Have you ever stopped playing a game because you could not stand the art direction? (Expedition 33...)

BlackTron said:
The worst are the sharp lighting effects that bounce off all the characters like the plastic planks that they are
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This definitely. Something was so off with lighting and characters for me.

I am also thinking that's maybe it's an "octopath" thing and it's better on some other game.
 
Final Fantasy 9, SE's shittiest looking sorry ass cast and that says a lot considering Kingdom Hearts is a thing. TWEWY is an honorable mention, i see where they were aiming visually but they failed and inadvertently landed on a variation of bizaro Kingdom Hearts aesthetics instead of a graffiti inspired visual cross over of Jetset Radio meets Boondocks.
 
Some asian games with lolita looking characters, coming into the game expecting normal art direction only to realize that pervs ran around in it. Tera Online for example. Some asian games where the characters are small with huge heads, looking like mini figures with balloon heads.

All "artsy" cartoonish games.
 
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eNT1TY said:
TWEWY is an honorable mention, i see where they were aiming visually but they failed and inadvertently landed on a variation of bizaro Kingdom Hearts aesthetics instead of a graffiti inspired visual cross over of Jetset Radio meets Boondocks.
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I tend to give TWEWY a pass because it was originally a DS game, but it is butt-ugly.


Beyond that, I really dislike the art direction of most Western-designed games. That doesn't make me stop playing them, I just think they are ugly the whole time I'm playing.
 
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For me its hollow knight. I don't know why but the game appears to me as a XBLA game and even though i had fun, I couldn't play it any longer because the art style was simply not for me


+ every JRPG once i left puberty and found real life females attractive
 
Visual clutter is a problem with many games, but I wouldn't conflate it with artstyle.
I think Clair Obscur is ridiculously cluttered and I end up not paying attention to a lot of details (the camera angle doesn't help things one bit there, I might add). But the artstyle is good overall. Boss fights are really spectacular.

I don't think I ever dropped a game because of its artstyle. Today it's not hard at all to get a good idea of how a game looks before buying it.
 
Funny enough no.
The art direction of a game is often one of the most important reason why I buy it in the first place. If I don't like the art direct I simply won't buy it.
 
Yes, A Link Between Worlds, I just hate the way Nintendo did the art in that game.

HOWEVER I did go back years later with gritted teeth and played through the game and it was great.
 
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Yes, Expedition 33 hurt my eyes is the best example indeed. Bought the game, even though the art didn't look good, tried to like it but I just couldn't immerse myself in that cheap Unreal Engine world. Expedition 33 tries too hard to look beautiful, but ends up feeling tacky and contrived.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown's art also made me reject it for a while, but the gameplay was so good that it made up for it.

Hollow Knight too. People say it's the best Metroidvania, but I can't stand the art.

Also most American games these days.
 
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Not really, but I have stopped playing a game due to it being ugly (I'm sorry but it was Fallout New Vegas. I even modded it. I couldn't take it anymore.) I never played Borderlands because I was mad about the art style switch. Looking back, I'm glad I never did.

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Mmyes I, too, find that Expedition 33 doesn't live up to my artistic standards, mmyes quite

fart-south-park.gif


But on a serious note, I wouldn't buy the game in the first place if I found the art style offputting.
 
"Why did you buy the game if the art is not appealing to you"

- Shocking but not everybody wants to spoil the game beforehand and watch a million promo videos or streams
- Even then, experiencing the game yourself on the big screen is still a different experience from watching a youtube video
- Even if the art was not my cup of tea from the very beginning, the gameplay could have still made up for it, graphics are not everything

Black_Mamba said:
Expedition 33 tries too hard to look beautiful, but ends up feeling tacky and contrived.
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That pretty much nails it.
 
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Borderlands is one ive avoided for many reasons. Artstyle is of them
Just realized i dont like Street Fighter 6 art style in this thread. lmao
 
I know there are games where I do not like the art style.....But I cannot think of any right now. I think the Style of Marathon was very off putting from the start. Not sure about older games but I know there are some.
 
Only issue I had with E33 art style is that I found it difficult at times to see passages to other areas. It just blends together at parts and only if you are at a certain angle relative to the passage is it noticeable. Minor gripe. Overall, I thought the art was fantastic.
 
Zelda TotK.
When I finished BotW, I was fine with the artstyle at the time, and the game was fun and I didn't mind it too much.

But now I got TotK to finally play on the Switch 2... and honestly I find the game ugly and unpleasant to watch.
 
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My reaction to Street fighter 6 was 'lol no' after playing the demo for 2 mins

Super ugly
 
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Stopped?





I usually know what a game looks like before I play it, so if I dislike the artsyle enough I just wont get the game.
The opposite is also true, ive found myself buying games because of the artstyle praying the gameplay will hook me.
 
Fallout New Vegas. I forced myself to finish it but I could never touch it agian or replay it bcuz its god awful. One of the worst atmospheres ever. No idea how Obsidian has such a good rep, they're below average tier developers.
 
