I think Seiken Densetsu 3 (also known as Trials of Mana) has the best pixel art for a 2D top-down game and is one of the best-looking SNES game.
There might be 2D games that look better with side-scrolling graphics or such, but I think when it comes to top-down, SD3 is the best.
Feel free to prove me wrong (provide pictures).

>>11857285 (OP)
>also known as Trials of Mana
the sfc version is not known as that

>>11857382

That's a pretty common opinion but I disagree because SD3 often comes up as cluttered and visually messy, the detailing has no regards for visual clarity the worst offender being when you can't even tell where the exits on a screen are.

There are also many other SFC games that have a similar level of detail and/or which are more technically impressive with their use of visual effects but they're not as famous as SD3, because SD3 had legendary "the sequel of a game we like that we never got" status like Rondo of Blood which artificially increased its popularity before anyone got to even play it and this sort of notoriety just doesn't go away.

The Arcade Zone trilogy (Legend, Iron Commando, Nightmare Busters) almost look like arcade level fidelity

>>11857285 (OP)
I played the knight guy with my friends but the other dudes seemed to shit out way more damage, i always felt ripped off. Then again i was like 12-14 so i had no idea about 'builds' i just picked what was cool

thread theme
https://youtu.be/C4KdgogTSq0?si=pNOK_67kaantG3hF

Wicked thread ya'll. As a pixel artist I frequently come back to SNES to remember what a game with professional pixel art looked and felt like, given how its a growing rarity in todays world. Don't get me wrong, there's lots of AI slop coming out nowadays but nothing beats the old days of hand drawn snes games. Dos games I also find to be a rich source of pixel art.

For top down, maybe you're right that som3 was best, I didn't play it much.

But I'd say one of the most gorgeous and graphically impressive games for the system was demons crest. I just love that games art direction so much.

>>11857285 (OP)
Okay I'll get the popular and correct opinion out of the way: Chrono Trigger is the GOAT. Close to perfect ratio of being detailed and clear. Most importantly, it manages to have expressive characters.

>>11857285 (OP)
The gameplay is kinda ass though.

>>11857438
Pantsu desu?!?

>>11857426
Any other rpg recommendations, anon?

Aight. Gonna drop some collages.
The only game here I finished was Chrono Trigger (over a decade ago).
Haven't even tried two others (SD3, ToP) - so apologies if these screenshots don't represent them well.

Screenshot Source: FantasyAnime

Chrono Trigger (1995)

>>11857285 (OP)
>has the best pixel art for a 2D top-down game
Alundra for me.

Seiken Densetsu 3 (1995)

Tales of Phantasia (1995)

Final Fantasy VI (1994)

>>11858451
the PS1 version of ToP was very nice looking

Secret of Mana (1993)

>>11858462
Tales of Phantasia (1998) [PS1]

>>11858441
Alundra (1997) [PS1]

>>11857285 (OP)
I don't like the color pallete, it is too dark. The character design is a mess, big heads and big foot. Ys Chronicles has the best top-down 3/4 pixel art for me.

>>11857429
Is this some sort of coincidence that this game looks so much like Cybernator/Valken?

>>11858463
good colors

>>11858439
>8:7
nice

>>11858463
I love the pastels in this game

>>11858673
Ys II Eternal (2000) [PC]

Apologies for JPEG quality

>>11858446
Out of the ones posted, this looks best.
Shame about the UI though.

>>11857285 (OP)
Swird of Mana and Legend of Mana both look even better.

>>11857423
Dumb dumb such as yourself used to call it Secret of Mana 2 and now it's Trials of Mana it's hilarious.

I like Hagane's outside stages. The inside stuff looks good, but is a bit too much.

>>11857285 (OP)
It's a bit overloaded, but that seems to be what they wanted to go with, as seen in LoM.

>>11857426
Frontal battle system always greatly devalues any RPG. It never fails to look cheap.

>>11857285 (OP)
The art is great.
The issue is when you actually play it and the movements are so janky and ruins it.
Good for screenshots only.

I'm not big on 16-bit pixel art. 32-bit pixel art on the other hand is much better. But it helps that the graphics are billboarded and that there's no sprite limit. There's nothing here that beats Breath of Fire IV

>>11858463
>>11860830
>Frontal battle system always greatly devalues any RPG. It never fails to look cheap.
>Blocks your path

>>11860851
Breath of Fire IV (2000) [PS1]

I hate how all JRPGs always use chibi characters. If FF7 would have the same character design from the battle scenes throughout the whole game, it would be much more pleasing to look at. It's why FF8 is probably my favoite FF.

Star Ocean looks better

>>11860889
I agree, it's one of the best looking JRPGs. The gameplay looks boring tho.

Chibi artstyles and randomized enemy encounters you can't even see coming is probably why I don't play JRPGs. I have nothing against story focused games, but at least make it somewhat immersive.

>>11860897
Star Ocean (1996) [SFC]

>>11860926
Very weird perspective except for the top middle screenshot.

>>11860805
Sword of Mana (2003) [GBA]

>>11860805
Legend of Mana (1999) [PS1]

>>11861287
I always loved this art style, they tried to emulate it with Dawn to Mana or even Echoes of Mana but haven't succeeded.

>>11860854
That does look cheap. The design itself is decent.

>>11858723
A lot of the same devs worked on it. Metal Warriors otoh was just LucasArts devs highly inspired by Cybernator.

Someone post Albert Odyssey, Magical Vacation, and Beyond Oasis

>>11864343
Brownie Brown was peak soul.

Terranigma is good and I’m really impressed Beyond Oasis.

>>11860830
That floating tri head looks like Zeiram!
https://youtu.be/HOkB8_G7V1Q?si=OJmiprlg1DoGEMqu

Beyond Oasis (1994) [Genesis]

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (1998) [PS1]

Screenshots are dithered, unfortunately.

Terranigma (1995) [SNES]

>>11865092
Whats nigma?

>>11861287
LOM might be one of the all-time greatest disparities between how a game looked and how it played. 10/10 aesthetic wasted on 4/10 gameplay. Holy shit this game was repetitive, monotonous and obtuse.

At least the remaster let you skip the random battles so you could wander in circles and try to figure out what the everloving fuck you were supposed to do without having to fight 100 pointless battles that weren't remotely fun or challenging.

>>11864531
Yep, same artist, Keita Amemiya.

>>11865349
&

I hate to be "that" guy but

>>11860889
Low poly backgrounds

>>11861287
Regularly drawn backgrounds

>>11865017
Regularly drawn backgrounds

Now here's my own example with regularly drawn backgrounds, El Dorado Gate

keep posting gridanon I am monitoring this thread and download it all with jdownloader.
Thanks anon.

>>11865403
El Dorado Gate (2000) [Dreamcast]

On the snes I woulg recomend Ghoul Patrol. It had pristine graphics and a nice smooth scrolling.

>>11857285 (OP)
It also has the worse secondaries.
They're all porn addicts.

>>11857429
Everyone needs to play this. It's a masterpiece.

>>11857434
We almost had SNES CD kinoludo brehs...

>>11865585
>Untranslated
>Game is in serveral volume
A shame, the designs look very vibrant and fun.

Cool thread

>>11857591
My brother.
I'm also a pixel artist and I love looking at games with good pixel art, especially on weaker consoles like the GBC and NES.
>>11857285 (OP)
I'd like to shout out Chaos Seed. Mostly takes place in dank dungeons you make but the indivisual sprites really pop with their black outlines. I'd love to see the sprites get ripped someday.

Ys V (1995) [SFC]

Minish Cap (2004) [GBA]

>>11867656
Love how this game looks
Gameplay is cookie cutter boring shit though

>>11865253
The gameplay was ass indeed, but I liked the plots to some of the questlines. It felt very episodic too. Overall I enjoyed it more than I despised it

>>11860806
Final Fantasy Adventure 3: Secret of Mana 2: Trials of Mana

>>11867840
>Gameplay is cookie cutter boring shit though
Minish Cap gameplay is miles better than any of the top-down games in this thread.
Not hard when they're mostly "press a" turn-based games or grindy number go up visual novels.
MC at least has puzzles, some interesting abilities, and responsive combat.
Name a top-down game you think has better gameplay.

>>11865585
>Mobile looking garbage

No thanks.

>>11857285 (OP)
If only it wasn't so god damn grindy.

Game for midwits

>>11867905
There are no mobile games that look that good

Brave Prove (1998) [PS1]

don't you die on me thread

>>11868341
Is this an Alundra-like?

>>11870402
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK_WF4AI62E

>>11870429
Damn, even the music is extremely similar. Just when I thought I had found every "ALttP but better" style game. Might have to give this a shot.

Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean (1996) [Saturn]

>>11870527
>Damn, even the music is extremely similar.
You weren't kidding, I skipped through the video and it's uncanny.

>>11868341
>>11870527
>>11870653
>alundra
>beyond oasis / legend of oasis
>this game
any others like this? tool items like bombsa/arrows but with more focus on combat and spongier enemies, more platforming, more realistically proportioned characters, darker stories, medieval settings with oddly funky music, etc. there's a very specific vibe to these games, i wish there was a proper term for them beyond just calling them zelda-likes.

>>11858451
It's nice how toned down the coloring was on this, compared to basically everything in the Tales series since.

>chrono trigger
>ff6
>secret of mana
>ys II
>rhapsody
Except for those titles, the other ones have ugly character designs.

>>11870820
What makes left better than right?

Sometimes I wonder if new 2D games should use pixel art at all or just be playable animation as is the fashion. It just feels really artificial to try to replicate the style meant for older hardware. Of course the natural solution to this would just be to release a new console that is meant just to play games that look older, but idk if I'll live to see something like that.

>>11858627
I had so much fun with this game and the challenging puzzles despite the shitty translation. Anime cutscenes were so mind bending coming at it as a SNES kid.

Man, no love for the GBC?

>>11871393
It's not about the console, it's about the display. Most people don't have CRTs to properly display pixel-graphics and many devs will add no shader at all or just a very simplistic shitty "TV-shader" that's just dark lines like it's 2007 again. No, the way 2D graphics should be done is hand drawn and painted sprites, like in Legend of Mana but of course uncompressed and in 4k.

I love these kinds of games but Im a total EMU newfag with a 5 year old mac, EMU recommendations for best grafx and best running w/o lagging and shit?

>>11859709
I always play chronicles with the older art style and the midi music is there any reason to play this version

>>11873567
I haven't played it.
From what I read, Chronicles has different character portraits and an option to play without the border.

>>11872327
I've never seen Star Ocean before, that looks great.

>>11873558
Hello, fellow macfag!
>5 year old mac
>lagging and shit
LOL, don't be silly. Emulating 2D retro games is not very demanding. Anyway, the best emulator I can recommend is called Openemu. It's mac exclusive and multi purpose, meaning you have all consoles and stuff in one app, it comes with built in shaders and other features too. It's like retroarch but actually designed for a real computer and by a person who's not a complete autistic spastic insisting on making the UI as shit as possible on purpose.

Herc's Adventures (1997) [Saturn/PS1]

>>11873558
>macfaggot
>technologically illiterate and generally stupid as fuck
checks out

>>11874586
Too bad hercs adventures plays like ass.

Neat!