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[Manu]

Not the same series, but considering Valkyrie Profile 2 looked like this on PS2:

I expected tri-Ace's PS3 games to blow me away. Instead, they only looked marginally better.

I mean, it looks better, but I expected much better.

 

[Synth]

Ooooh.

That's a good one.

I think fighting games in general fit this thread well. They used to be THE graphical showcases for each system up until around Dead or Alive 3... then they just fell the fuck off completely. Nowadays you can take two random characters from pretty much any other genre, place the camera off to the side, and you've got a game that looks better than pretty much every fighter on the system. It's fucking ridiculous!

For example (taken from Gono in the console screenshot thread):

Shouldn't our fighters be looking something more along these lines by now?

 

[ss_lemonade]

While I agree that the animation and models were pretty good, the framerate can be really jarring. I don't get why there was like 0 improvement in that area between the 2 3ds games. Also, what's up with the textures in these games? They look pixelated, but not DS/32bit pixelated since they seem to be filtered anyway

 

[Mory Dunz]

Pokemon looks fine imo. The art direction is still good. It's just been on handhelds so it's just...eh.

But the 3D games have always had good adaptations and animations. Graphics have never been an issue imo.

 

[L95]

I agree with pokemon's overworld graphics being pretty bleh. I, in partiuclar, can't stand the 3d+2d sprites they had for a few games, it can be pulled off, but they did not do so.

I also wish Fire Emblem went high quality 2D over 3D, but eh, it doesn't look bad.

 

[Mithos]

My nomination for this thread is Animal Crossing. Disappointing in that there is not much visual evolution at all.

Yeah mine to, I wish it to really use the hardware in Wii U if a version comes to there.

 

[Mory Dunz]

I guess DBZ fighting games.

There's been like 5-7 games after it, but I still think Burst Limit looks the best, and it's gone downhill from there.

 

[Iorv3th]

Valkyria Chronicles:

From this:



To this...


Maybe we'll be able to fix it up if a PC port happens, but ugh, going from something that at worst looked like a higher-end OG Xbox game (It originally was IIRC) with VC1 to VC2 being a good looking Saturn game at best with character models that make Xenoblade's look cutting edge.

EDIT: GAF, I didn't get ninja'd by 20 people when posting this. I am disappointed.

Does it really count though when it went from PS3 to PSP. Of course it was going to look worse.

 

[ArchedThunder]

I guess DBZ fighting games.

There's been like 5-7 games after it, but I still think Burst Limit looks the best, and it's gone downhill from there.

The model quality and such has been improved a lot since Burst Limit, but the shading in that game is still the best. I really hope Xenoverse 2 goes for a shading style that tries to emulate the show instead of adding weird depth to the characters that makes them look kinda rubber.

 

[Percy]

Monster Hunter PS2:

Monster Hunter 4

Yikes.

 

[Deified Data]

Disgaea just feels downright insulting.

 

[Ridley327]

I think I agree with whoever said Silent Hill, although it's not as much a tech issue (though Downpour was, in general, one big fucking tech issue) as much as the series really struggled to find the same kind of coherent art direction once Konami started outsourcing to multiple companies. Considering what Team Silent was able to pull off on the PS2, going to "eh, it works" for installments thereafter was a rather sharp downturn.

 

[Damian.]

It's a tie between Pokemon and Animal Crossing for me.

 

[Seven Force]

Shouldn't our fighters be looking something more along these lines by now?

Not if they want to run at 60FPS, which is kind of a necessity in fighters.

 

[StarStabbedMoon]

I disagree. Zelda U looks super nice. I like that each installment is very different looking.

Zelda should be the model for graphical evolution and implementing variety to the graphic representation of each individual game.

3D Castlevania has had it pretty rough. For every time they manage to nail the art direction and the production values are there, there's another entry where things go slightly awry or they just don't have the budget.

The 2D entries recycled a lot, too, but that never seemed so bad by comparison.

3D Castlevania is a good example, but it also represented a step back in much much more than just graphics...

 

[lazygecko]

X6 to X7

 

[Rembrandt]

Yeah, Pokemon is the easiest one to think of, unfortunately.

 

[Synth]

Not if they want to run at 60FPS, which is kind of a necessity in fighters.

Yea, but that was never an issue before. Dead or Alive 3 was 60fps, but wasn't getting its assed kicked character-wise by Splinter Cell or whatever.

