The developer behind a Kickstarter campaign for Breath of Thunder, an RPG inspired by Capcom's Breath of Fire, found themselves in the crosshairs of frequent comparisons to the infamous Mighty No. 9. In a savvy move, Jerrel Dulay opted to confront these comparisons head-on by creating a playable level of Mighty No. 9 for Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita.
"The campaign is being compared to Mighty No. 9 and its failures," writes Jerrel. "It is unlikely Breath of Thunder will be funded, so I made Mighty No. 9 for PSVita and 3DS instead. Please download and enjoy for FREE!" (3DS here, Vita here)
The 3DS and Vita versions of Mighty No. 9 were supposed to hit the shelves back in 2017. And despite both consoles being discontinued, believe it or not, these games have never officially been cancelled by Comcept or the publisher Deep Silver. In fact, you can still go ahead and pre-order the 3DS version on Amazon UK. Because, you know, why let a little thing like reality get in the way of a good pre-order?
For fans of Mighty No. 9, Jerrel's efforts should provide a little fix for that long-standing itch to play the game on-the-go. As one would say, it's better than nothing.
If you're interested in checking out Breath of Thunder, hit up the game's Kickstarter campaign here.
Fans of Mighty No. 9 actually exist? The game is terrible.
ReplyDeleteMmm - cheesy popcorn!
DeleteYeah, they do. I know I'm in the minority, but I honestly don't think Mighty No. 9 is anywhere near as terrible as people say.
Deleteit's really not. it's just really popular to hate it, so people bandwagon it. the things most people complain about are pretty much staples of mega man games, or just the presentation.
Deleteyeah, english voices are just awful... like everyone's beloved X4 or MM8. I'd argue the game is better than half the X and Classic series games. there's plenty of fun to be had there.
Of course, those who played the broken wii U version are plenty justified though in hating the game.
It just feels unfinished, still haven’t beaten it, doubt I ever will
DeleteWhat's really funny is how this is somehow bigger news than the Exoprimal collab
ReplyDeleteAnd you guys want to think Mega Man isn't dead
This just in:
DeleteCapcom collaborated with themselves. Again.
News at 11.
Mighty No. 9 isn’t Mega Man.
DeleteIt's still better to report on than a publicity stunt for a completely unrelated Kickstarter project that people probably don't actually care about
DeleteMighty might not be MegaMan but he was used to rip off an entire fan base for pure fan funded profits. Lol.
DeleteI mean, what fan funded profits? the only one that probably profited off the game was kickstarter itself. They got a large chunk of the money, which inafune should've been aware of. Comcept burned through that budget and had to seek out funding from a publisher, deep silver.
Delete@shrap This just in:
DeleteCapcom puts Mega Man in a mobile game no one cares about. Again for the last 5 years!
No new games still.
This just in!
DeleteCapcom continues to do nothing substantial with Mega Man.
News at 11.
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ReplyDeleteIt's been nearly 10 years, let it go
DeleteReally, all of you guys LOVE being miserable, don't you?
If MN9 was even *allowed* to exist by the Mega Man fandom it would probably be pumping out more sequels than Mega Man has since the last game (aka more than zero)
It ain't the fandom's fault dude.
DeleteIf you followed the kickstarter AT ALL, you'd know that statement was complete BS.
Misery loves company. That's why you're here, right? 🙄
People that let go of being wronged or lied to generally get lied to again or stabbed from behind. 1 I don't like the second just isn't my life style choice. Lol. It ain't about being miserable it's about wanting better results and respect as that's just basic level wisdom accepting lesser products isn't usually a practice the wise get behind let alo e experienced. Lol.
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Deletenah, what people need to do is let go of the "pre-order" mindset. you didn't buy a pre-order, you invested in development. kickstarter has a section for every campaign called "risks". we all put money in, inafune worked on development as promised.
Deletehe didn't account for kickstarter's share of the funds and underestimated the budget. issues came up in development, ports got cancelled. this is all normal game development occurances. just watch "whahappun" series on youtube.
what people should rightfully hold against him and concept is keeping the investors in the dark of the issues and setbacks. but ALL the funds were used for game development. just because they tried and it wasn't to our liking doesn't mean they did something wrong and owe you compensation.
it's like you put money into an athlete trying to win an olympic medal. they train hard using those funds but don't even manage a bronze medal. they tried though, and failed. your money went towards the trying, you didn't buy the end result.
reminder, from the kickstarter, the part no one bothered to read:
Delete"Risks and challenges
We all know game development is inherently unpredictable—delays and unexpected costs being the two most common “known unknowns.” The good news is, in their more than 15 year history, developer Inti Creates have shipped over 30 different games on eight different platforms, and our project lead, Keiji Inafune, has either worked on or overseen 30+ games in this genre alone, as well as having lead one of the biggest Japanese studios, and some of the biggest AAA games ever. So not only do we have extensive experience with running successful game productions in general, but also experience designing, building, and shipping games of this type specifically, with an established track record of being on time and on budget.
