Artist/Character Designer for FE Switch

[Slumber]

2 hours ago, dap005 said:

Also I know it'll never happen bht imagine if Yoshitaka Amano did FE designs. The old ff style would certainly get old school fans exicted. Maybe for the fe4 echoes remake? Would definitely suit that game I believe. I can already picture what Amano's Arvis   would look like haha. 

I'm a big fan of akihiro yamada as well (I mainly attribute the high fantasy style to him due to his work on the twelve kingdoms). Not sure you can call it 'mordern' though but damn the art is awe-inspiring:

  Hide contents

Welp I've decended into art appreciation hell. Probably should go bed. 

Both of these would be amazing, but I doubt a high profile illustrator would ever do FE. IS seems to like picking more obscure artists. Kozaki is probably the most high profile artist they've ever gotten, and even he's still fairly underground. Yamada is definitely more likely than Amano. I don't think Amano would ever work for any company that isn't Square. He's too ingrained with the identity of Final Fantasy to ever work for another major RPG franchise.

Oh, and as more evidence that maybe Kozaki won't do FE Switch, Suda51 is working on No More Heroes stuff again.

[dap005]

5 hours ago, Slumber said:

Oh, and as more evidence that maybe Kozaki won't do FE Switch, Suda51 is working on No More Heroes stuff again.

Ye true Suda would probably want Kozaki back on that haha. And IS doesn't really bring back old artists to make sure that the large of characters still look distinct after so many games.

If they're hiring outside of in-house artists, they would probably go for someone that has worked on games character design before (senri kita, kozaki and hidari all fit the bill). So I'm trying to make guesses based on that.

Though in fairness I just want to see Amano Emblem after the work he did for Child of Light shows that he can work with companies outside square. That maybe a special case but I can dream :P (Damn even one picture would be nice).

[Slumber]

1 hour ago, dap005 said:

Ye true Suda would probably want Kozaki back on that haha. And IS doesn't really bring back old artists to make sure that the large of characters still look distinct after so many games.

If they're hiring outside of in-house artists, they would probably go for someone that has worked on games character design before (senri kita, kozaki and hidari all fit the bill). So I'm trying to make guesses based on that.

Though in fairness I just want to see Amano Emblem after the work he did for Child of Light shows that he can work with companies outside square. That maybe a special case but I can dream :P (Damn even one picture would be nice).

There's no shortage of awesome artists who could do FE art. From all sorts of game artists like Amano or Ayami Kojima or Akihiko Yoshida for lulz. Or hell, some major figures at IS are clearly Berserk fans, so go all out and get Miura to do art for the series. Or they could just screw with Square Enix and get Yoshihiro Togashi to do the art. He's not an exceptional artist by any means, but if Dragon Quest gets Toriyama, give Fire Emblem the dude who first managed to rival him during Dragon Ball's run in Jump. Plus, it's not like Togashi is doing anything these days besides collecting mad royalties and sick day money.

There are a lot of routes they could go with art, especially now that Nintendo's probably giving them bigger budgets to work with. Which is partly why, besides getting tired of Kozaki's style for FE(Can't wait for more NMH, though), I don't want more Kozaki. I still doubt they'd ever get anyone super high profile, but it'd be fun. 

Edited January 26, 2017 by Slumber

[OpheliaNohrPrincess]

7 hours ago, Slumber said:

Both of these would be amazing, but I doubt a high profile illustrator would ever do FE. IS seems to like picking more obscure artists. Kozaki is probably the most high profile artist they've ever gotten, and even he's still fairly underground. Yamada is definitely more likely than Amano. I don't think Amano would ever work for any company that isn't Square. He's too ingrained with the identity of Final Fantasy to ever work for another major RPG franchise.

Oh, and as more evidence that maybe Kozaki won't do FE Switch, Suda51 is working on No More Heroes stuff again.

I guess we'll see then.

[dap005]

30 minutes ago, Slumber said:

There's no shortage of awesome artists who could do FE art. From all sorts of game artists like Amano or Ayami Kojima or Akihiko Yoshida for lulz.

1

That art would be mad.

Spoiler

 

I'd reserve Ayami Kojima's art for something like Echoes series (genealogy again because it's the darkest game in the series) though, unless they decide to go for such an eerie look in FE16, I won't mind I'd say. It'll definitely be drastically different in tone to the Kozaki games. Might be too serious for some but could attract Castlevania fans haha.

