From a gamer perspective I think it’s really bad that you can’t tell what their roles or gameplay are from their appearance. Without looking it up can any of you guess who is the healer or the aerial flyer?
Agreed, very poor role readability. Emari, the mint green heavy gunner I guess is a shield tank like Reinhardt? But nothing on her even hints to the presence of a shield. The cat girl can teleport and make visual copies? But us absolutely zero indication of either ability.
I can’t believe that the devs took them almost a decade for something that looks unfinished. These designs feel like the first concept art and thought “yes this is the final draft.” It has no thought nor planning put into these designs. Like you said, with these designs, no one can tell who’s who and what their roles are. They put a character in quirky costume and give them a gun.
@@avocado3-in-182 I think its even more unbelievable that given the fairly small size of the cast, they still have elemental overlap. Daveers, the box head lady is a fire bombadier... and the lady with the crossbow and little golden balls is a??? fire?? caster??? they couldn't come up with another element?
Honestly the best thing Concord has done was expose me to a whole bunch of awesome creators with unique perspectives and creative takes on the characters.
CriticalArt_64 (the redesign guy) here. Liked, commented and subscribed. As a fashion fan, I appreciate your sober and productive analysis (mine is a little more memey and inflammatory to make other artists more bold to speak their mind) and thanks for the shout out. If I was art director, I would hire you as a consultant for refining the designs and DLC outfit ideas.
Aaayye - there he is. 😎 Love your redesign work, and the tone of your videos are entertaining. I think they've definitely inspired artists to share their talents - it's giving trend setter. ✨ I love the idea of being a design consultant in general - I appreciate the encouragement/validation dude. 🙏🏽
@@XDF definitely an area that was overlooked by many. But on that same token the base designs are what get marketed the most so laser targeting on them does allow one to focus on how the game failed from a marketing and audience impression & impact angle.
5:30 that to me is their biggest problem from a design perspective - looking at each default character, you really know very little about them, either as a person or as a playable role. I think you got it exactly right, saying you need to mix in a little cliche for the sake of recognition.
I think one part of Concords design that doesnt gel together is the fashion clashing with the realistic proportions of most characters. Bazz's role as a glass cannon assassin character would read a lot more clearly if they made it more cartoonish; imagine her with a tall skinny frame, long limbs, gaunt cheekbones, etc. The average human proportions just make her look like a person wearing a costume
I think it's just bland, uninspired ideas by people who didn't think their decisions thru and got no criticism. I'm just wondering how many concepts they went thru for each character
I play a lot of games but I am into fashion a lot too, so the lack of good styling/clothing in the characters was very apparent to me and I am glad people in the fashion space are talking about the poor fashion specifically.
The failure of Concord has done so much good for the gaming industry, because I have learned so much more regarding character and fashion design from these videos discussion the abysmal character designs in this game.
The higher-ups that made decisions allegedly had a "cult of toxic positivity" where everything about the game is perfect and dissent was immediately stamped out. That's definitely how we get a game like Concord.
@@XDF I forget their exact position, but one of the main heads/devs had an EGO. Demanded that employees refer to them as “the Professor” and had some very cringy & chuunibyou titles for meetings or workshops. One if I recall correctly was called “lectures with the Professor” or some such. So yeah, massive ego in charge if a project that demanded odd adherence to some rather narcissistic tendencies doesn’t play well with a sincere and productive development or office environment.
The outfit at 19:38 ... I had never seen that one before.... there are no words... I feel like that outfit is something that you would tape in a fashion book/magazine to use as a jump scare on someone.
From what I have seen and been told, the artists had a much clearer and more appealing vision originally, but the executives sandblasted off all of that to produce the mess we have now. The people in charge were so lost in their unrealistic ambitions for this project that they couldn't see things objectively anymore and refused any advice or criticism. All and all, Concord seemed doomed from the start. The leaders were either too incompetent or too invested to listen to the blaring warning sirens before they drove the ship into every iceberg.
The muted colors did not help, especially with the type of game they were going for. It's such an enigma how adults got together and thought THIS is how you sell your characters.
Agreed - lots of great points made on how dull the colors are. The vibrance in some of the alt outfits should have been more forefront for marketing purposes.
@@XDF Not only are the colors de-saturated to often absurd levels, they insist on putting these awful ochre tones on *everyone* that evoke a feeling of being foul, rotted, or sickly. That might work for A) NPCs dealing with a Plague or B) a villain character that deals in toxins, but for almost all of your "hero" characters? Absolutely not. I think the massive overuse of those "sickly" tones are one of the main reasons people subconsciously reject these characters outright on first glance. edit: Forgot! Pairing the sickly colors with intestinal tubing all over is... certainly a choice, but reinforces my "instant feeling of unease" point.
100%! The reason Jean Giraud's colour choices (which were often borderline psychedelic) work so well is because they're so vibrant and energetic. Making designs inspired by Moebius but having them be desaturated is like... desaturated Andy Warhol? Darkkfated is spot on as well. Emari's base skin is maybe the worst offender, she uses like 10 different shades all in that yellow-green range and the result is uh.. vomity?
RUclips is going wild on recommendations for me lately, woot. My initial impression of the Concord character art was that the color pallette they chose makes me feel profoundly down. It's like they are wearing a 70's suburban kitchen, harvest gold and avocado green with some washed out pastels mixed in. It's not exciting me, it doesn't feel cool or dangerous. The second thing that hit was how overused the weird rubber wetsuit outfit material is. It's everywhere, and feels flat and dead, especially when mixed with the colors I didn't like to begin with. Anyhoo... this video was fun and thought provoking, so I thank you.
I've played games where the main characters are just regular dude in t-shirts, but they still have "main character" vibe. how Teo's design completely lack that "main character" vibe is beyond me 😭
You nailed it. There were points you made, like the bit about DEI and representation, where I thought "but..." and then you added an exception that perfectly explained what I was thinking: the comment about meeting the audience halfway. I love the level-headed critique when everything seems so polarized. This kind of content is not what I usually watch, but I really liked this video. I know nothing about aesthetics and a lot of what you said made a lot of sense. A lot of those characters looked much better with just a simple palette swap. You're totally right, a lot of the alternate skins were significantly better than the originals. Why do you think they desexualized the characters so much? I suspect it was somewhat shaped by the current political climate to make the characters appear "safe" and ended up just looking bland.
I think they wanted to be different - but also, some of the inspirational references (like Moebius's work) don't show the most skin - so perhaps they just got too focused on the achieving a VERY specific aesthetic.
These 20 seconds of hopelessness starting at 13:40 were lowkey hilarious Thank you very much for introducing us to Demobaza! I wasn't aware that brands and companies like this existed!
With the Dandadan anime around the corner, maybe give the manga a fashion check. There's quite some drip in that series. On the subject of "hero shooters", I think TF2 would be an interesting contrast, since the designs of that game are so iconic.
They leaned into realism way too much, if they took the original Moebius designs and aesthetic and leaned into it instead of going for photorealism, it would feel a lot less generic. Something cell shaded, or stylized in a semi painterly way (Arcane,Warcraft) or maybe even something like A Scanner Darkly. This game wants to be Moebius but by making proportions more realistic and adding in ultra detailed textures, makes the designs that are supposed to be simple and elegant into information blobs
A lot of folks wanted the cell-shaded style it seems. Fair point in the lens of a proper Moebius reflection. I don't mind the realism - I'm kinda bias toward games like that. But it's true - in going so real, there is a certain magic that got lost.
I really appreciate how you also commented on the color variations and premium outfits. Other videos always focus on the default one, which gets tiring because they always suggest the same things, like different colors or more accessories, stuff the game already offers that, even if it’s still bad, shows the designers had the potencial to do better. I love how you included real-life examples to help us picture it better. Great video!
HELL yeah!! I got hooked on your videos a couple of days ago and this is more of the goodness you’ve already been providing! Love the analysis section where you break down what you like, the artistic inspirations are super interesting and I think you bring a perspective that I haven’t seen yet about the character designs that adds a good new way to learn about what can be appealing or not. It’s super fascinating that some (definitely not all lmao) of the characters might’ve been easily salvaged with only a few minor changes to the cuts of their jackets or added belts. The color palettes are honestly criminal in some places (that blue lipstick on emari haunts me), but your analysis of the deeper structural flaws with the outfits is super cool, big fan, keep it up. also your outfit in the video goes absolutely bananas, so good.
Would love to see you cover Skullgirls fashion, as its a simple art style and i think its harder to pull off because simplicity can reveal mistakes easier.
