Friends, what are you up to today? Things are going smoothly over here. The cousin and fiancé sure enough visited last night, and they decided to stay here a week. Oh boy! Entertaining guests now. It's all-good though because we haven't seen him in about 5 years. A whole lot has changed in that time. Catching up is fun. He's taking his little brother and fiancé to Disneyland sometime next week. I hope he doesn't plan going on the weekend because it would be stupid packed. Like David Jaffe said, Wednesdays are the best time to go.

So it looks like I'll be chilling and watching some more wrestling this weekend. Hopefully the DVD I'm burning doesn't crap out on me. The one I did yesterday crapped out about 10 minutes in so I have to re-export the entire project. Dual Layer DVD's aren't cheap, let's hope Apple can put better Super-Drives in future machines. Don't trust DVD technology. If you want something done right then export to VHS! Aside from that, there isn't much else to talk about. No new movies, comics, graphic novels or games catching my eye. The Tokyo Game Show is still a ways down so it's just passing the days keeping myself entertained. What about you guys, what do you do when you get stuck in a rut?

In topic news we've had this conversation before. I keep going back to fighting game character design because it is one of the most important things in all fighting games. It is very interesting to see how Japanese developers share some common ground when evolving the look of their designs over the years. Could the Japanese approach to character design be the result of zeitgeist or the market? I think it's a little bit of both. Their fighting game character conventions change from day-to-day. Some days they make sense given the evolution of the fighting arts, popularity of MMA tournaments, modern action films, advances in graphics, changes in design tastes and so on. At a point however it seems that the character designers, in every team around the world, end up running out of ideas. Take the most recent alternate costume screens from Virtua Fighter 5. They sum up and warn us about the current trends in fighting game character design.

 

The latest versions of Tekken, Virtua Fighter and Street Fighter, feature characters with alternate costumes that reflect modern conventions. Each new character design is layered with themes, they do not simply stand on their own but represent several things. Some of the things they represent are subtle homages to the studio's legacy, other things are done just to break up the "traditional" fighting character look. These cues can be drawn from traditional to modern Japanese "tough guy" garb, a body wrap or construction worker uniform for example. For women, as well as men, the look is not about making the character appear like a fighter, but rather making them appear like anything but. The gap between what a character looks like and what he or she represents is widening in fighting games. Fighting game characters no longer have to "look" the part and I feel that it has served to weaken the genre. The arcade scene in Japan might ultimately be what is hurting character design.

 

Character customization is very popular in arcade fighters. It is one of the ways arcade owners and publishers themselves can ensure repeat business. Sega, Namco and Capcom are all using a card-based system to store the information of the players and their costume upgrades every time they play. From a business standpoint this all makes sense. With cards averaging $5 and each play $1, repeat business means survival. Producers have to ensure that their game retains re-playability by adding bonus items, costumes, downloads and secrets in the arcade release. There are a lot of things that have to be ironed-out before the game goes to consoles, including more bonus goodies and the possibility of downloadable content. However it is not the business of making games that I'm talking about, but rather how the business is causing designers to add layers of unnecessary or senseless cosmetic changes to fighting game characters. Changes that on the surface level are good for business but end up hurting the reputation of the iconic fighters and their classic designs.

 

The argument that I have against silly costume choices is not only an aesthetic issue but also a cultural one. The costumes look nice and help break up the visuals of the game and allow players to show off their own wardrobe style but the core of the fighting game should be about the balance and control. Has Sega (or Capcom or Namco) really perfected the control and inherent balance issues between characters? Or are they more worried about making sure that the kimono/ J-pop idol / kabuki facelift are in the game?

Some of these looks and changes makes sense in Japan but are nonsensical in the west. Which is funny considering how much of a concentrated effort some of these studios are putting into their designs in order to appeal to western gamers. It is a very fine line that all of the fighting game producers are walking. At what point does the gimmick replace purpose? Each producer will tell you something different. Yoshinori Ono was adamant that the alternate costumes or customizability of characters in Street Fighter IV would never be absurd. Where players could put a skirt on Ryu or make him wear a silly hat. These seem to be the trends in other fighters but even Capcom is not immune to the trend. Street Fighter Mouse Generation not only allows for absurd costume changes but also for entire body parts to be swapped between characters. Zangief's arms can be put on Chun-Li's legs for example. I know that in canon it "makes sense" because these are toys of the fighters, not humans, but the alternate costume gripe remains the same.

 

Some of the cosmetic changes placed on characters have nothing to do with adding a silly costume. Many of these alternate costumes are done as an homage to the publisher's legacy. The Sarah Bryant tennis costume is an homage to Sega's popular Virtua Tennis series. In a similar fashion the Arabian costume for Jeffery McWild is actually an homage to Siba, a character that was replaced by Akira in the original VF.

 

Wolf Hawkfield's pasty complexion and flesh-toned leather pants is undoubtedly pulled from House of the Dead.

