Let me tell you they are both painful to draw

imo, the designs in genshin are definitely very eye catching and distinct, however in comparison to the game's npcs it just feels off putting and makes playable characters feel out of place. Though in wuwa, playable characters fit in with the npcs very well and it doesn't make them seem like some variable. I also noticed how characters (wuwa) all share certain elements to their design that npcs also have, kind of are like fashion trends or clothing styles unique to the region. This actually does make characters less recognizable tho.

The repeated patterns in wuwa (like the belt and flowing cloak-things) are based off the area's fashion. The NPCs wear similar ideas of fashion, and the playable characters hold similar fashion while still looking distinct from the NPCs.

the random ass picture of a grandma eating as a reference caught me off guard lmaooooo that was insane 😂

Quick fun fact about Calcharo: His design is particularly unique in the fact that he is not a native of Jinzhou and runs a faction in possibly the next nation, The New Federation. While striking a deal with Jiyan in order to fend off Tacet Discords, Jiyan made it clear that it was in his best interest to wear an attire similar to Jinzhou natives while in Huanglong. I love this little detail because it really speaks a lot about Jinzhou's formal fashion where as, Encore, Aalto, Verina, and possibly Camellya (all also from New Federation) have an individual style, despite three of them being from one faction. If Kuro Games introduces skins soon (which is super likely) I feel Calcharo will be apart of that list for early skins.

In my opinion both games have designs and design philosophy that people will like and dislike, for example i like wuwa more because of it simplicity(depending of the characterof course), maturity and as well the pos-apocalyptic motif(and because the men are to much hot as well), in contrast with genshin that i like the colors and each regional clothes as well but i hate it over detailment. So i all comes in question of people taste.

I don't get why this should be a debate. There's no such thing as better when it comes to design and theme. It all comes down to preference.

Genshin's character's having very distinct character silhouettes is a pretty important part to me. I just love when a character is just easily recognizable even when only a part of them is shown.

Why compare designs of a bright and colourful fantasy word to a post-apocalyptic world? If anything wuwa should be compared to like arknights(?) and Genshin one of its own company’s (HSR, HI3)

In my opinion, there are no winners here, because both designs are good Genshin touches with its brightness, color combination, and some people like it wuwa touches with its monochrome, post-apocalyptic and, to some extent, its simplicity I really like dark and monochrome colors, so wuwa is very attractive to me, and especially PGR - their designs are amazing!

My only issue with the designs of WuWa is how similar they end up looking due to the heavy use of whites/blacks and general shape of clothes. (The female protag, and first girls we meet wear similarly cut/sectioned clothes so it kinda poked the issue more). And for a gatcha game they neiched the corner quite a bit for the launch. The newer revealed characters do show promise. So i hope they expand their parts on this. Anyways, hope to see what comes. I really enjoy some of thease designs. Also small thing i noticed is that almost every single girl character has bow(s) in their hair. They all are diffrent kinds but its kinda funny design trend.

i respect Genshin's overall design philosophy more. it's more inspired and you can they they did research. but I'd say i prefer WuWa's male characters more. one thing that WuWa can never beat is it's regions and music. i can't remember a single place or music from WuWa

For me, Genshin excels at the more Japanese design philosophy of maximalism, and each character feels like their own distinct set piece that stands out and makes the most of the colorful art style, by pushing it to max. It is also a kids game first and foremost. WuWa to me excels more with minimalism, and not necessarily making their character look like a setpiece but rather something more cohesive with the world itself. Their outfits are more functional yet preserve some individuality through different features and fashion. I think Genshin is far more iconic, but I personally am into the mature and more subtle styles of WuWa. Designs like Jianxin are the best to me.

There are certainly subjective aspects of character design, but there are objective aspects too. Speaking as someone who _subjectively_ prefers the style of WuWa's character designs...I think Genshin's character designs are _objectively_ better. For the simple reason that they _inform character_ -- something you touched on in your video but didn't discuss as much as I expected. For an easy comparison, look at Yangyang and Amber. What can you tell about either character just by looking at them? Yangyang: 1. She's got very long black hair and an outfit that resembles a formal dress, as well as a cap with a big bow. Is she some kind of heiress? 2. The feathers in her hair indicate she's got some supernatural element to her, but it's only on one side. Maybe it's a result of contact with a supernatural entity? 3. She's often depicted carrying a sword, so she's clearly a fighter. Based on these traits, my assumption would be that she's a young noblewoman who became a fighter after some incident in the past resulted in her gaining powers from a greater supernatural entity. Amber: 1. She has goggles around her neck. Maybe she's a pilot? 2. Her gloves, the pouches hanging from her belt, and the leather parts of her outfit all suggest that she's someone who spends a lot of time in the wilderness. 3. Her outfit has gold badges and emblems all over, suggesting she works for a state authority, perhaps a royal military. Her outfit is also very well-maintained, suggesting a pride or diligence in her work. 4. She has a bunny-ear-like ribbon on her head and a pair of feather hanging from a trinket on her belt, indicating a free-spirited attitude. Based on these traits, my assumption would be that she's an explorer in the employ of the state, who relishes the freedom of the wilderness while also earnestly carrying out her duties. And also she might be a pilot or something. But who are they in canon? Surprise! They're both Outriders of their respective nations' militaries. For Amber, this makes a lot of sense -- she _looks_ like an Outrider for a fantasy military force. She _looks_ like someone as free-spirited yet diligent as she's shown to be. She _looks_ like someone who fell in love with gliding on the wind from a young age. But Yangyang? Yangyang doesn't look like an Outrider _or_ military personnel. Now, she _is_ from a well-off family, so that aspect of her outfit does make sense, but that means Yangyang's design tells one part of her character at the expense of the others, as opposed to Amber's design which hints at many parts of her character. And this extends to either game's playable 1.0 rosters overall. Most designs in Genshin's 1.0 roster inform a lot about each character at a glance -- Xingqiu the educated young heir with an interest in traditional swordfighting techniques, Barbara the sweet and gentle idol singer church girl, Bennett the young adventurer who gets into dangerous situations frequently but always manages to come out the other side with positive attitude no less intact, Sucrose the shy researcher who works for the same military force as Amber, etc. Whereas most designs in WuWa's 1.0 roster _don't_ inform much about them -- can you tell anything about Calcharo or Jiyan beyond "badass fighter men" just from looking at them? Can you tell that Baizhi and Mortefi are researchers at the same institution? Would you have guessed that Yuanwu is a boxing gym owner, as opposed to, say, a smooth criminal? At the end of the day, for narrative works like Genshin and WuWa, character design is first and foremost a tool for worldbuilding and characterization. WuWa's 1.0 roster does great at the former, but leaves something to be desired for the latter. While Genshin's 1.0 roster does pretty good at both the former and latter. And that's why I think Genshin's character designs are _objectively_ better. also great job on the Furina artwork, I love it :)

