Raider2187
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Jul 11, 2026 12:40 AM
Raider2187
25722
852
45
rhalm
The idea that graphics and gameplay are at odds with eachother is idiotic at best. A good costume does not prevent good acting.
duktayp
purr
Good graphics never made a game good. It only made good games better.
GuysJustWannaFish
I agree. Do you think bad graphics ever made a good game bad or is it a one way street?
wadatahmydamie
Body Harvest would probably be a franchise right now if the graphics had been decent.
purr
Hm, a good question. I can't think of any of the top of my head, but I suppose it's possible. The wrong art direction or bad visibility/clarity could totally negatively affect experience.
mthrndr01
There's a good bit of the ps1 era god awful 3d style that I can't get into because it looks so bad. Also an issue I have with morrowind, which is a shame, it's really good under the not even good at the time graphics. I like the complex character building so much more than Skyrim bland as fuck engine.
Hereagain
I think a lot of early 3D games suffer from this, but only when you play them today. For their time they were revolutionary, but today they can look rough.
And this is all pretty funny for me to be saying, because I love modern games made in homage to that same older style, but with the graphical and physical improvements that have come with time.
Dudenoooo
It was never about good games. Only live service milking
rhalm
Games have all been about milking since their inception. How do you think Pong and Pacman kept those quarters rolling in?
Dudenoooo
Yeah well, I'm not trying to pretend it isn't a business but what we are facing now? New lows. By the way don't forget to take your aspirin friend
rhalm
You are very much trying to pretend it isn't a business.
CaptainYesterday
Game companies - https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1MTFudnN3eWZiMnNtMHM1bmF4MDFlcnIyaHcyNXdjaDhvaTVyNnQwdiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/OvL3qHSMO6uaI/200w.webp
wadatahmydamie
Game companies and basically everyone else who plays games. This meme could have been posted in 1996 or 2003 just as easily.
I’m not saying that improving graphics inherently improves gameplay or fun factor or anything like that. I’m saying that “okay, technology can stop improving now” is a silly take
FrankTheWallaby
We had it when games were in the 2d/2d+ era, then the publishers got in a graphics-with-garbage-writing dick measuring contest for like 25 years
perseco
Anyone keeping up with tech news recently already knows this to be false. We're going to see massive performance and technical capability increases in ray-tracing. The real concern is how affordable and power efficient it will be when it makes it to market, especially in the living room.
TheOnlyCanadianWhoDoesNotLikeHockey
I'd rather play an ugly fun game vs a beautiful boring game any day
rhalm
I'd rather play a beautiful fun game than either of those.
Alozar
I have never cared about realistic graphics. Ever. I would prefer something stylized and playable every time.
dynamojoe
My eyes are bad enough that bleeding-edge graphics are lost on me.
medimr
People have been making good games for decades.
GorillaPowers
It's just like people's complaints with music. There is a ton of great new music out there. If all you listen to is the radio you're just gonna hear the same crap over and over.
ansiichan
ye but momentum of releasing them has stalled in past decade
Phosphatidylethanolamine
FizzleBurger
Not true: people have been making ADEQUATE games for decades.
The only truly good game out there is Ghostbusters II for the GameBoy Color.
I've never played it, but I've heard good things.
medimr
Surely you meant ET for the Atari 2600.
FizzleBurger
Of course! Wait, what'd I say?
DeathMaker900
People made good games decades ago*
Finding good games today is like finding a needle in a haystack* The needle exists, but so does the haystack
Septcanmat
The needles and haystacks existed decades ago too. Do you have any idea how much shovelware there was on the NES? You’re only remembering the games that were worth remembering, but there was plenty of crap back then too.
eronth
Yeah but that's more because the haystack is bigger and not because there are less needles.
vorodar
All the old games still exist.
