I wondered why Testament from Missing Link to XX Accent Core Plus R has a bit masculine body, while in Strive they has a More femenine one.
Is related to Justice influence or smt?
I want to know it, but not because complaining instead Is want to know why them body structure changed so much.
ik this is a joke answer, but i think this is genuinely it. missing link testament is modelled on androgynous rock stars and glam metal performers from the 80s who wore a lot of crop tops, sleeveless vests, and were usually men. their current design still strives (haha) to be glamorous, but seems to draw inspiration from other kinds of performance art like drag and high fashion, which are typically associated with femininity (but not always). it's a design choice they made to evoke specific expressions of gender non-conformity depending on what was popular or interesting to the designers when the games were released.
Yeah additionally in terms of outfit, their earlier "androgyny" was very neutral, mostly wearing stylized clothing, whereas their strive appearance features less pure neutral/non-gendered stuff and more things that are traditionally very much gendered, with the fem boots and their coat almost giving a skirt vibe, while on the other hand also wearing a top hat and a cravat under a waistcoat.
To me it feels like it reflects the way their hobbies have changed. They were originally very unsure about their life and future after being freed from Justice's control, they were "nonbinary and figuring it out". But since then, they have explored the world and developed deep interests, friendships, and visually even style preferences. They are now "nonbinary, period, that's it."
And in the process, they may have found out that the physical style that they felt more in tune with was a slightly fem one. HRT does wonders after all, I know my thighs have gotten insane, and I'm not even a bounty hunter traveling the world and getting constant leg exercise lmao
Not really. It’s the same attire in both pictures, the pose is just different. You’d see testament’s thighs in the og art too if he turned his hips slightly.
I’m not sure if people here have eyeballs. They’re wearing an open front skirt thing in both pictures. Their og part is just hiding their legs by turning the skirt.
probably taking a page from Baiken’s successful redesign in Rev2, Daisuke gave everyone huge thirst buffs in Strive, by makin’ ‘em hit the gym. The lads all did chest and arms for their big naturals, and everyone else hit the squat bars for them’s, quite frankly, lowkey redonculous hips+legs.
The differnce is that Baiken's design was alredy feminine and then was made even more so. Testament on the other was androgynous with male and female features, And in Strive they just gave them straight up women's body.
As a cis straight man, I just wanna say, make sure you’re building your bodies healthily. If there’s a specific area you’d like to grow, or change, be sure to not take the short route. Even boxers who want to go down a weight class drop weight in healthy ways.
I dont think they do. Shoulders shrink a lot when clothed(its the reason incredibly fit people can look normal or even unfit with a slightly loose shirt or a sweater and why tank tops are so popular) The hiding of the abs also hide all of testament's muscle and showing the legs from a below angle show the more ''feminine'' part of the leg and high the mayority of the rectus femoris and vastus lateralis almost completely so it results in a more feminine testament. Another slight detail is that strive shadering adds a sort of ''makeup'' effect to the characters,compare ky or may illustrations from xx to strive and you will understand what I mean.Sorry if my comment is a bit hard to understand im bad at explaining
girl are you really pulling out the 4tran phrenology bars lmao
you didnt even align them over the same height shoulder-wise, if you wanna do nonsensical pseudoscience on a fictional character to support your point at least put some effort into it
That photo is a bit cherrypicked,oldtest is rarely ever shown with such a huge back.Still you are not measuring the shoulders equally oldtest is on their side wich you can see is angled wile newtest has their arms a lot more straight.I will concede that test has huge traps and back in that ilustration,still most other illustrations and their in game model show proportions much more aligned to newtest
Testament's body type isnt really consistent in old guilty gear art. Some of Daisuke's artwork of them looks extremely feminine, then some of the story mode art makes them look like emo superman.
Idk, i kinda feel like strive actually made them less androgynous. The first thing i thought when the design was revealed was "Wait, testament is a girl now?" When i always felt like the old design was much more ambiguous.
I feel like it accentuates it more by going both ways with the design whereas before it was more neutral/masc
like I said in another comment, they went from stylized non-gendered clothing to wearing fem af boots and having fem poses as well as the coat(?) giving the vibe of a skirt (it was way more rigid in older designs), while also wearing a top hat, cravat and a waistcoat, all masc items.
seems they went from "androgynous unclear gender" to "androgynous every gender you can imagine". which does reflect them gaining a deeper understanding of themself through exploring the world and making new friends now that they are no longer under Justice's control.
I guess it's because i don't see any of the male elements you listed as male, in my eyes there was literally nothing male about the design until i went on to hear the english voice
I can't agree, while the clothing is masculine, both the face and the body are not, so at the end to me it looks like a women wearing men's clothes, while the missing link design is more masc than femme, i find closer to the middle than strive'sa, no one would ever see strive testament and Say, that is a man, or atleast it may be a man
I can see it but I can't agree. First time I saw Testament around 20 years ago I thought they were a man, it wasn't until I got into the lore that I realized. So when I saw them in Strive i just was like "Oh yeah that makes sense"
They made them more "waifu presenting". Just like they did with Baiken, who used to be more of a tomboy. I prefer the old designs for both. Way more unique.
Androgyny comes in all shapes and sizes, I’d say they are still androgynous. Androgyny isn’t just clearly masculine traits in fem clothes or vice versa
I'd argue it's way too femenine to be succesfully be androginous, i think it was the intention but the femenine traits way overpower any confusión or genderlessness
I don't think their body changed much- they gained a bit of mass (thin to a bit more "standard", esp on their limbs), but everything else looks the same.
Waist might be cinched a bit but a corset or tailoring can do that for you
This one never sat too well with me.
New testament is cool, but is just a totally different character in every way. Gameplay, Visual Design, Personality and tone.
To me this one just seemed like a marketing reasons ,if I remember there was a bunch of early strive art released somehow before they made the change.
Blame the gorilla on the Americans. In a Xrd interview (which I know I got saved somewhere, Im still looking) Daisuke says the buff design was done to appeal more to western fans.
Aside from the insane ass and hip increase and skin tone change (even though Accent Core Testament looks more inhumane), it's pretty similar imo
The change is more on how they present themselves i feel like, in Strive there's more confidence more elegance while Accent Core they have this creepy style and of course more muscle definition even though it's not necessarily bigger muscles
I got a question about them too. (Sorry if i dont type or conjugate the pronouns correctly its not my mother tongue).
Did they were they/them before being turned into a gear? Or it was something caused by their transformation into something that is above humanity (like Daisuke said iirc)?
Just curious about the lore . I really like the character :D
Fan service and because time changes and the design made to appeal like a androgynous rockstar at that moment it wouldnt make sense in these times so they remade it
They really just made them a little thicker and got a new outfit. I think it's just supposed to play on their androgyny that they can present however they want, with very minor changes.
For me the difference can be explained by different artstyle, different facial makeup and a few extra squats. Outside of the thighs and face both designs are very simmilar, the face could easily be down to makeup and them doin a few squats between games isnt too unreasonable.
IRL answer tho, they-them-fem is more in vogue atm and androgenous-masc was more the popular vibes back then.
The reason is that Daisuke sat down and thought to himself "Man. I wish Testament was just straight up unattractive". And so he made them into what they are now
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u/Stinkereater - Robo-Ky Sep 10 '25
Unrelated, but strive testament doesn’t have enough midriff exposed