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Video game series with the most disappointing graphical evolution?
- Thread starter Mineshaft_Gap
- Start date
It looks much, much better. The character model and motion are not even comparable.
Starwolf_UK
Member
I'm reminded of a post made a long time ago:
Stagnant is the word to describe 2d Mario.The comments caught my eye, as I don't recall seeing such overt disapproval of the style in a review until this point. I personally feel there is something to this. Consider the last seven years of 2D Mario (with an unreleased title thrown in for good measure):
Now consider a different seven years of 2D Mario:
Huge changes in mechanics, experiments in vastly distinct visual styles, significant diversity in music and sound, etc. The changes seen in the franchise from Super Mario 2 through to Super Mario World 2 were awe-inspiring. The changes from NSMB through to NSMB 2 (and possibly NSMB Wii U) seem considerable less so. They seem like minor, even lazy steps in a franchise once famous for its brave and innovative leaps.
JavelinRobin
Banned
Oof. Yes. Although I actually dug X8's take on the characters so there's an uptick in quality there in my opinion.
Diablohead
Member
which this isn't a great example. i don't think foza 5 represents a very good leep especially one between generations of console. i'm sure forza 6 will look stunning though,.
I always felt that forza 5 cut a lot of things to hit that 1080 60 mark, and as a launch game it really had to dial back. Forza 4 is still the best in the series IMO.
I'd say Gran Turismo lately.
From Gran Turismo HD(2007) to GT6(2013) the game has hardly changed visually, even had to downgrade resolution/fps to add new features. Look at a track that was present back then, say Eiger Nordwand and it hasn't changed at all in 6 years, not even the skybox. On the positive note they've pretty much nailed the car shaders even back in 2007, so much that even to this day nobody rivals it, even on currentgen.
From Gran Turismo HD(2007) to GT6(2013) the game has hardly changed visually, even had to downgrade resolution/fps to add new features. Look at a track that was present back then, say Eiger Nordwand and it hasn't changed at all in 6 years, not even the skybox. On the positive note they've pretty much nailed the car shaders even back in 2007, so much that even to this day nobody rivals it, even on currentgen.
Very first series that comes to mind (that I care about): Fire Emblem. They're doing ok with attack animations. But, come on. The battle maps? That's pathetic. It seems like they're using fan familiarity as an excuse to be lazy.
Also, Dragon Quest 9 was pretty pathetic, after Dragon Quest 8. Obviously, it's because it was for DS; but that's kind of the point.
Edit: One more, and a recent one. Bravely Second. After the big success of the first one, there's no real improvement!? They still show story scenes as characters standing in front of static backgrounds!? The 3DS is capable of more than that! Give me a break. They're missing a big opportunity to expand their fanbase. They're holding the series back.
Also, Dragon Quest 9 was pretty pathetic, after Dragon Quest 8. Obviously, it's because it was for DS; but that's kind of the point.
Edit: One more, and a recent one. Bravely Second. After the big success of the first one, there's no real improvement!? They still show story scenes as characters standing in front of static backgrounds!? The 3DS is capable of more than that! Give me a break. They're missing a big opportunity to expand their fanbase. They're holding the series back.
Bumblebeetuna
Banned
Deception
Visualante2
Member
I'd agree with 2D Mario games. They're the Happy Meal of video games.
Slamtastic
Member
While X looks good and I have a weird nostalgia for 4's graphics, the transition of Mortal Kombat's graphics from digitized actors to 3D models took something from the series' identity. It's never going to feel like the same as the first games again.
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
F.E.A.R comes to mind. Mainly because the first one was easily one of the most advanced looking games when it came out. I would have expected them to keep shooting for that crown.
TheAdmiester
Member
Between 5 and 6 the resolution was actually increased, and I think that's why it has so many problems. GT5 was 1280x1080 and a relatively stable/"eh" 60fps, GT6 is 1440x1080 and rarely, if ever, 60fps. It also has some absolutely horrible shadow flickering on the courses with high elevation, like Matterhorn. The shadows cast onto dips in the road and flicker everywhere.
IAmRandom31
Banned
Monster Hunter BY FAR
game hasn't received a boost graphically since the PSP days. Not a boost worth mentioning anyway. All I had to do with my Dolphin emulator was pump AF and AA and up the native resolution to make the game look better then it does in MH3U and MH4. Which is just sad.
Which is of course forgivable when it comes to the mobile version, but not the big screen version.
it is nuts considering the game sells so much each time around. so they have the budget necessary to put some actual effort into enhancing the assets and the engine.
They just .... don't. Would rather sit back and milk it until its dead.
game hasn't received a boost graphically since the PSP days. Not a boost worth mentioning anyway. All I had to do with my Dolphin emulator was pump AF and AA and up the native resolution to make the game look better then it does in MH3U and MH4. Which is just sad.
Which is of course forgivable when it comes to the mobile version, but not the big screen version.
it is nuts considering the game sells so much each time around. so they have the budget necessary to put some actual effort into enhancing the assets and the engine.
They just .... don't. Would rather sit back and milk it until its dead.
SiegfriedFM
Member
The thing with fighting games is that they used to be targetted on hardware that was miles ahead of consumer stuff. When the arcades went away, there was a) no more super-powered hardware and b) not an extremely valuable source of income that could fund new titles.
Also, back then, all you needed to have the best graphics was the best animators. Now you need a full team of graphics technicians.
Also, back then, all you needed to have the best graphics was the best animators. Now you need a full team of graphics technicians.
If enough people show interest in a pc version we could get this.
I just want a good, non f2p bullshit MH on pc (like MH4U without the tutorials and slow pacing) wit hthe look of MHO.
I think that post is a little unfair considering Mario did keep evolving and innovating, but the SMB3 styled 2D platformer just broke off and became its own thing.
The thing about the older MH games was that they look like trash in motion. It's the opposite with the newer ones lol! Personally, I prefer the game on the handhelds so I'm fine with lesser graphics. I can understand the desire though
Also people saying that MH still uses PS2 assets need to stop. You either haven't played a PS2 monster hunter or don't care enough to not parrot the same thing that has been said millions of times before and still isn't any true.
Also people saying that MH still uses PS2 assets need to stop. You either haven't played a PS2 monster hunter or don't care enough to not parrot the same thing that has been said millions of times before and still isn't any true.
Definitely Dragon Quest.
1-5 had a pretty slow graphical evolution... Not really radical in terms of leaps and bounds, and if you compare the US versions of 1 and 2 to 3 and 4, they look even less radical due to some graphical tweaks made. Honestly, apart from using more on-screen colors (with slightly more vivid colors) and having backgrounds in battle, 5 doesn't look all too much different from the US 2.
Then 6 came... and damn it looked great. Vivid, with lots of colors, large characters, monster animations, cool spell effects. Definitely comparable with some of the exquisite graphics Square was putting out on the SNES at the time. The remake of 3 came out shortly after and may very well be one of the best looking SNES games there is.
And then we went to 7... which replaced the high quality tile-based backgrounds for rudimentary PS1 3D environments. These environments were grainy and had lots of warped textures... not to mention some laughably-bad FMV was thrown in to the game. This game came to America the same year as FFX, which made it look even worse.
So then came the PS2 and DQ8. And this game was a total looker... awesome cel-shaded graphics, a huge, lifelike overworld... the perfect graphical evolution of the series. Still to this day people mention it as one of the best looking games on the platform.
And then there was DQ9. Lots of disappointment when this game went to DS, and sure it may be rather advanced for the platform... but DS 3D was hideously ugly in 2009 when the game came out. Not to mention the open-world, behind-the-player perspective was replaced with an overhead view more akin to 7.
I don't know too much about DQX since I haven't played it... but based on what I've seen, it looks a slight step below 8 in some areas, a slight step above 8 in some areas.
The remakes and spinoffs have been all over the place in terms of quality, too. I won't go into them much... although I was disappointed with DQ6's handheld remake on the graphical side (it looked worse than the game that begat it, imo!).
Who knows what will happen with XI? I'm hoping for an open world, cel-shaded tour de force on the level of Ni No Kuni.
1-5 had a pretty slow graphical evolution... Not really radical in terms of leaps and bounds, and if you compare the US versions of 1 and 2 to 3 and 4, they look even less radical due to some graphical tweaks made. Honestly, apart from using more on-screen colors (with slightly more vivid colors) and having backgrounds in battle, 5 doesn't look all too much different from the US 2.
