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Ys IX: Monstrum Nox - First PS4 Gameplay Showing Fast Traversal, Flight, and More
- Thread starter stryke
- Start date
The scale of everything in the city is far too big for the people who live there. It looks weird.
With Falcom it would be all hands on deck. They don't have the numbers to do big multiple projects at once.
What's more likely is a small group is doing pre-production work on trails and after they finish ys 9, the majority will join on that project.
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Don't feel like you're overreacting a little?
All they showed was traversal in a town. And like 10 seconds of combat
The freedom of movement could be great for some creative bosses and platforming/puzzles.
Graphics look pretty bad though
1000% wrong. It was a big deal for them to break 50 two years ago, and they're at ~55 now (spread across 3 teams).
Also, the company president recently addressed the visual aspect of their projects:
Kondo: We're aware of our weaknesses in the graphics department, as it's been pointed out when we've participated in events in various countries. In Trails of Cold Steel III, we increased the quality of our models. And while we're using motion capture in some areas in Ys IX, I also want to increase the quality more than before. When getting information on games, what first catches my eyes are graphics and illustrations, so I want to treat this as a future challenge.
However, I would like to say this for the honor of Falcom's employees. They aren't slacking off. Trails of Cold Steel concluded with the fourth title, but they created four games over the course of five years. There is almost no other company in the Japanese games industry that can continue to release 50 to 80-hour RPGs at that pace. For example, if we made CG movies over the course of two years, we would be able to achieve higher quality. But even so, at around 20 hours, the Trails series' event scenes are far from two hours long. The staff naturally wants to increase the quality, but considering the release period of the Trails series and trying to deliver the games as quickly as possible, we have to make a compromise somewhere along the line. If we're working while also raising the quality, we probably wouldn't finish in our lifetimes.
Can see more stuff he said from the same interview at Gematsu.
I didn't finish ys8 cause I got bored, and this already has two things I find extremely concerning
1) shitty adol friends
2) large open areas only large to fad chase
They definitely are, across genres.
If you want a formerly niche franchise to break into mainstream, production value seems to play a bigger role than making the game "casual friendly".
Of course, this doesn't mean every game needs to be on the cutting edge. But having an appealing art direction goes a long way to make your titles more immediately alluring for a new audience.
How do you know it's to "fad chase". If you have a bunch of fancy movement abilities then it makes sense to have larger spaces. And the forest area was more contained.
Was gonna say...not even MMO towns have that few pedestrians.
This shit looks terrible.
I understand Falcom is a small developer and all, but man. This is the fruits of not doing anything but PSP and Vita games for over 10 years. This game looks like their employees have never in their lives attempted to improve their technical know-how.
I understand Falcom is a small developer and all, but man. This is the fruits of not doing anything but PSP and Vita games for over 10 years. This game looks like their employees have never in their lives attempted to improve their technical know-how.
Until they prove otherwise it looks like the same nonsense flowmotion was in kh 3d. Areas were made larger to accomidate the new abilities but weren't filled with anything that is actually fun to explore or find.
Pokemon definitely improved the visual over the years. Not to mention its main audience was always on handheld platforms (then again, it's not like Nintendo/Gamefreak ever gave it a fair chance on home consoles).
No, this is the fruits of being an incredibly small studio that still produces a lot of games on a constant basis.
HA!
YsVIII alone is a bigger jump in gameplay and visuals than anything Pokemon has done.
I always liked the Ys games a lot, gameplay wise, but I'm not sure why this bullshit excuse is even attempted.
There are literally four-men indie teams that did far better than that when it comes to production value (i.e. Legend of Grimrock, just to mention one).
This looks like something developed by someone who learned to make games 20 years ago and managed somehow to remain completely isolated from the rest of the industry and its progress in tech.
"That still produces a lot of games on a constant basis".
I think, as Kondo says in the interview excerpt above, it's mostly a result of trying to turn these games around fast so that they can keep putting out a game each year. If they allowed for a longer development time they could put more emphasis on trying to improve the visual quality, but so reducing the quantity of their output would make it more difficult for Falcom as an independent studio to stay in business.
People are not wrong that the visual roughness of Falcom's games will limit their international appeal - Kondo pretty much admits as much by mentioning that complaints about their visual quality happen primarily when they go to events in other countries. But unless someone is willing to come in and bankroll them to put out nothing for a long time, I doubt they really have a better feasible course of action right now. People mentioning the one-man indie projects that look better are not factoring in that projects such as Return of the Obra Dinn or The Witness take years to make, years that Falcom doesn't really have the luxury of taking.
