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Post by mourningxsun on Mar 13, 2019 18:00:46 GMT -6
Enkeria It would only be a real issue if we assume that Bloodless isn't playable via Boss Revenge mode. Given how hard this seemingly non-story relavent humanoid boss is being pushed/advertised, it's probably a safe bet to assume that she will be available in that mode. Assuming so, it wouldn't be the most difficult task in the world to flag her as an alternate character for the main game and just plop her in there.
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Post by mourningxsun on Mar 13, 2019 2:19:29 GMT -6
Something that's absolutely pure baseless guessing, but would familiar skins be a possibility in this game? Because having a Bloodless outfit for the fairy familiar would be pretty neat as well.
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Post by mourningxsun on Mar 6, 2019 13:42:05 GMT -6
I can't imagine a world where a cheat code is going to be in this game that would give an unfair stat/xp/weapon/shard advantage. Too much crossover between modes, and too many online features.
I'm picturing things like unlock nightmare mode from the start, intentional bad voice acting, weird enemy reskins, and just fun stuff like that.
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Post by mourningxsun on Mar 2, 2019 13:04:34 GMT -6
i completely respect people's opinions, but I'm amazed that so many people really cares about hair movement on a 2.5D game. I was sold back at 2016 Demo. If the game was still like that, that would be more than enough for me already. I guess i have low standards? Same here. There are important things, like replay value. And then there are other things.. Like hair. It has nothing to do with standards. I just think we want the game to live long, and do not care about minor details because we see beyond those. But, the reason why SotN is so immortalized *is* because of those minor details. It wouldn't be half as memorable if Alucard's sprite wasn't as detailed and smooth to play as it ended up being. Miriam is a character that is going to be plopped into the middle of your screen for a few dozen hours. She damn well better not have anything stand out as lazy or awkward, and hair movement is a big part of that.
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Post by mourningxsun on Feb 22, 2019 22:23:01 GMT -6
It's been kinda sorta not really confirmed that all the modes will support your main game save(s). So if you wanted to plop your level 153 Miriam with a big 'ol fuck you sword into roguelite or chaos """online challenge""" mode, then you can do so and gain loot and xp for that Miriam.
So while roguelite mode will in fact be it's own seperate mode you pick on the main menu, it's proooooobably not going to be how you propose, Pure.
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Post by mourningxsun on Feb 21, 2019 10:51:47 GMT -6
Everything a computer does is, in a way, "procedural generation": it follows an algorithm to arrive at the desired result. Even something as simple as calculating the damage dealt by your weapon on an enemy is thus procedural. The term, as its being used here, is shorthand for "procedural generation of graphical assets", pretty much the only things that are not done through an algorithm. When you follow an algorithm to generate levels and such, the term is usually just"random dungeon generation," as "procedurally generated random dungeons" would be something of an oxymoron, as it's redundant. Remember: graphics and sound assets are not done by following an algorithm - they're done by an artist. Procedural asset generation takes some pressure from the artist by automating menial tasks, allowing the person to be more productive. Speaking of graphic randomization. Were there any mention about it being used in the Rougelike dungeon mode? How far of a stretch would it to believe it would be the most random category of the modes? How do you guys think logically this mode would work best out of what we know so far? Rougelike mode hasn't been discussed at all since the kickstarter, but by definition it will be the most random mode. Logically I'm picturing something similar to Bloodborne's Chalice Dungeons.
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Post by mourningxsun on Feb 19, 2019 15:40:31 GMT -6
Yeah I remember you doing that, it was in #spoilers iirc, but I still just can't picture it being the reality lol The numbers don't lie! lol --- Now Mr. Welldone, regarding the roguelite dungeon mode, I really don't think they'd need to utilize main game map space for it. Also there wasn't any data for modes outside of the main story in the files, so I doubt that what you propose is the case. Unless you just think that the castle is being procedurally generated as a whole, because it's not. PG is just getting used to make the textures varied. That's all.
