HoMM7 Keyart

[Kalah]

Keyart released by Ubisoft, depicting the main protagonist of the coming game, Ivan Griffin.
<p>A big non-logo version of this image is available <a href="/https://www.celestialheavens.com/839">here</a>.

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/show_b ... php?id=939

[vicheron]

Did they have a contest for the most generic fantasy art poster?

[Kalah]

Hey, it's OK - it's not like we want Limbic to reinvent the wheel with H7.

[hellegennes]

Ahem... couldn't that be said for any Heroes or MM poster? I don't remember the H3 poster being ingenious. Not that I don't like the MM6 or MM7 posters, I do. But aren't they, too, generic?

[GreatEmerald]

"Keyart"? Is that some sort of a creature, or some art of a key?

[mr.hackcrag]

It gives off the wrong kind of homm fantasy vibe for me, similar to H5-6 predecessors - Not at all like the magic and wonder H2 art evokes.

It would have been a lot better if they didn't try to make it look like a low budget Conan/Hercules/etc movie poster featuring an actor I'd like to punch in the face.

[hellegennes]

Well, H2's poster was simply a heraldic shield. H1 was by far the best, for me. H3 was quite similar to what we have here.

[mr.hackcrag]

Well for me, the moment they started trying to make homm into a movie style is one of the reasons it lost its appeal. I remember the interview about how the soundtrack was designed in the style of a movie - revolving around one main theme for every track... and the newer osts are just weak compared to the older ones.

As for the story, for me it's like watching a badly produced movie with poor acting and script. I wish they didn't try so hard in this area and focused more on making the gameplay experience better.

[vicheron]

It's true that past Heroes posters were pretty generic too but they didn't spend a lot of effort on them.



Ubisoft has clearly hired some talented artists to work on their art. This poster is really detailed and it looks like a lot of time was spent on it. The fact that it's so generic makes it such a waste of the artist's skills.

[JSE]

I think that both vicheron and mr.hackcrag have described very accurately what effect this piece of art has and how it was most likely approached by the artist and/or the producers: It's supposed to be the marriage of generic fantasy and a bombastic movie fantasy style in the vein of LotR and the modern mythology movies (Clash of the Titans etc.). It doesn't feel natural or harmonic, however, and despite being very well executed, it's too boring to be appealing. To me, it actually seems like the product of a very talented artist on the one hand and very unimaginative instructions on the other hand.

And of course it's only fair to mention that also the previous Heroes box artworks and cover motifs were not exactly memorable or of striking beauty. They all looked pretty simplistic and more functional than pretty. At least, however, they didn't seem like a calculated forced marriage of styles. In the end, I prefer a style that seems simple and straightforward to a style that tries very hard to achieve a certain effect.

[hellegennes]

You need to consider two things. One: the story is about the guy portrayed so it makes much sense to have him on the poster. In fact, Might and Magic 3-4-5 a;; shared a very similar setting (focused figure on the right; distant structure on the left). Two: modern videogames ARE closer as an art form to films. They have huge budgets, huge teams behind them, acting, cinematics, and so on. Hence the logic behind modern posters is to go for a style reminiscent of movie posters. Take a look at other videogame posters.



However the main thing here is that Ivan Griffin had to be on the poster.

[vicheron]

But it's stupid to turn video games into movies. They're completely different forms of entertainment. Rather than trying to be something it's not, they should be taking advantage of the medium. And it's not like good movies are easy to make, most movies are bad. By trying to make the game like a movie, they're taking resources away from making the game good just so that it could end up being a crappy movie.



Not to mention how the story has never been the selling point of Heroes games. It's not like they're even putting that much effort into the writing. The Asha stuff has bad world building, weak one dimensional characters, and nonsensical stories.



Plus, having the game emulate movies is not an excuse for a boring poster. In fact, lot of film posters suck. Even big budget blockbuster movies have crappy posters that are much worse than fan art.

[Kalah]

I wonder if any of the critics here have original ideas of their own? And by 'original' I don't mean "make it more like that other game cover I once saw" but properly original ideas. Frankly, I believe people who say they don't like this kind of poster don't necessarily have a clear image of something better in their minds.



Tell you what: If you can come up with a great idea I'll pass it on to the dev team, maybe it can be included somehow. If you can also make a good drawing to comete with this one, I'll buy you a copy of the game when released.

