Shining Force III: Mismatched Mugshots

[DomingoRules!]

Has anybody else noticed that the mug shots in this game seem inconsistent? Not with their matching sprites, but with one another. I mainly noticed it with Tybalt's during the opening dialogue in Sc1, but later noticed it a bit more subtly with some other characters as well; especially while digging through the HQ bookshelf in Sc2. I feel like they don't all have consistent art styles, like some of them were originally designed for a completely different game, then shoved into SF3 as an afterthought when they weren't used for their original project.

Has anybody else noticed that? Or am I just crazy?

[MXC]

That has always bothered me too and doesn't help my annoyance with the game as a whole. I'm pretty sure Scn 3 was rushed so there are some issues from that but I'm not sure on the earlier scenarios.

[DomingoRules!]

And the fact that I've been a user of RPG Maker for most my life doesn't help. Especially since one of the earliest lessons I remember reading online regarding making a good game is to make sure all your resources are consistent with each other, rather than just grabbing random tunes, sprites, etcetera from all sorts of games that look and sound nothing alike.

I haven't played Scenario 3 yet, but I have heard of it being a bit rushed because of the Dreamcast.

[Pappets]

By mugshots you mean the characters' portraits, correct?

[DomingoRules!]

Yes.

[Pappets]

True! There are some mugshots in scenario 3 of the last promotion of some characters which are quite distinguishable. The ones i remember now are of Dantares, Murasame, Irene, Campbell, Produn and Edmund. On second thought, i think there a lot of others like Synbios and Medion also but the ones i mentioned are the most distinguishable. It's clear that they were drawn by another artist. The problem is not the artist being another, it's because he/she has a very different way of drawing manga characters.

[MCRT]

I also always wondered why they look so different but never investigated it that much to find out that they were drawn by different artists. Some of them look actually really annoying.

That has always bothered me too and doesn't help my annoyance with the game as a whole. I'm pretty sure Scn 3 was rushed so there are some issues from that but I'm not sure on the earlier scenarios.

Yeah, at some points it is noticeable, like the appearance of enemies known out of previous parts of the series and the sprite-less Rogan that slumbers in the games code instead of joining in all his nautical glory.

Nevertheless, this are mostly minor flaws and playing all 3 games is still a great experience.

[Pappets]

I also always wondered why they look so different but never investigated it that much to find out that they were drawn by different artists.

I don't know if those portraits were drawn by different artists but that seems to be the case. The name of the artists might be in the credits. Someday i'll check it.

[DomingoRules!]

Instead of starting a new topic, I'll just add to this one.

Ahem.

WTF is with the three weird-faced people in Maya!?

[Pappets]

Instead of starting a new topic, I'll just add to this one.

Ahem.

WTF is with the three weird-faced people in Maya!?

I believe they are the portraits of some of the SF3 develop team.

[DomingoRules!]

I have since seen some of those promoted Sc3 mug shots of which have been spoken of here, and my god. They are horrific. Except Fynnding's. I literally burst out laughing when I saw his Wing Lord portrait.

[MCRT]

I have since seen some of those promoted Sc3 mug shots of which have been spoken of here, and my god. They are horrific. Except Fynnding's. I literally burst out laughing when I saw his Wing Lord portrait.

Yeah, horrific is quite a matching term. I also find the colour choices for some of the promoted characters really horrible, especially Murasame and Cyclops

[DomingoRules!]

Things like colors being the problem. With a lot of them, it's not even so much that they're bad. They just look like they belong in a completely different game.

[ZethaPonderer]

Yeahh, to me it feels like the art designers responsible for those mugshots had been replaced by new ones for Scenario 3 and didn't take into consideration for the original mugshots for SF3 Scenario 1 and 2 respectively. To me it definitely feels like SF3 was under a tight budget when being made. I really wish a remake of this game comes soon to fix some of SF3's flaws if Sega stops riding on that high horse and make amends to Camelot. Only in my dreams Zetha, only in my dreams

[DomingoRules!]

Of course, it's not just Scenario 3. I noticed it right from the very first segment of Scenario 1 when Tybalt first speaks, and his face looks like a cartoony, 2D sprite compared to everybody else who look more artistically drawn, and don't appear flat as a paper cutout. Then there are other characters (the one example that comes to mind being Hazuki) who just look out of place in similar, albeit sometimes more subtle ways.