I'm not someone who has much experience with fashion design. I know some basics due to studying it for artwork, but even _I_ knew that there were some fundamental errors in their designs. For starters, a tonne of them have incredibly clashing colours that are garish to look at. Whilst that may suit a punk aesthetic, the worst cases were ones where they put it on characters that tried to look professional (Emeri's fuchsia highlights on her otherwise all-green suit, Roka's neon red headplate, Daw's jacket being super vibrant). And then you have Lennox's... whatever he had in that blue/pink shader. Even still, I could see some promise. I love the orange colour scheme for one of Roka's alternate costumes, I like Lark's design (at least in terms of her physiognomy) and I like what they tried to do with Teo (it could've been executed better but the concept is still somewhat there) Also Duchess was the best hands-down
Honestly, I respect the design challenge of not using body confidence as a method of character appeal, and having a cast that's intergalactic having a minimum number of white characters (the aliens are pretty white-coded anyway) But those design challenges don't vibe with a super commercial big brand release where there's a desire to be risk-averse to reach the broadest number of gamers. Team Reptile (Lethal League, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk) would have ate this cast concept and left no crumbs.
I really thought people were exaggerating when they didn't like the designs, but DeVeers with the fish tank helmet is something else...oh dear. Loved the video, great analysis
7:07 "i hope that there is a game that can strike the balance between great diversity but strong gameplay design..." i believe overwatch already did that (in the same game genre, at least). i believe one of the reasons why the people who wanted to see more diversity in games didn't flock to concord is bc overwatch already has so much diversity AND beautiful character designs, while everyone from all corners of the political spectrum can agree that the concord designs are shit...
wow never knew about the moebius inspiration l can really see the aesthetic replicated, l just wish there was more pop of colour to the game or some style that isn't plain realistic, l love moebius' art and this style makes it look so bland it would definitely benefited from an art style change. Also have to add another thing that greatly helped his art so much wasn't the characters more so the vast contrasts of colours to the simple yet very detailed line art focused in on only a few areas of the canvas, these characters have nothing to contrast them and they just don't look good. Thank you for another video and educating me.
Honestly, these was a extremely fun video to watch. During the height of the Dumpster Fire that was Concord's release and news coming out of the lackluster sales, my buddy and I were talking about the designs and just how so unfaltering and unappealing many were. Like where is the body confidence? Where is the skin? Where is the color!? What's this game's obsession with so many dull and lifeless browns, bieges, and greys for the characters? Why do so many of the base skins just completely lack accessories? Like give me some nice character details that help make them pop. Things like jewerly, scars, or tattoos. Hell, indications of what they can do would be lovely. Until i looked it up myself, my buddy and I didn't know that Daw was supposed to be a Medic type character. Absolutely nothing about their design gave us a single clue. Of all the charaters, the ones we thought looked the best were easily Maymar, Duchess, and Vale although Vale's premium skin was easily one of the absolute worst. I actually started to tear up because the design was unexpectedly bad that i burst out laughing. We couldn't believe such an awful design was deemed perfectly acceptable.
How to stop the complaints about DEI in a single, simple step: Make the ethnic characters cool / hot / badass / cute / appealing in any other way. I'm being serious here, I don't remember ANYONE calling KOF15 woke when it added 2 black women (Isla and Dolores) to the roster.
True enough - that's kinda what I appreciated about a number of the redesigns people did for these characters. They actually displayed the women of color very respectfully, just gave them more body and attitude. I can get down with that. 👌🏽
@@psychoreactive I mean... the artstyle isn't doing SF6 any favors. Terry Bogard went from looking like a hunky dreamboat to looking like an unwashed hillbilly with a few dozen skin conditions.
Thank you so much for making this video! I kinda felt like I was going crazy when I hadn't seen anyone mention Moebius or Dune or more 1970s/80s scifi art in any of the discussion around this game. I understand and even mostly agree with the criticism of the character designs from a gameplay perspective, and I will also agree that a lot of the characters really do have drastic issues, but every other criticism felt so non-specific or like they were missing the point. I feel like this video has actually given me some peace of mind--I feel way less gaslit, if that makes any sense. :P Also, I really liked hearing your analysis and your presentation is really entertaining, too! So thank you again!
I'm so glad you appreciated this analysis. I definitely made an effort to be more fair - because like you, I felt like some folks were simply being hyperbolic for the sake of it. Trust your instincts for sure. 👍🏽
Y'know as an avid fan of Jean "Moebius"Giraud, I did see aspect of his design philosophy in Concord and I take so much offense in their execution... Let's take Emari as one of the main ones they tried and failed, Moebius does use a lot of rounder shapes in his designs but adds a bit more dimensions to it. So maybe giving Emari an elongated helmet akin to Arzach's hat would give them a bit more diversity to the shape and silhouette. Warframe has an enemy faction where they nail the rounder armor look of Moebius with flying colors and also pull off the intestine like squiggly lines very confidently too. On the topic of Warframe. I would love to hear your thoughts on frame designs in warframe.
Touching on that point you made about the designs understanding the assignment of following cues from dune, cowboy bebop and mobius I see exactly what you mean but I think that the problem is that I’m not getting any dune from these characters but that each of there designs just arbitrarily choose which of these three wildly different styles to pull from. Emari, deveers, roka, Lenox and Jabari are all looking like they were pulled from a mobius comics background cast. Duchess, haymar, starchild, teo and ESPECIALLY kyps are really good starts to what a side character in bebop would look like. Baz, daw, lark, vale and it-z I don’t really feel comfortable putting them in either category. but the main problem is that you try putting the design ideology of mobius next to that of bebop and it just doesn’t mesh. That said, I like that you didn’t just mercilessly trash on the designs despite them being very lackluster and made an effort to give real critique. Love the work you do, keep it up!
Fair comment - a good point similar to what someone else said: they pulled from too many sources to the point where they didn't really do anything original, leaving disorienting designs for players at the end of the day. It's very unfortunate - and we shouldn't have to do mental gymnastics to make sense of the characters we're playing. I'm glad you appreciated the video 🙏🏽
Thanks for making this video. It is so good to hear a fresh perspective. I'm so deep into Free-body ideology that I didn't even notice why the human characters were off. No wonder It-Z was the one I thought acceptable, she's the one that looks happy in her skin.
I gave my opinions on the design But now talking bout concord as a game look putting aside all the politics internet talk cuz that's a whole can of worms in it of itself But I think one of the major reasons concord failed not only as a game but as Sonys next big franchise It's cuz Sony and in turn concord felt so entitled What I mean is that concord at best would have been an okay/fine free to play 5v5 live service game with micro transactions, there's many of them and that's okay maybe your not re inventing the wheel but as a free game it would have been okay But no, Sony right off the bat came out with a 40 dollar price tag and season pass and a show plan and tie in comics and more an more stuff am surprised they didn't announce a goddam tie in cereal, from the start Sony said hey here's a bunch of product you will buy cuz we say so, that's not how you grow a live service game Overwatch and Fortnite for all its faults they grew organically and the tie in stuff came later Concord was just in your face corpo stuff and people don't tend to like that Something I will say that kinda makes me sad is that the actress who plays bazz in the game made a video going to the store exited and buying a copy, she seemed happy that she was in a game and idk I feel bad for her and all the artist and programmers, yeah to some extent people are at fault but we all know that the suits at the top won't feel a thing for them it's just another million dollars to right off
Honestly I'm with you on the "entitled" part. So many focus on what Overwatch IS and not what it WAS. It had a journey, and it feels like everyone wants to skip the journeys and get to the results NOW.
Good video! Having some understanding of contemporary fashion is vital for game industry character artists so this stuff is really useful. And I really appreciate that you took the time to understand the actual design intentions and inspirations behind the style, and also that you looked at both the base designs and the premium skins. I've seen some really big art youtubers completely fail to understand the brief and want to turn every character into some kinda generic Halo ripoff. I actually think I disagree on the Emari premium skin though. It's the only one that actually leans into the Moebius inspired scifi weirdness *hard enough* to make the off kilter oddity of it read as intentional. It reminds me of something from the old Dune movie. Hideous from a fashion point of view? Sure, but as a character design it actually... kinda works for me? It definitely communicates her "scrapper" character better than the base version, which I thought was some kinda hazardous environment security guard type thing. Also Duchess IS a slay my god someone said it!
@@XDF For real, character artist twitter has turned clowning on Concord redesigns worse than the originals into a sport at this point 💀 ah nah it really comes across! Gonna check out the pokemon vids too.
As some one who tends to dislike "DEI" games it's not because of the diversity itself. Games that tend to be labeled "DEI" games usually end up being bad seemingly because they cared more about inclusion and shoving in hamfisted political messaging than making a good game.
Thanks for sharing. That's why I hope another co. can strike the balance between innovation in diversity and a solid foundation for innovative and quality gameplay
@@XDF just to elaborate in the comment, we gamer know when something hurts the industry and ultimately hurt us the consumers, the consumer part of the industry learned that lesson in december of 1982. the DEI hate comes because we (the consumer) tried to warn sony, we saw the first models and didnt liked it, and when videos started comming the companny did not listened, instead they called the critics racist and doubled down on the flat unispiring dessings, to me the problem with DEI is the lack of maturity to take the critics and make the necessary changes ( look at how the sonic movie team took the HARSH critics of the trailer and turned them in to a 2 movie praised by the audience). we knew it was going to flop, we knew sony was going to feel it and we knew the industry was taking a blow with this, my question is why? why cant they hear the consumers?
This gave me interesting ideas to consider for my own work, thanks, i have been looking to learn more about fashion in general for my art and characters
Some realy good point as expected, you do some really good work. And looking at those characters more, it's almost as if the character themselves are kinda of ashamed of the style, besides Jabali I don't really see anyone else really owning the retro sci-fi campy vibe, they look like they are cosplaying, not living in it. And that is a shame, i am a total sucker for really confident camp
The Guardians of The Galaxy game would be such a good pick for one of these videos. Tons of cool outfits with detailed descriptions that provide more context in and out of the game
Never thought I’d be watching a critique on video game fashion by a fabulously dressed man ready for the catwalk himself….but here we are. Slay my dude…slay.. as the elder ones used to say.😅
Half the cast plays in a recreational paintball league and the other half are cranberry farmers or sewer-maintenance workers (minus Kyps, Duchess and Jabali). I don't blame the artists themselves for this, this level of failed design can only be achieved through mismanagement and a lack of feedback. Also the bug-guts green colour is my most hated and I see it show up on the default skins of multiple characters. Just egregious.
So much truth expressed here - especially the point on lack of internal feedback and the overuse of green! So much unnecessary green - of all the colors to choose from. 🤦🏽♂️
I've not seen the alternative costumes before, but the alternate Emari, where she's like a zombie with the blank eyes and almost intestine-like tubes kinda goes hard. And zombies/undead are a pretty common cliche for 'tank' characters, so it kinda fits, imo.
there is a rumor going around that concord designs are based on some early 20 century diving gear, like it was supposed to be based on 20k leagues under the sea. just something to think about
The only place I've seen those coiled "digestive tract" things done before is Battletech's Coolant Suits, but those are supposed to be technological regressions from their more sleek modern SLDF Golden Age versions. I also agree that Duchess' design is probably the best one of the bunch in the default costume
Hell yeah I was waiting for this video I watched an want to give my takes but to prefix with what you said at the end I don't think there's anything wrong with being critical it's fun cuz one tends to come up with better ideas when they are critical of something that has potential Here's my takes 7:36 emari: I agree that the premium looks awful, looks like a zombie look I think it would have been better if the premium maybe made some parts of her armor transparent so her body shows more and you can see her muscular physique ya know get some body diversity in there 9:05 deveers: lol that laugh just kills me, idk why the devs wanted that ugly plastic Tupperware look thing so much even in the premium, maybe redesign an have it so her head is human but the rest of her body is like robotic, implement some gaps and synthetic look idk just not space janitor look 10:39 starchild: I saw some one say that the premium should have been a good of war kratos skin since it is a Sony property and honestly yeah that would have work imo 12:24 bazz: idk I don't really agree I think the look is just too disco even tho that is what the game is trying to go for but the thing is that they don't go for it with the other characters so you end up with many characters feeling like each one belongs to a different kind of space story, I do a free a crop jacket would have saved the look but that premium......she looks like a Gundam pilot 14:18 it-z: same I think the premium should have been the default look, idk about the lore of concord but the idea of an alien girl that's obsessed with earth 2000s alt stuff would have been a fun character 15:56 roka: it is funny that the only character they try to give sex appeal they for some reason give her a bobblehead thing, make the helmet smaller and that would be good and the premium just make the helmet and giant robot eye cuz thats clearly what they wanted to do 17:24 duchess: it's fine not my favorite but it's okay 18:25 vale: the look is good and I don't mind the robot legs but that premium looks holy she looks like a green skinny Michelin man, wtf her design is good but they ruined it looks like she's wearing a sleeping bag an cargo pants 19:52 Lennox: I feel like this one is one of the most boring one even tho he's supposed to be the like main guy in the roster, it's just hey make starlord but a weird rock lizard, the vest am not a fan of cuz again it feels like they wanted to give him a coat like starlord but just compromised with a tube vest 21:37 haymar: I think the gold beads could have been more emphasize like maybe it's part of her abilities but over all the red premium is the best look 23:45 lark: yeah idk chief this whole look I agree it looks like an enemy NPC that you fight, it's an ugly look cuz it feels like they could decide what to do with it, make the face smooth but also the legs primal but also give it a hat but also a plant hat and plant shoulder etc they it's just a mess 25:28 kyps: okay I will state this right now kyps is the MVP GOAT of the game cuz that design is everything, even the color varients look good his aura his looks, he genuinely looks like a character from cowboy Bebop something that the whole game has struggled to do, I will say that my only complaint is that the premium I don't really like he kinda looks like and old time British school boy but other than that I like him a lot, am just a sucker for robots wearing clothes 27:23 daw: .........bruh idk, okay let me say this bigger character can work the perfect example is roadhog from overwatch who's a bigger fellow in design but it works cuz you compromise something like the face for a mask which gives roadhog more characteristic look, for daw they genuinely gave them a bad design especially with the coat that hangs over the belly emphasizing their size, the premium works cuz it takes a bit of that away from the character and into the clothes but my god 29:11 teo: yeah I 100% agree not only cuz I know mf called teo in real life but the look just feels meh, he looks like a guard NPC that you see scattered around a map in a fallout game just a very boring like sport gear look all he's missing is the football helmet 30:57 jabali: I think it's an okay look but again am striken by that feeling of the design being from a hole difference space franchise like when I put jabali next to kyps both their designs are good but one belongs in cowboy bebop and the other one in guardians of the galaxy Over all the game feels like a design mess and maybe a lot of the design got lost in translation I have seen some early concept art an it looks better but if I want to play a game with diversity in many aspects and good character design I would just play overwatch that the simple honest truth, concord didn't do anything new if anything it got bogged down by trying to have this realistic look while trying to pull from a bunch of different things Still great video like always 👍
I appreciate the persistent suggestion - I didn't realize it was such a hot topic. And great/thoughtful opinions. I can definitely see where you're coming from.
@@XDF an awful shame. I’d like to know who they were designing these characters for. Not everything has to be whimsical and fun but the concord design lacks joy. Honestly overwatch has a lot of problems but their character designs are captivating af.
Loved the feed back. The premium skins were probably the first design, but some micromanaging happened and the designer just chose bland, unflattering colors at the end.
I can see bits of inspiration from that artist Mobius that you mentioned as well as Star Wars for the designs. And, although I don't 100% agree with your takes on the outfits, I do agree with you on 95% of it. (I think that 5% is just me being a freak and thinking that games need more big bodied alien characters showing more skin.) You are correct that too many of the characters didn't show enough skin. I don't know if the designers were trying to give a "realistic" look to the designs, but this is a scifi game with aliens and magic powers. The designs don't have to be based on reality and can stray from practicality. And, yes, there was too much use of those weird gut tubes.
