RHE wrote:The Coop wrote:I personally think it's questionable to keep releasing tweaked and adjusted versions, yet charge full price for each tweaked release. Black label, death label, periwinkle with fuchsia pinwheels label... it's rather lame regardless of who does it, as it just reeks of cash run.
The difference is, CAVE does it only for cash, while we also consider gamers. Some people begging an for improved version and other call that milking customers. So, the original Last Hope is a mistake? And the NGCD version with improvements is a mistake too? And now Pink Bullets is an even greater mistake?
I understand this situation isn't the best, but is better as leave things as they are. I don't see why people must make a drama of everything that has something to do with Last Hope. There are several other games with visiblity issues and even a pricey fix too.
Currently all three version of the game are for different consoles, that's why it isn't really a problem.
I don't mean to sound like an asshole, but Cave could make the same argument. They could easily say they did the various versions of DDP:DOJ because they were responding to the gamers. Regardless, it still comes off as trying to get more money by offering adjustments to make the game harder/easier/more balanced/whatever, and charging full price for that adjustment. The end question for
Last Hope is this... the hard work of making the game is done, and that finished game was released. So how do you justify charging $40-$60 again for some tweaks that basically amount to what a patch would do for a PC game? Why not go the budget re-release route like they do in Japan?
Look... RHE, I don't mean to come off as confrontational or anything, and I hope you're not taking my criticism on a personal level. I bought the original DC version, and I enjoyed it (as shown by my posts about the game over the last year or so). I didn't have an issue seeing the bullets, and the only real complaint I had was that there were a few spots where something blew up your ship that couldn't be seen (like in stage 4). But here's the deal.... most of the fixes and adjustment you guys have been making, were ones that people were complaining about from day 1 when the game was first playable. They're things that could have been addressed before the game was ever released, had you guys done more play testing with people outside your company. God knows there would have been people here more than happy to play test for you (myself being one of them).
See, all three versions up to this point, could have been identical. They could have offered players the same options, regardless of system. Instead, the Neo-Geo got the first version. The Dreamcast got tweaks due to complaints by players, and it got version two. The Neo-Geo CD got tweaked even further based on complaints by players, and it got version three. Now the Dreamcast is getting another version, with all the tweaks of the NG-CD version, plus new tweaks, thus giving it version four. It's coming across as play testing at the expense of paying customers.
Now, while I'm sure it's easy enough to say, "You don't have to buy it", I'm hoping you can see and understand where I and others are coming from with our criticism of how
Last Hope is being handled. And to be honest, yes, it would be better to leave things as they were. Make the game, play test the hell out of it, release it, and move on. The more you tweak it and re-release adjusted versions that address gamer complaints, the more you make it seem like you didn't play test the game enough in the beginning... and the more irked those who already bought the game become with each tweaked re-release.