When is it ok for an rpg game to hold back on things like animation?

[cyclone642]

So yeah. I was just wondering what other people thought about when games tend to use less animation in terms of budget restraints or style. Games like the sprite based pokemon games or dragon quests did this for example.


Would using an idle, attack, and death animation suffice if the game's art style matched it?

 

[taarna23]

Oh, I think so. I know some of my animations for battle will wind up duplicated over a few different positions for combat. It does indeed depend on the style of your game.

 

[Sharm]

Moving this to General Discussion since this is really about game creation.


I think it could.  It makes me sad though, because I love all the animation I can get.  The more animation a game has, the more I feel like the developer really loved the game they made.  I guess it affects my opinion of the game's overall quality.  So it's polish, but it's a really shiny polish.

 

[Caitlin]

My opinion on animation is that unless it's a rare animation (Final Fantasy VII limit breaks come to find), I tend to like normal every day attacks to be as short as possible (I don't mind a challenge, mind you).  I've played games with super long animation that has irritated me, and they were normal battles.  (Final Fantasy VIII comes to mind) Just my opinion, though.

 

[cyclone642]

All very good points!

 

[Dr. Delibird]

Animations can certainly help boost the visual appeal of a game however sometimes going down a more minimal path is better for everyone involved.


Sometimes animations take up valuable game time, they will look pretty and stuff the first dozen or so times but after that it becomes "this animation again? argh". So there are difnently pros and cons.


I would say that as long as you have animations for things that need animations, everything else is just add ons, very pretty addons but addons nonethless.

 

[Sharm]

Is the question about all animations or just the in battle attack effects animations?  Because most of the animations in a game don't take up any time.