Highguard - Concord 2.0?

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And the main character in the trailers has an mysterious key that his father left him. But compared to their competition, it's just random pieces of set dressing
I was more invested in the key behind the ice wall in Banjo Kazooie 30 years ago than I am in any of this game's cockamamie plot hooks.
I'm not sure why Highguard characters love having kneepads for some reason.
It's a crutch for people with no creativity to give their character designs more depth than they actually have, like how Tetsuya Nomura adds increasing amounts of pointless zips, belts and capes to his designs as time goes on, so Cloud went from this in Final Fantasy 7:
Cloud OG.png
To this in Kingdom Hearts:
Cloud KH.jpg
Concord did it too, so many characters in that game were over-designed to the point you couldn't even guess what their battle role was supposed to be.
 
Griffin Gaming actually had a really good point in his video.
Instead of sticking "from the makers of Titanfall" in your trailer why not make a you know actual fucking Titanfall game instead of whatever this is?
 
It could be worse, you know. Like, having someone wear an bandolier for shit that'll never exist in the game. Or just doubling down have one of the guys run around shirtless.

From my time airsofting when I was much younger, kneepads were indispensable. Being able to drop on one knee without breaking your knee on a hard surface is extremely useful. Without kneepads you would have to crouch which is a lot more physically taxing to do repeatedly and strains your back and legs.
I still wear my old airsoft kneepads when doing physical work, for example working on my car.
 
The problem is that an indie studio can mean anything
And that's the problem.

I think the common man when you tell them Indie Studio. Thinks of a mom and pop or someone in a garage getting funding from either themselves with another job or a few investors.
Not millions from the chinks.
 
Fable bros on suicide watch
Fable is one of my most anticipated games of this year, especially since they finally did a gameplay showcase and it was completely stripped of all the charm and aesthetics that made the series unique.

I think it might turn out to be an even bigger disaster than Halo Infinite.
 
This thread has more people playing it each day than the actual game.
I was more invested in the key behind the ice wall in Banjo Kazooie 30 years ago than I am in any of this game's cockamamie plot hooks.

It's a crutch for people with no creativity to give their character designs more depth than they actually have, like how Tetsuya Nomura adds increasing amounts of pointless zips, belts and capes to his designs as time goes on, so Cloud went from this in Final Fantasy 7:
View attachment 8593527
To this in Kingdom Hearts:
View attachment 8593528
Concord did it too, so many characters in that game were over-designed to the point you couldn't even guess what their battle role was supposed to be.
What's funny though is, depending on the character, overdesigned can actually be beneficial. It's just you have to actually have a reason to overdesign them.
Feels like a scuffed take on Jinx
View attachment 8594389
Case in point. When the character is actually a massive lunatic to the point her chaotic appearance matches her chaotic personality. (doesn't have to be but it's beneficial with her at least)
The thing is though, it only works when the character is crazy. Cloud in Kingdom Hearts is a depressed goth and in FF7 he is a soldier. His original design of all black with armor works better for both, Goths like all black and metal, and soldiers tend to wear simple color palletes to make them easier to spot fellow soldiers. Similarly, I doubt more than one or two Jinx-like characters are in the game if any. And if the bitch doesn't deserve to be locked in a padded room in Arkham Asylum trapped within the phantom zone sealed within the eternal time labyrinth. The point of character design is I should be able to figure out who the character is by looking at them.

With OG cloud "So he's a soldier who is determined to accomplish his goals with beeg veapon. Cool, I wanna play him." Which is exactly who he is. With KH1 Cloud "So, he's a vampire demon thing with a cloak who's weak point is probably his left shoulder given it's the only part of his body with any real armor. Also, he must break his big sword a lot considering he's got bandages all over it. Definitely a villain right?" Which is absolutely not how Cloud is like in the game at all.

Similarly, Jinx is a psychopathic murderer who was abandoned and abused so long her mind was twisted into a maniac. I definitely get that vibe looking at her.

Screenshot 2026-02-22 092618.png
Similarly, what's the backstory of a concord or highguard character like this one? He looks angry and has a cape. Is he a supervillain? Did he just lose someone important to him? He has an electric polearm so does he fight like a Spartan? Also, he has several pouches and grenades so is he perhaps heavy artillery? His spear definitely looks strong and while somewhat leathery his armor definitely looks like solid armor. Maybe he flanks? If his main weapon is a spear he likely runs fast right?

