Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Historical armour in RPGs

What is your favourite style of armour?

  • Historical or inspired by historical armour (Warband, Exanima, Battle Brothers and partly DarkSouls)

    Votes: 57 67.1%
  • Typical RPG armour that just tries to look cool even if it doesnt have any sense (think Skyrim)

    Votes: 10 11.8%
  • High fantasy bulky armour with giant pauldrons (WOW or even WH40K tier pauldrons)

    Votes: 1 1.2%
  • Weeaboo soft porn JRPG "armour"

    Votes: 17 20.0%

  • Total voters
    85

Zariusz

Arbiter
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
1,838
Location
Civitas Schinesghe
Do you think that armour in RPGs should be more realistic?
Maybe i watched too much Shadiversity and other history nerd channels but i cant stand playing RPGs with retarded armour design. No matter if its bikini armour or some medieval tank that somehow can move, i just cant look at it without facepalm. How many cRPGs you know that have cool historical armour or at least realistic armour? I can only think about Warband with its horde of mods, Exanima (i hope that even if they fail to make Sui Generis they will at least finish this), of course KCD and suprisingly PoE 2.

BTW: How many of you are hoarding uniques, artefacts etc. that you found during your adventures? I have something like this in almost every first playthrough of any RPG that i played(maybe its a leftover from my childhood time of Titan Quest... Ah Titan Quest good times).
 

overly excitable young man

Guest
Really like the system of KCD with the different layers. I think that should be the norm.

Usually i just drop or sell stuff that i don't need. I want to have a clean inventory.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Armour has been awful for years, maybe decades? Gigantic pauldrons and chainmail bikini are just as moronic as the other, because they have no semblance of plausibility, and don't even look particularly cool to make up for it.

Real life armour tends to look pretty fucking awesome, at least the ceremonial ones that are overrepresented in books and museums. Small chance that most developers can design cooler looking stuff.

Arms-and-Armour-Gallery-Courtesy-of-Royal-Museum-of-the-Armed-Forces-and-Military-History.jpg
 

Aemar

Arcane
Joined
Aug 18, 2018
Messages
6,055
KCD took the whole thing to another level. Next in line would probably be modded Warband. Bannerlord will feature a simplified layers system, and it will even have a special slot for horse armour.
 

Zariusz

Arbiter
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
1,838
Location
Civitas Schinesghe
Having realistic grounded armour could also give more immersion to the world( culture, technology etc.).
Imagine adventure of group of mercanaries that wear armor like this (https://wildfiregames.com/forum/app...da6447c46ba865ebc644260d8372d9f17d2cca830a6d6, this https://i.pinimg.com/originals/42/19/1f/42191f6428f46c8e123dbde357ddf5e9.jpg or this https://wildfiregames.com/forum/applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=http://www.paintingsilove.com/uploads/0/723/carolingian-emperor-bodyguard-800.jpg&key=139e98e3b41c216581fa2711d849da0711c8d3f78775fec3e4e4220f56306eaa).

They traveled through wild and forgotten mountaiin lands to find some sacred text in lost city, instead they found not ruins but isolated ancient bronze age like culture that wear armors like this
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/cb/84/65/cb846592ec268019feefe2c4a8ff0630.jpg
Some of them would think that they are messenger of gods etc. because their armour would be for them probably impossible to recreate and of such amazing quality that they would think that it wasnt made by humans so it certainly was gifted to mercanaries by some gods. And here you can have choice either use this and with time grow influence, power and maybe become rulers/heroes/gods etc. or just finish your quest by using any given means and choices.
Yes i know that such idea was probably used but ancient armours of such cultures were either gold painted generic RPG armours(probably without pants and sleeves)/made by some magical rare ore that is only avaible in that city/ were glowing with some magical runes or other shit/just classical ancient greek/roman ripoff. If i think about it, in Battle Brothers contracts about going to some ancient ruins with skeletons were exactly this, but with skellies in rusted late roman armours instead of isolated cultures.
 

Murk

Arcane
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
13,459
It's always been paradoxical to me how the "fantasy" design tries to make things look "cool" but ends up looking far less impressive than real, historical armor. Especially when it comes to helmets.

