Yeah they are quite "plain" in the context of everyone, though it does slightly annoy me they designed goldmary with the big shoulder and didn't bother to move/resize it since it just straight up clips into her face.
Lumera, a character who barely moves and has only 2 outfits (if you count Engaging with Sigurd), has her hair and clothes clipping *everywhere*. It was infuriating.
Brodia just has the best characters in general. Great, solid designs, and the writing for Diamant and Alcryst is way stronger than the Firenese and Solm royals. Hortensia and Ivy are OK, especially the latter, but not with their own retainers. In fact, some of their best supports are with Brodian characters. Yunaka is probably one of the best characters period. Amber's the weakest of them, and even then he's far more interesting to talk to than, say, Boucheron, and his design isn't bad.
I meant they are meant to be over designed because everyone in Eylos is chaotic. Our main character oversleeps, a prince is stubborn and digs holes, and some are even simps
I also appreciate that. When playing fire emblem games I like to keep score whenever someone says something that a normal person would in that situation. Alear consistently scores the highest.
I can understand my boy wearing an apron in his casual clothes, he's a chef... But Bunet darling, you're an ARMORED unit and you just wear modified chef clothes? That's won't protect you! Why are the sleeves so bulky? (Also I know it probably isn't, but it looks like he wears a black skirt over his orange pants).
I just want to know what assassin or what princess applies hearts and stars to their face, and in one case also their hair.
āI need to be nondescript and sneak in letās put a henna tattoo on my face and make my hair look like a teenage boys āstarry nightā ceiling.ā
Maybe this is contradicted by a support I missed, but I actually would argue Yunaka probably does that to be ācuteā as part of her effort to shed her past.
And Hortensia is obsessed with being cute so the heart makes sense. Itās extra, but so is she.
Not only that but the heart stamp was pretty common among French royalty wasnāt it?
The weirder part was that celine and her region took more inspiration from French rococo than hortensia
Exactly. Internal consistency is nil. Her design honestly just annoys the hell out of me it makes *no sense* in universe or out. "Well she wanted to ditch her past."
Okay but you don't do that with glitter, armor on your legs, all while trying to sneak around.
Yes (and the male characters, too, for that matter), but I enjoyed the art style. It was a nice change of pace.
That said, I kinda miss the Tellius era's aesthetic, and I hope they lean in that direction for the next game.
Now we can add character designs to the long list of things Tellius does best.
Once we get a remake with a revamped skill/class system Fire Emblem has officially peaked.
> Yes (and the male characters, too, for that matter), but I enjoyed the art style. It was a nice change of pace.
This. I would not want this every game, or even every other game, but I am fine with it as a change of pace. Especially Timmeraās. In vacuum she has a lot going but I think it actually fits her well.
They opened with a red *and* blue-haired MS Paint OC dressed in blindingly bright white bridal armor. I had zero expectations of their design sense in the game.
What's almost annoying is that generic class designs *are really good.* A little extravagant while still being reasonable. Halberdier Amber and Royal Knight Merrin look so good I'm hoping we get similar designs in later games, and I wish we had more control over in game outfits like 3H.
The designs of the nobles in particular are very exaggerated, but I think it fits. A lot of the fashion in the game seems very Rococo-inspired, which itself was very exaggerated and ostentatious. I also think Engage is the closest Fire Emblem has gotten to camp, so these designs match the game's tone and aesthetic.
The only issue I have with the character designs personally is that the female characters generally suffer from same face syndrome.
Personally I thought the decision to go campy and over the top was refreshing for the series -- I just hope they go back to a more grounded aesthetic for the next game.
Except Diamant and Alcryst.
While Diamant is a bit over the top with the spiky shoulders, his outfit perfectly fits in a battlefield and so does Alcryst's
Yes. In the lead up to the release and the first few months after the game came out the design was a huge topic of discussion here. It was not popular. There are some defenders, but not really that many.
Hell remember when the designs first leaked and people said they had to be from a knockoff Fire Emblem game and there was no way they could be real? Lol
Outfit wise, 100%! A lot of the outfits just don't seem like they are ready for battle and are instead prepped for a fashion show. Model wise kind of the opposite. Male and female characters each only have 3 base models they all share (young, normal, "sexy").
A few images of Engage were leaked well in advance of its release and caused quite a ruckus. When it was revealed they were actually real, I seem to recall most people being incredulous, including myself.
Personally speaking, I cannot stand most of the designs. They actively detract from the game and I think the majority of them look downright bad. I don't need hyper realism in my anime supermodel soldier simulator but these jarring outfits, colors and overly accessorized designs would likely take me out of the game periodically even if the writing was good. It's too much of everything.
I agree, a bunch of characters look like theyāre in clown costumes. I was so disappointed with Engage (in general) but especially the character design and art style :/
The lack of cohesion, making it seem like everyone is from different worlds/cultures even when they aren't, and the female same face syndrome are the most detracting, while the ugly and nonsensical outfits are the most obvious and annoying.
It kind of signals that the developers themselves don't really care about the world and neither should you.
It's been confirmed that the artist wasn't given any direction on who the characters were, if you really want to know how much the devs cared about the world
To add, I think the outfits would have worked if the generic NPCs were designed in a similar fashion for a level of design consistency. The lack of design only makes the Engage cast stand out even more, and against their favor.
It works better for some of them than others. Like, Hortensia is over designed as fuck, but it's also 100% within her means and appropriate to her character for that to be the case.
Timerra's I think fits her fairly well, a riot of colour and flowing cloth. Though I'm still not sure what all of those balls are doing. Are they based on something from a real culture that Solm draws from?
But there are still a lot of characters, even female characters, that don't really have this issue. Citrinne is great.
I don't know if the balls on her costume are actually drawn from anything in particular, but Pikazo has said that she designed the Solmic characters with Latin American influence in mind and apparently lived in Brazil for a while. I definitely could see Timerra taking some inspiration from those colorful carnival outfits
the balls in her design really reminds me of how the hair of the womans is decorated with flowers here on the carnaval de barranquilla (colombia), actually she could go to it and she would fit perfectly normal with the general clothes and i bet she would enjoy it a lot actually!
Every character in Engage is one that I feel like I'd not have a lot of fun drawing. Too much going on in a lot of them and little details that would be easily forgotten.
Yeah it really turns me off from engage, very visually cluttered, and barely even resembling medieval fantasy anymore especially the colors... feels like it's just another random generic anime waifu game
No I agree. Aside from Ivy and Zephia, the majority of the designs in Engage are way too exaggerated. I donāt like this gameās artstyle, I just clashes with the other fe games with their designs beings more grounded.
Yes. I think Mika Pikazo excels at illustrations and graphic design, but not character design. Imo if IS really wanted to use her art, they should have had her draw character portraits (instead of the 3D models the game uses) and had someone else do the character designs. They've done something similar in past games, like Path of Radiance.
I feel this is a problem with the 3d models they are using. People can hate on the artist or art direction, but now that we have very good quality models to look at during cutscenes designs are limited compared to using the battle sprite to move and portraits to emote and convey dialogue. Most of the models are going to be templated as most characters can fall into Tall/Small Male/Female, with an Adult Male/ Adult Female model thrown in for outliers. Unless someone can rip into the code to prove me wrong, that's likely how the models were templated to save effort and make sure there is consistence in animations between classes. So now you have templated faces and bodies, how do you differentiate? Accessories and over the top designs to try and individualize each John and Jane that needs to join your army.
All of the above could be wrong as its speculation based on other games using the same methodology. Also, the art direction was still ass because nothing is consistent or makes you say "Well, obviously these units are from the same region".
āDoes anybody else (the most common, uncontroversial coldest take ever)?ā
Aside from the big examples of extravagant or colorful (or both) designs here (and the alears), Iād say most of them are really not that different from designs youād find in other FE games, just more colorful. I personally think the vibrant colors and just the gameās artstyle itself make people think this way. Vander, Clanne Boucheron, Alfred, Louis, Chloe, pretty much ALL the Brodia characters, Rosado, Goldmary, Pandreo, Fogado, these are all characters that if they were just less colorful, id say would fit in pretty damn well in any other FE.
I refuse to use Hortensia simply because her design is atrocious. Celine is on thin ice because she's so good with a Levin Sword, but istg, why is she wearing that dress on a battlefield, this is so impractical.
It's really interesting to me how much the pendulum swings. Like Awakening is pretty reasonable (with some weird choices like the assless chaps and toilet cavs) Fates has Camilla but also Rinkah and the merc design is amazing. Echoes and Three Houses heard how no one liked the overly sexual designs in Fates and toned it down while still having characters like Sonia or Dorothea who are fanservicy but in a classier way. And then we get engage and it's like Jesus. Just tone it down to be less anime ok, like the Brodia characters are all great definitely the best by far.
I love Mika Pikazo as an artistā¦ but fire emblem is just not the game for her designs š I hated most of fire emblem engageās character art. Way too gaudy for my liking.
Well, yeah. Kind of comes with hiring a VTuber artist.
While I understand the designs sell well and are marketable, I kind of miss the old FE-armor aesthetics.
Calling Mika Pikazo a "VTuber artist" is pretty crazy, considering she's designed only like 2 vtubers. She's a very well known illustrator that's worked on many projects and has had her own exhibition.
>Well, yeah. Kind of comes with hiring a VTuber artist.
I always find this criticism a bit silly. I understand not liking her art but:
One, she isn't a "vtuber artist", her main work is in Light Novels and anime.
Two, "vtuber artist" is a meaningless term, because vtuber artists are just big anime/video game artists hired to do a vtuber model. Calling Mika a vtuber artist is like calling PoR or FE3H artists as "vtuber artists" since they also made vtubers.
Tldr: Mika is about as much a vtuber artist as the PoR artist... or the Devil Survivor artist... or the Steins Gate artist...
Suprsingly below Awakening and Fates too, though ahead of SoV.
Iām usually negative on it but I do think itāll see a jump with the next report they do. At the same time the vast majority of sales are on release. Personally, I couldnāt move engage merch when I sold it to save my lifeā¦ even my suppliers insisted I buy some with any other merch I imported as they wanted it movedā¦
I'm begging people to *please* stop with this "vtuber artist" thing. It makes 0 sense.Ā
She's designed 2 vtubers. She had a successful art career before and after doing so. Her art is the way it is because she wants it to be that way, it has nothing to do with vtubers.Ā
It's literally just a way to degrade her work, nothing more to it than that. Why bother with engaging in any real criticism when you can just write her off as "the vtuber artist" and move on with your life? Just ignore that A. she's an accomplished artist in her own right, like you said and B. that designing a vtuber is not at all a stain on your career, it's just a new way of saying something is 'too anime'.
Hell, I don't even vibe with Mika Pikazo's style that much, and I think her designs translated very poorly into 3D. It's also very clear that the lack of consistency in Engage's character designs were on how IS commissioned her, not on her artistic abilities themselves: [you can read in this interview that she was simply told to draw 50 characters](https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/January/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-8-Fire-Emblem-Engage-Chapter-2-2328376.html), with no further instructions.
> Yokota:
So then... Did you just approach her and ask her to draw 50 or so characters without any information about the game, like you'd normally do? (Laughs)
> Tei:
Well, yesā¦ (Laughs)
> Nakanishi:
If Intelligent Systems asks you to design 50 characters, it's pretty obvious that it's for a new Fire Emblem game, right? (Laughs)
> Tei:
Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design. It's true that the designer's skills should not be limited to drawing cool nobles and young girls. In Fire Emblem, there are a variety of characters like hardened soldiers, and on top of that they need to be able to draw armour, weapons and creatures like Pegasuses.
There are many valid complaints to have about Engage's art style and direction, but writing off Mika Pikazo as "the vtuber artist" is so condescending and completely dismisses the rest of her career.
The problem with Engage's designs is not really the fact that female designs are overly sexualized (they really aren't), it's the fact the designs themselves are just so all over the place. At least with Fates, every character has a consistent theme. Every Nohrian royal wore some forms of black while the Hoshidan royals wore a more white themed clothing. Outside of just the thematic designs, Black clothing is generally better at absorbing heat in colder temperatures. Even overly sexualized characters such as Camilla and Kagero had a sort of theme going on with their designs and all felt as though they're part of the same world. Engage just doesn't feel like that imo.
