The laziest professional video game review I've ever read

[cfx]

Bubsy was trying way too hard to be cool. Sonic was kind of cool, at least in Japan. In the USA a lot of his art made him look like he was trying a little bit too hard to be cool, but it still wasn't too much, I think.

While I realize this wasn't the origin if this phenomenon, due to it being the best well-known and perhaps silliest example, I think we should dub this Angry Kirby Syndrome.

In the US, perhaps the west in general but I'm not sure of that, Kirby games usually got their box art subtly changed so that Kirby looks angry instead of cute, not that Kirby can not look cute anyway.

And I think that was the same for Sonic; the Japanese art made him look more cute and fun while he had more of that smirky attitude in the western art.

Rocket Knight Adventures was the same way; the Japan Megadrive game had him smiling while he had that determined smirk on the US art. I might misremember, but was there some of the in-game art changed too? I also can't remember if Sparkster had similar changes.

I don't recall any changes in the Crash Bandicoot games, but Sony ran ads in the Japanese magazines with a guy in a Crash suit, and it was a much cuter style than the counterpart they used in US advertising.

And then there's Ratchet's bushy eyebrows in the Japanese Ratchet and Clank games. Did that finally go away with the PS5 game? Maybe the PS4 one too?

Funny bit about R&C on PS3: Those eyebrows are a console region-specific thing. With PS3 (and probably PS4 and PS5), if you take a Japanese console and set the region to US and language to English, it still is not identical to an US console; the O/X behavior is still the Japan standard, and some of the warning type screens the console generates will still be in Japanese rather than English. And Ratchet's eyebrows will be bushy, even if you are playing a western release of any of the games. I know this from experience as I have a Japan console but UK versions of all the games. I still get the bushy eyebrows.

[BIL]

Rocket Knight Adventures was the same way; the Japan Megadrive game had him smiling while he had that determined smirk on the US art. I might misremember, but was there some of the in-game art changed too?

Yep! Swapped out the cute little Opossum symphony intro for a generic GRRRMdark of Angry Sparkster posing in front of a castle, or some shit. JP MD ver all the way, needless 2 say

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Oh weird, I didn't realize I'd played the Japanese version first, because I had no idea the American version changed the game intro and the level intros to be... well, less charming. TVTropes refers to this as American Kirby is Hardcore when the box art or ingame art gets retooled like this: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... IsHardcore

As Tuna recently mentioned in the FromSoft thread... it's reached the point where Miyazaki and co merely - albeit artfully - smuggling in the most ancient principles of oldschool action gaming - You're gonna die, a lot, before you can start doing justice to your badass avatar - is treated as some Shocking and New enigma to be solemnly puzzled out, you know, for the good of the medium.

That's kind of what makes it frustrating that shmups are still the "niche" genre in the mainstream's eye, or at least that they don't seem to be appreciated. The same design principles are trendy now in other games, after all!

Apropos this post, I really dig the "Turbocharged 8bit" aesthetic both Omega Fighter and Ninja-Kun II have going on.

Yeah, they had an aesthetic they liked and they stuck to it. It wouldn't surprise me if the same reviewers complaining about the aesthetics being out of date are fawning over new games with deliberate "retro" styling.

[BryanM]

^ Always brightens my day, that angry little dude. I keep this fellow as my work PC wallpaper for the same reasI put "new" in some very contemptuous apostrophes because really, when John Q. Journo and his reader Matt J. Mainstream are jizzing/shitting themselves in exalted wonder/frustration at FPV brownman shredder

The mass market will always be biased for idiots. It's systematic: someone willing to pay money for the same thing over and over is more lucrative than someone who can get bored of things. Movies all being special FX shite after Starwars. All books having to have the words "Harry Potter" on the cover to gain some steam.

Sigh... it's enough to make me welcome a completely segregated AI world of media with all my heart.

.... god does just looking at Diablo 4 make me want to hurl. Selling the same thing over and over again even more literally than Pokomons. (The little "you clicked your mouse to move!" indicator simply existing still drives me insane. How are humans ok with that? How??)

.... anyway, thank god for independents.

Bunny Survivor here, one of the Vampire Survivors trend chasers, reminded me a little bit of Alien Syndrome.

