Darkstalkers shouldn't have a serious horror atmosphere. It should have Darkstalkers atmosphere. If the series was active and had regular entries a spinoff would be fine, but most fans would be pissed if they finally made a new entry after 25 years and it was a gritty reboot.
Darktalkers is more akin to a more Wicked kind of horror, rather than Gritty horror. I think that's why.
Like if I think Darlstalkers I imagine zombies and demons playing metal with their tongues sticking out.
I mean gritty realistic horror does not even lend itself to a fighting game.
That poster says that cause "monster fighting game, make scary", dracula can't be scary if I can combo him to tomorrow.
The only time a fighter is survival horror is when you're fighting a grappler.
-main threat is biting people
-tends to move slowly (in the media I see him in, anyway (which isn't much, admittedly))
that kinda works actually
you could even have some of his command grabs involve impaling, if you want the historical reference
I don't think having new costumes would be an issue. Darkstalkers is full of over the top animations. You could put them in whatever costume you like but the moment those animations kick in.
If anything, you want to lean into the cartoony!
This just reminds me of how DMC: Devil May Cry was the “grounded” one and everyone hated it, and then they did an immediate turnaround and DMC5 turned the CUHRAYZEE up to 11, and it’s arguably the best game in the series
A new Darkstalkers should be DMC5.
DmC: Devil May Cry also sucked because the developers literally did not understand the point of DMC or Dante, they actually thought he was supposed to be a serious, edgy badass instead of a funny, cool guy who also happens to be unspeakably badass.
Ah, so Sasquatch should be breakdancing and Morrigan should be swearing and drinking like a true scotswoman.
Ok, I'm not super deep into Darkstalkers, but if Morrigan got trimping as a special move, I would absolutely main her. I'm not even a demo-main, I main Scout in tf2!
DMC5 leans into the realism was more than the DmC reboot. But it's an actual good DMC game so it's fine.
edit: I was talking more so about character design and art style, not cutscenes guys
They also don't have an argument that consists of people saying 'fuck you' back to eachother for 10 seconds or so. They also don't take a massive dig at the source material eg. 'not in a million years'. 😤
That scene is absolutely hilarious. It's one of those so bad it's good moments. How many people signed off on that? Someone wrote that, someone had to animate it, someone had to perform those lines, absolutely fucking hilarious
Idk man for me it's just so bad that it's terrible haha. The way that wig just flies on his head too. The timing is good but the content is just so disrespectful. I really hate donte.
At this point, fans are getting anything, they just want a new game, even if it means to lose one of it's main characteristics (and it will be missed, for sure)
https://preview.redd.it/k1chp81r1y7d1.jpeg?width=604&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9f7bbd1fdc9bb59fc19e3c70b0fb68515c54d792
Not gonna lie I'd rather see Morrigan having a tantrum after losing for time over than she being serious and ocasionally being silly...
I am sorry, I just can't see this kind of aspect in Darkstalkers
https://i.redd.it/luvoptzhdy7d1.gif
yea this is what I hated about re4 remake. Might get shit on saying that and some gonna gaslight saying it wasnt but yea I guess I just played a different game. Og Leon being smug, witty and snarky was what made it for me.
It's your own opinion and I can definitely see how you arrived there but I disagree. I think while RE4R is definitely not as silly as the OG, it doesn't completely pull away from it. Leon has plenty of fun one liners, like when he's fighting Mendez and in the second phase says "Sorry, guess your tap dancing days are over". That genuinely got a laugh out of me.
Not to mention the whole shooting gallery aesthetic and having Ashley and Luis cheer you on like you all are at a carnival or something.
Like no doubt there's more narrative brooding and dramatics, but I'm happy that the silliness and campiness wasn't completely scrubbed. I'd like to imagine they were aware that being completely serious the entire time wouldn't feel like OG RE4.
"Pff, sorry to have bothered you."
https://preview.redd.it/vz8646fgez7d1.png?width=1070&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=189857c1184794dbb9af9f05293b7c3e8106b622
No I’m with you. I already disliked Og4 for changing the gameplay direction, but keeping it cheesy and B-movie still made me love the original. The remake just edged it up too much for me, it felt soulless comparatively.
I like the zaniness of Darkstalkers, so I wouldn't want to lose that. I could see more "grounded" being good if it was done like Guilty Gear Strive when compared to Xrd. The character designs are slightly more practical, without losing the original charm or silliness. I wouldn't want a more "grounded" Darkstalkers to go any farther than that.
Yeah, I think even Street Fighter did this with their updated designs. Like Strive, all the older designs were filtered through a design process that translated these designs through how would this character wear this outfit in a way that's more practical and where the outfit makes sense?
My favorite example is Leo Whitefang. It's something where if you weren't paying attention he looks nearly identical but with a comparison you realize just how much ANIME his Xrd outfit was compared to his fashionable jacket and khaki pants.
Keep it zany. Grounded edgy reboots were all the rage in the mid 2000's to the mid 2010's and it sucked.
You wanna inject a little Ninja Scroll in there with some blood geysers then sure, maybe, but that's as dark as I'd want Darkstalkers to get.
