“No matter what kind of world people have, if they think they’re happy, they’ll be happy.”
-the spirit in Angkor Wat
On my long but joyous journey to play through every Super Nintendo RPG, RPG-lite, game with RPG elements, and RPG hybrid, I’ve seen a lot of beauty. I’ve also seen a lot of ugliness. A lot of imperfection. That’s what art is: it straddles the balance between deliberate and accidental perfection and imperfection, the immaculate and the flawed. Few things encapsulate that idea, at least to my mind, as much as ye olde CRT. Those old-fashioned tube TVs? Yeah, they’re how I plan to play all of these SNES RPGs and that leads me to this pixel photography exhibit.
There’s something to be said, perhaps, about how games of that era were designed for display on CRTs and how their blurring, fuzzy, ethereal, ghostly effects render the games as they were intended to be seen and something something else about authenticity, but I don’t plan to pontificate here. I just want to share some of the unique imperfect beauty of pixel photography, beginning with the first RPG I finished as part of this series: Illusion of Gaia, an ambitious and heartfelt albeit messy role-playing adventure game from Quintet.
Will’s portrait, making the :O face, extreme close up.
This is not a review. This is not a critique. You’ll learn no pithy historical factoids here.
This is all about appreciation of the artwork of SNES RPGs and Illusion of Gaia on a scale, scope, and sentiment that you may have never seen before. Perhaps this is the first time you’ve ever seen video games looking like this! If you’d like to witness this art in motion, join me for CRT streams weekdays at 1pm Central.
Enjoy.
Enix logo, close up.
Illusion of Gaia logo, close up (bottom).
Lance and Seth playing cards, Seaside Cave.
Man fishing, South Cape.
Will on world map, Dao Village, Mode 7.
Statue of Freedan the Dark Knight, Dark Space.
Statue of Shadow the energy construct, Dark Space.
Portal to the Dark Space, high exposure with blur.
Will attacking an enemy while his sprite flashes upon taking damage, Pyramid.
Gaia the Source of All Life, portrait, Dark Space.
Freedan the Dark Knight, Pyramid.
Shadow flying to meet the comet, space above the Tower of Babel.
Dark Gaia’s final form, portrait.
Dark Gaia’s final form, portrait, attacking animation.
Spirit in Tower of Babel, extreme close up with blur.
Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage or Mage Cast.
