Can I just say... that Hallow Knight Fountain, with the Activate Windows in the corner, feels way more sombre with the watermark there than without in a really weird aesthetic way.
I think it's important to note that older games had much smaller dev teams, working on much smaller time scales, which produces art unified by a singular vision. That's a much more challenging thing to do in a modern triple A title.
@@APDS-Akin triple A games can take half a decade or more, compared to the 3-6 month turnaround times you saw in the 8bit era. Most games on the PS1 didn't take longer than a year to develop.
Just wanna say I LOVE the way you insert yourself into every scene, not just standing in front of the visuals but actually becoming a part of them, sitting and laying in seats, trunks, the ground, the editing must have taken forever but the end result is really fantastic visually. The part where you're showing us the low poly sky boxes and just lay next to the camera, pointing and the different scenery and even showing us a visual on your phone instead of cropping it into the vid. So immersive, beautiful, massive props for the effort you've put into this video. Love it!
this style of editing is, to say the least, HEAVILY inspired from “NakeyJakey” style of editing, if you like it then you should check out the guy who inspired it in the first place ;)
Thank you so much for this comment! I always did the more immersive shots here and there as I developed this style but only recently have I decided to really lean into it so that most of the video is me sitting, laying down and stuff. It takes a lot longer to plan the vid out now but based off your comment I feel it’s worth it! Adds to the chill vibes lol and most importantly as a a guy who took influence from Nakeyjakey to use a green screen he never really did what I do with really implementing my pose and seating into the shots so I felt by doing this I’m making it more my own thing!
@@InternetPitstop friendly reminder that i have hardly ever seen someone utilize a green screen so well for youtube videos. you may make videos about aesthetic, but your editing choices elevate the entire video. Lean into it, lay on everything, its a fucking mood and i love it
I really like the idea you mentioned of not thinking of older graphics as stepping stones, but thinking of them as an art style to be used for games when they fit the theme
It's funny cause I feel the same way about shitty CG film effects. There are cut scenes in old games like AoE 2, and teasers for Diablo 2 that I thought were the coolest shit growing up. The Final Fantasy movie or that Linken Park music video is "bad CG" by modern film standards but there's something about the super sterile, clinical look that I find so satisfying. It's very similar to those videos of lawns being mowed or dirt being power washed. A nicely shaded object with a clean gradient is a pleasing aesthetic even if it isn't photo real.
Something big about the low poly look is shape language. Shape language in character design refers to how shapes imply characteristic, a square is sturdy, a circle is cut and harmless, a Triangle is sharp and dangerous looking, these trains are combined in strategic way to tell a story about the characters through their looks. In modern games character models have so many polygons that they can look totally smooth as they would be in real life, so using that bloodborn example, those ghost guys are smoother which in spite of them being creepey is still send off that circular lack of threat vibes. In older games, no matter how hard you try to make something a circle, it will always be angular, which makes everything feel a little more dangerous and threatening.
Interesting idea but I don’t think it *completely* holds up. When we were playing those older games as kids they were on CRT televisions. There was a bloom that smoothed the image, which isn’t something you get now. So roundness definitely was possible. I mean just look at Yoshi, for example. But of course it’s more complex than that - Boos and Goombas were also largely round. The danger comes from the fact they look angry, the colour, movements… and that they kill you 😮 haha
@jimmahgee Well, i'm not just talking about the enemies. I'm talking about the general uncanny nature of these games. Also, it's important to note that CRTs certainly smoothed things you they didn’t get around the overall polygonal look of everything. There's a reason why people knew Lara Croft had triangle boobs. And these days, when people do demakes or replay old games, they see these on modern screens so they see that jaggedness.
@@marche800 I just don’t buy it, there’s far more context and it all works together to produce the experience, including what the viewer brings. Mario 64 didn’t look “uncanny” and “dangerous” to me as a child. It was dangerous in some respects but in others I found it beautiful. In Ocarina of Time Kokiri forest felt safe, and Hyrule field during the daytime was full of potential. When I studied animation at university shape theory and silhouette were an important part of character design but they aren’t the “be all and end all” - once you have colour, movement, facial expressions, music, they all work in concert.
@jimmahgee Well there’s also the fact that our imaginations tend to fill in the blanks when it comes to things we saw as kids. We got what things were supposed to be and extrapolated from there. I've heard tons of people say they thought a game they loved looked better than it actually did. Though more to the point, I'm not trying to say that all polygonal games are inherently threatening, but there are definitely points where the uncannyness of the game design enhanced spooky elements. Like deadhand. When Deadhand was made smooth in the 3ds version of OOT, he became less threatening. The jankiness of his model made a creepy design genuinely terrifying. I'd say the same for redeads or even RE zombies.
As an actual older gamer who grew up in the 90’s, I was legitimately choked up at that moment. And at “You’ve reached the internet pitstop, would you like to rest?” (Chrono Trigger is a gut-punch nostalgic blast for me in general)
This is why Elden Ring and BOTW / TOTK still look better than Red Dead Redemption 2, despite the latter being released on an extremely underpowered handheld
@@anonymous01201 "look better" is still just a preference. RDR2 isn't just throwing realistic assets on a map, its a well researched and developed look, where the subject matter worked best with a very realistic setting.
Your videos are like finally hanging out with that kid that knows dope shit and they're actually an ascended knower who becomes your main homie. Forever.
The retro aesthetic and art style in general just makes me so happy. There's something about packing in so much detail in such simple shapes, being able to use your imagination to fill in the blanks, that games don't really have nowadays unless such graphics are intentional, but even then, it's very hit or miss.
I live for the way he inserts himself into different games and funny scenarios. As always, this channel still feels like an immersive little world. 9:26, like what other video essay channel would go the extra mile to do something like this.
those segments in the beginning where you were just sitting in video game landscapes with the characters got me right in the heart. id say that i cant believe i was jealous of an edit but i actually can
this style of editing is, to say the least, HEAVILY inspired from “NakeyJakey” style of editing, if you like it then you should check out the guy who inspired it in the first place ;)
"I'm a shitty writer that's why I'm a UA-camr" boi you made me watch a 5 hour video about anime backgrounds and I didn't even notice how much time passed. Every video is on point. I cried, I laughed, I felt nostalgia, I learnt, your editing is funny and unique and fits your channel amazingly. Don't sell yourself short. You're amazing. Even if I think I don't care about a topic in your videos you manage to get me excited and keep my attention all the way through. Because you ARE a good writer.
The thing that fascinates me the most about low-poly graphics is that all the details are in the textures. Especially games from Rare. They have mastered texture work on the N64, so much so that I always catch myself stopping every few minutes and just smelling the roses. It's magic, despite the limitations and flat surfaces everything feels alive and like the structures have sophisticated geometry, even up close. Ocarina of Time is the exact opposite, that game doesn't hide the cardboard scenery whatsoever. Flat looking structures, cardboard tree and mountain walls and blurry, smudgy, stretched textures left and right. From a technical perspective it's pretty bad. But I love the vibe of the aesthetics. It feels like a crude painting. Up close nothing makes sense, but if you step back you see the rough brush strokes form a clear and detailed picture. It creates a comfortable uncanniness that I never feel in modern games. So many games of that era have a cozy vibe to them. I feel like I could just sit down and have a nap in those environments.
So glad you mentioned Chrono Cross. For the past 3 months I've been obsessed with atmosphere of Chrono Cross. The contrast between blue sky, yellow beaches and green forests is just perfect. And then there is that opening, which I've had on repeat for months.
One of the reasons stuff like that holds up is this weird thing where when you're limited in you're creative space it seems to bring out the best in some people.
The green screen use in this video was top notch. Every time he looked back at the pixel art or whatever behind him, or seemed like he was laying back in a deck chair or something... Never got old. Good job, man!
FF7 was my childhood and it is such a cool aesthetic. Pre-rendered backgrounds and animated 3D fights were so mind blowing and I still love it. It feels like stepping into a painting. I can’t describe it better.
