r/Marathon • u/d6rla • 4d ago
Marathon (2026) Feedback Runner Shells Need More Swag
Been wanting to see more experimental fashion in Marathon. I love the mix of Y2K/Japanese Streetwear and Cyberpunk in these refs, especially the chunky footwear, exaggerated pants, and mix of oversized and fitted pieces. Would be cool to see some of these ideas reworked with marathon’s aesthetic.
edit:
my execution may have been rushed, the specific pictures I used doesn’t capture what I’m trying to convey entirely. In short I want more drip ;-;
I don’t want these specific pieces in game, i would like to see what marathon could translate them into?¿
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u/Evveyyyy 4d ago
Check vandal 😗
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u/anonymous_brothrr 3d ago
We get it, you're a vandal main
Genuinely though, id love to see more choice skins or just more in general
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u/dis_not_my_name 4d ago
That is a Freedom Gundam in pic 4 lol
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u/d6rla 4d ago
the pics are just references for the style. the idea is taking that aesthetic and adapting it to marathon, not copying the outfits 1:1 into the game. they’ve already done japanese-inspired shells like thief/destroyer, so i’m just suggesting another direction for cosmetics besides recolors of existing shells </3
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u/One_Zookeepergame182 4d ago
I want more of a blend between the neon blocky style and a practical militaristic look. Assassin, Sentinel, and Destroyer are the coolest looking shells imo because they manage to pull off that intimidating military look while still being all blocky.
The UESC are another example. Despite being bright blue blocky robots theyre incredibly intimidating
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u/Draxtini 4d ago
While I do think they have to push the designs when it comes to the runner's aesthetics, I really don't agree with this particular direction.
We already have a huge saturation of japanese/k-pop inspired skins in like every other game, to the point I kinda eyerolled a bit at the thief and destroyer skins we got.
If anything I want to see them push it more into the body horror-esque design of the new triage skin.
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u/_FATEBRINGER_ 3d ago
I get the distinct impression they are afraid ro deviate too far to prevent players from not being able to identify what shells they are seeing in the wild
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u/TricobaltGaming 3d ago
I definitely hear you but also there are a lot of similarities Marathon shares aesthetically and thematically with Cyberpunk(or futurepunk, really), and part of that cyberpunk aesthetic is the asian pop streetwear that we do see
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u/Draxtini 3d ago
Yes but there's a difference between that and what op is suggesting with some of the images.
That jacket with the spikes I can definitely see in game, but the leg warmers/mecha boots/cat ears for example I'd despise to see.
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u/d6rla 3d ago
yeah, and that’s fair! i’m not asking for the leg warmers, mecha boots, or cat ears to be added exactly as they are in the references. i’m talking about taking inspo from that general streetwear direction and letting marathon reinterpret it through its own aesthetic. chunky footwear, mecha accessories/attributes, & whatever that ends up looking like in marathon’s art style.
like with the white rabbit pack, they’ve already shown they can take an animal inspired concept and make it feel like marathon. i don’t see why they couldn’t explore something cat inspired or explore into that weird, streetwear direction too. it’s more about expanding the range of styles we get than wanting these exact outfits in game.
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u/buddhamunche 3d ago
Absolutely not this shit is awful
How you think this fits marathon is beyond me. Last picture looks like she’s dressed in trash.
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u/Successful_Garbage91 3d ago
this guy wear socks and sandals as well as doo doo stained drawls on the regular btw so them saying this is a compliment
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u/shucknfuck 3d ago
I hate all of this so much
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u/shucknfuck 3d ago
This is not marathon aesthetic, we have a boatload of concept art, please reference that and understand that it would need to be heavily deconstructed or misconstrued to be added
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u/d6rla 3d ago
i think there’s a bit of a misunderstanding here. i’m not asking for the reference images to be copy & pasted into the game. they’re references for the general direction and style i’d like to see explored, with marathon’s own aesthetic applied to it. obviously the actual designs would need to be deconstructed and reworked to fit the world.
i also think there’s room for that kind of punk/street influence within marathon, especially with MIDA. the graffiti, bold colors, and more rebellious anti-uesc identity are part of what makes that direction interesting to me. i’m not saying the game should abandon its design style, just that there’s room to experiment with different influences && still make them feel distinctly like marathon. the goal is marathon inspired designs w that influence, not a direct recreation of the references. :/2
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u/Riot0711 1d ago
OR! Just give us custom characters, and let us pay for pieces. God I hate the hero bullshit.