Another challenge: we are working in two languages here—Japanese and English—with developers and backers on both sides. While we feel this is a huge plus, as it adds appeal and makes our project unique, there’s no denying it also adds unique requirements in terms of communication and workflow. The good news here: We all have experience making and marketing games for BOTH English-speaking and Japanese-speaking audiences, and are taking extra precautions in pre-planning and during development to buffer and budget for things like interpretation, translation time, etc., all to ensure we stay on the same page with our backers and with each other.
Finally, what we see as our biggest challenge: properly involving the community. How exactly do you ask for and integrate fan feedback and contributions while keeping a project like this on track in terms of vision, scope, and schedule? This is still something of a wild frontier in the game industry, as it’s only recently that any of us have had the tools to make this feasible. And especially in Japan, where we have honestly lagged behind our Western counterparts in the variety of ways we’ve been able to interact with our fans up until now.
We’ve been researching different projects’ approaches—and some of us even have experience from similar experiments in the past—but as far as we can tell, there’s really no one established “right way” to go about it. However! We do think, in this case, even knowing that we don’t know all the answers up front is important: it reminds us we need to listen, to establish methods of ensuring we hear our backers’ choices and feedback, and keeps us more flexible. We are trying to work in a new way with this project that will allow us to show more things earlier than we typically would, while ensuring that everyone seeing it will have the correct context to see it in, and that there will still be plenty of nice surprises in the final product.
One aspect we already know to account for is anytime you ask a (hopefully!) large group of people to choose between options, especially when you’re asking some of the most passionate fans in all of gaming, you are going to end up, by necessity, with some portion of them disappointed, and you’re going to hear about it. We know we’re ready for the ride, and even better, we’re excited as hell to take it. The biggest thing we believe we should all keep in mind, both as creators and as backers: we’ll be learning more and more as we go along, so let’s be patient and work together.
Learn about accountability on Kickstarter"
right there in the first sentence "We all know game development is inherently unpredictable". apparently, "we" do not
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Deletey'know what? Forget it.
DeleteSheesh man you really must have it all together if you feel like writting so many comments on a row and then delete them afterwards lmao
Delete@Erik the Red The thing bitter MN9 backers like this guy refuse to understand is that Kickstarter's policy is that refunds are only available if there's any money left, to which is becomes *very* apparent the project burnt through most of its funds quickly when you remember they tried to host another *two* funding campaigns for the voice acting and the RAY DLC, and because the game probably didn't turn a profit (and Comcept as an independet studio went under) there's no actual way to repay the backers
DeleteEither way, dunno what those people are complaining about because why would they want an even downgraded version of a game they already hate so much? lol
they also had to get a publisher, deep silver, that really made things worse for comcept with their terrible ads.
Deletethe issue is that people don't just misunderstand kickstarter's policy, but the misunderstand what kickstarter is and means. people went in thinking "pre-order" and so they wanted it to be released on their consoles of choice, or why would they be pre-ordering this game? Thus why they want refunds anyway. what do people want "refunds" for? what did they buy or pay for to be refunded?
the real answer is that they funded a project. the project was worked on, there were hiccups, issues, mistakes, and a severe lack of funds (inafune wasn't aware that kickstarter took a hefty percentage of the funds), and so he had a lot less than he budgeted for, thus why they had two more campaigns and was desperate for a publisher.
you could demand compensation for lack of updates on progress, as funders we had a right to know, but people want refunds for pre-orders
@AnonymousMarch 12, 2024 at 10:44 PM: Buzz off. I've been having a bad week.
DeleteI'm going to repost one thing I deleted: According to the og post, preorders -on amazon uk- are still open. I do not know what happens if someone tries to buy it. I do not have any interest in trying.
DeleteI can acquiesce to the way kickstarter works. That's whatever, then. I and many others have a tendency to get overexcited and bummed when stuff doesn't work out.
Now I'd appreciate it some of you would stop having a go at me.
