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Terrible, nonsensical, or incomprehensible transitions from artwork -> spritework

SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

I love pineapple on pizza!
Member
Oct 28, 2017
13,506
Earth, 21st Century
I`ve got a lot on my mind right now, but two stand out to me, one more well-known, one less so.

Let`s start with the less obvious one. Blaze Heatnix, a Maverick from Mega Man X6, looks really cool in his artwork. A phoenix based boss is a great idea to begin with, and the designers nailed the concept.

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Or at least the artwork portion. In-game, he`s portrayed as this ugly, small, ketchup-orange regular-ass bird.

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I think the terrible choice of color is what makes it so unappealing.

The other, more infamous choice is Link, from A Link to the Past. In artwork, he looks like the Peter Pan knockoff we`ve always known him as. (Added in some fan renditions of his other armors because they were really well done, IMO)

a-link-to-the-past-link.jpg

link_to_the_past_vector_alter_by_plague52x-d5zm81p.jpg


But, in-game, he has... purple hair. For some reason.

2567412-9583629141-Link-.jpg


Why?

What other strange or downright bad transitions from concept art -> sprites (or just in-game representation in general) can you think of?
 
Phil32

Phil32

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,568
I think for Link in ALttP the hair being pink was to distinguish it from the face and brim of the hat. It would look like a mishmash of brown otherwise.
 
Azuardo

Azuardo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
684
I have never seen those alt Link artworks before with his different gear in LttP. Very cool.

Can't share images, bit Agahnim in LttP again was a confusing one.

Same for Shadow in FF6. Difficult to tell where his eyes were.
 
Aleh

Aleh

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,296
Pokémon Red Green and Blue sprites basically look like knock-offs of themselves
 
Futaleufu

Futaleufu

Banned
Jan 12, 2018
3,910
In Power Instinct Matrimelee, Buntaro is supposed to be this menacing looking guy:

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In game, this is his sprite:

hqdefault.jpg
 
skeezx

skeezx

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,144
well there was virtually no way to for amano's stuff to translate to spritework. even the modern renditions are still pretty off. it's why nomura took his job for FF7 when they went 3d
 
hey it's that dog

hey it's that dog

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,102
The Amano stuff seems more like a case of the illustrator embellishing a prototypical/archetypal design rather than the sprite work trying and failing to achieve Amano's style.
 
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SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

I love pineapple on pizza!
Member
Oct 28, 2017
13,506
Earth, 21st Century
hey it's that dog said:
The Amano stuff seems more like a case of the illustrator embellishing a prototypical/archetypal design rather than the sprite work trying and failing to achieve Amano's style.
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Maybe, but regardless of the reasoning, it`s still way different. Sometimes I actually prefer the spritework (Terra`s green hair, Cecil`s Dark Knight armor, Bartz) but sometimes the artwork is superior (Cecil`s Paladin form, Shadow)
 
Pixel Grotto

Pixel Grotto

Member
Oct 27, 2017
894
Pretty much all the early Final Fantasy games suffer from this problem. Bartz looks like a different character entirely.

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Agahnim is an infamous case. I've never been a big fan of the Link to the Past's graphical style due to how weird and miscolored it looks in places. Like...why did they make him green...?

agahnim_by_spacepig22-d5zqpcs.jpg

agahnim_sprite_edited_by_nikori20-d5h4qrj.png
 
retroman

retroman

Member
Oct 31, 2017
3,056
Behold the awesome Renegade III box art!

Renegade_3-The_Final_Chapter__FRENCH.jpg


Now, let's see what the main character looks like in-game...

renegade_iii_-_the_final_chapter_04.gif
 
Kain-Nosgoth

Kain-Nosgoth

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,560
Switzerland
Pixel Grotto said:
Pretty much all the early Final Fantasy games suffer from this problem. Bartz looks like a different character entirely.

313

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Agahnim is an infamous case. I've never been a big fan of the Link to the Past's graphical style due to how weird and miscolored it looks in places. Like...why did they make him green...?

agahnim_by_spacepig22-d5zqpcs.jpg

agahnim_sprite_edited_by_nikori20-d5h4qrj.png
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while aghanim sprite is really different from the original art, i really never saw him as this green pokey, lmao
 
cervanky

cervanky

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,296
Ridley from Metroid (NES)
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And they stuck with the much more boring dragon design ever since.

I like some of the fanart renditions of his classic look:
hXdFVJX.png

skeezx said:
well there was virtually no way to for amano's stuff to translate to spritework. even the modern renditions are still pretty off. it's why nomura took his job for FF7 when they went 3d
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It can be done now! I'd love an FF game that looked like this....
 
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Guipradi

Guipradi

Member
Nov 29, 2017
535
Ispagnia
Watching the thread, there are some nice things here. Also. I think Link's hair was pink due to palette restrictions(?) But I think it's due to differentiate him from the background.
 
SusumuStreet

SusumuStreet

Member
Jan 2, 2018
328
Link to the Past sprite had deliberately pink hair, I think to separate it from all the other yellow and brown parts of his outfit? Here are little models that show it's deliberate:
D7Hl3CO.jpg
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DPortwr.png


Also, it's a different pink color than any of the pinks used in his bunny version, so it wasn't about reusing a palette. There are mockups people have made with his hair recolored to blond and brown, but it all blends into his costume and the backgrounds when there's brown dirt or wood colors.
 
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Pixel Grotto

Pixel Grotto

Member
Oct 27, 2017
894
SusumuStreet said:
Link to the Past sprite had deliberately pink hair, I think to separate it from all the other yellow and brown parts of his outfit? Here are little models that show it's deliberate:

DPortwr.png


Also, it's a different pink color than any of the pinks used in his bunny version, so it wasn't about reusing a palette. There are mockups people have made with his hair recolored to blond and brown, but it all blends into his costume and the backgrounds when there's brown dirt or wood colors.
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I've seen these models before and really like them. I actually think pink hair Link is a funny and kinda cool design, it's just that the sprite work for A Link to the Past is still kinda fugly looking IMO.

I would very much enjoy a Claymation-style Zelda game with Link looking like those little models.
 
Ghostsonplanets

Ghostsonplanets

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,499
Pixel Grotto said:
I've seen these models before and really like them. I actually think pink hair Link is a funny and kinda cool design, it's just that the sprite work for A Link to the Past is still kinda fugly looking IMO.

I would very much enjoy a Claymation-style Zelda game with Link looking like those little models.
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Claymation Mario, Claymation Zelda, Claymation Metroid. Cmon Ninty, isn't that hard to make.
 
Daitokuji

Daitokuji

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,602
The problem with the Amano artwork is that virtually all his female characters are blond. So when they made the sprites for the game they wanted her to have a different hair colour and chose green.
 
Ysarus

Ysarus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
38
According to Art & Artifacts, Zelda official art was created by an external (anime) studio back then (from the spritework, not the other way around), so that explains why it looks so different.

I guess that was the most common way of doing things when you had to draw small sprites in a low resolution: there was no need for ultra-detailed concept art, but promotional art was there to stimulate players' imaginations.
 
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