Clarity vs. Style [UI]

[@julianarchy9043]

I like how Sakurai doesn't necessarilly try and tell us HOW to implement something into a game, but rather asks us to CONSIDER why and how you implement it.

[@lafolleauxmostisma]

It makes you think more !

[@Cardiopazia]

Is this the socratic method of teaching game design?

[@Kennykazey]

It's a very good approach. His games are well known for having confusing menus that get in the way, so I was a little worried about how he would talk about this subject. I also like how he highlights that the way we interact with the game says something about the UI as well.

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

That's what the work really comes down to; asking questions, that don't have any discrete answers, and making decisions. Asking, "What is fun?" is as intangible as, "What is beauty?" The more you try to consider what game design is independent of the various roles that are occupied in the studio; artist, writer, composer, programmer, HR, marketing, etc. the closer you get to philosophy, but nobody really knows how to employ and pay a philosopher because the spirit of philosophie cometh and goeth as she wills. So in the end it gets shared across the team. There is no such thing as a "game designer" and you will never find anything to that effect in the credits of your favorite games.

[@jambott5520]

For anything in art the why is the most important thing. Because sometimes you want to break the rules to create certain effects, and knowing the why to the rules makes it much easier to choose which ones should be broken, and make it so you do not break rules that would not contribute to the effect you want to create.

[@Mishamallow]

I approve of how Sakurai sets up his Minecraft hotbar

[@lewis9s]

Absolutely agreed

[@catring_]

axe on 3 for me

[@zawn8221]

Me when the iron pickaxe is sideways

[@manjackson2772]

I'd put torches on 0 and food on 9 personally, but otherwise yeah this is pretty close to how I'd do it

[@ember_falls]

I'd put food on 9 as well

[@metazoxan2]

I love how he points out how overwhelming Persona 5's UI can be but also points out that's kind of the point and a more readable and simple UI would kill the enjoyment.

[@tabris95]

I also think it's important that the UI match the tone and aesthetic of your game. If I'm playing a mech piloting game, I want the UI to feel futuristic, sleek, cold, and sterile. If I'm playing a party game, I want vibrant colors, bold font, and everything to pop. This helps with immersion and communicates to the player what they should be feeling

[@microdavid7098]

ui is a struggle honestly. The problem with it is players easily get confused or overwhelmed. Doesn't help that's it's one of the most painful aspects to implement in a game (depending on how you implement it) (it's usually very rigid and hard to change, if you didn't plan to employ changes earlier). Unless it's an in game menu system or like crypt of the necrodancer's menus, which makes things easier.

[@agentdon1760]

As he said in the video Personas 5 UI is one of the most stylish UI ive ever seen. But too someone who is new to gaming it can get a bit overwhelming. But the UI fits the persona series so well making a more simmered down version of the UI would be uninteresting and bland. It just Works so well with Persona

[@DoNotFuss]

@@agentdon1760 Idk man I'm one who tends to be overwhelmed with Ui but Persona5 was not one of em' to do that. Style makes the process so much more engaging

[@AlterBridgeJericho]

This is something I truly hated about Mario Party 10. It's a Mario game, it's a party game, and yet the menus are sterile white with boring font. It was so offputting.

[@jujublue4426]

​@@agentdon1760Honestly it might be because I started Persona 5 with years of gaming ( at 22, I played my first videogame at 6) and I love RPGs but the UI along with the music is one of the things that hook me up, the game in general is so stylish that's why I wanted to try it in the first place.

[@thatonespacenerd1272]

I love how proud Mr. Sakurai looks when he says his games are packed with features. Seeing creators who are that proud of their work always makes me happy!

[@Diamoondust]

suprisingly rare, I's guess that most developers were not proud of their work and couldn't get over the mistakes they made.

[@Nekotaku_TV]

Yeah Smash always have sooo much content.

[@MirrorHall_Clay]

@@Diamoondust it's kinda the artist's curse. The artist knows their vision and sees everything that didn't go as intended, and as a result that can make it feel a bit disappointing.

[@grunkleg.2934]

Fun UI fact: In original versions of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for PlayStation / Xbox Live Arcade, the simplistic UI for the pause menu was actually an oversight on the part of the developers. The menu in question was just a simple thing they threw together for the sake of having something functional, and in the rush to get the game out on time, they just sorta forgot to give the pause menu any sort of special design. Because of this, every game IGA has made since has had especially fancy menus, which actually doesn't extend to rereleases of SotN, I had misremembered

[@TheZebbga]

Didn't know this but I honestly have a hard time picturing what the UI looks like. I have only played through the game once, back in August last year and I don't think I ever even gave it a thought. That is fine in my eyes, for a game like SOTN I would rather just keep the action going as quick and simply as I can so I think they did a great job even if it wasn't deliberate.