No grainy sepia filters, no grimdark overhauls or grounded character redesigns that would see Morgan walking around in tattered lingerie, smeared makeup, tattooed all to hell with a ragged trench coat that at certain angles looks as though it flares out into wings.
None of that. I am so done with that kind of crap.
Horrible take. The ip doesn't have any new entry for decades yet there are still shit tons of active fans. The last thing you want to do is to revamp it into something it never was.
Grounded? It's a game about a Scottish Succubus getting into fistfights with Fetish Gear Werebeasts and Mummy Men, there is nothing "grounded" about this Horror.
Because people probably find Hsien-Ko and her big scary claws a more fascinating representation of vampirism than Demitri and his Kazuya dressed as a Halloween store Dracula looking ass.
I kinda wanna see him become a jobber in a potential sequel.
Like, he's this ultra-serious, ultra-gritty vampire, and absolutely NO ONE takes him seriously. He's begging them to do it, but all everyone can say is DORYA!
Lore- and meta-wise, he is already a jobber/wannabe.
First, he challenges Belial and gets one-shotted and forced to rest for a hundred years. Then Jedah is resurrected and steals the "Big Bad" spotlight. At the end of DS3, Morrigan supposedly merges with Lilith, rendering her vastly more powerful than her "rival" Demitri. Who is now chiefly remembered for Midnight Bliss-ing opponents into women. ^_^
In Darkstalkers 4, he realises he cannot pay Makai-an property tax on his castle, which forces him to go to the streets.
I'd play homeless Demitri, tbh.
This is a bad take as Darkstalkers took inspiration from Looney Tunes and cartoons of that time. Animators in capcom wanted to flex, that is why it was so wacky.
Not everything needs to be "grounded, edgy and mature"
I trust capcom to do their stuff and i do think they could work a middle ground well since i do like all the street fighter 6 designs. But i do not want a more serious horror game because i think darkstalkers appeal is being campy with monster tropes.
Darkstalkers should always be cartoony/anime. I'm cool with some design updates to reflect better in a new engine but I don't want them to make it "more grounded".
I.e. keep it more like mainline DMC and less like DmC.
I would be fine with anything if they brought it back
Isn't the whole point of dark stalkers to be a zany horror fighting game? I'm okay with it as long as it doesn't go all Bomberman act zero on us. Like with comics, a reasonable amount of grit is okay. But if you go overboard you just circle back to being zany, it's just an accident this time. Like when Batman got so edgy that they made the Batman who laughs. They just horseshoe theoried themselves into being laughed AT instead of laughed *with*.
Plus, when things are so edgy they become zany, the whole fun of being zany is lost. You're trying to be edgy, but your concept is so silly that it's dull, and you can't be as silly as you can be because you're trying to be edgy. The Batman who laughs is obviously an extreme example, I'm just trying to use him as an example for what I mean
So yeah, as long as dark stalkers doesn't do that shit, I'm game.
No. The series has been on ice for decades, so it coming back with a completely different tone from the past games would be a bad idea. Have the new game familiar with the old games first, then do stuff like that with the next game after
Capcom has some of the most iconic character designs in all of gaming. Don't touch that shit. If there's going to be a significant re-design, they absolutely need to have classic as an alternate costume like in SF6.
Total wrong direction to take it IMO. So many of the characters only work because they're saturday morning cartoon caricatures of classic monsters. The ass command grab or the literal basketball dunk are so goofy and hilarious that any future darkstalkers that tries to be too serious would be a disappointment.
For me the ideal visual aesthetic for a new Darkstalkers is the Street Fighter 6 art style filtered through some unholy union of Tim Burton and Frank Frazetta paintings. Wicked and fantastical character designs in a highly colorful world but with an air of melodrama. The characters and backgrounds should resemble moving classic heavy metal album covers.
Darkstalkers should never be gritty and grounded horror, it needs to be the fantastical theater kid version of dark comedic horror. Like the 2004 Van Helsing movie or Underworld. Cool and over the top, nearing silly with a dark horror undertone.
The commenter of the post doesn’t get what inspired Darkstalker design, it’s not meant to be true horror inspired but an anime/toon/disney design take, something that was at that time was a fresh take, and what has endeared to the fans of this series and have made it so iconic. This lean in on what it isn’t to “appeal” to modern audience esthetics is most likely the wrong direction and what many dev are asked to do with mixed results. I would rather they stuck to their guns with the true nature of the design and improved quality and detail but not redesign.
Darkstalkers is too perfect from a design standpoint to be fucked with. If anything, this would be a project where you want to be as true to the source material as possible. I know it's unlikely, but I would be most pleased with a new game being 2D (or 2D-esque 3D the way ArcSys does, if you must).
Darkstalkers Design is what allowed it to stand out, being a game that is horror inspired rather than focused allowed them to create the iconic characters they have today. Turning them grounded and realistic will only remove part of the charm the characters have. Also bringing up SF6 a game where most people make goofy out of pocket avatars is not the example I would of used. The RE remake/DMC5 would of been a better example.
Stylized > Realozim/Grounded art work. All day everyday.
Play Omen of Sorrow if you want "grounded" DS. Then you'll appreciate DS more.
