Who gets to keep their face? (AKA possible Genealogy redesigns)

[Jotari]

So that Genealogy remake has been just around the corner for about five years now. And one interesting aspect if we do ever get it, is that many characters will get new designs, as every dedicated remake so far has made efforts to remove the palette swapped portraits. And this doesn't always impact minor characters. Playable character Deen even got a new redesign (to my dismay) as a result of this old series quirk. So, who should keep the designs already present in the game and who should get a revamp.

For the record, here are all the shared portraits (I think).

https://imgur.com/SFEzJ2e

My one request is that Coulter absolutely cannot keep the slanty eyed combover design. As Coulter already has a second design from Thracia and I just find it funny if he has a different design for each appearance. And considering he shares the most reused portrait, he stands a good chance.

Ares is the character least likely to be redesigned as he's already in Heroes. But I would like to see him essentially having the same face as Eldigan, but rougher clothes to reflect his lifestyle.

Morrigan seems a shoe in to keep the robed design, as he's the only one of the three actuall a lopt member. Off topic, but for me his name is kind of weird. It's from an Irish mythological figure called The  Morrigan, so I always feel the article is missing. She's also a woman in the legend so bit strange a guy is rocking the name too.

I feel Daccar should keep his design, as unlike the other two guys, I actually remember him, being that he is a major boss of his chapter. Though the king of that title goes to Chagall, it's bizarre they shared his design with Muhammad. I think people very much associate it with Chagall though, so he'll probably keep it. Then again it could be an opportunity to give him a less goofy design. Course a bit of a goofy design fits Chagall's character too.

I actually missed one boss. There is another Short Grey Hair Triplet character who looks almost identical to Vaja but has larger eyes.

Anyway,  some loose thoughts of mine. Do you have any prefereces for which character should keep their face, who do you associate these faces with the most and do you have any idea for more thematically appropriate redesign (should one of the Oragahill pirates get an eye patch?)

[Etrurian emperor]

You know I think not even Hilda has an original face. Doesn't a merc enemy in Silesia use the same portrait?

[Acacia Sgt]

30 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

You know I think not even Hilda has an original face. Doesn't a merc enemy in Silesia use the same portrait?

Yes, Lamia. Hilda's is basically an older version of the portrait.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

You know I think not even Hilda has an original face. Doesn't a merc enemy in Silesia use the same portrait?

It's not quite identical. It's more like Andrey/Scipio and Slayder/Schmidt where one portrait is obviously based off another but they went to the effort of changing it at least a bit beyond some colours.

[AnonymousSpeed]

Dithorba is also in Heroes with (if I remember right) basically the same design, so she'll probably keep that. I honestly have no idea though, I'm not sure there's been a chance for a character to be introduced to the west by Heroes first and then a remake of their game, so they may decide they don't want to hold themselves to those designs.

The Heroes designs have been pretty loyal to the FE4 ones from what I can tell though, so we might not see any race-swapped characters and Isaach probably won't be given any Arab flair.

Echoes gives us a weird precedent here where some palette swaps stayed palette swaps (namely Barth and Garth), so it's not out of the question that the same happens for some of these characters. I'm assuming the triplet bosses with have generally similar designs, though it'd be cool if the portraits at least had them in different poses.

[Acacia Sgt]

I'd hope the Freege Mage Sisters used their Cipher designs, since they actually have unique designs now thanks to the card game.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Dithorba is also in Heroes with (if I remember right) basically the same design, so she'll probably keep that. I honestly have no idea though,

True.

1 hour ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I'm not sure there's been a chance for a character to be introduced to the west by Heroes first and then a remake of their game, so they may decide they don't want to hold themselves to those designs.

Well, to be so technical as to be pedantic, the Ram Village gang was introduced under their redesigns in Heroes first. Because they were dropped like a week before Shadows of Valentia was released. Of course... obviously the game existed already it just hadn't been released. But that's the only remake so far made in the lifetime of Heroes. It did reflect Choose Your Legends though as initially we had the old NES sprite work for all the characters there in Year 1.

1 hour ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

The Heroes designs have been pretty loyal to the FE4 ones from what I can tell though, so we might not see any race-swapped characters and Isaach probably won't be given any Arab flair.

I'd love to see some Arab flair in Isaach, but the cloned units aren't really an opportunity for that. As the only Chapter 6 boss here is Schmidt, whose name is definitely very far from Arab sounding. Plus, probably all the bosses from Chapter 6 are Grannvales stationed in Isaach.

I was about to mention Nuiba a for how they just replaced a character design. But her original design actually was part of the Gaiden clone gang. Still, that particular monstrous face wasn't used in Shadows of Valentia, so some of these designs might be ditched altogether.

1 hour ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Echoes gives us a weird precedent here where some palette swaps stayed palette swaps (namely Barth and Garth), so it's not out of the question that the same happens for some of these characters. I'm assuming the triplet bosses with have generally similar designs, though it'd be cool if the portraits at least had them in different poses.

You fight them three times but there are two sets of triplet bosses (you fight the mage ones twice). Obviously they should look similar (and they do between the two designs given to these six similar bosses), but I expect we'll get a third design and not just reuse the short hair or long hair for two of the three. Will the two sets of triplets be similar to each other though? And will any of them look like Dithorba who has the same design and is in Heroes? That I'm not sure of. I think they could give them the same haircut while still making them look different from Dithorba. The mages could also be given robes in a more full body design (though the second set of triplets are falcon knights just like Dithorba).

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

I'd hope the Freege Mage Sisters used their Cipher designs, since they actually have unique designs now thanks to the card game.

Oh really? I'll have to check that out. Did Cipher give unique designs to many of the clone characters?

Edited September 14, 2023 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Oh really? I'll have to check that out. Did Cipher give unique designs to many of the clone characters?

Yep.

They're still triplets, but they now have unique outfits, different eye colors, and some other differences there. I'm pretty sure Elius has a slight different eye design, and gives me vibes of being the "youngest triplet"... maybe.

Sadly, they, as well as Grommel, are the only minor bosses in Cipher, best I know.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Yep.

They're still triplets, but they now have unique outfits, different eye colors, and some other differences there. I'm pretty sure Elius has a slight different eye design, and gives me vibes of being the "youngest triplet"... maybe.

Sadly, they, as well as Grommel, are the only minor bosses in Cipher, best I know.

Those more or less are the Genealogy designs, just expanded on and made more magelike. They do still look reminscent of Dithorba, but still unique. That's what I would mostly expect from them. They'll probably do something with the Lachesis bodyguards, make them distinct but similar to each other (triplets are pretty common in Jugdral, huh).

Edited September 14, 2023 by Jotari

[Jotari]

Oh, I just recalled another pair. Lahna, Lewyn's mother, shares a portrait with the mysterious river goddess lady that gives Lex his brave axe.