[@intensellylit4100]

@@TheZebbga Symphony of the Knight?

[@TheZebbga]

@@intensellylit4100 Yes.

[@Alfonso88279]

@@TheZebbga For the record, never ask less or say "it's enough". You may say "it's ok" but not "a great job". If something can be improved, it should be improved. In this case I always thought it looked very cheap, a big contrast with the rest of the game. In fact I wondered for years about this, it's interesting.

[@BlueSatoshi]

@@TheZebbga *Night, not Knight

[@MeteorFalcon]

I LOVED that Persona 5 is the example of crisp Style when it comes to games, nails it perfectly.

[@KevSB07]

He’s written a whole article in the past about how much he loves the style and UI of Persona 5 I knew it would be showing up on the channel soon

[@ArshadZahid_nohandleideas]

Wish people paid a bit more attention to other Megami Tensei UI's

[@rowanprogamer9023]

I really loved their UI And Style for the Artwork it’s looks Very Impressive and Fascinating how Atlus did a Excellent job for Persona Fans to have Joker In Smash Ultimate and Persona Series coming to Nintendo Switch™️ + I do have Persona 5 Strikers at home.

[@gabrielwoj]

I don't know anything about Persona other than its stylish menus. Really, when people ask me about Persona, I usually only mention that I know the menus are top-notch and stylish.

[@bubalackgaming8892]

@@ArshadZahid_nohandleideas People do that now dude. It's just that P5's is legitimately that good

[@quailron1581]

Man, this channel is going to be a treasure trove for new game devs.

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

It's the place that can make people ask, "Where do I find out about this?"

[@skeletonboxers7336]

@@amanofnoreputation2164 i agree! while none of what he has talked about in his channel is news to me, its definitely a great place for budding devs to start. it gets the high points out and then the next step would be one's own motivation to search deeper themselves. i hope in the future he will make some more video essay styled content that is longer and dives deeper into specific topics. like lectures! not how-tos.

[@Maalstrom]

Fact

[@PabloTheDinamic]

It already is for me!

[@Glory2Snowstar]

Agreed! I’m trying to get back to my old hobby of creating games, like I did in the mid-2010’s. I never ended up releasing them because of my perfectionism, but in a way that gives me time to recreate them with everything I’ve learned and will learn!

[@SuperWiiBros08]

Idk why I got so excited when I saw what's possibly Sakurai's Minecraft world

[@rexedous3908]

UI is such an essential aspect of every game we play. Every player will interact with it, and we only tend to notice when it's poor. I'd love to see a designers perspective on what makes various UI good, and what can make them better!

[@Selawen]

There's this series called good design bad design by design doc that basically does that.

[@zozzinator]

Typically, but with p5 I actively noticed how good it is

[@pold111]

ui is everywhere, even making something as a programmer requires you to learn a bit about ui

[@chinesecabbagefarmer]

This man hasn't aged in 20 years.

[@guhbruhmaste4557]

Asian genetics unreal fr fr

[@rga8895]

I think he got younger

[@111BAUER111]

He works so much he doesn't have time to grow old :D

[@Vulpas]

Asians don't be agin'.

[@WanupDeShroom]

bro reverse aged, swear to god there’s this one image from the 80s or 90s where he looked the same age as miyamoto at that point, he looks amazing for his age now

[@Queen_of_Catastrophe]

Being on a Graphic Design major in my university, it feels good that many concepts from design are one way or another explained by Sakurai in his channel with examples and wording that people outside our field could understand, mostly using videogame terms that are not exactly the way to refer to them, but are clear to get the grasp of it. But it all comes down to terms like composition, hierarchy, contrast, saturation, typography, Gestalt laws, color psychology, UI, UX, animation, frames, perception and many more.

[@gabrielmeyer5644]

I just wanted to say thank you for making these videos Mr. Sakurai. It's really nice to see a new upload every couple of days from you just talking about what you love!

[@awesomejumpkick9081]

Another awesome video. This gigachad just releases informative bangers without any ads. Massive respect for you, Sakurai. Keep being awesome.

[@JoSnap]

Seems like most devs go for clarity these days, but I have a lot of nostalgia for the stylish UI of older games and consoles

[@OccuredJakub12]

It's not that old UI were particularly less clear visually, it's more that modern UI is much more influenced by smartphone and tablet UIs which are bright, rectangular, rigid and simplified. It works but it's boring so whenever I see devs experiment with UI it makes the game feel more interesting.

[@itryen7632]

EXACTLY. Dude. I'd do everything to get back the Nintendo Wii style in games.

