I'm bringing my response to you from the "Wishlist" thread posts.
I don't want grim and gritty, just something with a tone like original DD or DD2.
In the old forums, someone (not me !!!) wrote that - in this sense - ACTUAL REAL grass isn't as dark as presented within Divinity 1 ...
Just go out and compare the colours !
Here I was saying that I think the first three Divinity games should set the precedent. I liked their colors and the art direction. And I also saw a lot of beauty, especially in Divinity 2. Grass in those games looks about right to me. It may or may not be the same color as when I look outside (certainly there are no mushroom forests from Beyond Divinity
).
I don't have an opinion on what is "overused" or what "trends" there are because I play a very limited amount of games.
But I will say again, that I think colors and brightness are secondary to what really makes it look like a cartoon, and that is the art style itself. Even dark, gloomy dungeon games like Diablo 3 and Torchlight have a cartoon look that comes from the style, not the colors. The Sacred games had tons more brightness and light themes and even silliness, and they look ten times better than D3 or Torchlight. Same goes for Drakensang.
Monsters Inc., Toy Story and Shrek would still be cute movies even if they were in black-and-white. And the graphics of Divinity: Original Sin looks cute, regardless of brightness and colors.
