I really liked Tales of Arise and Vesperia for their art style as well. HD-2D is the new hotness in the JRPG space so love all those. I would really like to see more and more classics redone in that style.
Scarlet Nexus is SO slept on. I could not put that game down once I started until I beat both paths. The game was oozing style and coolness, the gameplay was fantastic, and the story was unique and surprising! I loved it. Another great video =)
I absolutely adore Final Fantasy 12’s art style. everything from overworld, enemies, and character designs are so dark and gritty, yet have these beautifully styled patterns. You go from the desert town vibes of rabanastre to the futuristic and advance technology of Arcadia. Final Fantasy does a lot of science fantasy, and i feel it did it best with FF12. Not to mention the summons in this game are unlike other FF. The Espers are all so ominous, eerie, and according to lore they are literally destruction incarnate. I can see why people dont like ff12’s design but to me it just hits the right spot
Atelier Lydie & Suelle. One of the key mechanics of the game is the ability to enter the worlds contained within paintings - and the art style of each world reflects the painting. Blue Reflection (probably more so than its sequel) - there's an immense contrast between the school rooms of its primary setting and the dream worlds within which the magical girls confront the psychoses of the people they're helping. In the dream worlds, the heroines are magical girls, in magical worlds. Eternal Sonata - have a look at some screen shots then reflect that this was one of the very first seventh generation console games. It really pulls off its fairy tale atmosphere.
Metaphor Refantazio is missing. On PC with higher resolution and anti aliasing this game looks fantastic, the art style is very unique. On consoles there's sadly a lot of aliasing, which is horrible for that kind of art style. On PC everything looks a lot cleaner and especially the characters look absolutely amazing.
Eh I would say swap either Chrono Trigger or Visions of Mana would be a better choice to replace with Arise if any as CT is essentially the same art style used in DQ games while Visions of Mana has it's own issues on PS4/probably mid to low end PCs and the style isn't too different than Ni no Kuni tbh. With that said I'd say Scarlet Nexus uses almost the same art style as Tales of Arise as well so either of them can swap with each other as well...hell same with P5 tbh as all 3 are more or less kinda like Cel shaded (if not Cel shaded) art style that was used in Vesperia, Zelda Windwaker, Zelda BotW, and many other games out there. Unicorn Overlord/any Vanillaware game in comparisons is its own very distinct hand drawn art style in comparison to all the 3D computer generated games and any Vanillaware game could easily take this spot tbh (my pick would probably be either Odin Sphere or 13 Sentinels though if I was to put it on a list followed by Dragon's Crown and then Unicorn Overlord).
I do think Xenoblade 2 just looks a bit ... idk how to put it... prettier, maybe? more cartoony, but in a positive way? than 3. but the character design is largely terrible, whereas it's really solid in 3. I don't just mean that the characters in 2 are oversexualized, though they are - there's zero cohesion. whereas the character designs in 3 tell you a ton about the world. Visions of Mana is soooo beautiful. there's that one like, orchard-esque area with colorful flowers and it's one of the most beautiful areas in any JRPG. I played it on the SD and that version was definitely not the highest quality in terms of visuals but it was still stunning. hell yeah Scarlet Nexus. my favorite part of it is the enemy design. just a bunch of funky little guys (and big guys) but they are so so creepy. not a fan of Sea of Stars at all but damn if that's not one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen. and as you said, Ni No Kuni. it's got Ghibli, what else can you say? was waiting the entire video for Vanillaware :p also, in addition to the ones here, WitchSpring R! it does have kind of Atelier aesthetics but I also LOVE the character designs. I was constantly screenshotting every time a new portrait came up haha. also do Bandle Tale and Ruined King count... I love how they look. and Fuga's painterly look
@@slam-zany also I forgot Legend of Mana!!! I don't like that game much at all but it's SO gorgeous. and Rhapsody. and Cruel King and the Great Hero!!!
For me Octopath Traveler has weird art style - backgrounds are amazing but I hate pixelated characters. They look ugly as hell. Can't stand looking at them.
I really liked Tales of Arise and Vesperia for their art style as well. HD-2D is the new hotness in the JRPG space so love all those. I would really like to see more and more classics redone in that style.
I love the topic! All the Xenoblade games haha. Love the Scarlet Nexus shoutout.
I need to get around to playing Scarlet Nexus!
I could play Xenoblade until the end of time!
Baten Kaitos being on here is perfect! It’s the whole reason I played the game. Also DQ3 remakes art style is insanely impressive. Great video!
Baten Kaitos is so good!
Thank you, I agree Baten Kaitos is a great game, not just for the art but the story is really cool too.
Scarlet Nexus is SO slept on. I could not put that game down once I started until I beat both paths. The game was oozing style and coolness, the gameplay was fantastic, and the story was unique and surprising! I loved it. Another great video =)
I couldn’t agree more! Such an amazing game!
Fantastic list! So many beautiful games out there. Such a great time to be a gamer!
Agreed and great picks here, I would also throw Granblue Fantasy Relink and obviously Tales of Arise as my picks.
