From an exclusively visual/design standpoint, who are the best and worst characters?

[Heptade]

I really like Orochi's design for some reason, I suppose I have a weakness for cute Asian girls... I really enjoy her character too, and I found her to be quite underrated, gameplay-wise (then again, Lilina was my FE6 MVP, so...). Niles is probably my favourite of the males. Special mention to Rinkah and Kagero.

Least favourite is Camilla, though not exactly for the usual reasons, and mostly because her design ensured she would be loved and hated all for the wrong reasons, with no attention paid to her actual character, i.e. a psychologically messed-up girl, but a well-intentioned one, who tried to be a mother for her parentless younger siblings (cause Garon really wasn't a parent anymore), despite not being exactly fit for the role. Still, she was arguably the closest thing to a reasonable parental figure that Corrin, Leo and Elise had while growing up.

[Thor Odinson]

Ryo's my favorite. Long hair on dudes is my general weakness and the red fits actually quite well with his yolo-lord personality no matter how calm he pretends he is. The mask-floof hair combo was on a historical samurai (the name escapes me for a sec, and it wasn't real hair in that guy's case) which makes a lot of sense given ryoma's personality can be straight up analyzed based on the Hakagure book, and it suits him a lot more than people realize it does. I think the mane would've served better in a style that isn't Kozaki's--nothing against Kozaki as an artist, but redraw Ryoma's mane akin to a lion's mane in a more realistic style instead of the anime spikes (mind, it's not just kozaki either, look at Caineghis for something very similar) and there's a drastic difference in presentation. I've had people come up to me and say that they like how Ryo's hair look despite not liking it in Kozaki's style, since I have a less anime style and draws his hair floofier and softer as a stylistic thing. 

Honorable mentions to Rinkah, Reina, Tsubaki, and Scarlet.

Least favorite is Camilla--Even ignoring all practicality and fanservice for a second, the detached thong creates a significant visual break from the armor, and it looks incredibly out of place. I would argue that having tight pants would be the optimal choice even in terms of visuals (evoking the cleavage + tight catsuit look, only with more armor) giving the sleekest image, but a long slit skirt ala beta-aversa or sonya is also an option (if we disregard that she rides a wyvern), and even a leotard is better than a detached thong if you really want those panties.  There's also better ways to convey her callous-to-enemies nature than having large and oddly-spiky hip armor that don't really mesh well with the rest of her armor visually. the cutout at the top of her curtain is also quite odd, and adds to the visual break criticism I have. It looks like it's kinda just placed there haphazardly and not super well-coordinated. Her top half is alright, the armor corset even looks good, but the bottom half just kills the design.

Edited June 1, 2017 by Thor Odinson

[NekoKnight]

9 hours ago, Emerson said:

I love Peri's outfit (since she had pants unlike other cavs and it actually looks a bit more fancy, since she's from a upper class household) although her hair, while I don't dislike it, is really out of place, with both her outfit and the game itself. To be honest, without the pink it'd be mostly fine.

A lot of people discount Peri's design because of her hair but her armor really does look fantastic.

[Hoshido Brown]

On 5/31/2017 at 11:07 AM, Anacybele said:

Ryoma is my favorite design by far. He looks so awesome and I even love his hair! I don't usually like long hair on a guy, but somehow, Ryoma makes it look amazing.

Worst? Camilla and Charlotte, by far. What was the art director smoking when he came up with these? panty windows, giant balloon boobs, exposed thighs on a MOUNTED unit, wtf? For Charlotte, I suppose it fits her character, but it makes no sense for someone going in to battle.

I also hate female Corrin's exposed thighs, as they feel so forced, random, and dumb. It's literally the only skin she exposes aside from her feet and face. Seriously. WHY did everything BUT the thighs have to be covered?

I dislike most female designs in Fates, actually, because most have those forced open thighs or some crap like that. I'm okay with a skirt or dress once in awhile, but is it too much to ask for some more women who wear pants too?

The only female designs I really like are Elise, Rinkah, and Hinoka.

1. Hinoka has exposed thighs, and is a mounted unit just like Camilla. While one is clearly more fanservice oriented than the other, it doesn't seem like the exposed thighs alone are bothering you, based on your statement.
2.  Rinka is less clothed overall than either of the female characters you don't like. But wait, she has pants. Clearly her chest bandages and pants are suitable armor. I know she's a berzerker type class, but you could make that argument for Charlotte as well.
3. That's just one of many nonsensical design trends of fates though. It just seems like you're selectively suspending your disbelief for things you like. It's not exactly a hyper-realistic setting, and while disliking unarmored inner thighs is fine, it's not as though it isn't internally consistent.
4. See #1 (I can see where you're coming from, but it seems inconsistent). I feel like the lack of shoes is a worse offense. 