At the end of the day they're just different art styles/themes. Like how to compare *Death Note* vs *Code Geass* ?

Tbh, with how much the atmospheres of these games impact the fashion of their characters, it almost feels unfair to compare the two. Genshin's atmosphere is whimsical, magical, and beneath that lies something incredibly dark. While with Wuwa, that grim and dark atmosphere is on the surface for everyone to see! This also heavily impacts the character designs imo. They're tailor made to fit the contexts of their respective worlds. I think it's only natural that the fantasy game will have more colorful and whimsical designs. While the post apocalyptic one will have less of those. If you really wanted to compare wuwa designs to anything, Arknights (specifically endfield) would be much more fitting to use.

saying wuwa's character designs is bad just because they use more blacks and whites is implying nier characters are bad when 2b, 9s and A2 are few of the most iconic characters in gaming

Even if your not planning on playing WuWa i highly suggest you download and log in to check out the character's in game model just for an artistic view. Just base on the splash art WuWa color may be a bit muted and doesn't stand out to Genshin's colorful palette. But once you see the character models they are gorgeous especially thier gold, silver, and jade accessories contrasting their monochromatic palette. Not to mention you'll appreciate their silhouette alot more too since WuWa characters seems to have all unique models for their characters and doesn't use the same model for multiple characterslike genshin.

I personally prefer genshins character design, I feel like the designs in genshin tell you more about the character themselves than in Wuwa. The first 5* character to be released in wuwa 1.1 is meant ti be the prime minister of the region, and you look at her and she looks like a priestess

my opinion: some genshin designs are better some wuwa’s design are good. it depends on which character. but genshin for the most part has good design in terms of LOOKS, but wuwa’s gameplay is more awesome and there is more variety in the characters movements in the cutscenes and more. a lot of wuwas designs are forgettable but a good few are not

I like WuWas characters more than genshins even tho I have been playing since 1.0 in GI. I just love the monochromatic color palette A LOT. I like designs the most that are black and white with some specks of color in them like Wriothesley,Arlecchino, Diluc and Boothill(yeah I know HSR but it fits) Maybe it's just my taste but I also like that they all look uniform in some type of way? Like u can clearly see they are from the same region and they also look like they all wear their combat clothes, always ready to fight so yeah. Also you really compared a free 4 star character(yangyang) to a newer limited 5 star "archon" character? That's a little bit unfair tho

thank you for looking at it in a neutral way, i said i prefer genshins over wuwas character designs (i still like some wuwa characters a lot) and i got so many insults and people called me a "typical mihoyo bootlicker" and that genshin characters are all bland and have zero details.. how has a character like navia or furina "zeo details". 😭 some people dont understand that this is not a competition and especially with character designs its often just a matter of taste

Genshin has better designs imo but wuwa's character models at a baseline are much better than genshin. Its better proportioned, looks really sharp and does complex movement animations very well. For example In g game when you grapple the character just turns into a ball but wuwa has animation for it

4:26 OK I KNOW YOU’RE NOT GETTING INTO LITTLE DETAILS BUT i love her sm so i just wanna point out some elements !! - 5 ruffle things on the cape thingy IDK WHAT ITS CALLED? represents 5 centuries of suffering - different coloured eyes shows the different archons - justice symbol on the bottom of her shoes, showing disrespect towards it ? idk that’s how i interpret it im done yapping now

While I prefer WuWa's variety on male character designs much more than Genshin's roster of skinny boys. My main problem with WuWa designs is, just like that this video said, a lot of the characters are difficult to distinguish them from each other. For me, good character design should immediately tell you what is their background, personality, occupation, and region just from a glance despite not having any context. People defend that WuWa takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, yet, 90% of the female cast are wearing dresses as if they're going to a fancy event or party. If they don't wear a dress, they'd be wearing the usual skintight sci-fi suit that doesn't tell much other than being a fighter in a futuristic setting. The fact that a lot of characters share the same color schemes as well does not help from distinguishing them apart. Comparing it to Genshin's 1.0 characters, Genshin has much more memorable designs where you can quickly guess each of their occupation, region, and the element they use just from looking at it. People say their designs are too vibrant or overdetailed, but those details and colors are helpful enough to let you visually identify their backgrounds and tell them apart.

