Character customizations?

[Peppermint Phoenix]

Really complicated clothing is on the top of my wish list or at least big open coats. I mean there is nothing more styling then a big open coat.

 

[GoneGuy]

I hope they include good character customisation so for the boys this time. Don't get me wrong, it was great to finally be able to separate yourselves from all other players, but the boy's wardrobe seems slightly lacking!!

I would like to see more for the guys - shirts, coats, hats, gym leader outfits, etc. The girls do get a lot more.

 

[Shadow Rush]

Maybe for the next generation or a spin-off akin to Pokemon Coliseum on the 3DS but not OR/AS. Compared to X/Y's default PCs they're not as bland to warrant the need for this feature.

 

[Nick102]

Maybe for the next generation or a spin-off akin to Pokemon Coliseum on the 3DS but not OR/AS. Compared to X/Y's default PCs they're not as bland to warrant the need for this feature.

But suppose you weren't satisfied with their default clothes like in X & Y? They could throw in Brendan and May's original clothes from R/S/E to please fans of the original games.

As for hairstyles, I can't help but be curious about what May would look like with different hairstyles, though I always loved her hairstyle in the anime for how unique it looked. And how about Brendan without a hat?

 

[Shadow Rush]

Maybe for the next generation or a spin-off akin to Pokemon Coliseum on the 3DS but not OR/AS. Compared to X/Y's default PCs they're not as bland to warrant the need for this feature.

But suppose you weren't satisfied with their default clothes like in X & Y? They could throw in Brendan and May's original clothes from R/S/E to please fans of the original games.

That could be implemented as a DLC or unlockable.

And how about Brendan without a hat?

GF said time and again they would not remove the PCs' hat because its an essential component to their character. However, in X/Y players could change it to appeal to their taste.

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

I don't think it should be unlock able or DLC. It should be an option in game people use if they want. May and Brenden's default designs would still be there. I see no good reason to not include it at all.

 

[The Outrage]

GF said time and again they would not remove the PCs' hat because its an essential component to their character. However, in X/Y players could change it to appeal to their taste.

I don't see a hat ?_?

Masuda said the hat identifies the main character, in contradiction to every NPC who wears a hat.

 

[Finicky Fennekin]

I think *some* DLC clothes could be fun, sort of like event 'mons for movies and such. They could release outfits that match movie characters, or maybe shirts to go with event 'mons (Say there's a special Pikachu event, you get a Pikachu shirt for your PC along with the 'mon!) Even seasonal DLCs could be fun (to keep people playing the game!) I'd love kimonos, but I can't see something like that making it out of Japan...

 

[Shadow Rush]

GF said time and again they would not remove the PCs' hat because its an essential component to their character. However, in X/Y players could change it to appeal to their taste.

I don't see a hat ?_?

Masuda said the hat identifies the main character, in contradiction to every NPC who wears a hat.

And how about Brendan without a hat?

May is wearing a bandana, which isn't a hat its a headscarf. And, I quote from an interview with the series producer Junichi Masuda, "Why can't you choose to wear no hat?"
"It's a way to symbolize the player's character. You can tell at a glance who it is because of the hat."

 

[Osprey]

Masuda's insistance on the importance of hats is really weak and kind of silly. Just what about a hat makes a character so recognizable? How does a hat "symbolize" a player? I know there's tons of characters out there who don't wear hats at all, but people can still recognize them at a glance. -_-

 

[Team Gaara]

Masuda's insistance on the importance of hats is really weak and kind of silly. Just what about a hat makes a character so recognizable? How does a hat "symbolize" a player? I know there's tons of characters out there who don't wear hats at all, but people can still recognize them at a glance. -_-

With Pokemon PCs, it is sort of a minor defining feature. I mean, to this day, no main series PC (other than the unused Leaf for RBGY) has not had some kind of headgear. They really are consistent with this "symbol" in that all PCs have the headgear, while other important trainers like rivals don't typically wear any (none, excluding the other PC in RSE and presumably ORAS, Tierno, and Bianca). I can see where they're coming from when they say the hat "symbolizes" the player, but saying that "it helps you recognize them at a glace" is a bit much.

 

[Almonds]

Masuda's insistance on the importance of hats is really weak and kind of silly. Just what about a hat makes a character so recognizable? How does a hat "symbolize" a player? I know there's tons of characters out there who don't wear hats at all, but people can still recognize them at a glance. -_-

With Pokemon PCs, it is sort of a minor defining feature. I mean, to this day, no main series PC (other than the unused Leaf for RBGY) has not had some kind of headgear. They really are consistent with this "symbol" in that all PCs have the headgear, while other important trainers like rivals don't typically wear any (none, excluding the other PC in RSE and presumably ORAS, Tierno, and Bianca). I can see where they're coming from when they say the hat "symbolizes" the player, but saying that "it helps you recognize them at a glace" is a bit much.

