News: Mecha Designers work on Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity
Posted on : 05-02-2011 | By : Cacophanus | In : News
Hardware: PlayStation Portable
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A selection of well-known mecha designers have added their creative worth to the upcoming Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity. Specifically, these designers have crafted suits of armour that either gender can wear in the game. 4Gamer has the shots of their work in question and the five designers are: Kunio Okawara (with his design pictured above), Kanetake Ebikawa, Junya Ishigaki, Suzuhito Yasuda and huke. The first three are generally regarded as “classic” mecha designers, with Okawara being pretty much held responsible for the birth of real robot design (as he penned the mecha in Mobile Suit Gundam). Interestingly, Ebikawa has been a fan of the series since he played Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast. The new armour will be available as DLC from the Japanese PSN store at the end of February, when the full game is released. You can also pre-order the game here.
Will someone just put Okawara down already?
It’s quite Layzner, isn’t it? Yet, in all honesty, it’s a look I’ve wanted to sport since the original Phantasy Star Online. Shame it’s planned DLC when the bloody game’s not even out yet.
I say we let Okawara live.
Honestly the pic in the post reminds me of the cheap art you find on knock-off toys in dollar stores.
This isn’t the best this man can do. Not by a long shot.
The art itself, yeah, but how it looks in-game is what I’m interested in.
Okawara needs an intervention, not an execution. The power was inside him all along, etc.
Part of Okawara’s charm may very well be his ability to create good versions of toy store robots.
I’m in the minority on this, but I’ve never liked the Katoki redesigns; they look amazing individually but at some point they start to run together. Kunio Okawara’s Real Robot designs are often more playful, and that playfulness lends itself well towards creating a design worth remembering.
I can’t say I’m a fan of this particular design, but he likely designed it knowing it would be rendered in the game’s engine, and alongside other bits of mecha technology. I can see someone creating this, trying to make it fit well with what is already present.
I was thinking Dragonar…if Dragonar was shit.
Okawara’s illustrations have always been like this though, even the VOTOMS painted imagery he penned looked awful. It’s only when they’re rendered in situ that they look awesome (that too can be said for both Dragonar and Layzner as well).
You do have a point there.
Though if that’s the case, can he really take the credit?
After all, the design looked terrible till someone else handled it/animated it.
That’s the same for all mecha designers though, not just Okawara. Once the designs enter into animation or games they are manipulated to fit the context of that medium. The point I was actually making though was that Okawara’s painted works are normally woeful compared to his pure lineart.