Yeah but you can also pre-order stuff like Metroid Prime 4: a game that *might* see the light again one day (hopefully), but that has been in limbo ever since it was announced; it has gone *5 years* since the announcement of it restarting its development and no real gameplay footage exists, not even promo art of any sorts. Even if you want to believe Nintendo will make good on their promise unlike MN9 (even though there's no warranty it won't be cancelled), preemptive pre-orders like that are just insane in my eyes
DeleteWhat I think happened here is that whoever is in charge of the 3DS listing (either Comcept or Deep Silver) hasn't turned the lights in a very long while, because again Comcept doesn't really exists as its former-self anymore and it would seem the dealing they signed with Deep Silver exclusively applies to them and not the new LEVEL-5 subsidiary, who is really making money from this? Who knows, probably sitting on a pit unclaimed
And yeah, it's totally normal to be a little burned out on things that don't go like we want but the initial point of this entire chain of replies is that at one point you have to just let it go, especially after so long.
Because notice that all the things people were mad about Mighty No. 9 during the Kickstarter like the animated series/manga/movie/sequel/Red Ash, etc. just didn't materialize in the end, it all started and ended with just one entry (not counting Mighty Gunvolt and its sequel) and that game is nearly as old as the gap between Mega Man 10 and 11, with seemingly no interest from Inafune to return to it (not so sure about Inti Creates: they were the ones pushing for Mighty Gunvolt Burst and only needed Inafune's permission to make it but not his involvement, and LAiX2 bosses weirdly seem to take inspiration from the Mighty Numbers down to the fact the material they're made from is a contraction of the word "pixel" too, but neither of those amount to anything more than rehashing the first game because that's the full extent of the MN9 universe)
And yet, even though it's all dead and buried these vaporware handheld ports are the one thing haters latch on to beat on the already-pulverized horse once more
All these excuses and yet it doesn't change the fact that they didn't need to make the PS Vita and 3ds versions a goal or even some of the other goals like online battle race mode or the other versions. The thing people want is not so much the refund for pre-orders, but refunds on the donations as a whole and others want an apology at all the undelivered goals and other problems like some getting ban from the forums for no reason. People are rightfully angry at this and won't let it go nor should they, probably forever. Deal with it.
Delete"refund on donations"
DeleteI dunno, did inafune pull a completionist and sit on the money? did the donated money go towards something that it wasn't intended for?
Interesting idea to see this game ported to other consoles, though I question the risks involved from the proposed Virtual Boy port.
ReplyDeleteI was so excited for the 3DS version back in the day, even though it probably would’ve run like garbage lol. Either way, people who care about playing this game portably can just do so on a Steam Deck now, so it’s no major loss anymore I guess
ReplyDeleteHoly crap! I did not expect to hear any Mighty No. 9 news. I forgot it existed.
ReplyDeleteThis man isn't the hero we wanted. But, he's definitely just the guy to make people cry like an anime f–
ReplyDeleteNo, but seriously. This guy is just a fella who likes to make things for fun. And, honestly, his attempt at creating Mighty No. 9 for the Vita and 3DS is a good little demonstration of what one determined person can do out of spite– I mean, when they're inspired.
But really, don't take this so seriously, gang. He's just having a laugh and lamenting the Internet being the Internet.
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DeleteI don't think the issue with this guy's Kickstarter is whether or not he can make all the ports he's advertising but if anyone actually cares about them and if they won't become a handicap in the development of the main game (which quality is anyone's guess based on this demo, even if done in a rush and as a joke it makes Mighty No. 9's level design look like an actual masterpiece)
ReplyDeleteDLN 003
ReplyDeleteWell for a 4 hour rough , that's not bad especially on the older hardware
I think MN9 could have been something if the writing wasn't so weak. It was so copy and paste MM that they didn't make anything interesting about it.
ReplyDeleteWhy not start with a Robot takeover and have the Dr. Who created Beck and Call as the last human standing? Why not have the robots be half organic tech aliens? Humans getting turned into robots? Ya know something that isn't 'let's stop the mad scientist because he's a bad guy'?
Uhm...
DeleteYou clearly haven't played Mighty No. 9, have you? If you did you would know that there's no actual "Dr. Wily" character: the one that is setup as such is revealed to be innocent all along, and as a whole by the end of the game it appears there won't be any recurring antagonists like Wily or Sigma
The biggest advantage MN9 had over Mega Man literally is that by being a new franchise it hasn't writen itself into a corner with an overarching plot with a planned ending that is suddendly undone for the sake of pumping out more episodic stories
Also, how is a "start with a Robot takeover and have the Dr. Who created Beck and Call as the last human standing" literally not the plot of every single Mega Man game ever (and it's already mostly what happens in MN9 too)? How can you think that would actually "deviate" from being a copy-paste?
The gameplay in Mighty No. 9 is terrible, it doesn't even compare to the franchise it's trying to copy.