[@OccuredJakub12]

@@itryen7632 I'm talkin Gamecube, Xbox, PS2 era stuff. Now that was the shit

[@AlfyDC]

Yeah, personally I have this gripe with games like BOTW and Odyssey. Their menu and title screen UI is so boring, I wish they added more flare to it. Same with the Switch home screen.

[@OccuredJakub12]

@@AlfyDC I like BOTW's UI in terms of how it works, but yeah, it could use some styling up. Like, for example make the stamina bar look like something made of actual greenery and the way it depletes could be signified by that greenery dissipating.

[@IconicCROSS]

Such a tough choice I never thought about it clashing with the games design

[@samfivedot]

The real genius move of Persona 5's battle UI is that every action is mapped to its own button. It makes battles feel really fast and snappy because you're not fumbling around in menus like in a lot of other turn based RPGs. I actually can't believe no one thought of it sooner.

[@RhythmGrizz]

It's my favorite turn based combat ever

[@Jabodie]

I've heard the Xenosaga games are like this. Haven't played them so idk personally

[@alphax-shroom6781]

Super Mario RPG legend of the 7 stars did this ages ago on the SNES

[@CarbonRollerCaco]

SquareSoft with Super Mario RPG and Final Fantasy VI short menu option, Quintet with Robotrek: *LITERALLY THOUGHT OF IT OVER 20 YEARS SOONER* Game Freak with Pokémon Stadium: *ALSO THOUGHT OF IT NOT MUCH LATER*

[@ironpro7217]

many people thought of it sooner

[@Schimnesthai]

Can't wait to see the self critique of Sm4sh UI.

[@suskebier4340]

Vids are so simple and short. Makes it ez for everyone to understand. Thnx mr.Sakurai

[@DigitalKingyo]

It's kinda obvious but this channel is gonna be complete treasure as the number of contents increases. Imagine hundreds of concise tips dedicated to specific categories.

[@milesedgeworth6353]

Always glad to see a mr sakurai vid as soon as it comes out

[@dugoo3405]

They're so short that I can't resist watching them when I see em.

[@AlizarinRed]

As a UI artist, I'm excited to see more UI related videos. I've always loved making them and always take inspirations from other games and try to do my own spin and take while thinking about why the developers decided to go that route. Really been loving this channel as a whole and can't wait to learn new things along the way as usual! 💖

[@Angwiser-zk7vk]

2:20 id love a 2-3 hr stream where it's just sakurai showing us his minecraft world for the entire duration

[@Kriskirby1992]

Sakurai talking about Persona 5 is our overdue “Mr. Sakurai presents” video for Joker and I love it

[@dugoo3405]

Same with Minecraft, I love seeing Sakurai take experience he has from games he studied for Smash.

[@JeffreyThrash]

He seems to be talking about Persona 5 a lot lately. I can’t help but wonder if he’s trying to hype up the port of the game that’s finally coming to something other than PlayStation, most notably the Switch version.

[@rowanprogamer9023]

I’m biggest fan of Persona Franchise eventuality but I’m loving Joker to as well & He got In Smash Bros.™️ Ultimate which is very crazy that’s Awesome it’s a Celebration 🎊 Of Gaming 🎮 for Persona Series Coming To Switch + Joker From Persona 5 as DLC 1 Fighter In Smash Bros.™️ Ultimate Fighter Pass Vol. 1 I really remember that time at The Game Awards 2018 from 4 years.

[@JeffreyThrash]

@Anonymous Turkey That's true for a lot of Atlus's RPGs. I've been playing Shin Megami Tensei V and while I love it, I am frustrated that I am 70 hours in and at best 3/4 of the way through the game--I still have a long, long way to go...

[@yl3716]

@@JeffreyThrash sakurai has mention before how much he loves the persona series, he was a fan since the first game

[@JLMetak]

The Smash series, Kirby Air Ride and Kid icarus Uprising are some of the few games where I have fun just going through menus: partly because of the amount of content available, but mostly because of how expressive each submenus and options are.

[@MrMariosonicman]

the music also helps. especial for air ride, it makes the game already seem action packed before you even step into your first air ride.

[@Doughboy123x]

@@MrMariosonicman Agreed!

[@Cystlib]

SSBU's menu is a pain to navigate imo

[@Geneolgia]

One of my favorite and most unique pause menus is the one in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, it's not the typical list or grid of options, instead it uses a rotational design in which the selectable options are connected to a central point that looks like the green A button in a GC controller and spin around said point in any direction you choose, it looks similar to a mind map diagram or chart, to select an element you have to center it with the A point and press the button. I think it is an example of style over clarity but browsing through the game's extensive Logbook like that gives you a feeling that you're using a super advanced alien device to read your recorded entries, it's neat.