 

[Mory Dunz]

The model quality and such has been improved a lot since Burst Limit, but the shading in that game is still the best. I really hope Xenoverse 2 goes for a shading style that tries to emulate the show instead of adding weird depth to the characters that makes them look kinda rubber.

Yeah, it was the shading. The games since then have way too much going on, too much bloom, and too much depth like you said that looks like rubber.

2008:

Just much cleaner imo.

Compared to:

 

[jerry1594]

Monster Hunter PS2:

Monster Hunter 4

Just wondering, is the ps2 game worth playing?
and yeah i second street fighter.

 

[Seven Force]

Yea, but that was never an issue before. Dead or Alive 3 was 60fps, but wasn't getting its assed kicked character-wise by Splinter Cell or whatever.

Fair enough. Maybe Virtua Fighter 6 (Assuming that ever even happens) will deliver.

Edit: Man, Burst Limit's visuals hold up ridiculously well. Reminds of how well Tales of Vesperia's graphics hold up compared to subsequent titles.

 

[Ridley327]

Also, I don't know if I'd call it a series per se, but I feel like that the Yoshi platformers qualify, given their proclivity to ape Yoshi's Island (but not well) or whatever the fuck Artoon/Arzest was thinking with the style in Topsy Turvy and New Island. Even Story feels jumbled in comparison to how clean and aesthetically pleasing Island is. Thankfully, Good Feel has done a great job of making Woolly World look visually distinct from previous Yoshi games while looking top-to-bottom great, so we might finally be out of the woods at long last.

 

[Mory Dunz]

Oh, found an image that has them all:

That looks like a bad picture of Burst Limit imo, kind of washed out for some reason.
But still, the style of shading looks the best to me.

 

[Ridley327]

Just wondering, is the ps2 game worth playing?
and yeah i second street fighter.

These days? No, as the gameplay advancements since then have dramatically improved the series, and it also runs a lot better now. Also, there are a few monsters that aren't accessible now due to the online being long dead, so you're locked out of some of the best monsters in the game.

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

Call of Duty series

 

[RipperGrim]

The Sims 4

 

[Jobbs]

Gabriel Knight?

Jesus...

 

[ArchedThunder]

Yeah, it was the shading. The games since then have way too much going on, too much bloom, and too much depth like you said that looks like rubber.

2008:


Just much cleaner imo.

Compared to:

If Xenoverse had Burst Limit's shading it would look godly.

 

[FLAguy954]

Street Fighter.

Why wasn't this the first post? Street Fighter 4 and 5 are such ugly games art and graphics wise.

 

[Mory Dunz]

If Xenoverse had Burst Limit's shading it would look godly.

Yeah, it seems to have the best environments from what I can tell

 

[Ganzlinger]

Fucking The Sims

The Sims 1 (2000):

The Sims 4 (2014):

I know they don't focus on realism but... The Sims 4 look like a PS2 or early PS3 game.

 

[Zareka]

I know they don't focus on realism but... The Sims 4 look like a PS2 or early PS3 game.

I...I'm pretty sure that's not an actual screenshot from the finished game. The backdrops look way, way better than that. The graphics are nothing to write home about but they're not awful.

TS4 has the best artstyle of the series, imo.

 

[Shift Breaker]

The PS3 Tales games. Graces f, while a port of a Wii game is much better than the Xillia games, with more varied environments and nicer aesthetics overall, plus the frame rate doesn't constantly dip in battles. Zestiria hasn't really wowed me either, not sure I'll even bother with it and I got Xillia/2, Hearts R and Symphonia HD (not the sequel) all at launch.

I get that they don't have the highest budget compared to other games but I'd expect a little progression over the years, especially when moving from the Wii to the PS3.

 

[Travo]

I think Gears 2's colorful look was a slight downgrade.

 

[Gunstar Ikari]

Pokemon is definitely the worst, especially relative to money that the games make. WWE games are also worth mentioning.

Megaman Battle Network series recieved a nasty change from 3 to 4, 4 being the worst in the series.

Maybe the actual map sprites, but the character portraits were a vast improvement and felt closer to the official art.

BN1 -> BN4 (2x size)

BN1 official art

Battle Network -> Star Force was a horrible jump, but they're technically different series so eh.

 

[Akiraptor]

I feel like Spyro the Dragon has been going downhill for a long time. Blocky PS1 Spyro is still much nicer to look at than the graphical style of the Skylander games, his coffin.