@@high.level.noob. not entirely rose-tinted glasses, i played ff7 for the first time like 4 months ago and i didn't find them all too confusing, a couple were for sure, but the large majority of them were just jaw dropping, whether that's cuz they actually were or cuz of what they were aiming to portray, i'm not sure. that game had a very good art direction though, imo.
Sharpedo Bluff from pokemon Mystery Dungeons Explores IS my house. Hearing the Treasure Town theme is my childhood bedroom. Both these things make me want to cry because I'm 25 and not 8 anymore. Imagine a timeline where Pokemon ledgends Arceus looked like Ōkami. We were robbed. Edit: You earned a subscription just for shouting out Gravity Rush, Quality taste.
As an elder millenial who is practically a fossil now it warms my heart to see someone younger raving about low res background graphics in 90s games, and set to the masterpiece that is the Pilotwings 64 soundtrack. Devs back in the day had to work so much harder with what they had which drove creativity and meant games didn't all look the same. If you haven"t already, check out the backgrounds in 1080 Snowboarding and Final Fantasy 8, the pared back graphics in F Zero X, and the water effects in Wave Race 64.
Ps1/N64 graphic are timeless,I never understood the whole "they age poorly" mentality,just to give you an idea I show Super Mario 64 to my niece(she’s 11) and she love these graphics a lot,that just show that these graphics are still great to look at today
i remember adults in the 90s saying it looked weird and shitty and didn't get why us kids liked it. I don't see kids today wanting that when given the option to choose between that and newer titles, If devs back then had more tools they would have used them to not make their asset look like jagged ass
The limited capabilities of the time did severely limit what could be done with making shit like organic cause the hardware simply can't afford smooth looking shapes, so unless the people working on the specific game knew what they were doing everything just looked like an unappealing geometric mess, the art direction needs to be extremely on point to make those games look any good, not to mention that the 3d view meant more complex movement was required to make the characters seem believable, while in 2d you can just have a character sprite on a JRPG flip a 180 without any animation of them turning and no one will question it cause it matches the level of detail of the rest of the game, if a character just rotates 180 degrees in a 3d game it will just look wrong cause the three-dimensional perspective feels too "realistic" to allow fir that movement. Even just PS2 games aged a lot better in this department cause, while not realistic, in a sense they are kinda realistic enough to achieve at least the bare minimum of what people want to see in a 3d game. Like reasonably smooth models with only some visible edges that are detailed enough to convey the intricacies of a character be it "real" or cartoon looking, like their expressions, hand gestures and even hair to a degree abd sane can be applied to the environments, the animations are just detailed enough to convey most things you'd wanna see like a character properly holding something or have stuff like bushes react to your character when walking on them, and in general it's all kind of the bare minimum of what people have come to expect from modern 3d games in general be it realistic or cell shaded, triple A or indie. The PS1 simply lacked on a lot of these things abd had to make up for it in other ways which not all games did successfully just as even modern games fail to account for their limitations. It's also worth remembering that fir every Super Mario 64 there's like a thousand shitty shovelware games that just looked and played like ass even back in the day.
Okay, you CANNOT hit me with Zeal and the Another World theme from Cross at the same time like that. my emotions cannot take it, it is Super Effective nostalgia damage and GODDAMMIT Pitstop, I'm crying now! in all seriousness, I'm a big fan of retro game aesthetics. Maybe it has something to do with being a video game addict since 1989 (no, you're never gonna outgrow it), but really good 16-bit style pixel art or really creative low-poly graphics in a modern title are the key to my soul.
Putting yourself in those pixel art shots is a whole aesthetic in itself. Playing these games as a kid I always saw the game screen as like a window to a world where that's what reality looks like; people are made of pixels and have framerates, and all the motions and magic are just what physics is. Seeing a regular dude in that world, with all our rules alongside theirs just kinda blows my mind in a way I can't describe. I never really saw them as places I could go, and now I want it. Intent achieved, well done sir. Also, I appreciate the planning and retakes required to make those shots while keeping the script flowing. Altogether great work done well for a good cause.
You're so right about the ff7 aesthetic, Cosmo Canyon is my personal favourite for some of the most beautiful backdrops and art pieces, so much that even as a kid I wish screenshotting was possible on my ps1.
See i do like pixel art and modern indie games that use that style, however its kinda weird that it became an aesthetic at all really, those games never looked like that during our childhoods because we played them on those old crt TVs, it smoothed out the pixels and had this warm glow and the scan lines, i wish more indie games tried looking like that, how these old games actually looked like and were intended to look like at the time, and not like you're playing on an emulator
Agreed. I actually like the modern pixel art that mimics the CRT scanline and glow feel. They look much better and are a lot more smoothed out. I think the other kind of pixel art looks really cheap most of the time. Eastward is one example of it being done really well.
I’m really happy Bomb Rush Cyberfunk’s art style was inspired by Jet Set Radio’s beautiful cell shaded art style bc overall the JSR’e cell shade art style is just awesome. And I hope we see more games have that style
Man I have to say, I had been thoroughly burnt out on UA-cam as a whole these past few months. After watching this, you’ve reignited my love of my childhood and nostalgia content. The way you stylize your videos and present your information is unlike anything anyone else is doing on this platform right now. I feel like I’m watching old school youtube and Adult Swim at the same time. Really top notch dude. And I’ve seen quite a bit of your stuff and this is by far your best video yet. Ah God, take me back to 2010’s youtube, when creators made real shit like this.
I ADORE your work dude, I have a blast seeing you jump around and chill on the backgrounds haha, it's super fun, what a unique and cool editing style you have it just... speaks to me. I'm so used to leaving UA-cam videos in the background while doing something else, but I always have to make time for yours because I must take in everything in the video since it's so purposeful. Just... Thank you!
i wouldn’t say so much unique, this style of editing is, to say the least, HEAVILY inspired from “NakeyJakey” style of editing, if you like it then you should check out the guy who inspired it in the first place ;)
The music choices for your videos Pitstop is fantastic, you never fail. I think you're spot on about everything stylistically speaking (except for the cel-shaded Spider-Man aesthetic, but to each their own). I think this was a great way of making content that strikes to the the heart of what a lot of us gamers feel about this current era of visuals that we might have a hard time putting into words. Kudos!
I feel like you gotta be my favourite art appreciator on this platform, there’s not many people who can simply point at a pretty picture and make it feel alluring, ya know? Pure positivity, it’s nice to be shown pretty stuff. Sometimes it has to be forced sometimes there doesn’t have to be a point, only a purpose. To make people remember how much we have accomplished, accumulated. The beautiful art that exists in all the corners many wouldn’t think to look for on their own. Sincerely, goodnight It is 3 am
bro hitting me with the pokemon mystery dungeon music. that shit still hits me at my core man. Im glad that i got too see and experience al these old games trough my childhood. In a somewhat poorer family we would always be behind on the newest consoles etc. but it now allows me too go back and enjoy older games without being to bothered by graphics. thanks for yet another nostalgia trip my man.
The way you interact with the green screen "environment" is so fucking money dude. It feels like your genuinely inside the sets you use and its dope. 21:00 is a perfect example and I don't see many other creators utilize the space like this. Made it feel like we're all kickin it watching space do crazy shit. Its cool!
Your channel looks like it was made by me, so i can never forget how happy i was when i was a lil kid. like... i don't even have words to express how your videos make me feel. Thanks man, to put words on these niches subjects that i like in pop culture. i can't talk about these with people because they won't understand , but at this little pitstop i feel surrounded by common nostalgia. so thx man... like from the bottom of my heart. From a congolese/french guy in france
And also!!! Pixel art is amazing. Am playing Minish Cap for the first time until the end after being captured by it when I was a child, and holy shit I feel like am on another universe. The perspective of the backgrounds and characters changing as you get smaller are so enchanting to me. The colors too, so pretty.
I absolutely adore the art direction of Tunic. It’s got this lovely high fidelity low-poly style of rendering and the visual design of every region of the game’s map is beautiful, striking, or haunting. Like you described with the bloodborn demake, there are a few moments in Tunic that are more chilling or haunting because of the room its art style leaves for your imagination.
