And to this day, no character design has been able to dethrone who I believe rightfully holds the spot as the best design of the game, Zhongli.

Zhongli's attire is a perfectly balanced mix between the classic look of a modern business suit and a hanfu, the traditional Chinese attire.

The layering is reminiscent of the many layers of the hanfu, and its careful placement creates shapes that resemble a proper shirt, vest, a tie, and jacket. And while the typical looseness of the hanfu is lost in favor of the business-man silhouette. The Chinese influence is reinforced through the intricate patterns and accessories featured, such as the tassels.

The color scheme is notoriously dark and neutral in comparison to the usually colorful and bright color palettes seen in other characters. The choice of using mostly brown and the occasional black, gray, and white lend him a more mature and formal appearance than if he were to wear brighter colors. The golden and silver accents, as well as the jewelry he wears, give the design an air of luxury.

This is clearly a man with a lot of money and with a high social status, possibly due to the job that he is so dressed up for.

Socially and culturally speaking, this design has a great execution. Now, when it comes to the storytelling of the game and the narrative behind this design… Oh my god, I love it!

The god of money and contracts, and divine ruler of the nation of commerce, choosing to step down from his role to live the rest of his days under a mortal disguise, is already cool. But to make his facade be that of a stereotypical businessman is just such a great way of creating a design that is equally representing of his personality as we see it in the present, as well as being a window into his real identity.

You could easily show Zhongli's character to anyone with zero knowledge of Genshin's story and describe him by either of his identities. In both cases, the viewer's natural reaction should be something along the lines of “yeah, that checks out”, because his design is perfectly coherent either way!

Such a simple decision yet it is without a doubt the best possible execution for the character.

Before we start, I'd like to apologize in advance for my tone. I usually prefer to write my analyses in a neutral and somewhat professional voice, but I feel that for this case study, not filtering my emotions towards the character helps drive the point I'm trying to make. So please bear with me for a moment.

Firstly, Genshin has a bad record of putting significantly less effort into accurately representing cultures that are not East Asian or European. So one would hope that, at the very least, they refrain from using harmful clichés or negative stereotypes for the characters of the nation supposedly based on Latin American cultures, African cultures and also indigenous peoples.

Secondly, Varesa is the first “plus size” character of Genshin Impact. Which should be celebrated! Hooray for representations of diverse bodies, even if her body type still remains a perfect hourglass figure! Except that milestone is immediately cancelled out by the fact that it is her main character trait.

Look! She is a plus size character… because she is part cow! And look, she is even depicted in her official art eating a damn taco. Added in case you didn't know that she is a glutton and that is why she is so fat! Just a gentle reminder, this girl is fat and also Mexican! And just in case it wasn't clear enough that she is fat, they also made sure to make her a competitive eater!

Just wow… how original. Like come on, is it really necessary to center her entire character around her body weight? Is there really nothing interesting that could be made with her concept?

Worst of all, her design barely contains any elements that would tie her to any real-world latin culture. And as far as I know, being a competitive eater is not typically Latin American, and neither are cows.

“Oh! But she's also supposed to be a wrestler!”

True, she is a wrestler! Except she's not even based on Mexican wrestlers. Instead, she takes after the fashion and fighting style of female Japanese wrestlers. They had the chance to base her design and move set on actual Mexican luchadores. AND THEY DIDN'T DO IT.

The only element of her design that remotely resembles Mexican influence is the mask that appears on her face in her splash art and in game when as you play as her. Which is similar to that of the mask seen on the undeniably WWE inspired belt tied around her. But that is about it.

Varesa's design was never meant to be a heartfelt depiction of any kind of culture, or a thoughtful take on a well-known stereotype.

Varesa is, plainly put, a marketing strategy. And a good one at that.

Here is the point I am actually trying to make.

Given how far into its development cycle Genshin Impact is, and the success of rival gacha games such as Zenless Zone Zero or Wuthering waves. Both of which have earned quite the reputation due to the very appealing “characteristics” of their female characters. Interest for the game is decreasing, and in order to stay in the mind of the public, they need to do something. And at the moment, the gacha genre is seeing more success by leaning into highly sexualized female characters whose thighs and breasts jiggle aggressively when they walk. Bonus points if they also have cute animal features.