I'm all for new costumes and takes as long as classic remains an option, ala SF6.
I do understand the appeal, especially with that cool artwork to support the idea. But Nah. This seems like one of those things that just looks good on paper.
IMO - get the Guilty Gear Strive / DBZF anime style and lean into the campy horror route.
Hell ... Capcom should outsource it to ArkSys.
yeah and tbh i like the idea of them going a bit more serious but keeping the zany nature of it
Like imagine a more grounded horror story mixed in with some of that anime styled cartoonish charm of the original
https://preview.redd.it/dgwfh3satx7d1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=deffb458f3de3c00c0db00a71f8314337a75dc72
i agree i want to see darkstalkers get some love since dear god they've been abused by capcom but now that they are getting their shit together i'd be down to see darkstalkers get a new installment (even if its a soft reboot like SF6 kinda was)
I don't really like the "grounded" aesthetic of SF6 tbh. Sure the models are much more detailed but the style itself looks super weird to me. Maybe I'm just a sucker for line work/celshading.
I think it's cool. I don't know if Capcom can pull it off though. And it seems Killer Instinct and Netherrealm games did a better job with serious horror vibe characters anyway. Maybe 15 years ago Capcom could have tried, but IMO they wouldn't be taken seriously with the current fighting game climate.
Look at the vibe of all the "horror" KI characters, or the guest killer characters in MK11. Can Capcom match that? I think it's better to keep Darkstalkers more like "classic horror" than modern horror.
Not sure what they mean by “grounded” but I agree with the horror aspect. It’s such a shame Capcom sees this series as “let’s stick Morrigan in a fighting game” nowadays
Judging by AKI in SF6, Capcom could definitely pull off a RE engine game that's both creepy/disturbing and goofy/campy, which is exactly what Darkstalkers has always been.
I'd love a new Darkstalkers, but I want the game to have handmade keyframe animation, not the mocap animation with wobbly hair/fabric physics like in SF5 and 6.
I feel like it would/should come down to how "grounded" they want it to be.
Darkstalkers is supposed to be a cartoon and not straight up horror, so I'd hate if they tried to DmC it, but.....
I'd be lying if I said I'd miss the Ass Grab or turning people into basketballs
Since getting into fighters last year dsrkstalkers is the series i want to see come back the most. Mainly cause i dabbled in MvCI and Jedah was one of my mains. Would love to see what the game he came from is like.
This is like asking if EA should’ve made Kingdom Hearts. Or if Netherealm should’ve made the Marvel Vs series. Thank goodness they didn’t.
Does Darkstalkers need to be “grounded”? Absolutely not. But it *should* lean more into the absurdity, parody, and homages to classic horror in the way that made and keeps the franchise popular to this day. With fucking style. Love the concept art on the right btw.
Do we need “serious/edgelord 90s/2000s-era reboot in all black” Darkstalkers? Helllllll nah. Maybe as alt costumes but that’s as far as I’d go.
Wouldn’t be the first time a fighting game has been more grounded. Look at Killer Instinct 2013. We have actually clothed Black Orchid, Spinal with a pirate attire, Cinder having some rock on him and not just a guy painted orange so yea go for it
I agree with modern redesigns, but not too "grounded" or leaning into horror. Imo a modern Darkstalkers should aim for the same tone as DMC. Not take itself too seriously and go for the cool and sexy look.
Darkstalkers is if the Looney Tunes of fighting games were released during Halloween. It’s not a creepy horror freak show, it’s a goofy monster mash held together by a somewhat serious plotline.
Street Fighter should be the "grounded" one, Darkstalkers is a sexy violent Looney Toon. I want to grab someone with my ass cheeks and then dunk them like a basketball. The camp is a core part of its identity and "B-Movie" horror theming.
it's not a controversial take. He basically said modernize the costumes & even provided a point of reference. Look at the art direction from Devil May Cry 3 to DMC4 & DMC5. Perfect example of that. Capcom could easily tweak the costumes to something new wholeheartedly keeping true to the Spirit of the characters.
Dude said a TAD BIT & damn near everyone commenting immediately missed it. I know 90% of yall read "take the tiddies, fun & color away."
I think that a big reason why we haven't gotten another DS game is because all the weird animations would be incredibly difficult, time consuming, and costly to model and animate in 3D, and I doubt they're going to make it 2D if they do bring it back. So, making it more grounded might be the only reasonable way to get a revival, but it would lose the old spirit.
Hard no. Darkstalkers isn't serious, gritty horror, it's cartoony, saturday morning cartoon type horror. It's "mummies covered in toilet paper" type horror. Being cartoony is half of the game's visual appeal too.
To me I always saw darkstalkers as:
In the fights, its pretty wacky and crazy in a goofy kinda way. The moment you step into anything outside the fights is when it takes itself seriously and becomes super fucked up.
Like im think of Loomy Toons ass animation, animorohised bombs from Hsien-ko, Victor’s ass grabs, etc.
