JPDE2 - Discarded Concept Art (David) (Patreon)

Hello there, Meinos Kaen here with your gift for the 3rd Day of JPDE-mas! Today I want to take you through a recent sad trombone moment that we've had during the making of JPDE2's concept art. Specifically, the concept art for its main character, David di Kabegis.

Yeah, David and the gang are back for JPDE2. Still, not only is JPDE2 3D but 3 years have passed since the ending of JPDE, four since the in-world beginning of the RWBY series. A lot of things have changed, the characters themselves have changed and so their appearance must reflect that.

After giving Amaco some pointers about how David's personality has changed over the course of the time-skip and what events are on his mind, Amaco came back to me with the first image of the three you see in this post. I liked the design but it needed some changes, like the length of the coat and the pallette. I proposed an alternative and sent it to Amaco...

But then, just a few minutes later I realized that the design reminded me of something... Or someone. When I realized who it was, we sadly had to discard pretty much all of the design and go in another direction entirely because, as you can see in image number three... The resemblance was too close for comfort.

Remember after Final Fantasy 7 came out in the 90s and every single JRPG coming out had a blonde guy with a big sword as the main character? We want to avoid something like that. Having your main character look so similar to one of the main characters of literally the most popular JRPG of the last decade is not a good look...

All this to give you an idea of what our workflow is like and that sometimes, despite our best efforts and intentions, creatives may be forced to start from zero again due to unforeseen circumstances, at times. A lot of work and effort goes in everything they do, so try and be nicer to game devs. :3

Management is where you must direct your hate...!

- Meinos Kaen