Must say i quite enjoy playing artist bingo though. Let's see who else...Nakaba Higurashi (Baten Kaitos character designer)! She rocks and would definitely be a great character designer:

Spoiler

 

 

[dap005]

If we want FE16 to take inspiration from tactics ogre why not hire Tsubasa Masao (and Yasumi Matsuno to write the story/lore while we're at it; that would be a mind-bend for me):

Spoiler

 

 

 

Alright, I think that my last suggestion, or I'm really going to spend too much time looking at glorious character design art.

 

 

Edited January 26, 2017 by dap005

[Purikaman]

I really want Akihiko Yoshida to be artist for FE 16, I'm serious love with his art style. Also, and just for the lulz, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Super unlikely but it would be totally awesome to see the guy who maked the visuals for the anime that has mark me the most in my lfe doing the art of a new FE.

Also, I'm fine with Kozaki, but if given the option to change him I would take it with out thinking twice. His style is really good but a change is in need.

[Slumber]

31 minutes ago, Purikaman said:

I really want Akihiko Yoshida to be artist for FE 16, I'm serious love with his art style. Also, and just for the lulz, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Super unlikely but it would be totally awesome to see the guy who maked the visuals for the anime that has mark me the most in my lfe doing the art of a new FE.

Also, I'm fine with Kozaki, but if given the option to change him I would take it with out thinking twice. His style is really good but a change is in need.

Yo, new FLCL hype.

[Delfino]

I'm surprised at how many people don't seem to like Kozaki's designs. Personally, I really love them. It's the art direction that's been kind of cruddy lately, in my opinion, with too much emphasis on fan service.

Compared to old FE designs, I really enjoy how Kozaki is good about making characters more proportionally realistic in the face, especially in regards to the eyes. I'm honestly not a fan of anime artstyles that make their characters' eyes way too big (it's especially a popular thing to do that with females). Micaiah is an example of a character whose design just immediately turned me off simply because of how enormous her eyes were compared to the rest of her face. It bugs me more than it probably should.

I love some of the suggestions on this thread, though. I adore the art of Kimihiko Fujisaka and Tsubasa Masao in particular.

[solrocknroll]

Hidari is likely going to stick to Echoes, and I wouldn't be surprised if the next remake, if it happens, used her art.

I like Kozaki, but I'm open to a lot. I feel that some people have non-fitting artstyles for the series though. The only artist I don't ever want is Kita, because the Tellius art is the worst in the series. Wada is pretty great, but I think that digging back past Kozaki is boring and that we should keep him or go for an all new fresh style.

[AlexArtsHere]

8 minutes ago, Freyjadour said:

Hidari is likely going to stick to Echoes, and I wouldn't be surprised if the next remake, if it happens, used her art.

I like Kozaki, but I'm open to a lot. I feel that some people have non-fitting artstyles for the series though. The only artist I don't ever want is Kita, because the Tellius art is the worst in the series. Wada is pretty great, but I think that digging back past Kozaki is boring and that we should keep him or go for an all new fresh style.

Completely agreed. Barring the NES games, I feel like Tellius had the worst art, and the former games get a free pass because, well, it was the NES, there really wasn't much that could be done for this kind of art.

[Azure Sen]

I'm going to third the "Kita and Kozaki shouldn't come back for Switch" sentiment. I don't think Kita's art is bad, per se, but I do find it to be the most boring in the series. Her character designs are very under designed to the point of being visually very boring to look at, and they lack dynamism which in turn makes them look lifeless. Kozaki's had two games already, his designs are getting stale. Plus I don't think he's suited in general for the style of serious fantasy FE wants to be (I say that specifically because his designs for Half-Minute Hero were great, but that was a lighthearted parody of RPGs).

Akihiko Yoshida for the new Switch artist would make me very happy as long as someone forces him to give the characters noses. His fantasy designs would work really well in an FE game, as he's got a very good eye for detail and making character designs that feel alive, plus his use of color and shading is fantastic.

[solrocknroll]

13 minutes ago, AzureSen said:

I'm going to third the "Kita and Kozaki shouldn't come back for Switch" sentiment. I don't think Kita's art is bad, per se, but I do find it to be the most boring in the series. Her character designs are very under designed to the point of being visually very boring to look at, and they lack dynamism which in turn makes them look lifeless. Kozaki's had two games already, his designs are getting stale. Plus I don't think he's suited in general for the style of serious fantasy FE wants to be (I say that specifically because his designs for Half-Minute Hero were great, but that was a lighthearted parody of RPGs).

Akihiko Yoshida for the new Switch artist would make me very happy as long as someone forces him to give the characters noses. His fantasy designs would work really well in an FE game, as he's got a very good eye for detail and making character designs that feel alive, plus his use of color and shading is fantastic.

