Thursday, July 23, 2015

Red Ash - One Million Nabs PS4 Version


The Red Ash video game Kickstarter campaign is proceeding relatively slow as the clock ticks downs. In an effort to jump start funds, Comcept has confirmed a PlayStation 4 version. Presented as the most popular console in the backer-exclusive poll, the PS4 version will be developed alongside PC... for one million dollars.

Comcept says other console versions are possible but, again, they need funding to make it happen. At this time Red Ash sits at just a little over half its $800,000 goal. Only ten days remain before the campaign closes. It will barely miss its goal at this rate, according to projections. These final days will certainly be imperative.

All in all, today's announcement is a small step in the right direction. Unfortunately, a home console port/stretch goal should've been prioritized from the get-go. Too little too late? Mayyyybe.

31 comments:

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    1. Yeah, this really seems like a desperate way of getting more people invested. I think that Comcept has unfortunately realized too late that the Legends fanbase is too small for a substantial number of them to back this for a variety of reasons. Some, like me, want to see Legends continue for the story and characters, not see imitations take the limelight. Others have gotten fed up with Inafune's Kickstarter practices and want Mighty No.9 to come out first. Overall, this whole thing is a combination of a lazy Kickstarter and a small portion of a small fanbase being the only ones that will support it. Seriously, no gameplay whatsoever? Is Comcept insane?

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    2. I'll be honest. Had this game not been such a blatant "We're totally not infringing your copyrights or anything, lulz" kind of thing, I might have backed it... if only because Call (the dark-skinned version, not the pale-skinned version) reminds me of someone very close to me. I positively adore that design! But even that isn't enough to rinse from my mouth the overdose of salty lemons Inafune doled out with these projects...

      I really, really, really wish Inafune would stop trying to rely on fans' feelings about his old work to sell his "original character do not steal" games.

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    3. You know, I do have to wonder sometimes whether or not any of these projects could be sustained if Capcom were to suddenly announce a new Mega Man Classic or Legends game. Then people would have to decide which to support: Mega Man or Inafune's new franchises? Quite frankly, I'd choose Mega Man any day of the week. For Comcept's sake, they'd better hope more people choose them over Capcom. Most of their big hits nowadays are Mega Man rip-offs.

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    4. The things I like most about Legends are the setting, the characters and the story. Since this game couldn't legally have any of those, I don't see why I should give it my money.

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  2. Um... I don't think "detrimental" is the word you meant to use... That makes it sound like the final days will hurt the project.
    http://ninjawords.com/detrimental

    I agree though, this Kickstarter has been kind of a total mess. Here's a list of things that have been off about it to me.
    1. Initially, Kickstarter was only for a prologue, not a full game
    2. Kickstarter video was not particularly impressive, seemed rushed
    3. Launching dual Kickstarters divides attention between them and causes confusion
    4. "We'll do a console release, but you have to back it first in order to vote for which console"
    5. Lots of things about the animation Kickstarter- mainly the fact that the initial goal was for a mere 5 minute animation
    6. No gameplay in sight

    First impressions are everything with Kickstarter, and all these things together kind of ruin it for Red Ash, especially #2 and #6. You can get away with not showing gameplay if you have an amazing video. You can get away with not having an amazing video if you show (good) gameplay. But if you don't have either of those, you're kind of screwed in terms of first impressions.

    I am a backer of the game and I hope the project succeeds, but the Kickstarter launch was horribly botched. I wonder if they rushed it in order to put it up on the July 4th holiday weekend. If so, it was a huge mistake.

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    1. Even if it had been rushed to meet a deadline they could still have invested in making a newer, better, trailer/pitch afterwards. I'm pretty sure they can do that. If nothing else, an update would work.

      I want this but now is just not the right time for me to be able to donate.

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  3. I don't have a good feeling about this Kickstarter, for some of the reasons Will mentioned. I would love to buy the game, but the Kickstarter doesn't feel serious.

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  4. "Today's announcement is a small step in the right direction. Alas, this is something that should've been prioritized from the get-go. Too little too late? Maybe." This is pretty much how I feel about the kickstarter as of right now. I really want it to happen but the kickstarter itself was anocunced too early and the content they need to show is coming too late.

    Not only that but there is a rumor going around about mighty no.9 getting pushed back to 2016. The publisher is also refusing to comment on this rumor. Even though this is just a rumor the publisher shouldn't be so hesitant to comment on this.
    http://www.gamespot.com/articles/mighty-no-9-delay-rumored-publisher-declines-to-co/1100-6429132/

    With all of this going on I don't know if comcept and Inafune are going to be achieve the goal they wanted to achieve as of right now. Obviously things could change in the future.

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  5. I'm into Legends for the story, so I'm not a backer of this spiritual successor. Granted, I would like it to succeed, not because I personally want it, but so that the fans that want it could get some sort of continuation of Legends. Also, I'd want to see how much it can be its own thing or how much it apes its predecessor. And personally, I don't think this Kickstarter will succeed, with this little tier being added in as a desperate way to boost the number of backers. Unfortunately for Comcept, I think most people that'll back this have already thrown their money in; there isn't going to be that much more green stuff they'll be seeing for the rest of the campaign.