[@redtomato4903]

Seeing Minecraft in this video made me realize that Sakurai isn’t a casual MC player. If that is his world, it looks so cool!

[@hiroprotagonest]

There's a channel called Design Doc which has a series of videos called "Good Design, Bad Design" looking at all sorts of games' UI and other display elements

[@TayoEXE]

I love how Mr. Sakurai's videos always spark great discussion and further education of the topics he brings up. Makes this feel like a developer forum for aspiring devs to ask questions and experienced devs to share their experience.

[@dugoo3405]

It truly does :)

[@scatterbrain8764]

I'm very glad this exists as a category on this channel. UI design in video games isn't talked about nearly enough, because it's so important to get right.

[@dugoo3405]

next we gotta see him talk about the glory that is the Breath of the Wild Stamina wheel. lol

[@theherohartmut]

It's the sort of thing where, outside of outliers like Persona, you won't get any fanfare for doing it right, but everyone will notice if you get it wrong.

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

Clear UI is the most thankless and necessary, but stylish UI is perfection.

[@FangzV]

One of the strengths of this series is simply in how Mr. Sakurai calls attention to things or gives us terminology for them. Menus and UI are definitely one of those topics where a lot of people can *sense* when it's done well or not, but don't know why or how to explain it. The details are so important for UI, like the contrasts of brightness and saturation. A lot of the wisdom in this series is to step back and question how to polish things. So excited that UI gets its own category. There's so much to talk about, and a lot of it benefits from this same perspective. I hope there's a video that touches on accessibility. Persona 5's menus are amazing, and i still remember the excitement when they were first revealed, but i also remember seeing series newcomers pick up the game and get overwhelmed.

[@rylade475]

I remember doing an assignment years ago for a class centered around designing UI. I went ahead and used Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as an example of good UI design-the colors and symbols are easily identifiable and well-organized. I got a 100 on the assignment.

[@iveli_alpaca]

As for fonts, knowing the different types of fonts (serif, sans serif, etc) will help immensely. A few guidelines for fonts: 1. Limit your font choice to no more than 2-3 being presented at a time 2. Different types of fonts (for example, serif and sans serif) pair well together 3. Sans Serif fonts can be easier to read in chunks of text

[@patrickj]

4. Don't abuse display fonts (them fancy lookin' ones) for chunks of text.

[@Lumpfriend]

Personally I think the sweet spot for number of fonts is around 9-12

[@aionicthunder]

@@Lumpfriend Trust me when I say you don’t want to get to Gungnir levels of font number

[@JerryFlowersIII]

It's really incredible that you're taking your years of experience and learning, and making such well presented and easy to understand videos. Thank you so much Sakurai-San.

[@HelixSnake]

I was hoping Smash Bros Melee would be brought up because that game's menu UI is fancy as shit they didn't have to do the thing where you can rotate it with the cstick but it's a thing everyone remembers

[@lrgogo1517]

...wait, yeah, Melee's menu was my entire childhood!! Between that and Air Ride and Uprising, how did Sakurai choose to flex in this subject with _Ultimate?_

[@paperluigi6132]

Brawl did that too, but you couldn’t go as far as you could in Melee

[@spencer1531]

I keep going back and forth on if Melee's UI is still "good" by modern standards. On one hand, it's very sleek, fast, immersive, and stylish. On the other hand, all of the buttons look the same so it's tough to parse the hierarchy of importance, or to know which buttons will lead to another subfolder or to a different screen without trial and error

[@spencer1531]

that being said, 4 and ultimate's UIs are not better just because they do those things

[@PadensPixels]

I'd argue that a great example of a visually clear yet decently stylized UI, which also does its job of guiding the viewer along perfectly well, is the one Sakurai uses in this series of videos! While the layout of a video vs the menus of a video game do call for different design principles in certain cases, the underlying logic here can be applied to a video game's UI fairly easily. From the graph paper-esque background which appears whenever Sakurai is talking over gameplay, to the non-intrusive text which appears along the bottom and at the top right corner of the screen, everything here is used to serve an educational, yet somewhat playful style. Another great example that everyone's talked about would be the little loading screens that pop-up between certain cuts in these videos, but for a less obvious example, did you notice the animation that appears around Sakurai's channel icon and recommended videos at the end of the video? Now that's stylish!

[@GiraPrimal]

One tip for making clear UIs: try to use at most two different fonts (or the same font with different weights), one for titles, one for regular text.

[@Triforce_of_Doom]

Yeah as much as I love Xenoblade 2, one of the MANY issues with its UI is how many font types they use at once. Makes it harder for newer players to know what to look for as more complex mechanics get introduced.