I love stylized graphics with all my heart but I still think Alan Wake 2 really did deserve that win. It has some visual effects I haven’t seen before like the ones where two places are layered on top of each other like a hologram taking up the whole screen. Also the neon city Alan’s story takes place in looked amazing though at places a bit uninspired. Changing the atmosphere of places and their lighting and objects in there in real time was really impressive too. AAA has a very distinct boring realistic look but I think Alan Wake shouldn’t be put in that same group.
@@j.2512 I think we have it best these days with indies carrying the torch of the experimental nature of the games around the millenium. Back then I would imagine crunch and overworking was already a problem even though people got to be more creative in those game companies. These days anyone can have an idea for a game and work on their project for however long it takes without higher ups breathing down their necks.
@@maaki50 No they don-t, every indie "spiritual succesor" is a cheap bootleg of the oldschool AAA game they are trying to mimick, is always worse and much less creative. Indie devs only use the nostalgia and aesthetics as an excuse to be lazy. Like 99.999999 of retro inspired indies are shovelware and pretty much nothing really measures up to the stuff AAA 90s devs made.
@@j.2512 I see you don’t know what the 99.9999% of 90s AAA games were… fucking shovelware! You just don’t remember them because they were quickly forgotten about. Also can you name like 10 shovelware indies since there seem to be so many of them.
Amazing video, as always! Long time fan here, and this may be one of your best yet. Or I'm just old and weak to nostalgia. Your music choices, the games you mention, even the specific moments in those games, brings me to tears at least once per video. Thank you for your consistently sick quality and sticking true to your content and heart even as you keep gaining popularity. I'm in the middle of a move right now but I plan on joining the Patreon very soon, like I've been meaning to for a stupid long time, lol. Final note: Wind Waker's graphics are peak comfy and I loved them even when Gamers didn't, lmfao. See you in the next one, my dude!
A long time ago, there was a video that captivated me, making me watch it without doing anything else, even though it lasted almost an hour. What a great video, man, beautiful.
18:09 This! I think as technology improves and more realistic graphics are possible, there becomes more room for stylistic art in games. There becomes more potential to push hardware to do more with a game.
Viewtiful Joe definitely gotta be mentioned when it comes to cel-shading. Nothing looked cooler than that comic/manga shadow on Joe as you slow-mo kicked a boss in the face!
Bro I cannot express how much I enjoy watching your videos, you have somehow made content that appeals almost exclusively to the part of me that played Golden Sun on the Advance for hours, watched Super Mario Bros Z and listened to 90s anime openings of shows that I'd never watched And sure this specific video is ABOUT older graphics but quite literally every video youve made gives me a nostalgia that I cant find anywhere else, keep this stuff up man youre too good XD
Kh1 has a special place in my heart because of that aesthetic. Even though some of the controls fucking blow those damn graphics just makes the game feel so cozy and just a fockin vibe. Another banger by IP 🙏🏼🙏🏼🔥
Consumers expect the shiniest graphics because they've been trained to think that's what AAA games should be. Its the publishers themselves that have pushed this idea that games should be hyper realistic. Stylized games aren't taken as seriously by the industry, and consequently, they're not taken as seriously by the majority of consumers. After all, if the game isn't super shiny, then why did I just pay $500 for a console capable of 4K graphics and ray tracing?
I remember when I used to play the PS1 with my older sister, games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, etc. While I will agree that nostalgia plays a part, there is just something about those graphics that makes them feel different. Maybe it's truly something about the fact that they came out in an era where 3D was THE innovation and that latches on to my mind, those games would make me say "Wow! Just look at that!" now modern games after years of churning out a bunch of realistic games make me go "Eh, very pretty." Modern realistic games are not bad, but they are not capable of scratching an itch in my mind.
Killer7 is still, to this day, my favorite looking videogame ever. The extremely harsh lighting low-poly visuals using high-contrast saturated colors and unconventional camera angles mixed with the surreal characters, setting and plot creates a truly unique game that is still fresh two decades later. Pure cinema. 😔👌
I appreciate it so much hearing someone make a very long video about this era of games as someone who’s making a game to match this kind of feel well more ps2 than anything but it’s so affirming that people still love this kind of games
I know The Legend of Dragoon is super flawed, but I love it, specially those backgrounds, MAN!!! The town and castle of Fletz at night evokes a tropical yet moroccan-vibe only possible in fiction, but then there's Furni being this whole city formed of domes at an Alaskan or Eastern Europe forested region, Vellweb being this bizarre cliffside ruin with a massive ribcage-shaped cannon and a fragmented tower, I can go on and on, but darn those beautiful backgrounds belong to a museum.
You have a lot of chill vibes and the enthusiastic gushing of something that can easily be talked about is very infectious. I will admit its mostly a nostalgic feeling for me but those later 2D and early 3D graphics will be the go-to pick for me as for as favorites go. They just scream video game to me.
That Lapras theme in the background from Mystery Dungeon: T/D/S in the background is amazing, one of the best video game OSTs. These aesthetic arguments also exist w/ music.
Another game that I think should be mentioned is the Megaman Legends games. Their style has aged like fine wine. The characters are so expressive, and the aesthetic is way more memorable to me. Another is the 3DS games. A lot of them, not just Pokemon, but Zelda, Kid Icarus, and much more, looked great for character models.
I remember watching the pre-rendered cutscenes and looking at the artwork for the original Final Fantasy 7 thinking one day games will be able to look like that in real time, now not only do games look many many times better than that but a game looking like that old artwork is an aesthetic choice, a welcome one. and if the devs want it can even look like the drawn artwork. It's amazing how far the tech has come.
21:00 one particular thing about spyro skybox is that they are fully polygonal, so they have a very specific look that other texture skyboxes don´t have at the time
Another Internet Pitstop banger I fear! I think you are absolutely right to want more stylized games, so thank god that we're kind of in the midst of an Indie Game renaissance. The graphics and aesthetic of a game should be in service of heightening the game's experience as a whole. Fantastic watch!
As an artist and a retro gamer I see passion in these games that's why we can remember the stories and the adventures from them plus creativity and innovation
Im glad this video is blowing up. Your editing style is so fun and the topic in general is really interesting. The way you insert yourself into the games, or the freaking first person stuff with your hands and pointing in the sky is so creative dude. It really feels immersive. Btw a video idea. Do you like swimming in games? I would spend hours in the Great Bay in Majoras Mask swimming around as Zora Link because I'm fascinated by water in viddo games. Tomb Raider is another great example with its underwater effects being really striking and fun to traverse. Fishing minigames are totally addictive too. Can't forget about the vastness of the Wind Wakers sea too. So yeah a video on water in video games would be sick.
This video got recommended to me, and while I would normally love this kinda topic, the microphone is rubbing me the wrong way. I used a lav mic once and it ruined my video, so I've never used it again. I'd invest in a higher quality microphone personally. I do like what your saying, but I think your videos would be more appealing with better audio quality.
Thanks man! I’m not entirely sure what happened tbh cause usually my audio doesn’t sound like that but something went wrong in particular with this one, either way what kinda mic would you recommend?
Man, Littleroot Town and the secret base right under cycling road, night time Station Square, Eterna Forest, and later in life the Imperial City *always* hit me with the feeling of "Hey mom, I'm home". Growing up, life was rough. Like second oldest brother trying to kill me, single mom was constantly sick, and my sister stealing everything I didn't watch 24 and an extra hour a day. I never had my own console until far in the future when my siblings were out of the house beyond that red gameboy advance sp or the black ds light with the broken L button that my oldest brother gave me with a copy of pokemon diamond for christmas after he was given a psp by his foster parents. Escaping into video games was pretty much my only way of coping with how bad my life was, beyond putting on those blue and orange rollerblades and heading out, so just hearing Littleroot Town's theme just puts me in that exact place that gives the feeling of a slightly off but still warm feeling of being home. I'm doing a lot better nowadays, I have an amazing girlfriend where I can show her affection in public without fear and a job that doesn't suck in a place far from that cursed town of Greenwood, Indiana. Didn't mean to turn this into, well, my internet pitstop or checkpoint. Love your work dude, please keep making more videos. Your videos feel like you're a friend I've had for years is over playing splitscreen Nuketown or Vallhalla in halo 3 ranting to me about a topic while like sipping on Mountain Dew Livewire after a day at the skatepark. Take care dude.
