Who has the "best art?" (Part 3)

[indigoasis]

With the latest Resplendent Hero finally being shown (it's Lucina!), and the plethora of new heroes (plus the introduction of Resplendent Heroes, of course) that have come out since I last asked, I think it would be a good time to ask again: Who do you think has the "best art" in the game? Or if you'd rather answer a different question, who has your favorite art in the game? I do like asking this question every year or so since the game is constantly being updated with new heroes, and to keep up with changing opinions.

I personally think that Legendary Seliph and Resplendent Julia knock it out of the park. I don't think that there's any art that's more appealing to look at (for me, at least). Easily some of my favorite art in the entire game, with L!Seliph contending for the best art in the game, in my opinion. They did the boy good.

I'll also go ahead and link Part 1 and Part 2 if anyone is interested in viewing those.

[kradeelav]

Partially favoritism, but I really like Valter and Hubert's artist; the style works fabulously for the sleazy "slippery" type of villains, and the facial expressions are nailed as well - could've been really easy to make a laughingstock out of those two.

The "Fallen" series of characters is also unusually up there as far as tier goes, the glowy effects can be overused on regular versions of characters but the eeriness of the purple glow works for those derps.

[Yexin]

i really love senri kita's works, but i also like yura a lot (i know, i might be in a minority)

my overall favorite arts, though, would probably be Levin's, Shannan's, BIke's, Ashnard's, Jorge's and Loki's ones

[Hilda]

Bramimond and Legendary Eliwood. I just noticed they both from the same Artist and looked him up. I like his style alot

Wada Sachiko

Edited November 10, 2020 by Hilda

[Fabulously Olivier]

Doing this CYL style.

 

Males:

Shannan

Resplendent Eliwood

 

Females:

Resplendent Linde

OG Hinoka

 

Farfetched Art:

Legendary Seliph

Michalis

OG Eirika

Deirdre

[NSSKG151]

I'm biased but I would say New Years Anna or Apotheosis Anna has the best art. Though I would say my top 10 favorite art are...

• News Years Anna
• Apotheosis Anna
• Legendary Eirika
• Legendary Eliwood
• Resplendent Eliwood
• Brave Lysithea
• Delthea
• Celica
• Fiora
• Sirius

Honorable mentions to L'Arachel, Marisa, Elise, Norne, and Jill.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

My answers from the last two topics stand:

"Ah man, there's so much good art in Heroes! Lyn is a character who has yet to have any bad art, all of her versions so far have some of the best art in the game. Bride, Valentine, and Legendary Lyn in particular are her three best so far. I'd also say Brave Roy, Canas, and Legendary Hector have some really awesome art, and so do Alm, Sigurd, Ayra, Karel, and Karla, and so many others. But if I had to pick a single favorite, I think I'd have to go with Legendary Lyn."

"My original answers of Legendary Lyn still stands. Some new ones have come pretty close, though, such as Brave and Legendary Eliwood, and Caineghis"

I'd add some of the newer units to my list now, though. Resplendent and Ninja Lyn, Legendary Seliph, and Resplendent Eliwood, to name a few.

[GrandeRampel]

Oh, there's a bunch of good picks which makes it difficult to narrow it down.

For males: I think Fallen Berkut looks unreal, New Year Alfonse is really well drawn, Chad is pretty cool, as is Legendary Seliph. Duo Hector and Legendary Hector both look absolutely perfect. Valter looks deranged which is appropriate. Oh, and Perceval.

For females: Petrine is a recent addition to my most beloved artworks. Brave Camilla is another favorite of mine, dancer Ishtar is really good looking, same thing for spring Est, summer Lute and Bride Tanith (this might be my bias talking tho). Resplendent Sanaki is amazing, especially the special attack art. Mila also looks amazing, screw the haters. Halloween Myrrh is probably the single CUTEST art in the game, so she deserves a mention. Oh, and New Year Gunnthra.

Is it cheating if I add that everything done by Soeda Ippei, Fujisaka Kimihiko, Enkyo Yuichiro, Cuboon, Senri Kita and HACCAN is great instead of picking a specific one?

