What style of art do you prefer?

[imelman]

When it comes to art styles, generally I'd prefer western, for rather obvious reasons, but again, depending on its quality of an artist in question, since some draw really uncanny valley territory. Same could be for 3D, as long it is believable and not some kind of non-explainable powers. Again, mostly depends not just on artists themselves, but also on quality/focus of work itself. Basically don't try anime-like art if you going to make it worse, or something that completely makes no sense.

And there goes something I like less, anime-like art style, basically 3D but anime and 2D anime art - while I don't have inherently anything against it, the fact it is very often used to make works with...rather less believable worlds, characters and outright going into power fantasy where good beats evil and vice versa and nothing that would suggest otherwise, while having a good amount of folk that...really wants said power fantasy and even projecting it at times into the real life, as opposed to having good plots, no dumb plots, and something that while it is sci-fi or fantasy, is actually believable and can be immersed or rooting for someone, which sadly most writers lack when it is much easier to insert a huge breasts, small body girl and call it a day or a "generic isekai harem godhood that beats all evil #666" that appeals to such folk. I find neither of those fun, let alone raising good questions after you've finished reading them, nor a long-lasting good memory of. Nor the people that are ahem...way too obsessed, to point they defend it from any criticism, and made my perception from already weary to outright hostile as they show how they can't handle even the smallest valid nitpicks about their favorites, whenever it is a good or a bad product.

And that's it really, while I really don't like uncanny valley works of any kind, I would really like a down to earth work no matter if its western, anime or whatever - just give me a good, believable product, not something that is too far fetched from sincerity to be even likeable. The most favored works include good gameplay(if its less of a visual novel and can make up for bad plots), story, mixed with good art regardless of style, which makes all blend together to make something really great.

 

[megaplayboy10k]

I feel like most Honey Select games look a couple generations behind DAZ in terms of level of detail and options(skin textures, more subtle morphing and lighting effects). After a while it starts to look really same-y. A game like Depravity looks relatively good, it looks like the creator is using a more recent version of HS, really good models or else doing some post-work.

Western style 2d games can look pretty good with the right art style. DAZ works best with custom character creation(mixing a couple stock models together to get a unique character), morphing, hi res realistic skin textures(I almost gasped when I saw my first DAZ model with freckles!), more hair variety, and expert use of lighting effects. If they do naturalistic poses and facial expressions too it takes the graphics to a higher level. That said, there are relatively lazy devs who just use stock models and skins and don't put much effort in.

The main issue with anime/manga/hentai style graphics is that it kinda feels like when you've seen one, you've basically seen all of them.

 

[DanglyBang]

With regards to 3D, the problem isn't the art style as much as clipping during animations, textures getting visibly stretched and ugly during model movement, and shitty cam angles to cover for the creator's inability to do without clipping and work out proper visual interaction between two objects which is done properly with examples such as ryanreos, noname55 as of late, Idemi, anosluz, Wutboi, or tiazsfm. Forgotten Royal's of Astella kingdom do this well from recent memory.

With regards to 2D, Norden Ber (miss you boyo), DieselBrain, UberPie, JamLiz, Milda Sento, KiyanKris (wasted potential with them missing), BoobsGames.
With regards to Japanese animation, Mezzo Forte and the animation studio behind them is all I need to mention. 90% of hentai since then has no excuse being done so shitty, not even being able to portray squishy and stretchy proper penetration during sex scenes.

 

[flurki]

I strongly prefer "hand-drawn" art - anime or western, a mix of both or a specialized style - it does not really matter as long as it's looking good. The problem with this is that it's usually more work and effort to do multiple images, and you need to be/find a good artist for it.

 

[Loganfin]

I strongly prefer "hand-drawn" art - anime or western, a mix of both or a specialized style - it does not really matter as long as it's looking good. The problem with this is that it's usually more work and effort to do multiple images, and you need to be/find a good artist for it.

I mostly agree, but the issue is that those kinds need to be absolutely excellent for it to be a good game. Otherwise, the lack of quality can be a big turnoff for me. There are a number of games on here that I want to like, but the art is just something I can't overcome. Only a few that really get it right.

At the end of the day, I'm more willing to accept medium quality CGI with a lot of scenes and a good number of animations if the game is fun and features a lot of characters.

 

[Trinian]

Personally, I think Honey Select manages to stay on the right side of the uncanny valley, where Daz often doesn't.

 

[Loganfin]

Personally, I think Honey Select manages to stay on the right side of the uncanny valley, where Daz often doesn't.

That's a great point. And its why that unless its done really poorly, HS is often the safest bet. Plus there are so many more animations that are available, and if the situation is sexy enough, it always works for me.

 

[Fatalmasterpiece]

Added an option for live action / photos of pornstars.

 

[thatisthecase]

I must be the only one who can't stand western art but ok with DAZ. There are amazing games content wise like Summertime saga but the art turns me off so much I can't ever get into them.

 

[GreenGobbo]

For me all of them have pros and cons.
Plenty of examples of them being done great or just plain looking wrong.
My biggest sticking factor these days isn't really to do with the art style per-se, but whether or not the sex scenes are animated and if those animations look good.

Stopped paying attention to most games without animated adult scenes a while ago. And if the animations in a game are boring/sub-par/lackluster I'll quit playing it.

 

[Loganfin]

I must be the only one who can't stand western art but ok with DAZ. There are amazing games content wise like Summertime saga but the art turns me off so much I can't ever get into them.

For me, it has to be done in a way that I consider high end. Its extremely subjective, but basically a "know it when I see it" kind of thing. For about 80% of hand drawn games, I feel the same way. Its just too much of a distraction. But if its really good, then I essentially consider it to be an interactive comic, and I was really into erotic comics before the genre started to turn to games.

 

[mk_2099]

There are some Daz3D games i've played that has amazing renders! Makes me want to learn the software... But I also enjoy western style art like Inquisitor Trainer. GGGB art is simple and effective as well.

 

[Juicer97]

Daz is the best by far. Most honey select are pretty bad besides the games like eternium. I do like the art from our red string, lust academy. Japanese games are fine but not the best especially since most games have 10 minute long 1 still image sex scenes with voice acting which is beyond bad and not stimulating. Number 1 is daz, 2- western animation, 3 is Japanese/Honey select(can compare to daz for games like eternium), and real porn games are just trash.

 

[MomaySauce]

Honey Select Assets and model always gold a special place in my heart, they're just too smooth and kinda look like SFM (Which im also a fan of), I don't mind other models, but some are just too "3D-ish" for me

 

[The Lewd Gamer]

Many anime games I just can't stand. I know of a lot that are just great though. But the ones that turn me off usually follow the same pattern, long ass name (that usually seems like translated directly from japanese) and preview images that have text in (what I guess is) japanese. And the thing that turns me off is the bizarrely big tits and ass they have, the weir face, etc. combined with censorship. And again it's not every anime game, but most of them follow this pattern. And don't get me wrong, I watch JAV and don't really mind censorship, I think it's just on animation/art that I don't like it.

 

[UltraBabes]

Interesting poll and discussion, I always thought I might not share the mainstream opinion on this, but looks like I actually do. I prefer western style and also dig a lot of Daz stuff, but all the other art styles don't really do it for me.

 

[Skandranon]

Well, the poll was always going to be skewed a bit.

Note that this is probably THE biggest and most prolific site for English language indie porn games. A lot of indie devs put their own stuff here, their entire following is here, new stuff pops up almost immediately, etc. And 3D is a lot bigger here, while it's still often looked down on in my view on the JP side.

Whereas while there's alot of Japanese stuff on here, there's a bunch of that all over the place. The community is probably a lot bigger and more spread out, it's been around a lot longer. People who read like....Type Moon VNs or Key stuff primarily probably (I'm decades behind on my JP VN dev knowledge) probably just don't hang here as much.

 

[The Lewd Gamer]

Well, the poll was always going to be skewed a bit.

That's probably true. I think a world-wide poll of sorts would reveal anime style art is the favorite for most. Although I won't deny this poll remains interesting nonetheless, as it is a key piece of information to understand the preference of (at least) those who voted.