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Re: An incoherent post about asthetic and design in all 3 games.

Gw1 tombstone

Gw1 wee garden

Gw1 g&g garden

Hologram tombstone in g&g gw1

Gw1 plant selection screen

Gw1 zombie selection screen

The neon void aka bfn selection screen for zombies

Neon void but for plants

Gw2 multiplayer match selection screen

Gw2 customization booth

Bfn Suburbination antanea

The cooler bfn citron edit

Gw2 garden in background

Gw2 garden hologram which is also how it appears in gnome bomb

Bfn grave o matic with z out of view

View of gardenator

Zom moon

Memes from the subreddit

These images are not mine. Im just trying to get good pictures with semi decent quality. If they belong to any specific channel or person show them support. Same goes for the videos.

Gw2 tombstone is nonexistent on the web R.I.P.

4 Replies

  • Iron_Guard8's avatar
    Iron_Guard8
    Legend
    3 years ago

    This is the post you meant! It snuck by me somehow.

    I don't hate the design of any of the 3 games myself, but I have the following personal observations/opinions:

    Garden Warfare:

    • Is the most like the original PvZ in overall look.
    • Has some of the best customizations (especially those virtual weapon skins for the zombies).
    • Has the most attention to detail as far as graves and gardens, and little stuff like the Sky Troopers rocket status on his back.
    • Has nice little touches like you point out @stukapooka that I miss in GW2 and BfN.
    • The characters here are the least cartoony of all 3 games, but the world looks more cartoony (just compare vehicles and buildings in all 3 games and you'll see what I mean).

    Garden Warfare 2:

    • Adds some special customizations I really like; legendary hats, the gnome music hat, and so on.
    • Let's us decorate the backyard battleground, which itself was a fantastic add-on.
    • Is less coherent in its overall customizations than GW is, and lacks the costumes from BfN, barring the ones added for Torchwood and Hovergoat.
    • Looks largely similar to GW, but makes some overall quality improvements, while losing some of the extra little touches.
    • The zombie controlled areas add a new look with the focus on darker areas and purple over brighter and green, which some don't like, but I certainly do. It really let's you know what area belongs to which side.
    • The gnome areas have their own aesthetic too, which I feel adds to the game, and let's you know you're somewhere weird.

    Battle for Neighborville:

    • The characters are the most cartoony of all 3 games, while the world looks more realistic than the GW games (again, just look at vehicles and buildings in all 3 games and you'll see what I mean).
    • The machines for ops that replace the garden and graveyard are not as fun or interesting looking, and feel too generic.
    • The costumes and customizations are generally very good to excellent, with a few that are just simple recolors.
    • The gnome areas don't stand out as much as in GW2, although they still do stand out from the rest.
    • The zombie areas feel too normal. Even in GW, which lacked GW2's purple focus for zombie areas, made the zombie areas feel like they were theirs, instead of just sticking zombie stuff in plant style areas, where they don't look like they belong.
    • Rose looks very odd in BfN, too much like a tulip instead of a rose. Other characters vary from great to so-so.
    • Weapon objects are too generic.

    I'm sure there's more, but that's what I can recall to bring up. 

  • stukapooka's avatar
    stukapooka
    3 years ago
    @Iron_Guard8 Outside of cactus canyon and crash course all the gw1 maps to my knowledge had cemeteries with dead trees, graves, and lanterns with darker colors.

    I missed the things that gw1 did have for character models like the sky trooper rocket, upgrades havong actual descriptions, the bucket blood, or unupgraded weapon textures. Its not that gw2 didn't have some of these but I dont see the huge reason to remove those that were there.

    Playing gw1 again and is noticed that while bfn uses optical illusions on its textures to make you think there are things inside stores gw1 actually has 3d models inside them.

    Gw1 captures the non zombified areas of the series the best imo and i wish it was kinda the standard for them going forward.

    Gw1 character models were strange. I miss the bloodshot eyes the zombies had which allowed them to stand out a bit more (especially when you remeber how hardcore the concept art for gw was). Gw2 made some weird choices like removing all stars red socks, shaving engineer, and diluting soldiers belt buckle to a dirty bronze over golden yellow but at the same moment gave us good changes like scientists eye adjustment under his goggles or soldier's helmet net.

