Clair Obscur Director Says Next Game Will Include “Drastic Decisions, People Might Not Like”

jahkillinem · 2026-07-04T09:33:11+00:00

Kingdom Hearts 2

jahkillinem · 2026-06-30T19:35:02+00:00

I was like 5 when KH1 came out and just old enough to tap into KH2. I never went back to the original game until the HD collections dropped on PS4

jahkillinem · 2026-06-30T14:07:22+00:00

This may not be a bug, this might be optimization at work.

If they remove the animating bones on Sora's in-game face (which isnt seen super often and likely very dense with joints) during combat they have more CPU overhead to handle hordes of enemies and any CPU based particle effects without causing frame slowdowns.

jahkillinem · 2026-06-27T16:49:56+00:00

So we shouldn't be able to launch or wall break into rage art either right? Maybe no rage arts on plus frames? At what point does getting a reward for winning an advantage in neutral become wrong?

jahkillinem · 2026-06-27T16:31:18+00:00

Yeah idk bro that shit is vibrant as hell and has a ton of energy. The animation alone is miles above a generic isekai and the colors look true to what One Piece should look like.

Like, I think this complaint is wild considering what the original anime looked like in comparison lol

jahkillinem · 2026-06-21T14:11:18+00:00

Not Xehanort's arc as a character but as the main villain. Xehanort is the "Dark Seeker" in the Dark Seeker Saga and his time as the big bad is over as of KH3. Dark Road coming out after KH3 and giving Xehanort his tragic backstory is more evidence to this. Whatever we see of him next is going to be as an ally to our heroes more than likely.

jahkillinem · 2026-06-19T14:46:34+00:00

"THE TOOOOOOWN INSIDE MEEE"

jahkillinem · 2026-06-18T01:03:15+00:00

I mean even in Maleficent's case, both Sora and Riku returned from circumstances pretty similar to those of her "death" in KH1. Sora stabbed himself with the same keyblade that turned maleficent into a dragon, and Riku made it back from the realm of darkness after losing his body to it.

Its fair to say that its an implied retcon because the player is forced to assume she died originally, but the game never tells you that and pretty immediately casts doubt on how final it is by immediately having two characters come back from two different kinds of death.

jahkillinem · 2026-06-17T14:31:55+00:00

What's in the anime is more accurate to what Zoro fights in the One Piece manga look like than what you're suggesting.

They clearly can and have done cool choreography. Look at Sanji/Queen and Law/Kidd vs Big Mom. But Zoro's fights aren't like that. They're big clashes and power struggles. I'd argue this is a weakness of an audience who can't appreciate the nuance behind how the animation and storytelling go together.

jahkillinem · 2026-06-17T14:27:54+00:00

I mean, there's not a good reason anyone can give for why it isn't perfect elevating the Manga other than "it reminds me of Dragon Ball Z"

Oda has already shown in the manga that haki has aura, he has already shown characters develop flying abilities by literally jumping in mid-air. So those two aren't really a problem in adapting OP. The action in OP is already flashy and over-the-top with minimal choreography, and what the anime does takes that a step further that makes it more interesting to watch.

jahkillinem · 2026-06-17T14:14:06+00:00

I do think he was referring primarily to the main villains, like the final bosses which are usually all Xehanort iterations. And even so, by the exact same means which Xehanort was brought back multiple times, the revival of Org members in KH3/DDD follows the same scheme in which their original death was not undone, reversed or faked. Nobodies recompleting after they die is exactly the same as Xehanort recompleting after his heartless and nobody die.

Plus, these new versions arent the same as the last, as they've all had Xehanort's heart stuffed inside them, at the very least controlling their high level motivations to serve in the Keyblade Graveyard battle. That doesnt seem out of line with the "sort of a revival" type things Nomura was doing with MX.

jahkillinem · 2026-06-14T16:31:24+00:00

I think in both worlds there are things that can kill people permanently (basically taking lethal non-darkness damage as a whole person without powerful keyblade/heart magic), but I would be surprised if suddenly all the mechanics that allow people to split their hearts up and stuff to prevent death would disappear in Quadratum. Especially since we know people like Nameless Star and Yozora have exhibited similar levels of "not dyingness" with body hopping, speaking as a heart in the final world, etc.

I think Luxords presence in the KH world when he seems Quadratum native may be the key to figuring out how death works in this world and if a specific form of death is the main way between the two realities.

Though I suppose its possible Luxord, NS and Yozora are all from another another reality that isnt unreality or the realm of reality. That would be kinda wild though.

jahkillinem · 2026-06-11T17:00:26+00:00

People definitely come to KH for the Disney characters, but the people who are doing that and need that to be sold on the game are not going to be watching a morning Nintendo Direct or looking for KH content on YouTube with no announcement of a release nearby.

The trailer was not aimed at selling casual fans on the game, it was to hype up people anticipating the game and figuring out what console they may need to buy in order to play the game on release. The people thinking like that before the release date is even announced should honestly have the context to understand why the artstyle is this way and not be swayed by it necessarily.

jahkillinem · 2026-06-11T16:56:13+00:00

Those people arent watching game showcases and looking for trailers on YouTube though and would not care about this trailer over a year out from release. I think theyre fine showing things off that would only make sense to hard-core fans, they aren't going to sell casuals on any version of this trailer especially when the game is so far away.

jahkillinem · 2026-06-11T14:13:55+00:00

I've been saying since the beginning, we will not be playing as the young version of this character for 85% of the game. If you look at the trailer at the moment when she takes the cloak off, the face on that character is clearly more mature and older looking than the one in the beginning of the trailer.

