(Click on the images to enlarge)
A little over a week ago we revealed some new information concerning a new 2D fighter that should come to arcades later this year known as Dark Presence. We promised that there would be more so here it is, a more detailed look at the games characters and move set, along with some never before seen screenshots.
I have said before that I am impressed with the level of detail that this game has received as I have learned about how much attention has been given to creating a very detailed and new way of approaching the 2D fighter. To start off each character has between 12,000-16,000 frames of animation for everything but finishing moves (with those it goes much higher). Where many 2D fighters are fairly static in their animation, Dark Presence is not. The high number of frames stems from some of the ideas that are in play for the game. For example, in most 2D games (if not all of them) when your character changes the direction that they are facing, the image is simply flipped which is good for saving memory due to the lower number of frames but it is not very realistic. Dark
Presence doesn’t use image flipping – both sides of each character were filmed separately and in fact the direction you face will determine the stance of the character as well as the moves that they use. This gives the game further depth as players will need to discover moves from each direction and judge on how effective they are in that situation.
To add further to this depth, the game goes beyond the basic and special moves and includes weapon entanglements, deflects, counter attacks and evasion moves. Speaking of weapons, they play an important role in the game – every character has a weapon and if they use a large weapon (say an ax) then the reaction of their opponent will be different than if that same person were hit with a sword. What the character is wearing will also affect how much damage they take (the less they have on, the more damage they incur) but Galloping Ghost has taken their time in balancing the characters out so that no one person is overpowering are unfair.
Reactions play a role in how the game plays – characters react realistically to where they were actually hit and depending on the reaction you can link moves together for more devastating attacks. This also brings us to the energy bars. For those that have seen the screenshots of Dark Presence, you may have noticed that there are four energy bars. The bars represent the state that the player is in and thus how they appear in the game. As an example if your energy hits the 3rd bar your character goes into a not well stance where they look a little beat up and hunched over; after that bar is up it gets more apparent that they are not well and on the last bar the character goes into a “Last Desperation” mode where if they choose to, they can throw their weapon (which can be picked up again) to inflict great damage on their opponent. In case you’re wondering as to how this will affect the length of the rounds, they are aiming at making this a one round match per fight although that might be adjustable in the options. I like the idea of one round where you have a good amount of energy. That way the fight doesn’t end too quickly and you’ll play smarter.
We’ll have more details coming along soon, including a video of the actual game in action (something that a lot of people have been waiting to see for a long time). Again, thanks to Galloping Ghost for the pics and information – it’s not often that we can talk about an upcoming arcade title with this level of detail as most arcade developers are quite protective about their new games.
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Paul
Everything was fine until you said that when your character is facing the other way you have to learn a new move set. Uh oh…
Fingers crossed they don’t blow it!