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[duckroll]

http://www.famitsu.com/news/201202/23010376.html

Features artwork and background design by Nizou Yamamoto, the art director of Princess Mononoke:

Hot-air balloon instead of ship:

3D dungeons:

Visible FOEs on the map:

3D enemy models (animated):

More lolis:

 

[The Technomancer]

Huh....those screens actually look less appealing to me then EO3

 

[le.phat]

i had to check the thread title trice to see if this was 3DS or DS.

 

[nincompoop]

The enemies look worse than the ones in the DS games :\

 

[Pureauthor]

No more Ferocious Orange Enemy. Shame.

 

[Aeana]

The lack of antialiasing makes it look a little worse than the DS games, since they had edge AA like other DS games do.

It doesn't look bad, really, but it's disappointing considering that Yamamoto is involved and his concept art is beautiful.

 

[StuBurns]

Looks like a DS game, I wonder if it was originally.

 

[MrDaravon]

Maybe it looks better in motion, but yeah I played EO3 recently and it looked as good or better than the screens :/

 

[Magicpaint]

Looks like a DS game, I wonder if it was originally.

Yeah, it looks as though it started as a DS game. Quite unremarkable visually.

Artwork is stunning, though.

 

[vareon]

These doesn't look good.

 

[Danielsan]

Man, it looks worse than the DS titles. Bleghh. You'd figure that with the 3DS being close to on par with a Wii/Gamecube that they'd atleast be able to create some decent looking dungeons, albeit with simple 3D geometry.

 

[KarmaCow]

The enemies look worse than the ones in the DS games :\

Yea, they look flat. Maybe the animation will be good enough to make up for it.

Dungeons don't look much better but they always looked pretty shitty.

Have they said anything about battle system or class changes?

 

[bounchfx]

It's like they decided to stay with DS spec graphics....

last minute up-port?

 

[SayItWithMe]

I was hoping this looked alot better than this....disappointing for sure.

 

[DXB-KNIGHT]

If you've seen the ugly screens of Dragon Quest Monsters and the video just released on the J e-shop the differences is like day and night.

 

[duckroll]

Looks like a DS game, I wonder if it was originally.

It's like they decided to stay with DS spec graphics....




last minute up-port?

I think at some point (I'm not saying we're there yet, but maybe in a year or so) we will have to stop considering this as a possibility and just accept that smaller developers, especially in Japan, will continue to make games which meet just a bare minimum standard, because it is enough for the audience that they're serving, and spending more money on the production of that sort of game will not result in increased sales or a larger audience.

I expect there to be many Vita games which look like PSP games, and many 3DS games which look like DS or PSP games. Just like how there are many PS3 games today which look like PS2 games rendered at a higher resolution.

 

[slaughterking]

The balloon segments look pretty rough. The battle screen and normal dungeons are alright, though.

I wonder what kind of idle animations the FOEs will have when you're not moving. The bear looks like he doesn't stop for nothing.

 

[Flying_Phoenix]

3D? NOOOOOOO!!!!

 

[Pureauthor]

The balloon segments look pretty rough. The battle screen and normal dungeons are alright, though.

I wonder what kind of idle animations the FOEs will have when you're not moving. The bear looks like he doesn't stop for nothing.

Real time FOE movement will be the new innovative gameplay feature of EO4!

 

[Ratrat]

I really enjoy these games. And having played 3 recently, this is a huge improvement graphically. Well, except the 3d models.

 

[duckroll]

The balloon segments look pretty rough. The battle screen and normal dungeons are alright, though.

I wonder what kind of idle animations the FOEs will have when you're not moving. The bear looks like he doesn't stop for nothing.

The bear isn't a battle screen. It's a screen of a FOE on the field (they're now visible) attacking the player to initiate the battle.

 

[vareon]

Old FOEs?

Anyway I like the setting more than EO3 (somehow it reminded me of Shingeki no Kyojin), but the hot air balloon looked too much like the ship now, a feature that didn't really click with me. Eagerly waiting for more news.

 

[Pureauthor]

I wish they'd stuck with sprites instead of polygonal enemies.

Oh well. Not a big deal.

 

[StuBurns]

I think at some point (I'm not saying we're there yet, but maybe in a year or so) we will have to stop considering this as a possibility and just accept that smaller developers, especially in Japan, will continue to make games which meet just a bare minimum standard, because it is enough for the audience that they're serving, and spending more money on the production of that sort of game will not result in increased sales or a larger audience.

I expect there to be many Vita games which look like PSP games, and many 3DS games which look like DS or PSP games. Just like how there are many PS3 games today which look like PS2 games rendered at a higher resolution.

