sordsy
Member
in retrospect, the fact that yamato has been a placeholder alien this whole time is painfully obvious. the grey skin, completely black eyes, and elongated head are all classic physical traits of the greys. for some reason i just did not even register this, i just immediately accepted that "yamato just kind of looks like that, got it" as a stylistic choice, in a similar way to how pyro in tf2 was rather enigmatic and unexplained. is she wearing headgear? do all japanese people in deadlock look like this? is her playermodel unfinished? is her headshot hitbox bigger?? all questions i did not parse because i was too busy enjoying the idea of players having to come to terms with being bested in combat by someone with an almond-shaped noggin. long did i hope to hear tf2-style domination voicelines from the other characters relentlessly focusing on one physical aspect of my character. i laid in bed at night, imagining the sfm meet the team cutscenes where yamato makes everyone uncomfortable, as they tiptoe around her bizarre appearance and mannerisms; misunderstanding them to be facets of japanese culture they weren't familiar with. even though yamato is obviously just a stock grey alien in a halloween costume. i miss those dreams.
her face, soon to be lost to time and swapped with the ever popular red-on-white oshiroi used by kabuki and geisha. maybe we'll even see her unchanging comic debut iron man face replaced by the beloved snaggletoothed oni visage we've seen in nearly every popular piece of media to feature japan. i'll be the first to admit that i always gladly slurp that sludge up like the degenerate i am, but in defense of helping yamato retain 63% of her current cranial mass, i will become the oni's most fervent hater and the concept artist's greatest enemy. i believe the concept art isn't final, but in it yamato looks like she thinks she's epic and badass but imo it's coming off like she's doing those music-synced facial expression videos you see on tiktok. the proposed concept facial expression is more lightning mcqueen while the ingame placeholder is a tow mater. i cannot express this in simpler terms.
the greatest repercussion of reworking yamato's visual identity is that you will have another made yet another played-straight "i am so cool and japanese" sword character. the archetype goes by many names throughout the realms, some of the most commonly recognized being: yasuo, genji, ronin, mercenary, longsword, ninja, and samurai among others. these characters are a plague onto their games as everyone must simply play as them: they are so cool. they truly really are. but for some reason everyone just sucks as them so they just walk in circles and die all game long. now me, having drawn myself as the chad, have just maxed out movement speed imagining how funny it will be once deadlock is fully released and jigglebones have been properly applied to yamato's kingdom of the crystal skull, swaying back and forth in the new york "air" like a holding a hotdog out of a moving car window.
it's not too late to pivot, valve. some have been discussing how yamato's voicelines are likely placeholder as well, with native japanese speakers pointing out that yamato reeked of google translate. what if she was an alien USING google translate? you could save on having to rerecord voice lines and paying the concept artist, all while side-stepping the pitfalls of translation. if you want to be extra evil you could use an ai generated voice, doing that always makes headlines. which this game will need after players like me leave in droves upon discovering valve forced yamato, a migrant woman suffering from familial-based trauma, to undergo cosmetic reconstructive facial surgery because gamers could not handle the peak female form required to achieve a golden rotation via pirouetting through the air using a grappling hook. that's right, it's a realism issue as well, and i'm just warning you now: my immersion is about to be broken.
i'm in denial. the writing is on the wall that my favorite character has been yet again reworked. how has yamato been doomfisted before the game has even been released? imagine you've memorized the unsightly head shape of your best friend, then you wake up one day and their head looked like a normal guy head. would you not reject normality? would you not end up being hospitalized for a break in sanity? would you not be radicalized to fighting back against the matrix? this is the worst thing to ever happen to anyone who has ever lived... valve, do you really want to make a man who has suffered more than any other person real or fictional... your enemy?
please let me keep placeholder yamato as a skin blue and yellow are my favorite colors
her face, soon to be lost to time and swapped with the ever popular red-on-white oshiroi used by kabuki and geisha. maybe we'll even see her unchanging comic debut iron man face replaced by the beloved snaggletoothed oni visage we've seen in nearly every popular piece of media to feature japan. i'll be the first to admit that i always gladly slurp that sludge up like the degenerate i am, but in defense of helping yamato retain 63% of her current cranial mass, i will become the oni's most fervent hater and the concept artist's greatest enemy. i believe the concept art isn't final, but in it yamato looks like she thinks she's epic and badass but imo it's coming off like she's doing those music-synced facial expression videos you see on tiktok. the proposed concept facial expression is more lightning mcqueen while the ingame placeholder is a tow mater. i cannot express this in simpler terms.
the greatest repercussion of reworking yamato's visual identity is that you will have another made yet another played-straight "i am so cool and japanese" sword character. the archetype goes by many names throughout the realms, some of the most commonly recognized being: yasuo, genji, ronin, mercenary, longsword, ninja, and samurai among others. these characters are a plague onto their games as everyone must simply play as them: they are so cool. they truly really are. but for some reason everyone just sucks as them so they just walk in circles and die all game long. now me, having drawn myself as the chad, have just maxed out movement speed imagining how funny it will be once deadlock is fully released and jigglebones have been properly applied to yamato's kingdom of the crystal skull, swaying back and forth in the new york "air" like a holding a hotdog out of a moving car window.
it's not too late to pivot, valve. some have been discussing how yamato's voicelines are likely placeholder as well, with native japanese speakers pointing out that yamato reeked of google translate. what if she was an alien USING google translate? you could save on having to rerecord voice lines and paying the concept artist, all while side-stepping the pitfalls of translation. if you want to be extra evil you could use an ai generated voice, doing that always makes headlines. which this game will need after players like me leave in droves upon discovering valve forced yamato, a migrant woman suffering from familial-based trauma, to undergo cosmetic reconstructive facial surgery because gamers could not handle the peak female form required to achieve a golden rotation via pirouetting through the air using a grappling hook. that's right, it's a realism issue as well, and i'm just warning you now: my immersion is about to be broken.
i'm in denial. the writing is on the wall that my favorite character has been yet again reworked. how has yamato been doomfisted before the game has even been released? imagine you've memorized the unsightly head shape of your best friend, then you wake up one day and their head looked like a normal guy head. would you not reject normality? would you not end up being hospitalized for a break in sanity? would you not be radicalized to fighting back against the matrix? this is the worst thing to ever happen to anyone who has ever lived... valve, do you really want to make a man who has suffered more than any other person real or fictional... your enemy?
please let me keep placeholder yamato as a skin blue and yellow are my favorite colors