As someone who plays both game, I'd say that all the characters in both games, I can recognize easily. However, if I am to identify them based on their silhouette, I'll probably recognize the characters in Genshin than in WuWa. Reason: familiarity of the characters. I have been playing Genshin since 1.1 so am more familiar with their design. But as someone who prefers a more matured and realistic design(at least, in anime standards) I much prefer the simple design of WuWa. Also the reason why I like Zhongli and Hutao's design, is because it's simple. Furina, I just like her in general.

I've played both games and I like the style of both games. The characters from Genshin are easy to recognize and understand upon first look because of their motifs, general fashion, and color, however it does have a more cartoon style that relies on those motifs and silhouette. Some characters look...odd because of their unique silhouettes and overall the playable characters stand out so much from npcs that it can feel like they don't even belong in the world. I think it will become more a problem in the future as there are only so many color palettes with wildly different colors that look good together before you run out. As for Wuthering Waves, I can see how the character designs may look too monochrome for a lot of people. However, when playing the game it feels more correct when meeting the characters and seeing who they are paired or in alliance with. It's more subtle as the characters blend into their world more (with some exceptions) and makes it more believable when Yangyang talks to a soldier who she shares similar motifs with vs when Amber talks with a guard who she shares no motifs with. The only thing I can see being a problem in the future is if other regions don't lean far enough away from other ones to make it distinct from the others. Overall, Genshin's playable characters scream "look at me, I'm playable" while WuWa's playable characters take a subtle approach of "I may look like a playable character, but so does that npc over there" (Yhan, please become playable 😭)

I liked the character designs in Hoyo's other games more. In Genshin, the only character that really caught my attention was Beidou. No other character really appealed to me ever since (even Raiden Shogun and Yae Miko were disappointing to me). I enjoy WuWa's character designs in general. It's fits the post-apocalyptic world the game is set in. I also like the general art style of WuWa since they feature a lot of mature looking characters both male and female. The more minimalist color palette also makes me focus on the other aspects of their designs. Using the Baizhi - Jianxin example, I can tell them apart because of the other aspects of their design: Jianxin's ahoge and Baizhi's hairstyle (aside from the more obvious summon/pokemon/stand she has with her) but that's just me.

This is such an interesting analysis! I definitely prefer Genshin’s designs primarily because of my bias towards brighter color palettes but I definitely agree that there’s still some merit and room to grow on WuWa’s end. PS I love your art style 🪑

2:57 holy crap that’s my comment lmao, biggest Kuro d-rider till the day I die Also the belts that many characters have is probably part of the fashion in the only region released so far, so it’s reasonable. Also, WuWa is a Chinese game, which is why some of the characters have that flowy fabric garment, they are a reference to male-style Chinese hanfu. Fem rover and Yinlin both have the flap thingy in front, which references the Qi Pao.

To me, hands down Genshin has better and prettier fashion. A lot of thought was put into the designs, the characters look pretty and they generally fit the worlds (countries) they all come from. Some of WuWa's fashions make me wince, because they have too similar colors and very basic 'apocalyptic' designs. That said, I don't play video games for the fashion. I find myself playing WuWa these days more than Genshin because the combat appeals to me. Hopefully in the future WuWa characters will get more dynamic designs and colors in their outfits.

I actually dont mind the fan service of female WuWa character at all. They're consistent on every design, and even some of the NPC that i just think its how female in Jinzhou dress like. Also they're willing to put ABS on female npc. Which is a sign we might see abs for once on a female playable character which GI isnt bold enough to make(they dont make abs in general). Dehya REALLY should have had abs, yet she doesnt

My take of the subject is that Genshin is a king at putting context into designs. Even their enemies and bosses reflect the surrounding areas, this is what wuwa mainly lack. The character designs in wuwa works with monochrome (solid color +black/white) it's what they're focusing. That's why it's kinda weird to compare it to genshin that tries to fit as many culture as it can. If we're taking wuwa to it's home base that is monochromatic colours, comparing it to one who does it the best would make more sense, and that's arknights. They match outfit styles, world settings, region motifs and enemies.

I believe both designs appeal to different audiences. I like mature designs so WuWa is my favorite.

I'm amazed and I don't know how you were able to perfectly mimic the sounds I made when I saw Changli's design the first time!

I like Genshin's character design more, but the male body types look ridiculous. For example, Zhongli looks like a twig, and Itto and his arms

the last bit was a bit unfair, where you talked about klee's and venti's design since you haven't played wuwa and don't know what the character designs might be referencing in the world

your linework is so incredible :0

The thing in Wuwa that bothers me is that even if characters look mostly coherent with the world around them and color pallet reflects what's around, they also feel really... Generic? Like how most of the design don't tell me who they are as in profession nor personality, there's a big, BIG lack of it especially for female characters that mostly fall into "Dark haired beuty" category. I love feather details in Yanyan hair, but when I first saw her, I would say she's just a lady, not that she's part of some elite organization. Same for Sanhua, like I see that she's giving that more professional, sleek look with her hair tied up, but I wouldn't put her as a guard? I'm still meeting and learning about different characters in the game, picked it up just to test it and see what I can like about it and even tho I like most of playable cast, I can't say that theres any character right now that feels like I love them simply because they lack the certain something that could differentiate them from any NPC. Also the boob physics looks really uncanny and I hate it.

I don't think either are objectively better but i do have a favorite. Personally i think they fallow 2 completely different abime design styles. Where genshin is more similar to madoka magica, salor moon, kobosuba and MHA, i feel like WUWA is more similar to Bleach, JJK, Fate Stay Night and RE:Zero. They are 2 compleatly different designe styles that appeal to 2 different audiences. For me personally though, i prefer WUWA. Gebshin's character designs are vad by any means but i personaly fund that i often am overwhelmed with everything going on and the bright colours. Designe wise, the characters feel less like people and nore like caricatures or mascots, the story often remedies this a bit but not fully. Wuwa in the other hand offers characters who i feel fit in with their world and feel like people in its designes. No one is overly flashy but they still stand in a crowed. I feel less like im playing as a mascot and more like im playing as an anime character.

