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Post by asterra on Jun 24, 2019 8:35:48 GMT -6
If you mean my backer ID, yes, I see the six digit code. I've put it in 50 times. Both with and without the #. It accepts what I put in, and if I immediately double-check after putting it in, it's still there. But any NEW save I make (including one made from playing the save where I entered my backer ID) is missing the information and I have to put it in again. And whatever the ID is supposed to do (I've been told it's a gray box with some information), it doesn't do.
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Post by asterra on Jun 24, 2019 4:58:24 GMT -6
Something obviously went very wrong here. It could be that there was a survey which specifically requested information that would lead not only to one's name appearing in the credits, but also to the "backer ID" option actually doing something (I've been told this is supposed to make a gray box appear with some info, but this fails to happen). But I have my entire history of email from the Bloodstained backer mailing list, and I made certain to address every "ACTION REQUIRED" notice. Furthermore, when I visit the associated link, these are the only options available:
Change or Upgrade Tiers or Addon
Change Your Survey Answers
Change Your Address
Download Codes
There is no "survey where you can enter what name you want to appear in the credits, plus your clan or whatever the heck is meant to show up when you put in your backer ID". The "Change Your Survey Answers" leads only to the option to change one's preferred gaming platform.
Feel like I was kept out of the loop here, and am hopeful that something can be done to correct all of this.
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Post by asterra on Jun 19, 2019 4:22:09 GMT -6
So according to this post: steamcommunity.com/app/692850/discussions/0/1638662230384924742/plugging the provided text into the indicated text file will cause Bloodstained to enter supersampling mode. But it doesn't. Not without possibly some other tweak that I don't know about. Still struggling with this. I only get to enjoy the game for the first time once, and it's a shame I'm throwing those hours away with a sub-par render because this info doesn't seem to be locked down yet.
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Post by asterra on Jun 18, 2019 21:21:32 GMT -6
Early backer of the game, but have been avoiding it like the plague, waiting for the day of release (other than the earliest demo, which I used to provide some bug reports and suggestions, which seem to have gone largely ignored).
I want to solve the anti-aliasing problem. You can set the anti-aliasing level, and this probably has an effect. But it's not easy to tell, because regardless of what you choose there, the "cel-shading" black outline that the game adds as a post-process does not get anti aliased, period. Not only is this ugly to look at, but next to the rest of the graphics it looks downright out of place, and since it affects everything that isn't the background, ultimately it's like anti-aliasing doesn't even serve much of a purpose.
A basic effort to override the game's anti-aliasing in Nvidia Profile Inspector proves fruitless. Possibly because the compatibility bits are unknown, or possibly because "anti-aliasing" just won't have an impact on what is technically a post-process.
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Post by asterra on Jul 14, 2016 0:59:39 GMT -6
Okay, so I'm sure we all have our own favorite versions of New Game Plus from other games. Whether it be something like a prestige mode where you get something for resetting your char infinatly Above all else, I definitely want it understood by the devs that many/most of us don't want "New Game+" to end with the second playthrough. I've mentioned this before in less-focused threads, but I would be happy if they took cues from Diablo 3, Sacred 2, Dark Souls, etc., and made New Game+ work like this: Increase the level cap, increase the difficulty, increase the quality of drops (perhaps using the "+1" system from Harmony of Despair). Maybe add one or two things to make the new game slightly fresher than just a flat repeat. Obviously keep all of your prior experience, items, etc. When you win, you can start New Game+2. And this repeats a half dozen times. And then, if you manage to beat New Game+6, just to make sure it doesn't end there, permit the player to start a brand new, regular "New Game" from scratch, but with some sort of "prestige" difference, such as slightly elevated stats, slightly elevated difficulty, whatever - something that carries over into New Game+2 etc. and followup prestige transitions. Be sure the player can reference their progress in a non-ambiguous way, such as by noting the NG+/prestige level in the menu somewhere. If it worked like that, I would be absolutely thrilled.