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  6. I pity the XBOXOne and Wii user who were hoping to get this game ported to their console. Honestly it doesn;t take any rocket science to know which console will win in the poll anyway. Honestly I hope this kickstarter will fail so that Comcept will learn to manage their kickstarter very well.

    And if anyone going to say hurp durp congratz for killing Legend 3 chance of revival. like seriously, you people rather play a knockoff of Legend 3?Might as well play the many fan-game and similar game that resemble Legend series.

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    1. So you want Inafune to fail like Joseph Collins do? Seriously, this blind hatred for Inafune has gotten out of hand. Inafune is a good game maker and I can't stand bigots like you insulting him and being negative about it. Seriously, Legends 3 isn't going to happen, so there are other games to look forward to like the remake of FF7 for the PS4, Tales of Zesteria and more, so shut the hell up about it.

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    2. ...And your blind fanboyism is getting really annoying. I'm a fan of Inafune and Megaman, but even I can see this is getting a little too out of hand. They haven't even released Mighty Number 9 and they're already starting a Kickstarter campaign for this.

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    3. ^I agree with you that it is getting out of hand, but not for that reason. Mighty No.9 seems to be a totally different project with different staff, and different everything except that the main characters share the same name (as homage to Mega Man and Mega Man Legends I believe and maybe a vague connection between the worlds).

      I think it is out of control because they expect to appease nostalgia with another brand that simply can't do it for most, as well as being over ambitious with their goals. Like the duel kickstarters, the expectancy that they can gain another million in this day and age with only rough concept sketches, the fact that the main producer is working on two projects at the same time etc etc.

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    4. I clearly say I want this kickstarter to fail not Inafune. I want this kickstarter to fail mainly because it was handled very poorly and the way it handled clearly it was done without proper management.Here;s a quote from someone explain why I hate this kickstarter:

      "First, the constant hostility and excuses, from people who are somehow emotionally invested in this project, towards the valid criticism on the mismanagement of this kickstarter do absolutely nothing to inspire confidence in it or encourage people to back it. The reason the funding is going at a glacial pace isn't because sceptical non-backers are "wrong", it's completely on the incompetence of the campaign organizers and their inability to make a compelling pitch.

      Second, this isn't Mega Man Legends. To use that series as an example of anything, despite having lot of the same staff, is meaningless when there's absolutely no indication beyond words and concept art of what this game is. I like Mega Man Legends because of the setting, the story, the characters and the gameplay and while I already know this game won't have any of the former (which severely diminishes the amount of interest that could transfer from MML to this), for the latter I have no clue what it will have."


      So yeah..this thing is such a failure...And again,I have nothing against Inafune but just this campaign.

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    5. Hostility is going both ways.

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    6. @Musashi the Master
      I see my name has come up. To clarify, I want Inafune to succeed in the long-run, but for him to succeed, he needs to learn you can just brute-force things and needs to stop "ever-so-subtly" taking jabs at Capcom and the Mega Man multi-series. As I said above, I'd be more than happy to back Red Ash had Inafune not been so wholeheartedly trying to rely on nostalgia for Mega Man Legends to fund it or generate interest. It could have stood on its own, but Inafune wouldn't let it because he refuses to let go.

      It also doesn't help that he's all fired-up about shoving new IPs down peoples' throats in every conceivable way before the series is even a franchise. You wanted to start over, Inafune, so work your way from the ground up (again) like everyone else.

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    7. Yeah, I don't know about excuses, but there's certainly a lot of hostility going around about this Kickstarter. And yes, all "the valid criticism on the mismanagement of this kickstarter" is completely true (live-action movie, anyone?), but supporting something that promises to be the first Legends-like game in... what, 15 years? isn't blind fanboyism or inexplicable emotional investment. Like you, I love the story, characters, setting, and gameplay of Legends, but more important than the specific characters and settings is the spirit behind them. Legends was great because its characters seemed human and flawed, and by the end of the game(s) you ended up really caring about them. Similarly, the atmosphere of the ruins, and the way they contrasted with the feeling of the overworld, was amazing. Just from the dumb Kickstarter animatic video, it seems like Red Ash will have both of those things, plus gameplay that's basically identical to MML. If it feels like a Legends game, and it plays like a Legends game, I don't really care if it has the exact same story, because Legends did something way ahead of its time that no games since have been able to replicate.

