Demo Graphics Downgrade

1. They have consistently shown far superior graphics in their updates. And they said nothing and then gave us a downgraded version.
That's... yeah, it might be an honest mistake, but ... it's still something of a violation of backer trust.

The thing about graphics is while indeed they should have lower priority, the game still has to look pleasant to the eyes. Accomplishing this doesn't require the latest graphical technology and techniques, just good art direction. I, just as you, grew up playing what we call now "old games", though in my case it was Super Nintendo, not the 8bit console. And I can say with confidence that if I boot up Castlevania Dracula X (yes, the bad Rondo of Blood port) or Super Mario World right now, the first thought that will cross my mind when the game starts will be "Well, for a 5th generation game, this doesn't look bad at all, in fact it's good!" and why's that? Because those games have good art direction, something that unfortunately the demo lacks heavily.

The problem with 3D graphics is that when it is badly done, it can look extremely generic and unpleasant to look at. Changing that involves clever usage of lightning, textures, colors and materials. Lightning, for example, is something the backers have been pointing out since early 2017, when the development updates with areas made by the new team were being rolled out. Lack of environment detail, bad usage of colors (or the lack of), all of them are things that we all have been complaining since the very early stages of development, yet we got a demo that looks worse despite our feedback. That's why we are worried. Yes I agree that gameplay is top priority, there is no good game out there that has bad gameplay and good graphics, the opposite being true however. But even still, when we already know that gameplay-wise and music-wise Bloodstained is in good hands, the next thing we should focus our attention is the art direction, because right now the game looks generic with extreme lack of polishment, save for the character models.

I hope it doesn't scare them into doing anything too drastic and setting them back on what they've worked on so far. I think minor adjustments would probably cut it, mostly like:

Improvement of color (dev update 8 village video vs current, entrance greys), but reduction in brightness and glossiness (castle in general, shiny effect on objects)

Moodier/foggier atmosphere with appropriate shadows as seen in some shots

The return/presence of procedural generation

Adjustment of character model appearance in menu and dialogue, to match cut scene Miriam's (which we have determined relates to in-engine mipmapping adjustments, a distance-based texel modification that can be adjusted)

I think those are the main things. Easier said than done and perhaps not altogether "minor", but me and many of the rest of us are just under the impression that some of these things are already planned/in there and were just disabled or not used for the demo for some reason.

 Yes...basically there are three issues here:

 1. The art direction for the castle and village segments. 
 2. Higher-detail textures and procedurally generated elements like the ones we saw in the preview builds
 3. Improved texture detail for the character models

Two of these issues also relate to improved lighting, as much of it appears to have been baked into the textures or produced through alpha-blending with lighting textures.

Point number 2 is the biggest issue for me. I guess how "minor" these changes are depends on what the reason was for them being dropped from the demo build in the first place. If they didn't make the rest of the assets at the same quality, then it's pretty major - in some aspects, possibly insurmountable, even. If they eliminated them temporarily to make adjustments to the engine and/or to optimize them, then the only thing to be done is review the art direction and increase the number/resolution of the mip maps; reviewing the art direction could perhaps be rather costly.

Regardless, I'm still hopeful.

I hope we'll still get some blowing curtains from open windows eventually, too. Though, right now, there are bigger matters to settle.

I'm not sure if that conveys the point well, and the game does genuinely look fantastic from a purely technical standpoint, but there are a few visual points throughout in general that sort of reduce the overall 'gloomy' aesthetic, even if I can't quite put my finger on it.