Shining Hearts announced! + rumors + Bayonetta

[Centrale]

Whoa... I know this series has a special place in your memories, but looking at it from my own subjective view of someone who hasn't ever had a vested interest in it... the newer character art is far better.  That older art almost looks like fan art, somewhat amateurish.  Having said that (and ducking in advance of virtual objects hurled at my head), they could still incorporate the Euro-medieval style armor designs in the new, more refined character designs.

[Barry the Nomad]

Sorry, but...

classic:


Tacky as hell:


As for this image:


Even in full clarity that face has about as much expression as a ham sandwich.

[fluffymoochicken]

Whoa... I know this series has a special place in your memories, but looking at it from my own subjective view of someone who hasn't ever had a vested interest in it... the newer character art is far better. That older art almost looks like fan art, somewhat amateurish. Having said that (and ducking in advance of virtual objects hurled at my head), they could still incorporate the Euro-medieval style armor designs in the new, more refined character designs.

But even then, they'll have to face up to the fact that swords and sorcery fantasy art has changed a bit since the late 80's/early 90's. Even if the series transformed into a Fire Emblem clone tomorrow (which is essentially what it seems they're wanting anyway), they'll still have complaints about it looking too much like the modern "cliche anime style".

(I'm also sure that becoming a FE clone would go over well on the internet, right? "OMG, SEGA's ripping off Nintendo!!!11!!")

But also keep in mind that with games like this, they're not specifically targeting a male demographic anymore. That's why the official art of Shining Hearts has such an air of femininity; with these kind of games, it's imperative to appeal to as wide a demographic as possible.

In Japan, that is. Naturally, people who were hoping for their art design to be perpetually trapped in the early 90's are going to be disappointed.

classic:

It's only "classic" to you because you're looking at it through nostalgia goggles, and they're rabid SEGA fanboy nostalgia goggles at that.

[MadeManG74]

[CrazyT]

I love the shining force original art style and I would have been happy if they had used it for a new shining force. Though this game is not shining force but shining hearts, and I dig the artstyle for this game, I dig it alot.

The picture above me in barry the nomad's post is of the gba remake and it shows they can still do it if they want to.

I do understand where you guys are coming from though, the main character looks kind of soft... can I use the word gay around here? No offense  :oops:

[fluffymoochicken]

I do understand where you guys are coming from though, the main character looks kind of soft... can I use the word gay around here? No offense  :oops:

Go right ahead. However, I wouldn't consider him to be looking gay, personally.

[Barry the Nomad]

It's only "classic" to you because you're looking at it through nostalgia goggles, and they're rabid SEGA fanboy nostalgia goggles at that.

Fluff, remember what I said about tossing about the word "fanboy"? How I said to stop it? Yeah, well stop it. XBOX, PS3, SEGA or otherwise.

[CrazyT]

It wouldn't hurt if the main character was a bit more manly though. I know it's just a game and in games main characters mostly are powerful, but he looks like he'd be a weakling in real life.

It doesn't bother me or anything but when I play with a male character, I like him to be manly, same thing as I want a woman character to be feminine, unless she has manly charactaristics, but that kind of stuff seems to fit better with female characters than the other way around.

I might be looking to deep into it lol

[fluffymoochicken]

Keep in mind that point about appealing to a wide audience, though, and you'll understand that androgynous leading males are popular for good reason. A male character with some feminine traits are seen as being youthful and attractive, and lots of female players go gaga over them. But the feminine aspect isn't overblown to the point that it'd disgust male players, either; overall, I'd say that most straight male players are perfectly fine with having a main character who is seen as attractive, but isn't a complete girly boy. The absolute girly boy is typically going to be someone other than the main character. Then, they also have the stronger and more masculine men in the games to appeal to guys and to girls who prefer males to be tall, dark, and handsome.

Welcome to RPG Character Design 101? ^^

[CrazyT]

I guess so... though I prefer characters like Vyse from skies of arcadia.
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/skies ... 6/Vyse.jpg
Cloud and Zack from ff VII are also good examples though I prefer vyse's youthfullnes

I'm gonna buy this game nonetheless if it comes out because I love traditional rpg games from sega :D

[MadeManG74]

[Sega Uranus]

What the fuck are you even on Fluffy? You said you were never even interested in the series prior, so how should you be able to claim that 15+ games all are way more generic than the newer releases. I pointed out the centaurs, birdmen and stuff too, this kind of stuff was replaced by girls with cat ears, are you seriously arguing that this way is better and more original? Can you even name another game series that has centaurs in it?

The series is much much much lower budget than it ever was because it appeals to a much smaller audience than the Genesis/Saturn releases did. The reason for the recent change was because the series never really was much of a hit in Japan, and even recently it does not do very good regardless, the best way to sum it up is 'shovelware' even. Your point of the art design being more appealing launches right out of the window when you realize the series is now doing poorly everywhere and games like Mass Effect and Fallout 3 with such a terrible 'Western' design are selling out everywhere and are the talk of the Internet.

Also, everyone is just mad because you are talking about it in such an egotistically annoying way, pretending like you know better than everyone when you literally cannot as you have not even seen most of these games in motion.

[Sharky]

The bottom line is this is what Shining Force is to every long term fan of Shining Force,









This stuff IS Shining Force, I love the cartoony feel to the art style, I love the water coloured hand drawn look of it... None of it looks 'generic' to me at all.

But the new stuff could easily be any number of very generic boring animes or low budget games... I've watched plenty of anime from the 80s and 90s and frankly I haven't seen a lot that looks like this at all.

[Nathan]

It's only "classic" to you because you're looking at it through nostalgia goggles, and they're rabid SEGA fanboy nostalgia goggles at that.

I wouldn't say that. Classic is one of those things that is whatever people want it to be. I wouldn't say that is has one set meaning set in stone, nor does it have to do with sales, console, graphics, developer, or the like. I think for a game to be "classic" it just has to affect the player in a way that is unforgettable, and just be an all out great game that he/she enjoys a lot and can personally pick up and play without getting super bored.

And the fanboy comment was totally out of line, if they're going to call it a Shining game, it has to be at least semi similar to the games that people thoroughly enjoyed and that started the franchise. Things change, we all get that, not every game in a series has to be a carbon copy of its predecessor, but this game looks nothing like the Shining games we grew up with. I think it'd be getting much less hate if it even had a different name, and didn't try to rake in sales just by having the Shining name. Much like ASR and UGC did.

[CrazyT]

You know... I never really were a fan of the shining games but I did play them, and loved them too. To be honest I also never really cared about the art style and I was just playing the games, enjoying the art style, the environments and gameplay without thinking ow wow,  this game has such a unique art style.

But now paying more attention to it, that art style from the old games "was" really unique and now I kinda see where you guys are coming from.  I agree that the new art style couldve been just any game made by company's like namco bandai. The shining force style was unique and had it's own familliar identity. It's a waste if they're not using it anymore.