[cfx]

Oh weird, I didn't realize I'd played the Japanese version first, because I had no idea the American version changed the game intro and the level intros to be... well, less charming. TVTropes refers to this as American Kirby is Hardcore when the box art or ingame art gets retooled like this: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... IsHardcore

While I realize this wasn't the origin if this phenomenon, due to it being the best well-known and perhaps silliest example, I think we should dub this Angry Kirby Syndrome.

Maybe I read that sometime in the past and was subconsciously influenced by it, but I don't remember it.

I can no longer remember how, but somehow I knew of the Rocket Knight change and got the Japanese Megadrive cartrdige because of it. Some magazine of the day must have had screenshots of the Japanese version or maybe I had a Japanese magazine of the era as I did buy Famitsu sometimes back then.

[Sumez]

More importantly, the gameplay in Omega Fighter is absolutely top notch, and the close range kill score system is a lot of fun.

Why kill enemies at close range, when you can hold down the button and slam sideways into them.

I'm honestly surprised you were able to find an English-language contemporary "review" of Omega Fighter!

[Sengoku Strider]

Maybe the company flattered the reviewers with personal attention, made them feel like "part of the team"... but the ad copy ALWAYS gets you a better review and preferential treatment. The bobcat funded entire years worth of budgets for these magazines. He was going to be getting a "this game is great" no matter what.

Accolade had been making bank off unlicensed Genesis games, and had a lot to spend trying to elbow their way in as the next EA. I do think you're right that the massive marketing push influenced the game's review scores, and gave it an aura coming out of trade shows that it didn't deserve. But I don't believe a large ad buy automatically landed preferential treatment. My dad's a magazine editor, and I used to have that argument with him. He had worked on industrial publications, where pissing off advertisers simply isn't done, and a recurring ad buy certainly might net you a fawning profile (note that these decisions are generally made by the publisher, editorial's not directly involved in sales - though I do think the publisher/EIC role was blurred in a lot of 90s gaming publications).

But at the time I was able to point out countless examples of games that got mediocre or flat-out bad reviews in the same issues they'd bought ads in. I know that the guy who started EGM/Sendai Publishing made like $32 million off it, so they weren't hurting for cash and could comfortably tell any marketing people trying to pressure them that they weren't interested. In a pre-Windows '95 era with no meaningful internet or TV/mass media gaming coverage, game publishers either had to buy ads with outlets like them, or go without direct marketing their game to the most ardent of game buyers. From the magazine's angle more advertising is always great, but beyond a certain threshold losing an ad buy just means not adding an extra page of editorial content. So it wasn't worth compromising their subscriber list over, the size of which had a major role in determining your ad rates to begin with.

[BryanM]

Daikatana is a good example of that. I don't know if they spent bobcat kinds of money, I think it was far short of that, but still was ravaged. An average game you can nudge up a bit.. but this was too much of a dogshit game to go out on a limb on. (Only dogshit can get under the absolute lowest score possible: a 7.) The delays didn't help - three years is an eternity TODAY, back then it was like twelve eternities. The reader anger at the ads calling them bitches also probably didn't help protect+nurture their number.

(The english version of Princess Connect 2 is a recent casualty of being released at the worst time in the worst way. The original version was released before Epic Seven came out. The english version came out after Genshin Impact came out. "Dated" is a bit generous way to describe how outclassed it was by the current standards of the market. But in 2018 it was perfectly passable, if uninspired, fare.)

Reading about how their art guys weren't taught how to do video game art, how they'd turn in these 120x300 wood textures for arrows that'd take up like six pixels on the screen... always great.

When I was looking into the Gameboy Color Development scene earlier this year, making some pre-production mockups... I discovered that there's a Daikatana game for the Gameboy Color! Only released in the EU and JP. I was shocked. It looks like a top-down action game with little jRPG style sprites. I need to remember to try it some day!

[Marc]

https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/11 ... eon-review

Fucking hell. I know some of you peeps aren't overly enamoured of this particular game (I loved it), but that entire piece is a 'writer' whining about being shit at the genre.

[Rastan78]

Wow that's pretty bad.

The beat-‘em-up was built on the back of arcade game design; difficulty didn’t come by design, but by consequence of clunky mechanics meant to scam kids out of more quarters.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Only an hour of "content"
Game makes you start again when you fail
Had to abuse 2p to get extra lives

Make your mind up. An hour's playtime is shit if you can just brute force it, but it's also shit that you can't brute force it. Wat

[Rastan78]

This review is a goldmine of "so bad it's good" takes. It reads like something from scrubquotes on twitter.

