Board 8 > I rank series by their visual design [ranking]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hi!

A few months ago I collected nominations of various series, to be ranked by their visual design. Nominators supplied me with pictures and videos, and I set about my task of ranking everything with writeups. I tried to only rank based on the supplied material.

A total of 74 series were nominated. Most of these were video games, pieces of animation, and comics, though the nom pool also includes card games, board games, short films, concept art, manual art, fan animations, promotional art, Muppets, commercials and ad bumpers, and whatever Cat Activity is supposed to be. There was a lot of varied stuff! I am grateful for every nomination, even the ones I didn't like.

So, I want to pose a question: all of these writeups are done. I could theoretically post all of them today! Obviously I won't do that though; the gradual reveal is part of what makes these topics fun. My question is: how gradual a reveal should this be? If I post three a day, that's 25 days, three and a half weeks. Four a day gives us 18 days. If we want to rush, five a day is 15. What do you think? I'm flexible.

The full list of nominations:
A Pup Named Scooby Doo!
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Astalon: Tears of the Earth
Berserk
Bill Sienkiewicz' New Mutants run
Black Butler
Bloodborne
Brawl Stars (Promotional Artwork)
CD-i Zelda games
Chaotic (TCG)
Code Monkeys
Cuphead
Danganronpa
DeepBlueInk's Drawfee animations
Detective Conan
Detroit: Become Human
Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights
Enderal: Forgotten Stories
Final Fantasy Tactics Manual Art (not game art)
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (Concept Art)
Fullmetal Alchemist
Gargoyle's Quest
God of War
Hitman
Hollow Knight
Hulaing Babies
Ion Fury
It Takes Two
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable
Journey
Katanagatari
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Last Exile
League of Legends
Legends of Runeterra
Manhattan Transfer Design Portfolio
Mario Party (N64)
Marvel's What If...?
Metal Gear Solid
Mind Game
Monster Hunter: World
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Mystery Skulls Animated
Okami
Old School Runescape
One Piece
Outlast
Paper Mario
Paprika
Persona 5
Planet DOB
Potionomics
Princess Remedy
Punisher Max
Q*Bert (Saturday Supercade)
Rakugaki Showtime
Resident Evil
Return of the Obra Dinn
Root the Boardgame
Sanvein
Silent Hill
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse
Steins;Gate
The Dark Crystal (1982/Age of Resistance)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Witness
Vampire Hunter D
Victoria 3
Virtual Cat's Neko Katsudou (Cat Activity) series
Voltron
Warhammer 40K
Warioware series
World of Tomorrow
WWE (Boom Comics)

As always, thank you for tuning in and listening to my (sometimes hot) takes. I tried to give every nomination a fair chance. I hope you won't take it personally if I rank your noms low, though I will say that there were only a small handful I can say I actually disliked. This was a great crop!

First writeup(s) coming later, once I get feedback on the number folks want.

Enjoy! :D

Knowing all the write ups are done, I dont think 5 a day is too many. That seems just right and would be my vote (I didnt nominate anything so my vote doesnt really matter lol)

Also, way to go on sticking with this and finishing the project!!

Tag

5 a day is probably fine.

Glad this is finally finished, looking forward to the write-ups.

wallmasterz posted...

Also, way to go on sticking with this and finishing the project!!

Thank you! :D That's kind of you to say. It was slow going most of the time, I was just too busy with other things. But I always intended to finish!

tag

Number per day depends on how thorough the write-ups are, IMO. 5 feels like a lot unless they're throwaway one-liners.

Writeups range from a paragraph to multiple paragraphs. Nothing too short, but not like novels or anything.

I'm waiting for a few other people to weigh in on number of writeups per day, but in the meantime does anyone have any predictions?

5 sounds fine to me

Tag.

I don't really have an opinion on how many you do each day; it's more a "whatever works best for you personally" type situation, I think.

rwlh posted...

does anyone have any predictions?

I think I get two eliminations in the bottom three. WWE seems like an easy last place; it's not a troll nomination or an attempt at last, but I don't think there's anything there that would appeal to you. I like it, but I've never had any illusions about it going anywhere.

Q*Bert, I think, is also a hard sell... the bizarre fusion of Q*Bert with Happy Days might get enough points for uniqueness to avoid the absolute bottom tier, but then, it's also an orange ball with a giant nose wearing a varsity sweater. So. It can't win, but I don't think I'd be surprised to see it anywhere. Like "why did you nominate a big-nosed orange ball dressed as Michael Jackson, this is somehow worse than the wrestlers" would be a fair reaction, but it could also be weird enough to land anywhere.

