Straight from GDC 2014, here's an all-new look at Mighty No. 9 in action. Gameplay, music, character profiles... it has all the bases covered.
Bear in mind, everything shown is still work-in-progress. Inafune and his team are still hard at work fleshing out Beck's world. It's a long ways out, but I think it's safe to say things are looking great so far.
Source: Mighty No. News
You know, I take it back. This isn't a Mega Man clone. This is a Rockman X clone. Beck basically plays like Axl does in Rockman X7 if you have Auto Repeat disabled. Except instead of charging his weapon, he just rams into things. He also lacks Axl's hover jets, but the trade-off is having an ability to hang on platforms. So there's that.
ReplyDeleteI'm still not too impressed, but at least it's definite progress. Kind of wish they hadn't plastered the Mighty No. info on the screen though. I wanted to see gameplay, not read bios I can probably find elsewhere.
Why are you against this, anyway? This trailer has at least brought you to "not too impressed", but I remember before you even accused the developers of taking everyone's money and not intending to make a game, and Inafune of "trolling" Capcom, so I think even from the start you've had negative feelings about this game, but I'd like to know why and why you thought any of that stuff was true.
DeleteI'm glad someone finally asked. (And I mean politely, not like "What's your deal?") Excuse the length of this post.
DeleteBasically, I don't like Inafune's attitude since he left Capcom. I'm not saying that he's wrong for being upset, but spite isn't going to get him anywhere. Eventually, other people are going to realize that a majority of his games with Comcept are just rehashes of projects he worked on at Capcom, but with completely original characters and a lot of spite. Some really great things have some about because of companies turning their backs on people, such as Warcraft: Orcs and Humans or Journey to Silius, but this is the first time I can remember a person or company ever deciding to do something out of pure spite for their former company/partners.
That also brings me to another interesting point: The company name, "Comcept". Yes, it's a play on the word "concept", but if you look at it from different angles, you start to notice some strange things... Is the name "Comcept" a direct jab at "Capcom"? Doesn't it look a little like the word "contempt" -- a word which means "worthless or deserving scorn"? Couldn't you say that Inafune has some contempt for Capcom -- "Comtempt", if you will? But I digress.
I'll admit I was interested in the beginning. Like everyone else, I got caught up in the waves of "yeah, take that, Capcom!" But once the Kickstarter was over and interest died down, not to mention the severe lack of news or interesting information, I really started to look at the project subjectively. From the Kickstarter video to the storyline and everything in between, this game is little more that a big "screw you, I'm gonna do it anyway!" from Inafune -- not Comcept, but Inafune himself -- to Capcom. For example, I was serious when I said Beck plays like a variant of Rockman X7's Axl -- which in itself isn't a bad thing. Axl is the best thing to come out of X7 and he's a lot of fun to play as. But it doesn't seem like Inafune is even trying to make his intellectual property all that different from the property he was once given (mostly) free reign over. And Mighty No. 9 isn't the only thing.
That other new game by Comcept and Inti Creates, "Azure Striker: Gunvolt"... It's basically Mega Man ZX with bullet-hell bosses and power-ups. And of course the flagship title, "J.J. Rockets", was allegedly "President Rockman: The Game". I've also heard that Soul Sacrifice bears a striking resemblance to... what was it? I want to say either Lost Planet or Asura's Wrath, but I can't remember what I read... But my point is, even after leaving Capcom, it seems like Inafune just keeps doing the same things over and over and over again. Which he's perfectly welcome to do, since he is his own boss. But I just don't think it helps his credibility... And he's always, always, doing to be known as "the Rockman guy"...
As for the Kickstarter funds? I'm mostly saying that just to start shit... but the possibility of people using Kickstarter to scam people out of money is always a possibility. Even someone as famous as Inafune could potentially just take peoples' money and use it on other things. I genuinely don't know, nor do I truly assume. I just don't really see where the money is going, considering what we've been shown so far could fairly easily be reproduced by fans for free. (Anyone remember that 3D Beck model someone made?)
So, I hope that clears things up. Thanks again for asking, Anon. It feels good to finally air this out com-pletely. (Buh-dum-ching~)
Alright, I kind of get your thinking but I'm going to try to give fair counterpoints to all your arguments. Overall I think you've got a case of paying enough attention to things to be paranoid but not enough to notice the things that should alleviate the paranoia. This will be hella long but I hope you read it.
DeleteNumber one, as far as Inafune being spiteful, what makes you think any of this is out of spite? Inafune wanted to make more Megaman games, a large amount of fans wanted more Megaman games, Inafune tried to make new Megaman games at Capcom but couldn't get them greenlit, so instead he made a spiritual successor with his own company. What part of that requires any sort of spite towards Capcom? He couldn't do what he wanted to do at Capcom so he did it his own way, that's not a screw you that's a business decision and that kind of stuff happens all the time in the business world.
