Boss boobs

CV: Judgement is one of Igarashi's games. Given, it wasn't an internal Konami team that worked on it, but he was the game's producer, as well as a few of the other more experimental titles like Harmony of Dissonance.





Off topic, but that game gets a ridiculous amount of hate from, like, everyone, even though it's actually pretty okay (well, when you play with a GC or Classic controller and not a WiiMote). Like, it's obviously no Street Fighter, and it's got some fundamental flaws (like no button remapping), but it's actually pretty fun and holds up fairly well, plus it has an absolutely amazing soundtrack.

What about all the female enemies in the Castlevania games?

Werebat, Draculina, Rasulka, Harpies, to name a few.

Generally the more 'monster like' or 'natural' these enemies were, the more skin they would show.

When it comes to Vepar, to me it looks like an upgraded Rasulka boss. Rasulka was pretty naked as well.

But than again, it depends on which 'head' you would consider to be the sentient one.
For all we know the head in the middle of the belly could be the sentient one, and the 'human' head is more like a lure.

I think crocodile has the right idea. The color palette and shader do make the boss seem really awkward. I hope it's not a sign of the limitation of the shader they're using, I do miss the old more Painted style from previous games.  I suppose that's going to happen when using 3D compared to 2D artwork though.   If I were to try and nail down what is that makes it seem awkward to me I would say the solid color and the shiny / reflected look.  

Actually, I think if the boss was more skin colored it might actually look better.     

But yes, early game slice and what not it is likely it is just unfinished, but I figured I jot my thoughts down on it.

Not sure I'd reference that as the Voldemort of the Bloodstained forums. I mean in the end, other than new folks coming in occasionally and jump starting the discussion things seemed to settle into more a satirical discussion fairly quickly from what I recall. And honestly I see the same thing happening here. There are a few making comments that are polarizing, and I'm assuming the they are intended in a non-inflammatory manner. And there are folks responding in a decently civilized manner. Now, I agree that things did get pretty heated in the previous thread that shall not be named (oh God, you have me doing it now ), but in the end things settled down and a discussion was had. I see the same thing happening here and things seemed to have "cooled off" a lot faster.




OK, so really simple on this one, by the points, and I would like to know what you think.
Color palate: I think the issue here is that there are no mid tones between colors. Almost every thing on Vepar is a solid (and vivid no less) color with what appears to be NO blending at all between different areas. While I understand wanting to make the enemies/bosses stand out from the background I almost get a circus feeling from the choice of coloration here. I think the same colors in the same general areas could have worked if they were blended between areas a little more generously.

Textures: What textures? Aside from maybe the scarf Vepar was wearing and the eyes and mouth of the belly I didn't really get a sense of textures on this boss at all. Or maybe I misunderstood and you were referencing the lack of textures?

Way too easy: Eh. The same argument could be made for Death in the opening of Rondo of Blood. So there is a precedent for it. Besides, this is the "trainer" stage. And on top of that we weren't given a difficulty setting to change. Maybe this was the game on "SUPER SPECTACULARLY EASY MODE!!!!" for the demo. I personally thought for the opening "pre-game" stage the difficulty was about right. It felt like the opening corridor of SOTN. (The one before the first meeting with Death) A chance for you to get familiar with the controls and the game mechanics as well as a "prelude" boss battle.





Sure, they'd be GREAT for swimming. They'd make for excellent ballast!
Built in floaties/water wings and all. XD




And just as an aside, has everyone noticed that Vepar seems to be infected with the crystal curse as well? I mean it looks like what is happening to Gebal's face is happening to Vepar's cheeks and jaw (the one on its head not its belly)...

Indeed. I haven't been for closing it or sweeping it under a rug, etc, and things have turned for the better as far as the discussion. I remain proud of our forum/community being pretty well mature on things.

Lol, the guest obviously didn't read this thread, but THANK You anyway.

Actually, the the intention behind this boss design was that the top part is a lure for the real monster on the lower part. IGA said that in the recently translated post in the external articles board.

Guilty as charged, he he he. As they say, TL;DR. Though my theory on the character's design doesn't necessarily contradict the official statement. But it is just a theory....a game theory!

My thought was "what kind of fisherman would be attracted to a giant woman?"

Wait, sailors spend months and months out at sea, and I hear that when they get back.... no, wait, nevermind.

Had to read the whole thread to see where it would go.  The TL;DR of the thread seems to be: One person was knee-jerk triggered and decided to start the ball rolling on reshaping the game to fit their sensibilities.  Noticed their opinion was staggeringly unpopular.  Started two "guest" accounts within two minutes of one another to voice a "me too" opinion.   Eventually gave it up, likely because the discourse was too civil to be (de)constructive.

Bravo, everyone.

As far as my take on the boss... I considered the design of the boss to be a good sign, and this was confirmed by that article where Igarashi basically promised that he'd be doing what he wants, for his Japanese audience.   That is the end of any MN9-like concerns, and perhaps helps explain 8-4's blessed absence from this project in spite of pretty much everyone else associated with MN9 being on board.  I do like the design.

The aesthetics could use work, as others have already pointed out.  I think someone also already stressed two of the main aspects of what's wrong with the look.

1. The shader.  According to what I've read, this very community is to blame for the fact that we have this cel shaded look to the game.  In the case of this boss, it seems that the black outlines have been kept in rough proportion with the size of the enemy, rather than staying uniform with the complete game render.  That's a problem.  Miriam's black outlines are subtle because she is always so small on the screen; otherwise they would probably be cause for a demand to revert the shader to something less obnoxious.  The excessively thick edges on the boss give it a cartoony look, which leads me to

2. The colors.  These are not an accident, or incompetence.  Those too-bright colors are deliberate.  And I have to strongly suspect that the specific idea was to make the boss look cartoony to match the shader.  I have faith that the designers of this boss could have figured out ways to make it stand out from the terrain/background without arbitrarily giving it full-body pastels.

The final aspect, in my opinion:

3. The model as a whole.  The mesh and the textures are basically PS2 caliber.  Really and truly.  Good for the framerate and for ensuring ports to Vita and Wii-U, not so great for showcasing a polished-looking boss in 1080p.  The other two aspects combine with this one to generate something that actually wouldn't have looked terribly out of place in Mighty No. 9.

Fixing any of these aspects would go a long way, but the most important is #2, followed by #1.  My feeling (and expectation) is that when the final product drops, players will be able to choose a different shader from the menu, or at least tone down/disable the cel shading effect.