Best Art Direction of 2017 - Article

by Brandon J. Wysocki , posted on 06 January 2018 / 5,473 Views

From the colorful charm of the Mushroom Kingdom to the weathered and worn dystopias of City 17 and Rapture, along with their unique and interesting inhabitants, art direction breathes life and nuance into gaming worlds – elevating the experience to make it more convincing, engrossing, and/or enchanting. Here are the games exhibiting the Best Art Direction of 2017.

The Shortlist:

Cuphead

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Horizon Zero Dawn

Persona 5

The Winner:

Cuphead

Cuphead, with its 1930s inspired art style and animation, is truly something to behold. Featuring a delightful variety in both character and world design, all brought to life with a distinct and bedazzling style, Cuphead stands out because of its terrific art direction, and is VGChartz's pick for Best Art Direction of 2017.

18 Comments

ROCKY223 (on 06 January 2018)

As much as i adore persona 5, the best art direction definitely goes to cuphead

Darwinianevolution (on 06 January 2018)

What a year for this category, all are so good! I agree with Cuphead, though. Just the time it must have taken draw each individual sprite for the animation to end up so fluid and lively.

LuccaCardoso1 (on 06 January 2018)

I love Zelda's art style, but I have to agree. Cuphead's art direction is not just different, it's also beautifully executed.

Luke888 (on 06 January 2018)

Congrats to Cuphead ! deserved win, shout-out to ARMS, Zelda and Persona 5 though

NoirSon (on 06 January 2018)

Watching some of the boss fights and how the bosses radically change or the animation alone, it is obvious Cuphead is the true winner in art direction. Various games looked great this year but Cuphead hate or love its difficulty is pretty much a masterpiece.

WhatATimeToBeAlive (on 06 January 2018)

I was positively surprised that Zelda didn't won even though this was decided by voting.

KLAMarine (on 06 January 2018)

Cuphead, hands down.

chakkra (on 06 January 2018)

After what happened with the Remaster/Remake award, Im actually surprised that BOTW didnt win.

BraLoD (on 06 January 2018)

Any of those are worth it, so Kudos Cuphead

Azzanation (on 06 January 2018)

This was a no brainer. Well done Cuphead. (Xbox has no games)

Azuren (on 06 January 2018)

I would call what HZD had to be anything worthy of an art direction award. I mean, it looked fantastic...ally normal. Great graphics, boring at direction. Zelda had a similar issue: we get it, you like cell shading. There was nothing else outstanding about it. This was pretty much a competition between Persona 5's UI and the entire game of Cuphead. While P5's UI was a breath of fresh air, Cuphead is just on another level.