Then 6 came... and damn it looked great. Vivid, with lots of colors, large characters, monster animations, cool spell effects. Definitely comparable with some of the exquisite graphics Square was putting out on the SNES at the time. The remake of 3 came out shortly after and may very well be one of the best looking SNES games there is.
And then we went to 7... which replaced the high quality tile-based backgrounds for rudimentary PS1 3D environments. These environments were grainy and had lots of warped textures... not to mention some laughably-bad FMV was thrown in to the game. This game came to America the same year as FFX, which made it look even worse.
So then came the PS2 and DQ8. And this game was a total looker... awesome cel-shaded graphics, a huge, lifelike overworld... the perfect graphical evolution of the series. Still to this day people mention it as one of the best looking games on the platform.
And then there was DQ9. Lots of disappointment when this game went to DS, and sure it may be rather advanced for the platform... but DS 3D was hideously ugly in 2009 when the game came out. Not to mention the open-world, behind-the-player perspective was replaced with an overhead view more akin to 7.
I don't know too much about DQX since I haven't played it... but based on what I've seen, it looks a slight step below 8 in some areas, a slight step above 8 in some areas.
The remakes and spinoffs have been all over the place in terms of quality, too. I won't go into them much... although I was disappointed with DQ6's handheld remake on the graphical side (it looked worse than the game that begat it, imo!).
Who knows what will happen with XI? I'm hoping for an open world, cel-shaded tour de force on the level of Ni No Kuni.
ChronotriggerJM
Member
It's not about them not changing, it's about them changing very slowly. Personally I think MH4 is one of the best looking 3DS games, so I'm not sure what else they could do lol. If it looked like that on significantly beefier hardware, it would be a problem for sure. The Wii U versions should look much better in my opinion.
I'm pretty disappointed in The Elder Scrolls graphics progressions personally. I mean I know they've made leaps and bounds with each iteration, but man they're always so ugly. So many games hit the fantasy series from much better artistic directions, that I think TES needs to re-imagine.
X8 was a legit return to form for the series (minus the two awful vehicle levels)
This thread makes me sad 
My selection is the New Super Mario Bros. series
Nintendo doesn't decide who makes Pokémon game.
My selection is the New Super Mario Bros. series
Nintendo doesn't decide who makes Pokémon game.
Whatever happens, I'm pretty sure we won't be playing it without learning Japanese.
But yeah, Dragon Quest is a good call.
Malitik Sabu
Banned
Dynasty Warriors the thread?
Malitik Sabu
Banned
Eh, Man-O-Wars was short and easy.
The Lamonster
Member
I hate that 343 washed out Halo's bright and vivid colors.
XANDER CAGE
Member
The Skate series blew my mind with the first game, and then the second and third games looked absolutely awful. I have no idea if it was just because they looked the same each time and got progressively less impressive over the years or if something actually happened to the visual design, but it was disappointing either way.
Malitik Sabu
Banned
I had no idea Skate had a 3rd game.
Dark_castle
Junior Member
I'm surprised nobody brought Diablo 2 to Diablo 3 up yet. Or Dark Souls to Dark Souls 2.
Skate 3 is responsible for the best glitch videos on the internet. You should take a look!
It's been brought up twice.
SkylineRKR
Member
FEAR
Crysis
Souls perhaps. I think Demon's looked the best. Ofcourse Scholar next-gen and DS2 PC might trump it due to accelleration but on Ps360 I think Demon's won hands down.
Crysis
Souls perhaps. I think Demon's looked the best. Ofcourse Scholar next-gen and DS2 PC might trump it due to accelleration but on Ps360 I think Demon's won hands down.
Pokemaniac
Member
It's far from the biggest problem with the game, but I think that Metroid Other M was definitely graphically inferior to to the Prime trilogy. There were a bunch of small touches missing, like the reflections in Samus's visor, plus I generally found the environments to be lacking compared to the Prime games.
Natureboy99
Banned
So do PS2 games though. I love MH4, but you just can't shake the feeling it could have been so much more on practically ANY other platform.
Wax Free Vanilla
Member
XANDER CAGE
Member
I actually think Halo 2 looked significantly worse than the original. It looked so flat and drab.