My biggest pet peeve is that the "aliens" are mostly just humans with weirdly coloured skin. They could've been so much more interesting if only they leaned into the non-human or even non-humanoid aspect. 😭
I feel like all of these would have worked great in a show that focused on a desolate, scrapper, DIY kinda vibe. The muted colours read well worn, the design elements we see across several characters (like the puffy/inflatable life jacket kinda vibe we see across in some pieces and elements) give salvaged from all over the galaxy. Imagine Firefly but with Marvel aesthetics. I really like several of these designs in that hypothetical context. BUT for a multiplayer game that's setting up a badass and quippy vibe? Nah. Even if we consider the sci fi realism they seemingly went for, the designs don't clearly read their roles, they're flat. We've very solidly established that cartoonish/exaggerated designs and colours work well in shooters. Even if they wanted to make a more "mature" game, the roles still need to read clearly and characters need to be way more clearly separated from each other. As a crew in a series the uniformity makes sense, for this it does not. I haven't really seen or read anything about the game prior to this, so the first thing I thought of was TS4 Journey to Batuu 💀
Agree with most of your opinions on the outfits, esp Bazz and Duchess. I didn't even KNOW about the secondary outfits and HOOOO BOY some of them were...... A choice! Lol they definitely should've brought in a fashion designer to the team. 😅😅 Oh, and as someone who is personally not a fan of too much body confidence in game characters (just cuz of me being tired of over-sexualization over the years), even I can see that not having ANY skin showing on ANY character is really bringing down the differences in design and personality.
Yeah - I can definitely understand not going overboard with the body confidence. It can be a bit much. But we were deprived of ANY of it in this game 🤦🏽♂️
Now in no. 4 is there a difference in game character design and show/manga/story character designs? Because in games I feel like you need to conform to cliches because you need to show if they are a healer etc. but in let’s say as a example jojos they don’t have to conform because you are not playing, maybe idk if I’m wrong in that. But let’s say giorno, he has lady bugs on his outfit that give you a hint in what he does. So is there a difference between the 2? Just asking
Thanks for the curiosity. In my pov - it's really the JoJo stands that should have a style that indicates their abilities, which most of them do in some regard. Can kinda help from a stroy-telling perspective. The stand users don't really need to - but I appreciate when they are coordinated with their stand in some way. With MOBA games like Concord - it's helpful to be able to recognize what a hero does immediately, so that in battle you can react more easily. It also helps give players a better sense of immersion.
I'll disagree on Lark, I say they should have gone ham on the alien humanoid mushroom concept, no clothes, just a naked alien with a mushroom layered carapace covering their body like some sort of organic armor, think Alien but mushroom themed .. that would have been a much more alien (pun intended) and unique design from all the other characters.
The only designs, I kinda liked in Concord were Haymar, Duchess and It-Z. Never knew about the premium outfits, so I'm glad to have seen them here. Duchess got absolutely destroyed by it, though xD But It-Z and Haymar got just what was missing in the original outfits which is some actually interesting design choices. And yeah, this game just has this weird forced kind of diversity where additionally, almost no one is allowed to look handsome or beautiful or even a little interesting. I think quite a few fighting games do a really good job at having a diverse cast, that doesn't seem forced and every character just is so cool in their own way. Since my favorite one is Tekken, maybe a Tekken fashion/style analysis some time in the future? :D As always, W video ^^
6:03 It really comes down to people disliking the poor execution of Concord’s diversity. I truly believe that diversity often comes from strong art direction and creative character design foundations. In Concord, the designers just slapped a black lady’s face on top of a hideous armor and called it a day. Minority groups deserve good designs too. Like, WHY did they make her look and sound like Fat Albert. Why is the body positive dude in such unflattering clothes. Where are the cool characters that are supposed to be the “representation.” These designs scream corporate cluelessness.
Yeah. You're right. Basically, if all of us complaining about the DEI and woke, were just complaining because there are gay and black people in our game, then Overwatch would have failed the same way Concord did. Overwatch characters were hot or cool and actual characters, while Concords... They were basically a rundown of checklist and token representation, without actually saying anything and the actual thing people complain about, when speaking about 'woke'.
Honestly this was a more refreshing critique to watch because you explained very well why it didn't work instead of defaulting to the wokeism boogeyman. You didn't just shit on it, but gave pointers on what they could've done better via constructive criticism. You earned a subscriber here
it's really great to see an educated character design commentary on concord as opposed to the usual gamer bro getting mad that there's a black person in their video game.
You can definitely see where they were going with some of them, the ideas were good but the execution was terrible. I agree that we need more bling, some more confidence, more sexiness and leaning more into the established themes of the characters. For example I would have given Bazz a waspish snatched waist to emphasize her silhouette more and given way, way more gold to the mage looking one.
take your time, but make more videos
Damn - this is my first super thanks! THANK YOU - it means a lot! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
From a gamer perspective I think it’s really bad that you can’t tell what their roles or gameplay are from their appearance. Without looking it up can any of you guess who is the healer or the aerial flyer?
Preach - such a fundamental piece to team battle games.
Agreed, very poor role readability.
Emari, the mint green heavy gunner I guess is a shield tank like Reinhardt? But nothing on her even hints to the presence of a shield.
The cat girl can teleport and make visual copies? But us absolutely zero indication of either ability.
I can’t believe that the devs took them almost a decade for something that looks unfinished. These designs feel like the first concept art and thought “yes this is the final draft.” It has no thought nor planning put into these designs. Like you said, with these designs, no one can tell who’s who and what their roles are. They put a character in quirky costume and give them a gun.
@@avocado3-in-182 I think its even more unbelievable that given the fairly small size of the cast, they still have elemental overlap. Daveers, the box head lady is a fire bombadier... and the lady with the crossbow and little golden balls is a??? fire?? caster???
they couldn't come up with another element?
Honestly the best thing Concord has done was expose me to a whole bunch of awesome creators with unique perspectives and creative takes on the characters.
Love that positive perspective
Indeed. I found this video in my suggestions and I like it 👍
CriticalArt_64 (the redesign guy) here. Liked, commented and subscribed. As a fashion fan, I appreciate your sober and productive analysis (mine is a little more memey and inflammatory to make other artists more bold to speak their mind) and thanks for the shout out. If I was art director, I would hire you as a consultant for refining the designs and DLC outfit ideas.
Aaayye - there he is. 😎 Love your redesign work, and the tone of your videos are entertaining. I think they've definitely inspired artists to share their talents - it's giving trend setter. ✨
I love the idea of being a design consultant in general - I appreciate the encouragement/validation dude. 🙏🏽
It's nice seeing people talk about the different costumes and not just the base designs
I'm surprised how many videos overlooked them.
@@XDF definitely an area that was overlooked by many. But on that same token the base designs are what get marketed the most so laser targeting on them does allow one to focus on how the game failed from a marketing and audience impression & impact angle.
5:30 that to me is their biggest problem from a design perspective - looking at each default character, you really know very little about them, either as a person or as a playable role. I think you got it exactly right, saying you need to mix in a little cliche for the sake of recognition.
You totally get it - thanks for being so engaged with the talking points 🙏🏽
I think one part of Concords design that doesnt gel together is the fashion clashing with the realistic proportions of most characters. Bazz's role as a glass cannon assassin character would read a lot more clearly if they made it more cartoonish; imagine her with a tall skinny frame, long limbs, gaunt cheekbones, etc. The average human proportions just make her look like a person wearing a costume
Lots of comments regarding the outfits looking more like costumes. It's certainly a fair point.
Y'know it's bad when fashion designers are getting confused on whatever mess Concord had made.
It's the execs that made them look like what they are.
Such an unfortunate circumstance
I think it's just bland, uninspired ideas by people who didn't think their decisions thru and got no criticism.
I'm just wondering how many concepts they went thru for each character
Concord has been getting flayed up and down the gaming sphere.
But to also get it from the fashion sphere just really shows how down bad it was.
Yeah - who knew their flop would have such a shockwave effect
@@XDFthe upside is the raising in awareness of the importance of design.
Only time will see if theory emerges as practice
I play a lot of games but I am into fashion a lot too, so the lack of good styling/clothing in the characters was very apparent to me and I am glad people in the fashion space are talking about the poor fashion specifically.
The failure of Concord has done so much good for the gaming industry, because I have learned so much more regarding character and fashion design from these videos discussion the abysmal character designs in this game.
There can always be a silver lining ✨️
I'm adding "Hobo-sheik" to my vocabulary. Thank you.
Ha - always happy to help 😅
The higher-ups that made decisions allegedly had a "cult of toxic positivity" where everything about the game is perfect and dissent was immediately stamped out. That's definitely how we get a game like Concord.
Such a shame - I've seen first hand how toxic positivity in corporate spaces can translate to questionable outcomes.
@@XDF I forget their exact position, but one of the main heads/devs had an EGO. Demanded that employees refer to them as “the Professor” and had some very cringy & chuunibyou titles for meetings or workshops. One if I recall correctly was called “lectures with the Professor” or some such.
So yeah, massive ego in charge if a project that demanded odd adherence to some rather narcissistic tendencies doesn’t play well with a sincere and productive development or office environment.
