He's right in this weird area where every character he makes should look completely dead-eyed but somehow they seem vibrant and full of life
I think Soejima's art works for sooo many reasons. The way he draws faces combines like, the appeal of anime with a more realistic awareness of proportions and perspective. The way he draws faces also allows for differentiation between faces. If you look at say, three women from Persona 4, they all have different shaped eyes and faces, and it's just a little touch that makes them feel more unique.
His scene composition is generally both realistic and dynamic. I think artists often struggle to balance that, and end up with either something that is distorted or something that is boring and I think Soejima gets it just right. It's a very down-to-Earth way of drawing, and I think that allows it to be appreciated by people who would generally be put off by anime art.
I also love the way he uses like, visual story-telling through his designs. When you look at a Soejima character, you can tell so much about them because of the various little details on their design. I feel like a lot of art in games, particularly anime styled games, is just drawn to look cool rather than fit in with the universe. With a Soejima character, you can generally look at a design, and even if you don't
like the actual design, you can figure out the logic behind it and why it works as a piece of art (Marie is a really great example of this), and what it tells you about the character.
His fashion design is great too, with characters generally wearing clothes which not only fit the character, but would be practical outside of a videogame. The characters manage to look unique, and yet ordinary, and I think that lets you get more attached to them.
This leads into my next point, that the women aren't over-sexualised. I actually have no problem (Well, mostly) with sexualisation in videogames, and I think a lot of the reactions to actual sexual content are ridiculous, but in games which I'm going to take seriously, and get immersed in, it has to make sense. If two characters are sleeping together within the context of the story, that's sound. If a character is wearing little to no clothing and it fits the context, that's also cool. But it pulls me out of a game completely when a story that wants to be taken seriously, and wants me to believe in these characters, has these ridiculous outfits that make no sense within any context. It's why I don't like some of the new content in P4G and really hope that the tone within that content is not carried forwards.
As a whole, I feel like videogame art is mostly boring and artists really struggle to deviate from the established styles, and yet Soejima's art is
so identifiable and polished, in terms of line-art and colours and designs, that I just feel like it's on a whole other level relative to other artists...
...Have I mentioned that I'm
really excited for Persona 5?
