[emptysongglass]

I see your point with Warcraft 2 though I do think a lot of the art from then leant more to the gritty like this one [1] that shows a troll squaring off with a human.

[1] https://i.imgur.com/pJ0entX_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&...

[learc83]

The game manuals always were pretty gritty compared to the in-game art.

[astrange]

I remember looking at this in the manual as a kid and thinking the archer was about to have a bad time.

[tremon]

shows a troll squaring off with a human

An elf, rather (elven archer).