(Chris Pratt NPC voice) "woo-hoo!"
Most art, especially in games, is representative. The style of the original Super Mario RPG is not an accident or a compromise based on underpowered hardware, it is the result of artists working with intent within the confines of their medium. Simply filling in the gaps with more detail doesn’t serve the artist's intent or preserve the style of the original. You may like the way the new version looks - Nintendo has certainly spent a lot of time and money making this the default Mario style over the years - but it’s not authentic to the original and it doesn’t capture the original’s tone or aesthetic at all. All of the strange and dreamlike qualities that made Super Mario RPG unique have been replaced with the blandest, safest version of Mario. The new Super Mario RPG is utterly dripless, and it’s a shame to see such a one-of-a-kind game succumb to the lowest common denominator.
AI generated Mario in 4k is not what the fans want
The isometric 3D thing that some games like this had did not age well, but the aesthetic--of just about everything Nintendo was doing at the time--was excellent. The new art style is the same kind of Funko Pop-ification that they did to the Link's Awakening remake.
Nintendo fans aren't particularly difficult to please when it comes to graphics so I don't expect too much controversy here compared to say, the GTA remaster.
Link's Awakening had a great artstyle and diorama styles in general are cool
Also there is zero comparison between either of these games and the GTA "remaster" that was literally just increasing the resolution and tweaking the lighting for a game where the character models looked like dogshit.
I would argue that the toy cutesy aesthetic worked for the link's awakening remake. I didn't play that remake until this year but they went far with the animations and there are a lot of different characters in that game that are really expressive. I am kinda skeptical about this kinda style for this game bc I feel like the OG SMRPG had more going on compared to the LA GB game.
Maybe it's all subjective but I tldr I think that the LA remake has a stronger direction than this remake aesthetically but we might not be able to know until we see more
I think over the course of writing this comment and reading this thread that I actually don't mind the new aesthetic for SMRPG that much either I just wasn't super impressive by Bowser and Mario specifically when Is saw the trailer I think there's some grit in the original that I think looks cool