Hey everyone! First of all thanks for watching and for all the love on the video so far. I did want to address and correct a few mistakes that have been brought to our attention. 1. The background music is louder than usual, loud enough that we've gotten some comments on it and even a couple people that said they had to stop watching. We do apologize for this as we should have double checked audio levels more before posting. It seemed fine when playing it back through my headphones in Premiere but for the future I need to check it through other means before officially uploading. In hindsight, listening to it now on my TV and computer I can definitely hear how some parts are too loud against my audio. It's particularly bad in the intro with tracks like Balamb Garden but I will say after that a good chunk of the video is leveled more appropriately so if you can make it past the first few minutes, it gets a lot better. Regardless we'll do a better job with this going forward, our other videos don't suffer from this issue so it's mainly just a problem with this particular video. 2. During The Legend of Dragoon section, I make a comment about the game showing arrows on screen to signify entrances/exits. I make it seem like this is the only PS1 RPG to do this but that's actually not correct as FF7 had done this years ago already. I remembered that FF7 and FF9 showed a pointer above the character, but I admit I forgot that 7 also showed arrows to exits on screen. This mistake was made doubly worse as out of all the examples we could have shown during this part, we picked the one other game that actually did do this. All around this was just a mistake on our end so we apologize. 3. I mention that Resident Evil was the first survival horror game to use the pre-rendered background graphical style. I was incorrect about this as apparently Alone in the Dark on the PC was actually the first to do so. I knew that Sweet Home on the NES was the first survival horror game but wrongfully assumed that Resident Evil was the first of its kind. Again, this is made even worse by the fact that I actually do talk about Alone in the Dark on the PS1 in the video so I should have looked more into the older games. I did a lot of research for this video but definitely dropped the ball on instances like this. I can't 100% promise that another mistake will never be made in a future video, but I can promise I will try to rectify and address them when they're brought to my attention. Accountability and owning up to your mistakes is important, and I'll never be above constructive criticism when trying to improve our content. So yeah, sorry for the errors in this video everyone. We will try to do a better job of being more thorough with research going forward. Thanks again for watching and hope you all have a good day! EDIT Also going to throw in a link to our Patreon because fuck it www.patreon.com/gamingbroductions
legend of dragoon didnt just do the arrow thing. The 3 final fantasy games did it too by just pushing the select button, it would show the characters with a finger above them, and then little red triangles where doors and exits were.
Something bizzare isi never played Legend Of Dragoon because i only ever saw it advertised with those arrows and assumed you didn't turn wm off. I never thought that woth FF. I'm willing to bet they're on by default in LOD and off in FF7
I recently started replaying ff7 for the switch. There is so much detail! I like going into different buildings and just looking at everything. What's surprising is you can walk into a random house, and see a bunch of items you don't see in any other building. They took the time to make random items on a shelf for example, that most people won't even notice. Other games just copy and paste the same boxes and barrels over and over again.
Pre-rendered backgrounds might have helped provide a much needed "visual immersion" back then, but the lack/limited "interactive immersion" with the elements of those pre-rendered backgrounds was the reason why I was happy that games were going to be fully 3D, even if that meant losing some visual detail... and besides, there's the always fixed camera position with pre-rendered backgrounds. Pre-rendered backgrounds were an artistic design choice based on the hardware limitations of the time
@@you2be839 not to mention that pre-rendered backgrounds caused the character models to stick out, in a bad way, being different resolution and having different lighting
Pre-rendered backgrounds are absolutely beautiful and achieve things even modern games haven't, there are only about 4 videos on RU-vid talking about them, and they've never gone as in-depth as this, looking to be a great video.
True. So few people talk about prerendered backgrounds in video games, and even fewer devs consider using this technique anymore, sadly, though it would feel very nice with modern character movement's controls.
While I do enjoy how full 3d backgrounds has made more immersive gameplay, there is just something special about those old pre-rendered backgrounds. In fixed camera, pre-rendered backgrounds, it's like your characters are running around in beautiful paintings. There's a billion modern pixel art games, but you don't see many that use fixed cameras and pre-rendered backgrounds (or duplicate the pre-rendered look using 3d assets) Maybe I would be more interested in retro-styled indie games if more of them tried that art style.
On the subject of Chrono Cross... I used to just piddle around the maps because they were so beautiful. Even with nothing to do there, the soundtrack and backgrounds were so lovely I just wanted to live there.
Amazing video, the pre rendered background have a certain vibe that I can only describe as "a still shot of beauty of an even bigger world", I always wondered how the world would look like and it let my imagination run wild.
RU-vid game music fans/remixers/producers are one of the best parts of RU-vid, period. The work and creativity that you peeps put in is magical! I'm a huge fan of the old crew that put together the Street Fighter 20th Anniversary tribute project, so many bangers in there. But they're just a drop in the ocean of good musicians, and now I discovered you too. Keep up the great work!
Heart of darkness and Abe exodus had great pre-rendered background with super cool level transitions. Like a cinematic would trigger looking exactly like the pre-rendered background and would make the camera travel from one background to another, almost seamlesly.
“Your imagination filled in the gaps” so true bro… I would argue that was probably my favorite aspect of RPGs back in the 90s and 00s. It gave me same vibe as reading a great book or playing with my friends pretending to be knights or something like that. Running through Midgar, Balamb and Alexandria totally fueled my imagination. It certainly didn’t limit it like some forms of media.I may be old school but I miss that about the PS1 era rpgs. As always great content man. You can always tell when people truly love what they talk about.
Ive been saying this since FFX released and it finally nice to see other people talk about it. I miss prerendered graphics and static camera angles in voiceless JRPGs. Like reading a book like you said and heavy use of the imagination.
Thank you for making this video. I miss the days of prerendered graphics and static camera angled scenes in voiceless JRPGs. The effects the had on the imagination was real!
I would argue that the charm of pre-rendered backgrounds is also captured by fixed cameras (think the original Devil May Cry, or Silent Hill 2) which allow for full 3D when it's needed, but also gives it the more cinematic angles. I know sometimes it's annoying to transition from one screen to another in these kinds of games, I really really prefer how cinematic it feels.
The transition part doesn't really need to be a problem these days with emulators (probably a option to skip these wasted frames maybe?) Most certainly if games were made like this today, the slow optical disc drive won't factor into slow transitions anymore (even if it sometimes added to the experience, ie Resident Evil's tension inducing doors).
I really like those video game and anime mashups that show up with your logo. It reminds me of the good old days when I would chill watching adult swim and play video games on the weekends. Cool vid doods
People complain about pre rendered background but i love them. They show the creativity of developers with console limitations. Like how SNES and genesis games were developed.
I'm so glad you mentioned Chrono Cross. I feel like people tend to focus on the soundtrack when giving that game its flowers but the backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous, too. Those two elements swirl together to create an atmosphere that is so dreamlike and fantastical. The impressionistic art style was a great choice, not just because of how it ages but because it really captures a spirit of escapism and immersion that I think for a lot of people is why they play video games.
CGI or Pre-Rendered, were the main reason why the jump from 16-bit to 32-bit felt so far apart, we were playing cartoon like games (mostly) and in 1994 you had games like Myst, we also played the first Resident Evil on the Saturn in 1997, then Riven and many more. Honestly, while technically we can't compare it to the 128 era of consoles, from a visual and artistic point of view, this aspect alone from the 32-bit era looks more stunning than most games from that era and even the PS3/X360. The amount of care and detail couldn't be reproduced in real-time on these consoles, true, that most are static backgrounds or FMVs, but then again, this is what proper use of the technology at your hands is like., but, but for those who were there and experienced these games were impressed and immersed with this (I know I was). Take all that and add Tomb Raider, a fully 3D free-movement game, the perfect arcade orts and many original games that peaked in a very enthusiastic industry, those were great to watch and play, I can't think of another era in this niche that provided so much new stuff in so little time. The end of the 90's, compared to 1990, for instance, is a huge leap, compared to ,say , 2000, 2010. There were plasma TVs and even touch tablets in the late 90's, albeit way too expensive and experimental (see The Computer Chronicles).