It baffles me when people try to imply the only media worth consuming must be done TODAY, yet acknowledge the past had good media. Books, movies, games - the best decade for any of them is the current one. Not the 2010s or anything else, since today I can go read/watch/play things from any decade.
I sincerely you've played every single game that exists and is worth it. There are just so many. Unless your taste is very refined and you only value a few dozen games
UNHchabo
Some of my favorite games of the last several years: Celeste, Outer Wilds, Slay the Princess, Receiver 2, Tunic, and Hollow Knight Silksong.
I'd be surprised if you didn't love at least one of those.
eronth
Somehow I've never played a single one of those, though I do have my own list of personal favorite modern games.
SailorPupitar
So do you only like decades old games or do you have any actual opinions
Worbah
Finding good game criticism is harder nowadays IMO, what with the antiwoke chuds muddying the waters. Is the game actually bad or is the reviewer angry that the game has a black character?
Eyeetsass
AAA studios have been dropping the ball on a lot of our classic franchises. Indy studios have had my attention for the last decade.
skippydogo
I don't know man. Forza horizon 6 has consumed my soul. Same with deadlock for that matter. Also south of midnight was incedible last year. The games industry is suffering due to the AI bubble but God damn they have been cooking.
STGxDante
Unfortunately microsoft has gutted turn 10 & playground games.... hopefully they're still working on forza titles.
skippydogo
Yeah the lay offs absolutely suck. They are still working them as far as I know. A lot of the old play ground games devs went and made a new game called utxh I am Really hyped for.
STGxDante
I'll have to check that out!
Eyeetsass
I forgot about the Forza games. I’m not a huge fan, but I’m not a car guy. Respect for that shit being beautiful, deep, and authentic though. It would be really neat to try on one of those whole driver seat rigs. I play RPG, and Strategy. In that scene indy is doing some heavy lifting.
UNHchabo
I've been on iRacing for several years, and that's been my favorite multiplayer experience even without a full sim rig. There's very little toxicity, and if you encounter any the company encourages you to report them. Most people just want good side-by-side racing.
Plus they've started acting as a publisher for smaller studios publishing more mainstream-focused racing games, including iRacing Arcade a few months ago, and today they announced an Indycar game coming next spring.
FizzleBurger
I usually hate RPGs (I have a shitty attention span) but I tried "In Stars and Time" and it's absolutely breathtaking. Indie studios are cooking.
Eyeetsass
I am getting a little too old for fast paced intensity. Being a rational adult in this timeline is stress enough. My nervous system is shot. I’m only enjoying the slow things. Wasn’t always that way.
skippydogo
Yeah. I really like outerworlds 2 last from last year as well. Tons of good indy rpgs rn though. Of you like "zelda like" RPGs and you haven't checked out Mina the howler you gotta.
kirby422
I liked back when up'ing your resolution sometimes could get you better draw distance to see collectables, unlike now
horsetuna
Meanwhile, stardew valley lives on.
And my own game will be simple graphics too
rhalm
Good luck on your probable failure!
horsetuna
Thank you!
fknbastard
I still regularly play Sid Meier’s Pirates
rhalm
My grandma regularly played Candy Crush.
mrputter
Game graphics peaked with The Secret of Monkey Island and Civilization 1. I will die on this hill.
fknbastard
1987
thekadeshi
Colonization for me
Ivalicenyan
It's debatable that they reached their peak. Not debatable that we need more good games
UNHchabo
One of my favorite games of the past several years is Slay the Princess, which was literally drawn in pencil.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989270/Slay_the_Princess__The_Pristine_Cut/
Sorrontis
To be fair, it's fucking beautifl
2aLonely
gaming graphics still have a long way to go. ray tracing performance, which does not exclusively have graphics applications and is an important concept in the future of gaming, is changing the way we process physics interactions. whats cool is that this technology is now becoming readily available to hobbyist developers, allowing them to use this powerful tech.
thekadeshi
A) no they haven’t and B) they should do that anyway
PipWhipple
I like nice lighting and water animation in games, but hyper realistic graphics do little for me. I'm good with pixels if it plays well!
