Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Riots champ design is incredibly dull now

Towboat421·6/6/2019, 10:37:59 PM·95 votes·21,525 views

Qiyana has no real discernible or outstanding details in her character design, ill wait to see her kit but im not holding out hope since the track record seems pretty dismal is recent memory.

Yuumi is a cat that is blue, every thing about her from her from design to VO seems phoned in.

Sylas is just a really buff dude in chains which doesn't exactly scream interesting character no real stand out features besides his shackles

Kayle redesign was probably the worst offender within the year taking her armor'd samus aran-esque appearance and replacing it with the generic skin tight body suite, still baffled by this

Kaisa suffers from the same, her void symbiote looking like something you'd see in rule 34 rather than as living eldritch body armor

Pyke Neeko are alright Pyke looking like he's from bilge water pretty distinctly and neeko giving us more insight into the inhabitants of runeterras jungles. I think in the case of neeko they could have gone with the concept art to a greater degree shown here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/YaBqgX To make her walk the line between creepy and cute more than just generic naive sweetheart character because frackly league has enough of those.

Back to qiyana from the look of her splash art she seems like she is going to be sassy due to the pose the artist picked to represent her which is alright since the last female champ we had to fill that role Xayah and it can work well and be clever so long as she doesn't feel like a watered down version of her predecessors. Her visual design is very striking though and the jokes regarding he looking like a hodgepodge of skins hold some merit, with her design both not doing enough to catch the viewers eye and too much with choice of colors on her specifically regarding her white hair and green attire it just clashes a lot and a small edit some one made to change to blackish brown made her look a lot more feasible.

Edit: I would like to remind everyone regarding Kaisa, the critisism regarding her wasnt about her having her tiddies out it was regarding the fact that she walked out the void with a skin tight body suit like shes ready for a day at the beach without a scar on her immaculate makeup and hair. This is in fact the same void that AurelionSol struggled to close the rift of, the same void that corrupted the ascended at the end of the war in icathia.

The one that horribly disfigures the beings it comes into contact with, Kaisa doesn't look nearly as battle hardened and weary as she should for having to travel the void alone, there is a grand disconnect between her character and her back story.

152 Comments

Kelg6/6/2019, 10:44:33 PM54 votes

I like how my brother described Sylas: "Dude in jeans"

And yeah Kayle's redesign is tragic, old one was much better.

R107 Games6/7/2019, 2:10:02 AM35 votes

All you did was downplay the 4 champions you consider to be a dull design. You can do this with any character:

Yasuo samurai with sword

Camille cyborg with scissor legs

AurelionSol dragon with powers

Galio statue with wings

Jhin masked man with gun

Sion undead man with axe

Yorick gravedigger with shovel

Fucking etcetera

Baa Woof6/6/2019, 11:26:05 PM22 votes

I think one of the most unique characters in LoL is Kindred .

I really hate reading books, okay it is not on a really “hate” level, but I would rather watch a movie. But, I could read about these two for hours, days, weeks, or even years. When it comes to them I really like reading anything about them, they are so unique, mysterious and have the coolest looks on the drawings (Talking about good death). You can tell them apart so well, Lamb likes to take things more slowly, and finish them of without causing pain, meanwhile Big Bad Wolf is like, kill it, I want to see them suffer. Man, I just can’t get enough of these two.

The skill set requires both parts to work together. You need to use W to make the Q better, and you can use your "empowered" Q to catch up and stack the E up. The ultimate is really "special" it effects both teams, and you don't know the out come.

The passive is also interesting, you can choose what you want to do, farm it on champions, or counter jungle or both.

They are not popular, because there are just better and easier champions to play(so why bother learning a harder one).

They are more than 3 years old now, kinda forgotten, but when it comes to looks, and skill set I think you can't really compare them to anyone and they still hold up really well.

Of course, this comment is coming out of someones mouth who hasn't played anything else for ~2 years now.

Smurfraka6/7/2019, 4:18:21 AM16 votes

Caitlyn woman with gun and poor fashion sense

Rengar cat that isn't even blue

Renekton Nasus these two are LITERALLY just bipedal animals. The furries on deviantart would scoff.

Tryndamere Garen guys with swords

You can play this game with any champ. I will agree Sylas is boring though.

Old Kayle was also just a generic suit of armor, so idk what the deal is there.

