Let's Talk About CHARACTER DESIGN (And also Skirk...) | Thuradin Talks

[@Moretropes11]

The sad part is Skirk’s beta designs were so good my personal fave was the one where she has a bone-like fish tail.

[@alex4nette]

Her bone-fish tail aesthetic was a wasted opportunity like whyyy (so I redesigned her lol)

[@TheGwilwileth]

Agree 100% about Skirk design, they could have done so much better. Also mostly it is female Characters that fight and run around barely dressed and in high heels, Very difficult to take those Characters seriously…. It’s quite ridiculous at times.

[@ThuradinsTales]

To be fair there are plenty of characters who manage to pull it off, but there are an equal amount of them that... don't. The most egregious example that I also name in the video being Kokomi. Every scene she was in she stood out like a grilled salmon at a vegetarian buffet.

[@orisso8636]

I think genshin designs for simply appeal most of the time, only giving a couple character related details to the outfit. But then occasionally they have characters who's design they take very seriously like Zhongli, Yun Jin, Arleccino etc. I think it's fine since it is a gacha game but occasionally it feels really off (looking at you Skirk). Great video.

[@Dojafish]

To be honest most character designs tell about there character.

[@alexoceanmeow]

I'm so glad you called out Kokomi. Unpopular opinion, but she should have been in a long skirt kimono. Her animation and fighting style suggests to me at least that she was going to be in one but Hyv decided sailor moon/mermaid/pajamas was the better way to go 🙄 AND IT COULD HAVE BEEN VERY CUTE and still be fan service-y with some tweaks. But I've hated Kokomi's design since her debut. She looks neither war commander or general or whatever NOR high priestess lady. She looks like a lingerie or fancy pajamas model, it's not good character design. Another character design I absolutely hate is Fischl's canon or main outfit. That's a lingerie bodysuit, jfc. I paid real money to get her more in-character design. If my girl is gonna be a princess, she's gonna look like one, damn it 😤😤 lol. And I missed whatever event they had for that outfit?? But I guess that Hyv felt the same way after a point bc her alt outfit feels like a 1000% improvement that falls in line with her whole princess deal. And Ganyu. I agree that her outfit doesn't actually speak with her. But I have never pulled on her bc of her cowbell necklace. Like Hyv 👀👀 who is that for? 😂

[@alexoceanmeow]

Oh I forgot to mention I hate Skirk's design too.... but bc I'm not deep in the lore and I never played HI3rd, I couldn't decide if it was actually good design that I wasn't getting or if it's not connected to HI3rd and therefore it is kinda shit and lazy lol. But lore or not, I was immediately and immensely disappointed after all the Childe talk about her.

[@Dojafish]

💀 I quite disagree , Kokomis designs in my opinion is very great . It immediately gives hints to her connection with the sea , her pretty but calculated personality and generally giving princess vibes . Also I didn't knew Fischils dress resembled lingerie 😭 .

[@alexoceanmeow]

@@Dojafish to each their own! That's ok lol And uh. It straight up looks like goth girl lingerie lol. Do you never play her? 😂

[@Dojafish]

@@alexoceanmeow I don't play the game anymore, but she was in my team with whatever units I got. My first impression of her was theatrical and over the top character , but it never crossed my mind the word "goth" . But I don't know much about goths and neither lingerie ,so it's honestly more on me 🤪 .

[@anezuka2464]

I think one of the problems with genshin is that, the characters' designs won't tell a story to you unless you're well versed in this game. Like Shenhe and Ganyu. You wouldn't know that their clothes are meant to be a connection to cloud retainer unless you play the game but even then it doesn't tell a lot about them. Also for skirk her concept designs were really great that made her look like a corrupted/ infected warrior

[@partiallywhole]

It's a good thing Yaoyao's parents are still alive because boy, do I question Cloud Retainer's fashion sense when giving Ganyu and Shenhe their clothes...

[@ThuradinsTales]

One shudders to imagine the inhuman horrors beyond one's comprehension that could've been...

