Granted, you just pointed to Gilgamesh (I'd have pointed to Firion, actually - he seems to fit more that argument than a character designed to be goofy) who, well, is Gilgamesh.
It also helps that back then you had to bring that design down to handful of pixels. Which simplified it enough that they were certainly improved.
It feels like they're too simple in design and too similar because they wanted to release that line of clothing IRL.