OMG. I am fangirling out right now!! ^^ That was
sooo legit!
And is it just me or does Sarah look more like Helena than Helena herself? They both look great, but I think I need a while to get used to her new look. The Caucasian characters definitely went through the bigger changes face-wise.
Like a few others have said, I'm also happy they played with facial features and differentiated everyone under the new graphics system (i.e. Brad looking older, Eliot looking more eurocentric). And I think Helena's face is less "chibi" and more angular, a la Christie, because of something Shinigamimatt said.
It is weird that Helena is promoting the next tournament. Especially since she was done with it by the end of DOA4. To see her with DOATEC still after knowing she was just another tool is suspicious.
Exactly. I have a feeling she's gone to the "dark side," and -- like Christie -- is one of the bad guy characters now. She was more morally ambiguous in 4. She did try to martyr herself and take all three tritowers down with her, but she also shot Anne (one of her father's mistresses, who presumably put out the hit on her mother) in the face. Plus, she would've busted a cap in Kasumi, if it hadn't been for Hayabusa. ...Yeah, she's pretty dang evil.
In terms of Helena's redesign, her eyes are significantly smaller than other Caucasian women like Tina, and even Christie, I think. Also, in that shot where she's in Bayman's vision, she had visibly dark eye makeup and sunken, under-eye circles. Relative to the other girls, at least -- just enough for her to still look "hot." Anyway, all of these traits are typically associated with more mature and less innocent women (as opposed to wide-eyed and childlike Kasumi, Tina, et al). It may just be the lighting, though.
Anyway, if I may offer some of my own observations.
I'm still so excited. ^^ God dang. Been waiting so long for you, Helena. I love her blue costume with the tailcoat and black wedges. She's wearing wedges! Omg! (I live in wedge flip-flops). In comparison to her old leather catsuit, I'm really digging the new look. I hope that's her default outfit. I'm also happy they toned down her bow. The old one was too cartoony...the black lace is really pretty, too. A nice compromise.
In terms of her voice, I can't tell if it's the woman from Dimensions (who was pretty bad, in my opinion) or Karen Strassman, her voice actress from some older games (in my opinion the better Helena). A clip of Karen Strassman talking in character can be heard
here.