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Project M prototype gameplay – dark fantasy action RPG by Korean studio HOUND13

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
These Korean games all seem to go for the same visual style, it's getting difficult to even distinguish them. Well except for the ass lady that is.
If they want to make it big it's time to put a bit more effort in making less generic fantasy and Sci fi worlds imho. But I wish them the best, they're doing well with their own manga and anime adaptations so who knows... maybe after Japan they're next.
 
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lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
Why do they all look the same visual,g ameplay and animation wise?
 
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Flintty

Member
Feels like the Koreans are leaping ahead of the west in videogame graphics. I know they all have a similar style but that looks amazing.
 

Kimahri

Banned
These Korean games all seem to go for the same visual style, it's getting difficult to even distinguish them. Well except for the ass lady that is.
If they want to make it big it's time to put a bit more effort in making less generic fantasy and Sci fi worlds imho. But I wish them the best, they're doing well with their own manga and anime adaptations so who knows... maybe after Japan they're next.
Meh, better than all the generic shit from the west. I'll take generic korean over that, any day.
 
If you want to make your game more realistic, make it rainy.
Yeah, I gotta say, the outdoors areas look more like the outside I see in real life than western "everything is brown-hued and bloomy" outdoors.

On another note, I wonder if the devs know or care about how this has the same name to an otherwise-unrelated old big Smash mod.
 

Velius

Banned

Project M prototype gameplay – dark fantasy action RPG by Korean studio HOUND13​


In development for console and PC.

HOUND 13, the South Korean studio behind the mobile game Hundred Soul, has released a prototype gameplay video for Project M, its dark fantasy action RPG in development for console and PC.

Watch the footage below.




Source: Gematsu

Looks amazing,

Looks like the complete opposite of what happened here:
maxresdefault.jpg
 

Velius

Banned
These Korean games all seem to go for the same visual style, it's getting difficult to even distinguish them. Well except for the ass lady that is.
If they want to make it big it's time to put a bit more effort in making less generic fantasy and Sci fi worlds imho. But I wish them the best, they're doing well with their own manga and anime adaptations so who knows... maybe after Japan they're next.
Agreed but this is happening everywhere. I loved Metroid Dread but everything looked the exact same. The areas, the creatures and bosses (aside from one exception), even the names of the areas all sound the same.

This video helps demonstrate (at least from the cinema perspective) why everything is starting to look and feel forgettable: no creativity in the industry. People who are fans of creative things are not necessarily creative themselves.
 

Kuranghi

Member
Is there a website similar to the google graveyard where you can see all these prototype games that never come out? I never actually see them coming out and being a finished game or anyone ever talking about them again after the initial concept video reveals.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
The trailer looks promising. It looks like an interesting world, but this will just be a memory months from now. I wish these companies would just release the game instead of promising something they can’t deliver in a trailer. Prove they can make the game rather than release false promises.
 

Nickolaidas

Banned
Looks great, but I really hope the combat feels and plays as good as it looks.

I like the pointy armor designs, the graphics and the blood mechanics. Hopefully this will be made and find its way into Steam.
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Agreed but this is happening everywhere. I loved Metroid Dread but everything looked the exact same. The areas, the creatures and bosses (aside from one exception), even the names of the areas all sound the same.

This video helps demonstrate (at least from the cinema perspective) why everything is starting to look and feel forgettable: no creativity in the industry. People who are fans of creative things are not necessarily creative themselves.


Metroid Dread is absolutely bland and generic visually. It hurts seeing fans of classics like Super Metroid and Fusion not even notice any differences nowadays. The art direction is literally atrocious, luckily the gameplay stays solid but I would've love to have both like before.

That said yes, it's a common issue but Koreans for now are just having that without any exception - I'm waiting for that one before welcoming them with celebrations 😅
 
Metroid Dread is absolutely bland and generic visually. It hurts seeing fans of classics like Super Metroid and Fusion not even notice any differences nowadays.

Maybe that's because Metroid always had monster designs cribbed from trending Hollywood sci-fi/horror movies of the time (and even named after elements from said films) and were never particularly creative. Sure, it may not had been as infringing as Contra, but it was still pretty obvious.

Dread isn't really any different in that regard, it's just that the movies they're inspired by are more like Star Wars than Aliens.
 

Kadve

Member
Agreed but this is happening everywhere. I loved Metroid Dread but everything looked the exact same. The areas, the creatures and bosses (aside from one exception), even the names of the areas all sound the same.

This video helps demonstrate (at least from the cinema perspective) why everything is starting to look and feel forgettable: no creativity in the industry. People who are fans of creative things are not necessarily creative themselves.


Same reason why we so rarely get unique looking art styles in AAA games nowadays. The moment computers got good enough to start doing photo-realistic stuff. Developers no longer had to be creative in order to make a game look "good".
 
Why do Korean and Chinese studios complete 💩 on Japanese devs?
They don't?

I mean they have their own styles and the style for some in particular (like DokeV) are really interesting to me, but we also need to remember a lot of these games...haven't even released yet. We don't know if there're gonna be graphics downgrades, or if the games will even play good or have interesting stories or game mechanics.

In the console space at least, the Japanese scene is a much more proven entity even just historically speaking, as well as now (I can't think of a single non-Japanese Asian game with character animations as good as Street Fighter 5, for example, regardless of genre).