[indigoasis]

23 hours ago, kradeelav said:

The "Fallen" series of characters is also unusually up there as far as tier goes, the glowy effects can be overused on regular versions of characters but the eeriness of the purple glow works for those derps.

That reminds me, I absolutely love argon's work in the game! Cormag and Fallen Male Corrin are just the chef's kiss. Somewhat relating to that, there was also some extremely awesome art of Cormag that I found on Reddit a while ago. Cormag is easily my favorite character in terms of design, so that art is just perfect.

9 hours ago, GrandeRampel said:

Is it cheating if I add that everything done by Soeda Ippei, Fujisaka Kimihiko, Enkyo Yuichiro, Cuboon, Senri Kita and HACCAN is great instead of picking a specific one?

Not at all! This thread is more or less a way to show appreciation for how amazing the art in Heroes is. If anything, the more the merrier!

16 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

My answers from the last two topics stand:

"Ah man, there's so much good art in Heroes! Lyn is a character who has yet to have any bad art, all of her versions so far have some of the best art in the game. Bride, Valentine, and Legendary Lyn in particular are her three best so far. I'd also say Brave Roy, Canas, and Legendary Hector have some really awesome art, and so do Alm, Sigurd, Ayra, Karel, and Karla, and so many others. But if I had to pick a single favorite, I think I'd have to go with Legendary Lyn."

"My original answers of Legendary Lyn still stands. Some new ones have come pretty close, though, such as Brave and Legendary Eliwood, and Caineghis"

I'd add some of the newer units to my list now, though. Resplendent and Ninja Lyn, Legendary Seliph, and Resplendent Eliwood, to name a few.

It feels so weird knowing when those characters first came out, too. It doesn't feel like it was all that long ago, but it's actually been, as the kids say, "a hot minute." Time really does fly!

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Favorite art (excluding chargable one):

• BraveLyn
• Caeda
• Linde
• Delthea
• Ishtar
• Lewyn
• Shannan
• Ashnard
• FallenBerkut
• Nephenee

 

Favorite artists:

• HACCAN
• cuboon
• Wada Sachiko

Edited November 12, 2020 by Kasumi Yoshizawa

[Tybrosion]

I could list more, but I'll limit this to 15 per gender.

Males: Fallen Berkut, Sigurd, Julius, Spring Narcian, Eliwood [Resplendent], Brave Hector, Brave Ike, Ashnard, Black Knight, Jorge, Fallen M!Corrin, Garon, Iago, Brave Dimitri, Brave Claude

Females: Fallen Celica, Legendary Celica, Fallen Delthea, Brave Lyn, Bridal Louise, Winter Nino, Tana, Halloween L'Arachel, Ball Nephenee, Brave Micaiah, Cordelia [Resplendent], Summer Cordelia, Lucina [definitely NOT Resplendent], Ophelia, Brave Lysithea

Favorite Artists: Daisuke Izuka, Kita Senri, Wada Sachiko, Asatani Tomoyo, Umiu Geso, Amagaitaro, Soeda Ippei, Yamada Kotaro, HACCAN, Mayo

[kradeelav]

On 11/11/2020 at 3:10 PM, indigoasis said:

That reminds me, I absolutely love argon's work in the game! Cormag and Fallen Male Corrin are just the chef's kiss. Somewhat relating to that, there was also some extremely awesome art of Cormag that I found on Reddit a while ago. Cormag is easily my favorite character in terms of design, so that art is just perfect.

Dang that really is some incredible Cormag art - legit can't tell if it's fanart or official art done on the side ... the talent of this fandom in recent years is amazing.

[Vince777]

Lots of haters around here for this artist but still, for me, everything by Kusakihira Toshiyuki  (Noire, Rhajat, Spring Loki, Rinkah).

[Humanoid]

It's Valentine's Titania.

That said, I will maintain that Ippei should be given the next mainline Fire Emblem game no matter what.

[Vicious Sal]

For me, arts that surprise me in some way rank highly as some of what I would call the ‘best sets of art’. 

Idunn for example has 4 different art panels, all diferent poses. When viewing them for the first time, the special attackibg art really pops out because you expect just some more flashes and extra lighting, however, you’re treated to a completely new art piece. That is amazing effort and deserves recognition. 

