Dankovsky wrote:@Franka it depends on the game a lot. There is no way around making likeable character sprites if you're making a visual novel. And yes, the general consumer logic's first question is "Do I like what I see?"
Well, I wouldn't want to make generalizations since I only really know my own opinion.
lanawinst wrote:This attachement to graphics is not as important for other type of games. Look at how well undertale did! Why does graphics matter little with RPGS but so much with VNS is beyond me, I'll admit.
I can understand that graphics matter for a genre called "visual" novel, just not that it matters so overwhelmingly. Especially for hybrid genres that also have a completely different gameplay element to them.
Undertale is kind of a special case, in that part of its massive popularity came from people that hadn't actually played the game, but were riding the wave simply because it upset other people.
Pace675 wrote:But when you veer off the path a little to VN and add art to the story it should not pull away from your imagination, but add to it. You loose out in choices with a VN due to its inherent linear nature and narrative, but gain a mental image of what the creator is trying to present with visual aids.
Fair enough that you feel this way. I've given chances to some pretty bad looking VNs though, if the story or setting intrigued me. There will be so many limitations to what you can do anyway, such as typically no more than two stances and maybe six expressions per important character, that immersion will be broken no matter what.
I have play the orginal CONSOLE version of pong. Yes there was only one game with two paddle a console and an RF switch you hooked up back to your old analog TV, it was black and white, no plot no story, just pong.
Oh yeah, I started out on text games with horrible parsers.

Graphics came much later.
But as with everything, time progresses and so does expectations, it is just a fact. If a game has art in it nowadays, I have to like it, or I am not buying it; it is just that simple. I put my money where my mouth is, I like it I buy it, just that simple.
Which is cool, but confusing to me, because art is mostly secondary and sometimes less than that to my own personal enjoyment of a computer game. Yours is apparently the majority stance though, which is obviously important to take note of.
How about ET? XD
Even back then, when we didn't have the internet for instant reviews, I knew better than to play ET.

But this was a case where no amount of graphics could have saved the game.
But nowadays even the rose tinted glasses BG2 is about as far as I am willing to go back now.
I was trying to get one of the old Gold Box SSI RPGs to run the other day, but it's sadly become such a technical nightmare. Admittedly, there is a period of time between early games and modern games that I'm having trouble playing now due to graphics that haven't aged well.
VR is here so....You ready for the next generation?
Nah, I'm not interested in the infancy of VR. Maybe in 10 years.