Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Early Installment Character Design Difference / Video Games

Go To

Early Installment Character-Design Difference in Video Games.

  • Art of Fighting:
    • King didn't wear her trademark jacket or vest in the very first game, and her outfit was far less colorful than it would later appear in the The King of Fighters games.
    • The first appearance of an unmasked Takuma Sakazaki in its SNES port has him look noticeably old, with gray hair. By 2 he looks more akin to a middle-aged man, with brown hair, and has been that way ever since. Takuma was also a mere Head Swap of his son Ryo in the first game, meaning he had an identical physique, fighting stance, and even the same karate gi with torn off sleeves (albeit colored white instead of orange). Later games would give him a unique stance and outfit in order to differentiate him from Ryo.
  • Baldur's Gate has portraits for some of the characters that went from the first game into the second change to almost radically different people. The most blatant examples are Jaheira and Imoen.
  • Battletoads: Rash initially lacked his trademark Cool Shades, Zitz was originally brown, and Pimple was initially green like Rash. By Battlemaniacs and its Intercontinuity Crossover with Double Dragon, the former had his shades, and the latter two had received their current colorations of teal and brown, respectively.
  • In Bendy and the Ink Machine, Boris the Wolf was portly and didn't wear clothes until Chapter 2's model made him a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal.
  • Castlevania:
  • Dead or Alive:
    • Until Dead or Alive 5, Bass and Zack were much more blatant expies of Hulk Hogan and Dennis Rodman, respectively.
    • Kasumi originally was a brunette in the first game, although a few costume changes did give her her now recognizable red hair. Tina was also a brunette in this game, before becoming blonde for every other game.
    • Before 5 toned up the realism, every character in the game was anime like, with big wide eyes and oval shaped faces.
  • Falcomon from the Digimon franchise was originally based on a peregrine falcon, but by Digimon Data Squad was redesigned to be a great horned owl themed around ninjas, with every installment of the franchise using the newer version. However, Digimon Survive revived its original design and retconned the newer one to be a subspecies.
  • Donkey Kong Country had some odd designs before the developers settled on a standardized look:
    • King K. Rool was a lot fatter looking compared to his later designs. In fact, K. Rool's body looked more spherical with his massively round belly and he was twice the size of Donkey Kong. The sequels shrunk him down a little bit as well as reducing the size of his belly, but they also made his arms a lot more muscular so they don't look dwarfed by his large frame while also making him look stronger. Likewise, K. Rool's bloodshot eye was heavily toned down in future games while still keeping the bulged eye look.
    • The Klap Trap enemies in the first game were very tiny and didn't look all that threatening with their tiny chompers and almost beady eyes, but Donkey Kong 64 would make them much larger with greatly exaggerated features to make them look more menacing.
    • Klump, the fat Kremling enemies in the first game, were rendered with nipples to emphasize their Fat Bastard nature. Future iterations of Klump would have him without nipples.
  • In Dragon Age: Origins, Qunari were very tall black men with white hair and purple eyes. From Dragon Age II onwards they have grey skin, horns, and war paint.
  • Dragon Quest: When originally conceived, the Hero had stock black hair, largely being of a Son Goku-lookalike trend that wouldn't be bucked until a few entries later. When the Dragon Quest I characters and setting were revisited for Dragon Quest Kenshin, however, he received a massive update, changed to largely resemble his famous ancestor save for having blue eyes and blonde hair. The new design has been predominantly used since, especially in multi-entry conglomerations.note 
  • Duke Nukem didn't have sunglasses until Duke Nukem 3D (yes, there were Duke Nukem games before 3D). At least one rerelease of the second game gives you the ability to have him in sunglasses.
  • Epic Battle Fantasy series: Owing to his origins as a planned redesign of Lancelot from 2006 animation One More Final Battle, Lance would appear in Brawl Royale wearing casual attire◊. He would switch to a Schutzstaffel-inspired officer's outfit for his proper debut in Epic Battle Fantasy 2.
  • The earliest versions of Everybody Edits Flash feature a red circle as a Digital Avatar, instead of a yellow smiley face used for all later versions of Everybody Edits.
  • Fatal Fury:
    • Terry Bogard's iconic red vest was actually a jacket in the first game.
    • Despite generally being depicted as a somewhat stereotypically "funky" black man in the sequels, Duck King was illustrated as a white guy in the original game.
    • Blue Mary was a blatant Expy of Android 18 from Dragon Ball Z in her first appearance, complete with a prominent forehead. Her design was tweaked to lessen the resemblance in subsequent games.
  • Marth in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light did not wear pants and wore a tunic. His clothes in Super Smash Bros. are styled after his design in the third game, Mystery of the Emblem, though all his appearances starting with the fourth Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Code Name: S.T.E.A.M opt to use Marth's updated design from New Mystery of the Emblem.
    • As a Downplayed Example, an early artbook describes Seliph as being quite tall, and one or two early pieces of art do seem to reflect this. However, almost everyone afterwards (especially the fans) tend to draw him very short, reflecting his role as Sigurd's son (despite being an adult chronologically by the time he's playable) or playing up his Dude Looks Like a Lady qualities.
  • F-Zero (1990) had some pretty different looks Pico, an alien pilot. In the first game, Pico had a very slim and humanoid build◊, wore blue pants, an orange shirt, purple boots, and magenta shoulder pads. His eyes also had green irises with white sclerae. In F-Zero X and later, Pico got bulked up considerably◊ and his outfit got changed by trading the shirt for a bulky orange colored armor, the boots becoming an armored silver with a red tip at the toes, and donning a pair of blue gloves. Pico's elongated head was shortened, his face was given a toothy jaw like a turtle, and his eyes became yellow-orange with no pupils.
  • In God of War, the gods, with the exceptions of Ares and Athena, underwent drastic changes in the sequels. Most jarringly, Hades has a demonic face with a persistently burning flame inside his mouth that makes him unable to close it in the original but he looks like a big guy with a black horned helmet in every other game.
