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How do you get past the artstyle?


Zarah

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I don't I've encountered anything so far in a VN that has turned me off so much that I'd reject it entirely. Even the Higurashi artwork which I've seen discussions revolving around seems pretty tame. Sure, the ham fists are distracting and sometimes you can't properly gauge what their reactions are, but if the writer has done a good enough job the reader should be able to know what the characters are feeling and what the tone of the piece is. I read VNs for the story and characters, the rest is just icing on the cake so I can better enjoy the experience.

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For me it really depends on the quality of the story whether I can get used to the art or not. It's really funny that where there is a topic about bad art, there is the Higurahi example. When I started Higurashi and read the first scenes in the classroom I was like holy shit...o.o but after a while it didn't even matter anymore; the expressions, the feels, everything brought through those at first terrible drawings filled my heart with joy. And when the music started to get better nothing mattered anymore..

I love that weird Rena face, the awkward position of Mion's body and don't even make me start about the Umineko sprites. My brain all converted them to beautiful sprites. ^_^

I can understand some people can't get used to VNs without perfect art and sprites though, but really.. just go in and try to "ignore" the sprites for the first part to get yourself into the story, once you're there, you'll be able to look at them. If you avoid VNs because of art, you'll be missing out on the good stories.

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hmmm, I didn't encounter any stopping me from reading as long it catch my interest . 

Starting point, if got art-style stopping you , you can ignore it. Try read prologue few line.

Let the story plot catch your interest, as long it catch like (What will happen next?) , you already curiosity about the ending and will read till end.

(by the way, will you own the vn if the vn didn't catch your interest?)

The only stopping me and only stopping me reading vn  is moment  Headache that day (include all good or bad art vn) . After some pain killer, back to read again.

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Man.... I can't handle practically anything put out by Key. It reminds me of these disgusting figurines my grandmother used to have called, "Precious Moments". Behold the horror:

 

precious_moments1.jpg

 

I'm serious about this, I just can't do it. It makes me want to vomit. 

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Read, don't watch.  VNs aren't anime.

 

Edit:  Sorry, didn't mean to be a jerk... all I can say is that prioritizing art is a phase everyone goes through.  Some manage to escape it (and benefit immensely) others never do (and suffer from a lack of truly great VNs as a result).  One of the problems for a lot of otaku going is that the art-style for older games is always several years older than the anime made at the same time... meaning that if you can't watch the anime made at the same time for visual reasons, you will probably have trouble with VNs made at that time. 

 

One solution is to treat VNs as what they are... a literary medium that has visuals and music tacked on to enhance the experience.  Another way to do it is shock therapy... watch LOTGH and play Tsukihime.  Visually, those are waaaaaay behind, but both are awesome story-wise. 

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Legend of the Galactic Heroes was perfectly good looking for its time. But even if you are okay with any art style, everyone should take Clephas' advice and watch LotGH. What a fucking great show.

 

Oh, right, this topic is about visual novels. *ahem* So yeah, I still can't really tolerate the art in some games. Really, it's the outright poorly drawn stuff that gets me the most. If it's an outdated style, like Never7, YU-NO, or I/O, I'm fine with it. But if it looks like it was drawn by an ametuer who has no business making commercial games, I get really bothered. I don't know if I'll ever grow out of that, and I don't particularly want to, either. Almost all games with sloppy art have sloppy stories, too. There are exceptions, like 07th Expansion's VNs, but thankfully Higurashi and Umineko had ports with improved art, and Higanbana looks good enough as is, and RGD was drawn by an actual professional artist. 

 

#playingwiththeoldspritesmasterrace

 

Seriously, after having played so long with the old sprites in Umineko and Higurashi, I really grew fond of Ryukishi's style. It's not exactly great, but it displays the emotions of the characters more efficiently than the ps2/3 sprites.

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Guest -Shizuku-

I'm also not sure how to deal with it - for me most important is voice acting and art style in visual novel, but if it doesn't have a good plot I will drop it anyway. It's mostly like this because I play/read them to have different experience from normal book and if I would have to chose VN with bad art or a book when both had good plot I would go for book. But anyway yaaa - I am just a mere moege (mostly), utsuge, nakige reader - go read them if you can ignore art - I can't : )

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I truly like any artstyle, after a while i just get used to it and becomes natural even when it's really weird looking like steins;gate, clannad for example was really weird at first but at the end of the novel I ended up loving it.

The thing is even if the art style is bad if the plot is good it doesnt matter.

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When i hear that steins;gate arts a gross and horrible, it hurts me alot.

 

I mean, it's definitely not bad drawing, the only "gross" part are the eyes, but even that is not really bothering, and yes, it's my job to defend S;G, and i'll do it.

 

It is true that most of the anime/VN players are accustomed to the classical "moe" art style, you know the art style that represents 90% of animation and a lot of VNs, and when some artists diverges from that classical "moe" artstyle, it bothers you a little at start, but finaly, you understand that it's great, beautiful, and you just start to like the artstyle, especially if the story is good.

 

I had problems with key art, but when i played Little Busters i was like : Wow, just wow, i like the artstyle, and the feels are strong.

 

So, i don't have problems, only if the artstyle is ugly or badly drawn.

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Steins;gate certently doesn't have what you can call "normal" art style but it's not bad by any chance, in fact it's amazing and a lot of details are poured into their drawings and scenes in general, it's different. that's all and i like that. Yes, it is good to read a novel once in a while that has what you can call "normal" art style with cute characters like the ones you found in most anime (katawa shoujo, grisaia, etc) but like i said before, plot should be the most important aspect of a vn then comes the music(a nice writing plus good music = perfect visual novel like narcissu) and finally the art style in general, or at least that's how it is for me.

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most of what i have read i didn't have any problems with the various art styles messing with me. maybe its due to watching anime as long as i have and seeing the favored style go through shifts. im not sure but i hope you do as you said and just power through it after awhile the art becomes secondary to story for most readers. personally its in 3rd place for me as story and character design(not just art but back story,personality,dialog style etc...) come before the art . i still like good art but if i can read all of mayclub with out the art bothering me enough to drop it i don't think anything will.

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Steins;gate certently doesn't have what you can call "normal" art style but it's not bad by any chance, in fact it's amazing and a lot of details are poured into their drawings and scenes in general, it's different. that's all and i like that. Yes, it is good to read a novel once in a while that has what you can call "normal" art style with cute characters like the ones you found in most anime (katawa shoujo, grisaia, etc) but like i said before, plot should be the most important aspect of a vn then comes the music(a nice writing plus good music = perfect visual novel like narcissu) and finally the art style in general, or at least that's how it is for me.

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Well... art really does not make that big of a difference for me. I find that artwork is the least important aspect for me. It is far more important for me to have a good story over decent artwork.

 

I mean.. if I left myself subject to judging the whole thing by art style.. I originally would have never enjoyed Clannad or Muv Luv. However... when I looked passed that, I got to enjoy the wonderful stories that are written within. That, and I found that I began to like/appreciate the art styles (especially in the case of Muv-Luv).

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I've lost care when it comes to the art.

Though it's usually the art that makes me want to play a visual novel.

However, there are times that the other elements of the visual novel simply transcend that of the art, putting the necessity of the art's quality somewhere down the road. Say, Higurashi. I am really not fond of hamster hands, and I would rather have five fingers instead of a measly space between a joined four fingers and a thumb. However, I still read the story, and I was pleased. The art had not served the purpose of beautifying the visual novel. Rather, it has added to the thrill factor.

 

Like, seriously. What the fuck, Rena.

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  • 7 years later...

I have tried several animes, mangas and visual novels with art styles that I initially found ugly. But as long as the story is captivating, I get used to the art style or maybe start to like it, and it doesn't bother me anymore.

I don't find the clannad art style ugly anyway. When I was young I used to collect pictures of anime girls and most of them were probably from key visual novels, I even watched all key animes at the time for the art even thought I didn't greatly enjoy the story and found the stories weird and confusing. 

What really bothers me is bad art. For example, I really like the art style of steins gate (especially the eyes), but the CGs are often bad, as if they gave the job to someone who's still learning and makes amateur mistakes or had no time and drew something super quickly. Sometimes even I could have drawn it better. 

The art style changing slightly also bothers me, because I have already gotten used to one, and now the two art styles are clashing in my head. For example, in steins gate mayuri looks kind of different in steins gate 0 she looks like a nice mature girl while in the other version she looks more like the ditzy girl she's and there's a charming gap between her appearance and character.

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