Bloodstained News: 37 - Miriam and IGA - in Motion

You've played previous Igavania's right? Did they bug you that they didn't have combos? It sounds like a huge bummer to you but I'd imagine people who've played these games for a long time probably wouldn't care that it didn't have combos.

See that context makes me understand your point of view more. You only played one Igavania game and you're more into 3d games, so that makes sense why you'd want a combo system. Whereas a lot of fans here in more cases than not have played many Igavania's so the suggestion of a combo system is sacrilege:p


Context is everything. 

It seems that there are a lot of particle effects coming off of Miriam's back from the crystal flower there. We just can't see them all on the grid map due to the lack of a dark background. Extra flowing garments and so forth may not be needed once we see how well the particles leave a trail behind her.

Yeah iga mentioned the ribbons but i bet the rom he got had them disabled or detached, well see them in time, but i do like the sparkles coming off the crystal, its really nice

As for max, i think having a sort of 1-2 (possibly 3 or 4 for powerful weapons) punch where its a simple animation flow as opposed to the branching combo trees most combo systems have could be an interesting way to help differentiate weapons within a category without bogging down the combat, like for miriams kick a later weapon has her do a straight kick and if you press the button again quickly you now get a heel drop instead of the straight kick again but the damage, attack cooldown, and hitbox doesnt change from the initial attack of that weapon

I wonder why there is a gap between the red bar (HP I assume) and the blue bar (MP I assume). That seems like wasted space unless a third bar is going to appear between them (maybe like an unlocked ability or something)? If not I feel it would probably be better if the two bars were closer to together to save some screen real estate.


Unless you have a quote from IGA or someone else behind the development of SOTN, a lot of this comes off as conjecture (floatiness vs inhumanity). We know the shadow trail was added to Alucard to highlight his half-vampire nature (I think the SOTN Let's Play with Double Fine confirmed this but I don't have the time to double check that right now) but I've never heard that tied to any other aspects of his weight or movement speed. Even if you want to make that assessment, Miriam is currently no less human than Soma or Shanoa who were both mage-knights with magical aspects to their bodies. So I don't think that justification works well here. Since there is no real world corollary to compare here, you can narratively justify increased speed or weight just as easily as decreased speed or weight. Heck, if you wanted to, since crystal is more dense than human flesh, you could maybe even make an argument for a slower walk/run speed but a faster fall speed At the end of the day, what should matter most is that she is fun to control. I'm not saying that isn't true of the current incarnation (since none of us have played it) and it will be important to make sure each of the three playable characters feel different to control,  but I would prioritize gameplay considerations then narrative considerations for designing character movesets.

Of course, this whole conversation assumes she's actually a little slow/floaty and not just that we are perceiving her to be like this. I'm still uncertain which it is which at this point. I know my experience in fighting games tells me gamers tend to think games are slower pre-release than they actually are.

Anti-aliasing is something that should not be added during the current stage of the development. Since it's a filter, it can be added easily after they're done making the backgrounds, light effects and the overall atmosphere

cool, been so busy i hadnt had the chance to watch it on my pc so i hadnt noticed the skirt clips, but physics engines rarely work right off the bat so not surprised at the vibrating butt clip >P

even at 30 in hd the animations are turning out really well, after seeing it again i still only have the few tweaks that are likely already on the table or frames that got dropped in encode, like giving her a frame or two of coiling at the start of a jump so it gives her the perception of putting more force behind it and some kind of 'ledgegrab' ducking frame for going through floors, for falling maybe use the keyframe just before the full curl for short falls and the full curl for long falls combined with the classic impact crouch?

those combined with the eventual sfx and stage decor and this thingll move like a dream

also, when i was thinking about combos earlier i had an idea off a couple things mentioned, theres weapons that advance you a step like the estoc, how could an attack type like that be used with different weapons like rapiers or an advancing spin kick? in any case, im in love with the umbrella/katana swing, you get the iaido strike, and depending on the katana that 'guard' stance iga moves into could be swapped for a chiburi before going back to ready stance, may be a good move for a bloodthirsty or aggressive blade ^3^

I'm satisfied with Miriam's animation and look so the only thing I worry about are the stages themselves.

Re: combos, I mean...I'm certainly a fan of combos, I've traveled for fighting games for over 10 years now, but the manner in which they have been presented in similar games can kind of hinder the design of an Igavania. Weapon/spell variety is the aim rather than fewer weapons with more skills/attacks, with presumably this game allowing you to fashion stronger/create newer weapons even further from what you have. It's a variety of broad gameplay options as opposed to focused combat.

However, what these games do and should have are special attacks unique to that weapon. After executing the motion, the weapon does do a multi-hit attack more often than not, and this technically is a combo. Taking that a step farther, maybe the special attack can be canceled into from your normal attack, and that special attack canceled into a crystal spell. There could be more options from that. Instead of adding in combo paths, there could be cancel windows that allow somewhat freeform attack options that use resources.

Some weapons in SotN had 1 special, some had 2, and a couple had several. Just the variety and possible interaction/buffing possible from the game's other crystal/alchemy/spell system should give everyone a fun, unique gameplay experience to experiment with.