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Just ... thinking about Final Fantasy 1's enemy sprites
(hexbear.net)
These are just like, the most important bosses. A lot of the regular enemy sprites are so nice too. Like just, what they did with such limited hardware. So nice.
Yeah they rule. I actually think the regular enemies are even better. Tons of great designs, great silhouettes, great poses, way more shading than you should be able to get out of three colors. Rarely the first thing you'd think of if you sat down to draw the thing in question either, they just ooze style.
I looked up Kazuko Shibuya's later work and apparently she did monsters for Terra Battle (who has ever heard of this) and she's still got it. Look at these random monsters I got from clicking around on that wiki
I hate that it's impossible to translate this level of artwork into a 3D game short of cel-shading (and I hate FF type gameplay)
3D art comes with unstated assumptions that it'll also be animated, respond well to lighting changes, and look good from arbitrary angles. It's really just a ton more work than people give it credit for. Also all the toolchains suck compared to 2D ones.