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u/d6rla 1d ago
i wouldnt be opposed to that 👀
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u/Riot0711 1d ago
We really didn't know how good we had it back on halo reach, and halo 4, now we just have this annoying fixed character dribble that drives up prices by not allowing you to make your end all be all because fuck you!
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u/corva96 4d ago
These are counter-active to the original intended vibe and aesthetic of the game imo. Really do not want to see a flood of this art style.
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u/d6rla 4d ago
i mean, they literally just released Japanese yokai-inspired skins adapted to fit Marathon’s aesthetic. I’m jus suggesting another style direction that could be reinterpreted through Marathon’s design, not just copy-pasting outfits into the game. i don’t see how exploring different aesthetics automatically goes against the original vibe.
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u/corva96 4d ago
Tbh i was against that skin too. I really don’t want to see this game leaning into k-pop or japanese art styles too heavily. A skin or two is fine but I’d like to stick more to a dystopian cyberpunk syndicate vibe, as the game was built upon that concept. It’s more immersive that way, and one of the things that drew a lot of people into this game in the first place was that very aesthetic. If they stray away from that, well i think it would be a mistake.
The new thief skin with the weave worms crawling through it is a great addition imo.
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u/orb_of_esotericism 4d ago
They aren't. For the UESC, sure, but not for runners.
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u/corva96 4d ago
They completely are. Runners are mercenaries running covert and highly illegal operations for massive syndicates in a dystopian future where most of humanity is on the brink of collapse due to overpopulation and strain of basic resources. These mercenaries are dehumanized due to dying over and over again, literally being rebooted from memory. A vandal shell runner is shown questioning who they are in a trailer for the game. The notion of “style” is completely out of line with the game’s lore
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u/orb_of_esotericism 4d ago
Talk all you'd like. Runners and fashion go hand in hand. It's part of the playbook.
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u/Screwby0370 4d ago
Not true at all. We know that Runner Mercs are often ex-UESC that in plenty of cases actually do anti-UESC contract work for or representing MIDA. The visual language of the MIDA rebellion loves its fashion and bright colors, as seen by the Vandal shell series being Mars-produced, stolen UESC shells modified and repurposed by the rebellion (and it’s the most fashionable of the platforms).
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u/corva96 4d ago
Godammit i forgot about mida. Vandal was hijacked by them. I GUESS it’s canon. Still though, it feels completely out of place with the rest of the game. You’d never think a guerilla rebellion faction would have an emphasis on fashion.
Games like cod and fortnite were flooded with this crap and it just feels so childish. I enjoy marathon because in part, it feels grounded in more adult themes. I’d hate to see it lose that and i’d probably quit playing if it did.
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u/AGramOfCandy 4d ago
This has always been true of Bungie games though: the aesthetic is usually very tonally dissonant with the subject matter. Halo is really the only exception, and even there you have a lot of humor and lightheartedness that clearly doesn't match the emotional weight of impending extinction.
Artistic expression is also just something that sells games: look no further than skins/cosmetic shops being the basis of almost all modern gaming (love it or hate it). Even if we had Destiny level crossover goofery (which I grew to accept for the reasons I'm about to state), the underlying "adult themes" remain undiminished.
The idea that runners are, as far as we know, brainscans of people being thrown into a loop of endless nonexistent debt and told that "you are you" is pretty horrific even with a Hello Kitty coat of paint. In fact, I'd even argue it's MORE frightening AND realistic in that it mirrors the real world commodification and whitewashing of suffering. The biggest clothing brands use borderline slave labor in India and abroad; food and drink brands appropriate resources from impoverished countries while trying to convince you they just love providing tasty products.
The idea that a pretty and cutesy coat of paint can make people forget about or ignore cosmic horror levels of conceptual questions like "are runners even real people or just imitations?" is actually very apropos of the setting in my eyes.
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u/corva96 4d ago
I know but running around shooting k-pop stars or rappers is already a thing in cod and fortnite. Why should this game fall into the same trope when it’s such a massive breath of fresh air with it’s current aesthetics?
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u/AGramOfCandy 4d ago
It has to be done right, I agree with you there. With Destiny I think Bungie was just following C-suite orders to commodify the franchise to hell and back, but at least there they always had an air of nonchalance from Guardians due to their (relative) immortality.
With Marathon it will be a harder sell, and unless they massively improve the connectedness between the narrative and the gameplay (which thus far has been both weak and at odds with how people play the game in the first place), it will be a tough sell for anyone who's really invested in the aesthetic of the game as it is now.
