maiji: Second Story Modern Wear - Group 1: The Found Family

[image set of digital illustrations. 1) Leon, Claude, Dias and Rena from Star Ocean The Second Story, in contemporary clothing. Text reads "The Found Family". 2) Spread showing full body version of the illustrations over a space themed background. Next to each character is a short profile listing each character's age, birthday, zodiac sign, height.]This is a series of illustrations I’ve been slowly poking at, on and off, between other things. The idea is every (original playable) member of the Star Ocean 2 cast in modern casual wear that feels realistic for their personality and style. I’ve sketched out all the outfits, and am redrawing and refining them properly so that I can have fun lining them up and assembling them into collages and groups! There are 12 characters in total, so I’m hoping to gradually complete and post them in batches of 4. Thanks to my friend orange for acting as my creative director and helping me finalize the layout of the text and boxes across the spread, haha.First up: our found family duos. I love that when Star Ocean 2 makes you choose whose story you play, it’s also essentially making you choose between a pair of siblings. You get either child genius mage Leon and his big brother Claude, or master swordsman Dias and his little sister Rena. Both have very cute found family dynamics. For example, Claude and Leon can go to the theme park and see a super cheesy Power Rangers-style kids show. Partway through Claude is really incredulous, like “WTF is this??” and then he looks over at Leon giggling with excitement and he’s like “Guess I better watch till the end…” and it always makes me laugh. And Dias is constantly trying to give Rena advice to not piss off her friends while she’s like “Dias is an old man! Dias doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” Plus one of Rena’s official profiles confirms she gave Dias headaches when she was little because she'd make stuff up and then talk about them as if they were real. Yes, yes, you’re saving the world and you’re very cool, but you can also be a dorky sibling with your charming family relationships. It just makes everyone feel so well-rounded! Sadly, the way the story choice is set up means all four of them together as your actual party is gameplay impossible… but we know it’s canonically possible! Also Tri-Ace gifts us so many details about every character; I could’ve put a ton of other facts in the image. Do you want their weight? Their favourite food? Their favourite musical instrument? The kind of books they would write? And so on. More commentary about the outfits and characters below the cut.[READ-MORE]Leon D.S. Geeste: His clothes were probably picked out by his mom, or Claude’s mom. I had a bit of a challenge figuring out his colour palette, but I think this works without being too similar or too different from his official palette. I always thought it was really cute that his original design has a fanny pack, so I have converted it into a crossbody. I was originally going to draw him holding a book, but then changed it to an oversized OLED Switch on a whim. Random story: After Nintendo released the DS Lite, my friends and I would sometimes call him Leon D.S. Lite.Also, the game has a Cooking Master competition which is basically Iron Chef. Every character who enters as a challenger gets introduced with their own special title, and they all have a reaction to it. Many many years ago I played the game enough times to recruit and enter every single character, so I wrote it all down. These are the original PS1 English translations. Here's Leon's. Leon's Cooking Master IntroThe Little Big Chef, Leon!!Leon: (angry cloud) You don't need the 'little' part!! Claude C. Kenni: His outfit was a no-brainer for me. Streetwear hoodie with warp-space Calnus starship print and cargo pants! Bunched up fabric around elbows and knees are some of my favourite things to draw, and the pale khaki+white palette plays up a contemporary Warrior of Light aesthetic. I styled his hair closer to the vibes of his actual game sprite, a kind of mushroom/bowl undercut, with this one funny part that sticks out in the back and bounces up and down when he’s walking in profile. I draw Claude so much that I was like oh he’ll be super easy!… until I realized partway through that I rarely ever draw people with their backs to the viewer. Suffice to say it’s taking everything I have to not turn this post into a whole rant about drawing butts. Butts are very hard to draw. I went on about this over at Mastodon for days. Anyways, I’m relieved it’s over, and no one else in this series will have their back to the viewer so help me god. Claude's Cooking Master IntroThe Peace Corps Cuisine Squad Chief, Claude!!Claude: Huh? What is that. Dias Flac: The simplicity of the end result belies how much I struggled with him (though, as it turned out, not as much as I struggled with you-know-what. Dias was more a struggle at the beginning; Claude was more a struggle at the end. That was a completely unintentional pun). I wanted him to look cool, but I also wanted him to look like he didn’t spend more than 30 seconds thinking about what to wear. I feel like Dias would be one of those people who has multiples of the same shirt and pants all in the same colour over and over because “it’s fine, why do I need anything else, save brain power/effort for other things”. I gave him an umbrella at the last minute to replace his sword. I also consciously drew his hair much less scruffy than I usually draw it, because this Dias would have access to shampoo and conditioner.  Dias' Cooking Master Intro The Silent Cooking Master, Dias!!!Dias: ... How stupid. Rena Lanford: To me, Rena fashion should be something cute and light and pretty, with cozy knit elements. I knew the overall look and articles of clothing I wanted to give her: a skirt with tights or high socks, a little puffy-sleeved cardigan. Moon motif and pastelly felt right. The main things I spent more time trying to figure out are details and accessories. Also gave her an emerald pendant to dangle with her Quadratic Key because of that PA she has with Claude in SalvaRena's Cooking Master IntroThe Love of Home Cooking Fighting Woman, Rena!!Rena: (...)** this is the actual animated dot dot dot, so it's not text. It comes up as a speech bubble over her head and then three dots slowly coming in one at a time for emphasis.[/READ-MORE]Upcoming (will link these once I finish all the posts) The Found Family (you are here) The Expellians The Off-Worlders Everyone together!