[Avonu]

It is just like two others Ubisoft box arts: hero with a sword in plain sight and army and castle in background (in case of H5 and H7).



What I don't relly like is that feathered, oh-so-shinny dragon.

[JSE]

@ Kalah:
Why would the fact that some of us criticize this piece of art imply that they/we can do it any better or have a much better idea? Presenting this to us on the website's front page with the commentary section enabled just creates the impression that our opinion is valued. That's why we share our views -- not necessarily because anyone of us is a better artist.

Actually, however, I could think of a general concept for a box illustration that fits a Heroes game much better imo: Just bring the actual battle to the foreground and move Ivan further back. He could be sitting on his horse, joining in the fighting or raising his griffin banner. Heroes is a game of fantasy warfare where the most different kinds of monsters meet on the battlefield. So, as I see it, an exciting battle secene with some cool and representative monsters would be a much better choice than concentrating on a single main character. Heroes has never been a character-centric game, it has never been story-driven and it has never been a role-playing game. The box art should reflect what kind of game Heroes is, though: a fantasy strategy game.

I don't think Ivan should be removed from the illustration, however. As he obviously is the main character of this game's campaigns, it makes sense to feature him on the cover. I would just make him considerably smaller and place him in the middle of a fantastic battle scene.

[Kalah]

Yeah, but would making him smaller and placing him in a battle scene neccessarily make the poster any less generic? That's all I'm saying, really; it's so hard coming up with anything genuinly original that I doubt any of the critics (nor me, for that matter) could do any better.

[hellegennes]

"Heroes has never been a character-centric game, it has never been story-driven".



Therefore, Heroes II does not exist.





@Avonu:



Like I said, this very concept was used by NWC in MM3-4-5. For MM6-7-8 they went for "heroes in front of a dragon". Also, IIRC, Crusaders of Might and Magic had a guy with a sword on the cover. Hero on the left, castle on the right was also used in H3 and H2 - the Price of Loyalty featured a guy with a sword.

[JSE]

@ Kalah:

I don't think that generic fantasy is the problem of this illustration but rather its generic vibe in a broader sense. In other words: It doesn't seem to represent what's going on in the actual game very well. A battle scene involving various typical creatures from the game would not only be more exciting but also emphasize the "strategy" and "fantasy warfare" aspects of Heroes much better. It's fine to show elements of the campaign story like Ivan and Elrath (I guess that's supposed to be him), but I find it even more important to show motifs and scenes related to gameplay.



@ hellegennes:

If you played Heroes 2, you will know that while it had two cool main characters and an interesting, though pretty lightweight story, neither were in any way integral for the game. All Heroes games are *game systems* first and foremost and are certainly not *driven* by story or *centered* around characters.

[mr.hackcrag]

Yeah, but would making him smaller and placing him in a battle scene neccessarily make the poster any less generic? That's all I'm saying, really; it's so hard coming up with anything genuinly original that I doubt any of the critics (nor me, for that matter) could do any better.

To me it's not a problem of originality - more like how the art style and presentation communicates the developer's vision of the game in a way I don't agree with. Perhaps this new direction might be justified if the story and characters were well done, but let's be honest, most of it painful to read/listen to. Some of the best times I remember having on this forum were reading the hilarious parodies of H5 story created by one of our fellow forum members (forgot name )

JSE described it well: bland "generic fantasy with bombastic movie style." I don't like the guy's name. I don't like the scar on his face. I don't like that his art is done with realism, while juxtaposed with fantasy background. It doesn't get me excited or invested in what this game is about. In fact, I already hate the character before I know anything about him - though I bet I actually know a ton about him because I've heard this story before many times in movies/books/etc.

A quick search of homm fan art led me to finding these:

http://thefunnybunny.deviantart.com/art ... c-28713878

http://tira-owl.deviantart.com/art/Fan- ... -428459133

When I see images like this, my heart just melts from the charm they express and I think they much better reflect the heart of HoMM than these exaggerated new artworks Ubisoft keeps producing. Perhaps, that is why despite being professionally produced, they are not well received - because they represent a a change in style that is cold and distant to the game we grew up playing.

EDIT:

It's also interesting to note that H2 wins so many of the best art threads we have.

[mr.hackcrag]

double post