Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Gotta say: Not a fan of Kayle's new look.

ModCaptainMårvelous·2/18/2019, 6:09:58 PM·237 votes·27,970 views
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zZzjtBzlhJA/XGrggNBrplI/AAAAAAABO4Y/b8dbC-tQnLsBtr7UxRc_1fmn9zLo1CesQCLcBGAs/s1600/6.png

On the positive side, Morgana looks pretty sick and I appreciate that Kayle upgrades/ascends over the course of the game. A six-winged Archangel looks awesome to see flying across the battlefield like a damn Diablo/Warhammer game.

But man, I am NOT digging that armor.

Bear in mind this isn't some "Ugh hot women DELETE" argument because there is a place for some smarmy, sexy characters. Kayle wasn't one of them. Kayle was League's version of Samus Aran: An androgynous and fully armored angel with practical armor that didn't make it readily apparent that she was even female. Her armor was thick and heavy. Her mannerisms were anything but playful and Kayle was one of the few really unique female designs in league.

While this new rework keeps her voice the same and has some awesome lines (Particularly a fan of the wings/feet one Morg and Kayle share), Kayle's armor is....eeeeeeeeh. It's just generically sexy. It looks like some kind of skintight body suit with huge exaggerated hips. She also loses armor the more ascended she becomes (eventually wearing like a platekini) and showing off more skin.

Hell, you could even fix this easily: Have Kayle's ascension give her more powerful, practical armor as she grows stronger. Have her feminine features disappear as she cares less about being human and more about delivering justice. It's not a perfect fix, mind you, but it'd at least do something to bring back some of her cool design.

I'm aware it's much too late to ask for this and that with this out, Kayle is likely set-in-stone. I'm not mad. Just disappointed.

267 Comments

d00mface2/18/2019, 6:28:51 PM70 votes

I enjoyed how pre-rework Kayle's armored look heavily contrasted to Morgana's more revealing (at least above that tent skirt) look. Now it feels like that particular contrast is not nearly as pronounced as it was. Also the body suit just looks strange in general to me. It looks more sci-fi than fantasy; like something we'd get in the super galaxy skinline, not in the main universe.

boricCentaur12/18/2019, 6:22:19 PM65 votes

The armor is so lazy like it looks like riot put her into a body suit and added random gold parts on too it so it would be armor like wtf are her shoulders THERE IS SO MUCH ARMOR IN THE WORLD THEY WOULD OF TOOK INSPIRATION FROM BUT THEY GIVE US THIS PIECE OF BORING GENERIC TRASH. I am mad at it since it is soo bad and usually I love the art and design for skins and models.

MalrothDragonia2/18/2019, 6:16:47 PM60 votes

I'm totally with you here, it's quite a disappointment.

ModJikker2/18/2019, 6:23:08 PM55 votes

I can't get past the the maroon unitard look. There's no armour there, she's just really exposed for no reason. There's some very cool aspects to the design, but it doesn't really feel like Kayle and the helmet just looks awkward on her with that type of armour.

Tormentula2/18/2019, 6:37:09 PM41 votes

Morgana looks exactly as I’d expect, really happy with her.

But kayle feels galio’d, as in a completely different champion that forgot what the original representation was about.

I remember riot thinking Morganas design just looked like a generic character, and now morg looks unique while kayle looks like she’s that generic character from any moba. I was kinda ok with kayles armor before she ascends because that at least kinda looks like kayle, the armor could still have been done better.. but after she ascends it’s like she gets worse and worse in apparence, to the point I thought it was a new riven chroma teaser splashed in (it literally looks like that legendary riven skin)

Deathtail2/18/2019, 6:26:24 PM38 votes

i honestly thought i was the only one. someone tried to make it clear that it was fanservice and i fully agree. this is not the kayle i know. the kayle i used to play was strong looking, like a lesbian wielding a sword! hell she made me gay! and now we are here, back to the '' kaisa is from the void, lets give her a thin waist '' club because it sure as hell looks like that. sweety what did they do to u.

Jeddy0172/18/2019, 6:44:39 PM32 votes

I don't see why they had to give Kayle a bodysuit as her base skin. They could have given it to one of her skins while leaving her base skin with real armor. Now, we be lucky if one of her skins have real armor at the very least.

GreenLore2/18/2019, 6:45:52 PM27 votes

Honestly I do feel like the biggest problem with the armor isn't just that it plainly shows that Kayle is a woman, the real problem is that it feels really out of place in her design.

I mean she is a celestial angel that is all about justice and uses magic and a sword, but then she wears a body suit?

It just clashes with the rest of the design if one part looks medieval and the other one look more like something that you'd expect from a sci-fi setting.

Granted if I look at the splash art, then it looks like the white part is actual armor, but that isn't really conveyed in the ingame design.