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Post by mourningxsun on Feb 19, 2019 13:31:46 GMT -6
mourningxsun , I really, really, *really* want your napkin math to be true. Lucky you I remembered that I actually know how to use discord and just looked up the old math. Here's the spark notes and you're welcome to critique as needed. "The map size that was dug up for ROTN was a 200x100 grid. So now I'll use the grid size vs. the rooms used for all the other igavanias to come up with some numbers. OoE and PoR will just be the castle, not the whole game. SotN: 50x60 grid. 942 rooms. 31.4% utilized HoD: 59x29 grid. 674 rooms 39.392% utilized AoS: 50x36 grid. 928 rooms. 51.55555%.... utilized DoS: 54x40 grid. 1023 rooms. 47.3611111%.... utilized PoR: 51x37 grid. 486 rooms. 25.755% utilized OoE: 50x35 grid. 498 rooms. 28.457% utilized So, these are the standards of map utilization that Iga has set, and what I'm going to base guesses on. So. If Bloodstained's map utilization is equal to his most sparse map, being PoR's castle, than Bloodstained will be 4846 rooms big. If Bloodstained's map was absolutely barren and half of that at ~12.88% utilization/2423 rooms (basically 100% unlikely imo), then that would still be bigger than SotN's combined castle A and B room total of 1890 If Bloodstained matched the densest map in AoS, the game will be 9700 rooms big If Bloodstained's utilization is the perfect average of all the games (37.32%), then we're looking at a 7022 room game That's probably a bit unrealistic to be honest so I'd go for the most sparse number and then make it even smaller. So my personal guess is probably around the upper 3000s range for room count"
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Post by mourningxsun on Feb 19, 2019 13:23:10 GMT -6
In the Discord, Angel said he's *pretty sure* it's twice the size of SotN as a whole, inverted castle in general. iirc when we asked him if the "x2" thing included the inverted castle, he said he wasn't sure about that. I think Aztec is right about the size and how this works. The actual designed area of the game will be something around 1900 rooms/squares, with the "Invert" ability kind of adding to it in a way. 3800 unique rooms to me sounds basically impossible. I wouldn't say that. The map size for the game that was dug up in the demo's files showed that the map grid was 100x200 tiles/rooms. For comparison, SotN was 50x60
Now I'm not digging up my old discord posts, nor am I particularly interested in doing all the math and counting again for the next two hours, but with that information, I counted all the rooms that were on the map grid for every igavania and came up with a percentage of the map grid that was used. I averaged them out, applied it to RotN's 100x200, etc. etc. and the estimate I came up with for the size of RotN was in fact about 4000 rooms.
Obviously it's all just napkin math and estimated guessing, but that coupled with a lot of other stuff that was found in the demo files (that will not be getting discussed by me here) makes me feel confident about my guess. I could be wrong though who knows. We'll all see in a few months anyways.
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Post by mourningxsun on Feb 18, 2019 14:17:01 GMT -6
"I think the castle size is quite obvious they’re referring as twice the size of the single SotN castle."
In the Discord, Angel said he's *pretty sure* it's twice the size of SotN as a whole, inverted castle in general.
Hollow Knight is decently sized, not huge though and not even close to the size of SotN. I'd say that it's probably about as big as just one castle. Not both. The only reason why it seems so huge is that it's generally a pain in the ass to explore quickly on your first play-through. It's a genuinely difficult game most of the way through.
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Post by mourningxsun on Feb 16, 2019 11:31:03 GMT -6
"ORCHESTRAL MUSIC BY INDUSTRY LEGENDS – With music by Michiru Yamane and Ippo Yamada, respectively, veterans of the Castlevania Franchise and Capcom brand, Bloodstained’s music is an unforgettable experience."
I haven't heard a thing about Ippo Yamada since the kickstarter first launched and we heard Cursed Orphan. And they've talked a *lot* about music and composers throughout the dev updates
Either Nintendo is pushing outdated info or he's been working under complete radio silence for the last four years.
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Post by mourningxsun on Feb 14, 2019 15:40:37 GMT -6
Ah boy. A few things that I want to point out that nobody has mentioned here yet it seems. Ignore the crappy screengrabs I'm on a time crunch. So first off, looks like we will be getting double jump from this dude with the name I can't be bothered to look up the spelling of. Starts with an A, you guys know. What's the tell? The nearly identical rainbow effects on the back of both Miriam and A.
Next thing up: Looks like "loot bags" instead of unique looking droops are here to stay unless it's getting changed at the eleventh hour. This one is neat, and you can see other instances of it in the trailer(s), but it looks like every platform that you can "drop down" through is a grate or a set of bars or something. Basically a floor that Miriam can drop through with plausibility instead of clipping through something solid every time. Good attention to detail. And finally, it looks like that Japanese trailer is using a later/better build compared to the US on? Which is weird? This is best seen when you look at side by sides of the dragon fight. The US one is a hot fuckin' mess with missing textures(??) and all sorts of nonsense. The Japanese one looks way more polished. Not sure where the disconnect here was. US JAP
Everything else I feel has been said, so there ya go.
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Post by mourningxsun on Sept 29, 2018 2:40:59 GMT -6
Your favorite Indie Metroidvanias,
I'm honestly too tired to really answer all these questions, but I'll take a second to shill out for Valdis Story for Question 1.
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Post by mourningxsun on Jul 5, 2018 11:52:58 GMT -6
My major issue with her is being able to attack her when she is in the background. It just doesn't look good with 3D models, although they could have gotten away with it if this game was 2D.