I've followed the kickstarter since the beginning and I've never seen him say anything that implies he hates Capcom. He's said many times that he has issues with the Japanese gaming industry, but they're all things that most Japanese gaming companies do not Capcom specifically, and again that's not spite that's a difference in business opinions. Also he and other members of the MN9 team have spoken fondly about Capcom many times and are still on very good terms with the company (it's also been implied that Capcom employs contributed quite a bit to MN9's kickstarter funding). Also the MN9 forums and such are very harsh on people that do Capcom bashing. Perhaps most tellingly of all, in an interview Inafune said that if Capcom wanted to work with him to make MN9 an actual part of the Megaman series, he was open to the idea, which had a bunch of Capcom hating fans absolutely frothing with rage and causing some to retract their pledges. Because yes, there are absolutely fans who support MN9 out of pure spite for Capcom, but no evidence of such within the design team itself.
Comcept is likely in some way a reference to Capcom, but (and this is important to keep in mind for a lot of things) that could just as easily be a homage out of respect or endearment as it could be out of spite.
Two, about there not being much information on the game. This one I really don't get. You do realize the game is over a year from release right? Do you often follow games pre-release? I've followed a lot of games over the years both corporate and kickstarter (kickstarters that eventual went on to deliver on all the things they promised). At this stage in development you usually get NOTHING. If this were say a Capcom or Nintendo it wouldn't even be announced at this stage of development. And yet we've gotten several batches of screenshots and I believe three gameplay videos? Of pre-alpha, I've NEVER seen someone release vids publicly of pre-alpha. MML3 was probably further in development than this when it was canceled but we weren't getting nearly this much. And in addition to that concept art, interviews with dev team members that drop hints about the game's development, solicitations for fan input, several descrptions of the plot, setting, and characters, all at the point in development where I would expect to see nothing at all. Also keep in mind that they don't want to show absolutely everything because that would spoil the final product, as they’re said from the beguining. I honestly don't know what you're expecting and if you're dissatisfied about what we're getting from this game, you should basically be dissatisfied with every game ever, especially Japanese games which are usually way less transparent.
(2nd part because looooong)
DeleteThree, as far as similarities go. Yes, MN9 is a lot like Megaman because it supposed to be a Megaman game without copyrights; this is a secret to absolutely no one. But's it's actually turning out more different than I expected. The emphasis on dashing through enemies and getting combos and speed running with the gun working to stun is HUGE and very distinctive from megaman, back jumps and ledge grabs we've never seen in a megaman platformer before, and keep in mind we've still seen barely any of the game yet. It's at least as different from X as X is from classic and X was supposed to be an original series before they slapped on the Megaman copyright halfway through. And there are other platformers that are nearly as similar.
Azure Striker Gunvolt is also definitely in some ways a reference to Megaman Zero, but also keep in mind a lot of the things it shares with Megaman Zero are things Inti-creates brought to the series, not things they got from Capcom.
Soul sacrifice is nowhere near any Capcom games to be called a rip-off or a spiritual successor. It has elements similar to several different Capcom games but good luck making any sort of game ever that doesn’t share some similarity with some Capcom game, because Capcom has made A LOT of games.
Fourth and last, Kickstarter. Yes, people have abused kickstarter before. It is REALLY rare and a crapton of things have been made successfully though kickstarter. There are legal ramifications to failing to provide the prizes you promised during your kickstarter campaign. Also, if this turns out to be a scandal, the professional career of everyone involved in this project is completely dead, and given Japanese society, so is there personal life. I say this with 100 percent seriousness; it is not uncommon for Japanese workers to literally kill themselves over disgraces much less severe than strait up stealing millions of dollars from thousands of investors.
As far as where the money has been going, this is mostly a problem with a HUGE disconnect between what consumers think about game development and reality. I cannot stress that enough. Some kickstarters and Indigogo campaigns have now started giving breakdowns of where every dollar of pledge money is going, and usually people don’t believe them, they say it’s too much money. Then uninvolved parties with experience in game development mention that they’re actually making the game for unbelievably cheap, and people STILL don’t think it should take that much money, because they don’t understand how much it costs to make games, or how much is of the time is usually spent on specific development phases, or there are whole legs of the development process they don’t even know existed, ect. Ect. ect.. Also a percentage of the money (so a fair amount of money when you’re getting over 3 million) goes to kick starter, a lot of the money goes to rewards to people who pledged to the kickstarter like manufacturing books, CDs and plushies, the fact that the kickstarter also covered the making of a documentary, there are additional fees for every console it’s on and there are a lot of them, among other things. Trust me they’re making this game for very cheap, probably paying for some of the development themselves (like they mentioned they would from the beguining), they’re not getting paid as much as they would be working for a AAA game company, they’re working obscene work hours, they’ll be able to finish the game with what they have, and right now they’re proceeding at a good pace.
I do expect a delay though. There’s a reason most games don’t have release dates until they’re a few months from launch, it’s just impossible to predict that far ahead of time. Kickstarter games don’t have the luxury of waiting to give a release date, so they almost always have delays. But the games DO get finished.
OK there's a lot of stuff I disagree with and don't understand but I'll just stick to the ones I find most interesting.
Delete1. Where is it that it has ever been stated that X was suppose to be a separate series outside of Mega Man/Rockman?
2.What makes the Zero series the Zero series is the fact that it's the Zero series with all the traits and uniqueness it has not what company brought them to it. Saying it's not and is just a trademark of the developers so its OK to copy its style so long as its the devs is a dumb argument. That's like saying if Capcom went out and worked on Final Fantasy the fighting game they can claim the rights to what ever is unique about it because they are known for that style of gameplay design. Also you should know that Inti-creates is itself ex-Capcom the same exact way as Comcept, if not more so, composed of mostly the X games' dev team.
1. Actually now that I look into it, I stand corrected. What I was thinking of is the well known fact that Zero was originally was supposed to be the main character(if you want proof of that, just look up Megaman X(videogame) on Wikipedia and read the development section/follow the citations). However I can't find any evidence that it wasn't supposed to be part of the Megaman series. I apologize.
Delete2. Like I said I do agree the game is clearly intended to remind people of Megaman Zero. In fact my main point in mentioning Gunvolt was to say that I agreed on that front. That's obviously what they're going for and whether that's a bad thing or not is totally opinion and I'm not going to argue opinion. :P I'm just saying that game companies do tend to have a distinctive style even when making unrelated games and that's worth keeping in mind since it is after all made by the same people and not absolutely every similarity has to be due to them trying to make the game like Megaman Zero even if some are. I just wanted to mention that as an aside.
To address your example...I'm having a lot of trouble understanding what you're saying but yeah sounds like that would be fine? If Capcom wanted to reuse elements that they used in their Final Fantasy fighter that they brought to the table in the first place for other games then sure they could. I'm pretty sure that happens fairly often. Obviously not every part of that game would be attributable to the fact that Capcom worked on it but some of it would. I never claimed that everything that makes MMZ MMZ is trademark of Inti-creates you know.
Anyway long and short of it is-I do think both games are "ripping off" Megaman, but not quite as much as some people think. And if you think that's a bad thing then your are more than welcome to think that.
Sorry for the long waited reply, but yeah you understood my points pretty much I guess.I kinda agree that if Capcom made a Final Fantasy fighter they can reuse assets and gameplay styles from it. Thing is, if they were unique to that game I'd associate those things with Final Fantasy the fighting game and not Capcom when comparing the two. But yeah that stuff is all a matter of personal perspective.
DeleteNOT NEWS! THIS IS NOT NEWS!
ReplyDeleteINAFUNE STOLE YOUR MONEY!
WHY ISN'T THE GAME COMPLETE YET?
/Sarcasm.
Looks amazing, glad to see the new moves and the ending game me a laugh.
Inafune didn't steal my money. Just everyone else's. ;3
DeleteAnd yet, you keep complaining way more than everyone else who did pledge money to the project.
DeleteI backed them with almost 160$ and I don't scream "THIEF!" as much as you do at the very sight of every No.9 news update, hell, even all those guys who only gave 5$ for the forums or a plain 20$ for the digital copy are more happy than you with their money's worth so far.
Ignorance is bliss, I s'pose~
DeleteCan't wait for the day this is finished and released.
DeleteIf only to get the complainers to stop about alleged 'thievery'...
@Joseph Collins: "Ignorance is bliss"
DeleteApparently it isn't or you'd be the most blissful person on the planet.
There is so much garbage in you post explaining your reasons, that I'd need an industrial facility to disposal of it all. Luckily I don't have to and can simply ignore it from now on.
One might say Beck's hidden power is...limitless....
ReplyDeleteI really hope they go with the cel shading look with the final product like in the concept screenshots when this was first announced. I'm not liking the 3D too much.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that Mighty Apple 7 in the end will appear in the game.
ReplyDeleteI really like the look of the character when he dashes. The color and lighting on it make him pop out.
ReplyDeleteThis looks great! Who cares if it's a "ripoff" of Megaman mechanics? Isn't that the whole point? To give us the Megaman game Capcom never will?
ReplyDeleteLOL. Some people praise Inafune for continuing to do what he's loved doing for so long and others dislike him for continuing to do what he's loved doing for so long.
ReplyDelete@ Joseph Collins: if you pledged $1 you would be getting regular e-mails packed with interesting updates. It's hilarious how you complain about lack of information after doing nothing to support the project.
That music is great, but eventually goes a little over the top - the hook is a little excessive, repeated too many times.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the character bios almost completely killed any interest I had in watching this, as-if they were trying to cover the fact that they don't really have much to show. Very desolate and kind of boring.
Meh, whatever.