Brave camilla has a similar effect, though less strong. Her special is different from her attacking art, but the damaged art is the same pose as the normal attack.

 

Also a great shoutout to artists that go all out on the special, such as Jeorge! Daniel shows up and the art is just this fantastic expansion compared to the base attack. Same for the damaged art, hiding behind a rock just does so much for the character instead of just having cut up clothing.

 

As for favourites, Valentines Titania is a top 3 for sure, Bridal Micaiah and Nailah score high too. 

I just love art that resembles the Tellius games, so stuff from Senri Kita is always great. 

 

 

[Mercakete]

So, the thing about this is that I don't know how we're defining "best." They say that art is subjective, but that's only partially true. There are technical skills (such as lighting, anatomy and perspective) which must be developed by an artist for the art to be objectively "good." It's measurable in progress and attainable, and even people who haven't studied art have an unconscious understanding when these are off. Then there's design, creativity, negative space balance, asymmetric balance... I just really don't know how we're supposed to judge here. I know you said that we can choose art we personally like the best, but I like looking at things like this with a more objective point of view, so I'd like to know what defines "best" in this case.

Edit: Oh, there's character likeness, too. For example, Naesala's art is actually very good. However, his face is different from his reference art. And then where's the artwork for various older characters (such as FE4 characters) where the artist stayed true to most everything in the original artwork, but balanced it in such a way that the style became a bit more modern and realistic, which is a skill unto itself, and I think should be applauded. Is character likeness a factor here?

Edited November 14, 2020 by Mercakete

[indigoasis]

6 hours ago, Vicious Sal said:

Idunn for example has 4 different art panels, all diferent poses. When viewing them for the first time, the special attackibg art really pops out because you expect just some more flashes and extra lighting, however, you’re treated to a completely new art piece. That is amazing effort and deserves recognition. 

I honestly love it when units have 4 different art panels. That's why I love Legendary Seliph so much.

6 hours ago, Mercakete said:

So, the thing about this is that I don't know how we're defining "best." They say that art is subjective, but that's only partially true. There are technical skills (such as lighting, anatomy and perspective) which must be developed by an artist for the art to be objectively "good." It's measurable in progress and attainable, and even people who haven't studied art have an unconscious understanding when these are off. Then there's design, creativity, negative space balance, asymmetric balance... I just really don't know how we're supposed to judge here. I know you said that we can choose art we personally like the best, but I like looking at things like this with a more objective point of view, so I'd like to know what defines "best" in this case.

Edit: Oh, there's character likeness, too. For example, Naesala's art is actually very good. However, his face is different from his reference art. And then where's the artwork for various older characters (such as FE4 characters) where the artist stayed true to most everything in the original artwork, but balanced it in such a way that the style became a bit more modern and realistic, which is a skill unto itself, and I think should be applauded. Is character likeness a factor here?

Well, I put "best art" in quotes since I think it's mainly subjective, and people have different preferences for so many things, so unless there's an art critic here, I'm more or less looking for what art people personally like the best. For a good while, I considered Sigurd to have some of the best art in the game because of how faithful his design was to his original art.

With that said, you're free to judge or give your answers however you want. For this thread, I would define "best" as how you would personally define it. If you want to look at it objectively, you are more than welcome to! Feel free to take any and/or all factors into consideration, if you want to. (And just a reminder, this is all for fun!)

[eclipse]

I'm a fan of Etrian Fire Emblem.  It doesn't have to LOOK exactly like the official FE art for me to appreciate it!  Plus, I'm a sucker for bold colors that don't clash.

[XRay]

In terms of art style as a whole, I guess my favorite art style is the default Heroes art style that most characters have.

While Ippei's artstyle is not my favorite nor my preferred art style, I do appreciate the different direction he takes and he makes his characters look less "samey" compared to everyone else. Looking at his characters feels fresh, if that makes sense.

Panne's artwork stood out to me a lot when I first saw it. I was "WHOA!!! She is really pretty!"

At first, I really disliked ITM!Laevatein art style, but it has grown on me a lot over the past few days. I still do not like her face in the attack and Special art, but I really like her default art now. I love the design and bold colors of her outfit. I really dig her white skin tight suit on her dark tan skin, and the splash of red on her thigh socks is very eye catching and looks real nice. The only thing I disliked about her default art is that I wish the developers would move the artwork as a whole a bit more the left since the right side of the screen cuts off parts of her feet and axe.

