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Post by crocodile on Jun 9, 2016 13:52:35 GMT -6
With all due respect Pure Miriam all your ideas expressed here are somewhat ill-advised (and a little selfish?). If you really want to be spoiler-free, which is a perfectly fine stance to take, the onus is on you to avoid the kickstarter updates and not partake in internet conversations about them game not for the developers to communicate worse with the backers. Crowdfunding only works if there is a sense of trust/community built and maintained between the project manager(s) and the backers. We've already given them out money. The only way to hold them accountable is to make sure we know the progress of development and to do that you have to show off some locales, areas, weapons, characters, enemies, moves & spells, etc. This requires a lot of transparency - much more than for standard game development. Furthermore, this interaction allows for the opportunity for feedback which can make for a stronger end product. Silence is pretty much the fastest way to lose backer confidence and engender bad sentiments that can severely harm the commercial success of the project as well as your reputation. I'd also argue that a game that is no longer worth playing after its been spoiled wasn't worth your time anyway and for all the Kickstarter projects I've followed, they'll been pretty good about avoiding real spoilers in their updates. There is nothing to "tone down" and I don't think "spoiler culture" is something that should be given into.
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Post by crocodile on Jun 8, 2016 14:50:06 GMT -6
Character swapping is something you can do with success - Portrait of Ruin and Julius Mode of Dawn of Sorrow did it with great success. However its something you have to set up narratively and it requires you to heavily distinguish your characters. Nothing about what we know about the narrative of this game has been set up suggests the normal mode of this game will have character swapping. Given the strong appeals to SOTN that this game and campaign gives/gave I don't expect that to be the direction IGA will take this game. I'd be super down for it for like a Bloodstained 2 though.
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Post by crocodile on Jun 8, 2016 3:10:20 GMT -6
Seems like a whole lot of extra effort and animation for no gameplay gains and next to little aesthetic gains?
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Post by crocodile on Jun 7, 2016 22:37:10 GMT -6
I was trying to think of what prior Castlevania/Yamane song the piece in this video reminded me of. The answer I think is this: It's not 1 to 1 but still feels pretty close. Makes sense I guess since these are both "starting section" songs
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Post by crocodile on Jun 7, 2016 16:34:55 GMT -6
I'll be honest, I'm actually surprised they were able to keep their promise of having something playable for this E3 that they made last E3. I had a feeling they were going to slip but they proved me wrong Anyway, so the way this is described it seems Miriam boards the Galleon Minerva to make her way towards the castle but it turns out to be a beat up, run-down ghost ship? Interesting. I wonder if there is going to be like a Kraken (or some other big sea monster) boss at the end of the stage and if the ship will be something you can revisit after you complete it (like the stages in Order of Ecclesia). I guess this does answer the question if we can expect to see some levels outside the castle The area in this update is the same as the grid map in development update 3, so we get to see a map of the area if you just look back an update. Yeah parts of this looked pretty familiar and now I know why <3
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Post by crocodile on Jun 7, 2016 14:27:14 GMT -6
May June Update is Live!Highlights
- A PLAYABLE DEMO will be shown off at E3! It takes place on the Galleon Minerva as it moves towards the castle. This demo will also be available to backers who pledged $60+ and filled out the backer survey by June 13.
- Demo is NOT the Beta and will be Windows only and distributed via Steam.
- Answers to any further questions about the demo and how to receive it can be found here.
