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Character Design Critique Thread

Last posted Nov 06, 2023 at 10:38AM EST. Added Oct 30, 2023 at 02:47PM EDT
12 posts from 7 users

Greetings and welcome to the character critique thread. Here we will be presenting and critiquing various character designs from all types of media and talking about why we like them or dislike them.

Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

(Let's get this going.)

Back when MGSV came out, I remember that I wasn't the biggest fan of her face, but with time, I have come to consider it cute. I really like her long black glove on her left hand, but I think she would have looked even better if she also had one on her right. Overall, I believe she looks pretty fine from the waist up, but not so much from the waist down. The tights don't really work for me. I wish she had black pants instead. I believe that would have made her look cooler and a bit more menacing.

In the end, I believe it to be a decent character design, even if it has some aspects I dislike.

Edgar Weebling wrote:

Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

(Let's get this going.)

Back when MGSV came out, I remember that I wasn't the biggest fan of her face, but with time, I have come to consider it cute. I really like her long black glove on her left hand, but I think she would have looked even better if she also had one on her right. Overall, I believe she looks pretty fine from the waist up, but not so much from the waist down. The tights don't really work for me. I wish she had black pants instead. I believe that would have made her look cooler and a bit more menacing.

In the end, I believe it to be a decent character design, even if it has some aspects I dislike.

As someone that saw Quiet, I always felt meh to her and thought people were too focused on how "breathing through her skin" sounded dumb when the game had its share of outlandish things. That said, part of me wish she had a costume similar to that of the Colossal Titan from AOT or Uncle Frank from Hellraiser when he was regaining his form from his victims, just a skinless person with exposed muscle. It helped that sometimes when seeing Quiet on the selection menu that something goes through her skin and it would of made for an interesting costume that would reflect what happened to her in the hospital.

I'm in agreement with SicklyVivian in that I wish Quiet had more creative design. I find her to be awfully generic and her sex appeal to be too upfront for being a piece of eye candy. This isn't criticism coming from puritanical eyes, I just find her underwhelming in that regard as shes leaves nothing to the imagination. Furthermore, her getup, particularly the torn fishnets, are awfully cliche. Like a stripper wearing a few bits of military garb with no more thought given to that idea. If sticking with same theme, I would have opted for her to wear a full gillie suit insteadā€¦and nothing under it. Let people go wild with that idea.

I do like her Sniper Wolf outfit much, much more, but I am a big fan of the "less is more" approach to sex appeal.

For a franchise that usually puts so much effort into providing science mumbo jumbo to explain its nonsense, it kinda bothers me that they never explain why she wears stockings. Wearing a bikini into a battlefield is fine, but bare legs is the bridge that broke the camel's straw? She needs to breathe!

As for a character that I feel a tad strongly about right now: Leibniz, from Blaster Master Zero(2 and 3). Spoilers; beware.

It was a fascinating journey, learning more about this character, who spends the entirety of BMZ2 and most of BMZ3 looking like Zero from Mega Man X if he was a complete edgelord, followed by this grand unmasking in the true ending route of BMZ3.

Edgelord Zero was a cute femboy the whole time! Except they're not? Maybe? Where do those ears even go?
From what I can gather, Leibniz's gender was an ever-active discussion within the community, even as far back as BMZ2; they were always referred to in the English release as "he", though this could be interpreted as meaning that the characters themselves don't know the truth; in the Japanese release, Leibniz always referred to themselves with the word "boku", which is usually used to distinguish the user as male and is reserved for formal contexts. According to a Fandom page, the director stated that Leibniz(presumably their species) doesn't have a gender like humans do, but I couldn't find a citation for this. That said, it is clear that they really wanted to keep people guessing for a long time; even after the release of BMZ3 and Leibniz's face reveal, the localisation director just responded with "What do you think?" when asked about Leibniz's gender during an interview by ShadowRockZX. Cute face aside, the dev's explicit efforts to stay on the line between male and female is part of what I find fun about Leibniz's character design; the physical release, Blaster Master Zero Trilogy, which included all three games complete with voice acting, went as far as getting a specific VA who's known for his androgynous voice.

Well now that the cat is out of the bag, they can have more freedom in the kind of look that they can give Leibniz! What do they put them in first?
This.

Last edited Oct 31, 2023 at 02:09AM EDT

Edgar Weebling wrote:

Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

(Let's get this going.)

Back when MGSV came out, I remember that I wasn't the biggest fan of her face, but with time, I have come to consider it cute. I really like her long black glove on her left hand, but I think she would have looked even better if she also had one on her right. Overall, I believe she looks pretty fine from the waist up, but not so much from the waist down. The tights don't really work for me. I wish she had black pants instead. I believe that would have made her look cooler and a bit more menacing.

In the end, I believe it to be a decent character design, even if it has some aspects I dislike.

I like her full golden skinā€¦because its shiny :3

Sheeps44 wrote:

I like her full golden skinā€¦because its shiny :3

The only correct opinion.

We need more completely golden skins that just turn the entire character a highly reflective metallic gold, same with silver and copper (because copper is aesthetically superior to bronze).

Wilm210 wrote:

I'm in agreement with SicklyVivian in that I wish Quiet had more creative design. I find her to be awfully generic and her sex appeal to be too upfront for being a piece of eye candy. This isn't criticism coming from puritanical eyes, I just find her underwhelming in that regard as shes leaves nothing to the imagination. Furthermore, her getup, particularly the torn fishnets, are awfully cliche. Like a stripper wearing a few bits of military garb with no more thought given to that idea. If sticking with same theme, I would have opted for her to wear a full gillie suit insteadā€¦and nothing under it. Let people go wild with that idea.

I do like her Sniper Wolf outfit much, much more, but I am a big fan of the "less is more" approach to sex appeal.

If Quiet's design was so generic sex-appeal wise, then I have to wonder, how on Earth did she manage to generate such a stir anyways? There had to be something special about her looks to justify such a Moral Panic, but again, given how generic she otherwise looks, I can't put my finger on itā€¦

qx1511 wrote:

If Quiet's design was so generic sex-appeal wise, then I have to wonder, how on Earth did she manage to generate such a stir anyways? There had to be something special about her looks to justify such a Moral Panic, but again, given how generic she otherwise looks, I can't put my finger on itā€¦

I think Quiet's generic design was ill-suited and contrasts poorly with the rest of the game's gruff military, real-world visual style. She's too tacky looking to be taken seriously, but also not fantastical enough to stand apart like the Parasite Units soldiers. Quiet's stuck in awkward place. sticking out like a sore thumb and making her eye-candy status all the more blatant. I think she would have been more at home in Revengence with its over the top characters and not received anywhere near the same amount of moral panic as she did in MGSV.

This is where I think Yoko Taro fared much better with wanting sexy girls in his game. He achieved a good balance between sex appeal, but also flashy and strikingly cool with 2B.

Kommando_Kaijin wrote:

The only correct opinion.

We need more completely golden skins that just turn the entire character a highly reflective metallic gold, same with silver and copper (because copper is aesthetically superior to bronze).

Yeah I agree, I don't know why but they look more appealing, maybe its because you question how would they feel like if you hug/touch them, warm or cold? sturdy or soft? Smooth or rough?

qx1511 wrote:

If Quiet's design was so generic sex-appeal wise, then I have to wonder, how on Earth did she manage to generate such a stir anyways? There had to be something special about her looks to justify such a Moral Panic, but again, given how generic she otherwise looks, I can't put my finger on itā€¦

I think it stems from her other traits such as being a selective mute and having an apparent scientific reason as to why she dresses like that.

It's like if Mortal Kombat they say that Sonya Blade wears those sexy outfits because it is considered standard military issue.

Skeletor-sm

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