Aside from when it’s wildly out of whack with the game world, I don’t think about the height of videogame characters much. At a modest 5’7, I generally assume that most videogame protagonists are taller than me. There have been a few occasions where a character’s canonical height has surprised me, though. For example, a while back I read that Thief’s antihero Garrett was a strapping six footer, but a recent search revealed that this is actually not the case, and in fact he might be even shorter than me.
I had a similar reaction watching Zullie the Witch’s recent video discussing character height in FromSoftware’s games, in which she reveals that every FromSoft protagonist up until Elden Ring Neightreign is roughly 1.7 metres, or 5 foot 7 inches, tall. I’d always figured they were strapping six footers, if only because it further accentuates how massive the game’s bosses are.
This is, I should stress, not the central point of Zullie’s video. The vid explores how Elden Ring Nightreign’s new character height modifier affects the game mechanically. Elden Ring’s playable characters have noticeably different heights, even though they’re all based on the same player model. The smallest avatar, Revenant, is a petite 4’9, while at 6’6, the Guardian is at risk of bumping his head on doorframes a lot.
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As for how this affects the game mechanically, the answer is “not much, but a bit”. Height difference has no effect on movement actions like running or jumping, but they do factor slightly into combat. According to Zullie, smaller characters have a slightly higher chance to avoid being hit by certain attacks (like arrows), while taller characters have marginally longer reach, meaning their swings will hit enemies from further away.
This might not be vastly surprising, but it is interesting regardless. Zullie also notes that the size modifier can be used to adjust the height of any character in Nightreign, and could potentially be used in future FromSoft games, possibly even as a character creation variable. Now I want a FromSoft RPG where you can create a character so small they can attack bosses internally. Though, to be honest, you could probably do that with some of the existing bosses anyway if the games supported it mechanically.
In any case, it pleases me greatly to know I can look all those other FromSoft protagonists in the eye without getting neckache. I suppose it also opens up a lot of cosplay opportunities, which isn’t exactly a huge concern for me. But it’s nice to know that I have options beyond “comic-accurate Wolverine”.
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