I want to make a model look like a low poly count, very detail lacking figure such as like this:
Very much resembling mid to late nineties 3-D polygonal model formats that were run in games on consoles like PS1, N64.
If you could have a look and entail, what steps should I take to design a model similar to those?
Or like this, for a better overview:
It would seem you want to create low-poly art. The best way to do this is to actually model these objects to achieve this look and quality and then texture them.
No amount of modifiers or tricks will get the same unique look. Also using modifiers can make animating, texturing or rigging very difficult and also destroy your mesh topology something that is key in lowpoly style characters/objects.
The Decimate modifier might be of some help though, it can reduce mesh geometry but it is not very flexible and generally unpredictable in how it does this when used on complex objects.
Also as bummzack points out below, alot of the detail say you see on low-poly models is mostly from the texture(s).
What i did here is use the images provided as a background image, then trace around them by extruding a vertex.
Then in sideview / orthographic pull and push the internal vertices to give the character some body.
If you don't already know how to model, or use blender, these low poly characters are great things to practice.
First off, FF7 used a stencil buffer implemented on the PS1's video hardware.
Second, as mentioned, low-pixel count textures.
Third, low-poly count as you already stated.
That leaves pretty much everything up to you.
If you wanted advice on how to specifically render a model similar to one you'd seen on FF7, here are some relevant sources that may help you get an understanding of both the model file format, compression, and layout:
