Undertale's poor graphics

[Foolishバカ]

Is it okay to finally openly discuss this game’s art direction, specifically how ugly this game is in general. I know the Undertale community is infamous for its toxicity towards any dissenting opinion but I feel that the game’s visuals are doing it no favors in order to pull in a bigger audience. Yes, I know the game is successful but I personally known many people who passed on it due to how screenshots look. I honestly can’t blame them, I almost passed on this game based on how ugly it looks (it was Super BunnyHops video that convinced me to give it a chance).

Considering it’s trying for a faux NES 8-bit style, I am amazed that more people don’t call out Undertale’s poor visuals. This game would have been considered ugly if it came out during the 8-bit era. Games like Super Mario 2/3, Megaman, Ducktales, Contra, Kirby, etc. are leaps and bounds way more visually pleasing. Even modern games that mimic the 8/16-bit style like Shovel Knight and Owlboy look so much better. Yes, I know that his game was primarily worked on by one person, but so was Dust: An Elysian Tail and Cave Story and again, those games look so much better.

Undertale is a great game, but its visuals, for a lack of a better term, suck.

[Skiárakí]

Yes, the graphics could be better. But keep in mind:
1. Made by a Small Team
2. Graphics work, adding a "old effect" to it
3. Graphics mods are currently being released for the game
4. A game creator will eventually remake the game using 32/64 bit graphics (Hopefully)

[Foolishバカ]

Originally posted by AlphaGhostH:

...
2. Graphics work, adding a "old effect" to it
...

This is my issue. I understand that Undertale is going for a retro style, but I feel that style is objectively ugly.
I would love if the game was modded to have a 16-bit SNES/Genesis style. The game polished up to have an Earthbound/FFVI/Chrono Cross artstyle would be awesome.

[Papa Crust]

Eh, I've seen worse.

But I'm also a fan of Dwarf Fortress so...

[Tomberry Blue]

There's nothing objective about your feeling a game is ugly or beautiful. I find Undertale's graphics to be very charming.

[Quote_1207]

Originally posted by FoolishMan:

Is it okay to finally openly discuss this game’s art direction, specifically how ugly this game is in general. I know the Undertale community is infamous for its toxicity towards any dissenting opinion but I feel that the game’s visuals are doing it no favors in order to pull in a bigger audience. Yes, I know the game is successful but I personally known many people who passed on it due to how screenshots look. I honestly can’t blame them, I almost passed on this game based on how ugly it looks (it was Super BunnyHops video that convinced me to give it a chance).

Considering it’s trying for a faux NES 8-bit style, I am amazed that more people don’t call out Undertale’s poor visuals. This game would have been considered ugly if it came out during the 8-bit era. Games like Super Mario 2/3, Megaman, Ducktales, Contra, Kirby, etc. are leaps and bounds way more visually pleasing. Even modern games that mimic the 8/16-bit style like Shovel Knight and Owlboy look so much better. Yes, I know that his game was primarily worked on by one person, but so was Dust: An Elysian Tail and Cave Story and again, those games look so much better.

Undertale is a great game, but its visuals, for a lack of a better term, suck.

i 100% know where you're coming from, from first seeing the game i thought, "why is there a blind kid staring me in the face?" ok, bad reference... but i can still say papyrus's sprite sucks, even after 3 playthroughs, its terrible. my main issue is, why is there no colored battle sprites? omega flowey has one, and asriel has a trippy rainbow silhoutte, so its obviously possible, so why no color???

[Papa Crust]

Originally posted by //Todd™ Brand Dudewing©:

Originally posted by Mister Rattle Bones:

Eh, I've seen worse.

But I'm also a fan of Dwarf Fortress so...

Another one?


I love Dwarf Fortress!

Yeah, me too. But I've decided to take a break from it and also wait for the Masterwork mod to be more complete.

[Quote_1207]

Originally posted by The dood:

There's nothing objective about your feeling a game is ugly or beautiful. I find Undertale's graphics to be very charming.

thats how they are for me... after 20 minuites of playing.

[Foolishバカ]

Originally posted by The dood:

There's nothing objective about your feeling a game is ugly or beautiful. I find Undertale's graphics to be very charming.

True, art direction is subjective. I stated it was objectively bad in a sense of comparing it to its contemporaries. Again I understand teamsize, budget, vision had a lot to do with it but like I said in my original post I feel that its visuals are a criticism rarely mentioned.

[Foolishバカ]

Originally posted by Protoman072003:

Originally posted by The dood:

There's nothing objective about your feeling a game is ugly or beautiful. I find Undertale's graphics to be very charming.

thats how they are for me... after 20 minuites of playing.

Actually you bring up a very good point. It did take me until after the first boss battle to actually be "hooked" by the game. The graphics where a big barrier to getting immersed, until the story and music started to overcome it.

[Tomberry Blue]

Originally posted by FoolishMan:

Originally posted by The dood:

There's nothing objective about your feeling a game is ugly or beautiful. I find Undertale's graphics to be very charming.

