Why don't more RPG's a hand drawn or cell shaded approach?

RPGs typically age the best right?

I know some RPGs use stylized graphics but others go for polygonal realism.

There's not a lot of RPGs being made these days. I'm more concerned that few RPGs are being made, than I am that they don't have a wide enough variety of artistic stylings.

That said, maybe you're looking at things too narrowly. Yes, a lot of games opt for a more 'realistic' approach, but maybe some of those styles are actually kind of unique.

'Realism' can take many different forms in games. In Gears of War, the characters do look kind of realistic, but they are also kind of short and bulky. In Bioshock, the characters have kind of large eyes, and different proportions. Just off the top of my head.

This is a bit off-topic, but a pretty good example is comparing the look of modern 'retro'-styled games. I was reading some comments the other day, and someone brought up a very good point about the game The Escapists - about how while it is essentially 8-bit, it still doesn't have the same sort of style as an old NES game. By comparison, a game like Mega Man 9 or 1001 Spikes looks a lot more like the real deal. But those are two games with a similar style, that actually aren't very similar when you get down to it.

One of the last games I played that had a really interesting artistic styling, was probably Valkyria Chronicles. Watercolor filter, very nice effect.

I really like the look Everquest Next has, I think that looks really refreshing - probably better than how real life looks tbh.

This exactlt what they should gave done with Dragon's Dogma.... infact it doesn't have to be Cell Shaded..... if they just a much much simpler Artstyle like one of the Nintendo games then it would have much better to look at and have fewer performance issues..... I mean just looking at the Cover you would think the actual game would look the same way way but nope..... they just had to screw it up with Realism !

Playing Disney Infinity right now and its a blast.... well actually it isn t but thats not important.

I mean I remember growing up around people with Toonami people were saying they wish they could play an anime game. I read all the possibilities of making a drawn game. From the looks of it it would just take an enormous amount of effort but can be done right?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/23/cuphead_n_5522369.html

Then there is David Jaffe's Drawn to Death shooter.

I agree with you LuLu regarding cell shading helping games age.

Btw how do you make an RPG? Like are there any open source ones?

Imagine if we all got together and made a gamespot game that was free in our spare time.

@dark_drag765: I think the question you need to ask is why is there so many dang shooters

@GamerNerdTalk:

Theres alot of Action Games too..... and Sports Games.... and Platformers.... Adventures Games had abit of a surge last year.....

Things Aint bad at all.... theres alil bit of something for everybody

It just depends. Some games benefit greatly from having that art style while others benefit from different ones. It depends on what kind of tone the makers are going for.

From as aesthetic perspective, I've only really liked the Wind Waker as far as cell shaded games go.

Just not all games fit that style man and you shall have to accept that... not all games look good in this style like Borderlands and Windwaker it needs to have the feel INB4 you could do that but it doesn't really fit many fantasy themes... just think of WoW with that art style, it wouldn't fit it.

I've always wondered how much Studio Ghibli charged for their hand in Ni No Kuni. Cost is usually the answer to a lot of quesitons.

BECAUSE :-

A) ONLY Japanese tend to make colourful RPG's they're too busy making nitty-gritty dragons'n'sh!t.

B) NO one supports them as they're for an obscure niche..

I love Dark Cloud 2 and i still have to painfully wait for someone like XSEED to localize ZWEII 2..

Heck Wind-waker was practically HATED by its fans and didn't sell as many copies because fans didn't like cartoony look.