The Hot Topic Returns

[spatular]

most of the stuff i think looks really nice has already been mentioned - jet set radio, rez, wind waker. ^ mirrors edge is a good shout too. trying to think of other stuff... splatoon and gravity rush look nice (although both of those i think some of the 2d art looks better than in-game stuff), and some pixel art type stuff like metal slug and esp ra.de.

[OCH]

I wish I could have gotten into Mirrors Edge. But the headaches were so strong with that one it's like my eyes were bleeding?

[one-armed dwarf]

I guess it would be Rez. I also think BOTW looks excellent with its placement of landmarks.

[radiofloyd]

There have been point and click adventure games with beautiful art styles - especially the Broken Sword games and The Last Express. But I like the pixel art style of games like Thimbleweed Park too. Hypnospace Outlaw also had a very eye catching art style.

 

Yakuza Zero which I’m playing right now has a lot of realistic details which makes it very evocative.

[shinymcshine]

Morrowind has a distinctly different art style to the other Elder Scrolls games, and a setting that was unique from other CRPGs.

[Maryokutai]

Mirror's Edge was the first game that came to mind for me. I've only recently stumbled upon some screenshots I did in that game and to this day it's probably the single most memorable "that looks phenomenal" game I've ever seen being unveiled. That it came out at a time when everyone was trying to look super realistic with UE3 and more often than not utterly failed trying to do so certainly works in its favour but still, even in a vacuum, Mirror's Edge is just a wonderfully stylish game.

 

Another one that had a similarly strong effect upon its unveiling on me was Valkyria Chronicles. It's basically just anime style through a fancy filter but the result is remarkable and it gives the game a strong visual identity. Considering it's also its very own thing in the gameplay department it didn't even need it, but it's still nice to see SEGA gave it the green light.

 

I don't think I've necessarily been put off a certain game due to its art style but I can remember one instance where I probably wouldn't have bothered if the developers hadn't changed the look: Borderlands. It's easy to forget how bland and boring that game looked initially before they switched to the comic book cel-shaded look now that we're a couple of main games and spin-offs in, but boy, that game was hideous when it was first shown.

[mfnick]

Graphics are a big deal but (usually) not a deal breaker for me. Rather than outright realistic games I’m always more drawn to stylised, artistically interesting games more. I’ll even try a badly rated game if it has a interesting art style. 
 

Favourites that immediately come to mind are - Cuphead, Octopath Traveller, Persona 5 (one of my favourite looking games ever just because of the overal style), Forza Horizon 4 - specifically the Lego pack, Auto Modellista, the recent Paper Mario, OG Mirrors Edge and it’s fantastic looking DLC to name a few.

 

Generally love pixel art games too. Katana Zero and Narito Boy stand out as a recent ones I absolutely adored. 
 

I also do love a realistic looking game like Last of Us 2 and Forza 7. I still think the original Resident Evil Remake is a fantastic looking game too. The recent Mortal Kombats have been a great gory spectacle too. These are games I much prefer to have a more realistic look. But in general I do prefer more stylised stuff. 
 

Bad graphics or styles don’t tend to stop me playing a game. However it can really put me off. The recent Knock Out City is a great example of this. I just absolutely detest the art style. That whole style just really rubs me the wrong way to the point where no matter how fun people say it is I just have no will to play it. I hate the look of Fortnite for similar reasons. Overly cutesy games can sometimes annoy me too. Some of the Mario games have made me feel sick with how cute they try to be at times. Galaxy Bee Mario being a standout. 
 

 

[Sly Reflex]

Some really good calls on games that drag you in, but I'm going to go the other direction and say which games have put me off.

 

Main culprit is Final Fantasy. I find it passable at best and ugly as fuck at the worst. The whole presentation of those games does nothing but repulse me. This factor extends to a lot of manga/anime stuff as well. The cutesy androgynous stuff doesn't do it for me. It feels like they're aimed at a more feminine audience. Not that I'm against that, it is what it is. I'm probably missing out on a lot of great games because of it though.

 

On the flip side you have stuff that's aimed primarily at the masculine audience to a point it's embarrassing to even know what the game is. I'm really not down with these games either, to some degree some overlap with the games I mentioned in the last paragraph. They just make me feel uncomfortable and like a letch. Again if you like this, then whatever, I'm not against it, but it's a feeling I've held for quite a long time and I feel that when the 20 Questions shows were going that it was a common go against games like this.

