Shadow Tower - I changed my mind

[dmpdesign]

Been mulling this one over in my mind for a while now thinking I just wouldnt ever feel like playing through it, but for whatever reason I have decided this weekend I will give it another try.

I stuck it on my psp and it looks alot better than when I am playing it on my PC, so I think this will work for me (it was the only way I could play through original KF 1, for some reason old school graphics look so much better on the small screen :)

Anyways, I will likely run into trouble, so I will be needing all your knowledge as I progress and run into trouble ;)

[MasterOtogi]

Its a great game I'll try & answer any question you may have.

[Holy_Diver]

ST is mostly superior to KF I think, but I regard them as different forks in an all too undernourished genre. The only thing I can say KF would benefit from from ST though, is the shield button... which ST:Abyss did not even carry over

ST's control scheme was much more complicated however. ST approaches something like Armored Core in terms of control. Whereas KF is simple enough, no manual is required. I do wish KF games at least let you customize your controls.

[ArbalestX]

Shadow Tower is a great game, I'll admit.  It can be more punishing in some ways in comparison to the KF series.

While the level design is great, there was alot of breaking whenever I got close to the walls; it wasn't a pretty sight.

However, the enemies were awesome in this game.  Nicely rendered and animated when the game came out, and a lot better than the KF enemies.

[Holy_Diver]

My childhood memories never included all the black scars in PS1 games, but they are always there when I pick one up. Some of the better games seem to have found ways around them maybe, but all the Fromsoftware games seem to include these.

[Hguols]

King's Field vs. Shadow Tower, I can't choose which one I like better.  Shadow Tower is THAT good!  There are some aspects of Shadow Tower that I wish King's Field did:

- literal use of the shield. 
- Auxilary function with the weapons (press a button combination to switch to a spare weapon/shield)
- 150 enemies (some regular enemies are only seen once)
- abundant random drops
- No level gains, just added strengths with defeated enemies.
- realistic durability system (I think) - more realistic than TAC's.
- Voice Acting (which isn't bad for the US version of the game - VA is horrible for the JP version.)
- Weight limits
- Areas have percentage completions

I'm glad a chunk of the enemies on SoM are based from Shadow Tower.  ...a lot of sound effects from there too.

[Holy_Diver]

My favorite is the shield. I wonder if in KF your shield defense doesn't count when you're swinging a weapon. I doubt it. Unfortunately Abyss does not have shields, though you can "duel wield" instead, including guns. Personally I would rather have had shields and I don't see why they're left out. You start with guns and stuff, but by the end of the game a godlike shield/sword would've felt more appropriate.

I wonder if shields could be added to SOM somehow. It would be a trick, but I won't rule it out.

[HwitVlf]

I haven't looked into if it's possible or not, but it occurred to me that maybe a shield graphic/model could be attached to a screen effect spell that raises defense. Effectively raising a shield to defend- just a thought.

[dmpdesign]

I wonder if thats possible as well.

The only thing that makes me doubtful is the spell effects are animations...and just like monsters/npcs we haven't deciphered how SOM reads those types of files yet.

Please god, let someone figure out the animated models!

[Holy_Diver]

I will figure out the animated models (if no one beats me to it) ...I repeat, I will figure out the animated models.

I know a lot of people want this now, but it just seems to me like not the highest priority, plus I'd like to sort out a lot of more basic stuff first.


About shields... I think an extension I will like to setup as soon as all the really fundamental stuff is out of the way is an avatar for the player. So like they can see their feet and body below them. I'm not sure exactly how a shield should be achieved from a collision detection pov, but I'd like it to be something that only covers where the player is looking. I'd personally really like to fix the projectiles so they shoot at the player from above and below asap, which might lend some insight into how a shield might work.