Update #48: The Village By The Castle

It would be nice to have a revote on Miriam's shader after seeing the new update. The backgrounds look very nice and realistic, but Miriam looks less detailed and washed out in comparison.

quick question, did you change the resolution to 1080p and fullscreen it to better reflect how the game will look? miriam doesnt look washed out to me but youtube defaults to 480p on that video and a lot of fine detail gets lost

Well, he's up to 5 threads with this now. Anyways, his opinion on the look is valid and he's not alone in that opinion. I'm certain it will be noted by Mana.

Yeah I apologize for all the messages. And shaders is not an easy fix. That's probably not the best solution. Lighting will make a big difference. Everything else had looked great so the shaders might not be the problem at all. Good points guys.

Although I did talk a bit about reconsidering Miriam's in-game presentation, it was with the caveat of "if felt necessary." I'm one of those that don't think there's a dramatic issue of character and backgrounds clashing. If there is, it's a minor thing. While I don't particularly love Miriam's in-game translation I also don't expect that to change. That's an issue that's been discussed to death already and ended with a community vote so the results speak for themselves. Most people feel differently than I do and that's cool.

But yeah, I don't think clashing is a big problem judging from these new materials. And I'm very much liking the way the game's world is turning out. It's looks interesting, lived-in, weathered, and even sophisticated as apposed to Miriam's more cartoony look. I'm liking what I'm seeing and hope it doesn't suffer much reworking.

Yeah, I'm with Xombiemike It's good to see folks as enthusiastic and involved about the game as they are, and IGA's team certainly appreciates the input. So don't feel too bad, we really do like hearing your opinions and thoughts (and that goes for everyone on the boards), just be a little careful to ensure you don't make a point more times than is necessary to get it heard

That's the thing, Look at the shadow of the surrounding areas in those 2 pictures, does it not look like the first is randomly illuminated by another light? While the bottom has correct lighting? I think once that is solved, everything would look right.

I wouldn't want them to go back (and I don't think they will).  They need to be moving forward, not keep going back and changing things they have already decided on.  And that's saying something since I vastly preferred the realistic shader on Miriam. 

They actually stated that they were done with community feedback on the art direction in one of the updates:
Update #35 - January 20, 2016
"And, as I've pointed out in the latest Ask IGA, this will be our final request for art-direction feedback. I'd like to ask for any final thoughts you have now, so we can move forward and start putting things in motion. - IGA"

EDIT: It occurs to me now that others have already pointed out what I was saying here.  So, feel free to disregard all or parts of it.  Also, welcome to the forums dannycampbell88.  We need people to point out when something isn't right as well as people to sing praises when it all comes together the way we want.

Time for some answers!

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CastleDan  Enkeria Kale
I adressed this discussion topic here: Iga's Biggest Castle stretch goal: You want a second Castle? quite some time ago.
The thread was made to discuss technically what could be considered as "Biggest Castle" if the game where to have a second castle AND if people would like that. 
In that thread, the point was if we could consider Bloodstained: Ritual of the night 1600+ rooms as Biggest Castle, considering that if you add up both Symphony of the Night's castles, it goes more than 1800.
I think the same question can be made about Minerva Galleon and the Village. They are considered part of the stretch goal "Iga's biggest castle?"
In my mind, i think they ren't , but we never know. I don't think this is a discussion for this thread though.

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Busterific  Kale  Olrox  LeoLeWolferoux
As i explained above, i think the essential problem here can be summarized as a situation that can't really be avoided. That's something i want to say and see if i can clarify something. This will be a long text!

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More than one year ago, a picture popped up showing Miriam with a small cloth covering her (otherwise) naked shoulder in a really pre-pre-pre alpha model. After some discussion, it was clarified that her design needed to be changed to add a cool-looking scarf (that, in reality, is two long laces coming out of her shoulder's clothing) because she wasn't visible enough in the scenario. The scarf was added later, alongside some glowing and petals falling from her back rose, all in order to increase her visuals in the gameplay, so, the gamer wouldn't lose her in the environment. That alone, may be part of the shader's selection problem, that made her surprisingly blend in the scenario way better than they expected (something that is kinda counterintuitive if you think that her and the scenario's shaders are different, but that's the reality).

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After the demo was out, some people (including youtubers that tested the game) pointed out that it was hard to identify what was plataform and what wasn't. Some people where "jumping in thin air" because they thought places in the background were part of the environment. In a response to this, the dev team said they was going to change the lightning over plataforms, to make them way more visible than the rest of the background. In the Demo, the whole lightning and shadow are more or less in the same tone, and the only aestethically's good solution they found out was to increase lightning in "stepable" places.

THE WELL-LIT CASTLE ENTRANCE VS THE DARK VILLAGE

After some videos showing the Castle Entrance, a well-lit area with a uniform color, we get the Village video. And the village is redish dark and menacing-looking. But the plataforms are obviously brighter than the rest of the scenario, in order to make them easily visible and the player can easily figure out that they can be step on, to adress the problem i talked about .
And now we reached a situation that, in my honest opinion, has no definitive fix:
if they change the plataform's lightning, they will be less visible and thus, we will go back to the same problem.

This is related to the same core problem: helping the player to figure out what's happening.
Miriam's original design was changed to make her more visible.
The plataforms and areas where you walk on were made brighter in order for the player to figure out what's platform and what isn't.

The single conclusion i can get from this is: the shader's options made everything, background, foreground and the player character blend in such a perfect way that they needed to make things less blending.

What we are seeing now is the result of this option. Miriam stand out because that's exactly what is intended to happen. And she basically only really stands out in brighter plataforms, that were made to be that way.

Small adjustments can be made, but it will not adress part of the community's concerns. 
So, in my opinion:
The Dev Team doesn't need to do extra costly work because all that is a really small problem in a ocean of greatness.

I fully respect what everyone else may think. But that's how i see things.

I know i'm assuming a lot of things here, but that's what i think, with the barely knowledge i have.