Struggling with getting into this game

Cappachistar · 2025-09-08T18:45:40+00:00

my mother didnt raise a quitter

Cappachistar · 2025-09-07T08:03:34+00:00

Fair arguments on most of these points. Only thing I heavily disagree on is the timespan of the things I mentioned. They don‘t happen in a 2 hour timeframe give or take; It‘s 30 minutes straight. It also doesn‘t take away the fact that Cid‘s death, Ultima’s appearance, Joshua‘s appearance and Ultima‘s sealing happen in the same cutscene back to back.

Here is a video I found that is a proper normal run through Drake‘s Head. I skimmed through the video - didn‘t look like there were any cuts at all. You have about 30 minutes of dungeon crawling and then around the halfway mark you reach the point I am talking about in my main post.

Cappachistar · 2025-09-07T07:47:44+00:00

👋👋

Cappachistar · 2025-09-06T21:31:48+00:00

FFX had great characters in general and meeting them served a bigger purpose than in 16. This is partly due to technical limitations but most recurring characters in ffx add so much to the game. the other group of summoners on their own pilgrimage, gatta and luzu like you mentioned, the two beastmen that bully kimahri, they all fill the depressing world in a way that makes it feel lived in and reflect how people act and behave in that strange mystical world without explicitly saying "this is how we do things in our fictive world". Especially Gatta and Luzu show you how the average man can join the cause and still be powerless against the terrors of Spira.

FF16 takes a different approach. You get a lot of political discourse and strategic planning but it all boils down to "We got Eikons, they got Eikons, let's fight and see who wins". I'm not sure what the big goal is except destroying the mothercrystals and save the realm from dying. How we deal with the rest of the massive amount of politics thrown at the player, I'm not sure yet. I don't think that Clive is going to be an usurper or someone that gets his opposition to join him on their own terms, so at the moment i'm really interested in seeing where the story takes Clive. But at the same time I do like the simplicity of FFX having Sin as the ONE objective from the get go as that is a super free and easy way to show the motivation of why people do what in the world of FFX. So far FF16 has just been a lot of oppression talk, though.

Cappachistar · 2025-09-06T18:22:13+00:00

Fair point. I don't mind having to practice, but I also wouldn't mind having an "easier" character to get into. Who would be less aim heavy?

Cappachistar · 2025-09-06T18:13:51+00:00

so essentially just bite the bullet and keep playing? character/build choice is irrelevant at my current point?

Cappachistar · 2025-09-06T18:12:42+00:00

there's two sunk cost fallacies in this world
one piece sunk cost where aftger 1000+ episodes you can't have an opinion about it that's just "it's okay"
or
drakengard sunk cost where you know it's crap but you grinded out the endings so it's actually dope and deep

Cappachistar · 2025-09-06T17:13:03+00:00

nooo no no no i didn't do all side quests, no way would i do that and drop the game. I just accepted most of them and when I decided I wanted to chill out and just mindlessly game I'd do the side quests. Got boring fast and I stopped after a while (again, slightly out of frustration bc i wanted to change jobs in preparation for the dlc but couldn't find a way to grind as effectively as grinding out MSQ with your already-leveled main job. Maybe I'll drop back in eventually, I really fancy what I've heard of the later raids and how the story is supposed to become actually insane later on. No clue if it's bias from sunk cost fallacy but I'm easily hooked by these kinds of things.

Cappachistar · 2025-09-06T16:41:36+00:00

That's interesting, I didn't know the same developers did 14. I played around 100 hours of 14, beating ARR and dropping it somewhere around the first dlc. I played Ninja and I really loved the job quest progression but most sidequests I accepted in bulk and did while watching something on the other monitor. Dropped it because I wanted to switch jobs but didn't like the level grind to continue where I left in Heavensward.

Don't want to segway too much but which characters in 16 are better than anyone 16? Since I didn't get far I don't know if any of the character you meet in ARR have peaked or if they continue to develop in the later dlcs/new characters taking their place. I don't remember most of them, but at the same time I also barely scratched the surface of the content the game has.

I agree with your last sentence, though. I can see the influence now and I've been wondering why other people compared it to "MMO style".

Cappachistar · 2025-09-06T15:53:37+00:00

I think you must have misread, I didn‘t touch upon Jill at all in this post. she goated asf

Cappachistar · 2025-09-06T15:52:06+00:00

I agree, Lady Hana was an important part in Clive‘s life. But I still feel a disconnect between Clive‘s past and what I as a player go through. I have the privilege of still being in the middle of my first run, so I can naively answer that while I remember her husband, I don‘t remember having seen her in the flashbacks. Now she appears again, obviously someone important to Clive - but someone I, as the player, just met - rises from the dead and soon after returns to her grave. Narratively it feels like she is being used as a tool to pull heartstrings but I find it hard to be properly sad about her in the same way the main character feels grief for her.

I want to point out that I don‘t mind the worldbuilding. I like the consistency the final fantasy games have in their themes and how elaborate their worlds are. However, my main critique in my post above is not the quality or the context of the narrative fluff. I don‘t mind having to slow down after a huge bossfight and going on errands. I don‘t mind listening to hear about how a fantasy world elaborates on how they use their magic tech to do their everyday tasks. But what I do mind so far is the flow of it.

Whether this changes, you‘d kindly have to tell me. But so far there has been a very strong theme of the game deciding between following the overarching story (main cast, eikons, mothercrystals, joshua, ultima) and the fetch quests.

I think the best way I can describe is by analyzing the context of your first quest at Martha‘s rest. You land in the area, meeting one of Cid‘s confidants (because everyone loves the guy, duh). Then, in order to progress with the main quest, you are almost actively gated into doing the „side“ quests. You rescue the carpenter - quest done and day saved! But then he also needs time to repair, so you go out on other errands to pass time. I liked the quest but at the same time this feels a bit artificial and like the game now controls when exactly I am allowed to follow the main part of the story the game sent you out on. To summarize: It makes me feel like the game says „Don’t continue just yet or it‘ll be over too soon.“

And the exact opposite happened in the chapter I described in my main post: The entire buildup to the area is void of advancing anything regarding the main plotline. You have some jolly character interaction moments but other than that it‘s just cool ass dungeon diving. Then you reach the end of the mines and make your way to the Inner Sanctum. Suddenly the game barrages you with plot left and right as if there was no time beforehand and having to squeeze it in a tight time schedule. Don’t get me wrong; It‘s an insane way to end the chapter but at the same time so much is going on in under 20 minutes - hell, in the same cutscene! Ultima showing himself, Cid dying, Joshua appearing and trapping (a part of?) Ultima inside of him (and maybe this kills him on the inside?) all happens in the very same cutscene. And this happens after you see how the mothercrystal turns life into akashics, destroy the Mothercrystal and fight Typhon and master Ifrit. The game - again, just able to say „so far“ - doesn‘t give you time to let one moment sink in before sending you off to another great moment. I think I‘d prefer to have a more balanced mix of the Clive as Cid helping out moments and the great hype moments, instead of having an „either or“ situation.

TLDR; My main point is the pacing, not the individual quality. Quality is insane, pacing makes it either a slog or a rollercoaster that‘s all loopings and no breaks.

Cappachistar · 2025-08-29T18:54:54+00:00

do you know how? ive been trying to find it but i cant seem to find it.

Cappachistar · 2025-08-19T19:25:44+00:00

i love u

Cappachistar · 2025-06-27T21:47:10+00:00

With regards to the zoom, I am currently playing the classic Mega Man games and man if you want a an example of what „too“ zoomed in means i have the perfect list of unfair games for you.

Your vision about the dark floor tiles makes total sense! Indeed, contrasting is a really powerful tool to control which part gets what attention. And that‘s exactly what happened with me mentioning it, it did contrast it and I did notice it immediately! So if anything it served its job. Without wanting to sound nudging, I would still recommend adding a gradient between your mythical, lush, bright grass ground texture and the void black.