 

[Red Devil]

I love Pokémon but yeah, the overworld graphics have been meh for a while, although the battles look good(with some performance issues).

Monster Hunter PS2:

Monster Hunter 4

To its favor MH4 came out on 3DS... So yeah.

 

[amar212]

Which WWF or something game looked worse on PS3 than on PS2?

 

[mclem]

Zork. It didn't need 'em in the first place, and they weren't that impressive when they hit.

 

[Gunstar Ikari]

Which WWF or something game looked worse on PS3 than on PS2?

.

 

[Boney]

I don't see wha/'a wrong with pokemon with the exception of XY. The games have a nice clean sprite work that work great on the limitations of the system. It's always been a handheld series but even then you have console spin offs to whet the appetite I suppose. Stuff like Snap can realize 3D modeld, but the simple sprite work from the main series hace al wats been great.

The animatef sprites from B/W where fantástico, and mixing ds 3D with sprites made it look elegant and it'll never grow old. XY shits on everything by having a horrible 3d engine instead, which I'd be ok with if it had a stable frame rate at the least

 

[Poimandres]

The Rocket Knight/Sparkster games became progressively uglier.

From this:

To this:

I always thought RKA > Sparkster was a pretty weird downgrade. It didn't make sense to me at the time and still doesn't. The first game is so good.

 

[Kriken]

Mario Party.

Nothing has changed.

Do you have any specific examples? I'm just curious as the difference between the N64 games and Gamecube are noticeable

Fake edit: Or is there a specific one like 7 to 8?

 

[Wensih]

I knew this would be about Pokémon. Yeah, the overworld graphics progression is glacially slow.

The battle graphics, on the other hand, have improved tremendously. I really like how X/Y made the battle models look faithful to the original art - the cel shading is spot-on.

Original art for comparison:

YES! Being faithful to the original art by using cel-shading, is why I could never consider pokemon for this category. Sprites have evolved every generation and I was reluctant to give those up in favor of ugly Stadium-esque polygons, but Gamefreak managed to make 3D models that looked beautiful thanks to the celshading technique. I think this is actually praise worthy.

 

[visiblemode]

I think fighting games in general fit this thread well. They used to be THE graphical showcases for each system up until around Dead or Alive 3... then they just fell the fuck off completely. Nowadays you can take two random characters from pretty much any other genre, place the camera off to the side, and you've got a game that looks better than pretty much every fighter on the system. It's fucking ridiculous!

For example (taken from Gono in the console screenshot thread):


Shouldn't our fighters be looking something more along these lines by now?

I'm sure there are a ton of issues like the animations, hitboxes, input lag etc...not to mention budget considerations, but even still, I often wonder the same exact thing. Fighters used to be the showcases...now they always underwhelm me.

 

[elelunicy]

I know they don't focus on realism but... The Sims 4 look like a PS2 or early PS3 game.

Huh? Here are some actual TS4 screenshots.

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

Ignoring series that jumped from home console to portable system, Grandia comes to mind. The technology improved with each game, but I feel the art style regressed. Grandia 1 is one of the best looking RPGs on the PS1 with a very unique style, while Grandia 3 is very much a generic looking PS2 RPG.

 

[mothball]

monster hunter: the thread

doubly so since it went from console to handheld to two hd consoles then back to handheld with an even lower resolution than the first handheld

 

[Jotamide]

Monster Hunter PS2:

Monster Hunter 4

Can't believe it took this long. On top of the awful controls I'm always put off by how ugly these games look.

For the people who answered Pokemon, Gen VI is a massive leap forward in terms of graphics: soaring through Hoenn, I felt for the first time that Pokemon was a good-looking game.

 

[Gunstar Ikari]

I don't see wha/'a wrong with pokemon with the exception of XY. The games have a nice clean sprite work that work great on the limitations of the system. It's always been a handheld series but even then you have console spin offs to whet the appetite I suppose. Stuff like Snap can realize 3D modeld, but the simple sprite work from the main series hace al wats been great.

The animatef sprites from B/W where fantástico, and mixing ds 3D with sprites made it look elegant and it'll never grow old. XY shits on everything by having a horrible 3d engine instead, which I'd be ok with if it had a stable frame rate at the least

The problem with Gen V is that it does a lot of zooming/shrinking of sprites that winds up looking hideous. The dynamic battle camera was a terrible idea.