Hello, everybody, and happy Thursday! With the end of the week just around the bend, I recently came across a thread that covered a similar topic, so I thought I'd discuss how character design has evolved (and devolved) throughout the series.
In the first Kingdom Hearts, everything was given a very early 2000's Final Fantasy design to match Nomura's tastes. Zippers and belts were everywhere, clothing that had no functional design ran rampant, and colors were vibrant and expressive. At the time, the clothing the characters were was pronounced and symbolic; Sora had giant banana shoes and the villain was Billy Zane with muscles so big that they were ripping outside of his giant castaway costume. Despite this, the first game kept its charm, and kept characters with many unique and even defining designs, as many consider this to be the game where "edgy Cloud" first made his debut in the Final Fantasy universe, with his metal claw and his wrapped buster sword.
Now, when the final mix came around, they had an idea for another character to show up: Xemnas. However, at the time he was unnamed and unknown, so when he appeared for a boss battle they put him in a fitting black coat, something vaguely similar to a costume design for a secret boss from Neverland, The Phantom. This pattern also appeared in the secret movie for the game, where a mysterious silver-haired warrior fought against a dual-wielding keyblade wielder in combat. At the time, this was known as a way that Tetsuya Nomura could hide his characters that he had not finished designing yet.
In Chain of Memories, this was used again by a cloaked figure that leads Sora and company to Castle Oblivion, where he is later uncloaked to be a man named Marluxia. Now, the designs for this game stayed mostly the same, and fair enough. The timeline does not ask for them to change clothing, so it only makes sense that Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Riku would not change. However, all of the villain characters wore these black cloaks, not just the main villain. This is where we first got clues that this design was, in fact, a very canon outfit for characters of the series to wear, something that I'll analyze more down the list. Now, aside from this, we also had a character named DiZ, who was shrouded by a red outfit with red bandages covering his face. Keep this in mind for later.
Kingdom Hearts II came along, and character design was revamped yet again as nearly everyone got a wardrobe shift. Certain characters from the Destiny Islands now had wardrobe shifts to show how they are in school, Kairi's outfit evolved with her age, Riku's outfit took from the first game and evolved it with his gained height and maturity, and Sora's clothes were revamped to be able to fit a mold that would later be followed in the series' third installment: that his clothes would go along with certain abilities, and would change color and pattern, but not style, when he changed these forms. Unfortunately, other characters weren't so lucky; Mickey's coat makes no sense in the series, since its point of stealth is entirely voided when you see his giant mouse ears hanging out of it, and Donald and Goofy did not get any sort of costume change, something we'll see imitated again and again.
On top of this, the black coats were applied to an organization we learned to call Organization XIII, our new group of baddies, so we now know that these coats are to be applied to them. Here, we hardly see any variation in character design; while some of these black coats can be denoted by how they fit to the body and what types of shoes the characters are wearing, they are largely featureless, and quite lackluster in design. The only character in this game that gets a full variation in Xemnas, in a form that unfortunately only appears for a brief moment in this series, with a white coat that is adorned with black thorns.
I bring this up because, in the final mix versions of this game, we got a secret ending of further things to come, and Nomura wanted a creative way to shield the characters in this ending. To do this, he put them in keyblade armor, and pitted them against the completed character designs of what would later be known of Vanitas and Xehanort. Here, we see true creativity in hiding these future character designs, yet we already have a myriad of characters entirely robed in this series, and we start to see a problem with how these characters are costumed.
In Days, nothing changed. The only difference was that Roxas was now in one of those featureless robes as well, and it took away from the experience.
In Birth by Sleep, each character design was quite creative, with the armors being inventive and bringing a life to the design that was much needed. Here, the robes are used practically and with purpose; Xehanort uses his to shield himself in Destiny Islands and to occasionally accompany him in travel, and Young Xehanort only uses his in his secret boss battle to shield his identity. Here, we have recognizable character designs that bring flavor to each character, something we can take a lesson from.
I won't bother mentioning Coded here, as it just takes all of the same tips from the previous games in character design. I was peeved that the Journal took the form of Riku in one of those dumb black robes, though.
In Dream Drop Distance, everything hits the fan. Sora's character design is mostly static, along with Riku's, as drive forms are not a part of this story. However, the thing that annoyed many fans here is the character designs. While the idea of many character being, in fact, vessels of Xehanort rightfully made many people feel like their personalities were already being consumed by him, the fact that many interesting character designs were left unexpressed in the visual department only further proves this. Xehanort is still in his suit, yes, but Ansem now takes the form of the black coat by the end of the game, Xigbar never returns to his character design from BbS, Saix never has new clothing, Xemnas is wearing his generic black coat, and Young Xehanort, who already had a model from Birth by Sleep in his clothing from the Destiny Islands, now takes on a black coat as well. By the end of the article, I will explain why these are horrible.