[@GiraPrimal]

@@Triforce_of_Doom I think X2 has an issue… for the opposite reason: one unique font type with almost no weight variation.

[@Triforce_of_Doom]

@@GiraPrimal Oh. TBF, it's been a while since I booted up 2 so I may have mixed the issue up with other games having too many fonts

[@RMS_Gigantic]

One thing I've noticed about the garage/hangar/port screen in World of Tanks/Warplanes/Warships (that is, the first screen you see after logging into any of those games) is that, despite the cosmetic differences between the three, they all feature a big, bright red/orange "Battle!" button in the top middle of the screen, on a screen that otherwise uses almost exclusively black or dark blue in its UI. It really draws your attention to the button that throws you into the action! The idea was clearly a good one, because War Thunder, an overall similar but "competing" game that released not too long after World of Tanks, uses a rather similar approach to emphasize its own "To Battle!" button on its equivalent screen.

[@Morgil27]

2:44 when I took typography in college, my professor stressed the difference between "typeface" and "font", and since then it's always bugged me when I see people use the word font when they mean typeface. Sakurai is one of the few people I've seen use the correct term and it is incredibly refreshing.

[@czyu3361]

Can you explain what's the difference of fonts and typeface?

[@dugoo3405]

Yeah please explain the difference, Even in my head I was thinking font. I found this definition: Typeface: The Name of the Stylized Glyphs ... Font: The Specific Tool (or File) That Contains a Typeface ... But that's just so weird, why were we always taught font?

[@Buglin_Burger7878]

@@dugoo3405 Because they were poorly named. Typeface sounds like the face of which you type on. The paper, writing program, or whatever. Thus you'd immediately assume Font is the other one without being told, especially if it sounds like Fountain Pen and how everyone has their own style of writing. Since language is based on how people use it, you could actually argue since most use them incorrectly... that their definitions have changed. Similar to how "Sick means cool" except not just slang due to mass use.

[@igor-ld8qm]

when it comes to design it always boils down to 'contrast'. how different something looks from the things next to it. when there's a lot of small things on screen and one big thing, your eyes will focus on the big thing. When there's a lot of big things on screen and one small thing, you'll focus on the small thing. this also works with fonts, color, position, angle, etc. pretty much everything you can imagine. this is how you create hierarchy in your design and direct the eyes of the player.

[@THEBOLSHEVIK]

I would argue that there's a certain window within the sliding scale that clarity and style actually work in tandem with each other. Take a fighting game super meters, for example. These typically have some sort of stylization when they are at max capacity, such as glowing, pulsating, or perhaps being on fire. But the fact that they are stylized allows the players to notice them in the periphery, so they know a resource is available to them without diverting their attention from the main action of the screen. In such a case, a less stylized design would actually provide less overall clarity during gameplay.

[@Shadowofawolf]

I love Sakurais videos. They're so nice and chill to watch. Plus I get to learn so many things about the development of games, including the little things

[@JanbluTheDerg]

The Minecraft example is great because I as a person who plays Minecraft have never, EVER, organised my stuff more than having a separate "Shinies!" chest, and maybe a food chest.

[@papijr408]

I really hope these don't ever end. So much valuable info I've never thought about. I dont even make games. I just love them. I can see your passion and it makes me appreciate games a whole lot more. Thank you Mr. Sakurai.

[@UsingGorillaLogic]

I feel like bringing up TF2 as well because it has a great clarity element to its ui I really like. In that game there is two teams red and blu, but it is a first person game so if you are new it might be hard to know what team you are if you aren't quite paying attention. However, the developers found a nice solution to this by making the ui change color based on what team you are on, if you are red it is red if you are blu it is blue. I also really like the little visual of the payload cart in that game on the hud as well.

[@dugoo3405]

ah I never noticed that while playing

[@tame1773]

Yea, and it stands well with the games style too. Not too much put in it, but still has that TF2 feel on them.

[@TehNoobiness]

One of the ways Persona 5 tried to have their cake and eat it too is by using contrast (in both color and motion) to highlight the part of the menu that's active. They also specifically _DON'T_ alter the button icons in any way--all the text is distorted and stretched to convey a sense of motion, but the button prompts are all simple and straightforward. This isn't as perfectly clear as a plain, straightforward menu, but it's a way to account for the loss of clarity that comes from style.

[@davidvkimball]

Great overview of user interface, and the push and pull of style vs. clarity.

[@MidgarMerc]

If I was a fledgling game creator I'd be pretty stoked to see this channel. Keep up the good work Sakurai-san!

