7 Great Games With Truly Horrible Box Art
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ส.ค. 2024
- These great games are only good once you get them out their awful, awful boxes. Ew.
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you should do bad games with great boxart next lol
That would be one hell of a long list
@@Bella_The_Chef fair lol but hey atleast that way they can always come back to it or do a commenters edition
Great Giana Sisters. or most games from that era but the Mario ripoff is particularly egregious.
@@Bella_The_Chef my thoughts exactly. It will almost be endless 😂
or misleading box art XD
The 90s really were a bizarre time when it came to localizing Japanese media and video games especially.
The fact that someone looked at a cutesy, colorful puzzle game and said "It needs more bodily mutilations" and nobody thought that was a _little_ strange, is really indicative of the era...
It's also before anime became more commonplace, so they figured Westerners wouldn't want games with the weird foreign art-style on the cover.
The 80s were worse. Robotech, Voltron, and probably the worst Warriors of the Wind which was a horrible mangling of the anime movie Nausicaa. Like if Michael Bay redid Totoro.
The original Resident Evil, which had a single bloody eye against a black backdrop in Japan, but in the US had Chris with a “just farted in church” expression and a gun that looked like an M16 before someone told the artist it wasn’t in the game so he tried to salvage it and make it into a shotgun instead.
I just looked that up and what the fuck am I looking at
The ‘just farted’ part made me choke on my burger
yeah I can still see that just by the description alone
@@amagicalduck155 Yea, that’s just simply not true, see as Chris’s design was finalized in late 1994, and the localization changes were done very, very late in the game’s development.
and it totally owns
That description of Mega Man 1's box art as being spray painted on the side of an unsafe carnival ride is maybe the best and most fitting description of something I've ever heard, oh my god
That part absolutely floored me 😂
Yes, spot on. I can smell the cotton candy, beer, & vomit _right now_
I know, it is so fitting.
Couldn’t agree more
Sorry for the late comment, but I am flabbergasted at how apt a description that is! No exaggeration, haha
I love the story behind the “bad box-art Mega Man” in the VS Capcom game. That year was supposed to be a revival/love letter year for Mega Man fans, but the other long overdue projects were canceled and all they gave fans was a seemingly mean-spirited “Mega Man is old and washed up.”
BIG OOF
The timing was bad but I have to admit it was hilarious
I was under the impression that the producer decide to be a troll since NA fans specifically asked for "Mega Man" for a crossover character. So he added "Mega Man, and not as he was known as in Japan, "Rockman".
Famous video-game characters are like comic-book & horror-movie villains; they represent archetypes and tropes, more than anything else, and I'm struggling to imagine a non-apocalypse scenario where these tropes and concepts and such would be considered "washed up"
Outside of "this doesn't make our company enough money anymore" washed-up, of course...
(RIP MML3)
"He's still just holding a gun!" is just such a great line, cos it starts to imply an alternate plot where Megaman loses his shit and starts gunning down people on a postal rampage.
That's essentially what happens for X. All reploids are based on X, and reploids going Maverick is like the main point of the series
A friend of mine has just informed me that he has that Bust-a-Move game box. And sent photo proof. Dear God.
I’m so glad you mentioned Super Bust-a-Move for the PS2. I remember asking for it for Christmas one year, and I even prefaced it with something like, “I know it looks weird, but…” And even then my Dad asked, “Are you sure this is what you want?” And I was like, “Yes, I know it looks stupid but it really doesn’t have anything to do with the game.” I still hate that box art. XD
Laughed too hard at “Running over Billie Joe Armstrong…”
Ico from the Ico box art went on to play a starring role as both of Ethan's sons in Heavy Rain
*“S H A U N ! ! !”*
Underrated comment.
Bravo.👍😂
You mean Andy's son in Heavy Rain?
I kid, but Ethan Mars really does look like Andy.
@@liquidbismuth1044 "J A S O N ! ! !"
JAAAAAAY-SUN!
For the Japanese version of Resident Evil, it's box art depicted a bloody eyeball against a black background. For the American version of the game, it's box art has Chris Redfield with a silly expression on his face carrying what looks like a machine gun or a shotgun.
Poetically, it ended up looks very similar to some of the deranged panels of the internet-beloved Doom comic.
if you cover one half of the face, one side looks scared shitless, while the other is a determined snarl.
