Hey everyone! Welcome to New Frame Plus, a series about the
animation in video games. Alas, it is impossible for me
to make a video about every game with great animation that gets
released in any given year. There’s so many!
And they come out so fast. But all that great animation does
still deserve to be celebrated, and that is what we’re
going to do today. Here is a list of 2020 games that
had some wonderful animation in them. And actually,
before we even get to that, 2019’s video had one GLARING omission
that needs correcting immediately. Because less than a week
after I uploaded that video, I was introduced to Later Alligator. [music] And I immediately regretted the fact
that I had not seen it just a week sooner, because this game absolutely
belonged in that video. Later Alligator is a point-and-click
mystery/comedy thing animated by SmallBu Studios, who you might
recognize as the duo behind Baman Piderman. And they have knocked
this out of the park. I ADORE every single one of the
alligators in this video game. The dialog's already great,
but that comedy is amplified by these delightful animation loops
happening behind each speech bubble. Heck, a lot of the animations
made me laugh WITHOUT dialog. The animation style is simple
in exactly the right way It’s got charm,
it’s got a style all its own, and if you want a game that's going to make
you smile, I can’t recommend it enough. But now that I’ve corrected that oversight,
let’s move onto the animation of 2020! Starting with Crash Bandicoot 4. [music] It's becoming clear to me
that I have not been paying enough attention
to Toys for Bob. Like,
I never got into Skylanders, but the appeal of the character animation
in those games would always catch my eye. Their 2018 remake
of the Spyro trilogy cranked that character
appeal up even higher. And now, from what I’m seeing in Crash
4, I’m beginning to realize this studio has one of the best
animation teams in the business. It is too rare to see cartoony
animation like this in 3D games, and almost NEVER
executed this well. Look at some of the wild
stuff they’re doing! I’m framing through
this… LOOK at that. That is some exceptional
cartoon right there. These characters are
a blast to watch; in-game just as much
as in the story scenes. Look at the great overlap on those
arms, or the snappy spacing on this run. Or just the EXPRESSIVENESS
on this bandicoot. Phenomenal work, y’all. Shame on me
for sleeping on this studio’s work. I will not be making
that mistake again. But as long as we’re talking
about revivals of PS1 classics, let’s go ahead and talk about Final Fantasy VII Remake I have talked about it before, but the original Final Fantasy VII had
some legitemely great story scenes, and the thing I looked forward
to most with this remake - even more than seeing this
gorgeous combat system in action - was the chance to see
those old story scenes brought to life with modern
animation technology. The original game did such a wonderful
job of staging scenes with these simple character models, using broad
pantomime gestures to communicate emotion. Subtlety was not an option for
them, but they made it work. But now subtlety is back on the
table, which is great because there is so much
potential in these scenes for more robust character performances
and nuanced acting choices; so many opportunities for meaningful
glances, or those tiny shifts in expression that communicate exactly
what a character is thinking. And, to my delight,
this Remake frequently nails it, fleshing those old scenes
out with acting detail while still managing to preserve some of
the original game’s broad body language in a way that makes all these overhauled
characters still feel familiar. It’s honestly kind of amazing. What’s more,
and this surprises me most of all, this remake really
GETS these characters. It understands the original
social dynamic between them better than any other Final Fantasy
7 spinoff or film I’ve seen. Whatever bonkers thing Square’s
team clearly has planned for this remake’s story,
I can't wait to see more of it. But now let’s talk
about Animal Crossing. [music] Now, I realize that compared to
all of the expensive-looking detail we were just looking
at a few seconds ago, Animal Crossing’s animation
might seem somewhat unimpressive. And I will grant you, it is much less
detailed, much less technically complex than the animation you're going
to see in most AAA games today. But that simplicity is more of an achievement
than it might seem on the surface. There are a lot of games out
there that showcase a simple, cutesy style of character movement that
do not pull it off NEARLY this well. No, Animal Crossing’s simplified
appeal is meticulously crafted, it's like a Sanrio character. There is a precision to this
simplicity that is way harder to nail than you might think.