To be fair, the compression doesn't help, they probably look a lot nicer in reality. Although I'm sure it's true many games, asset wise will reflect the budgets of the previous systems, there are inherent benefits to the new systems which shouldn't cost a developer any more. Textures for example, they're made at higher res and compressed because of RAM constraints. Even doing it identically, you shouldn't be compressing them as much, they should look crisper. There's more performance for better IQ too.

I think it's true, devs should keep a low budget if their audience dictates it, but the new systems should allow for an essentially free visual upgrade.

 

[vall03]

still waiting for more gameplay info and also a couple more classes

 

[jj984jj]

It's too bad they couldn't integrate the art into the maps better and the battle system looks essentially the same. Pretty disappointing so far.

 

[slaughterking]

The bear isn't a battle screen. It's a screen of a FOE on the field (they're now visible) attacking the player to initiate the battle.

Well, I know. That's why I wonder what the bear (or any other FOE) will do when you're standing still on the map. That was no problem when they were just orange or red orbs in previous games, but now they have to give them idle animations for when your party is not moving. Or maybe they are just freezing which would be a bummer.

 

[Augemitbutter]

I wish they'd stuck with sprites instead of polygonal enemies.

nicely animated sprites would have been great. this game looks worse now that we have a cleaner look.

 

[duckroll]

Well, I know. That's why I wonder what the bear (or any other FOE) will do when you're standing still on the map. That was no problem when they were just orange or red orbs in previous games, but now they have to give them idle animations for when your party is not moving. Or maybe they are just freezing which would be a bummer.

He'll probably be sniffing his ass or something. I dunno, what do bears do?

 

[sixteen-bit]

Is Koshiro confirmed?

 

[Haly]

I still wish I could see my team of scantily lolis during battle.

 

[Pureauthor]

Is Koshiro confirmed?

Yup.

 

[slaughterking]

He'll probably be sniffing his ass or something. I dunno, what do bears do?

:3

 

[jorgeton]

OMGGG. Wantttt. Yesterday's announcement had me dig out EO3 and try to finish off that last Stratum, sucked me in for two hours. The EO games are my comfort food. This game is pretty much the only reason I will buy a 3DS.

 

[dark10x]

Wow, looks like something I'd expect to find on the Saturn with Dreamcast-like visuals.

 

[Mojojo]

I won't lie, when I saw the tree in the Nintendo Direct trailer, for a moment I hoped for a new Secret of mana : _( ..
Did Yamamoto work on the art for that game? the plants seem so similar...

 

[Jucksalbe]

Looks alright. I wonder if 3D makes much of a difference. Day 1! (not like the game will still be available on Day 2)

 

[abstract alien]

I wasn't even expecting anything and still came away disappointed :^/

 

[kevm3]

The environment art looked awesome. The actual game not so much.

 

[slaughterking]

Eww, just remembered that the 3DS is region-locked. I will never be able to play this in Europe.

 

[JonnyBrad]

I won't lie, when I saw the tree in the Nintendo Direct trailer, for a moment I hoped for a new Secret of mana : _( ..
Did Yamamoto work on the art for that game? the plants seem so similar...

I agree the first pic in the op just looks like the mana tree.

 

[tuffy]

Polygonal enemies are a bit sad, but I suppose that's necessary to integrate them into the 3D backgrounds. But the maze really is much improved from the DS titles, and PC-88 tunes driven by the 3DS should be a lot better. It also looks like there'll be 4 parts of a game day (dawn/dusk?) instead of the old day/night cycle, judging from the game clock. I'm looking forward to the US release.

 

[duckroll]

I won't lie, when I saw the tree in the Nintendo Direct trailer, for a moment I hoped for a new Secret of mana : _( ..
Did Yamamoto work on the art for that game? the plants seem so similar...

Nope. That's Hiroo Isono. Nizou Yamamoto doesn't generally work in the game industry. He's an art director and background artist for anime productions like a bunch of Studio Ghibli stuff, and other stuff like Fantastic Children and The Girl Who Leaped Through Time.

 

[krYlon]

The environment art looked awesome. The actual game not so much.

Yeah, the graphics really don't do the art justice.

 

[Femmeworth]

Those graphics. :\

 

[Truth101]

The monster models are nice looking, everything else....

 

[SecretMoblin]

With the exception of the hot-air balloon segments, it really doesn't look that bad. As good as the concept art? Of course not, but if you look at the gorgeous concept art from the artbook for the first three, it's silly to expect something that amazing.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was originally a DS game, but the dungeon shots definitely look better than EOIII:

compared to:

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Oh the humanity. I don't play these games for the graphics though so I should be ok.

 

[wrowa]

It's kind of sad because Yamamoto's designs are so nice.

 

[Pureauthor]

Dungeons in EO3 were a lot more colourful, even in the 1st Stratum.

Which may or may not be a good thing according to your views. I just know I'm hyped.