very many characters. i have nothing to do tomorrow, so i'll try writing a few of these during the day :)

Gardener - Emma Woods

the main thing i notice about emma's design is that it's very practical for a gardener, but tells us very little about her personality or backstory. (though we can still assume some things, which i'll get to later) i don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, it makes sense in universe that characters would dress practically. emma specifically has memory issues and a poor sense of identity (V), and it makes sense that she wouldn't want to dress in a way that would let anyone know any details of her backstory. 

emma's outfit has pockets, gloves, a sunhat, an apron, a toolbelt, etc. all things that she would need as a gardener. despite including all of these details though, her design is still simple and iconic. this is especially important for her, as she's also the mascot of the game. her hair is pulled into a bun with most of it hidden under her hat, but she has two strand of hair hanging down on either side of her face. this way she still looks cute and has a fun hairstyle, without taking away from the practical aspect of her design. her freckles add to her "cute" look, and sort of emphasize how young she is. this is definitely a good thing for a mascot. her apron also has patches on it, showing that she's used it a lot and has seemingly repaired it herself. this combined with her tools and occupation show us that she's handy and has a lot of experience with tools, which ties in well with her gameplay of being able to break the mechanical rocket chairs (and her old decoding boost trait). we also see the return of stuffing to indicate a possible injury.

i also want to point out her gloves, while you could say they're just there because gardeners need gloves, it's worth mentioning that gloves can indicate that a character is secretive or has something to hide. this is definitely true for emma, she presents herself as much more innocent and naive than she really is, and she has plenty of secrets.

friend commentary:

For the mascot character of the game I think Gardener is done well. She says Gardener with the straw hat, apron and gloves while also being a strong example of the puppet theme with the permanent smile and cloth patches on her apron. Gardener is the mascot of the game and provides a good image of the game's identity.

for successfully being a good design for her character and a good mascot design, gardener gets an A

Hell Ember - Leo Beck

for our first hunter, of course, we have leo. the hunters have a lot more variation in their designs, which should make them fun to analyze :) and, though it's not pictured in most hunter sprites, i will be talking about their weapons as part of the design.

leo's design has the opposite effect of emma's, it communicates his backstory well without telling us what his actual job is. we can see imediately after looking at him that his clothes are ripped and he's covered in bandages, and we can tell that he's been in a fire (or at least some kind of horrible accident). his grayish skin contributes to this by making him look undead. he also has almost no hair, as most of it has been burned, and a scar on his face (in this sprite anyway, his mask covers this up in game).

while i do like the older hunter models that give them wide shoulders and muscular arms, this is mainly because it stands out against the modern slimmer characters and i wish they had more of the body diversity seen in older hunters (and i really wish they would make a fat character who doesn't have stick-thin limbs, but that's a little off topic). i don't think it works super well for leo, it gives the impression that he was doing a lot of physical labor rather than managerial work in his factory. it's possible that he was doing a lot of labor, but i think that's unlikely, especially since in the actual photo of him as a human he has a much slimmer body. my best guess for why he has the model he does, other than budget reasons, is to make him seem more scary and monstrous.

i don't have many thoughts on his weapon, other than.. why? why a shark? does he like sharks? where did he get it from? what is it? it almost looks like a plushie, but it's a weapon. i know that he has it because of censorship reasons and his beta designs had a lot of real weapons, but was this really the best they could do?

while i think it's disappointing that he and emma don't have anything in their design that connect them, i can't think of any specific ways to implement this. still, as his daughter she's his main motivation for everything he does and i wish it could be expressed somehow.

friend thoughts:

Idv did change Hell Ember's design a lot, but I think his final design is fine. He lacks a direction, with his backstory being "factory owner" it's difficult to fully characterize him through his design, but Idv still managed. His simple clothing is indicative of his poor status and the bandages around his mouth give him this zombie like feel. I don't think Hell Ember is the best design, however it isn't bad by any means.

for the inexplicable shark hell ember gets a C

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i'm realizing now that a lot of my friend's commentary is essentially a summary of what i'm saying, which wasn't intentional. i guess we just have a lot of the same opinions on these designs lol

i'm also realizing i forgot to talk about leo's mask at all, but i really don't have any thoughts on it anyway, and i'm too lazy to go back and add a paragraph about it at 1:02 in the morning.