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Games with great Art Design? (with screenshots)

Pelvis Knot

Cipher
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
Messages
885
Warcraft 2
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Grim Fandango
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Planescape Torment
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Trine
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Icewind Dale
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Homm2
iu

Thief: The Dark Project
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Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive
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The Last Express
iu

Freespace 2
iu

I could find much more, especially 2D games at their peak were really beautiful
 
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Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
Patron
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
11,760
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Okami (2006), based on Japanese sumi-e art, with luscious color and turned 3D, best appreciated in motion.


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Muramasa: The Demon Blade (2009), based on Japanese ukiyo-e art.


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Dragon's Crown (2013) has numerous homages to classic Western artwork.


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Apotheon (2015) based on Greek "black figure" pottery.
 

d1r

Busin 0 Wizardry Alternative Neo fanatic
Patron
Joined
Nov 6, 2011
Messages
3,578
Location
Germany
Every SNK game from the 90s, with Garou Mark of the Wolves being the absolute highlight.

King of Fighters 99
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King of Fighters 98
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Last Blade
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Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
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Garou Mark of the Wolves
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King of Fighters 99
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King of Fighters 98
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Snorkack

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 8, 2015
Messages
2,975
Location
Lower Bavaria
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
What games have you played where you were genuinely impressed with the art & aesthetics?
Swords and Sorcery - Underworld
Funny you mention this, considering how it initially looked https://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=223
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Personally, I find the (current) artdesign of SS:U serviceable at best, yet it is one of my - if not the - most favourite games of the past few years.

Anyways, great entries, so far! Lots of games I never heard of before that made it straight to my list of games I want to play but will never find the time to do so anyways.
I'd like to add Antichamber:
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NJClaw

OoOoOoOoOoh
Patron
Joined
Aug 30, 2016
Messages
7,513
Location
Pronouns: rusts/rusty
Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
The first part of Syberia 1 (the starting town, the factory and the big mansion) is magical to me.:
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That game truly managed to create an empty world while making you feel nostalgic about its untold past. After the train part everything goes to shit, but the beginning is perfect.
 

Häyhä

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 9, 2020
Messages
1,416
Location
Hyperborea
Lot of great examples in this thread already like Another World, Okami, Killer 7 etc.

Surprisingly hard to find decent screenshots that do the games justice, anyway...

Flashback has always been very atmospheric to me

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OutRun has beautiful, minimalistic, varied color design
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Jet Set Radio Future - Amazing looking, vibrant, dense and stylized game, still holds up today visually although looks way better in motion. Original is also good, but I prefer Future personally

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Viewtiful Joe is an absolute masterpiece of art design as you'd expect from the makers of Okami

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Semiurge

Cipher
Joined
Apr 11, 2020
Messages
6,083
Location
Asp Hole
The Witcher had this foreboding atmosphere at all times, especially at sunset. Much of it exists because of the oppressive music that changes into something eerier during "the hour of the wolf" when you instinctively expect something terrifying to come out. The art design however has a certain dark quality of its own. It hints at rot, curses and dark magic.

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index.php
 
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Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
limit this shit to one game per post, people making posts with 40 games is annoying to scroll through and I end up skipping most of your shit
 

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