/vr/ - Retro Games

>>4730623
Not him, but I think a game being "soulless" is a combination of things, such as the game's art direction focusing too much on realism, or an overall lack of permeable atmosphere. Let's take the SM64 remake as an example. Look at scuttlebug. Nobody is going to tell you that the scuttlebug in SM64 looks refined -- it looks like something a retarded 8 year old made in MS Paint. Yet, it is far more visually appealing, charming and memorable than the one in the DS version, because that scuttlebug is generic as fuck and has no personality. It looks more like a real bug, and is thus less interesting. The fact that the N64 scuttlebug looks so bizarre and out of place is what makes it charming.

Now apply this logic to the game as a whole. Characters are more detailed, textures are more crisp, there are more polygons... yet, it's lacking something: soul. It's lacking the bizarre, abstract, and atmospheric feel created by the inclusion of things which aren't necessarily a good representation of reality, things which may not be believable but are nonetheless intriguing. The Mona Lisa might be more refined, and have taken greater skill to paint than something like MC Escher's Convex and Concave, yet I doubt most people would call it more interesting, because one is simply attempting to mimic reality, while one is attempting the exact opposite.