So who are they? Check against the original and see who guessed correctly.

1. Heroes of Mana - dude
2. Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 - dude (no, really. dude.)
3. Knights in the Nightmare - dude (maybe?)
4. Luminous Arc 2 - dude
5. Knights in the Nightmare - chick (maybe?)
6. Knights in the Nightmare - not a dude (probably)
7. Luminous Arc 2  - dude

I’m not too sure about the Knights in the Nightmare characters, as I can’t read their names (check the official site if you want to have a go), but gender isn’t the real issue here — it’s just an interesting observation. The thing that boggles me is how similar some of these characters look. Games like Summon Night: Twin Age may not have gotten great reviews, but even though the character designs are similar to these, they feel more original to me. But I much prefer the look of the portraits in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (giant boobs and all), or, for something completely different, the awesomely unique, noir-influenced Insecticide.

Does that mean I don’t like these games? Not at all! I just start to yawn when I see screenshots of yet another DS game with more of the same. You could lift some of these people out of one game and stick ‘em in another without anyone noticing the difference. I think part of it is the trend in DS games to use the static character portrait (maybe with a few expressions; maybe not) for dialogue scenes. If we got away from that, perhaps we’d see more creativity.

tags / character design / art / luminous arc / heroes of mana / knights in the nightmare / summon night / castlevania / insecticide / trauma center / long post is long