On top of all this, I found myself plugging in a second controller when my player one died early on, simply so I’d have the extra lives necessary to finish a mission I otherwise couldn’t.

If I need to play co-op by myself to brute force my way through a campaign, it’s time to throw in the towel and play something else.

[Sima Tuna]

This review is a goldmine of "so bad it's good" takes. It reads like something from scrubquotes on twitter.

On top of all this, I found myself plugging in a second controller when my player one died early on, simply so I’d have the extra lives necessary to finish a mission I otherwise couldn’t.

If I need to play co-op by myself to brute force my way through a campaign, it’s time to throw in the towel and play something else.

I agree with him that it's time for *him* to throw in the towel and play something else. Maybe stop getting paid to put out garbage reviews where he slates a game he sucks at, too.

I never played Double Dragon Neon, but I'm willing to bet it's a smoother 1cc than most real arcade beat em ups. The majority of "throwback" titles tend to have a much smoother difficulty curve compared to their arcade brethren. Revival beat em ups are usually closer to console beat em ups than arcade. A 1cc of SoR 4 on Normal wasn't difficult at all. Fight 'n' Rage has some teeth on the solo 1cc, but it's still easier than most arcade brawlers of note. Unless Neon is some dramatic exception to the rule, it should be likewise quite manageable.

Also lmao at difficulty must be from bad design. Sometimes the hardest games have the most careful design. Carefully designed to fuck you over. Crafting a game that's as challenging as possible without becoming unfair bullshit takes a lot of effort.

[Rastan78]

https://gameswithtoasty.com/2021/10/04/ ... ling-port/

Guys don't bother picking up G-Darius HD. It's impossible to 1cc because of the terrible slowdown.

I’ve put it off enough. I need to talk about the elephant in the room. G-Darius HD runs like crap. The frame rate is abysmal. It dances between chugging like a train and lightspeed at the drop of a hat. It’s so bad, I’d say it’s impossible to play this game seriously. Forget trying to 1CC G-Darius HD. The game is difficult enough without having to deal with frames this inconsistent. I played this on the Switch, but after conferring with PS4/5 owners, they have the same issues.

Upon further investigation, this is because the developers, M2, wanted to make an arcade-accurate port. M2 does God’s work when it comes to shmup ports, but they missed the mark here.

The thing this guy doesn't understand is the game is much harder without slowdown. HD is the port to play if you want to take the game seriously and have your accomplishments compare on equal footing to the arcade version.

[Sengoku Strider]

I stumbled across this old Video Games & Computer Entertainment review of Dragon Warrior II. I really loved the first game (thanks, Nintendo Power!), but as a kid this review talked me out of the second one, reading through the magazine multiple times while stuck waiting during my dad's doctors appointment. The line about random groups of enemies stuck with me, the D&D Dungeon Master's Guide had said never to do that. Clearly the makers of this game were dilettantes who didn't know what they were doing! (Although I'm pretty sure I didn't know the word dilettante). Years later I played the Game Boy Color release and realized I would've absolutely loved it, and this guy was just nitpicking a bunch of irrelevant nonsense. It's this jerk's fault that I missed out on DW II, III & IV. (Plus he lazily mixes up stories of DQ III's launch with this game).

Also, in retrospect, WTF @ "this game is probably popular in Japan because they are not nimble-fingered."

Spoiler

[BareKnuckleRoo]

It's wild to me seeing 'em complain about the combat not being as good as in the first one, where it's rather bare-bones 1v1 with limited opportunity for combat strategy. Having three party members instead of just one, and having multiple enemies in combat is a massive improvement in terms of scale. Overall 5/10? Crazy. My only complaint about the game is how you can randomly get unavoidable total party kills if a Gold Batboon or Pazuzu decide to use Kamikazee. Weird choice to give enemies a death spell that can't be avoided or defended against with any kind of preparation (Mother by comparison gives enemies the single target PK Beam Gamma, but you can find a couple items you can carry to reflect it back which covers 2 of the 3 members, and no enemies get access to PK Fire Omega, which is instant death to all targets).

The comments about the Japanese not being as nimble fingered and complaining about having multiple different enemies in combat at once are both equally bizarre. Like, by the time DQII made it to North America, Final Fantasy NES existed, and there were plenty of computer RPGs with huge enemy groups (Wizardry, Ultima, Phantasie). Strikes me as an RPG review by someone not particularly exited about or interested in RPGs.