I feel like my favorite part of Wuwa is the diverse body shapes, for example, Taoqi has a wider frame and a bigger chest than lets say Danjin, this makes it feel like the characters are actual characters instead of dummies with different clothes on

I think what you can definitely hold over Wuwa is the mc designs, specifically the fact that while sharing motif, both Aether and Lumine pop in their own right. Fem and Male rover on the other is lacking in one half. I love fem Rover's design, It's unique and it sticks out...Male Rover on the other hand...he reminds me too much of kirito...or classic isekai dude as everyone says. The least Wuwa could've done is give him the same triangle earrings and white under shade in his hair! He'd look soo much better if he had those!

For a character on a game where you see them every second of gameplay, obviously Genshin will become more eye-catching. But thats what i have a problem with. I agree with your "Passing the silhouette test", which is meh to me. Some Genshin characters has TOO much accessories for the sake of being "Unique", to the point where they start to look like a My Gacha OC.

While everyone believes Genshin's designs are better than Wuthering Waves, those observations only works when the characters of Genshin are not compared side by side to Wuthering Waves. There are channels dedicated to comparing them side by side, which shows the apparent issues in Genshin designs. 1. The model and artstyle makes the characters look a lot younger than they are supposed to (Example is Yae Miko vs Changli) 2. The male characters that are supposed to convey dark/ cool themes look like kids when compared to Wuwa (example is Dainsleif/ Diluc Vs. Calcharo/ Yhan (Wuwa NPC)) While I do believe Wuwa is better overall , especially for Adult audiences due to it's darker color scheme. It's major flaw is the readability of some of the Characters (Calcharo vs Aalto), which can affect their recognizability.

The one thing I could say for both designs: IF someone plays to be a design critic (I DOESN'T MEAN YOU BTW but those who are blatantly hating on one or the other) one shouldn't just look at them with their png and just compare them to one another. Because design doesn't come from the other party (guys do not bring the "Jiyan is literally adult Xiao" here now) they're coming from their own worlds. Yes Genshin's design is great it blends perfectly with Teyvat's atmosphere. Yes WuWa's design is great because it blends perfectly with Solaris-3's atmosphere. Interesting point some make when they're saying wuwa design is bad because they're using only a few colors... ISN'T THIS WHAT A MAIN CHARACTER DESIGN RULE IS??? And I find this the hardest rule when I'm designing a character besides the fact that I'm not creative enough xD Genshin's characters in wuwa's world would look like a random ass mahou shoujo cosplayer marching into a warzone then wondering why aren't they fitting in. Or a worse comparison: they would look like uwu-beamed clowns. Meanwhile wuwa's characters would look very "dull" and misfitting in genshin's world, they would get all the attention because how un-saturated they are. The designs for both games are great since they're working perfectly for their respective worlds and its styles Also no one bats an eye when Arlecchino has only gray, black, red and white in her color scheme? Yea yea sure, that's one character but we can name a few who are only working with half of the colors than other genshin characters, will this make them bad? NO It makes them easily recognizable by colorpalette Maybe you can hardly distinguish Jianxin and Baizhi based on colorpalette only, but what about Neuvillette and Furina based on COLOR PALETTE only, no shapes? I love both games' desings btw so please know I didn't write any of this to attack one or the other, I just meant to bring up some of the perspectives for a fair play what many fans forget because they must hate which is honestly pretty tiring... you can just play the game you like and ignore the game you dislike. Or if you like both you can just play both

this vid was so insightful! much love 💜💜🪑

Very good and succinct comparison of design philosophies! However it mainly helped me formulate specifically why I immediately thought Genshin's approach was the superior one. As a gacha game that makes it's money off selling lots of characters first and foremost, Genshin works better since it focuses on recognizable unique designs that still follow faction and form design language. WuWa would work well as a typical RPG but being a gacha makes its more uniform designs a mess for the viewer. You mentioned how you thought Yuanwu and Yangyang were associated in some way because of their colorways, but there's a much more egregious example of this that is absolutely impossible to justify and that's Camellya. Every part of her design screams "Fracsidus" from the rooftops. In fact I even mistook her for Phrolova at first because both characters are only encountered briefly and have the same colors. Camellya even uses weird biomancy tentacles and has the same nihilistic outlook as the Fracsidus and yet is part of the Black Shores, a faction that directly and diametrically opposes Fracsidus. And directly before you meet her, you fight the Fracsidus to make things even more confusing. Is she a Fracsidus infiltrator in the black shores? Then why is she so lacking in subtlety? Is she ex-Fracsidus? Then why doesn't the design language reflect that ex status? This problem will only get much worse for WuWa as it gets to 80 playable characters like Genshin. It will only face even more criticism for sameyness as well as lack of character identity reflecting in how they look.

At the end of the day it all comes to personal preferences :P I personally like Wuwa's character design better bcs i like the dull colors and the variety of models

your art looks amazing cup wowzers

I think that the designs of not just the characters, but their animations too try to draw our eyes to certain features. Genshin's draws us directly to the characters and their outfits (Especially when it comes to elemental bursts), but in WuWa, the normal attack animations, along with those of the skill and burst try to spend most of our attention on the combat itself compared to focusing on the characters themselves completely, but also try to maintain a unique motif/brand for each character(Jiyan's burst is a pretty good example of this).

