#minecraft commentary

Now for the content that I don't like (that we've heard of so far): the leaves, the grass and the ambience. The fact that the leaves and grass are so similar in colour, and that that colour is GREY honestly sucks, especially since the wood is already grey. I think the biome would look interesting and actually kind of spooky if they made either of these white, or added some much darker tones to any of the new blocks/textures, but as of right now they haven't, and it's boring. The grass especially. It's like a worse version of the mountain grass, which in fact has its own sort of charm (tho imo it is (was) the most boring). The ambience overall I kind of already adressed. This is going a little into what has been said by the presenters, but the pale gardens being 'eerily quiet' will likely go unnoticed, since there's no sound everywhere else half the time. I think the only time the player would notice is if music is playing and it fades out as the enter the pale gardens. That would be cool, especially if it picked up again when they left. But otherwise, it's just kind of this boring greyscale biome with no contrast.

Now going onto how the update contradicts the words of the presenters: the presenters say that it will be 'eerily quiet' (adressed earlier), and that it will be 'spooky', as well as using other words to the same effect. They also showed some reference pictures that they used as inspiration for this biome.

The weeping willows, very pretty, very mystical.

Spanish moss, look how cool!

Now look at the result:

Now, I do want to point out that they evidently didn't want the trees to actually be willow trees for some reason "this gives this drapy feeling without being willow trees", but I feel like the biome could have really benefitted from them just using the shape of willow trees. Instead of looking spooky but pretty, ominous but mystical, the tree shape they've opted for is the dark oak, which is robust and towering. They've given the biome a feeling of being a little packed in, a little claustrophobia, with hardly any frills. Of course, there are some. Let's talk about those. The new vines and moss blocks are far more grey against the already grey grass, which gives the biome an extra element of complete dullness as the new elements look the least visually appealling, which they evidently are meant to be (the presenter describes them as 'pretty' in the day time). What I'm looking right now is a shy, bland biome. There is hardly any personality other than that it doesn't want to be looked at. There is no whimsy, because everything is in solid, clumped together shapes. There is no eeriness because everything blends together with their colours so easily. This biome needs colour, and it needs more shape. For example, the dark oak forest has peonies that help to bring in both colour and shape variation from the ground level, and the giant spruce forests have boulders that complement the rich colours of the rest of the ground. The pale garden has flat grey carpet on the flat grey floor. This is boring! And I'm mad about it!