djtiesto said:
Yeah, there are plenty of western games with good scenery - The Myst series definitely (even though they're not known for their gameplay), POP:SOT, Metroid Prime... but I was talking more along the lines of good character art when I made this post.
Well, the use of drawn facial and body features to express emotions has been developed more in Japan.
Is a more integral part of their modern culture of entertainment, see manga and anime, and it has naturally moved on the next media - videogames.
In the west we focused more on movies.
The hand drawn entertainment production is limited here, and comics generally resort more to text than facial expressions to show the character's thoughts.
Our games tend to take from what has been our entertainment visual style: realistic movie-like designs, traditional painting already used in fantasy ambientations (D&D and LotR), cel-shaded characters straight out or ispired from Disney movies (Jak, BG&E), only few original comic characters (Asterix is one of the few cool designs).
Rare artists are western I assume? They are doing a nice work.
When ir comes to background design, at a glance the west is at least as good as the east.
Similiar story for monster design. I'd dare to say we are even better for those... Gozilla & Co can't touch Alien.
Pretty much the same thing for kids cartoon style. Disney-like stuff from here isn't that bad.
Realistic characters? We got plenty and technically well desgned, especially good those from the already estabilished fantasy artists.
But if for "good character art" we mean "drawing of a pretty boy / girl I wish I looked like, or can fap to", guess in the west there isn't much, aside some fantasy designs.
Our western mass culture would rather produce / sell / buy real live models and actors, for that kind of need.