• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Unaesthetically pleasing games?

Dragon's Crown
No. I mean you can find the aesthetics offensive to your morality and then debate whether the two are necessarily linked, but if you don't include the characters that offend you, it is a damn good looking game. Look at this spread...
640
 
I think Final Fantasy XV has one of the blandest looking cast of characters to ever grace a video game. Even their alternates are super boring. I was never able to quite get past how bland they were...
 
Warframe

I just started playing a few weeks ago, and I firmly believe that, as big as the game is already, it would be even more popular with even a hint of charm, character, atmosphere, sleek and interesting design.... idk something. The entire game looks like space fungus. How can the concept of "space ninjas" go so incredibly awry. It's all just a blob of biomech, but not in a grotesquely beautiful HR Giger way.

This is the one thing that keeps me out of Warframe. What's a loot game where all the loot is hideous?
 
western fighting games outside of skullgirls

I'd say fighting games are almost universally ugly these days, which is insane because they used to be my go to for "cool" characters and art design consistency. The more outfits and new characters they get, the uglier they get.

Skulls Girls is in a unique position of looking both interesting and completely fresh.
 
ds_magicalstarsign_pkg01.jpg


This sheit

Ha, I remember wanting to play this so bad in the mid 00s but couldn't afford it. Was the game any good?

To this day this is the only game I could describe my feelings towards as neutral.

Nothing really good or bad about it. I remembering playing it for over 30 hours and after finishing it thinking what did I just do? It's so incredibly vanilla that it's kind of an achievement.

I heard the Japanese-only GBA prequel Magical Vacation was more interesting.
 
Dissidia NT and Type-0 HD. While the Dissidia games and Type-0 represented impressive technical achievements on the PSP, the HD titles just make everything look like cheap plastic in a way that's just really visually unappealing.

Dissidia isn't a remaster, it's a completely new game. But I agree it's ugly for a Final Fantasy game.
 
I'd say fighting games are almost universally ugly these days, which is insane because they used to be my go to for "cool" characters and art design consistency. The more outfits and new characters they get, the uglier they get.

Skulls Girls is in a unique position of looking both interesting and completely fresh.

Xrd, SFV, and Tekken 7 are ugly?
 
To this day this is the only game I could describe my feelings towards as neutral.

Nothing really good or bad about it. I remembering playing it for over 30 hours and after finishing it thinking what did I just do? It's so incredibly vanilla that it's kind of an achievement.

I heard the Japanese-only GBA prequel Magical Vacation was more interesting.
Only thing i remember is the game looking like absolute dog shit
 
To this day this is the only game I could describe my feelings towards as neutral.

Nothing really good or bad about it. I remembering playing it for over 30 hours and after finishing it thinking what did I just do? It's so incredibly vanilla that it's kind of an achievement.

I heard the Japanese-only GBA prequel Magical Vacation was more interesting.

May try to track down the GBA game then, thanks!
 
Warframe

I just started playing a few weeks ago, and I firmly believe that, as big as the game is already, it would be even more popular with even a hint of charm, character, atmosphere, sleek and interesting design.... idk something. The entire game looks like space fungus. How can the concept of "space ninjas" go so incredibly awry. It's all just a blob of biomech, but not in a grotesquely beautiful HR Giger way.
Lol I just got back into it and I can see that. Many of the user created skins look so much better than the originals. They got a new art designer not long ago, let's see where that goes. I also took issue with the way colors came off on the frames they look almost plastic. Later frames now have obvious texture changes like mesa for example. There are now separate materials (metals, fabrics, etc) and take color as such.
 
Xrd, SFV, and Tekken 7 are ugly?

Xrd has incredible tech, but I hate the overdesigned anime style. Same with Blaz Blue.

SFV has clear, chunky, expressive models, but is somehow both boring and try hard. Beard Ryu is the best thing to come out of it, and that's not even the default look.

Tekken 7 has a good base, but it just looks like a mess. Play online and witness the create-a-fighter hellscape known as customizable characters.


Dragon Ball FighterZ is a notable exception here because of how well it's emulating the anime.
 
I always found borderlands distractingly ugly. I love cel shading typically but something about its execution is really off putting
 
Xrd has incredible tech, but I hate the overdesigned anime style. Same with Blaz Blue.