With regards to Xander's hair, it really doesn't bother me. I really like the male designs for Ryoma, Xander, and Laslow. For females, I like Rinkah, Velouria, and Peri (though I agree that her hair is a bit too much). Yuugiri/ Reina gets an honorable mention. 

[Anacybele]

11 minutes ago, Hoshido Brown said:

1. Hinoka has exposed thighs, and is a mounted unit just like Camilla. While one is clearly more fanservice oriented than the other, it doesn't seem like the exposed thighs alone are bothering you, based on your statement.
2.  Rinka is less clothed overall than either of the female characters you don't like. But wait, she has pants. Clearly her chest bandages and pants are suitable armor. I know she's a berzerker type class, but you could make that argument for Charlotte as well.
3. That's just one of many nonsensical design trends of fates though. It just seems like you're selectively suspending your disbelief for things you like. It's not exactly a hyper-realistic setting, and while disliking unarmored inner thighs is fine, it's not as though it isn't internally consistent.
4. See #1 (I can see where you're coming from, but it seems inconsistent). I feel like the lack of shoes is a worse offense. 

With regards to Xander's hair, it really doesn't bother me. I really like the male designs for Ryoma, Xander, and Laslow. For females, I like Rinkah, Velouria, and Peri (though I agree that her hair is a bit too much). Yuugiri/ Reina gets an honorable mention. 

Duh, exposed thighs alone don't automatically make a design horrible to me. Camilla's design is bad for other reasons too.

Hinoka's exposed thighs don't look as forced or blatantly out there as female Corrin's. And another thing, outside of the thigh window, I like female Corrin's design.

Rinkah's class isn't meant to wear armor, I would think. But I WOULD expect someone of Camilla's class to be wearing more than she does. Charlotte is practically in just underwear like Camilla and her boobs look unrealistic to me. So again, more reasons there than just exposed skin.

Edited June 2, 2017 by Anacybele

[Thor Odinson]

Charlotte's level of exposure I don't have issues with given both her character writing and her statline+class combo (it's not like berserkers wore much, so I'm ok with that), but my issue is that fighter class design overall just doesn't look very good, though it's worse on generics because at least Charlotte's palette is excellent. The design overall feels very top-heavy and lacks balance, and would've been better if there were some armor or frills at the waist/hip area to balance it out.  Fortunately for Charlotte, at least she looks good on promotion. I really like how she looks in the berserker outfit.

[Ebony]

19 minutes ago, Thor Odinson said:

The design overall feels very top-heavy and lacks balance, and would've been better if there were some armor or frills at the waist/hip area to balance it out.

That is the perfect way to put it - top heavy. I noticed something... odd with like, Beruka and Velouria switching them to Fighter.

I actually have a somewhat of a guilty pleasure (???) in that I really like the Berserker outfit. It's mostly from the hips down, it looks so... soft and stylish.

[Thor Odinson]

3 hours ago, Ebony said:

That is the perfect way to put it - top heavy. I noticed something... odd with like, Beruka and Velouria switching them to Fighter.

I actually have a somewhat of a guilty pleasure (???) in that I really like the Berserker outfit. It's mostly from the hips down, it looks so... soft and stylish.

I do think the berserker is nice, and I think it looks better on F than M (mainly bc M has Hans and he looks like a potato), but it's definitely a drastic improvement from fighter. 

[NekoKnight]

Am I the only one who doesn't think Charlotte's level of exposure is in character? I know she is a gold digger, but she's not trying to appear as a seductress. Her outfit is too overt and breaks my suspension of disbelief. I think she should have an outfit that accentuates her sexuality in a subtle way. A little cleavage here, a little thigh there. 

 I think her design would be better with a skirt and a shirt that covers her midriff.

It's worth noting that Charlotte isn't just trying to get laid, she wants to look like marriage material for someone wealthy.

Edited June 2, 2017 by NekoKnight

[Kahvi]

I'd say my favourite is Oboro. I like her colour scheme and look overall. Other ones I really like are Jakob, Setsuna and Shiro.

My least favourite is Camilla (wow, what a surprise). I'm not entirely against fan-service, for example with Charlotte, it makes sense with her personality and motivations. Camilla on the other-hand, not so much. If they really wanted to make a motherly character, they should've probably gone with a different design. As it is in game, her personality comes off less as "the caring older sister" and more of a "I'm here to pander to a certain demographic". Just giving her actual pants or even a dress would've made her a lot better.

