u/Radiant_Juggernaut68

Yojimbo Blade made a video recently about S3 character designs. It was actually a great video, a breath of fresh air after the hateflood. I don't agree with him in a few things, but it was an actual, nuanced and well formulated criticism, not complaining labelled as "criticism" or parroting popular buzzwords and "arguments".
The video spawned a few great conversations in the comment section, someone even asked me with an open mind why I like Eldreda's design and I thought I'll share it here as well, because we all heard why people hate it, but no one ever asked or listened why we would actually like it.

I can list a few things to provide perspective.
I prefer tall women with sharp eyes and who act mature (not a surprise that I really like Zhu Yuan, Evelyn, Yixuan, Sigrid and if we don't count the eyes, Trigger :D) .
- White hair with the eye colors give a very solid base (the face and head design is central IMO for liking a character).

About the outfit: I really like tight bodysuits in these games. In her case I generally really enjoy the dark gray, the dark blue with a little red outfit colors and the texture of the fabrics.
- I love the arm sleeves, that give an armor-like modern-fantasy vibe.
- The nonsensical zippers are great, because this is a fantasy game, so clothing designs that makes no sense IRL can shine here. She is also an android, so she doesn't need to take off her clothes often anyways.
- People hate a lot on the asymmetrical leg design, but I find it very interesting, that the legs are basically the inverse of each other (like how the eye colors are almost inverse as well): One is covered and missing a star, the other is bare, but has a star on it, so there's some symmetry in that asymmetry. I've never seen a design like this ever, so it's novel and unique And it only works like this if one leg is uncovered. Plus I generally find asymmetrical designs more interesting (for example, I experimented with mods and Ifound that I preferred the asymmetrical leg design in Chasca's case, while Mavuika is symmetrical and I find her less interesting.) Zhu and trigger has symmetrical legs and that's great as well. Both can work well.
- I'd also say that I dislike a lot of zzz chest designs, because the boobs stand out too much from the overall design (rina, yanagi, caesar, yixuan etc). In eldreda's case the continuation of the fabric blends the boobs more into the general design, makes it more coherent and I like that.
- "Latex" (and leather( is always a good idea. The fabric just gives the outfit modern-futuristic look (you need modern tech and factories to manufacture the fabrics that are used in her outfit). The dark gray parts remind me of carbon. Maybe they used graphene, carbon fiber or stuff like that for the clothing or the arm protector.

If you look at her design, the asymmetry is a core part in it. The heterochromia, the legs and even the body is divided into different halves.
Left eyes are yellow, left legs are bare. Right eyes are blue, left side of the body is blue: something is similar something is alternating.

The bright red on her coat complement the generally dark outfit and makes it pop even more.

I think it is a very interesting and "brave" design. It's also hot af which is a main reason why i play zzz.
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The other person also pointed out that the zipper may be a reference to Bangboos, which is a cool and cute detail.

https://preview.redd.it/jq5qk8mpf99h1.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=38c4db399a9420343f49e597036ba83bd8ec22a4

tldr:

- There are no BiS sets yet.

- 2p2p2p vs current best difference is around 4 substat rolls.

- Dawn's bloom is ok, woodpecker better.

- Subject to change. Small kit, thus combo tweaks can change up set ranking.

- Just farm astral domain in the meantime. Wait for final kit and final calcs.