FreePalestineAndTheWorldFromIsrael
Until we hit Avatar or Davy Jones level of graphics then I dont think its peaked. Granted low effort games like Call of Duty still manages to sell millions and outperforming so many other games so gamers seem to enjoy consuming that slop and publishers see that.
SirNinjaPirateBot
People have been saying this since the conception of 3D games. Gaming graphics will get better.
But no one with a brain ever believed that they couldn't make better games because they were too hung up on improving the graphics.
lighterletter
I've been trying to build it, I quit my job and now have no money
Fireninja404
the improvement on graphics was reliant on tech available to the public getting exponentially better. that improvement has slowed down in recent years alongside photorealistic artstyles having diminishing returns, the jump from ps4 to ps5 isn't as impressive as ps1 to ps2 was. Also AI data centres skyrocketing demand for hardware might make the average consumer's gaming devices go backwards in power
idiotsonfire
You can't get "better" than photorealistic. You can only craft better art styles. Also, I don't WANT photorealistic to become the standard.
draginator
Lighting and reflection engines can improve, physics can improve, materials can improve, all of these things add up to the graphics you see and can all get better
idiotsonfire
You cannot get better lighting than photorealistic. You cannot get better materials than photorealistic. When you hit reality, there is no "better." Photorealism is the best it can get, because you cannot get more "real" than something that looks like a 4k Gopro. Once you hit that wall, realism ceases to be a wow factor, after ten years with photorealistic graphics, I'm sure I won't be the only voice telling you how much photorealism fucking sucks and inherently limits all games.
idiotsonfire
Games with a defined art style will last for 30 years. People still play SSBM tournaments. Nobody's screaming for "realistic" PUBG except for some people who haven't left their basement in 23 years and don't even realize that their mother's probably on death's door and they'll have to get a job soon.
Nykidemus
There are many *many* franchises that have traded scope for graphical fidelity. The costs for high fid graphics absolutely limit breadth.
neithermenoryou
Considering how much money most of those games made none of them had to be limited in scope. They could have either gotten more people or lengthen the development cycle. No, instead they hired as few people aa they could get away with, forced them to work 12h days with no days of for months and then fired half of them after it shipped and made the studio and publisher billions anyway.
idiotsonfire
Basically every CoD game that takes up 400gb which is just the uncompressed 4k textures for everything, and they have a 3 hour campaign-
idiotsonfire
But a multiplayer that you have to do the same goddamn boring ass time sink grind to unlock your favorite gun for the 23rd time in 19 years.
zFUBARz
*sighs in Morrowind*
rhalm
Care to name some?
Zalm
The new FF7 remakes being split into multiple whole full priced games. Ghost of Tsushima was kinda short. Dead Island 2 was just bad compared to the first one. Not having played it, I heard Dragons Dogma was lacking in alot of mechanics. I have seen nothing good about the last Dragon Age. Skull and Bones lacked any sort of solid mechanics.
Concord.
rhalm
The new FF7 "remakes" were full games. You'd understand if you played them. Ghosts of Tsushima being "kinda" short is hardly a good judgement, would you rather they pad them out like The Wind Waker and make you find random objects to finish the game? And then you talk about games you've "heard" about. OK. Well I've heard lots of things about people complaining about games, and most of them are attention seeking invalids. How do I know you aren't?
Switch 2 Welcome Tour.
rhalm
I'm being downvoted, may I ask why?
Also I'll add that mentioning Dead Island 2 was a bad example for you to make, given that it was in development hell for years, and it's possible the only reason it got a full release is because of a leaked build that got people excited for it, so the publisher took a gamble on actually getting the game finished. Would you have preferred that it didn't get released at all?
Zalm
the entire point I was making is that they lost the scope of the game due to overwhelming graphics. Tsushima did have a good story, but it was a short one that could have been longer if they hadnt put so much effort into the high fidelity graphics. The same goes with each of the FF7 remakes. btw, I did play them. Over graphic, so now I gotta pay for 3 full games so they can fit it all in.
idiotsonfire
Finding the extra stuff is in no way required to finish Wind Waker, wtf are you talking about?
FeIineDisrespectFromBehind
I feel like it's more like now they can't use it as an excuse.
FoamingToad
Excellent username, I remember that advert.
MajorasTerribleFate
And yet,
Wasnbo
Literally that has been said since the PS3 in the mid-00's. "Surely graphics are just too good, we NEED to go back to interesting aesthetic!!" This argument was old before you were born.
CaveCanem
Do me next, do me next! When was I born oh Seer of Ages?
FeIineDisrespectFromBehind
I'm flattered you think I was born in the mid-2000s, lol.
TheFastpaws
A good aesthetic will always carry a game further than just looking top of the line. This was true then and it is true now. There have always been games that spent too much time on realistic water over what mattered as well.
riddmkidd
road rash64 is still my favorite racing game for the physics.
kiefpant
It won't happen. AAA studios have become too reliant on graphics to mask the lack of decent story or gameplay. They have to keep improving graphics.
GodHelpMeToBeGood
gaming mechanics have reached a depressing stagnation of creativity by the wealthy corpos; the indie devs are the real game devs. 2d games can be amazing byt we get 3d slop.
rhalm
Have you played Candy Crush? It's a great 2D game! Nothing like the 3D slop nowadays!
GodHelpMeToBeGood
I don't know if you're joking but I did play it a bit.
Chrondeath
In all seriousness, the graphics are *too* good to make good games. Like, I'm not saying the push for live-service and microtransactions that ruined a ton of franchises and studios *wasn't* related to greedy executives, but I can't entirely dismiss the claim that triple-A games now require budgets so large that it's hard to make back their money on just box sales.
Nykidemus
Yup. Pushing graphical fidelity too hard bloats budgets incredibly high. You can absolutely do more with less now.
rhalm
No. They aren't "too" good. God of War, Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West, [insert every racing game here], Spiderman, Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, The Last of Us, The Wither 3, Resident Evil [insert almost every recent release here], Alan Wake 2, Control, and so many others show that your claim is wrong, as all of them are great games not regardless of, but improved by their graphics.
And...box sales? What are those? What do you think of Early Access?
Chrondeath
FFS, there are now people too young to remember games being sold in boxes. "Box sales" means you paid one up-front price (i.e., the price on the box, before everything went digital) for the game and then you owned the game, and maybe there was an expansion or two later that came in its own box with its own one-time price.
rhalm
How could you miss the obvious point I was making about how modern game sales aren't "boxed", because a majority are digital online sales, codes on cards you check out at the register to activate, empty "boxes" that just have a sheet of paper with numbers, subscription service rentals, free to play downloads, etc? Especially given the recent announcement that Sony wouldn't be releasing new games after 2027 that have physical discs.
Chrondeath
The point is about whether the game is a one-time purchase or something that expects to collect an ongoing revenue stream; I don't care (for the point about triple-A budgets, anyway) what form the payment or delivery takes. The subscription services and other attempts to convert a game into an ongoing revenue stream are what I'm saying MAKES games shit, and that the high budgets are part of what drives them to that.
rhalm
Those things do not make a game "shit", and the higher budgets are still not affecting game quality. There are a multitude of games, even free to play ones, that are excellent despite not having just a "boxed" sale.
You know what an ongoing revenue stream was back then? Half-assed sequels and expansion packs. Half-life was $50. The Opposing Force expansion with a campaign half the length was $40. Then if you wanted a graphics upgrade, there was Blue Shift for $20. $110 for the full experience.
idiotsonfire
Elden Ring didn't prioritize graphics. Neither did BOTW/TOTK, or Horizon, or Witcher 3. They prioritized their gameplay and story.
idiotsonfire
They picked art styles that would last for decades. GTA 6 has been in development for what, THIRTEEN YEARS and has a budget of $2.5 BILLION!
idiotsonfire
All to make pretty woman in bikini pose in a game that would have been better served with a unique art style than being able to see pores.
Chrondeath
It's not that it's impossible to have successes pushing the highest budget / graphics you can, it's that it makes it too risky if you're not in an (unlikely) position to absolutely know you're going to sell massive numbers of copies. Several of those are at or nearing a decade old at this point. There's also a bigger macroeconomic picture where a low-interest-rate environment back then meant there was more money around to be thrown at expensive things that might not pay off.
rhalm
Most of what I listed are franchises, that have games still coming out. Out of my examples, which are nearing a decade old? God of War Ragnarok came out less then four years ago. Spiderman 2 came out three years ago. The Last of Us Part II was 6 years ago. Control was from 7 years ago. Alan Wake 2 came out 3 years ago.
I still think it's foolish to just say that long development times are mostly because of graphics. Unless you're talking about something like Rise of the Robots.
PileOfWalthers
Plenty of great games around. They have great graphics too. What are you whining about?
Xenarion
Hate clicks are easier to get.
Fireninja404
I feel like the post is targeted at AAA studios blowing massive amounts of cash to chase "the new best graphics" and sitting in production forever because they have to get a 3rd party company to draw every ass hair on the player character with perfect photorealism, only to take so long that the hardware improves and they hire them again.
CrisprCAS
People play Dwarf Fortress and NetHack without tile sets, graphics have never mattered. It's a gimmick.
Xenarion
I wouldn't say they never mattered. It's not an all-or-nothing situation. I've enjoy nice graphics in games, but I also want good gameplay. If the gameplay is bad, I don't play, but there are games with good gameplay and bad graphics that I skipped over too.
tachyx
Potts
Some games you play for mechanics. Some you play for challenge, some you play just to look at pretty stuff. Graphics have their place but they are not the only factor.
YouRadicalizedMe
But I want good graphics.. I want a good life
OddlyPacific
Duck Game is my one and only game I play regularly that is newer than my Game Cube games.
NaskaV
Excellent choice, honestly
magicrhombus
Antiquated graphics don't bother me. Antiquated interface / control scheme do though. I tried to replay the first Mass Effect but bailed because the inventory is so obnoxious.
drunkbs
Yeah! good games have nothing to do with graphics. zomboid, CDDA, etc
ChickenChickenBurningBright
and some people inject caulk into their buttocks. I've been playing computer games since 1978. graphics have always mattered. i don't play games with pixel art anymore because the alternatives are always more visually pleasant. i can't enjoy a game that gives me a headache to look at and requires a legend sheet to decipher what the screen is showing me.
CrisprCAS
Best selling game of all time
ChickenChickenBurningBright
to which many of the most recent updates include a more consistent color palette, professionally rendered textures, a better render engine, and built in shaders, and has a user base that continually requests more visual variety. don't mistake the block aesthetic for minimal graphics. they're putting a lot of effort into making it look better all the time.
CrisprCAS
The things done after the game was purchased by one of the most gimmicky publishers, after it was ALREADY the best selling game of all time? Didn't think that reply through before hitting submit, did you?
ChickenChickenBurningBright
the graphics matter to the users or they wouldn't ask for them to be better. the graphics matter to the developers or they wouldn't keep improving them. the graphics matter to the publisher or they wouldn't keep paying for them. Notch's original game was similar to hack in that it had the minimal graphics needed to support the underlying technology, but once established even he started adding new blocks for color variety and building diversity. Minecraft has always been about the visual journey.
