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[Icymanipulator]

“ When asked about why his protagonist designs are always handsome, especially when compared to your standard shonen manga lead (e.g. FF7’s Cloud Strife vs. Luffy from One Piece), Nomura explains the roots of his design philosophy. “When I was in high school, a classmate was playing a game where the main character wasn’t good looking. They said, “Why do I have to be ugly in the game world too?” which really left a strong impression on me.” This experience resonated with Nomura so much that when it came to designing his own characters, he focused on making it so that players could look cool and attractive in-game. “

Tetsuya Nomura makes sure his protagonists look attractive because people don’t want to look ugly in the game world too - AUTOMATON WEST

Nomura reveals his philosophy for creating protagonists and how he came up with the designs for Final Fantasy VII's distinctive cast.

automaton-media.com

I personally 100% agree, Western Devs should take note. Generally people would like to see something that’s appealing to the eyes, not a dumpster fire that makes you cringe.
I’ve also had this exact conversation with friends over the years. Sure not everyone can be beautiful, but no one really wants to be ugly. I think this translates directly to games. There are plenty of games I’ve skipped because I didn’t want to play as the characters in the game. Ugly characters can actually take you out of the game/fantasy that you’re trying to experience.


Edit.
And I’m not even a fan of the FF7 remake project lol, but at least the cast looks good!

 

[LectureMaster]

Ask deeply in your soul, and pick one set.

 

[Ronin_7]

Good looking characters is always a W

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Me watching Nier American version.

 

[Pedro Motta]

Does this mean that who complains about Aloy is ugly?

Makes sense.

 

[lughnasadh123]

Gamers are ugly - check.

 

[Lambogenie]

Totally agree.

That doesn't mean there isn't a place for not conventional attractive e.g. the odd space Marine lead, or something like Legacy of Kain still has you play as cool looking monster looking leads. But even those, some devs seem to lose the memo of "Does this look _appealing_?".

For me, personally speaking, I am not interested in playing some average, real life (or even fake alien) looking bozo. Which is seriously a huge reason why I hated Concord, why I think NetherRealms wasn't great preMKX, and why Spider-Man 1 and 2 annoy me so much.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Even though Nier dad version was uglier than a blasphemy... He is charismatic and a good character... That's what matters.

 

[adamsapple]

Sick burn on his games player base.

 

[Madserb2023]

Well, yeah. I don't want to play as an ugly character. If I create a male character, I always make him far better looking than I am. I'm straight but I want to have a male character that is good looking let alone a woman. There is reason a why Superman, Wolverine, Thor, Captain America are all attractive even though these characters were designed by men. It's not about sexism, it's just normal to prefer to look at something that is well....not ugly.

 

[digital_ghost]

deeply in your soul, and pick one set.

Putting my penis through shards of glass is more appealing than those concord characters.

 

[YukiOnna]

Lord Nomura always with the best takes. Sad to hear from him his retirement is inching closer though.

 

[March Climber]

Ask deeply in your soul, and pick one set.

I like how you heavily avoided FFX-2, FFXIII-2, and Kingdom Hearts 2.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

 

[Dacvak]

Ask deeply in your soul, and pick one set.

Oof, what’s the lower image from?

 

[Icymanipulator]

A great example is FF13 series which I ONLY enjoyed because Lightning was so incredibly HOT

Valkyrie armor in particular is one of my favorite designs of all time in any FF

 

[Da1337Vinci]

Oof, what’s the lower image from?

Concord a game that existed.

 

[Dacvak]

Concord a game that existed.

Oh lmao how did I not know that. They look like if you just hit the randomize button on a character creator and was just like “fuck it, good enough”

 

[LectureMaster]

I like how you heavily avoided FFX-2, FFXIII-2, and Kingdom Hearts 2.

 

[LaughingStock]

Gamers are ugly - check.

I am ugly and he's right.

 

[lmimmfn]

Concord a game that existed.

Ahh that retro game, had forgotten about it.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Kotaku and PC Gamer hit pieces coming in 3… 2… 1….

 

[IFireflyl]

I like how you heavily avoided FFX-2, FFXIII-2, and Kingdom Hearts 2.

Yep. Still looks better than Concord.

 

[lughnasadh123]

I am ugly and he's right.

I'm kind of fugly but I don't want everyone I play as to meet some attraction metric and it's sure as fuck not something I need to feel good about myself. Let's not even mention a lot of self introspection people are going to need when they keep signing up to play as they sexy female if this was true.

It's also game dependent. I like regular characters aka The Last of Us. It makes sense. While as more stylized games can get away with whatever. Hell, Fromsoft fans think it's a sin to create anything but the most hideous monstrosities. Whichever it is just be honest that you want sexy in because you think it'll sell better. It's fine!

