Characters from 3D games that could pass as Chronoverse characters?

[FaustWolf]

Hey all, it's extremely premature to be thinking about this sort of thing, but I just noticed this from Suikoden 3:


Sorry for the poor-quality blowup. Anyway, anyone know of any characters from 3D PSX or early/graphically simple PS2 games (or the new handhelds, for that matter!) that could pass for, say, Marle or Lucca? Or any other character from Chrono Trigger?

Over the past year or so I've been assessing the possibility of using resources from multiple games in 3D Chrono fanworks. The result would naturally be inferior to Chrono Trigger: Resurrection, of course. It's just something I'm keeping in the back of my mind.

[V_Translanka]

You mean besides Dragonball Z: Budokai? Or does cell shading not count as 3D??

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Star Ocean 3 characters...

I haven't played any of the Wild Arms games, but I feel like the characters from them could maybe work.

[FaustWolf]

I count cell-shaded as 3D. I'll have to take a look at fighting games and see what interesting character models await.

Boo, good points about Star Ocean and Wild Arms; I haven't played either of those series since they went completely 3D, so there could be oodles of possibilities there as well.

[V_Translanka]

Or how about Blue Dragon? Dragon Quest VIII? Yeah, that's right, I'm just suggesting other games w/character designs by Akira Toriyama. *heh heh* I don't actually know if I recall anyone from DQVIII as being decidedly Chrono Trigger or not...& I really haven't seen enough of Blue Dragon to call that one either...and actually, it's funny that I do so because I normally hate how everyone says that all of Toriyamas designs are the same...

[FaustWolf]

I actually really liked the Toriyama designs for DQVIII; it's what got me really thinking about Trigger again, and what inspired me to register here in a roundabout way.

Blue Dragon's models are very short IIRC, but I'll have to take another look at those as well. For one thing, features of specific models - a hat, a weapon, clothing, hell, even a head - could probably be ported to models that resemble CT characters to achieve the kind of effects I'm thinking about.

For example, putting Pierre's hat (from Chrono Cross) on Sara (from Suikoden III), bumping up the yellow in Sara's hair color and possibly giving her a different eye texture, could result in a fair representation of a Marle redesign done by Alaer Kino. I'll post pics to prove it later.

OMG, what's wrong with me that I'm thinking about things like this while I'm trying to brief a US Supreme Court case!?

[V_Translanka]

lol...I just thought, he's not Trigger, but the DQVIII *main* character could make a passable Serge. He's already got the bandanna already! I wonder what he'd look like w/blue hair tho...Hmmm...

[FaustWolf]

Characters with bandanas automagically rock.

Grandia XTReme has some excellent models that might mesh well with Cross models, I've found.


They look to be about the same quality as the CC battle models. I LIKE that lady character's dress; very flashy. With that coat, she could, perhaps, become Ninja-Marle:



For monsters, anything would go. I await the day when we can watch Serge take on Metal Gear Rex mano-a-mano.

EDIT:

Heeey, Final Fantasy IV DS models aren't too shabby at all:


What's really interesting about the handheld revolution is that the DS and PSP will supply us with a ton of new PSX-era models that might just be usable...

[Foxx]

i'd say either that Square is whining and trying to protect their CT copyrights, or that they have a remake or other in the works without telling the press.

If there would be a remake for the new consoles, then the graphics would be significantly more advanced or made with cel-shading.

the pic of Marle, that Faustwolf posted is truly a version of Marle that i'd like to see in a future game/ movie

unfortunately, I don't really have any good models to post right now, but i'll go through my games collection and see if I can find some good stuff

[FaustWolf]

Yeah, the advancement in graphical capability is precisely what leaves open the possibility of 3D fangaming using official resources. No game companies seem to mind folks ripping Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog or SNES Megaman sprites for fangames, because the companies already have much higher-quality graphical products at their disposal. Though with the way the DS remake of Final Fantasy IV turned out, it's hard to tell how much corporate attention a PSX-era fangame would receive.

What's going to be really interesting to me is whether the Dead Fantasy videos garner a C&D, but then again, that project isn't a full fangame.

[Kebrel]

I haven't seen to many look-a-likes in games, that I remember, but Dead fantasy part one is a year or so old and the new one just came out both vary popular. So they probably wont get a C&D.

[MagilsugaM]

Dragon Quest Vlll Characters and maybe WildARMs too.

[V_Translanka]

Though with the way the DS remake of Final Fantasy IV turned out, it's hard to tell how much corporate attention a PSX-era fangame would receive.

What's that supposed to mean? It's done really well in Japan so far...

[FaustWolf]

Yeah, I meant the graphical quality of FFIV-DS. It seems equivalent to a mid-32-bit era game (from what I've seen), and therefore a fangame using resources from Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy IX, or Vagrant Story would be deemed threatening by Square-Enix (and thus ripe for a C&D). It is my pet theory that game companies will quash non-profit fanworks if their technical quality is within a certain range of what the company itself is churning out. Thus, releasing new 2D games and technically-simple 3D games widens the technical quality of what's being released, which greatly increases the possibility of garnering a C&D for any given fan project. It's now impossible to say that there's a two- or three-generation rule, whereby fans could get away with using 32-bit era resources simply because the PS3, Wii, and XBOX360 are established.

And the issue of re-releases for classic games makes me worried about the emulation scene. Is Square Enix holding back on a virtual console Chrono Trigger release because most potential consumers already have Chrono Trigger sitting on their hard drives, and possibly several hacked versions of Chrono Trigger?

[V_Translanka]

How many SE games are on the virtual console so far? I have my own doubts about C&Ds though...I mean, have any non-graphical update remake fan projects ever gotten one?