Tbf, a macho man carrying a gun is very appealing to Americans
From the box art, one might mistake Bust A Move for Clockwork Orange.
Was initially outraged at Ico's art being on this list... because i didn't know about the NA version
Why is this? Bad NA, very bad NA....
Yeah I was about to call nonsense and then..:
HOW DARE TH…. ah yes they’re absolutely right
😂
The box art is 100% what made me want to play Ico, luckily we had the good box art.
There are so many games of that era where the North American cover is a 3d rendered collage mess while the rest of the world got something a bit more tasteful, although I was surprised by that BOF III cover.
"Acclaim are things ok over there?" As it would turn out, things were very much not ok.
Acclaim has had some pretty crazy ideas over the years, one of their CEOs was known for making ridiculous requests to try and boost PR.
Like advertising they would pay for the speeding tickets of anyone who got one on the release day of Burnout 2. This never got actually approved but it was put out as an idea.
@@maxvel0city906 And that’s one of their least insane PR stunts just look up the Zero punctuation video
The Bust-A-Move box art look like avant-garde 90s album covers
The American box art of Fatal Frame aka Project Zero comes to mind. Where the scariest thing about it was the prospect of the artist having to use photoshop to make it.
My favorite part of that is how Andy Bogard looks like Patrick Swayze
@@CasualRemy I think you confused Fatal Fury and Fatal Frame there.
@@MrFutago87 I totally misread the post lmao
@@CasualRemy Good choice for a cover for this video though.
Oh man, I know exactly which one you are referring to.
If you ever do a community version of this we have to talk about Yakuza 3's box art.
The Japanese version depicts Kiryu looking up at the sky, having a cigarette and just thinking about life because at this point he's been through a lot and just wants to slow down but you know that it's just not that easy and he knows it aswell.
The Western cover is just a zoomed in shot of Kiryu's face looking dead pan with the dragon of dojima in the back.
One gives you an interesting image if you haven't played the game and makes you feel something if you have while the other is just rubbish.
I was hoping someone would mention this one lol
Yakuza 3’s awful box art is my favorite cover just because it’s so bad
Well, we got the original cover art for the remastered version on PS4 and PC. Except for the cigarette, that had to go because smoking is bad for you, kids.
@@Just4Fun-Zocker I know I'm just talking about the PS3 version and either way cigarette or not I love that cover.
Compared to some of these it isn't all that horrible. The lighting is dull and drab, but at least it uses the official Kiryu model. What really makes it stand out though is the absolutely baffling crop of his face. Truly astoundingly strange.
@@23Scadu yeah it's such a weird change.
Phalanx.
This was an old game for SNES, the cover having an old guy in a flannel shirt, overalls, and a cowboy hat, playing a banjo. The game was a shoot-em-up, much like Gradius and Defender. This was intentional, btw, because the marketers knew that the game would need something to stand out against the large amount of space shooters being released at the time.
Also, Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction. Yugi is on the cover, even though he is not the protagonist.
But Phalanx's box art is brilliant, not representative, but brilliant.
@@wraithcadmus Mmm... Maybe...
Half of YGO products have DM protags on their packages despite they not being relevant in the anime since 2004
The original Phalanx just shows how....phalic the ship design is
I love the non-traditional Yugioh games, but I don't think I ever got to play Reshef. Is it another one of "this isn't actually the OCG/TCG" games?
As a graphic designer and illustrator, this hurts me in a couple ways. One: because I'm especially hyper-sensitive about bad design (just ask the passenger in my car when I had to pull over to complain about the text kerning on a particularly bad billboard), and Two: because there isn't a designer alive who doesn't harbour a secret fear that in the deepest, darkest, more regrettable part of their portfolio, lives a job so accidentally awful that someday, someone will find it and roast it this savagely.
On a sidenote, I have big sympathy for the designer of the Arkham City cover, which is actually quite skillful but reeks of a project on it's 17th revision with management: "I love it - it's great. But can you just add these four more things to it? Thaaaaanks"
I always blame management first for bad signage or box art. Because I just have this image of the artists making great things and then the room full of suits tells them no because the marketing ANALysts have informed them "this is actually what people expect to see".
I don't even think the artist willingly added all that crap, they probably had someone else add it in later, presumably after the previous artist quit over the managers "constantly trying to bastardize my work with their many, many insecurities"
I remember seeing that Super Bust-A-Move baby box art, having no idea what the game was about, and assuming it was some psychedelic rhythm game; and I'm only just now learning what exactly the game was.
