The Cuphead RIP-OFF That Gets EVERYTHING Wrong

[@rogercheetoofficial]

I think if they had shifted art styles all the time throughout the game, it would have been more interesting and at least been less obvious with how they were cutting corners

[@maliciousbugman]

Trying to evoke the 30s-esque stylization across most of the character/enemy design was a mistake IMO, and came across to me as if it was done as a cynical half-hearted way to evoke Cuphead. If the main art style was something different, like along the lines of a 90s/2000s Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon slapstick show, that'd be an interesting stylistic angle.

[@stupiddumbpersonlol]

@@maliciousbugman two words: pizza tower

[@Sleepy_Cabbage]

that would be a nightmare to manage

[@WokioWolfy]

What if one of the bosses had an artstyle change where everything was all storyboarding rough sketches?

[@BarioIDL]

try evoland

[@RealBananaSuitBilly]

I, personally, think that they could have gotten away with the art style change thing if most bosses had at least ONE style change. Like, cow had an 8-bit phase, Princess looked like medieval tapestry, so on so forth.

[@ghastlygavin]

The chicken guy who reminds me of Rockadoodle could've been great for art style changes

[@aeroon9991]

As a passionate artist myself, I really like that idea. Honestly, I was somewhat confused when he started bashing the Tim Burton art style change for the Witch, but I guess said change could use some more polishing.

[@GAPE_HORN_BALLS]

Do a video about ultrakill plsss

[@RealBananaSuitBilly]

@@GAPE_HORN_BALLS wdym “make a video about ultrakill” I don’t have any videos on my channel 😭

[@justarandomguy983]

that would have carried the game ngl

[@petergriffin-vl8sz]

I think the developers need to understand that, spamming enemies doesnt make your game challenging, it just makes it unfair

[@ImTheGuy]

No, no no, you don't understand. They were just trying to harken back to old school gaming. That's also why there is no save system and cryptic controls

[@sandy_nes31]

Pvz modders should learn that aswell

[@FestiveMix7]

Just spamming enemies might make a game challenging, but it won't make it fun. There's more to it than that

[@xarshoon7157]

Dark Souls 2 is that you?

[@Lavender_Fox]

Frankly cuphead itself should learn that

[@madeliner1682]

Only one correction - From a programming standpoint it is much, much harder to teach a computer how to randomly generate levels for your game than it is to just tell it once and be done, which makes the choice to dump man-hours into such a blandly fruited endeavor all the more baffling

[@FoxIord]

Not in this instance it wasn't. Almost everything generated in this game is doable with simple random x and y coordinates, with some basic logic to keep things from spawning directly on top of one another. The linear corridor nature of the game trivializes the process compared to something that would have the actual layout randomized and not just the enemies and objects.

[@madeliner1682]

@@FoxIord you'd end up making the placing infrastructure anyway, so it'd still be way easier to say "element 1 then element 2 then element 3" than "take the instance of a random number, use that element, run tests to determine if there's issues, place that, run process again two more times"

[@FoxIord]

@@madeliner1682 It would likely be a handful more lines of code. Making a single layout that's as boring as the randomized layouts would be slightly easier, but that's just the thing. It would be boring, and boring randomly generated levels is slightly better than a single boring handmade level. The difference in difficulty assuming equal quality is marginal.

[@madeliner1682]

@@FoxIord yeah the game design principles wouldn't have been up to snuff either way in this case

[@Kalebsonyoutube]

LASKO MENTION?????

[@bootsdotexe]

Imagine how cool it would've been if with each world, the artstyle would change to match the "story" they're in. It'd fit thematically with the game's lore and story as if they're jumping from book to book

[@trollar8810]

Fr that would've been amazing

[@phj9894]

But to be realistic, the budget and development time will be skyrocketing that way.

[@KAPIZINNN]

I think that's the intention, the problem is that they couldn't do it in a good way or it was because of the game's budget that ended.

[@regiboi7709]

As terrible as the game is, none of it feels malicious. The game was a product of two people, who were filled with inspiration from Cuphead, not having enough coding skills, funds, or support to make their dreams come true. I hope they can learn from the game's mistakes and make a new and great game.

[@bashartz]

I'm happy to see how many people agree with me :D it's easy to tell the difference between a cashgrab and a missed opportunity and I feel like this game falls under the latter. Idk how much experience they have, but from the looks of things they are either new devs jumping straight ahead into their dream project, or experienced folk with no clear direction in mind. Honestly there is nothing to even defend about this game, the only thing you can do at best is validate the devs' intentions and attempts and hope they take these critiques with the right mindset.

[@CannoliSlugYT]

@@bashartz I'm a girl who pop up ideas for nowhere but I'm not the type of make projects already completed, cuz I have to do changes with the plot and characters. I also creating a AU of Cuphead but retaken into a horror fancomic, I have so big ideas from my fan-project and I attempting to make them be in my fan-projects, however there'll be moments I have to change them or replace them to new ones. I guess the choices that Enchanted Portals took like the Fountain of Time that was supposed to be the Fountain of Youth, maybe the devs wanna do something cool or different, so they changed it for this one. We can say the same thing from the cow alien to turn into a robot, though I don't really like that idea and I wanted to keep them as a cow alien hybrid and even make them green, but it was their choice. Not always we get the great ideas right, we'll always make mistakes someday and I had made ones when I cancelled a horror Cuphead fancomic from my D-art (I can't say the full name cuz YT might delete my comment.) Bcuz I was having stress and I didn't make a script before I make it but I planning to bring it back someday and now I doing other things.

[@americantoastman7296]

100% this is imo the right way to look at this. A tragically failed passion project. Hope they get to hit the mark with their next project!

[@thenifell]

The internet needs more considerate people like you.

[@KKTHEATOMIZAAAAAA]

I agree, it’s god awful but maybe the devs can take the criticism to heart and make something better out of it

[@krlw890]

The really sad thing is that, while watching the video, most of the bosses had me going, "Oh, that's such a fun idea!" The cowboy birds riding a bison that then swaps to the inverse, the fountain of youth, the cow alien. Such fun and creative concepts bogged down by horrible execution.

[@EngineerMonkey-zp3yj]

It really is sad. With more time, it really could have been a decent "Cuphead at home."

[@Bonnet9330]

Ikr? I genuinely wish some of the ideas like the Fountain of Youth or the Cerebrus could be adapted into Cuphead in some way because they're too good (especially the Fountain of Youth) to just be wasted

[@fridaypurples2441]

I know right? I really liked that cow alien idea. That could've been a great boss in Cuphead but not in this game.

[@kieranhair37]

I don't know. I feel like a lot of people went out of their way to find things they hated. I mean, how spoiled have gamers become that this dude is complaining about having to read a manual? And people are referring to the controls as cryptic when using the d-pad to change items or ammo types has been a mechanic that many games have used for decades. But more than anything, I find it ironic that people started off complaining about it being a Cuphead ripoff, then proceeded to complain about all the ways it differed from Cuphead.

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

@@kieranhair37 Cuphead does not have those problems.

[@luckyclover22X]

there is a SINGLE SMALL detail that would fix the death animation: make them fall until they hit the ground the spin seems to take long enough that if the physics still applied, they'd be on the ground by the time they fell over

[@Shooteo2413]

Great idea bro

[@Gatekid3]

My guess for why some mechanics got "removed" since the trailer is that those mechanics were never actually in the game and they made animations to convey what they had in mind for the game before it was coded in. But when it came time to put in those ideas, they either couldn't, didn't have the time, or it broke something then they tried to do it.

[@Toasted_Failure]

They could've added it they just had no money and money is EVERYTHING nowadays

[@dreisangthefreezer]

Lack of funding definitely

[@TheFPSKingsGaming]

@@Toasted_FailureI’m tired of hearing this excuse because if fucking cuphead creators had to mortgage their house again to make the game then these creators just weren’t ambitious enough to do it

[@heartstorngrose958]

​@TheFPSKingsGaming That's because it was a passion project. No, not every team of game creators are required to make some huge financial sacrifice. Not everyone wants to risk their livelihood or their home over making a video game dude.

[@Waryfaerie]

@@TheFPSKingsGamingL take. Not every creator should have to be willing to risk everything to make a fucking GAME. Imagine. “You should risk your home and possibly end up in serious debt so I could enjoy an extra mechanic in a game I won’t even play a year from now”

[@wesguffey4503]

The thing is, the idea of going to different worlds and changing art styles to each world is an interesting concept. If they leaned more into that concept it would have helped distance themselves from Cuphead more.

[@WokioWolfy]

True, the artstyle change does help, heck, make that the artstyle change changed your attacks and such, but not major changed like full gameplay changing, just, stuck on one special bullet and now you have to learn how to hit the enemy with said bullet or can only melee.

[@avi_mation]

@@WokioWolfyyeah like one second it could be cartoony and the next could be like the creator’s actual art style OR they could’ve removed outlines to make it look better

[@saness217]

Actually, there is a Steam game called The Multi-Medium that has that exact concept. I recommend you check it out, its very good!