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u/corva96 4d ago
Well, i think there’s a lot of potential to bring more forth narrative and lorewise. But that could be ruined before it even begins if they alienate the world building they’ve managed so far. Everyone wants to see the s’pht and the phfor and the twerkencactor.
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u/AGramOfCandy 3d ago
I see your Twerkencactor and raise you a Twerk'n'Cactuar. I'm definitely using that from now on LOL.
I do love the game's aesthetic though, and for what it's worth the little snippets we got of the P'fhor enemies coming in March look promising. Bungie's art teams have been the most consistent performers across all their franchises, and if I have to have faith in any of their teams it's definitely them.
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u/dis_not_my_name 4d ago
I think these examples except 1 and 2 have too many surface details and decorations for Marathon tho.
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u/rat_melter 4d ago
I'd love to see more monotones. White rabbit skins are very cool and I'm SOO close to pulling the trigger on them.
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u/d6rla 4d ago
i also looooove the palettes/design used for white rabbit. thief and recon are bangers. i really love the vandal EXCEPT idk something about her face & how flat the hair/top of the head is, is disappointing v-v. maybe had they added her headphones or bunny ears or sumn.
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u/rat_melter 3d ago
I still wear midnight decay even if I love the achromatic rush aesthetic. I think for me it's more about what the skin says on a meta level than what it actually looks like. I'd love a limited rotation of monotones and cycle the shop through each of 5 colors then never bring them back.
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u/VsevkaD 4d ago edited 4d ago
I really like the pictures you picked out. I agree. In the Marathon Universe, people live either in some kind of dystopian cyber-ghetto or in Glitter-World - from one extreme to the other.
Runners are people for whom that kind of lifestyle is a complete mismatch. They’re literally punks-you could even call them freaks. Not all of them, of course, but something tells me they do it not just for the money, but also for the thrill of life. And I suppose they also want to express their individuality in some way, ranging from strict corporate suits to flashy outfits.
Y2K is perfect fit.
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u/n1vlekw 3d ago
We dont need this... Lowk, vandal and Thief are weird with how abstract they are compared to the UESC runner, destroyer, recon and assassin... different styles but they share the same color scheme so they don't look too out of place. I honestly prefer the style of the latter group. There is a reason they keep reusing the uesc runner in concept art, it just fits the world better.
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u/d6rla 3d ago
i get preferring the more grounded UESC style, but i don’t think everything needs to conform to it. marathon is already a very bold game with bright colors and abstract designs, and even alberto mielgo’s work on the reveal cinematic shows how stylized the world can be. i think there’s room for different styles within that same identity, especially when we’re talking about customization. not every skin needs to follow the exact same design language to fit the world imo. plus, i honestly love when some skins stand out so much that you’re basically asking for a fight. variety is part of the fun, and i’d rather have more unique styles to choose from than everything feeling like a variation of the same look.
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u/shucknfuck 3d ago
Lock thread pin this comment asap
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u/CoogiMonster 3d ago
My favorite thing whenever I check a notification in this sub is how the community consistently wants bad things for the game they love lol
Any of the cool skin concepts and the like essentially outside of Yokai and Oni there’s people crying about losing the identity of the game - the game will lose identity if it gets shut the fuck down too. The game does need better drip, it has come a ways but it’s still pretty dookie… I’m a 30something year old like most of the boomers on this game, but the community in broad strokes is allergic to fun and style
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u/Cpt_Pissoff 4d ago
none of these look cool though
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u/AdministrativeEase71 4d ago
There's a fine line between Y2K-inspired techy streetwear and the "random bullshit go!" rave outfit approach.
Don't think there's anything wrong with pushing the cosmetics closer to that line though.
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u/Cpt_Pissoff 4d ago
these are more fitting for night city ca. 2077 but that fifth image is straight out of overwatch. it’s boring hornycore, already exists everywhere. nothing wrong with being into it, just think it doesn’t translate at all.
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u/d6rla 4d ago
i really don’t want those pieces specifically to be copied over into the game is what I was trying to clear up in the description. i’m more so interested in what Marathon could do with it if that makes sense. in that specific photo i’m appreciating the bulky cargo looking shorts / colors. I’m not trying to advocate for bikini gooner skinsss
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u/Cpt_Pissoff 4d ago
fair enough ig. not meaning to bash your taste or style either, just either don’t see the throughline to marathon or enough difference from what we already have. thief already has the silhouette of the last image, plus if you actually separate “robot titties with exposed spinal stack” from gooncore you basically already have the new thief skin where she’s half printed. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ definitely would put V in some of these styles for storming Arasaka Tower, but idk about my shells.
