Board Thread:Biweekly discussions/@comment-26239911-20190827201336/@comment-3398859-20190909212233

Oooh!! This is actually a topic that's been on my mind a LOT lately so I'm really happy to join in on this!

Wow! That was a lot! But yeah. That's what I had to say.
 * I think the original Plants vs. Zombies has my favorite art style, though I might just be nostalgic here. I'm kinda with Skillness here, it has a very distinctive style that created very memorable characters, and there's something about its sort of hand-painted, black-outline look that just. Clicks with me. Honestly, looking back at my own artwork, I feel that the original Plants vs. Zombies has influenced my own style a lot and that the series in general was a major creative inspiration to me, as people who've known me for a long time would know that I've been designing my own PvZ characters for about as long as I've been considering character design in general.
 * That being said, I also have a lot of respect for Plants vs. Zombies 2's art style, I think it does a good job giving it a more clean and "mobile-friendly" look that does definitely feel the way a sequel should look, though I feel the slight imperfections in the PvZ1 art style are sort of part of the charm for me? Honestly, I do consider the PvZ2 art style about as good as PvZ1's, and which one you prefer I think can really be a matter of preference. I do like how the characters in general seem a bit more animated in this game, though I will also say that there is a couple of... questionable character design decisions, namely Grave Buster abandoning the "grave" motif and Electrici-tea trying for like seven different design details that don't mesh at all.
 * The Chinese-exclusive plants kinda just vary from example to example. They definitely have a different feel from the international plant designs, but I do often appreciate their quirky personalities, and some of them like Primal Rafflesia and Mushroom Cloud rank as some of my favorite designs in the series. That being said, there's also designs like Firmiana and Meteor Hammer Master which are... ????
 * Glad we're all ragging on Plants vs. Zombies 3 in this thread. While I appreciate the elasticity of the animation, it doesn't really help that the actual art is... kinda ugly. I mean, it makes sense that the 3D models are gonna be kinda low-poly, since the game has to render a bunch of them on-screen at once, but like, the models are generally Not Very Good and at that point it's a question of why you'd abandon established and appealing 2D art styles in favor of a 3D art style that just doesn't look good! Are you going with that CGI Palz logic of "it's instantly better because it's 3D"? Because that isn't how it works!!! The art on the seed packets does look a decent bit better, though even then, it feels like it's going for a "yeah look at how COOL all these plants are" sort of style rather than the fun, goofy personality of the previous games that I loved so, so much. Like, Plants vs. Zombies: Xeriouxly Forxe... Though, I suppose it's appropriate that the game that scraps what makes the series work to turn it into a lousy mobile game would have an art style appropriate for a lousy mobile game.
 * On that note, I've seen Adventures brought up a couple times in this thread, and I'm personally fine with it. Heck, it's kinda what I wish PvZ3 would look like if it is to go with 3D models. More vibrant colors, an a more cute, fun personality for the plants and zombies. The cute and fun personality is a cornerstone of the series!
 * I don't have much to say about Heroes and the Garden Warfare games. Heroes has a lot in common with PvZ2, though it brings back some of the more detailed elements of the first game's art style, and I can dig that! Honestly I'd prefer this as the "PvZ3 art style" to the one we actually have. And Garden Warfare is kind of doing its own thing, but I think they did a good job translating the character designs of the main series to be more appropriate for the new genre, though I always felt Sunflower looked kinda dead in the eyes... That's for the zombies, silly!