15:29 well, flowy cape at the back same "shape language" like how you said jiyan has a similar shape to calcharo. 15:43 i think a fair comparison would be looking at lisa vs keqing in this case, similar to yangyang vs yuanwu since both cases follow a similar colour shade. 16:05 klee would be a fair comparison purely on colour to amber. I'm sorry to say but in wuwa, and unlike in genshin, character outfit colour = element is not necessarily an iron rule needed to be followed.

Both player of Genshin and Wuwa here. I feel like Genshin's design complexity looks great... on 2D. On 3D, every part of their complexity,dynamic, muscles, and silhouette gets dumped down into unnecessary assets, and bad design translations that is still a problem from Genshin 1.0 until the present day that I'll probably never stop bitching about. Examples: Diluc, Xingqiu, Jean, Beidou -> Al Haitam,Clorinde, Wriothesley,Gaming, IMO half of the Genshin rosters looks constipated even when they're amazing on 2D, but their design all seemed like they do not have 3D in mind 😔

I would like to say that wuwa characters have a part in their story akin to a doctor's note that evaluates their resonator ability. It is stated that just like their power, the traits they get from tacet marks differ from character to character. More traits they get from the tacet mark, more energy they use for their ability and are therefore at a higher risk of over clocking. Which is why encore barely has fluffier hair but yangyang has hair full of feathers

personally, i prefer wuwa's designs more. while there are some genshin designs i enjoy, i like wuwa's less saturated color palettes and more minimalist style over genshin's very bright colors and over-detailed designs. idk, they just feel more stylish to me. there being noticable in-world fashion trends, for example the belts which can also be seen on npcs, (although it might just be a kuro thing bc lots of pgr characters have many belts also) definitely contribute to that. but i like how certain motifs are more subtle, for example on first glance, you might miss aalto's blake bloom, or that sanhua's necklace is meant to be mala beads, which have a spiritual significance. i really like how these themes not only tie into the character's stories, but aren't thrown in your face. and again this is personal preference, but i also like that a character's personality is displayed more by their body language and actions than by their clothing choice alone. the clothing is a part of it, but not as big a part as it is in genshin. idk, it just feels like... boiling down a character to their most basic attributes? probably could word this better, but i enjoy learning more about a character as the story moves along than simply going "oh, this is what their design is communicating to me, and it fits with their personality." tldr i simply prefer wuwa's fashion and style of character design over genshin's. also jiyan is soooo fine, oh my god HE'S SO FINE. it's the tight black turtleneck like oh my god OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS.

What i like about genshin characters design is how colorful and bubbly it looks, which contrast so well with the darkness of its story, which often being overlook because of the colorful looks of the game itself. It makes the story sometime have so much more impact when being rediscover or realize. But i hate how they design the male characters to look so "average" and they seem to over sexualized alot of female characters even if it kinda off, one example is Yae Miko, which still look so good if the design follow more on the clothes that they're inspired of, but they have to make her look more "sexy" than she needed to. I haven't play WuWa so much to make a conclusion, mostly because they optimize the game so bad on smartphone that i feel uninspired to play the game.

ngl even tho it’s not mentioned i feel like the perfect blend of their strengths and weaknesses is honkai star rail. in star rail main characters can stand next to npcs and not feel oddly out of place but also have enough detailing that sets them apart. i think the main issue with genshin is the fact that main characters often look out of place so everything else seems lazy and odd compared to playable characters whereas wuwa is too reliant on showing immersion that key aspects of each characters are missed, like it would be amazing to see more dark purples and motifs of dogs made of lighting or so in relation to his element or lore or even giving aalto more strings, straps and web like/ mist like patterns to represent his play style. i do think more people should give wuwa a chance though because kuro games has already responded to a lot of feedback and will put a lot of it into practice, it’s just a matter of time .

Very insightful and good research you had done. Analyzing the designs between the two. Most of my thoughts are already shared were already said by the commenters here. Simply, Hoyo's focus on character design is heavily on the clothes majorly. and I think it has insidious dark tones that the higher up on the dev side that made them stick to a particular style. WuWa's focus were inspirations from big great games such as DMC, Bayonetta, Nier/Drankengard, Metal Gear series, Final Fantasy series (ya know the belts?), Atelier Series {Tia inspired Verina} and the other non-gacha games as well. That PGR also was based on and share the styles to Wuthering Waves. As an artist myself, as well that delved into those topics on social media. --------------------------------------- The Kuro Game dev team also highlights the character models: Personality from idle animations/gestures when they move/attack/stand still. Attack animations and sound effects. Color of their attacks to distinguish from the environment. Their voices and subtle non-language voice acting.

Well some. Yinlin for me, hands down the best design i have ever seen in wuwa she captures the vibe of "terror in beauty" Genshin character design are more colorful compare to wuwa but it defines on the vibe of the game settings.

Here is my takes. Genshin is like LoL and Fortnite. WuWa is like DOTA 2 and PUBG. Statistically, one theme is CLEARLY looks appealing than the others. One thing about Genshin though, is that it got more fantasy ratio than WuWa. Which mean it provide more variety of designs. Overall design Genshin design: More distinctive design for different region, elements. Looks appealing for most eyes. Cover a lot of cultures Wuthering Wave design: More realistic design. Character design doesn’t fixate on their elements/type. Meaning Yinlin could wear red even though she use electro. Hybrid between Futuristic and culture design.

I like genshin designs since most of them make them unique and pretty , but for wuthering waves i noticed almost all of the characters wearing black . I wanted some other colours too not only black and black . Like other than verina no one is wearing colours on their clothes. Or they just wearing to little colours. This detail makes their designs identical to me and doesn't feel unique like what genshin does.

