The importance of good art...

Earlier today I was playing Okamiden on my DS, and was struck by how good it looks. It is a 2 year old game on a system that was/is not impressive from a technical perspective, and it might be the most visually appealing game on a portable system I have ever played. There's not really any secret to why Okamiden looks so good, it's the same reason Okami looked so good: The art style is amazing. I'm perpetually amazed at how few game companies seem to get this, or at least how few studios try to exploit it.

B.E.A.Utiful.

 

Okami works because the art style make the game beautiful without being a technical tour-de-force. The draw distance is possible because of there's no a lot "going on" with the environment, but you don't care because of how good it looks. A world is render in Japanese painting style, and you interact with it by using a paintbrush. Notice how much sense that makes?

The unfortunate reality of the video games industry is that the big players can basically choose what battles they're going to win. If EA wants to make a AAA title that has the most photo-realistic graphics ever made, they can do it. Two months later, if Epic Games decides that they shall be the new winners of the graphics war, they have the insane resources available to do it. This isn't inherently bad, and I don't want to imply that they are somehow inferior for making use of their incredible resources. As I see it, there are two problems with this: First, a lot of big name titles are starting to look very alike, and second these games do not age well. Remember the first Modern Warfare? Remember the insane hype that game had for its graphics? Notice how it just doesn't look that good anymore?

Let's compare it against a whole host of stylized games that are technically inferior. Borderlands. Timesplitters. Anything LEGO. WoW. They are just as visually appealing, without requiring insane processor power. One of my favourite games of all time is Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The first game had a unique faux-cartoon style, incredible animation, and the most gorgeous architecture design I had seen in years. The art direction on this game was incredible. It looked better than the two subsequent sequels despite being created years in advance. Why? The sequels tried to go to a edgier, darker more realistic aesthetic and it just didn't look as good as the original.

I don't know who decided this was a good idea. But I will find them.

Now why am I going on about this? Since my recent time-dump into Okamiden and Borderlands, I've noticed that immersion became a big deal. If the world I'm playing in isn't interesting, if it isn't something I want to see, I have a hard time forcing myself into the "fun part" of the game. In many respects F.E.A.R. 2 is a very good game. It has good balancing, interesting story, varied enemies and scares the piss out of me. Visually though, it just wasn't something I wanted to see more of. This is kind of a shame, because the concept art I can find for it is freaking amazing. 

By comparison, the art in Wind Waker was amazing. Every part of that world was something I wanted to seek out and feast my eyes on. The world building was scary good, due in large part to how incredibly varied visually every area and enemy was, but at the same time everything was thematically consistent. It was even technically impressive, featuring the best fabric physics in all of 2003. No, seriously, hold the spear and watch how the fabric morphs in response to the terrain and motion.

For shits and giggles I'm going to list off a random selection of games with amazing art direction that need to be seen.

Okami and Okamiden.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Price of Persia (that 2008 one that was kinda' freaky)

Ghostbusters for Wii.

Jade Empire (this game was amazing, and is 10$ on Steam.)

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I and II.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Psychonauts

Borderlands I and II

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

Everything LEGO

Team Fortress 2

Medal of Honor: Heroes 

Timesplitters

Probably the best way to explain why good art is so important is to look at the movie industry. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was create with an insanely large bank of computers and was as close to photo-realism as possible. It does not look good today. Toy Story came out in 1995. It looks fine today. In fact...I can't think of a single Pixar movie that looks bad. They all have amazing art and they all have amazingly immersive worlds. I can't think of another company that can claim that.

Holy shit, we need BioWare and Pixar to team up to make a sequel to Jade Empire.