[@7andahalf]

There's another game that does that, though it's not Cuphead inspired. It's called The Multi-Medium I think. Haven't played it myself, but I think each world you get into a new art style and you get introduced to a new mechanic or something. I wish this game did something like that, because at the very least it would've added some charm and made it a bit more interesting both visually and gameplay wise

[@xqsk4506]

I remember when I saw trailer about changing art styles, I was actually hyped to see it in the game. Sadly it's only appeared in like mid boss fights and only one quarter of the last boss fight

[@yggdrasilsaltar]

this game feels like what cuphead would’ve been if MDHR didn’t quit their jobs and remortgage their house and put everything on the line for the game

[@ImTheGuy]

When you put it like that, the quality of this game seems a lot more reasonable

[@samuellinn]

oh and if MDHR were constantly harassed for being a copycat of a more popular game.

[@romancatholicgameing]

And if they didn't get bought by big boy Microsoft and their billions upon billions of dollars

[@dittomaster2141]

@@samuellinnIgnore the haters. and also wait another year or so and not release a game inspired by a very popular one right after it came out. If they started development now and we’re like “this game is inspired by cuphead” people would eat that up because people want more cuphead now. They announced during peak cuphead.

[@thatonerotom8999]

@@samuellinnWhat were they being compared to?

[@Ancient_Soul9000]

“The pianist” is actually Beethoven, you can tell by the similarities in the face and how he also has an ear trumpet, not only to show how he was going deaf, but also to set the time period to when Beethoven was alive.

[@char1211]

It's Beethoven, not Mozart. Mozart never had any problems with his hearing and if you'd look up famous portraits of the two it's clear the pianist in the game is based of off Beethoven.

[@enderkatze6129]

​@@char1211Mozart did, however, have a habit of pretending to be a Cat, apparently.

[@jan_Eten]

@@enderkatze6129 wait, mozart was a FURRY?!?!?!

[@Future_Doggo]

I hate when devs look at games like Dark Souls, Cuphead, etc. and think that they are only popular because of thier difficulty. The main pull of those types of games is that they are difficult but not unfair, when you pump a game full of difficulty without really thinking it's just not fun to play. This game is a prime example of that.

[@isaacmayer-splain8974]

Dark Souls also has the lure of lore.

[@chocomelo454]

looking at you lies of P.

[@brawler5760]

@@chocomelo454Is Lies of P really bullshit?

[@slidersides]

Relatable

[@artilleropro6954]

​@@brawler5760It is probaby the best soul-like game, but it has unfair things like the final bosses

[@CrisisCardio]

As someone who actually supported the original kickstarter way back when it was first announced, it's a real shame that see that the game ended up in the state that it is now. It really seems like, at least to me, that the devs saw cuphead, really enjoyed it and decided they wanted to make something like it, but didn't realize the amount of work that it would end up needing to make a game like that, especially for their first ever project. I really hope the negative reception doesn't discourage them from giving game development another chance in the future.

[@FrahdChikun]

They do have potential, they just need to go with something that has originality and isn't just riding the coattails of something bigger than them.

[@supercamborg4218]

Agreed

[@masudkhanartist8009]

all thye needed was a little extra time to polihs the game and in my book itsj ust a really good game

[@FlantisFroggu]

this for their first ever project? That's ridiculous. What the hell were they thinking!?!?

[@Laminity]

Mmm, another Hat Kid pfp. Opinion respected.

[@hippityflop7461]

The style change thing could have been so much more if 2 things happened. 1. It happens for every boss 2. It happens at the start of the boss with some thematic reason, giving it the vibe that you're in a different story (Which is what I guess the devs wanted to do for the plot?)

[@mettaton4876]

Honestly they could've had it done for the second phase of every boss and it still would've worked fine in a "First phase is in the main style then they switch to something unique to the boss for the harder phases" way.

[@EmilyEmerald]

20:14 this is absolutely wild to me, cause no way in hell random generation is actually easier (if you care about the result in the slightest, that is) It would have been way easier to actually design a level by hand, like what about the level flow?? did the devs not think it was important at all??

[@headphonesaxolotl]

There's a reason that games that generate stages: A. use a "chunk" system of handmade level parts that the game sticks together randomly to assemble a level B. Usually fall into very specific genres (survival, adventure, or rougelite/rougelike) C. If they don't fall into the above catagories, usually the "random generation" parts will be bonus areas (Ex. Mega Man 9/10 have an endless mode made of pre-existing mini levels put together in a random order.)

[@enderkatze6129]

Well, they evidently didn't Care about the results.

[@ajitsreepathi8013]

Fun fact: The reason as to the trailer showing the game being much smoother is actually because it was supposed to originally be made in Adobe Flash, but the timebomb forced them to start from scratch with HTML.

[@littleladybrooks6635]

Oof. That must've been hard, especially if they're not used to HTML.

[@rattle_me_bones]

... HTML? Like, the thing used to code websites? Not video games? Jesus.

[@la8ball]

Adobe Flash is no longer being made. It's outdated and no longer receive support at least in the USA. It stop around 2014. Didn't think foreigners still get Adobe Flash

[@mopolita7215]

​@@la8ball it stopped being supported in 2020

[@boss_boy_]

@@rattle_me_bones kinda, but not really. HTML5 is an extension of the HTML format, and encompasses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The actual "HTML" part of the thing is basically just formatting ("window go here," "hud go here," "load this png," etc.) JavaScript is what would handle the actual game logic.

[@LORDOFDORKNESS42]

Tiny credit where it is due: I really enjoy the implied backstory of the alien cow hybrid. It was a surprisingly sweet if weird take on "aliens abduct cattle" trope. And hey, you did invade her ship, too.

[@the-postal-dude]

sorry to be that person but it's cattle not kettle

[@LORDOFDORKNESS42]

@@the-postal-dude Ah, fair, fixed.

[@qo7052]

also the mom and dad picture frames, actually a really humorous touch

[@thesadisticskitty]

Enchanterium did it better

[@victorhurwitz5559]

​@@thesadisticskittynever heard of it. Care to explain I'm curious.

[@cinderblock_]

I always say that the soundtrack and art style make or break a game for me. Enchanted Portal isn't a "Ew, disgusting, get it off", this is more a "Dear god, what the hell happened here?"

[@Rune000]

Is that a SML reference?

[@cinderblock_]

No, because I’m above the age of 13.

[@KKTHEATOMIZAAAAAA]

@@cinderblock_my friend is 14 and he’s obsessed with SML, he is a dumbass after all

[@sompret]

[Donald Glover Troll of Misfortune scene]

[@luis-sophus-8227]

I'd say the opposite

[@hardrockinhere]

The animation is a lot more reminiscent of those Cuphead parody cartoons you'd see on KZbin, like "Darksouls but Cuphead" or "FNAF but Cuphead". Where they just give everyone pacman eyes and white gloves and kinda phone the rest in.

[@possessedpicklejar4762]

Yeah, the Ludwig Von Beethoven boss was the only one I saw that made me think “Ok that’s actually a pretty cool boss concept.” Shame it couldn’t be better.

[@sonnbb_14]

I actually had a whole damn rant because of how boring the pianist boss is. It doesn't speak anything at all, imo. The problem is, it's so bland, and some games do the same ''pianist using their skills to attack'' trope BETTER. For example, Yinu from No Straight Roads. Yeah, Yinu's fight may be a tag team between her and her mother, but it uses her piano skills in a way that's fun to stand with, not to mention the colors of her stage, her character, and just the contrast between her and her mother are just AMAZING. This game is like wanting to be something but only doing half the effort to actually BE it.

[@RPGLover87]

@@sonnbb_14 Luigi's Mansion 3 also has a great pianist boss.

[@possessedpicklejar4762]

@@sonnbb_14 Yeah, I was hoping for something inspired by that Tom & Jerry episode, but nope.

[@treehann]

Noitu Love 2 (same creator as Iconoclasts) has a great piano boss!

[@Aristocles22]

It reminds me of a similar scene in Dragon's Lair 2. The laserdisc game by Don Bluth from the 1980s. It was insanely well-animated.

[@albatrossthedragon]

The chicken boss could of been really funny if it started as an old man, imagine it takes very little damage before it has a heart attack and falls into the fountain, then you get a second phase with the greaser, and finally, thinking if he was just a little younger he could beat the player he jumps in again and ends up turning into a baby and throwing a massive tantrum till he is defeated.

[@RibbitRibbit191]

That. Is beautiful, I want that

[@sorrel_leaf_vespers]

This is a brilliant idea

[@PingerSurprise]

So Dynamite Heady's Baby Face boss but reversed? I'm in.

[@user-a0d9w0ec9wiej]

​@@PingerSurpriseYoooooo dynamite headdy is the bomb

[@Davidpoland2005]

and when its another phase, he becomes a sperm and we have to infect the uterus to kill him

[@animeluigiboy]

I really hate what happened with the game, the art looked really well done, and I did like the ideas. But the game turned out to be terrible.

[@onepieceofbbq6357]

I would but they knew that this game wasn't gonna hold up to cuphead, and even despite that they still charge you 20 dollars for this that alone makes me lose my respect for them. If you can't beat the original, don't make it cost as much/more. This just feels like a scam honestly.

[@chocomelo454]

I mean they're kinda trashy too. as in, people have given very kind feedback, yk saying what they liked and then recommending things that they should tweak as a bug fix update / quality of life update, such as controls, tutorials, or even just changing the enemy spawn rates, but they legit blocked them! but they DIDN'T block the people being very harsh to them, which is so wild. bc I definitely get them kinda hating reading negative feedback, I may have cried before when my games got negative feedback, but there is always a way to avoid it. and more friendly feedback even when it's negative usually was really good for me. personally I would've blocked the people being harsh if it was a case of the devs not taking it too well (this was on Twitter btw) and only payed attention to the people being more constructive. mostly because they usually explain it better. so it's way easier to understand what they're saying lmao

[@Murr248]

@@chocomelo454that kind of makes me lose respect for them. I love the idea of a game dev pushing through against all odds and blowing everyone away. Using the criticism to make themselves stronger and persevere. Look at Scott Cawthon. Chipper and Sons was trashed just as much, but instead of curling up he used the criticism from that game to create one of the most popular modern video game franchises of all time. But if they’re going to block people giving constructive criticism then I don’t really want to see them succeed as much

[@onepieceofbbq6357]

@@Murr248 agreed also ngl I actually liked chiper and sons :0

[@Comedybomb-nh4st]

@@Murr248 If they block you for giving constructive criticism it just basically means that A. they're way too sensitive B. They're just ignorant and brush constructive criticism off as random hate or C. there head is stuck far too deep into there own asses of denial to accept any help at all.

[@Scott...]

In my opinion it would’ve made a lot more sense to replicate animation from the 70s and 80s instead of the 1930s style that Cuphead did. Not only would’ve it provided more of an identity, but also because they could’ve used lower framerates and nobody would’ve batted an eye.

[@mimibongjoh732]

TRUE

[@blucheavy3282]

i would’ve loved to see a UPA style cuphead game

[@nfistfu]

Man, I feel like the swapping art style thing could have been a really cool effect, especially if it was saved as a twist for the final boss and possibly mixed in with the whole time travel aspect. Feels like the pieces were there but they just didn't come together

[@TheWrathAbove]

Either that or full sending and giving each world a totally unique art style

[@bashartz]

@@TheWrathAbove GOD IF THEY DON'T MAKE A GAME LIKE THAT I'D LOVE TO AT LEAST MAKE A BEAT 'EM UP LIKE THAT HAHA

[@nicolelouise7295]

It'll be like hopping into a story book like say the princess one could have a disney-esque style, the mafia, greaser, greek rooster one could've been a grainy black and white like a noir-esque, the final boss is an anime and anime tends to have fantastical magical animation. It would've been so fun!

[@GeminiTasiri]

Yeah, so interesting to see this in the first bossfight but then it's just... gone until the final boss. If you paired the artstyle change with gameplay changes as well, it would've made for a killer gimmick, way better than the changing colours they instead went for. And it's definitely something that only came to the team late in development because why wouldn't you want to advertise this on your kickstarter?

[@nicolelouise7295]

@@GeminiTasiri Oh definitely it was a way to cut corners and they were obviously running out of time when this came to them. They've probably already done all of the assets except for the final boss and the witch's phases (I don't think it was obvious they were cutting corners during the witch's 2nd phase but! It became glaringly obvious when in her 3rd phase, she looked like a paper muppet being moved around like a seesaw to imitate walking in her demo version rather than a final version...)

[@BeatleCowCroatian]

This is one of those games that definitely had potential, but the final result crashed. I really wanted this game to be really good, I wanted it to be good so badly. You could definitely tell the people who worked on it had lots of fun, but the game turned out to be awful.

[@wafagdplqs4421]

Same

[@Sullivan0218]

You definitely didn’t watch that that fast

[@idiotsland242]

@@Sullivan0218the games been out awhile and this video isn’t the only video on this game

[@thedesensitizedsympathizer5307]

What really went wrong with this game anyway?

[@CMan185]

@@thedesensitizedsympathizer5307everything

[@juju-sl8pn]

The reason this game upsets me so much is because it had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. There were actually good things in the game, and the trailer looked alright, but they fumbled it oh so very hard. I'm sad that this turned out to be so god-awful, it really could have been good and could have been unique from Cuphead in its own way.

[@masonkay7024]

It’s because people didn’t fund it

[@flow185]

​@@masonkay7024i think that the devs also aimed too high for their own good

[@masonkay7024]

@@flow185 yeah that too

[@Cubeytheawesome]

Yeah, the artstyle changing is something I would like to see have effects. I want to see something like that

[@cobbletarts]

I agreed with Mason People kept thinking that it was a Cuphead ripoff. It wasn't. It is a fan-made inspiration game, similar to those FNAF fan made games. However, because people kept thinking it was a ripoff, their kick-starter possibly didn't raised enough cash so the Devs had to do what they could possibly do within a shorter time span compared to Cuphead.

[@redactedusernameconfirmed]

The pianist boss looked like a very cool idea, but given no new phases or attacks that ruins it

[@JillLulamoon]

Something Enchanted Portals really fails at in comparison to Cuphead is how each new phase of a boss fight wows you. One of my favorite aspects of Cuphead was seeing what crazy new thing the boss would do in the next phase. Goopy Le Grande grows giant in phase 2 and in phase 3 he's crushed by a tombstone and you fight his grave. Ribby and Croaks turn into a fan in phase 2 and combine into a slot machine in phase 3. Esther Winchester uses a vacuum machine in phase 2, then gets sucked into it and turns into sausage, and finally is canned as hot dogs where you fight the can. It's this kind of wackiness and unpredictably I loved and Enchanted Portals just can't match the creativity at all.

[@mittycommitspizzatime92]

Can’t forget Rumor Honeybottoms who uses a magic book to turn herself into a f king plane

[@JillLulamoon]

@@mittycommitspizzatime92 Werner getting eaten by the cat in the background and fighting the cat is high up there too. The final surprise being it was a robot piloted by Werner too.

[@midnights2631]

I love Hilda's fight, first she's cycling in the air then she transforms into different zodiac signs before becoming a moon!

[@ED-gw9rg]

If they'd taken a few good villains and fleshed them out as one-boss-per-world, it could be a really interesting cartoon work. Think like Paper Mario, except instead of new partners, there's just always a new villain each world/chapter.

[@BoomyShakes]

Or even Grim Matchstick being a tri dragon.

[@X-SPONGED]

The problem with Enchanted Portals is that they seem like fan artists who learnt to code a game instead of coders learning to storyboard old school cartoons. They seem to have no game design experience which is probably why the game felt unfair and bad.

[@oldvlognewtricks]

Even inept level designers can cobble together something tolerable if you bother to playtest

[@pinkius]

it kinda makes sense, but some of the art was just rushed. a lot of animations don't even have enough frames, or differ in frames, or have no frames at all, it just feels like they tried to make something awesome from it, but started questioning everything, didn't had enough motivation, time or etc. and just rushed the god damn thing to the completion. i know what a burnout is, so i can see one when i see it, and ffs it is one.

[@X-SPONGED]

@@pinkius yeah, this is definitely a rushed project. They didn't have the time, money, nor motivation to continue like this so they did the "finishing touches" and released it as is.

[@redkingrauri3769]

​@@pinkius Especially on the animations. Some of them are literally 2 frames. This game needed more people that knew what they were doing. More animators with experience and passion, a sound designer and a library of things to mix, a level designer and someone to tell them you need a bloody save feature. What gets me is you can see they either had to have some of the animations redone but much worse or they couldn't get them to animate at the right framerate compared to the trailer. The trailer makes it look very smooth, easily done in ones and twos. But the same bosses in the finished product look like they're done in fours, sometimes even sixes. It's sad.

[@pinkius]

@@redkingrauri3769 and on top of that they claim they're stand-alone game, not a cuphead fan game.

[@wobblewokgaming655]

One thing that I wished they did more of is the changing of the art style. Like, that would've been so cool. Like, imagine how much they could've done with that?

[@HarmonyHope7534]

Imagine if the princess had an art style change into pastel watercolor storybook vibes. Would've been so beautiful.

[@twindrill2852]

My thoughts exactly! It would've remedied the complaint of the aesthetics being too derivative of Cuphead as well.

[@wobblewokgaming655]

@@HarmonyHope7534 yeah. Like, during the fight with the Cow, they could've made phase 2 have an art style similar to Rocko's Modern Life (I think that's what it's called) since the Cow looks similar to the characters from that show. It'd help sell the absurdity of that phase more

[@ShadowPeashooterEnjoyer]

I got it. they change the artstyle for every world based on the theme of said world

[@alijahaskew4644]

​@@ShadowPeashooterEnjoyer That's basically what I had in mind too. Would help give Enchanted Portals its own identity and each world its own flair.

[@BrennoC_YT]

I have a feeling that the reason why there's a bunch of animations and concepts in the trailers but not in the actual game might be because the trailers might not have ACTUAL gameplay and was just some animation simulating the gameplay. So they either didn't feel like putting effort into making them work well in the game or they couldn't figure out how and just did something good enough

[@katylepetsos7512]

If I remember correctly, the game was started in Adobe Flash, but since Flash isn’t being supported anymore they had to do everything differently.

[@DrStabwounds]

The Beethoven boss turning into a rock band in it's final phase would've been the coolest thing ever.

[@mini-conlongarm8021]

Oh you mean like in Dragon’s Lair 2?