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Post by asterra on Jul 13, 2016 21:28:00 GMT -6
I'm going to do something I have put off / forgotten to do forever, and this is the perfect time to do it:
Play the Saturn version of Symphony of the Night, aka 悪魔城ドラキュラX月下の夜.
Naturally, the reason being that the Saturn version is effectively the definitive version. What we have in the PS1/XB360 iterations is almost like the final stable beta by comparison. I can't say I've finally put the game behind me without having explored all the exclusive rooms, heard all the new music, and beaten the game with Maria.
Too bad there isn't an emulator with better-than-bilinear screen filtering. 240p is brutal these days.
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Post by asterra on Jul 13, 2016 21:01:39 GMT -6
How good is your Japanese? Are you fluent? Good enough that I don't think twice unless it's going to literally be 75%+ reading. I'm also concerned (and perhaps a bit weirded out?) that something that bothers you, so much so that you are interested in modding, is a critique of pitch. Let's be clear on this one. It's mostly a critique of accuracy. If a character is a teenager and looks like a teenager, she probably sounds like one too, in Japanese. There aren't enough female English voices out there to be picky, and the brutal fact of the matter is that almost none of them can make themselves sound like anything but a 30-something trying to sound younger. One of the worst aspects of Japanese dubbing is the tendency for women to speak in abnormally high pitches. Such characters or roles can often time border on insufferable. I'm not entirely sure if its down to an over-emphasis on being cute/moe or maybe a bit of latent cultural sexism or whatever but it certainly isn't always appropriate or good to listen to. It helps to recognize that almost every single anime made in the last decade+ has been made for and almost exclusively features characters of schoolgoing age. If you go back far enough - and I'm talking the early 80s - this is manifestly not the case. I'm not defending this - hell, I could go for more Space Adventure Cobra. Just saying what is. Second thing to bear in mind is the aforementioned observation that female voices in Japan are higher in pitch and timbre in the first place; it's what they're used to and not what we're used to. With Miriam's English VA, the goal shouldn't be to try to match the Japanese but rather do the best work that is fitting for the character. Going to have to disagree on this point, but again, I have solutions on standby so it's ultimately just a matter of personal convenience and perhaps a concern about the shared experience. Thankfully, there are female Japanese VAs that can do personality + badass so hopefully they choose one of them Precisely. Bloodstained looks like it's aiming to be just as down-to-earth as Castlevania has always been, so a comically high-pitched voice would be utterly out of place and is thus essentially impossible. Miriam looks like she's supposed to be about 17, but there's nothing visual to suggest she has arbitrarily become Warrior Woman after undergoing her ritual, so I expect a neutral, demure voice. I still pretty much guarantee you that the hypothetical English voice will be about three or four semitones lower.
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Post by asterra on Jul 13, 2016 20:40:09 GMT -6
asterra If you're talking about Betelgeuse's performance, that actually wouldn't be too hard(and in fact, some people on Reddit tried to dismiss him as a Joker expy). Hell, I could do a decent Betelgeuse. He was actually the thing I specifically didn't mean. I mean the performances of pretty much everyone else who had anything to do in the show. So I'll tell you what. Find me a clip of a non-cringe effort to dub someone going insane, someone's dying words, or someone screaming in anguish at a loved one's loss
and I will use that to gauge how wrong I've been about English rent-a-dubs.
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Post by asterra on Jul 13, 2016 20:02:33 GMT -6
Re:Zero? Are you kidding me? Re:Zero has Japanese exaggerated drama and comedy stamped all over it. Getting a decent western voice direction for that is as likely as getting one for Bakemonogatari. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I did specify a particular episode. Anyway, I changed my mind. It wouldn't be comical, because the cringe would make that impossible.
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Post by asterra on Jul 13, 2016 19:34:37 GMT -6
The styles of voice direction between the the western and Japanese VA industries is just too great in most cases. Which is why my chosen case-in-point mostly features dramatic and emotional elements which cannot be pigeonholed as culturally unique.