I also like most wedding gowns, bunny outfits, and swimsuits in general. BB!Louise is my favorite for brides, RR!Loki for bunny outfits, and OM!Byleth for swimsuits.

[Gordin]

Resplendent Gordin who isn't a fucking Shota this time in 2021. (Please I am begging you IS he never looked like he was 10 in his Shadow dragon and especially new mystery art 😭😭😭, I will never get over this)

[Interdimensional Observer]

8 minutes ago, Gordin said:

Resplendent Gordin who isn't a fucking Shota this time in 2021. (Please I am begging you IS he never looked like he was 10 in his Shadow dragon and especially new mystery art 😭😭😭, I will never get over this)

Not to mention, if Gordin looks shota, then how is Ryan going to look? The little brother has to look younger than the elder!

Though, the chances of Ryan are coming are rather slim, so pretend the Gordin we have is actually Gordin's soul in his brother's body.

The old FE3 artwork where Gordin takes a manly, pantsless stance would be great if given a modern update.

[Gordin]

Just now, Interdimensional Observer said:

Not to mention, if Gordin looks shota, then how is Ryan going to look? The little brother has to look younger than the elder!

Though, the chances of Ryan are coming are rather slim, so pretend the Gordin we have is actually Gordin's soul in his brother's body.

The old FE3 artwork where Gordin takes a manly, pantsless stance would be great if given a modern update.

Petition to get Ryan in Feh next year by mass voting him in cyl so the devs have no choice to give gordin new art 👀👀

[Heir of Dragons and Beasts]

Persona FE sorry but Dear Zeus they are all beautiful.

[Mercakete]

16 hours ago, indigoasis said:

Well, I put "best art" in quotes since I think it's mainly subjective, and people have different preferences for so many things, so unless there's an art critic here, I'm more or less looking for what art people personally like the best. For a good while, I considered Sigurd to have some of the best art in the game because of how faithful his design was to his original art.

With that said, you're free to judge or give your answers however you want. For this thread, I would define "best" as how you would personally define it. If you want to look at it objectively, you are more than welcome to! Feel free to take any and/or all factors into consideration, if you want to. (And just a reminder, this is all for fun!)

Okay. 🙂 Hmmm in order to really do this accurately, I'd have to look at every single piece of art in the game. ... Not exactly quick and I have other things I need to do with my time, so I'll just go off of memory, I suppose.

I think that the ones that fit the most categories are probably the book 3 FEH characters (especially Hel, Lif, and Thrasir.) The technical skill required to draw those characters that well is astounding, particularly when it comes to anatomy. If you're showing the characters' working skeletons, you can't fudge that. You have to actually know what you're doing, and not just with the human skeleton. You need to represent everything accurately (muscle/fat/organ/skin mass where the ballistics gel is) or it's going to look weird. Like, in some art styles, you ask yourself "where are her organs supposed to go?" (usually this happens exclusively to females, but it does happen to guys too) because everything's as skinny as possible. Plus, the women in that book (Eir included) were designed to look stately, which is refreshing. (Usually, females fall into "sexy" (Loki/Plumeria) "cute" (Genny/Nino) "spunky/earnest" (Peony/Sharena/Mae) "motherly" (Makoto/Mila/Rinea) or "cool" (Ayra/Karla/Shamir) categories, in both writing and artwork, while males tend to get more facets to their designs/writing. Sometimes you get "I'm strong!" but that usually also falls into one of the other categories, such as Rinkah falling into the "cute" category because she gets easily embarrassed and goes into straight-on denial about some (liking sweets) things because she's insecure. But usually, for some reason, strong women seem to always be drawn as busty and show that particular bit of themselves off.) Hel in particular, however, was 0% going for attraction appeal, which, again, I found super refreshing. Even her voicing was much more focused on her essence (death: somewhat harsh, rather unemotional, and can't really be bothered to be bothered about much. Still relentless, though.) She's not meant to be someone you want to protect/cuddle up to, she's meant to be imposing, dignified, and otherworldly, and her art reflects that. And those skeletons in her special activation art? Again, let's appreciate the artist's proficiency with anatomy, movement, and representing force (weight/movement.) Sure, you're supposed to feel sorry for Eir, and her facial expression nails this, but again, she looks stately and elegant. "Repose" comes to mind, which is perfect for that book. Her pale skin tone is actually rather perfect, too. It's hard to nail just the right skin tone, and hers is juuuust between living and dead.