FrankPembleton
They matter to me, and I'm annoyed that things have plateaued and everything is all DLSS now so you get nothing but pop ins and artifacts even on high end hardware
DJTrickyM
Sure but also I just really like my shaders in Minecraft, it the water in sea of thieves... at the same time I like cogmind and dwarf fortress, good games are good, graphics are secondary but still important. I think its a bit of a balance... the lower fidelity graphics often allow for more complex gameplay... look at the aforementioned dwarf fortress or cataclysm dark days ahead and it's forks or space station 13...
Graphics don't make the game but they can facilitate it
MostAwesomeDan
I had a long diatribe listing a bunch of classic games but I realized you can put this entire argument to bed with one word:
Minecraft
Whatdoyousaytoanicecupoftea
Elite
Septcanmat
Factorio
Darkwell
Factorio is gorgeous, though.
Septcanmat
It is, but it also isn’t graphically intensive or photorealistic, so it fits in the bucket of “focus on good gameplay instead of impressive visuals”.
4Astaroth
Rimworld. No need for realistic graphic in a 10/10 game.
TharrickLawson
I'd prefer not to have perfect graphics of my organ harvesting cyborg community
4Astaroth
Yeah. There are some things in the game I don't need a close up view of.
CALAMOSCOPYJANE
Fucking JOUST!!! DIG DIG!!! TMNT was really good too.
HeadJamistan
There's room for both. I absolutely adore the immersion I get while playing the Horizon games; they're escapist because I can't 1/
HeadJamistan
afford to travel to places as scenic as that.
SailorPupitar
Currently going through Forbidden West. Started it a while back but a spot of depression burnt me out for pretty much all games. Looking forward to going back into dragons dogma 2 soon with it's very late but welcome performance update
Chilichunks
Wrong, graphics have always mattered. Dwarf Fortress has simplistic graphics but the design still matters for readability. Color schemes, character choice, these are things that are important. Cutting edge graphics sometimes matter as well, for instance from studios that have established themselves based on graphical quality.
Snooj
I play Rogue Fable III (an 8-bit evolution of NetHack) on Kongregate EVERY SINGLE DAY. I used to play Creeper World every single day as well but the death of flash killed it. Graphics never mattered.
Sorrontis
correct. My favorite game of all time is FF6. My fav RTS is Total Annihilation. My Fav FPS is CS1.6 (- the hackers). 1/2
Sorrontis
It doesn't need to be a complex game, or impressive graphically. It needs to offer an emotional reward of some kind. 2/2
viila
FF6 is hardly an example of graphics not mattering. It's from the tail end of the 2D golden age and has some of the most gorgeous tile and sprite graphics ever put to screen.
MCNewYorkLives
Ehh, sort of. Weirdly enough, even 8 bit graphic style games could range from "to looks like shit" to "omg I'm somehow immersed". Graphics CAN be a hindrance when playing older games.
For example, I was playing FF8 and I honestly needed to use a walkthrough (partially to make sure I didn't miss important items and missables) since the artful background designs made it impossible to know what was/wasn't interact able. I had trouble knowing what was foreground and background art.
PipWhipple
That's something I liked about 7 and 9. Looking for loot? No worries, it shines! Some things might be *hidden*, but not due to art.
MCNewYorkLives
There was one time I needed to pull up videos to see how I was supposed to interact with stuff because the low quality graphics made it difficult to tell.
And while this isn't REALLY a graphical issue, i feel the need to point out awkward transitions are bad, as you would exit one screen going to the right and enter the next screen going left or up. Added to the already confusing layout.