And it’s pretty wonderful. Nintendo’s animation teams are just
so consistently good at what they do that any given first party Nintendo game
having this level of polish and appeal just feels like a given. But achieving that level of polish always
takes a lot of iteration and hard work, and every one of those
successes is worth applauding. Now every passing year brings us a fresh
crop of AAA titles with high-fidelity, naturalistic character
animation rendered in-engine. This year alone you've got Marvel’s Avengers,
Ghost of Tsushima, Resident Evil 3 Remake, Star Wars Squadrons,
Half-Life Alyx. Just TONS of impressive work by hundreds
upon hundreds of very skilled people. But when it comes to naturalistic character
animation being rendered in real time, no game has raised
the bar quite like The Last of Us Part II [music] The character animation on display here
is… kind of intimidating, to be honest Every one of these
scenes is well-directed, well-performed and just
polished to a mirror shine. And that character animation
quality doesn’t stop at cinematics; even during regular game-play, there is an
astonishing attention to characterizing detail and a number of robust technical
animation systems in the mix driving contextual details as subtle as
open or closed-mouth character breathing. It’s incredible to behold and
it only gets more impressive the more the devs explain
what’s happening under the hood. A huge congratulations to everybody responsible
for bringing these characters to life; all of the animators, tech
animators, animation engineers, mocap directors and, of
course, the performers. This game is a real
feat of technical craft, and I’m sure it’s not the last time
y’all are going to raise the bar on us. And while we’re here, actually, a quick
word to the leadership at Naughty Dog and all the other crunch
factories in this industry: maybe see about creating some more
sustainable working conditions for all of these
incredible people. You’ve got access to
some of the best artistic and engineering
talent in the world, and they CAN keep making
top-tier games for you without sacrificing
their own well-being. Just stop putting humans through woodchippers
to create your video games, please. Anyway. Next I would like to talk
about The Pathless. [music] I love how well the
animation in this works. The entire game
feels reminiscent of Fumito Ueda’s work with Ico
and Shadow of the Colossus, but the animation especially feels like it
captures that spirit of focused minimalism. The Hunter has a very limited number
of actions: run, jump, shoot arrows and occasionally team
up with the bird friend. But that handful of actions
look great and FEEL even better. Gracefully speeding through these
fields and chaining shots together without losing
momentum feels so cool. And what few story scenes there are
manage to convey a lot of emotion and connection almost
entirely without dialog. Just pure expression and body language.
I love it. Sometimes your game’s animation just
has to get a few things VERY right to succeed with flying colors, and I think the animation in
The Pathless absolutely does. [music] But in other news,
the Arc System Works done did it again. [music] The wizardry this
studio keeps performing with these faux-2D fighters
never stops impressing me. First Guilty Gear Xrd, then Dragon Ball
FighterZ, now Granblue Fantasy Versus, and Guilty Gear -Strive- on the horizon?
It’s ridiculous. I already made a video about the
techniques that Arc System Works uses to make these 3D character models
look and move like hand-drawn sprites, and I highly recommend checking
that video out if you haven’t, because this team is repeatedly performing
one of the most impressive animation magic tricks in
gaming right now. No game studio in the world makes the anime style look good in 3D like this team does, they’re only getting BETTER at it and they’re clearly not planning to give the rest of us a chance to catch up.
And speaking of gorgeous 3D character animation with a 2D look, let’s talk about Ori. No game studio in the world makes the anime
style look good in 3D like this team does, they’re only getting BETTER at it and they are clearly not planning to give
the rest of us a chance to catch up. And speaking of gorgeous 3D
character animation with a 2D look, let’s talk about Ori. [music] The first Ori game was already a
beautiful little animation showcase, and the sequel
looks even better. Ori’s movement is
somehow even more fluid, and with ZERO loss in
control responsiveness. And the animation in the story scenes
is still wonderfully expressive. How can you not instantly fall in
love with this bunch of creatures? And I don’t talk about
environment animation much here, but they’ve pushed
THAT even further too! This painted forest feels so
dense and alive, I love it. The animation in the Ori
games succeeds on every front. And I don’t know how the crew
at Moon Studios is going to top themselves after this, but
that’s what I thought last time, so... Beautiful work, y’all.
Keep it up! Anyway, Streets of Rage is back. What a way to make a comeback
after 25 years away, right? Like, I BARELY played Streets
of Rage back in the day, and even I feel
nostalgic watching this. I love how this game looks. The folks
at Lizardcube, Guard Crush and Dotemu may have shifted this sequel away from
the pixel animation of its forebearers, but thanks to a classic
approach to timing and posing, the hand-drawn look feels like a
natural evolution of the pixel animation that came before rather
than a deviation from it. And boy, I cannot get enough of that dynamic
rim lighting effect the character art has as you walk past different light sources.
