Is there any difference between playing a game with an attractive character versus the protagonist of the title not being attractive? While this is a matter of taste, it is evident that many of these characters are also designed for marketing purposes and to generate greater commercial appeal. Although what matters in a protagonist is their development, personality, narrative background, etc., it is undeniable that appearance influences the first impression we have of a certain character. This is a topic that Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura has spoken about.
The director of Final Fantasy VII Remake and creative director of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was asked in an interview with Young Jump about the reason why he tends to design main characters with a certain attractiveness. It all comes down to an anecdote from when he was in high school, where a friend of his complained that a video game character was not good-looking, and pointed out that he wanted to be attractive in the game he was playing.
“My decision to make the protagonist good-looking started when I was in high school and a classmate was playing a game, and the protagonist of that game was not attractive. My friend said to me: ‘Why do you have to be ugly in the world of the game too?‘,” he says with a laugh. “From that experience, I thought that players have the desire to be cool and handsome in games,” he reveals (via Gamesradar).
The characters designed by Nomura
At another point in the interview, he is asked about his main antagonist, and he states that “Sephiroth is the most beloved, but he is also handsome.” Setting aside his opinions, Nomura has been the main character designer for well-known characters in Final Fantasy VII Remake, such as Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and the aforementioned Sephiroth. In Final Fantasy VIII, he repeated the same role contributing to the creation of notable personalities like Squall, Rinoa, or Zell.
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