Why don't more games use this art style?

Deft Beck

Member
It would not be as unique if many more games used that sort of style.

Still, I agree that it is a nice balance between style and realism.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
You mean cel shading? Gigantic doesn't look too similar to Wind Waker or Rime, to me.

It's probably because Western developers (and/or the market) care more about realistic art styles than realizing the potential of non-photorealistic rendering.
 

Platy

Member
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Dahbomb

Member
Because the core audience thinks these types of games are too cartooney and thus don't but them.

See Okami.
 
I will use this topic as another excuse to bring up Guilty Gear Xrd's incredible looking cellshading.

On mobile so no pics though.
 
J

Jotamide

Unconfirmed Member
Because the common denominator has shit taste.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
to me it gives off a feux-texture to everything. You're on the lines of cell shading IMO. Zelda and Ico clones can do it, but you have to almost give it an extreme for it to work otherwise everything feels like the same thing over and over. It gives the game a lighter feeling, much like how I felt about Ubisoft's cell shaded Prince of Persia. It's good, but the colors start to blend in with everything else. I'd say I've seen better games like this compared to some bump mapped games from 11 years ago.

This type of style is for games that appeal to an overall audience. You can't bring a lot to the table without it looking extremely bland at times.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
I will use this topic as another excuse to bring up Guilty Gear Xrd's incredible looking cellshading.

On mobile so no pics though.

More people should watch the GDC 2015 presentation of "GuiltyGear Xrd's Art Style: The X Factor between 2D and 3D by Junya Christopher Motomura."

The game that looks so incredible only took 4 3D modelers, was done through Unreal Engine 3, and used techniques that have been around for a long time now instead of anything truly new. The only thing stopping developers is the will to make games look like that.
 
I would love to see more vibrant, stylized, "cartoony" games, but I think the problem is that they don't sell as much.
Borderlands sells well. But I guess its an exception not the rule.

Edit ^ yes that's amazing I loved that. The game is even more amazing because of that.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I will use this topic as another excuse to bring up Guilty Gear Xrd's incredible looking cellshading.

On mobile so no pics though.

GGXrd is an exception. They didn't have the dark marker/pencil type of lines that feel off setting at times. There's good cell shading and then there's bad. Regardless of how GGxrd was made it looks great.

I miss the hand drawn water colors

520872-saga-frontier-2-playstation-screenshot-in-a-bars.png
 

Nanashrew

Banned
Realism is easier to convey to a large demographic while something more artsy or a unique style can put more off. See Xenoblade and the faces (I'm not bothered by them) or the sales of most stylized and cartoony looking games with the exception of Borderlands.

I love cartoony styles and love Wind Waker and the movie that inspired it and Samurai Jack. I'm of the opposite end that would love more cartoony and stylized games and more turned off by gritty realism.
 
My guess is that most consumers want more realism. However, I would like to see more games that utilize cel shading because it gives rise to some unique art styles.
 
Because the common denominator has shit taste.

Yup.

It's obviously a bad game because it looks like a cartoon. When Wind Waker was revealed and everyone was loosing their shit because it looked too "kiddy", I laughed. That game turned out amazing, and holds up so well. It's HD release does it justice in my opinion.
 

DJIzana

Member
GGXrd is an exception. They didn't have the dark marker/pencil type of lines that feel off setting at times. There's good cell shading and then there's bad. Regardless of how GGxrd was made it looks great.

I miss the hand drawn water colors

520872-saga-frontier-2-playstation-screenshot-in-a-bars.png

Sounds like you'll want to check out Tree of Savior when that comes out.

For me? I miss pre-rendered backgrounds from the JRPG's I grew up with in general. I also like the cell shading from certain games (couldn't get into it with Windwaker) but I miss a lot of different styles... =(

I personally wish that aesthetically, more games used the same art style as Xenoblade Chronicles X. Imagine what a .Hack would look like if they managed to use the same engine. It'd be amazing!
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
Realism is easier to convey to a large demographic while something more artsy or a unique style can put more off. See Xenoblade and the faces (I'm not bothered by them) or the sales of most stylized and cartoony looking games with the exception of Borderlands.