Akali Prime2/18/2019, 6:33:56 PM26 votes

she looks A LOT like dawnbringer riven to me

Hexs Fortune2/18/2019, 6:36:14 PM23 votes

I feel her old wings looked more magnificent

Mistiya2/18/2019, 7:37:55 PM20 votes

Bodysuit looks really strange on Kayle, especially with the magenta inlay extra-accentuating her hips. I expected her to have real armor.

And Morgana looks 10/10 amazing to me so it's not about "sexy bad". It's about "this isn't what I expected or wanted from Kayle."

Shadowkirby142/18/2019, 6:42:35 PM18 votes

I'll admit Kayle does look bare on the armor. Since it's the PBE, we can try to convince Riot to give her more armor plating, just like the time we told Riot to give Aatrox his banner wings (it's a toggle, but still a nice feature).

A Superb Villain2/18/2019, 6:43:04 PM17 votes

We League of Angels now; it's come full circle.

hhaavviikk2/18/2019, 7:19:48 PM17 votes

remove the sword and you might as well think it's a new kai`sai skin with the skin tight spandex suit...

utterly dull, after the dissaster that is kai`sai you release THIS? another hot chick in a spandex suit? what's next? we gonna put leona in a spandex suit as well?

Jhins Girlfriend2/18/2019, 9:11:46 PM14 votes

I'm not surprised, but I am extremely disappointed. Kayle's look was ICONIC, now they just made her dawnbreaker riven 2.0.

Sir Saltarin2/18/2019, 6:59:21 PM14 votes

Kayle is exactly the kind of champ that shouldn't be pushed to be sexy.

There's nothing wrong about fanservice if you do it right, but this isn't one of these cases.

wolvius2/18/2019, 7:54:42 PM14 votes

It was a stretch getting riot to give new Aatrox wings and Riot comes along and gives kayle 3 pairs of them. The helmet and shoulder pads (?) look nice I got to admit that much. I dont like how the mask disappears from kayle as the games go on (or ascends or whatvever). https://i.imgur.com/fixlkmb.jpg[/IMG] This looks horrible even if you ignore the giraffe, the armor has too much sparkles gold. They did a marvelous job with morgana and her animations.

[{quoted}](name=Talons Girl,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=ztZ0VOkM,comment-id=0028,timestamp=2019-02-18T19:53:41.206+0000)

I don't like her new bodysuit, however the thing that I really dislike about Kayles rework appearance, is that her hair looks SO bad. It doesn't even look stylish. What were they going for with that hair?

I don't know why but it strikes me as a bad drawing of Ciri without the scar.

His Bonnie2/18/2019, 10:38:03 PM14 votes

personally one of the things that bothers me is when 1.) they have champs who wouldn't be considered sexualized in their base skin have heels anyways Vayne . i'm a chick and i get most of the players and probably even the people who work at riot are not girls but if you actually think that someone would wear HEELS in a fight on PURPOSE then you're fucking nuts, plz go walk in them. and 2.) generally when they give a female champ armor but don't put it in the most important places that need that protection like for new Kayle , literally her whole chest is exposed. im not saying I don't like new skins with heels, cuz they cute af. but I don't like base skins, that are supposed to be true to the champ, aren't true to the personality of the champ.

Edgy Jinx2/18/2019, 7:24:55 PM13 votes

So gaudy and bad, it really hurts

Frontline Fury2/18/2019, 9:18:45 PM13 votes

A winged Dawnbringer Riven with the voice of that legendary Leona skin.

Disgusting. She actually looks better in her pre-rework form. SUPER DRAB colours and abaolutely shitty armor.

She used to be a symbol of League back in the day. Can’t believe they’d actually get her THIS wrong.

Ebonmaw Dragon2/18/2019, 9:19:59 PM13 votes

Back in my times, Kayle was supposed to be the "Samus" of LoL, almost no one knew that she was a female because of the armor... but now? it is obvious.

So, i agree with this post.

I mean, do you remember the first League of Legends video of Kayle vs Morgana?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzMnCv_lPxI

That AWESOME face reveal?

DudbearHaggler2/18/2019, 8:35:48 PM12 votes

Why did they do this to Kayle? Just Why?? Yes, She needed to be modernized and polished, but why THIS? The splash art even emphasizes her arched back and curves as if she was some kind of fetish version of her old self. Look, IM not judging peoples kinks, I just don't see why Kayle have to fulfill one. Kayle's old design ( and from what I hear from her new voice over as well) was appealing because she FULLY embodied her angel of justice theme and not just being another female champion with a different suit and weapon than the other gals. Yes, the ascending wings and dual blades are really cool but why could she not have kept reasonable and dignifying armor to MATCH her personality and theme???

Gixia2/18/2019, 7:57:47 PM11 votes

I'm glad other people are speaking up about this too. I was initially drawn to Kayle because she struck me as being a fantasy/LoL-specific version of Samus from Metroid, at least aesthetically. A fighter first and foremost who was so heavy on the armour that it comes as a surprise when the reveal hits you that it's a woman (and indeed, I did not know Kayle was a girl right away when I first started playing LoL). Now there's none of that. Her model may be technically higher quality, but it's less unique and more uninteresting now. I haven't played Kayle in a while because I didn't want to get too invested and attached to a playstyle that was going to be going away, but now I feel like I should be playing nothing but her as the look I enjoyed is going away and there is nothing there to entice me to play the new one. Makes me regret spending money on her skins so long ago.

