Diablo IV Quarterly Update - Q2 June 2021

General Discussion
21

I like

  • The character details (all the cords, medals, rings, earings, belt, masks, tatoos, patterns)
  • The sorceress global style, looks like she is a fiend servant
  • The sorceress model, especially the shoulder-chest-underarm, accurately rendered
  • The blonde barbarian with hammer at 0"16, looks like Lagertha the Viking
  • The barbarian with hammer, horns and deathmask at 1"24, he has Death vibes
  • The lair scene details
  • The all-in dying system (metal changing from gold to silver)
  • The strong identity, realism, history, variety of armor pieces, especially for the rogue
  • The abomination/aberration style for monsters
  • The Blood Bishop, looks so religious and deviant at the same time
  • The Skeleton Lord, its tiny chest hands, its armor pieces on back that should be in front. So twisted
  • The Spider Parasite, disgusting (Great job in deshumanizing its host !). Feels like Half-Life crab heads.
  • The Succubus details and jewelry on its tail (devil but flirtatious)
  • The armored knight, looks tanky

I dislike

  • The fog from the horse-mounted view. Looks like Nintendo 64
  • The last (set ?) helmet with the big glowing eyes in each video (1"39 in the Barbarian video & 3"10 in the Rogue video). They do not look real compared to the previous ones. But I like the one with small glowing eyes at 1"15 in the Rogue video (Subzero style).
  • The Succubus trying to fly from its tiny wings. That is unrealistic. And obviously problematic since extra arms collides with its horns while trying to fly. She can keep the extra winged arms, but donā€™t try to make her fly from them, I donā€™t buy it.
  • The Succubus big nail looks too big to be supported by only one finger. She would broke her finger on many occasions. Even Velociraptor does not support this size. I propose to join two fingers if you want to keep that size, maybe the middle ones. Ideally I would put the big nail on wings / extra arms because a Succubus generally needs her hands to remain normal and functional.
  • The shadow / color problem on the sorceress finger
  • Hairs and fur look, seems scarce but should be abundant
  • Pixelated edges, like if anti-aliasing never existed
  • Low poly / blurred picture of the Blood Bishop head
  • Low resolution textures. A quaterly update is also a communication exercise, soā€¦
  • Most of videos are not available in 4K. This does not honor your work
  • The last miniature that shows an unrelated expanded image
4 Likes
22

I hope that is an option for more accessibility, rather than something needs to be turned off.

I donā€™t want start new games with the exercise of turning multiple settings off. I think games these days are throwing too much info at players when they donā€™t need to.

More accessibility options is great. Underestimating the players by giving them too many UI and visual aids is not great. :slight_smile: If the game is good enough, players will discover things with minimal aids and UI, and they will probably enjoy that discovery more.

2 Likes
23

Remember that the players will be viewing these models from a higher up isometric view. Thatā€™s why some parts are going to be lower resolution and quality.

2 Likes
24

I completely agree on D3 style over the top enemy special abilities looking bad.

Less is sometimes more.

1 Like
25

This was honestly an enjoyable read, and quite honestly it definitely looks like you guys are in the right direction in terms of setting the right horror and gory atmosphere. The monsters/demons look great, the character customization and dye system also looks great. While I wouldā€™ve loved for some gameplay info (mechanics and such), I can definitely say that this update did not disappoint me in anyway.

Looking forward to the next quarterly update, which Iā€™m hoping has some more info regarding character building (skill leveling and such), class unique systems (weā€™ve yet to hear what the Druidā€™s class system is), endgame activities, etc.

12 Likes
26

The characters and monsters are looking good. I especially like the Babarian armor pieces. One tiny thing that caught my eye is that the character skin is a bit too shiny overall IMO. Since you are using PBR maybe introduce some more roughness variations. But it all may just originate from your turntable light setup.

For the next blog post I like to see an update on gameplay systems again. Did you improve things based on feedback (level progression, skill tree, items, rune words, ā€¦)? What other systems are in development and what is their current state/design (crafting, ā€˜end gameā€™ activities, ā€¦)?

1 Like
27

A lot of great creativity showcased. The first barbarian and sorceress shots are impressive - the sorceress really looks like a dark sorceress and the Arabian themed armor styles look great.

The rogue and barbarian videos showed a lot of fantastic design and style. For me personally, I like the skull helmet with glowing eyes at 1:40 in the barbarian video.

The monsters all look sharp. Personally I like the succubus. Do the eggs in the spider-dude burst open and spawn spiders to attack you? They should. lol.

I do wonder, how satisfying will death animations of the monsters be? I think that is something important. Make it dramatic and connected to the player. For example, if the 10-headed dog dies make all 10 of its heads lopped around the floor bleeding profusely like a faucet. Make it feel like 90ā€™s video game violence/gore again (even though its tame compared to today) lol but just the shock factor it had back then.

Thereā€™s a hearthstone card in the Warlock class called ā€œRing Matronā€ which is this big blimp-like floaty demon, if something like that was in D4 and its death animation was like a balloon flying around being deflated (with blood instead of air) - it would be hilarious:

Also for the Blood Bishop, I know everything is not finalized yet and this was probably just to showcase more of the animation , but Iā€™d think for his theme there would be noticeably more blood constantly gushing out of him and covering the floor/area where he goes.

28

There is so much to love about the amazing art direction, character design, and attention to detail this team is taking in making the world feel very much alive. I know many of us wanted more information on gameplay, myself included, but in case we forget to tell you as a community let me say that the art of D4 is blowing my mind and far exceeds my expectations. Your team is to be congratulated on creating such an iconic look.