@@jemm113 Yikes - sounds very weird
I said to myself "X could make a great video on Concord" and now it's real! 🙌
It's one of my favorites so far - I had fun with this one :D
The outfit at 19:38 ...
I had never seen that one before.... there are no words...
I feel like that outfit is something that you would tape in a fashion book/magazine to use as a jump scare on someone.
It's literally so bad - and came out of nowhere - like how did they arrive at that 🤦🏽♂️
nananananana asparagus girl!
They def took inspo from janitors
That's the word I was looking for to describe DeVeers 🤭
That's insult to janitors
@@mozzarellamaniac6300 it actually kinda is 😅 They look better
@@XDF Janitors don't have a choice since it's their work attire 🥲
From what I have seen and been told, the artists had a much clearer and more appealing vision originally, but the executives sandblasted off all of that to produce the mess we have now. The people in charge were so lost in their unrealistic ambitions for this project that they couldn't see things objectively anymore and refused any advice or criticism.
All and all, Concord seemed doomed from the start. The leaders were either too incompetent or too invested to listen to the blaring warning sirens before they drove the ship into every iceberg.
I could believe that. Hope there is some executive accountability after this fiasco
The muted colors did not help, especially with the type of game they were going for. It's such an enigma how adults got together and thought THIS is how you sell your characters.
Agreed - lots of great points made on how dull the colors are. The vibrance in some of the alt outfits should have been more forefront for marketing purposes.
@@XDF Not only are the colors de-saturated to often absurd levels, they insist on putting these awful ochre tones on *everyone* that evoke a feeling of being foul, rotted, or sickly. That might work for A) NPCs dealing with a Plague or B) a villain character that deals in toxins, but for almost all of your "hero" characters? Absolutely not. I think the massive overuse of those "sickly" tones are one of the main reasons people subconsciously reject these characters outright on first glance.
edit: Forgot! Pairing the sickly colors with intestinal tubing all over is... certainly a choice, but reinforces my "instant feeling of unease" point.
@@Darkkfated So freaking true - great point
100%! The reason Jean Giraud's colour choices (which were often borderline psychedelic) work so well is because they're so vibrant and energetic. Making designs inspired by Moebius but having them be desaturated is like... desaturated Andy Warhol?
Darkkfated is spot on as well. Emari's base skin is maybe the worst offender, she uses like 10 different shades all in that yellow-green range and the result is uh.. vomity?
RUclips is going wild on recommendations for me lately, woot. My initial impression of the Concord character art was that the color pallette they chose makes me feel profoundly down. It's like they are wearing a 70's suburban kitchen, harvest gold and avocado green with some washed out pastels mixed in. It's not exciting me, it doesn't feel cool or dangerous. The second thing that hit was how overused the weird rubber wetsuit outfit material is. It's everywhere, and feels flat and dead, especially when mixed with the colors I didn't like to begin with.
Anyhoo... this video was fun and thought provoking, so I thank you.
Agreed - the rubber wetsuit material definitely felt overdone.
I've played games where the main characters are just regular dude in t-shirts, but they still have "main character" vibe. how Teo's design completely lack that "main character" vibe is beyond me 😭
He has such a weird blank expression and just feels lifeless. No personality.
@@XDFbut how’s that a fashion/design problem
You had me at 'hobo chic'. :) Subscribed.
Ha, bless 🙏🏽
You nailed it. There were points you made, like the bit about DEI and representation, where I thought "but..." and then you added an exception that perfectly explained what I was thinking: the comment about meeting the audience halfway. I love the level-headed critique when everything seems so polarized. This kind of content is not what I usually watch, but I really liked this video. I know nothing about aesthetics and a lot of what you said made a lot of sense. A lot of those characters looked much better with just a simple palette swap. You're totally right, a lot of the alternate skins were significantly better than the originals.
Why do you think they desexualized the characters so much? I suspect it was somewhat shaped by the current political climate to make the characters appear "safe" and ended up just looking bland.
I think they wanted to be different - but also, some of the inspirational references (like Moebius's work) don't show the most skin - so perhaps they just got too focused on the achieving a VERY specific aesthetic.
Omg im so glad you covered this! Like gurl, to be a fly in the room where they decided THESE design choices were okay? I cant believe it
These 20 seconds of hopelessness starting at 13:40 were lowkey hilarious
Thank you very much for introducing us to Demobaza! I wasn't aware that brands and companies like this existed!
Yeeess, Demobaza is a bit overpriced, but I love their concept ✨️
@@XDF The fact that they exist and are doing well enough to keep existing is all that matters 😁
Deveers literally looks like a Doomguy cardboard cosplay that you can unlock in doom eternal, but this one's actually the actual costume, lmao.
Ha - that's funny
With the Dandadan anime around the corner, maybe give the manga a fashion check. There's quite some drip in that series.
On the subject of "hero shooters", I think TF2 would be an interesting contrast, since the designs of that game are so iconic.
They leaned into realism way too much, if they took the original Moebius designs and aesthetic and leaned into it instead of going for photorealism, it would feel a lot less generic.
Something cell shaded, or stylized in a semi painterly way (Arcane,Warcraft) or maybe even something like A Scanner Darkly.
This game wants to be Moebius but by making proportions more realistic and adding in ultra detailed textures, makes the designs that are supposed to be simple and elegant into information blobs
A lot of folks wanted the cell-shaded style it seems. Fair point in the lens of a proper Moebius reflection. I don't mind the realism - I'm kinda bias toward games like that. But it's true - in going so real, there is a certain magic that got lost.
Rollerdrome comes to mind, they could've went with that aesthetic.
I want this game as a video game character. He's already more fashionable than any of the characters in modern games
I really appreciate how you also commented on the color variations and premium outfits. Other videos always focus on the default one, which gets tiring because they always suggest the same things, like different colors or more accessories, stuff the game already offers that, even if it’s still bad, shows the designers had the potencial to do better. I love how you included real-life examples to help us picture it better. Great video!
This video made me laugh so much. I’ve really been enjoying following your channel. Keep it up!
Bless
I do like the old school sifi theme they were going for, but it feels like the didn't follow through.
HELL yeah!! I got hooked on your videos a couple of days ago and this is more of the goodness you’ve already been providing! Love the analysis section where you break down what you like, the artistic inspirations are super interesting and I think you bring a perspective that I haven’t seen yet about the character designs that adds a good new way to learn about what can be appealing or not. It’s super fascinating that some (definitely not all lmao) of the characters might’ve been easily salvaged with only a few minor changes to the cuts of their jackets or added belts. The color palettes are honestly criminal in some places (that blue lipstick on emari haunts me), but your analysis of the deeper structural flaws with the outfits is super cool, big fan, keep it up. also your outfit in the video goes absolutely bananas, so good.
Aahhh, thanks for such an awesome comment! I'm glad you saw all of the value I tried to provide 🙌🏽✨️
Would love to see you cover Skullgirls fashion, as its a simple art style and i think its harder to pull off because simplicity can reveal mistakes easier.
I'm not someone who has much experience with fashion design. I know some basics due to studying it for artwork, but even _I_ knew that there were some fundamental errors in their designs.
For starters, a tonne of them have incredibly clashing colours that are garish to look at. Whilst that may suit a punk aesthetic, the worst cases were ones where they put it on characters that tried to look professional (Emeri's fuchsia highlights on her otherwise all-green suit, Roka's neon red headplate, Daw's jacket being super vibrant). And then you have Lennox's... whatever he had in that blue/pink shader.
Even still, I could see some promise. I love the orange colour scheme for one of Roka's alternate costumes, I like Lark's design (at least in terms of her physiognomy) and I like what they tried to do with Teo (it could've been executed better but the concept is still somewhat there)
Also Duchess was the best hands-down
Great points - thanks for sharing
He looks like he designs super suits and I find that very entertaining
Honestly, I respect the design challenge of not using body confidence as a method of character appeal, and having a cast that's intergalactic having a minimum number of white characters (the aliens are pretty white-coded anyway)
But those design challenges don't vibe with a super commercial big brand release where there's a desire to be risk-averse to reach the broadest number of gamers.
Team Reptile (Lethal League, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk) would have ate this cast concept and left no crumbs.
Yeah - it felt like a forced initiative that's much better suited for niche gaming communities who tend to be counter-mainstream anyway.
Bruh, Team Reptile would have cooked so good with the assignment...
I really thought people were exaggerating when they didn't like the designs, but DeVeers with the fish tank helmet is something else...oh dear. Loved the video, great analysis
I've been waiting for this since the game dropped, keep up the good work X!