In Back Cover, each character is acted primarily through their voice and inflection, as their faces are concealed. Nevertheless, each one of them having a unique keyblade and design benefited their voice acting as well, and made it feel like, at the very least, effort was put into differentiating them. However, this is was irks me so much; The Master and Luxu, two characters that are mysterious and full of wit, also wear this black coat. WHY THOUGH! WHY DOES EVERYONE FEEL THE NEED TO PUT THIS diddlyING THING ON JESUS CHRIST! DON'T YOU PEOPLE HAVE REAL CLOTHES!?
And, finally, we got something somewhat fresh in the X saga. On top of more reduced designs for new characters like Ephemer and Skuld, we now have a new design for a Marluxia character, a man named Lauriam. This gives me hope that maybe Marluxia's design in Kingdom Hearts III will be altered to reflect this, but only time will tell.
In Kingdom Hearts III so far, we have seen returning and new themes in costume design appear. Sora's outfit is similar to his KHII outfit in that it is made so that it is a base to change color due to new drive forms, but it has been refined so it is more realistic and evolved from his outfit in the original game. The heroes of light seem to be following a theme this time around; with the 3 Guardians of Light seen so far, all have followed a theme of plaid lining their clothing in some way, which seems to be a unifier for the battle up ahead. Unfortunately, Donald and Goofy have kept the same outfit, but we can always hope that that is changed close to the end of the game.
What's very unfortunate about the villain designs in the game so far is the lack of creativity. While the heroes have sported new designs that have sparked interest and ignited passion in many fans, the villain designs have been lacking, to say the least. While many established characters, such as Vanitas, Young Xehanort, Ansem, Xemnas, and Marluxia have been shown to have other designs in some form, they all take the form of the black coat in these trailers, which is devoid of personality and a bore to view on screen.
And, here is the main issue with the designs of the villains: the black coat is too numerous to be this dull. While a combined 28 coats (not counting Xemnas' final form or the Mushroom XIII) have been identified in this series so far, nearly none of them have ever stood out, with the biggest differences often being attributed to god. Damn. Zippers. The fact that other designs to shield faces in the past, such as the keyblade armor or DiZ's disguise, have been tested, it is embarrassing that this relic from the first game has continued on so long. It is so dull to see these characters donning these stupid coats, and I only hope for the sake of Kingdom Hearts III their clothing finally gets to breathe some life into them again, even if it's only for the final battle.
Thank you all for reading this. What do you think? Do you mind the black coats, or do you actually prefer them as a storytelling narrative? Whatever your thoughts are, let me know and comment below ^o^
EDIT: Forgot to mention the absolutely hideous brown coat from the first game that Ansem reuses in Dream Drop Distance. Worst looking model in the series by far.
In the first Kingdom Hearts, everything was given a very early 2000's Final Fantasy design to match Nomura's tastes. Zippers and belts were everywhere, clothing that had no functional design ran rampant, and colors were vibrant and expressive. At the time, the clothing the characters were was pronounced and symbolic; Sora had giant banana shoes and the villain was Billy Zane with muscles so big that they were ripping outside of his giant castaway costume. Despite this, the first game kept its charm, and kept characters with many unique and even defining designs, as many consider this to be the game where "edgy Cloud" first made his debut in the Final Fantasy universe, with his metal claw and his wrapped buster sword.
Now, when the final mix came around, they had an idea for another character to show up: Xemnas. However, at the time he was unnamed and unknown, so when he appeared for a boss battle they put him in a fitting black coat, something vaguely similar to a costume design for a secret boss from Neverland, The Phantom. This pattern also appeared in the secret movie for the game, where a mysterious silver-haired warrior fought against a dual-wielding keyblade wielder in combat. At the time, this was known as a way that Tetsuya Nomura could hide his characters that he had not finished designing yet.
In Chain of Memories, this was used again by a cloaked figure that leads Sora and company to Castle Oblivion, where he is later uncloaked to be a man named Marluxia. Now, the designs for this game stayed mostly the same, and fair enough. The timeline does not ask for them to change clothing, so it only makes sense that Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Riku would not change. However, all of the villain characters wore these black cloaks, not just the main villain. This is where we first got clues that this design was, in fact, a very canon outfit for characters of the series to wear, something that I'll analyze more down the list. Now, aside from this, we also had a character named DiZ, who was shrouded by a red outfit with red bandages covering his face. Keep this in mind for later.
Kingdom Hearts II came along, and character design was revamped yet again as nearly everyone got a wardrobe shift. Certain characters from the Destiny Islands now had wardrobe shifts to show how they are in school, Kairi's outfit evolved with her age, Riku's outfit took from the first game and evolved it with his gained height and maturity, and Sora's clothes were revamped to be able to fit a mold that would later be followed in the series' third installment: that his clothes would go along with certain abilities, and would change color and pattern, but not style, when he changed these forms. Unfortunately, other characters weren't so lucky; Mickey's coat makes no sense in the series, since its point of stealth is entirely voided when you see his giant mouse ears hanging out of it, and Donald and Goofy did not get any sort of costume change, something we'll see imitated again and again.
