Anime Character and Game Style

News & General Discussion
1

Hi all,

i have been thinking about the following questions a lot lately , and just wanted to see what the Unity community thinks about this.

I love anime and think a lot of using an anime character and game style for future projects that we have in the pipeline. Like for example a style similar to Final Fantasy XIII.

Here are two examples of the Style i mean:

Other examples of games are recent titles like Star Ocean 4, Last Remnant, Magna Carta 2 or the like.

But i am not sure how the anime style will be accepted in Europe and America. And would that style be as popular as western style look for the characters.

And i thought before that it also may depend on the type of game. That a fantasy game would be more accepted then a let’s say a scifi or shooter game.

But the recent change from Anime Style to western style character style in the MMO Aion,for the release outside of korea, made me think about that. I think the korean version had a more interesting look , but now the characters look more standard. But they changed it for the west , so why ? Because the anime look is not that liked then a western style would?

So my question really is, will an anime style game be accepted. Or rather if, the game and visuals are good, would there be a disadvantage if the game chooses anime over western style?

And another question is , should i implement the style that i like most and don’t worry about it, or rather think of what might be more successful and implement that? Which comes down to the first question of what would be more successful.

I even think about incorporating that style into our current project 3DGo Online.

So i would love to hear all your thoughts about that.
And some advice maybe.

Cheers
Mike

2

In first link it’s awful anime style.
Second one doesn’t look like anime much, so it’s good.
Anime is meant to be 2d/cartoonish. You can’t make a nice looking 3d realistic character with anime features. It’s just not anime at all.

3

I think that you should just go for the art style that you are most passionate about. When you have a real interest in what you’re doing, you’ll do better quality work.

As for the marketability of the Anime style… well, I don’t think it really makes much of a difference. Good art will be good art.

I think part of the reason NCSoft went with a more realistic art style with Aion is because it allowed more deep facial customization.

Japanese style RPGs also have teh reputation right now of not keeping up with gameplay advances. I think NCSoft may have taken out the Anime style so that people don’t associate it with some other less than stellar products.

4

@johan
With anime style i not only mean the 2d cartoon style you see in anime tv series but like in the links above. There are just different types. More cuter or stylized anime characters. Magna carta 2, the first link, which i think looks really cool, represents a more cuter version, bigger eyes, rounder face and so on. Final Fantasy XIII , the second link, represents a more realistic anime style made into 3d. Like you said , you can never make real 2d anime look good in 3d.

Series that tried that don’t look that good i think. But a movie like Final Fantasy Advent children for example which has uses an anime style looks a lot better. and so does FF XIII. And all the games i mentioned have a simialar look , may it be from more cuter anime to a more realistic version. It is a 3d version of anime/manga style characters

@WinningGuy
Thanks , you spoke out of my heart. I probably should really do what i am most passionate about. I am not planning a game as complex as Aion. So i think that with good art and a good gameplay it really doesn’t matter. Like you said good art will be good art.

So thank’s a lot. I think i should really try that out what i think i like most and give it a shot.

Cheers
Mike

5

Anime has a huge following throughout the entire world, especially the United States, so I wouldn’t worry too much about limiting your audience to the point of obscurity. That said, there are some people who are never really going to like that style and will pass over the game unless there is a good reason to pay attention to it(word of mouth, great reviews, etc). As said, the most important thing is to make sure the art is good, above all, regardless of style. Picking an anime style arbitrarily isn’t going to help you one way or another.

full disclosure: I generally avoid anything having to do with anime. I think most of the art direction, animation quality and stories trend toward the terrible, but I’ll cherish anything by Miyazaki and gladly watch anything the came out of Studio 4°C.

6

as stated earlier go for a style that your passionate about and understand and chances are it will turn out good…but going to throw out a curve ball now… how about creating a Unique style… :wink:

7

Unless you are specifically catering to anime fans as a target audience, the question is irrelevant. What you really need to focus on is whether or not your game is both fun and intuitive for the end user. If those conditions aren’t met, the game’s appearance won’t matter.

8

Thanks guys,

the basic idea for this question was if a game would have any disadvantage when using an anime style. I know that the best graphics only won’t make a good game. And i don’t try to copy some style. I want to create my own style with some cool game play, but which may be based on an anime or japanese character style of game.

So the general question is , will an anime style look or a variation of it, make a difference if the game itself is good. I mean , i know some people who don’t like that style and wouldn’t play that game.
But maybe that is just a minority.