Marshbouy6/7/2019, 3:48:48 AM13 votes

I was honestly annoyed to learn that the new champ is just "hot girl in skin tight clothing" again.

Camille Ferrøs6/6/2019, 11:04:36 PM13 votes

I really don't know what is going on. They have characters like Jhin, Swain (from recent years) and they have characters like Yuumi, Kai'sa, and Sylas. I really don't understand. How is this possible. The only thing I can think of is that some Rioter care more about the art and the creation itself. While others just care about what the bigger masses want...

General Esdeath 6/7/2019, 1:46:56 AM11 votes

I don't know what people expected from Kaisa. She's wearing a small voidling like the ones Malzahar summons. It's not gonna be some big void dragon with 5 eyes and death spikes. She "killed" it as a child. If it was some mighty warrior like Aatrox Darius Garen Hecarim then yeah I could see some big horrific creature.

Kaisa wants to blend in and be able to hide as a small child, so of course it's going to be slim and focus on blending in, not sticking out.

I'd expect a guy version of Kaisa to look like this https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/metalgear/images/7/79/MGS1_Snake.png/revision/latest?cb=20190428033925

Not this https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/avatar/images/8/84/Aang%27s_armor.png/revision/latest?cb=20140905231942

AbiwonKenabi6/7/2019, 2:25:20 AM10 votes

I have mixed feelings on this. Kai'Sa was the last huge disappointment from a design perspective for me. I've warmed up a little to her and come to appreciate her more quiet, optimistic personality, but I feel like she could have been more creepy and fearsome. I feel like she should have earned her status as "scary to most normal people" a little more in her design.

Everyone else is either fine or good. Pyke is really creepy, sleek and cool. He looks like a native of Bilgewater, as OP said, and he's got a really neat splash art. I could imagine him frequenting the place of his splash to add to his list. They could have easily just made him a fish man, but I think animation and voice do a lot for the character as well.

Neeko, similarly is well-designed. She feels a little alien, but still cute and relatable. All the concepts from the page you linked really ended up looking similar to the final product, so I don't really see her looking that much different even if they went with a different idea. Her colors are great, her VO is adorable and hilarious and I can't wait to see her interact with more people in the lore. If only she didn't have a horrifying color story.

I think people are overstating how "bad" or "generic" Kayle's redesign is. She IS wearing armor, but they lightened the armor up to indicate that she's not that tanky, which is sensible. The biggest sin of this decision was that in-game the armor reads more like a body suit, but that doesn't mean she's NOT wearing armor. Even beyond that, she kept the basic elements of her old design (armored, helmeted angel smiting her foes with a fiery sword) and I like the added effect of her design evolution throughout an individual game. I like the added wings as she becomes stronger. I liked old Kayle design, but I think new Kayle is good, too.

I love Yuumi's VO, I just think Yuumi in general is a design that doesn't appeal to everyone. Like most designs in this game. With Yuumi in particular, you either like her design, or you think its generic. You can argue that she's "just a cat" all you like, but you can do that for a lot of characters. Anivia "She's just a bird" Annie "She's just a little girl with powers" Kayle "She's just an armored angel" (old OR new). Some people are going to love those designs, and others are going to think they are generic. The fact is, I've never seen a cat that uses a book as part of its power set, and Yuumi's lore even helped expand a bit of Runeterra's lore as a whole. So I think overall she was a fine addition.

Same could be said for Sylas. Its easy enough to boil down his design to "shirtless dude with chains" but the chains themselves are the stars here, as they are the main part of his kit and the main part of his lore. He's a Demacian that no longer wants to associate with the establishment, so he appropriately only has the Demacian-like chains, and nothing else. He isn't heavily armored, he isn't going to be wearing any Demacian colors or symbols other than the ones he is stuck with (the chains). I can't explain the shirtlessness though. He also has this really cruel laugh and really cruel smile to match, something that contributes to his now cruel personality. His design is fine.

You forgot to mention Mordekaiser, whose new design drew inspiration from Gothic architecture and is a great update to the old Morde look. I think he's definitely a good design.

So, imo we have disappointing Kaisa fine Yuumi Sylas Kayle and really good Mordekaiser Neeko Pyke . So I'd say its about half and half. Its honestly about the same as their usual output, design-wise. Look at 2016 Champs as an example: usually they have a few human-like Champions (Jhin Taliyah Camille ) and a few more quirky or out-there designs (AurelionSol Kled Ivern ). Its a good thing visual design is not the only thing going for a Champion, since I think Jhin, Taliyah and Ivern all get their core appeal more from their personality or gameplay, while having a design that's well suited for that personality or gameplay. I think that may be the case for our new Champion.