[@DrStabwounds]

@@mini-conlongarm8021 never heard of it

[@CMuyal]

​@@mini-conlongarm8021I immediately thought it was a homage to dragon's liar

[@TheBigMan0706]

@@DrStabwounds it’s an arcade game involving time travel and one of the bits had the Beethoven character turn into an Elton John like character

[@DrStabwounds]

@@TheBigMan0706I should probably change my handle

[@tiredallthetime1636]

This is actually really sad cause you can see bits and pieces of the potential all throughout the game. I think had they devs had more experience, more resources, and more support they could have made a really good game. I really do hope they keep making games in the future because they absolutely can make something fantastic if they learn from this and keep at it.

[@misfitmania4558]

literally how? Are you saying that no single game in the future can ever be like cuphead at all? We ALL want more boss based combat games with that old artstyle, so why are they so awful for trying to make that game? @@luis-sophus-8227

[@wellIhavenothingbettertodo]

Yeah don't encourage them. This is like telling an artist that they should keep tracing because the art they could make can be really good

[@alexcat6685]

​@@luis-sophus-8227Yeah like cuphead is soulless game copy of contra the absolute original noone can take anything from. It may have failed to achieve its goal but it cernatly did have pointential its just the internet's lack of care for nuance that just thought:"similar means copy" when all it did is take arstyle and gameplay not story, characters, personality, themes, production of arstyles. These things are effort and effort is overall what matters for it, if it was a good game I don't believe you would really care. Watch tb skyen's video on the drama and how wrong it was for doing what they did.

[@ExtremeWreck]

@@alexcat6685 Yeah, at least it wasn't going in the direction Limbo of the Lost headed to.

[@alexcat6685]

​ but tracing is a way to understand the lines between something, just aslong you don't claim the entire thing as yours since you didn't put all of the effort. You should encourge improvement and this would be a different kind of improvement but still improvement nonetheless. Its not even tracing because they didn't copy any frames from the original game and that game copied many from old cartoons. This isn't a ripoff or even a copy, its an imitiation that failed to deliever it deserves to be more than considered with your standards. As what the game is with what you think it is,would be like excusing all of Nintendo's lack of soul to just let people make more good of things they made simply because "it had something they had so its justified" when all they did was just take thing,put what made it good, well no matter how good or bad these were made with love. How its timmy creating a mario fangame gonna ruin the large gazzallion dollar companie's reputation? It actually makes them more money. Watch Tbskyen's videon on Enchanted Portals for more information.

[@The-Branch]

I wonder if the guns in the bison boss fight being completely silent could have been a result of them previously being bows and arrows, and the devs not bothering to get new sound effects

[@zenksren8206]

The bullets still fire in a arc like they're arrows so most likely. Everything about this game just screams ineptitude

[@enlongjones2394]

Shouldn’t they have a twang sound for the bow string, or a whistling sound for the arrow, in that case?

[@TheDigitalWeirdo]

@@enlongjones2394 they mean that they just took out the bow and arrow sound effects because they didn’t fit anymore but didn’t bother to get new gun sound effects

[@MrAuthor3DS]

Do...ANY of the bosses' attacks have sound effects?

[@sanstheskeleduck7535]

i just realised this but the "best fight in the game", the princess has the EXACT attacks of Cagney carnation

[@MM-ij1jh]

The developers of Enchanted Portals should take this a lesson in game development rather than an absolute failure. We all have that one first crappy project but eventually we get better as time goes on. Wish the best for them.

[@phifuru]

if this game had a bigger budget i would've absolutely loved if they incorporated the artstyle change into every boss

[@mydogghost]

Inexperienced

[@littleladybrooks6635]

That could've been a pretty cool gimmick.

[@bonedude666]

This game actually got an update that fixes a few issues. Most noticeable, you can now change weapons anytime with a single button. No more d-pad, no more standing still. It doesn't fix any other issues, but at least they're listening. UPDATE: They released another update that adds more sounds to the game. They're inching oh-so closer to a finished game.

[@CodecrafterArtemis]

Maybe they can No-Mans-Sky it! Good for them.

[@HVVVVVVVV]

Should’ve delayed more if it wasn’t finished

[@osjuchava]

@@HVVVVVVVV The Epic Games Grant probably came with a deadline for them to deliver a "finished" product, so they had to rush it.

[@Rmry_Gryffin]

Oh that's good

[@geaps]

ohhh, that's cool, i hope they'll be able to make it better

[@shinysmeargle2037]

I honestly think the art style changing could have been a cool gimmick. Like instead of the bosses themselves changing styles mid fight and becoming jarring, they could have had it where the book takes them to different story book worlds and as a result the style changes to match that story. Like the creepy forest, haunted castle and witch could all have the Tim Burton style. The frog princess and her world could have had a more Disney style to it. Maybe they could have done something 8-bit or retro for the spaceship level. Especially in the security system level. What I’m trying to say is I think there were ways they could have made the style changes work in a way that made sense with the story and it would have made the animation and art style stand out from Cuphead.

[@snakeeyesandpinealglands]

I actually feel bad, because clearly the developers just wanted to make something like a game that they loved, and it's actually pretty well done for only two people... But there are so many minor things that could have been done to make this so much better. Hopefully they will be addressed later on.

[@amsyarzero]

It's not just minor, it seems like there's major issues that they need to fix too (e.g. the RNG-designed levels).

[@TheHumanLabRats]

my thoughts too ToT... i have respect for animation, always, but they shouldnt have copied..

[@infinite.wings.guy.]

​​@@TheHumanLabRats Here's the thing, if people keep on being restrictive and avoiding "copying" or getting inspiration from other games then we wouldn't have gotten games like Pizza Tower which was inspired by Nintendo's Wario Land. Now I'm not saying that people should support games creators that do steal ideas from other games, acting as if their games were "original". (For example, the many FNAF ripoffs on Mobile Stores) Oh no, that's definitely a whole new can of beans.

[@infinite.wings.guy.]

​@@TheHumanLabRats Also, the people behind Enchanted Portals seem to genuinely adore Cuphead and just wanted to make a game inspired from that. I doubt they have any ill intention to blatantly steal and become a "Cuphead Rip-off"

[@computermariobross]

Art is an accumulative process. When someone creates, they take inspiration in things they've learnt/seen already to make something new. I support copyright laws to protect creations from being stolen from their artists as it also pushes others to be innovative and do something different, but istg there are people and companies that straight out abuse it and even invest money to change them for their own benefit and it makes me want to die.

[@malayshamorgan3918]

“The levels are randomly generated” I have even more respect for cuphead because they kept their word that everything was going to be hand drawn as an ode to the rubberhose style back than

[@neonoah3353]

Pretty sure there are a few bits of cup head that arent hand drawn, but it still uses the old cartoon style.

[@melarafam05]

@@neonoah3353I think that’s Only for the DLC, the main game was fully hand-drawn, actually!

[@neonoah3353]

@@melarafam05 arent there 3d/stop motion background and stuff in the base game?

[@pandosham]

The dog fight actually could've incorporated the color system by letting you choose which dog head you wanted to keep out of the fight Small things like that make me sad

[@joelhoon1707]

Yeah, like each head could have had a different-coloured collar, and perhaps if you shot a head with the corresponding coloured bullet, it would take slightly more damage than normal and also have a higher chance to separate itself from the body!

[@maciejstachowski183]

It's so bizarre how the game teaches you that colors are important for the weapon switching mechanic, then puts random brightly-colored objects in the levels that have no relation to the mechanic. Compare with Cuphead - pink is parry and it's remarkably consistent, I don't remember a single instance where I was wondering "can I parry this or not"?

[@StealthTheFoxz]

@@joelhoon1707 I would love a mechanic like that. If they needed to balance it, maybe make the bullets do less damage while the doghead's detached until you switch bullets. It could force you to juggle between them while still making it possible.

[@Cherudoyle]

​@@maciejstachowski183personally i was really confused on the pink balloons in that one carnival run 'n gun- they didnt glow or have the "right" shade of pink. Bit unrelated but just wanted to comment on that :)

[@Creative_StudioMic]

​@@Cherudoyle As I understood, if you see pink in Cuphead, any shade of it - it can be parried. Only parriable things in Cuphead are pink.

[@ages6540]

Of course this was a bad game, the devs didn't mortage their house. Now talking seriously, i am a fan of cuphead, and seeing this game's phisical PS5 version (yes it does have one) in my local game store enraged me. Also, more than a clone, this looks more like inspiration or a fangame.

[@MediaDroid960]

I think what buried this game was it getting announced around the height of cupheads popularity. If it had come out a year after it probably would’ve gotten a much kinder reception. And if you want a good example of a game that takes inspiration from another popular game, look at Billie bust up. The difference between that game and enchanted portals is that Billie bust up was announced years after a hat in time (the game it’s inspired by) came out, had actual marketing, and has a concept that wasn’t a blast any copy of the game it’s based off of

[@sabrinawelsh3543]

Yay! Someone else knows about this game!

[@battyfoox408]

billie bust up actually wasnt inspired by a hat in time, they were both inspired by wind waker

[@LilnormieX]

​@@battyfoox408ain't ahit inspired by Mario Oddesey?

[@bulbasaurkindahawtngl2345]

​@@LilnormieXI'm pretty sure they came out at around the same time

[@MediaDroid960]

@@battyfoox408 either way the point still stands

[@SkarkDogy]

So, I'm not sure how well known this is, but I've seen it questioned a lot in so many critiques of this game, so I figured I'd share. The reason why the trailer has so much more polish that the final game doesn't is because it was commissioned. A lot of the trailer was paid for to look promising so they could present a product that didn't exist yet. The game made afterwards is simply replicating the trailer as best as they could without the skill of the artists of the trailer. That's why flash animation is used for a LOT of the game (best example of this imo is the cow's final phase where its leg movement is clearly not hand drawn and is pretty clearly flash animation). The devs probably underestimated how time consuming and costly this type of polished animation would be, which is why the lack of polish is so visible when comparing the fights in the trailer.

[@randomsamurai3855]

If this is the case then godamm! They pulled a ea then😂

[@mr.fuggetaboutit7633]

oh my god that's the biggest way to shoot yourself in the foot W H Y? I get trying to bring attention to your game but trying to build a game AROUND a trailer is idiotic when you dont even have the groundwork done. Fake it till you make it until you learn you CANT make it I guess.

[@unlondon1014]

my thoughts exactly. reminded me somewhat of those fake mobile game ads

[@FlantisFroggu]

isn't flash dead and no longer supported by most operating systems?

[@teh1archon]

​@@FlantisFrogguit is but for animations there are replacements. I forgot how the Adobe one is called and there's moavi or something like that and the one My Little Pony was made with.

[@SleeplessStreams]

The cerberus fight is part of why I believe this game wasn't originally themed after rubberhose animation, and possibly just animations in general. Those three dog breeds are all MODERN joke breeds: the pug, chihuahua, and shiba inu. They're not something "traditionally" 1920's like Cuphead's more on-the-nose dice-headed gambling boss or living booze bottles. This game would have been so much cooler if it "jumped" through different animation styles every level, and only one stage was rubberhose. The cow boss could be a 90s animation style, the frog princess could be a Disney animation, the witch could be entirely Tim Burton (and actually stop-motion, not just a drawing of it), and the Cerberus fight could have been themed after those late 2000's/early 2010's flash meme cartoons. It would be asking a lot of a game with such a shoestring budget, obviously, but there are lots of little hints in this game that at one point they wanted to "stop" being Cuphead by being a bunch of things, and then the budget just didn't let them.

[@sneepsnoop9547]

@@tycetube1987 It's three tiny paragraphs, one of which is a literally single sentence long... if that amount of text is too much for you to read maybe you should be spending less time making youtube comments and more time doing your english homework.

[@mochieyecream792]

@@tycetube1987 school essays are not 3 paragraphs go back to grade school

[@tycetube1987]

@@mochieyecream792 you joining with out asking is why you have 0 subscribers

[@seeforkat]

Spot on. This game's theme is broader than Cuphead's, and it's a shame they trjed to ride their fame off Cuphead's.

[@TheJasmine172]

@@tycetube1987 I just know you have the worst attention span ever if you think 3 paragraph comments are too long lmaooo💀

[@Danominator]

I shuddered a little hearing that the game's levels are RANDOMLY GENERATED. That is a terrible way to make "platforming" stages, even if the game is mostly about run n' gun action.

[@carllambert5480]

Game developper here, Considering this game was made by two people, you can assume one of them has made all the animation and art by themselves, that leaves one programmer, and perhaps the design was a mutual effort. If the game has received only 20k ish in funding (+what i assume would be a lower tier of the funding program) and was in development for 4 years, you can safely assume this was not worked on full time. Copying cuphead and pricing aside. I still think its a very good achievement for two people, especially with a lack of a team of people who know what to do with various aspects of game development. The programming is basic, the design is basic and the blending of everything is basic and it shows but thats all due to being two people.

[@jackpijjin4088]

(Edit: ignore me, I just restated what you said like a dumb goober. :P ) Oh definitely- The problem comes in when they try to sell it as a complete game at the same price as Cuphead, a complete game with FAR more features and undeniably higher budget. A lower price and much more complete product- along with the promise of updates- would have made it perfectly fine. Instead, they jumped the gun and shoved it out into the world with the paint still wet.

[@senkuishigami7685]

​@@jackpijjin4088Idk man if i worked on a game for 4 years i would at least make it the same price the game i got inspired on especially if i dont have a team

[@Poglavnit_Pferdefuhrer]

Cave Story, Recettear, Star Sector, and Project Wingman had similar cycles with (initially) one man teams. I wonder what their day jobs are, that would impact things a lot. Especially as nearly half of more of the work here is hand drawn animations! The grant probably didn't come early enough, and I presume the missing content broke something which they never had time to repair while finishing up the other levels/enemies. I think they should have just made *two* very good, very tight open world levels for ~$6 instead, and put everything on future dlc until completion.

[@philipjohnston5822]

Here's a story I came up with about this game's story: While cleaning the study room of their mentor, two witches in training accidentally knock a powerful spell book onto the floor. Their mentor had told them to never use the book, for they were not yet ready, but the witches in training didn’t listen. The spell the kids had cast sucked them and the book into new worlds they had to fught through to get home, eventually leading to the witches in training having to fight the book itself! The witches in training finally returned home, and got scolded by their mentor for not listening to his warnings about the book. Makes sense right?

[@linhero797]

Reminds me a bit of Epic Mickey's story actually. The first game specifically.

[@frozenburst64]

The only issue that I don't get is why the book is aggressive to the players. There was no explanation for why it ran away, or why everyone is just aggressive to you.

[@pantheman2842]

@@frozenburst64 I think the book wanted to escape.

[@KirbyUber]

One cool thing I did like was in the Princess and the Frog boss. Notice how the frog actually kisses the Princess and not the other way around (it's on the cheek) hence why she turns into a frog and not the frog turning (back) into a human. Thought that was a nice detail!

[@William-Afton_jejcjschheiqx]

Listen, I know the game is an obvious cuphead clone but I kinda feel bad for the devs. Like they clearly spent a lot of time on this game and, yes it deserves the criticism, but I still feel bad that it flopped so bad, and go so much hate.

[@melarafam05]

Missed opportunity to put “Old Sport” at the end

[@BenjaMage]

As someone who's been a huge fan of Cuphead since it first came out, I've been curious about this game ever since the Kickstarter dropped. While it did look like a "Cuphead at home" situation, at the time, I was at least open to the idea of another Cuphead-like game if it could provide its own unique spin on the formula. Even after it came out and got the reception it has, I was still morbidly curious (at the very least, it could serve as material for a review video). But then a close buddy of mine sent me this video, and now seeing this game in full, I'm not touching it. For most of this video, I was both angered and baffled by a lot of the design decisions they made (weapon-switching requiring you to be standing still in a run-and-gun game being a particularly notable one), but by the end, I was also feeling pity for what clearly once was a passion project coming out as something that felt like it was only finished out of obligation. Like, a lot of the development decisions made for this game feel very amateurish and corner-cutting, but I can't help but wonder if it was that they didn't know any better, or if the wind had left their sails and they didn't wanna _do_ any better. I do hope this dev team doesn't learn the wrong lessons from Enchanted Portals, and that they're able to make something better in the future. And great work on this video as well. ^^

[@dinar8749]

Why did they make that stupid, unfun bullet swapping mechanic 🤦🏻‍♂so many bad design choices...

[@huhj304]

​@@dinar8749yhea bro I'm gonna be honest this game was a waste of talent

[@dinar8749]

@@huhj304 Damn right

[@Ja2min3isthebest]

​@@dinar8749I second that

[@bigbensynthony3956]

I do think that art style change thing could have been kind of interesting, probably in a game about traveling through time, Cuphead's 1930s style could have been home base, Pizza Tower's MS Paint style could be a tutorial, and you'd essentially travel through time with the different periods being represented by different animation styles of the 1900s with the final stages being based off of 2000s anime (the more gritty and desolate kind like Death Note, hence the 2000s).

