Bloodstained RotN : Kouji IGA's new "Castlevania" game.

[Skykid]

Everything is fairly OK - nothing special, but equally nothing offensive - except her standing animation/pose. That is rubbish.

[FinalBaton]

Everything is fairly OK - nothing special, but equally nothing offensive - except her standing animation/pose. That is rubbish.

Her jog cycle is subpar.
Considering that it represents 75% of the main character animation that the gamers will see... well, let's just say that it gives that type of game a boost when the walk cycle is badass. Look at Symphony Of The Night's, or the Megaman X series'.

[MommysBestGames]

I like her idle animation. Looks cute.
Super pumped about this one still.. does not look like a letdown yet.

What's wrong with jiggling breasts?

Everyone knows jiggling breasts is so last gen. Saggy bags are where it's at: https://youtu.be/P5CuDs87MkQ?t=8m9s

[Skykid]

I like her idle animation. Looks cute.

Looks campy and stupid. She's meant to be kicking ass and taking names, not standing around like a limp-wristed mannequin.

It would be a welcome change to see some of Japan's current day heroines hardened up a little. You can still do cute and sexy without sacrificing warrior edge.

[Mischief Maker]

I like her idle animation. Looks cute.

Looks campy and stupid. She's meant to be kicking ass and taking names, not standing around like a limp-wristed mannequin.

It would be a welcome change to see some of Japan's current day heroines hardened up a little. You can still do cute and sexy without sacrificing warrior edge.

I still say the greatest proof that rampant sexism among gamers is bullshit is the reaction across the states when Metroid other M came out and American gamers were outraged that find out Samus wasn't the independent empowered badass we all assumed she was.

[MommysBestGames]

I like her idle animation. Looks cute.

Looks campy and stupid. She's meant to be kicking ass and taking names, not standing around like a limp-wristed mannequin.

It would be a welcome change to see some of Japan's current day heroines hardened up a little. You can still do cute and sexy without sacrificing warrior edge.

Eh, campy sure--but it's the most interesting animation she has currently. That and the "get stabbed by a shard" sequence. All her other anims are simply "okay".

Played the demo on PC last night. I love Castlevania SOTN, and this was pretty okay too. You run around, kill some monsters, steal abilities, find secret equipment, fight a large, nasty boss. All boxes ticked. The demo's probably 10-15 minutes long. It was like a nice cheeseburger. Didn't blow my mind but I still enjoyed it.

Though for my junky PC/graphics card, I had to lower the res but the framerate was still under 30fps. Hoping it gets sped up. Though I think I have a Wii U final-copy coming.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I still say the greatest proof that rampant sexism among gamers is bullshit is the reaction across the states when Metroid other M came out and American gamers were outraged that find out Samus wasn't the independent empowered badass we all assumed she was.

That was any less sexist than what else would be? There is a stereotype of "action heroine" widespread in Euro-American popculture being basically tomboy (a girl who's attempting to be the way boys are expected to be). What would be their reason for doing so other than thinking more of one sex (or gender) than another?

[Blinge]

I'll just mirror another member and say:
Never change, Obi.

[BIL]

That was any less sexist than what else would be? There is a stereotype of "action heroine" widespread in Euro-American popculture being basically tomboy (a girl who's attempting to be the way boys are expected to be). What would be their reason for doing so other than thinking more of one sex (or gender) than another?

Interesting perspective Obi, but a bit uncharitable! Ultimately it's results that matter. Samus got them, for decades. Then Other M takes a formative character arc from the manga*, dumps it smack in the prime of her career, and even the most benign of we BRUTE MALES (who STOLE ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS AND LEFT CHRIS-CHAN NONE TO CHOOSE FROM) is forced to wonder how she ever made it this far**.

Competence is "badass," incompetence is "candy ass," and these qualities transcend gender boundaries!

*per manga

Spoiler

Rookie hothead harbouring horrific unresolved trauma is ambushed by the resurrected source of said trauma, chokes, and is brutally defeated. Ok! Primal scream of release upon her much later triumph over the monster? Good shit. But ok! That's enough! Good job, Samus Origin Manga! It's a good thing nobody will shoehorn in an exact copy of this formative character arc several legendary missions and Ridley destructions later. Ha ha ha mirite?

**Samus vs Ridley in Other M

Spoiler

[Cagar]

-

[FinalBaton]

Not saying it's the only culprit but motion capture certainly didn't help here.

I hate that technique for videogame use. As an animator myself, I can tell you that the aiming for a 100% realistic movement is NOT the thing to aim for : you should instead exaggerate some poses, as well as your movements' timings. This will give the movements more impact and make them more solid, as well as more readable by the eyes.

There's also the character(personnality) they choose to give to the animation, as well as the choice of solid(or not so solid in this case) poses, of course

[Skykid]

Not saying it's the only culprit but motion capture certainly didn't help here.

I hate that technique for videogame use. As an animator myself, I can tell you that the aiming for a 100% realistic movement is NOT the thing to aim for : you should instead exaggerate some poses, as well as your movements' timings. This will give the movements more impact and make them more solid, as well as more readable by the eyes.

There's also the character(personnality) they choose to give to the animation, as well as the choice of solid(or not so solid in this case) poses, of course

As an animator once upon a time I can say I 100% agree with this. Motion cap is just so... Lifeless.

[opt2not]

Not saying it's the only culprit but motion capture certainly didn't help here.

I hate that technique for videogame use. As an animator myself, I can tell you that the aiming for a 100% realistic movement is NOT the thing to aim for : you should instead exaggerate some poses, as well as your movements' timings. This will give the movements more impact and make them more solid, as well as more readable by the eyes.

I don't really agree with this 'cause it isn't the case for every game. Defintely not a one-case-fits-all scenario. For instance, Sports titles you want to have it looking as realistic as possible. Games like Call of Duty, or Uncharted, or Gears of War you definitely want to have it as realistic as possible. Pushing and exaggerating the poses in these titles makes the animations too stylized and distracting when their main focus is to get to that 100% realistic reactive movements.

For a games like Bloodstained, since the artwork is stylized, the animations should be too. So realism here isn't the best choice.

There's also the character(personnality) they choose to give to the animation, as well as the choice of solid(or not so solid in this case) poses, of course

For mocap, it really boils down to the actors and directing animators to get better performances out of their captures. You can still get good personality mocap out of actors if they are coached properly. Unfortunately a lot of mocap is crappy because of lack of direction. I've found the best mocap I've worked with was done by fellow animators who suited up and captured themselves. They know the poses to hit, the attitudes to portray and the context of what the animation is going to be used for.

[neorichieb1971]

The best thing I like is the music.

Animations are disappointing. My GTX970 card is quite powerful and it still suffers slow down on this game.

The kick mechanism seems a bit clunky.

[soprano1]

Hope the OST gets released soon.

[EmperorIng]

Maybe it's my shitty 4-year-old laptop, but when I opened the demo and started play I was greeted with what seemed like 15 fps and a green color that overlaid everything.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

[BulletMagnet]

Was playable-ish on my own none-too-impressive laptop, but tended to hover around 15-20 FPS (at 720 resolution in a window). Presumably future builds will offer more options in this area, because there's no way everyone who backed this is going to have the sort of rig UE4 was intended for.

[EmperorIng]

I suppose it's impetus as much as any to finally get a new computer to handle all these intensive... kickstarter games.

[Jeneki]

I'm getting good performance out of my ~4 year old computer (was good parts for its time).

Stuff I liked: Some enemies have multiple death animations, such as killing Morte with the splash attack and watching them explode Kenshiro-style, haha. I also noticed you can attack a bit faster if you hop and attack just before you hit the ground, then follow up with another attack. You can do a downward attack by pressing diagonally downward (not sure what to use this for yet, just interesting that it's there). I did find one hidden area and destructible wall secret.

Neutral: The boss fight was good enough for an intro level, although it feels a bit dumbed down that you cannot accidentally walk off the boat. At first I was worried about right stick to aim the flame spell (this means we can't jump and aim at the same time, unless you have an extra thumb on your right hand) but I can jump and cast without using the stick to aim so I'll give it a pass.

Stuff I hope to see improve: Controller input is slightly but noticeably sluggish. Enemies would be more interesting if they an additional attack for more variety, or perhaps be a bit more aggressive overall, but I suppose this is just an intro level so that's to be expected. Being told to press up every single time you approach a chest is hilarious; just who are these people who forget every five seconds?

[BulletMagnet]

Game has been (inevitably) delayed to the first half of 2018.

[JBC]

That's fine. As long as they get it right.

Don't want another Mighty no.9 on our hands.

