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SecretCharacter

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
1,384
Colorado Springs, CO
I remember seeing the arcade version for the first time and thinking "why is this so terrible?"
Then I played it and it felt nothing like Street Fighter.
I still bought it day 1 when it came out on console. Didn't enjoy it much. I played more super turbo hd than sfiv.
 

RM8

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,898
JP
I think it looks okay, and some character designs are better than their SFV counterpart. And everyone got a ton of cool costumes, not only the waifus.
 

captmcblack

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,058
Game looked great for a HD 2.5D 2008 release that hadn't gotten any series representation since 1999's 3rd Strike. And 7 years after the SFIV series, we got a similarly epic jump forward with SFV. Definitely looks rougher now, though - and the 2.5D takes the timelessness away unlike looking at the beautiful 2D games of the CPS2/CPS3 era.

I don't think there were better looking 2.5D/3D fighting games released on PS3/360 in that time either...
 

skeezx

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,096
i remember on GAF back in 2007 (or whenever it came out) consensus was it was fugly ass game

i thought it looked quite alright, obvs they aren't going to do hand drawn sprites or whatever so it was a decent compromise. today (IMO) it looks fine... but yeah, it was never critically acclaimed on the visual front
 
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J 0 E

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,234
SFIV looked inky and stylish back then and even now I can't call it ugly, SFV is miles better of course artistically & graphically (I like how Ken looks too)
 

EeK9X

Member
Jan 31, 2019
1,068
I was very disappointed with SFIV's art direction, mostly because I'd set my expectations incredibly high after the game's beautiful announcement trailer (inspired by sumi-e).

I wish that they'd have gone with an even more stylized look, instead of settling for an overly cartoony aesthetic. The facial animations, in particular, still bother me to this day.
 

Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
38,332
Ibis Island
In terms of art style I always felt 4 and 5 are pretty similar. With 4 being a bit more exaggerated in certain instances. I'm curious to see where 6 will end up. Hope they go for a cool change. I'd love to see something that's say more "classy" which I can't exactly explain lol
 

Rice Eater

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,814
I always thought SF4 looked OK back then. As time passes, I don't think it hasn't aged well. But I still don't think of it as very ugly like many have. I still prefer some of the character designs in that game compared to their SFV version.
 

Deleted member 34949

Account closed at user request
Banned
Nov 30, 2017
19,101
I thought it looked okay for what it was at the time. V looks miles better, though.

I remember preferring Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom's visuals over SFIV's in spite of the former being far technically inferior in those regards.
 

DoradoWinston

Member
Apr 9, 2019
6,098
Yeah imo it was always just kinda alright nothing to write home about. V is way better in that aspect.
street-fighter-v-battle-costume-cammy.jpg
 

Dogenzaka

Alt Account
Banned
Apr 20, 2019
803
I really need the ridiculously bulging muscles on every single character to fuck off in the next game.
 

lusca_bueno

Member
Nov 23, 2017
1,472
It's crazy but I read people saying SFV was worse looking than SFIV tbh. People can hate all they like, SFV has a very solid art direction (aside from the horrible UI), and to me the clay aspect looks great.
 

Iori Loco

Member
Nov 10, 2017
2,288
Game looked great for a HD 2.5D 2008 release that hadn't gotten any series representation since 1999's 3rd Strike. And 7 years after the SFIV series, we got a similarly epic jump forward with SFV. Definitely looks rougher now, though - and the 2.5D takes the timelessness away unlike looking at the beautiful 2D games of the CPS2/CPS3 era.

I don't think there were better looking 2.5D/3D fighting games released on PS3/360 in that time either...

I would argue that Battle Fantasia is a much better realisation of 2.5D artstyle than SFIV. Sure, the character designs were generic and the animation was the classic ArcSys stuttery limited style, but at least the colors are vibrant, the background NPCs look like they belong in the same universe and aren't distracting clowns and the character models look really good. It also debuted in 2007, according to wikipedia.

