BCB 15 E3 2017 News and Demo

I don't think that kick the candles thing is true. Sadly

I'm pretty sure you said Richter instead of Trevor at some point too.

Bazongas

"It's not a sin to have big ol' titties". - XombieMike, BCB 14

I'm probably to blame, Mike. 

After all, I'm the one who brought it up in the Shoutbox one time.

This was a surprisingly meaty episode! Props to you and miketendo. As always, thanks for your hard work! I've left notes/comments below:

• Oh cool, gameplay footage, something cool to look at as the audio plays


• "Breathtaking" seems a bit of a stretch but I'm more positive than negative about it (IMO of course)


• Yeah the part with the bell drop looks super weird/bad. I hope they fix that in the future
  


• I'm surprised there has been so much conversation about the "scream when you get a shard" in this podcast and the forums. It seems fine to me as it is now? The shard drop rate was high in the demo it seems so I think that’s why it came up often.


• Who says Bazongas instead of tits or boobs LOL? Is that a regional thing? (Just playin' with ya)
  

• FWIW, I've still not seen a single person complain about Bloodless or her design at all – I think IGA made it a lot more awkward than it needed to be during that interview LOL. In general, it's not so much boobs that bothers some people but I think context and degree. People don’t expect everything to be "realistic" but even in the context of fantasy, things can be jarring or off-putting.


• TBH, Dominique is not too far from a stripper dressed as a nun (no hate but it’s true LOL), Vepar’s tits were REALLY in your face and I honestly feel it was the super close-up of Miriam’s bust rather than their size that threw some people for a loop – I haven’t heard anyone complain about them for a while. Similar to what I said about some of the other critiques of the demo, people are free to offer constructive criticism. If they don’t like something, they should speak up, not keep things to themselves, in a respectful manner. Shutting up just because they don’t like one/some aspects of a product is no good and the fact that it is in development/not done is all the more reason to say something. It’s up to IGA (or whatever artist) to decide if they think the critiques have merit or are off-base and then they can choose how they respond. If people can complain about level design or controls, which are also under the purview of the creator(s), they can complain about character or monster design too. Some people don’t like some of the character/monster designs - that’s fine. IGA heard what they had to say – that’s good. So far, IGA has decided nothing needs to be changed (we’ll see how Vepar fares) – that’s his prerogative. If IGA has/does change anything, that’s not because anybody forced him to but rather he, as a grown ass adult capable of making his own decisions, decided that those who were complaining had a good point and acted in kind – that’s also good. People seem too keen to shield creators from criticism or decree what people can or can’t complain about. As long as those complaining are being respectful then it’s all good. Let the artist decide what criticism they should or shouldn’t listen to, not you (the general you, I’m not talking about anyone specifically). Oh and just one final note – someone can not like something and not be offended by it at all. I feel that bit gets lost in these sorts of conversations? It's rarely actually about people being offended and more people thinking X is stupid or occasionally gross. Again this is more a comment to the aether than anyone specific but I get the sense some people don’t realize that?


• With regards to Isaac, I think a lot of people would argue there aren’t enough Isaac’s in gaming media
  

• It’s called a “diveckick”


• I liked what the Devil May Cry series did with double jumps where a magic circle appear under your feet when you double jump. It would be cool if Bloodstained did something similar.

• FWIW I like the new whip. I need to get my hands on a demo with the whip but from what I can see it looks good to me and fun to use

• Did she have a weapon equipped when she kicked? Someone should double-check if we get to play this demo.

• Dullahammer Heads seemed like a weird choice to me. Weren’t there Starfish-like enemies in the game at some point? It’s probably too late now but I would have liked those instead for our "Medusa Heads"

• There aren't many regular vampires in past Castlevania games I think to stress how important and special Dracula is. The one vampire in the game is THE vampire!

• Maybe I misunderstood this part of the conversation but I will say that I don’t think we are locked into our current platform choices yet. The deadline that passed recently was just for getting a refund, not for switching platforms. Or did I misunderstood what you guys were talking about?

• Err I’d be wary of comparing dev times between Shantae, Bloodstained or Yooka-Laylee considering each have different circumstances. Yooka-Laylee DID have gameplay footage since the game had already started development before the Kickstarter and many of the developers on that game DID work at Rare and DID work on classic Banjo-Tooie. I’m also not sure anyone would call the dev team for Bloodstained small – lots of additional man-power was add to the project over time.

• Inafune knows how to make Mega Man games. I don’t know where this meme came from that Inafune didn’t know how to make Mega Man games from a gameplay/level design perspective or he was “just an artist”. Yes "blah blah businessman", he still was very influential in the development and design of Megaman games (especially the X and Zero series). The issue was that changes to differentiate MN9 from Mega Man were for the worst and more importantly, they spread themselves too thin on too many platforms.

• Bloodstained is going to live or die on its own qualities. You should stop worrying about MN9 or other people comparing Bloodstained to that game. If the game is quality it will do well. If not then that will suck but it won’t be MN9’s fault.

• I figure now is not the right place to really go in a deep dive about Japanese culture, but how “adult” Japanese culture actually is – its something that’s wildly overestimated.

• I would say it’s less “creativity is dead” but rather it’s more expensive and risky to make a videogame so many developers in the A, AA, AAA space (this distinction is about budget) are more risk averse. Though as you say, we have indie games to occupy that space.
  

• Thinking about it, Konami has been taking ques from the West for a long time – Castlevania, Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Contra, etc. Still I understand your general point about Konami not being a “leader”.
  

I began to listen to it very late, could not stop until it was over. I also saw the images on the facebook when you clicked around in the video, those before/after. I hope people see the difference and care that aren't that into forums.

It is also always nice to hear what people like and dislike, how to fix things and talk about why they liked or disliked it. Having two people, loving the franschise and both wanting the best for the game, they are indeed just two different sides on a same coin.

• A few different Miriam screams would be nice to spice up the shard animation.


• Gravity can be fixed, and having a room with a floaty Miriam could be a nice trick. Like a room with alchemy so the air are thinner.


• Whip animations will surely stay as is.


• Perhaps many different rapiers may be in the game, and perhaps give us the same super attack movement you knew about?


• Customization and Crafting are features I am curious about. I need more info on those.

Nice podcast overall. You bring up the hype. Listen and reading is the only thing I do here (and there). I never get the chance to actually speak about the game. Thank you guys!

It would probably have to do with the Army of the Night.

Probably, the power of MEDIA you know. I am surprised not many more have registered on this forum these past days.