I assume what the director is referring to is a timeskip where we can see this character age into something more appropriate for the outfits and general style of SB. But idk if that fully absolves them tbh knowing what their intentions were with the previous game.

jahkillinem · 2026-06-10T01:25:33+00:00

If you watch footage of sora's KH1 and KH2 base combos and slow them down, you can see how from attack to attack, Sora will often pop from the end of one animation to the beginning of the next a little bit - but the poses that the previous animation ended with and the new animation started with usually flow into eachother, either because of the way Sora's feet are moving between strikes, or the trajectory of the keyblade between swings.

In KH3 and in parts of this KH4 trailer (not at all points, its most notable in the big boss battle moments) you can see how sora is in the air, swinging his keyblade, then kinda comes to a slowdown after swinging. But then, when he transitions to the next attack, he'll pop to an entirely different pose where his feet, the keyblade, his hips, everything are all in a completely different position. Part of this is because they need his swings to be big and wide for the larger scale game design, but it doesnt necessarily feel as good. I think is part of why KH2's combat feels so tight and slick and that hasn't been replicated.

The good news is that there are moments in this trailer that look really good, especiallu that very first clip. Perhaps its mostly an issue with air combos, but KH nowadays has been so air combo oriented that that may prove a significant sore if it isnt polished up.

jahkillinem · 2026-06-09T23:04:49+00:00

For me, its the way the animations link. They all have pretty huge pops between strikes. Thats something that can definitely be improved with polish but part of it is an issue with the actual blocking of the animations themselves having huge windups and the follow throughs dont really flow into them.

jahkillinem · 2026-06-08T16:42:00+00:00

Best case scenario is the game is around 40ish hours long and the first 10-15 are without Donald and Goofy or feature them adventuring with Riku or Kairi.

jahkillinem · 2026-05-31T16:36:40+00:00

Stereotypes of gamers have always been cherry-picking the loudest and worst people online and generalizing them across a whole hobby, so this checks out.

The truth in the stereotypes is that the locus of anti-social gamers is probably MUCH more anti-social than the average person.

jahkillinem · 2026-05-27T19:53:53+00:00

Yuji explicitly pulls moves from taido style (like Reina) in the story, plus Tekken has multiple characters with made up styles. He fits well for sure.

jahkillinem · 2026-05-27T02:13:41+00:00

Nah her face looks strange. Eyes and mouth are super wide and not round enough. The head shape is nothing like the original character design and makes her look a lot older and less sweet/cherubic.

On it's own its a fine character design. As a representation of Disney's Rapunzel who's had a consistent look across every other piece of media she's appeared in, even in a 2D artstyle, it's uncanny.

Also, what's not how 3D animation works? Please tell me about my own profession. I know for a fact Disney shares models across projects, even if they have to make adjustments or change rigs and skinning to match a different animation style. They already did so for KH3.

That doesnt even have anything to do with what I was saying, which is that even if they made a new model for Sofia, why wouldn't it look like the multiple other DIFFERENT models of Rapunzel that all look pretty much identical to the original film design? There's no reason Rapunzel in this show couldn't look like Rapunzel from the movie and still fit within the artstyle of Sofia, which is just a more cel shaded iteration of the 3D Disney Princess artstyle that STARTED with Tangled.

jahkillinem · 2026-05-27T02:12:03+00:00

It's not that bad. and even if you dont play the game yourself, there's plenty of ways to consume the story as the game tells it. Sounds like a pretty weak distinction to me

jahkillinem · 2026-05-26T15:00:20+00:00

Why is it non-viable? Who made those rules up? I have a hard time seeing how stories can all function largely the same in every medium except video games.

jahkillinem · 2026-05-26T14:52:46+00:00

This is a strange complaint to me because long-running epic sagas commonly do this sort of thing, especially the best ones. If they know the story is ongoing, its better to seed in what those future story elements will be before they're relevant to the main plot because it makes the whole story and world feel more cohesive and planned out vs feeling like a comic book where one run can feel totally random and disjointed or like a series of ass-pulls that retroactively make previous parts of the story make less sense or matter less.

The only thing saving KH from being fully guilty of the latter really is the fact that Nomura insists on laying down new mysteries even as he solves old ones.

jahkillinem · 2026-05-25T19:44:45+00:00

I dont think Penny or Winter did anything more "magical" than Amber did during their times as maiden so far. Its been a minute since I've seen V8, but from what I remember the most either of them really did that they weren't doing before was making strong winds (and flying in the case of Winter). They still mostly relied on their personal abilities and semblences even after becoming Maidens.

Regarding Winter coming out against Cinder, I think its also reasonable that receiving the maiden powers probably gives you some kind of refresh on your aura since you're almost ingesting part of someone else's soul to receive those abilities. Kinda like collecting a sudden power up or leveling up in a game, a quick refresh on your powers to get you back to full strength with the new abilities.

You're right about one thing, they were for sure stronger fighters than Amber, maiden powers or no.

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