[Roy's Our Boy]

Are we really going into the genetics of hair colour when purple and green hair is natural in their universe?

Laslow and selena have pretty nice designs. I like the sleek mercenary look. I agree colour pallets are really important. Camillas black and purple looks really good. And does she actually only have 1 eye? She seems to pull what maximillion pegaseus did in yugioh after he got his eye ripped out. An eye patch for her would have looked pretty baller. 

Leos outfit looks really good. I also like the way they did elise's hair. That was very well done. But most of the time it is class. Some classes look better than others. Malig knights look amazing, heros look cool. Some of the hoshidon classes were a little underwhelming though. 

Edited June 2, 2017 by Roy's Our Boy

[Crux]

I generally really like the designs for the Nohr characters, so choosing favorites is tough, but I'd have to say for males: Leo, Xander and Niles are all top tier and for females: Flora, Ophelia and Charlotte all seem good to me. Honorable mentions to Laslow and Selena, the mercenary and hero classes in general just look fantastic in fates. 

For Hoshidan characters, I mean Ryoma and Reina look cool and the ninjas are fine, but everyone else feels pretty...meh? Most of their designs just don't grab me, and as for the worst designs: Hana, Takumi, Azama, and Yukimura are all pretty trash. To be fair though, none of them are as trash as Hans. 

[Erureido]

My favorite designs in the game go to Subaki, Oboro, and Azura. For the first Male Pegasus Knight, I think IS nailed Subaki's design perfectly. The hair looks quite majestic yet very elegant, giving a noble and classy vibe. The combination of navy, light blue, and white with black on the armor also look appealing. To me, such combination of colors reflect the general colors you see in the sky, where Pegasus Knights like to fight: light blue reflects daytime, navy and black signify night, and white represents the clouds. Oboro's combination of blue and orange colors standouts really well. Even her mellow'd and triggered expressions reflect both colors pretty well. The mellow'd face fits the calming vibe of navy and the bright-attitude or orange, while the triggered face fits the dark side to navy and orange's "bright with anger" vibe (at least to me since orange is part red). Azura has a truly elegant design all-around. The combination of blue, gold, and white bring out the serene and calm side to her personality, and the way her long, light blue hair flows conveys her relation to water really well. I don't know what they were going for her right leg covered in clothing while the other not, but other than that, it's a great design all around.

Other designs that I really liked were Hinoka, Hinata, Sakura, Hana, Rinkah, Scarlet, Xander, Arthur, the ninjas, the mercenaries, Selkie, and Velouria.

• Hinoka's scarf has a majestic vibe in the way it flows with the wind, representing the princess side to her pretty nicely. At the same time, the scarf also has a cape-like vibe, and that portrays her tough personality well. The combination of red and white as her primary colors also reflect both sides of her character really well. Red captures the strong and warrior-like side to her, while the white still retains her elegance as a princess. Even the short-hair is a nice touch to highlight the tomboy character of her while still looking elegant enough to highlight her ties with royalty.
• Hinata's design took some getting used to, but I definitely enjoy it now. What makes him standout from the other Samurais in this game is that he keeps his arms exposed. In addition to the muscles representing the masculine side to him, his bare arms also represent his more carefree attitude that sets him apart from the other samurais in this game. Even the messy hair and the baggy pants also convey that part of his personality. The blue and purple combination is a pretty neat combination, and it really shows when he becomes a Swordmaster. Honestly, I think Hinata has the best Swordmaster clothing in the game.
• True to her name, Sakura has the pink hair to convey what she was named after. Her clothing is elegant all-around and brings about the soft and reserved aspect to her, and the added cape goes well with her strong-will and quiet strength.
• Hana's pink clothing brings about the feminine side to her, but the combination of blue colors and platted armor on her arms show a noble side to her as well. The bandage on her forehead conveys the tomboy side of her pretty well as it shows she often finds herself in rough occasions. 
• Scarlet's combination of dark red and gold is very appealing and conveys both the tough and friendly sides to her really well. The same with the hair.
• Rinkah has the whole "tough woman" design nailed perfectly. Sure you got 'dem abs, but you also have the Chieftain mask and the arm armor that does a great job representing her tribal aspect.
• Xander has a really good combination of colors that bring about the princely and soldier sides to him. His hairstyle looks pretty nice as well.
• Arthur's combination of red, white, and blue and his pronounced chin definitely convey the superhero aspect to him really well.
• All of the ninjas look great. Saizo's mask, eye scar, scarf, and combination of red and navy colors bring about the edgy side to him. Kagero's scarf, dulled-out pink on her shirt, and hair covering one side of her face portray her serious nature. The yellow and dulled-out pink even fits the artistic side to her (at least to me IMO; something about the combination of these two colors seem very artistic). Kaze's combination of green and dark purple along with his facial expressions really bring out the calm yet serious side to him.
• All the mercenaries have some good taste in clothes. The shirts combined with the bits of armor are pretty well done. Laslow is my favorite of the three because I enjoy the use of dark grey, navy, gold on his clothes.
• Selkie's red, light grey, and yellow color combinations show the energetic and playful side to her really well. The long strings that come out of her belt give me "added tail" vibes, but the way they move about is likely swift and wild, two traits that also reflect Selkie. She shows a lot of skin with her legs though. Perhaps that was also done to emphasize her carefree side?
• I really like the Little Red Riding Hood vibe going with Velouria. Especially fits well considering the wolf side to her and its relation to the fairy tale, though my only complaint about her design is that she resembles Nah way too much.

