Bad ending

[AlWesker]

So the good ending is now implemented. What should we do with the bad ending then?

The SNES version has a gameplay mechanic in the ending in which the Battlecopter pursues the Silas Volkmire ship and you asume the control of the Battlecopter. You have to hit the ship with three missiles within a time limit, and the crosshair has a bouncing movement which goes more quickly after each hit so it's more difficult to hit him right each time. If you manage to hit the ship with three missiles on time, you get the good ending. If you don't and time's up, then you get the bad ending.

Maybe the gameplay mechanic could be implemented some day even though it seems to much ambitious to do it because it would probably require coding a sprite engine, so in the meantime maybe we can come with a different alternative solution with static screens to offer the player both the good ending (already implemented) and the bad ending of the original SNES versions.

My proposal is to follow what games typically did back then with the difficulty levels. We have easy, normal and ending. The game is not as hard as the SNES version, in fact some of the levels like the Roller Coaster and Dark Tower ones are ridiculously easy compared to the difficulty of the originals, so maybe forcing the player to take the effort of playing the game in hard difficulty (which has no continues) would make a challenge motivation to the player to try the hard mode, something which as of now it's not a real difference compared to completing the game on easy or normal. And since easy difficulty gives a lot of continues and it's, that could be turned out into a sort of practice mode which doesn't given any of the ending, nor the bad (which would appear in normal) nor the good (which would appear in hard).

So, what do you think? Also, we can decide if this would be either a v1 or v2 improvement.

[maxim-zhao]

Should be doable.

[maxim-zhao]

OK, so where should the Easy version end? Do we want to show a message like "try again to see the ending"?

[maxim-zhao]

Well, I pushed a change to implement this. Have a go and see what you think. Easy ends after the Dark Queen/T-Bird exchange, Normal gives the "bad ending" and Hard gives the "good ending".

[AlWesker]

My initial idea was to show only the two intermission screens of Dark Queen and T. Bird (before the "ER..." screen shows) and then the Game Complete screen. Exactly like the original Master System version behaves. This is what you did just now I think.

If we want to show a message, I think a "Try again to see the ending" would be a little misleading. It would be more like "Try the next difficulty level" or "Try harder". But I have an even better idea if we want to do something like that.

In Battletoads Double Dragon, if you complete the game with cheats, instead of showing the regular ending, there's a single screen of professor T. Bird breaking the fourth wall and telling you to complete the game without cheats.

This is very typical of the Battletoads series humor, so I feel now inclined to do something like this. How do you think about putting a T. Bird screen taunting the player to finish the game in a harder difficulty level? Or even more funny, putting a Dark Queen screen taunting you to do that and then T. Bird amusingly agreeing with her. I would have to write the script for those two instances as it would be new dialogue, but I think I can come up with something. Sort of like.

Dark Queen: Were you expecting a fancy ending sequence right now? Well, bad news for you, Battlejerks. Your pathetic attempt of beating the game in lil kid's fashion isn't deserving more than this!

T. Bird: I'm afraid the Dark Queen is right, 'Toads. You can't be expected to be taken seriously by challenging the game as a walk in the park. Try again in a harder difficulty level.

[maxim-zhao]

Yeah, that's easy enough.

[AlWesker]

Great. Do you see some possible improvement for those two messages? If they are good worded and structured as they are, then go ahead with them. I suppose it would be better and funnier this way than simply leading the game to the Game Complete screen like the original Master System version did.

[maxim-zhao]

I guess this is replacing the usual random conversation that appears after the final boss? I think it fits the tone but the length is a bit more than usual - but we can make it fit.

[AlWesker]

I just noticed you added it after the usual random conversation. Maybe it fits a little more natural if it's done the way you mentioned, replacing the random conversation, since the random conversation always speaks about the Dark Queen been defeated and this "easy ending" is like a kind of "fuck you" sent by her. But on the other hand, I like the symmetry of having always played the random conversation first in the three endings and then the appropiate ending according to the difficulty level, so unless you see it better the other way, I guess you can leave it as it is now.

My doubt is what to do when we have the Victory/ending music. It will be added in the normal and hard endings like in the SNES version with the bad and good endings, but in the case of the easy version I'm not sure if it will fit there. Maybe in that case we will leave the Title screen theme as it is right now or leave the Intermission theme be played.

[maxim-zhao]

I think I should make it skip the final "intermission" and play the intermission music over the "easy ending".

[AlWesker]

Sounds good to me. Go ahead.

[AlWesker]

Since this was already done, I think this should be either closed or changed to a V2 thread, just in case that someday the possibility of implementing the original SNES ending gameplay mechanics (ie, you fire missiles to Silas Volkmire with a moving target, if you hit it's good ending, if you miss it's bad ending) is considered. Maybe that would be too much work though, and I see perfectly fine the replacement that was done having the ending based on difficulty.

[X-odus]

I am working on a online independent article about Battlemaniacs for the SMS, it appears I CANNOT DM in here, who/how can i talk to directly about talking about featuring your project on the article?, with a possible YouTube video review as well, and maybe a brief Q&A about this brilliant project.

[AlWesker]

Hello.

Unfortunately, the project is still not complete. All assets are done or ready to be implemented in the game, but it still needs to be done when @maxim-zhao finds the appropiate time. So I'm not sure if a YouTube video review would be convenient at its unfinished state. When are you exactly planning to have your article done?

But yeah, send me a message to weskersega@gmail.com and we'll talk about it.

[X-odus]

I just started to gather material, I already found an interviewed the original composer, I’m still tracking the programmer (I think I found him but no reply to my emails yet) and I’m in communication with ToyTec already who doesn’t seem to be that invested and language it’s a bit tricky (since I also speak Spanish I can discern some words in Portuguese, but I’m thinking about hiring a translator) so as you can see it’s not anytime soon most likely 6 to 8 months at best maybe a year from now, By the way I like that game a lot I recently became familiar with this version and got a hold of a copy I was both surprised of how well adapted to 8 bit But also surprised the toytec released some thing that incomplete or glitchy

Thanks for the reply I’m even willing to delay the article/review in order to give you guys time I think that what you’re doing is amazing

Modesto Vaquerano

Sent from a rotatory phone 📞 -=HACK THE PLANET=-

On Jul 31, 2020, at 7:25 AM, Albert Wesker notifications@github.com wrote:



Hello.

Unfortunately, the project is still not complete. All assets are done or ready to be implemented in the game, but it still needs to be done when @maxim-zhaohttps://github.com/maxim-zhao finds the appropiate time. So I'm not sure if a YouTube video review would be convenient at its unfinished state. When are you exactly planning to have your article done?

But yeah, send me a message to weskersega@gmail.commailto:weskersega@gmail.com and we'll talk about it.

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