Perfect topic, awesome video production, and a great group of games as always 🔥
Thank you!!
I absolutely adore Final Fantasy 12’s art style. everything from overworld, enemies, and character designs are so dark and gritty, yet have these beautifully styled patterns.
You go from the desert town vibes of rabanastre to the futuristic and advance technology of Arcadia. Final Fantasy does a lot of science fantasy, and i feel it did it best with FF12.
Not to mention the summons in this game are unlike other FF. The Espers are all so ominous, eerie, and according to lore they are literally destruction incarnate.
I can see why people dont like ff12’s design but to me it just hits the right spot
Xenoblade 3, hey? I see you're a man of culture as well 😌 Great video Slam, definitely would have been hard narrowing down your top ten for this!
Oh yea it was a tough list to make!
Would definitely like a part 2 or 3 of this. I would also vote for Koudelka and Legend of Dragoon!
Master Toriyama's artstyle was really something else, I love so much that iconic art style
Octopath Traveler 2 and Unicorn Overlord are outstanding. I just picked up an awesome art book for Unicorn Overlord too.
Yea they really are! I bet that art book is great.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle. One of the key mechanics of the game is the ability to enter the worlds contained within paintings - and the art style of each world reflects the painting.
Blue Reflection (probably more so than its sequel) - there's an immense contrast between the school rooms of its primary setting and the dream worlds within which the magical girls confront the psychoses of the people they're helping. In the dream worlds, the heroines are magical girls, in magical worlds.
Eternal Sonata - have a look at some screen shots then reflect that this was one of the very first seventh generation console games. It really pulls off its fairy tale atmosphere.
Unicorn Overloard is on sale for Black Friday at Amazon. I'm planning on finally picking this up.
Definitely worth it. One of my favorite games of the year!
Metaphor Refantazio is missing. On PC with higher resolution and anti aliasing this game looks fantastic, the art style is very unique. On consoles there's sadly a lot of aliasing, which is horrible for that kind of art style. On PC everything looks a lot cleaner and especially the characters look absolutely amazing.
I just want Chrono Trigger on switch.
Same here!
Have you played Astria Ascending?
Tales of Arise should have taken the place for Unicorn Overlord :p
Eh I would say swap either Chrono Trigger or Visions of Mana would be a better choice to replace with Arise if any as CT is essentially the same art style used in DQ games while Visions of Mana has it's own issues on PS4/probably mid to low end PCs and the style isn't too different than Ni no Kuni tbh.
With that said I'd say Scarlet Nexus uses almost the same art style as Tales of Arise as well so either of them can swap with each other as well...hell same with P5 tbh as all 3 are more or less kinda like Cel shaded (if not Cel shaded) art style that was used in Vesperia, Zelda Windwaker, Zelda BotW, and many other games out there.
Unicorn Overlord/any Vanillaware game in comparisons is its own very distinct hand drawn art style in comparison to all the 3D computer generated games and any Vanillaware game could easily take this spot tbh (my pick would probably be either Odin Sphere or 13 Sentinels though if I was to put it on a list followed by Dragon's Crown and then Unicorn Overlord).
Where is Valkyria Chronicles and Kaneko SMT ?
Great art styles for sure, stay tuned for my next list!
I do think Xenoblade 2 just looks a bit ... idk how to put it... prettier, maybe? more cartoony, but in a positive way? than 3. but the character design is largely terrible, whereas it's really solid in 3. I don't just mean that the characters in 2 are oversexualized, though they are - there's zero cohesion. whereas the character designs in 3 tell you a ton about the world.
Visions of Mana is soooo beautiful. there's that one like, orchard-esque area with colorful flowers and it's one of the most beautiful areas in any JRPG. I played it on the SD and that version was definitely not the highest quality in terms of visuals but it was still stunning.
hell yeah Scarlet Nexus. my favorite part of it is the enemy design. just a bunch of funky little guys (and big guys) but they are so so creepy.
not a fan of Sea of Stars at all but damn if that's not one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen. and as you said, Ni No Kuni. it's got Ghibli, what else can you say?
was waiting the entire video for Vanillaware :p
also, in addition to the ones here, WitchSpring R! it does have kind of Atelier aesthetics but I also LOVE the character designs. I was constantly screenshotting every time a new portrait came up haha. also do Bandle Tale and Ruined King count... I love how they look. and Fuga's painterly look
Couldn’t agree more and yea if I made another list I’d have at least 1 Atelier game on there. They look really great!
@@slam-zany yeah! I also feel like Atelier has a pretty low budget tbh but they always look beautiful!
@ for sure, one of the main draws of the games I think.
@@slam-zany also I forgot Legend of Mana!!! I don't like that game much at all but it's SO gorgeous. and Rhapsody. and Cruel King and the Great Hero!!!
For me Octopath Traveler has weird art style - backgrounds are amazing but I hate pixelated characters. They look ugly as hell. Can't stand looking at them.
no metaphor ??? :)
It’s looks awful
by far the worst thing the game has, it looks so bad for a 70$ 2024 game, the HUD and ilustrations are really good though