[Steven]

Found some British magazine that has this weird Tatsujin review. I especially like how the scores each aspect have give an average of 7 but the game is given a 6 instead somehow. Like WTF dude do you know how math actually works? I don't and I still know better lol

Spoiler

Also, the "sun laser" is apparently pink even though it's totally blue in the (tiny) screenshot. Why is there a picture of the space dock? WHYYYYYYYYYYYY

Sound getting a 6 makes me feel very sad.

[TransatlanticFoe]

"Oh no not another shoot 'em up" was frequently a large part of British reviews. I don't think many reviewers cared for the genre, as per the glowing reception for Xenon 2. Those score breakdowns were usually bollocks too, generally a crappy game got a crappy score in all areas even if the music was great. This guy probably played Truxton in a loud trade convention and didn't even hear the music - meh, 6 will do. Similar I doubt those screenshots were taken by the magazine, you can probably blame Taito's press kit.

[Sumez]

I stumbled across this old Video Games & Computer Entertainment review of Dragon Warrior II. I really loved the first game (thanks, Nintendo Power!), but as a kid this review talked me out of the second one

Hell, even to this day, Dragon Quest 2 suffers a completely undeserved bad reputation. The devs went on record at some point saying they were in a hurry to ship the game and didn't feel like they had the time to balance it properly, and that quote has just jammed its way into public perception and the common internet tradition of borrowing your opinions from others rather than sitting down and experience games for yourself.

DQ1, 2, and 3 all share a rare approach to the open ended RPG design that I've praised several times before, and in many ways, DQ2 represents probably the most pure approach to that, where exploration is tougher, and consequences are higher, causing you to constantly balance your approach with with how much you stand to lose from venturing into unknown areas. The sense of adventure and exploration in DQ2/DW2 is IMO unparalleled even compared to most later RPGs.
It's sad that the game has been so neglected by the common misconception that it is "poorly balanced" or "too difficult", even among the Dragon Quest fanbase.

DQ3 is arguably a better version of the same game, but dungeons never feel as threatening, and the ability to bank your gold at any time massively detracts from the dangers of exploration.


EDIT: Honestly, reading the actual review you posted, it's not that bad. They don't seem overjoyed about the game, but they aren't really criticizing it either, it seems it's just not really their cup of tea. None of the statements they made in the review are really wrong, and I do agree that the colorful battle scenes that pop up on top of the overworld in DQ1 definitely ensures a nice feel that DQ2 is lacking with its drab, black, fullscreen battle scenes that read more like a spreadsheet of information. It's an unfortunate partly hardware-induced payoff in order to be able to maintain the visually distinct look of different enemies in a single battle.

[BIL]

Ah, VG&CE. Even as a kid, I had the distinct impression they were the old fart magazine, compared to spunky EGM and GamePro. Sense of reading something written for a different demographic. I remember a review of Raiden Trad (edit: Genesis, for the love of Christ - not that shite Micronics SNES port!), where the dude remarked the autofire would be some relief "for those of us beginning to suffer with arthritis."

It was written like motherfucker actually had arthritis. I empathised! But tapping fucking sucks regardless m8. I'm reasonably confident I could outrun, outswim and most DEFINITELY outfuck the young Takahashi Meijin, I don't care that he can tap buttons. Tap this dick in your mouth more like. It is indeed a wonderful port! From Seibu themselves IIRC, but yeah. Struck me as a bit smelling of Ben Gay and Werther's. Like my grandma! By the same token, I found them somewhat comfier, more avuncular reading than aforementioned hyperventilators. Had a buddy in highschool with arthritic knees actually. Shit sucks, they'd've punted him off a cliff BITD 3;

They later metamorphosed somewhat, jettisoning the "&CE" to become... I can't recall. Surely not just "Videogames," that'd be far too rad. Let's see.

Oh wow! They really did! Hm, I forgot that. But they also changed their style to be more like all the rest, actually I remember them being kinda fuckin weird, some crazy independent film reviews in there towards the end. And some good ones! I got turned onto Matewan by them, I distinctly recall.

Game Players was a happier medium between the lame old farts and the annoying 30summats imo. Their mid-90s stuff was most acerbic! Bill Donahue was a riot, that crazy motherfucker loved his Bomberman '94 w/TURBO TAP. And to be fair, who doesn't? Cunts, that's who!

