The "HD" filter

[okcomputing]

First of all, I love that this rerelease is happening!

That said, I'm curious if there is or will be an option to disable this filter or use the original pixel graphics?

I would really, really, really prefer to see the art the way it was originally drawn. I think it already looked fantastic and I think many retro game fans will enjoy it too.*

(*Oh god, PSP/GBA really is retro now...)

[Lamartian]

I'm glad that the backgrounds aren't looking quite as rough as they did in pre-release footage, but some spots really stick out badly. Doesn't ruin the game by any means, but the AI upscaling is impossible to ignore, even with the human touches they've made. Some character portraits have suffered a bit too.
I don't blame Sting for doing it - I imagine they did this because they don't have high-quality versions of the old assets anymore - but I would gladly accept an option to use the old PSP backgrounds and faces simply scaled up without a filter.

[SethRahTV]

Publicado originalmente por Shylaar:

Publicado originalmente por Seth-Rah:

It's already been confirmed to be optional

https://x.com/sting_pr/status/1720368898070163769

That's not even close to untouched.
https://www.gamerlifestore.com/cdn/shop/products/[e-mail]?v=1663392511
I guess it's like Tactics Ogre where they thought it was a good idea to redesign the base sprites themselves to look like an ugly smoothing filter. Baffling.

I think you're trying to project opinions based on how you played the game and not how this game has evolved over time.

You shared the GBA sprites.

This game has 3 different sprite sets that have been released

We have the wonderswan color sprites

Then we have GBA sprites that are slightly upscaled

Then there are the PSP sprites, which were the ones used in this release.

If you want to do a pixel by pixel comparison, then here's some resources for GBA and PSP

GBA: https://lacrimacastle.net/index.php?game=Riviera&c=GBA&sec=sprites

PSP: https://lacrimacastle.net/index.php?game=Riviera&c=PSP&sec=sprites

Sadly the site does not have wonderswan sprites, but you can compare them here

https://cdromance.org/wonderswan/riviera-yakusoku-no-chi-riviera-japan/

You can disable the filter, and you can use the sprites from the PSP release.

If you want to use sprites from another version, that's likely going to require modding. But note that the PSP release has more animations on the sprites, so that's not going to be as simple.

[ralsei]

Publicado originalmente por Shylaar:

Publicado originalmente por Seth-Rah:

It's already been confirmed to be optional

https://x.com/sting_pr/status/1720368898070163769

That's not even close to untouched.
https://www.gamerlifestore.com/cdn/shop/products/[e-mail]?v=1663392511
I guess it's like Tactics Ogre where they thought it was a good idea to redesign the base sprites themselves to look like an ugly smoothing filter. Baffling.

The remaster is based on the PSP version of Riviera, released in 2006. The PSP version uses the same art as the remaster (when the 'smooth' filter is disabled).

There appears to be some confusion among people that this is something Sting suddenly decided to do in 2024. This isn't the case.

[Shylaar]

Alright, so the PSP version is the one that redrew the sprites in a hideous style first then. They still look awful regardless of which version they were made for. And never mind the environment art.

[CheshireCat]

There wasn't much they could do with these sprites, because what they lack is detail (being ported from WSC to GBA, then to PSP and now to "HD" platforms).
They would have to redraw them completely (adding more details) for which they no longer have competent pixel artists and needed budget.
Personally, I'm surprised and glad they even added an option to recolor sprites to match the portraits (drawn by Sunaho Tobe Sensei) for the first time since the initial WonderSwan version.

[Nyxtus]

Yeah, I just saw the images and those sprites are terrible. Like an awful GBA emulator smoothing filter.

[SethRahTV]

I'm gonna take a guess with the portraits / background art, but it feels like they were thrown into an upscaler like waifu2x (I don't expect them to redraw everything so it makes sense)

Some of the background art did not take to this too well though. Quite smudged in many spots. but I think the sprites are fine

I like all 3 revisions, probably prefer the GBA one, but the PSP sprites work. They come with additional animations so I understand the benefits of picking it over the other iterations.

[STBiLL]

I don't like this "HD" filter everyone seems to be using on retro game sprites but some companies did good. Like Capcom's Arcade Stadium compilation. You have a selection of filters you can use, some even emulate a CRT screen. This one is my favorite. It really brings out the beauty of the pixel artwork.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2937959952