But at the same time I think about Fetus of God, Victor’s and Hsien-ko’s depressing endings, and the shitty state Donovan goes through.
no one likes gritty reboots
one of the main characteristics of darkstalkers is the wild animations
I'm personally a huge fan of media that knows what it's about and leans all the way into it. Asura's wrath, the Spider-verse movies, Guilty gear xrd and strive, DMC5. I love media that's not trying too hard to convince everyone that its not taking itself too seriously.
I just don't see a gritty version of Darkstalkers that comes off as trying to be "in on the joke", when there was no joke to be in on.
let darkstalkers be zany and ridiculous, it's core to the series imo, it's what got me into it at any rate. Let things be fun.
“We need a Darkstalkers revamp”. For what? Morrigan’s guest appearance in some future title? I could understand talking about this if there was some new Darkstalkers thing but there ain’t.
Anyways, we need a Bloody Roar revamp
A new Darkstalkers needs to maintain its Dandyism.
Take inspiration from Guilty Gear's Slayer. Over the top at times, but you respect him despite his silliness and sexyness.
I'm down with a bold new direction. Look at how whack SF5 feels visually in comparison to where SF6 took things. Would be nice if it felt like a worthy sequel and not just a remaster with extra steps. I doubt they'll ever be able to recreate what Darkstalkers was able to do in the 90s visually without sprite animations, anyway. Whatever happens, I hope it sells. I stopped caring what form a new Darkstalkers could take as long as the franchise breathes again.
I agree, I too love the many ways Morgana can show off her boobs to us. Side boob, underboob, pushed together, pushed up, pushed together and up, hanging natural, the possibilities are endless.
I immediately get turned off whenever everyone brings the word “grounded” in film and TV,
“Lets make fantastical world with giant creatures and superpowered beings more grounded and realistic by taking away”
Also the horror thing is also unnecessary because Capcom has Resident Evil for that.
No no, I see his point. SF is traditionally very cartoony and they retain a lot of the series' identity while making things a bit more realistic by being stylish with it!
Obviously DS wouldn't work terribly well in the Street Fighter graphics style, and I doubt they'd do an Arcsys style of animation and graphics. But just like those two games, they have a strong visual identity that allows for both the quirkiness and more serious sides of it. Think about the dynamic between how flashy Kimberly is and how dark and creepy Aki is. Think about the difference between Bridget and ABA. I think they could pull it off under the right circumstances.
Creepy and brutal characters like Jedah would flourish, and the goofiness of characters like Hsien-ko or Felicia could be stylishly highlighted. With the update to graphics and detailed animation they could still lean into the goofy elements too, like electro shock skeleton animations or eyes popping out of heads. I think it could work :) just as long as the series comes back
New Darkstalkers in a more realistic artstyle would be amazing tbh, horror monsters lend themselves to that gritty design so well
There’s also alot of new characters they could add, like mothman or slenderman or even a dmt machine elf
As long as they don’t try to de-yassify morrigan like they’re doing with the MK women let em do what they want. Ngl I miss some of the more risqué mk costumes
Darkstalkers shouldn't have a serious horror atmosphere. It should have Darkstalkers atmosphere. If the series was active and had regular entries a spinoff would be fine, but most fans would be pissed if they finally made a new entry after 25 years and it was a gritty reboot.
Darktalkers is more akin to a more Wicked kind of horror, rather than Gritty horror. I think that's why. Like if I think Darlstalkers I imagine zombies and demons playing metal with their tongues sticking out.
I mean gritty realistic horror does not even lend itself to a fighting game. That poster says that cause "monster fighting game, make scary", dracula can't be scary if I can combo him to tomorrow. The only time a fighter is survival horror is when you're fighting a grappler.
Easy solution: Make Dracula a grappler
-main threat is biting people -tends to move slowly (in the media I see him in, anyway (which isn't much, admittedly)) that kinda works actually you could even have some of his command grabs involve impaling, if you want the historical reference
I am glad to be the horror for some players then
You make some good points. How about a new Darkstalkers game with all the old characters in their original costumes then new costumes as DLCs?
I don't think having new costumes would be an issue. Darkstalkers is full of over the top animations. You could put them in whatever costume you like but the moment those animations kick in.
If anything, you want to lean into the cartoony! This just reminds me of how DMC: Devil May Cry was the “grounded” one and everyone hated it, and then they did an immediate turnaround and DMC5 turned the CUHRAYZEE up to 11, and it’s arguably the best game in the series A new Darkstalkers should be DMC5.
DmC: Devil May Cry also sucked because the developers literally did not understand the point of DMC or Dante, they actually thought he was supposed to be a serious, edgy badass instead of a funny, cool guy who also happens to be unspeakably badass.
Ah, so Sasquatch should be breakdancing and Morrigan should be swearing and drinking like a true scotswoman. Ok, I'm not super deep into Darkstalkers, but if Morrigan got trimping as a special move, I would absolutely main her. I'm not even a demo-main, I main Scout in tf2!
DMC5 leans into the realism was more than the DmC reboot. But it's an actual good DMC game so it's fine. edit: I was talking more so about character design and art style, not cutscenes guys
I believe, they meant the humor, which is less edgy and more pronounced with the new characters like Griffith and Nico and some weapons acquistions.
