I messaged the game director about these on Twitter, didn't link to these videos and instead uploaded an image to Twitter, since I couldn't fit both links into a Tweet along with what I wanted to say. He didn't seem to know anything about an Orochi reskin, but said that this is prototype stuff for the fight, meaning they might've been used before Orochi's design was finalized and they were testing the fight's mechanics.
@chuggaaconroy That could be right as well. But why make high quality models for a test fight? Maybe Orochi wasn't finalized as an antagonist? Also parts of this model are only visible from one side, perhaps suggesting different fight mechanics entirely.
@MegaPoster404 To be fair, the screen and trees aren't high-quality at all as they're just sprites on a generic one-sided-square-with-transparency polygon, the Shrine on the other hand is very close to the final, so perhaps that one aspect was finalized at the time. The ropes are also very generic with a repeated simple texture.
@MegaPoster404 As for the faces, I really... Can't figure it out why they'd go high quality with the heads. Could be re-used source material from other stuff in the Beta that they just pasted on to give it at least something the testers could see easily. The Oni mask, I can guess is probably re-used from an alpha or beta enemy such as the Ogres. As for the Kabuki and the Bandit, I really don't know.
@MegaPoster404 I will also say this, but do not quote me on this at all since this is pure theory: It also could be that Orochi was intended to be up against a wall originally, hence why some models were one-sided and you fought 3 of his heads instead of 8 as a plotpoint for how Amaterasu was able to defeat Orochi, but Shiranui was not before they had the whole story worked out to explain that. Again. Pure theory, but plausible.
I messaged the game director about these on Twitter, didn't link to these videos and instead uploaded an image to Twitter, since I couldn't fit both links into a Tweet along with what I wanted to say. He didn't seem to know anything about an Orochi reskin, but said that this is prototype stuff for the fight, meaning they might've been used before Orochi's design was finalized and they were testing the fight's mechanics.
chuggaaconroy 5 months ago
@chuggaaconroy That could be right as well. But why make high quality models for a test fight? Maybe Orochi wasn't finalized as an antagonist? Also parts of this model are only visible from one side, perhaps suggesting different fight mechanics entirely.
MegaPoster404 5 months ago
@MegaPoster404 To be fair, the screen and trees aren't high-quality at all as they're just sprites on a generic one-sided-square-with-transparency polygon, the Shrine on the other hand is very close to the final, so perhaps that one aspect was finalized at the time. The ropes are also very generic with a repeated simple texture.
chuggaaconroy 5 months ago
@MegaPoster404 As for the faces, I really... Can't figure it out why they'd go high quality with the heads. Could be re-used source material from other stuff in the Beta that they just pasted on to give it at least something the testers could see easily. The Oni mask, I can guess is probably re-used from an alpha or beta enemy such as the Ogres. As for the Kabuki and the Bandit, I really don't know.
chuggaaconroy 5 months ago
@MegaPoster404 I will also say this, but do not quote me on this at all since this is pure theory: It also could be that Orochi was intended to be up against a wall originally, hence why some models were one-sided and you fought 3 of his heads instead of 8 as a plotpoint for how Amaterasu was able to defeat Orochi, but Shiranui was not before they had the whole story worked out to explain that. Again. Pure theory, but plausible.
chuggaaconroy 5 months ago