- IGA, Ben Judd, romscout and MAN will run a stream (link to stream) on June 15 at 3:30 PM PDT (likely to show off the demo)
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Post by crocodile on Jun 4, 2016 16:10:57 GMT -6
Minor clipping tends to happen even in the best of games. Can't tell you all how many times I've laughed at my weapons clipping straight through my capes/coats in Bloodborne. That Kirkhammer apparently can pass through solid objects! Apparently Miriam's clothing has the same magical qualities to pass through her legs. I dunno if the clipping is something that can be fixed but it would be nice if it was something could be fixed. I'd agree that its a low priority affair. I think Street Fighter V is the only recent game where I felt clipping was REALLY jarring. Just be better than that and we should be good
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Post by crocodile on May 30, 2016 19:22:50 GMT -6
Was this the Bloodstained Community Broadcast or the Mighty No 9 Community Broadcast? A good episode all around. It's nice to have this back and I of course appreciated the shoutout. If next episode we can get Mana back to talk about the updates and development of Bloodstained from the "other side" that would be super hype. Since the MN9 discussion took up the bulk of the episode, I kind of wanted to touch upon some points brought up: - Communication and how one chooses to advertise your product is super important. A lot of the bad blood and loss of goodwill over the past few years have been from issues of communication. In my time following multiple Kickstarter projects, I've concluded that backers overall don't really understand how game are made, how long they take, how expensive they are, etc. They can turn on you quickly and can be slow to forgive. As many real mistakes that have been made with MN9, lots of people are mad at Comcept/Inticreates for what are essentially "non-issues" in my mind. As such, it’s important to be careful of what you say, how you say it and when you say it. Long periods of silence are also a bad look too. I think it’s clear to me so far that the mistakes made with MN9 have been very informative to both Inticreates and onlookers in general and I think both the PR and the development Bloodstained have been and will be better due to lessons learned from MN9.
- While it’s true that Inafune got his start in character design and illustration, I think it’s a bit disingenuous to say his role in the development of the Mega Man series and IP wasn't influential and consequential. As time went on, his role and importance grew and he was a producer on many titles in the series. While it’s true that not all producers work the same and have the same role (and thus their games are going to end up different), I don't think its unfair to say he is as influential (or at least nearly so) to the Mega Man series as Iga is to the Castlevania series. If you want to quickly know more about Inafune, look up his Wikipedia entry.
- 3DS + PSVita versions of MN9 are being made on a different engine from Unreal 3 (and heck they aren't even coming out with the rest of the versions) so it’s unclear to me how much their existence may have affected other versions of the game. It’s not at all uncommon for a game to have "normal" console versions and then "pared down" handheld versions - they don't have to have complete parity. Unless they promised otherwise, and I have no recollection that they did, that option was always available to them to not have the console and hand-held version have parity. I'm not sure if we will ever get straight answer on this though. Did they decide to enforce parity between all versions? If so why? There are pros and cons to each approach of course - again I'm not 100% sure which option they went for and why since none of us have even seen the potable versions.
- Given the trademark that was taken out, there really isn't any ambiguity in my mind that Deep Silver is publishing Bloodstained. One could play semantics but it’s as good as confirmed and I'm not sure "holding out hope it isn't them (if anyone is doing that - I'm not saying you guys are) isn't helpful.
- The conundrums a spiritual successor often finds itself in are interesting. You want to be reasonably close to the "source" since that's what people expect from you but you still want and need to find ways to differentiate yourself - your IP can never grow and find its own identity and you can never surprise players in a good way if it’s just a clone of another series. The dash mechanic in MN9 (especially the ability to dash through enemies) is perhaps the way its gameplay differs the most with regard to Mega Man games. I think when people get more used to it they will be more positive about it but it makes sense that it would dominate that new trailer and I can understand why people might be a bit apprehensive. I, and others, backed MN9 because we wanted more Mega Man like games but I at least wasn't expecting or necessarily wanted an exact Mega Man clone. There are ways in which I think, at least from looking at things, I might have preferred the movement mechanics of the X and Zero series (limited air dashes but better wall movement) but I'm not going to write the game off as slow just yet.
- In regards to the general sense of "what does MN9 mean for kickstaters", I think it might have been good to mention past successes such as Shovel Knight or Pillars of Eternity. Shovel Knight is interesting because it has clear Mega Man inspirations. Some have even argued the overwhelming success of Shovel Knight might have taken took the winds out of MN9 be beating it to the punch and nailing the aesthetics and gameplay so well. I'm not sure if that's 100% accurate but it’s an interesting thought.
