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I've always wanted to know what people prefer and why. Let's talk!

I'm pretty sure I've seen a similar discussion before...

I was able to find these discussions:

Style vs Style in VNs

What art direction do people prefer?

Psst. You. Let's talk about stylistic choices.

More related readings.

Non-Anime art styles:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=30428

Non-anime, non-romance VN?:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13332

There are certainly many other threads. In general, most people in this forum would say: "I prefer anime, but if the art is good then other styles are fine".

If I look at the illustrations in your visual novel and think "an individual person created these," then that's good. However, if I look at the illustrations in your VN and think "these could have been created by a committee," then I might not pay attention to your story.

In the recent past, I've talked about how I think the art in Steins;Gate seems ominous. However, I admire it. The drawings have a distinct style. Everything about the aesthetic seems deliberate.

Why do I like the art of Kindred Spirits on the Roof so much? It's the details. The characters don't have glowing eyes. Their skin doesn't look unpleasantly pale. They don't have a distracting perma-blush.

In my opinion, visual novel art can stand out if it's more cartoonish, more abstract, or more photorealistic. One of the reasons why I noticed Monster Prom was its cartoon-esque art. Likewise, one of the reasons I noticed Trigger was downbeat art which seems appropriate for the story's themes.

Finally, I'm interested in specific distinct art in visual novels. If you have a style that doesn't fit into a category, that's a plus. If you grew up reading Osamu Tezuka's comics and miss his Fleischer / Disney inspired art, then think about creating something similar. If you found Will Eisner's experimental comics and miss them, then think about creating something similar.

gekiganwing wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2019 7:26 pm In my opinion, visual novel art can stand out if it's more cartoonish, more abstract, or more photorealistic. One of the reasons why I noticed Monster Prom was its cartoon-esque art. Likewise, one of the reasons I noticed Trigger was downbeat art which seems appropriate for the story's themes.

The link for Trigger is the same as the previous one (Monster Prom). I'm still trying to guess what "downbeat" means in this context since you wrote it in my wip post and I thought I could finally get a clue about it... but no luck, damn it.

Maybe Gekiganwing was talking about this Trigger game here? https://vndb.org/v17119
There's another game in VNDB with that same title, but its art is... err...

Donmai wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2019 8:39 pm Maybe Gekiganwing was talking about this Trigger game here? https://vndb.org/v17119
There's another game in VNDB with that same title, but its art is... err...

Ah, I see... Still don't understand the concept, but I'm getting closer. Thanks Donmai.

You know, I'm another non-English speaker guy. Previously, I only heard the expression "downbeat" in music discussions. I remember there was a musical group from the '70s named "The Downbeats". Well, based on the art examples Gekiganwing mentioned, I asked Google about other meanings of that expression, and that's what I got:

down·beat
(adjective)
pessimistic; gloomy.
"the assessment of current economic prospects is downbeat"
synonyms: pessimistic, gloomy, negative, defeatist, gloom-ridden, cynical, bleak, fatalistic, dark, black, despairing, despondent, depressed, dejected, demoralized, hopeless, melancholy, glum, lugubrious, suspicious, distrustful, doubting, alarmist; informal given to looking on the black side
"the overall mood is decidedly downbeat"

I have to say "Trigger" now seems somewhat "downbeat" to me.

Thank you, it's close to what I was thinking, but much more precise.

I also know a group called "The Downbeats" but they're from the early 60's, maybe even 50's. Probably there are a lot of bands with that name.

Yes, searching I've found at least two groups with that name. There's a chance we're talking about the same group and I've only known them in 1974.

I vastly prefer the anime look; getting me to play a VN with a non-anime art style is very, very hard. Of course I prefer animated movies, shows, and games to to non animated ones in general, so I am probably not your typical player.

I prefer an anime or semi realistic style. But I don't think that's really about visual novels as much as it is about styles that I prefer over all. In visual novels as long as the art is decent and doesn't immediately put me off (and I'm not that picky), I'm good with almost anything as long as it has a good story.

I do have a few points that really put me off however... like pixelated imaged because the image they used was too small originally, or styles not matching, like not all the characters have the same art style or the backgrounds clash with the characters in style.

While I'm not very picky, my favorites will always be in an anime or semi realistic style, and usually I like games that have a VERY cohesive style. Most of the time It's best when there is at most two artists for the characters and backgrounds, one character artist and one background artist. While there are bigger teams that manage to keep a cohesive style with more artists that draw the same thing... it's rare, I can still often see the slight difference in the artists style and it tends to make me feel the world is less real. The story is the most important aspect though. I'll take a pixelated un-cohesive game with a good story over and HD stunningly cohesive game with empty words any day!

It honestly depends mainly on the artstyle in question. I don't have a particular preference if it's excuted well. But things I don't like to see are: blatant fanservice outfits that no rational person would ever step 2 feet out of the house wearing (especially on extremely young looking charcters... barf). Hair that defies every known law of physics.

I'm not very accustomed with western VN's much, but I recently played https://atticsalt.itch.io/silverdemo, and https://rocketadrift.itch.io/order-a-pizza, both had amazing art styles and both were Western!