 

But what of the other costumes in VF 5, are they done as an homage to the Sega legacy, titles like Virtua On, Route 66 and Shining Force or are they just flashy, nonsensical, designs? I am not certain in either regard. What is that gigantic bottle opener doing on El Blaze's pant? Aren't characters with giant afros played out in Japanese arcades yet?

 

The cultural context of these alternate costumes can be lost on a western audience. Take the pig snout and ears of Lei-Fei, the former Shaolin Monk. Unless you were familiar with the character of Zhu Bajie then it might come off as mean spirited that a Japanese studio is making a Chinese character into a pig.

 

Zhu Baije is one of the principle heroes featured in the classic stories ofJourney to the West. The hero from Eastern tradition does not always have to be a person but can be an animal that fights for good. Zhu and the "Monkey King" Sun Wukong were featured in many moral pieces and turn up again and again in animation and pop culture. Even Street Fighter has played an homage to the mythological heroes in their legacy. The monkey king, once imprisoned in stone, was actually a detail in Yun and Yang's level in Street Fighter III.

 

The symbolism behind these characters, their origins, powers and folklore does not have the same impact in the west. Even among self-described hardcore fans of fighting games and anime, the true symbolism behind these designs is not releavent. For this reason a show like Dragon Ball, which could be interpreted as a modern retelling of Journey to the West, did not have receive the same acclaim (nor longevity) in the US as it did in Japan.

 

The only "safe ground" for a fighting game designer these days seems to be to play the alternate costume choices as an homage to the fighting game legacy rather than East vs West designs. I put "safe ground" in quotes because there is no real safe ground when it comes to character design. This is a subjective art, open to multiple interpretations, what I see as something that is weakening fighting character design might be seen as a necessary step to ensure the growth and evolution of the genre. What one person sees as an homage another seems as lack of originality, or worse, a missed cue that would have worked better in the context of the game and world. Let's look at some of the alternate costumes in Street Fighter IV and see how they are similar or different to the trends in Virtua Fighter 5.

 

Vega has a torn uniform as one of his alternate costumes, is this an homage to his SF II movie battle or will this be mirrored in a future anime film? Zangief has the green pants and suspender of Mike Haggar, this is clearly an homage to Final Fight. Some fans would rather that the character be in the game rather than only his costume. If given a choice I would side with latter. Players have warm memories of these titles, as they shaped our youth and defined our generation. To include only the costume of a character rather than the character could be seen as stepping on the legacy rather than appealing to it. Fans would have certainly been up in arms if Chun-Li had an alternate costume that looked like Sakura's.

 

Stepping on the legacy is one complaint with these alternate costumes, missing the importance of the character is something else entirely. Take Sagat for example. One of his alternate costumes has him wearing skin-tight pants. Most of the posters on Shoryuken.com were wondering where the idea for that came from. Sagat has never been shown in anime, manga or comic book with that clothing. Like Rufus, this design choice was an example of the new SF team ignoring the real martial arts influence and importance of the iconic characters and instead making things up. Tight pants like the one Sagat sports can be seen in Savate, the French foot fighting art. Muay Thai and Savate have next-to-nothing in common. Putting Sagat in spandex is a slap in the face to his native martial art and worse yet, proof that the new SF team is ignoring the SF legacy from other games, films and books plus missing obvious cues from the real world.

Sagat would have and could have worn pants as an alternate costume and it would have worked within the context of the game. During the 1970's kickboxer Benny "the Jet" Urquidez popularized long pants in tournaments. Prior to him it was absurd that any person fighting in Muay Thai or kickboxing would wear pants, as this would seem to slow down the fighter. It didn't seem to slow down Urquidez at all as he compiled a near-perfect record in all his fights. In the original Street Fighter the character Joe was a kickboxer that also wore pants. Putting Sagat in long pants similar to Joe or Benny's would have made more sense than tights. Plus it would have shown that the developers had insight into the game legacy and the real fighters that influenced its evolution.

 

But at what point is it enough detail to appease fans? Can such a balance be reached when the design aesthetic appeals to both Eastern and Western tastes? It is not impossible but it is not easy. We have an arcade market telling developers one thing. But that arcade market is not flying in the USA. We have fans mixing and matching costumes as if the game were Ragnarok rather than Street Fighter. So is the balance and control between characters important anymore or should developers focus on cranking out skins and costumes instead? Designers are asked to make characters that appeal to the West, while at the same time including a look that is decidedly and unapolageticly Japanese. What happens when they fail to understand their audience as well as they should? What happens if they fail to understand the origins and history of their own game, then what should we expect from designers? These are just some things that I thought about while looking at the latest screens from Virtua Fighter 5 plus the alternate costumes in SF IV.

 

I don't have an answer for everything but it doesn't stop me from asking questions. It shouldn't stop you either. If you like a game, if you love a series, take the time to question everything that went into it. Take the time to question everything that is being done and will be done to it. We are at a place where developers are willing to listen. With that said have a great weekend and let me know what you are up to.