Thank you!
7:07 "i hope that there is a game that can strike the balance between great diversity but strong gameplay design..." i believe overwatch already did that (in the same game genre, at least). i believe one of the reasons why the people who wanted to see more diversity in games didn't flock to concord is bc overwatch already has so much diversity AND beautiful character designs, while everyone from all corners of the political spectrum can agree that the concord designs are shit...
Well, Overwatch is also supposedly "dead" - so hoping to see another game push the diversity needle further, with gameplay/features that innovate.
* me, knowing diddly squat of fashion *
OH HELL YEAH X IS GONNA LAY DOWN SOME LESSON!
Yay - glad you're down to get some fresh fashion perspective.
@@XDF i mean i enjoyed your jojo content and might as well understand it and besides, concord needs to learn something from an expert lmao
wow never knew about the moebius inspiration l can really see the aesthetic replicated, l just wish there was more pop of colour to the game or some style that isn't plain realistic, l love moebius' art and this style makes it look so bland it would definitely benefited from an art style change.
Also have to add another thing that greatly helped his art so much wasn't the characters more so the vast contrasts of colours to the simple yet very detailed line art focused in on only a few areas of the canvas, these characters have nothing to contrast them and they just don't look good. Thank you for another video and educating me.
Good point on color - would have been nice to see more experimentation in that regard.
Honestly, these was a extremely fun video to watch. During the height of the Dumpster Fire that was Concord's release and news coming out of the lackluster sales, my buddy and I were talking about the designs and just how so unfaltering and unappealing many were. Like where is the body confidence? Where is the skin? Where is the color!? What's this game's obsession with so many dull and lifeless browns, bieges, and greys for the characters? Why do so many of the base skins just completely lack accessories? Like give me some nice character details that help make them pop. Things like jewerly, scars, or tattoos. Hell, indications of what they can do would be lovely. Until i looked it up myself, my buddy and I didn't know that Daw was supposed to be a Medic type character. Absolutely nothing about their design gave us a single clue.
Of all the charaters, the ones we thought looked the best were easily Maymar, Duchess, and Vale although Vale's premium skin was easily one of the absolute worst. I actually started to tear up because the design was unexpectedly bad that i burst out laughing. We couldn't believe such an awful design was deemed perfectly acceptable.
Completely agree
Great video, this concord thing has exposed me to great ideas and concepts and principles. "Body confidence" sums it up perfectly, thanks.
Thanks for watching 🙏🏽
How to stop the complaints about DEI in a single, simple step:
Make the ethnic characters cool / hot / badass / cute / appealing in any other way. I'm being serious here, I don't remember ANYONE calling KOF15 woke when it added 2 black women (Isla and Dolores) to the roster.
True enough - that's kinda what I appreciated about a number of the redesigns people did for these characters. They actually displayed the women of color very respectfully, just gave them more body and attitude. I can get down with that. 👌🏽
KOF usually does an amazing job with ethnic representation. Idk what ethnicity K' is but hes a cool dark skinned character. Almost TOO cool
@@nore5888 I'm not kidding when I say K' was the guy behind my bi awakening. We love K' in this house.
Nowadays trolls call anything "woke" just to get a hit of dopamine. They tried it with Street Fighter 6 and they'll try it again.
@@psychoreactive I mean... the artstyle isn't doing SF6 any favors. Terry Bogard went from looking like a hunky dreamboat to looking like an unwashed hillbilly with a few dozen skin conditions.
Thank you so much for making this video! I kinda felt like I was going crazy when I hadn't seen anyone mention Moebius or Dune or more 1970s/80s scifi art in any of the discussion around this game. I understand and even mostly agree with the criticism of the character designs from a gameplay perspective, and I will also agree that a lot of the characters really do have drastic issues, but every other criticism felt so non-specific or like they were missing the point. I feel like this video has actually given me some peace of mind--I feel way less gaslit, if that makes any sense. :P Also, I really liked hearing your analysis and your presentation is really entertaining, too! So thank you again!
I'm so glad you appreciated this analysis. I definitely made an effort to be more fair - because like you, I felt like some folks were simply being hyperbolic for the sake of it. Trust your instincts for sure. 👍🏽
Y'know as an avid fan of Jean "Moebius"Giraud, I did see aspect of his design philosophy in Concord and I take so much offense in their execution...
Let's take Emari as one of the main ones they tried and failed, Moebius does use a lot of rounder shapes in his designs but adds a bit more dimensions to it. So maybe giving Emari an elongated helmet akin to Arzach's hat would give them a bit more diversity to the shape and silhouette. Warframe has an enemy faction where they nail the rounder armor look of Moebius with flying colors and also pull off the intestine like squiggly lines very confidently too.
On the topic of Warframe. I would love to hear your thoughts on frame designs in warframe.
Good point on the roundedness piece - I feel like in Concord, it doesn't look as authentic - those elements look plugged in instead of organic - idk
Touching on that point you made about the designs understanding the assignment of following cues from dune, cowboy bebop and mobius I see exactly what you mean but I think that the problem is that I’m not getting any dune from these characters but that each of there designs just arbitrarily choose which of these three wildly different styles to pull from. Emari, deveers, roka, Lenox and Jabari are all looking like they were pulled from a mobius comics background cast. Duchess, haymar, starchild, teo and ESPECIALLY kyps are really good starts to what a side character in bebop would look like. Baz, daw, lark, vale and it-z I don’t really feel comfortable putting them in either category. but the main problem is that you try putting the design ideology of mobius next to that of bebop and it just doesn’t mesh. That said, I like that you didn’t just mercilessly trash on the designs despite them being very lackluster and made an effort to give real critique. Love the work you do, keep it up!
Fair comment - a good point similar to what someone else said: they pulled from too many sources to the point where they didn't really do anything original, leaving disorienting designs for players at the end of the day. It's very unfortunate - and we shouldn't have to do mental gymnastics to make sense of the characters we're playing.
I'm glad you appreciated the video 🙏🏽
Thanks for making this video. It is so good to hear a fresh perspective. I'm so deep into Free-body ideology that I didn't even notice why the human characters were off. No wonder It-Z was the one I thought acceptable, she's the one that looks happy in her skin.
Agreed
I gave my opinions on the design
But now talking bout concord as a game look putting aside all the politics internet talk cuz that's a whole can of worms in it of itself
But I think one of the major reasons concord failed not only as a game but as Sonys next big franchise
It's cuz Sony and in turn concord felt so entitled
What I mean is that concord at best would have been an okay/fine free to play 5v5 live service game with micro transactions, there's many of them and that's okay maybe your not re inventing the wheel but as a free game it would have been okay
But no, Sony right off the bat came out with a 40 dollar price tag and season pass and a show plan and tie in comics and more an more stuff am surprised they didn't announce a goddam tie in cereal, from the start Sony said hey here's a bunch of product you will buy cuz we say so, that's not how you grow a live service game
Overwatch and Fortnite for all its faults they grew organically and the tie in stuff came later
Concord was just in your face corpo stuff and people don't tend to like that
Something I will say that kinda makes me sad is that the actress who plays bazz in the game made a video going to the store exited and buying a copy, she seemed happy that she was in a game and idk I feel bad for her and all the artist and programmers, yeah to some extent people are at fault but we all know that the suits at the top won't feel a thing for them it's just another million dollars to right off
Honestly I'm with you on the "entitled" part. So many focus on what Overwatch IS and not what it WAS. It had a journey, and it feels like everyone wants to skip the journeys and get to the results NOW.
Good video! Having some understanding of contemporary fashion is vital for game industry character artists so this stuff is really useful. And I really appreciate that you took the time to understand the actual design intentions and inspirations behind the style, and also that you looked at both the base designs and the premium skins. I've seen some really big art youtubers completely fail to understand the brief and want to turn every character into some kinda generic Halo ripoff.
I actually think I disagree on the Emari premium skin though. It's the only one that actually leans into the Moebius inspired scifi weirdness *hard enough* to make the off kilter oddity of it read as intentional. It reminds me of something from the old Dune movie. Hideous from a fashion point of view? Sure, but as a character design it actually... kinda works for me? It definitely communicates her "scrapper" character better than the base version, which I thought was some kinda hazardous environment security guard type thing.
Also Duchess IS a slay my god someone said it!