[Sumez]

I would have been surprised if a Kickstarter game WASN'T delayed.
Still, it's sort of sad to see all these "retro revival" games taking like five times as long to develop as the games they want to be like. For GBA and DS, Iga would churn out a Castlevania every other year, most of them great. At this point I'm not even sure if Bloodstained will be able to match their quality.
I do appreciate that they care enough about the quality to delay the game until they are happy with it (but hey, Mighty no 9 peoples said the same thing), but I always felt like the longer it takes to make a game, the more likely it is to fuck up or become over-produced in some ways it never should have been. I think probably most of my favourite games were developed in less than a year.

Also, does everyone feel like every time Iga shows his face in relation to this game, all the way back to when it was announced, he comes across like a bit of a figurehead, just saying whatever he was told to say? I never really get the feeling that he's in control of anything here. :\


I don't mean to sound negative, I'm still really looking forward to this game, but these are just minor things that stick out to me.

[Squire Grooktook]

Well, Iga's always been a bit of a figurehead. Less so than Kejii "he's a business man" Inafune, but I don't think he was the primary vision behind the gba/ds metroidvania's.

Although I wasn't able to play the demo properly due to my pc, I was a tad disappointed with what I saw.

I was hoping that the birth of a technically new franchise would give the series action a much needed jolt in the arm and improve the overall movement and combat mechanics. Faster movement, attacking on the fly, more meaningful movement and attacking options, etc.

It looks like that they're still just churning out another game based on the classic SOTN controls. Not a bad thing, considering how good those are, but I was hoping that after the long hibernation period between this and Eclessia (which showed hints of more in depth combat), we'd see something a bit more meaty in that department.

Oh well, I'm sure it'll still be fun. And the "classic mode" still does sound cool. If it's a full length version of Eclessia's Training Hall, I'd be perfectly entertained.

[BIL]

[Estebang] You know what's funny is Nobuya Nakazato worked on SOTN and OOE and they're good but he didn't work on HOD and holy fuck it had problems, with a slow but steady uptick in quality from there! Well, mostly. I bet Nakazato's the only reason IGA's any good. [/Estebang]

¦3

Not really, lmao! I do kind of harbour an intense personal hatred of IGA, though. He was nuzzling Hideki "DMC1" Kamiya's hindquarters in the runup to LOI's release while dissing CV64... then he shat the fucking bed on the very thing CV64 got right, its platforming! More like Lament of Wolfenstein 3D Map Editor, you awful fraud!

Gamergate better not screw this up like they did Revolution 60, that's all I'll say.

[Sumez]

I didn't realise Nakazato was involved with any CV game other than SOTN.

I never saw him at a CV kinda guy in general, but I definitely wouldn't mind having him on board for Bloodstained, or any other cool classic 2D game in development! I want this man back. Did he do ANYTHING [interesting] since ReBirth?

[BIL]

Not that I know of... but tbh, I've not been following much to do with Konami/ex-Konami, it's gotten too dispiriting since they went utterly off the deep end.

BTW, did you know Shigeharu Umezaki (aka Umechan, head of team responsible for FC Salamander/Contra/Gradius II/Super Contra) was COTM's producer? Couldn't have hurt matters, might even explain that airlock-tight collision detection.

Not that I believe past glories are a magic bullet or anything. I didn't notice until recently that Takeshi Takeda (Bloodlines, Hard Corps) worked on HOD.

[Sumez]

BTW, did you know Shigeharu Umezaki (aka Umechan, head of team responsible for FC Salamander/Contra/Gradius II/Super Contra) was COTM's producer? Couldn't have hurt matters, might even explain that airlock-tight collision detection.

Didn't know that no, but COTM plays like a dream.

S.Umez[aki]

[BIL]

S.Umez[aki]

[copy-paster]

Nobuya Nakazato worked on SOTN and OOE and

CV Adventure/Dracula Densetsu GB, as seen on credits.

[BIL]

Oh god that game. Masato Maegawa and Norio Hanzawa worked on it too! Legendary Men Assemble! And yet... D:

I actually kinda like it too! But it is so god damn slow.

Nakazato and Maegawa also collaborated on Bucky O'Hare (FC), much better result barring some occasional Total Memoriser Bullshit. I consider it Year Zero for the Konami/Treasure Boss Rush Style, despite it not featuring much if any boss rushing. Lightning-quick scene shifter. edit: And on that bombshell! Please follow this riveting Konami/Treasure tangent in the Ninja Gaiden/Sidescroller thread! ;3