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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
- Start date
Wind Waker is the best looking game ever made. Absolutely gorgeous.
I've tried numerous times to get into Sea of Thieves, but the art style, more precisely the way the humans look turns me off every single time.
I also don't like big heads little bodies.
I also don't like big heads little bodies.
Oh wow, what's with all the hate on chibi style? Love me some chibi style JRPGs. However, for me there's still a limit on the chibi-ness and head/body proportions.
This is still fine (it's actually perfect).
This is NOT.
This is still fine (it's actually perfect).
This is NOT.
Don't pin Dust on us, even furries have some issue with it. Fidgets's the only good design in the game, everyone outside the main pair is incredibly generic and Dust's portrait character design is terrible.
The thread asked for "aesthetics," and an aesthetic needn't necessarily be visual; I think it's certain accurate to say Lovecraft has his own aesthetic pin his written works. Cosmic horror, in any case, also has its own unique visual signifiers: insane asylums and inquisitors and squid heads and palaces made of flesh and so on. Basically, Eternal Darkness and Bloodborne have a lot of visual cues in common with each other that they don't share with most other games.
And I think you know perfectly well what I mean when I say that the genre hates mentally ill people. We're often portrayed as dangerous, mimetically if not physically, and possessed of supernatural powers. In the form of the cultist we are portrayed not merely as immediately dangerous when in a room with a protagonist, but dangerous to the entire world. There may be some sympathy for the mentally I'll before they are "turned," but virtually no empathy once they are. This is particularly problematic in the case of video games that need a bunch of kooks to slaughter for gameplay reasons.
You know, That Dragon, Cancer? Video games' treatment of mental illness is like that, except most people genuinely believe that they should steer clear of cancer patients because they might start breathing fire at any moment.
The thread asked for "aesthetics," and an aesthetic needn't necessarily be visual; I think it's certain accurate to say Lovecraft has his own aesthetic pin his written works. Cosmic horror, in any case, also has its own unique visual signifiers: insane asylums and inquisitors and squid heads and palaces made of flesh and so on. Basically, Eternal Darkness and Bloodborne have a lot of visual cues in common with each other that they don't share with most other games.
And I think you know perfectly well what I mean when I say that the genre hates mentally ill people. We're often portrayed as dangerous, mimetically if not physically, and possessed of supernatural powers. In the form of the cultist we are portrayed not merely as immediately dangerous when in a room with a protagonist, but dangerous to the entire world. There may be some sympathy for the mentally I'll before they are "turned," but virtually no empathy once they are. This is particularly problematic in the case of video games that need a bunch of kooks to slaughter for gameplay reasons.
You know, That Dragon, Cancer? Video games' treatment of mental illness is like that, except most people genuinely believe that they should steer clear of cancer patients because they might start breathing fire at any moment.
Oh wow, what's with all the hate on chibi style? Love me some chibi style JRPGs. However, for me there's still a limit on the chibi-ness and head/body proportions.
This is still fine (it's actually perfect).
This is NOT.
I agree with you the first picture is fine the second burn it all.
Games like Warcraft, Sea of Thieves, Fable etc that feature weirdly proportioned people and other known living things. I do have a tolerance limit but aforementioned games are beyond the threshold.
I can think of only 2 games that I had to stop playing just because I found them so unpleasant to look at, The World Ends With You and Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor.
Those are all the same guy!Finally, the generic-ness in gacha games, Voltage Inc comes into mind.
Clones or an inbred community.
It's the same artist and his style barely changed, lol. He got better, but that's really it. Here's PS2.This shit. In the '90s the Shining series was among the best rpg offerings with an art style that was its own.
Now it's completely indistinguishable from countless other dull, generic, safe, basement dweller pandering anime waifu games.
If it wasn't for the logo you wouldn't be able to even narrow it down to and individual series or studio.
His style is actually very unique and easily distuingishable. No one draws like him. He does, however, draw for a lot of different things. Chances are you're actually seeing his art in other stuff if you're thinking it's generic.
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i've gotten flak for this in the past but Golf Story looks ridiculous to me. Just pick one style. I love Mario Golf on GBA which this is a direct ripoff of, but i can't play this.
I know Disco Elysium is going for a painterly look, but the broad brush strokes just makes everything seem unfinished
Concept Artist: Here is that paint-over you wanted for this scene
Dev: Alright, cool, I'll just throw it into the game here. That looks good enough, don't you think?
Concept Artist: But that was just a speedpaint. Don't you want the finished product?
Dev: *adding a bunch of WIP art into the game* Wow we're making great time here
Also, everything about the skill images are just a straight NOPE from me
Concept Artist: Here is that paint-over you wanted for this scene
Dev: Alright, cool, I'll just throw it into the game here. That looks good enough, don't you think?
Concept Artist: But that was just a speedpaint. Don't you want the finished product?
Dev: *adding a bunch of WIP art into the game* Wow we're making great time here
Also, everything about the skill images are just a straight NOPE from me
I'd accept BD on 3ds since that was weaker hardware, but what was Squeenix's excuse here? Budget? They'd better make up for it with real-time cutscenes instead of cheap Visual Novel segments.
HD UI assets in top of pixel art almost always causes cringe.
i've gotten flak for this in the past but Golf Story looks ridiculous to me. Just pick one style. I love Mario Golf on GBA which this is a direct ripoff of, but i can't play this.