Agreed. Just give them some distinctive hairstyles so they look different enough from the other NPCs. Most of the rival characters don't wear hats (Gary, Silver, Wally, Barry, Cheren, Hugh, Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, even Serena/Calem as rivals), so why not the PCs?

 

[Team Gaara]

With Pokemon PCs, it is sort of a minor defining feature. I mean, to this day, no main series PC (other than the unused Leaf for RBGY) has not had some kind of headgear. They really are consistent with this "symbol" in that all PCs have the headgear, while other important trainers like rivals don't typically wear any (none, excluding the other PC in RSE and presumably ORAS, Tierno, and Bianca). I can see where they're coming from when they say the hat "symbolizes" the player, but saying that "it helps you recognize them at a glace" is a bit much.

Agreed. Just give them some distinctive hairstyles so they look different enough from the other NPCs. Most of the rival characters don't wear hats (Gary, Silver, Wally, Barry, Cheren, Hugh, Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, even Serena/Calem as rivals), so why not the PCs?

Tierno does wear a hat (I kinda mentioned that in my post)~ If they really want to keep this hat thing going on, I think they should just add more headgear other than hats for people who seem to really want to see their player's hair. May's got a bow now, which works, I could see them putting in a bandana as a throwback to her original design. Maybe they could add headbands, sweatbands, sunglasses/goggles, ribbons; stuff like that. That way people will hopefully stop complaining about the hats, while the PC can retain the headgear "symbolization".

 

[Almonds]

With Pokemon PCs, it is sort of a minor defining feature. I mean, to this day, no main series PC (other than the unused Leaf for RBGY) has not had some kind of headgear. They really are consistent with this "symbol" in that all PCs have the headgear, while other important trainers like rivals don't typically wear any (none, excluding the other PC in RSE and presumably ORAS, Tierno, and Bianca). I can see where they're coming from when they say the hat "symbolizes" the player, but saying that "it helps you recognize them at a glace" is a bit much.

Agreed. Just give them some distinctive hairstyles so they look different enough from the other NPCs. Most of the rival characters don't wear hats (Gary, Silver, Wally, Barry, Cheren, Hugh, Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, even Serena/Calem as rivals), so why not the PCs?

Tierno does wear a hat (I kinda mentioned that in my post)~ If they really want to keep this hat thing going on, I think they should just add more headgear other than hats for people who seem to really want to see their player's hair. May's got a bow now, which works, I could see them putting in a bandana as a throwback to her original design. Maybe they could add headbands, sweatbands, sunglasses/goggles, ribbons; stuff like that. That way people will hopefully stop complaining about the hats, while the PC can retain the headgear "symbolization".

Wait, Tierno wears a hat?? Doesn't he have short spikey hair?

*goes to bulbapedia*

 

[Lillie]

I'm guessing May's and Brendan's original/emerald attires will be available if we got character customization.

 

[Talon87]

I'm disappointed to learn that Masuda is not willing to budge on the hats. There are so many looks that I want for the characters which hats simply do not go well with. I'm still holding out for an elegant white dress for female characters, but I'm not sure there's much point if Masuda is going to insist that I must have my female protagonist wear some tiara, flower, or headband along with it.

His insistence on hats is especially silly when you consider the likely reality of his own life. I doubt that he requires his children to wear self-identifying hats. I doubt that he wears a hat while at work. I doubt that he requires his subordinates or teammates to wear hats. Not only does his latest official profile picture show him not wearing any headgear, but none of the top returns on a Google Images search show him wearing a hat. It's not until several rows down that we finally find a picture of Masuda wearing a hat -- and even then it's only because he's cosplaying as a member of Team Plasma. Ironically, we find photographic evidence that even when he is with other hat-wearing people that Masuda prefers to keep his own scalp free of any headdress.

But perhaps the silliest thing of all is that even his team's artwork doesn't reflect this policy. Did he force FRLG Blaine to wear a hat? What about HGSS Sabrina? Did Roxanne have a hat? Did Flannery? Did Gardenia, did Cynthia, did Professor Rowan? Did Professor Juniper or Fennel? If hats are really such a defining part of a character's personhood and/or design, then how come we don't see hats on all of the major NPCs?