The defining feature for me on the aesthetic peak of pixel art over 3d art, is that 2d pixel looks just as phenomenal in stills as they do in motion, and i don’t think the same can be said about 3d art/3d games.. I concur on what you said: that 3d doesn’t necessarily lack style, because there are plenty of games that capture their own identity in 3d, but i would attest that their beauty is only fully realized in-motion, and i believe that to be a defining characteristic, albeit a subtle one. Stay cool, everyone. :)
I just found your channel today and your videos are really great! It's also nice to see fellow Bosnian and Hercegovian people or people with this background in spaces like these online especially when they're doing so well. Pozdrav iz njemačke!
bro. i love your videos. that song you used at 2:20 ish in combination with the visuals made me instantly feel so much emotion. i'm legit about to cry rn.
personally, most 'realistic' games don't look that attractive to me, and I think your video does a great job explaining why I feel that way. the industry's obssession with making the most and biggest realistic graphics possible is making AAA games an unattainable and unsustainable search for boring predictable perfection. And with the recent shut-down of game studios that made games as unique-looking as Hi-Fi Rush because they want to prioritize a particular type of game, it just makes me realize that we can no-longer expect anything more and anything less than exactly what they want: AAA games with high-fidelity, high-quality realistic graphics that take up more than half of your console/PC's memory and likely present to you the most safe and bland formula you could ever ask for.
As far as cell shading goes, my absolute favorite game to use it is Wild Arms 3. I absolutely adore the sketchy pencil-drawn graphics. It brings the whole storybook vibe together and I wish more games used that style. Cell shading looks good no matter what, but there's still so much room for extra flair.
A fellow Wild Arms 3 enjoyer! Nice to see one out in the wild! But yes, I'll second this. For a game set on what's almost just desert, it's still very easy on the eyes. The cutscene direction for that game is also very dynamic and much more animated than some games I can care to name right now, too.
You said it all! The video quality is Oscar-worthy, congrats bro. As a content creator who shares this feeling of nostalgia from the low-poly era, I felt totally represented by everything you said! 🥃
I think the reason we love older graphics is simple, they remind us that even the things that aren’t perfect can still have immense value to not only you but a lot of other people. We see these games vs modern graphics and they remind us that being imperfect is okay because you can always become better if you keep making progress. They’re inspirational, and healing
I haven’t played very many games, and in fact probably none of the Spider-Man games, so this is my first time seeing that cel shaded one at 36:25. The way that scene is framed through comic panels, with the characters falling out of one panel into a void and then into another panel where the jacket guy falls slightly out of frame is really cool looking, it makes me want to animate some cool stuff. Also, 48:30 is a weird point to make while using a shader that makes the water and sky all photorealistic.
A friend of mine released a retro indie RPG on Steam a while ago (it's called Kor) in the Gameboy visual style, and when we went to show it at a convention one of the most excited players was a ten year old kid. It was really neat to see.
I recently played Metal Gear Solid for the first time because of the Master Collection re-release, and the graphics genuinely astonished me. I both couldn’t believe this game was from the PS1 and also felt a deep nostalgia witnessing it since I grew up with a Nintendo 64 and those classic low poly character models. It instantly has become one of my all time favourite games.
My favourite looking (new) games that capture this old aesthetic are Who’s Lila? and Umurangi Generation. Also shout out to the original Pathologic for its gross and sickly art direction that being limited by technology helped with tenfold.
Oh god, when I see a JRPG in chunky PS1 pixels/pre-rendered backgrounds, it just feels like a warm blanket. When I played FF VII in autumn ‘99, I just imprinted on it immediately. HOME. But my first video games were on the NES, I remember the SNES launch hype, a completely sleepless night on Christmas Eve 1996 for the N64 I snuck a peek at earlier... I regularly play GameCube and Dreamcast games even now (beats buggy "AAA" messes with always functioning microtransactions & Day 1 Patches). So those & PS2 have their place too… I remember being in adulthood and in my own place during PS3 & Wii, and all that goes along with that... So my “Home” has many Rooms, is how I would put it. I have nostalgia for video games more than just about anything else. As seen ☝🏻, they're the milepost signs of my life (& why the Japanese Mana V trailer *destroyed* me. I digress.). Which is why I love coming here. You love it too. You have respect & insight paired with humor, so I’m always stoked to see a new video. Thanks dude ✌🏻
Hyper light drifter genuinely was a life changing experience for me, a game with no dialogue establishing such an intense emotional connection was a first for me, the music is just perfect, genuinely makes me awestruck to near tears every time I listen to the soundtrack, the ending actually made me bawl my eyes out
Genuinely one of the few channels that I feel deserves a like on every video. The relaxed tone, the writing, the editing, the overall style and theme of the channel. Well done!! 😄
I was gonna gush about all the older graphics that still appeal to me, but honestly you covered quite a few of them. From the pre-rendered backgrounds of FF 7/8/9 and Donkey Kong Country to the surreal vibes of Super Mario 64 to the coziness of Pokemon Gens 4/5, I pretty much agree with your feelings on older graphics entirely. I'm glad there's still an appreciation for these older aesthetics. Stuff like OoT3D/MM3D are really good aesthetically, but every time I want to replay those games I go with the N64 versions. It's probably nostalgia but something about the crustiness of those graphics just adds to the atmosphere (not even counting changes like Dead Hand that you mentioned) and really adds to the surreal vibes of those games. You really hit the nail on the head. This video feels like it was made for me personally. 10/10 video will absolutely watch again.
You once again understand me so much man. Growing up I basically stayed away from any games using realistic graphics. I love art and wanna be inspired and taken to another world when I play games ❤
Here's the factor link straight from the time vortex! strms.net/factor75_internetpi...
Can I just say... that Hallow Knight Fountain, with the Activate Windows in the corner, feels way more sombre with the watermark there than without in a really weird aesthetic way.
No shadows, or shadows, pick
Hollow night is shadows, nice try
>she
That gets my willy going silly
I think it's important to note that older games had much smaller dev teams, working on much smaller time scales, which produces art unified by a singular vision. That's a much more challenging thing to do in a modern triple A title.
Fax......"too many cooks in the kitchen ruin the stew." Same thing happens in a lot of movies that get canned down the road too.
Woah this is a great perspective
smaller ' *shorter* ' time frames , more so than the present ?
@@APDS-Akin triple A games can take half a decade or more, compared to the 3-6 month turnaround times you saw in the 8bit era. Most games on the PS1 didn't take longer than a year to develop.
Just wanna say I LOVE the way you insert yourself into every scene, not just standing in front of the visuals but actually becoming a part of them, sitting and laying in seats, trunks, the ground, the editing must have taken forever but the end result is really fantastic visually. The part where you're showing us the low poly sky boxes and just lay next to the camera, pointing and the different scenery and even showing us a visual on your phone instead of cropping it into the vid. So immersive, beautiful, massive props for the effort you've put into this video. Love it!
I absolutely agree, I love the way he does this as well, so much more thought and care is put into every frame and it goes a long way.
I agree. I love this kind of thing and I want to do it myself.
this style of editing is, to say the least, HEAVILY inspired from “NakeyJakey” style of editing, if you like it then you should check out the guy who inspired it in the first place ;)
Thank you so much for this comment! I always did the more immersive shots here and there as I developed this style but only recently have I decided to really lean into it so that most of the video is me sitting, laying down and stuff. It takes a lot longer to plan the vid out now but based off your comment I feel it’s worth it! Adds to the chill vibes lol and most importantly as a a guy who took influence from Nakeyjakey to use a green screen he never really did what I do with really implementing my pose and seating into the shots so I felt by doing this I’m making it more my own thing!