Again tho, let's give those scenes (and other up-and-coming ones) their time to grow and mature. They'll find their own voice and the Japanese scene will continue to do its thing, too.
 

kevm3

Member
I don't know what happened to Japanese game devs when it comes to graphics. Gameplay wise and art-wise, they are still up there, but a lot of their games look a gen behind. Korean developers are really stepping it up in terms of graphical technology, but I really wish they would dial back that 'dynamic camera'. It is headache inducing.
 

kevm3

Member
I'm guessing that Japanese gamers primarily are mobile gamers so Japanese devs cater to those devices, while PC gaming is extremely prevalent in South Korea, so they can focus on graphics a lot more.
 

CamHostage

Member
I don't know what happened to Japanese game devs when it comes to graphics. Gameplay wise and art-wise, they are still up there, but a lot of their games look a gen behind. Korean developers are really stepping it up in terms of graphical technology...

I'd appreciate any context somebody could lend me, but if I remember correctly, Korea (and China, in a separate but similar take on the topic) has been investing heavily in CG production, first as a nation of farm-out studios for Hollywood and Silicon Valley media productions and later some of those offices have spun off into home-grown production studios of their own.

An old but notable example: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/07/693_59177.html?RD

So it's a little bit like when Japan was the animation workhorse of the world, silently producing GI Joe and Transformers and so many of America's favorite cartoons. Or how when videogames were booming in the early 80s, Japan was the development studio for a lot of franchises and ports, and those studios eventually found their own footing once there was money in that part of the economy (also, Nintendo and SEGA were positioned to build up the console space back when Atari crashed.) Both places are a bit of a Bubble Economy (both Korea and China are also bubbling from low wages for workers making the economy easy to speculate and exploit, both at home and abroad,) and both have placed a premium on be a major player in different computer technology markets.

LSU_BANNER-770x250-e0d74ab486aa89f4d744e74a57d77779392dea8c.png

(2016 event, one of a number of Epic Games Korea programs)

Korea now has a talent pool of workers skilled in technology such as Unreal Engine, and after years of doing grunt work for American and European studios in film and TV and games, they're ready to start putting their country on the map with original productions... maybe. One of the downsides of this sped-up version of a Bubble Economy is that it's questionable if its art world in Korea was able to really establish itself while the tech/economy boomed (I'm comparing Korea to Japan, which had the Manga and Anime and even videogame RPG markets bubbling underneath and at home so that original creatives had exciting new material once the tech was advanced and the economy was flush, whereas Korea doesn't have much unique identity in entertainment art... unfair statement?) Korea does have some success cases in games (MapleStory, Lineage, Ragnarok Online, DJMax,) but there's not great evidence that the business has fostered a community of up-and-coming game design geniuses the way that the Japanese game market was overflowing with interesting titles before the floodgates even opened in the SNES and PS1 period for original Japanese game projects to be demanded by an international otaku audience. Mikami, Kojima, Sakaguchi, guys like that were all getting reps in before the big game started. Who is the first great Korean game designer, inspiring the next gen to follow in his footsteps? Not sure if there is one yet (if ever there will be one on that level; maybe Korea will just be known for volume and technical/visual polish rather than evolution? Project Eve and DokeV look nice, but will their designers make a mark in history, or just maybe sell a lot of copies?)

So, you see a lot of derivative work from Korean studios, because they have lots and lots of people who know how to make things that are popular, but it was not a national priority to foster the innovators to gain the experience for sitting down to imagine a bright future using those skilled people to do something brand new. Maybe, maybe not... it'd be tough to stand out, but we may eventually see great designers rise up in Korea as the economy hits its stride and pops out more original titles, if/when that blooms.

And as a side-note, what happened to Japan? They went the other way, building their own technology systems and working mostly on national products instead of taking jobs for international work. Square tried to build its own engine for years (mostly unsuccessfully), while Capcom and Bandai Namco and even Nintendo tested the waters of popular engines but still pushed for their own tech in an attempt to remain independent. And their audience has turned inward, producing a large number of niche titles that often don't even get exported to the rest of the world. The reasons for Japan's dwindling status in gaming is manifold and not something I'm an expert on, but my takeaway is that Korea (and China) have been putting in the work to shag balls for the bigwigs and is now in a position to try out for the majors, whereas Japan has been trying to start a game of its own and it has not popped off.
 
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killatopak

Gold Member
I don't know what happened to Japanese game devs when it comes to graphics. Gameplay wise and art-wise, they are still up there, but a lot of their games look a gen behind. Korean developers are really stepping it up in terms of graphical technology, but I really wish they would dial back that 'dynamic camera'. It is headache inducing.
I'd imagine because of their roots of focusing on PC. Japanese devs are notorious for forgoing PC in favor of mobile and consoles.
 

kevm3

Member
So, just from a standpoint of speculation, it seems like the key factors are:
1) A lot of CG work is offshored to Korea so they have developed a very talented pool of graphics artists.
2) Typical gaming devices in Korea is more slanted towards PC vs Japan where it's mobile so there is much more power to utilize in general whereas Japan has to create games that can be easily ported to mobile
3) Korea has less hangups on creating their own engine and has no qualms in using something like UE5, so less time is wasted in getting something up and running and fighting tech bugs
 
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