Update #55 Get to Know the Japanese Voice Actors

Okay look I get the argument that, "Well it was never officially stated in an update"....

but to some if it's put out their in interviews by people in the team or IGA himself that is official. Angel pretty much confirmed that they are working out details on it. It's a real thing, there's no fake aspect about this unless they changed their mind on it but all the more better to mention that. Was that comment spoken about too early? Was it an accident to let it slip early? Maybe, but even then it was never requested to be taken out of either article as far as I'm aware.

The point is people pay attention and they get curious. Don't blame the person who happens to see an interview from people working on the game and they choose to believe what was said.

However, my issue isn't with the lack of mention on the alpha/beta/or what have you. It's that this update is clearly for a very specific audience. Not everyone knows japanese let alone japanese voice actors. The people that do are excited and sweet, I'm happy for them. Had this been an update with both the American voice actors and Japanese actors maybe some of the negative comments wouldn't be here. The build to this update is what builds the anticipation and we all thought it was coming sooner originally, so when it felt like it was pushed back the perception was an update about a variety of topics. It wasn't though. It covered one and teased a new character and basically threw out another "soon". Had that mysterious man been revealed with a blurb about his character in this update, maybe a few of those negative people might be more positive. Why? because it'd be something for a bigger audience of fans.

It was a long wait for a perceived meaty update that ended up being something angled at a specific group of fans.

This is not to the fault of the dev team, not to the fault of anyone working on the game. It's just the downsides of passionate fans in a kickstarter campaign. People have different things they care about, different things they want to learn more about, and they interpret things people say differently. In other words people are bound to be disappointed if they hover around the project as closely as some of us do.

I think i'll probably stop posting here until something major happens, I love the people on this site, I love the people working on this game, Mana, Angel, everyone is awesome. I just know me and I get obsessive and excited about things and my hype always lets me down. I know one thing, the game won't let me down but i'll have to wait until then.

Don't get me wrong, this is certainly good stuff to know (hopefully the game is dual audio), and I'm glad we're getting such skilled voice actors and actresses to work on this game, but I really did think that the update would be something bigger. I thought we were going to get a solid date regarding the early access with this update, since there were rumors it was coming out last month anyways.

The fact that it has been 3 months since the last substantial update only for us to get this is worrisome. Is everything going okay on the development side? Do they just not have enough done right now to show us footage of areas we've never seen before, or do they just not want to spoil any more areas until the early access releases? We got info on the Japanese voice acting, and that's good...what about the English voice acting? Is that just not finished yet?

I realize that I have a clear precedent of criticizing this game a lot more than praising it, and I really don't like having that precedent. I don't want to be remembered as "that guy who only spouted negativity" on these forums. However, when we get an update like this after 3 months...I can't truthfully say I'm feeling particularly positive.

Well, I for one don't think you're being too negative, Zerosbr. Remember, the whole point of this forum, and the responsibility of not just mods and admins like me and Mike, but staff members like Mana and Angel-Corlux , is to pay attention to the concerns of our members. We ultimately answer to the Army of the Night, after all. So, as long as your worries are expressed respectfully, we won't criticize you--quite the opposite. You've definitely provided us good information and considerations to help us make the next update even better, so you won't be remembered as a negative guy, you'll be remembered as someone who contributed to the success of this game!

Secondly, and to be open and transparent, I share your concerns. I've chatted with Angel and my fellow staff members on Discord about how scanty this update seems to be. However, listening to their responses and taking a wider view of things, I think there is something to be said for it if you "read between the lines," so to speak.

First, note that they said "we've finished recording the Japanese voices for the characters." This is a pretty significant step, from what I understand--I think things get started on the voice acting front when a significant amount of assets have been completed for the game, and if they've got voices done for all these characters, they must have made some hefty progress on not just what we've seen, but also bosses, levels, plot, and that sort of thing. So even if they haven't shown us any new footage or screenshots, this should be evidence that development is proceeding well.

Now, you may ask, as folks have legitimately asked ITT already, why didn't they show off any of the new assets they're working on? Well, I think they may have a good reason for that. Hear me out. I'm not sure how many of you guys go to other anime forums like I do, but everywhere I've went (and you can see this in the Kickstarter comments page), people are FLIPPING OUT over Ami Koshimizu. She's really one of the most famous and beloved voice actresses in Japan, thanks to Macross Delta and Kill La Kill. The other VAs, like the fellow behind Jonathan Joestar (!!!!) are also very well known. To announce those folks doing the voices for Bloodstained is pretty significant, so much so that I'd wager it would overshadow anything else they put into the update. For us hardcore IGA fans, we'd pay more attention to gameplay, sure, but the rest of the world would be too busy gushing about Ms. Koshimizu to even look at any new stages, weapons, footage, etc.! So from the public relations perspective, I think an update like this makes sense--give the gaming audience as a whole something to get super excited about (Ami Koshimizu!!!!!), and then maybe another more gameplay oriented update a little later.

I'm not defending the update, but I'll defend people's fan art and creative posts. Your attitude is insulting at this point. Check yo self. I'm sorry your expectations for the update were bigger than the update it's self.

Look, the update took a long time and some of us thought it would be for a good reason. We have heard more news from interviews about the music team and the E3 2017 demo than we have through the KS update. I do understand completely how someone would feel a wee bit let down. Don't get too entitled though, and please respect the other fans.