For a long time, it was common for the protagonists in video games to be either hunky muscular males or very curvy women with a model’s look, but for many years now this has been toned down somewhat. More recently, there have been various attempts to create more average looking heroes in an attempt to make them relatable, albeit with rather varied results (the Concord ultra-flop comes to mind).
One person who doesn’t believe in the latter approach is the Square Enix veteran Tetsuya Nomura, who created the characters in both the original Final Fantasy VII and the remake, as well as being the creator of the Kingdom Hearts series (and much more). On the contrary, he thinks we shouldn’t have to play ugly characters in games, and says in an interview with Automaton:
“When I was in high school, a classmate was playing a game where the main character wasn’t good looking. They said, “Why do I have to be ugly in the game world too?” which really left a strong impression on me.”
In a nutshell, we can definitely expect to play attractive characters in Nomura’s games, although he later adds in the same interview that you can’t make them too good looking because “you will end up with a character who is too distinct and hard to empathize with”.
What do you think about this? Would you rather play with good-looking or ugly characters?