Would this game have worked as a more "stylized" game?

[Pike]

This was the first game where Square really tried to use more "realistic" proportions on characters, thus ending the more stylized generation of sprites and FFVII. Do you think that this helped the game, or did it perhaps actually hinder it? Would it have worked better as a more stylized or even 2D game?

[Rez09]

I don't have a problem with the graphics either way, so I don't think it would have changed my experience. That said, Square probably made the right choice with the style they chose, as the PS1 era was still super 3D-hype, and making realistic models STILL seems to be where the focus in that market is.

[Pumpkin]

I thought it was good the way it was!

[Christmas]

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[Sephex]

I think the style was good for this game. Not sure if a stylized look would have worked for other aspects of the art direction that Square was going for at the time. I actually think this game has a great color scheme, and the look of it is cool.

[Ayen]

The more realistic models of the characters worked for the game and made it stand out from its predecessors.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yes and no, for the most paret VIII needed to bring its A-game after how successful VII was so bumping up the graphics which was one of the things VII was hailed for seemed like a logical choice and honestly going from VII to VIII does almost feel like going from LEGOs to G.I. Joe Action Figures which was visually amazing. Of the PS1 entries I still feel VIII has aged rather well.

I say no because VIII sort of ended an era that was re-visited briefly with IX and has largely disappeared from the numbered series afterwards and that is how the stylized graphics allowed for more physical humor that was kind of a hallmark of the early entries who had to compensate for the limitations of the hardware. Its not that VIII purposely killed it but the game lacks the funny, almost cartoonish humor of early entries, the more realistic models made it difficult to switch from those two extremes without having one element overshadow the other. This isn't to say VIII doesn't have its funny moments or charm but often they are more about verbal cues (a lot of Squall's snarky dialogue) or more realistic visual comedy (like Biggs and Wedge trying to threaten the party after they regained their weapon in the Prison sequence) and that kind of continued in every FF after IX which used more realistic models. The goofier humor from these games often came from their sequels which didn't have as much need to succeed so they could get away from the awkward slapstick humor but even then I still feel its a bit jarring.

You can't have Squall slap Zell so hard he flies into the air and smashes into the screen like Barret did to Biggs in VII, or have the characters pop through the door in a hurry and send their teammates flying all over the room, or walking into towns filled with talking pigs, frogs, and um... mini people who dance for you like in IV. The earlier games were a bit wackier and even games with stronger narratives found a nice way to bridge that wackiness with strong emotional climaxes. With VIII I kind of felt that Kitase and others decided that the series needed to be a bit more mature (well sort of) and since then the humor is mostly witty banter or verbal zingers. Most of XII's humor comes from Balthier's amusing commentary of the situation as opposed to watching Penelo bitch slap Vaan every time he says or does something stupid like Porom would do to Palom in IV. Part of this may also have to deal with censorship laws as watching anatomically correct virtual people smack each other around Three Stooges style probably would offend some old fuddy duddy thinking they bought a nice game for their kids that just involves human experimentation, genocide, corrupt religions, and dirty politics but if watching media handle controversial games have taught me anything, its that no one has issues when this happens in games with lots of dialogue and reading and silly costumes and battle systems that feel like a cross between chess and rock em sock em robots as long as you are not playing one of them shooters, gangster games, or heaven forbid you show someones tits. :roll2

I digress, I still feel the shift happened with VIII and I feel its the models, I mean Nomura has said that world maps partially disappeared because of the way the design team felt it was awkward to watch realistic models traversing a more stylish version of the world.