Similarities in character designs...

2»

Comments

  • edited July 2009
    I... regretfully agree.
    I don't wanna poke holes in a good game. But it drains some personality from the characters when they look the same. Unfortunately it's bad for storytelling, in a game which is all about the story (And puzzles... lotsa puzzles!)
  • edited July 2009
    I have to say I didn't noticed until reading threads like this.

    I don't know if that's a good thing (about the game) or a bad thing (about me) but there you go!
  • edited July 2009
    Yeah, same thing as corruptbiggins here.
  • edited July 2009
    I think for the next episode they need to do away with the shiny nature of the character skin as well, it made the models look like they are from a PS1 fmv cutscene, and if copying characters, add more than a beard, they could morph the models and still have skins and skeletons fit.

    This game was awesome, but I thought the quality of the visuals were not up to par with those in S&M and especially W&G (where it is sometimes easy to forget it's PC rendered and not clay).
  • edited July 2009
    the_boo wrote: »
    This game was awesome, but I thought the quality of the visuals were not up to par with those in S&M and especially W&G (where it is sometimes easy to forget it's PC rendered and not clay).
    I disagree, Tales of MI is the most visually rich of all telltale games (im not implying the other games are bad) but Tales has much more visual quality.
  • edited July 2009
    I think you guys are forgetting that this is one island of many locations - they said no recycling right, so that means there will be a lot of characters - give em a bit of slack eh. Sure it could be better, but there is more reason for it than you are taking into account imo.

    In regards to not being as good as W&G / S&M style. The problem there is style. The graphics engine they use is very nicely suited to those (especially W&G) whereas MI is harder to get right.
  • edited July 2009
    I was more disappointed that Guybrush never mentions or brings attention to the fact that the character models are recycled. It would've been a nice homage to the original SOMI.
    (If you recall, they recycled backgrounds during swordfighting segments and one of the dialogue options between a random pirate was "ever notice how the forest look all the same?" or something like that.)
  • edited July 2009
    Jayel wrote: »
    I was more disappointed that Guybrush never mentions or brings attention to the fact that the character models are recycled. It would've been a nice homage to the original SOMI.
    (If you recall, they recycled backgrounds during swordfighting segments and one of the dialogue options between a random pirate was "ever notice how the forest look all the same?" or something like that.)

    Yeah, a little fourth wall breaking can definitely help when it comes to stuff like this.
  • edited July 2009
    Am I the only person who found the similar appearance of the captain, D'Oro, the reporter, and the man behind the door of Club 41 humorous? I found it more entertaining than anything. Anyway, can't it be seen as a callback to repeated character designs in SMI? Most of the pirates you fight during insult swordfighting not only have similar clothes, but also similar facial appearances. I think it gives the characters a bond that makes them "Flotsam inhabitants" rather than just a bunch of unrelated characters.
  • edited July 2009
    glenfx wrote: »
    I disagree, Tales of MI is the most visually rich of all telltale games (im not implying the other games are bad) but Tales has much more visual quality.
    I'm going to be very frank and say that (sorry to those that made them) most of the characters looked like ass. Voodoo lady, the Marquis and Le Chuck (who all have notable textures on their faces throughout the game) being the exceptions. It's mostly the faces though, the locations, bodies and the animations were great, but those shiny, shiny faces looked terrible.
  • edited July 2009
    Besides the lack of point and click control, this was the 2nd most disheartening thing about the game. The environments were fantastic, the characters stories themselves were fantastic. The humor was fantastic. The fact that everyone on the island besides the main characters looked like they were from the same 2 families? Not fantastic.

    I hope this can be remedied in the future.
  • edited July 2009
    maybe we can solve both reusing skins / voices with one stone, maybe Lucas Arts can buy Teltale, they would still be themselves, but have some bigger $$$$$ to spend, or maybe even Blizzard, more money is a good thing :)

    We just cant keep having Mole dude, Boscho and that annoying sick man voices ( worst ever btw) Now that Lucas Arts just have redone the Special Edition, surely surely you can borrow some voices actors, as it must be in LA's interest that these game be fun, and voice / music is also a big part of a game :)
  • edited July 2009
    decava01.jpg

    Looks like DeCava will have a familiar face...
  • edited July 2009
    After a while, I just sort of accepted it as a convention of the game. It was sort of like watching a Monty Python film with the same same six guys playing every role. The only time it was really jarring for me was when the ship captain brushed shoulders with the reporter. I was worried it would cause a temporal paradox or something if they came in direct contact. :P