[@Gabriel-l]

@@ThuradinsTales cue camera zooming into pyro's mask and Do you believe in magic song plays

[@SincereSneakyy]

THIS GUY IS SPITTING FACTS!!! Genshin's character designs look cool and all (not so much the girls imo, since 90% of the designs rely on sex appeal tbh and I'm a straight girl) but MAN do they not function as, well, character designs But I'm glad you brought up Itto as a good design because he's one of the few characters someone could look at and understand their whole vibe straight away - oni gangster who lives on the street, but also pretty fashionable 'cause he's going for that whole himbo thing (combs his hair as one of his idles)

[@sadelien339]

I agree on this one so much, and I have another example for a good character design that tells a lot about a character's personality, kaveh .... ok but I really like the idea of him dressing so well even tho he doesn't even have enough money to get a house , but that not the thing, he's design is actually show you that he's doing a very good job at hiding his financial situation to the society he lives in , not even us could known that if alhaitham didn't tell us , I don't know who's the responsible at designing him but he or she did a really good job at it

[@ThuradinsTales]

Kaveh is actually a really good example I hadn't thought of myself. It's another case of "not telling us the full story on purpose" in a way that's both played for laughs and works really well with his character.

[@floricel_112]

Personally, I'm not that into fashion design (actually no, I hate fashion in general. I hate being told how to dress by some "excentric designer" and wear impractical, gaudy clothes because "they're in"), so already most genshin designs won't do it. But whatever, it's a game, I can live with that, it's not gonna bother me that much. That being said, I DO have my personal preferences when it comes to outfits. For formal occasions, for example, tuxedos and long dresses will absolutely make my jaw drop But what especially bothers me are characters thst don't dress for the position they're supposed to have in society. For example, Yoimiya and Xiangling are an artisan and a chef, respectively. And for how much I love their personalities, face and how they're portrayed.....girls, what are you DOING wearing such revealing outfits when working with fire? You're working with explosives and hot boiling oil and water respectively. You're just asking to have your exposed thighs, arms and boob burned by a stray ricocheting object. As another example, we have Furina and Xingqiu. They're supposed to dress formally to showcase their high position in life (archon/main showwoman and merchant respectively)....yet they're both wearing shorts! They gave both people these extravagant and stylish tuxedos and robes above the waist, while under the waist.....SHORTS! JUST.....SHORTS! That they ruined a perfectly good opportunity to put a woman in a tuxedo....WITH SHORTS! The most antithetical piece of clothing to "formal wear". And with people like Neuvillette, Wryothesley and Zhongli, it's not like they don't how to dress characters sharply. (Note: I would have added Hu Tao to this rant, but in all honestly, Hu Tao's shorts work PERFECTLY for her. She's the director of a funeral parlor, but she treats the concept of death very lightly and is very enthusiastic about promoting her business....which is burying the dead. She already doesn't behave the way people would expect or want someone in her to do, so it makes sense that she doesn't fully dress the part either. It's not even fair to say she doesn't take her position seriously; she just doesn't see the doom and gloom in it) Another pet peeve: genshin's oriental dresses. Chinese dresses, kimonos/yukatas and shrine maiden outfits. I really really how these clothes already look in real life, and wouldn't change a thing about them. I get that it's a gacha game and they're gonna take some creative liberties with redesigning these outfits.....but they took too much creative freedom with them. Ningguang looks like someone set her curtains on fire, put out the flames, cut them out several times, then put that on as a dress (and her alternate outfit like those prom dresses that expose as much of the boobs as possible). Beidou looks like she grew out of her teenage clothes but keeps wanting to wear them, so they had to cut open the chest part to make room. The only piece in Ganyu's outfit that resembles as dress makes her look like she's wearing a napkin. Yae's looks like someone had a metdown and cut a lot of the front skirt and back. Kokomi looks like she woke up late, took off half her night gown, put on half her ceremonial outfit, then went out like that (which is especially egregious in her teaser trailer when she's placed in-between two properly dressed shrine maidens). And the less said about what Raiden wears, the better. My saving grace on this topic is the countless NPCs wearing these clothes unaltered. They look good, they look great, and it kills me that playable characters aren't dressed the same

[@cherryjoonie006]

When i first saw skirk my brain was automatically like "is she from honkai impact?" Because she dosen't look like a character from genshin the white hair whites on the outfit and the whole design and the way she looks, looks like she's from honkai specifically honkai impact 3rd I'd say cause that's what it looked like according to me.

