This was supposed to come out in December! Oops.
Well, whatever. Let’s do it anyway.
Hi! These are some of my favorite bits of game animation I saw in 2019!
Let’s begin with one of last year’s early animation highlights...
ANTHEM
I think it’s fair to say that this is some of the best-looking animation in a BioWare game yet.
Characters are generally the highlight of any great BioWare experience,
and I don’t think I was prepared for how much performance capture was going to add to that.
Like, Owen as he’s voiced by T.J. Ramini is already really charming.
But Owen voiced AND physically performed by Ramini brings a new level of charisma
to that character that I don’t think would have come across otherwise.
Owen: " Hey, considering that the Monitor is both lancer and cypher,
we could probably use a VERY fabulous cypher/javelin pilot combo of our own."
Player Character: "Owen, be patient."
Of course, most of your NPC interactions use this game’s conversation animation system,
and there are some gains on that front too,
but seeing characters like these brought to life with more natural performance detail
in cinematics really makes me excited for future BioWare projects.
Also: running, jumping and especially flying around in a javelin just feels cool as heck,
in large part because the animation sells their power so well.
I will never get tired of sprinting toward a ledge and launching into the air in this game.
It just feels so cool.
Next I want to talk about Sekiro!
The animation in FromSoft games has rarely been the most polished-looking in the AAA space,
but it almost always succeeds where it matters: functional clarity.
And that clarity is crucial in a game like Sekiro,
where players are expected to watch enemies carefully and react to their attacks
with so much more speed and precision than before.
The devs have talked in interviews about how they spent a lot of time
tuning each enemy’s attack animations frame by frame, and it shows.
Because, this game’s combat would not work without those quickly-recognizable tells.
And for their cinematics, I love that From has maintained
their trademark slooooow timing and scene pacing.
That willingness to let characters move unnaturally slowly
is a big reason why FromSoft cutscenes feel so distinct,
and it allows the sudden sharp movements to feel even more surprising by contrast.
From’s soft animation team really is just getting better and better.
Elden Ring cannot come soon enough.
Next up: Luigi’s Mansion 3
Next Level Games has one of my favorite animation teams in this industry.
This is the same studio behind the previous Luigi’s Mansion game for the 3DS
AND - one of my favorite game animation showcases of all time -
the absolutely stellar Punch-Out for the Wii.
I already made an entire video singing the praises of that game’s animation
because this team is so good at delivering both function and appeal simultaneously at 100%.
And by gosh they are good at animating Luigi.
Next Level consistently brings the best out of this character,
from the moments when he’s feeling scared,
to the moments when he starts to feel some of his confidence coming back
to the moment that NOPE NEVER-MIND, HE’S TERRIFIED AGAIN.
Whatever Next Level is working on now, I cannot wait to see it.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
We’ve seen a lot of Star Wars games with lightsaber combat at this point,
and a lot of different approaches to animating it.
Some of them have aimed to replicate the fighting styles
of existing characters as we’ve seen them in the movies,
and others try to create an entirely new style all their own.
And one thing that I really enjoy in Fallen Order
is the way Cal’s fighting animation feels like it stylistically succeeds on both fronts.
The way he handles a lightsaber feels distinctly him
and a little different from the stances or movements that I’m used to seeing in Star Wars games,
and yet I could totally see some Jedi moving like this in a proper Star Wars movie
which is something I’m not sure I could say about the Force Unleashed.
Combine that aesthetic balance with some sharp controls and some stylish
finishing animations and no wonder the combat in this game feels so cool.
Also, this? One of my favorite Star Wars droids now.
Look at ‘em. What a good little buddy.
But next. Pokemon Sword & Shield
I’ve said before in a previous video that the animation in the Pokemon series
is a triumph of scope management rather than visual flair, and that’s still true here.
But in addition to the fact that they keep managing to maintain a consistent level
of charming animation quality across these 400 creatures and human characters
(which is still a feat in its own right),
I’m really digging the additional focus they’re starting to put on animated personality.
Like, the way the game instantly familiarizes you with the personalities of all three starters
just by showing you how they interact with each other in one tiny cinematic is SO GOOD.
And I think this cutscene highlights a shift in focus that,
really, has been happening over the last few generations:
Game Freak appears to be focusing more and more of their resources
on presenting Pokemon outside of battle, which I think is a great call.
Because one of the core elements of the Pokemon fantasy is just living
and traveling with your team of creatures.
And the earliest Pokemon games just couldn’t provide that,
so I really love the idea of the franchise making that a higher priority now,
because that’s where your Pokemon’s ability to express themselves really shines.
I think it’s telling that almost every time I’ve seen people showing off their team online,
or sharing clips from their own game.
Those clips tends to be video of their Pokemon being goofballs in the Camp.
