Topic: The first sign rises with the full moon.

[zangetsu468]

I love them both to death.

Or... To ZED... 

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Or... To ZED... 

Totally upvoting for a terrible pun. 

[KaZudra]

Totally upvoting for a terrible pun. 

We can go Deeper.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

We can go Deeper.

No image. 403 Forbidden.

You villain.

[zangetsu468]

403 Forbidden.

http://www.castlevaniadungeon.net/Images/Weird/SotN/verboten.jpg

[e105beta]

You guys expecting an Igarashi game to feature

- Thoughtful story
- gameplay innovation

Are in for a though awakening. You're getting cheap Dawn of Sorrow, at best. The man is a one trick pony.

Hey, I liked Dawn of Sorrow.

I think Bloodstained will end up feeling a lot like OoE from an atmosphere/narrative standpoint, which isn't revolutionary or anything, but it's not bad by any means. I just think it's a bit of a shame that they haven't gotten the game as close to this:

(click to show/hide)

as I would like.

[Laina]

well the village criticisms could get them to improve it .

Castlevania II still has the greatest open world and town systems in the series.  and they didn't need a OoE fast travel map to connect the world,

it even has realtime day/night cycles that effect town and also enemies outside.   yea OoE had more indepth socializing, but it was awkward having to fill the empty village with captured villagers.   it fit for the plot, though CVII didn't need that drama to provide multiple towns with people living there.  it really was the Castlevania World of the series in a sense.

You know, you're the first person I have personally encountered to share this viewpoint with me. CVII had flaws of course, but it also had some really great bits that made it stand out among its CV bretheren, even to this day, such as early world building. It felt more engrossing for us to be able to see the people & homes Simon had risked it all to protect. Well, to me anyway. Granted, this wasn't some terribly deep character development, but for 1988, on the NES, it wasn't bad. I was tickled that they revisited this bit with OoE & had more socializing along with the "morning sun vanquishing the horrible night" throwback. The original line from CVII is actually the engraving on the back of my tablet. :3

[XombieMike]

Bloodstained community manager Mana had this to say in response to the collected feedback about the village update.

Hi everyone! It's been a while since we shared the new environment and I've been going back and forth with the team on the topic matter. Thank you for the all feedback as always.

Although the environments we shared are work-in-progress, they are roughly 80% complete. This is the kind of look and feel the final product will have. We would not share a half-baked progress for backers to give feedback, so to brush off the concerns with, “It’s still an unfinished piece” is unnecessary. If you have a concern and have an idea that may rectify the problem, we are open to suggestions. However, IGA and the team are fully aware of their preferences and when it comes to balancing the visual graphics and the overall gameplay, they will decide where to push and pull on the quality. I’m going to share what we’ve been discussing and the changes that are planned.


Missing Features

Before I get into the changes, there are certain features that are missing in the village screenshot and video we shared. One is the breakable candles. As you can see in the beginning of the area, there’s a space on the top left corner where the candle should be. I believe it wasn’t included due to some adjustments that didn’t make it in time. The candles act as a partial light sources if you take that into consideration. Another is the reflection capture. The reflection capture, as it may be obvious from the name, reflects light sources on a given surface. This gives the nice reflective light on the ground and adds metallic or wet look to certain areas. This enhances the overall look, but for some reason, the roofs blinded us with glittery gold effect and we had to put it off until it was tweaked. Other missing features include enemies and NPCs, but our purpose is to only share the new environment on its own.


Visual vs. Gameplay

There’s been a long debate on which to prioritize – the visual graphics or the gameplay. As much as we would like to balance both equally, sometimes improving one aspect could hinder the other. For example, almost all Castlevania games have bright foregrounds which are shades lighter than the backgrounds – Platforms are easily visible and has a classic Castlevania look. On the other hand, this could look very artificial and ruin the atmospheric vibe of the game – “stage/indoor” look, light source is unnatural, and unrealistic. We’ll need to choose and decide what we all agree on in terms of both visibility and aesthetics.


Changes

Roof platforms will be emphasized differently. They will look more horizontal and flatter where Miriam will land. Thickness will be added to the edge so that it will not look like she is landing on a piece of paper.
Doors, carts, bricks on the houses will change colors – We all agreed that they were too blended in. Textures may be overly used.
The moon sun will look more like a sun.

Unfortunately, the house structures are too expensive to change at this process (Thanks Tom Happ for chiming in on the KS comment section!). I suggested making the tree leaves greener and it actually helped lessen the attention to the boxy feel.
Another suggestion was to remove the red reflection on the ground.

I may be forgetting something but I'll pop up again if I have anything to add. Cheers

Personally, graphics are not a big deal to me. It must be tough to try and please everyone. I want this game to succeed not only with the hearts of IGA fans, but also in today's game market.

[zangetsu468]

Personally, graphics are not a big deal to me. It must be tough to try and please everyone. I want this game to succeed not only with the hearts of IGA fans, but also in today's game market.

Same, completely agree. I'd rather enemies and Miriam move fluidly, and for Miriam to play tightly than the developers spending copious amounts of time on the environments. As long as the environments have a cool concept and don't look like a dog's breakfast, that's fine by me.

[Dremn]

I think the village looks fine, the color scheme reminded me a lot of Simon's Quest town areas. I assume IGA and the team are taking readability into account which is why the color is a little faded so Miriam pops out more

It seems like development on this game is going very slow, I wonder how much has been done so far. We haven't really seen any castle areas yet besides that one hallway with portraits

[zangetsu468]

I think the village looks fine, the color scheme reminded me a lot of Simon's Quest town areas. I assume IGA and the team are taking readability into account which is why the color is a little faded so Miriam pops out more

It seems like development on this game is going very slow, I wonder how much has been done so far. We haven't really seen any castle areas yet besides that one hallway with portraits

Imho they will not be ready by the start of 2018. Final Quarter if we're lucky.

[XombieMike]

I agree about the timing. That won't bother me too much though. I think once they release the beta and start gathering feedback an announcement will be made that they want to take a bit longer to incorporate some feedback. That's all speculation of course. Although, they had made a lot more progress with the E3 Demo than I thought they had. That was a pleasant surprise.

The only thing I fear about a delay is the negative press that comes along with it. Not everyone can be expected to be as patient as myself. Of course, not everyone put multiple hundreds of dollars into supporting it though. I want it to be as good as possible, so however long it takes is however long it takes.

Anyways, it's cool hearing about the Runic Forge tier backers getting to design their weapons now. I hope they feel their money was well spent. I certainly appreciate those who are so passionate about IGA's games that they can back it like that.

[zangetsu468]

The only thing I fear about a delay is the negative press that comes along with it. Not everyone can be expected to be as patient as myself. Of course, not everyone put multiple hundreds of dollars into supporting it though. I want it to be as good as possible, so however long it takes is however long it takes.

I'm actually not a very patient person by nature. I specifically did not buy a Wii U because I knew there'd be no Zelda until around now, I'm not into pre-ordering games for the same reason. However, BS was one game I really wanted to back to keep Iga making these sorts of games, because I really believe given the right amount of time and money he can do it well. Even if its a one hit wonder and doesn't become a longterm franchise, it will have kept the fans together and the developers of such games employed to make something which is hopefully very successful. Castlevania is one thing I've always been passionate about and at this point its truest living successor will be BS, so even people like me can get behind this.

[KaZudra]

So... When will IGAVANIA return?

[XombieMike]

So... When will IGAVANIA return?

If you're asking when Bloodstained will release, IGA is shooting for the first half of 2018. There is more information Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuTZMMsUwY4