Topic: Top Notch Visuals vs Top Notch Audio...which would you choose?

Hello all!

We have all heard the argument of "gameplay vs. graphics" before, but this is not one of those threads . The purpose of this thread is more along the lines of "visuals vs. audio". To make it simpler to follow, let's keep this video game related (at least at the beginning) . Let me explain.

What I mean by "visuals" in this aspect is a blend of many things. These things include, art direction, amount of polygons/pixles pushed, visual effects, visual resolution and the like. What I mean by "audio" is a blend of things such as the soundtrack, sound effects, audio quality (high quality basically meaning "high definition"), and the like.

My question is, which would you rather see given more attention in games if you could not have the best of both worlds?

EDIT: In other words, if only one could be good and the other could be great, which would you rather have be "great" and which would you rather have been "good"? Sorry if this is still confusing .

Would you say it's better to have a game with fantastic visuals moreso than audio? Or would you say that the audio aspect is more important to the game? And to add on a little something, which do you believe adds more to the overall experience to a video game? (My apologies if I am being slightly redundant here.)

Audio because it could be too screechy and hurt your ears, your eyes can however adjust to the graphics

Video as I can play gaga.
Audio as I can watch gaga.
gaga.

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Amazing how I never really thought of that.

Anyway, for me, audio is really one of the main reasons why I even find games memorable. Yes I love the visuals, but it's really the sound effects and the soundtrack that really give me emotion when I play a game...and I love it!

It takes me back to why I actually chose Sonic over Mario back in the Genesis days. For me, both games were fun as heck to play, but back then, Sonic got the nod from me because I loved how all of the sound worked. I loved the soundtrack and how it complimented each stage and situation more than the Mario games back then. I loved the little chime sound you'd get after getting a continue in Sonic games too as well as the Sonic jump sound! To be fair it's also why I loved Sonic Adventure so much (Sonic in true surround sound was just amazing to me...and it worked so well!). It's a different story today, though . Kind of like how one of the biggest drawbacks of DBZ Kai is the (in my opinion) horrid Japanese soundtrack vs the Bruce Faulconer soundtrack...but that's a whole other topic!

I buy games based on their music.
_{And assuming you're including voice acting, whether it's good or bad really affects the entire game overall for me.}

On the other hand, bad visuals can make a game unplayable for me. No, my eyes will never adjust to the likes of FFVII or Xenoblade Chronicles. I'll just listen to the soundtrack to both and go on with my day

Two things:

1) Voice acting does count .

2) Even though I'm on the side of audio, I'm glad you brought up Xenoblade Chronicles. I played it at a friend's house and I'm still quite confused on how it's getting so much appreciation for best visuals. If we are speaking landscape, this really is pretty good (by landscape I'm talking open field). If we are talking use of color, it's, also, good (it's varied and vibrant). However, personally, I think Mario Galaxy and The Last Story look a lot nicer. I just don't think the character models look good at all. To me, they almost look like semi-late gen Gamecube models. Also, I'm not a huge fan of the way buildings look and the way the water looks. Some things look a lot more rough around the edges, as well (probably due to limited polygon count). Still a fantastic game (one of the best offerings on any console this gen), but sometimes those visuals (when seen up close rather than from a distance) just look...not good.

Finally someone who agrees with me and is not blinded by the rest of the game's awesomeness

Seriously, there are so many Wii games that look better. So many PS2 games that look better. I'm not sure what the problem was but it must have been a big one.

I find it amusing that people think The Last Story is an attractive game.

Anyway, I don't know why people think they can split graphics/ gameplay/ music. Having a good looking game with bad audio (or vice versa) is like having book that's missing every second word.

If either is no good, the game sucks.

BTW - Xenoblade is a technical failure, but the art style itself is quite nice. The focus is clearly on the epic vistas, and it does a good job of that.

The graphics of Nier are nice at times but mostly aren't that great, and the gameplay is somewhat messy in many places. And of course the music is sex.

The game does not suck. Maybe we should also include story as one of the criteria that determines suckage.

I'll need to play TLS for myself before I can say much about it, but from what I've seen (and heard) it looks (and sounds) great.

Isn't it weird that people have different opinions than you or me?

@zezhyrule

I'm excited to know someone else agrees with me too!

@OlympicCho
In regard to Xenoblade, I think you may have just nailed a key reason why I don't like the visuals for Xenoblade. I do agree that it looks nice in regard to, as you put it, epic vistas, but, while it may not have been as populated, areas in games like Skyward Sword, Metroid Other M, and even Monster Hunter Tri had both the art as well as the technical portion down! This is still just my opinion, though.

And sorry for not being clearer in my original post . The intent was to ask which you would like to see given the most attention given a scenario in which, possibly, one is great while the other is only good. Sorry if this is still confusing, it's rather late here .

why not have both?

The graphics of Nier are nice at times but mostly aren't that great, and the gameplay is somewhat messy in many places. And of course the music is sex.

The graphics of Nier have a nice, moody, consistency. On a technical basis, like Xenoblade, it's not brilliant, but it's clean and unique. That's not bad by any means.

As for the gameplay, it has more hits than misses.

Isn't it weird that people have different opinions than you or me?

They're all kinds of nuts.

The intent was to ask which you would like to see given the most attention given a scenario in which, possibly, one is great while the other is only good. Sorry if this is still confusing, it's rather late here .

If I just want music, I'm going to go to a symphony. If I just want visuals, I'll go watch Son Yeon-Jae perform.

I play games because I want an audio-visual experience. Unless it pulls visuals, story, audio and gameplay together in a compelling way, I'm going to be disappointed.

I must be a cashew then.

I always thought of you as a peanut, personally.

Zez is an almond <3

I will take that as a compliment and move on~

The most famous nut? I'll take it.

You should.

Why do you always think I'm having a go at you

I'm like the dude with the olive brand, and you're the dove that poops on everyone.

Woah, I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade. I was just going with the nut jokes and such.

_{I guess I'm bad at it?}

Top notch audio. Graphics don't mean so much to me. Not sure if it's because I started gaming in the days of the Atari 2600 or what. Not saying it's completely irrelevant, just low on my list of needs. In past generations, I've played many games with so-so graphics that top games of today by a landslide. On the other hand, I love video game music. It's my favorite music genre period! And music is, after all, a part of audio. So, audio is by far more important to me personally. For example, fancy graphics wouldn't be enough to make me overlook other shortcomings in a game. If it has a superb score, however, I'm willing to forgive quite a few flaws. Drakkhen for Super NES is an example of that.