Comments - MysteriousLag

well, that anim may work better to a regular speed running, but you can always use the other one to dashing, or something like.
About this one you're using, pay attention to the arms and legs moving, they are moving to the same direction, while regular people when running, tend to move it in opposite directions (right leg should move forward while right arm moves backward, and when left leg moves forward the left arm should be moving backwards)
Humans do that unconsciously to help getting impulse while running.
try fixing it and see if it gets better.
PS: impressive work on jumping, front flip, and barrel roll. this intend to be used as midair evading or as a double jump?

ah, and analyzing a bit more, looks like his knees barely fold/bend (i forgot how to write it in english, well, i hope you understand) during the sequences which his foot goes forward again after a step, making it look like he's ruuning without untouching the ground with his feet.
moving his knee to bend his legs a bit more will give a nicer feel of "speed" to his moves, even despite he's not moving that fast.

that's one damn high jump naruto did there!
Anyways, the water shading is excelent, but the anims need a little work now...
tips: instead of rising naruto arms backside that much, you can try curving his body foward a bit more, to give a ninja feel to his running anim. also, his leg anims may look weird right now because the area in the ground where his feet touches it are quite separated, making him look like he's trying to run with wide spread legs sideways. when making the anims, trying making the character steps closer to the center of gravity, not much like he's trying to run above a wire, but something near to it. oh yeah, increasing the running speed will make it look a bit better too.

Woah, that's a real long shot...
I consider Multiplayer-based games quite easier to develop, but i also admit that single player has some atractives...
Man, i really loved that X360 Rise of a Ninja free roam around the city, it was even better than the Ultimate Ninja Storm Story mode (i'll probably be kicked out by someone for saying that...better run to the hills)
But you have in hands an advantage to multiplayer compared to console games: If you can code LAN or online connection, you wouldn't be limited to 2-4 player matchs, but quite a crowd could join the fight, depending on the gameplay system you intend to develop...In My Opinion, you should take that advantage into consider too, it would be a real good point to your project

If ichiraku is just a eye-candy update (doesn't have any kind of contact with players whatsoever) i guess lipsync won't be needed, unless it'll be interactive with the player in any circunstance that requires the model to have voice...
Lipsync is purely to animate characters characters mouth, and some face expressions to look like they're talking

Ok, that's uglier... lol
Right now it looks like a barbie doll...The proportions need more work...
Remember anatomy: Women have a thinner chest, while pelvis get's larger to give room for Uterus...make her waist slighlty thinner and the hips slightly larger (look out for not overdoing, or it'll look like that 40 years old ladies with tight corsets).
Also, the chest looks too big comparing with legs...Try making the groin a little bit closer to navel, just to try out...

Hey, don't let kids see it! haha
Like Pikachu10 said, it can be sexier...Right now it looks like my ugly neighbor...

So many pics, so little time...
The maps and lighting looks flawless, as always, but naruto's face looks a little flat by looking sideways.

Anyways, above excelent work.

That one wasn't described in the plans to the first test release...
Do you intend to release it in the first test, or you're just preparing the soil for the future?

Actually, the running anims may look better by simply fixing the legs being too separated sideways. when working in the new ones, let the models feet really close to each other (like in a military salute), before working in the actual steps, it'll work miracles to it and give a "ninja feel" to the characters moves.
Also, the character wasn't moving fast, so it looked more like short steps than actually running, to fit the speed. With a faster character speed, the wider steps need to be, giving that way room for a more complete run animation.

i already used all the adjectives i remember to describe the awesomeness of your work, as always, perfect.
If i remember correctly, is that the shinobi academy building, right?

character selection *.*

I guess it has way more slots than the actual characters you said it would be.
Think about the future already?

For someone who's working in every single aspect of the development, you're going really fast, that's a fact!
despite the animations still need some work, this was the actual first step to transform all of this in an actual game, and that's priceless.

A While ago, i used to animate to several Source/GoldSrc engine Games, so, any kind of help, you're more than welcome to ask.
Tip: if it's possible for you to do so, you could separate some moves into several "parts" and giving specific anims to every part, example jumping: You may separate into jump; jump_start and jump_finish: "Jump" part may have your actual animation, using while in mid-air, while "jump_start" happens before the "jump" part where you can add a nice animation of the character taking impulse to start jumping, and "jump_finish" you can add an anim of the character landing after the jump. that way, you can really smooth out some animations and give a quite good look to character moves. But you might need to code these anims as separate events, i guess (an experienced coder may explain that better than me)
Good Luck, and keep it up

i think the shuriken is in a good scale right now.
but the kunai "grip" (i forgot the name in english, it's where you hold it) looks a little big.

Did you get the idea from Half-life 1 Naiteki-kensei mod?
it's really looking like one of their map (not the textures, yours are better)

then, my bad.
Keep it up the excelent work.

Really? right now i can't see how you can improve the character looks, unless you're experiencing any bug/glitch that might affect negatively in the future (or maybe even now)

Maybe because if models are getting done doesn't mean animations are...
And if the system is still in work, even barely moving the character through scenarios wouldn't be a pleasure to the eyes, or even work at all.

let's give him more time, to officialy show a map completely done and a system that wouldn't look weird to the public.

You may want to make these 3 logs a bit larger, as seen in anime/manga.

As always, this naruto Model looks Stunning good.

God, this looks unbelievable! The cel-Shading is already implemented?
Because right now, even still in development, it's graphics already surpassed any other Naruto-Based project in Moddb!

I just hope you keep your enthusiasm work on this project, because when released, it's going to be and EPIC WIN.

Right now the only improvements i could see is adding shadows, and small effects like fog, wind effects to rasengan and others minimal details...

Why don't you post something explaining your plans to the game, like gameplay you intend to develop, why that character selection, etc...Just for fans know what to expect from this project

So far, so good.
Not only characters, but the enviroment look quite good aswell.

Are you doing all by yourself or there's a team supporting you?