Here is something interesting to note: None of these redesigns could be their default outfit if included
Look at Birdie’s page. Here is his first entry:
and his second entry is his story costume, an alt not default:
They don’t even show his new outfit except for his headshot from in-game
Likewise, Guile has so far only been shown with his story costume IIRC. Though he hasn’t gotten a bio page yet.
I actually like a number of the redesigns but IMO a bunch of them veer too far from the original color schemes or original character designs. For example, Guy’s alt costume just seems off the wall. Blanka has been slowly turned more and more from beastial to slightly sharp toothed human. I mean I get he was originally a human it just feels like it’s veered really far from his original beast like face. A couple of them feel to me more like alt costumes, not something you’d identify the character as but just a fun side costume. That’s just my take. I don’t like em, fairly weak reasons but my personal preference.
Here is my feeling on all of the redesigns we’ve seen so far:
Characters I’ve liked
Sodom - The hair is a little weird, it is a call to Kabuki which plays on his japanophilia, it changes his overall character silhouette. They keep his armor but tweak it, he retains his color scheme so I think it’s pretty good.
Rose - unchanged, doesn’t progress but it’s her look everyone knows.
Ken - other than the hair I think it fits. They kept his gi but just progressed on it with his top. His color scheme is retained with red/blond/black
Haggar - it’s basically his classic outfit but in a more professional setting. Glasses show a time progression. Color scheme retained (green/brown with black boots). White is added but overall the same.
Cammy - just adds accessories tying to her job in the military and shows she has more than her legs and hands for weapons. Her alt costume with the jacket also is nice as it retains her color scheme. I’m glad her alt is an alt.
Rufus - They mirrored his colors but they are retained just the emphasis on which are the core are retained. His hair is changed a little and they added an accessory. It’s actually a fairly subtle change over all but enough to feel different.
Retsu - basically the same as he was before just more detailed
Geki - same as Retsu but they did change his weapon, this helps make him more distinct from Vega.
Mike - another instance of the character’s original look having a progression of his original design as it’s basically the same but more detailed.
Joe - same as Mike
Lee - same as joe/mike but they change his fighting style a bit
Eagle - other than changing his weapons he is pretty much the same as his original Street Fighter 1 version. They are showing his original outfit rather than his CvS2 look.
Gen - basically unchanged
Adon - basically unchanged other than adding text to his shorts.
Sagat - unchanged
El Fuerte - unchanged
Gouken - Unchanged
Akuma - Odd, I don’t get why his hair is entirely white when SF3 takes place later and only has white temples. That is the only part I really dislike. Not big that they removed the dark purple from his outfit. However I feel it was important to make him more distinct from Ryu/Ken which is the only real reason I like the change.
Goutetsu - unchanged
Carlos - other than the open jacket he is identical
Maki - unchanged, they even kept the same style sneakers but swapped colors which I guess is ok. I’d prefer the original color emphasis but they still retained the cor design.
Yun - unchanged
Yang - unchanged
Q - unchanged
Oro - unchanged
Makoto - unchanged
Elena - the hair change is probably just the artist. Even if it’s not it’s very subtle and otherwise she is the same. I actually wouldn’t mind longer hair on her. Color scheme retained.
Dudley - It feels a lot like his classic but still different enough to be different. They change highlights, like yellow stripe became white, but all colors are retained.
Necro - we don’t know if he still has the neck brace thing, which I feel is kind of important, but otherwise he really feels like necro still. Same key colors, same recognizable aspects just shifts on parts placements and accessories. Overall similar enough to feel like the character but different enough to feel fresh
Alex - They did a decent job on this. They retained core colors, they used suspenders to give the impression of his classic strap tattoos. His hair different but similar enough to feel close.
Mika - The new costume feels like a different version of her original costume. Like others it is different enough to be refreshing but similar enough to remind people about her original costume. Her classic costume was already pretty fan-servicy and this one takes it up a notch which I’m kind of “eh” about. However they retained the identity of the original outfit and the color scheme
Zangief - barely changed at all
Remy - it’s basically the same outfit, they increased the size of the omega symbol on his chest and unzipped the jacket.
Karin - it feels a lot like a grown up version of her classic outfit. It still feels a lot like her SFA3 outfit but no longer a school girl outfit. It feels different than sakura now. I actually think this was by far the best redesign in the game.
Vega - feels like a pretty natural shift on his outfit. All colors retained, his pants are basically the same. They removed the yellow on his pants but he now has returned to yellow hair again and retains gold claws.
I don’t really like
Guy - I don’t mind the hair change, I’m ambivalent about it, it’s pretty close to the same just with an addition, people change hair styles and it’s close enough to be ok. Ditching the red in his outfit is ok because in Final Fight he was actually orange and he has orange-ish colors in some games instead of red. In addition in many Alpha 3 artworks his outfit is orange The change on his shoes is not acceptable to me. Yes he wore boots in FF but after that his shoes being nike-inspired was a recognizable key part of his design. The different styles of shoes between Maki/Cody/Guy are all a fun and interesting difference. Guy/Maki both wear shoes based on same brand and Cody wore adidas. Cody’s shoes match classic and prisoner color scheme. Yes Guy is still wearing sneakers but they have no color, no swoosh, they aren’t lace up anymore. I do not like this. It’s weird his hair color changes on his alt costume from brown to black. The alt outfit is a little weird but it’s very classical japanese which fits with the character. As long as it’s an alt.
