[ 01-Jul-20 ] Girl Next Door - Discussion

[Čamuga]

@DvDivXXXI disagree. Look at how flat Kalissa looks, and then look at her eyes. I'm 99% sure it's that guy. if it isnt that guy, then someone took over his style and that's even more of a tragedy  

[DvDivXXX]

26 minutes ago, Čamuga said:

@DvDivXXXI disagree. Look at how flat Kalissa looks, and then look at her eyes. I'm 99% sure it's that guy. if it isnt that guy, then someone took over his style and that's even more of a tragedy  

Agree to disagree, then. She looks nothing like Holiday or say, Mitsu, or Corrupted/Twisted/Whatever Nuladva from last month, or Tainted Very Sick Hari either. She's fairly expressionless, as I mentioned in my initial review in this thread, but she doesn't quite have the trademark dead eyes of Dead Eyes either. And the way to draw shapes and lines in general is completely different. Compare her to Treasure from this same event, who was absolutely drawn by the same artist as Kalissa (and who also has pretty... how can I put it? stoned AF eyes, which is actually in character for Treasure in general, also consistent with Tainted Treasure from back in January, who I suspect might have been drawn by the same artist as well, even though the outline technique and what little ink job there is have evolved since then if that's the case, but the faces and plenty of other details, notably those little parallel lines on the upper cheeks, are strong similarities).

Just because a girl looks stoned, doesn't mean she was drawn by Stoned, the artist. Same thing here. You can't just claim "Dead Eyes did it" every time there's a bad drawing. "Dead Eyes" refers to someone specific, who has a very specific style, even though the biggest telltale sign of that style is the eyes, obviously. ^^

Edited July 1, 2020 by DvDivXXX
typoes

[Čamuga]

Fair enough. At least I know we can agree on one thing- for the love of god KK dont give new artists old girls to work on. Or I have an idea- just scrap the new events for a while until you find a suitable replacement, because this is just painful to look at when you compare to the older girls original versions....

[FinderKeeper]

41 minutes ago, Čamuga said:

@DvDivXXXI disagree. Look at how flat Kalissa looks, and then look at her eyes. I'm 99% sure it's that guy. if it isnt that guy, then someone took over his style and that's even more of a tragedy  

Just to demonstrate:

 

 

  

 

 

Edited July 1, 2020 by FinderKeeper

[Čamuga]

Just now, FinderKeeper said:

Just to demonstrate:

No no no please no it's not Halloween yet, I don't wanna look at horrors!!! ;-; 

[DvDivXXX]

13 minutes ago, FinderKeeper said:

Just to demonstrate:

Exactly. Kalissa's face clearly stands out compared to the other three (especially the eyes, actually). Thank you.

[Eman]

hace 1 hora, Čamuga dijo:

Fair enough. At least I know we can agree on one thing- for the love of god KK dont give new artists old girls to work on. Or I have an idea- just scrap the new events for a while until you find a suitable replacement, because this is just painful to look at when you compare to the older girls original versions....

And replace them with what, more Legendary Contests?!

Edited July 1, 2020 by Eman
Fixing mistakes

[Čamuga]

2 minutes ago, Eman said:

And replace them with what, more Legendary Contests?!

when I said scrap I meant nothing for the start of the month, and then PoA/whatever the fuck else they had planned there at the end of the month. When I said replacement, i mostly meant the artists  I would rather have a dry spill of content/girls than constantly see old and beautiful girls butchered like in the previous new event, or this new event....

[Eman]

hace 2 minutos, Čamuga dijo:

when I said scrap I meant nothing for the start of the month, and then PoA/whatever the fuck else they had planned there at the end of the month. When I said replacement, i mostly meant the artists  I would rather have a dry spill of content/girls than constantly see old and beautiful girls butchered like in the previous new event, or this new event....

Or get rid of the Epic/Legendary days as well as the PoA and LC and focus on the main event, the original and longer event and the one where there are more new girls.

[_shal_]

5 hours ago, Eman said:

But, isn't it weird that the Girls Next door happen to be a cosmic entity of fire, a jellyfish girl and a shapeshifter? What kind of neighbourhood is that?! 😂

Didn't today's daily mission address that question?

[LuxFF]

I don't know, i think Nuladva, Kelina and Hari seem alright.

Edited July 1, 2020 by LuxFF

[Eman]

hace 5 minutos, _shal_ dijo:

Didn't today's daily mission address that question?

In a way. It explains the residents, but not the ones that work there, that are most of the event girls.

[Kojot]

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, FinderKeeper said:

Just to demonstrate:

Just what I needed. I take back my words about the artist. Maybe this is the reason why I liked this Kalissa when I saw her but I couldn't get why I did, originally. Well, still, there is something off about her. But maybe because I'm just used to reacting negatively whenever I see a new girl in this game.