Go at your own preferred pace.

wooo

I'm trying to post a writeup but it says I have a string of too many characters, presumably from one or more of the images. Does anybody know a way around this?

rwlh posted...

I'm trying to post a writeup but it says I have a string of too many characters, presumably from one or more of the images. Does anybody know a way around this?

Easiest thing to do would be to add a space in the middle of the image link and leave a note below to copy the above broken link and remove the space?

I was hoping to upload the images directly into the topic, to make it easier for readers to follow along. But maybe I can't do that?

You might need to spread images across multiple posts

Hot tip: The picture filesize limit is not a limit on the post itself, but you actually making the post. As long as you're under 4MB at a time, you can keep adding more and more pictures by editing the post afterwards.

I think I just fundamentally don't get how this system works. I can post the link in text, but I can't upload the actual pictures - when I do, it gives me the error message of "more than 80 characters." This forum is paradoxically so old and yet too new for me!

Well, at the very least I can post the bottom one now, and then worry about adding in direct links later, if possible.

74. Persona 5
@Chaeix
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_fill,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_center,h_675,pg_1,q_80,w_1200/xcnhs0fx3usfexfnd6oc.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ys4QQyvEaCE/maxresdefault.jpg
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RMVAYUOpZU0uwH8C4nIK6ACxoeg=/1400x1050/filters:format(jpeg)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9836293/p5friends.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnDzJ9KzuV4

Hoo boy, starting things off with something that might be controversial.

Persona 5 goes for cool, but in sort of a playful way. Like, look at the font on these menus and tell me this is a game that takes itself seriously. (Or maybe I should say tell me this is a game that should take itself seriously.)

Everything is very stylish. Youve got these kids wearing Mardi Gras masks and a giant talking cat and a guillotine that executes monsters. The design is all over the place. Lots of quick camera shots and bursts of color. Its very disorienting. As an aside, I dislike this trailer: it just doesnt shut up. Someone says something every two seconds. Relax! But as this is about visual design, that complaint is neither here nor there.

I always thought I enjoyed P5s aesthetic, but I didnt enjoy this nomination very much. Its so frantic. Normally I like bright colors in design (which youll get to see as the list goes on), but here its loud, bombastic. Look at image 2. Does this monster need to be roughly the same shade of purple as the background? I will say at least the character designs in image 3 are roughly distinct, primarily in terms of like hair color and height. So thats something!

I dont know. Maybe Im old. I mean, I am old. But maybe Im too old to appreciate something like this. Persona 5s visual design seems specifically designed to appeal to me at first glance, but then when I pull back the layers on the yogurt cup, its bright purple and Im getting licked by Kamoshidas gargantuan, purple tongue. (So much purple!)

Is this the worst visual design Ive ever seen? No, of course not. But I didnt like it. In a ranking topic where I liked virtually everything, that makes it automatic bottom tier.

well the topic had a good run but its time to close up

That certainly is a way to start the topic.

I like Persona 5's style but I'm not sure how highly I'd rate it just based on those images.

Probably not last but still. I'm not a fan of the color scheme on that particularly enemy here either.

oops

whoo boy expect the unexpected i guess

Actually wait nvm I missed that the trailer was there also but I think that does a much better job.

Which to be fair is probably generically true of video clips of media that were not intended to be viewed as still images.

I personally feel that 5 write ups a day is ambitious.

Persona 5 is definitely not what I expected for bottom. Its like one of the clear-cut examples of how much visual style can make a game better. I do think Persona 5 is kinda loud for my taste, but I do love how slick it is. I would have shown a video of the menu. The menu is the best part visually. I like the weird takes on the tarot cards too, as well as other bits of UI. The palace and Phantom Thief garb can be hit-or-miss, but I generally love it.

I can understand that someone might think that Persona 5 is too pretentiously cool, but to put it below runescape and cd-i zelda...

Topic starting off with a lot of spice...

PrinceKaro posted...

I can understand that someone might think that Persona 5 is too pretentiously cool, but to put it below runescape and cd-i zelda...

runescape is a clear #1 what are you talking about

Tag

Didn't think it would be done so quickly after having you said it was 80% done. Don't mind how many a day

P5 doesn't deserve last

Persona 5 made me retroactively realize that I dislike the style of all the Persona games, not just 5 itself.

*waves from rubble of topic*

I had a feeling that one would be controversial. I can definitely see why people like it - lots of people! - but I can only give you my honest takes, and my honest take was less than favorable.

Here's another. Maybe this take is also pretty hot?

