Ha! * giggling at the goofy faces you put on these so-called "characters" * Giggles aside, I see your point Mr. Raptor.
Sadly, this trend will continue, even with the jaw-dropping, orgasm-inducing graphics that gaming developers are pumping into games nowadays. But... there is hope still!
Dunno if your a DMC fan, but Dante's personality, attitude, cockiness, etc. really gave me a feel for the character thus, made the game much more enjoyable. Unlike DMC2 where Dante was all like :-|, then a cutscene came and :-|, ya' get the idea. Bland characters make for even blander games with a bland story telling and a bland this and bland that blah-blah-blah-bland.
But personality isn't solely governed by voice-acting or expression. A handful of games like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and the upcoming Last Guardian have nearly mute characters (except for the occasional grunts/ chants here and there) but there is still depth to them. Furthermore, what adds to their substance is the ambiance, setting that heightens the overall "feel" of the game.
I believe the solution would be for developers to balance themselves a bit. Stray from safe character designs yet not to fully immerse themselves into the eccentric or bizarre; though, quite a few are welcomed, Alice for instance, now THAT's a game!
Anyways, I'm going to cut my rant short. Just remember, not every game is gonna be awesome; though, developers have been slacking lately and dropping the ball on a lot of projects. That's why you see so many remakes. (Could explain why Nintendo only recycles their top games: Mario, Zelda, Mario, Zelda... you catch my drift)
Well, hope your projects are coming along splendidly and I look forward to your future submissions. Godspeed on those animations Mr. Raptor.
-Chaos
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I really appreciate u doing this man, this is why u r one of the best people ever, cuz u take boring ass characters and make them into works of awesome! keep it up bud
ahem... WHERE'S MY GIRLCHAN IN PARADISE!?! lol
i agree with neg1
i don't care that the main character in shadow of the colossus was really generic and showed no emotion. the sort of abstract way of story telling along with the frustrating gameplay was good enough fun for me
It really isn't an ironclad point I'm trying to make, though if I were trying to make one in regards to this comment it would be that they don't parade Wander all around as if he's some hook, they sell the Colossi, so there's really nothing wrong with that situation, and there isn't anything wrong beyond that, too.
My initial point was not that every game should have more personality, it was just that companies tout these main characters as if they're some big deal compelling characters when they're not. It's not really a requirement but it's hard to stomach it when they shove it in your face and want you to be intrigued.
Err...has any one of you even played Sengoku Basara before? Or at least researched it? I'm not entirely sure how you can judge what a character's personality is just from one picture...:| /shot
You kinda have a cyclic/contradicting opinion, but I somewhat understand.
Not everyone looks for the same thing in every formula. For the great developers, there's a lot of recipe/model in it. For example, Master Chief has no asserted reaction to anything, yet master chief is a icon in gaming. He arguably has no character, but it expects for other aspects of the game to grab the player in with expansive awe inspiring environments, controls and story, that pulls your reaction into the game that bit more to fill in the void of Master Chief's character.
As is Mario to a certain extent before he was whored out a little bit to every single gaming style in existence by Nintendo.
It's not always a like-able character, and being told what to do in the game, or a generic story with complex twist. Of course these can directly appeal to you, but some of it is how it is phenomenologically involving, with graphics, expansive gameplay/sandbox, sound, or interface.
Now if you simply wrote this whole review because you don't like their facial expressions and you liked it when faces started popping up in chat bubbles in games so you knew the character had a personality... Well that's not everything. It all appeals to a different form of aesthetic.
TL;DR
Riveting review, dear fellow! I applaud you on your deep analysis.
For the record my initial intention was not to argue the story point but the tangent has been established and I care enough to follow it.
I don't think my opinion is contradicting. I've argued about characters having personality because these characters that exist in my web browser have none, and I argue the point of story being a crutch because it is, in general. While I can see how these two ideals can be compared they really aren't related. Basically, I don't think that selling me on the characters is what's important, but if they're doing that, I'll bite, and they better be fuckin good.
Fuck you Dood!
Leave the bland CG character designs to the Hollywood pros, you stupid video game makers. :3
hey watch it pal there are hollywood animators that browse these posts
Couldn't agree more.
but if you could, would you?
lol so true! i miss happy characters that aren't made from the wii, god, eating my bacon i started thinking about the greatness of characters who own emotions
not this :I but this :D or this :'( or this :O
NYA~!!!!! I totally agree even though i dont know what your talkin about :d
Allow me to reference the game by shouting:
"Egoraptor...EGORAPTOR...EGORAPTOOOOO OR!!!"
Also, wow. I can take Ieyasu seriously now. Double chin was a nice touch.
I really miss all the wacky, over-the-top, cartoon ridiculousness that games like conkers bad fur day and ratchet and clank used to have... where have all the cartoons gone? (oh but Mini Ninjas was AWESOME! play it if you haven't.)
Ego if you respond to this then i will do all :) on yer ass.
And wheres Girlchan 4? Love that series
Yeah and a good game is probably mostly just fun gameplay
yeah its true you cant beat the classics i hate newer mario games they suck i like the older ones more ps whats your favorit classic game besides mario i like sunset riders
whao whao whao... tokugawa's character design is bad ass... as well as alot of the others so slow your roll there cowboy... and give me some more girlchan lol
Clearly they are all both angry and smirking... the most basic of expressive human emotion.
Cool, I'll have to check this game out. What Genre is it?
You should check out Vindictus, the only MMO I've played that really brings the faces to life and just makes it so much better
DylanJames
A great example of this is what they did to Sonic the Hedgehog. The early games were great and there wasn't any story at all really except what you put together yourself. Then they added a story to the later games and for the most part it was utter shit. The storyline was entirely horrendous. Nobody needed a background story for a blue hedgehog who ran fast. All they wanted to do was run around colorful environments really fast and jump on things to make them explode.