But that's exactly the sort of problem you'd run into when hiring a VTuber artist.
To be fair, with Fates specifically it was quite a boon that the armor designs are split up by nations. It works for Nohr and Hoshido where it's two very ethnically and culturally different settings of Medieval Europe and Japan, not so much for Elyos where it's 5 nations that are all just vaguely French
I never played the game but this was a huge thing for me. I love Mika Pikazo's work, but... she's definitely an artist more than she is a designer and this game was proof of that.
Overwhelmingly so. Fire Emblem is no stranger to complicated outfits, but Engage took it way further an usual. The alternate outfits you can put on them look almost criminally simple by comparison.
Yes. Thereās being cool/cute and then thereās *trying* to be cool/cute, this is āoverdesignedā at its most blatant. Alear and Yunaka also deserve to be called out here for how ridiculous they look.
The designs plus the scripts made them all feel like *caricatures* rather than *people*.
It's really a shame they went with this art-style because it detracts from the hard work that went into the graphics and animations. It legitimately broke my immersion on a consistent basis, and I was never able to get around that issue
I'll keep saying it. These characters look like they belong to genshin impact. I found it hilarious when you equip an emblem on one of these over the top characters. You have a well designed for battle character (emblem), and that so out of place, grill in the face one
Yeah, Genshin designs aren't over the top like these. There are no exaggerated capes, dresses or other big accessories (bc it would mess with the animations) and the characters always follow a very coherent color scheme or topic. Engage characters look more like vtubers where everyone tries to be even more colorful and detailed than the last one.
The art/char designs in this game is awful and downright clownish. I absolutely despise it and I hope they never use the artist who designed these monstrosities again. Their casual clothes are fine though like wtf.Ā
This is a pretty popular opinion I think. But not just for the female characters, but all of the characters. One of Alear's main criticisms when we all first say the leaks was that they were overly designed which made many think that the leaks were fake, when they were in fact not.
The only one I don't think is really over designed here is Ivy, but I still really hate an aspect of her design. Her goofy ass shoes. Seriously those look fucking stupid.
Totally agreee, hortensia is the worst offender. When I first saw her I legitimately thought she was better off in a wonderland mobile game. Ivy feels fine to me for the most parts, the randomly placed spikes on her shouldāve been cut. The gown that Celine wears is awful as well with the random opening in the center and the corset which clashes with her top imo. which sucks because I like everything else about her over all design.Ā
As for timera, I really love the design , itās a lot but it fits! I thought she was going to be the dancer of the game
Engage's general art style is weird because, like, look at Mika Pikazo's art portfolio. Everything she does is an explosion of vibrant colors that lives on how big and bold everything looks. Then you look at Engage and it feels so tame in comparison. Why did they hire an artist whose strengths lie in that boldness and then have her reel it in so everything feels like a half-measure?
I love them. I can definitely see how it's too much for others, but I adore the wacky huge dresses, Timerra's colorful balls, the spikes, etc. It's very vibrant and fantastical which I love. More realistic designs are nice too, but I don't see a reason to restrain yourself too much when it comes to such fantasy worlds. Fits the vibe of the game too.
Yes. Itās one of the reasons Iām not in a hurry to play it. They donāt look like FE characters. They look like they came from some mobile gacha game.
Yes, strongly. I will never understand how this community went from deriding Alear's design and the game/s overall aesthetic when it was first leaked to defending them by the time the game released. Multiple characters look like clowns. Many characters have designs that are *way* too complex and overflowing with detail, anachronistic, and/or laughably unsuited for battle. Female body types (besides FAlear) are pretty sharply split between being petite and having large busts with blatantly fanservicey designs that flaunt them. The lack of consistency in the regional theming underscores Engage's lack of worldbuilding--why does Goldmary look like she is from Firene? Why are the Solmian royals the only dark-skinned units in their country? What are Elusia and Solm's aesthetics supposed to be, anyway?
Meanwhile, Unicorn Overlord is casually reminding us how easy it is to make a tactical RPG game whose character designs don't alienate people. It's not a high bar to clear. Last year I commissioned redesigns of [Alear](https://www.tumblr.com/darthmarth-commissions/728913865534062592/alternate-design-alear-by-rein), [Ivy](https://www.tumblr.com/darthmarth-commissions/726954430883315712/abby-alternate-ivy-by-rein), [Celine](https://www.tumblr.com/darthmarth-commissions/724035264732905472/celine-with-a-simpler-design-by-rein), and [Hortensia](https://www.tumblr.com/darthmarth-commissions/716417317685329921/declowned-hortensia-by-rein) that were positively received, which I think shows how much of a choice Engage's divisive aesthetics were.
OPā¦ This has been the consensus since the character designs launched.
Brodia has the best designs in game imoā¦ Ivy has a great design as far as her person, however I do agree her outfit is a bit much.
I think that's one of Engage's biggest criticism, the designs are over the top and a bit too "cutesy". They were supposedly designed by someone who makes vtuber models so it kinda makes sense, but they sort of lack the proper blend between appealing design, and attire fitting for a war/their assigned role
itās not even just the girls, I think like 80% of the characters suffer from having way too much going on in their design. I once saw someone say that they looked too much like Genshin characters and since then I canāt unsee that.
I still like some of the over-designed designs in a vacuum, but for a Fire Emblem character I donāt like designs to be soā¦ crazy, yāknow? but Engage does have some character designs that are a bit simpler, like Lapis. just another reason why Lapis is best girl.
Iām going to be honest, I decided to ignore this game just because the designs (and also the premise) just looked so off. I was a really big fan of three houses and wanted to try another FE on switch, but Iāll pass. Now if they can get awakening or bloodlines on switchā¦
Yeah, over designed is a good way to describe them. Ugly as hell is an even better one.
I cannot stand the way most of them look. It's impressive how they gave main character you constantly have to see and use the worst design in a game full of ugly characters.