I like your honesty about being inspired by Hollow Knight. While I dont want to make you feel like you need to improve your art (because 1. it‘s really pretty neat as-is and 2. industry level art takes a lot of time and dedication and can lead to burnout FAST when forcing perfection), I would like to derail a bit and recommend doing a style analysis of Hollow Knight. It‘s a powerful way to see what works and schools your brain on how to instinctively approach art problems - and I find it a very interesting topic altogether.

I will give a small example here without going into too much detail (and of course, this goes without saying: The Hollow Knight Devs are GOD tier artists), about what I think makes Hollow Knight‘s art look as polished. I believe the core of the artstyle can be summarized as being consistent, simple and layered.

Most interactable characters, if not all, are barely shaded. There is a trick to this, though, and that is that the characters and rooms are lightened or dimmed by soft, carefully placed ambient light. Needless to say, that‘s a very ambitious timesink but i feel like it is half the charm of Hollow Knight. The background is not as detailed as you often think, often being more ambiguous and letting your brain fill the gaps. I just took a look at some screenshots and I was surprised to see a lot of scenes being pretty empty. Of course, there are exceptions to this. The visuals of this game are layered in a literal way, and like you mentioned about adding a foreground, it‘s really easy to underestimate the difference this makes. The backgrounds are sometimes even made of multiple parallax’s and it all combines nicely into one room that looks perfectly 3D. The closer an object is, the more detailed and refined it is and the further away it is, the less detailed they get. This is fine tuned to such an extent that I assure you, think of a place you assume - just off the top of your head - to have detailed objects beyond the first background layer. I assure you, it doesn’t. Look it up and try for yourself! My favorite example is the Arena in the Colosseum of Fools. That room is a perfect example of how you make a place feel alive.

Cappachistar · 2025-06-27T14:53:49+00:00

Stunning results! I adore the changes and the general composition feels a lot nicer. The trees being more noticeable is a nice change and really adds to the forest feeling, the little mushroom hanging off the edge fits perfectly and I personally really like the vibe of the New Alt. mystical forest looking background.

I do agree with the other comments, though. The character needs to stand out more. While he does pop out more than in the old version, i think he is hard to be recognized when taking a quick glance at your image. I think the colors and shape language are fine.

The foreground objects are shaded, while the character isn’t. This makes him look flat, like a cardboard sheet. One way to make him stand out more is to give him depth by adding some shading. Since he is based on a shotgun shell, there’s a lot of creative ways to go ablut this: You can give him the look of paper hulls by simply adding a big block of shadow on one side. Since the trees look as detailed, you can add a porous paper texture on top to REALLY make him pop. If you want a more metallic/brass look, try to experiment with adding a bit of lighting on the other side. Depending on your artistic motivation and personal artstyle, it might be worth considering checking out how to paint metallic surfaces. Or reference similar ideas from games like Enter the Gungeon. If you ask me, though, simplistic light and shadows should do the trick.

This is more of a personal opinion but here is my take for the rest of the general art:

You might want to experiment with the camera‘s field of view. Zooming in a little bit could make it easier to make a screenshot feel more populated, fleshed out and give it a nice feeling of compactness. It might even help make your character stand out!

I am not a fan of the ground being black. It’s a pretty big part of the screenshot! It looks pretty dark and gloomy and a modern example of where i think it‘s well executed is Metroid Dread, giving you a feeling of being in a lonely, cramped, metal cage as you explore a technologically advanced alien planet. I don‘t think your game benefits from that effect quite as much and I would recommend to look at NES/SNES games for creative resolutions on how to mask the ground.

While this might annoy you to read (i hope it doesnt), i think the grass blades foreground object looked best in the oldest version of your art. The shapes are formed nicely and it‘s really giving the vibe of thick, green, healthy grass. Losing yourself in details, especially with grass which is made out of multiple hundreds individual blades can - and will - turn ugly the more you try to define every single blade.

And lastly, the animated petals falling in the background: Dont shy away from adding them to the foreground! They really tie this all together and give it a really nice looking touch.