If not in time for ORAS, then hopefully either in time for XY2/Z (whichever we get, if either we get) or else in time for Gen 7 the team gets enough flak for not allowing players to take their hats off that it becomes an available option in those games. I'm tired of Junichi Masuda standing in between me and the Pokémon games that I want to play. First no to a Pokémon MMO, then no to the main series games ever going 3D, now this silliness with the hats. At least XY has shown that he lost the fight (partially) for keeping the main series games 2D forever. And of course we're all still holding out for that MMO. But the hats, man ... he has got to be made to budge on the hats.

 

[Team Gaara]

If hats are really such a defining part of a character's personhood and/or design, then how come we don't see hats on all of the major NPCs?

The hat is specifically defining for the Player Character, not every character~

 

[Talon87]

If hats are really such a defining part of a character's personhood and/or design, then how come we don't see hats on all of the major NPCs?

The hat is specifically defining for the Player Character, not every character~

His claim is that "it's a way to symbolize the player's character. You can tell at a glance who it is because of the hat." But there's an obvious problem with this claim. Taken in two parts:

First, if hats are really symbolic of a player character, then why is it that NPCs are allowed to wear hats too? (Consider Clay, HGSS Blaine, Riley, and Roark. Four easy examples.)

Second, if in answer to the first problem one suggests that it is the uniqueness of the player character's hat which symbolizes who he/she is, and not necessarily the fact that he/she wears a hat at all, then why is it that Masuda approved of the decision to allow XY players to change their headgear at will?

That's the key problem with Masuda's reasoning. He suggests that he's requiring us to place hats atop our characters' heads in order to symbolize their player character-ness ... yet not only has he overseen the placement of hats on dozens of NPCs, weakening his proposed symbolic value of a hat in general, but in addition he has overseen the development of a game which allowed players to customize their characters' clothing at will -- including the hat that was worn. Red's hat? That's iconic. Gold's hat? That's iconic. Calem's hat? ... Which hat!?

Cloud Strife's visually iconic features are his hair and default weapon. He doesn't need a hat to be burned into everyone's memories. Kratos's visually iconic features are his skin color, body decorations, and exposed chest. No hat necessary to symbolize who he is nor that he is the player character. Kirby is one of the most recognized characters in Nintendo's library of games yet features one of the simplest designs -- and no hat. Masuda seems to imply in his statements that a hat is an inseparable aid for a game designer in helping to make the player character stand out, to register them in everyone's minds as the main character, that to take away the hat from Pokémon's player-controlled characters would be to take away our ability as players to appreciate from a glance that they are the main character. But everyone can tell from the experiences they've already had with dozens of other video games that this simply isn't true, that you don't require a hat to distinguish the player-controlled character from the non-player-controlled characters nor do you require one to distinguish the player-controlled character of one game from the player-controlled character of another.

 

[Team Gaara]

First, if hats are really symbolic of a player character, then why is it that NPCs are allowed to wear hats too? (Consider Clay, HGSS Blaine, Riley, and Roark. Four easy examples.)

I'm sure he doesn't mean it in such a literal way that only the PC can even wear a hat at all, just that it is a defining feature of them. Other characters can wear hats, too, but the fact that the PC wears a hat seems to symbolize that the PC is a PC. I mentioned in a past post that it would be far simpler if Masuda just said that all Pokemon PCs wear hats/headgear, so you cannot remove it (though you can change it) in XY because it's just a defining characteristic of a PC.

Second, if in answer to the first problem one suggests that it is the uniqueness of the player character's hat which symbolizes who he/she is, and not necessarily the fact that he/she wears a hat at all, then why is it that Masuda approved of the decision to allow XY players to change their headgear at will?

If that were to be the case, then the only answer I can give is that it wouldn't make sense to include customization of every article of clothing, minus the hat. It just wouldn't make sense. It only seems to make sense that you can customize the hat. This is, of course, assuming that it is the uniqueness of the hat that matters, which is not necessarily stated in Masuda's statement outright.

That's the key problem with Masuda's reasoning. He suggests that he's requiring us to place hats atop our characters' heads in order to symbolize their player character-ness ... yet not only has he overseen the placement of hats on dozens of NPCs, weakening his proposed symbolic value of a hat in general, but in addition he has overseen the development of a game which allowed players to customize their characters' clothing at will -- including the hat that was worn. Red's hat? That's iconic. Gold's hat? That's iconic. Calem's hat? ... Which hat!?