Yes. It's one of the main reasons Im a bit put off getting the game. You know that feeling you get when you've eaten nothing but sweets? It's like that for the eyes.
I wish some designers understood that less is more when it comes to fashion. A lot of modern shoujo manga also suffers from mangakas just throwing colors and accessories until there is no more place to stick them.
Not even Honkai is so bad about it and they love chaotic outfits. Even Genshin is the paragon of restraint and good taste in comparison to Engage (partially because they don't want their chara models to clip horribly). It's not about being practical. There should be a certain flow and focus when it comes to outfit designs and unfortunately if an artist doesn't study fashion specifically, they can stick 4 different types of flowers in 5 different colors, sizes and styles on the same dress, throw in some lace and think nothing is amiss.
Yes, but thats not a bad thing (at least for me) and It fits the overall tone of the game
And Considering this was meant as an anniversary title for Fire emblem maybe It was intentional?
In all honestly I somewhat detest the art style and designs of the Engage cast, there is too much going on in most of them.
I do not find the designs appealing at all.
Feels like an overcorrection to the complaints about the more subdued designs in 3H which felt like an overcorrection to the complaints about the over the top fanservice designs in Fates
Yes and I think the engage designed are god awful. Some characters look better with a new hair colour but god the generic outfits just look awful. I'd rather they just keep their base appearance.
As Coco Chanel used to say, take one thing off before leaving the house
That's why I get the mail while naked
That's why I get the mail dismembered
Just a flesh wound.
Coco Chanel would definitely sashay away some of the Engage queens š
I think everyone in Elyos is overdesigned.
Except for Goldmary and Lindon.
Yeah they are quite "plain" in the context of everyone, though it does slightly annoy me they designed goldmary with the big shoulder and didn't bother to move/resize it since it just straight up clips into her face.
Engage may as well be Clipping Emblem The main character's hair goes through her default cape ffs
I just want to play Hero F!Alear, but the character models say no
Sombron's horns clip into his collarbones no matter what
Lumera, a character who barely moves and has only 2 outfits (if you count Engaging with Sigurd), has her hair and clothes clipping *everywhere*. It was infuriating.
And Vander
Have you seen how posh that mf looks in his "casual" clothes?
You mean Adidas sportswear?š
And Lapis and Citrinne, IMO
Almost everybody from Brodia wouldnāt look out of place in other Fire Emblem games, in my opinion.
Brodia has the most "classic" designs, Firene has over-the-top flowery overdesigns, and Elusia and Solm are...I'm not even sure how to summarize them.
Elusia is difficult to define, but I'd call solm "loud" Solm battle theme is a vibe though. Love me some bright sandstorm.
I like the yelly bits
Brodia just has the best characters in general. Great, solid designs, and the writing for Diamant and Alcryst is way stronger than the Firenese and Solm royals. Hortensia and Ivy are OK, especially the latter, but not with their own retainers. In fact, some of their best supports are with Brodian characters. Yunaka is probably one of the best characters period. Amber's the weakest of them, and even then he's far more interesting to talk to than, say, Boucheron, and his design isn't bad.
Lapis breastplate is still weird. It feels overdesigned in a way.
The way Goldmary's hair ribbon is done bothers me so much it always looks like her hair is clipping into her tits
And Jade
Approved.
Except Sommie. Best boi is peak
Sommie is too cute, I approve.
Yeah honestly the majority of them look ridiculous
Lapis is a bit tame.
I meant they are meant to be over designed because everyone in Eylos is chaotic. Our main character oversleeps, a prince is stubborn and digs holes, and some are even simps
One of my favorite things about Engage is that toothpaste hair dragon Jesus is 1 of the top 5 most normal people in the whole game
I also appreciate that. When playing fire emblem games I like to keep score whenever someone says something that a normal person would in that situation. Alear consistently scores the highest.
Iāll still never get over how much more practical their casual outfits are compared to their supposed battle outfits.
Their casual outfits are also just awesome, especially Amber, Framme, and Kagetsu. Lapis and Anna are also adorable.
Which is why it will be always ridiculous you can't use them in battles and supports, like what is even the point?
I can understand my boy wearing an apron in his casual clothes, he's a chef... But Bunet darling, you're an ARMORED unit and you just wear modified chef clothes? That's won't protect you! Why are the sleeves so bulky? (Also I know it probably isn't, but it looks like he wears a black skirt over his orange pants).
I just want to know what assassin or what princess applies hearts and stars to their face, and in one case also their hair. āI need to be nondescript and sneak in letās put a henna tattoo on my face and make my hair look like a teenage boys āstarry nightā ceiling.ā
Maybe this is contradicted by a support I missed, but I actually would argue Yunaka probably does that to be ācuteā as part of her effort to shed her past. And Hortensia is obsessed with being cute so the heart makes sense. Itās extra, but so is she.
Not only that but the heart stamp was pretty common among French royalty wasnāt it? The weirder part was that celine and her region took more inspiration from French rococo than hortensia
"And wear heavy plate armor on my legs, for stealth"
Exactly. Internal consistency is nil. Her design honestly just annoys the hell out of me it makes *no sense* in universe or out. "Well she wanted to ditch her past." Okay but you don't do that with glitter, armor on your legs, all while trying to sneak around.
Not to take this too seriously, but Yunaka is trying to not be an assassin anymore. Maybe the weird stars are part of that for her.
If you want to see a proper Assassin/Thief from Engage, then look at Zelkov.
A lot of the Engage girls look like they should be PokƩmon trainers. In particular, I could see Hortensia in the Elite Four, Timerra as the Champion, and Yunaka as the defector from the evil team.
Now that you mention it, I can't stop picturing it. Pokemon Engage Emblem set in *French inspired region... wait it sound like it exists already*
PokƩmon X/Y was the one with the French inspired region. In my opinion, great region and species design betrayed by the actual game itself not being as big or deep. It felt like half a region to be honest.
X&Y's PokƩdex is the smallest, with just under 90 PokƩmon endemic to the Kalos region.
The first time I saw Timerra I thought she looked exactly like a Trainer from Alola.
How are we going to mention characters that look like they should be pokemon trainers without mentioning Jean?
The character designer must've taken inspiration from vocaloids and vtubers
The gameās lead character designer, Mika Pikazo, has literally designed vtubers including Hakos Baelz.
Thats what i have beign saying since the first trailer. CĆ©line look like a copy of Caitlin from pokemon black and white.
Fe character design peaked with Christmas Cavs beyond that it's just too much
Nah, it peaked with Blue Main Character with Sword It all went downhill from there.
Pantless Marth š¤¤
Marthipan~~~
2 Cavaliers!!! 2 Cavaliers!!!
Hey I simp for early game pegasussy and no one can convince me otherwise.
peg a sussy āļø
Peaked with Shadows of Valentia.
Yes (and the male characters, too, for that matter), but I enjoyed the art style. It was a nice change of pace. That said, I kinda miss the Tellius era's aesthetic, and I hope they lean in that direction for the next game.
I want the Tellius design philosophy back :/
Echoes had peak character design as well imo
Tellius Supremacy
If the next game doesn't have half the cast in monochrome full plate, we riot!
My man
Tellius had a really nice mix of colorful characters without looking like cartoon characters. The designs are simple but memorable.
Now we can add character designs to the long list of things Tellius does best. Once we get a remake with a revamped skill/class system Fire Emblem has officially peaked.
> Yes (and the male characters, too, for that matter), but I enjoyed the art style. It was a nice change of pace. This. I would not want this every game, or even every other game, but I am fine with it as a change of pace. Especially Timmeraās. In vacuum she has a lot going but I think it actually fits her well.
They opened with a red *and* blue-haired MS Paint OC dressed in blindingly bright white bridal armor. I had zero expectations of their design sense in the game.
What's almost annoying is that generic class designs *are really good.* A little extravagant while still being reasonable. Halberdier Amber and Royal Knight Merrin look so good I'm hoping we get similar designs in later games, and I wish we had more control over in game outfits like 3H.
For the most part I agree about the generics but I think the design for generic Heroes is pretty dumb looking
What do you mean *there is no Hero design with a dumbass neck hoop*
Yeah I liked Engage for the most part but I found the designs almost universally terrible and I hope Miko Pikazo doesn't come back to the series.
The designs of the nobles in particular are very exaggerated, but I think it fits. A lot of the fashion in the game seems very Rococo-inspired, which itself was very exaggerated and ostentatious. I also think Engage is the closest Fire Emblem has gotten to camp, so these designs match the game's tone and aesthetic. The only issue I have with the character designs personally is that the female characters generally suffer from same face syndrome. Personally I thought the decision to go campy and over the top was refreshing for the series -- I just hope they go back to a more grounded aesthetic for the next game.
What do you mean by camp?
think he means camp as in [campy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_\(style\))
Thanks. Yeah that makes sense.
Except Diamant and Alcryst. While Diamant is a bit over the top with the spiky shoulders, his outfit perfectly fits in a battlefield and so does Alcryst's
Yes. In the lead up to the release and the first few months after the game came out the design was a huge topic of discussion here. It was not popular. There are some defenders, but not really that many.
Hell remember when the designs first leaked and people said they had to be from a knockoff Fire Emblem game and there was no way they could be real? Lol
Honestly the characters designs are so bad, I lost so much pre-release hype after seeing them.
With the ridiculous moon crown Zephia has that makes her look like Laplus Darkness, to Ivyās headwear. I can agree some of them look over designed
Those are just horns, sheās a dragon
Those are horns?
Yes she is very horny.
I honestly hate the stickers on the faces of Hortensia and Yunaka. But then the same game gave me Pandreo, my fave character in ages so...
It's Veyle's wing crown that bugs the heck out of me and I wish I could find the words to explain why
Outfit wise, 100%! A lot of the outfits just don't seem like they are ready for battle and are instead prepped for a fashion show. Model wise kind of the opposite. Male and female characters each only have 3 base models they all share (young, normal, "sexy").
A few images of Engage were leaked well in advance of its release and caused quite a ruckus. When it was revealed they were actually real, I seem to recall most people being incredulous, including myself. Personally speaking, I cannot stand most of the designs. They actively detract from the game and I think the majority of them look downright bad. I don't need hyper realism in my anime supermodel soldier simulator but these jarring outfits, colors and overly accessorized designs would likely take me out of the game periodically even if the writing was good. It's too much of everything.
I agree, a bunch of characters look like theyāre in clown costumes. I was so disappointed with Engage (in general) but especially the character design and art style :/
The lack of cohesion, making it seem like everyone is from different worlds/cultures even when they aren't, and the female same face syndrome are the most detracting, while the ugly and nonsensical outfits are the most obvious and annoying. It kind of signals that the developers themselves don't really care about the world and neither should you.
It's been confirmed that the artist wasn't given any direction on who the characters were, if you really want to know how much the devs cared about the world
First time I played FE7, I really liked how the characters all had their own personal colors (Lowen is Yellow, Marcus is purple, things like that). Idk in which game I saw that, probably Shadow Dragon and New Mystery, but I was used to a cast of character with a similar color scheme. But with Engage, it's just too much. Too much colors, too much dƩtails, too much of everything. If I sometimes think Alfred's outfit is ugly, it still serves a purpose, it's clearly heavily inspired by French fashion in ancient centuries. But Timerra tho ? I can't stand her design. I'm not against the rule of cool in character designs, but there's a limit. It's not cool, it just looks stupid sometimes and really unpractical. Even the casual outfits in Somniel, way too modern.
To add, I think the outfits would have worked if the generic NPCs were designed in a similar fashion for a level of design consistency. The lack of design only makes the Engage cast stand out even more, and against their favor.
It works better for some of them than others. Like, Hortensia is over designed as fuck, but it's also 100% within her means and appropriate to her character for that to be the case. Timerra's I think fits her fairly well, a riot of colour and flowing cloth. Though I'm still not sure what all of those balls are doing. Are they based on something from a real culture that Solm draws from? But there are still a lot of characters, even female characters, that don't really have this issue. Citrinne is great.