I wouldn't buy a game if I didn't like the art style but that being said, yeah, I avoid plenty of games due to not liking the art style.
 
Windom Earle said:
I did for Expedition 33. The game is good but I simply can't stand the art in the sense of how overloaded/tacky/kitschy everything is. In most instances there are a million things on screen. I like a clean approach to art and it literally makes me not want to play it anymore. It feels unnerving to me. This is not me hating on the game, just a matter of personal taste.
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What an amazing screenshot. Can't believe it's used to illustrate the opposite point.
 
Topher said:
Only issue I had with E33 art style is that I found it difficult at times to see passages to other areas. It just blends together at parts and only if you are at a certain angle relative to the passage is it noticeable. Minor gripe. Overall, I thought the art was fantastic.
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You need your monocle meemar
 
It would normally put me off before I started so no to the thread question

But some art styles do stop me from playing things like anything with that terrible janky Spider-verse animation style straight in the bin
 
Games with blocky 8bit and 16 bit retro graphics but also have amazing animations and music i have a knee jerk aversion to playing.
I did my time in 16Bit jail for years, I don't want to go back.
 
People are mentioning Street Fighter 6 but I found 5 to be ugly as well.

I gave up on Pokémon Scarlet but that was a combination of ugliness, poor performance and just a nonsense "open" world where you had to follow a guide to progress along a single path otherwise it was too above or below your level.
 
Windom Earle said:
I did for Expedition 33. The game is good but I simply can't stand the art in the sense of how overloaded/tacky/kitschy everything is. In most instances there are a million things on screen. I like a clean approach to art and it literally makes me not want to play it anymore. It feels unnerving to me. This is not me hating on the game, just a matter of personal taste.
xvVVFHZKEt6HCeCj.png
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I'm glad I don't have this shit of taste. Holy hell.

DelireMan7 said:
Would be Octopath Traveler for me.

At first I was blown away by the HD-2D style. But I got quickly tired of it and ended up not liking how it looks. Also the game has other problem for me but after some times, I couldn't stand the art. I stop playing it.

Now the HD-2D style is a bit a repulsive for me. I am interested in Triangle Strategy but when I see the artstyle it really dissuades me to buy it.
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I'm with you unfortunately. Octopath gave me a headache to look at. It always looked like the chromatic aberration was jacked up but somebody told me it wasn't CA so I'm not sure.
 
I've flat out ignored games from ugly art. Nothing is completely unique and there's so many options in games now, I can skip something if I hate the style.
 
Cannot stand Exp33 art direction either. One of the fugliest in recent memory. It reminds me so much of this samey ass looking slop that is present in the large majority of UE5 titles, my eyes can't handle it anymore. But to answer your question, no, it has never happened to me that i stopped playing a game because of it's aesthetic. And the reason for that is that i try to ignore games with fugly ass art direction. If Exp33 wasn't "free" on GP, i would have never even bothered trying it because of its art style.
 
Windom Earle said:
I did for Expedition 33. The game is good but I simply can't stand the art in the sense of how overloaded/tacky/kitschy everything is. In most instances there are a million things on screen. I like a clean approach to art and it literally makes me not want to play it anymore. It feels unnerving to me. This is not me hating on the game, just a matter of personal taste.
xvVVFHZKEt6HCeCj.png
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Not just you OP. The game from an art perspective looks rubbish. Despite all the praise, I can't bring myself to buy it because of the art direction. Same thing happened with Octopath traveler for me.
 
If I can't stand the art direction, I just don't buy it. I can't imagine a scenario I bought something with zero research only to realise the style doesn't vibe with me later.
 
Absolutely. If the aesthetic is boring or the visual hurts your eyes or causes discomfort, it's worth a drop. There were several PS1 games that hurt my eyes to look at. Another thing that can get me is a first person that doesn't get the movement just right and leaves you feeling motion sick.
 
winjer said:
Never stopped playing a game because of the art style.
But there have been plenty that I didn't buy because of it.
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Exactly where I've always been.

The look of a game is a large factor, of course art direction falls into that. If a game doesn't look appealing to me across the board, then I simply just won't bother. But I've never had an experience where it was good, and then it went bad, lol.
 
Not stopping half-way through but I have skipped on many games because of how they look, for sure.

SILKYSMOOTH30FPS said:
It reminds me so much of this samey ass looking slop that is present in the large majority of UE5 titles
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Same for me. Game's full of volumetric fog and special effects like particles and stuff that barely let me see what's going on in some instances.
 
Outer Worlds....

I tried to give Obsidian the benefit of the doubt as the released a slew of my favorite games ( Fallout nv, Alpha Protocol, NWN2, Kotor2, POE) yet this game was a steaming pile of piss pore art and Marxo-feminism.
With ugly art, ugly women, and a bad ui.

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Something like this could of been good if it wasn't ideologically done, and had more content and better art style in general.

I gave up on it, as I couldn't stomach the art and the bland world design. I played on the switch too, which made it all look so much worse.

It really sucks as they were so great before the virus crept in their ranks.
 
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