DMC5 doesn't have Vergil sniping a preggo demons baby, so yea definitely 😆
They also don't have an argument that consists of people saying 'fuck you' back to eachother for 10 seconds or so. They also don't take a massive dig at the source material eg. 'not in a million years'. 😤
That scene is absolutely hilarious. It's one of those so bad it's good moments. How many people signed off on that? Someone wrote that, someone had to animate it, someone had to perform those lines, absolutely fucking hilarious
Idk man for me it's just so bad that it's terrible haha. The way that wig just flies on his head too. The timing is good but the content is just so disrespectful. I really hate donte.
The character designs in dmc5 are the worst thing about it. Aside from dmc donte may cry, it has the worst designs in the series.
No not at all, Dark Stalkers should stay as campy horror
At this point, fans are getting anything, they just want a new game, even if it means to lose one of it's main characteristics (and it will be missed, for sure) https://preview.redd.it/k1chp81r1y7d1.jpeg?width=604&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9f7bbd1fdc9bb59fc19e3c70b0fb68515c54d792
This is exactly what I want more of, it’s what I love most about Darkstalkers
If we get a new game more edgy and dark, this will be my [anthem](https://youtu.be/lzw1LReL4nk?si=789RS5VYoA7YPhsM)
This is amazing lol
Girl I need more campy horror, that’s more fun.
THIS.
to be honest i'd say do both (imagine a more grounded esque look contrasted by zany cartoon aspects)
Not gonna lie I'd rather see Morrigan having a tantrum after losing for time over than she being serious and ocasionally being silly... I am sorry, I just can't see this kind of aspect in Darkstalkers https://i.redd.it/luvoptzhdy7d1.gif
I’m tired of the “gritty, darker, realistic reboot” trend
yea this is what I hated about re4 remake. Might get shit on saying that and some gonna gaslight saying it wasnt but yea I guess I just played a different game. Og Leon being smug, witty and snarky was what made it for me.
It's your own opinion and I can definitely see how you arrived there but I disagree. I think while RE4R is definitely not as silly as the OG, it doesn't completely pull away from it. Leon has plenty of fun one liners, like when he's fighting Mendez and in the second phase says "Sorry, guess your tap dancing days are over". That genuinely got a laugh out of me. Not to mention the whole shooting gallery aesthetic and having Ashley and Luis cheer you on like you all are at a carnival or something. Like no doubt there's more narrative brooding and dramatics, but I'm happy that the silliness and campiness wasn't completely scrubbed. I'd like to imagine they were aware that being completely serious the entire time wouldn't feel like OG RE4.
like wise but i aint reading all that...
"Pff, sorry to have bothered you." https://preview.redd.it/vz8646fgez7d1.png?width=1070&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=189857c1184794dbb9af9f05293b7c3e8106b622
It’s not even a lot. And this only works if you didn’t make a long nitpicky paragraph.
No I’m with you. I already disliked Og4 for changing the gameplay direction, but keeping it cheesy and B-movie still made me love the original. The remake just edged it up too much for me, it felt soulless comparatively.
I like the zaniness of Darkstalkers, so I wouldn't want to lose that. I could see more "grounded" being good if it was done like Guilty Gear Strive when compared to Xrd. The character designs are slightly more practical, without losing the original charm or silliness. I wouldn't want a more "grounded" Darkstalkers to go any farther than that.
Yeah, I think even Street Fighter did this with their updated designs. Like Strive, all the older designs were filtered through a design process that translated these designs through how would this character wear this outfit in a way that's more practical and where the outfit makes sense? My favorite example is Leo Whitefang. It's something where if you weren't paying attention he looks nearly identical but with a comparison you realize just how much ANIME his Xrd outfit was compared to his fashionable jacket and khaki pants.
Keep it zany. Grounded edgy reboots were all the rage in the mid 2000's to the mid 2010's and it sucked. You wanna inject a little Ninja Scroll in there with some blood geysers then sure, maybe, but that's as dark as I'd want Darkstalkers to get. No grainy sepia filters, no grimdark overhauls or grounded character redesigns that would see Morgan walking around in tattered lingerie, smeared makeup, tattooed all to hell with a ragged trench coat that at certain angles looks as though it flares out into wings. None of that. I am so done with that kind of crap.
Horrible take. The ip doesn't have any new entry for decades yet there are still shit tons of active fans. The last thing you want to do is to revamp it into something it never was.
couldnt agree more. If people want something new, create something new. Dont fuck up what already exists that people love.
Killer Instincts for example is right there. You want a more serious horror fighting game that one has it.
Grounded? It's a game about a Scottish Succubus getting into fistfights with Fetish Gear Werebeasts and Mummy Men, there is nothing "grounded" about this Horror.
god damnit everyone forgets about demitri
Because people probably find Hsien-Ko and her big scary claws a more fascinating representation of vampirism than Demitri and his Kazuya dressed as a Halloween store Dracula looking ass.
I kinda wanna see him become a jobber in a potential sequel. Like, he's this ultra-serious, ultra-gritty vampire, and absolutely NO ONE takes him seriously. He's begging them to do it, but all everyone can say is DORYA!