The "Abe" games definitely deserved a shout out, here.. not only were the backgrounds fkn awesome; but the some of the transitions between "scenes" were *incredible* for the time
The intro music on your channel, mixed with the images is like my absolute vibe, I love it so much. Then you go and talk about cosy RPGs on your other videos and man, instant sub
Fantastic topic for a video. It's amazing how with a little upscaling these backgrounds still look fantastic today. It was such a novel solution to the limitations of the time that doesn't seem like it would work on paper, but thanks to the artistry of those who made these backgrounds seeing 3D characters navigate through them felt quite natural
I grew up on these and still love them so much. I feel like with the discourse surrounding the crazy price and times it takes to create modern games, I'd love to see prerendered backgrounds make a comeback.
Chrono Cross' pre-rendered backgrounds were the TOP-pest of tiers. Between the music and the look, it's basically untouched. Also, waiting for Legend of Dragoon >: ) I know it's coming. Another banger, fellas! Back to the vid. Chat soon 🔥
Your intro and little in between songs have such nostalgic vibes to them. Makes me think of early 2000’s adult swim music and other things from my childhood.
Finally I see a video showing some love to prerendered backgrounds. For me they always represented atmosphere, and I loved being immersed in the worlds they built. Watching this video I was filled with nostalgia for a small supreme reign of ore rendered backgrounds as the best my ps1 system had to offer, visually. And more often than not they elevated good game mechanics by setting them into beautiful game worlds. Even today they still hold up esthetically. I’m going to play through a fair deal of these on my cfw Vita for sure!
Thanks for this. I'd been wondering what I should be searching for to head back to this era and this is it. A forgotten aesthetic from a forgotten generation due to the scramble with Sega and Panasonic, etc., on a forgotten system. Great!
you did a really great job on this video. truly, the production quality is excellent. it's kind of unbelievable to me how critical the comments are picking it apart. pathetic. most of these people have nothing to offer. but you seem like you've got the good sense to take what value you can from the feedback and not take it personally. onward and upward, friend!
I too love pre-rendered backgrounds; thx to your vid, Ive got try out some of these titles! Ive played FF7-9 (8 and 9 I never sadly finished), but Legend of Dragoon ugh... I couldn't help but sit and enjoy all the detail crammed into the screen. I do say YAY for mentioning Digimon, I don't hear many ppl talk about when talking about pre-ren backgrounds.
Man, I seriously didn't want this video to end. I love pre-rendered backgrounds so much. Now I want to try making one myself! That's funny you mentioned Shadow Madness, I recently tried to play it, and I really wanted to, but the controls on it were terrible! My top 3 choices of games with pre-rendered background would probably have to be 1st: Legend of Dragoon, 2nd: Quest for Glory V, and 3rd is a tie between: Shadowhearts, Kowloon's Gate, and Garage: Bad Dream Adventure. Now here's hoping to see a video covering FMVs!
I always got the urge to try and break out from the path and explore those distant landscapes, even though I knew they were just flat images. Somehow them being just an illusion made my imagination run even more wild and I was even more determined to get closer to them than if they were real locations you could visit.
I feel you completely, and I can only imagine how good they could look these days with much higher resolutions available and the ability to seamlessly blend interactive 3D elements onto them. I would also love if you had the ability to switch the view between at least 3 different backgrounds that all depict the same area, just at different angles and perspectives, allowing you to really take in that scene in a way that gives you a more or less full dimensional way without it being actual 3d.
Yes! I was just talking about this with own of my fellow, more AGED gaming buddies. These prerendered backgrounds are an actual lost art, like overly designed dvd release movie/tv show menus from the 2000s.