I love Kozaki's art, but I do agree that his art seems more suited to less serious works or works that are more light/silly like No More Heroes or Half-Minute Hero.

 

[dap005]

I really like Kita's costume designs actually, they say a lot about the characters even without playing the game (to me anyway, I have yet to experience the amazingness of Tellius because I'm confident they will remake it at some point so that emulation is not needed, plus I can support the series as well, legally). And looking through the Tellius artbook is even more impressive the wide array of designs on show (makes me wish I had the skills to do character design haha). Be interesting to see to see if they'll get Kita to work on such a remake because her artstyle's a lot more refined now, so it will still feel fresh yet clearly nostalgic at the same time: 

Spoiler

 

But I seriously would be shocked if IS doesn't bring in a new artist so that switch Emblem can have it's own style (both in art and obviously engine, now that their working on a hd console).

 

[Slumber]

Yeah, I don't think Kita's anywhere near the worst. I just think that, for whatever reason, the way her art was presented in FE9/10 didn't do it any favors. I really like the character design and costume design of the characters she did. She did a good job conveying the idea that this is a strategy series loosely based on a medieval fantasy Europe, but that the series is still a Japanese RPG franchise.

Somebody like Kozaki may be better on a technical level, and certainly it's presented in a much better way in the games, but again. Kozaki's art just doesn't fit with the series. You definitely get the fact that this is supposed to be a JRPG series, but that's about the only aspect of the series Kozaki managed to capture.

Even as much as I love FE5 and Jugdral in general(And as I'm using some of her art as an avatar), I don't think Hirota's shoujou-esque art fit the series that well, either. I also don't think Wada demonstrated herself well until FE7... something about 6's designs just feel off to me.

[dap005]

On 26/01/2017 at 3:55 AM, Slumber said:

Yamada is definitely more likely than Amano. 

I started playing heroes today and thought I recognise that artstyle of Yamada's! 

Spoiler

He did wonders to Jagen, can we please have him just do the art for the next fe remake lol. 

And Tsubasa Masao also contributed to heroes! This is great haha: 

Spoiler

 

Edited February 3, 2017 by dap005

[Harvey]

I said this before and I'll say it again, I really do think that the next artist should be Akira Toriyama.

Yeah I get that he makes easy money with Dragon Quest and all and that he's on his age of retirement but there is a lot of charm in his artstyle that It really makes me wish that he does do the art for this new FE game.

If that's not gonna happen, I think the next artist should be Shinobu Ohtaka. I really like the artstyle of Magi.

https://fsmedia.imgix.net/6b/14/a4/d4/4531/42a1/9319/901321b990fc/latestcb20130106092841.png

EDIT: Also..since Nintendo has now introduced chibi FE and since many didn't find that jarring, I think its safe to assume that Oda-San can be the next artist. I mean why not? A lot of people find One Piece's artstyle charming.

 

Edited February 10, 2017 by Harvey

[Slumber]

4 hours ago, Harvey said:

I said this before and I'll say it again, I really do think that the next artist should be Akira Toriyama.

Yeah I get that he makes easy money with Dragon Quest and all and that he's on his age of retirement but there is a lot of charm in his artstyle that It really makes me wish that he does do the art for this new FE game.

If that's not gonna happen, I think the next artist should be Shinobu Ohtaka. I really like the artstyle of Magi.

https://fsmedia.imgix.net/6b/14/a4/d4/4531/42a1/9319/901321b990fc/latestcb20130106092841.png

EDIT: Also..since Nintendo has now introduced chibi FE and since many didn't find that jarring, I think its safe to assume that Oda-San can be the next artist. I mean why not? A lot of people find One Piece's artstyle charming.

 

Toriyama's got the "only six faces" thing going on. He's really good with designing outfits and costumes, but actual characters, you usually get "Bulma with ___ hair" or "Goku with ____ hair" or "Vegeta with ____ hair".

If we're actually going to go with big-name artists who have made big works like manga, I think Togashi would be fun like I mentioned, just because of the history of Dragon Ball and Yu Yu Hakusho. I don't think Togashi fits the series at all(He DOES have a very 90s-style of art, which would be a nice throw back), but just as a sort of "Eh? Eh? Square got Toriyama, we got Togashi.". And like I said earlier; it's not like Togashi's doing anything else. Plus, he seems more interested in playing video games nowadays than working on HxH.