DeleteI don't mind MN9's gameplay at all. it's different, and pretty comparable to mega man itself. you shoot things, beat bosses, get their weapons, and use those weapons as weaknesses against other bosses. pretty similar to classic mega man.
Deletewhere it differs is that when enemies are shot enough, they enter a weakened state where you can dash to absorb them, or keep shooting to just destroy them. bosses must be dashed into to absorb their xel though, and this must be done a few times for each stage of the boss, lest they recover their health.
air dashing is pretty standard for mega man games, except in MN9, you have infinite air dashes, and you can dash downward, kinda like in X6 with the blade armor.
it's a fine first game, trying new mechanics. is it perfect? far from it, but a fair first try of something new. If we could ever get a sequel, I'm sure it would refine the gameplay like MM2 did for MM1, or GV2 did for GV1.
it was pretty far off from the original intention though, as the original intent felt like more of a mix of ZX and classic.
There's at least one thing Mighty No. 9 improved over the original Mega Man formula that no one wants to admit, and that would be how ammo is handled: by dashing into enemies you get a small ammo refill, which in essence means your ammo is infinite (and even when you run out of it because you carelessly spammed it, it will refill over time) this means that you will actually get to use your weapons over your regular buster instead of just saving it for the one boss its weak to. Mono-weapon challenge runs are viable in a way that hasn't been since Mega Man *1*
DeleteThat being said there are other things that aren't great, enemy placement feels very lacking since most of them are stationary and won't pursuit the player and aren't all that hard to kill either, meaning that you might as well just walk past them because of your advanced mobility on terrain that is just too basic (hallway-like), no reason to ever fight them beyond earning points (unless you're RAY). Which I guess it's a staple of Inti's games because the Gunvolt games have the exact same problem lol (ironic because Mega Man 9 had the best level design in the series!)
And the whole "boost" system feels so tacked-on aside of the "E-tank" refill one, such a shame they didn't go with the Zero Knuckle/Kirby-esque enemy abilities, it could have opened up even more ways to approach stages but somehow I'm not confident they would have been handled the best then or even now if they were to try again
Gonna have to completely disagree on having infinite ammo as a good thing. This makes the game way too easy. See, the dilemma of the Mega Man games is whether to use all the ammo of the special weapons only for the stage or the boss or compromise using 50-50 betting on luck. That's part of the challenge for those that use the special weapons in the first place. It doesn't affect those that use buster only.
DeleteYeah I'm sure Mega Man games are super hard because of the ammo management and nothing else, nevermind the PSX games where you got free refills on every loading screen (and later on, unlimited continues at the latest checkpoint)
DeleteAnother thing I appreciate about Mighty No. 9 is how they kept things simple to a tee: no pointless collectibles,, upgrades or a even shop
DeleteYour character is already as good as it's ever gonna get, just play through the stage and think of nothing else, not need to look up a guide with the most optimal stage order to avoid as much backtracking as possible
I really hope they keep it that way if it ever comes back
@anon March 16, 2024 at 7:50 PM
DeleteMissed the point and I never stated that that was the only thing that comes to difficulty hence that part about it only affecting special weapon users. Ground Hunter almost obliterates any enemy in your path as a single example. Don't argue in bad faith and learn to accept different opinions.
@anon March 16, 2024 at 8:17 PM
I mean, that's not even an issue with majority of the games. The only games with forced collectibles are 1, 4 and X6. The rest all give you what you need as you progress.
the original intention of the game was to have kirby-esque enemy abilities. On the kickstarter page, they clearly layout the idea. the problem was that inafune was not aware that kickstarter would be taking about 10% of the earnings... thus about
Delete$400K. so a LOT was cut and separate campaigns were run for voice acting funds and eventually a publisher was found.
The xorption mechanic had a lot more planned, but because of all the issues surrounding the project, it wasn't possible. MN9 2, if it were allowed to exist, would have improved on those issues.
More like the problem was that it was a scam.
DeleteLol, he's taking it pretty well.
ReplyDeleteOk
ReplyDeleteWelp, now I know not to take Erik seriously.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they could have avoided the negative backlash had they not made the game look and sound like a blatant Breath of Fire knockoff.
ReplyDeleteBreath of Thunder sounds cool until you admit it is just based straight off of Breath of Fire. MC is from a clan that turns into dragon creatures, and his friend is a hunter that is also a fox? Maybe a little too on the nose to be interesting.
It also doesn't help that BoF1 is probably the weakest of the main games you could have based your game on. Still fun, but when I think of peak BoF, I think 3 or 4.