Whyte Lyon6/7/2019, 12:28:23 AM9 votes

Kayle redesign was probably the worst offender taking her armor'd samus aran-esque appearance and replacing it with the generic skin tight body suite.

Mate, you must understand. Sometimes Riot wants to design an armor-clad warrior angle, but they literally can't make it too bulky as she simply doesn't have a tank playstyle nor builds off tank item sets. To ignore that limitation just to give her a much more realistic armor design is to break the rules of visual/design communication and the importance it has. Her armor's design had to represent something far deeper than just the aesthetic.

But y'know. That fact doesnt register for most players. Of course not. It's easier to fit your version of the narrative by presuming devs that worked on her are just asshole who don't know anything.

JackMcCarry6/7/2019, 5:22:13 PM6 votes

MonkeyKing is a monkey with a stick Caitlyn is a girl with a sniper rifle Ashe is a girl with a bow Malphite is a rock Maokai is a tree Riven is a girl with a sword old Kayle is a flying angel with a sword Anivia is an ice bird

Wow! almost like if you boil down every champ into it's most basic forms they are dull!

LetsGetHIvern6/7/2019, 5:22:25 PM6 votes

Idk Ivern is pretty amazing

njrk976/7/2019, 4:42:00 AM6 votes

Now i may just be speaking out my ass but it seems like everything has been somewhat 'less' this year, once again speculation but was it not the case that financially riot did not too super great last year and it seems like alot of stuff happening right now reflects the sorta kneejerk 'gotta turn a profit or daddy tencent wont be happy', i mean look at it.

Glorified, overpriced,overcharged gold chromas are added to every new skin line now

Quite a harder emphasis on popular champs getting skins with stuff like Lux and Ez double dipping,Jhin getting his legendary and the ever popular Tristana getting a skin choice as opposed to a decidedly more obscure character.

Significantly less tertiary content being added alongside new skin lines and instead the lines are simply dropped without much fanfare, in comparison to earlier years when entire maps, events or at least animations were made.

More questionable balance decisions, buffing or leaving popular champs in stronger states.

Even small stuff now like how the Essence emporium doesn't let you get default skin chromas for BE, so if nothing you already invested in the skin.

Much Safer champion designs and releases so that the champs made are still somewhat popular due to either being attractive, or 'cute', with the deviations from this having powerful kits to compensate (Pyke) or amping up the 'cool and flashy' factor.

Event passes for everything

It just seems like to me that Riot had a bad financial year last year and have either been told or chose to turn into damage control mode making sure they are making plenty of content that will guarantee to sell well, while cutting down on extraneous or other things that don't turn that profit (animations, maps, events).

This new champ is just another step in that, making another standard attractive champ so they know that they can safely sell them, while pushing Morde to the side since reworks may not sell as much skins and stuff, since people already own the champ and their skins.

I suspect this year is going to be the Year of being Safe, we are not going to get crazy animations or events, or super creative champs, we are going to get stuff that is going to turn them a nice profit consistently so they can go back to tencent at the end and show that they can still make bank. So more popular champs, more Popular champs leading skin lines, more Popular champs double dipping prestige skins and more boring and somewhat safe designs that will keep their profit margins nice and straight.

ModCaptainMårvelous6/7/2019, 4:27:05 AM5 votes

Really disagree with these overgeneralizations. While I do think Sylas and Qiyara are boring, I think you're overselling how "bland" Yuumi is. While Kayle is indeed problematic, her design is more "missed chance" than "outright bland".

There are always going to be some characters who people consider bland because some people lean more toward one or the other direction. Hell, Morde is about as generic "Dark Knight-y" as you can get but people still love him.

Celestial Lion126/7/2019, 4:31:24 AM3 votes

You try making 150 unique and interesting characters

Chromatic Eagle6/7/2019, 12:30:16 AM2 votes

is just a really buff dude in chains which doesn't exactly scream interesting character no real stand out features besides his shackles Is intended to be an escaped convict leading a revolution.

suffers from the same, her void symbiote looking like something you'd see in rule 34 rather than as living eldritch body armor Is intended to be a high speed marksman, and seriously, you can cover up the chest with her helmet. How are people still offended by the cleavage?