So yeah! Real excited to see where Game Freak takes things from here.
Now high-quality traditional hand-drawn animation is something of a rare treat in games,
so I’m always grateful to see the Banner Sagas and the Cupheads
and the Hollow Knights out there keeping that torch lit.
And this year’s hand-drawn champion was Indivisible.
It is real fun seeing the Skullgirls crew try on a new genre!
I love these characters, I love their designs,
and their combat animations are just loaded with tons of great little details…
the team even brought in Studio Trigger to animate the game’s opening!
If you are enjoying the look of this right now, I recommend picking it up,
because not only is this game loaded with charm,
but you just don’t see games that look like this coming out every day,
and frankly I want to see studios like Lab Zero, MDHR, Stoic and Team Cherry
able to keep doing what they’re doing.
But, moving on.
There were a LOT of extremely AAA games raising the bar on
photo-realistic human game character animation this year.
Devil May Cry 5, Modern Warfare, Resident Evil 2, Death Stranding…
lots of extremely impressive work.
I can’t imagine the hundreds of hours it took hundreds of people to make all this.
But the one team I’d like to call out in particular is
Remedy Entertainment for their work on Control.
I am legit impressed by the degree of subtlety
in character face performances during some of these story scenes.
Granted, certain moments and scenes can dip into the uncanny from time to time,
but this game’s setting already exist so deep in the uncanny that,
somehow, those moments kinda just help contribute to the vibe.
But the thing that push this over the edge for me,
and I’m sure that this effect is impart due to the fact that your player character's
based on real actor Courtney Hope
and they occasionally use some live footage of her in specific scenes,
but I've got to confess: once or twice while watching these story scene,
there would be just a moment that had me questioning:
“...wait, is this the real actor or the digital character?”
And I can't remember a time where a game succeed in making me unsure of that before.
So kudos, Remedy! And good job making a darned cool game.
But, leaving the realm of the photo-real for a bit,
let us all give thanks to the indie scene
for blessing us with so much incredible pixel animation this year.
Wargroove, Blasphemous, Cadence of Hyrule... Katana Zero, for heck sake.
Y’all spoil us.
I do want to give special mention to one in particular, though,
and that is River City Girls.
The Kunio-kun franchise has NEVER had animation this gorgeous.
Every character’s moveset is just so fun to frame through.
I highly recommend doing so yourself sometime.
Misako’s rage-y headbutt. Kyoko’s selfie parry. The bookbag swing.
The spinning power dab. How can you not love a brawler with movesets like this.
I’m so happy that games with pixel animation
are not only surviving in the year 2019, but THRIVING.
And now for a couple of honorable mentions!
The first goes to Kingdom Hearts III, which would almost definitely be on this list,
except for the fact that I intentionally have not played it yet.
I’ve really been wanting to do an unspoiled playthrough of it
over on PlayFrame once the ReMind DLC drops.
But I’m just going to take a shot in the dark
and guess that the animation was pretty darned good?
Because it’s Kingdom Hearts
and the animation in Kingdom Hearts games tends to be pretty stellar,
combat especially.
And what I’ve seen of the Disney and Pixar characters in trailers looks pretty incredible,
so I am really excited to finally see all this for myself pretty soon.
And the other honorable mention goes to Monster Hunter World: Iceborne,
which I would talk about at length here,
but I already said all the exact same nice things about Monster Hunter World last year.
So just take everything I said back in the 2018
Favorites videos and add some snow I guess,
because the animation in this expansion is every bit as fantastic.
And finally, before we wrap up, let’s talk about Untitled Goose Game.
Because having incredible game animation isn’t always about realistic fidelity,
or massive scope or flashy movesets.
Sometimes it’s about getting one crucial thing exactly right.
And for this game, that thing is the goose.
The perfection of that waddle completes the comedy of this game.
It’s amazing; it puts you in the right frame of mind to be a dorky little nuisance almost instantly.
And so many of your available moves double as a tool for player expression!
Like, I’m sure this wing-extension move does something practical,
but most of the time I’m just using it to go MYEHHHHHHHH.
Seriously, though, if this waddle didn’t feel just right,
I’ll bet this entire game would feel noticeably less entertaining.
And that makes this one incredible piece of animation.
But I think that should do it! Did I miss anything?
I mean, I will admit I haven’t quite finished
playing every single game that came out in 2019,
so… yes, probably I did miss something.
But, if you happen to know of any games with stellar animation
that I didn’t mention,
please do call them out in the comments,
because I’m always eager to see something cool!
And here’s to all the great game animation coming in 2020!
I’ve got a lot planned for New Frame Plus this year,
so be sure to subscribe so you don’t want to miss out.
And consider supporting the show like all these wonderful people.
Thanks for watching, and I will see you next time!
[music]