Summons (ToP)

[neogalahad]

 Ok I think this is an awesome game. But there is one thing that really bothers me and it really shouldnt but it does. The summon animation for Gnome and Luna are horrible. Its like they ran out of ideas and thought hey maybe it would be okay to make the gnome out of silly putty! Or Luna into a freakin neon OPEN sign. What were they thinking when they created those last minute quality designs? O well at least Undine looks badass with her armor and sword.

Well thats my rant...nothing more.

[throughhim413]

Hey, Luna is awesome.  And Gnome turns into rockets.  Everyone loves rockets.  In any case, I don't know what you're comparing them too.  Perhaps you played Symphonia first and those are your impressions of how the summons should look.  I don't think most of the designs are bad.  I'm not a huge fan of Gnome, but I've got no real problem with it anyway.  I haven't seen Gnome since the first time I played the game.  I no longer let my allies use abilities that suck in battle.

[gyozilla]

Its like they ran out of ideas and thought hey maybe it would be okay to make the gnome out of silly putty! Or Luna into a freakin neon OPEN sign.

Have you played the original ToP on Super Famicom? And what was your order? (ToS, ToP PSX, etc)

[Goshi]

How can you possibly not like her Luna's summon animation!? Her adorable appearance when she starts sending down a rain of lasers is just simply the best!

[neogalahad]

Well I guess I just have a much greater image of a powerful entity called "summons". Im not refering to the Final Fantasy series but I just think I could have done a better job. I was disappointed when I saw Luna. I was expecting something like a goddess of some sort. I dont know, efreet gets a cool intro. Coming out of a fiery geyser is pretty awesome. I just wanted a more grand entrance and maybe not so elementary appearance. It looks like luna is one of those priests from Tales of Destiny, but she is on a neon cresent moon...not too impressive for how strong she is. Like I said before Undine is badass. She gets armor and a sword. Why cant luna have wings or something more natural than neon florecant lights. I want to be a game designer so seeing something like that kinda annoys me. its not bad but it could be way better. that aside I love this game. It is well designed and I cant wait for ToD 2 translation. sorry if I offended anyone.

[gyozilla]

This is why I asked if you've played the original ToP or ToS. Most designs in ToP PSX were inspired from original ToP SFC, which focuses on cutesy than badass. Sprites and art for these games are more about cutesy than anything, if the SD characters didn't already clue you in.

If you think Efreet looks cool in ToP PSX, you should've seen him in ToP SFC. He was a flaming blob. Luna's neon thing is out of place, I'll give you that, the original didn't have that. But if she's so plain and not kickass enough, then how unimpressive is Shadow? It's a black blob with a Kodama face who turns out the lights and dudes get punched out of nowhere. They're all on the cutesy side, Undine is more like the exception.

As for Gnome, the rocket thing is retarded, yes. I guess bombs relate to earth. You don't have to like the sock looking things either, but I'll tell you that it was probably inspired by a character in the Moomin series, the Hattifatteners. They have a kind of kinship with the earth, so it was a good cutesy inspiration for Gnome.


Inagaki's page, ToP SFC's character designer: http://members.at.infosee.../retorono310/TOPPAGE.html
Once you check out the art, maybe you'll see just how cutesy the tone was.

[neogalahad]

 I suppose so... it still annoys me though lol.