Would a feminine long or short hairstyle be an inconvenience in battle?

I think it's a mix of a lot of things. The more thick-lined art style helps makes the character look more distinctive. The positioning of her legs implies motion. The smoking gun implies it's been used and is ready to be used again. Also, contributes to a feeling of motion. Her face expression might be vague but with the aforementioned smoking gun, it looks badass and gives the impression of someone daring her enemies to try something at their own peril. Basically, the character is calmly and nonchalant reloading her gun without stopping her stride after taking down an enemy. The shadows also look really good. And yes, the short hair does help make her look more distinctive because combined with the style, it helps her avoid blending in with other princess characters. 

When compared to the first design, the second just don't stand out on its own, in my opinion. Despite the movement of the cape and hair, the character doesn't seem as animated. The pose also feels like the standard heroic pose with weapon which can work but doesn't, I feel, in this case. Honestly, maybe it is because I'm not a fan of this style when it comes to faces but she also looks really generic. Combined with the art style, her long hair also causes her to blend in with other princess characters. That's why art style can be very important when it comes to making characters stand out visually. 

ALl better more interesting questions than OP

1. I'm assuming the whole idea that something as material as armor would somehow keep a mage from connecting to the Fade. I don't know why armor would when the whole Veil can't

2. I think it should only be a concern in a medievil RPG when they're trying to be super realistic. The moment you add magic to the mix, forget about it. Let people look like what they want to be. my ankle length hair in my game does not interfere with your bald muscle man in yours. ( I hear it improves aerodynamics, maybe they're up for some MAYHEM)

3. think this ties into my reply of question 2. 

I think the only reason long hair hasn't been a thing is because the clipping. People say give us long hair, we don't care about clipping! but I actually think most players "off the street" as it were, would care a lot and point at is as some sort of failure of the art department.

I wonder why it does that. Is it like, the hair object doesn't know that the cloth is an object it shouldn't go past? do they only fix this with an eraser in every scene by hand? is there no way for the hair to understand the physics of an object blocking it?

edit add:


Why is clipping still so bad

I really think long, loose hairstyles on female characters in games almost invariably look really stupid. Only exceptions I can think of:





And the reason those work is because the animations for the hair are just so dang good.  Bioware has 0 track record of doing anything but making hair look like plastic so this isn't really something I want to see in the game.

I also think it's wildly impractical for combat.  I won't really begrudge other people if they want to put it on their characters, but I would almost certainly never use it, unless it was done up in a braid or something. 

The Witcher series by CD Projekt Red. Her name is Yennefer, I think.

Well, as I understand it, the series has concluded so it may be the perfect time to. You might be able to find a trilogy set and save some money. 

I'm sure there's plenty of feminine hairstyles that can be both pretty but practical. Stylish buns, artistically arranged hair strands, so long as it's not impeding vision and giving an easy handheld, I'd say go for it. Not everything demands shaven heads.

...Unless you've got lice. But still!

Remember Edna Mode's advice about not wearing capes? It is kinda similar to that.

But who cares? It is just a game and long hair looks cool.

Lol, everybody on page 1 hating on the OP for talking about long hair on females in the games...

but then turn around and are praising the dwarves for going into battle with hair that's just as susceptible to being pulled/hazardous etc.

Quite amusing, I must say.

Either way, in a game setting... I prefer there to be choices for all hair types, so everyone can make the characters they prefer. Personally, I like buns and ponytails for the reason of making my female characters look like warriors and be mostly practical. (Plus I just generally like the look... Ash in her bun ) Too bad the vanilla hairstyles in DAI are garbage cause I can't get a decent looking character with any of the styles for the most part. They all make the character look weird. Imo

You know, this has made me, actually, want to make a female character with super long hair and headcanon that she uses it in the same Iron Bull uses his bad eye. "I know people are going to go for my obvious, glaring weakpoint, so my fighting style is based on smash people who do."

I've gotta say that really long and feminine hairstyles bug me - there's no way in hell that hair isn't getting in the way without spending three out of every four hours using fifty different kinds of magic to keep it in place. Stuff like this makes me eyeroll so hard it hurts.

However, I'm also disappointed with a lack of longer-but-still-practical hairstyles in BioWare games - like some nice braids for example. I'd also like the option to use different hairstyles for my casual and combat outfits. But, y'know, BioWare's hair sucks in general.

Impractical? What about a helmet? 



And I found a video about the long-haired warriors: