Felt like voicing some opinions of mine on the redesign of T.J. Combo for Killer Instinct (2013).
Personally, I don’t like it very much, and here’s why:
-Looks too similar to his design from the original Killer Instinct. If Iron Galaxy is going to be doing classic costumes for Season 2, then what are they gonna do for T.J. in this case?
-There really doesn’t seem to be enough going on with him visually. You look at someone like Jago’s redesign and you see all these intricate details and accessories in his outfit, and then you look at T.J. and it’s just a guy in pretty normal-looking clothing. The only thing he has really going for him in this respect is the fact that his arms glow when he’s in Instinct Mode, but that’s about it.
-No eyepatch? It’s been pretty much confirmed at this point that this fits into the timeline of Killer Instinct as taking place after Killer Instinct 2, a game in which he wears an eyepatch due to a wound he sustained from Riptor. This is a bit more of nitpicking than anything else, but I suppose that Iron Galaxy can come up with a plausible explanation for why this is.
-(this one really doesn’t have to do with his character design, but I want to mention it anyway) If you look at gameplay footage of T.J. Combo, you can see the character portrait for his in-game health bar. Notice how his hands are visible in a fighting position in this small portrait. No other character does anything like this in their in-game portraits. If Iron Galaxy is trying to keep consistency with Season 1 and 2 content, then they’re not doing well in this respect.
Of course, I will acknowledge since T.J. isn’t finished as a character, all of this could change by the time he is released.
What do you think of T.J. Combo’s redesign in Killer Instinct (2013)?