My least favorite designs have to go to Camilla, Charlotte, Hans, and Azama. Camilla's exposed underwear is just really unnecessary, and so is the exposed skin around her chest. Charlotte's design shows way too much skin, even if it's supposed to match her character. I do like her Berserker outfit much more though. With Hans, he looks like your typical bandit and that's it. As for Azama, it's not the hair or face that throws me off (I actually like Azama's Brock eyes), it's mainly the shoes. He looks like he constantly walks around in socks, even in the battlefield. I don't know about what medieval Japanese clothing his is supposed to tie into, so that's probably why I think that about his shoes. The rest of his clothing looks rather dull as well.

Some others that struck me as meh were Leo and Ryoma's designs. Leo's design looks way too basic for my tastes. He's basically blonde Marth but covered in dark armor from head to tie with some bits of gold and that's it. He has one of the most forgettable designs for me. Ryoma looks rather too over the top in his appearance. The fact he resembles a lobster can be humorous, and it has its moments that convey its serious side to him, but it's a design that ultimately doesn't stick out in a way that I like. I think it has to do with that chin armor he wears. Seems rather unnecessary.

I do really like Ryoma's hair though, especially when he doesn't wear the chin armor. I don't know if anyone here reads that Fire Emblem Fates: The Crown of Nihelung manga featuring Leo, but I really liked Ryoma's appearance in the most recent chapter. Here's what I'm referring to:

Spoiler

Image 1:

Image 2:

Image 3:

 

Image 4:

I like how Ryoma looks here much more than he does in the actual game. His long hair looks more pronounced. His clothing is majestic enough to capture his regal personality yet still portrays the fighter-side to him. It's not too over-the-top the way his normal armor is. Although Ryoma only wore this clothing only for the ceremony that would present Corrin's return to the Hoshidan family, it closely resembles what actual Samurais wore in medieval Japan (at least what you see in pictures). Heck, we even see his sword equipped, which shows he is prepared to fight in it. I'm just hoping he really does fight in that clothing next chapter and doesn't run back to his castle to grab his armor.

Edited June 2, 2017 by Erureido

[Noma9]

Takumi, Reina, Keaton and Velouria are the best in my eyes; especially Takumi and Reina. Leo, Rinkah and Yukimura are all pretty good too. Peri's head is entirely awful, but her armor is the best. There are too many I dislike to really get into, but it almost always has to do with their hair.

[NekoKnight]

On 06/03/2017 at 4:44 AM, Erureido said:

I really liked Ryoma's appearance in the most recent chapter. Here's what I'm referring to:

  Hide contents

Image 1:

Image 2:

Image 3:

 

Image 4:

 

He really looks like Hououin Kyouma from Steins;Gate there. Now I wish he had the personality too.

[Thane]

5 hours ago, NekoKnight said:

He really looks like Hououin Kyouma from Steins;Gate there. Now I wish he had the personality too.

I wish he had A personality.

[Hero_Lucina]

On 5/31/2017 at 7:35 PM, Ertrick36 said:

Dude, if Hans wore something dapper or elegant as his uniform but kept his otherwise rugged appearance, he'd immediately jump to being my favorite villain in Fates just by that alone.

He'd look something like this:

  Reveal hidden contents

From Kozaki's twitter

 

I'd actually remember this guy more if that was the case. 

 

Some of my favorites: The Amiibo Art, Takumi, Leo, Kaze, Jakob, Shura, Silas (who especially fits in with the role of best friend. He looks so open) Dwyer, Kaden, The Royals minus Camilla (I'm neutral toward her. Don't like the boob window and exposed panties) the Nohrian Retainers, etc.