Makes me think of some Youtube comments for the Persona 5 trailer that were recently brought to my attention:
They're Youtube comments, so them being inflammatory is nothing surprising, but it's probably a hint at what the general public thinks of the non-realistic art styles, and why they're commonly relegated to "niche" status in video games.
 

Apeboy

Member
Because developers and publishers have been allowed to make the same thing over and over again based on graphics upgrades. Why bother sinking time and effort into A.I., plot, pathing, depth etc. when the majority seem content on fixating on blades of grass and shadows.
 

Steel

Banned
It would become the new brown of gaming. I'm sure at one point people were saying "Why don't more games look gritty and brown."
 
Makes me think of some Youtube comments for the Persona 5 trailer that were recently brought to my attention:

They're Youtube comments, so them being inflammatory is nothing surprising, but it's probably a hint at what the general public thinks of the non-realistic art styles, and why they're commonly relegated to "niche" status in video games.

Holy shit, leave it to Youtube commenters to produce comments like that. I guess that does a decent job of summing up why art styles like these are not more common.
 

koutoru

Member
Baba himself said he felt Tales of Vesperia gave off a 'cute' vibe that he didn't want when making the more recent Tales games.

As to why other companies like Compile Heart haven't used cel shading, I can only guess.
 

Shig

Strap on your hooker ...
It came around too early and became too overused, too fast. Cel shading on PS2-level geometry was a pointy, jaggy mess. If we had seen some restraint and, Wind Waker and Jet Set Radio aside, the industry had sat on the technique until they could use it for stuff on the technical level of Eternal Sonata and Killer is Dead, there would be a lot of enthusiasm around it.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Holy shit, leave it to Youtube commenters to produce comments like that. I guess that does a decent job of summing up why art styles like these are not more common.

Didn't we just have a thread that got locked because it turned into a "all people who are fans of japanese media are pedophiles?"

Its not relegated to youtube unfortunately.
 
It came around too early and became too overused, too fast. Cel shading on PS2-level geometry was a pointy, jaggy mess. If we had seen some restraint and, Wind Waker and Jet Set Radio aside, the industry had sat on the technique until they could use it for stuff on the technical level of Eternal Sonata and Killer is Dead, there would be a lot of enthusiasm around it.

I dunno, I think Cel-shading will always be stigmatized as looking "cartoony." Which automatically makes people think of "kiddie." God forbid anyone knows I play a game that looks like a cartoon for kids, I gotta look tough and play gritty violent games to show how mature I am.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
Didn't we just have a thread that got locked because it turned into a "all people who are fans of japanese media are pedophiles?"

Its not relegated to youtube unfortunately.

You'll have to link the thread you're talking about, because this sounds like a strawman that doesn't describe why the thread you might be referring to was locked at all.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
You'll have to link the thread you're talking about, because this sounds like a strawman that doesn't describe why the thread you might be referring to was locked at all.

I think you know the one. Its neither here nor there now.

The point i'm making is that ignorance on things people don't like or don't understand is everywhere. Its not relegated to trolls unfortunately.

It can come down to something as simple as an artstyle and nothing more to come up with a whole host of out there conclusions and predjudices
 
It's trickier to pull of than you might think; to some extent, you're trading technical for artistic complexity. Requires real talent to do well.
 
I think you know the one. Its neither here nor there now.

The point i'm making is that ignorance on things people don't like or don't understand is everywhere. Its not relegated to trolls unfortunately.

lol do you really think I think that stuff is exclusive to Youtube? I was just alluding to how bad Youtube's rep is for comments.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
lol do you really think I think that stuff is exclusive to Youtube? I was just alluding to how bad Youtube's rep is for comments.

I wasn't really saying you thought that no, i was just adding onto your comment with my own addition.

I think what's really needed is for people to really open their minds on certain things, try out different things that they normally would not just for some variety. Like those posts on youtube FluxWave linked to.

I bet you none of them had ever played a game with an artstyle like Persona before, or even anything remotely anime based.

But if people were to try it, atleast some would probably like said design.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
The point i'm making is that ignorance on things people don't like or don't understand is everywhere. Its not relegated to trolls unfortunately.

It can come down to something as simple as an artstyle and nothing more to come up with a whole host of out there conclusions and predjudices

Oh sure, there are people who dismiss games entirely based on their art styles anywhere. We've had NeoGAF threads about that very subject with examples, in the past.