 

[Draugoth]

 

[TintoConCasera]

Based. I'm currently playing SMT V² and more than half of my party are cute, half-naked chicks. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Moses85]

Concord a game that existed.

No, it only was a nightmare and we Finally woke up

 

[diffusionx]

Oof, what’s the lower image from?

The new Dragon Age, I think

 

[Fbh]

You'd imagine this would be obvious to most people working in game development...and somehow it isn't.

It's actually pretty crazy IMO because we often hear about devs/publishers becoming more risk averse as development cost keep growing. We get so many sequels, adaptations from popular IP and samey open world games because apparently that's a safer investment. And yet somehow many devs (specially western ones) care so much about being politically correct and progressive that character designs is consistently the one area where risk aversion seemingly gets thrown out of the window. I'm not saying having unattractive characters is instantly going to make a game fail, but surely making the main character look good/cool is the less risky approach, right?

 

[Punished Miku]

When asked why he doesn't give many interviews with western journalists, Nomura responded:

"They already get told they are stupid all the time, do they really need to hear that in interviews too?"

 

[SJRB]

Based Tetsuya Nomura

 

[Raven117]

People like looking at attracting things. News at 6.

 

[Rran]

He's mostly right, although I'd amend it to be about character appeal rather than, like, sexual beauty. I actually think some of Nomura's characters are pretty lousy and over-designed (like Tidus and several of the Kingdom Hearts characters). But sure, they're conventionally good-looking in terms of their facial structure, physical fitness, etc. And I'll admit that there's a little bit of excitement when playing as a gorgeous babe in a game. There's a reason why characters like 2B and Mai Shiranui have such a following and a lot of it is surface level.

I think beautiful/ugly is a little too reductive and I'm mostly interested in playing as a character with good design. I'm not attracted to friggin' Mega Man but he's definitely one of my all-time favorite character designs. Likewise Mario, Kirby, and Viewtiful Joe. And Wario would be someone you could feasibly describe as "ugly," but he's still got a great design to him, so it goes beyond just if you'd want to date your main character. Just don't give me someone unappealing and expect me to not complain about it.

 

[Deerock71]

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

My Husbandao

My Waifu

 

[Danjin44]

Based. I'm currently playing SMT V² and more than half of my party are cute, half-naked chicks. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Lethal01]

Hot is great.
Every character being the same "hot" face and body with different hair and clothes.

I do want diversity

 

[MagnesD3]

Depends what you mean by ugly, if they look cool i dont really care if they are ugly or not lol.

 

[Boss Mog]

Ask deeply in your soul, and pick one set.

Seriously, you can't tell me that the bottom set is not AI generated. No human could design something so random and repulsive.

 

[Trilobit]

What is people's problems with pleasant looking people in gaming? Why single out games?

TV Shows:

Movies:

 

[Kataploom]

Previously: Why does Nomura make every character so pretty like they're fucking dolls? They're too uncomfortable to look at

Now: Oh man, we need you in these dark times, come save us!!

Yeah, that's me regarding his character designs lol

I think this one doesn't look ugly, but looks like a fucking brony self inserting in the game, which I hate

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Man of culture is correct!

 

[Skifi28]

Gamers are ugly - check.

I play games to escape real life. Otherwise I can just look in the mirror.

 

[Roberts]

I loved playing as Harrier Du Bois in Disco Elysium!

 

[Saber]

I find funny that people mock this even though deep inside they know it's true.

I recently discovered that this Dragon Age also has "breast scars" for people to play as a male characters implying the character did some kind of sex cirgury.

No human could design something so random and repulsive.

Actually I find more believable that this was made by humans. It's the very premise of toxic positivity, if theres no criticism then everyone is ok with it.

 

[DavJay]

Agreed. I just don’t understand why any developers would intentionally make a protagonist ugly…. Horizon ands Gears guy

 

[lughnasadh123]

I play games to escape real life. Otherwise I can just look in the mirror.

The wild thing is you can probably name some mundane thing you do and there's like a game about it out there.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Ask deeply in your soul, and pick one set.

I just keep staring at the 2 images and am left so confused how Firewalk thought any of this was a good idea. The level of grandstanding pretentious bullshit in their offices must have been suffocating.

Absolutely godlike first post.

 

[hinch7]

No lies detected. Why western entertainment industries keeps shooting its own foot, I'd never know

 

[Skifi28]

The wild thing is you can probably name some mundane thing you do and there's like a game about it out there.

There are tom of "mundane thing" simulators out there. I for example have hundreds of hours in truck simulators. Mundane as it is, it's appealing because this is not my day job. I somehow doubt real life truckers go back home and keep on trucking virtually.