Like I said before, it just seems as if Masuda's wording is being taken to have a deeper meaning than it probably was meant to, and that the hat is just a defining feature of PCs, in general, in that they all consistently have some form of headgear. "Without it, they wouldn't feel like a Pokemon PC" is the simplest way of putting it, and probably the answer that would have been better for the question of why it could not be removed. It really shouldn't have anything to do with whether or not other NPCs wear hats, too. To put it in better terms, I don't believe he means the hat is a symbol of the players themselves (in that no one else should wear one), rather it is just a recurring symbol of all Pokemon PCs.

Masuda seems to imply in his statements that a hat is an inseparable aid for a game designer in helping to make the player character stand out, to register them in everyone's minds as the main character, that to take away the hat from Pokémon's player-controlled characters would be to take away our ability as players to appreciate from a glance that they are the main character. But everyone can tell from the experiences they've already had with dozens of other video games that this simply isn't true, that you don't require a hat to distinguish the player-controlled character from the non-player-controlled characters nor do you require one to distinguish the player-controlled character of one game from the player-controlled character of another.

This implication may have been true in the days of graphical limitations on the GB and GBC, but with the XY graphics, I highly doubt that was his intended meaning. It would be highly foolish for him to insinuate that we need the PC to wear a hat so they can be identified as the PC. I just think he meant (or should have meant) that Pokemon PCs always have some form of headgear, and, as such, it is somewhat of a symbol. And that is the simple reason why hats cannot be removed. All over the internet, you can find artwork of all the PCs with some sort of comment like "What's with the hats?" or "Why are they all wearing hats?" They just all have hats/headgear, so they want to maintain consistency.

 

[Talon87]

It would be far simpler if Masuda just said that all Pokemon PCs wear hats/headgear, so you cannot remove it (though you can change it) in XY because it's just a defining characteristic of a PC.

[...] The hat is just a defining feature of PCs, in general, in that they all consistently have some form of headgear. "Without it, they wouldn't feel like a Pokemon PC" is the simplest way of putting it, and probably the answer that would have been better for the question of why it could not be removed.

[...] I just think he meant (or should have meant) that Pokemon PCs always have some form of headgear, and, as such, it is somewhat of a symbol. And that is the simple reason why hats cannot be removed. All over the internet, you can find artwork of all the PCs with some sort of comment like "What's with the hats?" or "Why are they all wearing hats?" They just all have hats/headgear, so they want to maintain consistency.

You're probably correct in this interpretation. But I don't think this opinion of Masuda's (and/or of others' on the development team) holds up under scrutiny. Like ...

• All of the protagonists were boys up until a point.
• All of the protagonists were Poké-Japanese up until a point.
• All of the protagonists were 10 years old up until a point.

And so on. Just because it's always been a certain way doesn't mean we can't break the mold and try something different. Not that doing something different just because it would be different is a good idea either! But like, in this particular instance, I think it becomes very bland character design-wise if we restrict ourselves to always having to plop a hat on top of the protagonist. You already see this in Pokémon protagonists' designs. Because we've already explored, in order ...

• the forward-facing cap (Red)
• the backwards-facing cap (Gold)
• the rimless cap (Kris)
• the headband (Brendan)
• the bandanna (May)
• the boater (Leaf)
• the beret (Lucas)
• the ski cap (Dawn)
• the jumbo newsboy cap (Lyra)
• the forward-facing cap once again (Hilbert and Hilda)
• the visor (Nate and Rosa)
• I don't know the name (Calem) (XY terms it an "outdoor hat", but that seems awfully generic)
• I don't know the name again (Serena) (XY terms it a "felt hat" but that only tells us what it's made of, not the style)

We've explored a lot of hat styles already. And this is just talking about protagonists. Never mind cowboy hats like Clay's, fedoras like Riley's, and so on. We've explored so many hat styles that we're already starting to revisit previous styles (BW1 with the baseball caps) and unless we want to branch out into bizarre hat styles for our main characters we're only going to have to continue to re-explore older designs. This is what I mean when I say that it can be restricting, that it can make things bland, when trying to design new protagonists. Sometimes it's nice to be able to get away from a hat and allow the character's hair to do the talking for you. Hair is so much more stylable, especially in the physics-defying world of Japanese-style drawing and animation. And for certain hairstyles (think Iris's or Jasmine's), a hat only gets in the way.

Long story short, I'm optimistic that Masuda will eventually budge on this point and allow us, the players, to customize our characters' heads to the point that we don't only get to decide hairstyles and hat styles but that we can also opt to not wear a hat period. There are so many wonderful hairstyles that he's preventing future games from exploring the longer he keeps his foot down on this point. So many wonderful wardrobes which are just ruined by a hat.