[@RawrX32009]

Cool idea, too bad the devs have 0 creativity💀

[@ChargeQM]

​​@@RawrX32009You're absolutely right. They definitely ran out of steam early and were forced by contract to finish while also constantly being beholden to their publisher and investors. Here's a short overview of what could be improved in my non-dev opinion: First, make the art style shift happen after the first phase of every boss fight. The witch does Tim Burton, the frog princess looks like a golden era Disney movie, the cow alien looks like a 90s or early 00s Nickelodeon cartoon... have it be framed as the magic book sucks all of the magic out of all the other spellbooks on the shelves, but it also steals a ton of stories from various non-magic books, thereby inheriting a ton of crazy, chaotic creativity. It seeks to shed this as it goes, throwing out these stories to defend itself from the two heroes, but they're all wrapped up in the chaotic magic and warp reality around them until beaten. Each boss defeated gives a Bookmark, which is made from the torn page of the magic book that it ripped out to create the boss. You can assign a Bookmark to your personal spellbook on the three elemental pages, modifying that spell. For example, the first boss, the Witch, gives your shots little bat wings that grant homing capacity. The cow makes your bullets explode after a short time into many smaller bullets, and the time traveling rooster's shots are shiny and reflect off of surfaces twice. This adds on to the base effects of the elemental spells. Your 'power' form is also a separate element called 'Arcane' and can have its own Bookmark that radically changes it. The Witch makes your Arcane shot summon a cat that follows you and leaps at enemies clawing them. The cow summons a tiny UFO that stays in front of you with a shield on blocking projectiles, and so on. Just like before, though, you have to charge this up and it uses charges for each shot or short period of usage. Lastly, the final battle: combine elements from several stories at once. Have a wooden doll with a growing nose be sleeping under a glass coffin, and only a kiss from a dragon will wake it (the growing nose is the stage, growing leaves and branches the players must climb as they fight the dragon wearing princely armor). Have a boy rub a magic lamp that sprouts a beanstalk horizontally across the ground, leading to a giant movie set where they're clearly filming something like The Matrix. Finally, once the Magic Book is cornered, it uses its now-purified magic powers. First, it summons tiny versions of the bosses to face as it flutters above you, and only becomes vulnerable when a mini-boss is taken down. Next, it sprouts arms and legs, and pulls on a wizard hat of its own, fighting you like you. Then, it grows a more humanize face and body, and the art style shifts to be anime. Its a super edgy OC with a katana and Protagonist Hair, trying to cut you down (nothing personnel, kid). Lastly, it gets desperate, throwing everything it has as it slowly regresses back into a magic book, then finally a normal book that flops over on the ground, missing most of its pages. The epilogue shows the heroes picking the emptied shell up and rebinding its pages within, showing mercy and care to a book that felt completely ignored before, and it settles down on the shelf, seemingly content... until it stealthily sucks some magic from the book next to it and winks at the camera, implying it hasn't learned its lesson at all and this story isn't over.

[@diogoayres7953]

Check out "The Multi-Medium" then, it's a puzzle platformer that does pretty much this in regards to going through different artstyles (though in a more historical sense rather than animation artstyles)

[@fried_fries]

@@RawrX32009If you actually look at the background of the final boss fight, you’ll immediately notice it’s a bunch of stock photo clouds 😭😭😭

[@RawrX32009]

@@fried_fries Holy shit💀

[@TheMedicatedArtist]

To be fair, RebelTaxi’s video was pretty neutral on the matter. He called out how sharing certain visual elements wasn’t plagiarism. But he was confused as to why the EP developers took such a specific idea (rubber-hose animation with side-scrolling bullet-hell gameplay) and copied it.

[@TheFPSKingsGaming]

Rebel taxi is fucking mutahar he’s neutral because he’s wants to break into the industry and doesn’t want to step on toes that’s a stupid metric to measure something by

[@ukaszwalczak1154]

Yeah, there's a difference between a similar artstyle, and just copying an artstyle, EP did the latter. There's some interesting concepts in the game, but they could have tried to make it different.

[@osjuchava]

To me, it feels like the devs were so in love with Cuphead, they tried to expand on it to give people more of what they want, without thinking it would come out as a copycat. Like a lot of people have said before, it really doesn't feel as a cheap money grab; you can see ideas, creativity and passion in the project, but the execution was just completely lacking. What a shame...

[@TopsyTriceratops]

I agree with the project losing its passion halfway in. However, I think a good chunk of that came from the community. Blindly hating something for being similar to something they like is extremely degrading. I feel these two developers actually wanted to make a fun spin-off Cuphead game BECAUSE they love it so much, but to have the majority of the same loving community bash it into the dirt would easily break that dream. They did say they would try to find funds other than the kickstarter, but after the huge backlash, I think they eventually left the dream to die. That is, until a sponsor came along, saw how big Cuphead was, and funded them to finish it with or without the love they once had.

[@RAZ0RL0PEE]

the Beethoven and Cerberus bosses were the two bosses i was actually looking forward to when i first saw the kickstarter. it sucks how those bosses were just dumped at the end with no care

[@outathisworld2130]

Could you imagine how fun and creative some of these bosses would’ve been if they were actually made by the people who made cuphead? That would’ve been great

[@tsundor1]

or if the same people tried making their own thing instead of a blatant attempt at copying cuphead

[@outathisworld2130]

@@tsundor1 that too

[@AlexDayz]

I never realized just how unjointed the bosses are till you mentioned it in the Princess Frog Boss. If the final boss is gonna be the book that most likely opened the “enchanted portals” why not have the bosses be based on more fairy tales and nursery rhymes? It would make way more sense for a boss to be based on the goose that lays golden eggs rather than some “fountain of time” rooster

[@Iotuseater]

There are some genuinely great ideas and character designs in this game. If they had done something more original this could’ve been amazing

[@SomeGuy-tr2hi]

The funniest part to me is how people thought the game looked bad based off the trailer, however the stuff shown off in the trailers ended up being the best parts of the game visual wise, with just about everything else new added in the final product being considerably worse.

[@sud1881]

Sure the trailer is better than the game, but that’s such a low bar that when compared to cuphead it just makes the game look like a cash grab.

[@Foxfire7772]

It hurts seeing the potential the game and the bosses had. Like i can so clearly see them more polished, the punchy title to their level, less static animations, i cant get over how neat it would be to have these guys in cuphead

[@ImTheGuy]

This game shouldve honestly gone fully into the animation style change gimmick. Have every level be about a different style or era. It would of probably taken a lot of work, but i think that would make the game so much more original

[@pre4edgc]

Would of is actually would've, or would have.

[@ImTheGuy]

@@pre4edgc39 buried 0 found

[@ExtremeWreck]

Or not. Most likely not. I fear IMMENSLY of how they would've tried to replicate the 80s anime art style.

[@willropa4226]

You can tell the game definitely had heart in it, it wasn't a cash grab, it was a work of love. The only real problem was just some choices made either due to lack of funding or just a bad decision in general. I am hopeful that the developers can take this loss on the chin, pick themselves up, and nail the second game.

[@enbybunny9940]

There were genuinely some really neat concepts in this game that I’d love to see explored in more depth without all the clutter.

[@nimajneb8897]

The idea of the art style shifting in an intentional way could be so cool. Too bad it was used in a way to just... cheapen animation costs, seemingly.

[@JohnTK]

42:41 It’s also kind of odd if you notice that the rooster fight in the trailer has him actually sidestepping across the stage but in the final game he just slides around while playing the mismatched animation.

[@JackSmith-yj4sz]

I believe the game was originally made in Adobe Flash, which, after it got nuked, forced the creators to start from scratch in HTML

[@pathogenic]

26:21 not the sburban jungle jumpscare 😭

[@bandr-feddyfaber]

WITIWALLY

[@Uhhidkm]

Fr that caught me off guard 😂

[@nanodose]

I believe that the bullet color system would be interesting if the enemies matched the color type. Green enemies being more numerous but with less health, blue enemies being larger and slower but tankier and very little in number, and red enemies being an in-between of size, number, and health. Also, the projectiles should have a better feel to them. As it is you can just spam them.

[@Phantanatomy]

The final boss gives me vibes of when you have an essay due in an hour but you’re not even halfway through, so you just start throwing a bunch of unfinished ideas together and hope it makes some kind of sense.

[@molamaple]

I genuinely really like some of the animations here. The opening cutscene, the Witch's first phase, the coconut tree, the Cow's first phase, and Rocky's laugh while he checks himself in the mirror are all quite good. Hell, even the character's death animation is good, it just looks off because you're usually not on the ground during gameplay. If it was an animation unique to when you died while on the ground/a platform, it'd probably be fine. The final phase of the last boss is a well done idle animation imo, particularly the sleeve's movement and the hat's angle changing with the head, but it's weird that it has NO other animations. I think it's a crying shame to see so obviously where things had to get rushed, because there are parts that feel like they had real care put into them. No amount of good animations can fix busted gameplay though.

[@Rurike]

I cant bring myself to hate this game. It seems very much like a team the cared that was too small and underfunded to really bring their idea fully to life. Theres fun ideas and good art. I hope they can find some sort of success in the future, be it their own project or on a new team.

[@agenerichuman]

I was actually really excited for this one. "Clone" gets a bad reputation but older gamers know clones can be a lot of fun and are usually the sign of a new genre. It's frustrating because gamers are missing out on a lot of great games with this label. And the clones gamers do play, they will bend over backwards to say how original these games that are very much clones are. The example of the latter would be the string of mostly good Hollow Knight clones that are more than just your standard metroidvania and have a lot of the same mechanics and move sets as Hollow Knight. Mention one of those is a clone and someone in a fedora will pop out and say "well actually metroidvania is a genre" like these clones have nothing else in common. I still remember all the great Doom clones which over time grew into what we'd call the FPS genre. There's nothing wrong with something being a clone. Not everything has to be high art and you can't copyright game mechanics. Over time these games will grow more distinct. Being opposed to them is a good way to kill a budding genre. With that said, there's so many baffling game design choices in this. It's like they understood very little about why Cuphead worked. Being a clone isn't the same thing as being bad.

[@user-gp5yz5yz4x]

I'd love, love, love if cuphead became a sub-genre but it was too expensive to be repeated to be honest. It was very clearly a work of passion and I just doubt anyone is going to be willing to put in the amount of sheer effort time and money that made that game so remarkable.

