Hello, everyone,
this game is currently being discussed at RPGWatch as well ... As some of you already might know.
One other point of discussion(s) is the art style. And, to be more exact, the colouring.
As an example ( ! ) of the current discussion I quote 2 posts here :
First, user "coyote" :
As Arkadia7 has brought up before me, the art style is too bright, too much like WoW, too cartoonish, but I guess that's too late to change. As a matter of personal taste, I much prefer the darker, more realistic art direction in The Witcher or Planescape Torment. The only positive thing about the recent trend to make games look like children's cartoons: I am not tempted to play so many computer games any more ;-)
Second, user GhanBuriGhan, his direct reply to the above :
Is that really a trend? I would say the current trend is in the opposite direction actually (Witcher, FO3, Skyrim, Risen, D3,… the announced Dishonored, Cyberpunk, Wasteland… to an extent even AoD and ME series - all rather grim, mature-themed games. Just ask Alrik, he complains about it endlessly! I don't particularly dig the art style myself, but I think some variety in styles is actually good.
Me, I'm indeed totally biased. To be frank, I must say that I'm beginning to be fed up with ll of this "Dark Fantasy" art style I see in games recently. I even call it "Heavy Metal Fantasy" right now, or just "Dark Fantasy".
Sign are "mature themes" (against which I have nothing becaue I believe that "mature themes" can be presented in a rather bright-looking environment, too, but nobody does it yet, except perhaps Manga, for example), and a generally dark, gritty, dirty and bloody look in the art directions.
Which is why several people have expressed their distaste of the curent DivO colourfulness. They call it often "too WOWish" and similar things. I assume you get what I mean.
My reply on all of that (totally biased, too) can be read here :
http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1061146896&postcount=155To cut it short, I see general arts & graphics styles of Fantasy games at a kind of crossroads : One way leads into colourfulness, the other into darkness, so to say.
And biased as I am, I see the road into Darkness already being taken.
So, I just wanted to inform you at Larian of this ongoing discussion - because i believe it is not unimportant.
Ideal would be 2 sets of graphics & textures - a thing which was already done for Gothic : Arcania, but which would also mean *lots* of more work ...
- And - totally apart from that above mentioned discussion - as a side note an idea I once had about the companion's AI of the second character from DivO :
Several sets of "responsive AI" would be great !
And the player could chose between one of them !
Alrik