[Sumez]

I especially like how the scores each aspect have give an average of 7 but the game is given a 6 instead somehow. Like WTF dude do you know how math actually works?

Why would the overall score be an average though? If they don't like the game, it's not like 10/10 graphics are gonna make it better.
In my experience most reviewers at the time that used the individual scores for different aspects of the game would always note that the final score is "not an average". Now I know why

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I do agree that the colorful battle scenes that pop up on top of the overworld in DQ1 definitely ensures a nice feel that DQ2 is lacking with its drab, black, fullscreen battle scenes that read more like a spreadsheet of information

The thing is that you have only one background in DQ1 used for the entire overworld, and any time you're in a dungeon it's a purely black background whenever you're fighting an enemy, so the complaint is a bit odd given DQ2 isn't much different from DQ1 in terms of aesthetics. They're both certainly less aesthetically inclined than the Final Fantasy games that have an area themed background at the top of the screens though, but I don't think this is a big deal for the DQ series as RPGs of this era with limited battle animations expected your imagination to fill in the blanks.

[Sengoku Strider]

they aren't really criticizing it either, it seems it's just not really their cup of tea.

Sound/Music: 4/10
Graphics: 3/10
Playability: 6/10
Overall: 5/10

I mean, that seems at least mildly critical. Nobody anywhere sees 3/10 & 5/10 and thinks "Success!" Especially when the same guy spent the review immediately prior talking about how mediocre Low G Man is then giving it a 7/10.

Beyond that, the review continues onto the second page, but I included that bit in the blue box at the bottom of the screen shot: "But I can't help thinking that when the NES is dead and buried, historians will look at games like Dragon Warrior II and scratch their heads, wondering what all the fuss was about." So while he hedges his bets with the first clause to dodge making a declarative statement, he's still putting things beyond the realm of a this-is-purely-a-personal-taste take.

He does put in some milquetoast disclaimers to balance the review: "if you liked the first game, you will definitely enjoy the second" (then in the very next paragraph ripping it for not being as good as the first) and "it's hard to criticize Dragon Warrior II" (after having criticized seemingly every aspect of the game save for the map size). These read like a writer having been told by an editor he doesn't want to read any more angry letters from readers, rather than something that reads like a consistent take on the game.

Said editors did have a tendency to get somewhat defensive, like when executive editor Andy Eddy went after (Electronic Gaming Monthy founder) Ed Semrad saying he had no credibility while Streisanding an unfavourable review in the Milwaukee Journal:

Spoiler

Or Bill 'Game Doctor' Kunkel teeing off on an (admittedly delusional) Atari ST fanboy for being "out of line" and "insulting" in a how-dare-you forum worthy rant:

Spoiler

I can only imagine the fallout if ST-Log magazine had given VG&CE a 5/10.

[Sumez]

Sound/Music: 4/10
Graphics: 3/10
Playability: 6/10
Overall: 5/10

I mean, that seems at least mildly critical. Nobody anywhere sees 3/10 & 5/10 and thinks "Success!" Especially when the same guy spent the review immediately prior talking about how mediocre Low G Man is then giving it a 7/10.

Yes, I was talking about the text, not the scores

[Sumez]

Not a professional review by any means, but I found a good one, this guy reviewing the N64 version of Xeno Crisis, HG101 style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZGsdXBuCPQ

He's pretty on point about the whole port stuff. The game looks and plays great (assuming the N64 port is handled well), but it feels pretty pointless to play a MegaDrive game on the N64 when nothing is done to differentiate that version, and 4 players *would* actually have been an interesting addition.

Meanwhile, throughout the entire review, he's repeatedly showing footage of him just standing in place, taking damage as enemies shoot him and run into him, while he's actively running directly into enemies whenever he's moving, it's both sad and hilarious to watch.
Although he likes all the superficial aspects of the game, he believes the game should be "fixed" by allowing players to upgrade the health bar infinitely in the store, so that you can just tank hits without dying, which is apparently necessary to make the game playable. He states that he found easy mode too difficult, and bases his review on playing through the game with invincibility cheats turned on.

I mean, sure, Xeno Crisis isn't a super easy game. But if your issue is that you keep dying, you could at least try moving away from the enemies before claiming it's the game's fault.

[Rastan78]

Although he likes all the superficial aspects of the game, he believes the game should be "fixed" by allowing players to upgrade the health bar infinitely in the store, so that you can just tank hits without dying, which is apparently necessary to make the game playable.

It feels like a lot of players have a hard time accepting aspects of games as is now. The expectation is developers need to listen to the community and continuously chase this vision of what the player base wants. "Capcom buff/nerf this totally broken character PLZ!!!" "If Blizzard doesn't fix x, y and z aspects of Diablo I'm never buying another one of their games." At some point the pendulum needs to swing back towards designers being the author and players learning to adapt. At least a little.

[Sumez]

I'm quite okay with someone in the context of a review stating what they thought would have been a better approach for the game in question.

But when you dead wrong, then you dead wrong.

[Rastan78]

I agree with you there up to a point. At the same time I don't want to read a review of a movie where the guy gives his take on what the ending should have been if he was the writer/director.

[BryanM]

It feels like a lot of players have a hard time accepting aspects of games as is now. The expectation is developers need to listen to the community and continuously chase this vision of what the player base wants.

It's just chatter. Listening to every single opinion of every anonymous rando on the internet, is like rolling your brain around on broken glass.

Games catering to the lowest common denominator is a natural function of the profit motive. Like with movies. With the costs so high, they daren't try to exclude anyone if they can help it. It's really god awful especially in the mobile sector, where so many are terrified of a player having a chance to actually fail in their first few hours of play. ArKnights being willing to punch people in the face is one of the things that make it stand out, and there are people who loathe it for requiring a couple neurons in your head to fire.

My favorite example of internet noise had to be Left Four Dead Two. There were angry people who were angry they were releasing a "sequel" so soon (1 year!), who thought it should be an expansion instead. There was a boycott list and everything. And of course, tons of people signing the boycott were day 1 players. Anyone that much invested into something was already on the hook. Really solidified that gamers really are addicts, and devs are their dealers.

By the way, I got Left Four Dead Two for free a year or two later when valve or whoever was giving keys away. Not caring about things is the most useful life skill, I find.

The Diablo franchise is effectively dead, somehow even Pokemon has more life in it. 'Tis what happens when people who don't play games design games. "Here's another $150 box that's just Diablo 3 again. Five classes. None of them really new in any substantial way. Fundamental games systems, like how the mana resource makes it easy to put skills on equipment, are fundamentally misunderstood and thrown away to just copy things from World of Warcraft."

The modern expectation is a $0 forever game with dozens of classes. Not a box with a bastardized "forever game" veneer tacked on, that is obviously a lie since their profit model demands they kill the game and sell another reskinned version of it eight years later.

Blizzard is amusing to watch. Like sexual molester clowns that keep tripping over themselves and eating shit. The Overwatch stuff was just utterly insane, they really have no idea whatsoever how to run a live service game.

Let's talk about the most basic of all basic game design fundamentals: How long the gameplay loop is. Overwatch was a ~10 minute long arcade-y style game, and that's what their players were there for. Yet the devs wanted to have a PvE mode that was like World of Warcraft, a hundred+ hours. This... was fundamentally very very stupid. Spending a lot of money making something nobody wanted (and that they had already cancelled in the first canned unreleased version of the game!).

Just make the PvE mode like classic 1st person shooters: DOOM and the like. 15 to 20 minute long mini-campaigns. All they had to add was maps and enemies, and they'd have a casserole stewing. If they wanted to make an RPG FPS, they should have made it its own game. It's not fucking hard or complicated. But to these chuckleducks, it is apparently.

I feel really bad.... for their art department. The poor guys.



.... see what you get for professing an opinion? More opinions.

[Rastan78]

It's just chatter. Listening to every single opinion of every anonymous rando on the internet, is like rolling your brain around on broken glass.

Yeah and part of the problem is when devs without a strong conviction about their game start reacting to the chatter, if not see it as a guiding light. Does the Diablo 4 team know what they want to create or will they wait for youtube content creators to tell them how to fix it?

Imagine an alternate reality where From did seasonal updates complete with Ted talk/roundtable type developer announcements. Insert random guy with headset mic and high-pitched nerdy Todd Howardesque voice. "And we've been listening to fans. We're happy to reveal for Dark Souls season 2: easy mode!!" Applause. "And now . . . World's first reveal trailer. Dark Souls map mode. Fast travel anywhere. A golden arrow above your head will point to the next boss. No more getting lost. No more learning map layouts to progress." Thunderous applause. OMG From is listening. This is so hype. My body is ready. We did it. We complained so hard they changed the game.