Motion blur is the worst, especially when applied to turning. It's okay only in only one instance - to create the tunnel vision effect when going really (!) fast forward (racing game, hyperspace jump...).

DoF is ok only in cutscenes for artistic reasons. When in the game I don't want the game to decide what I'm focusing on.

I think motion blur bothers me least in practice because you can turn it off 99% of the time. I do hate it with a fiery passion, but I feel like it's never forced on my like some others are.

Dave Gilbert. Ron Gilbert was responsible for the golden era classics. Dave Gilbert is responsible for Wadjet Eye

But related to that, I have no issue with pixel art in modern games, and I find that it can look quite beautiful.
What bothers me is mismatched art asset resolutions, like when a game features 2 resolutions (very often both pixel art). This is especially evident when they're using some sort of engine that doesn't do animation/movement game pixel by game pixel, but rather has the in-game 'pixel block' move according your computer pixel resolution. Even goofier is when pixel blocks in game are rotated according to some animation.

Wow, that was really hard to explain, and I don't think I succeeded.

You might want to stay away from Final Fantasy Legend 2 (SaGa 2), as the screen shakes constantly from the time you defeat the second to last major boss until after the final battle, except when there's a text box on screen, and there's an entire final dungeon to get through at that point. (The Nintendo DS remake fortunately got rid of this, but unfortunately said version stayed in Japan.)

Also, I remember reading about some semi-recent Nintendo game where text would shake and not stop shaking, making it difficult (and possibly headache-inducing for some people) to read. Whose idea was this?

As for what I dislike:

1. Darkness implemented by making things harder to see (for example by using less lighting) until the player finds/creates a light source. If you are developing a game and want to have darkness be a factor, make it *impossible* to see things in the dark; everything should either be easy to see or completely invisible. (Even then, I would avoid situations where the player has to navigate invisible things without a way to make them visible, except perhaps in troll games.)

2. Anything that creates an accessibility issue. If you really *must* put things like screen shaking or potentially seizure-inducing flashing lights in your game, *please* include an option to disable them. (Many of the complaints in this thread are about graphical flaws that create accessibility issues, including every one that mentions things like headaches, nausea, or migrains.)

This is especially an issue for those playing on old or low-end GPUs, where a reduction in performance can make the game unplayable. (While high FPS is nice to have, too low FPS can hurt a game's playability, especially if it's an action game of any sort.)


Fully agree, though I might make an exception for visual and kinetic novels. (The again, one could reasonably argue that kinetic novels aren't games, as there's no interactivity in them, except maybe things like pushing a button to advance text.)

From the most misused ones, Motion Blur and Depth of Field.

Also Bloom when used wrongly and you are literally getting shafted by light non-stop.

I loathe all "depth of field" settings which intentionally makes the backgrounds blurry. I can't stand that in films or tv shows or games. It always kills my immersion dead, every single time.

Poor Wind Waker got vasilined pretty dang hard in the HD release, and Twilight Princess was already a mess of bloom in 200X.

I like all "modern effects" because I'm a mordern PC gamer. If you don't play all your games on Ultra settings, just go buy a Switch :-P

Joke aside, I really don't like when a game has too much bloom effect (Hitman Absolution is the best example for me).

*lol* Of course, you're right. That's what happens when nostalgia's kicking in xP There are too many Gilberts adventurously pointing and clicking around in my head...

I can happily report that the HD remaster of Twilight Princess looks definately cleaner than the original.
And what's more? it's no longer mirrored !

EDIT: By original i refer to the version that most people played. The Wii one. Not Gamecube

Sure. I've never played one, but if it's the goal to be a visual novel then executing on that is all that matters. The genre of game also defines how important writing and cinematics are of course. I know you love JRPGs and obviously good story and cinematics are essential in that genre. Even the most story focused genres though, like a point and click adventure game, needs good puzzle design and interactive exploration. So I think anything shooting for interactivity needs to focus on that at its core.

Screen shakes and full-screen flashes.

Except that I *don't* like story and cinematics in JRPGs; I actually do play them just for the gameplay.

(You can see this in my Final Fantasy series preferences; 5, which has a wonderful job/ability system and a lot of strategic diversity, is my favorite, while I don't like 6, which is one of the popular ones, that much (though I still don't think it's as bad as 7). Also, I really like the SaGa series due to its rather unconventional and interesting gameplay, plus the straddling of the JRPG/WRPG line seen in some of the installments.)

Once again, having these could be considered an accessibility issue (screen shakes can cause headaches and full-screen flashes can cause epilepsy).

One other warning: Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a great remake, but if set to classic graphics, there will be full-screen flashes when you damage a boss. Fortunately, that doesn't happen if you are playing with modern graphics, so there's a way around that.

In any case, games should offer the option of disabling any graphical aspect (or any aspect, for that matter) that could cause accessibility issues.

Aye. In my case, I don't have the epilepsy issue, but the screen flashes can cause me actual discomfort and headaches from the brightness on my eyes (and I make sure never to play in a dark room as it is). I have to close my eyes and/or look away when I can't disable them. It's worse when they happen in cinematics.