@@InternetPitstop friendly reminder that i have hardly ever seen someone utilize a green screen so well for youtube videos. you may make videos about aesthetic, but your editing choices elevate the entire video. Lean into it, lay on everything, its a fucking mood and i love it
I really like the idea you mentioned of not thinking of older graphics as stepping stones, but thinking of them as an art style to be used for games when they fit the theme
It's funny cause I feel the same way about shitty CG film effects. There are cut scenes in old games like AoE 2, and teasers for Diablo 2 that I thought were the coolest shit growing up. The Final Fantasy movie or that Linken Park music video is "bad CG" by modern film standards but there's something about the super sterile, clinical look that I find so satisfying. It's very similar to those videos of lawns being mowed or dirt being power washed. A nicely shaded object with a clean gradient is a pleasing aesthetic even if it isn't photo real.
Something big about the low poly look is shape language. Shape language in character design refers to how shapes imply characteristic, a square is sturdy, a circle is cut and harmless, a Triangle is sharp and dangerous looking, these trains are combined in strategic way to tell a story about the characters through their looks. In modern games character models have so many polygons that they can look totally smooth as they would be in real life, so using that bloodborn example, those ghost guys are smoother which in spite of them being creepey is still send off that circular lack of threat vibes. In older games, no matter how hard you try to make something a circle, it will always be angular, which makes everything feel a little more dangerous and threatening.
OHHHH that explains so much!! I love shape language so much
Interesting idea but I don’t think it *completely* holds up. When we were playing those older games as kids they were on CRT televisions. There was a bloom that smoothed the image, which isn’t something you get now. So roundness definitely was possible. I mean just look at Yoshi, for example. But of course it’s more complex than that - Boos and Goombas were also largely round. The danger comes from the fact they look angry, the colour, movements… and that they kill you 😮 haha
@jimmahgee Well, i'm not just talking about the enemies. I'm talking about the general uncanny nature of these games. Also, it's important to note that CRTs certainly smoothed things you they didn’t get around the overall polygonal look of everything. There's a reason why people knew Lara Croft had triangle boobs. And these days, when people do demakes or replay old games, they see these on modern screens so they see that jaggedness.
@@marche800 I just don’t buy it, there’s far more context and it all works together to produce the experience, including what the viewer brings. Mario 64 didn’t look “uncanny” and “dangerous” to me as a child. It was dangerous in some respects but in others I found it beautiful. In Ocarina of Time Kokiri forest felt safe, and Hyrule field during the daytime was full of potential. When I studied animation at university shape theory and silhouette were an important part of character design but they aren’t the “be all and end all” - once you have colour, movement, facial expressions, music, they all work in concert.
@jimmahgee Well there’s also the fact that our imaginations tend to fill in the blanks when it comes to things we saw as kids. We got what things were supposed to be and extrapolated from there. I've heard tons of people say they thought a game they loved looked better than it actually did. Though more to the point, I'm not trying to say that all polygonal games are inherently threatening, but there are definitely points where the uncannyness of the game design enhanced spooky elements. Like deadhand. When Deadhand was made smooth in the 3ds version of OOT, he became less threatening. The jankiness of his model made a creepy design genuinely terrifying. I'd say the same for redeads or even RE zombies.
Him sitting with Yoshi watching the sunset always gets me
😂 so good
Peak
As an actual older gamer who grew up in the 90’s, I was legitimately choked up at that moment. And at “You’ve reached the internet pitstop, would you like to rest?” (Chrono Trigger is a gut-punch nostalgic blast for me in general)
Same here, my personal guy punch is the DKC2 sunset
This little pitstop on the internet has a big place in my heart. So comfy.
Art direction > Hyper realism
Realism with art direction is cool tho.
I get what you mean but hyperrealism doesn't exclude art direction
This is why Elden Ring and BOTW / TOTK still look better than Red Dead Redemption 2, despite the latter being released on an extremely underpowered handheld
@@anonymous01201 "look better" is still just a preference. RDR2 isn't just throwing realistic assets on a map, its a well researched and developed look, where the subject matter worked best with a very realistic setting.
Every time.
Your videos are like finally hanging out with that kid that knows dope shit and they're actually an ascended knower who becomes your main homie. Forever.
The retro aesthetic and art style in general just makes me so happy. There's something about packing in so much detail in such simple shapes, being able to use your imagination to fill in the blanks, that games don't really have nowadays unless such graphics are intentional, but even then, it's very hit or miss.
I live for the way he inserts himself into different games and funny scenarios. As always, this channel still feels like an immersive little world. 9:26, like what other video essay channel would go the extra mile to do something like this.
I agree, nobody else on youtube does that. This dude has created a really unique style for his vids
those segments in the beginning where you were just sitting in video game landscapes with the characters got me right in the heart. id say that i cant believe i was jealous of an edit but i actually can
Lol thx man!
this style of editing is, to say the least, HEAVILY inspired from “NakeyJakey” style of editing, if you like it then you should check out the guy who inspired it in the first place ;)
"I'm a shitty writer that's why I'm a UA-camr" boi you made me watch a 5 hour video about anime backgrounds and I didn't even notice how much time passed. Every video is on point. I cried, I laughed, I felt nostalgia, I learnt, your editing is funny and unique and fits your channel amazingly. Don't sell yourself short. You're amazing. Even if I think I don't care about a topic in your videos you manage to get me excited and keep my attention all the way through. Because you ARE a good writer.
The thing that fascinates me the most about low-poly graphics is that all the details are in the textures. Especially games from Rare. They have mastered texture work on the N64, so much so that I always catch myself stopping every few minutes and just smelling the roses. It's magic, despite the limitations and flat surfaces everything feels alive and like the structures have sophisticated geometry, even up close. Ocarina of Time is the exact opposite, that game doesn't hide the cardboard scenery whatsoever. Flat looking structures, cardboard tree and mountain walls and blurry, smudgy, stretched textures left and right. From a technical perspective it's pretty bad. But I love the vibe of the aesthetics. It feels like a crude painting. Up close nothing makes sense, but if you step back you see the rough brush strokes form a clear and detailed picture. It creates a comfortable uncanniness that I never feel in modern games. So many games of that era have a cozy vibe to them. I feel like I could just sit down and have a nap in those environments.
So glad you mentioned Chrono Cross. For the past 3 months I've been obsessed with atmosphere of Chrono Cross. The contrast between blue sky, yellow beaches and green forests is just perfect.
And then there is that opening, which I've had on repeat for months.
One of the reasons stuff like that holds up is this weird thing where when you're limited in you're creative space it seems to bring out the best in some people.
its because back then videogames weren't sjw crap with black lesbians
The green screen use in this video was top notch. Every time he looked back at the pixel art or whatever behind him, or seemed like he was laying back in a deck chair or something... Never got old. Good job, man!
Yeah especially the green scarf in Front of the green Screen was a great idea. 😂
@@bobswarley7512 omg i was like why is no one talking about the green scarf and clothes hahaha
FF7 was my childhood and it is such a cool aesthetic. Pre-rendered backgrounds and animated 3D fights were so mind blowing and I still love it. It feels like stepping into a painting. I can’t describe it better.
FF7 pre renders are ugly asf, and makes the areas confusing at times. Ff8 now that’s where pre renders are beautiful
I got confused at the mechanical hand, after Aerith's house, took me ages to realise how to navigate that part as a kid. @@lulu_TheWitchBoy
@@UltimateGattaioh yeah now that I remember, that was confusing. Well it seems I see through rose tinted glasse then. I still love the style though.
@@high.level.noob. not entirely rose-tinted glasses, i played ff7 for the first time like 4 months ago and i didn't find them all too confusing, a couple were for sure, but the large majority of them were just jaw dropping, whether that's cuz they actually were or cuz of what they were aiming to portray, i'm not sure.
that game had a very good art direction though, imo.
@@lulu_TheWitchBoyI disagree, the low poly character models are cool. It’s like the artists made origami versions of each character.
You know a creator is good at what they do when you don't skip their in-video sponsorships. Well done, brother.
Sharpedo Bluff from pokemon Mystery Dungeons Explores IS my house. Hearing the Treasure Town theme is my childhood bedroom. Both these things make me want to cry because I'm 25 and not 8 anymore.