[Karyia]

6 hours ago, Čamuga said:

The artist we call "Dead-eyes" did Kalissa. Doesn't help that she is a tough girl to pull of well, and I'd say that theres only one good looking version of her, which is the original version you get from finishing the 7th story scroll. If that's all you've got for Kalissa, that's pretty fuckin sad ngl. The 2nd best version would be Travel Kalissa, but her poses and the affection scenes are veeeeeery iffy and most people wouldn't like them (myself included), so then this just looks like insult to injury. I've been pretty outspoken about this now, please dont let new artists handle old girls that we like. We can ignore new girls that look really bad (Natasha EHM EHM), but this is much harder to get over. I can't wait to see a dopey flat dead-eyed version of Filya in about year and a half.... -.-

"Art is good" 🙏👌

 

Skater Octavia pretty much turned into Lifeguard Octavia in no time at all  

 

Overall, there seems to be several degrees of "hotness" between the girls and, comparitively to previous events, there also seems to be some more consistency across the board, to me

[Čamuga]

3 minutes ago, Karyia said:

"Art is good" 🙏👌

Yeah art is good. No criticism.

I've gotten multiple comments removed for criticism of art (not just on this thread mind you), so now I never criticize art. Everything I've written above is all in hypotheticals and IF someone were to say that, I'd say that they are unfair.
Art is good, no criticism  

[LuxFF]

1 hour ago, Karyia said:

"Art is good" 🙏👌

 

 

1 hour ago, Čamuga said:

Yeah art is good. No criticism.

Art is good, no criticism  

There is no bad art *waves hand*

[bantuatha]

Do you remember Octavia used to have tentacles legs? well for odd reason they gave her a actual leg this time.

[DvDivXXX]

5 hours ago, Karyia said:

Skater Octavia pretty much turned into Lifeguard Octavia in no time at all

That's a good fix. Skater made no sense for a Baywatch homage.

[Karyia]

47 minutes ago, DvDivXXX said:

That's a good fix. Skater made no sense for a Baywatch homage.

For sure. No idea how skater even got in there.

When I saw it, I remember thinking "I suppose she'll have a skate in some pose" 😅🙄

[Zteev]

4 hours ago, bantuatha said:

Do you remember Octavia used to have tentacles legs? well for odd reason they gave her a actual leg this time.

Huge, huge improvement. I'm sure it will turn out to be a ruse.

Plus an octopus creature makes more sense as a swimmer than a skater.

[Zorba the Geek]

17 hours ago, DvDivXXX said:

Meh. FYI, I've checked all the spoilers this time again. When the initial pose doesn't inspire me much, there's no point keeping the mystery. This event is all-around mediocre in terms of visuals as far as I'm concerned. Nothing outright terrible, but nothing very good either. The theme isn't bad in and of itself, but it didn't seem to inspire the team much. We have 4-5 different artists on this one, some of them better than others on a technical level and some of them with a more compelling style than others (and/or more in line with the game's overall feel and the girls reinterpreted here).

There are objectively good drawings (and excellent coloring jobs) showcased in the series of poses for Nikukawa and Delicia in particular, and mostly decent drawings for Treasure, Chamelea, Octavia and, much to my surprise, Samane! (even though I'm 99% sure the artist who handled this incarnation of her is actually our old pal Dead Eyes; who seems to have improved almost spectacularly compared to their usual output). Kalissa and Deniz were handled noticeably worse than their friends, this time around, the former being way too stiff and expressionless throughout her poses (especially considering how her series was supposed to be all about movement) and the latter just looks unfinished, despite the decent ink and color jobs over the rough pencils/sketches. I'm also glad to see a variant of Octavia with legs for a change, but I would have preferred them to be a bit better drawn than that for the occasion.

There are a number of "small" mistakes here and there, like Chamelea's left foot in the one picture that shows her barefoot (5 toes of the same size and shape, mounted on a tubular foot that doesn't go either way, so I can't even call it a left or a right foot, it's like a "center foot" basically ^^), or the absence of nails on most of the girls' fingers and toes. While we're on this issue, there are some really failed hands on a few pictures, and not too many compelling feet either, especially on Kalissa (who had the "Tanned Tachibana" treatment of vague and incorrect shapes throughout). But we've had much worse in the past.