[@MisyaAeilania]

skirk design looks lackluster to me, but the most thing that feels off actually how big her head in her character model i mean she's like mature and serious character right? why her head looks so big then? it's works for barbara or fischl, but it just feels off with her

[@Jammy_Jammy]

6:55 I disagree with this There is no reason to sexuality a nun that’s really disrespectful but we can still convey she’s an outcast by making her wear a different modest outfit Most people see nuns wearing a black dress Well we can give her black pants that are baggy as well as making her wear accessories like she has on Or make her a goth nun to show she’s an outcast

[@minka2387]

I think Skirk design was so out of Genshin universe. Like, she looks like a Honkai Impact character, not a Genshin one. It's disappointing because she's so plain and vague and don't fit AT ALL with the characters. Like, Neuvillette talking to her looks like an alien 😭

[@ThuradinsTales]

Seeing them stand side by side was wacky

[@Mothpuff]

I think her looking like an alien next to them make sense, but it just wasn't executed well. Nothing about her design fits her character. She's supposed to be some mysterious powerful mentor character but she's wearing the shortest dress you can wear while still being called a dress, and her model looks like a teen. Not that adults can't be short, genshin has plenty of short characters that read as adults, but skirk just doesn't. She genuinely looks like a child

[@daneddieloayon2701]

Thats exactly how i reacted when i first saw Shenhe's design

[@CharXLatte]

Genshin is really hit or miss with their designs, especially when it comes to showcasing a characters profession. Even when certain characters have extremely similar or the same profession. I'll use 5 characters that each have a profession similar to one another. Barbara, Rosaria, Yae Miko, The Wanderer, and Kokomi. These 4 are characters whose profession all relate to religious professions, Barbara is a deaconess, Rosaria is a nun, Yae Miko is a shrine maiden, Wanderer is a monk, and Kokomi is a priestess. The first 4 are really good at showcasing their profession, Barbara looks like an animefied nun and Rosaria, even with all the edginess, due to her veil you can tell she's a nun as well. Yae Miko has the color pallet of a shrine maiden and her name even means shrine maiden (can you get any more on the nose Hoyo?). Wanderer, if his color pallet was orange and yellow instead of blue, would look just like a Buddhist monk with a bunch of accessories. His design literally screams "I'm a monk!" Kokomi, while I love her, looks nothing like a priestess or strategist. It seems like Hoyo put so much into making her look like a mermaid but forgot about making her look like her professions. I can't even find a single detail that would relate her into being either. She's one of my favorite characters too and while I love her design, it just doesn't match her profession at all. Strategist or Priestess. If she had the bow on the back of her haori even larger, like the obi bow in her beta design, it would've made her look more like a priestess tbh.

[@ThuradinsTales]

@FreshMochiBear Agreed! And as I kinda hinted to in the video, I found that Kokomi's design also actively underminded the story that they were trying to tell in the Archon Quest. Trying to tell a story about a civil war, standing up against an oppressive regime, and liberating the hopes and ambitions of the people while facing off against a mourning god falls a bit flat when you have someone who looks like *that* standing off to the side eating cheetos. It made the whole affair feel a bit more cartoonish than the writers had probably intended, and it goes to show just how deeply character design can affect a story.

[@reileta0]

The first time I saw her design, aside from looking out of place which is fair, considering the abyss, I thought she looked rather plain. Sure there's cool space vibes but I could see her in any other game. So yeah, I agree that she's kinda boring.

[@ThuradinsTales]

Yeah something about her design kinda strikes me as a bit... old? Like it reminds me of earlier Genshin characters who were a bit less crazy looking which, imo, isn't necessarily a bad thing since Hoyo loves to overdesign, but it definitely looks a bit out of place at this stage of the game.

[@vermillianno]

I also wish characters like Skirk, Zhongli, Neuvilette, etc were a bit older to represent maturity. It's not that difficult to add a few wrinkles to their faces, and it would add a lot of variety, but I suppose Hoyoverse is just afraid that people won't pull for the characters then :(

[@ThuradinsTales]

As a conoisseur of DILFs I wholeheartedly support this. If Varka gets introduced he better be a silver fox or so help me Celestia.

[@MisyaAeilania]

i think GEnshin needs more character model in general they could add proper adult male and adult female, but nope, instead they added it in HSR you can see how ridiculous zhongli looks compared to welt in hsr, welt in fact looks more mature because his height, wider shoulder, normal and stern shape of head etc

[@hiroshi6943]

@@MisyaAeilania genshin is an open world game, there are limitations to the amount of character models you can even have... comparing the two is kinda stupid

[@MisyaAeilania]

@@hiroshi6943 Wuthering Waves also open world game but they have proper Male adult model I don't think it's an excuse for 3 years old game with constant highest revenue

[@rmt3589]

0:42 * pauses * Wait!!! None of those are Kirito!?!? Oh No!!! OH NO!!