Imagine a timeline where Pokemon ledgends Arceus looked like Ōkami. We were robbed.
Edit: You earned a subscription just for shouting out Gravity Rush, Quality taste.
NOSTALGIA just hits the soul different
As an elder millenial who is practically a fossil now it warms my heart to see someone younger raving about low res background graphics in 90s games, and set to the masterpiece that is the Pilotwings 64 soundtrack. Devs back in the day had to work so much harder with what they had which drove creativity and meant games didn't all look the same.
If you haven"t already, check out the backgrounds in 1080 Snowboarding and Final Fantasy 8, the pared back graphics in F Zero X, and the water effects in Wave Race 64.
Ps1/N64 graphic are timeless,I never understood the whole "they age poorly" mentality,just to give you an idea I show Super Mario 64 to my niece(she’s 11) and she love these graphics a lot,that just show that these graphics are still great to look at today
You’re right. My daughter is 4 and she’s the same. Instead of asking ‘why’, they see it for the beauty it has.
i remember adults in the 90s saying it looked weird and shitty and didn't get why us kids liked it. I don't see kids today wanting that when given the option to choose between that and newer titles, If devs back then had more tools they would have used them to not make their asset look like jagged ass
The limited capabilities of the time did severely limit what could be done with making shit like organic cause the hardware simply can't afford smooth looking shapes, so unless the people working on the specific game knew what they were doing everything just looked like an unappealing geometric mess, the art direction needs to be extremely on point to make those games look any good, not to mention that the 3d view meant more complex movement was required to make the characters seem believable, while in 2d you can just have a character sprite on a JRPG flip a 180 without any animation of them turning and no one will question it cause it matches the level of detail of the rest of the game, if a character just rotates 180 degrees in a 3d game it will just look wrong cause the three-dimensional perspective feels too "realistic" to allow fir that movement.
Even just PS2 games aged a lot better in this department cause, while not realistic, in a sense they are kinda realistic enough to achieve at least the bare minimum of what people want to see in a 3d game.
Like reasonably smooth models with only some visible edges that are detailed enough to convey the intricacies of a character be it "real" or cartoon looking, like their expressions, hand gestures and even hair to a degree abd sane can be applied to the environments, the animations are just detailed enough to convey most things you'd wanna see like a character properly holding something or have stuff like bushes react to your character when walking on them, and in general it's all kind of the bare minimum of what people have come to expect from modern 3d games in general be it realistic or cell shaded, triple A or indie.
The PS1 simply lacked on a lot of these things abd had to make up for it in other ways which not all games did successfully just as even modern games fail to account for their limitations.
It's also worth remembering that fir every Super Mario 64 there's like a thousand shitty shovelware games that just looked and played like ass even back in the day.
Okay, you CANNOT hit me with Zeal and the Another World theme from Cross at the same time like that. my emotions cannot take it, it is Super Effective nostalgia damage and GODDAMMIT Pitstop, I'm crying now!
in all seriousness, I'm a big fan of retro game aesthetics. Maybe it has something to do with being a video game addict since 1989 (no, you're never gonna outgrow it), but really good 16-bit style pixel art or really creative low-poly graphics in a modern title are the key to my soul.
Hello PinternetItstop
Hiiii
wow
Putting yourself in those pixel art shots is a whole aesthetic in itself. Playing these games as a kid I always saw the game screen as like a window to a world where that's what reality looks like; people are made of pixels and have framerates, and all the motions and magic are just what physics is. Seeing a regular dude in that world, with all our rules alongside theirs just kinda blows my mind in a way I can't describe. I never really saw them as places I could go, and now I want it. Intent achieved, well done sir.
Also, I appreciate the planning and retakes required to make those shots while keeping the script flowing. Altogether great work done well for a good cause.
You're so right about the ff7 aesthetic, Cosmo Canyon is my personal favourite for some of the most beautiful backdrops and art pieces, so much that even as a kid I wish screenshotting was possible on my ps1.
See i do like pixel art and modern indie games that use that style, however its kinda weird that it became an aesthetic at all really, those games never looked like that during our childhoods because we played them on those old crt TVs, it smoothed out the pixels and had this warm glow and the scan lines, i wish more indie games tried looking like that, how these old games actually looked like and were intended to look like at the time, and not like you're playing on an emulator
Agreed. I actually like the modern pixel art that mimics the CRT scanline and glow feel. They look much better and are a lot more smoothed out. I think the other kind of pixel art looks really cheap most of the time. Eastward is one example of it being done really well.
I’m really happy Bomb Rush Cyberfunk’s art style was inspired by Jet Set Radio’s beautiful cell shaded art style bc overall the JSR’e cell shade art style is just awesome. And I hope we see more games have that style
Real fun and short game
Man I have to say, I had been thoroughly burnt out on UA-cam as a whole these past few months. After watching this, you’ve reignited my love of my childhood and nostalgia content. The way you stylize your videos and present your information is unlike anything anyone else is doing on this platform right now. I feel like I’m watching old school youtube and Adult Swim at the same time.
Really top notch dude. And I’ve seen quite a bit of your stuff and this is by far your best video yet.
Ah God, take me back to 2010’s youtube, when creators made real shit like this.
I ADORE your work dude, I have a blast seeing you jump around and chill on the backgrounds haha, it's super fun, what a unique and cool editing style you have it just... speaks to me.
I'm so used to leaving UA-cam videos in the background while doing something else, but I always have to make time for yours because I must take in everything in the video since it's so purposeful. Just... Thank you!
i wouldn’t say so much unique, this style of editing is, to say the least, HEAVILY inspired from “NakeyJakey” style of editing, if you like it then you should check out the guy who inspired it in the first place ;)
The music choices for your videos Pitstop is fantastic, you never fail. I think you're spot on about everything stylistically speaking (except for the cel-shaded Spider-Man aesthetic, but to each their own). I think this was a great way of making content that strikes to the the heart of what a lot of us gamers feel about this current era of visuals that we might have a hard time putting into words. Kudos!
I feel like you gotta be my favourite art appreciator on this platform, there’s not many people who can simply point at a pretty picture and make it feel alluring, ya know? Pure positivity, it’s nice to be shown pretty stuff. Sometimes it has to be forced sometimes there doesn’t have to be a point, only a purpose. To make people remember how much we have accomplished, accumulated. The beautiful art that exists in all the corners many wouldn’t think to look for on their own. Sincerely, goodnight It is 3 am
bro hitting me with the pokemon mystery dungeon music. that shit still hits me at my core man. Im glad that i got too see and experience al these old games trough my childhood. In a somewhat poorer family we would always be behind on the newest consoles etc. but it now allows me too go back and enjoy older games without being to bothered by graphics.
thanks for yet another nostalgia trip my man.
It's crazy how I was able to point out that Spyro skybox at 20:30 when I haven't played the original in 20 years.
The way you interact with the green screen "environment" is so fucking money dude. It feels like your genuinely inside the sets you use and its dope. 21:00 is a perfect example and I don't see many other creators utilize the space like this. Made it feel like we're all kickin it watching space do crazy shit. Its cool!
Your channel looks like it was made by me, so i can never forget how happy i was when i was a lil kid. like... i don't even have words to express how your videos make me feel. Thanks man, to put words on these niches subjects that i like in pop culture. i can't talk about these with people because they won't understand , but at this little pitstop i feel surrounded by common nostalgia. so thx man... like from the bottom of my heart. From a congolese/french guy in france
And also!!! Pixel art is amazing. Am playing Minish Cap for the first time until the end after being captured by it when I was a child, and holy shit I feel like am on another universe. The perspective of the backgrounds and characters changing as you get smaller are so enchanting to me. The colors too, so pretty.
I absolutely adore the art direction of Tunic. It’s got this lovely high fidelity low-poly style of rendering and the visual design of every region of the game’s map is beautiful, striking, or haunting. Like you described with the bloodborn demake, there are a few moments in Tunic that are more chilling or haunting because of the room its art style leaves for your imagination.