LeYuno
Hard to swallow pill : this meme is ass and you should feel ashamed for even posting it
UE5 games with ultra realistic scanned environments have only started to come out recently and look fucking amazing. Have you seen Battlefield 6 on Dice's frost engine? Vastly better looking than predecessors. UE6 is on the horizon. Graphics improving daily and the games made with them are very often absolute gems. Maybe you should try to play a PC game for a change, consoles are old hardware at launch.
idiotsonfire
Elden Ring will be better looking 15 years from now than any UE5 game. Art style is always better than graphical fidelity.
zFUBARz
And yet Id just got gutted and told to work on unreal. the creators of fucking Idtech, one of the best engines
devasto
I am pushing 40, and I play Lufia 2, FFVI, and the Breath of Fire games all the time. A good story with a fun play style makes for a life long fan
AnythingMuchShorter
I'm around the same age and my son who's a teenager plays Super Nintendo games on an emulator I set up for him, even though he has current generation games available.
Nykidemus
I'm playing BOF3 with my son. The graphics are fine, but man if it were to get a rerelease some updates to the controls would be nice.
ToolmanTR
That’s why I’m super into indie JRPGs. Theyre so much better than AAA and it feels great to support indie devs
torisenblack
I think "with a fun play style" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Like, I went back a while ago and played one of the quake games and did you remember there was a time FPS games couldn't look (or aim) up or down out of plane? They put enemies above and below and it feels claustrophobic now to not be able to just look around in a game, immediate headache and immersion destroyed.
Kairuf
Oooh which breath of fire games?
devasto
1-4. But 4 is probably my favorite, with 3 very close behind
ChuckTenor
Lufia and the Fortress of Doom?
Sleeper code activated
gauban
Yeah, graphics are overrated. Gameplay is the long lasting one.
Darnelg
Just decided to play the 4 Lufia games myself again. Loved them
darkninja2992
Mid 30's,the jak and daxter, sly cooper, and ratchet and clank games, need for speed most wanted, onimusha 1-3, okage, RE1-3, dino crisis, castlevania SOTN, digimon world, super mario world, megman x, sonic 1-3&k, vectorman, decappattack, earthworm jim, all good titles still fun to replay from time to time, shit peaked around ps2/gamecube/dreamcast/gba to early ps3/DS era, then companies started trading off subtance and replayability for graphics and dlc
OliverClothesoff70
Over 55 for me. Planning to spend a lot of this weekend playing Starfield.
allstarblock
.
SedatedSl0th
Still playing tales of games here. And xenogears. And skies of Arcadia. And Lunar 2, eternal blue complete (with pendant)
Bobbutnotthatbob
I have Gen Z/alpha kids (19 and 16). They’re pretty bored by flashy graphics and get into indie games. My 19 year old recently made the argument that “gaming is best at no more than 8bit, 16bit max. Anything more and it’s just a waste.”
undeadasharak
If you or anyone you know is into turn based strategy I highly recommend conquest of elysium 5 it looks like a old cardboard cutout board game but is super deep even if you cant control the army during battles there's tons of diferent leaders to play and it can be kinda difficult when your capitol gets destroyed by man eating deer its multi player too! There's also like 8 diferent planes you can go to too if your leaders know the right spell or you find a portal.
TheFastpaws
Breath of Fire III is still my favorite. :)
Badgerbadgerson3
CAN WE TALK BOF2??!
Badgerbadgerson3
The good ending would be INSANE to figure out without help.
devasto
All day, every day
FeIineDisrespectFromBehind
Hell yeah, I love me some Lufia 2.
squelcheswetly
There are some really fun pixel-art retro-looking games out there, too.
Slormmancer
Romestead
Core Keeper
And a million others. I love where the industry is headed. (But fuck the big companies laying everyone off. I hope they end up okay.)
SirVG
Did you hear the new album for Lufia 2 by Overclocked Remix? :)
devasto
No, but I'm looking into that now
allstarblock
.