[@kiritsuna]

Another great video, UI is extremely important and I like how the developers for different series handle it. The P5 UI has to be one of my favorites

[@penndragyn3728]

As someone who is considering making games as a hobby, it's hard to overstate how useful this series has been! Glad you are making these videos, thank you so much! :D

[@macksnotcool]

The trick is to use your style to advance the clarity of the visuals. Like how Super Smash Bros. has really bold artistic choices (as in literally bold). Super Smash Bros. takes advantage of it's art-style in it's UI by combining it's bold powerful visuals and fonts where it is needed, and much more casual fonts for longer, less important information. I would say this is the best way of going about UI because it makes the game look better and play better.

[@garryrptr]

Thank you Mr. Tatsuya Suou, very informative video

[@tomhaswell6283]

One of the best channels on KZbin right now. Thank you very much!

[@RatTalisman]

I think a master of this balance is Halo: Combat Evolved up to Reach. There's a lot I could go over but the thing that stands out to me the most is that for all ballistic weapons, the HUD shows you how many bullets are left in the magazine by a visual indication of each round rather than a numerical value, and it really adds to game feel as well as, in my opinion, showing your need to reload better than a number could.

[@TheDavidVAs]

1:54 Sakurai just casually humble bragging.

[@WinspearUltima]

Great video sakurai, absolutely loving these videos

[@Farore13]

Can't express how much I enjoy hearing such a legendary game creator talk about his craft. Thank you for all of your videos, Sakurai!

[@Ccat06]

Hello Mr. Sakurai! I've been using this channel for tips for my own game dev experience. I just wanted to say thank you for the work you are putting in to help us game devs. It is much appreciated.

[@skysamfreeman]

That's what I love so much about Melee's menu UI. It's simple, consistent and stylish in it's own way. Kirby Air Ride also had a great menu UI. Reminds me of a cross between Melee and Brawl.

[@ohwowitsthatguy9154]

Thinking about it, P5 Strikers pause menu is actually quite the improvement over P5, with regards to what Sakurai is talking about. The font and text is larger and more readable at a glance, the colors, spaces and party members Joker is with changes depending on which parts of the menu you're in (in a yellow lit alley with Ryuji for equipment, in Futaba's green UFO/Persona for settings, sitting at a teal lit table with maps and plans with Makoto for skills, etc.). It's much easier to read and parse what you're looking at, all while maintaining Persona 5's strong style.

[@theslightlysaltysalad1460]

yess i love the pause menu in that game!! even if ive seen it a million times it doesnt look any less cool

[@SusanoWojitski]

I completely disagree. The animations took longer (the animation for the loading files screen with futaba for example is horrendously long) and the menu is not exitable with the click of one button anymore. Yes, it is more organized and bigger but it had a broader audience. Meaning maybe they wanted to make the text and panels bigger because people are gonna play it on various resolutions and on various consoles while P5 was mainly gonna be played in hd on a big tv, even on the PS3 Version. Also it was less stylized and felt kinda forced. In P5 menu, everything is so smooth even though the game run at 30 fps, the animations still seemed a lot smoother than p5s animations even though on PC for example, that game run with a much much higher frame rate. Also it stayed true to its theme and color (black and red) which makes it unique in comparison to the other persona games which also had their own coloured menus. P5S menu was good but especially my first mentioned points made it less enjoyable for me.

[@ohwowitsthatguy9154]

@@SusanoWojitski Yeah, loading time for some of the 3d-models/animations is a fair critique, though I'd argue the extra second here and there is a fair trade-off for the personality. No menu/UI is going to be perfect and satisfy everyone, there's always at least one trade-off...but that can be said of all game production/design. Me personally, I'm a little sad that cool loading screens (like the ones in Spider-Man PS4) are going to get rarer and rarer as hardware improves and loading times get gradually non-existent, but I'm sure I'll come to appreciate the snappy quickness I get in return.

[@zephyrias]

@@ohwowitsthatguy9154 ahh you just made me remember that one for Spidey! My fave loading screen is when he on the train talking with a fan

[@Triforce_of_Doom]

@@ohwowitsthatguy9154 I love how they knew how much fans love the fast travel scenes because the PS5 versions where the fast load times would get in the way have a toggle to let you still see them in full.

[@oscaracevedo8092]

Absolutely on point consideration about UI! It never has a clear answer, which is what makes it a difficult task to tackle

[@setech4441]

Man this was a really fascinating video Mr Sakurai! Thanks for the neat looking into, I never thought that deeply about UI before but this kinda makes one think

[@ZpectreWasTaken]

As someone who’s currently working on a game in a large group, I’ve often had trouble trying to explain just how important the UI is, but not being able to explain it myself. Thank you so much for this!

