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A touch of AI is all it takes to trigger backlash, as a promising new indie falls afoul of slop skeptics (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 1 day ago by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/28095114

Vapor World: Over The Mind is a Soulslike Metroidvania with an evocative, painterly art style reminiscent of Lies of P and the narrative platformers of Playdead. According to Korean studio Alive Inc, the game had 100,000 wishlists just before its early access launch on August 19, mostly on the strength of a demo available since January 2025.

But what should have been a triumphant early access launch went pear shaped very quickly. At launch, few talked about the quite distinctive worldbuilding or the parry-heavy combat. Instead, all focus was trained entirely on something absent from the popular demo: very obvious AI use.

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[–] HuudaHarkiten@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I wonder, what would be examples of games with badly done art that is overlooked because the game itself is good.

And I think stuff like Minecraft doesn't count, because with that style, the uglyness is a choice, not a result of not being able to make things look a certain way.

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

Five Nights at Freddy's is popular if nothing else, but the art in the early games isn't bad on purpose.

[–] Verat@sh.itjust.works 2 points 19 hours ago

Most obvious example I can think of is Cruelty Squad, the art style is intentionally eye-searing there though.

[–] Soggy@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

"Sentinels of the Multiverse" is a fairly popular board game (within those circles) and it looks pretty rough. Pokemon S/V got rightfully dunked on for looking like shit but it still made a bunch of money. "The Case of the Golden Idol" is highly regarded. Runescape.

[–] ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I think pokemon was so heavily criticized partly because it's developed by a veteran studio that really should be able to do better. And the way it looked bad wasn't so much the art style, but how it was loaded into the game.

You had a lot of pop-ins, things not being animated in the distance, and every npc using the exact same animation at the exact same time, as well as some truly uninspired textures out in the wild.

Gamefreak is clearly capable of better when you look at Beast of Reincarnation or Little Town Hero, they just don't seem to care about pokemon anymore.

[–] Soggy@lemmy.world 1 points 57 minutes ago

Effort, talent, technology, taste, there's lots of reasons for something to look bad.