Green Mamba
Member
2D Mario. It's hard to describe NSMB's art over the past four and a half games as evolution. It's like... coelacanth level. There's absolutely no excuse for a game series that sells like NSMB to be as stagnant as it is visually. It's lack of change seems downright cynical. And don't even get me started on the music. The amount of straight up music reuse between the last three NSMB is absolutely unacceptable.
I adore Monster Hunter, but it's graphics have never been it's forte. The atrocious resolution of the 3DS's screens (lower than the PSP, a last generation system) isn't doing it any favours.
Scooter155
Member
I couldn't possibly disagree with your Zelda opinions more.
My vote also goes to the 2D Mario games. It's made even worse when you look at the incredible evolution of the graphics from 1 to 2 to 3 to World, there was real innovation, imagination, heart, charm, all those fancy buzzwords and also, they were amazing looking for their time! Then suddenly they hit on the New Mario "look" and have stagnated. Super disappointing. Totally agree about the dull and re-used music too, 1 through World had distinctive themes that set them all apart from each other and New Super Mario Bros. music is, at best, inoffensive and forgettable.
Tekken 4 --->Tekken Tag 2
Felt like the series peaked in graphics around T4. After that, the art direction just became really confusing.
Battlefield 2 ----->Battlefield 4
More explosions and more filters don't make the prettier game. I preferred BF2's Michael Bay-less style more.
Felt like the series peaked in graphics around T4. After that, the art direction just became really confusing.
Battlefield 2 ----->Battlefield 4
More explosions and more filters don't make the prettier game. I preferred BF2's Michael Bay-less style more.
SamusPrime
Banned
Dark Souls to Dark Souls 2. It may not have the framerate screwups but everything else about it looks so much worse after you get out of Majula. The entire art style is just off-putting following DeS and DS.
Astral Dog
Member
Yes the portaits were a bit better, not enough to make up for the awful changes though.Pokemon is definitely the worst, especially relative to money that the games make. WWE games are also worth mentioning.
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.
Battle Network to Star Force was a small jump, but i think SF still looks better than the latter BN. unless you mean the 3D Arene, wich looks more rough but still not too bad.
Eh. Yes and no, if you ask me.
That comparison is putting at the same level a "sub-brand" of the Mario franchise (New Super Mario Bros.) and Mario games from other different "sub-brands" of the franchise. By that same token, the Yoshi spin-offs look more or less the same: Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Story, Yoshi's Island DS and Yoshi's New Island. Super Mario Bros. 2 was a reskin of Doki Doki Panic, so you can hardly pin down that change in art style to "artistic integrity". The first Super Mario Land was hardly original, and looked like a watered down version of SMB1.
You can criticize the New Super Mario Bros. series for its quality or innovations (or lack thereof), but you can't hold against it that it has its own artistic consistency. A more apt comparison, within the same seven years, would include the New Super Mario Bros. series (DS, 2006), the Super Mario Galaxy series (Wii, 2007) and the Super Mario 3D series (2011, 3DS). If you include related series, there's also Wario: Master of Disguise (DS, 2007), and, if you stretch the timeframe a bit, Yoshi's Wooly World.
The thing is that, right now, the Mario franchise is fragmented into many more sub-series than in the times of the NES and the SNES, and that's not even counting the spin-offs series such as Kart, Tennis, Party, etc. Every sub-series has its own distinct artistic style that becomes obvious if you compare it with the other sub-series. But if you take just one and put it against Mario as a whole, then, yes, it will obviously look stagnant.
DOWN
Banned
Catalix
And on the sixth day the LORD David Bowie created man and woman in His image. And he saw that it was good. On the seventh day the LORD created videogames so that He might take the bloody day off for once.
That's a good but super depressing answer.The Rocket Knight/Sparkster games became progressively uglier.
From this:
To this:
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To this abomination:
Bomber Bob
Banned
lol bruh
I swear DBZ games get uglier and uglier with each game.
Burst Limit (2008):
Xenoverse (2015):
I made this post last page lol.
I was afraid to use that first image though because of the deviant art thing. I didn't know if it was touched up...or a promotional picture or something.
But yeah I agree. That bloom...ugh