Shadow of the Road

[Finarfin]

You are aligned with the Shogun's side, which represents tradition and resists the technological advancements and progress championed by the Emperor. The Emperor is supported by guns and foreign (gaijin) forces, specifically those affiliated with the ENC (East Nippon Company), identifiable by the inclusion of "ENC" in their names.

The animations are quite unpolished, especially considering they attempt to incorporate cutscene-style sequences featuring both dialogue and action. For instance, one NPC was crossing his arms, but they kept twitching unnaturally. In another scene, Akira defeated one of the last surviving enemies—essentially the leader of the assault against us—but instead of a dramatic decapitation, he simply thrust his tanto into the enemy’s side. Afterward, he handled the tanto awkwardly in his hand before sheathing it.


One weird animation and prop placement

[Finarfin]

What's the deal with the white haired fella?

Not sure yet, but both of them were taught by the same master and are like brothers it seems. Akira is influenced by Satoru's choices ingame and you can better your relationship with him or worsen it.

Is it fully voiced?

No, only some dialogue.

Sorry meant to say is the game going to be fully voiced in final version.

Not sure yet, devs probably said something about it somewhere but I'll check.

[Finarfin]

Apparently Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu himself wants to talk to Akira and Satoru, quite the honor, I'd say.
We are to pick up a boy who is very important for the Shogun, and he said it is dangerous. It is of utmost importance to deliver the boy safely to him.

Tokugawa himself

One of the Gaijin Soldiers

[Finarfin]

We now know their full names: Omura Satoru and Takagi Akira. Akira faces discrimination because of his pale skin, earning him the nickname Yurei faint spirit
Meanwhile, Satoru was insulted by a guard who sneered at him, calling him a "lowly, filthy ronin" and claiming he deserved nothing. Satoru stayed silent, but as Akira passed by, he leaned in and whispered a chilling threat into the guard’s ear: This yurei would visit the guard’s family in their sleep if he again insults Satoru.

[Finarfin]

We get greeted by Kenjiro, he is happy that the boy is gone since it is not his it seems, his very lascivious young wife comes strutting by to say goodbye to the boy and the guardians and gets yelled at by her husband. Seems like he got ****** because he said something about if she valued her purity from the beginning this mess could've been avoided. Of course you get the choice to say "Forgive me Kenjiro-Sama. A thriving home is built on discipline but also on gentleness" My man, he 99% got ******, his wife should be thankful that he didn't let her get executed.

[Finarfin]

Hiraizumi Ishida, a behemoth of a Samurai is the guardian and friend of Toshiro.

[rusty_shackleford]

Hiraizumi Ishida, a behemoth of a Samurai is the guardian and friend of Toshiro.

Can they turn the chromatic aberration up a bit more? I can still see some pixels not warped

[Finarfin]

After fighting off the shinobi, we go further and see Kenjiro being angry as hell at those that attack his estate but also Toshiro and his "*****" of a mother. This enrages the kid so bad that Kenjiro convulses and then has an demon that looks like an eye burst out of his mouth and then several others all over his body. And as if that wasn't enough his back splits open to reveal a huge Sōgenbi - fireball yokai. Combat erupts between our party, the shinobi and also the yokai, good thing that they also attack the yokai. Asuke - Toshiro's Mother - seems to be not the normal woman we thought she was. She first saved her Son from a shinobi with what seems to be her hair (she impaled the shinobi with it) and now looking at her abilities it seems she is cursed and can also interact with the spirit world? Toshiro is in some kind of trance but every time it is his turn we get healed by 2HP. Neat.
Problem now is that Toshiro is in a sort of coma because his soul is trapped. We need to go to a monastery to get him help.
And that is all of the Playtest.





I enjoyed the game even with the flaws it had but I am sure it will see polish until the release.

[The_Mask]

Timestamped for your viewing pleasure.

[Finarfin]

*****, that video is 80% waiting and 20% cutscenes.

[Unhelpful Contrarian]

*****, that video is 80% waiting and 20% cutscenes.

Owlcat are **** at live-streaming. My god a amateur with $200 computer ,$50 dollar mic and starter Elgato kit can do a better job.

[The_Mask]

*****, that video is 80% waiting and 20% cutscenes.

Hence why I timestamped it for everyone. I wanted to make sure nobody here that is interested is going to waste their time listening to elevator music.

[Vergil]

Has it gotten homoerotic yet?

[1998]

Got invited to the playtest, anyone probably will.

[Yankee Zulu]

Ive played through the test. Takes about an hour. It has 3 combat encounters. I dont see anything I havent seen before in this game. The samurai setting is really overused imo. The poor history of japan has 3 stages:
1. samurai and the unification by tokugawa
2. restoration/meji
3. ww2 and nuclear bombings

Thats it, thats the whole history of japs. This ones about number 2. Reminds me of that King Artur game from Neocore I think it was? Weebs will love it.

[maidenhaver]

Are environments destructible?

[Yankee Zulu]

Are environments destructible?

Some wooden cover objects are. From what I can tell theres no shooting from cover atm. You have to manually move outside it and then shoot.

[The_Mask]

[Breathe]

[The_Mask]

[WhiteShark]

みんなくそくらえ！これが「ロードの影」です。 Alright everyone! Here's Shadow of the Road.

Hey, wait a second...

[Fitz]

Mecha monsters, occult japanese beings and samurai alongside all of that? This game is all over the place. It's easy to see the connection between all of that but when developers dump so many ideas into a single pot it can result in a very unsettling identity crisis for the game and the people playing it. It's funny to see how the level design has been affected by OS1/2 (and maybe even BG3) while the thing is published by Owlcat.

Also call me a fortune teller but just by looking at the graphics of the game I can already tell you that the combat here is not going to be balanced at all.

[The_Mask]

[Brother Chad]

The British look way cooler.

Why the **** do you have steampunk tesla power armor with chainguns.... and I play some weeb with a katana.

*******

[The_Mask]

[The_Mask]

[asf]

maybe god will smite all weebs some day