    So which of these guys do you think we'll see in episode two?
  • edited July 2009
    glenfx wrote: »
    I said Blend Shapes, with Blend Shapes you can modify the mesh and retain the rig with its animations intact.
    Ahhhh, of course. I retract my earlier statements, this would work.
    the_boo wrote: »
    I think for the next episode they need to do away with the shiny nature of the character skin as well
    Absolutely, the skin looked pretty bad.
  • edited July 2009
    The short pirates didn't bother me in the slightest. The characters were well enough defined that you know who was who. The thing that slightly bothered me was thinking "was that the guy I punch on the beach?" when I saw the tall models. When it get's to this point, then something needs to be done to make the characters more distinctive.
  • edited July 2009
    Blame the Wii, and blame yourself for buying one.:mad:
  • edited July 2009
    The only time it was really jarring for me was when the ship captain brushed shoulders with the reporter. I was worried it would cause a temporal paradox or something if they came in direct contact. :P

    How funny ! I thought the same thing when it happened :p
  • edited July 2009
    Good to know I wasn't the only one going "wth isn't that guy commenting me smacking him on the nose?" when I first saw the unicorn dude.
  • edited July 2009
    Yeah, I think the tall characters need more distinct facial hair and skin color differences. 'Tiny moustache" and "no eyebrows" don't really come across at a lower resolution.
  • edited July 2009
    broodwars wrote: »
    Meh, I was more annoyed with them recycling the voice of the Mole from Sam & Max to play the part of the reporter in this game. His voice is just fingernails on the chalkboard to my ears.
    Yeah, I realized that right off the bat.
  • edited July 2009
    Wow! I thought that there were just two guys in disguise in the island. Something like Bosco.

    But seriously, maybe in next episodes Telltale will use some recycling, but for nameless NPC, like people walking around the island like in TSOMI. It helps the atmosphere of a living town.

    But for secondary characters there needs to be more creativity. At least make some more variety like fat, tall, etc. Maybe some character models can be recycled, but in characters of different islands, not two models for all characters in one island!
  • edited July 2009
    I think the characters where no pirate enough in purpose. Because the pox of le chuck turn those character back to being pirates again. So Telltales want us to see the defference. So i guess in the chapter 2 of TOMI we will see less softy pirates
  • edited July 2009
    I agree, guys, and this is my biggest gripe from an otherwise fun game. The character models are kinda disappointing. I think the quality of the Guybrush model is just fine, but I can't think of another character who didn't make me notice how low-poly or generic they looked. This includes LeChuck, Elaine, and the others. Well, I guess the Voodoo Lady was good enough. A little more design work (and just plain more polygons!) would've helped a lot. But it's fine, at least in this game the 3D characters are still serviceable, and it's not gonna be a huge deal. EMI never really managed to recover from its poor 3D quality, it just continued to distract as I played through it. I shudder to think back on those lovingly pre-rendered backgrounds clashing with brightly-light, flatly-textured blocks of piratey goodness.

    I am impressed, though, by the 3D environments and the overall look of the game. It looks like Telltale really was able to marry the cartoonish art style of the Monkey Island series with some good 3D camera work, and with the colors and shaders and everything, the game actually looks pretty good! A little cleaner than I'd like, but impressive nonetheless.



    EDIT: Did anyone else notice how the plump character models (D'Oro, Narwhal captain, etc.) kept snapping their fingers? Lol :)
  • edited July 2009
    Yeah....

    Re-using the rope bag, bringing in character designs from Texas Hold 'Em, and even dropping in a cow and a chicken from Bone
    I like to think of thoses as cameos.
  • edited July 2009
    LionelM wrote: »
    Speaking of voices, the glassblower sounded familiar. Can anyone place it?

    Isn't it Bubs' voice? He especially (but not only) sounds like Bubs when the pox make him speak loud/angry.
  • broodwars wrote: »
    Meh, I was more annoyed with them recycling the voice of the Mole from Sam & Max to play the part of the reporter in this game. His voice is just fingernails on the chalkboard to my ears.

    Fortunately, I've not played that particular Sam & Max episode, so I'm not familiar with "the Mole." I agree about the voice though; it's just awful.

    Reminds me of Danny DeVito.
  • edited July 2009
    It'd be nicer if they had maybe 4 or 5 different templates, so they could reuse them from episode to episode, but still have variety within each episode
  • edited July 2009
    It's still better than "short fat pirate" model in EMI (pirates fighting in the intro, pirates during the election, Elaine's adviser).
  • edited July 2009
    Novotnus wrote: »
    It's still better than "short fat pirate" model in EMI (pirates fighting in the intro, pirates during the election, Elaine's adviser).

    You can't argue with that. It was Attack of the Clones. Back then LucasArts didn't even bother to make different textures for those guys. And they were only in the freaking movies! Compared to that, TMI characters are almost bearable. Still, some fake noses, facial scars, eyepatches and big rubber ears could fix the situation. Characters need to be unique.
Sign in to comment in this discussion.