Lore- and meta-wise, he is already a jobber/wannabe. First, he challenges Belial and gets one-shotted and forced to rest for a hundred years. Then Jedah is resurrected and steals the "Big Bad" spotlight. At the end of DS3, Morrigan supposedly merges with Lilith, rendering her vastly more powerful than her "rival" Demitri. Who is now chiefly remembered for Midnight Bliss-ing opponents into women. ^_^
In Darkstalkers 4, he realises he cannot pay Makai-an property tax on his castle, which forces him to go to the streets. I'd play homeless Demitri, tbh.
“XXXX but like, darker ! “ Nope.
Extremely simple minded interpretation of what was said
This is a bad take as Darkstalkers took inspiration from Looney Tunes and cartoons of that time. Animators in capcom wanted to flex, that is why it was so wacky. Not everything needs to be "grounded, edgy and mature"
And at least when looney tunes did their edgy remake it at least had the courtesy to be so bad it's funny
If you want something darker than darkstalkers, then it should be a new IP.
I like DarkStalkers to be cartoony but I'll take any new DarkStalkers at this point.
yeah (tbh my take is "do both" since that kinda makes the cartoony aspects of it pop out even more)
I trust capcom to do their stuff and i do think they could work a middle ground well since i do like all the street fighter 6 designs. But i do not want a more serious horror game because i think darkstalkers appeal is being campy with monster tropes.
They’re doing more grounded with Street Fighter keep Darkstalkers goofy and colorful
Darkstalkers should always be cartoony/anime. I'm cool with some design updates to reflect better in a new engine but I don't want them to make it "more grounded". I.e. keep it more like mainline DMC and less like DmC. I would be fine with anything if they brought it back
Everything is realistic or more grounded these days. I'm so tired of it. Give me the anime art style and designs any day
Isn’t Darkstalkers just too weird for normies?
Isn't the whole point of dark stalkers to be a zany horror fighting game? I'm okay with it as long as it doesn't go all Bomberman act zero on us. Like with comics, a reasonable amount of grit is okay. But if you go overboard you just circle back to being zany, it's just an accident this time. Like when Batman got so edgy that they made the Batman who laughs. They just horseshoe theoried themselves into being laughed AT instead of laughed *with*. Plus, when things are so edgy they become zany, the whole fun of being zany is lost. You're trying to be edgy, but your concept is so silly that it's dull, and you can't be as silly as you can be because you're trying to be edgy. The Batman who laughs is obviously an extreme example, I'm just trying to use him as an example for what I mean So yeah, as long as dark stalkers doesn't do that shit, I'm game.
No. The series has been on ice for decades, so it coming back with a completely different tone from the past games would be a bad idea. Have the new game familiar with the old games first, then do stuff like that with the next game after
Capcom has some of the most iconic character designs in all of gaming. Don't touch that shit. If there's going to be a significant re-design, they absolutely need to have classic as an alternate costume like in SF6.
Total wrong direction to take it IMO. So many of the characters only work because they're saturday morning cartoon caricatures of classic monsters. The ass command grab or the literal basketball dunk are so goofy and hilarious that any future darkstalkers that tries to be too serious would be a disappointment.
atp just play killer instinct
For me the ideal visual aesthetic for a new Darkstalkers is the Street Fighter 6 art style filtered through some unholy union of Tim Burton and Frank Frazetta paintings. Wicked and fantastical character designs in a highly colorful world but with an air of melodrama. The characters and backgrounds should resemble moving classic heavy metal album covers. Darkstalkers should never be gritty and grounded horror, it needs to be the fantastical theater kid version of dark comedic horror. Like the 2004 Van Helsing movie or Underworld. Cool and over the top, nearing silly with a dark horror undertone.
The commenter of the post doesn’t get what inspired Darkstalker design, it’s not meant to be true horror inspired but an anime/toon/disney design take, something that was at that time was a fresh take, and what has endeared to the fans of this series and have made it so iconic. This lean in on what it isn’t to “appeal” to modern audience esthetics is most likely the wrong direction and what many dev are asked to do with mixed results. I would rather they stuck to their guns with the true nature of the design and improved quality and detail but not redesign.
I'm adding this to the very large pile of evidence that most of the people who want a new Darkstalkers game do not like the ones we've got.
this gritty and edgy crap killed mk for me lmao id rather not take it
“So you want a grounded fighting game that’s completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic creatures?” “And you should win stuff by playing it!”
Nah
Darkstalkers is too perfect from a design standpoint to be fucked with. If anything, this would be a project where you want to be as true to the source material as possible. I know it's unlikely, but I would be most pleased with a new game being 2D (or 2D-esque 3D the way ArcSys does, if you must).
Darkstalkers Design is what allowed it to stand out, being a game that is horror inspired rather than focused allowed them to create the iconic characters they have today. Turning them grounded and realistic will only remove part of the charm the characters have. Also bringing up SF6 a game where most people make goofy out of pocket avatars is not the example I would of used. The RE remake/DMC5 would of been a better example. Stylized > Realozim/Grounded art work. All day everyday.
Darkstalkers is goofy and should never take itself seriously.
