As we see in our guide to video game art styles, low-poly graphics are alive and well in 2025 despite their association with the limitations of consoles from over 20 years ago. Today, it’s possible to make games that look almost photoreal, but titles like the survival horrors Sorry, We’re Closed and Crow Country have had success with a more retro look.
The low-poly option is more economical than realism, and it can tap into nostalgia, but one veteran developer who worked with the style out of necessity can’t see why anyone would want to use it today as a stylistic choice. His comments have reignited a big debate among gamers and developers alike.
当時は虚しい苦労を費やして歪みを回避していたのに、今では「味わい」とか言われてしまっている。 https://t.co/r90BkvvUAqAugust 5, 2025
Square Enix programmer Koji Sugimoto worked on Final Fantasy 10 and Xenogears. Writing on X in response to a post about using Shader Graph to distort textures in Unity, he expressed incomprehension at the retro revival. Something developers in the late ’90s and early ’00s would futilely try to avoid is now seen as “flavour”, he laments.
He even reposted an old tweet from 2019 in which he described texture distortion on the original PlayStation as abhorrent. “The idea of finding it interesting to reproduce doesn’t occur to me,” he wrote back then.
The comments have reopened a debate about the objective of graphics. It’s true that the blocky characters and worlds produced by low-poly graphics were seen as a frustration and a limitation rather than an artistic choice at the time. There was a big gap between what developers would have liked to achieve and what was realistically possible.
Some people agree with Koji’s take. “I don’t understand this desire either. I hated it as a kid, and i hate It now. There’s nothing charming about it,” one person wrote.
But Koji’s view also underestimates the emotional pull of nostalgia. It’s similar to what happened with pixel art. Efforts made in the past to handle the limitations of a medium are now considered an art style. And that does have a charm for some people because it remind them of the games they loved when they were younger.
“You saw it from the perspective of the artist upset that their work isn’t perfect. This desire for PS1 style art comes from players who grew up and enjoyed the style,” one person has responded on X. “It looks cool and has a personality unlike a lot of games today,” someone else argues.
Low-poly graphic also require more imagination on the player’s part. And then there’s the cost factor. The expense of creating 3D realism in Unreal engine outstrips many times the cost of using low poly, and some players would prefer regular releases over waiting ten years for the next game in a franchise.
For retro game art applied to a very different medium, check out this artist’s grandmacore pixel art embroidery paintings. For inspiration for your own game, see our features on some of the best indie game developers, and don’t miss the debate over the lack of swimming in Mafia: The Old Country.