There's something to be said about style. Again using Persona 5 as an example, you know they're doing something right when they're showing off menu navigation in their reveal trailer because of how amazing it looks.
It's the kind of stuff we could get more of, but that we don't because I guess that's not what most people want.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Oh sure, there are people who dismiss games entirely based on their art styles anywhere. We've had NeoGAF threads about that very subject with examples, in the past.

There's something to be said about style. Again using Persona 5 as an example, you know they're doing something right when they're showing off menu navigation in their reveal trailer because of how amazing it looks.

Exactly, but that's just because Atlus is so comfortable with their own design choices they know people can't look away. That's why they have such a big fanbase because of that, they are comfortable with their style of gameplay, art deco, music, the works, and because of that everything just flows naturally, even to something as simple as the UI.

I don't think its something people don't want per se, but something they are not willing to try because they have some kind of preconceived notion. Many times something you really like is something you don't even know you want until you try it
 

ShirAhava

Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
Different tastes I guess...I mean I'd want every game to look like Time Gal but I know most people wouldn't like that.
 
I think that's just called cel shading isn't it? Anyway yeah I really enjoy that style but wouldn't want too many games to copy it or it wouldn't be unique and would probably just get annoying.
 

ChrisD

Member
Makes me think of some Youtube comments for the Persona 5 trailer that were recently brought to my attention:

They're Youtube comments, so them being inflammatory is nothing surprising, but it's probably a hint at what the general public thinks of the non-realistic art styles, and why they're commonly relegated to "niche" status in video games.

That's a bit of an unfair comparison solely due to anime. "Anime" style is disliked much more than "normal" cel-shading.

Otherwise, your point stands. Looks really do effect sales.
 

Orayn

Member
Sunset Overdrive and Overwatch are kinda close to that.

Based on the most recent pre-alpha footage, it seems like Due Process (Rainbow Six-ish indie MP shooter) is aiming for something similar as well.

Because people didn't buy next-gen consoles to play games that look like PSX games.

What the fuck are you talking about?
 
Oh sure, there are people who dismiss games entirely based on their art styles anywhere. We've had NeoGAF threads about that very subject with examples, in the past.

There's something to be said about style. Again using Persona 5 as an example, you know they're doing something right when they're showing off menu navigation in their reveal trailer because of how amazing it looks.

It's the kind of stuff we could get more of, but that we don't because I guess that's not what most people want.

To be fair Persona 3's trailer also showed some menu navigation. Even the epic 17 minute trailer had a couple of seconds of menu navigation.

That being said P5 menus are top notch.

Because people didn't buy next-gen consoles to play games that look like PSX games.

I don't think I've seen a PSX game that looked as good as Wind Waker or Okami. Ironically Borderlands wasn't really ostracized for it's use of Cel-shading.
 

Nanashrew

Banned
What? Since when did using cel shading suddenly turn your game into a PSX game?

As hyperbole as the statement was, there are people who believe that a cel-shaded game is not graphically intensive and therefore not worth the time of day because it's not pushing the poly count or graphics forward. It's a frustrating argument to get into because cel-shading can be graphically intensive too depending on what they're doing.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
That's a bit of an unfair comparison solely due to anime. "Anime" style is disliked much more than "normal" cel-shading.

Otherwise, your point stands. Looks really do effect sales.

Yeah, I suppose that's true. Non-realistic styles are not just anime, which people seem to have more of a bias against.
 

OmegaDL50

Member
Because people didn't buy next-gen consoles to play games that look like PSX games.

Is this post implying the the notion that a "realistic" art style and aesthetic somehow requires more horsepower to achieve over a "cartoony" art style and aesthetic despite both possibly being equally demanding on the hardware based on texture size, real time lighting, shadows, reflections, geometry, etc.

A character comprised of 50,000 polygons with 2048x2048 realistic textures is not any more demanding or memory intensive over a character comprised of 50,000 polygons with 2048x2048 cartoony textures.

Using the contention that game looking more realistic means it's naturally more demanding or a difference in artstyle somehow implies a technical inferiority in terms of hardware is a misconception.
 

Hoje0308

Banned
Damn you, OP! You need to let a guy know that he's about to view a Rime video ahead of time. I was unprepared for the hype that ensued.
 
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