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[Shion]

I was so disappointed with the graphics in Shinobi X.

Digitized graphics are ugly.



Keio Flying Squadron 2 - Saturn

Hyper Duel - Saturn

 

[BosSin]

This is disgusting when you compare it to the previous 3 shinobi games for the Mega Drive:

Revenge of Shinobi:

Shadow Dancer:

Shinobi 3:

WHY WOULD YOU GO AHEAD AND USE BASTARDISED FMV?!

 

[antti-la]

Love the sprites in these.

 

[Arthea]

Stealth Suikoden thread?
Not the best picture, can't find better ones now, don't remember where I keep them, lol

 

[sammy]

Lovely thread *drool*

Came here to post some In The Hunt !!!

Oh and some love for Raiden II

 

[Like the hat?]

Suikoden 2 is to me one of the most beautiful games ever made.

 

[Arthea]

Suikoden 2 is to me one of the most beautiful games ever made.

I know! Why can't we have indie games looking like that? Too time or resources consuming?

 

[Jarekx]

Suikoden 2 is to me one of the most beautiful games ever made.

I love you.

 

[Infernal Monkey]

I can't think of any for Nintendo 64!

Wonder Project J2~

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wonderproject/wpj2.htm

 

[Vorundor]

how bout Guilty Gear? Are thos sprites? 32-bit?

 

[Akainu]

The Saturn was better, but I fail to see how these sprites are horrible

Man the things I would do that were within legality to get a new legend of mana.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

A lot of CAVE shoot em ups are on 32 bit systems, if I recall. When you can see it without the thousands of bullets everywhere, some seriously beautiful spritework comes through.

Mushihimesama Futari

Couldn't find any decent resolution spritework for daifukkatsu black label but Taisabachi is a wonder of animation behind that curtain of bullets.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Sega Saturn Sprites > ALL except (Dreamcast)

But what if you like transparencies?

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

People seem to always forget that the people making those 32 bit and arcade sprites back in th day... got to cut their teeth on YEARS of making NES, SNES, Genesis, and Arcade games beforehand.

It's no surprise that the pixelartist of today wanna get their chance to start learning from a point where they actually have a CHANCE to make a few hundred pictures for all the characters and animations in the game. Many are doing these things alone, or in very small groups.

This. With our next game we're going to shoot for late 16-bit/early 32-bit for the sprites but that's only because now that we have a few years of experience, we feel we can do those kinds of sprites justice without taking too long.

 

[Boss Doggie]

I guess I'm more biased on 32-bit sprites. Felt they're cleaner and smoother but that's probably because of engine.

 

[Calamari41]

I would do unspeakable things for even just a true HD remastering of Legend of Mana, much less a full-on sequel with the same quality. Best soundtrack in gaming history combined with some of the best art in gaming history?

Unspeakable things.

Not to mention the backdrops, the art style, the animations, the open-endedness of the gameplay, the uniqueness of the characters, the completely "fantasy-ness" of the game world, the satisfying combat, the (everything else) ...

All of that too... I firmly believe that Legend is the best Mana game. I say that having played them all one right after the other when Legend came out, so no nostalgia goggles for the first ones.

 

[noonespecial]

I would do unspeakable things for even just a true HD remastering of Legend of Mana, much less a full-on sequel with the same quality. Best soundtrack in gaming history combined with some of the best art in gaming history?

Unspeakable things.

Not to mention the backdrops, the art style, the animations, the open-endedness of the gameplay, the uniqueness of the characters, the completely "fantasy-ness" of the game world, the satisfying combat, the (everything else) ...

Guess this means I need to dust off my game of Legend of Mana again. Thanks thread!

 

[Shadow Hog]

But what if you like transparencies?

IIRC, sprite-based games could do transparencies to a limited extent; it was when anything polygonal got involved that you had to resort to meshes.

Which is why Nocturne in the Moonlight has so many meshes - a lot of those sprites are actually polygonal in nature, not playing to the hardware's strengths.

 

[sixteen-bit]

IIRC, sprite-based games could do transparencies to a limited extent; it was when anything polygonal got involved that you had to resort to meshes.

