Rouge the Bat from a Design Standpoint

[Faseeh]

A character that was only introduced when the series was not in the right direction... She added to the darkness of the series with her character and design. She is still a recurring character now, when the series really isn't in the dumps so how is her design really? Let's review the one and only...Rouge the Bat!

This is how she was depicted in ,her first game, SA2's artwork.She looks like the most developed female character in the franchise and yet fits in quite well with her design into the franchise, probably due to the muzzle and eyes. She also wears things that increase her feminine look, like her heart-shaped top and high heels. Her in-game model though, looks quite clanky and you can see her bat teeth, which are no seen in the artwork. Her wings have some lines on them on that model which the artwork lack and the colour is pretty different.

Immediately after that, we've got Sonic Battle, which gave everyone a slight design change due to the artstyle in that game.She looks pretty good, just a little more Chibi-ish and that doesn't look bad at all in my eyes.

Then we move on to Sonic Heroes.Wow, that is probably the most obvious redesign in the franchise other than maybe Amy. I mean look at her and this wasn't even the Classic to Modern redesign. They just thought of redesigning her. Firstly, her eyelids have been changed to a different colour, so she might just be using makeup. Her wings are smaller... Don't bats wings get bigger as they age? And they are now pink.. Her top heart is missing and now she has a belt and many other accessories. This design practically clamps everything up. I was never keen on all this non-simplistic design. For me, Sonic character design should be simple and nice on the eyes.

After that, we ride (see what I did there?) into Sonic Riders.This was one design many people criticised. I, myself, as of now... don't mind it. As of that time, I didn't like it... Well, some people say parents complained about her skimpy clothes and appearance. (Well, more than they already did.) It looks kind of nice and appropriate to the sport she is doing. Her shoes and gloves fit quite nicely... but what do the flowers signify? Nothing, Rogue has had nothing to do with flowers even as of now. So why flowers? Just to make it look nice? Yeah, it does look nice but when thinking from a philosophical design standpoint, it doesn't make sense in the very least. Hearts could've been better but then again, the hearts were only there from the start to show feminity, like these flowers... but we already had hearts... so why not continue with them?(Note: This is the exact design used for the Riders series.) Next, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).

This is one of the only good things other than the music I can find in Sonic 06. Why? Well, they took out all the unnecessary accessories and returned her back to her simplistic design. This is pretty much the closest we got to her original artwork as of that time. Also, since she was a mature, physically developed character, she didn't look lanky or anything due to the height increase. (So as long as Rouge's height isn't increased/decreased that much it's okay.) Her in-game model wasn't that bad too.After that, we never saw her... She was taken over by another female character as the games tried to shun a little more positive light and tried their best to stay away from her.

Then, she made a return in Sonic Generations.That looks a lot like her 06 design, which isn't a bad thing, and the only difference I can spot is that, her skin looks a little more tanned now.

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So, those were all of the Rouge appearances we had, if I am not wrong, other than Colours DS, which there isn't much to discuss cos it's just like the Gens appearance.Now, from a design standpoint, she looks different from the cast but yet manages to be able to be one of them, in my eyes. That is brilliance and just for that, I admire this design.So what are your thoughts on her designs and such? XD

Edited October 1, 2012 by Faseeh

[Ruby CUL Terumi]

I personally liked the Heroes and Riders designs over the others.. And no, not for the fanservice.

[Wentos]

I was particularly fond of the Riders design for perfectly non-perverted reasons.

[MegaMan_EXE]

One phrase: First, a somewhat decent character, next, a hooker and controversial character, now, hopefully, a decent character again.

[Remy]

Bat with tits. Titted bat. Titbat.

The core one isn't so bad apart from the tits, but the Heroes design is probably one of my least favourite in all of gaming. It's not that she looks like a hooker or anything, it's just a ridiculous cyber armor suit thing that is pretty universally awful from an aesthetic standpoint, overly busy and shiny.

I always wondered why they didn't go for a super simple ninja catsuit type design for her, consider the whole jewel thief angle, but I guess they wanted to play her up as being a bit more showy instead.

[Remynaka]

The Riders design is simply the BEST one in my opinion, then again I love ALL the riders outfit better than the normal ones. Mainly because they are DIFFERENT and fun to look at.

[novelty]

Bat with tits. Titted bat. Titbat.

The core one isn't so bad apart from the tits, but the Heroes design is probably one of my least favourite in all of gaming. It's not that she looks like a hooker or anything, it's just a ridiculous cyber armor suit thing that is pretty universally awful from an aesthetic standpoint, overly busy and shiny.

I always wondered why they didn't go for a super simple ninja catsuit type design for her, consider the whole jewel thief angle, but I guess they wanted to play her up as being a bit more showy instead.

They did that for Sonic X....She had a tight fitting ninja suit with the same heart shape in front of it.

Seriously, those boots can sell in a market where we have UGGs and other similar books. I can imagine many people wearing those boots.

[...]

She is breast character.

[MegaMan_EXE]

I'm pretty sure Rouge will be both an attractive and scary character amongst people my age who aren't Sonic fans. Knowing 14 year olds, they'll probably say something like "Bat Boobies!" or "Now that, is just fucking scary."

