I love the look of cel-shading for some games. Part of what makes DQ VIII one of my favorite games of all time is the cel-shaded graphics. The world is so colorful and vibrant. The full orchestral score didn't hurt it, either.
GLaD 4: Wind Waker
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 On 03/04/2013 at 07:10 AM by Super Step See More From This User » |
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Confused by today's Bing's Top Three Search Images of the Day for You to Make a Mad Libz Story of (TM)?
It's spider webs, Elaine Chao, and public art. Yeah, I'm as confused as you are why so many people are searching spider web images, but hey, this game has spiders, was made by Eastern developers (Chao is the Taiwanese wife of GOP Leader Mitch McConnel, so ... whatever, close enough), and a huge part of its appeal to me is its art style, so it all works out.
So now that I slept all of yesterday to finally get some sleep and hopefully turn my schedule around (being sleep-deprived is like being shit-faceed drunk in my case, so if I've come across more rude than usual lately, that might be why), let's talk about one of my favorite games.
I've changed my avatar to "Celda" Link not for this blog, but rather to have a bit more green going on for this fine month of March, in which I was born. Plus, it has a similar art style to the caricature of myself I was using, so it keeps the cartoony, exagerrated thing going for me. Hell, Link even has a smirk.
Speaking of avatars, if you've been having as much trouble as I have getting them to upload on here, what seems to work is to upload them to facebook first, save THAT image to your computer, as opposed to the one straight of Bing/Google Images, then upload them here.
Anyway, like most people, when I first read about and saw in EGM what they were doing with Zelda for Gamecube, like most people, my first reaction was "oh, fuck you, Nintendo."
So we're going from this
to this
are we? Not to mention, I pre-ordered the thing in part because of that damn EGM April Fool's trickery that it might allow you to play Wind Waker with more realistic graphics, or something.
Fuckers
Yes, I figured it out before I actually pre-ordered that it was a hoax, butmy twelve-year-old brain, that loved Zelda and realized this thing was coming out in the U.S. just a day after my thirteenth birthday (excellent gift idea!), still half-wished they had simply updated the realistic style from Ocarina of Time; or maybe I was fully on-board at the time I pre-ordered, which would make more sense, but whatever, my college job forced me to deal with so many idiots that I've taken on some of their traits, including horrible goldfish memory.
Whatever the case may have been, I was delighted to have my fears assuaged by what turned out to be an amazing visual spectacle; my impression by the time I had completed it went from "looks like shit"to "holy shit!"
Nintendo has always been considered the Disney of videogames, for good reason, and with the art style and Zelda gameplay combination, they succeeded in creating a story and art-style that reminded me of the best 2D Disney films,and in fact, my personal favorite Zelda ... minus the overlong boat segments.
"I swear to Christ, this vacation is making me wish I were Chevy Chase."
Don't get me wrong, I love Ocarina of Time, but I was late to the party on that one (like I wasn't interested when the first screenshots hit Nintendo Power and only bought the game towards the end of N64's lifespan), and I loved the masks and dark storyline of Majora's Mask, but I'm one of the people that never liked that time mechanic all that much; it was cool at first, then it got tedious and monotonous quick.
Wind Waker though, I enjoyed both playing, and just sitting in awe of its art style, particularly in the ending scenes.
Best ... 3D Ganon fight ... ever.
I can't remember if I had played Jet Set Radio before this game. I don't think so; I remember playing Future at a kiosk, and at the neighbors' house (they had Xbox at some point), but I'm pretty sure that was after this game came out.
Should it make me feel old or young that the Future passed me by?
In any case, WInd Waker made me fall in love with the art style, and I later rented one of my favorite platformers of all time for my older brother's PS2, partly because of its cel-shaded nature.
Sly Cooper not only had tight, addictive gameplay (though it was short, I beat it a couple times every time I rented it, cause it was so good), but it looked awesome, and felt like I was playing a good-humored Saturday morning cartoon the way Wind Waker made me feel like I was playing a 2D Disney movie. It also helped that it was so inventive.
God, I loved that boss fight.
And of course, though I only played a few minutes of it at a friend's in college, Okami was absolutely stunning, and itself made me take notice of more traditional Japanese art pieces.
If I were an art collector, I'd pay a decent price just to have some of the concept art framed on my wall.
And, of course, it's helped a great deal of even games I haven't played to stand out, graphically.
The many posts I've seen about this thing, and my love for Studio Ghibli films, makes me jealous I don't own a current gen console, nor enjoy JRPGs.
How do you guys feel about cel-shading? Love it, hate it, don't really care, prefer realistic graphics (don't worry, I love the hyper-real stuff as well)?
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