Jump to content

Would a realistic/photorealistic artstyle work with the Fire Emblem series?


Spatha
 Share

Recommended Posts

Basically a graphical style that you see in many AAA games. Something like Skyrim. Or MGSIV or Red Dead Redemption 2.

Remove all the anime and stylized graphics and uses realistic mocap faces and proportions and add a dark, serious and gritty style to it.

I believe the likes of the Resident Evil 2 remake and Devil May Cry 5 have done the transition.

IMO, I'm not in favor of that style. There's a reason I like Nintendo for not following the AAA-trends that Western Gaming Industry is encouraging.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

fire emblem's aesthetics have been one of it's biggest selling points since the beginning, ask yourself, would elder scrolls work with an anime aesthetic, perhaps it could work in theory, but it would alienate old fans and fail to bring in new fans, an art style can be just as important to a fan as gameplay fundamentals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Von Ithipathachai said:

Absolutely not.

I feel like Fire Emblem is way too grounded in the anime aesthetic to be able to pull off something like that.  I can't see any fans, old or new, being in favor of it.

Ditto. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do think fans would be turned off by the change, while newcomers would stare cross-eyed at the uncanny valley of the lord looking like a normal person but with unnaturally bright blue hair and yellow eyes. And if they did go all the way in just having the humans look like normal people with normal hair and such, it would look weird when paired with the fantasy elements like dragons and fireballs. The Lord of the Rings films avoided this problem by having mostly characters that aren't human. But the biggest wrench in the plan is just the cost in producing graphics like that. Many common and contemporary art styles are born of cost-cutting concerns. For instance, the Japanese art and animation styles lack of nose lets them draw faces that are basically round blobs in which you just move around the eyes and mouth when drawing at new angles. The mouths opening and closing is their way of avoiding the excruciating process of lip syncing. And the motionless dashing, jumping, and teleporting in shonen anime is waaaay easier to draw than a character running toward somebody else in a fight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think so. A problem I find it with a realistic/photorealistic art-style is how is it going to distinctly show the differences between facial appearances with  a cast of 50+? There can't be any multi hair color in at setting. Just going to make a much of faces blur with each other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Realism would be interesting, but the rainbow hair and eye colors might be jarring.

3 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

the lord looking like a normal person but with unnaturally bright blue hair and yellow eyes.

Basically this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be lying if I said I'm not curious of the idea but ultimately I am against it. I personally prefer FE's more stylized anime-esque art direction. For one it ages better than photo-realism and two, it allows characters to be more expressive and distinct in design. One of the main contributing reasons why anime characters have such big eyes is because it allows them to be more expressive and show more emotion. More stylized art also makes it easier to differentiate the character by hair color and such which is something that would look uncanny in a more photo-realistic style.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

Would a realistic/photorealistic artstyle work with the Fire Emblem series?

 

considering the kind of franchise FE is, that would be like trying to make a live-action movie adaptation from an anime. a terrible, horrible, preposterous idea.

 

why would they even consider the idea of changing a formula that they've been working with for the past 30 years, since it always worked well?

their artworks have always been based on japanese drawing styles since the 90s, so there's no reason whatsoever they would suddenly try to change it to please other people with different tastes, especially when they have already gathered a huge fandom that has been playing FE and growing with that kind of manga/anime art style since forever.

 

it's not like you absolutely need realistic graphics in order to make a game with a dark atmosphere anyway.

Final Fantasy Tactics and Odin Sphere are good examples of that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No way. I like the anime art style and will always prefer it. I don’t really think a realistic art style would fit for a strategy rpg like Fire Emblem. Maybe it could work in a spin off that only focuses on a few Fire Emblem characters. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, if they take advantage of it. By that, I mean using the realism to make the "war is hell" part of the series more striking, as well as for providing us with down-to-earth designs, characters, animations, stories, and the like. This far from means that they have to throw away what makes Fire Emblems art style so unique, just that they may not be able to use the aspects that would be uncanny.

Otherwise, not really. I actually want a Fire Emblem with a more down-to-earth approach with the character designs, story, and animation, but that isn't something that requires photo-realistic graphics to do

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The problem with a realistic art style is that it has a very strong tendency to age horridly. Could a Fire Emblem game effectively use it? Yes. But it wouldn't last long, and I don't really see what it could add to FE. 

I could perhaps see something that's a mix of anime/stylized and realistic while still retaining FE's unique aesthetic and aging well. It's hard to explain, but I could see something like a blend of the art styles of Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn, Twilight Princess (if it had decided to stand out more rather than look like Ocarina of Time 2.0) and Final Fantasy XV (I've never played the game, but I've seen clips of it). Something still clearly anime and stylized, but with realistic proportions, emphasis on detail, metal that looks like metal, etc. Does that make sense? 

I think that what I'm trying to say could work for a more "down to earth" FE game. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

It would be similar to Final Fantasy, featuring photo realistic characters with colored hair in a fantastic world. 

 

I disagree with the ones who said that would look weird or wouldn't work, but IS and Fire Emblem was never known for great graphics, I don't think it's a thing the developers should care about, at least not now.  They would just waste resources 

Edited by Mylady
Typo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ippei's art style always made the FE characters look more realistic and less anime, and last time I checked, Ippei's art was well-liked in the community, so I guess if the realistic art style looked like what Ippei does, than I'd be interested.

A full-on realistic, visual portrayal of the characters something like the recent FF games or maybe a typical modern PS4 game? Eh, no thanks. Fire Emblem has become strongly associated with the anime art style, so it'd be tough to go for a completely realistic visual portrayal like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...