Which is why Nocturne in the Moonlight has so many meshes - a lot of those sprites are actually polygonal in nature, not playing to the hardware's strengths.

Sometimes they got transparencies working with 3D elements; Mega Man X4 had limited transparencies - some were real and some were dithered. It's been a while since I played it but I think the same went for Guardian Heroes (they weren't all dithered, were they?).

 

[Quackula]

I clicked on this thread thinking "This had better be about Legend of Mana."

Was not disappointed.

LoM has its share of problems, but I think everyone can agree that the graphics (and music) are incredible

 

[HolyBaikal]

Keio Flying Squadron 2 - Saturn

I love this franchise.

I miss this franchise.

 

[gryz]

Love the sprites in these.

those aren't sprites.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

so how is the preocess different than making 8/16 bit sprites?

if i'm working on a game how do i go about making this style as opposed to the flatter/fewer color "sticker" sprites?

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

how bout Guilty Gear? Are thos sprites? 32-bit?

The original guilty guilty gear for the psx is and it doesn't look nearly that good. Guilty gear x onward are 128 bit

 

[Lijik]

Gex was such a nice little gem. Rezopolis and Planet X blew my mind when I first played them.

This screenshot doesnt even do Gex proper justice. Gex himself is prerendered, but all of the enemies and locations are sprites and they all look fantastic (Some of Gex's animations are a bit choppy and haven't aged well)

The faux rotating arena trick they pulled in the first boss fight was so damn cool

 

[Techies]

They all look great when the screenshots are kept small. Now if you could get them to look exactly like that in 1080P.

 

[antti-la]

those aren't sprites.

Umm.. I'm not an expert on graphics, but how come?

You can find sprite tables for both of the games on google.

 

[BosSin]

^ pre-rendered and sprite-ified

those aren't sprites.

It still looks good though

 

[jett]

those aren't sprites.

Yes they are. Pre-rendered sprites, but sprites still.

 

[Cameron122]

A new Megaman X game with the graphical stylings of X4. Think about it.

Btw I'm a crazy person that still digs Xenogears' style.

 

[Seven Force]

Yeah it looked nice and almost watercolor-y, whereas BOF3 still looked kinda 16-bitty.

The bosses in BoF3 did have some pretty great sprites/animations, though:

It actually disappointed me a bit that a good portion of the bosses in IV used 3D models. I would have loved to see some boss sprites with the same amount of detail that the main characters got.

 

[LiK]

32 bit sprites are best sprites.

yea, Capcom was king.

 

[Alboreo]

I am really enjoying all of the Legend of Mana love in this thread.

 

[shandy706]

Princess Crown

Wow, incredible work there. I just watched some videos of that game on Youtube after seeing your screenshot.

Great stuff.

 

[Psxphile]

Would anything released on the GBA count towards being a 32-bit sprite game? Despite the handful of 16-bit ports it was capable of quite a bit more, however the screen resolution it was saddled with probably didn't do it many favors.

 

[DonMigs85]

One thing I liked about Neo Geo is that pretty much none of its games had a repetitive tile-based look, since it used vertical sprite strips to display everything.

 

[Ferrio]

 

[0xCA2]

Beautiful thread. Here's Digimon World 3, a PS game. I really liked the stile as a kid, and still do.

 

[adelante]

Sometimes they got transparencies working with 3D elements; Mega Man X4 had limited transparencies - some were real and some were dithered. It's been a while since I played it but I think the same went for Guardian Heroes (they weren't all dithered, were they?).

It was a mix of both if I recall correctly. Dithered/flickering sprites, by its nature behaves like real transparency i.e. you could see everything through it, whereas only the level's background show through the non-dithered sprites.

 

[jett]

I just played a bit of Legend of Mana.

...

I should've left that game safely behind the barrier of nostalgia.

 

[GoofsterStud]

Sega Saturn:
Dungeons and dragons Collectoin:

Three Dirty Dwarves:

Dragon Force 2:

Vampire Savior:

Magic Knights Ray Earth:

Legend of Oasis:

Purikura Daisakusen:

 

[Sqorgar]

Yes they are. Pre-rendered sprites, but sprites still.