No mention of the nightmare inducing deformed version of Joker Pierce Brosnan on the Goldeneye box? Once seen never forgotten....
Never saw it like that, I mean it's clear that's just his hand
Funfact: Pierce Brosnan can eat a whole banana sideways. Honestly! 😁
Me seeing Bust-a-Move on the list: "Oh yeah, the one with the baby right? Yeah, that's pretty weird."
Me after seeing what the entry is actually about: "Oh. Oh no. Oh no, no thank you."
Megaman has been one of my favorite franchises since I was a kid, first playing it in probably '88 or '89. Which means 5 or 6 year old me walked into the video store with my mom, saw that box art on the rack and decided it was a good choice for me to spend my allowance on for a weekend rental.
Naughty Dog always delivers top tier quality experiences... while their characters are just standing still on the box art. See UC4 and TLOU2 lol
A bit bland isn't quite the same thing as "actually atrocious, and I would be embarrased to have that on my shelf" to me
@@PatrickLongblkwhtrbbt nah, boring is always worse than bad
The box art for Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection makes up for any of it.
@@gorimbaud absolutely
Meh only U2 was great. And even then it gets old after the first playthrough
Other case of a game from Japan getting weird box art in the west was Dragon Quest/Warrior. They got rid of any trace of Akira Toriyama iconic art!
To be fair to Dragon Warrior, the American box art did fuck severely.
To be totally honest the American box art is better. The Japanese one had Toriyama's art and fit the game more but the American art is just so good, with a pretty unique dragon design.
@@whawhawhawhaaaa yeah, that is some cool 90s action hero box art in the American version.
And... at the time... Toriyama-sama wasn't yet one of the most legendary manga-ka in history. The original Toriyama art was also amazing. Both show the hero facing down a dragon in mortal combat... just different art styles.
Seriously though... you can feel a slight aesthetic shift after he drew DBZ in the DQ art..... It's like playing a picture match game with DQ and DBZ characters. :D But.. in fairness... that was always true. They're never EXACTLY the same, just... similar.
EDIT: Thinking again, the American art was done well enough that both the Green Dragon(yes I capitalized it for a reason!) and Hero are recognizable as specific characters from the game! It's a totally different art style, but it's still a recognizable character!
I know it's definitely weird in retrospect that they got rid of the original Toriyama art... but a) he wasn't the legend he is today (as noted by Mar Hawkman), b) it wasn't bad by any stretch (heck, the American box art for the first was clearly inspired by the Toriyama art, and the second likely drew some inspiration as well... though admittedly, it was a bit more generic for 3 and 4), and c) none of it was bad (it still looked cool, and all of it clearly related to the game in question).
The donald duck invisalign quip had me rolling. Carinval ride spray painting was good too!
The Batman GOTY one always looked like a hallarious magazine cover to me
9:49 Amnesia: The Duck Descent
I'd say that duck is more atroscious than descent.
Honestly regarding that "The Western butchered up the Box Art for Japanese Game"makes me remember about Suikoden when it first came out, man seeing the Box Art for Suikoden for the first time really put it up on me, like just why though?
Edit : Then again, atleast there's an effort for actually localizing the Box Art but seeing that type of Artstyle always makes me remember about Conan or Rambo idk what to feel when the game is literally a JRPG.
Checked the comments to see if anyone had mentioned this. The North American box art for Suikoden is bizarre. :D
108 highly recognizable recruitable characters, and they gave North America that. I picked it up originally because of the boxart, but then I lived in Europe and we got the good one.
Mericfully for PAL they just used the JP art, didn't even remove the Japanese text
I honestly have no memory of the _Suikoden_ box art; I bought it on the strengths of 'PSX JRPG,' 'disposable income,' and 'copious free time.'
Anyone else just really like the way Ellen says "Bust a move 2."
As soon as I read the title i thought: "Ico". And boom, number one. Although the box art outside the US is gorgeous.
You said Ico right! 🥺
For anyone wondering, the creators confirmed that Trico rhymes with Ico.
And when they were in the early stages of making Shadow of the Colossus, the teaser they made was codenamed Nico, "ni" being "two" in Japanese, so Ico 2. :)
More like Amnesia: The *Duck* Descent!
