Tifa (Ayumi Ito) and Aerith (Maaya Sakamoto) arrive at Costa del Sol in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024), Square Enix
Honest question: Who hasn’t noticed the recent video game industry trend of devs making their characters, especially the female ones, outright unattractive hybrids of masculine and feminine features?

Kay Vess in Star Wars Outlaws. Mrs. Freeze in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The entire cast of Concord.

While it seems that many developers, particularly those in the West, are gung-ho on pushing this aesthetic, famed Final Fantasy series character designer Testuya Nomura stands opposed to this ‘ugly-fication’ design philosophy.
The Eikon Shiva prepares a mighty assault of ice in Final Fantasy XVI (2023), Square Enix

Who Is Tetsuya Nomura?

For those who may be unfamiliar with the name. Nomura is renowned for his work both illustrating and directing such classic Square titles as the original Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy X, and the Kingdom Hearts series.

In his time in the industry, Nomura has crafted some of the most memorable characters in gaming history. Think of Aerith Gainsborough, Cloud Strife, and Tifa Lockhart—each designed with striking, attractive features that have cemented their place in the hearts of fans (Tifa alone still has a massive fan following that’s stayed strong in the decades since the original game’s release).

Tifa (Ayumi Ito) teases Cloud (Takahiro Sakurai) in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2023), Square Enix

Nomura’s View Point

In a recent interview with Shueisha’s Young Jump, as machine translated by DeepL, Nomura was asked if there was “anything you keep in mind when designing a protagonist,” to which he admitted that he held a given character’s visual appeal as was one of his top design priorities.

“The reason I make my protagonists good-looking is that in high school, a classmate of mine was playing a game, and the protagonist wasn’t very good-looking,” he recalled. “My friend said, ‘Why does he have to be ugly in the game world too?’ and that really made an impression on me (laughs). From that experience, I thought, ‘I want to be cool in the game,’ and that’s how I design my protagonists.”

Sora (Hayley Joel Osment) finds himself in a strange location in Kingdom Hearts IV (TBD), Square Enix

There’s A Fine Line

However, he also acknowledged that there was a fine line designers must walk between making their characters “too eccentric”, as this could lead to a disconnect between said character and the player.

“In my opinion, the protagonist cannot be too adventurous (in terms of design and setting),” said Nomura. “If he does something too eccentric, he becomes too edgy and is no longer a character that you can empathize with. I actually like characters with strong quirks, so I let the enemy characters go on adventures that the protagonist cannot.”
Aerith (Maaya Sakamoto) finds herself at the center of a storm of sky lanterns in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2023), Square Enix
And unsurprisingly, Nomura’s sentiment echoes those felt by many, if not most players.

As best summarized by Twitter user @AI_EmeraldApple during a discussion of the aforementioned Concord, “[the game] reportedly cost $400 million dollars to create…They made 0$ since everyone was refunded. Ugly characters, horrible gameplay, uninspired game design, ugly UI, ugly maps, unenjoyable experience.”
@AI_EmeraldApple uses Concord as an example of how unattractive aesthetics with other elements spell doom for games
Thankfully, it seems that there are still some developers who care about keeping the balance and providing players with a way to escape from the troubles and realities of the real world.

But of course, whether or not their mindset ultimately wins out in the ongoing battle for the direction of the industry remains to be seen.