It’s so cool. A lot of love clearly went into the
creation of this long-awaited revival, and I am just so happy for
all the fans of the originals who get to enjoy this
after such a long wait. Next up,
Paper Mario: The Origami King I know Nintendo has done this flattened
look with the Paper Mario series MANY TIMES at this point,
but I still love it. Especially now that they can render the
paper craft materials so meticulously! Like, the ultra-simplistic animations on
these characters have always been cute; the way they sharply pop between poses as
if they were being animated in stop motion, or the way they turn around
by just flipping 180 degrees. But having all of those simple animations
projected on increasingly realistic paper that sways and flaps as
it moves just DELIGHTS me. The animated execution on this
cute little idea just keeps getting pushed a little further, and I don’t know if
I’m ever going to stop being charmed by it. [music] Earlier this year, I made a video about
the animation in the Phoenix Wright games, and about all the ways the
creators of those games have managed to do so
much using so little. A lot of visual novels have to use
creative applications of Limited Animation to present their character
interactions on a small budget. And this year I was particularly impressed by
the way Necrobarista handles this challenge. Because Necrobarista has some of the LEAST
animation I’ve seen in a 3D visual novel, and yet the folks at Route 59 managed to actually make that one
of the game’s visual strengths. In a certain sense, Necrobarista is
extremely cinematic for a visual novel. The camera is frequently cutting to new angles
in these 3D sets throughout every scene, framing every moment
for maximum impact. But within each of
those individual shots, the characters will usually hold on
a single bespoke pose and expression. The result ends up feeling kind of
like panels in a 3D graphic novel, and it really works! In fact, I would say this stylistic
approach ends up looking better than a lot of 3D visual novels that
feature MORE actual animation. A smart application of Less
can often be way more effective than a compromised
attempt at More, and I think Necrobarista is a
perfect demonstration of that. [music] BOY there was a lot of good game animation
in 2020. Lets talk about Spider-Man! [music] I don’t think any of us are surprised
that the animation in this game is great. But it is, though. Insomniac team
sure knows how to animate Spider-Mans. I love how - even though you’re still
controlling somebody in a Spider-Man costume and the game pretty much handles
exactly like the original - Miles’s movement still looks
noticeably different from Peter’s. I already loved the original's
web-swinging animations, but I think I like
Miles’s even more. The combat animation
still flows beautifully, and those finishing moves
look cooler than before. The animated action in general
is just something to behold. You will be hard-pressed to find
another game with action set pieces this stylishly
choreographed and animated. And the fact that,
on top of all that, they even went to the trouble of
making the Into the Spider-Verse suit animate right AND added a custom finisher
for the cat? Now that's just showing off. [music] But while we are on the subject
of well-animated video game cats, there is one more game I
want to talk about today. and that is: Spiritfarer [music] Thunder Lotus Games have
thoroughly outdone themselves. The hand drawn animation in this
game is just wonderful throughout. There’s quite a lot
of gorgeous detail and stylized flowing physicality
to Stella’s basic locomotion, more than I am used to seeing
in a lot of 2D game characters. Every character in this
game is a delight to watch, but my absolute favorite is
your cat companion, Daffodil. The animation on
this cat is perfect. I will never get tired of this idle animation
of Daffodil playing with the obol. But even better than that, when you
play this game co-op, and you should Player 2 assumes control of Daffodil, and Daffodil has his own animation for just
about every single interaction in the game. Farming, weaving,
mining, hugging… Name an activity Stella can do and the cat can probably do
its own adorable version of it. And it’s probably my favorite game
animation thing out of this entire year. This cozy management game is beautiful in
just about every way it possibly can be, I adored it and I am very excited to learn
what else Thunder Lotus is capable of. [music] But I think that'll do it! At least,
assuming I haven’t missed anything. Which I probably have.
I can’t play every game! I’ve tried, and it didn’t work. And I still haven’t
gotten a hold of a PS5, so maybe Demon’s Souls should be
on this list for all I know. But if it turns out you know of a 2020
game with spectacular animation in it which I have failed to mention,
please do post it in the comments, because if there is some good
game animation to be seen, I want to know about it. Also, apologies for the lack
of new videos in recent months! I’ve been working on a… very large one. But it’s nearly done! And I won’t spoil what it’s about,
but it rhymes with Shmonic the Bledgehog. If you happened to be as excited to see
that as I am to just finally finish it, be sure to click that
Subscribe button. Or consider supporting the show more directly
like all of these wonderful folks here. Thanks for watching,
and I’ll see you again soon. [music]
