Yeah, it's naturally going to vary from person to person ^_^chum wrote:I see what you're saying and I'm still torn about how much I agree on this.Squire Grooktook wrote:For a survival horror or adventure game or something, aesthetics matter a lot to me.
But to me, they're completely extraneous in shmups and fighting games, and icing on the cake at absolute best.
I think almost anyone will agree that CAVE games provide a good experience in terms of gameplay, but the fact that I don't like the style so much probably hinders my enjoyment. Enjoying just looking at and feeling the game you're playing, regardless of what you're actually doing in the game, can make a difference, at least for me.
I do appreciate that feeling of enjoying what you're looking at, but I guess I've come to disregard it in shmups because, like I said, the genre as a whole just doesn't appeal to me aestheticly at all.
When I'm playing Dark Souls or a weapon-based fighting game, I sometimes have to marvel at the lovingly crafted martial swordplay animations, and the beauty of how the human form moves with those sword strokes...during the less intense moments, at least. When I'm playing Kirby or a Mario game, I have to marvel at how adorable and whimsical everything is (which I can generally get away with since the games aren't too intense). When I'm playing 90% of shmups, I just can't feel anything but apathy towards what is essentially a big metal triangle floating around, often times with little or nothing to set it apart from every other big metal triangle flying around in existence. The environments/backgrounds can still be nice though, but characters are at the heart of any aesthetic for me.
But of course, that's another reason why the aesthetic in games like Guwange and Cybattler resonate with me so much.
Also, at first I didn't even notice the beatiful art, but as I got better, I started to notice the sprites and backgrounds. It's like my Focus shifted away from my ship...