- You don't have to "think" about it - we know Judd approached Iga following the success of MN9 and Iga felt ok leaving Konami in part because of the success of the MN9 campaign. I feel I recall saying you weren't sure but I feel very confident on this point. Unfortunately I don't have the time right now to drudge through the articles/podcasts that would have this confirmation.
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Post by crocodile on May 26, 2016 21:17:53 GMT -6
I guess this update confirmed they're not limiting themselves to the Ars Goetia? Does that mean we may get a larger lineup than we thought? We always knew it wasn't going to be limited just to that - rather it would pull a lot of enemies from there. We'll see what the ratio of enemies from there and not from there looks like in the final game.
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Post by crocodile on May 26, 2016 15:49:32 GMT -6
Well please explain, I'm having a hard time seeing the difficulty of this. You bought everything and everything will come but instead of waiting an absurd amount of time for modes that were never originally intended to even be in the game you get what was intended and then you can download the rest as it becomes finished. I get people who like to collect things wants a full package which is why I can SORTA understand why holding back the physical copy might be okay, even though I think that's unneeded. We live in an age where games get DLC and a lot of the content the game got added on sounds like the kind of content you'd get AS DLC. We don't know yet what content will be treated as additional, and some of the stretch goals are important for backers to have on day 1 on their physical copy. It is easier to say it's more complicated than it is to list out every reason for every feature based on one individuals feelings and personal reasons. Backers were not expecting a DLC type roll out of the game when they backed the project. This isn't a simple and clean cut discussion or decision, and that's why people are writing articles and talking about it. I agree that we can't simply explain this topic away with logic and make everyone happy. People are going to feel how they feel about this stuff. Feelings are neutral, neither right or wrong, and logic will not always apply. Until we know what content will not be available upon initial physical release, let's be patient and open minded toward the concerns of those who made this project possible. I'm just going to interject to add A) Given the release patterns of other games, including other kickstarter projects, I was not ready to assume that the entire game would be release at once or would all be on the disc. In fact the release pattern was a question I always had in the back of my mind but I knew they would answer on their own terms. Given that we know they spent a lot of time during the actual campaign brainstorming extra stretch goals, I don't think it was fair to assume they knew what exactly they would launch with given what they pulled in. I bet they still don't know everything they will launch with yet but they have a better idea now certainly and realize they can't deliver all the promised content in a reasonable time frame B) I think everybody should always be treated with respect but I don't think their opinions have to be respected if they are devoid of logic. That isn't a license to be mean to people at all but if people are saying things that don't make sense or are entirely emotionally driven, I think its fair to call them out on it. I can appreciate the concerns or frustrations of others but that doesn't necessarily mean they are reasonable or the demands made in the name of those frustrations and concerns are reasonable. At the end of the day its up to the dev team to decide that though. I'm just offering my opinion.