The main thing that keeps me from enjoying these series is the lack of progression from one image to the next, the lack of even a vague theme or basic story, even as simple as a striptease with a twist or whatever. Most of these series have barely anything happening throughout them (maybe the affection scenes will be better, one can only hope... but I won't hold my breath). Most of the girls don't even take off their shoes at all! I know, it doesn't matter as much if you don't have a thing for feet, but it's still a bit lazy and a sign that they couldn't even be bothered to fully undress them in those series. I mean, you don't need to have a foot fetish for Nikukawa's high socks and sneakers, or Treasure's nondescript shoes to kill the mood, do you? Make stuff happen between the pictures. Don't give us essentially the same pic two or three times in a row with a small, unexciting change each time. We get well enough of that snore fest in the Adventure mode as it is! 

So yeah. Technically, nothing terrible like we had in the past, and there's even some progress for the one (formerly particularly bad) artist, but it's just not interesting, let alone exciting at all as a package. I'm going to play this event based on which villain I need to level up the most rather than which girl I'm the most eager to collect. That's not a great sign. You guys can do a lot better than that. Cheers.

They're not meant to be interesting.  They're meant to be the girls nest door (the girls next door to me are nothing to die for, but then they probably think the same about me). LOL!  Although Deniz would have to be classified as an escape from my home aquarium, as would be Octavia.  If they turned up in my aquarium they'd have to face my bristle-nosed catfish - a very grumpy bugger he is, and suspiciously big.  I'm very worried that he might've been dining out on my gold barbs as numbers of self-bred juveniles seem to be dwindling, unless they get to a certain size.

As for Kalissa, hand poles on buses or commuter trains seem to substitute for striptease poles with her.  A free strip show and pole-dance on public transport would certainly draw in the commuters - at least the men.

The only one I can comment on is Kalissa, as I got her with a free orb and maxed out her affection.  I'm a tad disappointed.  The original Kalissa had a wiry and very fit body, nice little titties and a unique, Gothic/'EMO look.  This one has lost her uniqueness and, facially anyway, she has become a clone of all the other creations of this particular artist.  Lovely legs, though, in her opening pose.  The artist has nailed muscle-tone well in this instance.

Anyway, my idea of girl next door types would be Greta and Merlinda, to name only two.  The ones on offer don't quite fit the bill for me in this context.

[FinderKeeper]

On Octavia. "Skater" got changed to "Lifeguard".

[Antimon]

It could be that initially this Octavia alt project was different and featured an actual skater girl. It wouldn't make any sense that they called her "skater", if her poses have always been like the ones we have 

[DvDivXXX]

1 hour ago, Zorba the Geek said:

They're not meant to be interesting.  They're meant to be the girls next door

I know that was just a good joke, and I appreciated it as such, but just in case someone missed it, I'd like to elaborate on this notion a little bit. It's not against anything you've said in your post, it just made me think about this particular point.

It's a surprisingly widespread and persistent misconception in fiction that if the story's universe is somewhat loose, vaguely defined or has rules that defy real life logic, then these should also serve as excuses for the story itself to be lazy. I'm sure you've all heard it many times, whether you've noticed it or not. A fantasy novel full of plot holes and unresolved loose ends? Shut up, it's magic! A superhero movie where a character's powers completely change in scope or nature without any in-universe explanation, for no apparent reason other than "so the movie can happen"? Come on, it's a world where people shoot lasers out of their eyes; it doesn't have to be realistic! And so on. That's always, always complete BS and just a super lame excuse for bad, lazy writing.

In this particular case, the theme of the event may be somewhat tame as Girls Next Door suggests a more relaxed, low-key setting than more bombastic themes we've had tons of in other events, but it doesn't mean that the event's treatment should be any less exciting for the audience (that's us, by the way ^^). Just like a good writer can get you absolutely hooked on a low concept plot, with great character development, dialogue and so on built around it, and a bad writer can bore you to death even with a super ambitious epic saga, the same certainly applies to drawings in general, and sequences of poses in HH, which is in essence a sequential medium not too far removed from a comic strip. A great artist can most definitely take my breath away with a series of drawings of a quiet, relaxed scene. And a bad artist can definitely leave me cold even with a series of drawings showing stuff that's supposed to be exciting for the characters.

Edited July 2, 2020 by DvDivXXX

[Falco82]

As far as I'm concerned, graphically I always consider the first event of the month like the most disappointing and, as usual, I go against the current with respect to the popular vote.

Octavia is ugly, and yes it was even before, but in a different way... I didn't like tentacles but now that I see how she has her legs, cover them again with the tentacles please!

Although inexpressiveness is fine on Treasure, she, Samane and Kalissa are at a very low level.

Delicia, Chamelea and Nikukawa are one step above, more for the coloration than for the drawing itself which I find poor in all three cases and I speak mainly of the subsequent poses (the last of Nikukawa is revolting 🤮). Among the three the best is Delicia but she doesn't even come close at all to the level of the original character, one of the most beautiful works of the game. 

Personally I think that only one girl is at a good level and also consistent with the style of the game and she is Deniz, all the rest is insufficient.