Still, I doubt FE would get any huge artists. I mean, the got the guy who did Get Backers to write Fates, but that was a different thing entirely.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Slumber

[dap005]

They'll most likely hire artists that actually worked in games character design before. Manga artists that are working full time is highly unlikely since they are seriously one of the most busy people.

Freelance games artists on the other hand however, are likely to be hired. A couple of people I mentioned have already contributed art to heroes already so not sure if they'll ever be invited back to do an official game. 

Yamada's art seems really very received by the core fans so far so I'm hopeful for him to work on a full fe game in future. Cough fe4 remake cough.

Edited February 10, 2017 by dap005

[The Malign Knight]

On ‎28‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 3:03 PM, AzureSen said:

I'm going to third the "Kita and Kozaki shouldn't come back for Switch" sentiment. I don't think Kita's art is bad, per se, but I do find it to be the most boring in the series. Her character designs are very under designed to the point of being visually very boring to look at, and they lack dynamism which in turn makes them look lifeless. Kozaki's had two games already, his designs are getting stale. Plus I don't think he's suited in general for the style of serious fantasy FE wants to be (I say that specifically because his designs for Half-Minute Hero were great, but that was a lighthearted parody of RPGs).

Akihiko Yoshida for the new Switch artist would make me very happy as long as someone forces him to give the characters noses. His fantasy designs would work really well in an FE game, as he's got a very good eye for detail and making character designs that feel alive, plus his use of color and shading is fantastic.

I dunno man. The lack of noises has pretty much become an important mark of Yoshida's style.

But anyway, I agree with those saying Akihiko Yoshida: I love his style so I'm not totally biased I swear and It's also super fitting for a fantasy medieval RPG like FE imho

Also, this is super unlikely, but I would be really curious to see Ko Takeuchi's style in a FE game, even if, again, he is very unlikely to work in a FE game.

 

[The Geek]

8 hours ago, Slumber said:

Toriyama's got the "only six faces" thing going on. He's really good with designing outfits and costumes, but actual characters, you usually get "Bulma with ___ hair" or "Goku with ____ hair" or "Vegeta with ____ hair".

If we're actually going to go with big-name artists who have made big works like manga, I think Togashi would be fun like I mentioned, just because of the history of Dragon Ball and Yu Yu Hakusho. I don't think Togashi fits the series at all(He DOES have a very 90s-style of art, which would be a nice throw back), but just as a sort of "Eh? Eh? Square got Toriyama, we got Togashi.". And like I said earlier; it's not like Togashi's doing anything else. Plus, he seems more interested in playing video games nowadays than working on HxH.

Still, I doubt FE would get any huge artists. I mean, the got the guy who did Get Backers to write Fates, but that was a different thing entirely.

I concur on Toriyama, his character designs are all way too similar.  Plus I don't really think his style would fit for FE.  Maybe if it was another one like Gaiden and Sacred Stones where you're constantly fighting monsters (since creature design is one of Toriyama's greatest strengths).

But with Togashi... honestly, if they can't get him away from Dragon Quest long enough to work on his own series, I doubt he would work on something else.  Same goes for the artist for Berserk.

Plus I don't need my friends who are fans of those series hating Fire Emblem for causing even more delays.

[Slumber]

Yeah, I wasn't suggesting some big name manga artist should come in and do FE art. I was more just replying to somebody who did suggest that, and then suggesting an artist who would be interesting on a meta level. 

Edited February 11, 2017 by Slumber

[smash-brethren]

Personally I'm actually quite fond of kozaki's art style but I'd really like to see more variation in his character designs, this being said I'd love for hidari to take over work for fe as well
also I think most of us are in agreement that the armor designer needs to be changed asap

[Harvey]

On 2/11/2017 at 1:22 AM, The Malign Knight said:

Akihiko Yoshida

If he draws FE characters that don't have noses and end up almost looking like chibi's(if not done right), I will get very VERY mad

Meanwhile I think either Hiro Mashima or the artists behind Valkyria Chronicles should be the ones for the next FE game...after all, its fits considering the amount of fan service FE has as of now.

also I think most of us are in agreement that the armor designer needs to be changed asap.

 

What's wrong with the armor? I think the ones designed in fates are great alongside Awakening. 

 

Edited February 13, 2017 by Harvey

[Folt]

I'd love to see Kozaki's designs for the big screen, now that I think about it. There's something about the way he makes the characters that make them look so good and different from each other to me.

That said, I'd love to see Hidari work on redesigns for other Fire Emblem remakes if Fire Emblem Echoes is indeed a start towards getting some older FEs into the west.