At least Morg looks like a vast improvement. That's nice at least.

Skeletons Grave2/18/2019, 6:59:55 PM10 votes

You guys keep saying they gave her a sexier look but honestly.... she isnt sexy either.

She just looks weird with a poor mismash of random armor thrown on. Like she spent all her money on her sword and stole pantheons helm and noob adventurer gear and spray painted them.

Penta Penguin2/18/2019, 7:05:03 PM9 votes

She's a WoW character, the chestplate and pants are painted on, don't worry about it

4th3t0s2/19/2019, 4:51:34 AM9 votes

Blizzard did it better

https://blzmedia-a.akamaihd.net/heroes/auriel/bust.jpg

hhaavviikk2/18/2019, 8:59:32 PM9 votes

looks like I may just quit, they just ruined kayle her visuals from the looks of things, I like bad ass chicks in armor, we barely got any of those yet she's being turned into a generic sexy chick with skin tight clothing, we are drowning in those, a little variety won't hurt you riot...

who's to say 1 year form now leona won't be wearing any armor anymore either, will also just wear anther skin tight skin fuck me

Gixia2/19/2019, 9:38:35 AM8 votes

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzvlYRjVYAIAUnz.png:large

So this got posted on twitter (artist is https://twitter.com/kyrin21?lang=en ) and it amazes me how much better it looks than Riot's actual design. I love how some rando artist on twitter can do better in a couple hours than Riot managed in a couple months. Gives her full armour while keeping her slender and sleek in a way that doesn't read as a tank from a gameplay perspective.

Necro Warrior872/18/2019, 8:38:35 PM8 votes

Yeah they went the wrong direction with her. They should've dug in to the crusader fantasy and given her some more menacing armor, not ballerina bad version of Demacian armor.

Kumano2/18/2019, 7:53:41 PM8 votes

I don't like her new bodysuit, however the thing that I really dislike about Kayles rework appearance, is that her hair looks SO bad. It doesn't even look stylish. What were they going for with that hair?

Autrah Fang2/18/2019, 10:00:51 PM8 votes

Looks like they just reused the model for Dawnbringer Riven, made some very minor alterations and slapped new animations on it... Sigh... here's hoping they preserve old Kayle in one of her skins at least. It would be instant-buy for me. Not digging the new sexualized version.

Morticianjohn2/19/2019, 1:02:28 AM8 votes

I don't normally comment on the visual updates or looks of a new champion.

For example when everyone complained about Kai'Sa coming from the void in a skin tight suit or Silas escaped prisoner with a look that only someone overly obsessed with their appearance could obtain. I honestly could care less how most champions look visually. Yorick a champion I enjoy playing received a VGU and the Arclight skin and I was appreciative (although I did enjoy old yorick).

With all of that said... Kayle needs a total revert on her visual update. I don't play her and I don't really have a dog in the fight so to speak but this has got to be the worst one of all of the VGUs that I've seen over the years.

I know sometimes it's just the popular thing to do (complain about visual updates) but this is totally abnormal for me. I didn't complain about Aatrox like everyone else, I don't remember ever complaining about a VGU before because the visuals don't usually matter to me.

Mafros2/19/2019, 2:27:11 AM8 votes

I think one of the things people don't quite value as much is how much this design makes Kayle look human, when that's not the point of her character (or rather of her character's visuals). Kayle has always been The Judicator, a pure embodiment of a concept that strikes Justice on the wicked and is above petty human struggles. She's not someone you relate to, she's someone you look up to. Of course, that is not to say she doesn't have struggles of her own, but those should always be well concealed under her armor, not expose to the whole world to see.

But now not only is she clearly a woman, but she's clearly... physical. You can see a body of flesh and bones, so you can expect to just beat her. You can take a weapon and hit it where it hurts. This level of vulnerability was completely unthinkable in old Kayle, and that's what breaks the design to me.

LukaShadowReaper2/18/2019, 7:26:33 PM8 votes

i dont like it either , and in game her face looks SO UGLY

RedPannda2/19/2019, 12:21:48 AM7 votes

Please god put the helmet back on before you turn us all to stone.

https://i.imgur.com/2zjG5b9.jpg[/img]

Congrats riot, I didn't think you could fuck up a rework any harder after Frostblade Irelia but you have surpassed my expectations once again.

Fear the Kayn2/18/2019, 6:54:58 PM7 votes

Ah I see they kept the midget form of Kayle. Why is she so small?

YIKES this is not looking like a good one, boys

BoringLittleF2/18/2019, 6:26:27 PM4 votes

Why do you hate feminity so much? Kyle has always been feminine under her helmet.