[Improved Sprites] Proto Shield Front

[Trillster]

Something has always irked me about Proto Shield and I'm quite surprised that (from what I can see) it's never been brought up here. Looking at some official art of Proto Shield, you can see that the entirety of the shield has an outline.

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Simply enough, 8BDM's Proto Shield only has it on one side, easy fix by just mirroring it to the other side as below,

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EDIT :
Figured I would put the pointed shield update in the main post as well.

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[fortegigasgospel]

While not usually evident in his normal standing pose it could also probably be pointed on the top and bottom easily.

[Trillster]

I think for that one it really depends on the source, in concept arts it's shown as round, just about any time it's being held by Proto Man it's shown as pointing, and when he throws it to Mega Man, it's round.

Concept Art:

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Held By Proto:

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Thrown To Mega:

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In this case I'd say it wouldn't be too out of place for the shield to be pointed considering the pickup does give you Proto Man's buster as well. So with that in mind, updated this comparison image to include the pointed edges.

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[MusashiAA]

In some instances it's pointed, in some it isn't, probably because of design inconsistency between sprite artists and pencil artists, and between them and the original pencil designs for MM3, which are honestly kind of outdated: MM7 and MM8 art style, both sprite and pencil, are way more elaborate than Inafune's MM3 art style. Drawing styles evolve, and with them inevitably old character designs redrawn in newer art styles.

Go with non-pointed.

[Gumballtoid]

Personally I'm leaning towards the pointed design. It's what is currently on his skin and is depicted in more recent artwork (plus it looks nicer).

[fortegigasgospel]

Proto Man is also interestingly enough based off of

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Char Aznable, and one of his most popular units from the original Gundam

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the gelgoog, which is where Proto Man's shield got it's design from.
Even Sniper Joe (which is where Proto Man's design came from) is also based off

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the gelgoog, with

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the Zaku for color.

So yea his shield was inspired by a pointed version as well. And like Gumball said, his skin already uses the pointed version.

[Russel]

I like pointed shield

[MusashiAA]

I said non-pointed because it would convey more accurately the shield's hitbox. But I guess there's no point in doing that.

[CutmanMike]

Simply enough, 8BDM's Proto Shield only has it on one side, easy fix by just mirroring it to the other side as below,

If you mean the back sprite, it doesn't have one so that you don't see your own protoshield AND the HUD protoshield.

Oh I see.

I tried the pointed shield in game. Looks a little bit too skinny. What do you think?

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[Gumballtoid]

I think it would be better off if it were moved slightly closer to the center. It would at least more accurately convey the hitbox.

Besides that I think it looks just dandy.

[Trillster]

The pointed shield looks fine to me, probably could move it closer to the center as GBT said, but that might end up making it slightly more different to block shots with. Though changing the shield's look does bring up a bit of an issue with the HUD, it becomes inconsistent. So with that, I quickly threw together these HUD sprites based off of an old HUD that OrangeMario made. These ones try to add a bit more of a point to the top of it, probably could be sharper though.

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[Korby]

The pointed sprite looks a lot better in game than I expected it to.

I'd be interested in seeing a more pointed HUD as well.

[Gumballtoid]

That HUD looks nice. I would just move the peephole to the left by about a pixel or two.