I love stylized graphics with all my heart but I still think Alan Wake 2 really did deserve that win. It has some visual effects I haven’t seen before like the ones where two places are layered on top of each other like a hologram taking up the whole screen. Also the neon city Alan’s story takes place in looked amazing though at places a bit uninspired. Changing the atmosphere of places and their lighting and objects in there in real time was really impressive too. AAA has a very distinct boring realistic look but I think Alan Wake shouldn’t be put in that same group.
all those old games were AAA once
@@j.2512 I think we have it best these days with indies carrying the torch of the experimental nature of the games around the millenium. Back then I would imagine crunch and overworking was already a problem even though people got to be more creative in those game companies. These days anyone can have an idea for a game and work on their project for however long it takes without higher ups breathing down their necks.
@@maaki50 No they don-t, every indie "spiritual succesor" is a cheap bootleg of the oldschool AAA game they are trying to mimick, is always worse and much less creative. Indie devs only use the nostalgia and aesthetics as an excuse to be lazy. Like 99.999999 of retro inspired indies are shovelware and pretty much nothing really measures up to the stuff AAA 90s devs made.
@@j.2512 I see you don’t know what the 99.9999% of 90s AAA games were… fucking shovelware! You just don’t remember them because they were quickly forgotten about.
Also can you name like 10 shovelware indies since there seem to be so many of them.
Amazing video, as always! Long time fan here, and this may be one of your best yet. Or I'm just old and weak to nostalgia. Your music choices, the games you mention, even the specific moments in those games, brings me to tears at least once per video. Thank you for your consistently sick quality and sticking true to your content and heart even as you keep gaining popularity. I'm in the middle of a move right now but I plan on joining the Patreon very soon, like I've been meaning to for a stupid long time, lol. Final note: Wind Waker's graphics are peak comfy and I loved them even when Gamers didn't, lmfao. See you in the next one, my dude!
A long time ago, there was a video that captivated me, making me watch it without doing anything else, even though it lasted almost an hour. What a great video, man, beautiful.
Dude you released this literally not even an hour after I finished watching your Atmosphere in Zelda video. I am blessed
18:09 This! I think as technology improves and more realistic graphics are possible, there becomes more room for stylistic art in games. There becomes more potential to push hardware to do more with a game.
Viewtiful Joe definitely gotta be mentioned when it comes to cel-shading. Nothing looked cooler than that comic/manga shadow on Joe as you slow-mo kicked a boss in the face!
Bro I cannot express how much I enjoy watching your videos, you have somehow made content that appeals almost exclusively to the part of me that played Golden Sun on the Advance for hours, watched Super Mario Bros Z and listened to 90s anime openings of shows that I'd never watched
And sure this specific video is ABOUT older graphics but quite literally every video youve made gives me a nostalgia that I cant find anywhere else, keep this stuff up man youre too good XD
Kh1 has a special place in my heart because of that aesthetic. Even though some of the controls fucking blow those damn graphics just makes the game feel so cozy and just a fockin vibe. Another banger by IP 🙏🏼🙏🏼🔥
Consumers expect the shiniest graphics because they've been trained to think that's what AAA games should be. Its the publishers themselves that have pushed this idea that games should be hyper realistic. Stylized games aren't taken as seriously by the industry, and consequently, they're not taken as seriously by the majority of consumers. After all, if the game isn't super shiny, then why did I just pay $500 for a console capable of 4K graphics and ray tracing?
I remember when I used to play the PS1 with my older sister, games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, etc. While I will agree that nostalgia plays a part, there is just something about those graphics that makes them feel different. Maybe it's truly something about the fact that they came out in an era where 3D was THE innovation and that latches on to my mind, those games would make me say "Wow! Just look at that!" now modern games after years of churning out a bunch of realistic games make me go "Eh, very pretty." Modern realistic games are not bad, but they are not capable of scratching an itch in my mind.
Killer7 is still, to this day, my favorite looking videogame ever.
The extremely harsh lighting low-poly visuals using high-contrast saturated colors and unconventional camera angles mixed with the surreal characters, setting and plot creates a truly unique game that is still fresh two decades later.
Pure cinema. 😔👌
Not a lot of people talk about this but the low poly graphics in Majora's mask really elevates the dark under tones of the game.
YES SIRR RIGHT WHEN I GET OFF OF WORK *pulls up a chair cracks open a cold one*
I appreciate it so much hearing someone make a very long video about this era of games as someone who’s making a game to match this kind of feel well more ps2 than anything but it’s so affirming that people still love this kind of games
Jet Set Radio dance moves hit different, had me grooving.
Im glad I'm caught up on all your recent videos already, get to watch this as soon as I want!
One of my favorite artstyles will always be in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate or all earlier MH titles at that. It's just timeless to me.
Nothing will ever give me the feeling that just exploring old Spyro levels and hub worlds does.
Now I gotta go pour another one out for Toriyama. RIP legend.
2:15 I can’t even lie dude is straight thugging here
I know The Legend of Dragoon is super flawed, but I love it, specially those backgrounds, MAN!!!
The town and castle of Fletz at night evokes a tropical yet moroccan-vibe only possible in fiction, but then there's Furni being this whole city formed of domes at an Alaskan or Eastern Europe forested region, Vellweb being this bizarre cliffside ruin with a massive ribcage-shaped cannon and a fragmented tower, I can go on and on, but darn those beautiful backgrounds belong to a museum.
You have a lot of chill vibes and the enthusiastic gushing of something that can easily be talked about is very infectious. I will admit its mostly a nostalgic feeling for me but those later 2D and early 3D graphics will be the go-to pick for me as for as favorites go. They just scream video game to me.
That Lapras theme in the background from Mystery Dungeon: T/D/S in the background is amazing, one of the best video game OSTs. These aesthetic arguments also exist w/ music.
Another game that I think should be mentioned is the Megaman Legends games. Their style has aged like fine wine. The characters are so expressive, and the aesthetic is way more memorable to me.
Another is the 3DS games. A lot of them, not just Pokemon, but Zelda, Kid Icarus, and much more, looked great for character models.
I remember watching the pre-rendered cutscenes and looking at the artwork for the original Final Fantasy 7 thinking one day games will be able to look like that in real time, now not only do games look many many times better than that but a game looking like that old artwork is an aesthetic choice, a welcome one. and if the devs want it can even look like the drawn artwork. It's amazing how far the tech has come.
At this point this is just nostalgia the UA-cam channel and I’m here for it. Feels like a warm hug just watching this
You actually never miss so glad I subbed
21:00 one particular thing about spyro skybox is that they are fully polygonal, so they have a very specific look that other texture skyboxes don´t have at the time
Another Internet Pitstop banger I fear! I think you are absolutely right to want more stylized games, so thank god that we're kind of in the midst of an Indie Game renaissance. The graphics and aesthetic of a game should be in service of heightening the game's experience as a whole. Fantastic watch!
As an artist and a retro gamer I see passion in these games that's why we can remember the stories and the adventures from them plus creativity and innovation
You really got me again when standing outside linkshouse. We all love your content never change, never stop.
I am going to spend as many hours as it takes to learn that jet set radio dance. So smooth
Im glad this video is blowing up. Your editing style is so fun and the topic in general is really interesting. The way you insert yourself into the games, or the freaking first person stuff with your hands and pointing in the sky is so creative dude. It really feels immersive.
Btw a video idea. Do you like swimming in games? I would spend hours in the Great Bay in Majoras Mask swimming around as Zora Link because I'm fascinated by water in viddo games. Tomb Raider is another great example with its underwater effects being really striking and fun to traverse. Fishing minigames are totally addictive too. Can't forget about the vastness of the Wind Wakers sea too. So yeah a video on water in video games would be sick.
This video got recommended to me, and while I would normally love this kinda topic, the microphone is rubbing me the wrong way. I used a lav mic once and it ruined my video, so I've never used it again. I'd invest in a higher quality microphone personally. I do like what your saying, but I think your videos would be more appealing with better audio quality.