[@TheMack625]

A new subseries within your Making Games videos, eh Sakurai? I am generally impressed with the UI in most video games I play. The Mario sports in particular have varying levels of quality in their designs. Given your community statement not long ago, I won't pick an any particular games with bland UI. The fact of the matter is that so long as I can see what I need to do, I can accept pretty much any user interface in any game I play. Nice work, Mr. Sakurai.

[@SportsGaming-ll3ru]

I just love that Mr. Sakurai will take every moment he gets to gush over persona 5, it’s awesome, also PLEASE Mr. Sakurai can we see your Minecraft world

[@ForrestFox626]

I don't know why, but I would have never guessed he play P5 and Minecraft. I mean I'm glad he does it just never crossed my mind.

[@zyphyris]

@@ForrestFox626 I get you haha. Sometimes you associate certain developers or people in general with certain companies or games that you forget that they can play other games too. I remember when the Kit and Krysta Podcast started up and I had a "huh" moment when they started talking about Elden Ring.

[@megamagicmonkey]

Geez, Sakurai, I know these are short but you're pumping out so many! I hope you're taking some time to chill out and breathe! You're a real treasure, so be sure to take care of yourself!

[@obvfw]

I love studying user interfaces. And not just in games, either - operating systems, websites, tools and apps... UI is everywhere, and I think it's good to take inspiration from outside of video games, wherever the same basic concepts apply.

[@imjust_a]

I've been struggling with UI for my own project. It's my first time being in charge of designing a UI. The game has a very distinct aesthetic, but designing UI to fit that has been a real challenge. In the end, I decided to focus more on clarity over style for the sake of actually finishing my work on time! I figured: we're not going to win any awards for "Best UI" anyway, so why make it harder for ourselves? As long as the player can tell what they're doing, that's all I really care about in this case.

[@Glory2Snowstar]

Just got done making a comic, and the number one criticism I received on the draft was on how I made the panels look all stylish and funky for no discernible reason, with spiky frames or them oozing into one another. Needless to say I tend to fall into the trap of prioritizing style over function DANGEROUSLY often, so this is gonna be crazy helpful! I can find that balance yet! Thank you Sakurai!

[@rimimimimimimimim4170]

this video is amazing the music fits too well too and really clear and well explained while being a stylish video

[@atomixfang]

Very rarely you get to learn directly from a legend. THANK YOU SAKURAI FOR TAKING THE TIME TO CREATE THESE GEMS.

[@Kellan__they-them]

I also think it's important to consider allowing people to decide for themselves where they want the slider from style to clarity to be - specifically for accessibility reasons... like including options such as changing fonts / text size, removing shaking, or altering colors in UI elements for example.

[@KlutzyNinjaKitty]

Omg, agreed. As an artist I can appreciate all the love and care put into making P5’s menus look unique and fit the overall vibe. I 100% respect what the team made. However, my ADHD brain gets lost in all the movement, detail, complicated patterns, and how individual letters contrast. Tbf I haven’t played the game so I don’t have the benefit of getting used to the menus throughout gameplay. But, I’m overwhelmed and overstimulated by the stylization which has affected my desire to play this game. If a game’s getting funky with it’s UI, a toggle-able “simplified layout” would be appreciated. Though I understand that something like that might be too much work for very little reward.

[@blockmath_2048]

100% agree. Persona's menu style works perfectly with the style they're going for, but it is *borderline impossible* to navigate if you have a condition like dyslexia or colorblindness. An option to simplify fonts is *absolutely essential.*

[@OneekoKurubane]

I really wish that I could use the special thanks option for this channel. This channel is really a gem for smaller or newer devs and everything is just so interesting

[@dugoo3405]

Man Sakurai's videos are just so dang enjoyable. It was a pleasure to see the Minecraft sorting system haha

[@lastnamefirstname8655]

this is so amazing too. thanks for all of these precious knowledge, sakurai! we love you sakurai!

[@desertyoshi_plays]

These videos are so nice to watch. Probably some of the best content on KZbin. Also that outro music really reminds me of music that would be in Danganronpa during the exploration phase or free time phase.

[@DarkCheepAndFriends]

Watching Sakurai talk about the games he likes fills me with joy :)

[@StrikerSML]

I know Sakurai loves Persona and I do too but seeing it be acknowledged is so cool

[@leonardchurch814]

Persona 5’s UI looks effortlessly cool, of the hundreds of games I’ve played no UI has made me stop playing the game and just admire the animations. The way Joker moves across the screen and poses with the UI is mesmerizing.

[@ForrestFox626]

My favorite was him crashing into the menu

[@superkoopamocha]

Another glimpse at Mr. Sakurai playing Minecraft. We need more of that. Great topic as always! Mr. Sakurai, we can't be grateful enough.