[@sakaom]

plus, i dont think the "shes basic because she has multiple forms" argument works. childe is just a guy in a suit because he is, quite literally, just a guy. sure, i'd LOVE scars and more aspects that represent him being bloodthristy but besides that, he's just a guy. he still prefer to be optimistic and see the best in things instead of being skeptical as someone with his background should be, his major worries are his family, friends and if he's able to ice fish or cook with his schedule. skirk is NOT childe, skirk is not "just a girl" who happens to be bloodthirsty, her throwing a grown man with one arm into a deep void and her having a pet that feeds on souls tells us enough she's way more than just a girl, however, that's all her design says. she's a girl in futuristic gear

[@cervidae3291]

this is small potatoes in the face of poor Ganyu, but god one of the things ive always hated about the design choices for the genshin gals is the fact that Jean, who by all rights wrt her personality, should have a complete shirt but DOESNT. its so at odds with her as a character that ive managed to forget that she doesnt have a complete buttonup shirt over and over again *since the games release*. its infuriating. every time i look at her im startled by her low cut top and dumb detached sleeves. she would NOT wear that. cmon man. i also do genuinely love Kokomi's design, but in the context of who she is and what she's been doing in the plot? and what she is/represents to her people? be serious, hoyo. she'd kill it in a magical girl series, but not as a warlord who's also a dearly beloved priestess. it makes me feel crazy bc there's so many hits that say volumes about their personality and who they are (xiao, chongyun + xingqiu's complementary designs, qiqi, kaeya + diluc, lisa, venti, zhongli, itto, ayaka + ayato, xinyan, bennet and razor, lynette + lyney, so many others), but there's an equal amount if not more misses (jean and eula were almost hits. who tf would ever guess that yanfei is a lawyer. poor ganyu, someone rescue my girl. [grimace] skirk. the rampant orientalism. kokomi. how no one is darker than a literal paper bag

[@hahadartfang]

Your video is inspiring! As a character design enthusiast, I found Stylar AI to be quite a find. It’s an AI tool designed with us designers in mind, offering ample control over models and images. It's new and somewhat buggy, but definitely try it out.

[@milkmilk807]

not one bad take the whole video, as expected from rock-and-stone brother

[@ThuradinsTales]

Rock and stone to the bone ⛏

[@bruhnana6396]

w video as always!

[@NullAmbition]

Hi! Wonderful video! I will definitely subscribe. I also did a video on Genshin character designs though it was mostly meant to be a humorous commentary but yours is a lot more detailed, lol. Thank you for sharing!

[@ThuradinsTales]

Why thank you! Glad you liked it haha

[@hannahtgp9421]

Didn’t watch the vid but Kira in the thumbnail is not on my bingo card

[@pinkfridge6111]

Very good video !

[@amandaslough125]

I always appreciate praise for League of Legends when warranted. Nice to see. The one thing I'd like to add is the idea of brand consistency, that goes along with context. You certainly can always argue if there's too much fan service in the way of proper character design sure. But I wouldn't want something like making a completely different body type, or coloring style if it doesn't make sense with the rest of the game. Like I love the inclusion of Urgot, being an abdominal menace of experiments of a man machine on a crab body (though I use the magical girl fan skin), but I wouldn't want that type of character in Genshin, or something like Pokemon. Just like how I'm perfectly happy with the 5 body types we have, because it provides a sense of consistency, even if the current market loves to advocate for "body diversity" and the like. There's a time and place for individualism and a uniformed look, whether that's in the clothing choices or character bodys. And people love to complain about Genshin's fanservice, and it does hinder a lot o characters like Shenhe and Ganyu, but it's really mild compared to a lot of corners in the internet. Even Star Rail comes across as much "trashier" with the designs in comparison, despite being from the same company. Kokomi might be bad fanservice compared to her Chinese Space Opera version on the Loufu having a real priestess outfit, but even Kokomi looks less problematic than some of the typical designs from the same location that all make Ningguang look tame. Skirk in particular is very in line with typical Honkai universe stuff, which aids in that boringness showing through with her. But again, you can tell they're from the same place in the universe. Like the Shantae games, you typically can see what a character is about, but the culture and tone of the series means, consistently, people like their midriffs. And I like that.

[@direboy]

He's talking extremely based things... but my brain speaks BOOBA😢 I hate myself...

[@vs816]

When I make characters, I make them whatever the hell they want and when anyone in the story asks why, they just respond with "why do I have to justify my clothes for you?"

[@DisplayLine6.13.9]

Funnily enough skirk is like the only new genshin designs I like. Its easy on the eyes, cohesive and it does give a vibe. Competent mysterious girl. The alternatives you shown were all very over engineered and hostile feeling. Like instead of showing her character just going with abyssal knight but female.

[@zukodude487987]

I like Skirks design. The shot of her legs are damn fine. I guess jf you think its mid then i should think its mid.