73. Marvel's What If...?
@MargaretAnnMid

For as cool a concept as alternate realities, Marvels What If...? doesnt have the most...attention-grabbing animation. I would go so far as to call it pretty plain, actually. Some of the actual art from the comics feels more dynamic than this. Its hard to really put my finger on why this is, since theres lots of action in the trailer. Maybe its that the actual characters feel stiff in some way? I dont get a sense of who anyone actually is. To be fair, with characters as iconic as this, maybe they dont feel the need to reintroduce them to us. But it left me feeling nothing. I suspect Im just the wrong audience for this show. The Marvel movies never interested me I know the characters exclusively from comics, so this trailer doesnt excite me. But shouldnt it excite me, even if I dont know the source material? Isnt that the job of visual design?

I didnt dislike anything, which is why this isnt in last place, but I was disappointed by it. Sorry!

What if? is kinda midling for me. I wouldnt put it this low, but its not one of my top picks either.

WOW. *shakes head in disappointment*

Nah, it's fine, I see where you're coming from. I liked how bold the animation is and how it doesn't look as cartoon-y as it could have.

I get that one, What If kinda exists in that weird zone of like animated but still trying to look exactly like the live-action characters so it doesn't have an exact style of its own

I liked it though

One more before bed.

72. Victoria 3
@handsomeboy2012
https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/529340/ss_d6c4af0150eee39e868201386238c20cc880d464.jpg?t=1665061167
https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/529340/ss_bc34110a48361c7232063830f1ae7467a0d07bff.jpg?t=1665061167
https://preview.redd.it/j8jr90bycox81.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=97310785b1a569f0ac9e6670b5593fb0d8c61dbb
https://img.championat.com/i/x/s/16616049221094285514.png
https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/public/837795/DD50%2004.gif
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ftmdd1g4hE

What a curious nomination. Though there are some depictions of people and light animations, this nomination is almost entirely composed of maps. Am I missing something? Im not really sure what handsomeboy2012 is going for here. Should I analyze the fonts? I dont want to be rude, but I struggle to grasp what Im intended to analyze.

Theres nothing particularly egregious about the presentation. Victoria 3 sets out to tell a story of sweeping historical change over one hundred years, but to do this relies on gameplay and narration, not really visual design. Im sure the stories told are rich and captivating, but some media doesnt need visuals to succeed, and this seems like one of those cases? Again, it doesnt do anything wrong, but theres an absence of relevance to the topic (unless, again, Im missing something, which is possible!).

I do feel bad for the suffragist who got trampled by a race horse though. What a way to go.

What surprises me about the P5 write-up is that it's seemingly based exclusively on the provided images, which I assumed were just there for a starting point.

Oh yay, tag!

I think 3 is a fine number, 5 would be okay too. But having 3 a day would give people more time to react to each nomination I feel.

Wow P5 at the bottom sure is...an opinion.

rwlh posted...

72. Victoria 3

Its a strategy game so players are going to look at maps all the time. Theres not going to much variety anyway, but I think the artwork and maps do count as visual design?

azuarc posted...

What surprises me about the P5 write-up is that it's seemingly based exclusively on the provided images, which I assumed were just there for a starting point.

Yeah, it's almost solely based on the provided material. It was unfeasible for me to research 74 series on my own, so this was a method of making it easier on me.

handsomeboy2012 posted...

Its a strategy game so players are going to look at maps all the time. Theres not going to much variety anyway, but I think the artwork and maps do count as visual design?

Okay, so I wasn't missing anything. Thanks for clarifying. I did think it was a challenging nomination because I didn't feel like I had enough visual acuity to judge maps on their own, but I did like the artwork.

-

Here, have another writeup.

71. CD-i Zelda games
@paulg235
https://cdn-uploads.gameblog.fr/img/news/393027_61a11193a0a34.jpg
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYmVmOTRjZDAtODU5MS00MTUwLWJhMmMtODNmOWMzNzdiZGZhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODEwMTc2ODQ@._V1_.jpg
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/001/965/Morshu_-_Original__HD_1080__0-5_screenshot.jpg
https://cdn.wikimg.net/en/strategywiki/images/thumb/9/9c/Link_the_faces_of_evil-map.jpg/300px-Link_the_faces_of_evil-map.jpg
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_original/bfs5vcauhchtf1ao4hzt.png
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c0vDTMKlP0

I really want to give this, like, a top 5 placement for being so entertaining. But I wont!