[@adamharris306]

I've been wanting more videos on KZbin that delve into game UI. Really looking forward to more of these.

[@PrimatoFortunato]

The UI that surprised me the most in terms of clarity in a drowning of components was that of HON/Dota2. It has two ways of seeing stuff: which components you need for a certain magic object, and which magic objects need the component you have. In fact I learned those concepts three months later in a university lesson about industrial organization.

[@mouser724]

I'm always fascinated by how games handle their menu navigation. There is so much variety, even within the same franchise ! Honorable mention to mobile games where UI is arguably the most important element. UI/UX Designers truly are the secret MVPs of game dev !

[@AussieGameTrip]

The majority of the time I definitely apprciate a clean and user friendly interface but I can forgive a confusing, cluttered, or even overly minimalistic UI as long as the game is worth sinking some time into and learning how everything works. At the end of the day if you really love a game you're going to take that extra time to learn and maybe appreciate its "unique" design.

[@JeffreyThrash]

I thought something similar in his video about making sure games started quickly. Some of my favorite RPGs of all time had some of the slowest and most cumbersome openings and tutorials, but really picked up and improved from there-Grandia and Kingdom Hearts II come to mind. It’s all subjective.

[@firstlast-wg2on]

@@JeffreyThrash I think the concept is that there are always ways to make the fun come out of a game more quickly. I imagine we’re similar in the sense we enjoy a lot of different games over different eras, some with horribly slow and awkward beginnings, some that dive right into the thick of the fun. It’s obviously subjective, but if I already know a game I don’t really want to be held back by a slow beginning when I could be playing the game I love, you know? Plus, a lot of the time our favourite games we forgive a lot for when, looked at critically, could have improvements that make it even higher in our list of favourites.

[@Tsunamidusher]

UI Menus conceptualized as Drawers is one I hadn't heard of before. Quite Brilliant

[@mds_main]

I've done a peer reviewed study on the concept of "human computer interaction" which can also be applied to videogames UI, and he really nails down lots of the aspects that must be taken into account accordingly to a variety of factors, from the context to the garget audience. It's a fascinating topic that more game and websites developers should take into account.

[@d3v1lsummoner]

2:44 I'm so glad the translator chose 'typeface' instead of 'font' for this line. While 'font' is not wholly incorrect, the idea being expressed is about shape, not necessarily size. Call me pedantic if you will, but a typeface is not a font.

[@dearthofdoohickeys4703]

I really enjoy this channel, I look forward to every upload

[@wesnohathas1993]

I always appreciate when the UI offers some customizability, especially in the way of removing elements from the screen that aren't particularly useful.

[@thatcoolblue3492]

I hope a future UI video covers specifics of conveying where the cursor is for a choice of something in-game. Simple text colors for menus in place of a cursor or something else are the BANE of my existence.

[@chickensangwich97]

Also notable with the Persona 5 example: the game is a turn-based RPG, so the player usually has as long as they want to make any given decision. So it's totally fine if the player needs an extra second or two to pull out the relevant information from that overload of style. They won't be penalized for slowing down a bit. In, say, a twitchy shooter where every second counts, you might want to err more on the clarity side of the "style vs. clarity" divide, but for a turn-based game, be as stylish as you like! Great video as always Mr. Sakurai!

[@neypaz8054]

The Etrian Odyssey games always had lovely UI. In fact, crazy as it may sounf, seeing pics of EO4's menu in Google piqued my interest so much that it's why I ended up buying the game, and have since then been a big EO fan

[@WolfPhoenix0]

I'm starting to think that Persona 5 is Mr. Sakurai's favorite video game of all time since it's been featured in three of his videos. Also, Kirby games have fantastic clarity AND style with their UI menus!

[@Palozon]

GUI stands for "Graphical User Interface" and is the subset of UI that Sakurai refers to here.

[@professorpizza9189]

Video game!

[@Racc_Oon]

yes!

[@professorpizza9189]

@@Racc_Oon :)

[@Zyman-iv4jb]

W comment

[@Racc_Oon]

@@professorpizza9189 (0u0)

[@BornaMisetic]

bideogames

[@MemeMachine0118]

Finally! Some appreciation for Persona 5s flawless menu design!

[@rkroll17]

Every video makes it more clear just how much sakurai loves persona

[@FoxNightDream]

Perfect video for me! I'm really looking forward to more videos regarding UI. I'm currently in a UI/UX Designer course and I can use all the tips I can get, looking forward to more of those your videos have a been a god send!

[@IvenAkaVerlierer]

Persona 5 was only announced for switch so this man can constantly gush about how wonderful it is and I’m so here for it