I like a lot of Genshin's designs but sometimes they fall really flat. Dori , Emilie, and Chiori as examples that don't wow me. Wuwa has gorgeous character designs when looked at individually, but as an overall cast I feel a bit underwhelmed by the monotones. My favorite designs in the game so far are Verina, Jiyan, Encore, Danjin and Yuanwu, all of which stand put and look somewhat unique. I don't really see the monotone colors as a problem though with the one caveat that they want to sell these characters. It's just my personal taste in question here, but I am unlikely to swipe for a character that doesn't look interesting to me. If they will be on my map for a long duration, I want them to have aesthetic appeal.

I´ll say Genshin has better designs right now, but I personally like the WuWa character designs a bit more since they look more adult and their facial structures look different from one another.

One thing thats not mentioned in this video is how the in game model affect people perception of the character design. Good design is worthless to alot of players if you cant execute them in the game. Which GI model severely hold them back in this case, whereas WuWa model are more diverse and of much higher quality If you look at artwork of the game, GI overall the more impressive, eye catching character. In game? that gap get closed significantly. An example is the MC character design. Lumine has more going for her, has more details and lore attached, but in game Female Rover is-just-so-fucking pretty and expressive people fall head over heels for her

it's really not fair to compare character like furina to the current playable cast of WW, because the game JUST launched. if we want to talk about designs, let's make it mondstad vs the current and only region we have in WW. and if we do that, the designs of the two games only really differ with the color palettes. also, with WW's 1.1 approaching, the new playable characters are already looking amazing and pretty unique, not only with changli, but jinhsi too, as well as camellya (we don't know when she'll be playable but she will). i'd say that the WW's dev team already showed that they care about making the designs better ever since they removed scar's onigiri pants (iykyk)

Putting my two cents into this topic: i genuinely prefer wuthering waves's design because they actually FEEL like they belonged to their world more than the genshin characters do in the regions. Sure, genshin's is pretty individually, but put them all in one lineup with npcs scattered in between and it's almost way too clear which one is playable which isnt. Most of the "nationalism" showed in the design is by the vision frame or bare, general "aesthetics" of each region. Wuwa's jinzhou native characters, however, feels closer to it's people/npcs. They're distinct enough to be eye catching, but they still look like they were born and raised in Jinzhou, giving nods to the local wear and distinct feats and little trinkets that we can see on people living around them. And the non-natives (verina, encore, aalto, calcharo) DO look like foreigners visiting a land, maybe wearing something here and there to "blend in" with the locals when in lore they're supposed to be integrated into Jinzhou's day to day/characters. Some of the npcs even look like they'd grow up and become a resonator if they so please AND THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT NICE. It makes things feel believable that one day with enough training and a resonance abilty, these characters went from normal everyday people to "playable" tier characters

i like both of the games designs, and honestly id go for wuwa, since its more my cup of tea, i love the monochromatic designs and how simple they are, since it's 100% better for cosplayers! while genshins over complex designs make it kinda hard to look and admire every single tiny aspect of it

I am not an artist and this video provide me some insight.. On another note, a lot of artist disregard the "texture" of the WuWa character design. You can argue about colour variety all you want, but on cloth design, WuWa really edge.. If you zoom in, or pay more attention, you can literally see the different fabric of every pieces . It make the WuWa design "clean", "sharp", and "mature" felt. While genshin (i actaully dislike a lot accesories attachment) to the point of overcrowded like you said, however, it does gave a "pretty", "vibrant", and attention grabing a lot morr then WuWa

Honestly, I feel like Genshin's designs suffer a lot from samey character design. Almost every single character has a cape or some sort of "cape-like" thing on their back that has to move when you walk around, for instance. I can't even think of the last character that didn't have some sort of cape or cape-like thing on their design.

Thank you for the last part. The amount of people comparing 4.7 Genshin to 1.0 WuWa in a lot of aspects without taking that into account is wild. Story wise for example. Of course, Genshin will have a better story when it has been ongoing for almost 4 years vs less than 1 month of WuWa. I'd say people give it some time and if you don't like it currently, just wait some time and come back.

for me genshin looks more childlike in art style and wuthering waves looks more mature

So I have to say I like the male designs in WuWa better than in Genshin, especially the body models. And even if Zhongli and Neuvi have great eyes, things get pretty bland when it comes to the mouth area. Now look at the faces of the WuWa men. If they could do that with the female characters as well, that would be great. I would prefer it to the wobbly boobas. And I really don't know why they always have to have cow eyes. Deya, for example, stands out beautifully in Genshin. Great eyes. Or Navia, who finally has lips. I agree with you about the silouhette. It's nice to have but is it important? I think WuWa also has a lot of potential for skins. I don't like a lot of designs in Genshin at all. It's all too much frills for me, too many high heels and the male models in Genshin are all not very sexy. In Wuwa so far everyone has their own unique facial expressions, which I think is really great. I'm very excited about what's to come next. In Genshin the designs are getting worse again, in my opinion. And I haven't picked up any of the new skins yet, apart from Lisa's model.

Sorry, but there are more basic things before details and having recognisable silhouttes. Base model, fitting clothes which hide the figure shortcomings, matching colour scheme across the design, proportionality. This is where Genshin seriously lacks. Half of GI designs are ruined by the open legs, simply because legs in GI are eye-burning noodles with no texture/terrain, and their brightness doesn't match clothes colours. For example Hutao, it's a white blob in the middle of darker palet. Prolly the only character where open legs worked is a Faruzan (again, because of the colour scheme across her design). There are lots of very weird clothes choices (like open navel on men?), lots of mismatching colours, and in most cases it is aggravated by how crappy their human 3d model is. For example Arlecchino, she looks great in trailers and cinematics, yes. But her in-game model looks like a gnome on stilts (because her high pants make torso look short and disproportional to the legs), and default skeleton with stock moving animations ruin character even more. In all cutscenes they show only her upper torso, prolly because they themself understand how bad it looks.

