Realistic Girls vs Toony Girls

DreamCity

Newbie
Game Developer
Oct 28, 2023
31
51
Hi everyone!

I wonder if you prefer realistic girls or toony girls in adults VNs. Drop your thoughts below.

Peace!
 

CaptainBipto

Active Member
Sep 20, 2018
715
700
For the most part, either style works just fine for me.

If a game is going for the visual novel style, I do prefer 3D images and animations over cartoon styles, but cartoonish images aren't going to make me rage quit the game and bitch about 'the quality' unless the images look like they came out of MS Paint. Doesn't really matter what engine is being used, as long as it interests me and the graphics are not, eye gouging, low rez, junk.

I will add, that I do prefer cartoon style images in RPG Maker games. It is kind of an old school engine, so I tend to like the cartoon style, most of the RPGM games I saw with 3D in them, the images were a bit jarring. The images looked great, but just felt out of place compared to the default appearance of the RPGM interface.
 
Mar 21, 2023
109
47
I won't say "never", but for now, I've been focusing on 3DCG stuff exclusively, because if it was 2D, it would basically be hentai which, to me, offers a different experience. If I wanted that then I'd just look for some hentai, but that doesn't happen to me that often anyway. I like to self-insert when playing these things, and 3D makes it so much easier.

That said, the characters don't always have to look "super realistic" per se. I also welcome Honey Select rendered characters and ones that resemble the live-action version of Alita Battle Angel, for example.
 

NeonSelf

Member
Dec 3, 2019
235
369
Art should be consistent across the game.
Realistic girls with toony backgrounds will look as ugly as toony girls over realistic background.
I have favorite games in both artstyles and dont have a preference.

As for me, the biggest problem I see in adult VN's are enormous tits on every girl.
 

mattius77

Well-Known Member
May 16, 2017
1,685
1,351
I tend to not really like overly toony character art, but it really depends on the specifics of the game.
 

MarshmallowCasserole

Active Member
Jun 7, 2018
647
1,622
Toony 3D 100%. "Realistic" 3D too often falls into uncanny valley, so things like Illusion HS is a safer bet for me.

No strong preference in 2D, unless it's really toony/anime, it's fine.
 

Izakiya

Member
Apr 29, 2023
101
336
Toony for sure. I don't care if it's 2D, Koikatsu, or Honey Select. Those are my preferences.

DAZ renders fall into the uncanny valley for me, so they tend to give me the creeps. It feels like looking at a mannequin. I'll still play DAZ games if the writing is really good but it's not ideal.
 

Sphere42

Active Member
Sep 9, 2018
926
973
There are way more stylistic nuances OP. The style most image generators emulate is more "realistic" in the sense of having sane proportions (well, besides T&A...) and high resolution with accurate scene composition, but it still ends up looking more like a painted porcelain anime figurine than a real person. On the other hand you have "western cartoon" styles with detailed facial expressions, other body details such as hair stubble, muscle tone or bones - but it's still a 360p scribble with like 10 different colour values tops for the entire body. And 3D has similar variations.

It also depends greatly on the content, the tone of the story and the nature of the gameplay where present. It's hard to make anime fights look good in "realistic" 3d especially on an amateur budget, but it's a lot more efficient to 3d render a woman going through a dozen yoga positions in one scene than to set up a sufficiently flexible paperdoll let alone draw all of them individually.
 

Bill_Jerkpole

Newbie
Jun 30, 2022
16
4
I prefer 2D cartoon style - realistic 2D drawings often enter the uncanny valley, but Manga/anime style or western style are both good.

If it is made in 3D, then I want realism and as much as possible - cartoony 3D, even when done in manga/anime style, is really hard to get right; though random cartoon effects are okay for comedic effect.
 

Ying Ko

Member
Jun 16, 2018
410
741
Irrespective of style, but assuming a decent quality, if a dev has the same taste in women as I do, I'll probably like the images produced.