Before watching: Hmmm, I wonder if we're going to see Mega Man here, judging by the first game's art.
After: Yep, he's here all right.
Came here for Mega Man and was not disappointed.
I was like “Ico?? Ico?!? That box art was beautifu- oh. Oh no”
My favorite bad video game art is for the NA version of Rushing Beat, a side-scrolling beat'em up similar to Final Fight in almost every way where two cops with extremely normal names (Rick Norton and Douglas Bild) take on the gangs of Neo-Cisco. However instead of keeping the excellent Japanese anime-style box art, the NA version was renamed to "Rival Turf!" and featured two "thugs" on the cover who appeared to be about 16 and wouldn't have looked out of place in a back-to-school catalog or Sunny D ad. The cops names were also changed to "Jack Flak" and "Oozie Nelson," which just left me feeling like my intelligence was being insulted.
What would be cool would be a community follow up, or video centered on the Oxbox crew where they name "One box art that sticks out from the rest" from all the video games they've played from childhood to now. For me, it's MDK. Not only is the box art distinct, but I remember seeing it everywhere in 1997, when it released. I've never played the game even to this day, ironically, but it's box art is seared into my brain as a part of my '90s teenage years-slash-college experience.
"Anatomy study is for cowards!" - Mega Man cover artist.
Ico's cover is an absolute disgrace, I even modified the pdf official guide to eliminate that monstrosity, and changed it for the 20th anniversary image from Famitsu, which is just lovely.
Edit: I had never seen Amnesia's box art and omg that's hilarious lmao. I only saw the normal box art with the rose in the ground... Which doesn't spoil the monsters but at least is more pretty to look at...
Though not laughably hideous, I think the North American box art for Castlevania Symphony of the Night deserves a mention. The Japanese and European box art has a fantastic, hand-painted image of main character Alucard holding his sword in front of Dracula's castle as it appears in game silhouetted in front of a full moon. The North American box art, on the other hand, does not feature Alucard or any imagery that relates to the content of the game. Instead, it features a darkened, desaturated photo of a castle that bears little resemblance to the castle in the game. That's it. No characters, no monsters, no locations or items from the game, nothing. Just a generic, boring castle.
However I argue it's still quite memorable and surprisingly unique
There's a difference between disappointing and generic cover art (like NA's SotN art) and downright bad art. I don't think Symphony of the Night was going to lose sales over its art. Maybe not draw any sales in, but it was neutral. All of the examples in this vid.... YIKES.
Oh god the billy joe armstrong-icide line on Karnaj rally nearly finished me off lmao
0h gawd thank you, as soon as I saw the title i thought Megaman. Glad you got that already
That North America box "art" for ICO made me genuinely angry.
Fun video! The Western box art artists must really be rushed if they got those impressions from the games.
2:20 really makes me appreciate how much worse "Angry Kirby" could be. I've never seen Ico in the States, only in Google image searches, so I always remember it's box art being that serene, artistic fancy-shmancy shtick JP and PAL gets.
On a somewhat related note, I wish NA's Breath of the Wild box art was as chill as the PAL version. Seeing Euro streamers' Nintendo Switch home screens with the chillest looking Link ever is always gets a sigh of jealousy from me.
“Fumbled right at the goal line” is the American football idiom Ellen was searching for I believe
That Bust A Move baby box art was weird AF and then for quality box art Persona 5 Royal comes to mind (can't wait to get a copy for Switch)
The Bust a Move box art was ahead of its time. With the weird PS3 adverts here in America, like with that baby, it would've probably fit right in.
DOOM 2016. The internet relentlessly dunked on what can only be described as the most generic shooter box art of all time so much so that Bethesda eventually decided to include a reversible sleeve with an alternative cover inspired by the original DOOM art work.
May be pretty backwards, but for terrible games with great box;
Haze. A FPS horror game set in the near future where you, a corpo super soldier, must fight in a deadly corporates war between the Hex and Horizon corporations for control of Haze economy.
The Box art so legendary that it is a permanent mantel on the PlayStation Avatar Selection Menu, but the game is so forgettable that even people played the game didn't realize that the summary above is fake.
First one that jumps to mind for me is the first Suikoden. The US version was the most weird, generic "fantasy" boxart ever, while the Japanese version had a gorgeous cover that featured a huge number of the characters in the game, and gave people a much better idea of what kind of visual style the game was.