RainierCamino
Yup. I still replay Fallout New Vegas every few years. Replayed the Mass Effect trilogy a few times. Love stuff like Hollow Knight. I've got no illusions that we'll keep seeing better graphics in games, but that's not really why I play them.
xXxX66SICKXxXx
I will forever be in love with New Vegas. It’s been about 2 years since I went back to it but lately I’ve been toying with the idea of getting the Dust mod with the cannibal mod and looking for others to do a crazy hard survival run where I have nothing but what I can scrounge up and fight the whole world
RainierCamino
Nykidemus
I finished doing all the achievements a year or two ago. I need more Q_Q
RainierCamino
Wasnbo
Mate, I love FFVI, I played it in ZSNES and GBA, but the mechanics were as boring as a math textbook. "Fun play style" my achin' ass, those JRPGs see the "like the old thing, but updated for modern audiences!" treatment for a reason.
CyberneticWhelk
You may enjoy a big dose of CrossCode
CheeseGreaterGood
It’s cool, but those puzzles…crikey.
Wasnbo
Agreed, sadly. I really loved Crosscode, but the endgame puzzles and combat got overwhelming. I ended up adjusting all the difficulty sliders just to get through the final dungeon and boss without losing my cool.
CheeseGreaterGood
I struggled a lot with the battle. I wanted to love it so badly, too. Then the puzzles. Even after putting the sliders all the way down, I ended up giving up on it.
Aranon1183
Capcom raped Breath of Fire with Dragon Quarter. A Ryu who is required to turn into his Dragon form for most battles, but stay in it too long, and he dies thus prompting a game over? The fuck were they thinking!?
devasto
Yeah, I agree. If they wanted to do something different, then don't use an already successful series for it. If Dragon Quarter had been just Dragon Quarter, and not been BOF Dragon Quarter, I would have been more sympathetic. But how do you go from the masterpieces of BOF III and IV, to *that*?
LittleAzie
They were trying something new during a time when traditional jrpg games were looking for a reinvention to keep them valid in the west. Still, I agree, I don't think they were even thinking.
Aranon1183
Not to mention the entire game taking place in those drab industrial-style bunkers.
LobotomyPending
I never even liked the "good graphics". I'm sick of everything trying to be realistic. We need more goofy stylized games like Schedule 1 and Retro Rewind
idiotsonfire
The more photorealistic a game gets, the less I'm interested in it, honestly.
rhalm
Good graphics is absolutely not synonymous with "realistic". Very few games strive for actual realism. Hyper-realism maybe, which is also a style adopted from comic books. The Batman Arkham games are good examples.
vorodar
"Realistic" graphics age very poorly. And usually don't produce a game that are memorable. They tend to grab attention at the time of release but are superseded by other "more realistic" looking games a year later.
Stylised graphics have staying power. And can captivate with more than just momentary. Okami and Journey still look the same as when they released and they are beautiful. Heroes 3 isn't in the category of "gorgeous games" but it's by no means ugly and still looks as good as in 1999.
zFUBARz
Look how pissed people where at Wind Waker, an objectively gorgeous and unique art style, but there was a somewhat eralistic looking tech demo of Link and Ganandorf the year before so people flipped their shit when it wasn't that.
LobotomyPending
I never understood that either, I adorer Windwaker from the start 😭 Twilight Princess was ok but Windwaker is 👌
rhalm
Wind Waker had an objectively disgusting and overdone art style. Not because of the "cartoony" (although more anime) influence, but the grotesque character models and pukish colors. The fact that a kid with 2 foot booger hanging out of his nose in the opening minute didn't help either.
Jet Set Radio had a good cel-shade style. Wind Waker trashed it and made it unappealing as for years to come.
idiotsonfire
Dude, go fuck yourself.
zFUBARz
Oh yes, such a hideous game.
and oh no, they use a super common trope from animated japanese media. Amazing you're literally dropping the same tired shit from 25 years ago. Some people really never learn.
rhalm
Not only does that still look hideous, but that picture is from the remaster that was released over a decade after the original. You know what they say, can't polish a turd.
And ironic that you're claiming that I'm dropping the same tired shit from 25 years ago, when that's what this turd of a game was back then too.
zFUBARz
You can litearlly polish a turd. Again, you're objectively wrong.