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Post by asterra on Jul 13, 2016 19:01:40 GMT -6
There are some exceptions where the source is closer to western drama than others where American voice acting happened to fit in(Cowboy Bebop being the most notable example), but for the most part, that's the reason that dubs seem off even when performed by otherwise accomplished VAs. I'll stand by what I said. As a case-in-point, if you happen to be watching Re-Zero, picture in your mind just what it would take for an English voice cast to be able to convincingly dub the most recent episode (that would be 15). I'm going to tell you right now: It would be comical. The demands of that episode are quite simply beyond any possible established English voice talent you could name. Keep it generic and cartoony, and you're in business. Require some acting chops and you're asking for trouble. Meanwhile, the far more robust Japanese seiyuu industry has got you covered with no trouble whatsoever. It's just a fact of how the two entertainment industries differ in talent distribution.
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Post by asterra on Jul 13, 2016 17:00:42 GMT -6
As long as we're still talking about this, my two cents.
I normally stick with Japanese dialogue. But I make the occasional exception, for various reasons. Given that Belgrade will be in this game in some capacity, plus the not entirely unrelated fact that I played SotN in English back in the day, I will probably go with English the majority of the time, in this case.
Now, I need to rant a bit. English voice acting is, on the whole, poor. There are very good reasons for this, from Hollywood soaking up most of the available talent, to the unavoidable truth that the overwhelming majority of media that appeals to English-speaking populations is already in English, resulting in a miserable pool of voice actors. That is one factor. Also, since the topic is Miriam's voice, I feel compelled to bring up my other gripe: Western female voices are almost always lower in timbre and considerably lower in pitch than the original Japanese voices they are meant to replace. It's partly a physical inevitability and partly a speech habit - starting sometime in the latter 20th century, women in the West began to habitually talk at the lowest register their voices could handle, without realizing they were doing it. These days, many Western women speak with an annoying "vocal fry" that you cannot un-hear, because their voices are simply going too low. I think I've made my point.
The TL;DR of that is that I fully expect any hypothetical dub of Miriam's voice to be older-sounding than the Japanese original, unless special care is taken to avoid this typical outcome. Not only would the voice need to be chosen with care, but the voice actress would need to be specifically instructed to try to match the vocalizations of the original speaker, rather than simply read a few lines in whatever voice comes naturally.
And with all that being said, while it would be great if this is how things turned out, ultimately I will not be personally bothered if Miriam's English voice ends up being a poor replacement. Such things can be modded. For example, I can and will alter the pitch of a given voice myself, just as I have done with a few other games. In the worst case scenario, I can simply replace the dub with the Japanese original for Miriam alone.
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Post by asterra on Jul 12, 2016 22:02:09 GMT -6
B) Unless you legitimately believe that all/most songs that use organs sound the same (and I can't/don't believe you do) I think you're forgetting the required framework: Music appropriate for a gothic setting, in a posh, evil castle, while battling hellspawn. I would say that the uses of organs in that context sound pretty much the same, yes. That she would somehow shackle herself for fears others might claim she is copying herself? (Note that both of those would be different from her just not using those instruments because she didn't want to and wanted to do something different - which I get the sense you would still be disappointed by?) Not the fears of others but the desire to be original at the expense of options.
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Post by asterra on Jul 12, 2016 20:32:04 GMT -6
That's why Iga isn't using Dracula - not because he's remotely afraid Konami will bother him but because he wants to do something different. He's completely free of the Castlevania baggage and timeline. This is the ideal time for him, or anyone else on the team, to stretch their creative wings. Yes and no. Sure, in the case of Dracula, since that character is far too emblematic of Castlevania ("Akumajou Dracula"), but the likes of Death should still be in the cards. Using a character or setting that already exists in the popular conscience in a way that befits your intended framework lends the effort the stamp of legitimacy - certainly moreso than if you go out of your way to create everything from scratch. Iga certainly knows this, which is why he has set the game in a specific, preexisting country, designated the main castle as having come from "hell", and even toyed with the idea of framing the plot as being the result of a certain historical Icelandic volcano eruption. He also did not invent the pseudoscience of alchemy. Iga could introduce Death as a much more meaningful presence than simply the boss leading up to the game's finale. As an aside, while I think its likely Yamane wants to avoid recomposing say "A Lost Painting", I think fears she might avoid a particular instrument or type of instrument border on paranoia and hyperbole. Like just c'mon son! I can either voice my concerns now or hope for the best and kick myself later. And I don't think that particular example was much of a stretch. An organ's going to lend itself to basically two things: sustained chords, and the Toccata and Fugue-like thing we hear in every Castlevania game. If Yamane elects to use an organ, one or both of those will happen, and it will conjure comparisons with Castlevania whether that was the intent or not. Therefore there is the risk that we won't get any.