On top of this, the black coats were applied to an organization we learned to call Organization XIII, our new group of baddies, so we now know that these coats are to be applied to them. Here, we hardly see any variation in character design; while some of these black coats can be denoted by how they fit to the body and what types of shoes the characters are wearing, they are largely featureless, and quite lackluster in design. The only character in this game that gets a full variation in Xemnas, in a form that unfortunately only appears for a brief moment in this series, with a white coat that is adorned with black thorns.
I bring this up because, in the final mix versions of this game, we got a secret ending of further things to come, and Nomura wanted a creative way to shield the characters in this ending. To do this, he put them in keyblade armor, and pitted them against the completed character designs of what would later be known of Vanitas and Xehanort. Here, we see true creativity in hiding these future character designs, yet we already have a myriad of characters entirely robed in this series, and we start to see a problem with how these characters are costumed.
In Days, nothing changed. The only difference was that Roxas was now in one of those featureless robes as well, and it took away from the experience.
In Birth by Sleep, each character design was quite creative, with the armors being inventive and bringing a life to the design that was much needed. Here, the robes are used practically and with purpose; Xehanort uses his to shield himself in Destiny Islands and to occasionally accompany him in travel, and Young Xehanort only uses his in his secret boss battle to shield his identity. Here, we have recognizable character designs that bring flavor to each character, something we can take a lesson from.
I won't bother mentioning Coded here, as it just takes all of the same tips from the previous games in character design. I was peeved that the Journal took the form of Riku in one of those dumb black robes, though.
In Dream Drop Distance, everything hits the fan. Sora's character design is mostly static, along with Riku's, as drive forms are not a part of this story. However, the thing that annoyed many fans here is the character designs. While the idea of many character being, in fact, vessels of Xehanort rightfully made many people feel like their personalities were already being consumed by him, the fact that many interesting character designs were left unexpressed in the visual department only further proves this. Xehanort is still in his suit, yes, but Ansem now takes the form of the black coat by the end of the game, Xigbar never returns to his character design from BbS, Saix never has new clothing, Xemnas is wearing his generic black coat, and Young Xehanort, who already had a model from Birth by Sleep in his clothing from the Destiny Islands, now takes on a black coat as well. By the end of the article, I will explain why these are horrible.
In Back Cover, each character is acted primarily through their voice and inflection, as their faces are concealed. Nevertheless, each one of them having a unique keyblade and design benefited their voice acting as well, and made it feel like, at the very least, effort was put into differentiating them. However, this is was irks me so much; The Master and Luxu, two characters that are mysterious and full of wit, also wear this black coat. WHY THOUGH! WHY DOES EVERYONE FEEL THE NEED TO PUT THIS diddlyING THING ON JESUS CHRIST! DON'T YOU PEOPLE HAVE REAL CLOTHES!?
And, finally, we got something somewhat fresh in the X saga. On top of more reduced designs for new characters like Ephemer and Skuld, we now have a new design for a Marluxia character, a man named Lauriam. This gives me hope that maybe Marluxia's design in Kingdom Hearts III will be altered to reflect this, but only time will tell.
In Kingdom Hearts III so far, we have seen returning and new themes in costume design appear. Sora's outfit is similar to his KHII outfit in that it is made so that it is a base to change color due to new drive forms, but it has been refined so it is more realistic and evolved from his outfit in the original game. The heroes of light seem to be following a theme this time around; with the 3 Guardians of Light seen so far, all have followed a theme of plaid lining their clothing in some way, which seems to be a unifier for the battle up ahead. Unfortunately, Donald and Goofy have kept the same outfit, but we can always hope that that is changed close to the end of the game.
What's very unfortunate about the villain designs in the game so far is the lack of creativity. While the heroes have sported new designs that have sparked interest and ignited passion in many fans, the villain designs have been lacking, to say the least. While many established characters, such as Vanitas, Young Xehanort, Ansem, Xemnas, and Marluxia have been shown to have other designs in some form, they all take the form of the black coat in these trailers, which is devoid of personality and a bore to view on screen.
And, here is the main issue with the designs of the villains: the black coat is too numerous to be this dull. While a combined 28 coats (not counting Xemnas' final form or the Mushroom XIII) have been identified in this series so far, nearly none of them have ever stood out, with the biggest differences often being attributed to god. Damn. Zippers. The fact that other designs to shield faces in the past, such as the keyblade armor or DiZ's disguise, have been tested, it is embarrassing that this relic from the first game has continued on so long. It is so dull to see these characters donning these stupid coats, and I only hope for the sake of Kingdom Hearts III their clothing finally gets to breathe some life into them again, even if it's only for the final battle.
Thank you all for reading this. What do you think? Do you mind the black coats, or do you actually prefer them as a storytelling narrative? Whatever your thoughts are, let me know and comment below ^o^
EDIT: Forgot to mention the absolutely hideous brown coat from the first game that Ansem reuses in Dream Drop Distance. Worst looking model in the series by far.
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than a real organisation. Thirteen characters is quite a lot. I think I would have liked it, though. It would have fit right in with KH1's art direction. Ansem (Xehanort's Heartless) doesn't look that different from Sephiroth. He's no Kefka or Seymour, but he could have passed off as an ordinary FF villain.