 

Other games that might have missed out is just because they look bland. It could be a weak art department, lack of fund or a small team that's covering everything, sometimes a game just can't stand out despite being really fucking good. These games fall under the radar. Full Metal Furies, Creeper World, Eliza, To The Moon, games which all offer something important or interesting, but it's sort of lost because the only thing making them stand out are the people that did give them a go and say "Hey, you should maybe have a gander at these".

 

[Maryokutai]

19 minutes ago, Sly Reflex said:

Other games that might have missed out is just because they look bland. It could be a weak art department, lack of fund or a small team that's covering everything, sometimes a game just can't stand out despite being really fucking good. These games fall under the radar. [...] Eliza

 

Interesting you say that because Eliza's art style is actually the reason I was interested in it in the first place. When you look at the visual novel landscape, it's very much dominated by Japanese products where every game basically has the same anime style with varying degrees of fanservice character designs. Eliza with its very mature western style and the sleek and elegant UI of the eponymous software actually made me pay attention to it in the first place. The fact that there's nothing special about its presentation ironically make it come across as special because it deviates so much from most of its VN peers.

[Sly Reflex]

There's no way I would have played Eliza without it being drawn and voted for. It really is a special experience though. I wouldn't really class it as a game in the sense that we understand games, but yeah, go play it if you can grab it cheap.

[shinymcshine]

I'd also put in a shout for Until Dawn, as it's really the first game that I can recall that really nailed down decent gameplay with a (close as dammit to) FMV presentation style, especially with the survival horror feel too.

[OCH]

35 minutes ago, Sly Reflex said:

Other games that might have missed out is just because they look bland

As an aside, this was my opinion of the FPS genre, in general, for most of the PS360 years. The ones that I could play (and back when I did try regardless) all kind of jelled into one. CoD and all the army shooters. Halo and all the Sci-Fi ones. There were two exceptions to that perspective I do regard very highly.

 

 One of my all time favourites too!

 

Stylised murder with added onomatopoeia!

[Maryokutai]

Good call with Killer7, how could I forget that one. When your game manages to stand out between a Mikami directed RE game and Viewtiful Joe, your team has done an excellent job.

[mfnick]

Shit! Howd I forget Killer 7? One of my all times faves and the graphical style was just outstanding. 

[AndyKurosaki]

Killer7 was outstanding, one of my favourite games ever. I sincerely hope it gets a remaster at some point.

 

Whoever remastered XIII but changed the art style needs their bloody head examined.

[HandsomeDead]

2 hours ago, Sly Reflex said:

On the flip side you have stuff that's aimed primarily at the masculine audience to a point it's embarrassing to even know what the game is. I'm really not down with these games either, to some degree some overlap with the games I mentioned in the last paragraph. They just make me feel uncomfortable and like a letch. Again if you like this, then whatever, I'm not against it, but it's a feeling I've held for quite a long time and I feel that when the 20 Questions shows were going that it was a common go against games like this.

 

Ah, the horny games.  I don't think it's necessarily the character art itself that is off putting, but it signals that there is going to be creepy and infantilising attitudes towards women and will probably get a bit rape-y at some point.  And that's just coming from a brief experience with them.

 

But it's rare anyone is missing much when they skip these games.  The only one I can think of is Onechambara which I saw Matt Mcmuscles do a video on and it does look to play better than the horny Dynasty Warriors I'd assumed it was.  But it has characters dressed like what someone who's never been to a strip club thinks strippers wear so it's easy to write off.

 

I still think Bayonetta is a better example of this.  It'll still be off-putting to some but it generally is an example that has a sex positive vibe, though maybe execution isn't always on point.

 

 

Long way of saying I don't think sexualised character designs had to carry the stigma they have but the frequent, weird content within them have forever tainted them, and it didn't have to be that way.  But that's just me.

[Sly Reflex]

Bayonetta is a weird one because she owns it. She seems to be the exception as the rest just seem like icky wank fodder for neckbeards.

[DisturbedSwan]

Killer7, Madworld, Jet Set Radio, XIII, Okami and Wind Waker are the ones that come to mind, maybe Sunset Overdrive as well.

[Nag]

21 minutes ago, DisturbedSwan said:

Macworld

 

That sounds like such an awesome game... minus the gherkin.

[one-armed dwarf]

Final Fantasy is very girly but nothing wrong with that.

 

Tho I'm fairly certain almost every cat girl on FFXIV is actually a dude.

 

(replying to Sly's comment)