What more can be said about the CD-i Zelda cutscenes (and I guess some in-game screenshots you posted)? The animation is so bizarrely constructed and confusing. The characters movements make no sense. Why does Gwonam the wizard pause after saying your sword is enough for what feels like two seconds, and why does he make a gesture with his arms for no discernible reason? Why do everyones bodies float around like theres an industrial fan blowing on them at all times? Whats with the facial expressions, like Links little smirk when Zelda turns him down, or the kings infamous FOR finger point? Theres just so much here, and all of it is weird, uncanny valley level stuff. Everything is disorienting. Its like a tornado of bad animation and off-kilter voice acting rampaging through the trailer park of your soul. The animation certainly looks like a tornado hit it!

I wonder if these cutscenes would be as infamous if they werent attached to one of the most beloved, critically acclaimed game series of all time? Probably not. I also wonder how often higherups at Nintendo have watched them, almost certainly against their will, and how much they influenced the decision to not license their IPs.

I could talk about all the meme dialogue, which fills me with laughter (Ive always especially enjoyed the underrated bit where Link asks What are all those HEADS? and we dont see anything other than the flying carpet lol), but in terms of a piece of visual design, this is shockingly...not at the absolute bottom? Its terrible, sure, but its terrible in an almost innocent way, like a child who zaps ants with a magnifying glass. I enjoy CD-i Zelda for what it is.

Now, if this were Hotel Mario, wed be in business...!

"Its like a tornado of bad animation and off-kilter voice acting rampaging through the trailer park of your soul." - rwlh, 2023

rwlh posted...

I wonder if these cutscenes would be as infamous if they werent attached to one of the most beloved, critically acclaimed game series of all time? Probably not.

Definitely not! That animation studio also provided the cutscenes for the CD-I's "Mutant Rampage Bodyslam" and no one ever talks about those, in spite of a woman giving birth to a half-human/half-pterodactyl in the opening cutscene. Sadly (?) the other scenes are just generic and dull.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQhvpzjwfZI

This is rapidly climbing the ranks of my favorite topics ever.

Fluttershy_Pony posted...

Definitely not! That animation studio also provided the cutscenes for the CD-I's "Mutant Rampage Bodyslam" and no one ever talks about those, in spite of a woman giving birth to a half-human/half-pterodactyl in the opening cutscene. Sadly (?) the other scenes are just generic and dull.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQhvpzjwfZI

Oh my goodness I had no idea that studio did anything else other than Zelda and Hotel Mario! Though I certainly never thought to look them up. These clips seem way more...controlled I think is the right word? Characters generally don't ooze all over the frame. And some of the designs aren't bad. And is that Mark Hamill voicing the announcer?

redrocket posted...

This is rapidly climbing the ranks of my favorite topics ever.

Aww, you're sweet, thanks. <3

Thank you to everyone for your feedback on number of writeups per today! After careful consideration I am going to ignore everyone's opinions and post them whenever I feel like it. This will mostly be once I deem a writeup has gotten sufficient attention or, failing that, when a writeup has gotten no attention at all.

So, moving on...

-

70. Final Fantasy Tactics Manual Art (not game art)
@Anagram
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/1/4/AACpsLAADwxm.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/1/5/AACpsLAADwxn.jpg

Hmm...theres not really a lot to work with here, and it doesnt help that the images are kind of low-resolution. Im not somebody that has any affinity or nostalgia for Final Fantasy, so there may be references to other aspects of the series that Im just not picking up. I like the bright red Archer costumes. Some of their hats are funny, like Oracle (Mystic) and Time Mage.

Really the whole thing makes me think of a fashion runway, with anorexic models displaying odd-looking clothing. Im going to make that my headcanon now. Its more engaging to think of the Lancer (Dragoon) dude strutting down a runway, barely able to see from the massive helmet.

I dont know. When I spend most of the writeup coming with unrelated nonsense, I can tell the design isnt for me. Sorry! Like I said, if I knew more about Final Fantasy, maybe Id feel differently.

And another.

69. Last Exile
@MargaretAnnMid
https://youtu.be/DZVpwlMCd6M?t=302

I watched to around five minutes from the timestamp. The setting for this anime seems neat, a sort of World War I-inspired world. I didnt think the actual animation was anything to write home about though. The character designs were fairly safe from what I could see. There was also this strange focus on 3d models a few times, and I found it very distracting since I didnt think it was integrated all that well. I did like the emphasis on those placards in the cliff face; while I couldnt quite tell what they were, they stood out enough to convey their importance. Overall I didnt think the design was anything spectacular, but maybe Id feel different if I sat down and watched the whole episode.

I like the detail in the 2D parts, but yeah, the 3D models really dont work there.

I really like FFT's designs actually. They might be goofy but they're distinct and easy to distinguish even when rendered as cute pixel characters.