13/10/2020
Pre-rendered backgrounds was a popular technique to overcome limitations back in the late 90s and early 2000s, and such as pixel art, pre-rendered turned into a style choice today (but less popular than the former one). However, it is my favorite art style in a videogame, I like to spend some time admiring other's games pre-rendered backgrounds.
It is easy to see games that made use of such technique that did not age well, such as the popular Final Fantasy VII (1997). While other games that used what today is pixel art, released in the same year, such as Castlevania Symphony of the Night, aged so well that people doesn't consider the possibility of a game like this getting a remake. There is nothing there that needs an "upgrade", actually, several indie games nowadays have Symphony as a role model in visuals to follow.
But there is a game that, although not released in this same year, was relesed for the same console (PSOne), and has aged quite well (at least in my opinion). A JRPG that uses pre-rendered backgrounds and, to this day, has a very unique "charm" into it.
This game is Digimon World 3, it uses pre-rendered backgrounds always in an isometric angle and the characters are sprites, this combination makes it harder for the game to age and turn "ugly", instead of 3D modeled characters in map that Final Fantasy VII or VIII makes use. But DW3 uses 3D models for battles, so, in that part, it did not age well.
Also Valkirye Profile, other of my inspirations... not isometric this time, but a side-scroller turn-based JRPG with pre-rendered backgrounds and sprites characters. Again, aged pretty well, even in battles this time, since it uses "pixel art sprites" for big colorful monsters in a side-by-side angle.
Trying to get the best of two worlds, I'm giving the JRPG I'm working on, based in this "32bit style" (pixel art can be 8-bit, 16-bit, game boy advance style and etc.... well, maybe I can call pre-rendered a "32-bit" style), isometric pre-rendered backgrounds with sprite characters and side-by-side turn based battles with big sprites, these with the story I already wanted to tell in a game anyways.