I also noticed that some folks redesigned the characters as if they're from random franchises. Thanks for appreciating the research. 🙏🏽
@@XDF For real, character artist twitter has turned clowning on Concord redesigns worse than the originals into a sport at this point 💀 ah nah it really comes across! Gonna check out the pokemon vids too.
As some one who tends to dislike "DEI" games it's not because of the diversity itself. Games that tend to be labeled "DEI" games usually end up being bad seemingly because they cared more about inclusion and shoving in hamfisted political messaging than making a good game.
Thanks for sharing. That's why I hope another co. can strike the balance between innovation in diversity and a solid foundation for innovative and quality gameplay
@@XDF just to elaborate in the comment, we gamer know when something hurts the industry and ultimately hurt us the consumers, the consumer part of the industry learned that lesson in december of 1982.
the DEI hate comes because we (the consumer) tried to warn sony, we saw the first models and didnt liked it, and when videos started comming the companny did not listened, instead they called the critics racist and doubled down on the flat unispiring dessings, to me the problem with DEI is the lack of maturity to take the critics and make the necessary changes ( look at how the sonic movie team took the HARSH critics of the trailer and turned them in to a 2 movie praised by the audience).
we knew it was going to flop, we knew sony was going to feel it and we knew the industry was taking a blow with this, my question is why? why cant they hear the consumers?
They got my girl Emari looking like a 3 year old strapped into a bulletproof carseat. 😭
Omg - that's funny 😅
Would love to see a vid about final fantasy 7, the og, remakes, and Advent Children designs!
This gave me interesting ideas to consider for my own work, thanks, i have been looking to learn more about fashion in general for my art and characters
I'm very glad you could find some value 🙌🏽
I actually quite like DeVeers as a concept, she's like a space station janitor/pest control. The orange and blue palete really brings that out.
At least someone likes it
XDF's reaction: What is going ON?
Sungrand Studios' reaction: This is a disaster.
Some realy good point as expected, you do some really good work.
And looking at those characters more, it's almost as if the character themselves are kinda of ashamed of the style, besides Jabali I don't really see anyone else really owning the retro sci-fi campy vibe, they look like they are cosplaying, not living in it.
And that is a shame, i am a total sucker for really confident camp
The "not living in it" part is so true - I didn't think about it that way 👌🏽
The Guardians of The Galaxy game would be such a good pick for one of these videos. Tons of cool outfits with detailed descriptions that provide more context in and out of the game
Never thought I’d be watching a critique on video game fashion by a fabulously dressed man ready for the catwalk himself….but here we are. Slay my dude…slay.. as the elder ones used to say.😅
8:47 surpisingly I like this one, probably because they face got covered and as you said remind me of mortal kombat bot
It would be MUCH better suited in the MK universe
Half the cast plays in a recreational paintball league and the other half are cranberry farmers or sewer-maintenance workers (minus Kyps, Duchess and Jabali). I don't blame the artists themselves for this, this level of failed design can only be achieved through mismanagement and a lack of feedback. Also the bug-guts green colour is my most hated and I see it show up on the default skins of multiple characters. Just egregious.
So much truth expressed here - especially the point on lack of internal feedback and the overuse of green! So much unnecessary green - of all the colors to choose from. 🤦🏽♂️
That's a fantastic top you're wearing!
I think no one was allowed to say “that looks like shit” for concord and it shows!
9:07 Couldn´t keep it together xd
Definitely my least fav design xP
Maybe the real Concord was all the great channels we found thanks to the game’s failure
It has certainly turned out that way
Would loveeeee to see you analyse the Overwatch characters because they have some of my best designs for a team shooter
"This should've been a white woman", is a Concord critique I didn't expect to hear, but I get it.
Still surprised I feel that way - but it just feels right.
I've not seen the alternative costumes before, but the alternate Emari, where she's like a zombie with the blank eyes and almost intestine-like tubes kinda goes hard.
And zombies/undead are a pretty common cliche for 'tank' characters, so it kinda fits, imo.
Love that for you
there is a rumor going around that concord designs are based on some early 20 century diving gear, like it was supposed to be based on 20k leagues under the sea. just something to think about
That would explain some of the submarine diver vibe I got from some of them - like DeVeers. Still not a fan.
The only place I've seen those coiled "digestive tract" things done before is Battletech's Coolant Suits, but those are supposed to be technological regressions from their more sleek modern SLDF Golden Age versions.
I also agree that Duchess' design is probably the best one of the bunch in the default costume
Thanks for the insight
You really should do Dislyte next. Believe me, it's like the fashion week was hosted in a gacha game instead of Milan or Paris
Hell yeah I was waiting for this video
I watched an want to give my takes but to prefix with what you said at the end I don't think there's anything wrong with being critical it's fun cuz one tends to come up with better ideas when they are critical of something that has potential
Here's my takes
7:36 emari: I agree that the premium looks awful, looks like a zombie look I think it would have been better if the premium maybe made some parts of her armor transparent so her body shows more and you can see her muscular physique ya know get some body diversity in there
9:05 deveers: lol that laugh just kills me, idk why the devs wanted that ugly plastic Tupperware look thing so much even in the premium, maybe redesign an have it so her head is human but the rest of her body is like robotic, implement some gaps and synthetic look idk just not space janitor look
10:39 starchild: I saw some one say that the premium should have been a good of war kratos skin since it is a Sony property and honestly yeah that would have work imo
12:24 bazz: idk I don't really agree I think the look is just too disco even tho that is what the game is trying to go for but the thing is that they don't go for it with the other characters so you end up with many characters feeling like each one belongs to a different kind of space story, I do a free a crop jacket would have saved the look but that premium......she looks like a Gundam pilot
14:18 it-z: same I think the premium should have been the default look, idk about the lore of concord but the idea of an alien girl that's obsessed with earth 2000s alt stuff would have been a fun character
15:56 roka: it is funny that the only character they try to give sex appeal they for some reason give her a bobblehead thing, make the helmet smaller and that would be good and the premium just make the helmet and giant robot eye cuz thats clearly what they wanted to do
17:24 duchess: it's fine not my favorite but it's okay
18:25 vale: the look is good and I don't mind the robot legs but that premium looks holy she looks like a green skinny Michelin man, wtf her design is good but they ruined it looks like she's wearing a sleeping bag an cargo pants
19:52 Lennox: I feel like this one is one of the most boring one even tho he's supposed to be the like main guy in the roster, it's just hey make starlord but a weird rock lizard, the vest am not a fan of cuz again it feels like they wanted to give him a coat like starlord but just compromised with a tube vest
21:37 haymar: I think the gold beads could have been more emphasize like maybe it's part of her abilities but over all the red premium is the best look
23:45 lark: yeah idk chief this whole look I agree it looks like an enemy NPC that you fight, it's an ugly look cuz it feels like they could decide what to do with it, make the face smooth but also the legs primal but also give it a hat but also a plant hat and plant shoulder etc they it's just a mess
25:28 kyps: okay I will state this right now kyps is the MVP GOAT of the game cuz that design is everything, even the color varients look good his aura his looks, he genuinely looks like a character from cowboy Bebop something that the whole game has struggled to do, I will say that my only complaint is that the premium I don't really like he kinda looks like and old time British school boy but other than that I like him a lot, am just a sucker for robots wearing clothes
27:23 daw: .........bruh idk, okay let me say this bigger character can work the perfect example is roadhog from overwatch who's a bigger fellow in design but it works cuz you compromise something like the face for a mask which gives roadhog more characteristic look, for daw they genuinely gave them a bad design especially with the coat that hangs over the belly emphasizing their size, the premium works cuz it takes a bit of that away from the character and into the clothes but my god
29:11 teo: yeah I 100% agree not only cuz I know mf called teo in real life but the look just feels meh, he looks like a guard NPC that you see scattered around a map in a fallout game just a very boring like sport gear look all he's missing is the football helmet
30:57 jabali: I think it's an okay look but again am striken by that feeling of the design being from a hole difference space franchise like when I put jabali next to kyps both their designs are good but one belongs in cowboy bebop and the other one in guardians of the galaxy
Over all the game feels like a design mess and maybe a lot of the design got lost in translation I have seen some early concept art an it looks better but if I want to play a game with diversity in many aspects and good character design I would just play overwatch that the simple honest truth, concord didn't do anything new if anything it got bogged down by trying to have this realistic look while trying to pull from a bunch of different things
Still great video like always 👍
I appreciate the persistent suggestion - I didn't realize it was such a hot topic.
And great/thoughtful opinions. I can definitely see where you're coming from.