True, art direction is subjective. I stated it was objectively bad in a sense of comparing it to its contemporaries. Again I understand teamsize, budget, vision had a lot to do with it but like I said in my original post I feel that its visuals are a criticism rarely mentioned.

It's fine to not like it. I just don't think it's important and certainly not objectively bad. Besides loads of ugly games are actually really good. Most early 3D games for instance look like crap.

[Elephantflies]

Originally posted by Protoman072003:

Originally posted by FoolishMan:

Is it okay to finally openly discuss this game’s art direction, specifically how ugly this game is in general. I know the Undertale community is infamous for its toxicity towards any dissenting opinion but I feel that the game’s visuals are doing it no favors in order to pull in a bigger audience. Yes, I know the game is successful but I personally known many people who passed on it due to how screenshots look. I honestly can’t blame them, I almost passed on this game based on how ugly it looks (it was Super BunnyHops video that convinced me to give it a chance).

Considering it’s trying for a faux NES 8-bit style, I am amazed that more people don’t call out Undertale’s poor visuals. This game would have been considered ugly if it came out during the 8-bit era. Games like Super Mario 2/3, Megaman, Ducktales, Contra, Kirby, etc. are leaps and bounds way more visually pleasing. Even modern games that mimic the 8/16-bit style like Shovel Knight and Owlboy look so much better. Yes, I know that his game was primarily worked on by one person, but so was Dust: An Elysian Tail and Cave Story and again, those games look so much better.

Undertale is a great game, but its visuals, for a lack of a better term, suck.

i 100% know where you're coming from, from first seeing the game i thought, "why is there a blind kid staring me in the face?" ok, bad reference... but i can still say papyrus's sprite sucks, even after 3 playthroughs, its terrible. my main issue is, why is there no colored battle sprites? omega flowey has one, and asriel has a trippy rainbow silhoutte, so its obviously possible, so why no color???

Put a spoiler text over the spoilers, m8. You might've just ruined the game for someone.

[Papa Crust]

Originally posted by The dood:

Originally posted by FoolishMan:

True, art direction is subjective. I stated it was objectively bad in a sense of comparing it to its contemporaries. Again I understand teamsize, budget, vision had a lot to do with it but like I said in my original post I feel that its visuals are a criticism rarely mentioned.

It's fine to not like it. I just don't think it's important and certainly not objectively bad. Besides loads of ugly games are actually really good. Most early 3D games for instance look like crap.

The thing is, they were made in an era when technology didn't allow for better 3D modeling. UT was made in 2015. And games made in 90's and 2000s using sprites looked the same as UT and sometimes even better.

[(Edgy) Asriel Dreemurr]

Originally posted by FoolishMan:

Considering it’s trying for a faux NES 8-bit style

I don't think they were going for any particular style, they just made a character and made their sprite any way they could. The problem isn't that Undertale has bad graphics, it's that the style of the graphics isn't consistent. It can't decide whether it should be 8, 16, or 32 bit. Though I also think this is done on purpose. The graphics are jusr another way the game subverts your expectations, the best example of this is the design of Photoshop Flowey.

[PEDROKUE]

The thing people don't understand is that everything that is in a game is tech...
This game's graphic is like this because it is supposed to be so. You can disagree with the choice, but not claim that the graphic is ♥♥♥♥ because it doesn't use this or that tech (Even that tech being something that is out for 100 years by now).

Its like calling any game bad because they aren't a FPS, or didn't have cross-platform, or any kind of tech there is nowadays.

One could say it is bad even comparing to the other games using the same graphical tech, wich one could argue, but is kinda of a real thing. I'd agree with this one person. There are 8-bit games that look better then Undertale.

I don't really think that should even be a thing to wonder about, t. That's the main reason why games nowadays have 3094u72383 people working on the graphics and 2% of the Crew working on the game itself, wich makes those waste of time we recieve every week.

Anyone who avoids Undertale because of graphics has serious problems, just put that in real life perspective. "I won't date her, look at her 'graphics'", "I won't eat this, looks like garbage", "I won't... It looks...". They are never gonna be surprised in their life, to find something beutiful in simplicity (or uglyness, if that's important for you that I say it).

[dat_potatoe]

I don't think they were going for any particular style

A cartoony and childlike style that resonates well with the theme of the game. Bright colors, black outlines, very little use of fine details except when necessary. You compare this game to images of Earthbound and it looks about the same. OP just can't differentiate between 8-bit and 32-bit.

The original Cave Story has ever so slightly more detailed surfaces in some instances, more muted colors, and very scarce use of black outlines. It's meant to be a bit more serious looking for lack of a better term.

The technical level of graphics is about the same though. I could break it down but I really don't feel like going to all that effort. As one example though the trees in Snowdin use four colors total, the backgrounds of Grasstown in CS use around four colors, and resolution wise they're pretty much the same.

OP tries to put his taste in art style on an objective pedestal where it doesn't belong.

Edit:
Come to think of it, the same "one man" who made Cave Story also made Kero Blaster. Which unlike Cave Story tries to emulate kind of the same style that Undertale chases. It's not a matter of talent or technical know-how, its intentional style choice.