The thing is, is that with new technology, people always want to test the limits by making things the best they can be. While with some people it's the simple things that matter most and they think that characters are too overly detailed, many people are enjoying the attention to detail that is going on nowadays.
As for the characters overly heaped in accessories and stuff, it more or less symbolizes the eccentricies of the characters. They have style that is all their own and that creates originality. I mean, yeah it's a bit off-base from reality, but truth be told, would any of us play video games at all if we were perfectly happy with reality? For me, it's always the story that draws me in. The graphics and character designs are just bonuses.
Well I'm not sure I completely agree. Yes it's true detail is important, but there is a limit that seems to be ignored. It's true that we don't want the characters to look like they were part of reality but we don't want them to look like they fell into a see of random clothing and accessories. And although technology has advanced far enough to where we can see all this detail, is it necessary to push it? I don't think so.
Look at the artist that have already been posted.
Nomura: To be honest, he isn't that bad. I think he knows what I mean about over design. The only characters he puts all those belts and zippers on are in the KH series. Look at his work in closely.
Lightning has belts and zippers in good places, although the ones on her skirt, thats bad. But the other FFXIII characters are fine.
Good amount of detail, no overuse of zippers and belts. Other examples of him knowing when to stop.
Amano: It's true he has extreme detail in his characters, but really pay attention. It isn't that bad. If you look at Nomura's reproductions of it, which is pretty accurate actually, for Dissidia you will notice how it isn't that bad.
At least it's symmetrical and NOT overly feminine.
Toriama: He is an example of too little. Blue Dragon had too little design on Shu. Now lets look at other stuff he did. Good amount of design in Chrono Trigger. He could more but he did enough.
Star Ocean: Star Ocean started out with too little but went to the right amount.... then blew up.
Look at all the lines on Maverick, too much. To me it loses it's distinctiveness.
Those are just a few of the character designers that I chose to analyze. I could go into FFXII's guy but that would just be a hate crime.
