Gaming Discussion: Chibi vs Life Size

[Bashiku]

I was never a man with long introductions, so I will keep this short. I have involved myself into designing an role playing console like game for personal computers, but have come to the point of indecisiveness as I am trying to implement new type of battle system. Mostly I am working on sprites and sprite animations, because I want to do most of the things custom and that they are done by myself. This is quite different from making 3x4 sprite chart for RPG Maker, as different types require different amount of sprite charts size, details etc.

I have choice between next types:

Chibi - This version of sprites inside of combat is very flexible, less detailed, but more mobile. It would involve chibified (is that even a word?) version of characters, high speed animation, but with huge variety of combo's, pictures and so on. Example can be found in games like Soul Nomad, Disgaea, Final Fantasy Tactics and so on and so on.

Tankentai - This version of sprites everyone has seen in Daabura's role playing game 'Labyrinth of Laughter', so I don't have to go into great details. Its similar to earlier Final Fantasy style, its easy to make, but somehow I feel it would be soulless to use already abused idea and that it wouldn't show my real passion toward game making. Still its an option if anyone see's it fit to concentrate on other sides of the game.

Life Size - This version of sprites is very dear as an idea to me, but is one of most grueling to make. If you were to compare it, it would be like making Street Fighter sprite chart and putting them into rpg. Its highly detailed, with array of movements, actions and appearances, harder to make due to unique nature of each character, but very promising.

So which one would you pick?

 

[Carnivore]

I didn't vote, but I'm tempted to recommend against life size. It would take a lot of work, and it seems like time and effort are the most likely things to stop a project. However, you should also do what you enjoy and are enthusiastic about. If making chibi characters would be grueling, but life sized would be fun, clearly you know what choice to make. Have fun and make something you enjoy, but don't get too ambitious.

 

[Nomming]

It's a hard choice frankly. I personally prefer Chibi because it can provide you with more options and let your imagination truly show. You won't be too hard pressed because you won't have to work too hard on each character model. You can solely focus on the combo's and animations that your character's can perform. It's been done and each time it's been done it was done well. So you can't go wrong there.

Life size however would definitely be impressive. But as you said, it'd be a grueling task per character, and how many frames you would have to put into each character would be a real pain. However, the outcome would be phenomenal if you could pull it off. Though you may be limited on how your animations would look, or how big/interesting their combo's may be if it takes so long just to detail the particular character(s).

If anything, I'd say do Chibi. But you can't go wrong with either choice.