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Post by mourningxsun on Jul 2, 2018 8:58:02 GMT -6
It would be far more "look at me!", I'd say, if the portraits were in something like the library or an art themed stage that we would have to make multiple backtrack trips through. There is nothing more iconic and "look at me" than the front entrance of the castle. A fitting environment for them is far more subtle regardless if you agree or not.
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Post by mourningxsun on Jul 1, 2018 23:46:11 GMT -6
Really my issue is that they're hanging out riiiiight there in the castle entrance. It makes me feel like those hallways are so long and utterly boring just for the sake of having enough room to put the paintings in.
Couldn't there just be like... an art gallery-ish room they can go in?
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Post by mourningxsun on Jul 1, 2018 23:31:37 GMT -6
Angel has stated in the discord when I brought this up awhile ago (I'm not digging up a two week old quote though sorry so you'll either have to take my word or hope angel chimes in here) that save rooms will look a bit different depending on the location of it. "No moons in the background underground" is what he said.
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Post by mourningxsun on Jul 1, 2018 20:57:51 GMT -6
My small two cents:
We were told years ago that the graphics would get better and not to worry. Now they are worse. That is all.
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Post by mourningxsun on Jun 28, 2018 13:37:05 GMT -6
"but for the most part there's no real reason to remove it imo."
My reasoning is that it's ugly as sin but that's just my hot take.
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Post by mourningxsun on Jun 28, 2018 11:59:32 GMT -6
Was going to originally post this in the Steam forum but since that's not up yet I'll start here! I wrote down a whole bunch of random notes and impressions while playing and will list them here divided into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I've kicked back a few double IPAs as I called the day off so I'm extra nit picky right now.
The Good (Things I enjoyed and thought were great about the demo)
-The game just straight up feels comfy. It feels like home. The physics are right, the atmosphere is right, the music is right, it all feels right. Good job all around for making a real spiritual successor to the Castlevania franchise.
-The swaying broken beams on the ship were a good detail even if it took me a second and a few missed jumps to notice it.
-I liked seeing Zangetsu rowing on his little piece of driftwood in the background in the first "on deck" area of the ship. It was a cute little detail and that's stuff I would like to see in this game. On that note you see him every time you go to that area so maybe have him trigger only once?
-Screenshots don't really do the game justice. It looks nice. Needs lighting work though which I know is planned.
-I got really excited when I saw that critical hits were back.
-I love how there is a movement speed up item so early in the game. I also love how it gives stats. Unlike previous games it seems like we will not be forced to pick between stats and movement speed here in Bloodstained. This is a welcome change.
-The game feels very "dense" in a good way. There's a lot of depth even in the tiny slice of game that we just played. It's like somebody mashed Curse of Darkness, Dawn of Sorrow, and Symphony of the Night together and we ended up with a product containing the features of each. It's wonderful and I am very excited in the direction this game is headed. I am filled with nothing but hope and hype after finishing the demo.
-I kept trying the "soul steal" input hoping for something cool and eventually struck gold with the third tier katana. I'm really happy about that.
-The fact that the map scales out so far and moves around makes me overwhelmingly excited for the size of this game.
-Music is 10/10 EXCEPT for Vepar's fight which still feels like a B-track off of OoE.
-I fully appreciate how equipping a shoe weapon makes your slide dash do a lot more damage. Excellent attention to mechanical detail.
-I love how there is both a "grade" and "level" to the shards giving you multiple ways to increase their power. This is a fun mechanic to me and vastly increases the variety of spells we will end up with.
The Bad (Things that I thought were strange or not so good. Mostly my opinion)
-The demo was extremely easy. I died zero times and didn't have trouble with the bosses at all. This concerns me as it was stated that the difficulty would be "ramped up" for this demo. This highlights the need for Nightmare mode being available at the start, or at least a middle difficulty of "hard mode." As it stands, the game is currently far too easy for myself and likely most other diehard fans of Iga's previous games. Also it's important to note: the key to fun difficulty in RPGs is extremely high enemy HP, not extremely high enemy damage. Glass cannon vs. glass cannon is no good. Unless you're playing Devil May Cry. (Not that I need to tell you all how to design your own game, just my opinion.)
-There's no village music? It just feels awkward considering that the ambient noises are VERY minimal as well. Throw in some howling winds, birds, and the occasional wolf howl.
-The gameplay timer keeps ticking on during the pause menu. Not a fan of that.
-I beat the demo at level 11 without even trying to go out of my way to grind. Seems a biiiiiit high unless the cap is above 99. I'm sure the game will go through a whole balancing wash before release but still.
-The font used for the dialogue subtitles is just straight up Times New Roman. Can we get something a bit more thematic?