That damn Chibi style. Bravely Default has amazing character art and then in game the characters look absolutely ridiculous. I hate it so much and it really puts me off. Waaaay too much of that on 3DS. Ugh.
"Pixel art" styled games that don't actually have a fixed pixel grid. It immediately trips over the fine line between a well-made aesthetic to a cheap one. Even Shovel Knight is guilty of this!
Thronebreaker is another good example of good puppet-style animation. Generally both for having art that's meant for one pose and sticking to it, as well as the animations just being well-made.
Modern day "realism" tends to bother me because it begins bordering on gore porn in some cases. Scenic vistas? Awesome! Realistic death animations? Why? I know not all games with this art style go in that direction but one or two have been enough to sour me on it entirely.
Otherwise, I'm right there with the moe people. "Cute" anime girls just creep me out most of the time.
Otherwise, I'm right there with the moe people. "Cute" anime girls just creep me out most of the time.
I'll skip anything that doesn't fit my specific art style tastes, I don't care. There's so much to play already, why settle? I need gameplay I enjoy, artstyle I enjoy, music I enjoy. If one of these is missing, I'll play one of the dozens of games I want to play and haven't yet.
The World Of Warcraft style of art has always bugged me.
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Those freaking shoulder pads and stuff are damned ridiculous, every game with a style similar to this is a nope unless the gameplay is good enough for me to try it.
Haha, those were always some of my favorite things about WoW. Love how the armor looks, shoulders are always my favorite gear to get.
Not really, pretty much every kind of aesthetic has uses where it fits adequately - then there are good and bad executions.
True true true.
On the bright side it keeps me safe from 99% of gacha games.
I couldn't bring myself to play Dust: An Elysian Tail for very long.
It's a furry nightmare and fuck that annoying abomination:
And yes, this devientart looking trash.
I don't think these games have much if any merit but when Sonic went 3D he brought some hideous designs with him and the series has never been the same since.
Like this might as well not even be the same franchise that had designs like this.
Classic. Timeless. What the hell was Sonic team thinking with the 3D artstyle is something will never know.
Like this might as well not even be the same franchise that had designs like this.
Classic. Timeless. What the hell was Sonic team thinking with the 3D artstyle is something will never know.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2's art style is just hard to look at. There's something wrong with their eyes, lips, and everything. It's like they're all constantly stuck in duck face.
anime is usually a huge nope for me. it was the reason i avoided Persona games for so long and was hesitant about buying VA-11 HALL-A.
those are the only exceptions for me.
those are the only exceptions for me.
Streets of Rage 4 looks gorgeous, can't believe you dislike that. Is it the same with Wonder Boy The Dragon's Trap on Switch? I love that style!
hi-res digital 2D art with thick outlines. i'm sorry but all of these look like webcomics or newgrounds flash games.
i mean i can get over it, hollow knight is great, but it does not look good to me.
Lol yeah I've avoided that game purely for the visuals. Should've been my first choice instead of the anime big head style.
I admit that I did not, though Ive seen gameplay footage of it. Is there anything particularly egregious in it?
I mean, that's the entire premise of the thread. It just doesn't look appealing to me.
I wouldn't skip a game because of it, but I kinda detest generic realism. This applies to fantasy games just as much, I'd hardly even call it an art-style. It makes most games look extremely similar and even though I don't believe in games aging, these are the ones to suffer the most in just a few years as technology advances.
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90% of this is probably going to be people complaining about anime art directions. For me, the closer the anime veers toward "lewd fanservice waifus" the more it turns me off. But in like Tales games or Trials of Mana and stuff like that, I don't mind it at all.
One style that did completely turn me off no matter how well liked the game was is World of Warcraft. To this day I've never played it and it's entirely because of the art direction. Same thing with Fortnite, which is funny because Overwatch has a similar look but does not bug me the way Fortnite does.
I will say that while I'm not turned off by realism (which nearly everyone goes for these days outside of indies), it does date a game much quicker for me. Whereas stuff that's clearly not trying to be realistic can still stand the test of time, like Wind Waker.
One style that did completely turn me off no matter how well liked the game was is World of Warcraft. To this day I've never played it and it's entirely because of the art direction. Same thing with Fortnite, which is funny because Overwatch has a similar look but does not bug me the way Fortnite does.
I will say that while I'm not turned off by realism (which nearly everyone goes for these days outside of indies), it does date a game much quicker for me. Whereas stuff that's clearly not trying to be realistic can still stand the test of time, like Wind Waker.
There's a lot of specific examples I could use, but generally speaking there's no one 'style' I don't like. Anime, ultra-realistic, retro pixel, simple 3D, all of them have good and bad examples but can absolutely look good.
I will say, however, that I really don't like the look of Netherrealm's models. They're technically very impressive but the way their faces stretch over the models is just all wrong to me, it's very deep in the uncanny valley. They've gotten moderately better but it's still not my thing, and the excessive blood doesn't help things. Their masked or more monstrous characters look way better to me.
I will say, however, that I really don't like the look of Netherrealm's models. They're technically very impressive but the way their faces stretch over the models is just all wrong to me, it's very deep in the uncanny valley. They've gotten moderately better but it's still not my thing, and the excessive blood doesn't help things. Their masked or more monstrous characters look way better to me.
Whatever you would call Link's Awakening on Switch. It's one of the more visually unappealing mainstream games I've seen lately. Might end up playing it someday anyway but the look really turns me off.