I rented Klonoa 2: Door to Phantomile recently. This is the first game I’ve played which used this unusual graphic technique.
This has always fascinated me. Exactly how do they do it? Changing the “skin” for a 3D object is easy, of course, but how to superimpose the ink and paint on top of it, let alone make it look natural from any angle.
Also, how does the company decide when to use it? I always assumed that the main purpose was to lend a “cartoony” feel for the game (very appropriate for Klonoa 2), but I could name any number of cartoony games that had ordinary 3D graphics.