BCB Episode 8 with Miketendo

Just got done listening to the podcast. Pretty good overview of the feedback points that we've heard more of from various people. Some of my thoughts...

The globes that ooze out the green fluid were from the alchemy lab stage in SotN, I remember at least 3 of them. There was also a breakable green vial and the big vials in that hidden area above the stage that had all the subweapons. Anyway, yeah, one of the globes gave you your first cape in kind of an area that leads only to that breakable background item, so the game kind of teaches you to hit them if you see them. Just some more smart game design there, possibly.

The hallway with a whole bunch of candles/$1 coins is part of the Marble Gallery, there's that ball and chain knight as well as a cthulhu monster down there. I didn't mind all the breakables, personally...and I think they can serve other purposes there. They bring to mind your subweapons, and those are actually pretty strong against those two mini-boss-ish enemies that point in the game, especially wanting to kind of keep your distance from the ball and chain enemy and with the dagger doing pretty good damage to the cthulhu. There's also a consideration unique to SotN for how many breakables are on the screen: the more that's hittable on-screen at the time, the more life you can have return from a Soul Steal if you take damage from those mini-bosses. Those are the kinds of things that you might not think about while playing though, unless you take a step back objectively...

Speaking of, the 8-direction whip attacks. One important consideration for that with me is difficulty of the game. If you have a half screen-ish attack that can hit in all directions, how do you balance the rest of the game around that? Would you ever want to go back to using a sword, even? Do you nerf the damage of the whip to the point that it's only really viable for utility (i.e. the swing possibility brought up, hitting certain hard to reach enemies, etc)? I think a big reason that the multi-direction whip did not return was because of just that - it affects level design and difficulty. If a game is designed around enemy placement assuming shorter range kick/sword attacks, their decisions on designing the level may be trivialized if you can attack all directions, even without consumption of MP. Just look at Mega Man versus Metroid - Mega Man has never been able to shoot in any direction except straight forward, but that's not an issue because the game and its enemies/levels are designed around that. In Metroid, it's quite a bit different with more enemies on the ceiling, approaching you above and diagonally from the air where you need to use your aim.

Anyway, I think a fine way to make whips meaningfully strong is to have them of course be a longer-ranged attack than swords, but classically just horizontal. With holding the button, you can twirl it as many main characters have been able to do since. That gives it a bit of a unique flavor, kind of a "shield" for blocking projectiles, and they could develop that further into something more useful for combat. I'm certainly cool too with the swinging idea, but all these more whip-centric things might be suited to a different playable character, too. If we were indeed going more with the SCV4 route, I could see it more in that case.

At one point of the video, XombieMike references a question IGA had answered about intros for the games in the context of showing more about Miriam's backstory, etc. That was an Ask IGA segment, if I recall, and the question was actually just about title screens, not really game-opening scene. The question was something like "what do you want the player to think/feel when they're looking at the title screen?", and he had said "I want them to get past it and start the game!" haha. So, you weren't entirely wrong, but ti's kind of two separate things as well.

Hmmm. I think that was it? I'm glad you did bring up that this was an E3 demo after a while. There was a lot of talk of the game being too easy, but yeah, again, it was meant to be that way. Same probably for how the level was laid out, seeming more "generic IGA" to some. I think these were conscious decisions that made sense thematically on a ship tutorial/demo stage that is showing fans/showgoers "hey, IGA is back, and he can still IGA. You should probably be excited!".

Something is definitely up with . I've gotta figure it out...

The early talk about Nintendo power how nostalgic my favorite magazine as a kid I think every gamer kid in the 90's dreamed of a job like that. Glad to hear the opinions of another Nintendo backer! As far as the demo is concerned I agree with Miketendo the difficulty felt about right for an introductory stage maybe it will have a difficulty option in the final version for people who want a harder experience? Personally I was happy with it as is. As for the boobs I think they are appropriate given this is a Japanese style game so I think it is a good thing that it surprises our western sensibilities. This was something I liked about the original Castlevania games and I don't really want it to be westernized for the sake of trying to reach a wider audience so I am overall quite glad they aren't giving into that pressure.

Edit: I agree with more items in the wall, wall meat needs to make a return! The mention of background things like rats and cracks I also think it would be cool hopefully we see those little details in the final version. It was the small things like that which helped make SOTN such a great game.

This is the fist time I listen to the podcast and I love it!
Great job! It's so much better to listen to actual people discuss this stuff.

Do you think you would ever do the podcast live and have people call in?
It would definitely get more views as well.

Im so happy he mentioned the harpsichord, that was my favorite part of the track as well.

Thanks for the podcast ! It sounded like a cool time !

I plan on it, my good macaroni friend.