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Is there a particular art style or aesthetic that completely turns you off to a game, regardless of its other merits?
- Thread starter ScOULaris
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The art is decent, it's the way it's animated that lets it down.
Story of Seasons games have the most atrocious art style. Looks like browser games.
Terraria has a terrible font. Looks like a third grader made it with comic sans.
Outer Worlds faces look creepy in those dialogue scenes. I just can't look at it.
Terraria has a terrible font. Looks like a third grader made it with comic sans.
Outer Worlds faces look creepy in those dialogue scenes. I just can't look at it.
Pixel art can definitely be hit & miss, personally i hated Risk of Rain's artstyle for being "too busy", not everyone is going to put out an Octopath Traveler after all.
Mobile style like Fortnite, Clash of Clans and the hundreds of clones is cheap and sterile, devoid of any personality just chimping on other brands to obtain any semblance of "being iconic".
But the absolute worst offenders are generic waifu games. The Shining games are one of the biggest modern examples of this like others have well pointed out. Used to be such a nice set of games now it's generic schoolgirl big boobs grills and dark schoolgirls with katana. Yeah, pass. A game like Tales of Vesperia, despite still being very animu, is on another plane of existance alltogether.
Mobile style like Fortnite, Clash of Clans and the hundreds of clones is cheap and sterile, devoid of any personality just chimping on other brands to obtain any semblance of "being iconic".
But the absolute worst offenders are generic waifu games. The Shining games are one of the biggest modern examples of this like others have well pointed out. Used to be such a nice set of games now it's generic schoolgirl big boobs grills and dark schoolgirls with katana. Yeah, pass. A game like Tales of Vesperia, despite still being very animu, is on another plane of existance alltogether.
I couldn't bring myself to play Dust: An Elysian Tail for very long.
It's a furry nightmare and fuck that annoying abomination:
I'll also play Minecraft exclusively with its RTX mode once its out.
It's a furry nightmare and fuck that annoying abomination:
I'll also play Minecraft exclusively with its RTX mode once its out.
Fortnite/Clash Of Clans. Oversaturated colours and plastic faces hurt my eyes.
I can dig anime but there are specific styles I loathe.
For starters, the infantilised-moe look. Main reason why I didn't buy XCX and XC2, their alien faces disturb me.
Even worse, Clannad's art style.
Finally, the generic-ness in gacha games, Voltage Inc comes into mind.
Clones or an inbred community.
I can dig anime but there are specific styles I loathe.
For starters, the infantilised-moe look. Main reason why I didn't buy XCX and XC2, their alien faces disturb me.
Even worse, Clannad's art style.
Finally, the generic-ness in gacha games, Voltage Inc comes into mind.
Clones or an inbred community.
Celeste is beautiful
I played a little of the 4th level (2nd gif) on acid and it was stunning
Fortnite/Clash Of Clans. Oversaturated colours and plastic faces hurt my eyes.
I never understood what the yellow thing on the basic dude's head is. It looks like a helmet, but the mustache being the same colour and texture suggests it's hair? And it really confuses me.
This one immediately came to mindI couldn't bring myself to play Dust: An Elysian Tail for very long.
It's a furry nightmare and fuck that annoying abomination:
I'll also play Minecraft exclusively with its RTX mode once its out.
This shit.
This mess (League of Legends).
I absolutely hate anything with a yellow filter.
Unmodded Fallout 3, New Vegas and Skyrim look like vomit.
Okami also looks bleh.
This mess (League of Legends).
I absolutely hate anything with a yellow filter.
Unmodded Fallout 3, New Vegas and Skyrim look like vomit.
Okami also looks bleh.
Forgot about this. WTF is that thing?Even worse, Clannad's art style.
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I see the Gears complains, and I get it, but by 3, 4 and 5 they did add color and on 4 and 5 they changed the human proportions. They still look buffed but...normal now? I like regular JD, and even Marcus looks human now:
Agree, looks much better now, great even. In the first few Gears-games, nobody would have been surprised if the storylines at one point had a mission to obtain a tanker filled with steroids do that the team could survive a few more months or something :P
I hate tints. Fallout 3, parts of New Vegas, Night Vision in most games (especially Halo 3 ODST), wire view in Batman Arkham. I will still play most of these as I can keep it to a minimum, but games like Fallout 3 where it's default just sicken me. And not in the "It's sick they would do that sense", but in the "2 more minutes of this and I'm going to vomit. My eyes are strained and I have a headache already" sense.
Not the art style, just the choice / representation of characters yielding an overall presentation: Ni No Kuni I & II.
basically everything with shiny weapons in a hyperrealistic manner.
so every cod and battlefield. i havent played any games after the first ones.
oh and every game, which takes this "we against the terrorists" thing too far. spec ops the line did a great job.
i loved bloody and gory games when i was a kid. these days i cant stand them anymore.
when i was in elementary school, mortal kombat was my life, i played sf2 and mk1-3 so much during the 90s, now i try to avoid those gory games.
so every cod and battlefield. i havent played any games after the first ones.
oh and every game, which takes this "we against the terrorists" thing too far. spec ops the line did a great job.
i loved bloody and gory games when i was a kid. these days i cant stand them anymore.
when i was in elementary school, mortal kombat was my life, i played sf2 and mk1-3 so much during the 90s, now i try to avoid those gory games.
Photo realism, or some approximation of photo realism (any sport-themed video game series or military simulators) & replicating the aesthetics and look of 1980's claymation/puppet stop-motion animation (Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, The Dream Machine, & The Neverhood).
I know I'll get roasted for the latter opinion, but I still have nightmares of 'The Adventures of Mark Twain', 'Darkness, Light Darkness', 'Gumby & Pokey,' and 'Las Gemelas'. You can't convince me to play the examples that I've listed above.
I know I'll get roasted for the latter opinion, but I still have nightmares of 'The Adventures of Mark Twain', 'Darkness, Light Darkness', 'Gumby & Pokey,' and 'Las Gemelas'. You can't convince me to play the examples that I've listed above.
From a purely visual perspective, there's few things that are an immediate complete shutdown for me. It's more how the aesthetic is wielded to reinforce the game's themes that matters.
I would have to really go into a long explanation to fully capture what I'm trying to say, but since I don't have the time to do that right now, I will put it this way: I'm actually kinda okay with an aesthetic embellishing violence or sexuality unless the game is overtly trying to utilize that aesthetic to promote or celebrate mean-spirited and derogatory messaging. And to further complicate that, I can tolerate the use of mean-spirited and derogatory messaging within the context of a game if it is presented to the player as the challenge to overcome and the player is given adequate agency to explore and dismantle it, though there is a thin line of tact between being a power fantasy response or a tactfully handled philosophical challenge to the player — at the end of the day, the game is going to have to say something about whatever it's exploring (even if that something is "eh this is just for fun, don't sweat a thing") and the aesthetic is going to reinforce that.
Aesthetics matter in exploring themes, but upfront aesthetic is rarely an automatic and strong rejection outright for me. Sometimes presenting an art style I'm not necessarily subjectively fond of but exploring themes that I genuinely find intriguing ends up being a pleasantly subversive experience — eg, I'm not really into 2B's gothic erotica maid outfit when I look at it out of context, but damn I can't deny Nier Automata just would not land as hard if that design element wasn't a part of the existential crisis that game explores, that dissonance between the art I'm seeing and the gravity of the narrative is absolutely amusing to me.
I would have to really go into a long explanation to fully capture what I'm trying to say, but since I don't have the time to do that right now, I will put it this way: I'm actually kinda okay with an aesthetic embellishing violence or sexuality unless the game is overtly trying to utilize that aesthetic to promote or celebrate mean-spirited and derogatory messaging. And to further complicate that, I can tolerate the use of mean-spirited and derogatory messaging within the context of a game if it is presented to the player as the challenge to overcome and the player is given adequate agency to explore and dismantle it, though there is a thin line of tact between being a power fantasy response or a tactfully handled philosophical challenge to the player — at the end of the day, the game is going to have to say something about whatever it's exploring (even if that something is "eh this is just for fun, don't sweat a thing") and the aesthetic is going to reinforce that.
Aesthetics matter in exploring themes, but upfront aesthetic is rarely an automatic and strong rejection outright for me. Sometimes presenting an art style I'm not necessarily subjectively fond of but exploring themes that I genuinely find intriguing ends up being a pleasantly subversive experience — eg, I'm not really into 2B's gothic erotica maid outfit when I look at it out of context, but damn I can't deny Nier Automata just would not land as hard if that design element wasn't a part of the existential crisis that game explores, that dissonance between the art I'm seeing and the gravity of the narrative is absolutely amusing to me.
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Early 360/PS3 Unreal Engine 3 art style with dull metal, grey, brown colors.
I don't actually 'hate' them, just not fond the look of it.
Especially when Unreal Engine 4 right now blows 3 with how amazing vibrant colors it produced.
I don't actually 'hate' them, just not fond the look of it.
Especially when Unreal Engine 4 right now blows 3 with how amazing vibrant colors it produced.
8-bit style indie games, Gears, Borderlands, some styles of Anime (the really generic ones, where every character has the same face, similar to Tales or those visual novel type games), hyper realism (the type of "realism" where the characters have so many skin filters, wrinkles and details that they don't look real anymore - most people's faces don't look like the surface of the moon).