But like you guys said, i’ll do what i think i should do ,so it shouldn’t be much of a problem i hope, so i think i shoot for it.

And the first prototype will tell.

thanks again.

Cheers
Mike

9

I thought MrBones’s reply would be the very first one you get. “Make the game fun and people will accept any graphics you throw at them” - kind of reply

I am an otaku to the point where I would be wasting wy time if I tried to convince anyone otherwise so I an definitely biased, but I don’t see why “Haku” would be less popular than “Jack Smith” when they both use a bazooka to blow up the same tower… I reckon: "You make the game, so show people your vision and see what they think… Heck, if they really make a huge enough stink that you simply cannot ignore it any more, replace the characters or create a second version. There are always options and none of them would require you to give up your vision unless you are working for someone without it… Or a big studios that has done the research and say: “Profits before vision. Stick to what sells and to hell with everything else. Tetris 2000 is gonna rock, man!” :slight_smile:

Take Shin Megami Tensei or Valkyria Chronicles as examples of decent 3D anime… What about the next gen versions of Naruto Ultimate Storm?

I am announcing a competition today that is somehow related to this very question (that’s what lured me in). I am busy creating a very complex battle system and once it is done, you can drop any animated character into the mix and voila you have a working game. Using this system, you just drop in a couple of Anime style characters and you have your game. If you don’t like it, simply change the models and leave everything else 100% unchanged and you have the same game with a different theme… This illustrates my point perfectly. As long as the game is fun, people will accept any graphics you throw at them…

My 2c worth at least

10

Are you asian? If the answer is no, then you’re a weaboo, not otaku.

11

There is one observation I’d like to add…

Lately, I have noticed there has been a lot of mediocre titles released on the iPhone that feature anime characters in the screenshots. However, the use of anime characters in these apps are usually limited to static elements of the games, such as splash screens or menus, rather than being incorporated into the game play itself.

Personally, it seems like these kind of games are probably using the anime content either as a crutch to compensate for other shortcomings in the rest of the product, or were abruptly added as an afterthought to briefly distract the consumer with pretty screenshots long enough to make a sale.

Taking that factor into account, anime could be somewhat risky, but mostly from users who were previously burned by a poor quality app like those described above. (This would be especially true of hard-core anime fans, since they’d probably interpret it as a shoddy developer preying on their interests just to make a quick buck off them…)

Outside of that, I still stand by my previous opinion.

12

Funny that you mention it bones3d. I made the same observation. When i went through the app store to look at the games, whenever i saw an anime icon , i looked at the details to see what kind of game it was. And most if not all are a disappointment.

But i see the iphone as a big potential for anime style games, especially when it comes down to rpgs or strategy games similar to fire emblem or disgaea.

Talking to a friend today who owns a game shop , about that topic, there is an acceptance of anime games when it comes to rpgs, but when it comes down to action games like shooters for example players don’t like it. So it may also depend on the kind of game you trying to do.

But anyways, for that big project i have in mind , i want to create my own style, maybe one that is influenced by anime , like costumes , style of starships and so on. But have a unique and realistic character look to it aswell.

But for iphone games i might really go for that cute looking anime style that i also love, even with chibis and so on. Well a lot of possibilities.

13

Well, there are some good anime titles out there. In fact, a number of items from groups like “daidai inc” are among the best I’ve seen, featuring quality artwork, music and spoken dialogue. Unfortunately, none of it has been localized for US markets, rendering it useless for most people in this part of the world. (Hopefully that will change in the future…)

There are some decent localized titles out now which are at least partly anime inspired, such as “Katamari Damacy”, “Cooking Mama” and “EX Zeus”. (All of which seem to have done pretty well.)

The market is definitely there, but it can be a bit of a balancing act between success and failure.

14

Example for Characters:

Example for Landscape:

That is 3D like 2D drawn Anime and it looks not good? And this Pictures are from Games, that can today much better. I played both Games (Idolmaster is only Japanese) and i think it is possible, but the most developers make a mix with real graphic and do not try to make graphic like drawn Anime. But it is possible, that shows the picture above.

Its true, that graphics like FF13 and similar without Cel Shading have its one charm, but for me its not a true anime look, its only a mix. I love the Cel Shading Anime look in this two games above and my goal is it now to create a landscape in Unity that looks like that - like drawn Anime.

