The Art Style and Graphics Discussion

[Tyaren]

More Shantae. I'm ready, damn it.

Really love the cute and vibrant style. This is by a Western developer, right? I like how they still nail the Japanese anime look.

@Chapstick will rejoice:

"Players will be able to explore the depths of the sea in Abzu on PlayStation 4 and PC on August 2."

And those (obviously PC) screens... O:

 

[Juihau]

Really love the cute and vibrant style. This is by a Western developer, right? I like how they still nail the Japanese anime look.

Yeah, Wayforward is based in the US. They also did Ducktales Remastered and the Mighty Switch Force games, and I believe the lead animator from Skullgirls is working on 1/2 Genie Hero as well. So that's like, a dev team notable for making very nice-looking, classic-styled games, teaming up with the animator for a game known for its incredibly detailed 2D animations. It's practically a dream team.

 

[Tyaren]

Wooow, someone modded The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine into oblivion (it does normally not look nearly this good even on ultra PC settings):

Maybe games will look this good on the next full console generation (if there ever is one). =Q=

 

[Tyaren]

The three unbelievably good looking gameplay segments that were played life on stage on a standard PS4 in Sony's press conference:

God of War:

Horizon Zero Dawn:

Days Gone:

 

[Jadeinchains]

The days gne trailer was super interesting though I not sure how the gameplay wilkl work but I liked the wave of zombies coming for him.

 

[ShinobiGuy]

GoW and HZD are must have's for me. The DG looks very Nice, but I am unsure if it's in the vein of The Last of Us or more a multiplayer game?

 

[Tyaren]

GoW and HZD are must have's for me. The DG looks very Nice, but I am unsure if it's in the vein of The Last of Us or more a multiplayer game?

It's basically The Last of Us in an open-world environment. A singleplayer experience seems to be the focus.

Some screens that are very impressive for an open-world game:

 

[ShinobiGuy]

That makes it very interresting Gonna keep an eye on this as well.

 

[Argentus]

Am I the only one who's just not impressed by god of war or days gone? At all?

Probably because im just sick of "gritty realistic" looking games.

On a technical level yeah sure but to actually look at? Eh.



I wish cc2 and platinum games would team up

 

[KasumiLover]

You're not alone Argentus, I myself am not much a fan of the ultra realistic and gritty art styles most games try to achieve, it gets uncanny at times. I prefer cuter, more simplistic but good graphics like Senran Kagura Estival Versus has, TN and SK should seriously team up and make a game together, just to have a little break from the ultra real graphics we're commonly forced to view.

 

[Tyaren]

I prefer cuter, more simplistic but good graphics like Senran Kagura Estival Versus has, TN and SK should seriously team up and make a game together, just to have a little break from the ultra real graphics we're commonly forced to view.

(Literally me, I was even drinking tea. XD)

 

[KasumiLover]

(Literally me, I was even drinking tea. XD)

Don't get me wrong, I love good realistic graphics, but a nice stylish anime type artstyle is also a nice break from what DOA and Tekken and SC have been nice enough to to supply me with. I've literally taken quite a few screenshots(classy ones, I promise ^-^) of SK as I've played and the game has blew me away at how much detail and chic presentation it has. I'd share them in this thread if I could but I wasn't sure you'd want to view them, they are classy though.

 

[Chapstick]

SKEV looks like a PS3 game honestly. I'm not too sure why it has framerate drops below 60 other than poor optimization. Here's a vid of the ps4 version, unfortunately youtube murdered the video quality

 

[KasumiLover]

I never really see any FR drops unless there's a hell lot of enemies on screen or if more than one girl attempts a very taxing ninpo. I think the game looks pretty good, the environments are very cute and simple and I like skipping around with Ryona and seeing everything. I especially love the hair in the game(yes, as I've stated before I'm a long hair fetishist), it flows really nicely and doesn't clip very much unless the girls fall or something, but you'll hardly notice it since the game does have the girls lay a cerain way when defeated and in their lose poses to prevent clipping with their default hair, and I like the short bobcut. The enemies are obviously not very detailed up close but they look decent enough since you have to realize that very detailed grunts means less detailed environments and stuff.

I also like to play with Ryona in the dressing room and twirl her model around, the textures are very nice and clean....I even got to "kiss" her for the first time yesterday. :-D Overall the game's visuals blew me away, the artstyle is just really soft looking and cute.