  • Grand Theft Auto IV: Jim Fitzgerald in The Lost and the Damned looks radically different from what he appears in the base game: originally a fat, bald, Caucasian generic biker, he is made mixed-race with a distinctive uniform and appearance in the expansion pack. You'd be forgiven for thinking that they were not even supposed to be the same character, since they don't share the same voice or even personality.
  • The Spartans from Halo are a downplayed example.
    • In the beginning, the Master Chief was meant to be the last Spartan and thus, the only one portrayed in visual media. Halo: The Fall of Reach stated that all of the Spartan-IIs were identical in their MJOLNIR armor, with only Doctor Halsey and other individuals close to the program being able to identify them by their slight differences in posture and movements.
    • Halo Wars was the first media to depict other Spartans, and sure enough the members of Red Team all sported slight differences in their armor so that the audience could tell them apart with the most noteworthy being Spartan Jerome having red markings on his helmet and breastplate.
    • Halo Legends portrayed a handful of Spartans wearing unique armor, though most of it was written off at the time as Artistic License.
    • Halo: Reach was the first mainline canon source to depict other Spartans wearing vastly different armor with different paint jobs, but this was still handwaved away because Noble Team was made up of Spartan-IIIs, with privately manufactured armor, supported in game by the one Spartan-II on the team, Jorge, wearing mostly standard armor with a few additions, something even called out on by Halsey herself.
    • The idea of all Spartan-IIs being identical in their armor was thrown out the airlock when 343 Industries took over the franchise, however, most notably come Halo 5: Guardians, which was the first game to feature the long time Expanded Universe characters of Blue Team, with Kelly and Fred basically using their updated designs from Halo Legends. The comic and motion picture adaptations of The Fall of Reach depict the Spartans using the different armor permutations that have been available in the multiplayer since Halo 3, but existed in a strange state of canon limbo, because the Multiplayer has always been considered canon, but it was also true that Spartans didn’t use custom gear.
  • LEGO Island: In the first game, the Brickster's beard is depicted as Solid Cartoon Facial Stubble. In subsequent appearances (and the physical LEGO sets), his beard is depicted as black dots.
  • In the second Punch-Out!! arcade game, Great Tiger wore standard boxing trunks. When the game was ported to the NES, he started wearing long pants due to being a Palette Swap of Von Kasier. This look has stuck in every appearance since.
    • Great Tiger also sported a feather in his turban behind his signature gem. Which was removed following his appearance in the NES game and has never appeared again.note 

  • Kingdom Hearts:
  • Kirby
    • On the American cover artwork of Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby was white instead of pink. This was reportedly due to miscommunication with the American artists and not, as commonly believed, because Masahiro Sakurai and Shigeru Miyamoto were arguing about what color Kirby should be; he was always meant to be pink, but the Game Boy lacked the color to indicate that. Regardless, this would be referenced later on in the Super Smash Bros. series where Kirby's black and white color scheme is one of his alternate colors.
    • The artwork of Kirby in the first few games had him with a much smaller mouth and small eyes, which made his body look more puffy and round than intended. Later games would have Kirby with a larger face. Early Kirby games also gave him lines on his cheeks for blush instead of the Blush Stickers that became a trademark in later games, being completely absent on his sprite for Kirby's Dream Land.
    • Up until Kirby's Return to Dream Land, the recurring Squishy enemies were matte white (with a bluish tint at most) instead of beige and lacked the blue spots on their mantles.
    • King Dedede's design in the first game, Kirby's Adventure and Kirby's Dream Land 2 looks slightly different than in the later games; he had a more duck-like beak, wore no gloves or onesie, and his sash was smaller. Kirby Super Star onward would give him a yukata, yellow gloves, and a larger sash.
    • Meta Knight's design in Adventure looks very different than how he looks now; he had a purely black body with a simple round hands, no shoulderpads, a red cape, and dark blue armor (his mask lacked its four spikes), as well as a sword that is completely separate from Galaxia. The later games make his skin a dark blue, give him a siver mask with four spikes and dark blue shoulderpads, armored gloves, and purple feet (they would later become sabatons from Kirby: Planet Robobot onward).
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • There are multiple incarnations of Link, which explains his design differences from game to game (though they basically follow a basic design overall). While the original Link from The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link had dark brown hair, starting with A Link to the Past, Link's hair is always a varying shade of blondnote . Link also originally had a long nose; however, after internal complaints that it made him look unattractive, Link's nose size was decreased in Ocarina of Time. Ocarina of Time is also the first game in which Link wears white tights or leggings beneath his tunic, though there is a very specific reason for that in-game which does not exist in any of the others.note 
    • Princess Zelda is similarly multiple people, though again her incarnations overall share certain traits. The Zelda from the first game and the Sleeping Zelda from the second game are a brunette and redhead respectively. A Link to the Past was the first game to have Zelda as a blonde and every game has kept that, though in Twilight Princess Zelda's hair is so dark it's mistakable for brown. The first two Zeldas were drawn with simplistic, puffy pink dresses resembling Princess Peach and '80s Hair, but ALttP gave us the beginning of what's been her standard dress design since: white with gold trimmings and either pink or purple accents.
    • In The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (as well as the animated series), Moblins were anthropomorphic bulldogs. From A Link To The Past onward, Moblins are anthropomorphic pigs. Interestingly, Link's Awakening and the Oracle games feature both types of Moblins with the pig-like ones renamed "Pig Warriors". The Switch remake of Link's Awakening however replaced the bulldogs with the pigs. Ocarina Of Time has bulldog-like Moblins (thought they only appear in one area) and Spirit Tracks has bulldog-like enemies named "Big Blins".