I'm sure the idea of Rouge's design probably came through because the need to introduce a new character. Thanks to that, we have "questionable" artwork of her, and other characters. As well as erotic fan fiction. >_>

[Lamor]

I like Raiders design the most.... for obvious reasons.

[Blue Blood]

I always wondered why they didn't go for a super simple ninja catsuit type design for her, consider the whole jewel thief angle, but I guess they wanted to play her up as being a bit more showy instead.

She actually did have something like this in Rivals 2 as one of her alternate outfits. And another designed to look like Lara Croft.

[kalion]

I think Heroes' Design seems mostly inspired from Kingdom Hearts. Seriously have you seen how strapperific and zipperific their outfits get?

I like Riders on how simple and clean cut it is and Battle's too..just seems perfectly balanced in structure.

[Sarah Jane Smith]

That was my favourite design.

[Chooch]

TITS.

I really don't like her design in Heroes. I never really understood the point in switching away from her original look, so it being changed back made me happy. I don't really see what's wrong with her Riders outfit. It's sporty and sexy, which stays true to her character and fits the context of the game.

Why should she be racing on Extreme Gear while wearing high heels?

Edited October 1, 2012 by Chooch

[Jack / Joker]

BOOBIES.

[TheOcelot]

BOOBIES.

Enormous, long and fake...................eyelashes.

[Wittymations]

She's an interesting character, and a take on how not all anthros are childish and goody. Then again, I don't feel they were ever really meant to be. Sonic, himself, was pretty gritty compared to Mario. Not gritty at all in the universal appeal, but next to Mario, he was the kid who smoked.

I personally never minded the cleavage (as a kid, I though, "Hells yeah"). These days I still don't mind it. I mean, your average child probably sees more cleavage from his own mother and sister than he would ever get from Rouge. Then there's all the ads on tv. Don't get me wrong, I don't think she should be flashing them, but this isn't really anything. It's as extreme as those dancers from Aladdin. It's really minute.

And, of course, Heroes is my least favorite of her design. She didn't look the same, it was kinda ridicilous. It seemed like they wanted to tone down her "fanservice" aspect and replace it with something more hip and cool. Which was silly, in my mind. She didn't need to change. They just needed something else if they wanted a female "tough girl" character.

Edited October 1, 2012 by WIttyUsername

[Crash]

The Heroes one dumbed her down. Heroes was the first Sonic game I played and when I played 06, I was like who's with Shadow? It took me awhile to realise that her name is Rouge! Because I used to skip the cutscenes.

[Milo]

*insert obligatary topic meme about Rouge's knockers here*

That was my favourite design.

Because of her boob size?

Anyway, you forgot to mention ShTH, which was when Rouge actually got her SA2 design back. Not in Sonic 06.

And if there were a few moral guardians who complained about Rouge's physique/design in SA2, that may had been a reason why she got her Heroes redesign. Just throwing that out there.

Edited October 1, 2012 by Zinos

[lounge]

The thing I hated about the Riders design wasn't the outfit, but how they changed her body design. They made her body look more human-like and skinny thus making her head look bigger. Her original artwork had curves, yet her body wasn't really human looking. The way her legs looked in poses and her butt didn't quite look human but still very feminine, which I admired. Very smart, original looking design choice Uekawa and Hoshino did. Heroes was also bad with body design, making her head look so much bigger, even in the CG scenes.

I don't think I mind the Heroes outfit, if her body shape was the same as in SA2 and if the character models weren't so puny, I think she would've looked okay. I'm just glad they fixed her design and made her tan again. She isn't as sexy as she was in the SA2 artwork, but still she looks pretty good for now. Now if they can just get shadow back to tan...

[Sephy]

I really like the Heroes outfit...I've always felt that rose/purple fit her better

[iDEATH]

i kind of like her costume changes for heroes and riders, I like the idea that she has other clothes to change into, all the other characters have one outfit that they wear every game (with a couple small changes now and then, nothing major though).

Having her have a few outfits to choose from makes it more realistic in my opinion.

[Naysu]

I never really liked Rouge in pink, because really, Amy Rose should be the girly girl pink lover, and Rouge, being an opposite personality to amy, suits the leather pants/tall boots thing better.

I much prefered her lined wings model in SA2 than her boring black outline wings. I just feel that they need the little bone lines, and when you played as her in SA2 they looks really cool when they stretched open and closed. I guess they shrunk her wings after they made the babylon rogues and thought, woops they have no wings but rouge does... lets hide them behind her back so noone notices....

[Your Vest Friend]

I never really liked Rouge in pink, because really, Amy Rose should be the girly girl pink lover, and Rouge, being an opposite personality to amy, suits the leather pants/tall boots thing better.

Rouge isn't that opposite, really. She may be tough as nails, but she's still a "girly-girl", albeit the grown-up version of one that has sass and attitude.

[Naysu]

Rouge isn't that opposite, really. She may be tough as nails, but she's still a "girly-girl", albeit the grown-up version of one that has sass and attitude.

Well Amy has the heart symbolism as a happy girl in love, whereas rouge's heart symbolism is more flirty than love, so maybe not opposite, but I definitely prefer Rouge as the independant character versus Amy as the clingy one that follows the croud (well, mainly sonic of course...)