Topic: When Graphics Don't Matter

Hey everyone,
I've been playing Pokemon Legends Arceus A LOT lately and having a blast. However, the one thing that everyone agrees is bad about the game is the graphics (except not me because I just love having wrong opinions). They look low-res, texturey, muddy and overall bleh seems to be the general consensus. However, despite that, people are still loving the gameplay loop, the story and the freshness and explorative nature of it all. That got me thinking: what other games, both new and old, fall into such a camp of 'When Graphics Don't Matter'? Keep in mind, this could be for both ends of the spectrum: a bad game has gorgeous graphics and a fantastic game has garbage graphics, or the less extreme of both sides, etc. I hope this thread sparks some interesting thoughts on what it really means for a game to be 'good' or some other philosophical stuff, idk. Have fun and go nuts!

Of course graphics matter. Gaming is a visual medium. However, technical performance to me is far more important than graphical fidelity, a game can be as lifelike as it wants but if it runs like *****, then it doesn't matter.

However, I think the degree of graphical fidelity "required" is a case by case basis. Dependent on genre, gameplay, art direction and art design etc.

For example, would the Last of Us resonated as much as it did, if it was an 8-bit NES rif? Probably not, because the motion capture and fidelity of the animations brought that to life, along with strong vocal performances etc But then take a game like say... Dead Cells, it's pixel art visuals really really work there and if anything, it might be a more generic game had they gone for your typical third person action visuals instead.

I've said this in the main thread, but I'm baffled by the constant female Houndooming about the graphics. Legends Arceus looks more or less like BotW, with BotW coming out on top, but not by a margin that warrants such disproportionate whining.

I think the game looks absolutely fine, and the only thing that has really stood out to me is some of the pixelated textures on the clothing of NPCs, occasionally poorly-rendered grass, and the not-so-great draw distance, though the draw distance isn't anywhere near as bad as it was in Sword/Shield, where large Pokémon like Steelix, Garbodor, Snorlax etc. would suddenly spawn out of thin air.

If people want to talk ugly, they ought to direct their indignation to the often ugly Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, whose graphics weren't discussed as exhaustively as that of Legends Arceus.

@Fizza
Graphics doesn't really matter for me but at least the performance is smooth sailing. Even the quirky graphic design like Epic Chef looks quite interesting somehow.

Also, i'm not hungry for AAA Ultra realistic Graphics. I'm sick with too many Westernized ideas in video gaming from ultra realistic graphics that lead to ultra realistic gruesome, violence and foul language. Such a disgusting Western world standard.

@Silly_G To me, Arceus looks like BOTW without all the complex lighting and shadow effects. Shadows look randomly cast about, and the textures overall look significantly worse, especially from a distance.

Nah, there’s other problems with it too. I wouldn’t even put graphics in my top 5!complaints with the game.

You make it sound like the only violent video games are from the West. That’s racist and racism is bad.

If only we could put likes in forum posts 😂. Yes, almost every video game is violent in some shape or form. Heck, PLA is the most violent Pokemon game ever, with many death topics and pokemon explicitly attacking people. But sure, western games bad... 🤷🏻‍♂️

Well I already said my thoughts in the main article about this so I'll just keep this short:

Graphics obviously matter - its the first thing you see in the game and they help with immersion, story telling, world building and more. I would obviously want a game that looks like it was made in this current gen.

Yeah sure I agree gameplay over graphics but nowadays it's used as a defense for bad ones, especially from Nintendo fans, which I find really disingenuous.
PLA is a step in the right direction which looks good for the series but I'm not going to be delusional and act like there a lot of glaring issues with it, especially when at best it looks like a PS3 game.

Last minute edit: I also find "I don't play x game for y" argument a lot and I find it equally as annoying. While true to some extent that doesn't mean the game can't have both. I don't play monster hunter for the story but I wouldn't mind them trying to have a more in depth one in future games or in the upcoming dlc.

Graphics matter sure, but how fun a game is, and how it preforms is waay more important, some game use there graphics as a base, along with there gameplay as a staple, but games like Pokemon LOA, it doesn't look groundbreaking, but at what point do people play pokemon for its graphics?

@Savage_Joe : I was quite surprised by how often death was explicitly brought up. Even more baffling is that the game is rated E by the ESRB while something as innocuous as 1-2 Switch was rated E10+ (the same rating as Breath of the Wild, by the way, which also contains occasional stylised bloodshed).

The game was rated PG in Australia like most Pokémon games nowadays, but I think it's silly that this has the same rating (and consumer advice) as Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee (and the 3DS games before it), wherein the violence was depicted in a heavily stylised fashion, with physical contact not depicted outright.

Meanwhile, in Legends Arceus, Pokémon can attack the player directly for the first time in the series (?), though the black-out animations seem to be deliberately down-played in order to avoid the possibility of 12 (Europe) and M (Australia) ratings. Bizarrely, for as permissive as Germany is with their ratings (Nazism censorship notwithstanding), they slapped a 12 rating on this.

With the benefit of hindsight, I don't think I thought this thread through.

"2 hours is the harbinger of wisdom."

--- @Fizza

Let this profound wisdom echo across the ages.

It does have the potential to be interesting. I think gamers who only use the Switch will probably have very different thoughts about graphics than those who play say predominantly on PC where having the most cutting edge visuals is almost like the whole thing.

@Fizza You really didn't LOL.

Well...

@Savage_Joe This scene will be very interesting in the inevitable Let's Go Johto games.

@Savage_Joe : How could I forget?

And a dishonourable mention to Silver kicking the player several metres at the start of the game.

@Silly_G the reason BD/SP is not bashed so hard about graphic is because they're really not trying to. Heck, it's a 2.5D game.

each type of game should have an effort linear to their scale. And in this case, Game freak tries to tackle large scale game in Arceus. We cannot compare them apple to apple. Arceus should and must put a gigantic effort, just like every large scale game does. If you put 2.5D game effort into full 3D semi open world game, it'll go down hard.

Eye appeal in gaming is as important as it is anywhere else. In this case the brand has some strong attachment, an overriding factor no doubt

I can't think of any games I liked where the graphics didn't matter. Imo, most games that are considered "good" or review well, tend to have good graphics. Good graphics doesn't have to be realistic, it just needs to make sense in the context of the gameplay, world and story the developer is trying to tell.

The issue I'm having with the graphics in Arceus, is that it is going for the BOTW style, but it doesn't have the same level of detail in animations and the just the world itself. Yes, BOTW has a lot of empty space as well. But even in that empty space there's lots of detail to find if you care to look around. Even the way NPCs and animals react to you had a lot of thought put into it.

Arceus has okay graphics, they chose a nice art style, but the game is lacking in detail. That is more concerning than something like pop-in which is a purely technical issue. The lack of detail is a creative issue and something that no amount of powerful hardware can fix.