Good evening, morning, afternoon everyone.
You may have seen the recent character released in JP, Freya. From FFIX, she is part of this game that changed my mind about my whole vision of fantasy RPG. She redefined what is a good fantasy character, what is a good backstory and many other aspect of a game. But let’s get back to the main subject.
Her model is wrong, untrue to the original character, to not be crude and to not say disgusting. Breaking her identity as a slender, agile humanoid rat we all remember and loved when we first played the game.To anyone who thinks her model is actually correct:
Please do not downvote and angry-comment in a hurry, take your time and explain why you think her DFFOO model is alright in the game. Every opinion matters.
In this post, I will explain why, in my opinion, the model is wrong and why the development team should take a closer look to it and make it right. You can find the comparison between the DFFOO model and the IX model here).
1. The hat
You may have noticed it, and if you are a long time player you will remember it, the original hat was made with a dragoon helmet in mind. Pointy, conical and slender, remember those three concepts, they are repeated a lot in Freya’s original design. Her original hat fits and define the dragoon rat model, it is the first thing you see when she appears in the game, along with her coat.The hat start the theme of “Dragoon” and “Soldier”. Along with the spear, they give the player the feeling of an agile character, steady and balanced like the dragoon, disciplined like a soldier. She is a trained, powerful character with a shard mind. Until today, this is probably one of the most original and efficient headwear design, encapsulating the whole character’s thematic.
In comparison, the DFFOO version starts as the usual, pointy and conical. But the slender part is brutally interrupted with the flat base. With this farmer hat, the whole theme is breaking down. Along with this loss we also lack the helmet form that defines both Dragoon and Soldier. In other words, most of the character is lost starting from the hat which is the first element seen in the whole model. It also looks like the sorting hat from Harry Potter, making her resemble some weird Red Sorcerer variant in a misleading way.
Later on, this bad modelled hat might be a problem for her potential Trance form for many reasons. But this last one is my own opinion about the development and is irrelevant in the context, but you should really check her Trance form. You can find it here, as you can immediately see, it’s a full plated Dragoon Armor.
2. The coat
One of the most prominent part of the model is obviously the coat, more than half of the whole character. Like the hat in the original game, it sends back a feeling of a slender figure, an agile fighter. A large escutcheon decorated with Burmecian colors, bringing once again the theme of Soldier and Discipline on the table. The blue scarf/tie also reinforce the aspect of an educated, well-behaved character, while it adds a bit to Freya, this part of the clothing is mandatory today but not necessary to mention and analyze further. Finally, the buckles on the upper arms adds more to the Soldier aspect that is missing quit a bit in the coat. But overall, the theme is well balanced, neither too armored, neither not enough armor… This is a light armor, perfect for an agile fighter. The pointy part? Not forgotten! You will notice that the base of the coat is larger, as you go up, it is finer and finer until it align itself perfectly with the hat.
But this is not even the final main point of the whole outfit. The whole upper part, coat and hat is triangular and her feets are slender, the theme returns once again. Personally, it reminds me a lot of an arrow, isn’t it perfect to represent the Dragoon? A Flying warrior, straight to the skies, falling onto his enemies. Piercing the flesh, slaying the beast, victory comes to the faster, smarter one.
The DFFOO version is respecting pretty well most of the part but lacks an important one. The slender aspect, once again. When you look at Freya’s whole model in the original game, you get the cone shaped character. The coat here is too wide at the lower part and disform the whole cone shape. It is also slightly too thick, sacrificing a bit of the slender theme, probably to avoid clipping issues.The coat is okayish, it’s not a priority, but could be improved to stay true to the original character.
3. The Hands
Now that’s some big paluche (hands) she got there. You may argue right away that every DFFOO character hands are big but, Steiner hands are among the biggest in the game. Yet, Freya outsize the Alexandrian soldier hands by around 20%. This fact alone should be a wake-up call for every player. This part will be short, there is not much to say about her giant hands.Those things are off and breaks the whole theme. Slender? Conic? Pointy? Well we have the nails but it isn’t worth losing 2 of the main part for a single, little one. What’s more apart losing the feminine aspect of the character?
Because of those giant hands, the spear is now a toothpick only fitting between her fingers. I personally have no idea what was the point of making it so big. The only thing I can think about is the weapons being a problem, or the winning/battle pose making it hard for the development team but the model was rushed and lost too much compared to the incredible art we got.
4. Minor feedback
The hair seems off for a small amount of player, but a feedback is a feedback. It looks too rigid and dirty compared to what we had previously. Tifa is a early character with nice looking hair, a more recent character would be Deuce or Agrias.
The face is cubic and the texture makes it worse. You might think this is nitpicking, but Gilgamesh got a complex model with a crazy amount of detail and the model is true to the original design from Final Fantasy V! The problem wasn’t technical, it was a lack of time.
The Conclusion
Freya means as much for me as Steiner means for Macilento. And to see her model released in this state, a work-in-progress, and that we may have to stick with this until the game ends it both rings an alarm and makes me personally feel uneasy. The worst part is that it might happen again if the community ignores those slips from SE.Her animations are true to the character, her voice is perfectly fitting to her loyal character. But the model need a rework. It might be fine for some people, but you all know they can do better. Look at Gilgamesh, look at Lulu, Rinoa, P.Cecil. Those got great models and since a month or so, the Development Team is recycling Meteors, releasing questionable characters such as Laan&Reynn, released in their chibi form without any impact on their gameplay.It’s been a rough month for SE and the content so far and it’s easy to understand why. They work on tight schedule and a single mistake will be visible on the content. But they don’t build the game each month for themselves, they build it for the community, funding the game. We have a voice, if we wish for quality, we can get quality in exchange of something else. They can make this right if the community ask for it.
Remind yourself that being forgotten is worse than death. And Freya’s character was forgotten.
TL;DR: Freya model is not true to FFIX original character. Her hands are bigger than Steiner’s, her hat breaks the whole character conic form. The model is still a work in progress and the Development Team should take another look at it.
While we're at it, please enjoy some amazing Fanart embracing perfectly her character:
- Pixel art, under the rain
- Freya and Black mages
- Dashing rat
- 3D Model (Weston Mitchell)
Submitted September 30, 2018 at 12:42AM by Shinnyo https://ift.tt/2xLxkmg
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