#been playing far too much bg3 and i think i'm finally getting bored which i'm grateful for tbh

[kulliare]

7, 10, 42

7. hair-ties or scrunchies?

scrunchies bc they're more fun but i have like only one scrunchie so i'm a fake fan

10. would you slaughter the rich?

i'm scared and nervous so no. i would redistribute their money though. but as long as they don't hurt me

42. an app you frequently use besides this godforsaken site?

what a good question... i only go on social media on my phone i think? i occasionally go on 2046 when i have no data. ooh, book app. i go on books app i think the most after all my social media haha

[icharchivist]

Tbh that's my issue with a lot of modern video games

I don't need photorealistic graphics. I want things to look good and clear and interesting

Trying to make your humans look like real humans only leads to the uncanny valley and it usually ends up dating your game because by the time the next generation comes out, your graphics are outdated

Also, I play video games to get away from people

It's completely fine to stylize things. It looks better, even in twenty years, it avoids the uncanny valley, it can still be expressive! And it cuts down on rendering and ideally on development costs. Like, I play the new Baldur's Gate and my computer is not high-end, but the game runs fine. Except for the dialogue scenes, where sometimes the expressions are weird and it kind of lingers uncomfortably for a few seconds before going to the next dialogue. Again, probably a problem with my computer, but it's a bit weird every time

Meanwhile I'm looking forward to Relink, which is a very stylized Anime game and I'm sure it's still gonna look good in 20 years

Or like, Super Mario. The new Zeldas. Stuff like that

There's also the argument that back then, games had to sell you on their narrative and story and gameplay instead of just graphics. I personally don't have an opinion on this, there's plenty of ugly games that also suck as well as pretty games with good stories. But I'm also not one of those people who throw a fit about a game not running at 60 FPS

But yeah, Final Fantasy games could totally embrace their Anime roots, I'm sure they'd be better for it

Fortunately, animation in movies at least is moving towards more stylized and I think that could be cool

Video games are art as well, after all and I'm happy for each one that isn't trying and then subsequently struggling with this self-imposed realism where it's not actually needed

You don't have to publish this ask btw, this just popped into my head just now and I have a lot of thoughts about animation

TOTALLY AGREE, 100%.

Like i think trying to perfect some graphic is fine and all but it's been quite a few years now that the progress is genuinely not worth it. Like the constant rush for realism often end up bringing duller artistic choices (which is even more noticeable with the remake trend in general because you see how older games went around those "graphic limitations") and it's just... not worth it? not with how big and huge it makes a game in the end?

like i know BG3 is that big because it's a huge game and stuff, but the fact i need over 150GB of stockage to install it gives me hives. If a part of it is due to the overthe top animations and high res's designs... i'd rather them toning it down instead.

Final Fantasy definitely fall into this category as well. Like for crying out loud, they justified making the remake a multiparter because the assets for Midgar alone were too big to just make the prologue of the game (which it IS, the current remake that came out in 2020 only covers the PROLOGUE of the main game) and it ended up being the reason they went completely off script and made a whole new narrative instead. All because they wanted the whole city to be this HD? Like Crisis Core came out in 2007, it's not perfect graphic wise, but it plays well within its limitation. And most of it happens in Midgar!!! they just knew to limitate as much of the Midgar's sets as they could!! Seeing how its remake just basically butcher most of the artistic creativity just by replacing the models with HD models is genuinely so boring to me. What's the point!! what's the point!!

maybe it's nostalgia and all but i'm at a point where i feel like most graphisms from up to the mid 2010s, as far as realism go, have pretty much filled this artistic approach, and anything else is just more flashy just to prove they can do it.

like i keep seeing those Last of Us' remaster's comparaison and i feel so ill like, the first game already holds up fine!! it didn't need all those remasters what the fuck are you people on about!! how is it improving the game the slightest!! i mean i know it's all about money, but jesus christ it's SO not worth it???? (for the record i don't give a shit about TLOU, i just saw the screenshots and it makes me feel ill).

i've also seen comparaisons of some Metal Gear Solid's remakes comparaisons where in order to chase the realism of the effects of the jungle and everything, they just completely removed the stylized lightning and atmosphere because REALISM, amnt i right? how is that better?? i don't need 30GB+ of game on my computer just to nod like "ah yes this one cutscene was worth me uninstalling a couple of my old games for it. you got me."

at this point i'd rather they focus on the story! on the characters! allocate this time somewhere else!

and it comes with a major disregard for stylized games in general. Games that don't want to pursue realism and are doing just fine like this.

idk i'm also just rambling but it makes me so sad. I'm not even against HD graphisms, but i definitely think we reached a cap years ago already and most of the attempt at progress we've had since have been about removing the stylization to push the realism, and it's genuinely not the interesting way to push the medium forward.

and like i'm definitely at the age where i'm probably clouded with nostalgia and i'm just "old man yelling at clouds" (ahah get it because Cloud stri-) and all but this is genuinely something that gets me annoyed.

and with ff7 in particular i'm just so upset because the pursue of realism led to "the game is too big now because of the assets so we need to cut it into pieces" to "but the pieces we have don't have enough plots to explore all the assets we have so now we're doing an original story!" and every decisions the "remake" has taken outside of the remake portions have been making me sick in my stomach. And while greed is of course the main cause of it all, it just ends up feeling so disingenuous and now i'm at a point a remake i awaited for a long time just so the saga could have a coherent imagery together (because the OG's graphisms do in fact clash a lot with the rest of the graphisms of the others game of the saga) just now is something i want nothing to do with. (except to take screenshots when the characters look pretty. 3D model simulator only.)

so yeah. felt. so much so. it fucking kills meeee like whyyy

BUT ALSO YEAH it's why games like Relink is definitely up my alley on that. Finally a game that is trying to actually do some style and isn't relying on realism to sell you something. Fucking lord. At last. We just needed Granblue to save us istg.