Therefore, Varesa. A character that fits into the current trend in the genre. And she does so perfectly.

Her design is the epitome of cuteness. Her color palette, composed of soft pastels, suit her sweet and innocent personality and is in line with the kawaii fashion typical of the previously mentioned Japanese wrestlers. The black present in the skirt and crop top greatly contrast with the lighter colors in a way that draws attention to the size and shape of those parts of her figure.

The knitted sleeves and the leg warmers provide her design with a cozy and comfortable look. One can almost imagine the tactile feel of these clothes. They look soft, the kind of soft that you want to cuddle, and therefore so does she. The over-accessorizing of the outfit with hearts, band-aids and ribbons is also reminiscent of a particular Japanese fashion called Decora-kei. And lastly, she notoriously is the only female character in the game not wearing high heels or platforms, but rather sneakers.

As much as I despise Varesa's design for being such a painfully unoriginal, insulting stereotype, made solely to follow a trend in a desperate attempt to maintain the game's relevance. It does an excellent job at what it was designed to do.

Attract a demographic that is willing to give Hoyoverse their support and money, while riling up the biggest critics of the game, who will complain online and put more eyes on their product.

And Ann has got to have the most striking one out of the cast of P5.

Ann's story revolves around the topic of SA.

In the story, we meet Ann while she finds herself stuck in a situation where her school's gym teacher forces her to go out with him or else he will kick out of the school's volleyball team Ann's best friend. At one point Ann denies granting her abuser a favor, which the game does not directly state, but is heavily implied to be sexual in nature. In response to her defiance, her abuser takes it out on her best friend instead, and once again, what he did to that girl is left to the players imagination but it's implied to be rape.

Moving forward to the turning point in Ann's character arc, she awakens her persona and fights back against her abuser, refusing to continue to submit to his whims anymore and take revenge for what he has done.

Dressed up in a full body latex suit with zippers going across her entire body, down her legs, back, and leaving an opening for her chest. The bright red was a great choice due to it's associations with lust, as well as other emotions such as anger. The thigh high boots, the bright pink gloves, the feline mask and the decision to equip her with a whip as her signature weapon, are all in line with a bdsm theme where she takes on a dominating role. Metaphorically, this is a transformation where she not only regains control of her own body and sexuality, but also earns the power to control others.

To further cement this statement of reclaiming one's sexual appeal and weaponizing it. The mythical figure chosen as her persona is none other than Carmen from the opera of the same name by Georges Bizet. Possibly one of the most well known representations of the Femme fatale. Carmen's design is purposefully made to be a more exaggerated and dramatic version of Ann's design as they share hairstyle, body type, as well as elements of her costume such as the feline mask or the shape of the boob window. I would also like to point out the detail that she is smoking a cigar, not just because Carmen works in a tobacco factory in the opera, but also because of the image of a female smoker as a historical symbol of female liberation.

All in all these designs are great! They are thematically sound and in touch with the history of the visuals being portrayed, therefore the design alone can carry the weight of conveying the character's growth, without the ingame dialogue having to mention it.

In my past posts about Edelgard and Dimitri, a great part of my reading on their designs is based on the story that said designs embody. Claude is a character that exists entirely divorced from the main plot of the game he is supposed to be a protagonist of. He barely has anything tying him to the war, and more importantly, his defyning personality trait is his air of mystery. How little he lets on about who he is as a person is his main appeal.

So, how exactly do you make a design that is intertwined with the story, for a character that refuses to be at the center of it?

The answer is very simple: You don't!

As is both the child of a powerful noble from the Leicester Alliance and the heir to the throne of the neighbor country of Almyra. Claude is a stranger to both of his home countries, too much of the other to actually belong in either. And this aspect of his racial identity is reflected in the clothes he wears.

His war attire is mainly inspired after medival european clothing, which makes sense as it is the outfit he sports to fight the war over in the european-inspired fictional continent of Fodlan. But his design also includes one acessory of more eastern influence and was very likely inspired by the colorful geometric embroidery that is common in real life near eastern countries. Which would be that patterned cloth tied around his waist like a belt. An element which stands out a lot given that the game goes out of its way to not show any characters wearing this kind of pattern besides him.

