Favorite Art in an RPG game all-time?

[Borg1982]

I'm usually not the one to think about art, or notice much, but a friend of mine tossed this question at me once. My answer for this ended up being for a game that I don't particularly find awesome. More average than anything.

My answer is FF12. I think the character art looks great. The town of Rabanastre is so realistic. The scenery in the game is pretty good too. I think my only gripe is that battles look a bit inferior to FFX battles.

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/741/741991/final-fantasy-xii-20061027032956112-000.jpg
Heres an example of great detail for the PS2.

[Ges]

SaGa Frontier II.

Everything is so nice looking and watercolored. Gave it it's own kind of niche-y way to stand out.

A lot of games today go with the cel-shading, so I have to discount Valkyria and SFIV and Wind Waker just a small bit because I've seen the technique so much as of late., even though all of those games look absolutely stellar.

[eniosus]

I'm usually not the one to think about art, or notice much, but a friend of mine tossed this question at me once. My answer for this ended up being for a game that I don't particularly find awesome. More average than anything.

My answer is FF12. I think the character art looks great. The town of Rabanastre is so realistic. The scenery in the game is pretty good too. I think my only gripe is that battles look a bit inferior to FFX battles.

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/741/741991/final-fantasy-xii-20061027032956112-000.jpg
Heres an example of great detail for the PS2.

Man I actually think the character design for XII is horrible. everyone looks like they've undergone plastic surgery (rhinoplasty to be specific). I like the moogle design but that's about it.

I really enjoyed the artwork for Breath of Fire 3 and 4. Grandia( part 1) . The Shin megami games. Final Fantasy X. The Suikoden series always had a good sense of ethnicity with the way people dressed in each location. and ofcourse Xenogears.

[Luisfe]

Man I actually think the character design for XII is horrible. everyone looks like they've undergone plastic surgery (rhinoplasty to be specific). I like the moogle design but that's about it.


That is a fun way to see it. Heh.

Other than Vaan and Penelo's designs, I think that FFXII's character designs are vastly superior to Nomura's beltanzippering that has gone from VII to X. Particularly liking Balthier's character design.
Sure, he has a baroque vest thing, but it looks pretty damn well.

http://www.cubeupload.com/files/thumbs/th.4800balthier.jpg (http://www.cubeupload.com/img/4800balthier.jpg)


That being said: I REALLY like Kazuma Kaneko's art in the SMT series, which made Persona 3 and 4, and in the future Devil Survivor a kind of disappointment, generic animu character designs :(
On the other hand, demon design is still in Kaneko's hands, so yay.
Almost every single monster design he has made is pretty damn good, except for his treatment of the Norse Pantheon (with the possible exception of Thor), which sucks.
Loki and Odin should not look like purple half naked elves :(

http://www.cubeupload.com/files/thumbs/th.245e0093.jpg (http://www.cubeupload.com/img/245e0093.jpg)
http://www.cubeupload.com/files/thumbs/th.338c0098.jpg (http://www.cubeupload.com/img/338c0098.jpg)

I still think tha Kaneko draws feet in a wonky way, but eh, whatever.

http://www.cubeupload.com/files/thumbs/th.80780014.jpg (http://www.cubeupload.com/img/80780014.jpg)

[Luisfe]

As for architecture/environment design, they are not RPGs, but it is a tie between Grim Fandango and Bioshock. Hooray Art Deco.

[eniosus]

That is a fun way to see it. Heh.

Other than Vaan and Penelo's designs, I think that FFXII's character designs are vastly superior to Nomura's beltanzippering that has gone from VII to X. Particularly liking Balthier's character design.
Sure, he has a baroque vest thing, but it looks pretty damn well.

http://www.cubeupload.com/files/thumbs/th.4800balthier.jpg (http://www.cubeupload.com/img/4800balthier.jpg)

Oh Lookie here, Luis' still around. Good to see you're around guy.

You know, Balthier's my favorite character in that game. and I like the way he dresses but I still have to admit that it looks to me like he got a nose job just like everyone else. I have no problem with anyone's outfits except for Vaan's gayvest. Nothing against it but it just isn't my thing. but it didn't bother me much because I always had Balthier as the main character to control.

I agree that Kaneko has a big dick. I was getting his artbooks a while ago but I think I had a tough time finding them for a decent price.

And while I'm not a big fan of his games anymore I do like Tetsuya Nomura's style a lot. it reminds me of some of my own stuff and I think it's pretty stylish. it isn't a style you can call generic anime or anything. I specially liked the stuff from The World Ends with you.

[Luisfe]

Yeah, the noses in FFXII are wonky. But then again, Yoshida also made the art for Final Fantasy Tactics, where none of the characters had a nose. Maybe he has a thing against noses.

Nomura's style worked on TWEWY, but Beltanzipper + Disney got kind of old on Kingdom Hearts (seriously, why does Donald's cap have like 3 zippers?), and I found his FFX stuff to be rather lame.

[Mark]

SaGa Frontier II.

Everything is so nice looking and watercolored. Gave it it's own kind of niche-y way to stand out.

A lot of games today go with the cel-shading, so I have to discount Valkyria and SFIV and Wind Waker just a small bit because I've seen the technique so much as of late., even though all of those games look absolutely stellar.

I agree with this. I loved the Art for SaGa Frontier and SF2. actually I think I may start a new game in SaGa 1. that seems like a great Idea. Giant Swing, Bable Crumble, Suplex, and I cant remember the 4th move needed...it was a sliding move. and you get the best attack in the game! I think I will start playing SaGa again. after SF2 though the series went straight to hell.

[Felwerk]

I've always liked Valkyrie Profile's character art, but Icewind Dale has some dark and compelling portraits as well. Oh and Planescape: Torment made me wish all the Infinity Engine games had the same character detail.

[Genopuff]

wizardry for ps2 the character art looked so cool.

[TheSilentSeed]

At the moment I would say Okami.

That game has some very unique art and I highly enjoyed it because of that.