I know we are currently in the time of increased nostalgia for 2000s-era video games, but those games took such a TOLL on actual visual design.

Like, by no means all of them. Don't misunderstand me. There are games whose look is truly brilliant.

But early 3D was ugly, and worse, the goal was to add more polygons, more graphical fidelity, more bells and whistles at the expense of y'know, actually thinking about how to make the game look good.

Just look at the graphics in a lot of early-1990s games. They were made with purpose. The pixel art usually still holds up. The relatively obscure Sid Meier's Colonization (a spin-off of the first Civilization game that I to this day say was VASTLY ahead of its time in terms of game mechanics, but I digress) is still something I'd hold up as a game that achieves so much personality with so little. The visual clarity is incredible, the icons for the little dudes and resources are, well, iconic despite being like 14 pixels tall.

Just, look at this screenshot. The color palette, the shapes of the buildings, the interface - these things are designed with purpose.

And OK, I am the one person on the planet that can't help but gush about a game no-one remembers. But my point is, there's plenty of games like that. I am not saying the Playstation 1 and Playstation 2 era didn't have games with stunning visual design. But between like 1997 and 2007 the main push really was "more graphical fidelity no matter what". I mean, it still is nowadays, I guess. The more things change and all that.

And I think people understand that nowadays, at least smaller and/or indie developers. I may not like Metroidvanias, but Hollow Knight has that very same clarity of purpose in its visual design that games of old did. As a result, it's quite simply beautiful despite being y'know, just cartoony images.

And games do not even have to be beautiful to have this visual identity. Undertale is not that pretty to look at, but everything about its graphics is iconic. So is, to pick a weird example, Into The Breach.

I mean... take a popular indie game from the last 10 to 15 years and you'll probably have an instantly recognizable look.