Breath of Fire 3's art in Japan is better. But the American art literally got me so curious I picked up the game. Now it is my favorite game of all time. So it did something right. edit: OH! You meant the PAL box art...um...ok fair enough.
The game intimidates me as someone who loves to grind while listening to podcasts or music because of the Mentor System.
Nevertheless, as a kid, I rented it a bunch, but just couldn't get past the infamous desert section. I absolutely adored the Fairy Village mechanic!
Maybe I should give it another go... any tips? If you say it is your favorite game, you might be the best one to ask!
You guys should have included the box art for Forsaken, a critically acclaimed 3D Space Shooter that, for some reason, has a cover featuring a close up of a crying woman's face with a heart tattoo on her cheek. What even?
Oh my gosh, I remember that! That's wild.
Ico was so good, the best looking game I had seen at the time. Still looks amazing.
I actually hadn't seen the original box art for Arkham City. I just assumed the original version was him wiping his face without all the extreme writing. Because that does make a good cover.
It's the blood of all the praise heaped on the game which he was successfully able to fend off before it overran the entire box.
The soundtrack for Ico is also one of the best ever.
Wave of feelings washed over me when I heard it.
Holy hell, some of the script for this was amazing, Luke's "unsafe carnival ride spraypaint" and "Donald duck got paid to advertise Invisiline", too good 😅
As a European, I thought "Ico doesn't have bad box art!", but then I saw the American, and I reacted and felt just as it was shown. Perfect.
I think the US Suikoden box art led directly to that game underselling. The original anime style box art showed off several of the main characters in action poses. In the US, they replaced it with 5 poorly painted people looking angry, confused, and worried. They all looked like they didn't want to have anything to do with the game they were advertising. A shame really because the game and story were great. Fortunately, both Suikoden 1 and 2 are getting an HD remaster release, so hopefully they can finally fix the bad box art.
What!? HD Suikoden 1 & 2? Why haven't I heard of this? The music still gets stuck in my head, all these decades later!
@@RedSpade37 I agree! The necrolords castle themes, the end credits and the 'sad theme' from Suikoden 1 are some of my favorite game tracks of all time. Suikoden 2 continued that tradition in too many tracks to name.
A like for the dangerous carnival ride gag. It’s why I sub.
I 100% never rented Ico as a kid because of what the box looks like. Now I think I missed out cause the other games are awesome.
I love how they didn't preview Mega Man before his entry in the list. We all knew it was coming, but they wanted to surprise us.
I notice a theme here of terrible Localized Box Art.
Ellen's sports metaphor is a total slam run.
An absolute touchdown in one hattrick.
@@Patrick-Phelan Meh, that wasn't a touchdown--everyone could see that it was red line offside before that.
The box art for Megaman 3 is arguably much better than 1 (and worse than 2 in ways) but they gave Megaman the kind of deranged pervert eyes that you can never truly scrub from your memory.
The cover art for Megaman 9 and 10 are also pretty baffling. They look pretty cool compared to 1 and 2 but they’re also just peak 80s sci-fi action posters with things like Wily sporting a mask, scars and a red Cyborg eye on the cover and Megaman himself looking like he jumped straight out of an action movie. But the most baffling thing is that on both covers he’s got both the Buster AND a gun!
The thing is, my GOTY version of Arkham city doesn’t have all the red “praises” on it. Just the image of Batman.
is it revised version or perhaps different version in different region?
Mine does. Batman's looking a little claustrophobic.
@@arxeha well I live in England so probably that
If you bought it used it may have a reversible cover insert
"Must bust or else I'm dust" has entered the lexicon.
You're focusing on the angel's feet for Breath of Fire 3, I can't stop staring at where they removed her right-side ribs and maybe some of her right hip bones as well. My face might look like that too if I suddenly was missing a good chunk of the bones in my torso, good lord.
Hahaha, right? I just kept thinking, “Bodies don’t work like that.”
To paraphrase:
"Game Awards are like a penis, It's a perfectly fine thing to have and be proud of, but when you start putting it on the box art and waving it in our faces, then we have a problem"
Great video! I've seen "bad box art" lists before, but they never go into detail about what the actual game is like. 😁
Yes. Always steered clear or those Mega Man games because of its wacky box art, but maybe I should reconsider... :)
The Bust-a-Move 2 one is another "oh, America" case methinks. I've just dug out my old UK Saturn copy because I did not remember that matchstick man and it is indeed just a nice picture of some bubbles and gears as featured in the corner of the advert.
