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The Eternal Castle trailer - A hyper-stylized sci-fi Another World-inspired cinematic platformer, releasing January 5th, PC
- Thread starter More_Badass
- Start date
"cinematic platformer"
Sold.
I'm such a sucker for that genre, especially when the game has such style.
Sold.
I'm such a sucker for that genre, especially when the game has such style.
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RPS says the devs describe it as mostly scripted with different handcrafted room placements rather than entirely generated rooms
Procedural and cinematic platformer in the same sentence sounds almost like an oxymoron to me. I have difficulty imagining random events built for replayability capturing the essense of what makes a good cinematic platformer. It sounds much more like something to appeal to a modern audience that value length of playtime over quality.
We'll see how it turns out, but there's a reason the best cinematic platformers were short and had strict scripting.
EDIT: I suppose Impossible Mission would be a decent argument that it isn't impossible do to though, assuming we consider that an early part of the genre.
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Hey! I'm that RPS guy - just need to set an avatar, huh? I've not played enough to really see how the random elements work out, but it doesn't reset on death, and I don't think resetting the level changes anything either. I think it's just for added replay value after finishing it. When you die you can reset back to the last checkpoint or to the level select screen.
It feels very Another World, although its combat is a bit more forgiving thanks to your health bar. You can take a few hits and just outrun some enemies.
It feels very Another World, although its combat is a bit more forgiving thanks to your health bar. You can take a few hits and just outrun some enemies.
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Amazing sound! Thanks for sharing this as it wasn't anywhere near my radar.
I believe this is the artist responsible for the bulk of the music - Ogre Sound
I believe this is the artist responsible for the bulk of the music - Ogre Sound
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Have you played Sundered? Would you compare this to that?
A very different feel. Sundered felt like it was just an arbitrarily thrown-together platformer level with (wildly random) enemy placement. So far everything I've played feels scripted and hand-placed and the backdrops are very detailed. Enemies are pretty sparse too, and only appearing where they're narratively make sense to so far.
While there's some scrolling, there's flip-screen transitions as well - it feels like a grungy and decayed Another World, or some later CD-ROM era take on the genre (ala Heart Of Darkness, maybe?) but scaled down and palette-crunched until it fits into the old CGA DOS format.
The animation feels very detailed, smooth and modern. The palette is purely a stylistic thing.
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They've not listed any price yet. Guess we'll find out in two days - it's out this Saturday.
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Check out Dominic's impressions, it seems like it's that the runs are generated from handcrafted rooms and are set for a single playthrough. It's not rooms being generated and thrown together
User Warned: lazy devs rhetoric
Another interesting game fall into procedural level mechanic pit. It is ensure that experience isn't handcraft or pacing as developer intended but RNG which is a big turned off. Even some of them is handcrafted but it somehow show a little bit lazy and use that as excuse. I know that it is design choice but to me it felt that way that developer is too lazy to come up with cool level design.
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When games like Spelunky, Unexplored, etc exist, dismissing procedural generation at a glance seems odd, doubly so when the rationale is "the devs were probably just too lazy to design levels"
All of that sounds good indeed. I'm still interested, it's just that bespoke design promotes things like balanced flow, or storytelling and mood setting through structure. Procedural generation is always at a disadvantage on certain things, no matter how good its design. Everything else about this game looks fantastic though.
Lazy devs strike again! /s
Check out Spelunky, Unexplored, and Into the Breach for great examples of smart, well-designed procedural generation.
The worst part of procedural generation is the bemoaning of procedural generation.
Looks like CGA to me. The Speccy had 16 colours... although that does require you to count "bright black"
This looks really cool. I'm going to wait for more impressions due to the procedurally generated aspect, but really interested.
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It's probably just a joke. Kind of like what that Matt Hazard game did back in 2009.
This game is nice.
It reminds me a LOT of the oldschool Flashback game in both gameplay and level layouts.
It has the same somewhat sluggish movement animations as Flashback or maybe even Prince of Persia, which makes close combat a bit of a slugfest and platforming more challenging than it should be sometimes.
The visual style is incredibly well done, even with two or three color tones the world feels dirty and dystopian. Music is aces as well, the synthwave is used sparingly enough that it doesn't feel overwelcome.
It reminds me a LOT of the oldschool Flashback game in both gameplay and level layouts.
It has the same somewhat sluggish movement animations as Flashback or maybe even Prince of Persia, which makes close combat a bit of a slugfest and platforming more challenging than it should be sometimes.
The visual style is incredibly well done, even with two or three color tones the world feels dirty and dystopian. Music is aces as well, the synthwave is used sparingly enough that it doesn't feel overwelcome.
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So far so good. I've only done the tutorial and currently in the ruins as my first area. I'm loving the aesthetic, little details, and animations. For example, teleporting back to your ship is a painful moment of your body being disintegrated and reformed, then your character collapses to their knees, vomiting before getting back up. The aesthetic is simultaneously vivid and grungy; vibrant neon, shadows and lighting, yet the tech and environments feel faded and dense and decrepit. The movement has the weighty feel of Another World and other cinematic platformer (more Another World than Prince of Persia), and I'm finding the melee enjoyable. You have a surprising amount of moves too: attacks vary sprinting, rolling, crouching, jumping, etc.
So far traps have been signposted through visual/environmental cues, so I haven't encountered any egregiously trial-and-error moments yet. The pacing, at least for now, feels less like the "find the correct route" puzzler nature of Another World and more like Another World meets metroidvania-lite, since there are items to find, different weapons to collects, exploration to be done, regular checkpoints, and you have a decent-sized health bar
Looking forward to see more of this world and the different set-pieces
My main issue right now is a technical one: framerate. It might be a issue on my end, but I'm not sure. The tutorial area ran smoothly, but the framerate took a hit once I started the main ruins area.
So far traps have been signposted through visual/environmental cues, so I haven't encountered any egregiously trial-and-error moments yet. The pacing, at least for now, feels less like the "find the correct route" puzzler nature of Another World and more like Another World meets metroidvania-lite, since there are items to find, different weapons to collects, exploration to be done, regular checkpoints, and you have a decent-sized health bar
Looking forward to see more of this world and the different set-pieces
My main issue right now is a technical one: framerate. It might be a issue on my end, but I'm not sure. The tutorial area ran smoothly, but the framerate took a hit once I started the main ruins area.
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My laptop specs are Intel i7-7700, quad-core 2.8GHz, GeForce GTX 1050
Not sure what the game engine is
I'm stuck on the guy who tells me how many fates I've changed. Funnily enough, he's single-handedly responsible for doubling the number. I can't beat him and I can't go back the way I came without splatting.
Am I supposed to just whack at him? I really regret dropping the axe for the mace, it seems much worse.
Am I supposed to just whack at him? I really regret dropping the axe for the mace, it seems much worse.