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Post by asterra on Jul 12, 2016 20:09:47 GMT -6
I've been meaning to mention this for a while. Or maybe just agree with what others have said, since a few already pointed it out, weeks ago. If a new round of feedback is about to be forwarded, then I can't overlook this opportunity:
Miriam's model needs physics, starting with her hair.
I actually more or less expect this to happen in the final product, but I'm still putting in my vote, just in case there was any chance that the devs would assume the positive reaction to the demo was a full endorsement of everything in it. Miriam's body / dress are hand-animated based on the given animation. It sort of works, in the same sense that it sort of works when it's 2d sprites. In any event, the hair can't remain completely static.
Edit: While I'm at it, I wanted to reiterate that I think it would be a good idea to increase the rarity scaling, which I suspect is currently designed to cap at 1/100 (such as with Amy's shard). If something's truly meant to be rare, 1/100 isn't good enough, because it could still be gotten in a few minutes of farming.
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Post by asterra on Jul 12, 2016 19:43:06 GMT -6
One of the familiars that lost pretty much was the classic Castlevania Death, so yeah they could easily put some interpretation of Death in the game. Thank you for reminding me that my familiar of choice lost. I still really hope she makes it in, somehow.
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Post by asterra on Jul 12, 2016 19:42:17 GMT -6
Death, Dracula, Alucard et al could all be used in Bloodstained as long as they didn't look too similar to a Konami iteration without precedent (for example, I think they'd be safe with any appearance for Dracula or Death, but probably not so with Alucard). Just look at Buer.
But this topic does touch upon one of my concerns with Bloodstained: the idea that the folks involved in making this game may shy away from certain creative avenues, either because of a desire to be different or because they specifically want to avoid comparisons, for critical or legal reasons. For example, Michiru Yamane may end up making an entire soundtrack that doesn't have a single Toccata-and-Fugue-esque organ melody (or maybe no organs at all), even though it would still be perfect for the gothic setting, just because that's how it was done in Castlevania.
I'd be pretty happy if I learned that Bloodstained will feature Death at some point - ideally as a sort of second-in-command. I think that would be a nice message to Konami.
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Post by asterra on Jul 12, 2016 5:05:43 GMT -6
IGA has said in a interview that his current idea is that there will be five different kinds of drops, corresponding to different parts of an enemy, the heads, arms, and so on, and that even single monsters will have multiple drops. It's the latter thing that I like to hear. Well, the simple fact that there's a wider variety of armor slots should promote better itemization than we've seen before, so I can be cautiously optimistic. For instance, Amy is nothing more than a Head, so, it is probably that it only drops one thing (Head slot) and a shard. Dullahammer has arms, legs, body, shard, but has no Head. So, he maybe drops four itens. I rather hope it's a little more arbitrary than that. After all, the best weapon (arguably) in SotN was the rare drop from a sort of grotesque version of a ghost from Pac-Man. I always thought that was wonderfully random. IGA also said that the general drop chance will be higher than most of his other games, because drop materials to forge and shards are a essential part of the gamplay and, as such, they can't be that hard to get. Here I'm hoping he specifically means the materials. I seem to recall that the solution to material rarity in Curse of Darkness was to require many specimens of common materials to ultimately produce something worthwhile. I see no good reason to make items drop just as commonly. IGA also said that they wanted shards to be usable only after "maturing then", evolving then on some sort with alchemy. But we didn't see that on the demo, so maybe they gave up on that idea (He Said that the team wasn't happy with this, because it would be frustrating to get a power and not able to use it at the same time) or maybe they are re-working it. Perhaps the more demanding gameplay ideas can be salvaged and made part of the nightmare difficulty.
