Jazz Fusion for a Psychic Character theme is definitely a really good combination.
Pixel art keeps looking good in games as a stylistic choice, though I do kind of hate it when I see high res gradients and lighting kinda thrown in willy nilly– though that’s not to say don’t break the rules of it all.
Classic pixel art was made with CRT’s natural ability to smooth things out, but there’s such a range of other factors involved with it. You could have a PVM monitor, or fancy computer CRT with an RGB setup for a sharper picture, and now you’re getting closer to crisper pixels, or you could have a shitty Magnavox with component, coaxial, or an exceptionally old RF connection with a tired screen and blown out color which makes everything smooth but maybe not color accurate. So many CRT’s display differently that, while I get that colors will still blend sort of the way developers want, it really gets under my skin when I see those comparison shots as if it’s trying to say anything else other than “Look, seeee? Seeee? It’s better!” Maybe the crisp raw pixels look cool too.
I’d actually like to try and be more accurate with colors on a CRT display, I now have 6 of them I can test on, but man it’s such a hassle and making a game in general is already exhausting for the small fraction of people that will probably try it on their CRT’s. Got a lot of respect for those that go out of their way to do that, though.
