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Has any game surpassed Star Ocean 4's uncanny valley characters? [LARGE IMAGE SIZE WARNING]

Don Fluffles

Don Fluffles

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,061
2008's Star Ocean 4 is notorious for lots of things: its terrible cliche storm story and setting, annoying, idiotic characters(kay?) and bad voice acting, its pandering character design... but one thing that's stood out to me is its uncanny valley faces.

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It's like Tri-Ace set out to hire a creepy dollmaker to do the character modeling and animation. The result along with the above represents the worst of JRPGs during last gen.

But I think we have a contender:

Phantasy Star Online 2

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--R

--R

Being sued right now, please help me find a lawyer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,785
Nothing beats Siren on the uncanny valley. It makes the game so much more creepy.

340
 
Korghano

Korghano

Member
Oct 25, 2017
188
Plastic looking dolls aren't what the uncanny valley is about. Uncanny Valley is infamous Medal of Honor lady, or...

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Dolce

Dolce

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,252
The characters look fine to me. What gives me uncanny valley is the way faces animate in modern games. The more detail we put into it, the odder it feels. Feels like you're watching an actor wearing the face of the character and always throws me off.
 
Death Penalty

Death Penalty

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
3,307
purseowner said:
Was in the process of trying to link this but my browser was playing up. Probably the worst cutscene I've ever seen. (I haven't played the game and this does and doesn't sell me)
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Do not play the game. I played it and the only plus side is that I can now warn people like you and keep you from experiencing it. Please.
 
Vazra

Vazra

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,932
purseowner said:
Was in the process of trying to link this but my browser was playing up. Probably the worst cutscene I've ever seen. (I haven't played the game and this does and doesn't sell me)
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Someone should link Sarah or Meracle cutscenes to get everything out of the way.
youtu.be

Star Ocean 4 - Private Action 23 "Fly High"

Video recorded by Master LL( http://themasterll.net )[ Star Ocean 4 ]Private Action 23 "Fly High"** WILL CONTAIN FULL SPOILERS!! **** HIGH QUALITY AVAILABLE...
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Star Ocean 4 - Meracle Funny private actions

I found this quite hilarious so i decided to upload. also i believe you cant watch both private actions....one cancels the other ...so unless you save before...
youtu.be youtu.be
 

Deleted member 3208

Oct 25, 2017
11,934
I'm still wondering who thought Edge was a good name for a character. Who allowed that?
 
matrix-cat

matrix-cat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,284
Uncanny valley is when something looks really close to perfect realism but isn't quite there, or does something that real humans can't do that creeps you out. These ghastly things are just regular ugly :P
 
waugh

waugh

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt-account
Banned
Feb 21, 2020
1,401
Yeah there's nothing uncanny about Star Ocean TLH. Its just a bad implementation of the anime art style in 3D. I honestly don't think it looks that bad tbh.
 
RivalGT

RivalGT

Member
Dec 13, 2017
6,399
I was playing this today... And while is does look weird, it just has that early Ps1 anime 3d look to it, but just better.
 
FFNB

FFNB

Associate Game Designer
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
6,125
Los Angeles, CA
wideface said:
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This gif is one of the reasons why I love Naughty Dog's "stylized realism" approach to human characters. You know these guys were so proud of this, and I hate to put people's work down, but the truth is, we just ain't there yet when it comes to creating realistically looking human beings married to realistic motion capture.

Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us Part 2 work so well because, despite having an insane attention to detail top to bottom, Naughty Dog still alters the faces, so they're slightly exaggerated/stylized. Funnily enough, because they don't look like photo-realistic human beings, they look more alive as a result. This Medal of Honor woman looks artificial, like one of those "lifelike" animatronic robots. Whereas this:

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Looks alive. It's obviously not photo-realistic, but there's life to them. Probably because ND has absolutely nailed human eyes in a way I can't quite describe. It's not just the detail of the eyes, but how they manage to capture the little flicks and micro-movements eyes make that, even if we aren't specifically looking for them, our subconscious catalogs them, so we often instinctually notice when something lacks it. There are other amazing TLOU2 gifs I could post to further highlight how well they nail a human character looking alive and "real," but they're more spoilerish (mostly late game sequences), and I don't want to spoil anything for people.
 
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