[@saxoul17]

​@@user-gp5yz5yz4xdude, cuphead is a Mickey Mouse - Parody - Contra game with more animation frames lmao

[@saxoul17]

​@@user-gp5yz5yz4xdude, cuphead is a Mickey Mouse - Parody - Contra game with more animation frames lmao

[@saxoul17]

​@@user-gp5yz5yz4xdude, cuphead is a Mickey Mouse - Parody - Contra game with more animation frames lmao

[@saxoul17]

​@@user-gp5yz5yz4xdude, cuphead is a Mickey Mouse - Parody - Contra game with more animation frames lmao

[@nightmarearcade2663]

The funny thing is I think the random art style changes the game has could've saved it imagine if in the original trailer for this game it starts with the 1930s but as it goes on it shows the game changing styles with each world I feel like if they did that the game's kick starter would've succeeded and the game would never have gotten the reputation it has.

[@kovexplay]

What sucks the most is that apparently the devs are very ignorant towards criticism: they have blocked people giving fair points so they seemingly want to hide the fact that the game sucks. You know, similiar to what happened with garten of banban except enchanted portals had a chance to be decent I kinda hope they will be able to fix this game or eventually make a new better one but things aren't looking great so far

[@AverageAuby]

Yeah, but unlike the devs from Enchanted Portals, the Euphoric Brothers are starting to take a bit of criticism, such as they’ve hired some voice actors after complaints about the voice acting. I find the voice acting fine, but maybe because I understand it’s an accent. But yeah, I don’t think you can really fix anything if you don’t listen to others.

[@themememaster6775]

I mean, I understand if they got tired of people telling them their game sucks over and over again.

[@AverageAuby]

@@themememaster6775 I would probably be too

[@cloaker57]

7:23 pov: your mom asked you to do the dishes and she arrives and you still didnt do shit.

[@wii-u-enjoyer]

after hearing about how the levels are procedurally generated i do have to wonder if the people behind this game actually cared, like did they ever give a damn

[@dittomaster2141]

With a profile pic like that I am appalled you would say something like that. You do know what other game is randomly generated right?

[@wii-u-enjoyer]

@@dittomaster2141 well at least pikmin 2's caves aren't just a straight line with enemies (not that the cave generation is perfect in any way shape or form)

[@RyukUK]

It's not that they didn't care, but, if you recall, they were spending a good chunk of time trying to fund the development in the first place. And I imagine, with the methods they eventually got the funding from, the people who provided the money probably wanted money back decently quickly. This was more of a case of new developers biting off more than they could chew.

[@wii-u-enjoyer]

fair point, i do admit that i was probably taking it too far by saying they didn't care at all whilst making this game@@RyukUK

[@ZorotheGallade]

We got a new argument against delegating creativity to AI.

[@jessicaeskebk5945]

Honestly. I really love the Beethoven boss design. They even gave him a hearing aid. It’s glorious. It’s look like the one Beethoven actually owned. (This is Totally not a biased opinion or anything pfff I don’t know what you’re talking about-)

[@BlazeHeartPanther]

He also kind of looks like an homage to I.M. Meen from the computer game of the same name.

[@superjesse645]

After watching this and reading the comments, I suddenly realize something: Enchanted Portals is what you get when you come to Kickstarter BEFORE you have a backable prototype and just make the game around the trailer instead of the trailer around the game.

[@Thatguy24523]

I fell asleep. This auto played, I heard the Cuphead theme. It instantly woke me up.

[@RavenStarMedia]

Honestly, the "Tim Burton style" phase of the witch fight has me want a 2D Tim Burton cartoon and I'm baffled as to why we haven't gotten that yet. Or heck, I'd love an entire game in that 2D Tim Burton art style.

[@Bee-ef7tz]

Don't Starve does that.

[@AVI-lh6rm]

im here 4 months later to say that yeah dont starve DEFINITELY has that style

[@RavenStarMedia]

@@Bee-ef7tz Saw a little bit of it and dang, you're right! I'll have to check that out now.

[@Musicanimedork01]

Wasn't the Beetlejuice cartoon in Tim Burton's style

[@RavenStarMedia]

@@Musicanimedork01 Good point, I kind of forgot about that. It would be cool to see a new one based on an original IP though.

[@HellYeahGaming]

When this game was announced I was one of the very first people to jump on it. Yeah it was obviously a Cuphead clone, but to me that just meant Cuphead had inspired its own subgenre. To me that didn’t detract from EP, it elevated CH. I made videos on it for reactions, trailer analysis, covering the Kickstarter, and I even interviewed Xixo themselves twice: once after the announcement and again following up with them after the failed Kickstarter. In fact, those interviews are still the highest viewed on my channel. They genuinely came off as passionate creatives who wanted to build something inspired by what they love. Unfortunately even back then I could tell their inexperience was leading to some poor decisions. When I asked them about what inspired their cool boss ideas they pretty much admitted they were just throwing whatever ideas they liked against the wall to see what sticks, which to me conveyed a lack of thorough planning. I had asked them if they’d promote the interviews, to which they said yes, but when I released said interviews and tagged them in the Twitter post all they did was “like” the tweet. When I asked if they were going to retweet it or promote it at all they responded that liking the tweet *was* their promotion, and while they were willing to (figuratively) sit down and interview with anyone who reached out to them, they weren’t going to actively bring attention to it. I still haven’t the foggiest idea why they made the decision to choose to squash free promotion (i asked why this is and brought up how they would repost fanart, to which they said if they shared one interview or news piece they’d have to share all of them and it would clutter their fans’ feeds with similar information they didn’t think was interesting, but they could pick and choose which fan art they liked). Then this odd mentality expanded soon after the Kickstarter failed and they ceased all social media presence for a long time, total silence. It led me to think that maybe the project had fallen through? Only for them to come out of nowhere and drop the next teaser with the native Americans that *really* wasn’t well received (side note: insensitive as it was, I don’t wholly blame them as they’re from Spain and totally divorced from American history. Not saying they couldn’t have done their research, but it’s more understandable as they didn’t have a relationship with the culture being depicted). After that, total media blackout *again* until, well, just prior to the game’s release. I had hopes for this game. I wanted it to be great. I supported it best I could from day one, but sadly they kept making it harder and harder to support them with baffling decisions. The entire thing reeks of two naive, inexperienced but passionate creatives who just got in over their heads and didn’t know how to do any better. I truly hope Daniel and Gemma take this as a learning experience and don’t get discouraged. I, and many others, want them to be better.

[@infinite.wings.guy.]

Same

[@ciskogreen2076]

Can you still contact them? And do they still have the plushies from their kickstarter?

[@gcgcgc4561]

p

[@nucIeer]

38:11 To be fair, cuphead also has bosses with the lock on feature being basically necessary, take the final phase of rumor honey bottoms for example, sure, lobber does help a lot, but otherwise shooting down is an absolute must.

[@kylehatespotatoest6615]

Homing weapons also worked decently well for the boss

[@twistedturnip8487]

See a game like this that PURPOSFULLY goes through different animation styles as it goes as a creative choice and not a budget thing would be an interesting project

[@MINE_OK]

42:50 So glad someone finally addressed this. There’s a pretty sizable collection of things that were randomly made worse in the final version of the game. I don’t even understand how that happens, let alone multiple times.

[@MonochromeMoths]

The trailer is 0% gameplay. It's a commissioned animation to show proof of concept

[@KKTHEATOMIZAAAAAA]

As a pianist, I hate how the amount of hammers is VASTLY smaller than the amount of notes

[@GoldInspector]

@@MonochromeMoths is that true?

[@monoduck]

A thing that wasn't really mentioned was the characterization (or lack thereof) of the main characters. In cuphead, the protagonists (cuphead and mugman) have very clear characterization. Cuphead is a mischievous troublemaker that likes to have fun, and mugman is a shy anf cowardly fellow that follows cuphead everywhere. They clearly show all of that in the game, from the starting book cutscene to the characters idle animations. Enchanted portals, on the other hand... isn't that. The main characters (i don't even remember their names lmao) have absolutely nothing going for them. They do nothing to distinguish themselves from eachother, and they might aswell be cardboard cutouts. It's yet another disappointment onto the ever-growing pile.

[@Mjauritz]

you know it's bad when the bosses have more of a personality than the main characters you play as. The only unique thing i noticed about them is that the brush of the broomsticks match the characters' hair styles. and even then that means nothing in the grand scheme of things. also their names are Bobby and Penny btw lol

[@monoduck]

@@Mjauritz thank you for telling me their names lol

[@EsmeMarion]

The idea of the a cow being a boss in a spaceship level could be funny as a subversion of the UFO-beaming-up-a-cow trope, but it's executed so poorly :c

[@QuintusCunctator]

People (both programmers and players) often don't realize that good level and game design are a fundamental part of the enjoyment you get from playing. But don't worry, it will get worse! Since good design is difficult and expensive, it will be replaced by the product of an AI. So, in the future, we'll get a lot more games like Enchanted Portals. Hooray!

[@MamaTrixxieAsmr]

“…Eventually, an entire swarm of mosquitoes will fly in from the back of the level.” Oh so just the middle of summer, awesome.

[@PhoenixRBLX-YT]

most realistic part of the game

[@EzkDoris]

But they're still carrying needles and have plastic straws for noses, how is it still realistic.