16:15 Venti also has the little origami windmill on his thigh which caters to his motif, along with the wings on the side of his "vision." His main color is also a really light teal/aquamarine, which is the color associated with Anemo (wind), so I'd argue his motif isn't really that subtle.

I think that if Wuthering waves were to have more regions it would be more interesting, because then you could see the difference in regions. One thing I like in Genshin is that when you have seen a decent amount of characters from a region, you can get an idea of how the people there dress, which normally matches the NPCs less flamboyant style, but they look distinct at same time. Like they look cohesive yet different.

So in the end both are good and it's 100% subjective. Genshin fandom can keep coping. Also genshin has repeating elements on different characters similarly to wuwa, so it's not like only one game does that

For me, it comes down to inspiration. WuWa characters feel uninspired or like they're not embodying their trope well enough, like you have to look a bit harder to guess. Their outfits just don't tell a particular story in most cases. Genshin on the other hand, you could make a distinct moodboard for every single character, even the more lackluster ones like Bennett or Xinyan or Amber.

Tbh, I love both game's designs a lot. My only critique for WUWA is that they use black, gray and white too much in their designs, it's almost everywhere and it gets boring. Otherwise I love both of them fully with their uniqueness. While I understand that WUWA is a post apocalyptic world setting, having a few more colourful characters doesn't hurt. I don't think everyone would wear blacks and whites unless it's their uniform, I hope my comment makes sense.

10:44 another thing to note is that Calcharo and the male rover have different noses compared to the other male characters that i have on my account. (wuwa please add a character gallery)

One of the main differences i think is the character’s themes in their designs. Kokomi has a fish/mermaid theme, yoimiya has a festival and goldfish theme, Klee has a clover theme, and so on. I think the themes make the characters stand out more between each other and allow for more creative decisions, like yoimiya’s hair being shaped like a goldfish. Obviously not every genshin design has been able to hit the mark, tho, and usually for me it’s the ones who have weird color palettes and no clear theme.

For me wuwa has a more cohesive theme for the character design in relation to the world, npcs included. All characters fit right in. The faces do a lot of heavy lifting too. Way more expressive.

"Too many details" Tighnari.jpg

Aw man why not that table? (Btw great vídeo)

For me, I wouldn't really compare Wuwa and Genshin Designs due to the fact that they have very different design philosophies and setting. I'd rather compare Wuwa to Arknights and Genshin to Dragalia Lost (RIP). Whoever started the trend of comparing designs of these two games just wants to add fuel to the fire and immature af. Genshin focuses on fantasy, while Wuwa is sci-fi/post apocalyptic. The issue I had with Genshin's design is that its starting to suffer from characters looking the same. Another issue is the censorship, because somehow some people are dedicated to report the designs to their govt to the point that the designs of characters has to be heavily regulated to the point that they're starting to have limited options when it comes to designs especially on female characters. The issue that I had on Wuwa's design despite that its fitting to the setting and theme is that too much characters have a monochromatic coloring scheme which ends up making the characters look similar in a sense, and somehow makes their silhouettes indistinguishable.

11:36 a doulingo ad started at this point I'm not even kidding.

true that Wuwa's cahracter deisgn looks "simpler" while genshin is more detailed and brighter.. they both fit the narrative of the world they in.... HOWEVER one of the reason I love Wuwa characters are mostly Adult and the male character looks like Adult man with beard and muscular body... something genshin lacks as all the male character looks like teenager or young adult and none of them got a muscular physique or facial hear.... same goes for the female you never really know if they teenagers or not....

As much as i like both games designs to some degree, i do love genshin designs alottt I live for really detailed designs (even if im suffering as an artist-), i find it important to have things like the silhouette test and very different color pallets :))

I do think the style and color difference for one element per character is understandable unlike genshin where they get their power from vision which are always on them making it so they want to match it with the character. Wuwa characters elements comes from their own power so they manifest in different forma explaining why the 3 lightning we have have 3 different looks to them and their lightning being a bit of different shade. The design can also be looked at by pgr and hsr being the character don't need to use the same palette as they're elements

Cool topic, cool video :D. I was in love with Aaltos Design and his teased Personality from the trailer, but only by playing the story i realised why, his design was so different to the initial Cast. Genshin did that too and it’s a smart thing to do. - breaking up Designes to their respective Region / Organisation :D. It did felt weird to me at first, understanding the Design of Character only after getting the context as to why they wear what they wear ^^. Like Jiyan being a Military General and therefore wearing skin tight clothing (mostly), to kinda maybe move around better in Combat? Calcharo (i dont know much about his background yet), seems to have the same Combat attire. :)

the "Harem" nature of more female resonator or more fan-service-y design (like Yinlin or Taoqi) sometimes a bit distracting (eventho i am a man) and kinda of undermine the good design. I prer it to be toned down. I appreciate more of a design decision that have more context and substance such as the design of Jianshi with her albinism for example, it's a real life rare occurence that can conveys the elusive non common occurence of her and for people who had it might be delightful to see such representation in the media. all in all Genshin character design is more of a wild card can be good or bad but Wuwa is more stable in terms of quality.

It’ll be curious where WuWa goes in terms of regional fashion. Genshin made it clear with Mondstad and Liyue of Germanic and Chinese inspired culture and dress. WuWa, at launch, is largely described as apocalyptic, Chinese cyberpunk, but distinctly Chinese nonetheless. How will future characters look if there isn’t much to imply that new regions won’t be drastically different in culture? Aalto and Encore typify their allegiance with different gourds, but their outfits still fit cyberpunk even if they’re not Chinese cyberpunk.

