210 réponses à ce sujet

[RainbowPenguin]

Positives of DA2 elves: They are closer to the height of humans and they have bigger eyes. I think the bigger eyes thing is cute. Well, there is a point where those big eyes become... bug-like.

One thing we can all agree upon: LotR elves

[Rawgrim]

When races starts to look "cute", it utterly ruins the prospect of having a dark fantasy story told in that setting. "ohh a big monster is trying to eat a cute little manga elf".

[tmp7704]

Rawgrim wrote...

When races starts to look "cute", it utterly ruins the prospect of having a dark fantasy story told in that setting. "ohh a big monster is trying to eat a cute little manga elf".

Well, about that...



(the cuteness can in some cases easily enhance the dark factor, rather than ruin it)

Modifié par tmp7704, 12 décembre 2011 - 07:49 .

[Rawgrim]

When the darkspawn and the elves look utterly cartoonish, and the rest of the gameworld doesn`t, then its not working. I agree with the pic tmp posted though. In the case of that, it would work - I agree.

[TEWR]

tmp7704 wrote...

Rawgrim wrote...

When races starts to look "cute", it utterly ruins the prospect of having a dark fantasy story told in that setting. "ohh a big monster is trying to eat a cute little manga elf".

Well, about that...



(the cuteness can in some cases easily enhance the dark factor, rather than ruin it)

THIS.

Alice Liddell in American McGee's Alice and Alice: Madness Returns is a very cute girl, but her fight with insanity makes the game very dark.

And incidentally Bioware, this is something I've said before and I'll say it again. Alice Madness Returns did insanity justice. Orsino's spectacle didn't.

greengoron89 wrote...

It's innocence dying at the hands of pure evil - that sort of thing can be effective in scaring the audience if pulled off correctly.

And THIS.

Modifié par The Ethereal Writer Redux, 12 décembre 2011 - 01:18 .

[DoNotTrololo]

Like Merrill or the thug girl... I'd say like Fenris, but some of the broody-whiny might rub off on the DA3 elves. Ugh.

[yusuf060297]

RainbowPenguin wrote...

One thing we can all agree upon: LotR elves

yes they will always be my favourite , love the normal, tolkien elves more then the "distinct elves", skyrim elves are distinct and i like the idea of it but for the looks of the elves, i dont like them... (was so disappointed, wanted to play a badass elven witch but , the looks..., i just kept it at the nords then)

and about the alice: madness returns  picture, yes  "if pulled of correctly!", they could have made it with poll's death (dont know if the name is correct, i mean the one that died at merrill's quest) but they didnt, he simply got a heart attack, how classic 
ahh and if only the elves would look half as cute as alice... 

Modifié par yusuf060297, 12 décembre 2011 - 03:49 .

[Rawgrim]

greengoron89 wrote...

But wouldn't the fact that elves look "cute" and "innocent" make a race of horrific, vile creatures dragging them off into the Deep Roads to suffer unfathomable torment make that imagery much more powerful?

It's innocence dying at the hands of pure evil - that sort of thing can be effective in scaring the audience if pulled off correctly.

They elves just look so annoying and out of place now, that I actually WANT the darkspawn to drag them off into the Deep Roads.

[yusuf060297]

Sabariel wrote...

Although I find 99.9% of DA2's elves to be creepy looking, I'm thinking it's not the redesign but something with the new graphics, because someone made a mod for DAO to make the elves look "more DA2" and only a few of them looked creepy.

yes i think there are two major things, why the da2 elves looked ugly. The short development cycle in which they put nearly all of their effort in the qunari's looks imo and the second, the engine, i dont know why but it looks like a ps2 game, despite the high res pack and everything. so if da3 will have frostbite 2, the elves would look much much better imo. So the only thing to hope for is the rumour to be actually real (Omg, please let it be real!) and.... bioware to get rid of the humpback that the male elves have now

Modifié par yusuf060297, 12 décembre 2011 - 08:08 .

[brightblueink]

Rawgrim wrote...

When races starts to look "cute", it utterly ruins the prospect of having a dark fantasy story told in that setting. "ohh a big monster is trying to eat a cute little manga elf".

You do realize that not all manga has characters with large eyes, right? (Or anime for that matter.)

And that the "large eye" stereotype comes mostly from the influence of Osamu Tezuka, who was channeling Disney, who he was a huge fan of. Right?

...Sorry. Animation nerd. Pet peeve of mine.

