Western games with good art?
- Thread starter djtiesto
- Start date
Anarchy Online
Drastic change of theme:
Kya
Maximo
Decent stuff in the cartoonish area too.
I have another pack of image links, but guess to have monopolized this page enough already for now
Gothic 2 and PoP will have to wait.
Yes Clover studio, and I also want to mention now team ICO and the character design of modern Castlevanias, are good on the oriental side.
Most of the jap designs so apprecciated here look pretty bad to me thought.
Well, out of the games I mentioned personally, Guild Wars and Rune have people drawn well for their genres, thought cliched.
NOLF's heroine is good.
Myst isn't about NPCs, Anarchy online at least has ok monsters, Kya and Maximo are also good enough imo.
People in Gothic look great, but it goes for a mostly realistic look.
PoP is also ok and closer to the japanese style.
Grim Fandango which has been mentioned - and I might add Sam & Max - have very cool character designs.
WoW has also class in its own way.
When it comes to combining realism with originality, pretty faces and somewhat elegance, oriental character designs seem to have the edge sometime. They also easily go overboard from elegance into sillyness.
Drastic change of theme:
Kya
Maximo
Decent stuff in the cartoonish area too.
I have another pack of image links, but guess to have monopolized this page enough already for now
Gothic 2 and PoP will have to wait.
Yes Clover studio, and I also want to mention now team ICO and the character design of modern Castlevanias, are good on the oriental side.
Most of the jap designs so apprecciated here look pretty bad to me thought.
Well, out of the games I mentioned personally, Guild Wars and Rune have people drawn well for their genres, thought cliched.
NOLF's heroine is good.
Myst isn't about NPCs, Anarchy online at least has ok monsters, Kya and Maximo are also good enough imo.
People in Gothic look great, but it goes for a mostly realistic look.
PoP is also ok and closer to the japanese style.
Grim Fandango which has been mentioned - and I might add Sam & Max - have very cool character designs.
WoW has also class in its own way.
When it comes to combining realism with originality, pretty faces and somewhat elegance, oriental character designs seem to have the edge sometime. They also easily go overboard from elegance into sillyness.
bobbyconover
Member
Ar's posts are both jam-packed with the kind of soulless junk that is the epitome of so-called "bad" Western art, to me. KYA? You have got to be kidding.
And while it was debatable in regard to Metroid Prime, Maximo's (character) design is straight-up Japanese.
Edit: Bel beat me to it!
And while it was debatable in regard to Metroid Prime, Maximo's (character) design is straight-up Japanese.
Edit: Bel beat me to it!
Myst are the like are "soulless junk"? Not to me, but to each his own.
Now Mr. Good Taste, come and contribute some example of what you consider great art - and I expect it to be pretty amazing, if by your standards what I posted is junk.
So that I may be uplifted by it.... or have the fair chance to poke back at YOUR tastes, k?
Edit: btw Maximo and Kya were among the filler, just to give some more fast examples.
Didn't knew about Maximo designer being from Japan.
I restate that Kya is decent for its genre. Similiar to Rayman, very cool backgrounds (have you played the game?), ok characters.
Again, show some meat beind the criticism, some example of such so superior cartoon art (got to remain within the specific genre of course), and I may be convinced.
Now Mr. Good Taste, come and contribute some example of what you consider great art - and I expect it to be pretty amazing, if by your standards what I posted is junk.
So that I may be uplifted by it.... or have the fair chance to poke back at YOUR tastes, k?
Edit: btw Maximo and Kya were among the filler, just to give some more fast examples.
Didn't knew about Maximo designer being from Japan.
I restate that Kya is decent for its genre. Similiar to Rayman, very cool backgrounds (have you played the game?), ok characters.
Again, show some meat beind the criticism, some example of such so superior cartoon art (got to remain within the specific genre of course), and I may be convinced.
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.
djtiesto said:
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.
And? Go on, go on.
Step 1: tell someone he is wrong.
Step 2: show him what is right.
Post something costructive, an example of much better cartoon art in videogames, for everyone enjoyment, and to show how "mine" sucks in comparison.
Also, if I didn't post, people couldn't give me single vague lines that my post is bad. Should I deprive them of such a simple pleasure?
JasoNsider
Member
Oh wow, 90% of this thread is filled with the Western art I consider "bad". Seriously, threads like this only solidify the fact that there is a major divide between the quality of eastern and western game art. Retro, Blizzard (minus diablo), and Michel Ancel's team are among the few that stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their Eastern peers IMO.
Threads like this one make me wonder if people in the west just have bad taste in general (if there is such a thing.)
Threads like this one make me wonder if people in the west just have bad taste in general (if there is such a thing.)
For some reason I've always found French developers to be the closest to carrying out the kind of videogame art the Japanese are so damn good at. I can't help thinking there's a direct link between this and how huge graphic novels and manga is in both countries .. and has been historically.
Similar threads
- Poll