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naznatips on 08 December 2007
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ItsaMii said:
naznatips said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characters_of_Tales_of_Innocence

Spada is clearly of french design. Nothing very anime in his design at all. Iria is supposed to look like a pirate, which she pulls off pretty well. She has some anime touches to be sure, but nothing like the other games. Ricardo is clearly of American Wild West influence. Ange and Ruca are both English influence.

None of these characters fit standard anime cliches, and I'm not really sure what you are talking about ItsaMii. Either you don't watch much anime at all, or you just didn't remember the characters very well. Clearly the characters are supposed to be European in style. As are the villages whenever you actually get the chance to play it. There is an anime touch to everything, but it wouldn't be Tales without a little anime.

Why is the most annoying one missing? The female kid Hermana. where should I start?

1) They all have some sort of Megaman complex. The classic anime character with giant feet or shoes. Their hands are very unproportional to their feet size. Save for Ange they all have this characteristic. Google for Houshi Engi to see a really ridiculous giant feet complex.

2) Ridiculous and weird names that make no sense at all. Most Tales use real family names. Look at this one: Spada, Soldato, Hermana, Serena. These are very stereotypical views of non latin (derived) speaking countries. Imagine a game where characters had names like Emmanuel Hamburguer, Jonhy Tough, Shotgun Sullivan, Solidarity Foglianni.

3) Figures with small torso and giant lower body. All the girls and Ricardo have this issue. Iria is the most affected one, her design is ridiculous. Use a rule to get her ratios. Her Knees are bigger than her boobies.

4) Ruca and Iria weapons are too big for their size and weight. Ruca sword has a FF7/Berseck identity crisis (it is almost wider than him). Iria guns are almost the size of her arms. Compare those ratios to Ricardo`s whose gun (a rifle) is too small for his body. This is just to make him look more bad ass, so I won`t pick on him too much.

5) Spada and Ricardo are ok. I agree with you that they look good. Save for their Giant boots and Ricardo mammoth shapped legs (almost wider than his waist) they are not very different from other Tales.

6) You used a little cherry picking on Iria, Ange and Rucca. Maybe that is because you like Anime (for the most part I do not), so you do not see any problems. Iria do not look like any pirate stereotype I know. Rose from Zack and Wiki looks more like a pirate than her (even though she wears a schoolgirl skirt). Iria iseems to be missing a lot of pirate like acessories - parrot, eyepatch, hat, scars, wooden leg, hook, formal clothes(captains), nude chest (for small fry), boots. She does not need all of these to look like one, but look at her clothes: tennis shoes, stripped socks, tanktop, scarf and fashion belt. Rucca has some anime cliches also, but I have examined them already (boots, sword, formal clothes for a sword man). Swordmans use clothes that help them move. Save for MGS series, it would strange to see a soldier wearing a tuxedo and monocle in the battlefield (just an example). Ange outfit has a lot of details even compared to Collete. Her clothes change colors at some spots. There are a lot of details in the extremities (Collete is no different). She has a necktie. Even her amulet chain is very detailed and her shoes has some pearls. High Heels on Battlefield do not help also.

All that said. I DO NOT THINK THE GAME IS BAD. I just despise its character design. Psychonauts, Gears of War, Beyond Good and Evil, all have crappy (IMO) character designs but I love the games.

edit: Regal and Zelos clothes annoyed the hell out of me in TOS.

 
You're really digging for excuses on this one ItsaMii.  It's okay if you don't like the art style, but you would have been better off admitting you made a mistake in calling it overly anime oriented. 

Okay, to begin, I crossed it out every time you used the same argument in this.  You were obviously digging for excuses, and disproportioned characters are hardly an anime norm.  The really funny part about this one is the characters aren't actually disproportioned outside of the concept art.  In game they look quite normal other than Ruca's large sword.

As you can see, the characters hardly have huge clown feet and hands.  Even Ricardo's rifle is normal sized in proportion to his body.  Now, that doesn't mean they are all the exact same size and proportions of adult humans, but they are normal in relation to their own bodies.  Tales of Symphonia characters were obviously far shorter than adult humans, and had overly large feet, hands, and heads.  These characters are much closer to normal proportions. 

Red = Nice job.

Now for your mistakes on what you consider anime cliches:

1.) Disproportioned bodies are not an anime thing.  They are a video game thing.  Not that it's really an issue in this anyway, but you should be enlightened.

2.) Well dressed swordsmen are not an anime cliche.  If anything, it's the opposite.  Most anime swordsmen wear very lose clothing or robes.  http://shodloer.free.fr/avatars/BLEACH/Bleach-ichigo.jpg http://discover-indo.tierranet.com/images%20japan/Kenshin06odw.jpg and finally http://iamotaku.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/mugen-outline.jpg

3.) Latin names are far from anime cliche.  Very rarely do anime characters have names with latin roots.  One example that comes to mind would be Edward Elric, but most are either named based of Japanese things (Naruto, Ichigo, Kira, Amuro, etc.) or are English words often symbolic of their purpose (Light, Cloud, Lightning).  This game uses neither of those cliches.

4.) I hate to say it but you are completely full of shit on those being stereotypical names.  There might be a slight argument for Ricardo, but you cherry picked the others anyway.  You didn't mention Ruca and Iria, and her name isn't Serena it's Ange.  Now, Lloyd and Collette might have arguments for awful Japanese interpretation of names with Latin roots, but Ruca, Iria, Spada, Ricardo, Hermano, and Ange are hardly racist stereotypes.  You dug so far for this one that you came out in China.  

If you don't like the art style, that's fine, but don't argue anime cliches with someone who constantly watches anime.  You won't win.