Hmmm, that post wasn't really meant to be as antagonistic as you thought it was.
How? Only Squall wore a black outfit, the cast was varied and each character had a unique silhouette that made them distinct from the rest of the cast in more ways than just hairstyle.
You're concentrating on color too much as opposed to what they're actually wearing. FFVIII is pretty contemporary. You can buy Squall's jacket now for 200 dollars. When FF8 came out, the same jorts Zell wore were pretty popular. Selphie's dress is something you can buy right now at a Thrift Shop for 20 dollars. Similarly, the clothing of XV's cast is pretty relatable, much like with 8. You've got suits and collared shirts and jeans cars and relatable technology that fits within our modern world. Noctis wears shorts and a basic black open shirt. I can buy that right fucking now at my local clothings store. Similarly, in VIII and to a lesser extent, VII, the characters wear clothes that fit the times: suits, black shorts with white t-shirts. I namely say 8, because 7 still has fantasy elements: the armor on Cloud's shoulder, never mind his belt. Vincent's entire attire. VIII goes the full gamut, and its main characters and npcs are people who wear regular clothing, more or less.
More than that, the characters are all pretty identifiable beyond haircut. Prompto doesn't look anywhere near like Gladiolus, for example. You've said that XV lacks any artistic vision when you've ignored the crucial and very deliberate fact that the good guys wear black.
Bad guys wear white.
So the black outfits actually serves a purpose beyond looking cool.
Before reveal? what does that mean? iirc the reveal trailer showed Cocoon, a massive city in the sky with abstract and colorful architecture. "some chick"? are you trying to sound as obtuse and ignorant as you can? Say what you will about her character but her design is pure badass. Finally a leading lady in games without excessive ass/cleavage. Even the co-star woman from the previous title, Ashe, despite being a great character, displays all kinds of ass in her key art.
Meant before release. Have no idea why "some chick" would make you mad. Lightning isn't special, especially in FF. I love her design, it is great, I agree. But there have been more than a few Final Fantasy female lead characters that don't show ass. The best of which, Yuna, is covered pretty much from shoulder to toe in a conservative kimono. Other lead female characters, like Lenna, Faris, Terra, Celes, Aertih, Rinoa, Garnet (though she does have a donk) aren't showing off their butts at all, and acting like Lightning is some revolutionary design or even character for a series full of strong, kick assing ladies feels wrong, and is insulting to the franchise.
RE: Cocoon, I never liked the design of the place. It's too busy, too what the fuck. It's like they put a bunch of abstract crap on it just to make it look cool. I never liked the art direction for XIII, ever, and find that it has the worst character designs in the series. Snow's design is terrible. Hope's design is mediocre. Vanille's design is mediocre. Zazh's design is boring despite being a great character. Fang's design kicks ass. I love Serah's design. I like what's her face Villain who dies too soon's design a lot. I think that's about it. XV's designs appeal to me more, is all.
I don't agree with the comparison to VIII. Balamb Garden has a very alien design with the holographic elements and colorful, curved surfaces, ditto for many of the locales. Comparing it to VII seems apt though, maybe that's what they were going for with XV's art design. Both feature drab metropolitan environments and an emphasis on dark, machine-like backdrops.
Balamb Garden, while looking somewhat distinct, but it's hardly indicative for the entire game. Especially when we consider what's INSIDE the Garden's.
Classrooms.
Skating rinks.
Basketball courts.
Again. Relatable. Modern. Stylized, yet most decidedly contemporary.
The same is for the towns pre-Esther.
Newspaper/magazine offices.
Large modern hotels.
A place where you can take the train.
Or drive a car.
Oops wrong game.
This is...otherworldly to you? It's modern and stylish with a mix of sci-fi and fantasy. Like every FF. So you should probably give XV the benefit of the doubt because those sci-fi/fantastical elements are rarely shown in FF's pre-release.
However VII had a decidedly more H.R. Giger flavor to it where XV appears to have no artistic influence beyond maybe an iteration of the boring garbage seen in Advent Children.
VII has only two cities in the entire game. Two. One of which you don't have access to for 3/4 of the game. the majority of it that you DO see is nothing but ghetto, spray paint, and garbage on the ground; the other, a high tech city with a giant cannon. VIII is chock full of cities that are similar to what we've seen so far in XV.
As for saying XV has no artistic influence, that just comes off as hyperbole, sorry. Lots of FF8 haters HATE this directly BECAUSE they find it so realistic.
You should probably wait for new info. Saying that a game that's been in development for 2 years, been in development hell, and just recently got playable gameplay and saying it has no artistic vision sounds...pretty silly and highly premature. Especially since the art direction is in the same area as the title you're currently playing. We don't know enough about FFXV to say anything about its more fantastical elements, but stuff like that is always revealed later on in the pre-release FF hype (if at all). So far, what we've seen is the equivalent of a demo. We haven't seen any towns or cities outside of the main one, and we haven't seen ACTUAL gameplay (i.e. exploration not just battles) footage from even within THAT.
I wasn't trying to be an ass at all. I actually think you were more of an ass I was supposedly being. Especially after you got mad when I called a fictional character "some chick" as if she's an actual person.