I voted historical, but I do leave a wide margin of error for "nonsensical but seemingly realistic" types, like studded leather or even "magical troll hide leather armor" so long as it looks like it has a degree of gravitas. Not in the sense that it would be based in reality, but that there is an internal logic to the design.
 

Neanderthal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2015
Messages
3,626
Location
Granbretan
Generally I like armour that looks functional, but I must admit that I have a fondness for half nekkid barbarians such as Frazetta paints. Astartes armour is utterly ridiculous but so is the setting they're in so its thematically sound for me, strangely enough.

The Witcher 2 & 3 had some nice harness for the knights.
 

Funposter

Arcane
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
1,773
Location
Australia
I'd prefer armour in fantasy games to be, more or less, based in reality. However, I'm willing to give some to armours and materials which are somehow magically or divinely inspired/derived, given that they obviously bend the rules of (earthly) reality in some way. I'm even OK with kind of silly armour that doesn't completely protect the player (think Skyrim's normal Iron set) as long as the game acknowledges this fact in some way - say a set of traditionally 'Heavy' armour doesn't completed cover the player, so it is therefore considered 'Medium' or 'Light', due to the partial coverage. As others have said, the layers-based equipment system in Kingdom Come: Deliverance is probably the best I've seen in an RPG, and is a wonderful expansion on something like Morrowind where the player can potentially have an entire set of clothing, several pieces of jewellery, a full suit of heavy armour and a robe on top. The KC:D system in a game with enchanting would be pretty incredible.
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,477
Location
Frostfell
Armor in fantasy IMO should be based in reality and the fantasy aspects based on myths and legends. I see no problem seeing plate armor with certain magical runes scribled to make it more resistant VS fire but the bikini armor of JRPG's and the 500kg shoulder protection gear on the 65436543 WoW-Clones should't exist.

One of my favorite armors in Dark Souls 2 is not exactly historical accurate

iu

source : https://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Concept+Art
 

S.torch

Arbiter
Joined
Jan 4, 2019
Messages
938
Do you think that armour in RPGs should be more realistic?

No. The armour of a RPG should be coherent with the world in which it take place. Is coherent for Kingdom Come to have historical accurate armour because it takes place in a historical setting. But is not coherent for Skyrim or Dark Souls because they take place in another, completly different world.

Pretending that every RPG should have only one type of armour is childish.
 

Pablosdog

Prophet
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
1,879
I generally prefer historically inspired armors, if its a fantasy setting the armor should reflect the environment and make some sense in its construction. Design flourishes are fine, but overly designed armor can look pretty terrible.

Don't know why game developers think parade armor works for every setting lol.
 
Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Oct 2, 2018
Messages
17,897
Location
大同
A prerequisite for any good armor design (in terms of aesthetics) is its ability to sustain a suspension of disbelief. That's why in general historicity is the go-to choice in terms of design philosophy.

That being said, you can't compare shitty WoW armor with Wh40k. For the latter, its feasibility is explained in lore and it thematically fits the rest of the setting's design. WoW on the other hand, besides having a common cartoonish style, has quite schizophrenic armor design, lacking thematic unity and rarely being aesthetic.
 

Generic-Giant-Spider

Guest
templar_armor.jpg


This looks way cooler than 95% of fantasy armor. This is a man that's coming to remove your head for God.
 

deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
4,352
Location
UK
Assuming we're talking about aesthetics only, I'm gonna pick the looking cool option.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,539
Location
Nottingham
How accurate it looks means fuck all to me. I'm playing in a virtual world, I'd sooner the devs express themselves and get creative, than be bound by what once was.

Lords of The Fallen had some of my faves sets in. Great little Dark Souls Lite game too. These all mixed & matched really well too...........

Live_Elements_Armor-Equipped.png


Live_Elements_Armor-Equipped_Back.png


Blessing_Armor-Equipped.jpg


Blessing_Armor-Equipped_Back.jpg


Eternal_Legend_Armor-Equipped.jpg


Eternal_Legend_Armor-Equipped_Back.jpg



Living_Legend_Armor-Equipped.jpg


Living_Legend_Armor-Equipped_Back.jpg


Griffin_Armor-equipped.jpg


Griffin_Armor-Equipped_Back.jpg
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom