Support NeoGAF

[Phediuk]

Ultima 7 is probably the classic example.

wtf were they thinking with that shit? Literally every bit of dialogue is displayed in that unreadable faux-Gothic script. It's a black mark against a great game.

Luckily, there is a mod to change the font:

Now that's better.



post more.

 

[Kyuur]

Seems that mod's readability comes more from the text being bold than the font change. The look of the first is better imo.

Spoiler

I guess I'm the reason for the fonts you hate OP

 

[Phediuk]

Pool of Radiance is pretty dreadful too, though slightly more readable than Ultima 7.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

I couldn't comfortably play Xenoblade Chronicles X due to the small font size.

 

[Steejee]

I couldn't comfortably play Xenoblade Chronicles X due to the small font size.

Yeah that font was a bit rough. I got used to it, but I don't sit super far from my TV (42" 720p), so it was at least manageable.

U7 would have been my other pic off the top of my head.

 

[fetus8]

Dead Rising's font on a standard def TV was totally unreadable unless you were like a foot away from the screen.

 

[mrmickfran]

Sonic Adventure 2 uses Comic Sans.

 

[ViolentP]

Original Dead Rising on the 360 and a non-HD TV.

 

[ipukespiders]

Actually, Ultima 7's font is one of the best.

 

[Cross-Section]

Admittedly not the best screenshot, but FreeSpace 2's font is hell to read at higher resolutions:

 

[nkarafo]

Dead Rising's font on a standard def TV was totally unreadable unless you were like a foot away from the screen.

This is true for many games.

I couldn't read the text in the computers in Talos Principle on my TV unless i was very close to the screen.

 

[ViolentP]

This is true for many games.

I couldn't read the text in the computers in Talos Principle on my TV unless i was very close to the screen.

I think reason this one sticks out was because it was released when HDTVs started gaining traction and you had a pretty large split between those on HD and those not.

 

[fetus8]

This is true for many games.

I couldn't read the text in the computers in Talos Principle on my TV unless i was very close to the screen.

But are most people still using Non-HD screens? This was a problem when Dead Rising launched as most people didn't have HD sets yet.

It hasn't been a problem recently in any game, I can think of that is.

Edit: ViolentP and I are in sync rn omg

 

[Bakercat]

I remember playing banjo kazooie nuts and bolts on a standard definition tv and giving up pretty early into the game because the font size was way to small to read. Dead rising also had this problem with its font size and health bar being really small. I replayed it after upgrading to HD and was actually turned off by the health bar because of how much bigger it was on it.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Growlanser IV had a pretty ugly one, especially after how nice 2, 3, and 5 looked.

 

[nkarafo]

But are most people still using Non-HD screens? This was a problem when Dead Rising launched as most people didn't have HD sets yet.

It hasn't been a problem recently in any game, I can think of that is.

Edit: ViolentP and I are in sync rn omg

I have this problem with Talos on my 1080p TV.

I like to lay back on my sofa and play the game with a controller. But when those computer texts show up, i have to move forward to be able to read because the text is very small.

Or maybe i'm not getting what you are saying?

 

[ViolentP]

Edit: ViolentP and I are in sync rn omg

This genuinely made me laugh.

 

[fetus8]

I have this problem with Talos on my 1080p TV.

Or maybe i'm not getting what you are trying to say?

With Dead Rising, the font was super small and super blurry on a non hd screen.

 

[Phu]

I remember playing banjo kazooie nuts and bolts on a standard definition tv and giving up pretty early into the game because the font size was way to small to read. Dead rising also had this problem with its font size and health bar being really small. I replayed it after upgrading to HD and was actually turned off by the health bar because of how much bigger it was on it.

I remember there was a mission in Nutty Acres where you were in a plane and Bottles was calling out stunts for you to do and it was the hardest thing to decipher in standard definition. I was pretty much touching my eyeballs to the screen but I still ended up having to trial and error it.

 

[nkarafo]

With Dead Rising, the font was super small and super blurry on a non hd screen.

Yeah, i'm not familiar with that one.

In my case, i see this in many games on my HD TV (1080p). The text i too small and i have to go near the screen to read it. I usually play about 2 meters away from my TV, which is 32 inch.

 

[jett]

Witcher 3

[IMG]https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HiApH-znl74/maxresdefault.jpg[/IMG]

What the fuck are you doing CDPR. Subtitles in general are absolutely dreadful in video games, to be honest. They're tiny and don't have proper, thoughtful line breaking. So you end up with this kind of garbage which is pretty much unusable at an average viewing distance.

So many devs/pubs just don't give a fuck about allocating the necessary resources for something that I honestly consider to be very important in text/dialogue heavy games.

 

[aett]

The first two Wild Arms games used an ugly font (which I remember being installed on the Mac Performa my family had when I was a kid).

 

[ViolentP]

Yeah, i'm not familiar with that one.

In my case, i see this in many games on my HD TV (1080p). The text i too small and i have to go near the screen to read it. I usually play about 2 meters away from my TV, which is 32 inch.

 

[fetus8]

This genuinely made me laugh.

same, i was shocked to see our double posts back to back.

Yeah, i'm not familiar with that one.

In my case, i see this in many games on my HD TV (1080p). The text i too small and i have to go near the screen to read it. I usually play about 2 meters away from my TV, which is 32 inch.

Ah, yeah, I imagine almost any text on a 32in from 2 meters away is gonna be too small to read.

 

[-shadow-]

Spoiler

Only half serious, it's just this sign.

 

[KiNolin]

Too many games I go back to have comic sans.

 

[Phediuk]

Too many games I go back to have comic sans.

The Sims, for one.

 

[Gestault]

Slight deviation from topic, but my fucking ultimate pet-peeve is online purchase redemption cards with fonts that don't differentiate between things like Os and 0s, 1s and Is, or anything along those lines. This actually goes back to passwords in 8/16-bit eras, now that I think of it.

If I'm remembering right, Zero Tolerance on Genesis had particularly LONG passwords that suffered from this. Strike that, I think Zero Tolerance actually went out of its way to avoid this (the passwords were long), and that's why it spurred the memory:

That's a damned nice font set for a 16-bit password.

 

[Kyuur]

I couldn't comfortably play Xenoblade Chronicles X due to the small font size.

Now this is a real problem. Final Fantasy XV and other games too. I can deal with pretty much any font but small text is completely unreadable for me.

 

[RedToad64]

Dino Crisis has this weird, stretched out typeface for the inventory menus. It really bugs me.

 

[StromboliProtocol]

Actually, Ultima 7's font is one of the best.

Came to post this.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

That Ultima 7 font is absolutely horrendous.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

Mass Effect Andromeda has some microscopic font in some of the HUD elements that pop up.

 

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

Pool of Radiance is pretty dreadful too, though slightly more readable than Ultima 7.

sheesh, that look like some bullshit

 

[Zanfall]

The font used for the character creation in the Nintendo DS version of The Urbz, is particularly awful. You also have to enter a name using it and Upper and Lower case look almost identical.

 

[TheEndOfItAll]

Final Fantasy IX's font was horrible. Made the game feel cheesy.

 

[YearoftheWooster]

Have you ever played Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on Wii U off-TV?

 

[Adam Prime]

I couldn't comfortably play Xenoblade Chronicles X due to the small font size.

First post nails it. My exact response before even clicking on this thread.

 

[Danneee]

Assault Suit Leynos on PS4 has some horrible scaling done to its fonts which make it look really weird (for being a non SD upscaled PS1 game that is).

 

[AdequateSubject]

In Baldur's Gate 2, I could never spend very long rolling good stats on character creation. The font had this strange, fuzzy quality that would make it straight up painful to read after a while. Maybe it was intentional to stop players from powergaming?

The font in Baldur's Gate 1 was arguably more ugly, but at least did not cause eye strain.

 

[The Bookerman]

That font stinks of ps2 era fonts. I hate it

 

[feelingkettle]

Etrian Odyssey 1 for DS had a weird font.

Monster Hunter 3U on 3ds had a rough one, too.

 

[daxy]

Dragon Quest VIII's font on 3DS is ugly af. Not only is it blurry and huge, but the text box itself takes up practically half of the screen for no obvious reason. What the fuck?

Dragon Quest VII is less egregious, but similarly dubious. At least the text is crisp in this one.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Super Mario 64's dialogue text had a "u" that looked like an "a."

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

Font in Wonderful 101

 

[Kent]

In Diablo II, it's almost impossible to read a 5 as a 5 unless you see a 6 next to it.

 

[AstroLad]

Oh man the first two examples (Ultima & Pool of Radiance) are ones I'm personally very familiar with, and I totally agree though on the whole I feel like they add to the atmosphere of the games despite their serious impracticality.

 

[Massicot]

Tales of Symphonia's original NA font. Oddly enough I found the image from NeoGAFs last font thread.

Much better in the remaster, some sort of serif font now. Too bad about the 30 fps huh.

 

[painey]

why the fuck is this font italicized in Golden Sun

 

[AlStrong]

Wasn't a fan of Halo 4's UI font (343i Halo in general?), like it was too skinny.