It wouldn't be a worst cover artbox video without the first MegaMan, that's a classic!
Ah, I remember the days when games came in boxes, on physical media...
To be fair, the Megamen boxart is just an attempt for the 50-70's SF book cover reimagining, which we're often borderline uncanny, and not really telling of the books content
thanks, so much nostalgia about that sweet time when we use to walk inside a physical real place to hold boxes feel them, talk about them with friends and choose our games.
I think Bomberman would fit right in with these "beautiful" box arts
Every Bomberman but Act Zero 😂😂😂
The Batman GOTY cover looks almost ironic. Like something the Onion would come up with mocking the overwhelming presense of reviews on video game box art.
12:43 had me laughing so hard. The acknowledgment that the “unsafe-carnival-saucer-ride” art style is a thing is only less funny than it being a universal thing. I live in Brazil, and could understand the description perfectly.
I had a Mega Man book (a novel, seriously) as a kid and it used the Mega Man 2 box art, except the gun was removed. So Mega Man is just standing there and pointing at Quick Man.
Everyone always says that box art looks like Billie Joe Armstrong and they're wrong! It looks like Mike Dirnt.
You can't talk about horrible box art without mention the SNES game Phalanx. The box art features an old man playing a banjo for a SPACE SHOOTER.
Special mention for SNES shmup Phalanx, though I personally think its iconic box art was positively brilliant.
I was so confused because I have only ever known the Japanese box art for Ico so I was wondering why it was on this list
I was really curious why ICO was on this list. I've never seen the US box for it, and holy shit. What on earth were they thinking?! The European version included a poster of the coverart, and I still have that on my wall. It's such a beautiful image, well fitting a fantastic game. The US versions makes ICO come across as a shovelware 3D beat 'em up. What a shame.
I just love how for both NA _Ico_ and PAL _Breath of Fire 3_ they whipped up these totally unique 3D models apparently made by someone who was only allowed a vague description of the characters they were actually modeling.
I think the bit where it’s Batman’s blood actually makes perfect sense given how in the story, Batman develops an illness that has him coughing up blood among other concerning symptoms
The Arkam City boxart at least gave the world funny memes at its expense
4:23
It feels as though I'm staring at a 90s monster truck magazine
I mean Donald Duck has had a LOT of different jobs...
I do own the GOTY edition of Batman Arkham City on Xbox 360, but the cover didn't look like that, it was the same, but none of that blurb is on that cover art for the 360 version.
One of these days a TH-cam video is going to mention MegaMan's cameos, then run Felicia's cosplay attack from Super Gem Fighter.
The box art of the European release of Mega Man is a lot better! It's a Western-style painting, but the character designs look a lot more faithful to the in-game visuals.
Bust A Move 2 was the only game that consistently worked at the pizza parlor we always went to after little league games as a kid and boy did I sink a lot of hours and quarters into that one 😅
AVGN did a fantastic series of these years back. Check those out, they are amazing.
Ico is giving me serious Sid from Toy Story vibes on that cover.
I love Breath of Fire 3. Thank you for including it in this list.
I know it doesn't count for this list because it isn't really a good game, but that Resident Evil 6 cover art. Once you see it, it will haunt your memory at random moments for years.
The TVTrope "American Kirby is Hardcore" addresses the localization thing, using both Kirby 64 and Settlers 7 as examples. Kirby just looks way angrier, but the US Settlers box art is downright misleading. It looks more like something of an Age of Empires clone instead of the cutesy 4X with a focus on economy game it actually is.
I knew this list wouldn't be complete without Mega Man.
YS The Vanished Omens has some original Megaman-level box art. It hurts even more when you realize Adol, the protagonist and probably the guy on the box, is known for red hair, but there's not one folicle of red on this atrocious doppelganger.
And in the box art for the American version of Ys III for the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive, Adol does have red hair, but he looks like a cross between himself and an over-muscled barbarian. Falcom themselves actually parodied it in their anime Falcom Gakuen.
The American release of Suikoden 1 had what appeared to be generic DnD box art that had nothing to do with the game itself.