  • Like a Dragon:
    • While Taiga Saejima's default appearance (the one first seen in Yakuza 5) nowadays has him with a shaven head and a thick parka jacket, his debut playable appearance in Yakuza 4 showed him with a full head of long black hair and an ordinary coat, making him appear far smaller. Some parts of his story including his prologue show him in his Yakuza 4 design and being a prequel, Yakuza 0 shows him with his long hair from 4 in his character bio, but otherwise the shaven head and parka are now standard for him.
    • Prior to becoming Tojo Clan chairman, Daigo's default outfit in Yakuza 2 was a padded white jacket and black pants, and slightly messier. From all other games he'd be seen in prim black business suits and a neater hairdo more suited to his newly gained position as chairman of a criminal organization.
    • In a case of this being retroactively applied to a later installment via the prequel, Kiryu and Majima don't wear their famous attires from other games in the series during Yakuza 0, only getting their iconic designs in the epilogue of the game. Kiryu instead wears a brighter white suit with an orange, chain-patterned undershirt, and Majima, running a cabaret club at the time, wears an open-coat tuxedo with an undone bowtie (unless he's on the clock, wherein the bowtie is obviously done up properly and the coat is closed.)
  • Mega Man (Classic):
    • Dr. Wily's artwork from Mega Man is closer to his in-game sprite and much closer resembles Albert Einstein than his artwork from Mega Man 2 onwards, which exaggerated his features (wilder hair, longer chin etc) and made him more cartoony.
    • In fact, everyone in Mega Man's artwork looked shorter and chubbier, closer resembling the proportions of their 8-bit sprites. Art Evolution would later give them more realistic proportions.
    • Cut Man was originally colored red, while later appearances instead color him orange.
  • Mega Man X: In his first appearance, Zero has circular shoulders and lacks his Z-Saber. In the second game, where he was rebuilt after his Heroic Sacrifice in the previous installment, he gets new square shoulders with his signature Z on it, and his Z-Saber, which is retained throughout the rest of the series. Notably, this is a rare justified example of this trope. The old design isn't later retconned like many other examples here, with both Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X and a flashback in Mega Man X4 keeping the old design intact.
  • Metal Gear:
    • The early games, prior to Metal Gear Solid, did not have the involvement of the later series art director Yoji Shinkawa, resulting in an inconsistent art style between them. The protagonist Solid Snake was depicted as a youthful, Michael Biehn-type hero on the cover artwork of the original Metal Gear, only to look more middle aged in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (modelled after Mel Gibson), despite the two games being set and released only three years apart. The later international release with the second disc of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence would redraw the character art both to match Shinkawa's style and avoid likeness infringement lawsuits.
    • In the MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2 in particular, Gray Fox and Master Miller do not even resemble their incarnations from later MGS games, with Fox originally being drawn as a tanned brown-haired man, as opposed to the pale white-haired man seen in later games, while Miller was originally a black-haired Asian-looking man instead of the sunglasses-wearing blond-haired man seen in the later games (consequently, his origin story was also changed in Peace Walker).
    • Snake had shortish hair in his first three appearances - in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, he appears with a mullet, which initially was a Escape from New York joke but got made into a character trademark. He also lacks the flowing bandanna until MGS2, because PS1 tech limitations made it impossible. In his first two appearances, he is depicted wearing realistic military gear; in his third, he's put into a more fantastical "Sneaking Suit". On top of this, certain aspects of his physical appearance were altered between his appearances in 1, 2 and 4 even beyond what his accelerated ageing would account for - in MGS2 his features get broader and manlier, and in MGS4 he suddenly gains rather prominent nasolabial folds which weren't there in his earlier appearances, and his hair texture goes from wavy to straight. Snake is even depicted with blond hair in the Briefing segment of Metal Gear Solid, and Campbell claims the only difference between him and Liquid is "skin tone", forcing Snake to change his appearance (mostly by cutting his hair short); a plot point in 2 was going to have Snake return to blond, in an idea that got as far as playtesting, but was scrapped for making the character look too unlike his earlier look, and the idea of him being blond was quietly retconned (the blond hair itself also a retcon, since Snake had been depicted with dark hair in the two previous games).
    • Eye colour has generally been inconsistent. Snake's eyes go from dark green to pale blue. Otacon goes from having grey hair and blue eyes, to brown hair and brown eyes, to dark brown hair and dark blue eyes.
  • Metroid:
    • Samus’ iconic blonde Tomboyish Ponytail look is so seminal that it’ll likely come as a surprise to most to learn that in the famous gender reveal of the first game Samus actually had instead red/auburn hair◊ that was worn down. You could give Samus blonde hair (along with now fan-favourite green) if you entered the “Justin Bailey” Cheat Code which gives Samus her ending look in game and use the Missile Launcher. Officially Samus wouldn’t get her blonde look until Super Metroid while her signature ponytail with bangs look would come later still in Metroid: Zero Mission. Speaking of Zero Mission it’s the first debut of the iconically sexy Zero Suit but before then Samus’s unarmored clothing was a Leotard of Power or in the Golden Ending of the first game and Metroid II: Return of Samus outright lingerie.
    • In the original game, the Varia Suit (or just "Varia" as it was then known) tinted Samus's armor a slightly dull shade of pink, making no other physical appearance changes. The iconic shoulder pieces weren't introduced until Metroid II: Return of Samus, where the Game Boy's black and white palette made a more physical distinction necessary. Metroid: Zero Mission splits the difference by making the Varia Suit just an orange-tinted version of her regular Power Suit, but adds the shoulder components when she unlocks the Fully Powered Suit late in the game.
    • Early versions of the Power Suit's artwork included hoses or wires on the outside connected between the arm cannon and the upper arm. Sometimes they would also be on the other arm as well, connecting the forearm to the bicep. Some even show the Power Suit without the arm cannon attached, with a green gauntlet underneath. All of these features would be dropped, with the arm cannon not being removable except by removing the whole suit and the wires just being absent entirely. The red chest plate also was bigger, covering the whole chest down to about the navel instead of just to the bust line. The modern design, which has changed little since, was introduced in the artwork for the second game.
