I think someone posted it already. Glad that there are more picture "leaks", its more fun to speculate over those than text leaks or random twitter people.
Edit:
shinhed-echi
, sorry for mentioning.
Why sorry? I can't get enough of that image, actually!
Doesn't help that Dai already sold me on Childrick halfway through, this render definitely completed the job.
I can go either way now.
--
I see some interesting topics have been brought up.
[ERDRICK'S DESIGN]
Honestly? I think Sakurai would go for the more grown up version, since that's the one that's been marketed the most.
The Kid Erdrick design has a few issues that I see getting in the way:
- It was a design that the west never got to see, since the artwork was changed for "being too childish"
- It's not holding the emblematic equipment. (Which IMO makes the character lose a lot of appeal).
- As far as art-style goes, Dragon Quest has evolved the Toriyama style, departing quite a bit from having Erdrick looking like Kid Goku, so going for the chibi style would only draw more unnecessary comparisons. I know it should be irrelevant, but I guess what I'm trying to say is, Neo-Erdrick as presented in games such as Scan Battles, just makes the series look more modern.
And I know Sakurai going for classic looks is apparently something (or a coincidence). But let's have a look:
- Megaman: Classic (almost chibi) to match the NES proportions. They didn't use the PS taller version.
- Simon: Classic (based on NES/Snes) the red-haired version is pretty much PlayStation exclusive.
- Ryu: Design is based off SF4 (or SF2? Difference is really small to me)
- Sonic: I saved this for last because it's a special case that could fit Erdrick's case.
Sakurai isn't a fan of Sonic, but he does like the classic games more. Still, he went for the modern Sonic design. There are 2 reasons why I think that is.
i) SEGA pushed for modern design because it was the relevant/marketable one ATM.
ii) Because it was the one that had graced Nintendo systems (more).
So, unlike Simon who suddenly changed the design only prior to Smash, Classic Sonic wasn't relevant again until 2010, I think. SEGA had no business pushing that image. Add the fact of Sakurai Uprising Pit's design to make it more Smash friendly, and you get the gist of why they'd choose Modern Sonic.... And why they'd choose Modern Erdrick.
So back to Erdrick. We haven't seen his Famicom design since... Well, the Famicom. And his design has come a long way, and I don't think Square-Enix wants to include an outdated version of their character.
Also, grown-up Erdrick has been known worldwide since the GBC era, so he has a slight edge over the kid version.
So that's my take on Erdrick's design.
[FINAL FANTASY]
The moment I tried the demo that came with DQ8 on PS2, was the moment I lost all interest in FF.
FF battle systems were always somewhat of a little chore for me, and half the difficulty curve everytime I started a new FF, because I had to learn one all over again.
Come FF post X, with it's ARPG roots, and all hell broke loose for me. It just wasn't FF anymore. I remember it being more "free", yet more restricting. I hated it.
Good thing I always had DQ in the back of my mind in case I ever stopped liking FF. (It also helped that the protagonist from DQ6 looked a lot like an RPG OC of mine, who was basically purple haired, sword-wielding Gohan).
I still hold FF 1~10 close to my heart. I might give the series a chance again someday, but... I'm not there yet.