Hello.
I hope it's okay to bring this thread back up from the dead - I figured it would beat making a new one to discuss the same topic, which is the characters' heights.
More specifically, how the characters are actually supposed to compare height wise,
in canon.
As I'm well aware the devs obviously have to make amends so everything works as intended gameplay wise, I personally don't mind the characters having same-ish height during gameplay.
Here's a little problem I've been facing though, and I was hoping I could maybe ask for help here, as I understand there are many dedicated and knowledgeable fans around here that would probably take this issue seriously (as I do), even if it's not really gameplay related.
As I'm something of an artist, I've ran into the issue of deciding on how tall I should picture and draw the characters, especially when they have to interact/stand close to each other, while trying to stay faithful to the canon. I have a huge respect for the series and its lore, so the last thing I'd want to do is to go against whatever TN established.
That's a bit of a headache actually, as from what I was able to gather, TN don't seem to really want to provide a definite answer about this. I'm even starting to wonder if they actually know the answer themselves.
Allow me to use images in this message as I try to lay down my points, as I believe this would help getting it across better.
First thing I researched is the very same intel OP used in here, which is the official heights for the characters. Upon looking it up, I found nothing really out of place, as most people discussed in this thread, how tall/small the characters are definitely seems to make sense, overall. It's also interesting to notice a few nice touches like Christie being the tallest girl for instance, and most of the female asian characters being really small.
The second thing I noticed is TN appears to have actually tried to use broader height differences during the custscenes in DOA5's Storymode.
For instance, Brad is definitely taller than Eliot in this scene, which matches their official heights too, as Brad is meant to be 6' 0" (182cm) tall and Eliot is 5' 6" (170cm). He seems to be half a head taller than him, just like he would IRL given the height difference (let's say for the sake of convenience an average human head is about 7.8"(20cm) tall.
But this same scene also contains the first issue I've ran into, or inconsistency if you will - when Hitomi goes "rawr" on Eliot.
Officially, Hitomi is supposed to be 5' 3" (160cm), that's as much of a height difference as with the Brad/Eliot scenario, yet she clearly has to bend over so their heads are level. Which shows TN is meaning to have Hitomi taller than Eliot.
There are a few other examples of this type but I'll try to keep this as short as possible so let's have a look at another case that stands out even more, in my opinion : The Hayate and his sisters case.
Officially, both Kasumi and Ayane are meant to be 5' 2" (158cm) tall, I think it's even less for Ayane (157cm). On the other hand, Hayate is supposed to be 5' 11" (180cm). Which would mean if we're still using our head reference, or even real life comparisons, he should be towering a good head over them.
... these screenshots don't seem to match these proportions, as it stands (no pun intended), either Kasumi and Ayane are at least 5' 6" (170cm) tall, or Hayate is much smaller than 5' 11" (180cm). There's just no way the top of the girls' heads would reach around his nose based on the official measurements.
For reference, here's what it would actually look like if the ingame heights were to match the official info :
So yeah.
Trying to wrap my head around whatever TN's canon is regarding character heights has been a real hell so far, that's why I wanted to hear you guys' opinion about it, and what you would do if you were to faithfully translate all this info into fanwork/art, while trying to keep as respectful as possible to the source material. Would you just buff the 5' 2" asian ladies higher up ? What about the Hitomi/Eliot case, it's like TN is just throwing these numbers at random at this point - at least that's how I'm feeling about the whole thing. Interesting thing to note is these measurements seem to carry over to DOAX3 so it would seem they are definitely sticking to it. Then how would you explain these inconsistencies in the story mode cutscenes, which aren't bound by the same restrictions as gameplay and it's obvious they did try to take the actual heights into account in them ?
Any help would be appreciated, I can't seem to reach a satisfying consensus about this. Thank you for reading.
