I think they developed it based on funeral lamentations / cries… something like that… you’d have to google it.
What I remember was the song. It’s written on my native language. It was a nice surprise from a western show:
xxhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVsrX3LiXNY
You are on to something. There might actually be a concept like “sex sells” when it comes to designing stuff.
It is also the laziest way to sell stuff and usually the “objects” are not the benefactors of that deal.
Anyways, you dont seem to know the history of blizzard.
To me it is clearly a lost viking easter egg.
And even if it wasnt, there is a big fanbase for dwarven characters. Across LotR, WoW, DnD and some other franchises.
Deep Rock Galactic is a bestseller on steam without hot chicks, just with dwarven glory.
They didn’t go with “sex sells” for D2R because D2R already has a target playerbase, Blizzard is already a big household name, and people no longer buy games just because of sex appeal anymore.
It’s a different landscape than in 2000 for sure. Sex still sells, but not as well, not as much, and not as exclusively. So they don’t have to do it anymore, and can pursue different ideas.
Which is good.
D2 will always be there if you want to go back and enjoy its old art, assets and designs.
D2R trying new directions and new things is not a problem, except for an extremely vocal minority that won’t stop complaining about it.
Then I’ll just play on the old graphics setting and never swap out of it, assuming they’ll allow switching between pixels and HD.
It may not mean much, but it will be my way of giving them the finger over their “Hard work”, if they’re more than happy to make the characters ugly.
As far as I’m aware that is exactly the reason why they both:
People who don’t like the new graphics can just switch to the old ones, and enjoy the same old game with a renewed playerbase.
Everyone wins.
That is one of the neat things about the new version. You can switch between the two with a single key-press and see the differences if you want. Just hit the G key to toggle it back and forth.
I will say, the new graphics are amazing and even better by comparing them. Not saying you will like them all, but it was stunning.
I need to check and see if they made it so skeletons don’t drop blood! They have none darn it!
Yeah games, music videos, and commercials are full of Amish people now… totally not as sexualized as the early 2000s.
What rock do you live under, you’ve gotten everything backward in one comment.
I’m not going to repeat my stance or the same arguments as mentioned in the now locked thread. However, I will say though that if they will not address the characters I will still buy the remake and enjoy it. They will get me on this purchase as Diablo 2 is a phenomenal game. Blizzard isn’t spitting out phenomenal games anymore.
In the future, I will remember how they shoved this down fans throats for what is most likely political reasons and will thus avoid future Blizzard products. My WoW sub has already been canceled and expired. I have no desire to purchase OW2. I have no plans to pre-order D4 and will wait to see if its even remotely decent before purchasing.
Right, and WAP stands for “wholesome and pure”.
This comment deserves a lot of love. Well done Axe.
This was interesting, thanks.
Its not really about being flawless, I mean the art by itself is well done and very realistic. But that game being 20 years old, those voices got stuck to those models, and the overall vibe, presence, imperfections they had.
Maybe its just a matter of time to get used to the new models attached to those voices. And its probably a very subjective matter too.
For me it isn’t about being flawless. Intentionally redesigning the heroes, aging the characters, changing their body types, body proportions and their ethnic background isn’t about remastering content but remaking it. Some of these changes clash with existing known lore, of note and the one I personally care most about is the ages of our heroes. Keep in mind that the events of the worldstone and the start of D3’s story is twenty years. A good example of this is Isendra (our Sorceress), born in 1246 (Firefly). The Hunt for The Three is in 1264, making her 18 years old at the time she joins the other heroes in Diablo 2. She would be either 19 or 20 after the events of the worldstone in 1265.
Remaster doesn’t mean remake.
Let’s make a compromise:
The heroes start young (D2 98)
They age with every act (and difficulty), so 14 intervals/15 ages in total.
At the end Act 5 Hell they are as old as currently depicted (D2R).
Doesnt that sound awesome as a concept? Lore aside.
My apologies to the character artist who just got a heartattack.
I think it’s just a matter of realizing that when you’re playing, you won’t see them.
You will ONLY ever see the Amazon’s face in detail on the character select screen.
While playing, she is too zoomed out to make out the details of her face, and while she is moving, using skills, etc.? you will definitely not notice.
It’s a matter of priorities, and this isn’t one.
Lore aside, it would be very cool to see our heroes age throughout the game if all the events didn’t happen within a two year span.
Also, it should be noted that Isendra’s portrait is visible D3 when you speak to her ‘spirit’. As 20 years later (38-39 years old) https://i.postimg.cc/sxxFjG3Y/Spirit-Female2-Portrait.png
This is really stupid imo and easy to fix.
Change the Face model on the Character Login screen and Leave it the same in game as is… keeps any added work load minimal.
Indeed it isn’t a priority, but so are spell effects or how the werebear looked like (which they spent time on fixing). They’re small details that add up to the whole experience.
Cain still feels like Cain, Akara feels like Akara, and Fallens feel like Fallens. And they all have the same amount of details than the main characters. But somehow the main heroes feel off.
Spell effects are a priority because they will fill your screen as you actually play.
Spell effects are things you will actually see, often, maybe almost exclusively ALL THE TIME depending on your class. Blizzard, for example, is one of the CORE spells that Baby’s First MF Sorc build relies on. It is a spell that will be on people’s screens constantly, for the next 20 years. Likewise, mobs that are frozen will grace your screen very frequently, and must not look like an eyesore.
That IS a priority.
It is not even remotely comparable to a pixelated face you will almost never get to see.
The Amazon’s face will only be visible to Amazon players who are selecting their character, or to Amazon players who stop playing and zoom in on their character to look at her (and even then, the zoom in isn’t that close, so most details won’t be noticeable). That is not a significant amount of screen time. That is less than 0.1% of the time you will spend playing the game.
However, spells and effects will be on your screen OFTEN, and FREQUENTLY. If you play certain builds and classes, they will be on your screen almost permanently. So THAT is important to fix.
The priority argument would make sense if its a HUGE effort.
Anyone who know Character modeling know its a 2 days work at best. 1/2 day in Zbrush (softening the jaw, nose, remove the wrinkles), 1/2 day in Substance painter to fix the skin, 1/2 day re-import the model & textures, & I am being super conservative.
I could have done it for Blizzard for free.