Rayman Legends Retold has finally been announced, and chances are it’s what you’ve been most focused on – beyond why replay this game of all the Rayman titles – are the new art. Rayman Legends is timeless; it looked incredible in 2013, and 13 years later it still holds up as one of the most amazing platformers ever created.
While at Ubisoft Montpellier, I spoke with Desislava Tanova, associate lead, art, and Alice Pisoni, associate art director, and dug into the changes in this new version. “Obviously we felt the pressure of taking such a well-known brand and such a beloved art style and turning it into something different,” says Pisoni, “it wasn’t an easy road, but we were all super happy to be able to lay our hands on something so beautiful and have the opportunity to actually make something our own, but at the same time always stay true to the original.”
But as we all know, translating a 2D cartoon into a realistic art style is tricky – just ask the Sonic movie makers – so I had to ask how the team approached this and pushed the boundaries of what is also realistic to work in this series.
“We have a great concept team,” says Tanova, “So the language was defined and we translated that language into 3D.”
She explains that it was about finding the balance between the interesting shapes Rayman cast and the materials used for them. You can see the fabric in Rayman’s hoodie and gloves or the amphibian-like skin from Globox.
Pisoni notes that i LegendsRayman’s face was a “flat, normal pink”, while this new 3D model allows them to deal with freckles and pores. Although I didn’t get a chance to play the level, El Luchador’s model was shown to us, and the detail in his singlet, down to the somewhat greasy chest hair, was undoubtedly impressive.
As for the environments, Pisoni told me, “One of our main goals is to make the player stop and just take a break and just look at what’s actually around the environment.” And this is one area where Legends Retold gives the original game a run for its money. The backgrounds are absolutely fantastic and allow for little details – which you’ll probably miss if you run through the levels.
These include somewhat comical set pieces like seeing World Two’s frog boss bathing himself in the background of the hub, or bits of world building like skeletons strung up in the dungeons or little rabbits going to their huts in the swamp. Tanova explains, “Right from the beginning, the idea was to enhance it, to tell deeper visual storytelling, and of course that’s going to add detail and animated background elements.”
Tanova adds that the team had to “keep the balance between the background and the playground because it has to be very readable.” Pisoni adds, “When you have parts with completely complicated gameplay, we try to keep the background as simple as possible.”
In its latest earnings report, Ubisoft stated that it is “Harnessing AI to improve player experience and boost team creativity and efficiency,” and with an announcement like that, it’s only natural that people will look at each project through that lens.
I asked the artists about this and got a clear answer that we want to hear: “We don’t use AI in the project; everything is handmade,” explains Tanova, adding that “our goal” is to approach it “through an artist’s eye, so everyone can be involved in the process.”
While the more realistic art style is certainly a different take on the franchise – and one I’m sure people will be perfectly fine with – after my hands-on with the game, it’s a version I see the merits of. Parts of it definitely look a little wonky (again, me really don’t like Rayman’s teeth), but the lighting changes, the use of camera angles, background details and endemic life scattered around the areas give this game something compared to the original.
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