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Post by asterra on Jul 12, 2016 4:05:55 GMT -6
Regarding jump landing animation-canceling attacks, the biggest difference between the demo and SotN was that in SotN, the full weapon hitbox is used from the very first frame the attack executes. In the demo, the windup animation has a very small hitbox, so anim-canceling your attack can cause your attacks to not register at all, even if the animation suggests otherwise. Either speeding up the weapon's windup or changing the weapon's hitbox would help match SotN's behavior.
Again, I think the problem here may primarily be down to the comparatively long windup of the weapons we are given in the demo, especially if compared to what we get early on in SotN. Alucard's Sword, the Short Sword and Red Rust all have a one-frame windup state on the ground, and all but Red Rust have that windup completely eliminated in the air (although there is a one-frame, no-animation delay). The windups for kick and Iron Sword are many frames - something like 6 for the sword and 5-6 for the kick. There exists the unsettling chance that every weapon in the game will also fail to have the near-instantaneous attack of the weapons in SotN due to this being a design choice. It would be unfortunate, but still preferable, in my opinion, to an enemy getting visibly hit from no physical contact from the weapon. Castlevania's whips certainly never let the player hit an enemy on the first frame of the windup. As far as the perception that SotN has a frontal hitbox on the first attack frame, well, it may seem so, but I went ahead and tested this. Red Rust is an early weapon that doesn't lose its one-frame windup in the air, and it is very definitely possible to pull out that windup by itself before landing. Any enemy in front of Alucard in such a scenario does not get hit. In short, I think that as long as weapons beyond the (pre-castle) galleon end up having, on the whole, the near-nonexistent windup of many SotN weapons, this is nothing of great concern, since weapons whose timing the player must adjust for are part of the traditional formula. It would still, definitely, be good to let the dev team know that we'd expect the Iron Sword's long windup to be more the exception than the rule, in case they were planning to use it as the standard to base future weapons on.
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Post by asterra on Jul 11, 2016 23:19:04 GMT -6
I personally hope that Iga chooses to let the game stack up, sort of like Diablo 3, Sacred 2, Dark Souls, etc. New Game+ will be harder but with correspondingly better drops ("+1" versions of what you found before) and a new level cap. And New Game++ continues the pattern, a half dozen times or so. In the very least, I want to see elements such as these explored upon in the Rogue dungeon mode. Just imagine how many hours we could sink into the Rogue dungeon mode if there's an insane level cap, or benefits to be gained by restarting at Level 1 after hitting 99 (like better level 1 stats for example) and higher difficulty tiers to tackle. Couple this with different playable characters, online co-op, and holy hell: Bloodstained could make Harmony of Despair blush. Heh. Well, a couple of thoughts here. First, it's probably obvious that Iga would not want to stay married to Bloodstained forever. Poor Yacht Club Games are stuck with their well-liked yet probably not especially profitable Shovel Knight for literally years after its release, MN9 was delayed forever for the same reason (and needs another year of work, though it probably won't get it), and Bloodstained has no shortage of goals that need to eventually be met, during which time important dev man-hours can't be spent on the next venture. Realistically, nothing even half as interesting or addictive as Harmony of Despair will come of the multiplayer, not because the devs would disagree about how awesome it would be, but for the reasons I've outlined. But, yes, the concepts you propose would be pretty great. On the other hand, although I recognize the appeal of Roguelike dungeons, I favor the legitimacy of a handcrafted experience by far, and I would definitely hope that any expansive longevity-oriented mechanics that may hypothetically be implemented would be applicable to the true game first and the Roguelike experience only if time allowed.
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