Teefury

Added colors! Also, I'm thinking of changing the table to a game of Go according to the suggestion of two of my friends.

Ok, fixed the colors-they look much better now, methinks!

I assume the three ladies represent Aerith, Tifa, and Yuffie? I'm not really sure they are all that recognizable as FF characters. Mogs, Chocobo's, and Cactuars are fairly generic to FF, and the only immediately recognizable feature to distinguish the characters by is the the bow on the long ponytail on the character on the right (which unless I'm way off makes her Aerith).

I think you should revisit the characters a little bit, as you have a great design, but its just kinda generic.

Thank you so much for your critique! I was afraid that I deviated too far from the original character designs- I've fixed them so they look closer to the actual designs.

I also added the katakana for "7th Heaven."

UPDATE:

Just wondering: why katakana and why that font?
Katakana is used for foreign names and for words that have no Japanese equivalent before western influence (like hamburger and department store. It would make more sense to use kanji.
The font I believe is too sterilized and modern to use, considering the traditional Japanese style that you're drawing in. I think it would work better if you used a flowing calligraphy font.
If you do keep the katakana put a for in-between the sebensu and the heben, as they are separate parts of a name/title nit a single word.

I meant
But a dot in-between

Walrus said: "Just wondering: why katakana and why that font?

Katakana is used for foreign names and for words that have no Japanese equivalent before western influence (like hamburger and department store. It would make more sense to use kanji.

The font I believe is too sterilized and modern to use, considering the traditional Japanese style that you're drawing in. I think it would work better if you used a flowing calligraphy font.

If you do keep the katakana put a dot for in-between the sebensu and the heben, as they are separate parts of a name/title not a single word."

I'm with you on this, and I did try to find kanji for "7th Heaven-" came up with only katakana. Apparently they used katakana in the game too. If you know how to write it in kanji or where I can find detailed information about translating 7th Heaven into kanji, please do post the link!

Thank you for the tip about the typeface! I agree with you here too; I'll look for a more calligraphy-style type. :D

Quick question- do you think this image even needs the writing or does it look better without? I've been at this drawing for so long that I can't tell anymore, haha. (I also scoured the interwebs for how to write "7th Heaven" using kanji, but no luck. :\ )

Looks way better with redesigned characters now IMO. As for writing, I don't speak/read Japanese so its irrelevant to me, although it did fill that space nicely.

The only other comment I can offer is that the pompom on the mog or moogle or whatever the hell its called looks kinda outta place, can't tell if its intentional or not, but it looks like you forgot to put the outline in around it.

Your art is beautiful, I love the detail! I'm not really that much into Final Fantasy (I've just never really played it) so I can't comment on that aspect but I do like the chocobo on the vase :P

As for the writing, I think it could go either way. I don't know if this site will help or not, but http://jisho.org/ has a really cool Japanese dictionary and will convert back and forth from English to Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji I think.

The word for heaven is tengen, there is kangi for that.
Seven is nana and it has a character.
If you put nana no tengen it would probably work. no is a particle for possession in Japanese.
I think the problem that you had is that you searched for seventh heaven together rather than searching for the two words that make it up.

Great design, I just wish it was based on IV or VI instead. =(

@Walrus: Thanks for the tip! I didn't think to do that, silly me.

@Scafl: Funny you mention VI because I've got a design based on that game in the works right now. XD

Ok, I found two possibilities for the kanji:

庚の閶 (7th Gate of Heaven)

庚の天 (7th Heaven/Sky)

I like the 7th Gate of Heaven translation; it makes more sense for what it means. If anyone here knows how to read kanji, please do let me know if I'm doing it right or not!

UPDATE: Changed the font and changed the table to a game of Go- how's the font working out?

WE must have played different FF VII's ...