That troll thread reminded me of something. At first I wasn't really fond of the stylized art because I really enjoyed the grittiness of Skyrim. But after a while it's really grown on me and I realize it's because it reminds me of really old-school fantasy, with its dark/dim lighting to highlight the vibrant parts like potions and magic, glowing gems and glistening dew in the forest. And yet also gritty in many ways as well, such as the rough bricks of the dark dungeon hallway.

That really does sum up a lot of what I think of the new style; vibrant, as magic and fantasy should be.



What sort of style have you preferred in past Elder Scrolls games, and what do you think of the style for TES:O? Would you have preferred something different, or do you think it might yet grow on you?

Personally I've never been against more "Vibrant" art styles over realistic ones, like for instance I'm a huge fan of the Borderlands art style and I thought KOA:R world was beautiful because of the art style. So I'm probably a bit biased here because I already like the art style ESO is going with to begin with. But I think from what we've seen that the game world itself looks beautiful, colorful and as you said, Vibrant.

In past Elder Scrolls games though funnily enough my favourite style was in Oblivion, as I thought that was a perfect mix between a colorful art style and yet still retaining that realism that it needed. Skyrim's art style was far too...cold? for my taste, in the way that everything just seemed kind of pale and lifeless and like it was missing color and Morrowind is really too outdated for me to say much on it.

I have zero issues with the game's art style so far.

While I prefer the gritty style artistically in most cases, a more vibrant style makes for a better fantastical representation of a fantasy world. Skyrim often seems too mundane exactly because of the color palette and generally realistic style, so I don't get the feeling I'm actually exploring an alien world. In that line, I totally agree with the OP and think the TESO artstyle is, in the truest sense, fantastic.

Only thing I don't like so far are the armor designs. Just doesn't say "TES" to me.

I agree, with both points. Art style is brilliant. Its slightly different from traditional ES games but I think it would portray all the provinces very well, especially as much of the graphics/ art style from previous was designed for the specific provinces. This is a good balance, it looks very magical and vibrant.

The armour though, by contrast, looks poor. I am not sure if its because we have yet to see the higher tier armour sets yet but from what I have seen, they could do a lot better with the model designs, make them more interesting/ striking... not really sure

I think this art style is great. Its sort of a compromise between Skyrim and Oblivion.

People complaining that it is too cartoony seem to have forgotten Oblivion which was even more vibrant and colorful.

Oblivion was a great example of avoiding http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealIsBrown