Paprium: The Official Thread Mk 2

[tokay]

A little medley/DJ style mix I’ve put together.
A lot of the tracks included I have tweaked so are not totally similar to what you hear in game.
I’ve also included a few little interludes, and layered some samples, drums and fx here and there.
This may not be to everyone’s taste but I’ve included them as I want to make sure there are quite a few differences in case an OST is announced.

This is an early Christmas gift!
Thanks a LOT for sharing this!
Cannot wait to play the game for real and listen to your complete tunes.

[Spendle]

Believe it or not, it's possible to have an opinion from watching videos or reading information, even if you didn't buy the game.
That "you didn't buy it, you can't have an opinion" argument is bullshit. If you want to defend Paprium, use actual arguments instead of trying to silence people or deny their opinion.

Tend to agree with this. We all make judgements on games without ever playing them, that's typically how we choose whether or not to buy a game.

I felt Joyeux gave a good balance to their post. You don't have to have played Paprium to know that WM's approach over the past 3 years in particular has been poor, and will put off many people from ever buying from them again, myself included. But now the game is here, visually it looks decent and I'll soon see for myself how the gameplay is.

[Arm]

A little medley/DJ style mix I’ve put together.
A lot of the tracks included I have tweaked so are not totally similar to what you hear in game.
I’ve also included a few little interludes, and layered some samples, drums and fx here and there.
This may not be to everyone’s taste but I’ve included them as I want to make sure there are quite a few differences in case an OST is announced.

It's obvious a lot of work went into creating this medley. This is really good.

[Devil N]

The game seems to be very fun to play, the sprites are big and the sound is good. But one thing that I don't like is the heavy usage of purple and green colors on most stages I saw in the videos. I wish they used different color sets between stages.

I do agree with this. The neon sci-fi cyberpunk setting is pretty cool, but it does mean that all the stages have a somewhat same-y look. Lots of purple, green, pink and other clashing colors, with lots of flashing lights. The unfortunate consequence is that the levels don't really feel as distinct as I'd like. I can see what the levels are supposed to be and how they fit together, but they don't *feel* very different from one another.

Compare that to Streets of Rage 2 (it's the benchmark to which all other beat 'em ups are compared, after all) which had a more down-to-earth setting. You had the backstreets, the amusement park, the baseball stadium, the ship, the beach, the factory, the skyscraper... Each level felt very unique, has its own distinct color palette, and stood out in its own way. Paprium doesn't have that as much, and it's a result of the fundamental choice of setting and art style.

[pepodmc]

I do agree with this. The neon sci-fi cyberpunk setting is pretty cool, but it does mean that all the stages have a somewhat same-y look. Lots of purple, green, pink and other clashing colors, with lots of flashing lights. The unfortunate consequence is that the levels don't really feel as distinct as I'd like. I can see what the levels are supposed to be and how they fit together, but they don't *feel* very different from one another.

Compare that to Streets of Rage 2 (it's the benchmark to which all other beat 'em ups are compared, after all) which had a more down-to-earth setting. You had the backstreets, the amusement park, the baseball stadium, the ship, the beach, the factory, the skyscraper... Each level felt very unique, has its own distinct color palette, and stood out in its own way. Paprium doesn't have that as much, and it's a result of the fundamental choice of setting and art style.

Yeah, i remember when the project was announced, i didnt liked the cyberpunk selection for art style.
I mean, for a rpg or a shooter it goes well but for a beat em up i would have prefered an art style like streets of rage or final fight.
Even if the final result is less original.

[cleeg]

One thing I always liked best about the prequel to SOR 2 was the coherent and unified theme; though the variety in the second game was good, I always felt I was fighting in 'Varied Locations Of Rage,' I'd have liked more streets.

One thing in Paprium I like the look of is the unified theme, it also helps that I like dystopian cyber punk type stuff, so I suppose it boils down to taste.

As far as critcising without playing goes, you can certainly tell a lot from video footage, and it is a good way to filter game choices, way better than magazines like the old days. It just gets a bit much when people sound so very certain without having played it, the opinions of those who have are worth more I would say.

[matteus]

One thing I always liked best about the prequel to SOR 2 was the coherent and unified theme; though the variety in the second game was good, I always felt I was fighting in 'Varied Locations Of Rage,' I'd have liked more streets.

One thing in Paprium I like the look of is the unified theme, it also helps that I like dystopian cyber punk type stuff, so I suppose it boils down to taste.

As far as critcising without playing goes, you can certainly tell a lot from video footage, and it is a good way to filter game choices, way better than magazines like the old days. It just gets a bit much when people sound so very certain without having played it, the opinions of those who have are worth more I would say.

Given the UK/France border issues at the moment I don't know if we'll get ours lol

[cleeg]

I know, I was thinking the same thing.

[molasar]

[Devil N]

I've just made a high resolution scan of the included poster that shows the game's world map and how all of the levels are interconnected. I'm still very confused by how everything fits together, so this'll be handy to have as reference for when I continue my playthrough.


(Click for full resolution and high quality)

[zborgerd]

Believe it or not, it's possible to have an opinion from watching videos or reading information, even if you didn't buy the game.
That "you didn't buy it, you can't have an opinion" argument is bullshit. If you want to defend Paprium, use actual arguments instead of trying to silence people or deny their opinion.

Not what I said at all. I said that people who didn't buy the game seem to have a lot to say. Never said that they cannot. Nobody tried to silence anyone. But clearly guys like you are very angry and hateful about it even though you've got no investment in it.

Seems more like you're trying to spread negativity over the excitement that the game has shipped and seems to mostly be exceeding expectations. But keep on. Nobody is going to try to silence you. Here's an opinion for you : Maybe your efforts to spread hate would be better spent on working on your own game. There you go. I just found some free time for you.

I did invest in the game and never was angry or hateful about the delays. I'm glad it's finally shipping though.

[pepodmc]

Not what I said at all. I said that people who didn't buy the game seem to have a lot to say. Never said that they cannot. Nobody tried to silence anyone. But clearly guys like you are very angry and hateful about it even though you've got no investment in it.

Seems more like you're trying to spread negativity over the excitement that the game has shipped and seems to mostly be exceeding expectations. But keep on. Nobody is going to try to silence you. Here's an opinion for you : Maybe your efforts to spread hate would be better spent on working on your own game. There you go. I just found some free time for you.

Even without playing it, it obvious that it has some hitboxes and hitstun problems. Some constructive criticism is a good thing.

About the AI, its not the best , but if i were fonzie i would have released the game only with the very hard difficulty because its the only difficult in which the AI kinds of do what it must do. i mean, if you combine a not very good Ai with having to dumb down the enemy behaviour because of the difficulty and you get a very bad combination.

With 6 more months this game would have released in a better state. Hope that Watermelon or fans can fix these problems.

[zborgerd]

I do agree with this. The neon sci-fi cyberpunk setting is pretty cool, but it does mean that all the stages have a somewhat same-y look. Lots of purple, green, pink and other clashing colors, with lots of flashing lights. The unfortunate consequence is that the levels don't really feel as distinct as I'd like. I can see what the levels are supposed to be and how they fit together, but they don't *feel* very different from one another.

Compare that to Streets of Rage 2 (it's the benchmark to which all other beat 'em ups are compared, after all) which had a more down-to-earth setting. You had the backstreets, the amusement park, the baseball stadium, the ship, the beach, the factory, the skyscraper... Each level felt very unique, has its own distinct color palette, and stood out in its own way. Paprium doesn't have that as much, and it's a result of the fundamental choice of setting and art style.

Yeah, i remember when the project was announced, i didnt liked the cyberpunk selection for art style.
I mean, for a rpg or a shooter it goes well but for a beat em up i would have prefered an art style like streets of rage or final fight.
Even if the final result is less original.

Outside of the futuristic neon everywhere theme, I can't help but to think that maybe some of it has to do with making the most of the Genesis' palette limitations. Some people have talked about dither but it's an unfortunate fact that, in spite of the systems amazing capabilities of the time, the color depth was not one of them.

I think it was Devil N who was playing when I saw him restart in Extra mode and spawned in a completely different area that I don't think we'd seen before after getting to the final battle. Maybe there is more that we've not seen / unlocked yet.

[zborgerd]

Even without playing it, it obvious that it has some hitboxes and hitstun problems. Some constructive criticism is a good thing.

About the AI, its not the best , but if i were fonzie i would have released the game only with the very hard difficulty because its the only difficult in which the AI kinds of do what it must do. i mean, if you combine a not very good Ai with having to dumb down the enemy behaviour because of the difficulty and you get a very bad combination.

With 6 more months this game would have released in a better state. Hope that Watermelon or fans can fix these problems.

AI does appear to ramp substantially in Very Hard mode. A lot of people playing on Easy which seems to have pretty lame AI.

[pepodmc]

Outside of the futuristic neon everywhere theme, I can't help but to think that maybe some of it has to do with making the most of the Genesis' palette limitations. Some people have talked about dither but it's an unfortunate fact that, in spite of the systems amazing capabilities of the time, the color depth was not one of them.

I think it was Devil N who was playing when I saw him restart in Extra mode and spawned in a completely different area that I don't think we'd seen before after getting to the final battle. Maybe there is more that we've not seen / unlocked yet.

Taking in consideration all the problems in the development and the final price of the game, i think that would have been better to develop this game as a Sega CD game.

The final price would be lower because of being a CD, fonzie would had more processing power to work, better audio quality and less size problems.
Because how much does a Sega CD addon cost? would be the same if the people had to buy a sega cd addon to play the game that what we have now having to pay 169 dolars for the cartridge.

But its just an oppinion.