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The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: Pentagram-cracker on January 23, 2011, 09:24:10 PM

Title: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Pentagram-cracker on January 23, 2011, 09:24:10 PM
Maria Renard is my favorite vampire huntress in the series because of the fact that she fights by using animals. Anyways Ayami Kojima has had three different takes on her character design, and I thought it'd be fun to vote for and discuss which one we think is the best. Here are pictures too:

(http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/13/08/53600813/photos/Video-Game-Artworks/Maria1.JPG)

Adult Maria as she appears in Symphony of the Night. She's no longer a kid and has taken to wearing revealing clothing (a little too revealing for a girl in the 1700's...). She no longer uses her pet doves, but instead uses an owl.

(http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/13/08/53600813/photos/Video-Game-Artworks/Maria2.JPG)

Child Maria as she appears in The Dracula X Chronicles, which is a remake of Rondo of Blood. Her wardrobe has been altered from the original game and she now wears pants instead of a dress and seems to resemble her Symphony of the Night counterpart more closely.

(http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/13/08/53600813/photos/Video-Game-Artworks/Maria3.JPG)

Child Maria as she appears in the multi-player game Harmony of Despair. Unlike The Dracula X Chronicles, she looks exactly like she did in the original Rondo of Blood but with more detail.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: crisis on January 23, 2011, 09:34:23 PM
Adult Maria is the best.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: X on January 23, 2011, 10:22:44 PM
For RoB I'd have to say the second pic of child Maria (Her HD art). It is almost identicle to her anime Rondo counterpart and much better then Ayami Kojima first attempt for the DXC art.

-X
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Kale on January 23, 2011, 10:56:28 PM
Adult is the best, but her long flowing hair young one second. I don't like the tom boy look much.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Munchy on January 24, 2011, 12:25:06 AM
Adult Maria is the best.

Yep.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Pentagram-cracker on January 24, 2011, 05:01:38 AM
I'm not really too crazy about Adult Maria's look, she looks like she should be passing out candycanes to children standing in line at the mall to sit in Santa's lap.

DXC Maria is my favorite. Her outfit looks original and makes her look more like a tomboy, which kind of fits the whole animal lover thing.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Asgardwolf on January 24, 2011, 06:08:28 AM
Adult Maria is the best.
^^This^^
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: X on January 24, 2011, 11:44:03 AM
DXC Maria is my favorite. Her outfit looks original and makes her look more like a tomboy, which kind of fits the whole animal lover thing.

Kinda like the character Elly May from the HillBillys huh?

-X
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Gunlord on January 24, 2011, 12:25:05 PM
Adult Maria. Guess maybe it's nostalgia...I always loved her, ever since I played SoTN way back when. ;_;
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Chernabogue on January 24, 2011, 12:27:35 PM
Adult and DXC Maria for me.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Jorge D. Fuentes on January 24, 2011, 12:36:44 PM
Maria's CastlevaniaHD art represents the sprite pretty damn well, so it's my favoe.
I still like the original more, but it's very very well done.
Adult Maria from SotN is second best.  DXC Maria gives me nightmares.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Hanniballistic on January 24, 2011, 01:23:20 PM
All three are good for their respective games, but I like the art for HD the most.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: DarkPrinceAlucard on January 24, 2011, 01:26:34 PM
Adult Maria obviously lol.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Sumac on January 24, 2011, 01:43:32 PM
Adult Maria.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Pemburu Vampir on January 24, 2011, 10:11:44 PM
Adult Maria, the second best would be HD Maria.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Pentagram-cracker on January 25, 2011, 08:36:01 PM
I don't really understand what everybody has against her Dracula X Chronicles look. I think it's a very cool look for her, and the fact that she wears pants makes it seem more realistic that she can run and jump around while fighting monsters. Plus it makes her resemble how she looks in Symphony of the Night a lot more.

Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: X on January 25, 2011, 10:30:36 PM
I don't really understand what everybody has against her Dracula X Chronicles look. I think it's a very cool look for her, and the fact that she wears pants makes it seem more realistic that she can run and jump around while fighting monsters. Plus it makes her resemble how she looks in Symphony of the Night a lot more.

For some of us, our dislike of her DXC outfit is that it's not true to her original style of wear that we're familiar with. That and her hollow, empty green eyes make her a little less human too.

-X
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: VGuyver on January 26, 2011, 04:02:41 AM
Personaly I prefer Adult Maria, but I voted for the HD because it's really a nice reworking of her original design, and I have to give it respect for that alone.

I like the seond design as well, I really can't see why so many people hate it. There is this big misconception that it's a tomboy work. Well it's not exactly the case. Back in my native Portugal, and not just there but in several Eurpean countries they have traveling Horse Performers, the performers wear an old style of dress from the 1700's or 1800's depending on the nation of origin. Maria is pretty much wearing horse riding clothing from thattimeperiod, which mkaes sense with her being an animal lover, not to mention she's fighting monsters... a dress would just get in the way.

Oh and yeah, Judgement Maria has no place on the list and I'm glad it was left out. The design is just disgusting...
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Pentagram-cracker on January 26, 2011, 08:26:21 AM
X I guess that makes sense. Old fans of the games are probably used to her Rondo of Blood look and I can see how they would be slightly offended by her new look. However because I played DXC first I guess I wasn't that bothered. In fact I don't care much for her original RoB look because to me she looks too much like Princess Peach from Mario Brothers (though Kojima's version of the outfit does look really nice I admit).

VGuyver That's really cool, I didn't know that was a horseriding outfit. Is that what Iris is wearing too? I always thought Iris was wearing a man's suit trying to be "trendy". That makes sense that Maria would wear that because she's an animal lover, and that's one of the things I like about Maria because I'm a bit of an animal lover myself. :)

Oh and I agree, Judgement Maria looks awful. But Kojima didn't draw her for Judgement so I didn't add her to this topic, this is only for Kojima's artwork.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: uzo on January 26, 2011, 10:40:27 AM
I played Rondo first, but I still like the new design better.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Inccubus on January 26, 2011, 08:21:16 PM
Maria's CastlevaniaHD art represents the sprite pretty damn well, so it's my favoe.
I still like the original more, but it's very very well done.
Adult Maria from SotN is second best.  DXC Maria gives me nightmares.

Ditto. They never should have changed it in DXC to begin with.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: KaZudra on January 30, 2011, 08:10:18 PM
Third Maria wasn't Ayami Kojima, adult maria for sure tho
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: thernz on January 30, 2011, 09:26:42 PM
It was Ayami Kojima.
Title: Re: Which Maria by Ayami Kojima is the best?
Post by: Dremn on January 31, 2011, 09:37:51 AM
SotN and HoD Maria. SotN had great older renditions of the characters, but in HoD she kept the original designs intact.