As triple-A titles accelerate towards a disturbing level of photorealism, we’ve seen a resurgence in retro-styled and cel-shaded games. Why are more and more developers so keen to move against the realistic grain?
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I don´t think striving for life like graphics diminishes creativity. I think it even forces the developers to create a unique aesthetic so that they differentiate themselves from other games. Look at Infamous, it looks preety good, but I recognise it the minute I see it, same with Destiny and the Order, or FFXV for that matter. Lifelike graphics may be applied to otherwordly situations, and might even bolster the imersion in a world that would be completely detached from ours.
Graphics have little effect on creativity, People do. If your game doesn't focus on improved / unique mechanics, new story ideas for the medium, etc... then that's a lack of creativity from the developer, not graphics.
The only time graphics takes away from creativity is if the hardware isn't capable of performing the task needed for a something in-game, because the graphics are taking too much processing power, which I don't think most devs. would stand for.
Compare stylized games like wind waker or team fortress to skyrim or Twilight princess to see whether nor not photorealism helps in the end. Wind Waker is ten years old and even the normal version looks better than plenty of games that come out today.
Even in the old days, some games attempted to look as realistic as possible while others embraced a different artwork.
Not all games strive towards photorealism, and most who seek to buck the trend tend to reap the rewards ala Minecraft and Borderlands.
Lets worry about that when games are actually near photo realism. Very few next gen games actually look good. And if they look good, there are huge sacrifices to performance or resolution to obtain it