    • Kraid was originally a yellow creature with two eyes, green hair across his back, two belly spikes, and spikes coming from his back. Most glaringly of all, he was the same size as Samus! Super Metroid beefed up Kraid's size while changing his hair to reptilian scales, giving him a third eye on his forehead as well as adding a third belly spike and altering the back spikes to claws from his arms.
    • Ridley's appearance in the original game's artwork was... very different to what he is now, looking more like a blue mutant Birdo. Super Metroid made Ridley's proportions more reptilian, but the art colored him red as opposed to his in-game sprite's purple.
      • Kraid and Ridley's altered designs may have been the manual artists misinterpreting the sprites, as was common at the time.
    • Mother Brain's Metroid sprite had a pair of small eyes (best seen in the manual) and tusks, her face overall resembling a human's. Super Metroid changed this to a single large eye while adding in a mouth, the latter of which Metroid: Zero Mission (which has become the de facto pre-Super design) omitted.
    • The Metroids themselves originally had tentacles coming from their underside in both the Japanese and American user manual artwork, but were different depending on region; the Japanese version still had the jaws but a thick cluster of tentacles taking up all of the space under its mantel. The American version instead had just six thin tendrils and no fangs at all, but also had a mostly opaque mantel with a clear front.
  • Mortal Kombat:
    • Liu Kang did not have his trademark headband or wristbands in the first game, and his pants were solid black, instead of the half-red, half-black pants he has in most of his apperances. Johnny Cage also wore a pair of biking-short trunks and a red sash, since he was originally an expy of Jean-Claude Van Damme's character from Bloodsport (he became an expy when they couldn't get the real Van Damme to appear in MK).
    • Shang Tsung was an old man with gray hair and a long beard in the first game. Most subsequent games instead depict him as much younger, with Mortal Kombat II explaining that Shao Kahn had restored his youth.
    • Kano looks far different in the first three games than he does in the later installments. Rather than being a bearded Awesome Aussie with a full head of hair, he was bald, clean shaven, and wore martial arts gear. His more recognizable design came about due to the popularity of Trevor Goddard's portrayal of the character from the first Mortal Kombat movie, which introduced several of Kano's most iconic traits, such as the beard and Australian accent.
    • Jax didn't have his trademark metal arms in his first appearance.
    • In general, most of the male ninjas, each of whom were mere Palette Swaps in the first three games, fall under this trope due to undergoing Divergent Character Evolution once the series transitioned to 3D models. While Sub-Zero and Scorpion retained their ninja aesthetic, Reptile became an outright lizard man, Ermac became a mummy-like wraith wrapped in bandages, and so on.
  • Mortal Kombat 11:
    • Kitana is now portrayed with distinctly Asian facial features, whereas in previous games her appearance was always more vague. She was portrayed by Latinas in Mortal Kombat II and both original films, and by a white brunette in the Mortal Kombat 3 era, and her later appearances were always based on these cues. Most likely, the designers felt making her look Asian was only appropriate given that she comes from a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of East Asia.
    • In addition to giving Jacqui Briggs a more distinct play style from her father Jax, her appearance was greatly reworked as well between her debut in Mortal Kombat X and this game. In MKX, she had caramel skin, a button nose, and microbraids. In 11, she was given darker skin, larger facial features, and dreadlocks (at least in her default costume).
    • A non-visual example would be Noob Saibot's voice. In older games, he spoke normally. Here, he talks in a deep whisper that players have compared to Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. Read: he sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon villain.
    • The Joker's appearance in the Kombat Pack trailer made him look like his Gotham actor Cameron Monaghan. His final design is an unintentional Ink-Suit Actor (his face model was Kenny Braasch) of Richard Epcar.
  • Namu Amida Butsu! before being shut down and replaced with Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA- had a noticeably different art style and designs from their current -UTENA- counterparts. Not only that, the reboot game also introduces a human form for Karuraten which didn't exist in the old game.
  • In Night of the Living Robot, the Pumpkin Rabbit's overall design is very smooth and rounded and he has round Black Bead Eyes. His updated design in The Walten Files gives him oval-shaped eyes and additional detailing to make it more obvious that he's an animatronic.
  • All four protagonists of OMORI were redesigned during the transition from webcomic to game, and this is how they initially looked:
    • Omori's eyes were shaped differently, and his socks did not reach up to his knees.
    • Aubrey's shirt contrastingly did not reach down far enough, thus revealing her undergarments.
    • Kel's shirt had more, but smaller pixelated squares, and the colors were far more garish.
    • Hero's hairstyle was a relatively mundane, if disheveled cut, a far cry from his final Spiky Hair.
  • Palworld:
  • Official artwork for Pikmin (2001) portrays the titular creatures as having smaller pupils and thinner fingers and toes compared to later games in the Pikmin series.
  • Pokémon:
    • Red in Pokémon Red and Blue is depicted with bone straight hair in his sprites but has Anime Hair in his official design. This is likely because the prototypical version of him from Capsule Monsters had this hairstyle, and the sprites didn't change when his design did. His hat also has a large Poké Ball on it, which isn't from his finalized design but also appears in Capsule Monsters concept art.
    • All of Blue's sprites in Red, Blue, and Green, besides the Champion sprite, look almost nothing like his canonical design: he has the wrong clothes and has blockier hair. This design has also never been shown in any official art, even art that shows prerelease designs of other characters. It's possibly either from the Capsule Monsters stage or is an early design that wasn't changed when he gained his finalized design. Blue also changed costumes throughout the R/G/B but this was removed from FR/LG. Instead, his champion jacket reappeared in HG/SS.
