It's not just about Appearances!

Or, according to the different regional box-arts of our favourite little pink blob, Kirby. 

So I found out that Kirby has always looked different on the box art for Japanese and North American versions, (again, the most common comparison!). For North America, Kirby always looks pretty angry, compared to the care-free, happy-go-lucky looking Kirby on the Japanese versions below. This has been commonplace for most of the games in the series (with a couple of exceptions).

Gamespot did an interview with Shinya Kumazaki, the director of the Kirby games, who explains why they have changed Kirby's facial expression for America. It is only his expression that changes, and nothing about his physical appearance. 

American versus Japanese box art.

In the interview, Kumazaki explains that the reason Kirby is 'cute' for the most part is because it is the strongest portrayal of Kirby. Apparently it 'appeals to the widest audience' and is particular effective in drawing in the Japanese audience, which is why he is always cute for Japanese box art (minus one game which I'll mention). It seems the Japanese market like 'cute'. 

On the other hand, North America are said to prefer the more hardcore side of Kirby. Kumazaki says that they are aware of Kirby having  ' a serious side as well'. Through feedback to HAL from Nintendo of America, it seems that the angry Kirby appeals well to the U.S market and that's what they would rather have. 

This is another example, and a different one at that, of how character's are localized. They don't necessarily have to be changed physically. In this case, Kirby's forefront attitude was changed. In a way, I think this is perhaps a cleverer way of localizing a character. Ultimately, the character has not had to physically change whatsoever. Kirby just looks more serious, more focused. He still looks cute though, so that image isn't lost. It's just that it's been adapted to suit a different market. 

Characters are more often than note featured on box art, and box art helps to sell a game. Reflecting on this, care needs to be taken in how a character is portrayed when it comes to marketing and being able to appeal to the target audience. 

To me, Kirby's change was a subtle change, because he's practically identical bar his expression and I think the message gets across quite easily. It's not dissimilar from how they changed Ratchet from Ratchet and Clank, as Hasegawa and Tsurumi explain in an interview (taken from the book Better Game Characters by Design). To make him more expressive for the Japanese market, his eyebrows were thickened and stripes were added to his body to reflect his wild nature. This was about expression, as was Kirby's alteration.

As long as it doesn't take away from the character, or present the wrong message about the character, I think it works well. In fact, perhaps this subtle localisation works better than changing a character too much visually. Especially if a character has a particular culture that is expressed through how they look (building upon what Sean Andrew Murray wrote about clothes telling a story), then it might just be the attitude of the character or its values that be necessary to change to appeal to an audience.

After all, it is often a character's values and behaviourism that attracts a player to it, as seems to show in my survey results thus far.

Another reason for localising a character might be because of cultural beliefs. I've been looking up why Karthus from League of Legends was changed for China. Something or rather to do with bones, but it's difficult to find a good point of reference. All I know so far is that his design was altered, and that forums speculate why.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-04-29-why-so-serious-nintendo-explains-angry-western-kirby
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/why-is-kirby-always-angry-in-the-us-nintendo-explains/1100-6419263/