this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
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Unpopular Opinion

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Breath of the Wild/TotK has the worst cel-shading I've ever seen. It works okay enough for long-draw-distance landscapes, but is horrendous for close details, particles, clothes, and especially faces (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by orphiebaby@lemmy.world to c/unpopularopinion@lemmy.world
27 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I know I'll get downvoted to hell for this even though I'm literally posting the kind of stuff Unpopular Opinion is here for, but so be it.

I can't even make out the faces most of the time in BotW. Just look at the screenshots for yourself. And it always bugged me just how featureless and uninteresting Link's face looked, especially his eyes. Compare it to literally any other Link's face (in-game for 3D, artwork for 2D).

In contrast, Pokémon XY had really good cel-shading for the Pokémon during battles. I was honestly impressed that a 3DS could have such a high polygon count and such clean, clear cel-shading lines and colors during its battles. For some odd reason, I have not seen such clean cel-shading before or since.

I would also like to say that Skyward Sword on the Wii had a much cleaner, more detailed, more beautiful look than Breath of the Wild did, and I will die with those words.

It just goes to show you that there is simply no replacement for good art direction— raw power and long draw distance aren't enough.

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[–] ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I feel like the art part of my brain must be somehow underdeveloped, because I'm looking at the screenshot right now and I'm like... it's a face? What else should it look like? I can see that the faces in Skyward Sword are in a different style, but I don't know what "better" and "worse" mean in this context, other than "I like one better than the other." And this happens every time topics about game graphics/art styles come up.

[–] orphiebaby@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Like, I could try to explain everything, but I'd basically have to open up a video presentation to show what I mean. It's very hard to show my points over text— people'd just have to take my word for it.

But several of the points I would be showing off would be stuff like:

  • The lack of clear, purposeful direction and shapes for the facial structure and the eyes, turning them almost into squishy globs or weird "tears of paper"
  • The fact that the cel-shading is so weird that features do not have clear start points and end points, and often disappear altogether depending on the camera angle and lighting— and by "often" I mean like 25-50% of the time
  • The fact that the few actual textures that exist are really dirty-looking and poorly-executed, like the eyes
  • The extreme amount of blur that is constant in every frame and is really dirty and bad-looking when there's particles, which this game loves
  • The sloppiness of the models, of the hair, of the cel-shading, of the shapes of the eyes, pretty much everything makes me believe all this was done on purpose. This game's sloppy and blurry visuals aren't exactly incompetence, I am guessing— instead it's like they're trying to go for some form of Japanese painting style or something. And it doesn't really work in 3D because the engine can't fine-tune any results to look nice

These are things I noticed from the very first trailer reveal. I was talking with my friend and saying stuff like "this is the blurriest game I've ever seen. Objects just kinda melt into each other and have no clear start or end; and the execution of the particle effects just makes everything worse"

I believe that if this game wasn't a Zelda game, it would get shit on for its visuals. I mean, there will always be people who are fine with anything, and there will always be fans of anything. But I find this Zelda to have the worst visuals of any Zelda ever, and the landscapes don't save it for me.

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Upvote for unpopular opinion but bro…. It’s a cartoon you control. I’m not a huge fan of the new ones but I think it looks fine for what it is.

[–] orphiebaby@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

On one hand, yeah, your opinion is perfectly valid.

On the other hand, if I were to challenge someone on a statement like this, I'd say "show me a screenshot of an expensive game with worse cel-shading".

On the third hand though, I've discovered over time that sometimes people are just currently blind/tasteless and they just can't see what's wrong with some visuals. No offense at you or anything. I mean, I was blind and tasteless in my 20s. My good taste took time to develop.

Also I think I need to go back to chemo for that third hand.

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don’t really like the art style of cel shading in games anyway. I’ll play Borderlands and the like, but it’s not my first choice of art style. That’s probably why I don’t have strong feelings about any particular implementation.

[–] orphiebaby@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I mean, there are different kinds of cel-shading. There aren't a lot of games that really capture the look of traditional animation— but it's totally possible. Hypothetically-speaking, would you have liked a game that looked like gorgeous traditional animation à la Disney or Don Bluth? (Don Bluth made The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Secret of NIMH, etc.)

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Yes! When the tech is to that level I’ll be on board! I pumped way too many quarters into Dragons Lair as a kid so I guess the appreciation is buried in me somewhere.

[–] Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

They had to compromise on graphics because the box is significantly weaker than your Sony/MS competition. I've enjoyed the hell out of both games, but understand where you're coming from. The fact that I've only found a few minor issues in a world that huge still speaks of high quality, but then again, I came from Atari so game quality is more about the fun and less about the pretty.

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