Pretty as she is, though, Lif and Thrasir's art is better than hers on a technical level, again because you can see their skeletons and the "flesh" surrounding them, so everything needs to be on point from an anatomy and perspective point of view, as I mentioned earlier. Because so much mass is somewhat see-through, too, it presents a challenge with lighting. As I looked at their artwork, I was nothing but impressed. The art makes sense, the characters are still in the FEH art style (not easy to accomplish both since being anatomically accurate can easily, easily, easily lead to a change in art style), the designs of the characters have little clues about who they actually are (like Lif's ballistics gel glowing the same color as the gems in Alfonse's sword or Thrasir's ballistics gel matching the color of Veronica's portal-closing magic) WITHOUT blatantly giving their identities away, and (especially with Lif) other elements of the designs were interesting and refreshing (i.e., Lif's fur cape and the horns on Thrasir's mask) while still remaining on the Norse theme. I also really like how opposite ends of Lif and Thrasir's faces are hidden (lower face for Lif, upper for Thrasir.) Also, I thought it was really smart of the designer to use ballistics gel for non-gory partially-decayed characters, since ballistics gel does actually mimic flesh irl (which is why it's used for weapons testing) and is usually poured into a mold with a (not actually made of bone) skeleton inside for weapons-testing dummies (though these can also have sacks filled with colored liquid to represent organs to see how the weapons would affect organs and to see "bleeding." This colored liquid isn't always red, either.)

All that said, I was also impressed with Ninja Navarre's artwork. The foreshortening and anatomy representation there is epic, plus, again, representing force. And one memorable piece of art is Rutger's. I LOVE the use of his hood in his damaged art. I never played FE6 so I'm not really familiar with him, but his art is really nice. I also really like the retro feel that Mila and Bantu's artwork give. It feels "classic fantasy" and gives me a sense of wonder and nostalgia. Fallen M!Robin's standard artwork is really nice, too. It has a powerful, gritty feeling to it while still looking aesthetically pleasing, and I like the hood being represented here. I can't ignore Subaki's (and others') damaged art, either. Kudos for any artist who is brave enough to tackle a ponytail getting undone. Oh, and Summer Wolt's damaged artwork. Fish to the face, and his expression, are brilliant. Jorge's special activation, too, as it includes another character entirely (his brother, Daniel.) Can't leave out Fallen Berkut, where 2/4 of his artwork includes Witch Rinea, and his expressions are fantastic. And Oliver's damaged art is...stunning. Yes, that word works. Shinon's artwork is also impressively spot-on, including the subtleties in his expression, and how true to his actual design the artwork is.

As others have mentioned, I also appreciate it when artists draw a different piece for each of a character's artwork (standard, attacking, special activation, and damaged.)

In the end, I don't think I can pick a "best" but there are certainly people who deserve recognition. There's a lot more, too.

[Morgan--Grandmaster]

I have give special attention to Chrom, Lyn,  Ninian, Female Corrin, Camilla, Ryoma, and Ephraim for having consistently great art across the multiple versions of themselves, hairstyles, and different artists. But the thing is, it's so hard to determine a single best piece of art since it would be such a case-by-case basis and lots of different tones i.e. cute, gorgeous, cool. I do notice that I have several favorites including Amagaitaro, Aoji, Asatani Tomoyo, cuboon, DSmile, Enkyo Yuichiro, Fujiwara Ryo, hanekoto, Itagaki Hako, kaya8, Kita Senri, Konfuzi Kokon, Kozaki Yusuke, Maeshima Shigeki, Maiponpon, Meka, Mikuro, Miwabe Sakura, Miyajima Haru, Noy, PenekoR, sachie, Sainosuke, Sata, Sencha, teffish, Tobi, Umiu Geso, Wada Sachiko, Yamada Kotaro, and Zaza.