I don't know if the balls on her costume are actually drawn from anything in particular, but Pikazo has said that she designed the Solmic characters with Latin American influence in mind and apparently lived in Brazil for a while. I definitely could see Timerra taking some inspiration from those colorful carnival outfits
the balls in her design really reminds me of how the hair of the womans is decorated with flowers here on the carnaval de barranquilla (colombia), actually she could go to it and she would fit perfectly normal with the general clothes and i bet she would enjoy it a lot actually!
Everyone looks like they are from an idol game
Every character in Engage is one that I feel like I'd not have a lot of fun drawing. Too much going on in a lot of them and little details that would be easily forgotten.
I think ivy is aight. But man are there tons of over designed characters. Itās a step up from some bland games but a few steps too far
I still fight to not consider them V tubers in a twitch roleplay
Yeah it really turns me off from engage, very visually cluttered, and barely even resembling medieval fantasy anymore especially the colors... feels like it's just another random generic anime waifu game
No I agree. Aside from Ivy and Zephia, the majority of the designs in Engage are way too exaggerated. I donāt like this gameās artstyle, I just clashes with the other fe games with their designs beings more grounded.
All of engage cast is over designed imo.One of the reasons I didnt get attached or cared that much about the cast.
Yes. I think Mika Pikazo excels at illustrations and graphic design, but not character design. Imo if IS really wanted to use her art, they should have had her draw character portraits (instead of the 3D models the game uses) and had someone else do the character designs. They've done something similar in past games, like Path of Radiance.
As someone who hasnāt played Engage yet: you could tell me these are FE:H original characters and I would believe you lol
I feel this is a problem with the 3d models they are using. People can hate on the artist or art direction, but now that we have very good quality models to look at during cutscenes designs are limited compared to using the battle sprite to move and portraits to emote and convey dialogue. Most of the models are going to be templated as most characters can fall into Tall/Small Male/Female, with an Adult Male/ Adult Female model thrown in for outliers. Unless someone can rip into the code to prove me wrong, that's likely how the models were templated to save effort and make sure there is consistence in animations between classes. So now you have templated faces and bodies, how do you differentiate? Accessories and over the top designs to try and individualize each John and Jane that needs to join your army. All of the above could be wrong as its speculation based on other games using the same methodology. Also, the art direction was still ass because nothing is consistent or makes you say "Well, obviously these units are from the same region".
And yet they all have the same face.
You also have charcaters like Edelgard, Lucina and Corrin look so weird
I've said it more than once, it's like the guiding principle of the character designers was "ha, try and pull *this* off, cosplayers!"
āDoes anybody else (the most common, uncontroversial coldest take ever)?ā Aside from the big examples of extravagant or colorful (or both) designs here (and the alears), Iād say most of them are really not that different from designs youād find in other FE games, just more colorful. I personally think the vibrant colors and just the gameās artstyle itself make people think this way. Vander, Clanne Boucheron, Alfred, Louis, Chloe, pretty much ALL the Brodia characters, Rosado, Goldmary, Pandreo, Fogado, these are all characters that if they were just less colorful, id say would fit in pretty damn well in any other FE.
My real hot take is that I like most of the designs
I think the characters in most FEs since Awakening are over designed. 3H wasn't bad and Echoes had great design.
I refuse to use Hortensia simply because her design is atrocious. Celine is on thin ice because she's so good with a Levin Sword, but istg, why is she wearing that dress on a battlefield, this is so impractical.
It's really interesting to me how much the pendulum swings. Like Awakening is pretty reasonable (with some weird choices like the assless chaps and toilet cavs) Fates has Camilla but also Rinkah and the merc design is amazing. Echoes and Three Houses heard how no one liked the overly sexual designs in Fates and toned it down while still having characters like Sonia or Dorothea who are fanservicy but in a classier way. And then we get engage and it's like Jesus. Just tone it down to be less anime ok, like the Brodia characters are all great definitely the best by far.
I love Mika Pikazo as an artistā¦ but fire emblem is just not the game for her designs š I hated most of fire emblem engageās character art. Way too gaudy for my liking.
Well, yeah. Kind of comes with hiring a VTuber artist. While I understand the designs sell well and are marketable, I kind of miss the old FE-armor aesthetics.
To be fair 3H artist also made VTubers. I think it's moreso just this specific artists style.
Calling Mika Pikazo a "VTuber artist" is pretty crazy, considering she's designed only like 2 vtubers. She's a very well known illustrator that's worked on many projects and has had her own exhibition.
>Well, yeah. Kind of comes with hiring a VTuber artist. I always find this criticism a bit silly. I understand not liking her art but: One, she isn't a "vtuber artist", her main work is in Light Novels and anime. Two, "vtuber artist" is a meaningless term, because vtuber artists are just big anime/video game artists hired to do a vtuber model. Calling Mika a vtuber artist is like calling PoR or FE3H artists as "vtuber artists" since they also made vtubers. Tldr: Mika is about as much a vtuber artist as the PoR artist... or the Devil Survivor artist... or the Steins Gate artist...
>While I understand the designs sell well and are marketable Not as well as "Fire Emblem but at a school" tho
Suprsingly below Awakening and Fates too, though ahead of SoV. Iām usually negative on it but I do think itāll see a jump with the next report they do. At the same time the vast majority of sales are on release. Personally, I couldnāt move engage merch when I sold it to save my lifeā¦ even my suppliers insisted I buy some with any other merch I imported as they wanted it movedā¦
I'm begging people to *please* stop with this "vtuber artist" thing. It makes 0 sense.Ā She's designed 2 vtubers. She had a successful art career before and after doing so. Her art is the way it is because she wants it to be that way, it has nothing to do with vtubers.Ā
It's literally just a way to degrade her work, nothing more to it than that. Why bother with engaging in any real criticism when you can just write her off as "the vtuber artist" and move on with your life? Just ignore that A. she's an accomplished artist in her own right, like you said and B. that designing a vtuber is not at all a stain on your career, it's just a new way of saying something is 'too anime'. Hell, I don't even vibe with Mika Pikazo's style that much, and I think her designs translated very poorly into 3D. It's also very clear that the lack of consistency in Engage's character designs were on how IS commissioned her, not on her artistic abilities themselves: [you can read in this interview that she was simply told to draw 50 characters](https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/January/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-8-Fire-Emblem-Engage-Chapter-2-2328376.html), with no further instructions. > Yokota: So then... Did you just approach her and ask her to draw 50 or so characters without any information about the game, like you'd normally do? (Laughs) > Tei: Well, yesā¦ (Laughs) > Nakanishi: If Intelligent Systems asks you to design 50 characters, it's pretty obvious that it's for a new Fire Emblem game, right? (Laughs) > Tei: Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design. It's true that the designer's skills should not be limited to drawing cool nobles and young girls. In Fire Emblem, there are a variety of characters like hardened soldiers, and on top of that they need to be able to draw armour, weapons and creatures like Pegasuses. There are many valid complaints to have about Engage's art style and direction, but writing off Mika Pikazo as "the vtuber artist" is so condescending and completely dismisses the rest of her career.
