Sui Generis: Exanima - Preview @ Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Myrthos

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RPS checks out Examina, the prelude to Siu Generis.

Exanima isn’t like other RPGs, the Steam store page tells you with some insistence. It’s true for several reasons, but the most obvious is its fully physics-modelled combat which renders close quarters engagements as tense, tactical affairs conducted between two or more appallingly drunk people. Every collision has a physical effect, as subtle or extreme as the speed with which it occurs, and so combat is about caution and timing, dodging incoming swings and finding the time to wind up, directing your weapon in a sweep to connect with your opponent’s most vital areas with the most momentum possible. At least, it’s about these things inasmuch as these things are even possible while piloting someone with a near-lethal blood-alcohol level.
More information.
 
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oooops, I didn't know this game would be about fighting drunks.... I was hoping it'd be a normal game with great physics....
 
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Love this part:
Exanima isn’t like other RPGs, the Steam store page tells you with some insistence. It’s true for several reasons, but the most obvious is its fully physics-modelled combat which renders close quarters engagements as tense, tactical affairs conducted between two or more appallingly drunk people.
It is at the same time my biggest reason for not caring about playing it.
If they ever manage to fix that, I might be interested.
 
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I really like that the combat looks like normal, unexperienced people fighting (a.k.a "drunk people"). I'd like to see the editor or some of the people on RPGwatch people in a fight :)

For some reason i don't really picture myself professional ninjas (well except for GG, obviously!) ;)
 
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Yes, hopefully if enough people make snide, off-hand remarks because it has become the thing to do, then the devs will bow to the pressure and we can have another game where rogues flip over people's heads to backstab and fighters charge folks in a superhuman Flashesque blur, because there really aren't enough games like that….
 
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Drunken Master, the RPG. ;)

I suspect the conflict comes from using a very limited interface to try and control a complex model. At some level the PC needs to compensate for the limitation by providing some "muscle memory" type behaviors.
 
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Awww, well, there is a difference between doing flips over peoples heads and looking like you can barely walk straight....
 
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I don't think it looks like that at all. I will agree that it sometimes looks slightly too sluggish, but not much.. I really think most of the awkwardness really comes from us being brainwashed with "ninja" fightning games in 1000 MPH for decades..

Watch some fights with non-professional fighters, it's not exactly beautiful, fast or smooth ;)
 
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I don't think it looks like that at all. I will agree that it sometimes looks slightly too sluggish, but not much.. I really think most of the awkwardness really comes from us being brainwashed with "ninja" fightning games in 1000 MPH for decades..

Watch some fights with non-professional fighters, it's not exactly beautiful, fast or smooth ;)
Maybe most of us don't care to play games where you control a peasant trying to not stab himself in the eye.

If you like it so much you can finance their game enough so they can deliver a game for the little niche group that likes this because for sure the wider (or less wide) market will not.
 
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After watching video of the combat, I have to give it a pass. It looks way too complicated for my old fingers to ever manage.
 
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Maybe most of us don't care to play games where you control a peasant trying to not stab himself in the eye.

If you like it so much you can finance their game enough so they can deliver a game for the little niche group that likes this because for sure the wider (or less wide) market will not.

Translation:

"boo-hoo-hoo! Someone shows appreciation for a developer who dares doing something different - that doesnt appeal to the wide market!!!! Now i have to go cry in a corner."
 
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Danger. Troll detected.

Indeed.. i think this forum used to be fairly nice, with decent enough atmosphere. Nowadays it reminds me way too much of RPGcodex, e.g everyone have to apply to certain "rules"; you can't go against what the general opinion is on the forum about a certain game. No matter if you give constructive criticism and explain your standpoint in detail.

Well it's no greater loss to me, i tend to have a small burst of interest in forums and then i decide to do something more creative instead :)
 
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Translation:

"boo-hoo-hoo! Someone shows appreciation for a developer who dares doing something different - that doesnt appeal to the wide market!!!! Now i have to go cry in a corner."
If you cannot accept reality it is not my problem. I don't have a problem with this game existing but it is pretty clear that this kind of game will not have a big market.
 
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If you cannot accept reality it is not my problem. I don't have a problem with this game existing but it is pretty clear that this kind of game will not have a big market.

6,931 backers disagrees (which i would say is not bad for a game that was just shown in a short video)..

I'd say there are many people who are very interested in something that isnt just the same old diablo clone with the typical hero, who does his typical superhero moves.
I couldn't care less if it doesn't sell in Call of Duty quantities, and i'm not sure why you would care about that either.
 
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6,931 backers disagrees (which i would say is not bad for a game that was just shown in a short video)..

I'd say there are many people who are very interested in something that isnt just the same old diablo clone with the typical hero, who does his typical superhero moves.
I couldn't care less if it doesn't sell in Call of Duty quantities, and i'm not sure why you would care about that either.

That is nothing for what this game wants to accomplish. That is small change.
 
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The animations seem fine to me.

The problem I have is with the camera. They're obviously trying to place an emphasis on atmosphere, but the zoomed-out isometric view kills it for me. A third-person view would have been much better imo.
 
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Translated for the mentally challenged or chronically drunk (now I get why you think the game has proper animation): If a game looks like shit, plays like shit, and sounds like shit.... well, you get the picture.
 
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"boo-hoo-hoo! this indie game doesn't have the graphics i'm used to from multibillion-dollar productions on my Xbox… it's also much more complicated than CoD! Now i have to torture a kitten to get calm…"

go back to your caves..
 
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