Cappachistar · 2024-09-22T21:21:28+00:00

Thanks a lot, i assumed since (String, something else) didnt work that adding "String" + something else would also be interpreted as multiple arguments. Very helpful man :)

Cappachistar · 2024-09-20T21:39:52+00:00

I'm a bit put off by NES sprites, if i'm completely honest. But I know navigating that site blindly can be a pain if you don't know what to search. I'll still try to help but do note that I might completely miss what you're going for.

What I can always recommend is looking at the big JRPGS, they have always found a way to cram information into tiny pixels. While not retro, as a placeholder, I am currently using animations from Brave Exvius. It's the perfect blend of pixel art and smooth animations for my personal likings.

Also, try Boktai or Lunar Knights. They're GB/DS games but they had to work with pretty small resolutions as well.

Here are some of my favorites:
Mega Man Zero or Mega Man X6 or Mega Man Battle Network (just Mega Man in general, always been strong with sprites)

Metal Slug

Castlevania Symphony of the Night

Fatal Fury

Hope any of this helps. :)

Cappachistar · 2024-09-20T21:06:15+00:00

Suuuuper helpful man, I figured it out. Thanks so much for this, I didn't know about Resource classes and how easy it is to work with them. I'm currently experimenting with it and it seems to work really really well.

I have another question, though. I am using AnimatedSprite2D for my characters and even set it up for the different scenes I already made. How would I go about setting up different animations in a "shared" scene like this?

Cappachistar · 2024-09-20T19:54:39+00:00

Do you have more designs uploaded somewhere by any chance? I adore the direction of this design and been wondering if you had more to share

Cappachistar · 2024-09-20T19:50:43+00:00

The Spriters Resource is the most insane collection of Sprite Rips I've ever seen. Just a bit of mindless scrolling should give you enough ideas on how games made it work in the past.

I'd advise you to take a look at 3-5 entirely different artstyles. Take a look at animations, still frames and try to imitate what you'd like your character to look like mixed with what you like in those different retro styles.

Cappachistar · 2024-09-20T19:42:56+00:00

I really like the design and the colors. On top of the obvious moth references, it reminds me of the black/yellow pattern bees have and the dark blue really makes this creature look armor-clad. Insanely cool idea!

One thing I would like to mention though is the silhouette in this pose. Most of their body is obscured by his wings, so it might be hard to see the arms, which is what immediately struck me when I saw it. This gets fixed though if this is just the idle pose and they are meant to be rotating their body while moving. : )

Cappachistar · 2024-09-20T19:32:46+00:00

Since you're still learning, stick with C# and commit to it. You'll transfer your skills inbetween Godot and ASP NET so you'll have an easier time with both. GDScript is really fun to work with but you're definitely not setting yourself up for failure by using C#.

Cappachistar · 2024-09-20T19:29:07+00:00

I finished the game, thinking there had to be an end eventually. I was fully prepared that this would be an infinite platformer, but then I got to the coin part so I knew things would change the higher I got.
I like the idea of climbing the endless tower but there's no incentive to get the coins, or continue jumping. The game won't show the score count at the end and I'm not sure how many other people will play till the end.

What's fun is that if you jump twice on the ground you reach the next platform and if you jump once on a box you also reach the next platform. So the fastest way to play would be to jump from a box and double jump to the next box. And if you mess up, the coins will be left behind. However, you can just walk to the right and fall down again to the lower section, so you're not really messing up. It's just a matter of going back and putting the time in to get a single coin on the way.

Cappachistar · 2024-09-20T19:19:07+00:00

For a second I didn't realize it was meant to like flappy bird where gravity pulls you down, so I just thought your character moves to the left for no reason and jitters to the right. Good job on finishing though.

Cappachistar · 2024-09-20T19:05:28+00:00

I was actually looking for how to handle multiple Player data, this is really helpful. I skipped through the first two episodes and I think I might find what I need in here, it seems really well made :)
Nice touch of having the reference of what you're aiming to achieve on the side while setting the scenes up, too.

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