 

Snake Eater

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
11,385
SF4 was all time ugly in the art department with some of the worst character models
 

Rice Eater

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,814
this reminds me about the alpha look of the game. man i wonder how the game would have been received if they had kept that look lol

1_alpha02.jpg

I actually have absolutely no memory of seeing these images when they were first released. And it's probably because I didn't keep up with the game much after I found out it was going to use 3D graphics.Ignorantly I thought there was just no way a SF game with 3D graphics could be good and didn't even follow the games production.

I bought it when it came out just because it was SF though. I got over the 3D graphics quickly though when I actually started playing the game. Playing the game, especially online, made me remember just how much I fucking love this franchise.
 

Neoxon

Spotlighting Black Excellence - Diversity Analyst
Member
Oct 25, 2017
85,257
Houston, TX
when you look at the gap between the best looking fighting games on ps360 compared to SF4, the gap is smaller than between the best looking fighting games on ps4bone and SF5
The difference is that SFIV looks bad to decent depending on the character by the standards of its generation, while SFV looks decent to great depending on the character. We're talking about a generation that gave us TTT2, Tekken 6, Virtua Fighter 5, & UMvC3.
 

Neoxon

Spotlighting Black Excellence - Diversity Analyst
Member
Oct 25, 2017
85,257
Houston, TX
Pretty much this and the menu style, general art on select screen and the animes for ending in the first version. SFIV is honestly a piece of art. It has so much personality on it
Disagree. Looked great then and now. Nice animations, great colors, good character designs, fun backgrounds. Top notch job overall.
Hard disagree there, especially when you have the likes of Guile & Ryu looking the way that they do. Plus you have Sakura still wearing a high school uniform after god-knows-how-long.
 

Kewlmyc

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
26,674
Yeah, game always had an ugly art style. Some characters looked fine though (3S crew, Viper, Juri, SxT crew).
 

RM8

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,898
JP
Hard disagree there, especially when you have the likes of Guile & Ryu looking the way that they do. Plus you have Sakura still wearing a high school uniform after god-knows-how-long.
SFV has Ken and Vega, though. And they're canonically handsome characters, lol. And I really don't like how Sakura's face in SFV looks out of place when compared to other characters (her eyes are way too big).
 

icecold1983

Banned
Nov 3, 2017
4,243
The difference is that SFIV looks bad to decent depending on the character by the standards of its generation, while SFV looks decent to great depending on the character. We're talking about a generation that gave us TTT2, Tekken 6, Virtua Fighter 5, & UMvC3.

youre talking about art preferences, im talking about the quality of rendering. SFV is an absolute joke compared to almost everything this generation. extremely low poly everything, no proper shadowing, basically non existent lighting, n64 era quality textures etc. when you look at the gap between something like SFV and the most recent mortal kombat, its just far bigger than any last gen fighter compared to SF4. under no circumstances does SFV ever look great. the only thing it has going for it visually is animation
 
OP
OP
Lant_War

Lant_War

Classic Anus Game
The Fallen
Jul 14, 2018
23,529
youre talking about art preferences, im talking about the quality of rendering. SFV is an absolute joke compared to almost everything this generation. extremely low poly everything, no proper shadowing, basically non existent lighting, n64 era quality textures etc. when you look at the gap between something like SFV and the most recent mortal kombat, its just far bigger than any last gen fighter compared to SF4. under no circumstances does SFV ever look great. the only thing it has going for it visually is animation
Your first mistake is comparing MK with Street Fighter. They're not even going for the same thing.
 

Dreamboum

Member
Oct 28, 2017
22,841
After SF5 I used to think SFIV was almost unwatchable. Now I think it has a great look to it (not a shot against SF5)
 

zoodoo

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,722
Montreal
Only the SFIII series looked good to me. I have never liked their art style. SFIV is probably the worst offender. It was always ugly OP.
 

Jangowuzhere

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,505
Yeah, there's definitely some revisionist history going on in this thread.

SFIV looked pretty damn good at the time. It had a really awesome and unique style that made it stood out from most of the games of its time.