After the excitement of yesterday with the introduction of Co-op mode, today we have the artwork, profile and 3D model of Axl (plus a fun, poll). More after the break!
As always via the Official Facebook page:
“Maybe I can figure out who am I by join Maverick Hunter......"
First appearance in 《Mega Man X7》.
He is a Reploid that has black armour and spiky orange hair.
Axl is a teenager-like Reploid,
but there is no official record about him.
Also, via the official Facebook page there's a little pole where the development team want to know if you're left handed or right handed. Cast your vote HERE.
First appearance in 《Mega Man X7》.
He is a Reploid that has black armour and spiky orange hair.
Axl is a teenager-like Reploid,
but there is no official record about him.
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Axl is so cute!! Besides Zero, he's one of the best characters!! Always thought his hair was more reddish-auburn, though? But then, it is entirely possible for it to be orange; Reploids can have any crazy color of hair that they want like blue or purple or yellow...
ReplyDeleteEveryone's favorite red-headed stepchild.
DeleteYou're crazy. Everything about the Axl character is bland or awful (just like the game that spawned him). But I especially loath the ugly and forgettable mishmash of blandness that is his visual design. Definitely the worst "main" character in any MM series. X7 and Axl should have never happened.
DeleteYou do know what red-headed stepchild means, right?
DeleteAxl: 😕😯
DeleteMan chill that's because the X series isn't well written
DeleteI hope that the future games have more story plot to make characters look better
Also, I believe that you haven't played X8
If X7 had never happened Axl would just been introduced in X8 (which would have been X7 in that case... but semantics); as it stands X8 definitely improved Axl both in characterization and gameplay. His design doesn't strike me as particularly bad, certainly more detailed than the likes of X or Zero, but not bad.
DeleteX7 is my least favorite game in the serie, but X8 redeemed Axl to me. I don't see how is design is any more bland than any MMX character though, if anything i used to find it not simple enough compared to some others.
DeleteAlso, just because you don't like him does'nt mean you should talk like this to thoses who does.
Command Mission and X8 seemed to handle him well enough, so I think he's a decent addition to the X series roster. As long as you ignore X7.
DeleteThat being said, the poor guy only got to be in two decent games before the entire series went on a hiatus, so it's no wonder people never got used to him being part of the team.
I guess everyone's entitled to his own opinion...😕
DeleteI just don't see where he's bland, myself.
And, actually, no, I'm not sure what you meant by redheaded stepchild. I just thought it was a pleasant-sounding figure of speech used to describe Axl. :)
DeleteI agree that X7 is by far the least quality game of the series; the voice acting and controls were always what annoyed me about it the most. But I still like it despite the fact that it did leave a lot to be desired. I don't really see what everyone dislikes about Axl from the game; I actually thought he was one of the best things about it, and actually had some of the most natural voice acting of any of the other characters. (Strictly off the record, but X's voice rrrrreeeeeeaaaalllllllyyyyyyy rubs me the wrong way in X7.He was much better in X8.) Axl was just a kid who found himself misplaced among a less-than-desirable group of mobsters and realized theybwere using him to carry out less-than-desirable plans. He only wanted to prove to everyone that he really had it in him to turn over a new leaf, and thus decided to become a Maverick Hunter. I really feel sorry for the kid. It's not like he ever meant to be bad. And, of course, in X8, he had begun to mature in many ways and his delightful personality blossomed in all its glory.
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DeleteVisually Axl looks like a badly arranged messed up version of Zero, outside of the chest armor orb thing (I think that was inspired by Bass) which I think is slightly better than two orbs across the chest armor, but that is a small detail, I mostly mean overall structure. Zero looks like his design has direction and intention and is meaningfully distinct from X, Axl looks likes he's shoehorned into a weird template of what a MMX(character not series) style Reploid would look like as a new main hero following the precedent set buy Zero.
