Rendered or not?

[skykid]

How does everyone feel about Cave's rendering of their graphics versus the hand drawn pixel stuff of the 90's?

Personally, I'm getting a little disappointed - it seems much lazier, and after playing MMP this weekend, damn ugly. A mate of mine was actually so offended by MMP's graphics he refused to play it (not much a shmupper anyway though.) Good thing he didn't see Pink Sweets.

It made me look at something like DDP DOJ (despite rendered bosses) compared to Mushihimesama and finding that although both play brilliantly, Cave are increasing output by relying on quick and cheap looking graphics.

Is Daifukkatsu rendered, and on a topical note, does the rendering in these recent releases bother anyone?

[SuperPang]

I have mixed feelings, Deathsmiles works, Futari doesn't. And you don't have to worry about DFK, its beautiful.

[skykid]

If I'm honest, this topic is more of an interest point to see what others think. If the game plays well, it's not a big deal - but I do find that the charm of the hand drawn stuff is missing.

Pang, glad to hear DFK is a beauty, I've never even seen a hi res vid of this (only EOJ doing a run in his room iirc.)

[EOJ]

I think every SH3 game looks way better than any of the pre-SH3 games. The rendering technique works very well in most instances.

[adverse]

If I'm honest, this topic is more of an interest point to see what others think. If the game plays well, it's not a big deal - but I do find that the charm of the hand drawn stuff is missing.

Pang, glad to hear DFK is a beauty, I've never even seen a hi res vid of this (only EOJ doing a run in his room iirc.)

The torrent board still has some nice DFK videos up I believe?  Or at least they did.  Maybe I should up some of the ones I still have hanging around.

And yeah I think rendering mostly works.  I would counter that games like Ibara look pretty ugly compared to some of the stuff in arcades today...

[skykid]

I think every SH3 game looks way better than any of the pre-SH3 games.

Really?

I'm surprised at this. 

I supposed I'm just a sucker for traditional pixel art.

[markedkiller78]

Personally I?m not a massive fan of rendered sprites & much prefer hand drawn / pixel art, but I still think that all the SH3 games look good. Personally I think MMP looks great.

I think that I dislike the art direction in Futari more than the rendered srpites, but the combition of the 2 has Fail written all over it. The T-rex boss in Futari is utter turd, but in strangely I think Mary (the cow) from DS looks great.

[Gwyrgyn]

It's definitely hit or miss. Some games look great (like Galuda 2 and most Deathsmiles stuff) and then other games/things just look really odd. Some rendered sprites tend to look downright terrible, like all of the player character sprites in Deathsmiles look awful to me. Personally I much prefer the style of hand drawn and wish they'd use that style more.

And to me it looks like DFK is all hand-drawn sprites aside from the bosses in robot form (which, surprise, look terrible). If they aren't actually hand drawn then they did a really amazing job with them.

[skykid]

When I think about it, if Cave suddenly did make DDP rendered rather than hand drawn that would be the first time they'd drastically adjusted the art style of a series - which is why it makes sense that DFK looks beautiful.

[EOJ]

Most of the DDPDFK sprites look rendered to me (the ship sprites definitely are). They still look great, just like most of CAVE's rendered stuff.

[astrodan88]

I have always preferred traditional pixel art in games but cave's rendered graphics are really growing on me.
Galuda II is simply stunning.
I was initially underwhelmed with the graphics in Pink Sweets but the more time I spend with the game the more I enjoy them. The bosses are fantastic. The player ships look a bit "blurry" but that's my only complaint.

Have yet to see DDPDFK in the flesh; can't wait.

[PROMETHEUS]

I think the rendered player ships in DOJ look BAAAAAD. But in other games it often looks good.