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Post by crocodile on May 24, 2016 14:04:02 GMT -6
As a general rule, I much prefer soft locks (you can reach areas but its MUCH harder to get there and MUCH harder to move through them without the appropriate power up/levels) over hard locks (you can't reach this area AT ALL without the "Stone of Aja" or movement ability X). An example is in Circle of the Moon (I know its not a game Iga technically worked on) where you could reach and play through the Underground Waterway without the Cleansing item but it was super tough and you were usually under-leveled if you went there before aiming for the Cleansing item. That allows ways for players to challenge themselves who want some extra challenge and allows some interesting sequence breaking as well. I'm curious as to where Iga stands as a designer nowadays on Soft vs Hard locks. I'm curious as to what people on this site feel about them in general. Mana , how have Iga and the castle design team been approaching this subject for the design of Bloodstained? Is is that a question you can't answer now? It's a little early to talk about it in detail, but there are certain moves/items required to enter certain areas. Whether these features are absolutely required, I'm not sure. We could assume it would be similar to past Igavania games. Different Igavanias are kind of on different places on this spectrum (hard vs soft) so I was just kind of curious in which direction Iga has moved as a designer, especially in the past 8 years, and how that may influence the design of Bloodstained. Perhaps its too early to be asking this question? Well hopefully a good balance is struck. I think the virtues of both types have already been discussed in here so I guess we'll see where the chips fall. I generally prefer hard locks as igavanias are typically known for the " power up " that allows access to a new area type scenarios. However, I don't see why it has to be so cut and dry? Why not a mixture? I'm all about variety. A) Your argument for hard locks seems to come down solely to tradition (unless I've misunderstood you?). I don't think that's a particularly compelling argument, especially given that there are legit reasons why you might want to have some some number of hard locks as Pure Miriam pointed out. B) It's not usually cut and dry but the balance has to be something you think about and consider early in development. You usually want strong narrative moments to be controlled by hard locks but if you have too many, it can make the world feel especially artificial, stymie exploration and significantly reduce replayability. Compare and contrast the design of Super Metroid vs Metroid Fusion. Hard locks are generally just less fun. Perhaps my memory is off but I'd consider SOTN one of the softer-locked games Iga has worked on so I'm a bit surprised you have preference for hard locks.
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Post by crocodile on May 22, 2016 15:15:19 GMT -6
As a general rule, I much prefer soft locks (you can reach areas but its MUCH harder to get there and MUCH harder to move through them without the appropriate power up/levels) over hard locks (you can't reach this area AT ALL without the "Stone of Aja" or movement ability X). An example is in Circle of the Moon (I know its not a game Iga technically worked on) where you could reach and play through the Underground Waterway without the Cleansing item but it was super tough and you were usually under-leveled if you went there before aiming for the Cleansing item. That allows ways for players to challenge themselves who want some extra challenge and allows some interesting sequence breaking as well. I'm curious as to where Iga stands as a designer nowadays on Soft vs Hard locks. I'm curious as to what people on this site feel about them in general. Mana , how have Iga and the castle design team been approaching this subject for the design of Bloodstained? Is is that a question you can't answer now?
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Post by crocodile on May 22, 2016 15:04:14 GMT -6
localriot if you understand what went down with the release of Shovel Knight, then you post about "I hope they release like Shovel Knight which held back the physical version until the expansion was complete." makes no sense. Nothing is comparable about the situation to Bloodstained. Yacht Club games didn't have the resources to launch a physical release or on many platforms, Inticreates does. From launch till the release of the physical edition, YCG worked on the ports and the Plague Knight campaign. The timing worked out that they would be done with the Plague Knight expansion a short time after the initial physical release (a month perhaps? The time scale isn't clear) so they thought it would be more convenient for a slight delay. None of that applies to Bloodstained. The biggest problem a FEW people have this a staggered content release is that the physical media won't hold all the data ever made for the game but the same will be true of Shovel Knight. So why even make that post? I'm not hating, I'm just confused man *scratches head*
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Post by crocodile on May 20, 2016 17:08:11 GMT -6
I hope they release like Shovel Knight which held back the physical version until the expansion was complete. The physical release came later because Yacht Club Games didn't have a publisher on board to help them with a physical release at the start. The same isn't true for Bloodstained. Furthermore, there is still more content (new playable characters and campaigns, genderswap mode, etc.) being made for Shovel Knight. So the physical version will become "incomplete" soon. I'm guessing you didn't follow or look up any info about Shovel Knight?
