The in-game hero designs had been so good. I don’t know how I feel about this one. Her design might need to grow on me. Ironcially, it’s another “guest” artist (giving Xenoblade 2 flash back here). I think Monolith Soft should just stick with their in-house designers. They did a wonderful job on the game. I don’t think we need more “guest” artists.
What bothers me the most about these guest artists is that the work that got in the game look worse than their portfolio. Their own work tends to look better than what got into the game. This happened to XC2 quite a bit. Not every artists obviously. Some artists really did the best they could and are comparable or even better their portfolio but most of them?… Look worse.
I mean you can just take a look at this PALOW person and they could’ve picked any of those designs from their twitter page, but nope we got this weird moe red skeletal green PlayStation triangle chicken lady. It’s weird to me because shouldn’t you be putting your best foot forward to a product that could potentially reach MILLIONS of people and be immortalize in culture? idgi.
I mean I understand that some artists do keep their best work to themselves and also they can get hired because of their portfolio but at the same time you can get hired by your work on another product esp if it’s known/well regarded. Like your art can still be appreciated on another person’s work.
It left a sour taste in my mouth because I got an impression that some of these artists simply don’t care about Xenoblade that’s why designs are questionable at times. They did it because it’s just another job. Monolith should really just stick with their in-house artists simply because they are more passionate. Although, PALOW said he’s “a fan of the series” and that he was “deeply moved” he could design a character but like it’s not showing up on paper I’m sorry. I don’t know what to believe because I don’t think anyone would say anything negative about a client esp when you have your work in it. Same reason I don’t expect the voice actors to come out and say the game sucks.
Their in-house artist is more than good enough. Strictly speaking about artistic skill level alone not “design”. You can just look at the heroes art. They are technically better drawn than Saito’s work even. On a technical level, the shading, color, perspective, pose dynamism, anatomy are top notch. Saito‘s character portraits are actually a bit flat and stiff. He’s gotten better with gestures on XC3 for sure, but it still doesn’t look as well as Monolith’s own artists. A curious thing about Saito tho is that his BEST work/design is definitely with Xenoblade. He took it very seriously. I can see through his work. That’s very good. That’s what we like to see. Monolith managed to snag a free lance artist and somehow got his best work on the game. It doesn’t always go this way as I’ve elaborated. It probably put more pressure on him since he’s the main designer so he kind of has to do his best, but still I’ve seen other artists that are “main character designer” and it was not their best work lol so..yeah.
I say this as an outsider looking in. Art is subjective (for the most part). A passionate work can still end up being bad. Although, I would say rarely so but it can happen. I guess it tis..fate.