Frutiger Aero era. Plus the evolving tech at the time made devs want to show off in-game water.
Good-looking water was what people were focusing tech on. Look at Wave Race 64. I still don’t think Mario Sunshine’s water has been topped.
Check out some water in Sea of Thieves, it’s gorgeous
Water was often used as a graphical yardstick in that era.
Water is still one of my favorite things to compare and judge between games. There’s so much that can go into it and there’s still more that can be done as graphics (and physics) improve.
Stranded Deep and Red Dead Redemption 2 were more recent games that wowed me with their water. Although in RDR2 keeping water at the highest setting absolutely slaughtered framerate so I didn’t get to keep it at the maximum eye candy levels.
Wind Waker
People like tropical beaches.
reminds me Mario Kart on Nintendo 64 had Koopa Troopa Beach, despite irl go karts would get totally stuck on sand, they really wanted that clear water beach look
Cause empty space is easier to render
Did they? More than any other time? I feel like they’re kind of universal across all time periods, just like volcano or snow areas. Even in this picture FFX only had Besaid Island, which was a relatively small area near the start of the game (but not AT the start). It’s significant to Yuna’s story but I wouldn’t say the game has a “tropical beach aesthetic.” I’d put Tommy Vercetti there before Tidus.
Water is still hard to get right. GTV VI might do something crazy, but I think the best bet for Water is unreal 5.
Because it evoked a feeling of fun, especially when you are looking at the back of a box. Video games then all had to be hard copy media and tropical settings made for excellent marketing.
I’m actually composing a song about this exact phenomenon right now! I’m still extremely fond of it.
A tropical beach aesthetic killed my parents.