    • Gym Leader Blaine's facial features were hard to make out in his sprite from the first Generation games. The manual for Red and Blue showed him as a balding man, with long hair remaining on the sides and in the back, with no facial hair or glasses. By the time the manual for Yellow was printed, his final design was settled, and he now was bald, mustachioed and bespectacled.
    • Many Pokémon looked different in the sprites for the first two generations. For example, Charmander had spikes on its back according to most adaptations (excluding the anime), the original sprites, and early official art but they were removed by Gold and Silver. Pikachu were infamously very chubby looking at first but as early as Yellow began slimming down and by the third gen were in their current, thinner design. Arbok originally had two jagged black stripes on the back of their hoods◊ which were removed in later games. Mew looked more like an embryo◊ in the original Japanese Red and Green before being given a more feline appearance◊ in the Japanese Blue and international Red and Blue. In Japanese Red and Green, Alakazam had a six-pointed star on its forehead and three toes on each foot instead of two.◊ Many pieces of early artwork also depict Pokémon in pre-release designs, such as an overly large Pikachu with a white patch on its stomach.◊note 
    • The localizations for Pokémon Gold and Silver edited several Pokémon's sprites to make them more in-line with their finalised artwork; for example, they removed the spots on Lanturn's head and an extra stripe from Feraligatr's belly. Some Pokémon remained Off-Model until Crystal, such as Sneasel being brown instead of bluish-black, Spinarak being dark purple instead of green, and Unown's W form originally had its "arms" all curved to the left instead of sticking out at different angles.
    • Venusaur had five flower petals on its back before being changed to six in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, and Farfetch'd had a light stripe on its wings in every sprite before FireRed and LeafGreen.
    • Based on its original sprite, Gastly seems to have been originally intended to be a cloud of purple vapor with eyes and a mouth◊. Ken Sugimori redesigned it as a black sphere with eyes and a mouth surrounded by dark-colored vapor◊, likely to make it look more distinctive and substantial. This version carried over into all future appearances, without much changing beyond the color of the cloud swapping between varying shades of purple.
    • Several Trainer Classes in Gen I used whips. Ace Trainers and even Gym Leaders, like Sabrina, used them. These whips were phased out in future generations. As a result the Tamer class was only used in Generation I and its remakes, being the only characters in those remakes to still use the whips.
    • Lenora was originally depicted wearing an apron, however Western fans were upset that she looked like a mammy stereotype with it on. Ever since then, she's almost never been depicted wearing her apron. She holds it over her shoulder like a cape. This extended to most adaptations, like the anime editing Lenora's appearances to include the new look (the only time she wore her apron in the anime was in her original Japanese appearance).
    • Mewtwo's original design◊ was farly stocky, with a grey-white coloring and a giant head. The Gen I remakes gave it new art with a smaller head, a more humanoid shape, and a deep purple color, but the in-game sprites still reflected the original design until Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
    • When Professor Burnet first appeared she had a lighter skin tone. It's unspecified if this is a retcon or if living in Alola has given her a sun-tan.
    • In Pokémon Zensho, Charizard looks like a Charmeleon with wings◊.
  • Puyo Puyo:
    • Ecolo is a blue humanoid blob thing. In his debut game, Puyo Puyo 7, not only does he appear taller and slimmer than in later appearances, he's a much, much darker shade of blue (almost black).
    • Arle has an early design quirk that stemmed from her Madou Monogatari roots. Her classic outfit had a red stripe on her tanktop, which never appeared again after Puyo Puyo (1991).
  • Ratchet & Clank (2002) is the only Insomniac Games Ratchet game — Secret Agent Clank and Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters both have the same Ratchet design but are made by High Impact Games — to have Ratchet with no shirt and no shoes (unless you equip the Magneboots or Grindboots from the items menu for a cosmetic effect). Every other game, he has some sort of armor or clothing that covers those bits.
  • In the Rayman series, the titular character started out with separated eyes and a red handkerchief on his neck, but starting with Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, Rayman gained Conjoined Eyes and the handkerchief became a hood instead.
  • Resident Evil:
    • In the first game, Jill actually had long hair, instead of her now iconic bob cut. It was just hard to tell because it was tucked away under her beret, and what little spilled out gave the apperance of a bob. The bad ending and ending screen showed what she looked like without it.
    • Rebecca had a bandana around her forehead and a pink choker intially. Since every subsequent appearance she made in the series was just a reuse of her Resident Evil 0 model, she is now sans bandana and wears a green choker.
    • Chris was supposed to be athletic looking but not particurally buff, as seen in the live action intro and endings and concept art, but the limited graphics (Tomb Raider I, which was released at the same time had the same problem) made him look like Hulk Hogan. By the time Resident Evil 2 had come around, graphics had improved enough that when he was included as a secret character in Extreme Battle Mode, he had slimmed down considerably. Resident Evil – Code: Veronica would set his character design down, at least until Resident Evil 5.
    • In Resident Evil 2 Claire's vest and shorts were pink. Her next appearance had her in her now familiar red vest and blue jeans. Every subsequent appearance, even in games revisiting the time period, had her in a red vest and blue jeans (though as a nod to her original appearance her jeans were cut off into Daisy Dukes for her RE2 model). She wouldn't wear pink again until the Resident Evil 2 (Remake) gave her original RE2 outfit an Updated Re-release as a bonus outfit, plus her actual RE2 model as DLC. Concept art for both 2 and CV had her wearing a red vest or jacket, with CV even giving her pink ripped jeans.
    • Also, Leon in RE2 had auburn colored hair. Every subsequent appearance sees him with dark blonde or light brown hair.
    • Ada's first appearance in Resident Evil 2 had her wearing a halter top with flat shoes. Her weapon was also a handgun rather than the submachine gun she always carried in later games. Ada's future cameos would have her dress differently each time with some form of red, wore heels, and use a grappling hook to get around. Resident Evil 2 (Remake) has her back in her halter top, but wears heels instead of flats. She goes back to using a pistol as well.
