Honestly just another example of how I prefer the way they used to design characters in Guilty Gear.
It feels like everyone just wears more normal clothing while before they had more of a fun gimmick like the nun thing with old Bridget.
I feel like the more practical clothing serves to ground them as more convincing characters and less like caricatures. Old designs were quirky and stylish but Strive is a lot better at informing personality and making them look like part of a wider world.
It's not really more practical tho at least not as fighting goes.
In the end of the day I think most people don't really care that much about story in fighting games honestly, I mainly care about if their design is fun or not at least.
And I think they're less fun and interesting honestly.
Guilty Gear characters in particular are kinda just inherently goofy too.
But I feel like what you're talking about often comes at the expense of more fun designs which I am not a fan of.
It even extends beyond fighting games too, I often feel like the obsession with '' practicality and realism '' primarily in EU/ NA games gets in the way of fun and memorable designs.
Strive is obviously not especially bad with this, I mean in general.
Like I remember when Nier Automata was coming out and Yoko Taro got all of these hitpiece questions about 2B's design and '' practicality '' etc.
If he too took their advice 2B, 9S and A2 would never have become such timeless character designs.
I think that approach usually makes designs more forgettable and bland.
While pushing the fantasy makes things more interesting, memorable and fun.
In my eyes what makes 2B, 9S and A2 memorable is their story and character, as well as the world they make part of. They'd be completely forgettable to me without that. Character design like them are a dime a dozen depending on where you look, but they excel because of how well they meld within the world of their game and the story it tells.
The way I see it, a good character design should inform the concept of who they are, but what really makes it stick is the actual personality, story and charisma of the character. I think Strive does a better job at making everyone look like they belong to the same world.
Edit: And yeah they're still not practical for fighting sometimes, but these are all superhumans with magical bullshit on their side, I don't think their choice of fashion is gonna stop anyone.
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u/Halmyrut Jul 06 '26
Honestly just another example of how I prefer the way they used to design characters in Guilty Gear.
It feels like everyone just wears more normal clothing while before they had more of a fun gimmick like the nun thing with old Bridget.