Zero was MMX but the designers wanted a faster paced more action and movement heavy Mega Man that invoked the the sense of a fireball moving across the screen, a drastic difference from classic Mega Man which was more methodical, cautious and platformer oriented. If you were to blur Zero dashing across the screen at high speeds he does look like a fireball. The mostly red armor was also a stark contrast to the calm blue of Mega Man which also came about due to game design, albeit the limitations of it at the time, Zero is then complimented by a lot of yellow in the back area to better reflect the strong amber and luminosity of an actual flame, a common mix of colors in character design to suggest a fiery theme, The back area is yellow and Zero himself is mostly red as a reflection of the root controlling part of the flame which is usually the most red-like part. Zero's armor is more jagged and with sharp pointed edges to give a well, more edgy and intensive look, his helmet has projecting horn-like pieces to give him a devilish appearance and such compared to the more rounded and compact design of Mega Man. Once he developed into Zero and MMX proper was established and the designers had to differentiate Zero even further as the now side character, they then re-appropriated what was already established to fit what would become that of a rouge or lone Samurai. The wrap at the beginning point of his ponytail is now emphasized to show a stronger connection to the style associated with Miyamoto Musashi and his legacy of inspired works, this is made more evident as now Zero's primary weapon is a Sword-like weapon His personality also more reflects this with a strong willed yet calm demeanor.
Or take Vile for example, Boba Fett jokes aside (which no joke a Boba Fett claim can be made for the X8 design, but let's not talk about that and talk about the more general design principles used for about 80% of his appearances in most official works). He draws from a common enemy in the Classic series by name of Joe which is known for variants. Capcom just took that concept and re-imagined it as a major reoccurring antagonist. He is mostly designed with purple to denote death and chaos, something associated with the color in Japan and other places around the world (poison and decay in western European places). His helmet's facial openings around the eyes curve downward a trait associated with the Joe series but unlike the Joes the opening extends downward from the middle of what would be the nose area or in between two eyes, giving him a more Spartan warrior like twist. On the rare occasion where we see part of his face, he is shown to use one glowing red eye further associating him with the Joes, particularly Sniper Joes (an already great design element). He is giving a shoulder cannon to emphasize the idea that he is not hyper dynamic with the movement of his weapon and is more akin to causing damage from afar, or in other words sniping often from above with what is often tracking projectiles.
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DeleteNow I'm not saying theme designing is always necessary for great design, I'm just saying there are ways to design characters that work well. Actually I think Axl is a great example of BAD theme designing right down to his name.
I assume they thought *well we've designed a character that has multiple guns designed for a game that allows for multi-directional firing or in other words at many of axis lets call him Axl as it relates to the etymological Axle or maybe straight up Axle as it signifies spin and wheel rotations. It feels too on the nose. You might be tempted to say that X and Zero's names are random or nonsensical but they are exactly not. X is connotative with infinity and Zero the extreme opposite of that which is nothingness, both concepts are hard to philosophically understand and grasp, however one invokes endless creation the other complete destruction, something constantly represented by both characters respectively. Together tho, they are complimentary and pull each other back to the middle and create balance. I assume Axl has his color scheme as a throwback to Bass/Bass.exe since they share other design commonalities but it doesn't work for Axl. For one dark colors are usually authoritative dictating the colors they mix with. Light colors are more passive and are manipulated more. That is why when you add colors you get darker shades also mixing all primary colors gives you an extremely dark brown(pretty much black) as it absorbs white but white is reflective and is made vibrant due to the addition of light particles. So naturally when you think of a shapeshifter's most sensible color association you'd think of brightness, or vivid colors or something, not grays and and dark blues, something I think Lumine does better than Axl in that department. Lumine is also alien-like and angelic more reflective of newness (technologically) and mysteriousness (something Axl's technology and origin is known for), but I digress. Also none of this stuff is congruent to Axl's hotshot rapid fire design elements. Here's where in my opinion Axl falls the most flat, Axl IS NOT ZERO. Why then are they using Zero's visual design elements to design Axl? I think they actually looked at Zero and said something like, *Zero is genius, X and Zero can wildly change armors and even use the same weapons and people will never confuse the two characters for one and other, why is that? *IT'S THE HAIR AND SILHOUETTE! So then they tried their best to add random parts to Axl's design, seemingly just so he can have a distinct silhouette. *Let's give him futuristic hand guns, that is different. *What kind of hair should he have? *Spiky! *Isn't Zero's hair already spiky? *Yeah but this time shorter and more spiky! *What kind of helmet? *Like Zero's but not like Zero's. *Like this? *Yes prefect! *Also add a cross-like scar on his face. *Why? *Title is RMX, scar looks like an X. *Oooooh I see, excellent, excellent. Obviously a facetious misrepresentation of the creative process but this is what it feels like to me happened. Anyway I can go on and on but I've gone on long enough.
God, his X-Dive art is so gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteNecesito los modelos de cinnamon y la nueva waifu secreta.
ReplyDelete