You are so right! PSX was peak back than. Those backgrounds were beautiful and magic. The fixed camera companied you and the eye through the game and the scene. Thenever nowadays people complain about fixed camera, I am thinking "you don´t know what you are talking about."
Always blew my mind that even though a PS1 CD has more storage than a cartridge its still nothing yet had so much packed in. They got very creative with data use.
Prerenders are so good. I love the entire vibe, tbh. Pre-rendered backgrounds, or my favorite, prerendered 3d sprites like Diablo 2 or Donky Kong Country. Its such a fucking aesthetic.
Back then when game studios were happy making games for gamers. Today are so greedy and mediocre they pander to normies and casuls hoping to break sales records.
Truth! I feel like most of the world is oversaturated nowadays you know ? like they’re a great things still being made, but it won’t be what it once was ever
While I did not have a PS1, I played heaps of 90's point and click adventure games on PC and you are on point about the player's imagination filling in the gaps. The only time I felt that magic since then is when I played Superbrothers Sword and Sorcery.
Ps1 era is my favorite time in gaming. I got into RPGs in that era and it’s still where my nostalgia is, and the pre-rendered backgrounds are a big part of that. This was a great trip down memory lane to a time and place where I could just sit back on a Saturday afternoon and enjoy a beautiful world of adventure. And FF7, star ocean 2 and shadow hearts 2(yea it’s ps2 but sooo good)
when I heard that boot up noise it took me back in time. if I heard that noise I had snacks, drinks, and the rest of the night to spend on whatever game I was playing at the time lol
Great video ! The careful composition of these bgs just cannot be replicated when the player has full camera control. I think for me Chrono Cross perfected the style. Glad you mentioned that sometimes painting was applied over the raw 3d renders. Looking at CC I definitely always thought they looked too soft, handmade and painterly for the cg of the time to have achieved alone and suspected some hand painting was done afterwards.
Nice video. I would add two games to the list: Countdown Vampires and Time Commander which might be the first ps1 game that used animationed pre-rendered backgrounds with controlable polygon models.
Thanks! I very briefly mentioned Countdown Vampires near the end of the survival horror section but I wasn’t aware of Time Commander. Definitely looks pretty cool for an early PS1 game though
I've been replaying the Legend of Dragoon thanks to project severed chains making some new PC support for the game it's been incredibly beautiful. The game is still stuck in 20/15 FPS depending on the content but they've also had a huge project to upscale the resolutions and it just so damn beautiful, just to imagine the kinds of prerendered background styles we could do now is insane, with just a bit of tweaking some of those locations instantly took me back to how I felt as a 10 year old wondering through the Twin castles of Fletz.
Excellent video, I really enjoyed watching this; it brings it all back. I'm a huge fan of pre-rendered backgrounds, it is my favourite style for games especially during the PS1 era. I was 1st introduced to this style with both Resident Evil & Time Commando when i played the console for the 1st time ever & it was just something else. The RPG games with the Final Fantasy series, Legend of Dragoon etc would play for ages with my younger bros as they were obsessed with those games. The artwork in these games i agree are timeless masterpieces that i too hope comes back in style soon. Pretty much any game that used this style, I just had to play it or own. I would always check the images on the back of game cases if i was intrigued by them when in game stores & if it had pre-rendered backgrounds, the chances are i bought it. I did that with Koudelka & TRAG/Hard Edge over here in Europe as i never heard of the game but when i saw that it had a visual style similar to Resident Evil i had to get it. I did the same with games that were not as good also with Tunguska & Overblood 2, tough as hell but the visuals were cool. It didn't matter as i just love this style & I even look for newer or modern games often that use this style if i can as they are just cool.
I make a lot of video game content these days and have been studying all sorts of world building methods and texture styles. I think this could still be useful and I might attempt to do this sort of thing in my source game.
