I'm actually surprised and happy on how colorful those screenshots are, must be WayForward's direction. We have been pointing out how bland the game was before, and after a lot of feedback in that Graphics Downgrade thread, we can finally see some results. It's far from perfect, it seems they still have problems with materials, but at least the game looks a lot better now.
Although I agree the sound need some adjustments, there is nothing wrong with using stereo-only. Including 7.1 audio will just complicate things for the team. Listen to this (headphones required):
I'm not suggesting the usage of binaural audio for everything, that's just plain impossible. The point is, stereo audio is not the limiting factor, it never was and it will never be. What Bloodstained needs is better sound design and attention to details, the latter which other aspects of the game are in need as well.
Tokyo Xanadu eX+, fine game but that's it, better than Persona at least. I'm currently in a madness of Falcom RPGs, going to play a lot of Ys, Xanadu Next and hopefully Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki if the fan translation are done when the time comes.
I agree with ya Nezuto. As much as I would like the graphics to be polished in this game, particularly the character models, I'd have to say that's probably the lowest priority for me.
The thing about graphics is while indeed they should have lower priority, the game still has to look pleasant to the eyes. Accomplishing this doesn't require the latest graphical technology and techniques, just good art direction. I, just as you, grew up playing what we call now "old games", though in my case it was Super Nintendo, not the 8bit console. And I can say with confidence that if I boot up Castlevania Dracula X (yes, the bad Rondo of Blood port) or Super Mario World right now, the first thought that will cross my mind when the game starts will be "Well, for a 5th generation game, this doesn't look bad at all, in fact it's good!" and why's that? Because those games have good art direction, something that unfortunately the demo lacks heavily.
The problem with 3D graphics is that when it is badly done, it can look extremely generic and unpleasant to look at. Changing that involves clever usage of lightning, textures, colors and materials. Lightning, for example, is something the backers have been pointing out since early 2017, when the development updates with areas made by the new team were being rolled out. Lack of environment detail, bad usage of colors (or the lack of), all of them are things that we all have been complaining since the very early stages of development, yet we got a demo that looks worse despite our feedback. That's why we are worried. Yes I agree that gameplay is top priority, there is no good game out there that has bad gameplay and good graphics, the opposite being true however. But even still, when we already know that gameplay-wise and music-wise Bloodstained is in good hands, the next thing we should focus our attention is the art direction, because right now the game looks generic with extreme lack of polishment, save for the character models.
So when I mentioned that there was nothing to worry about, my opinion gets pretty much pushed to the curb, but others state the exact same thing, and it's suddenly okay lol
Ryzen 7 1700 at 3.8 Ghz, 16GB of RAM at 3000 MHz, AMD RX 480 at 1306 MHz, I can play flawlessly at 4K 60fps and even more because I use framerate cap and the GPU usage wasn't hitting 100% in any moment.
not really cheap, just this is a beta demo, not everything is in, not everything is enabled, i would actually encourage everybody to post their pc specs in a thread and what kind of framerate theyre getting so they can get a snapshot of where they need to be in terms of graphics options
Ryzen 7 1700 at 3.8 Ghz, 16GB of RAM at 3000 MHz, AMD RX 480 at 1306 MHz, I can play flawlessly at 4K 60fps and even more because I use framerate cap and the GPU usage wasn't hitting 100% in any moment. This GPU isn't high-end, the beta probably is not optimized, yet the game is playable at 4k60fps. I don't think they have any reason to downgrade anything in the game.
Yeah that's the best pic to use if you want to point out a downgrade.
I tried to do a comparison using shapes so people can focus in on important areas for points.
*img* *img*
Circle
In the circle you can notice the background details had a foggy hue to them originally. It gave the backgrounds more depth and beauty. Triangle You can see loads more detail in objects. From the blood details on the bottom of the columns to even little things like the stairs just looking nicer.
Rectangle Lighting effects. The lighting effects were far far far more prominent originally. It gave the environments loads more life but without those lighting effects it feels very lifeless.
I hope this helps.
Angel-Corlux This is probably the clearest cut comparison. That's not to say visuals haven't improved though because the boat probably is the clearest example of how much it's gotten better with details and lighting. For whatever reason though the castle entrance went downhill. Most people on forums when they saw that first pic thought the game was great looking visually and the move away from that style hurt it I think. I don't know if it's just too much work to get it at that level and deliver the game on time but I have a feeling if the game looked like that all around people wouldn't complain AT ALL about the visuals.
Also, here is a better quality picture of the castle entrance, although I was expecting more of a difference from the compressed youtube video screenshot.
Edit: And whatever happened with that procedural generation gimmick shown on this development update? Since that video we haven't heard a word about it, and there is no sign of it on the backer demo.
I agree to an extent, I feel like I preferred the previous look. Most of all, that old screenshot was just great, with a lot of colors and everything really popped out.
I will even say that the very first development prototype (the one IGA played on PC on one of the first videos) looked more on point with the colors. They were... more vibrant, I guess.
About that old prototype, I don't really understand why they chose to change directions about the color treatment. In the old screenshots (even the very first background) everything was more vibrant and colorful. Now we have one dominant color plus others washed-out, with no contrast whatsoever. I wonder why they changed the art direction.
Yep, I can also prove that it only look different due to the lightning settings they're using now. The room used to be dark and now it has lightning everywhere, resulting some areas to look very different.
The ground is different too, now it's just plain gray rocks. Also, the candles are utterly pointless on the new demo, there's nothing being lit by them now lol.
I haven't been able to download the demo. But I feel like these crappy youtube screenshots get the point across.
The new look is hideous. Clearly something happened between last years e3 and now.
