Member
I loved the Choke on This execution animation in the previous alphas, even though I preferred decapitating my foes to claim their heads to present to my master when I would return home, once it was Steel-gated and I couldn't give a good ol' fashioned coup de grace anymore, it increased in value to me since it was now exclusive. I still believe 5,000 steel is way too much for it however, with the current steel gain values.
That being said, I bit the arrow and decided to try it out. While I still love the animation, there were some bugs and an obnoxious sound that goes with each stroke of the blade. The sound was cool once or twice a match, but when I'm killing everyone constantly and want to use my fancy coup de grace animation, it gets overbearing and repetitive, and I began to hate it. It didn't get to a point where I would stop using the execution, but it would be nice if there was maybe a more muted sound for my quick, finessed Orochi rather than a heavy, low trumpet bang when I move my blade into their throat. Or even a removal of the sound altogether(It is very immersion-breaking)
Bugs I found mainly had to do with the placement of the dying enemy's hands or the placement of the sword, detailed below:
Several classes would miss the sword with their hand and hold it in the air while grasping nothing, being off by a few inches. Peacekeeper was the worst of these, as she would miss the blade completely every time and hold her hand about five inches below the blade. Nobushi was probably the second worst offender as she would hold her hand to the side by a couple inches.
Conqueror, Raider, and enemy Orochi(m/f) seemed to have proper hand placement every time, especially after I turned blood and dismemberment off. Before that, there was one instance of a raider missing the blade by holding his hand a couple inches above it while on the same level surface as me.
During executions on stairways, where the enemy is on uneven ground from me, there would be placement inconsistencies but that is an acceptable case.
If I'm paying five thousand precious steel for an animation, I would like it to be working properly with all classes on even ground.
All other classes were either unobserved or unrecorded in their interaction with Choke on This.
A constant clipping issue would also occur with the katana during Raider executions as well. The blade would be clipping through the Raider's chest almost every time, and then also be piercing the throat. This wasn't really immersion-breaking, however, as I could see a short samurai's katana piercing a larger foe's chest cavity on its way to the throat. It is also probably less noticeable with blood effects turned on.
TL;DR: Choke on This quickly returned as my favorite animation but the obnoxious sound could be removed or retuned and dying enemies' hand placements could be more consistent with the blade's position relative to their height.
-Siric the Gray
Member
I mentioned in previous tests that one of the main things missing from the cool looking finishers is the vocal reaction of the victim. They are all completely silent during the executions. For the Orochi's "Choke on This" the victim should have some sort of choking sound that plays during the kill animation and it should obviously be different for each character. This pretty much goes for every execution. Just make the sound appropriate for the correct execution.
So yeah, I would replace that trumpet bang with an actual vocal reaction from the character you just killed. This would at least be less repetitive and also sound less silly. I feel the same way about the Warden's executions. Like for the "Hilt Strike", it plays that same loud boom sound everytime when you smash them in the shoulder with your sword hilt. I would rather an actual unique sound from the enemy being killed. Not sure why they are all completely silent like golems while being killed, lol.