Anyway, the only elf in the new style I felt was..."cute" was Merrill, and I think that was intentional. If you look at, say, Fenris...he looks distinctly elven and "otherworldly" like I think an elf should, but I wouldn't call him cute or wide-eyed. Compared to the elfs in Origins, I really prefer it. I mean...the character I use for my userpic here is supposed to be an elf, but you can't tell at all since her ears don't show through her hair at all. I'd much rather the different races look distinct.

[Dutchess]

I like the way Fenris looks. I'm a lesser fan of Merrill; she looks too cartoonish. The elf girl in Magistrate's Orders, Lia, was cute and pretty. The elven servant in MotA with the cheese tray was pretty as well.
If they make the elves all similar to Fenris (not with the white hair, of course, but face shape), they will look good and somewhat distinct from humans.

Wat makes the overall look ugly is the body shape they gave them. They should get rid off the weird long necks and the bodies of malnourished ten-year olds. It's okay they are slimmer than humans, but they've taken it too far.

Personally, I will always prefer the classic, beautiful elves, but it should be possible to make the elves look good and distinct in the way Bioware wants.

[culletron1]

yusuf060297 wrote...

 i was waiting for such a thread to turn up, i think its unnecessary to make them look distinctive like bioware did with the da2 elves(i hate the new elves), they had a great story in dao, imo they should just look sad somehow to reflect what humans did to them

I approve of this elf

[brightblueink]

renjility wrote...
Wat makes the overall look ugly is the body shape they gave them. They should get rid off the weird long necks and the bodies of malnourished ten-year olds. It's okay they are slimmer than humans, but they've taken it too far.

Personally, I will always prefer the classic, beautiful elves, but it should be possible to make the elves look good and distinct in the way Bioware wants.

I do agree that they're maybe a little TOO thin. I like that they look different from humans overall, but Merrill does look...alarmingly skinny. Merrill's the only one that really bothers me when I play, though, Fenris, Athenril (the smuggler) and the others usually seem fine to me.

[Dutchess]

I don't think that Merrill is any skinnier than the other elves... They are all that thin. And when making out, female Hawke does look almost fat next too Fenris, haha.

[tmp7704]

Yes, Merrill has default elf body, to the point she uses generic underwear model for teh romance scenes.

[Chun Hei]

What makes Merrill look skinny and sickly is that she has no muscle definition at all. Dalish Elven females especially should have some muscle definition but I know that most popular media has a problem displaying women who do not look soft and see athletic builds as masculine. I am not asking for Fable II here.

LotR Elves are "bleh" to me. I loved the scene in the second movie where all the dead Elves were laying around. I almost made me wish the Orcs had machine guns so they could mow them all down. The Dwarf was cool though.

[SavesTheDay]

I prefer the elves from DA2.

Modifié par SavesTheDay, 14 décembre 2011 - 02:52 .

[TEWR]

Chun Hei wrote...

What makes Merrill look skinny and sickly is that she has no muscle definition at all.

Well she is a mage. Her starting staff was just a thin branch. I don't think she would have that much muscle tone when she even tells Hawke that her life was spent mostly doing studying.

And even then, muscle tone is not always clearly visible.

[tmp7704]

The Ethereal Writer Redux wrote...

Well she is a mage. Her starting staff was just a thin branch.

Her default staff (as well as the others for that matter) is nearly thicker than her arms, actually... it definitely doesn't help to reduce the overly thin proportions impression

[TEWR]

looks like the same width actually. Though I had been thinking her starting staff was the same one as Morrigan's.

Still, like I said muscle tone isn't always visible. For all we know Merrill can lift a dozen cows.

at the same time.

with one finger.

Because she's.... the Merrillnator!

Modifié par The Ethereal Writer Redux, 14 décembre 2011 - 03:18 .

[tmp7704]

Don't be silly. She can't lift even a single cow because there's no cows in DA. Only oxen.

[Abispa]

I think the Elves in DA2 are a bit too thin, even thinner than the DA:O Elves, who I thought were too skinny to begin with. Other than that the new Elves concept is cool with me, but it seems like the staff took care crafting the major Elven characters and just threw the background Elves together with PSOne graphics. And no, I don't consider the Elven slave ugly because of the new design, but as an Elf that was *gasp* actually designed to NOT look cute or pretty.

And Chun Hei, I am stunned at the depths of your hatred of LotR Elves. Not that I wouldn't have preferred more Dwarves myself.