I’ve been getting non-stop phone calls and hundreds of thousands of emails, and a couple hundred hand-delivered letters this past week, with people asking me “what the heck is happening with the SHOTGUN Showdown episode?!”
I keep telling them first of all, it’s Shogun, and second of all, it’s almost ready. I’ve had a blast this past past week and a half exploring every inch of the mission and crafting the most perfect play-through that conveys the events in a logical sense and presents them in a cinematic fashion with a perfect silent assassin style scoreboard at the end.
I can’t wait to lay it out here which should be happening this week. There are many little details about this level that I think have gone unnoticed. It’s tough to tell sometimes whether I am making a new discovery about the game, or if I am simply finding something that was at one point mentioned on the internet, but has since been removed. For example, whenever you press the big red button, and then make your way up to the top floor, there will always be a sword wielding ninja who runs down and across the third floor, and he will always become hostile if he sees you. However there is a little cubby screen thing right next to the door he will run through the room from, that seems to be designed for the player to crouch behind in order to avoid that one specific NPC. You don’t really see any discussions online about these kinds of things, and I wonder if they used to be before a lot of sites, such as Hitman Forum itself, wiped a lot of older content.
Anyways that’s all just wanted to say that it’s coming soon and should be uploaded this week.
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I finally have all the footage for part A of Shogun Showdown, only took me a year. I’m just going through and smoothing out and hiding all the cuts and things. Part A I’m considering to be up until you gain the first bonus save, which in my case is when I pick up the guidance system. I am debating whether I should upload Part A, B, and C as three separate videos, since part A alone is 27 minutes. I dont think parts B and C will be nearly as long though. B probably like 7 minutes and C maybe 10-15.
I’ve spent way more time on the first 1/3rd of this one than I’ve ever spent on any of the previous entire missions, so this one is definitely gonna be next-level. I’m really leaning in hard on making everything as perfect as possible, making all the gameplay look like a cutscene. a lot of factors are involved in this and I feel like I’ve learned a lot about the movie-making process during this journey. The way I will get a dozen or so takes of me walking down a hallway, turning, and opening a door for example, then Ill add it to the folder for that scene, then go through and compare all the takes, “the reticle did a little bounce at the end of the turn in this one, I want to keep it smooth and on the same plane” etc.
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New clip/teaser let me know what you think. This is probably my favorite scene I’ve ever pulled off with this series so far! Also you gotta check out the last one if you haven’t seen it yet the choreography is so perfect. I recommend headphones for the music. Once again sorry about the sideways screen lol It’s just that when I post a link here with a non-shorts it requires a login to watch which is annoying
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I know I’m just basically releasing it in chunks at this point but it’s only because I indicated it would be done soon way too soon and because I just have to share these with someone. I’m now fully done with all the capture and editing for part A. It’s ready to rock. I think I will wait and release it all as one video though for consistency. Here is the intro you gotta get a load of this with headphones and full screen I think it’s the best yet. Perfectly sets the mood and feels like a perfect use of the song at the start
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This project is slowly coming together piece by piece. I was really happy with how this second floor portion in particular turned out so decided to share the clip. The room does not give you much to work with for something like this since it isn’t very interactive so I had to get a bit creative and construct this mini narrative of 47 noticing the sword and then noticing the ninja up in the corner, then trying to acquire the sword without arousing suspicion, keeping one eye on the ninja. I wanted to also convey all the aesthetic design and atmosphere of this little portion of the mission.
This is the final portion of the mission that uses this song. It’s the fourth and final time we hear it to my knowledge when taking my idea of the most canonical route. Please let me know what you think of this one and the other clips I’ve posted from the project. It will be out in full before too long.
Edit: second floor* not third
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Looking good! Excited for the full version!
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Thank you man I’m excited too I’m glad someone is seeing these. I also forgot to mention I really love the ceiling in this sword gym/dojo area with the lights that hang so wanted to show that in a cool way. My favorite part though is the very beginning with the timing of the music starting to creep up just as I am creeping up the stairs and then slowly passing through the black shadow while moving the camera up. It feels like a perfect transition to a new scene if that makes sense. I definitely gotta get a new cut of the portion just before that where I’m walking past the guards though because currently the cut that happens just as I step onto the stairs at the beginning is pretty gnarly and obvious
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Hello everyone. I am DEEPLY curious to hear your thoughts on the following short clip, from an artistic and aesthetic perspective. It’s only 2 minutes and it’s unlisted. Does this convey beauty and tension in your opinion? Thank you.
Very rough cut btw
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