This is a throwback to when that one Genshin dude tried to call out Arknights character design and got completely demolished lol. Not as cut and dry ofc but that’s the first thing that came to my mind

Disappointment is the first thing I thought when looking at WuWa chara design BUT the more I explored Huanglong the more I enjoy shared design pattern across all regions, the weirdass-looking gourd, the tacet marks, the midnight ranger costumes, blackshore emblem, etc. They’re simple and not over the top, playable characters don’t look out of place clowns. Even black and white color palette in some characters are telling me, “this is just unique to Jinzhou residents” because the characters are from there and they belong there. It makes Jinzhou as a region feels more alive.

One thing that always stood out to me about genshin's designs is that they feel a bit excessive about how they convey each character's motif. They have a tendency of taking a symbol related to the character's theme and kind of just putting it everywhere on their design. With wuwa, most of the characters are significantly more subtle about their motif, but they still convey it fairly well imo. I think it also has a lot to do with how wuwa is intended to have a significantly more grounded feel to it, which is why their designs tend to feel quite similar in some cases, because they actually want to make to make the characters feel like they genuinely all fit together in the world. It also helps make it not feel quite as jarring when comparing the characters to npcs in the world, especially since many npcs actually have pretty high effort designs. At the end of the day though I appreciate genshin's designs as well because they fit the very cartoony world of genshin and many just look very visually appealing.

I found a big issue with wuwa was not the isolated character designs but actually how they worked with the environment, I found it really hard to tell where my characters were in game since they had simular colour pallets to the world around them, genshin def also has a bit of the issue but I feel like the characters colour pallets are bright enough to be distinct agains the background

I personally like WuWa more as the characters look more mature and there’s less twinks 💀but which game you like more depends on your personal preference. Also shout out to Punishing Gray Raven for give male and female characters equal fan service

I think that Genshin is more cartoony and like almost chibi. WuWa they look proportionally right and I love the gameplay too

More mature vibe in wuwa wins me alot....and NPC in wuwa also

I was surprised you didn't cover proportions a bit more, as it seemed you mostly focused on colors/vibrancy/design language. You got in to shaping a little bit with the face but I feel like there's a lot more to note here. Child-like Genshin characters have grossly immersion-breaking proportions, their heads alone are basically bigger than the whole NPC child model, and if you stand them next to any random adult NPC they are nearly as big in volume, and you can't unsee it which just makes it feel super weird walking around as Klee or Nahida for example. The male characters in Genshin are all super lanky and overly thin waistlines that results in a very "cartoony" result, where as looking at Jiyan or Calcharo, their body shapes are a lot more measured and "natural" and you actually feel you're looking at a male model and not a strange cartoon-esque version of a thin male. Having some of the muscle definition the WuWa males have also doesn't hurt.

I prefer Genshin's designs, but I like brighter colors in general. But as a cosplayer who like to make my own stuff, I feel your pain regarding the amount of detail. I've been working on Ayaka's alternate outfit for a year now, and I have only finished her hat and boots. Some of the pieces will require me to use techniques I've never touched before, and that's before I get into the possibility of making any props.

from back when i used to play genshin, i will say the playable characters felt very memorable/made to stand out, but on wuwa they dont stand out nearly as much. it comes down to liking these sorts of things or not, and personally i appreciate that the playable cast in wuwa dont feel nearly as detatched as playable characters did in genshin (back when i played) since a large part of my complaints about genshin back then was the world scaling and general balance of design overall. individually its amazing but i always felt weird about the smaller things: like each inazuma island feeling like its own circle and detatched from the other islands..? or the distance between point a and point b in the areas, how it shouldnt realistically take more than 30 minutes for npcs/characters to walk from one end of an island to the other. and they upped the scaling for sumeru from what i remember, but next to liyue's stone forest, the stone forest felt far too small. setting does change the context of character designs too, for wuwa the npc character designs are made to make sure the playable cast dont look jarringly different, while in genshin i felt like it stuggled more with it (except enjou i always loved enjou) personally these aspects of design are something i look for, especially for immersion, but it really does come down to what a person wants in a game, so someone could value these less than what i do yk oh yeah and bonus: i feel like the animations theselves play an important part! wuwa is very expressive with their models, especially in the story. the characters move often as well as the camera, making each scene feel like youre actually watching something happen instead of just reading (as i used to feel in genshin), and these characters have different expressions and add to the overall design i'll compare the characters scar and chixia for now, scar's his maniacal expressions add to his design because he doesnt smile the way chixia does, chixia having a rounder face, eyes, freckles and a toothy goofy grin manages to make her model's design distinctly different from scar's...scarred face, sharpish eyes and especially his unsettling smile. and yes, theyre two different model type anyways, with scar being a tall male model and chixia being a medium female model, but i am talking about the expressions theyre able to make in a scene. i feel like genshin wasnt able to do well with these sorts of things due to their models being very similar and having to make up for it with a louder design, and thats perfectly fine. genshin's designs are more immediately apparent than wuwa's, with louder colors and more distinct palettes. wuwa lacks in this department, yes, but i think they're making up for it with other things to balance it out, the same way i feel like genshin did but the other way around. and personally, i think i like having a more even playing field than 1 thing being superduper out there, yk? ...formal apology for yapping: i like designs :( thank you for reading this far if you did oh and i used to play genshin from 2020-2022, i stopped around sumeru because i disliked the designs and found them more problematic than the trouble they were worth