Topic: Was the Headless Pirate in CV3 supposed to flail his sword?

[TheouAegis]

The headless pirate attacks using sprite layouts 8:F2, 8:F4, and 8:F8. If you look at 8:F6 through the headless pirate, it just looks like a glitched sprite, since the sword is not aligned properly. But then I noticed the hand moves ever so slightly between those three frames while the body stays the same. And the more I focused on that hand, the more the sword's position started to make sense when viewed out of the periphery of my vision.

Other characters in gaming which fight a la fencing style often have either a rapid thrust or a flailing attack. As seen in the first image, maybe 8:F6 was originally part of a flail animation.

Or maybe it was supposed to wiggle like a door stopper. All I had to do to make the second animation was change 1 bit to flip the sword sprite. What if the sprite artist's software wasn't coded properly and the animation didn't work right, so they just said, "screw it," and skipped frame 8:F6?

[TheouAegis]

Here's a "better" animation. If you maintain the reversed animation order of the game -- 8:F2->8:F8->8:F6->8:F4 -- then it's less obvious but more natural looking (stiffer sword).

[TheouAegis]

Or if you go back and forth on it -- 8:F2->8:F8->8:F4->8:F6 -- then it looks like just a fuller swipe of the sword. Here's a gif of that one too.

Update: No more images, but if you go 8:F2->8:F6->8:F4->8:F8 then it looks like a downward thrust. Over all, I like how the headless pirate looks in these gifs more than in the game. Its attack animation just never sat well with me.

[Eric Roman]

That's interesting, I had always interpreted the slight wiggle in the animation as a subtle nuance, but considering the Special Attack Al pulls off with its Rapier in SotN, which you can sustain if you keep hitting the sword button, it rings of the wild thrust in your first example. 

Mayhaps you found something excised to make that holeful part of the game more tolerable? 

As much as it could have, Super CastleVania IV made no attempt to develop the detail; whichever direction it's facing, when Simon nears, the enemy's animation sequence just goes *BANG* to the stab. 

I love all of these things you're continuing to find about my favorite videogame. 

The bits and bytes stuff you're exploring may also relate how the march sequence of the Spear Knights is screwed up in our version, whereas their lower halves almost look like they're spinning (3-2-1-3-2-1).  I think in the Japanese it's the proper (1-2-3-2-1-2-3) sequence.

[zangetsu468]

He sliced through his own pixels so rapidly causing dead pixels 🗡️💫💥👾 ☠️

[Inccubus]

I love it when you bring bring these little details.

[Jelli]

He sliced through his own pixels so rapidly causing dead pixels 🗡️💫💥👾 ☠️

Offtopic, but what does the timeline in ur bio mean

[Eric Roman]

I figured it was a pretty solid way of interpreting the historical relationships between all these games that weren't exactly conceived to fit together.