Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > Final Fantasy: The Smell of Fear > Final Fantasy XIII > Aerith vs Stella...

[x~Agita~x]

A topic which I've discovered has flared up on other FF forums recently.

Forgive me if someone's already started raving about this, but don't you think theres' something fishy about Stella's similarities (aesthetic) to Aerith. She shares design elements with Rinoa too. Before anyone goes flaming me I'll say what I'm already aware of:

* People jumping to conclusions to 'link things' in Final Fantasy because it is exciting. Yes Reno and Axel were based off the same character refs, but does that mean Reno has ANYTHING to do with KH?

* Nomura has done the character designing since FFVI/VII, and of course it's going to be hard to have enough varation between characters, with archetypes the artistic style, the public and he personally favours creating limitations...

BUT! I still think the likeness is deliberate. (I won't start on the SasukexCloud-ness of Noctis, lol. The multiple swords techinique and dress/haircut is similar though ^^)

1) Because it has already been stated that Lightening was deliberately intended to be reminiscent of Cloud Strife

(When I saw the FFXIII video and saw Stella for the first time I immediately thought 'WTF, Aerith?!' Then I went to watch AC again before I jumped to any conclusions and compared tapes.

2) If you overlap the videos of Stella and Aerith from the final scene in AC, the timing and position matches creepily, as if Nomura traced the frames of Aerith intentionally for Stella.

Stella at 42 secs

YouTube - FInal Fantasy Versus XIII NEW Trailer

Aerith at 17 secs

YouTube - Cloud and Aerith - Final Fantasy VII Advent Children

I'm not trying to sound like a crap-stirrer or a know it all, I'm just trying to provide you with the information on which I based my opinion so I don't get a whole load of replies saying 'BUT! You forgotted thish!!!!' I'm not saying the similarities are a bad thing. I'm not hinting that Nomura is losing his touch or that his designs are too 'samey'- if anything, familiar character designs are what endear us, right?

So yeah... Um, what do you think? Any extra information?

[PeneloRatsbane]

hm sort of, but not enough to fuss about. Stella's hair is blonde and has dark eyes and seems a touch darker than Aeris.
I get what u mean tho, I think it comes down to what they can actually manged graphically

[x~Agita~x]

Well, I'm not saying they are identical, but reminiscent of eachother, and the identical camera shots and timing made me intrigued. I'm not invalidating your opinion, I'm saying that obviously if they had exactly the same appearance (I can see that Stella is Blonde) there wouldn't be anything to speculate about would there? She'd BE Arith rather than 'kind of mysteriously being reminiscent of her' which is what I'm getting at. Thankyou for your response, though. ^^

Anyone else for input? (If I sound blunt, I don't mean to come acoss like that, I'm really not trying to be argumentative or anything)

[Calarandir]

I think it's more the vague archetype the fit under more than anything, it's the sort of look a potential love interest would make. I think the characters are going to have one or two similar qualities, yet they still will be distinctly different characters.

[Dr.M]

its a game, SE are gonna have to cut corners somewhere. and yeah its a lot easier to im work on new graphics with the plans of old ones. you can see all the time in ff the same movements in the characters.

[Edea's-Ether]

All the charecters look alike...Why? because they all have the same face shape in an effort to make the charecters look realer they end up looking the same well at least thats my thought on it...hence why I detest "looking like a real person" in vidio games slightly life like is fine but to the point every charecter looks like anouther one is just to much and to me Lighting looks exactly like Yuna and her friend looks exactly like a more life like Selphie....They all look the same to me...

[Calarandir]

Originally Posted by Edea's-Ether ^

All the charecters look alike...Why? because they all have the same face shape in an effort to make the charecters look realer they end up looking the same well at least thats my thought on it...hence why I detest "looking like a real person" in vidio games slightly life like is fine but to the point every charecter looks like anouther one is just to much and to me Lighting looks exactly like Yuna and her friend looks exactly like a more life like Selphie....They all look the same to me...

I prefer more exaggerated characters than realistic ones as well, it helps to define the characters as individuals and gives games a certain charm. When the characters are more caricatures of people the story usually doesn't become as angsty as it could with people who are dead serious all the time.

[Edea's-Ether]

Originally Posted by Calarandir ^

Originally Posted by Edea's-Ether ^

All the charecters look alike...Why? because they all have the same face shape in an effort to make the charecters look realer they end up looking the same well at least thats my thought on it...hence why I detest "looking like a real person" in vidio games slightly life like is fine but to the point every charecter looks like anouther one is just to much and to me Lighting looks exactly like Yuna and her friend looks exactly like a more life like Selphie....They all look the same to me...

I prefer more exaggerated characters than realistic ones as well, it helps to define the characters as individuals and gives games a certain charm. When the characters are more caricatures of people the story usually doesn't become as angsty as it could with people who are dead serious all the time.

Exactly!...but I should have added Selphie and Penello for the look alike of lightings friend .......anyhoo...Honestly when I see the preveiws for the games to come for FF I get sorda depressed there is no individuality...Its like waching the same person do different things...its rather sad I think.....Final Fantasy is inovative with theire "leveling systems'' But not so much with story or characters lately...I wish they would get a grip on that....Now I want to write them hate mail lol They need to get it togeather