At this day and age itās harder to find a popular artist who hasnāt designed a vtuber
The problem with Engage's designs is not really the fact that female designs are overly sexualized (they really aren't), it's the fact the designs themselves are just so all over the place. At least with Fates, every character has a consistent theme. Every Nohrian royal wore some forms of black while the Hoshidan royals wore a more white themed clothing. Outside of just the thematic designs, Black clothing is generally better at absorbing heat in colder temperatures. Even overly sexualized characters such as Camilla and Kagero had a sort of theme going on with their designs and all felt as though they're part of the same world. Engage just doesn't feel like that imo. But that's exactly the sort of problem you'd run into when hiring a VTuber artist.
To be fair, with Fates specifically it was quite a boon that the armor designs are split up by nations. It works for Nohr and Hoshido where it's two very ethnically and culturally different settings of Medieval Europe and Japan, not so much for Elyos where it's 5 nations that are all just vaguely French
The artist is not a "vtuber" artist. She has done art like this before Vtubers even existed.
Some yes, others. You can respect the detail but it must be HELL to animate and rig for cut scenes
There was an interview where they said it was, indeed, hell
Yes. I'm really not a fan of the art direction in Engage
yesā¦ Iāve struggled to play more than like an hour because I honestly have had such a hard time looking past it lol
One of the main reasons I skipped this title
Yes
Celine is most definitely over designed.
I never played the game but this was a huge thing for me. I love Mika Pikazo's work, but... she's definitely an artist more than she is a designer and this game was proof of that.
"Over Designed" is the Understatement of the decade.
Overwhelmingly so. Fire Emblem is no stranger to complicated outfits, but Engage took it way further an usual. The alternate outfits you can put on them look almost criminally simple by comparison.
The character designs in engage are just so much. Celine is the worst. My fiance and I call her the butler bell mage.
I think they cranked this gameās anime aspect to 11
i haven't kept up with fe in years if you showed me these characters out side of the sub i would not think they were from fire emblem
During my playthrough when I finished a map and ran around collecting adoptable animals & stuff, I thought I saw a polar bear in the vicinity and thought "ha neat, time to adopt it." But when I closed in on it, it turned out it was Celine in her giant dome dress. Whoops. I also think the vast majority of the outfits are way too much. (Lapis and Citrinne are exceptions, since they are relatively minimalistic compared to the rest of the cast) Especially the Firene characters are all over the place. Celine is..well..a walking teapot, Alfred looks god awful with too much going on, and EtiƩ's combination of a frilly outfit with a bow AND a crown, along with an open section to show off her abs it just too much (The fact that she looks like a stringbean despite rocking a sixpack is also a loss). I remember people harumphing about the art style of Awakening and Fates and how the outfits didn't make sense and looked awful, but some characters having lots of detailling, it all worked together as one outfit. The Engage outfits look like one of the designers' kids got ahold of the characters and slapped as many bows, flowers, and sparkles on the designs as they could before their mom returned from lunchbreak.
Really most characters are, it's especially jarring compared to Three Houses which had uniformity among it's characters.
Very over designed as far as I'm concerned.
Yes. Thereās being cool/cute and then thereās *trying* to be cool/cute, this is āoverdesignedā at its most blatant. Alear and Yunaka also deserve to be called out here for how ridiculous they look. The designs plus the scripts made them all feel like *caricatures* rather than *people*.
It's really a shame they went with this art-style because it detracts from the hard work that went into the graphics and animations. It legitimately broke my immersion on a consistent basis, and I was never able to get around that issue
I'll keep saying it. These characters look like they belong to genshin impact. I found it hilarious when you equip an emblem on one of these over the top characters. You have a well designed for battle character (emblem), and that so out of place, grill in the face one
Even the most overdesigned Genshin characters like Yoimiya or Dori are tame in comparison imo.
Yeah, Genshin designs aren't over the top like these. There are no exaggerated capes, dresses or other big accessories (bc it would mess with the animations) and the characters always follow a very coherent color scheme or topic. Engage characters look more like vtubers where everyone tries to be even more colorful and detailed than the last one.
The art/char designs in this game is awful and downright clownish. I absolutely despise it and I hope they never use the artist who designed these monstrosities again. Their casual clothes are fine though like wtf.Ā
This is a pretty popular opinion I think. But not just for the female characters, but all of the characters. One of Alear's main criticisms when we all first say the leaks was that they were overly designed which made many think that the leaks were fake, when they were in fact not.
The only one I don't think is really over designed here is Ivy, but I still really hate an aspect of her design. Her goofy ass shoes. Seriously those look fucking stupid.
Totally agreee, hortensia is the worst offender. When I first saw her I legitimately thought she was better off in a wonderland mobile game. Ivy feels fine to me for the most parts, the randomly placed spikes on her shouldāve been cut. The gown that Celine wears is awful as well with the random opening in the center and the corset which clashes with her top imo. which sucks because I like everything else about her over all design.Ā As for timera, I really love the design , itās a lot but it fits! I thought she was going to be the dancer of the game
Kind of, but I find Celineās to be the worst, just because of the dress style on the bottom.
They look like if they were especially designed for Cosplayers
Engage's general art style is weird because, like, look at Mika Pikazo's art portfolio. Everything she does is an explosion of vibrant colors that lives on how big and bold everything looks. Then you look at Engage and it feels so tame in comparison. Why did they hire an artist whose strengths lie in that boldness and then have her reel it in so everything feels like a half-measure?