Just a few thoughtsā€¦

  • The in-game cinematics and story cutscenes are something Iā€™m very excited for and knowing that the rogue cinematic was in-game engine has me excited for the story-telling promise of the game. Please consider when designing endgame experiences for players that they be story driven as well - not just the campaign.
  • Your team has nailed the character creation depth and armor feels / variety that the ARPG genre has typically lacked. My hope is that the feel of an item also extends to its stats. Iā€™d hate to be wearing a full plate suit of armor that has very low defensive stats. Please consider having more diversity in your stat bases for armor types to better reflect the wonderful diversity given to us by the art team. Adding even light, medium, and heavy armor types with inherent modifiers to match would do wonders for the fantasy depth of the game - especially if coupled with passive skill interactions.
  • The most complimentary thing I can say about the armor is that in most games armor feels painted on rather than worn and gives no sense of heft. You have nailed armor that feels like the player is wearing it and it moves with the player. Very few games, even in other genres manage to nail this - Witcher 3 comes to mind - and it feels like youā€™ve excelled in this area.
  • The approach to having armor for both the male and female body types be custom fit was absolutely worth whatever effort it took to realize. It feels very custom in a good way. The female barb shot where she was sitting down at the beginning and the male barb sitting down at the end were both amazing shots.
  • The lair scene was truly impressive from an art and lighting perspective. So impressive it makes me wonder if showing the character doll in the character screen is necessary and actually detracts from the art in a way. Wouldnā€™t it be preferential to have larger item icons / more character information in that space and have a separate wardrobe tab with the lair scene for the Wardrobe system?
  • Also, on lairs, is that a sneak peak at a potential for player housing, i.e. you can only do wardrobe changes in your lair? Or maybe it will only be accessible in town, but either way I can hope.
  • The variation between armor textures - cloth, leather, plate are exceptional and easily understood. The viking aesthetic for the barbs was amazing and something I canā€™t wait to build a look around.
  • Noticed some shoulder clipping into the head at the tail end of the rogue video. This is a major problem in WoW and to whatever extent possible Iā€™d love to avoid it in Diablo 4. It is very immersion breaking, especially for a bow wielding character like the rogue.
  • The spider spawn monster is truly horrific. Not sure I needed to see that - well done.
  • With the awesomeness that was the pale knight turntable, it would be criminal to not have a full plate wearing class in this game, if not at launch, then eventually.
  • The furs look amazing - I canā€™t imagine what a fully geared druid is going to look like in this game - might have to be my starting class.

Once again, fantastic job by the artists and the art directors on this game. This blows PoE 2 out of the water from an art direction and execution perspective and I thought theirs looked really great. Iā€™d love to have a 5-10 minute gameplay video zoomed in on the character model to just see how all this art translates to the final in-game product with real time animations and lighting, but a great first tease.

1 Like
29

Agreed. Anyone claiming it doesnā€™t look better than D3 now will be considered a troll.

Hyped over the class specific trinkets to customize your gear.

2 Likes
30

Incredible! Loved this quarterly update. Massive shout-out to the Diablo IV Art Team, you all are doing an absolutely astonishing job. I am so incredibly appreciative of your team taking the time and effort to add so much detail (especially in regards to character customization) to the game. Itā€™s such a daunting amount of work but what it brings to the game and its world makes all the difference and is definitely worth it!. Thank you so much for all your hard work. The game looks stunning. There were a number of times during those slow-mo and turn around video clips where my jaw dropped in amazement at such detail and incredible overall design. So goooooood.

Glad to hear that there will be both in-game and pre-rendered cinematics. The in-game cinematic detail looks incredible and itā€™ll be cool to see our characters in them. I was worried that the in-game cinematics would replace the pre-rendered ones so thank you for the clarification that there will be both! More cinematics the better!

Looking forward to the sound design and endgame system updates in the next quarterly blogs! If the art video clips in this update are any indicator then I am excited to hear what I would assume will be various sound effects, ambience and maybe even music clips in the next update. Canā€™t wait for the endgame system update! Excited to hear whatā€™s in store for us after the story campaign! Iā€™m not much of a PvP player so please lean into PvE systems in the update. Aside of the Rogue at BlizzConline I was a little bummed that all we saw was a small taste of the PvP so I am very much hoping for more PvE system details.

Thank you for this update, especially to the Art Team for all your hard work, and to the whole team at large for making this game.

2 Likes
31

Donā€™t we already know who these dimwits are?

4 Likes
32

Well those renders look pretty good IMO. I love basing off of realism, the characters look very very good.

33

This. my only complaint.
everything else: SIIIIICK
\m/

34

Good point.
Saving space in this screen could allow us to equip more items.

Agree.
This shoulder piece is an epic fail that leaves you blind, if not dead.
Never point the spikes in direction of the head on armor pieces.

2 Likes
35

Did anyone notice one of the characters may be a Paladin? The one used to show how metal looks rendered. Nice!

36

The art is great, indeed, and a welcome departure from the D3 aesthetics. I donā€™t know what the perfect balance between realism and readability is, but it feels enough like a real medieval universe to me, similar to an Assassinā€™s Creed game.

Also, I have to say you nailed it on the dyes, they look really good !

1 Like
37

Sure, but with the new art update others may crawl out from under their rocks.

38

+1

Or just zoom on the character in the game world (next to the inventory UI). Bigger item icons in the inventory UI are really important IMO. Iā€™m still no fan of the single cell easy-gamepad-design friendly same size items. A two-handed axe should be larger than a ring in the inventory.

1 Like
39

The Knight looked amazing. :crossed_swords: :shield:

8 Likes
40

I really liked the step into better realism, personally I like strong immersion factors. I know not all do - I keep saying more RPG in the ARPG, looks like they are headed there so far.

9 Likes