Sean - not a fan of the new hair, yeah it’s close-ish to his old style but I still don’t like it for whatever reason. I can’t really give you any sort of reason for it, just rubs me wrong. They’ve kind of white washed him but it’s not as bad in the artwork from the website. The new costume feels really casual. I like they tried to veer him away from the gi to make him more unique, and I like that they retained color scheme. Overall though it feels too casual compared to old costume, feels like what he’d wear to go jogging. Especially with the headphones.
Scott - No. I very much dislike this. They took the iconic look from Cody and copy pasted it down to some of the lowest highlights. They had the opportunity to at least give him different pants/lower body. They severely changed Max so there is NO REASON they needed to make Scott like fucking IDENTICAL to Cody. Period. Some of his bio is even similar.
Cody - I think it’d make a great alt, and I hope it is. They completely ditched his color scheme, this is the worst part. I actually think I’d be not as annoyed had they retained a core blue usage somewhere in the outfit, even if they added a lot of orange. Changing his main color scheme is a big no-no for me on ANY character. The new outfit may be more “modern” in some respects but it’s not as stand out to other characters. There are plenty of characters with mostly solid orange colors, Chang in KOF14 is using the same orange prisoner costume as well. Pretty much NOBODY in any major FG, that I can think of, has ever worn something like the classic prisoner outfit. Even as much as I hate Final Fight Street Wise THAT outfit would have been MUCH MUCH better because they kept the white/blue part of his outfit, I think I would have been ok with that look. Disappointed a little bit that he isn’t classic FF outfit or the fact it is FFSW but overall I could accept it. Again, ditching color coding for a character is a big thing for me. It was actually one of the things I liked most about his stripes outfit was they retained the white/blue/white/blue of his original outfit. Blue and white were always equally important parts of his outfit. I REALLY hope that they at least keep his shoes striped, even if it’s orange striped instead of blue. Not because it’s stripes but because it gives a highlight to his shoes and makes them more interesting. If they want to go modern, go FFSW style and add jeans.
Poison - she lost the blue part of her outfit, it was never a HUGE part of her color scheme since her shorts are so f’n tiny. However I think her shirt looks a little silly. It looks like it’s about to fall apart. I don’t know how she even gets it on without it ripping. The way it’s setup is a little busy. I actually really like her little wedding garter. I think it adds a nice accent to her leg. They could do a much better top that is different from classic and I’d be happy. I don’t think her losing her riding crop is actually going to stick, I think that the cuffs are just for that picture. I also don’t think she will be THAT skinny. I’d put it in middle if I didn’t dislike her top SO much.
Birdie - I don’t care for him getting fat even if it follows his story. I understand that they changed him because he was fairly unpopular but making him fat, even if he is still ripped on his arms and legs is kind of lame to me. They turned him from a badass with a jokey aspect (his hair being SO important to him) into just a pure joke character. The only part I like is that he is an effective joke character which is nice. I love his playstyle overall, he is very fun and even if you don’t like his jokey stuff his v-skill has so much cool stuff you can do with it.
I’m kind of in the middle about
Tom - he was a minor character so I don’t care much. I’m not big on him but I don’t really dislike it either. I understand why they changed it from Jean Reno, though he still has tiny bits of Jean in there.
Max - they needed to make him original and veer him away from making him look like Balrog/Mike. I think it’s a little over the top but I can’t really give a negative as he was basically a non-character.
Blanka - it could just be that particular art but his face doesn’t really feel like a beast anymore. Just a guy with sharper canine teeth. His new hair is ok, it makes him feel kind of like a buzz-saw which is pretty interesting considering all of his rolling attacks.
Hugo - I think the new outfit is kind of boring but at the same time it’s not bad. I prefer old outfit but I don’t really dislike new one. They kept same color scheme by making boots brown. I do think they simplified it a bit too much. Overall shrug
Juri - I think it’s a good outfit, but they ditched her white part of the color scheme. The purple was always what identified her the most but half of her original outfit was white. Adding the eye patch is kind of logical, as long as she removes it when she goes into FSE mode. Her new outfit really feels like a battle suit. I’m pretty ok with this costume, they just need to add a white stripe or some highlight in it to make me happy. Again, I don’t like completely ditching color schemes. I’m a little less angry about ditching color scheme just because purple was by FAR the main color for her design with all of her special moves using purple. Even though white made up half of the costume she had, the main core colors always felt like Black/Purple to me. Still, give her a white highlight somewhere…
Overall I think they did a decent job, but some of them I don’t like. Some I have shitty reasons (so picky about shoes, lol), or no reason at all, they just rub me wrong, heh. Actually, after typing this all up I realized I liked more than I thought I would.
Anyways, I do think that it’s interesting that some of these outfits shown aren’t the characters main outfits, so keep that in mind if you don’t like an outfit. I know there are some that people in here LOVE or absolutely abhor. I know Darth fucking HATES Birdie’s new look with a passion for instance. I don’t like it either, even if they kept him thin I would have HATED his young look with red hair and a blue shirt. It didn’t feel almost ANYTHING like Birdie, they don’t even have his fucking bullhead symbol…