 

[Tyaren]

I've literally taken quite a few screenshots(classy ones, I promise ^-^) of SK as I've played and the game has blew me away at how much detail and chic presentation it has. I'd share them in this thread if I could but I wasn't sure you'd want to view them, they are classy though.

Why not?

 

[ShinobiGuy]

While I prefer gritty realistic graphics of games such as GoW, Witcher, Last of Us, I also do enjoy simpler graphics (or art style?) with some games.

Firewatch is a very beautiful game and I could easily enjoy the nature and views despite not being realistic:

Child of light is another, that I just fell for because of (art style or graphics? what is the correct term here?):

Though I haven't gotten around to play this yet.

And then you have the RE7 demo, where even a decaying house becomes a work of art:

Though I am very partial to these types of horror games.

 

[KasumiLover]

@Tyaren here are the classy SK pics I wanted to share! I have some of yomi and Miyabi I'll share a little later but I focused on Ryona since she's my absolute favorite girl in the game:

About to do her lv. 3 "Rebellion Concerto" in the "At any cost" mission stage, AKA the farming stage for experience and mastery maxing. My favorite location in the game so far, so many enemies and it has a comfy type feel about it.

Sigh...I hate when people insult Ryona, she's not stupid. Plus I dislike Ryobi, she's a disrespectful younger sister. Thank goodness Ryona does not care in the slightest.

My favorite screenshot of her, that's my face half the time in real life XD I think I'm the only player who kept her shinobi outfit, I think it suits her well and will never change it, not even the colors. Her hair though yeah....I changed it to Ikaruga's style with Yumi's bow in her normal form and I gave her Catherine drill tails in her Shinobi form.

If I can take some more decent pics of the environment, I'll share them although it's kind of tough, the game still has the enemies attack when SSing so I'll have to wait for when I completely wipe them all out.

 

[Tyaren]

Lol, you stressing these are "classy pics" says a lot about the game. XD
What exactly do you find so pretty about the game? Like Chapstick says...technically it looks like a PS3 game in full HD. With such a simple art style, and being a PS4 exclusive, they could have done so much more. As you know I love anime and I also love games that have pretty and coherent anime styles like...

Tales of Vesperia:

Persona 5:

Zelda: Breath of the Wild:

Guilty Gear:

...but I really don't see the artistic value in SK's art style...other then them having giant knockers...which are weirdly square shaped. The characters and environments also don't really match.

You are still welcome to post your pics in here of course. In fact I would be happy if more than just me would regularly share their very own experiences with games in this thread and not just fancy bullshots the developers dish out to us.

 

[KasumiLover]

I'd be happy to post more in game pics here, and what do I find pretty about it? I guess just the general look of it, I like the cute faces and how clothes and hair is rendered, and the environments are decently detailed, especially the beach and city stage for sure. As much as I like Ryona and a few other girls, I'll be honest with you and say I actually skip some cutscenes, other than the dressing room stuff, the boobs and uh...."suggestive" dialogue aren't really that hot to me, I mainly like the cute qualities and cute animations they do in the VN type cutscenes.

I agree, the game could've went even further in graphics, but this is basically just an HD and slightly enhanced port of Shinovi versus and EV on vita, but I feel like they will do much better whenever they make their next big game. I really do wish they could develop like a spinoff DOA game, I'd be interested to see how Kasumi, Naotora, Ein, Eliot, and Marie Rose would look with the SK developers developing everything, it'd be so awesome with the cute and anime style artstyle. :-D

 

[Juihau]

I think in terms of art style, my favorite SK is Deep Crimson, because it did something really cool with the series' infamous sexuality: it made monsters out of it. Monsters that bear physical traits reminiscent of female anatomy, but nonetheless appear distinctly inhuman.

I've talked about this before, but I love these kinds of monster designs, and I think SK2 executed them really well. To give probably the most memorable example, one of the boss fights is literally a disembodied pair of breasts, taken the form of two giant ornamental ball-like figures. As you damage them, however, their shells gradually crack away, eventually revealing a childlike, distorted, rotting face in each of them. It's kinda freaky, kinda messed up, but super entertaining, and makes for a great contrast with the series' relatively lighthearted surface.

That said, it actually looks pretty good for a 3DS game, too, and doesn't have any notable framerate issues that I can recall. Unfortunately, since the 3DS screen is so low res, it's hard to express how it looks on the handheld proper with videos and screenshots.