Fire Emblem Artstyles

[Dragrath]

ROR and RD

not a fan of awakenings art its not the feet but the blatant fan service...

Edited April 8, 2013 by Dragrath

[The Fush]

I liked Radiant Dawn and Awakening artstyles the most; some of the new character portraits from older games in Awakening also looked really slick (although in my opinion I found Ike and Micaiah's new portraits to be a bit... unlike their character).

[BrightBow]

My favorite artstyle has to be the one from Thracia 776.

It looked very consistent and I found the art to be surprisingly expressive given the limited amount of dialogue that most characters had.

Also I liked the absence of highheels and the lack of bare legs.

Pegasus Knights in particular look probably the least dumb here.

I doubt that these tights are much better suited for riding then not wearing anything, but it's just so much easier on the eye.

It's pretty neat that Tear Ring Saga kept this style. Even though that was really begging to be sued. I just wish we had more artwork so I could compare them better.

The portraits were superior in Telius because they weren't limited to the face and all but I think that the battle animations worked better in Jugdral.

I also really liked Telius.

It just bugged me, that they applied a set uniform color for each faction. So now it looked all kinds of weired that most PCs have random colors.

And I don't like the poses they strike after killing someone.

Considering how Fire Emblem usually humanizes the enemies... especially in the game where they are actually playable... I found that a bit disturbing.

Pretty much anything else is pretty cool.

I also have to say, that I am kind of a sucker for the heavily ancient Roma inspired style of the first game.

Probably because I used to read a lot of Asterix back in the day.

I also love the cover art. I'd say, that it portrays the game better then any other, clichéd as it may be.

My least favorite artwork is definitely from Awakening.

Now admittedly, the males are great.

Personally I think that Walhart and Validar look incredible goofy and I am not a fan of the toilet knights or the armored knight armor. But thats not a big issue.

Everyones art is very expressive. They do an amazing job in getting their characters across. For the reasons listed above, it would never be my favorite. But there is no way around the fact, that this is some quality work.

But the awesome artwork of the males really just highlights the double standard that is at work when it comes to the females.

They hardly express anything. Like, what is Cronelia's maniacal grin while trying to break her own spine supposed to express?

With few exceptions, they are all just trying to strike someone's idea of sexy pose, character or human anatomy be damned.

Quite frankly, there is barely and Woman striking a pose that wouldn't look completely ridiculous when a male would do them... and I don't see how they are any less ridiculous just because the poser is female.

I don't know much about the children yet, but thanks to the recent Interview, I got to see Severa and I don't see how somebody can have such a serious no-nonsense facial expression while bending over like that.

So I don't think that I am missing much there.

Considering Fire Emblem's focus on the characters, I believe that they really set the wrong priorities with their art this time around.

For Battle animations... well, I don't think this chibi-sh style works very well.

I found Cavaliers to look silly. They seem to be way to big for their horse. Frederick with his thick armor looked particularly weird.

What also looked weired, was that the partner would always walk along the main unit, even when they weren't actually doing anything.

Like, MU just walking along with Chrom, then merely watching him bash someones face in and then walking back with him and then merely watching as he takes a counter. It looked kinda off.

Still, my least favorite Battle animations can be found in the GBA games.

I really don't like those terrain-painted platforms floating over a black void.

And it really bugs me, that the whole animation system is so primitive that arrows and fireballs just disappear when the target dodges and some sprites actually end up "dodging" right into the attack. Like the Paladin.

And the animations are also very low on frames.

Before I got to play the SNES games, I wondered how much better it would be if they would use the data to simulate something resembling an actual fight, rather then just having them perform their animations right where they stand without moving...

...And the I got to play them and found out that this is how they used to do it.

I can't believe that they threw that away. It looked so cool and stylish. They even had unique sprites for each weapon.

And there is other stuff with the sprites. Like how the Knights look nothing like the Knight armor worn in the artwork of the characters.

[Refa]

Official artwork wise, it'd be uh...I dunno, I don't really pay too much attention to the OA, so I'll just say FE7.

Portraits wise, FE3 was great because it...just was, I dunno, I really liked it despite how tiny they all were. Oh, and FE5 I guess. Only for Levin. I don't really dislike any particular style, but FE6's unfinished style bothered me as well. No blinking animation?

Although if what Brightbow is saying about FE13 women is true, well...poor FE13 women.

Also FE3 had the best battle animations ever, the only problem them being...too small. They really should've upscaled that shit. FE4/FE5 are a close second, and FE10 is pretty near those.

[Rehab]

I also really liked Telius.

It just bugged me, that they applied a set uniform color for each faction. So now it looked all kinds of weired that most PCs have random colors.

And I don't like the poses they strike after killing someone.

Considering how Fire Emblem usually humanizes the enemies... especially in the game where they are actually playable... I found that a bit disturbing.

Pretty much anything else is pretty cool.

I think the poses are usually more "salutes" than HAHA BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD SKULLS FOR THE you get the idea, to be sure.

But the awesome artwork of the males really just highlights the double standard that is at work when it comes to the females.

They hardly express anything. Like, what is Cronelia's maniacal grin while trying to break her own spine supposed to express?

..

I don't know much about the children yet, but thanks to the recent Interview, I got to see Severa and I don't see how somebody can have such a serious no-nonsense facial expression while bending over like that.

So I don't think that I am missing much there.

(The answers are anime and modern anime (tsundere fixation), respectively)

[Thor Odinson]

See, I tend to separate art style with posing choices and stuff, so while I agree with the problems with the posing and design (and that's more to blame on the art director than the Kozaki since it was the art director who did the class outfits and Kozaki based the player outfits on the class designs) etc of FE13 female characters, I think the drawing style itself is pretty good, for the most part. I got a few anatomical issues in several pieces I can point out but for the most part, the technique used is good.