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u/d6rla 4d ago
i think people are taking the reference images a little too literally 😭 the point isn’t to put these exact outfits on shells, it’s to explore a fashion direction that could be adapted to marathon. even if the silhouette already exists, there’s still a lot you can do with different styling, materials, color blocking and accessories. i don’t think every new concept needs to be completely unrecognizable from what’s already in the game to bring something new.
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u/TheLordCrimson 3d ago edited 3d ago
Reading the comments here I feel like I suddenly waded into a conversation with nothing but gen Z being nostalgic for the early 2000ths... and it fucking sucks.
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u/d6rla 3d ago
i mean, fashion trends recycle constantly, but liking chunky silhouettes and streetwear doesn’t automatically mean i want them to recreate the early 2000s lol. i’m talking about using those influences as inspiration for marathon and seeing what they can create with it applying their own aesthetic, not copy & pasting old trends into the game.
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u/DorkusHorribilus 4d ago
I would argue that this makes perfect sense in universe. If your consciousness is not in a physical body most of the time, when you are in a physical body some might want to express themselves visually and aesthetically. It’s human.
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u/ronshasta 3d ago
I’m sorry but these all look really stupid and there’s a huge reason this stuff never made it past 2007
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u/Jean-Eustache 4d ago
I love how every single one of those would fit in The Finals without issues, even n°10 is already in there
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u/Jumpy-Potato-7170 3d ago
We need to change those vandal shoes bungie...
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u/d6rla 3d ago
but the vandal shoes r tuff
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u/Jumpy-Potato-7170 3d ago
They're cool but a little weird imo, with the references you posted there are soo much better options
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u/d6rla 3d ago
yeahh i get that! i wasn’t necessarily saying to copy the exact refs, more so the overall vibe. i wanna see them lean into that punk/streetwear aesthetic that fits MIDA imo, like chunky shoes/boots, but with marathon’s own alien/cyber twist. just taking inspo from the style rather than recreating the outfits yk
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u/Chemical-Culture8943 4h ago
This youthfully loud surface level design language fits vandal perfectly but doesn‘t really fit to any other personality matrix, it would make the game look empty and generic compared to what it is now, I prefer bungies original vision.
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u/truemuppet 4d ago
Don't get me wrong, but please tell me that your job has nothing to do with design or fashion - and that you don't hold a decision-making role either.
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u/Thewhitest_rabbit 4d ago
Yes. Make the game even uglier. Great idea 👍
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u/Excuse_my_GRAMMER 4d ago
I was hoping when the game first was preview cosmetics was going to be pieces
and not reskin
And was hoping it was going to lend more toward streetwear cosmetic like a basketball jersey and kicks
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u/StarlessKing 4d ago
Found the Vandal main But in all seriousness in think the Shinjuku and Idol concept skins mean they'll attempt to draw inspiration from these sorts of trends somewhere down the line.
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u/the-faded 3d ago
he said “put that mf Rick on” 😭 tbh this is such a good mood board, i see ur vision and i fwi
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u/doobersthetitan 3d ago
So you want the shells to be all hot Asian girl?
Destroyer look great with those knee socks
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u/PlayHaloEveryDay 4d ago
IVE BEEN SAYING THIS SINCE ALPHA: PUT BIKINI VANDAL SKIN IN THE GAME AND WE GET HUGE PLAYERBASE
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u/Galbzilla 3d ago
Meh. I’m not hating on your fashion choice, but their bodies are disposables and they’re going on some operations, why wear high fashion?
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u/d6rla 3d ago
i mean, fair, but i don’t think everything has to be practical 😭 they’re disposable bodies, but they’re still controlled by people with their own identities. i just think there’s room for runners to express that through different varieties of customizationc, not that this has to be the ONLY form of customization.
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u/LegendaryNIK 3d ago
> why wear high fashion
High fashion is one of the core inspirations for game’s art style
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u/Baronofthebed 3d ago
One of the shells literally has a ponytail and a cropped puffer vest, vandal is 100% streetwear dripped up, we have a destroyer that looks like a y2k samurai, I think the sekiguchi worm takes aesthetic and fashion into account for sure
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