Cartoony style graphics....

[KiriA500]

People keep assuming this to hope they're right instead of their fear it's just getting lower and lower in quality. Also SE stated time and time again:

"We don't use high settings and all the bells and whistles"

Whenever they show things off, even Yoshida stated they're using fairly lower spec comp/laptop for the presentations.

That's how it should be.

Imagine if they showed a new screenshot/video for the game that looked like this:


The hype would go through the roof! OMG BEST GRAPHICS EVER!! But oh wait, I don't have a NASA super computer...so my game turns out looking like this:



That's a HUGE turn off for many people, especially for console gamers who might not be into dropping tons of money for new 3D cards just for one game. If you show things with an average appearance, it's better off than showing the top.

Seriously though, going from low > high won't suddenly change the graphical direction, so they're either downgrading the overall detail or they're really hoping their shaders work magic.

Two screenshots of the same game, one on maximum settings (top), one on lowest settings (bottom). One looks drastically worse than the other, yet the game remains the exact same! Shocking! A lot of people here seem to forget that graphics don't make the game. Yes, nice graphics ARE a plus, but the game will still be playable on lower settings...so stop with the whole "game looks awful" nonsense.

Now, I'm still personally skeptical on this part, since I remember launch, and still play with graphical settings that don't actually do anything...but remember, this is a PC game. It is possible to alter graphical settings, such as textures and shadows...so to dismiss this stuff as being the best we'll get is silly. If Yoshi-P has taught me anything...it's to put a little faith in him. He turned this game into something I actually enjoy playing...so I don't really see A Realm Reborn having terrible graphical options.

Also, this isn't the first time Square-Enix has shown stuff that isn't on the highest graphical quality.



Note the lack of Depth of Field, or Ambient Occlusion.