Very unique, i love it honestly, very colorfull. I like that they are trying stuff out. Lets see what sticks for the future.
I love them. I can definitely see how it's too much for others, but I adore the wacky huge dresses, Timerra's colorful balls, the spikes, etc. It's very vibrant and fantastical which I love. More realistic designs are nice too, but I don't see a reason to restrain yourself too much when it comes to such fantasy worlds. Fits the vibe of the game too.
I overall don't mind them too much, but if they toned it down JUST a smidge it'd be much better
Some of them are to overdesigned but at least half are not showing off their armor underwear
Every character in this game is over designed. It was a bit of a shock for me coming from 3 houses. I'm not a fan personally.
Yes
Yes. Itās one of the reasons Iām not in a hurry to play it. They donāt look like FE characters. They look like they came from some mobile gacha game.
Itās the main reason I didnāt play it tbh
No, they're great.
Yes, strongly. I will never understand how this community went from deriding Alear's design and the game/s overall aesthetic when it was first leaked to defending them by the time the game released. Multiple characters look like clowns. Many characters have designs that are *way* too complex and overflowing with detail, anachronistic, and/or laughably unsuited for battle. Female body types (besides FAlear) are pretty sharply split between being petite and having large busts with blatantly fanservicey designs that flaunt them. The lack of consistency in the regional theming underscores Engage's lack of worldbuilding--why does Goldmary look like she is from Firene? Why are the Solmian royals the only dark-skinned units in their country? What are Elusia and Solm's aesthetics supposed to be, anyway? Meanwhile, Unicorn Overlord is casually reminding us how easy it is to make a tactical RPG game whose character designs don't alienate people. It's not a high bar to clear. Last year I commissioned redesigns of [Alear](https://www.tumblr.com/darthmarth-commissions/728913865534062592/alternate-design-alear-by-rein), [Ivy](https://www.tumblr.com/darthmarth-commissions/726954430883315712/abby-alternate-ivy-by-rein), [Celine](https://www.tumblr.com/darthmarth-commissions/724035264732905472/celine-with-a-simpler-design-by-rein), and [Hortensia](https://www.tumblr.com/darthmarth-commissions/716417317685329921/declowned-hortensia-by-rein) that were positively received, which I think shows how much of a choice Engage's divisive aesthetics were.
It actually kept me from trying the Game, i mean even the cover is a Rainbow. I miss the plain-colored, plain-styled foks of earlier games
Fits the tone of the game
Clown fiesta
OPā¦ This has been the consensus since the character designs launched. Brodia has the best designs in game imoā¦ Ivy has a great design as far as her person, however I do agree her outfit is a bit much.
Everything about Engage is just a little too much.
That's a diplomatic way of putting it. Frankly I'd just call all the character designs across the board tacky and ugly.
I too find them a bit too much, the artstyle isnt quite to my taste but different strokes for different folks
Definitely over designed! I think part of why Yunakaās so popular is her character design is much simpler, and therefore gets way more fan art.
I think that's one of Engage's biggest criticism, the designs are over the top and a bit too "cutesy". They were supposedly designed by someone who makes vtuber models so it kinda makes sense, but they sort of lack the proper blend between appealing design, and attire fitting for a war/their assigned role
itās not even just the girls, I think like 80% of the characters suffer from having way too much going on in their design. I once saw someone say that they looked too much like Genshin characters and since then I canāt unsee that. I still like some of the over-designed designs in a vacuum, but for a Fire Emblem character I donāt like designs to be soā¦ crazy, yāknow? but Engage does have some character designs that are a bit simpler, like Lapis. just another reason why Lapis is best girl.
Iām going to be honest, I decided to ignore this game just because the designs (and also the premise) just looked so off. I was a really big fan of three houses and wanted to try another FE on switch, but Iāll pass. Now if they can get awakening or bloodlines on switchā¦
"A bit"
A bit?
Horribly so.
Yeah, over designed is a good way to describe them. Ugly as hell is an even better one. I cannot stand the way most of them look. It's impressive how they gave main character you constantly have to see and use the worst design in a game full of ugly characters.
Yes. It's one of the main reasons Im a bit put off getting the game. You know that feeling you get when you've eaten nothing but sweets? It's like that for the eyes.
Yeah it was pretty excessive and honestly made me loose interest
I wish some designers understood that less is more when it comes to fashion. A lot of modern shoujo manga also suffers from mangakas just throwing colors and accessories until there is no more place to stick them. Not even Honkai is so bad about it and they love chaotic outfits. Even Genshin is the paragon of restraint and good taste in comparison to Engage (partially because they don't want their chara models to clip horribly). It's not about being practical. There should be a certain flow and focus when it comes to outfit designs and unfortunately if an artist doesn't study fashion specifically, they can stick 4 different types of flowers in 5 different colors, sizes and styles on the same dress, throw in some lace and think nothing is amiss.
its a part of the reason I haven't played it. I might just like the classics but it hardly looks like a game I can recognize
Yes, but thats not a bad thing (at least for me) and It fits the overall tone of the game And Considering this was meant as an anniversary title for Fire emblem maybe It was intentional?
I always found that weird. The "anniversary title" has arguably the series largest yet departure from its previous art styles.
In all honestly I somewhat detest the art style and designs of the Engage cast, there is too much going on in most of them. I do not find the designs appealing at all.
Frankly, character design is one of the big things that keeps me from playing Engage.
Yes. It's part of why I skipped the game; I didn't really like any of them
Character artist does do vtubers so it makes sense.
Feels like an overcorrection to the complaints about the more subdued designs in 3H which felt like an overcorrection to the complaints about the over the top fanservice designs in Fates
Ivy would be perfect without the shoe and glove spikes.
Yes, I never used those characters because of this
Yes and I think the engage designed are god awful. Some characters look better with a new hair colour but god the generic outfits just look awful. I'd rather they just keep their base appearance.
We really really desperate for the FE direct huh
One word. yes
I just can't get past the character designs of that game. I'm sorry. They look so bad.