One could even interpret such fashion choice as a statement, that he refuses to give up his Almyran heritage and proudly wears it, unlike back in his academy days when his wardrobe was limited to the uniform he was instructed to wear.

Besides that... There is sadly not much else I can add. Perhaps I could add that the asymetric silhouette given by both the hairstyle and the cape are in line with his warm yet aloof and unpredictable personality, or that out of the main three protagonits he breaks out of the pattern of having a monochromatic color palette by having bits of green and those little red tassels attached at the end of the belt.

But these observations do not contribute anything relevant to the reading that I'm trying to make of his design. His design does not give us any further insight on his political views or his personal struggles, or his character growth over the course of the war. And I am afraid that's just a direct result of the writting.

I can't really say this design is bad. It really isn't! But I can't help but wish there was more depth to it.

And yes I do know that more lore on Almyra and it's politics and culture is revealed on Fire emblem three hopes, however that game is but an alterante story set in the same world as Three houses.

But then the second trailer aired, introducing the war arc that would happen later in the story of the game, and this was the new look of the polite little prince of Faerghus.

A furious growl stuck in his expression, ungroomed messy hair that has outgrown any shape it could have had before covers his face. An eyepatch hints at a dangerous lifestyle that has most likely led to many more scars under all that armor, one of which actually sticks over the armor itself, sitting right above his chest, oposite to where his heart would be.

Perhaps a sign of a failed attempt on his life via a direct stab to the heart.

Where his academy uniform used to feature silver decorations all over, which would create clear distingushable shapes between the different pieces of his armor set, now sits an all black armor that under the shade provided by a cape adorned by a thick coat of animal fur, makes it difficult to tell where his figure starts and where it ends. In this particular illustration, the pose, hunched over towards the viewer, makes stimating the size of the man in question an even more difficult read.

All these choices lend this design an undeniably animalistic nature. This is the look of a man, that as a result of all the hurt he's faced, has turn to his most primal survival insticts to guide him rather than reason.

And given how interesting his war arc design is. More value is added to the academy design by proxy!

The cape gives her a silhouette that makes her appear much greater in size despite being one of the shortest characters in the game. The white inside layer of the cape helps accentuate her figure in a way that makes her appear more mature, and when combined with the regal golden accents spread throughout, plus the black high heel boots. It makes her a truly intimidating figure to witness, fitting of her military prowess and political status as the emperor of her nation.

The bright red, which in her original academy uniform was used as a secondary color, has expanded to her entire outfit. Originally, I liked interpreting this as a metaphorical embrace of the blood stains she would be covered by, both in the battlefield and in the public's eye as the one who started the war. But politically speaking, red is a very charged color. It's the color of socialism, the left, and more importantly, it's the color of revolution. Once again, very fitting for the character that wants to tear down the current class system.

The golden horns are a detail that, along with the red, visually tie her to the devil. A sensible design choice to give to the enemy of the church and one that also helps further de-humanize her in the eyes of the player who is playing any other route besides hers.

All in all, a solid 10/10 design. But the real cherry on top that elevates this design into one of the greatest of all time is one small final detail that the player can't even see in game, but is revealed in the art book.

A heart-shaped hole in the back of her dress, concealed under her imperial cape.

In spite of her duty as the heir to the throne, her revolutionary beliefs, and this persona of a heartless, monstrous villainess she has adopted... Underneath it all, there is still a beating heart, one that she has tried her very hardest to keep hidden from the world, as to avoid the temptation to ever turn her back on anyone who could betray her, as to not show weakness in a world full of hardships and social injustice.

I would have loved to see this part of her design somehow included in any scene within the game, but at the same time, I find it deeply meaningful and tragic that you never actually see Edelgard's exposed heart while playing the game, precisely, because she never takes off that royal cape —a literal heavy weight on her shoulders with the symbol of her country embeded on top of the exact same spot where her dress opens— and instead, you can only really observe this detail once it's put outside the context of the story.