The funny thing is that chasing photorealism is expensive and difficult and not always the right solution. A lot of time stylized, cartoony graphics can be a better option, and I’m even willing to buy that it could’ve worked here, too.

But they went with this bland, generic, flavorless toon style. This is “marketable” but clearly lacks any distinct artistic vision that could set it apart from any of the other shovelware slop these days.

I set up a library of dozens of my favorite PSP games in Emulation Station and just scrolling through them you can see how they have all wildly distinct styles but still form this kind of coherent vision of what Sony was like back in the late 00’s, early 10’s. I miss that …