15

My advice, use an art style that comes naturally to you that you can do your best in. I tried to shoot for certain styles when first making art assets for my game and that was terribly difficult and painstaking. I have since gone with making what best comes naturally to me, so when done, my game will look good as it’s self as it is trying to only be itself. If you fail at trying to imitate something well known, people will notice and be very harsh about it. However, if you do something well that is or isn’t a well known, then people will receive it well. So just do whatever kind of art you are best at! That’s how you will make the most visually appealing game.

16

Interesting for an old thread to get active again…

As i remember , my statement back then was that it is hard to make a game or a cg animation look as a real anime 2d tv series. Those games and animations really come close, but you can see the cg in them. Even in the some new anime series (which i watch through animesuki.com) you see the tendency to use cg in some cases. Which is fine. But actually that’s not the point for me right now.

Just to mention it , i have all those anime rpgs for the ps3 and xbox and i really dig them. I love all the styles , from stylized to realistic. Magna Carta II, Lost Odysee , Last Remnant and so on, have all their different styles. Vesperia is as good as FFXIII , they only have two extreme styles , from cell shading to realistic style.

And i think it depends on the game what anime style you choose. If its going to be more realistic or not , the game setting and what players you are targeting.

Like i said i really love the FFXIII realistic style and i could imagine it for our scifi game, but i also like the more simplistic cell shading styles. At the end it just depends on certain factors of the game we all have in mind.

i enjoy all the anime shows and the games, but am wondering what will work for my game ideas and what will players like. I even come this far to think about abandoning the anime style , because a huge amount of players in the western realms just don’t like the anime style. so these are the thoughts i have, thoughts about of the success of the game.

Of course all the anime fanatics out would probably be attracted by the game , and if it will be good (what i hope and think it will be ) they will play it. But there is a huge amount of players that just won’t play the game because it has an anime style. And that is my dilemma right now. Do i do what i love, or do what will have a better chance of success.

But i can’t wait to see what you will come up with. 'Cause i love anime

Cheers
Mike

17

Yes, thats true, you can see that its CG, but over the years it was better and better.

The Question of making a game is: is it a free game or will you earn money with it. At the first i think it is more important, that the game is like i self want, but when you will earn money, than you must look what the players want, too sell as many copies as you need.

Its really bad that so many players don’t like the Anime graphic. That makes it not easier as non Japanese/Asians to get Games with that graphic, because many are Japan exclusive. And when typical Japanese games comes to western, than they fit the graphic for us to sell more copies. The graphic is still great, but real anime cel shading graphic gives me self more. Thats why i self will do more real Anime stuff, than like FF13.

At the moment my project is it only to create such a graphic, not do create a game, that comes later and i dont know what for a game that would be.

18

You are right Balmung, it’s a pity that many people don’t like the anime graphics , even if the game is great. an like you said it’s a difference if the game you are creating is free or if you are making money out of it.

In our case, we want to make money out of our games. Mainly our game(s) will be free to play but will have the feature of micro transactions.

And so we need to take into considerations what other people like and what not. And sadly to speek, although i love anime , watch it every day, even learned some japanese from it (there is more to that story…) , and i would love to get all those crazy ideas of anime characters,environments and spaceships designs into my game ideas, i think that i just can’t reach many potential players with that. But i may be wrong.

Ah well , i am going sentimental. In the future i definitely will do something anime, if it may just be a hobby project or a spin off of our project. i will see.

One thing though i am thinking about is, doing my own style, that may be influenced by anime, like costumes , character styles and all those anime cliches, but the characters still look more western style. So instead of going for a specific look , why not try to create your own. At least that is what i am thinking about.

19

This is not a pity, I personally do not like sports games and this is not a pity too :wink:

About creating anime style games, just do it, do not wait opinion of people. :stuck_out_tongue:

20

Some one from Japan can say that easily, but in Germany Anime have still a touch of something that is only for children. The most German people needs very much time to accept new things. In no other land are games with violence for so many people evil stuff, especially First Person Shooter are often told “Killergames” here, the last thing was thinking of stop sells and development of games with voilence in Germany, but god thanks they drop it. :roll:

But back to Anime, i self be a fan of it since childhood, but really since over ten years and i know many german people over the internet that are fans too and many are adults. I think when a game is really good, than it can also have a Anime graphic. But for that the setting and the character design must match the Anime style.

Often the problem of Anime style games are that the setting is more for children then adults. With the right character setting adults how like anime also will play the game. Games like Blue Dragon, Dragon Quest or the Tales of jRPG series sells good in America and Europe.