Doesn't that just limit you to having to put super obvious tells on a character? Like give the defensive character a shield and the zoner a crossbow or whatever.
Look at Ryu and Makoto for example. They wear the same thing. There's zero ways to tell one is fireball+DP and the other is in your face maulings from just their static pictures. Or Guile. Military man in green in a boxer's stance means... defensive character that does backflips and can toss wobbly yellow things. What?
By contrast at least Orie has her rapier right there. Outside of obvious props like that i'm kinda having a hard time understanding what you'd want to see?
It doesn't really limit anything because you don't really have to put anything super obvious on a character and be hamfisted. It comes down to body lines, and body language to carry some things, but you do need silhouettes that are distinct and outfits that convey a sense of how a character moves. I like it when they have some signature cores to tie the design's theme to its moveset, but mainly size, angles, bodylanguage and lines can convey everything from speed or power to personality.
You want powerful you convey mass and weight. Waldstein has the expression thats angry, the booming walk cycle and the muscles which while hamfisted works. Folks see that on the select screen and know a very general sense of what they will likely find with him.
You want someone lithe and fast in moveset and you have to convey they can move in their outfit which is where Orie fails in one part. Her outfit does not look designed for mobility. Also her body language is a mixed bag. She barely has any "commanding presence" sort of body language so it doesn't really make sense when she uses a stand she just sort of comes across as "oh...I guess she can do that." You don't have to beat them over the head but you can definitely make it more meaningful with body language to emphasis a commanding presence. Plus if she's meant to move around a lot and be fast then I'm sorry her super long dress just doesn't convey that sense to folks at the select screen. All you'll know is she has a sword.
Also the sword user with the schoolgirl uniform doesn't even really convey a sense of weight to her weapon so you can't tell if she's gonna be a meaty throwing heavy hitter or a fast moving slasher. Its anime so sword size doesn't necessarily convey anything. Nothing is conveyed by her body language in how she moves with that thing and her outfit is a blank slate of genericism. You just can't tell. It fails silhouette tests and it fails to convey anything about them in bodylanguage.
Theres a lot of ways to convey a character to your audience. From the way they move to their size, to their outfit...it all comes together to convey moods and how they will likely feel. You can't just go with fashionista stuff and call it a day. You have to bleed your gimmick in how you move, stand, fall, and yes how they dress. A lot of whats bugging me in UNIEL on that stream is you can barely sense any personality from the female cast at all. Angry? Cold? Brave and hopeful? Determined? You get nothing...just generic.
Its not often I bitch on anime games, but I wont really give them a pass on all things just because so many overlooked anime games actually have stuff to offer. There is a lot of generic art in the female side of character design with anime and its pretty ridiculous how its become the standard. I can't even tell you how many schoolgirl characters I've seen in fighters at this point...