    The plants are such a wierd area in that I think the tweaks they gave the models were alright like making chompers jaw a little less flat or extending peashooters snout. I do kinda miss being able to see their root like veins though. Idk maybe Im just a fan of the more details that make the characters look more hardcore to contrast with the generally peaceful environment around them like the bucket blood or the actual cannons compared to gw2's though I still prefer both over bfn's jump pads.

    The customization in gw1 just blended into the world so well like the fume shroom cap, the crazy dave all star mask, and so on.

    The zombie areas are by far the best in gw2. I find it funny how people complain about the purple yet praise any gw1 graphics mod that just makes it all dirt (no offense to those mods I just find it funny how people take brown over purple). I really like how maps like frontline flats show that its fake grass. The zombot designs are also really good in the environment and it makes certain structures feel alive since their watching you.

    I remember back in the day thinking that a gw3 would involve more gnome stuff that we saw in gw2 and Im still let down by the fact it hasnt happened. I don't hate bfn's but it feels way less exciting to explore.

    Bfn's character models are just so weird. We get some good things more so on zombies like soldier's vietnam inspired cards, imps battle damaged helmet, red socks are back, and SB got a cape logo with his hair being more animated now (though his cape got downgraded). But then we have the otherside of the spectrum entirely such as: peashooters very controversial redesign, the overly long body proportions that don't fit well like all star and cactus being way too tall for their own good or other zombie necks being way too skinny, z mech just looks awful, imp's lights on his suit and helmet don't work, all star doesnt grunt at all, plants are severly less detailed than their gw counterparts (corn in gw2 looked like he was geuinely agitated but in bfn he looks like you told him its gonna rain on saturday), citron lost his shades and awkwardly wobbles when walking, a lot of gw animations were downgraded, Rose is just bad and her gw2 counterpart is just infinetly better looking for almost a dozen reasons, and is dont care for all the sunken fish eyes zombies have now with the green iris/ zombots also now have the digitalized square pupils which imo just makes them look goofier in a bad way.

    The zombies in bfn practically don't exist as a faction in bfn and all their equipment is bland and generic compared to the gw games. The only area they really have presence in is also conflicting with the dummy cult at z tech factory.

    The final objective in g&g not being plant related like the taklnut cannons and marshmallow mortar just dont seem like they fit.

    There are alot of details bfn didn't have that gw did loke chomper owning multiple restaurants in gw1 according to advertisements and his pizza delivery in 2, the multiple zomboss ads, or even the little help wanted/missing posters that had pvz1 plants like sunshroom being advertised to work night shifts or jalapeno teaching anger management classes. It may not seem like much to some but it really adds to the world like the almanac did in the td games with random info like winter melon wondering if anyone will make it through the next siege.
  • Iron_Guard8's avatar
    Iron_Guard8
    Legend
    3 years ago

    The tall-nut cannons at the end of Peachy District being mechanical was especially weird as we've had actually tall-nut cannons being plant based before! Part of what made zombies and plants distinct in the GW games is that the plants use all plant based stuff (barring some exceptions like Iron Citron, and I feel he should be changed to fire plant based projectiles instead), and the zombies all use actual devices. They could have made the marshmallow mortar be some kind of plant that launches sticky pods or something too. Not that Dave doesn't use any tech at all (Penny and Dave-bots for example), but it would be better to have things more consistent.

    If it were up to me, a new shooter would be visually most like GW2, with some GW influence on the plant focused and 'normal' areas.

  • stukapooka's avatar
    stukapooka
    3 years ago
    @Iron_Guard8 I can understand not wanting to use coconut cannon for a 3rd time (corn mortars my favorite endgame defense from gw1) but making it a non plant/ non robot hunk of junk thats so easily taken out was just dumb. In fact I think ill make a post on endgame material of: npc defensive aid vs only player involvement after the zombie rankings.

    They couldve made the mallowmortar a gaint sap fling from 2/heroes since it would do the exact same thing in the story but as a plant.

    I agree with your opinion as I feel it would get the best of both worlds.

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