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Hideous text fonts in games

Shizuka

Member
I've seen some hideous fonts in games throughout my years, specially for japanese games that have been localized, but today I've found one that really grinded my gears:

ofywyM0.jpg


0xp7Czd.jpg


The game is Stranger of Sword City, for the Vita. It's coming out March 2016 and it's been one of my most anticipated games, but when I saw that font... Who thought that was a good idea?
 
I wouldn't call it hideous per se, but I do wanna know why Kojima and pals decided to switch to that serif font in MGSV. They use the same font for every single game and then randomly change to something new (that looks worse)? I don't get it bruv.
 
I've seen some hideous fonts in games throughout my years, specially for japanese games that have been localized, but today I've found one that really grinded my gears:

ofywyM0.jpg


0xp7Czd.jpg


The game is Stranger of Sword City, for the Vita. It's coming out March 2016 and it's been one of my most anticipated games, but when I saw that font... Who thought that was a good idea?
I don't think these are too bad. The only annoying thing is the G and P that seem to be a little higher than the other letters.
 
Looks like the font's vertical alignment in OP has not been...

(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

Justified.
 
Japanese games tend to use a ridiculous number of different fonts at dofferent sizes on intrusive and overbearing UI's. Generalising here though.
 
Yeah, I'm going to have to go with Stranger of Sword City also.
I've been gushing about this game since I've found out about it last year, even played the Japanese demo which is something I rarely do for games by my god the font is terrible.

I might just pick up the LE for the goodies and hope modders fix the font in the PC release
 
Not exactly hideous, but I thought the font for MH3U (3DS) was a pretty bad pick for the super low res display of the device.
tx1Saa4.png


MH4U font on the other hand is pretty much god-tier.
 
I used to always hate it when spectrum games used the basic spectrum font instead of devising or using a different one.

Lazy. Just, lazy.
 
The funny part is that this is not a font decision, this is a bug (that probably they didn't catch because they're not used to western characters).

Basically, the baseline of the font is not defined, so the game is using the bottom of the character image as the baseline of the font, creating weird effects when there is a character with descender.
 
Not exactly hideous, but I thought the font for MH3U (3DS) was a pretty bad pick for the super low res display of the device.
tx1Saa4.png


MH4U font on the other hand is pretty much god-tier.

I couldn't play this game because I could barely read any of the text on the screen. Ending up selling it.
 
Ah that font looks disappointing... I was gonna pick up Stranger of Sword City, but hesitating now. It reminds me of the Persona 2: Eternal Punishment font but less extreme.
53510-persona-2-eternal-punishment-playstation-screenshot-maya-goes.gif
 
tumblr_liqqyjJTy81qdtw9eo1_500.png


Sonic Adventure 2's infamous Comic Sans font in the Dreamcast and Gamecube versions.

They changed it for the HD port.
 
I wouldn't call it hideous per se, but I do wanna know why Kojima and pals decided to switch to that serif font in MGSV. They use the same font for every single game and then randomly change to something new (that looks worse)? I don't get it bruv.

It's a font used in Japanese cinema I think, that made kojima consider it probably.
 
I wouldn't call it hideous per se, but I do wanna know why Kojima and pals decided to switch to that serif font in MGSV. They use the same font for every single game and then randomly change to something new (that looks worse)? I don't get it bruv.

It's V not 5. A new beginning. Male to female copulation.

Truly we are not worthy of Kojima's vison
 
Terranigma_00000.png


A m a z i n g g a m e, b u t t h a t s p a c i n g l e a v e s a l o t t o b e d e s i r e d.

(I believe there's a patch to fix it, mind)
 

The font in most of the AD&D Goldbox games was pretty difficult to read. I do find it dramatically easier on the eyes using an HQ upscaler, though it's still pretty gnarly. All caps and too much pizzazz. I suggest actually clicking the first image to get a full-sized view, since the garishness of it is minimized when scaled down and filtered.

Anyway, when it comes to fonts I prefer modern-looking, sans-serif ones. I find them way more readable. I also like them to be chunkier, like the fonts of yesteryear when they were designed to be readable even on fuzzy CRT televisions. I don't like all caps because it's easier for me to get lost when I don't have capital letters marking the beginning of sentences. I don't really like italics either.
 
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