Now some probably is accurate, but I refuse to go to the wiki to learn more. But I also know not all of that is accurate because there's contradictions in my own assumptions, again, this would be fine if he was a maniac like Jinx, as she's contradictory to her own mind. But this guy appears sane, just made by insane people.
 

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Similarly, what's the backstory of a concord or highguard character like this one?
Something along the lines of being an descendant of an unnamed, legendary warrior. And his dad left him an actual key for discovering an forgotten civilization.

Yes, that's literally his entire backstory
 
Fable is one of my most anticipated games of this year, especially since they finally did a gameplay showcase and it was completely stripped of all the charm and aesthetics that made the series unique.

I think it might turn out to be an even bigger disaster than Halo Infinite.
Same. I foolishly was optimistic since it had Lionhead devs but now I'm only hoping to get a few laughs as it crashes and burns. How dare they trade in the doggo for cutaway gags.
 
Something along the lines of being an descendant of an unnamed, legendary warrior. And his dad left him an actual key for discovering an forgotten civilization.

Yes, that's literally his entire backstory
His outfit has more complicated lore than his actual lore. That is proof more than anything else the devs are retarded.
 
But even then, it's kind of schizophrenic in the sense that it's too modern for the armor that he's wearing over it.
Sure but this is the same game that has people riding on horseback shooting laser machineguns at eachother and planting c4 in bases. If the base theme of the game is an incoherent mess, why bother with any of the individual characters?
 
...and for many people in the thread, Geoff's otherwise-inexplicably sudden appearance as some kind of "authority" in game awards and promotions makes a lot of sense. Nepo baby. He's the Xbox of gaming -- mommy & daddy (Microsoft in Xbox's case) just trying to buy their way in.
I will say that, insofar as the gaming lumenpress is concerned, at least Geoff is shrewd especially with respect to business acumen. Perhaps the peak of that was completely decimating PissedOffPedro when he tried to gotcha him in an interview (though outsmarting a Mexican is hardly a Herculean feat).

They use this same trick on players and it works (see every 'spiritual successor' on Kickstarter and shit like Back4Blood), but it's very unlikely they'd actually know a single developer's name that matters from a game like Apex. For every Josh Sawyer (from New Vegas), there's several hundred bums who can claim to have worked on a Fallout title, for example.

It's also a trick that doesn't work forever - even a lot of "legendary names" in gamedev have been having huge issues re-creating success, going all the way back to Daikatana and slamming right into Starfield with a ton of mediocrity in between.

They guy making the pitch to his boss (who reports to one of these execs) might know one or two key people - but the studios are just as disposable as the people that work there.
Yup. Best example was probably Mighty No. 9, shit was so bad that Inafune is now just remembered as a total hack. Kojimbo and the parcel delivery games are another examples though at least some like them and on a technical level they retain the prior quality.
 
Similarly, what's the backstory of a concord or highguard character like this one?
the real problem is that you see that and you go, instantly "who cares", he's as bland as a Final Fantasy background character.

Compare the first 15 seconds where all you see is John Highguard, to this live action trailer for Devil May Cry 3, imagine you have no idea who Dante is, or what Devil May Cry is.


all you get is immediate high octane action from Reuben Langdon (the V.A. and Mocap of Dante and plays him in this trailer), you can instantly tell he's cocky, has a sort of young punk rock vibe with the leather jacket and no shirt, and that he's powerful, fast, and knows it, you don't even need context of what he's attacking or the plot, you can tell at a glance that this is a stylish game.
 
And that's the problem.

I think the common man when you tell them Indie Studio. Thinks of a mom and pop or someone in a garage getting funding from either themselves with another job or a few investors.
Not millions from the chinks.
Its definitely something we need to put our foot down on and select an actual, factual definition for. Because I wouldn't call Sandfall an indie studio either but it still schlorped up every best indie game award. AA might be more appropriate.

But I think we have a more insidious problem on our hands now; Triple A has come to the understanding they no longer have the credibility to sell their absurdly overbudget garbage so they're trying to steal the credibility of being an indie studio to sell their crap. Even worse, the big investors like tencent are doing this entirely behind closed doors so the failure can't be traced back to them. The shell company (In this case Wildlight) are the ones that suffer the blame and the general populace is none the wiser this was Tencents fault.
 
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