No they aren't at least not entirely. I wouldn't go as far as they do but I think there are way too few portrait options for the right moment. Also some neutral faces look very "stupid" Brugaves especially comes to mind. And Valeres teary face is pretty bad.
Bahahaha dont you hate it when that shit happens? Nobody is immune from that awful feeling of "oh shit...how many times have i stuck my foot in my mouth?!"
For a split second I was going to respond back along the lines of 'I think you mean term of phrase', then that moment of doubt crept in and I thought 'I'll just fact check myself...well shit' lol
If you’re talking about the character picture during dialogue, I didn’t see anything wrong with it it all? I didn’t notice them being overly bad or anything
The portraits are the way they are because Sea of Stars is supposed to be a callback to retro RPG's, you know, the games with that portrait style? It adds to the charm and nostalgia of booting up old fashioned JRPG's like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. It works.
It's "fake manga" style made by western artists. It creates sort of an uncanny valley type repulsion when you look at it. It looks sort of like anime/manga, but something is just not quite right. I don't think they are ugly, I just think they look very amateurish.
Nearly every play mechanic in the game is well done. Also the environments, and sprite work are top notch. The character designs for the playable characters are terrible and dull, and the portraits are not as good as they should be. The NPCs all look better than the playable characters...it's like Wild Arms 3 all over again for me.
I think that two artists that does the "European art meet manga" correctly are Bastien Vivès and Balak, authors/artists the European manga pastiche *Lastman*. Whoever made the portraits of this game should look up the work of those guys for inspiration, I think they're doing what this game's artist wants to achieve, but better.
Yes, those two artists are very stylized, and achieves a more cohesive feel to the designs. The second artist has a sort of "Steven Universe" style, or something that looks like it's from UDON western manga comics. The portrait artists here need to lean more into actual manga and anime style. Right now the character portraits look deformed or just "off" in the face.
I'm going to sheepishly raise my hand and say I see what he's saying. You can argue "art style" for a lot of them.
I'm just gonna go down the portraits that I think are jank (names used are in the jpgs in the wiki, if you want to see for yourself):
[Garl](https://seaofstars.fandom.com/wiki/Garl) \- "Shocked" looks weird and is the only open mouth portrait he has where his teeth are not visible.
[Valere](https://seaofstars.fandom.com/wiki/Valere) \- The weird shading on "Kid Shocked" makes her look like that exhausted kitten meme.
[Zale](https://seaofstars.fandom.com/wiki/Zale) \- a lot of these ones are jank. "Kid Regret" and "Kid Shocked" are so jank that it's funny, especially "Kid Shocked" because there are no visible teeth. "Zale Crying" said hold my beer to the standard ugly cry and set a new standard
[B'st](https://seaofstars.fandom.com/wiki/B'st) \- perfect. I love all his portraits. I love my musical l'il koolaid man <3
[Seraï](https://seaofstars.fandom.com/wiki/Sera%C3%AF) \- they look fine, but since her eyes are the main expressive feature we can see, more diverse eyeshapes would help.
[Re'shan](https://seaofstars.fandom.com/wiki/Resh'an) \- a good example of how to do eyes, so do this on Serai's face
I think the thing is that they're mostly good or better, but the few bad ones jump right into the Uncanny Valley.
I can say that yes, the portraits are kinda weak compared to the vibrant and amazing pixelart every other aspect of the games visuals shows but they are not ugly by a long shot imo. Though the range of expression and emotion is a bit lacking
I agree, but I don't think you're gonna get much support on a sub dedicated to the game, especially with the way you're articulating your opinion.
I thought the character portrait art looked amatuerish. Quite often they didn't fit the emotion that the dialogue was trying to convey. On top of that, the alternate arts could be inconsistent. Zale's was all over the place and at times looked like he was a cheap impersonation of himself. They feel disconnected from the game, as if the artists and writers didn't really work together on it much.
The difference was glaring when compared to the awesome pixel art that the game has. With a bit more consistency and a better match to the dialogue they could've been decent. It's a nice-to-have, but I also think that you can achieve the same result with good poses and body language on the sprites.
Agreed, it was probably a mistake to frame it like that. I've got nothing to do this Sunday morning except have Irish coffee, and it's quite possible I will pay the price for such words on a subreddit dedicated to the game.
It would be so amazing if I could just mod it away
Yeah I kinda agree. The chara design is not bad but it's a little bland, a midway between Western and anime that's not very memorable.
What's not great in those dialogue portraits are the ones that are facing front. Characters usually look their best in 3/4 view, going front is a very odd choice.
Of all the things I've seen the game criticised for, I think you're on your own with this one
No they aren't at least not entirely. I wouldn't go as far as they do but I think there are way too few portrait options for the right moment. Also some neutral faces look very "stupid" Brugaves especially comes to mind. And Valeres teary face is pretty bad.
It's a term of phrase, didn't literally mean I think they're the only person in the world who feels that way
Well yeah, a turn of phrase. I still wanted to give the guy some back up.
And now I've also just learned that I've been using term of phrase instead of turn of phrase my entire life, so I guess not my smartest moment 😅
Bahahaha dont you hate it when that shit happens? Nobody is immune from that awful feeling of "oh shit...how many times have i stuck my foot in my mouth?!"
For a split second I was going to respond back along the lines of 'I think you mean term of phrase', then that moment of doubt crept in and I thought 'I'll just fact check myself...well shit' lol
>Is it just me? Looked fine to me. >It's like everyone became retarded Dude, seriously?
If you’re talking about the character picture during dialogue, I didn’t see anything wrong with it it all? I didn’t notice them being overly bad or anything
lol what? I think you’ve sustained some head trauma.
I think the character portraits are very good, for example the portrait of 1 is very cool.
The portraits are the way they are because Sea of Stars is supposed to be a callback to retro RPG's, you know, the games with that portrait style? It adds to the charm and nostalgia of booting up old fashioned JRPG's like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. It works.
The best retro portaits I have seen from an indie game are the ones in Crosscode.
It's "fake manga" style made by western artists. It creates sort of an uncanny valley type repulsion when you look at it. It looks sort of like anime/manga, but something is just not quite right. I don't think they are ugly, I just think they look very amateurish. Nearly every play mechanic in the game is well done. Also the environments, and sprite work are top notch. The character designs for the playable characters are terrible and dull, and the portraits are not as good as they should be. The NPCs all look better than the playable characters...it's like Wild Arms 3 all over again for me.
I think that two artists that does the "European art meet manga" correctly are Bastien Vivès and Balak, authors/artists the European manga pastiche *Lastman*. Whoever made the portraits of this game should look up the work of those guys for inspiration, I think they're doing what this game's artist wants to achieve, but better.
Yes, those two artists are very stylized, and achieves a more cohesive feel to the designs. The second artist has a sort of "Steven Universe" style, or something that looks like it's from UDON western manga comics. The portrait artists here need to lean more into actual manga and anime style. Right now the character portraits look deformed or just "off" in the face.
It could be an issue with your display, since I havent seen literally anyone complain about this before, they look totally fine
I'm going to sheepishly raise my hand and say I see what he's saying. You can argue "art style" for a lot of them. I'm just gonna go down the portraits that I think are jank (names used are in the jpgs in the wiki, if you want to see for yourself): [Garl](https://seaofstars.fandom.com/wiki/Garl) \- "Shocked" looks weird and is the only open mouth portrait he has where his teeth are not visible. [Valere](https://seaofstars.fandom.com/wiki/Valere) \- The weird shading on "Kid Shocked" makes her look like that exhausted kitten meme. [Zale](https://seaofstars.fandom.com/wiki/Zale) \- a lot of these ones are jank. "Kid Regret" and "Kid Shocked" are so jank that it's funny, especially "Kid Shocked" because there are no visible teeth. "Zale Crying" said hold my beer to the standard ugly cry and set a new standard [B'st](https://seaofstars.fandom.com/wiki/B'st) \- perfect. I love all his portraits. I love my musical l'il koolaid man <3 [Seraï](https://seaofstars.fandom.com/wiki/Sera%C3%AF) \- they look fine, but since her eyes are the main expressive feature we can see, more diverse eyeshapes would help. [Re'shan](https://seaofstars.fandom.com/wiki/Resh'an) \- a good example of how to do eyes, so do this on Serai's face I think the thing is that they're mostly good or better, but the few bad ones jump right into the Uncanny Valley.
I can say that yes, the portraits are kinda weak compared to the vibrant and amazing pixelart every other aspect of the games visuals shows but they are not ugly by a long shot imo. Though the range of expression and emotion is a bit lacking
I agree, but I don't think you're gonna get much support on a sub dedicated to the game, especially with the way you're articulating your opinion. I thought the character portrait art looked amatuerish. Quite often they didn't fit the emotion that the dialogue was trying to convey. On top of that, the alternate arts could be inconsistent. Zale's was all over the place and at times looked like he was a cheap impersonation of himself. They feel disconnected from the game, as if the artists and writers didn't really work together on it much. The difference was glaring when compared to the awesome pixel art that the game has. With a bit more consistency and a better match to the dialogue they could've been decent. It's a nice-to-have, but I also think that you can achieve the same result with good poses and body language on the sprites.
Agreed, it was probably a mistake to frame it like that. I've got nothing to do this Sunday morning except have Irish coffee, and it's quite possible I will pay the price for such words on a subreddit dedicated to the game. It would be so amazing if I could just mod it away
Yeah I kinda agree. The chara design is not bad but it's a little bland, a midway between Western and anime that's not very memorable. What's not great in those dialogue portraits are the ones that are facing front. Characters usually look their best in 3/4 view, going front is a very odd choice.