Thanks man! I’m not entirely sure what happened tbh cause usually my audio doesn’t sound like that but something went wrong in particular with this one, either way what kinda mic would you recommend?
@@InternetPitstop I use the AT-2020 with a U-Phoria UMC22 auto interface. I've just had bad experiences with lav mics so I tend to stay away from them
2:36 Nice touch, Mr. Pitstop!
Man, Littleroot Town and the secret base right under cycling road, night time Station Square, Eterna Forest, and later in life the Imperial City *always* hit me with the feeling of "Hey mom, I'm home". Growing up, life was rough. Like second oldest brother trying to kill me, single mom was constantly sick, and my sister stealing everything I didn't watch 24 and an extra hour a day. I never had my own console until far in the future when my siblings were out of the house beyond that red gameboy advance sp or the black ds light with the broken L button that my oldest brother gave me with a copy of pokemon diamond for christmas after he was given a psp by his foster parents. Escaping into video games was pretty much my only way of coping with how bad my life was, beyond putting on those blue and orange rollerblades and heading out, so just hearing Littleroot Town's theme just puts me in that exact place that gives the feeling of a slightly off but still warm feeling of being home.
I'm doing a lot better nowadays, I have an amazing girlfriend where I can show her affection in public without fear and a job that doesn't suck in a place far from that cursed town of Greenwood, Indiana. Didn't mean to turn this into, well, my internet pitstop or checkpoint. Love your work dude, please keep making more videos. Your videos feel like you're a friend I've had for years is over playing splitscreen Nuketown or Vallhalla in halo 3 ranting to me about a topic while like sipping on Mountain Dew Livewire after a day at the skatepark. Take care dude.
The defining feature for me on the aesthetic peak of pixel art over 3d art, is that 2d pixel looks just as phenomenal in stills as they do in motion, and i don’t think the same can be said about 3d art/3d games.. I concur on what you said: that 3d doesn’t necessarily lack style, because there are plenty of games that capture their own identity in 3d, but i would attest that their beauty is only fully realized in-motion, and i believe that to be a defining characteristic, albeit a subtle one.
Stay cool, everyone. :)
I just found your channel today and your videos are really great! It's also nice to see fellow Bosnian and Hercegovian people or people with this background in spaces like these online especially when they're doing so well. Pozdrav iz njemačke!
bro. i love your videos. that song you used at 2:20 ish in combination with the visuals made me instantly feel so much emotion. i'm legit about to cry rn.
Love the Pilot Wings 64 music at the beginning of your dissertation.
personally, most 'realistic' games don't look that attractive to me, and I think your video does a great job explaining why I feel that way. the industry's obssession with making the most and biggest realistic graphics possible is making AAA games an unattainable and unsustainable search for boring predictable perfection. And with the recent shut-down of game studios that made games as unique-looking as Hi-Fi Rush because they want to prioritize a particular type of game, it just makes me realize that we can no-longer expect anything more and anything less than exactly what they want: AAA games with high-fidelity, high-quality realistic graphics that take up more than half of your console/PC's memory and likely present to you the most safe and bland formula you could ever ask for.
As far as cell shading goes, my absolute favorite game to use it is Wild Arms 3. I absolutely adore the sketchy pencil-drawn graphics. It brings the whole storybook vibe together and I wish more games used that style. Cell shading looks good no matter what, but there's still so much room for extra flair.
A fellow Wild Arms 3 enjoyer! Nice to see one out in the wild!
But yes, I'll second this. For a game set on what's almost just desert, it's still very easy on the eyes. The cutscene direction for that game is also very dynamic and much more animated than some games I can care to name right now, too.
@@reaceles5636 There are literally dozens of us! Dozens!
Great art will always be great art. Those SNES RPGs in particular, even to this day, look incredible.
You said it all! The video quality is Oscar-worthy, congrats bro. As a content creator who shares this feeling of nostalgia from the low-poly era, I felt totally represented by everything you said! 🥃
I know this is simple, but you respecting a person's pronouns made my day.
I think the reason we love older graphics is simple, they remind us that even the things that aren’t perfect can still have immense value to not only you but a lot of other people. We see these games vs modern graphics and they remind us that being imperfect is okay because you can always become better if you keep making progress. They’re inspirational, and healing
Zone of the Enders 2 looks so damn good for its time that my brain keeps thinking it's a PS3 game rather than a PS2 game.
I still really miss Capcoms Darkstalkers series with proper cel animation. They had a great sense of humor about them too.
I haven’t played very many games, and in fact probably none of the Spider-Man games, so this is my first time seeing that cel shaded one at 36:25. The way that scene is framed through comic panels, with the characters falling out of one panel into a void and then into another panel where the jacket guy falls slightly out of frame is really cool looking, it makes me want to animate some cool stuff.
Also, 48:30 is a weird point to make while using a shader that makes the water and sky all photorealistic.
Great video! I hope we see more games in the octopath traveler artstyle. I think there is a lot to explore with it
A friend of mine released a retro indie RPG on Steam a while ago (it's called Kor) in the Gameboy visual style, and when we went to show it at a convention one of the most excited players was a ten year old kid. It was really neat to see.
I recently played Metal Gear Solid for the first time because of the Master Collection re-release, and the graphics genuinely astonished me. I both couldn’t believe this game was from the PS1 and also felt a deep nostalgia witnessing it since I grew up with a Nintendo 64 and those classic low poly character models. It instantly has become one of my all time favourite games.
My favourite looking (new) games that capture this old aesthetic are Who’s Lila? and Umurangi Generation.
Also shout out to the original Pathologic for its gross and sickly art direction that being limited by technology helped with tenfold.
Oh god, when I see a JRPG in chunky PS1 pixels/pre-rendered backgrounds, it just feels like a warm blanket. When I played FF VII in autumn ‘99, I just imprinted on it immediately. HOME.
But my first video games were on the NES, I remember the SNES launch hype, a completely sleepless night on Christmas Eve 1996 for the N64 I snuck a peek at earlier...
I regularly play GameCube and Dreamcast games even now (beats buggy "AAA" messes with always functioning microtransactions & Day 1 Patches). So those & PS2 have their place too…
I remember being in adulthood and in my own place during PS3 & Wii, and all that goes along with that...
So my “Home” has many Rooms, is how I would put it. I have nostalgia for video games more than just about anything else. As seen ☝🏻, they're the milepost signs of my life (& why the Japanese Mana V trailer *destroyed* me. I digress.).
Which is why I love coming here. You love it too. You have respect & insight paired with humor, so I’m always stoked to see a new video. Thanks dude ✌🏻
My favorite part is him Busting some Moves in the Cell Shading section of the video
I love listening to people talk about what I love way more than any criticism videos these days
Hyper light drifter genuinely was a life changing experience for me, a game with no dialogue establishing such an intense emotional connection was a first for me, the music is just perfect, genuinely makes me awestruck to near tears every time I listen to the soundtrack, the ending actually made me bawl my eyes out
Genuinely one of the few channels that I feel deserves a like on every video. The relaxed tone, the writing, the editing, the overall style and theme of the channel. Well done!! 😄
Man you never fail to make me really _see_ the beauty in the aesthetics you discuss. I forget how beautiful some of these art styles can be sometimes
I was gonna gush about all the older graphics that still appeal to me, but honestly you covered quite a few of them. From the pre-rendered backgrounds of FF 7/8/9 and Donkey Kong Country to the surreal vibes of Super Mario 64 to the coziness of Pokemon Gens 4/5, I pretty much agree with your feelings on older graphics entirely. I'm glad there's still an appreciation for these older aesthetics.
Stuff like OoT3D/MM3D are really good aesthetically, but every time I want to replay those games I go with the N64 versions. It's probably nostalgia but something about the crustiness of those graphics just adds to the atmosphere (not even counting changes like Dead Hand that you mentioned) and really adds to the surreal vibes of those games. You really hit the nail on the head.
This video feels like it was made for me personally. 10/10 video will absolutely watch again.
You once again understand me so much man. Growing up I basically stayed away from any games using realistic graphics. I love art and wanna be inspired and taken to another world when I play games ❤