@@XDF lol thanks I can't wait for future stuff X
the first time I saw Kyps I was like "this looks like something X would wear"
Omg - I love that - you're spot on :D
Yo man wtf, that getup is sick yo, pretty cool clothing you wear, dayum.
...Oh, this is a Concord video; didn't notice that.
Yay! New upload :)
Indeed - 2 uploads in less than a week's time 😌
Ready for X to drag them!!!
I’ll say the concepts were truly inspired but not sure what happened in the execution.
Something definitely got lost in translation from concept to execution - it's really such a shame.
@@XDF an awful shame. I’d like to know who they were designing these characters for. Not everything has to be whimsical and fun but the concord design lacks joy. Honestly overwatch has a lot of problems but their character designs are captivating af.
14:33 preach!
Yeesss
Loved the feed back. The premium skins were probably the first design, but some micromanaging happened and the designer just chose bland, unflattering colors at the end.
Agreed
Wow…a good amount of the alternative outfits were leagues better than the default. What a shame.
Too bad the game couldn't last long enough for more folks to appreciate them
I can see bits of inspiration from that artist Mobius that you mentioned as well as Star Wars for the designs. And, although I don't 100% agree with your takes on the outfits, I do agree with you on 95% of it. (I think that 5% is just me being a freak and thinking that games need more big bodied alien characters showing more skin.)
You are correct that too many of the characters didn't show enough skin. I don't know if the designers were trying to give a "realistic" look to the designs, but this is a scifi game with aliens and magic powers. The designs don't have to be based on reality and can stray from practicality.
And, yes, there was too much use of those weird gut tubes.
I respect your 5% disagreement 😉 Thanks for the thoughtful comment
Fun Fact: Teo is not white, he is Hispanic. Meaning there is no white characters in this game.
Oh wow - he looks very white. Dang, then I especially think they needed at least 1 white character.
Hispanic is just a vague explanation that refers to people that speak spanish. It could be from Spain you know, like the country in Europe.
@@idky6763 That would make more sense to me.
@@idky6763 I read somewhere that Teo is Mexican but it is hard to find accurate info since the game has gone down and there is no wiki.
My biggest pet peeve is that the "aliens" are mostly just humans with weirdly coloured skin. They could've been so much more interesting if only they leaned into the non-human or even non-humanoid aspect. 😭
Yeah, outside of maybe Lark - the aliens weren't all too unique
@@XDF I agree, Lark is the best, but by not having any other really non-human looking aliens, they ended up sticking out like a sore thumb.
I feel like all of these would have worked great in a show that focused on a desolate, scrapper, DIY kinda vibe. The muted colours read well worn, the design elements we see across several characters (like the puffy/inflatable life jacket kinda vibe we see across in some pieces and elements) give salvaged from all over the galaxy. Imagine Firefly but with Marvel aesthetics.
I really like several of these designs in that hypothetical context.
BUT for a multiplayer game that's setting up a badass and quippy vibe? Nah. Even if we consider the sci fi realism they seemingly went for, the designs don't clearly read their roles, they're flat. We've very solidly established that cartoonish/exaggerated designs and colours work well in shooters. Even if they wanted to make a more "mature" game, the roles still need to read clearly and characters need to be way more clearly separated from each other. As a crew in a series the uniformity makes sense, for this it does not. I haven't really seen or read anything about the game prior to this, so the first thing I thought of was TS4 Journey to Batuu 💀
Agree with most of your opinions on the outfits, esp Bazz and Duchess. I didn't even KNOW about the secondary outfits and HOOOO BOY some of them were...... A choice! Lol they definitely should've brought in a fashion designer to the team. 😅😅
Oh, and as someone who is personally not a fan of too much body confidence in game characters (just cuz of me being tired of over-sexualization over the years), even I can see that not having ANY skin showing on ANY character is really bringing down the differences in design and personality.
Yeah - I can definitely understand not going overboard with the body confidence. It can be a bit much. But we were deprived of ANY of it in this game 🤦🏽♂️
Yeah you don't need it on every character (or even most characters) but it feels super weird that NONE of the characters went that way.
The impression I'm getting is that these characters would be incredible in a comic/movie/series, but are too anonymous for a videogame
Imo the weapons do not fit any of these characters at all
I definitely had a hard time understanding the connections
All well and good, but the question is where can I find that jacket you're rockin tho?
Demobaza - figured I would demonstrate the style that I'm talking about 😉👍🏽
@@XDF Absolutely stunning, I'm definitely sold on their vibe
"this alien should have been a white woman" adfghjkl XD
i feel like they want to be cool like overwatch but they forgot what make overwatch cool
Yeah - they needed a little more originality
Now in no. 4 is there a difference in game character design and show/manga/story character designs? Because in games I feel like you need to conform to cliches because you need to show if they are a healer etc. but in let’s say as a example jojos they don’t have to conform because you are not playing, maybe idk if I’m wrong in that. But let’s say giorno, he has lady bugs on his outfit that give you a hint in what he does. So is there a difference between the 2? Just asking
Thanks for the curiosity. In my pov - it's really the JoJo stands that should have a style that indicates their abilities, which most of them do in some regard. Can kinda help from a stroy-telling perspective. The stand users don't really need to - but I appreciate when they are coordinated with their stand in some way.
With MOBA games like Concord - it's helpful to be able to recognize what a hero does immediately, so that in battle you can react more easily. It also helps give players a better sense of immersion.
@@XDF Thanks. I was really wondering, I’m interested in make a comic/manga so this really helps!
Oh and fashion design as well
Concord characters be lookin like the people that wear Prada without consistency on colors 💀
9:07 BRO excatly what I said
Literally a fishtank
I'll disagree on Lark, I say they should have gone ham on the alien humanoid mushroom concept, no clothes, just a naked alien with a mushroom layered carapace covering their body like some sort of organic armor, think Alien but mushroom themed .. that would have been a much more alien (pun intended) and unique design from all the other characters.
Yikes - ok
Hold X to pay respect for concord lol
You know I try to keep it classy 🤭
The only designs, I kinda liked in Concord were Haymar, Duchess and It-Z. Never knew about the premium outfits, so I'm glad to have seen them here. Duchess got absolutely destroyed by it, though xD But It-Z and Haymar got just what was missing in the original outfits which is some actually interesting design choices. And yeah, this game just has this weird forced kind of diversity where additionally, almost no one is allowed to look handsome or beautiful or even a little interesting. I think quite a few fighting games do a really good job at having a diverse cast, that doesn't seem forced and every character just is so cool in their own way. Since my favorite one is Tekken, maybe a Tekken fashion/style analysis some time in the future? :D As always, W video ^^
Yeah, some of the efforts felt forced, but glad that some characters could still shine. ✨️
6:03 It really comes down to people disliking the poor execution of Concord’s diversity. I truly believe that diversity often comes from strong art direction and creative character design foundations. In Concord, the designers just slapped a black lady’s face on top of a hideous armor and called it a day. Minority groups deserve good designs too.
Like, WHY did they make her look and sound like Fat Albert. Why is the body positive dude in such unflattering clothes. Where are the cool characters that are supposed to be the “representation.” These designs scream corporate cluelessness.
To be fair, Vale is a sniper. They're supposed to be unseen so, I think it's okay that she isn't showing much skin.
A little thigh wouldn't have detracted - but fair enough
Yeah. You're right. Basically, if all of us complaining about the DEI and woke, were just complaining because there are gay and black people in our game, then Overwatch would have failed the same way Concord did. Overwatch characters were hot or cool and actual characters, while Concords... They were basically a rundown of checklist and token representation, without actually saying anything and the actual thing people complain about, when speaking about 'woke'.
So sounds like it is a major complaint - but yes, it's not the only factor, as the video highlights 👍🏽
Honestly this was a more refreshing critique to watch because you explained very well why it didn't work instead of defaulting to the wokeism boogeyman. You didn't just shit on it, but gave pointers on what they could've done better via constructive criticism. You earned a subscriber here
Thanks for appreciating the effort 🙌🏽
it's really great to see an educated character design commentary on concord as opposed to the usual gamer bro getting mad that there's a black person in their video game.
That was certainly the goal - thanks for acknowledging 😌🙏🏽
Where did you get that idea? Seems very absurd.
You can definitely see where they were going with some of them, the ideas were good but the execution was terrible. I agree that we need more bling, some more confidence, more sexiness and leaning more into the established themes of the characters. For example I would have given Bazz a waspish snatched waist to emphasize her silhouette more and given way, way more gold to the mage looking one.