It looked odd back then, it looks more jarring now that we have high resolution and so many colors. It makes enviroments look static and lifeless. I realize this is essentially a 2D game - most things are pre-rendered and it's no longer possible to make them move the right way.

 

But you could use post-processing effects to at least pretend the grass is moving in the wind. It won't look great, but I think it would look better. Any effort is appreciated.

 

The background in Fish Fillets is a good example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9zac7C4QZk

 

 

Check this early game update:

 

 

 

 

There they have moving grass/bushes-trees.

 

I don't know why they were removed from current game, personally I like the effects a lot. Certainly better than the alternative, which is nothing.

I don't know why they were removed either, but if I were to guess it's because they couldn't make it look right and/or time constraints. The movement of bushes and grass in the video looks really awkward and buggy, and I'd rather have it removed than it to look like that.

Edited October 23, 201411 yr by Seari

Perhaps it's been only temporarily removed, due to optimization/resource issues, etc., and is planned to be back in after some polish and increased application efficiency? *shrug*

As I said in another thread:

 

The trees & grass movement is a complicated thing, while I understand that some people prefer not having it because it "looks ugly" (I disagree, for me it is more a thing of  how it is animated than how it looks) the problem of not having animations affects not only "the looks" but the ambient/mood of the place. Slowly moving foliage can totally change the feel from a peaceful village vs a windy one in the top of a mountain.
 
And worse: There can be immersion problems if we have other things being moved by the wind and not the trees/bushes (windmill, smoke, tavern posters, rain, leafs etc...). Those things I would feel strange in a second.

Edited October 24, 201411 yr by Naurgalen

While I see your point about windmills, smoke, etc., the difference is between a feeling of ambience and a feeling of physics. I'd prefer to get a hint of physics and some ambience to none at all, because ambience does a lot to set the mood (as per your example between peaceful and windy).

 

That said, I'm the sort of person who is likely to play this game many times and if the 'ambience' bugs me it's going to keep bugging me and reduce my desire for repeated gameplay, so while I'd rather no ambient movement over bad ambient movement, decent ambient movement is good enough and smoke/windmills etc. are not necessary unless you intend to convey a fully working world independent to the story.