[MartianMage]

Originally Posted by hyl

How is Ryo's design more unique than other ninja's? Joe Musashi from Shinobi and Kagemaru from Virtua fighter look mostly like a different coloured Ryo design wise.
Rikimaru from Tenchu has a stark resemble because he looks mostly like a white haired Ryo without a hood.

Please run a search for the latest Ryo Hayabusa design and not the old retro design. How can you possibly mistake Ryo for those you have mentioned?

You do know that the same can be said for almost every character? Like if the Haruhi or the index series novels were never a succes, do you think that lots of people would bother inquiring information about those series if they saw a picture of the novel cover?

Yes, they would especially for characters with outstanding designs. How do you think Nakoruru became popular whereas the game she came from was an utter disappointment?

A normal looking character can have appeal due to his or her actions in the course of that serie, which is in that case not a secundary factor but a primary factor.
As for some examples Steins;Gate, Puella Magi Madoka Magica and NGE probably became popular because of their story, settings and the character interactions and maybe more things, but i don't think it was primarily of their character designs.

A cool looking character that was for example horribly written is most likely not going to be remembered. Like some people felt that Necron was redundant in ff9 .

Again only people who are familiar with the source would take notice. That does not count as recognizable.

Make a gallery composed of 100 pictures, put 2 pictures of necron, put 2 of okabe, and have people with no knowledge of them browse through them. More likely than not more people would inquire about Necron. Does it matter if fans found Necron to be redundant while Okabe is the main of a popular series?