I always really enjoy your videos when they come across my dash. I do have to say though, I’m not familiar with a lot of these games and sometimes it’s hard to catch the names of them. It would be awesome if you added the titles as text on the screen when they first come up, similar to how I’ve seen some other video game essay channels do.
the only out of place thing which were player models in these games, usually were so consistent that players gradually stopped paying attention to them being a whole different quality (especially with each next iteration of ff from 7 to 9 for example) for so many years i've loved ff8 backgrounds so much, they are so well done, that the mind fills in the gaps that are not seen in 3d due to fixed camera making it even more interactive and fun to explore
As someone who also likes fixed cameras and pre-rendered backgrounds, I can see fixed cameras coming back but probably not pre-rendered backgrounds. The problem with pre-rendered backgrounds is how they effect gameplay controls. Tank controls are never coming back, very few modern gamers would accept them. Which unfortunately nukes the possibility of a Resident Evil style cinematic fixed camera with pre-rendered backgrounds (which that approach does not work well with camera relative controls, there’s a reason why games like that always used tank controls even after the advent of alternate control styles). Although the Final Fantasy games had more modern camera relative controls, the fade outs/fade ins between shots might also be a huge barrier to modern gamers who are more used to seamlessly traversing large worlds uninterrupted. But you never know! You do see passion projects all the time! Here’s hoping! Also, great video!
I was thinking about this last week - I'd love for Resident Evil to return to pre-rendered/Security camera vibe - so fitting in horror! Modern, fully 3D/First Person RE games just dosn't cut it.
These rendered backgrounds really did make the games come alive in a way that was impossible for the hardware to produce in real-time. These were great for certain game genres. The N64 had very few games that used this technique, likely because of the lack of space on the cartridges. A newer game that came out a couple of years ago that gave a similar vibe to this was The Ascent, though I think it was all rendered in real-time, it still seemed to draw a lot of inspiration from these prerendered backgrounds. Check it out if you never played it, it's worth it just for the beautiful level design.
I wish in the future they would create a full immersive Balamb garden VR. I would like to explore and go to the cafeteria and the classrooms while hearing the Balamb garden BG music.
The PS1 pre-rendered background era was definitely my fav era of gaming... I was so sad when the PS2 switched to fully 3D environments... Onimusha 1 & 2 were the peak IMO. I used to play games like FF just to visit all the amazing towns and locations... FF8 and Parasite Eve were my favs.
I know this is a little bit different but there is a Japanese ps2 game called toro to kyuujitsu which uses pre rendered backgrounds but instead of being drawn or digital, it uses real life photos and videos making the backgrounds quite literally photorealistic and unique.
Great to see the love for pre-rendered graphics and 'magical' is the right word exactly. Nothing could compete with the detail and artfulness of them in the PS1 era. I think the reason they get a bad rap nowadays is that the contrast between the often updated 3D character models and the backgrounds as they were is too big. In the past the 3D models looked scrappier, and now they're the detailed parts of the image that pop against the fuzzy backgrounds.
Still remember being blown away when I found out they were making a PlayStation 2! At the time I was like “How can it get any better than this?!” Graphically they’ve gone light years but I feel like a lot of games are missing soul.
I think a lot of the allure that came with these backgrounds was taken in from the perspective of young console gamers that never saw anything like this on their TVs. Compared to the mainstream predecessors like Sega Genesis and SNES, the backgrounds had a much higher fidelity and unique expression to them.
Not a PS1 game, but I definitely recommend you check out Baten Kaitos. Those games have the best pre-rendered backgrounds ever and they’re also amazing games.
Fantasian's were definitely not made the same way, because they were actually made in real life out of various materials and then photographed and turned into backgrounds! They totally have the feel of pre-rendered backgrounds, but they're also pretty unique.
Great video! You missed the Oddworld games though, Abe's exoddus and Oddysee. They are amazing even today and the artstyle and color palettes are top notch. The grim atmospheres, the details that make everything look like you can almost touch it. I remember those worlds and times fondly, even without a dynamic camera being a simple 2d platformer with fixed backgrounds, it made you feel trapped in that world. I don't usually comment much but felt these games needed a shout out in this list.
