this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2024
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Just look at these wonderfully detailed and animated PS2 character models (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 year ago by doublepepperoni@hexbear.net to c/games@hexbear.net
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Dude's got some Eiichiro Oda snotty crying action going on chefs-kiss

While I was playing Onimusha 2 I was really struck by just how good the character models looked. The PS2 had tons of games with really well-animated characters but I felt Onimusha 2's were especially nice.

One thing that's really noticeable looking back is just how bad character models and animation generally were by comparison in Western games from the same time period with the exception of Half-Life 2. Devs didn't seem to give a shit and just went with stiff faces with basic mouth flaps even if the games were otherwise pushing the envelope graphically

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[–] PaX@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Another Emotion Engine and MIPS R5K/R5900 banger*

40 MB of total system memory btw, I need like 1000 just to use this website lol, modern digital logic designers and programmers just don't have the juice

*I am not nor have I ever been on the payroll of Sony, Toshiba, MIPS Technologies Inc, or Quantum Effect Design

-5DeadlyPipelineStages

[–] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One thing that's really noticeable looking back is just how bad character models and animation generally were by comparison in Western games from the same time period with the exception of Half-Life 2. Devs didn't seem to give a shit and just went with stiff faces with basic mouth flaps even if the games were otherwise pushing the envelope graphically

It's very possible western devs didn't know how ti push the envelope when it came to character models and animations. A lot of this stuff does have a social element, devs do talk to eachother and share tips on how to improve in certain ways. I don't think it's a coincidence that western and japanese games had distinct styles, and I don't think it's fully creative intent. Technical teams need to have an understanding of how to get various systems to work well and it doesn't seem surprising that geographic and linguistic barriers can create differences.

One aspect that kind of hints at the potential cause being technical limitations: your western example requires at least a PC which is 3-5 times more powerful than a PS2. There's an xbox port, but I think the Half life 2 xbox port is considered a miracle comparable to the Doom SNES port.

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

One aspect that kind of hints at the potential cause being technical limitations: your western example requires at least a PC which is 3-5 times more powerful than a PS2.

On the other hand, you have games like the Ratchet and Clank and Jak & Daxter trilogies, all games by Western devs, all on the PS2 and all sporting expressive and lively characters. The difference is that those are cartoony platformers where having nice animation was most likely seen as crucial to the the intended style

[–] Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think this is why Kingdom Hearts did so well at the time, their cutscenes were pretty good.

To be fair, at the time you would be watching these on an SD TV and not upscaled HD emulation, so the animation of small details would be rather pointless

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You would've still been able to tell the difference between nice facial animation and a Thunderbirds puppet. I think it's more that character animation was generally seen as pretty low priority by many Western devs. I assume most had John Carmack brain and were more focused on more nuts and bolts stuff like engine optimisation and lighting than something you'd only see in cutscenes

[–] Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago

True, true. Plus it is pretty impressive what they could do with limited hardware. I think that's why I love retro games so much. It's cool to see what they can do.

[–] ashinadash@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Second Sight has absolutely killer cutscenes and animations, western game from that time.

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's a Free Radical game, a studio that had a trademark cartoony artstyle that they also used to similar effect in TimeSplitters 🤔

[–] ashinadash@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah it fucks :)

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My other examples of well-animated Western PS2 titles were Jak & Daxter and Ratchet and Clank which probably says something about stylised graphics over realism

[–] ashinadash@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago

Yup, the only Playstation games whose cutscenes really hold up now, for example, are the Megaman Legends games which use textures for their anime-style faces and are cel shaded, byootiful.