A thing about Anime, though: What does "Anime" even mean? There such a breadth of styles. Zelda is Anime, too. Do people actually refuse to play Zelda because its Anime, or refuse to watch Ghibli because it's Anime? You're missing out on some proper art there. And for what it's worth, I always thought Toriyama's art was ugly but Dragon Quest 11 changed my mind. It translates well to 3D and looks much better in-game than in the concept art.
A thing about Anime, though: What does "Anime" even mean? There such a breadth of styles. Zelda is Anime, too. Do people actually refuse to play Zelda because its Anime, or refuse to watch Ghibli because it's Anime? You're missing out on some proper art there. And for what it's worth, I always thought Toriyama's art was ugly but Dragon Quest 11 changed my mind. It translates well to 3D and looks much better in-game than in the concept art.
Even worse, Clannad's art style.
Finally, the generic-ness in gacha games, Voltage Inc comes into mind.
This and Compile Heart stuff, I can't deal with.
IT'S NOT CUTE. IT'S CREEPY AF. Cute anime style is what the Atelier series had during the Dusk trilogy.
That's part of it. The characters look like Mii-verse rejects, but that's not just it. The game has an aesthetic that reminds me of Dora the Explorer. The color palette doesn't feel right and the island just doesn't have the vibrancy I'm looking for. To contrast I'll give a nod to the Touryst also on Nintendo Switch.
I'll echo a lot of other people in this thread when saying Bravely Default, particularly the latest one. Especially after playing through Octopath. Going from that and then seeing the art for Bravely Default II, it all looks lovely. Like this icon art. Then, seeing the actual in-game visuals, it's displeasing:
Agreed wholeheartedly. Thankfully, Chrono Trigger was created in an era where this nasty-looking shit (sorry not sorry) didn't translate right into the 16-bit visuals, since those look great to me, haha.
Other examples of instant turn-offs these days:
Chibi/SD, like Bravely Default, World of Final Fantasy, etc.
I never understood the love of chibi neither.
I don't really like medieval settings with their brown and grey ramshackle constructions. Similar with postapocalyptic settings that are essentially garbage taped together to make anything. That includes Borderlands even though I don't think that has seen any apocalypse, it's still a world built from garbage.
I'm not against moeblob art but I find it's a good rule of thumb to assume games with that style are just trash in general. On Steam it's likely that a game with moe art has no other qualities to it and just tries to grab some cash that way.
I'm not against moeblob art but I find it's a good rule of thumb to assume games with that style are just trash in general. On Steam it's likely that a game with moe art has no other qualities to it and just tries to grab some cash that way.
This thread speaks to me, as the way a game looks can certainly effect how much interest I have in it. One example that comes to mind for me is Super Meat Boy. I enjoy that kind of intense and challenging 2D platforming, but every time I look at that game I just feel no desire to play it. It's so dark and dingy looking and it makes me feel bad.
Ultimately I think I just like color and vibrancy more than anything. That's not to say I can't enjoy a darker game, bit does make it harder for me to have a good time.
Ultimately I think I just like color and vibrancy more than anything. That's not to say I can't enjoy a darker game, bit does make it harder for me to have a good time.
I couldn't bring myself to play Dust: An Elysian Tail for very long.
It's a furry nightmare and fuck that annoying abomination:
I'll also play Minecraft exclusively with its RTX mode once its out.
I dunno, I feel like this isnt fair. I know the swamp of the internet has tainted designs like these, but theres nothing inherently wrong or furry about anthropomorphic designs like this, just like there isnt anything wrong with designs like Banjo or Sonic. If a game like Banjo can exist without beeing accused of depravity or something for its artstyle, neither should Dust be.
General fantasy stuff. Swords and shields, dragons, magic, ect. Elder Scrolls, WoW, that type of shit. Just never liked it. I know it's a big part of gaming too but just don't like that setting.
Oddly enough though Dragon Quest doesn't abide by this for me. Love that series.
Oddly enough though Dragon Quest doesn't abide by this for me. Love that series.
)=Whatever the hell this is
Who thought that was a good idea?
3DS JPRG Chibi style.
They all look more or less the same. It doesn't even look like an actual art style, more like a "compromise" style to implement 3D models with as few Polygons as possible. Plus we're usually talking really bad performance here.
Give me beautiful 2D pixel art over this any day.
I also agree with OP on this weird 2D animation.
They all look more or less the same. It doesn't even look like an actual art style, more like a "compromise" style to implement 3D models with as few Polygons as possible. Plus we're usually talking really bad performance here.
Give me beautiful 2D pixel art over this any day.
I also agree with OP on this weird 2D animation.
From now on I will forever refer to fanservice as creepservice.
Games that use an anime/manga/cartoon artstyle with no cell shading. Its like they want their game to fail, and fail they did. I'm glad Monolith Soft realized you need cel shading. Its too late for Tri-Ace.
