Should game developers focus more on stylistic art direction than hyperrealism in video games?

[Blazinator]

The only great examples of phenomenal art direction in games imo are Bungie's Halo Trilogy, HL2, and the MGS games. The last game I played that had wonderful art direction was FFXIII. There is just something about lower fidelity games that keeps you immersed into the game. Plus it would help with allocating more resources into game mechanics/features than hyper realistic textures. Or maybe I am just getting old lmao.

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Yeah, the hyper realistic style is arguably visually uninteresting and games should have a visual identity other than hyper realism.

Post automatically merged: Monday at 10:17 PM

I think they should focus on good gameplay regardless of artstyle. I like a lot of photorealistic games, I like a lot of stylistic games, but because of gameplay, not artstyle

Yes! I’m a gameplay>story>graphics person. I’d play a ps1 game with great gameplay but bad graphics over a ps5 game with great graphics but bad gameplay.

 

[Aisf]

I like stylized art more. It just feels like it has more personality than realistic looking games.

 

[ThirteeTooBeets]

Unique styles aren't the problem as much as a clear lack of interesting artistic direction in recent games, you can make a hyperrealistic or cartoony world but if there aren't artists making it look cohesive or eye catchy enough then it's not good. I find BOTW mostly visually boring for that reason