What's the point of singling out sprites that are built using 3D models - most of which are inferior to the 3D models that are still used?

As a pixel artist, early pre-rendered graphics are offensive. They just feel lazy and have that ugly, plastic look of early CGI. They have not aged well and compared to pixel art and even painted artwork (like the backgrounds and large enemy sprites in Legend of Mana) just poop all over them.

I'd like to generalize that to all pre-rendered graphics, but I'm sure there is a game or two that doesn't look offensively bad that I'm forgetting.

 

[Schobeleth]

You had me at Legend of Mana. Such an underrated game, most people say it is nowhere near as good as SoM, but I love both - possible LoM more because it's more of a sandbox.

 

[jett]

What's the point of singling out sprites that are built using 3D models - most of which are inferior to the 3D models that are still used?

As a pixel artist, early pre-rendered graphics are offensive. They just feel lazy and have that ugly, plastic look of early CGI. They have not aged well and compared to pixel art and even painted artwork (like the backgrounds and large enemy sprites in Legend of Mana) just poop all over them.

I'd like to generalize that to all pre-rendered graphics, but I'm sure there is a game or two that doesn't look offensively bad that I'm forgetting.

They're still sprites nonetheless. Pixel art isn't specified in the topic title.

 

[Sqorgar]

They're still sprites nonetheless. Pixel art isn't specified in the topic title.

Then I guess my answer to why there is no love for 32-bit pre-rendered sprites is that they look like shit.

edit: Also, if you want to get pedantic, 3D hardware doesn't tend to actually do sprites in the technical sense as they are more like animated textures than the original definition of the word "sprite".

 

[QisTopTier]

how bout Guilty Gear? Are thos sprites? 32-bit?

No that's from X and above. Which is from Dramcast times and onwards.

That's ps1 guilty gear

 

[Tain]

While there are a bunch of indie games and even non-indie games that utilize 8-bit and 16-bit style sprites for the retro feel, somehow people don't like to do 32-bit era of sprites.

Creative limitations imposed on indie devs often only really allow for less ambitious pixel art.

 

[SAB CA]

What's the point of singling out sprites that are built using 3D models - most of which are inferior to the 3D models that are still used?

As a pixel artist, early pre-rendered graphics are offensive. They just feel lazy and have that ugly, plastic look of early CGI. They have not aged well and compared to pixel art and even painted artwork (like the backgrounds and large enemy sprites in Legend of Mana) just poop all over them.

I'd like to generalize that to all pre-rendered graphics, but I'm sure there is a game or two that doesn't look offensively bad that I'm forgetting.

Haha, I understand how you feel. Half the screens in here with real spritework characters I love the look of... but then the messy Pre-rendered backgrounds totally destroy the overall image.

And looking at characters like Gex or Abe... I've never really though of the 2D Oddworld as particularly attractive 2D games. They always looked muddy... I prefer "Out of this World" and "Flashback" style graphics, in this case.

You had me at Legend of Mana. Such an underrated game, most people say it is nowhere near as good as SoM, but I love both - possible LoM more because it's more of a sandbox.

I really hated playing Legends of Mana when it first came out. It just felt messy VS Secrets, and the 2P idea seemed jumbled and stupid in comparision.

After going back to it, giving it the time to grow, and letting the gorgeous music sink in... I started to love it a lot more. But I'd still be happy with them making the gameplay smoother and 2P directly tied to gamer accounts, if they were to make a remake of the game.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

The Street Fighter Alpha games get a lot of love. They look awesome.

here, here. sf alpha 2 gold on sega saturn is a great example

 

[Shadow Hog]

Sometimes they got transparencies working with 3D elements; Mega Man X4 had limited transparencies - some were real and some were dithered. It's been a while since I played it but I think the same went for Guardian Heroes (they weren't all dithered, were they?).

I think you'll find the dithered elements were all polygon/quad-based, actually. Stuff like the searchlights in the Sky Lagoon intro stage, or Storm Owl's weapon.