The biggest difference is that those indie teams don't have to release a 40+ hour game every year to keep their company afloat, and probably sell way more (just quickly checked, The Legend of Grimrock sold 600k a year after launch, while Ys VIII, which iirc is the best selling Ys game, passed 500k after close to three years, over three platforms >.<).
Is that really a valid arguement when these indie games are developed by a much smaller staff than Falcom's? I wonder how long development would take if they had access to a constant 20+ staff of developers. This game just looks extremely bland and technically/aesthetically inept. Falcom should actually look to some indie games as inspiration for a more interesting technical aesthetic. I look at Tunic and Solar Ash Kingdom and the difference is just abysmal. This game just looks like asset creation and rendering for these people hasn't changed at all since the PS2 days. It's kind of endearing in its own way I guess. But I don't think actually think it has much to do with production schedules or the number of their staff, I think their staff responsible just doesn't have know-how or capabilities to do any better. I read the interview excerpt above, and the guy talks about cut-scenes and motion capture rather than anything else. Nobody cares about that stuff.
I feel kinda bad slagging on Falcom tbh, but still...
It's a classic Ys song, To Make The End of Battle.
What Indie Dev is releasing a title every year? Of the same or greater quality? Falcon does this with 50 freaking people. I'm not giving them crap for graphics when they are literally the only developer that can release games with meat every year. Quite frankly this waiting 5 years for sequels crap is played out for me.
Also, because of the kind of game Legend of Grimrock is (first-person dungeon crawler), its developers don't really have to worry about character modelling and animation the same way Falcom does. Scaling back the level of technical ambition in the kind of game Falcom makes, so as to reduce the load on their modelers and animators, would be a way for them to make it more feasible to make attractive games, although giving up the kind of game they're used to and known for making would be a risk in itself.
You should take a look at the games Falcom was making in the PS2 days (eg, Ys VI). They did not look like this.
Movement looks fantastic. So many new options: wall running, flight, grapple jumps.
I'm super excited for this.
I'm super excited for this.
I am so all about this. For a Falcom game it looks great, and I can't wait for it. I really hope that the wait for it to release in the West is shorter this time around. I can't wait to sink my teeth into it!
Why? UE4 has a "60 fps" button that automatically optimize their code?
Their art direction has never been good. I think this is an issue with all of their game, and 3D makes the problem more obvious.
I have no issue with subpar visual, but the art direction in the footage is quite bad.
Falcom needs to find other direction than just do this terrible 3d take.
Why not do 2d? It's not like that prevents Octopath from outselling pretty much every single Falcom's games in the last 5 years :/
Falcom needs to find other direction than just do this terrible 3d take.
Why not do 2d? It's not like that prevents Octopath from outselling pretty much every single Falcom's games in the last 5 years :/
Well, Falcom's engines are not really known for their good performance.
Game is looking great and Adol with that grapple in the last video looks great. Just give me more of Ys 8 and I'll be a happy man. I don't mind the game looking like it does as long as the their stable combat is in with what I always expect to be a fantastic OST. What we don't get on one front we get everywhere else.
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I thought it looked pretty good. I'm also not seeing any heavily fanservicey designs, so I might just pick this up when it comes out.
As for the town, yeah, it is what it is. Falcom struggled to get basically every Sen no Kiseki game running without major slowdown, so it's not a surprise that they would fail to put more NPCs on the map.
jett Falcom was basically producing PS1 JRPGs up until 2010, complete with low resolution sprites on low geometry backgrounds. They moved to 3D with Ys SEVEN, but it was a real struggle for them to get the Kiseki series up to speed. They've since created models that now look comparable to that from the Tales series in Sen III & IV, but they really struggle with performance. Whatever they're doing is just not efficient, and perhaps it's that lack of know how that's contributing here.
They're also releasing games at a pace they should not be releasing them at, with a volume level that is absurd for the modern era. They should actually cut their games back, or at least the Kiseki series. The degree of sacrifices that they're making just don't seem to be worth it.
They didn't use an internal engine for Sen I and II. I'd imagine III and IV are the same.
As for the town, yeah, it is what it is. Falcom struggled to get basically every Sen no Kiseki game running without major slowdown, so it's not a surprise that they would fail to put more NPCs on the map.
jett Falcom was basically producing PS1 JRPGs up until 2010, complete with low resolution sprites on low geometry backgrounds. They moved to 3D with Ys SEVEN, but it was a real struggle for them to get the Kiseki series up to speed. They've since created models that now look comparable to that from the Tales series in Sen III & IV, but they really struggle with performance. Whatever they're doing is just not efficient, and perhaps it's that lack of know how that's contributing here.
They're also releasing games at a pace they should not be releasing them at, with a volume level that is absurd for the modern era. They should actually cut their games back, or at least the Kiseki series. The degree of sacrifices that they're making just don't seem to be worth it.
They didn't use an internal engine for Sen I and II. I'd imagine III and IV are the same.
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The traversal looks really cool, also you can tell the visuals have improved a lot. I'm excited, Falcom has yet to make a bad game
But if falling behind more and more means they end up selling less and less each year, they could eventually put themselves in a position where because they kept doing what it safe for business (annual releases, sicking to what they think core fans want, etc) they start to lose more and more of that audience without gaining any new ones because their games just look like poopoo.
Anyway, can't say I'm very interested in this. Ys has been a turnoff for me ever since they introduced the party system and this looks like more bullshit gimmicks rather than giving me the Adol action game I want.
I really don't think the modest visuals are a problem, the audience doesn't seem to care about that. I know I don't.
Speaking about Falcom's pace, is a nice change of pace for me to be honest. In a generation where studios take years to release a single game, is cool that there still exist developers that can create multiple titles while still maintaining the quality across the board.
Could Falcom's games look better if they were given longer development times? Sure, but I'm not willing to let their efficiency in release go for that.
Could Falcom's games look better if they were given longer development times? Sure, but I'm not willing to let their efficiency in release go for that.
if you want to compare ys game to an another game, make a fair one
tHiS GaMe lOoKs lIkE A Ps2 GaMe
like this
a one man game.
Here's my two cents on it.
1. The graphics are not appealing in that trailer - but it's worth nothing that this isn't some sexy marketing trailer or something. It's more likely than not just an existing game build where they are testing out the player movement in the environment they've made. Nobody should be expecting a visual miracle from the final product, but in terms of world/town density, and graphics - I fully expect it to be a more polished package closer to how Sen 3/4 looks by the September.
It's like the recent before/after of Bloodstained visually. The core of the game's graphical fidelity and look/feel remain the same, but the little graphical polishes make a lot of difference in things like lighting and texture.
2. I agree that Falcom's games don't look great. But honestly rather than fidelity - I'd say their biggest issue and what they need to address is really more so their current art direction. If we look at the overall level of asset fidelity in games like Sen/TX/Ys, it's not like they are low-res low effort work. But they struggle to translate their concept art into a good looking 3D game as they have a tendecy to go for the muddy-looking texture work, which looks like their old top-down games just converted to 3D.
For example , other than animation and cutscene direction, I wouldn't say Falcom's asset quality as a whole, from a technical and production standpoint - is inferior in polycount and work as say, Kingdom Hearts 1. But KH1, just like Persona 5/etc knows how to translate a strong visual look for their games into something striking and 'timeless-ish' whereas Falcom just struggles to really nail that aspect.
1. The graphics are not appealing in that trailer - but it's worth nothing that this isn't some sexy marketing trailer or something. It's more likely than not just an existing game build where they are testing out the player movement in the environment they've made. Nobody should be expecting a visual miracle from the final product, but in terms of world/town density, and graphics - I fully expect it to be a more polished package closer to how Sen 3/4 looks by the September.
It's like the recent before/after of Bloodstained visually. The core of the game's graphical fidelity and look/feel remain the same, but the little graphical polishes make a lot of difference in things like lighting and texture.
2. I agree that Falcom's games don't look great. But honestly rather than fidelity - I'd say their biggest issue and what they need to address is really more so their current art direction. If we look at the overall level of asset fidelity in games like Sen/TX/Ys, it's not like they are low-res low effort work. But they struggle to translate their concept art into a good looking 3D game as they have a tendecy to go for the muddy-looking texture work, which looks like their old top-down games just converted to 3D.
For example , other than animation and cutscene direction, I wouldn't say Falcom's asset quality as a whole, from a technical and production standpoint - is inferior in polycount and work as say, Kingdom Hearts 1. But KH1, just like Persona 5/etc knows how to translate a strong visual look for their games into something striking and 'timeless-ish' whereas Falcom just struggles to really nail that aspect.
Maybe large environments are fine for the long-simmering heavy worldbuilding of Trails instead of Ys' fightin' and rockin' out given the small size of Falcom
It is always time To Make An End of Battle.
Ys VIII was amazing so I'm not remotely worried. Movement looks great.
Everything else has time to come together.
Everything else has time to come together.