    • Steve in the original Code: Veronica had the curtains hairstyle that was wildly popular at the time and made him look not unlike Leonardo DiCaprio. The release of CVX took the product out of his hair, giving him some unruly bangs that he has had ever since.
  • In the original 16-color release of The Secret of Monkey Island, Elaine had black hair. In the upgraded 256-color re-release, this became red hair.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • In a case of American Kirby Is Hardcore, in early western media Sonic was portrayed with fauxhawk-like quills. The game sprites weren't edited but official art and adaptations used that design. Eventually it was phased out in place of the cuter canon design.note  Sonic CD's cutscenes also depicted Sonic with a more angular design not seen elsewhere, though it has reappeared in later Retraux works as a stylistic Call-Back, such as in Sonic Mania.
    • Super Sonic, too, has shifted between having completely upturned quills similar to the Super Saiyan transformation it was based on and having only partially upturned quills in a star pattern, similar to Shadow's hairstyle. For a long while it would shift back and forth depending on the game, but they've finally settled upon the original completely upturned style.
    • Dr. Eggman's design was extremely inconsistent in western art during the series early years. Originally redesigned as Dr. Robotnik with pitch-black eyes (rather than sunglasses) and a differently-shaped moustache, the western-developed Sonic Spinball used a design that looked like a cross between his Japanese and western designs. Shortly after, his design from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was adopted by the games' western art. Like Sonic, these design changes weren't reflected in his sprites, outside of western-produced games like the aforementioned Spinball and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. After 1995 or so, his Japanese design was adopted by the games worldwide, being used even in western-produced games like Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island and Sonic R.
    • In Knuckles' first appearance in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, his fur is a pinkish color. It's clear from the official artwork that he was intended to be red, as he is in all future appearances.
    • Probably the most well-known examples from this series are the redesigns for Sonic Adventure, which were made partially as a Soft Reboot and partially because Sonic's original design was difficult to translate into 3D (older games often relied on Cheated Angles). Aside from the longer proportions and new eye colors, the most obvious differences were made with Dr. Eggman—whose walrus-inspired jumpsuit was replaced with an outfit reminiscent of a lab coat—and Amy Rose—who also gained a new outfit and quills designed like a "bob cut" instead of her original, more Minnie Mouse-esque look. Speaking of Amy, in her first appearance in Sonic CD, she lacked her Piko Piko Hammer; that was introduced in Sonic the Fighters.
    • In Sonic Adventure 2, Super Shadow's main fur color was a silvery white. Afterwards, it shifted between being as gold as Super Sonic and varying lighter shades of gold, before settling into a lemon cream color.
    • Though he officially debuted in Sonic Colors alongside his counterpart Cubot, a prototypical version of Orbot appeared in Sonic Unleashed, named SA-55. The primary difference is in his color scheme, having a white dome with red eyes instead of the reverse.
  • In the Soul Series, Siegfried started out with short blonde hair in Soul Edge. All following releases have him with long, flowing blonde hair aside from his 2P outfit in Soulcalibur III: it brings back the medium-length blonde hair, possibly as a reference to his debut. Similarly, in SoulEdge, a prototype of Nightmare can be accessed as his unlockable costume Siegfried!, he however has dark red armor instead of the purple/blue that Nightmare has in the SoulCalibur games.
    • Both the SC1 and SC3 depictions of Rock have him as more of a masked warlord character, but in the SoulEdge/SoulBlade his costumes generally show his face completely and he doesn't have much armor. In addition, whilst being the slowest character in the game, he's still faster than in his later depictions.
    • SoulEdge has Li Long who reappeared in SoulCalibur 3 but with a different design in which he wears a long jacket and sedge shade. His topknot hairstyle is kept between both versions, but his secondary costumes in SoulEdge had a shaved head, which was not reused in the later versions.
  • Splatterhouse: The Terror Mask initially looked more akin to a normal hockey mask in the first game. Starting from the sequels however, to avoid accusations of ripping off Friday the 13th, it became more akin to a skull.
  • In both Star Fox and its comic tie-in, the Star Fox team is represented in an unapologetically dark and gritty style, focusing on realistic textures and animalistic expressions. Star Fox 64 and its remake both used a much more cartoony look overall, in keeping with the lighter tone. Additionally, in the original game, its manual, and all official media related to it, the entire Star Fox team is clearly and consistently depicted with identical robotic prosthetics for legs - a design trend that persisted as late as their appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. This created a popular fan theory that the characters legs were replaced with prosthetics to handle extreme G-forces without passing out, which just happens to make sense. However, Miyamoto himself confirmed that the prosthetics were originally a gaffe thought up by the developers as a way to justify the design choice to give them all human-like legs. Future games clearly depict the team wearing suspiciously large boots instead.
  • Story of Seasons:
  • Street Fighter:
    • In the oft-forgotten Street Fighter, Ryu has reddish hair and wears a pair of red shoes. In the games chronologically after it, he Prefers Going Barefoot and has pointed it out numerous times.
    • In the same game, Birdie is a fair-skinned, light-toned man. In his next appearance (Street Fighter Alpha), he's black and slightly bulkier. He explains: "I was pale because I was sick!"
    • While Sagat was always tall, his physique was fairly lean in the first two games when compared to the bulky design he would sport from Street Fighter Alpha onward.
    • M. Bison / Dictator was fairly slim in Street Fighter II, but was redesigned to sport a massive, muscular physique in Street Fighter Alpha. Most subsequent games have kept the bulk from the latter design, with only a few non-canon crossovers like the SNK vs. Capcom series utilizing his original look. Canonically, Dictator's Street Fighter 2 appearance is actually a cloned body that he transferred his consciousness to after his original, larger body was destroyed at the end of Street Fighter Alpha 3. Also, he had distinctly Asian facial features (seemingly owing to his stage being in Thailand) and red eyes with visible irises in the early versions of Street Fighter II, while all subsequent games starting with Super Street Fighter II have depicted him as racially ambiguous and given him Monochromatic Eyes. His cap also sported a star in his first appearance, which would later be replaced with the Shadaloo skull insignia.