SFV has clear, chunky, expressive models, but is somehow both boring and try hard. Beard Ryu is the best thing to come out of it, and that's not even the default look.

Tekken 7 has a good base, but it just looks like a mess. Play online and witness the create-a-fighter hellscape known as customizable characters.


Dragon Ball FighterZ is a notable exception here because of how well it's emulating the anime.

I don't fully agree with these criticisms, but I won't object them either.
 
No. I mean you can find the aesthetics offensive to your morality and then debate whether the two are necessarily linked, but if you don't include the characters that offend you, it is a damn good looking game. Look at this spread...
640
Or maybe the poster just finds the art style aesthetically unappealing and you're making asinine assumptions.
 
I'm gonna go with the Silent Hill series. I know it's a horror game and it's meant to be unsettling, but those creepy uncanny valley characters are so offputting:

0f8ca4da5a9381c7bd2d3c1877e3e254.jpg


maria_profile.jpg


NOPE.

Nidhogg 2 is really growing on me. It looks amazing in motion.

Great call on NWN 2 and Oblivion also, they really haven't aged well and aren't nice to look at now.
 
I'm gonna go with the Silent Hill series. I know it's a horror game and it's meant to be unsettling, but those creepy uncanny valley characters are so offputting:

0f8ca4da5a9381c7bd2d3c1877e3e254.jpg


maria_profile.jpg


NOPE.

Nidhogg 2 is really growing on me. It looks amazing in motion.

Great call on NWN 2 and Oblivion also, they really haven't aged well and aren't nice to look at now.
Fallout 4 is probably the only good looking Bethesda developed game, and even that's a stretch.
 
I think BOTW is a good looking game too, but you don't need to use CEMU shots to prove it. That's a misrepresentation of what the game actually looks like to the majority of people that played it.
Just played the game on my switch ĺooks just like it 🤔
 
New Super Mario Bros series. Everything from the sound effects/music/animations/graphics is awful.

95590.jpg


It all looks and moves like bad CG from the early 90's or something.
 
New Super Mario Bros series. Everything from the sound effects/music/animations/graphics is awful.

95590.jpg


It all looks and moves like bad CG from the early 90's or something.

Oh, I don't know... It actually looks very nice in this screenshot.

Nekketsu Kõha;245777614 said:


Am I missing something? The above shot looks great.
 
No. I mean you can find the aesthetics offensive to your morality and then debate whether the two are necessarily linked, but if you don't include the characters that offend you, it is a damn good looking game. Look at this spread...
640

What does morality have to do with aesthetics??? The game has a terrible art style.


No thank you. Looks awful.
 
I don't fully agree with these criticisms, but I won't object them either.

To be fair to SFV, there's is something about the way they do skin and outfit shaders I really like. But even then I haven't mentioned stages which I also find unappealing in most of these games too.

NetherRealm has suddenly figured out how to make incredible faces, but simultaneously figure out loot and turn Injustice 2 into a wild toybox of DC special edition action figures. I like how much they play with lighting though.



What I'm really trying to say is: What the hell happened to SNK?
 
To be fair to SFV, there's is something about the way they do skin and outfit shaders I really like. But even then I haven't mentioned stages which I also find unappealing in most of these games too.

NetherRealm has suddenly figured out how to make incredible faces, but simultaneously figure out loot and turn Injustice 2 into a wild toybox of DC special edition action figures. I like how much they play with lighting though.



What I'm really trying to say is: What the hell happened to SNK?

SFV has my favorite collection of stages in just about any fighting game. Ever. There are a lot of inconsistencies in SFV's presentation, but I think the great outweighs the mediocre.

Injustice 2 models and costumes and animations look funky, but the faces are good and the stages look INCREDIBLE. Hoooly shit.

KOF XIV models are hella basic, but that game has a charm in motion that is hard for me to deny.
 
I'm gonna go with the Silent Hill series. I know it's a horror game and it's meant to be unsettling, but those creepy uncanny valley characters are so offputting:

0f8ca4da5a9381c7bd2d3c1877e3e254.jpg


maria_profile.jpg


NOPE.

Goddamn fight me IRL.
I'll kinda give you SH1 because its a 3D PS1 game, but even then when you emulate the game it actually looks great art wise.
Don't get me started on you including SH2.
 
Top Bottom