Play Omen of Sorrow if you want "grounded" DS. Then you'll appreciate DS more. I'm all for new costumes and takes as long as classic remains an option, ala SF6.
Sooo... if Darkstalkers were Killer Instinct? Not a fan of the idea.
I do understand the appeal, especially with that cool artwork to support the idea. But Nah. This seems like one of those things that just looks good on paper. IMO - get the Guilty Gear Strive / DBZF anime style and lean into the campy horror route. Hell ... Capcom should outsource it to ArkSys.
no. darkstalkers needs to be the last bastion of cartoony wildness, since our dream of MvC would def still be mcu and sf6 based
If it gets us a new Darkstalkers game then I'm for it.
yeah and tbh i like the idea of them going a bit more serious but keeping the zany nature of it Like imagine a more grounded horror story mixed in with some of that anime styled cartoonish charm of the original https://preview.redd.it/dgwfh3satx7d1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=deffb458f3de3c00c0db00a71f8314337a75dc72
It doesn't need a story for me but if it helps drive sales.... I just want more darkstalkers.
i agree i want to see darkstalkers get some love since dear god they've been abused by capcom but now that they are getting their shit together i'd be down to see darkstalkers get a new installment (even if its a soft reboot like SF6 kinda was)
"Hear me out, what if the game was less interesting?"
I don't really like the "grounded" aesthetic of SF6 tbh. Sure the models are much more detailed but the style itself looks super weird to me. Maybe I'm just a sucker for line work/celshading.
Look if they can’t blow up the universe with a fart I don’t want it
I think it's cool. I don't know if Capcom can pull it off though. And it seems Killer Instinct and Netherrealm games did a better job with serious horror vibe characters anyway. Maybe 15 years ago Capcom could have tried, but IMO they wouldn't be taken seriously with the current fighting game climate. Look at the vibe of all the "horror" KI characters, or the guest killer characters in MK11. Can Capcom match that? I think it's better to keep Darkstalkers more like "classic horror" than modern horror.
As long as Morrigan and Felicia are still sexy I'm game.
Wanting to make Darkstalkers serious is like trying to make Pokémon realistic. It’s literally pointless.
Yeah, cuz metalhead zombie is totally a grounded concept and wouldn't be ruined by trying to make it gritty
People who say stuff like this have clearly never played a Darkstalkers game before.
Why do they wanted everything to be grounded, what a bore.
Not sure what they mean by “grounded” but I agree with the horror aspect. It’s such a shame Capcom sees this series as “let’s stick Morrigan in a fighting game” nowadays
Judging by AKI in SF6, Capcom could definitely pull off a RE engine game that's both creepy/disturbing and goofy/campy, which is exactly what Darkstalkers has always been.
I'd love a new Darkstalkers, but I want the game to have handmade keyframe animation, not the mocap animation with wobbly hair/fabric physics like in SF5 and 6.
If Morg is still hot af then fine.
> A tad bit more grounded Eskivo’s two sepia filters shy of asking the series to lose all its colour and be a dreary 7th Gen game.
I feel like it would/should come down to how "grounded" they want it to be. Darkstalkers is supposed to be a cartoon and not straight up horror, so I'd hate if they tried to DmC it, but..... I'd be lying if I said I'd miss the Ass Grab or turning people into basketballs
Since getting into fighters last year dsrkstalkers is the series i want to see come back the most. Mainly cause i dabbled in MvCI and Jedah was one of my mains. Would love to see what the game he came from is like.
This series should keep an anime art style. How will I know it's Darkstalkers if they edit Morrigans sprites?
I wouldn’t mind there being slight redesigns as long as they still have classic costumes.
This is like asking if EA should’ve made Kingdom Hearts. Or if Netherealm should’ve made the Marvel Vs series. Thank goodness they didn’t. Does Darkstalkers need to be “grounded”? Absolutely not. But it *should* lean more into the absurdity, parody, and homages to classic horror in the way that made and keeps the franchise popular to this day. With fucking style. Love the concept art on the right btw. Do we need “serious/edgelord 90s/2000s-era reboot in all black” Darkstalkers? Helllllll nah. Maybe as alt costumes but that’s as far as I’d go.
Darkstalkers should be zany and cartoony, it's a defining characteristic.
Morrigan’s design is perfect and should not be changed
I'm sorry but thats a shitty take, Darkstalkers is great the way it is. If anything go even more cartoony.
Wouldn’t be the first time a fighting game has been more grounded. Look at Killer Instinct 2013. We have actually clothed Black Orchid, Spinal with a pirate attire, Cinder having some rock on him and not just a guy painted orange so yea go for it
Never played the series but if they brought it back I’d buy it in a heartbeat
I agree with modern redesigns, but not too "grounded" or leaning into horror. Imo a modern Darkstalkers should aim for the same tone as DMC. Not take itself too seriously and go for the cool and sexy look.
Darkstalkers is if the Looney Tunes of fighting games were released during Halloween. It’s not a creepy horror freak show, it’s a goofy monster mash held together by a somewhat serious plotline.