-So we can't aim the guns at all? Seems like it would be a great use of the R-thumbstick. -I really don't like how there's a "completion rate" for absolutely everything in the archive section of the menu. I don't like knowing how much content I have left. I like being surprised. -Is that little tiny area really where all the surviving villagers are going to hang out? I'm *hoping* that we will be able to clear out the village proper and they can repopulate the area. I *assume* that is probably going to happen. I'm pointing it out regardless. -I killed a Bone Morte on a chandelier and the item he dropped fell through the holes in said chandelier. Good attention to physics but annoying in practice. -Lindsay looks almost exactly like my bitchy ex-FWB who was also named Lindsay. This is getting filed under "bad" because I had to annoyingly look back on that in the middle of my demo experience. -Speaking of which. The village itself just seems really tiny and very very close to the castle proper. Maybe there's a forest planned that will be stuck in between the two areas. Idk it just felt a bit unnatural to me. The village either needs to be bigger or further away to feel right to me personally. -Let me get this straight. Bats have shards. Toads have shards. Mortes do not have shards because they "aren't fully formed demons" . I don't buy it. They seem to be the only enemy in the demo without a shard and I'm willing to bet that very very few enemies in the final build will not have shards. Just give every enemy a shard at this point because the in game excuse already falls apart with the bat and toad shards. #JusticeForMorte -Anne's model just looks dumb. Her arms are too long, her hands are too big, her eyes are asymmetrical, it's just all wrong. Also I don't really like her voice actress but that's entirely personal preference. -When you complete a quest and receive items, you should get a little pop up in the bottom left corner for the items you just received as you would with items you randomly pick up. -Steak is overpowered as shit. Why is this food in the beginning of the game giving me +10 STR? It's ridiculous. Unless we will be seeing exponentially more powerful enemies, player power growth needs to get curbed hard. -There is zero indication on screen that you have completed a quest. You need to go into the menu to see if a quest is done. This should be changed to be similar to PoR and OoE when you completed quests in those games. -It takes awhile for the game to transition between dialogue screens and gameplay. Well over a second. It's nothing major but it's a noticeable and annoying delay. -Miriam doesn't seem to move very much in the menus. She's almost unnaturally still save for the blinking which makes it look like she's in some kind of body horror scenario where she's unable to move.
The Ugly (Bugs and other arguably objectively bad things)
- *This is the worst thing for me personally* Miriam's "shadow/outline" whenever there's an object in the foreground or she clips into any solid object. It looks bad, it's unneeded, and it triggers so often that it shows up on her basic run cycle. Please please please get rid of it.
-So that nameless guy at the veeeeery start getting grabbed by the first Morte you see looks absolutely terrible. He has a full on sprint animation but he's moving at a walking pace. It looks horribly awkward. He's on screen for a whole one second and it's that noticeable.
-Might be a bug, might be intended. I noticed that when you equip a "shoe" weapon and then equip a regular weapon afterwards, the appearance of the shoe weapon stays. On that note it might be cool if we could just trigger appearances of different boots and shoes without equipping them? Fashion and all that.
-Miriam's pained "shard scream" lasts beyond the point where it's impaling her. So we can here her scream when she's in the neutral "I just got a shard now read its description!" pose. Seems weird to me. Realistically there should be more than one scream sound effect as well.
-Miriam's mouth animation.
-Returning to the ship after you've already landed gives you the background of it being at sea again. I'm 98% sure this is going to change with the final build but I'm still saying it anyways.
-Johannes's dialogue didn't trigger in the crafting room when I spoke to him. It basically soft froze the game until I hit start to "skip" the nonexistent dialogue. This issue remained for his "goodbye" dialogue as well. I was finally able to talk to him after I progressed further in the game and returned back to him.
-Miriam seems to freeze upon taking damage in air riiiiight before she touches the ground. She is only unfrozen by taking damage again.
-I can only seem to eat one food? As in, I had a cooked pork, ate it, and couldn't eat another pork even when I exited the menu and re-entered it after thirty seconds or so. Does Miriam need to digest or something? Admittedly I didn't mess around too much trying to figure this out but it seems like either a bug or a really awkwardly unfun mechanic.
-Being able to hit Vepar while she is in the background does not look good at all from a perspective standpoint. It worked for Balore in Aria of Sorrow because the game was 2D. It does not work in 3D. Just have her plop a tentacle down on deck when she moves to the background and let us hit that instead.
-When Vepar is in the background and she does her water spit attack, if you pause during this time the noise of the attack continues as long as you are paused. In game SFX needs to be muted when the game is paused. -Dominique doesn't exist and my girlfriend doesn't own her outfit. -Whenever you accept or turn in a quest, you are exited out of dialogue with Lindsay. Coupled with the transition delay mentioned above in the "bad" section, this makes questing a tedious and mechanically unfun experience. -Miriam says "great!" when she cooks food and the audio for that "great!" is loud as hell compared to the rest of the game. -------- Overall I'm left with a phenomenal impression despite my incessant complaining about the littlest of things.
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