[@mikesavard2144]

​@@EzkDorisevery single one is addicted about your blood have fun sleeping tonight

[@nestlenightmare]

Given the concept is traveling through portals, the artstyle changes could have been so cool… if it started out with a medieval art style in the opening cutscene, then switched to tim burton for the entire haunted forest/mansion, and only had cuphead style for a single world, that would have been really neat. A lot more animation work, but really neat.

[@misamagica]

I absolutely agree. That would have been way cooler

[@vanilla2425]

what's sad is that procedural generation isn't even the easy way out. you have to spend a lot of time playtesting and making sure it's generating something good, even in extremes. with a static level, obviously what you make is exactly what it'd be like every time. which is why so many procedural generations use things like tiles or rooms to avoid these issues. evidently, the procedural levels aren't even good, and considering all the enemies already there to work with, it's strange they didn't just make a simple but sweet handcrafted level instead... in a linear story game??

[@djskittle4]

One of the games that is successful "copying" other game nowadays is palworld. Honestly, I get why it's successful, they are literally pokemon but add in all of the things that pokemon refuse to add and it's fun. I really hope they will keep adding content into palworld because the game is reallt good.

[@headphonesaxolotl]

I mean, they basically went "What if Pokemon was a different genre" which is definitely a bit more creative than "cuphead but wizards"

[@quirkychap]

Another thing about the bullet color requirements is that they'll have the same enemies be any of the three colors, rather than assigning specific enemies specific bullet damage types. This means that you could be faced with having to intentionally nerf your own potential damage output against certain enemies where a certain method of fire could be more effective. Honestly, the whole "bullet color matchup" mechanic should've been scrapped wholesale. I get what they were going for, but it was implemented so poorly that it really just shouldn't have made the final cut.

[@Knuckles8864]

In a game that is supposed to be heavily inspired by Cuphead, especially with the art style in mind, it goes to show you can NOT simply cut corners. Looking at how many times they had to draw all of it is truly an astonishing masterpiece. You can tell there was love crafted with every single frame of animation, from the three main heroes, to the bosses, to the simplest of enemies. Hell, they even went and upgrades the in-between cutscenes from a png story-book art style, to using their art style. They didn't have to do it, but they did it anyway just to show they were that dedicated to what they love. Through development hell and a pandemic, they put their hearts and soul into it (no pun intended) Judging from the alpha trailer, Enchanted Portals did have the spirit, that love definitely was THERE, but given what we have in the final product.... Yeesh, they should've given it more time in the oven to let it grow. As a dark lord ruler of the galaxy once said; "Animation is so hard! People who do this for a living deserve more credit and respect!"

[@TisPopRock]

Ayyy someone who also watches wander over yonder; but yes I do agree with you on this comment

[@sompret]

I don't think the problem was the corner cutting, I think it was that they cut corners very desperately or not smartly.

[@k.h.production22669]

Based Lord Hater

[@SaiyanGamer95]

I feel like people are doing the game a disservice by calling it a rip-off when it really isn't much of a rip-off.

[@TheFPSKingsGaming]

WWW wonder over yonder chad

[@erikm8373]

I feel like they could've had something if they really leaned into the idea of frequent art style changes. Like how every boss in Cuphead has a final phase where they transform into some weird alternate form, here you could've had every boss have a final form where they're in a unique art style.

[@G1ingy]

The sad part is...a lot of art assets actually look pretty neat and some are genuinely creative. Like one of the computer viruses hiding inside an actual virtual trojan horse? That got me to chuckle. The alien being a space cow is an inversion of the common "aliens abducting cows" stereotype. There's seriously tons of good ideas and you can see passion in a lot of the art designs. But this was clearly made by developers who just didn't have the same skillsets to create their own Cuphead...and the internet certainly didn't help.

[@Nightfire613]

There are some really neat ideas here, that seem to just have never been brought to fruition. The multi color bullets being used to kill specific enemies for example. They could have made it so that each enemy type is weak to a specific bullet color, ie ghost maids are weak to blue, frogs are weak to green, birds are weak to red, instead of having this weird glow around enemies making it completely unintuitive to know how you're supposed to react. Secondly, either saving the art shift gimmick for the end of the final boss, or have each boss art shift you in a different way (Witch gets Tim Burton, Space Cow gets retro futuristic 80s pixels, Princess gets Disney, etc). There are so many sparks of potential that just never came to anything satisfactory.

[@SwaggyG_2102]

It's a shame that the game had flopped so much when it was released. I was REALLY invested in this game back when it was first announced, as I could tell that there was a lot of passion behind it.

[@NuggetREALACCOUNT]

154 likes no replies, huh.

[@SwaggyG_2102]

@@NuggetREALACCOUNT Not everyone wants to take the time to write a comment 😔

[@worldyea]

I think the final world ending with random art style changes and shoved in unfinished bosses could be fixed with a few story tweaks Something like the kids being on cleaning duty as punishment for messing up in one of their mahic classes. While they clean, they accidentally knock over/awaken some sort of sentient, evil spellbook, which wreaks havoc on the library by going into the stories and messing them up. Wanting to fix their mistake and prove themselves as capable wizards, the main characters go into the stories to fix the trouble they/the book caused. I think this would give better motivation than "we do spell and fight monsters in book because this is a video game and we need to progress the plot". This story could excuse the style changes and inconsistencies by having the evil spellbook mash different pages of different books together, causing the plot to become convoluted because of the random stories mashed in. For example, the pianist level could be from a libretto, the anime style from a manga, etc etc etc Hopefully this makes sense. I am very sleep deprived so the grammar and stuff might be off

[@aquatiger8]

this honestly would have been the best way to contextualize all these random genres and themes being mashed together, even within worlds. cuz the wild west, gang filled city, and fountain of "time" really have no relation to each other. having all the enemies be chickens does not make it cohesive, it just makes it more comfusing

[@manoluigisupershow1411]

Honestly I would've liked that plot a lot better, and it would've also been a good way to make the main characters, Bobby and Penny, more distinct (as a complaint about them that I heard from someone was that you couldn't really distinguish them much), but preferably give them more unique personalities so they don't get accused of being Cuphead and Mugman rip-offs. Perhaps the plot could be this: In a humble forest village, there's basically some magic school where wizards in training go to become the best spellcasters they can be. Bobby and Penny are two good friends that go to this school together; taking it from the second page in the (absurdly small) prologue book for the "Tales Edition" of the game (Bobby and Penny are distracted because Bobby is about to throw a paper plane like the goof he is), Bobby is like the troublemaker who doesn't pay attention, and Penny is the nice girl who happens to have a mischief streak and most likely doesn't pay attention either because she's too busy laughing at Bobby's jokes. Needless to say...they probably don't get much done in class. During magic class, Bobby is asked to demonstrate some spell to his classmates by the teacher. Unfortunately, due to wanting to show off to everyone, he decides to pick an overly advanced one and it causes havoc; Penny, in an attempt to make the chaos stop (and possibly impress her teacher at the same time), tries to make a counter spell, but it ALSO proves to be too advanced for her and makes it worse. Long story short, it causes chaos, presumably humiliates the teacher, and he gets VERY angry with both of them, so after a good scolding he leaves the duo in cleaning duty to think about what they've done. While cleaning up, Bobby and Penny are probably feeling annoyed over how they just can't seem to get anything right (perhaps Penny is even like "We can't stop getting in trouble or just focus, maybe THAT'S why we keep messing up") and Bobby, in his frustration, accidentally knocks over the spellbook...which ends up ALSO awakening it. Turns out, that _particular_ spellbook, which they both recognize as a book their teacher STRICTLY forbid them from even coming near, is presumably possesed with the spirit of a past student who apparently got imprisoned in there, and Bobby unintentionally allowed him to sort of possess the book and gain new powers. The spellbook, furious over still not being free immediately starts causing chaos and wrecking everything, and messing up the stories, and even ends up kidnapping a few OTHER spellbooks (which possibly grant the player/players new moves and special attacks) to make itself MORE powerful and make MORE portals, possibly to form alliances with villains from the stories, take them out of the books into the "real" world, planning to get revenge on his "masters" for not helping him. Realizing that unless they do something quickly, their village and everyone is basically screwed, Bobby and Penny reluctantly jump into the portal for the haunted forest stage, and that's when the game finally begins. ...Perhaps this also works as an aesop for paying attention in class and that studying is important, considering that you can only improve with the spellbooks you find, and Bobby and Penny, thanks to _patience,_ manage to improve their skills.

[@lordmarshmal_0643]

As old as it is, Ikaruga will probably always be one of the best games to have a color-matching mechanic, partially cause it's just 2 "polarities" that're easy to distinguish from each other (just black and white, everything you need to keep an eye on is very distinct against the typically beige and brown backgrounds) and the game almost feels like a puzzle game at times rather than a bullet hell proper Matching polarities with enemies isn't how you kill them, but their bullets work in a sorta "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" fashion for your alt fire, match a bullet's polarity to safely absorb it - the only reason the enemy polarities themselves matter in practice is for scoring, but even that's a puzzle in itself since you need to be chaining kills carefully: kill 3 enemies of the same polarity in a row to get a bonus, repeat with the next set of 3 (can be the opposite polarity from the previous set, what matters is that each enemy in a set is of the same polarity) for a bigger bonus, rinse and repeat It's a very simple ruleset that works super well, and the game's minimal RNG (only coming into play during boss fights I think) makes it much easier to route chains out