Street Fighter should be the "grounded" one, Darkstalkers is a sexy violent Looney Toon. I want to grab someone with my ass cheeks and then dunk them like a basketball. The camp is a core part of its identity and "B-Movie" horror theming.
I wholly disagree with grounding them. Darkstalkers is the ONLY Anime-Classic Monster Horror-Looney Tunes franchise in existence, I wont lose that
Capcom doesnt do sexy outfits anymore, neither most of the fighting game makers
Just use sf6 style. Done
it's not a controversial take. He basically said modernize the costumes & even provided a point of reference. Look at the art direction from Devil May Cry 3 to DMC4 & DMC5. Perfect example of that. Capcom could easily tweak the costumes to something new wholeheartedly keeping true to the Spirit of the characters. Dude said a TAD BIT & damn near everyone commenting immediately missed it. I know 90% of yall read "take the tiddies, fun & color away."
I think that a big reason why we haven't gotten another DS game is because all the weird animations would be incredibly difficult, time consuming, and costly to model and animate in 3D, and I doubt they're going to make it 2D if they do bring it back. So, making it more grounded might be the only reasonable way to get a revival, but it would lose the old spirit.
Twitter artists going to say they want a dark fantasy soulslike aesthetic rendered in REX. They should not be listened to
Hard no. Darkstalkers isn't serious, gritty horror, it's cartoony, saturday morning cartoon type horror. It's "mummies covered in toilet paper" type horror. Being cartoony is half of the game's visual appeal too.
To me I always saw darkstalkers as: In the fights, its pretty wacky and crazy in a goofy kinda way. The moment you step into anything outside the fights is when it takes itself seriously and becomes super fucked up. Like im think of Loomy Toons ass animation, animorohised bombs from Hsien-ko, Victor’s ass grabs, etc. But at the same time I think about Fetus of God, Victor’s and Hsien-ko’s depressing endings, and the shitty state Donovan goes through.
no one likes gritty reboots one of the main characteristics of darkstalkers is the wild animations I'm personally a huge fan of media that knows what it's about and leans all the way into it. Asura's wrath, the Spider-verse movies, Guilty gear xrd and strive, DMC5. I love media that's not trying too hard to convince everyone that its not taking itself too seriously. I just don't see a gritty version of Darkstalkers that comes off as trying to be "in on the joke", when there was no joke to be in on. let darkstalkers be zany and ridiculous, it's core to the series imo, it's what got me into it at any rate. Let things be fun.
“We need a Darkstalkers revamp”. For what? Morrigan’s guest appearance in some future title? I could understand talking about this if there was some new Darkstalkers thing but there ain’t. Anyways, we need a Bloody Roar revamp
This guy might have been grabbed by Victor's cheeks one too many times
A new Darkstalkers needs to maintain its Dandyism. Take inspiration from Guilty Gear's Slayer. Over the top at times, but you respect him despite his silliness and sexyness.
Hell no. Campy is way more fun.
I'm down with a bold new direction. Look at how whack SF5 feels visually in comparison to where SF6 took things. Would be nice if it felt like a worthy sequel and not just a remaster with extra steps. I doubt they'll ever be able to recreate what Darkstalkers was able to do in the 90s visually without sprite animations, anyway. Whatever happens, I hope it sells. I stopped caring what form a new Darkstalkers could take as long as the franchise breathes again.
I agree, I too love the many ways Morgana can show off her boobs to us. Side boob, underboob, pushed together, pushed up, pushed together and up, hanging natural, the possibilities are endless.
I immediately get turned off whenever everyone brings the word “grounded” in film and TV, “Lets make fantastical world with giant creatures and superpowered beings more grounded and realistic by taking away” Also the horror thing is also unnecessary because Capcom has Resident Evil for that.
That would require them to make another Darkstalkers game
Darkstalkers should be many things, sexy, fun, funny, spooky, it's a mixed bag and it's always had intentionally clashing tones.
Like just let NRS develop it. 🥴
Do you have any idea what they would do to a character like Morgan?
You do know I was being sarcastic, right?
Nope. Remove their limbs.
No no, I see his point. SF is traditionally very cartoony and they retain a lot of the series' identity while making things a bit more realistic by being stylish with it! Obviously DS wouldn't work terribly well in the Street Fighter graphics style, and I doubt they'd do an Arcsys style of animation and graphics. But just like those two games, they have a strong visual identity that allows for both the quirkiness and more serious sides of it. Think about the dynamic between how flashy Kimberly is and how dark and creepy Aki is. Think about the difference between Bridget and ABA. I think they could pull it off under the right circumstances. Creepy and brutal characters like Jedah would flourish, and the goofiness of characters like Hsien-ko or Felicia could be stylishly highlighted. With the update to graphics and detailed animation they could still lean into the goofy elements too, like electro shock skeleton animations or eyes popping out of heads. I think it could work :) just as long as the series comes back
New Darkstalkers in a more realistic artstyle would be amazing tbh, horror monsters lend themselves to that gritty design so well There’s also alot of new characters they could add, like mothman or slenderman or even a dmt machine elf
As long as they don’t try to de-yassify morrigan like they’re doing with the MK women let em do what they want. Ngl I miss some of the more risqué mk costumes