Press coverage about Update#56 (10/31/2017)

I figured Zangetsu would be a boss. But I also still feel strongly that he'll be a playable character, too. He kinda reminds me of Scorpion from the popular Mortal Kombat series. Hmm... wish I had a hookshot like that to swing from the ceiling. Would definitely make traveling the hallways of my workplace a lot more interesting. >:3

Great post, Pure Miriam! I always try to collate news articles and stuff to send to Angel and Mana and the rest of the team, and this kinda thing makes my job a lot easier. You're the best! In any case, it seems like the news is very positive...most folks are liking the footage! Things are lookin up

Thanks, Pure Miriam. Well, I'm not sure they wouldn't change anything at all...they won't throw out the shaders the backers requested, but I think they'd certainly be willing to tweak things here and there, since as Angel has mentioned the whole game is going to be tuned up before release. Everything we're seeing now is just a "rough draft" (so to speak) to ensure that the game systems like physics, equipment, etc. are working properly. Once that's all set, they're going to go back and spice up the animations, change the enemy placement around, spruce up the graphics, etc. etc. etc. So I think we can hope that the shaders may be tuned up a little too to keep up with all that

I want to see Miriam in that lighting more often. Exactly what I was saying in the update thread lol

I feel the same way. I asked Angel-Corlux about it a while back, I don't recall exactly if he was able to get an answer directly from the team. It seems mostly that it depends on the lighting of the area she's in, since the menu screen image looks pretty just exactly like this.

My piece is that...if so, need her to be in bright areas more often. So nice looking. This image alone turned so many people toward the shader choice, character and even the game itself.

ZeroSbr

We are on the complete opposite ends.

I think the character models look great but the environments need work.

If the environments were more stylized and popped more things would be better -



Kinda like the above. I feel like the character models would match more ( as you can see with the flying star enemies...they fit perfectly ).

but for whatever reason they went with a version that isn't stylized so the stylized characters stick out. My argument though is the stylized look is better suited for a series that was 2D for most of it's life rather than an unstylized world. The world needs a bit more brightness and vibrancy.


People like the character models for a reason because the original one looked like this - 
Which looks nowhere near as interesting as the one we ended up with. So yeah, its unfortunate that we got a background and a shader that seem meant for two different things but I rather have a good character shader than not.

purifyweirdshard

Did we ever find out why they didn't use the character shader on the environments as well? I think it would have been a cool look for the whole game. I think had that been done I probably wouldn't be having the issues i've been having wiht the environments. 

ZeroSbr

Even though the tag wasn't for me but wouldn't you say the issue is more the backgrounds though? I mean the character shader DOES look good. It might not fit but it's the best thing visually. If anything they should be trying to get the environments more to the tone of the characters and less the characters to the environment. You play to the strengths not the weaknesses. I'm not disagreeing that they look different from each other. It was the first confusing thing about it. When they first showed the improved character shader I was like..... " YES, WE ARE GONNA GET A VERY 2D LOOKING GAME " and then when we first saw the picture of Miriam in the this location




I was a bit confused because the background didn't seem to aim for the style the character shader had.....BUT at the time that location was brighter and more vibrant than what we've been seeing lately so it still worked for me with Miriam zoomed out. However, now yeah it's slightly more of a issue to me because the environments thus far have been gritty, dark, and lack vibrant color which Miriam and many of the enemies DO have. I just think we see it differently, you want the character to look more like the environment, I want the environment to look more like the characters.

CastleDan They never told us why exactly, but the cel shading was never a choice for the backgrounds, just a difference in lighting. I agree that it might have looked amazing, but I don't know - that style might have been hard to use 2.5 ideas with. Everything would have had to be individually carefully shaded like the character models to not look weird when they move, how I understand it. Also you're basically telling ZeroSbr "it DOES look good though" while he's clearly stating he doesn't think it does. I don't think you're getting anywhere with that ;p

ZeroSbr I get what you mean, every other CV game's graphical style is uniform between background/character. That's mostly because we don't have much to draw direct comparisons to though, LoI and CoD were fully 3D games in the PS2 era, they had no occasion to apply this kind of thing. The only thing we can draw a direct comparison to for Bloodstained is Dracula X Chronicles, and with that Richter definitely fits right into the background, actually blending a bit too much with it sometimes. Guy should have probably stood out a bit more on the PSP screen.

The tricky balance they're trying to address and satisfy here is the 2D fanbase, which is a huge thing. Cel shaded Miriam captures the attention of people that might otherwise be more sore about the 2.5/3D choices they're using, giving it a flavor they're used to and can feel like it's more PS1/GBA/DS era with a drawn look. That's what it's about more than being anime or cartoony - looking 2D, and a word I saw thrown around a lot during the shader vote was "painterly". Backer/fans aren't quite ready to commit to a completely realistic 3D-looking sidescrolling Iga game.

Doing this, they're smartly satisfying the most people, though still some are far enough into that camp that they'll still say "should have been 2D". Couldn't go all the way like that for various reasons, but they can do this with the character shader, and it won a lot of people over. I'm not diminishing your issue with it because it makes sense (it doesn't match the background), but I thought some insight as to why it is how it is might help. If nothing else, we know she'll be pretty customizable, so there may be ways to cover or darken the model to fit the atmosphere closer.

Sorry if this is overly long or doesn't make sense, I haven't slept much lol