Well going back further man, it used to look like this:
*img*
Granted the design of the room itself has changed now, the colors were amazing. And Miriam herself looked better in these old shots than she currently does. The thing is, I don't know if this still image is her "model" or what they ended up using.
*img*
Compared to
*img*
and
They are not quite the same.
Man, I really miss the old backgrounds, they were so colorful and vivid. The new entrance has a problem of using way TOO much of the same color (that greyish tone), which in turn makes everything bland and lifeless.
Hey Estebant, happy to take a look and chime in but it would be a great help if we could get those screenshots in not a 4k uncompressed link, I don't seem to be able to open even a single image on its own.
Well shit, I uploaded on Postimage, here is the link for the gallery: postimg.cc/gallery/20q6xi80e/ . There's a button to download the original image, so use that.
Imgur is not that good because it applies a rather bad compression algorithm, so I tend to use alternatives.
Ciel How you got the SS in 4k? As far as I tried, the demo only runs at 2560x1440 at best.
I used Virtual Super Resolution of my RX 480. If you have an AMD card pre-Polaris, I think you're limited to 1440p, at least I was with my old HD 7950. Don't know how it is for nvidia cards though, maybe they have some kind of limit too.
Desde 2015 que não entro aqui. Ansioso para o lançamento da demo e uma data de lançamento oficial.
Entro aqui com alguma frequência, mas ultimamente apenas para observar a situação do fórum mesmo, eu era bem mais ativo no início. Enfim, todos na expectativa da data de lançamento.
Maneiro ver que tem um espacinho aqui pra gente, não tinha visto isso ainda, e ai pessoal c:
Sim! Como falei no início, foi para ver se tínhamos mais backers lusófonos por aqui no fórum, feliz que apareceu uma quantidade considerável. E bem vindo claro.
Some already mentioned it, but I have some complaints: - Screen tearing, A LOT, so much it was jarring watching the gameplay. Maybe they forgot to activate V-Sync, or some other adaptive sync solution? Certainly it should not be an issue when playing the game on PC because one could use Enhanced Sync (for AMD owners) or Fast Sync (for NVIDIA owners) on driver settings, but on console that is unacceptable. - Lip sync is bad, specially for Miriam. Also, her mouth animations are kind of comical for how bad they are, lol. If they don't have time to improve them, I think they should just drop it altogether. No animations are better than bad ones.
Complaints aside, gameplay-wise it seems solid, just as I was expecting. I noticed some graphical improvements, with more detailed textures on the boat and background filled with details. Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic about the game, it's not perfect but what is?
I've tried my EU Ps4 code and it says that it doesn't work in my region. I live in Sweden (Scandinavia) and according to this link (scroll down a bit) it says that the game isn't being released in the following regions: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Not in Austria, Middle East, Belugium, Luxembourg, Scandinavia, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine)
Finished stage 2, game is just what I was expecting, pretty good so far. They really got right the feel of the old games, although I found it somewhat easy, though I'm just at the beginning. Also, here's some footage I recorded of the first stage, case there's someone wondering:
Wew, unexpected. From what I can see it seems fun enough, the soundtrack and gameplay are apparently spot-on. I wonder how big the game is, at least we don't have to wait that much to see for ourselves.
By the way, the artwork is way too diferent from what we have seen until now. Did they change it specifically for this game or what?
Redogan: Some people are gonna get to eat a meal and play some games with IGA! Awesome!
Mar 23, 2023 11:27:24 GMT -6
LeoLeWolferoux: Sooo... I guess some dude on Twitter stumbled across a financial document from 505 games indicating that a '2nd version' of Bloodstained was in the works??? back sometime in like 2021???
Apr 15, 2023 21:00:49 GMT -6
LeoLeWolferoux: How am I just now finding out about this/ C'mon, IGN. Get it together.
Apr 15, 2023 21:01:12 GMT -6
LeoLeWolferoux: Dunno how this Twitter user came across these documents, tho, assuming since they don't know any further details, it wasn't someone *from* 505 Games. I certainly hope it was obtained via legal means...
Apr 15, 2023 21:02:13 GMT -6
XombieMike: Shortly after 505 let that document go public the official Bloodstained twitter confirmed there will be a second game. ArtPlay is finishing Bloodstained DLC and then we will learn more about the next game.
Apr 17, 2023 5:50:56 GMT -6
Motoko: I have returned
Aug 15, 2023 23:15:43 GMT -6
Redogan: Any ideas on when we get the rest of the updates? I'm still waiting on my physical copy with everything on it for my CV collection.
Aug 23, 2023 12:48:28 GMT -6
Redogan: Nice to see a project update! I like the new Classic 2.0 mode with Dominique. Looks like it plays like a traditional CV game--which is a good thing. Glad to see some gameplay video of Chaos and VS modes, too!
Sept 6, 2023 18:16:32 GMT -6
ShroudedTraveler: Did they say when they were releasing the update with Dominique? I don't recall seeing anything in the video, so I'm assuming not
Sept 7, 2023 16:40:01 GMT -6
Redogan: I didn't see anything about the release date. I just know that it is paid DLC. (So, us backers don't get it for free. Which is fine.)
Sept 8, 2023 16:54:52 GMT -6
ShroudedTraveler: Yeah. At this point, with the game being as old as it is, I'd be fine paying for the content.
Sept 12, 2023 19:00:02 GMT -6
XombieMike: Classic mode 2 will be canon!
Sept 15, 2023 19:55:00 GMT -6
Ciel: Been a long time since I last logged here, but it seems that until we get any news of a sequel, there won't be much to discuss. Oh well!
Sept 25, 2023 14:32:30 GMT -6
purifyweirdshard: The discord is certainly where the activity is, but we'll keep this forum up and running as long as we can. Bloodstained's subreddit also still moves along pretty well
Oct 3, 2023 15:31:05 GMT -6