      It's also frustrating how much of an Echo Chamber of Negativity the comments everywhere have become, no matter how valid their criticism is. Even people who backed Red Ash are coming on again and again just to restate "Yeah, they announced it at a bad time, and there's no gameplay footage, and we haven't gotten Mighty Number 9 yet..." Hey guys, we get it, and Comcept probably does too. I get that people want a game that's specifically Mega Man, but what I don't get are people who seem like they're interested in the idea of this game, but aren't backing it because they want to teach Comcept a lesson about good Kickstarter practices. If you're interested in this game but don't trust their ability to deliver it, why not give like $10 and just see what happens? I saw a comment the other day to the effect of "I'm not backing this because it's not going to get funded." How does that make sense? I don't know how many people are actually doing this, but withholding your support for something you're actually kind of interested in, because it was launched under less-than-ideal conditions, seems wrong-headed to me.

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    8. @Joseph Collins
      I still want to see the Kickstarter succeed, but I agree completely. Mighty No 9 seems like it'll be pretty-good-maybe-not-great, but we've already got a show and a movie and a "Mighty Legends" game in development. It seems like Inafune thinks Mega Man and The Mightyverse are the same thing now, and a game that hasn't been released yet is already beloved the world over. Also that putting something on Kickstarter will automatically get you $1 million in the first couple days. Oh well.

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    9. "And if anyone going to say hurp durp congratz for killing Legend 3 chance of revival"

      You do realize that Legends 3 had zero chance of ever being revived, even without Red Ash existing? This changes nothing.
      - Dr. Jerk.

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  7. What this shows is that at the end of the day Red Ash is not much of a stand in for Mega Man Legends. Regardless of what series you like the most we're all Mega Man fans. We were all starved for a MM game so Mighty No. 9 was well received. While MN9 is in no way a replacement for Mega Man, the fact that we haven't seen MM in awhile as well as being so similar in concept (it can definitely be argued that MN9 is a copy of MM) is what made that Kickstarter so successful. Red Ash on the other hand is pretty different from Mega Man Legends. While there are similarities it's not on the same level of MML which the fans love. MN9 was promising MM fans a MM game in spirit. What Red Ash promises is not MML, so naturally I don't see the fanbase getting behind it on the same level.

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    1. Is it really? It seems like it'll play the same as Legends, and the characters and story certainly seem to be in the "spirit" of MML. How is that "not much of a stand in for Mega Man Legends?" It honestly seems like it'll be more like MML than Mighty Number 9 was like Mega Man Classic.

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  8. I know this isn't the place to post this but this sounds AMAZING. It's the Rockman World 2 soundtrack remastered using the Castlevania 3 sound chip. It's worth a listen.
    http://www.theongaku.com/posts/rockman-world-2-score-reformatted-by-rushjet1

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    1. Mine's better. 'v'

      I'm teasing. I like RushJet1's work and by no means want to start a pissing contest with him. He could remix circles 'round my lazy ass. Ha hah!

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  9. At this point I doubt it'll get funded. If it does happen to get funded, it will probably just make the bare minimum.

    Quello che sarà, sarà.

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  10. The problem isnt really with the game being on Kickstarter. The problem is that Mighty No.9 was a train wreck as far as development goes. Little to zero communication on the project, barley any feedback was taken into consideration. And why is that? Because they hired the wrong community manager. I could care less about the SJW stuff, or the lack of experience with the Mega Man series. Dina was not a good CM, she turned people off of the forums and blocked them from the Mighty twitter. And clearly, the feedback from those who remained did not reach comcept. She controlled the email account, twitter and the forums. She was the voice of the fans, and it didn't go well. Many people feel burned by all of this,and don't want a repeat. If Comcept really wanted to develop a game with fans, they would have done something about it when she was first hired and people spoke out. It doesn't matter if she was right or if she was in the wrong, a massive amount of backers didn't like her, so they should have canned her and found another person.

    Personally, I have no ill feelings toward her, I just think she didn't do a good job. I wont be donating because I don't want to sift through a repeat of the drama to get info on the game. That being said, if it gets made, I will buy it.

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    1. " I could care less about the SJW stuff"

      So you do care? Just a very, very small amount? Surely you meant to say "I couldn't care less".

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  11. It's all unfortunate. I really wouldn't mind seeing how they'd have put together a Legends-style game with what lessons in game design they learned since the Legends games and Misadventures of Tron Bonne came out... I really like what they've done with Mighty No. 9's core gameplay!

    I might still chip in a little towards the end, we'll see.

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  12. Can I just ask why several Kickstarters have the ultimate reward tier be dinner with the creators of the project, including this one? I dunno, it just seems like something I've seen a fair amount, especially with video game Kickstarters for some reason, and I suppose it appeals to some, but certainly not to me. I just think instead of dinner, they could add something a lot cooler to try and entice people to get to that tier (if anyone is rich enough to do so, that is). Of course, I'm not a backer, so what do I know?

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  13. I wouldn't have minded if Red Ash got funded, but it just doesn't seem very possible anymore at the rate it's going. I've poked in to look at their Kickstarter every once in awhile, and their funds have stayed the same around half-way for awhile now. With only 9 more days left to go, they're not going to make it unless they get a surge of donations.

    Inafune seemed to express disappointment in an interview should the Kickstarter fail. I guess he'd better be prepared for that.
    - Dr. Jerk.

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