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Post by crocodile on May 17, 2016 23:10:16 GMT -6
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Post by crocodile on May 16, 2016 18:05:25 GMT -6
Source (this same person has done some of my favorite Bloodstained fanart in the past. They've also done a lot of Castlevania fanart too) Source (Another entry in that same costume series)
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Post by crocodile on May 16, 2016 1:50:37 GMT -6
Hi Everyone, I apologize for being away for a while. There was a long holiday break in Japan. As much as we would like to share which contents are in the initial version and which are released later, this will depend on Inti Creates and our publisher. We understand that there are concerns over the physical copies and how they are handled, but we would also like to address that the initial release will not be an unfinished game. Some people may not agree with staggered content release but this is a good process for smooth shipment and a good business model for today's gaming scene. Remember, we broke through those stretch goals off the roof and this is becoming an enormous game compared to our initial plan. I've asked the team if they have anything they wanted to mention regarding the additional contents but they said that they are still deciding on which features to prioritize. I will keep everyone updated when they are ready to share it. Mana , I've been giving this topic a lot of thought. I love digital distribution and I'm OK with a staggered release, but this news could really upset purists who expect the full game on physical media. It makes perfect sense for the mass market, but I think the Backer Editions deserve special consideration. If qualified backers are willing to wait on a physical copy with all the extra content, they should have the option to do so IMO. The sooner Igarashi can make an official statement to clarify these matters, the better for everyone concerned. Cheers. I know Mana already replied to this but if I were to interject, I would say physical editions releasing without all the content ever to be created for a game are by far the norm - if they weren't than the concept of DLC couldn't exist (which when done properly and not abused is a boon to developers and consumers alike). The number of kickstarter games that launch with a physical edition is still a small number and likely to increase in the future but this release pattern still follows general industry trends and given what I've seen online, has near universal praise. MN9 getting held up for extra modes (in addition to a host of communication problems) has REALLY hurt the reception and hype for that game - sales will likely be affected regardless of how good the game is. I know you aren't speaking for yourself but rather on the behalf of others, I respect that others maybe be annoyed that the physical edition they will receive won't have all the content ever made for this game and obviously the dev team may feel differently, I don't think accommodating them is especially reasonable mostly as a function of logistics. Figuring who out out of everybody got a physical edition is ok not getting theirs for 12-24 extra months, printing two sets of collectors editions that would be indistinguishable from each other except for the data on the disks (which would be a nightmare for future collectors years down the road), etc. seem like a whole lot of hoops (effort, money, etc.) to please like a few hundred people at most. I also imagine most holdouts would sing a different tune if the game was near release or already out since they probably want to play it above else. That's just my opinion on the matter.
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Post by crocodile on May 14, 2016 17:19:34 GMT -6
Source (same artist as the second picture in my previous post in this thread) My only qualm is that this costume design doesn't accommodate the curse in anyway (on her chest, not enough room on the back and it isn't even drawn on her legs). If the artist wanted to ignore that element, they should've used un-cursed Miriam. A minor nit-pick though.
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Post by crocodile on May 12, 2016 23:41:53 GMT -6
I know a lot of people like the "traditional" female video game armor (I do too once in awhile) but I think some awesome realistic female armor would be cool too... maybe something elegant and powerful. Unless I'm grossly underestimating the amount of work it takes to produce such content, I figure this is an area where its very easy to please pretty much everybody (or everyone who is rational ). It's content that doesn't even, for the most part, have to launch with the game!
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Post by crocodile on May 12, 2016 14:34:38 GMT -6
I'd agree that the degree and sense of interconnected-ness is the strength and greatest aspect of a world design focusing on a castle. Other points, from platforming and room design to the number and nature of secrets you can find to encourage that sense of discovery are all up to the game designers. Non-castle locations can use vertical-ness just as well as any castle section for example. I feel if you put most individual castle sections from any of the other Igavanias against most levels in OoE, the difference between them is likely to be less obvious that you'd expect. That's why I say, in general, I think good level design and variety is the most important and I think you can achieve both either indoors or outdoors with the appropriate talent and craftsmanship. That isn't to say they aren't different or you can't prefer one over the other but I feel I've played enough Metroidvanias to say that if there is any weakness in OoE level design, its not inherent to an outdoor setting.
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