    • Balrog / Boxer's portrait art in the original Street Fighter II made it very obvious that he was modeled after Mike Tyson. Super Street Fighter II greatly lessened the resemblance, presumably due to worries about potential legal issues.
    • In the Alpha games, Shin Akuma originally looked pretty much exactly like regular Akuma, just with a purple gi rather than a black one. His most defining feature, a head of white (or light gray) hair, didn't come about until Street Fighter III: Second Impact.
  • Strider: Strider Hiryu initially lacked his signature Scarf of Asskicking, which he obtained in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes and got incorporated into his series.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Mario had a blue shirt and red overalls in Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, and Wrecking Crew. His colors were swapped around in the arcade version of Mario Bros., resulting in a blue cap and overalls and a red shirt; the NES version would change the cap back to red but keep the blue overalls, marking the first in-game appearance of his iconic clothing color arrangement. Shigeru Miyamoto's artwork for Super Mario Bros., The Lost Levels (the Japanese SMB2), and the game the rest of the world knows as Super Mario Bros. 2, all kept Mario in his original Donkey Kong colors, though the in-game sprites would differ (SMB1 and The Lost Levels had red overalls and a brown shirt, while SMB2 had blue overalls and a red shirt and cap like NES Mario Bros.). Super Mario Bros. 3 was the first game where Miyamoto's artwork consistently had him in blue overalls (the in-game sprites on the NES version had the blue portions rendered in black in most levels, though the larger sprites for the Toad minigames, as well as the Mario Bros.-style battle game, had him in blue overalls). The blue shirt and red overalls would eventually return in Super Mario Odyssey as an alternate outfit. Also, promotional artwork for Donkey Kong depicted Mario as a middle-aged balding man◊ (which is also how he looked in the live-action film), but Nintendo has since retconned Mario into a twenty-something and shown him to possess a full head of hair underneath his plumber's cap. Mario's limbs were also much stubbier◊ in early artwork, making him appear rather stocky, however modern art gives him longer limbs◊ which gives the impression that he's actually lost weight in the intervening decades.
    • Likewise, Luigi had a black shirt and green overalls in the original arcade Mario Bros., and a green shirt and white overalls (resembling his modern Fire Flower form) in the original NES Super Mario Bros. Some re-releases gave him a brown shirt-green overall combo to better sync with Mario's colors (or, in the case of the Super Mario All-Stars version, the blue shirt-green overalls), and made the old green shirt-white overalls look his Fire Flower form instead.
    • In Super Mario Bros., Toad wore a red vest. Super Mario Bros. 2 changed it to dark blue in-game, while in the artworks it was more purple. Super Mario Bros. 3 brought back the red vest, but the blue/purple one came back for a decade. Super Mario Sunshine then introduced, along with various Toads with differently colored vests and mushroom spots, a yellow trim around the vest, which was kept since then.
    • Daisy wore a pink crown in her older appearances (which appeared as red sometimes), but somewhere around Mario Kart: Double Dash!! it was replaced with a golden one like Peach's crown. Her hair was also long like Peach until it was cropped shorter in Mario Party 4. Daisy was Ambiguously Brown during the Nintendo 64 era but returned to her original tone for Mario Party 4. 19 years later however, Daisy become dark-skinned again starting with Mario Golf: Super Rush, seemingly confirming it to be a tan.
    • Bowser had several design quirks in his early days before he was fully fleshed out. Shigeru Miyamoto first drew Bowser in artwork used on the Japanese box◊ where he has blue/grey skin and black eyebrows. His sprite in the original game is green but lacks the red hair. Bowser's eye color in his early official art were blue before they changed to red. Bowser's body was also stocky with short legs, a round stomach, and a fairly large head. Around the time of Super Mario Sunshine, Bowser's limbs were lengthened so he would look taller and his head and torso were made smaller.
    • Starting from Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Birdo wears a ring with a giant diamond on her right middle finger.
    • Wario originally wore a long-sleeved shirt like the other characters in overalls, but since Wario Land II he's often been seen wearing a short-sleeved one. He's consistently portrayed with short sleeves in Wario's own games, but alternated between them and the long sleeves in the Mario spin-offs before permanently settling on the short ones. His face was also more Gonkish, with a bigger nose bearing a deep shade of pink, while he almost always had cross-eyes. Later games would slightly trim down the nose and make it a lighter shade of pink while his eyes lost the demented look.
    • Pauline was originally depicted as a blonde in illustrations for the arcade and Famicom versions of Donkey Kong, but became a brunette in Donkey Kong '94, presumably to distinguish her from Peach (who at that point had already appeared in more games than Pauline and was a more recognizable character as a result). Additionally her in-game sprite wore an old-timey dress in the original arcade and NES game, but it was changed in the Game Boy version to better match the tight red dress she wears in the promotional art.
    • With the original Mario Golf and Mario Tennis, Peach and Daisy both wore shorter versions of their main dresses (though the dresses date back to NES Open Tournament Golf). Starting with Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour both princesses instead began wearing sports-geared outfits. Peach also began putting her hair in a ponytail for sports games. Rosalina didn't get her own sporty dress until Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash. Before that she wore her normal dress in all games besides her Mario Kart appearances.
    • Yoshi was less-anthropomorphized◊ in Super Mario World compared to how he would look later on. Certain spin-offs, such as Super Smash Bros. 64 and Super Smash Bros. Melee, also stayed closer to Yoshi's original depiction.
    • The Swoop(er) enemy from Super Mario World was green in its initial game but blue in subsequent games. According to the games files, in development for World it was blue but they changed it to green later on.
    • The Ninji enemies introduced in Super Mario Bros. 2 were originally black star-shaped creatures with red fanged mouths◊. In Super Mario World, Ninjis were reinterpreted as chubby little white characters in ninja outfits (with their red mouths morphing into two big red buttons)◊, a design that has been used for the species in all future appearances. The one exception has been their sprites in the All-Stars and Advance remakes of 2, which used revamped versions of their original designs◊ despite official artwork at the time still using their current designs.
    • Princess Peach's dress was first white with a red trim in Super Mario Bros., but later appearances would have her in the classic pink dress. The white dress was used as her Fire Flower costume in Super Mario 3D World and it was also used (along with her sprite) as her power up form in Super Paper Mario. She was also depicted with red hair in the NES games due to graphical limitations. Super Mario World made her a blonde and she's since stayed that way.
    • Luigi's Mansion: The character designs in this game served the basis of subsequent 3D Mario games (unlike Super Smash Bros. Melee, which featured completely different character designs). Even then, certain details were different here — Luigi's pant legs are rolled up (a trait that carried over to Super Smash Bros. Brawl), Toad's vest lacks the yellow trim, and the Boos' middle two fangs are missing. All of these have been updated with the more familiar elements in the 3DS remake.
  • Super Smash Bros.: Master Hand more closely resembled a glove in Super Smash Bros. 64, complete with a rim around his wrist. From Super Smash Bros. Melee onwards, the wrist would be altered to instead appear as if it was fading into nothingness.
  • The protagonist of Sushi Cat gained tabby stripes between the first two games.
  • The Tekken series had a few of these especially for such a long-running series.
    • In the first two games, Heihachi had black hair instead of the gray hair he's usually seen with. His black hair would be show up again in TTT2 due to a much younger Heihachi.
    • Devil looked completely different in the first game, lacking wings, horns or a tail (though the wings were at least present on his character render). He also wore an outfit consisting of gloves, trunks and boots, in contrast to nearly all subsequent installments, where he would be completely nude.
    • Nina Williams' hair had bangs in the first two games, before being made straighter in follow-ups. Likewise, Anna's hair was jet black before changing to a lighter brunette in Tekken 3.
    • Paul was clean-shaven in the first two games.
    • Yoshimitsu lacked a hat or helmet in original Tekken, instead sporting long red hair. He was also clearly a human wearing a flamboyant costume in the first two games, with his design showing some exposed skin and even a visible mouth beneath his mask in Tekken 2. Tekken 3 was the first game to give him a freakish, almost alien appearance that called his true species into question, a trend that has continued to this day.
    • Likewise, Kunimitsu was essentially a Palette Swap of Yoshimitsu in the first game, sporting an identical physique and demon mask. She was completely redesigned for the sequel, at which point she gained a more feminine appearance and her trademark kitsune mask.
    • Prototype Jack looked considerably different in the first Tekken, sporting a haphazard design that included an exposed torso frame, a drill for one arm, a mechanical pincer for the other, and a mohawked head that resembled that of the standard Jack model. His more familiar, streamlined look with the sunglasses, green tank top and metallic skin, wouldn't debut until Tekken 2. A number of Jack 7's customization items in Tekken 7 are a nod to the Tekken 1 P. Jack.
    • In her debut appearance, Christie had untied hair, before adopting the ponytail in Tekken 5.
  • Taifu was completely redesigned in Temtem's 1.0 update. It used to stand upright, have a mostly off-white torso, and have a cape on its back, but now it looks more like a bigger version of Hidody. It's hunched forwards and has a mostly green torso, with leaves around its neck.
  • Speaking of Tomb Raider Lara is a lot different looking in Tomb Raider I then she is in any other game in the series, for different reasons. The graphical fidelity and processing power of 1996 just wasn't there yet to fully realize Core's vision, so Lara had to forgo her iconic braid outside of FMVs, and also had to settle for a rather angular chest and obvious spaces between her joints. Some other differences were just artistic choices, like having red laces in her boots instead of tan and her leotard being all the way up to her neck instead of cut around her shoulders.
  • Reimu and Marisa from Touhou Project, especially in the PC-98 era. Reimu started out wearing a much more plain and basic miko outfit, without the ribbons and her memetic armpits. She also had purple hair. Marisa, famous for her black-white witch dress, started out wearing purple. She also had red hair instead of blonde, although only in her first appearance.
  • Twinbee:
    • The titular ship and main character, Twinbee, looked like a blue rocket ship with arms◊ in his first few games. When Detana!! Twinbeenote  was released in 1991, Twinbee was redesigned into◊ his more familiar spherical form, complete with two bell shaped thrusters, a pair of legs, a mouth and windscreen for eyes. note 
    • On a related note, Winbee and Gwinbee were originally generic Twinbee recolors. Detana!! gave them new, distinct designs.
    • Also, no one could decide what color Winbee should have been. Official artwork for Twinbee and Moreo! Twinbee gave her a red color, but the in-game sprites made her pink. Even worse, Twinbee 3 made her red in-game! Fortunately, Detana!! set things straight by making pink her permanent color.
  • For a while, Needles Kane A.K.A. Sweet Tooth, the Series Mascot of Twisted Metal didn't nail down a distinct appearance. In the first game, he was a very grotesque looking green-haired clown who lacked the Flaming Hair he would have in future installments (which would base his design more off the Sweet Tooth truck). The second introduced the trademark flaming hair, but notably looks different between the character select screen and his ending (where he had black eyes and appeared to be melting). The 989 titles (which have since been ignored) played up the clown aspect, and the 4th game gave Sweet Tooth a "circus" theme, giving him a ringmaster outfit. Black is the installment which finalized Needles' characterization and appearance as a large, imposing man wearing a scary clown mask and having flaming hair.
  • Yeah Jam Fury: Jam's eyes were crescent-shaped in the original game, becoming more sharper in U, Me, Everybody!.

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top