I'm shocked no one's mentioned Revelations characters. I'm not fond of Arete's design (I mean what is with the feather!?) but Sumeragi and Anthony both have solid designs in my eyes, especially since I'm a cosplayer which makes a design like Anthony's a breath of fresh air compared to all of these armor pieces and complex designs. Not like I hate every design.

 

Things I'm not fond of design wise

The fanservice

Arete

Garon's henchmen (Not appealing in the slightest.) 

[Ae†her]

I like Takumi's majestic hair, and epic fur belt. His design overall is the coolest in my opinion because it can represent two parts of one very unique character. His hair and bow together speak some kind of divinity or majestic nature of the character, while his archer's outfit and epic fur belt speak about the wild (savage-criticals) fighter in him. I think I might have to say Takumi's the best character in terms of style and visual design.

Ryoma's Yoroi (armor) is also something very special in the game, and it looked pretty badass at first hand along with the Raijinto. Some people said his hair looks hideous, but I don't see anything wrong with long hair like that other than that it might be a disadvantage in combat.

Xander's style is pretty dark, but also elegant in it's design, but his siblings and his father literally have the same type of design so it isn't anything too special in the game. That being said it still is one of the better styles in the game. Personally I think Garon's style was the darkest and the most badass from Nohr.

As for some special honorary mentions; Kagero had the sexiest non-fan service design in the game, Arete had the best fan service design in the game right ahead of Camilla, Azama had the most laid back design right ahead of Setsuna, Saizo had the best ninja design right ahead of Kaze, and Shigure had the "nicest guy style" right ahead of Kaden.

As for the worst design I would have to say it's Owain and really just any belly flapper style out there. I thought it was a horrendous choice to give such a cheerful character as Owain such a weird looking costume, how exactly is an exposed abdomen supposed to help anyone in war.

[DragonFlames]

For old times' sake.

Best: Hana, Sakura, Elise, Velouria, Selkie, Midori, Kaze, Saizo, Arthur, Mozu, Nyx, Selena, Odin, Mitama, Ophelia, Anankos (dragon), Corrin (both M and F)

Worst: Azura, Charlotte, Rinkah, Camilla, Xander, F!Corrin's thigh window, Hans, Iago, Anankos (wall face (?))

Most punchable face: Takumi, Hayato, Azura, Forrest, Laslow, Soleil, Setsuna, Azama, Kiragi, Anankos (wall face (?))

Makes me want to throw up my breakfast, lunch and dinner, then flip off whoever thought this was a good idea: Azura

Eh, alright, I guess: Everyone else

[property of nuvelle]

Well, might as well put my thoughts.

Laslow looks kind of different from Inigo, a lot more broader and a bit shorter, but I love his design. It's still mercenary but also has a bit of royal pizzazz. Another that I really liked that I don't think has been mentioned at all is Felicia. Honestly, she's the reason I started looking into Fates. Her japanese voice gave her a very cute huggable type of feeling while her localized voice gave her a clumsy lovable dork feeling, and maybe it was just the voices, but they both fit very well for me. Also, she's just adorable. I'm sure the discussion they had for her was just, "We need cute maid." and that was it.

Worst for me, I really didn't like Hinata or Charlotte. Charlotte for those obvious reasons. Hinata never really stood out to me. Nothing about him captivated me.

Edit: Forgot about the kids. Like Selkie and Velouria, don't like *insert pretty much all the male kids*

Edited June 17, 2017 by KongDude

[EricaofRenais]

My favorites by far are Kaze and Saizo, but Shiro is pretty high up there too.  as to girls Scarlet is my favorite because she looks ready for battle and is one of the few female FE characters with short hair, the other female unit I like is Rinkah again because she looks ready to fight and look like she can beat up anything in her way.

As to units I don't like Odin tops the list, see through pants are just dumb.  While I can live with the girls in Fates because I watch a lot of anime and read manga as well, if you want to do a fan service guy at least do it better, I kind of feel bad for Odin because that outfit is just bad.

[Sasori]

my favourite design would be Xander. He really nails the personality he would have had if he wasn't stuck in Fates' Awful story. The black armour and purple cape go well together as well.

My least favourite design would be Sophie. Fates has some issues with female character design, but at the very least characters like Camilla and Charlotte go all the way in their stupid fanservice. Sophie is just not wearing pants for reasons that are never explained. I wonder what part of her personality made the devs decide that "Yeah this character spends all her time in her underwear". Its not fitting and it doesn't look good either.