Are the horror stories about Japanese game companies true?

[Skykid]

Imo the biggest difference between now and back then, is that even shit games are of a much higher standard these days, so its harder for gamers to separate the wheat from the chaff, infact ild go so far as to say that most gamers dont know the difference between games that are simply mediocre, good or great and judge games on its IP, graphics or what features it has tacked on, rather than gameplay issues.

Yeah I agree!

I do think the general quality is higher, unfortunately you have this upper 1% of superb games, and then 85% that are uniformly average, and the remainder that are either complete dump or made for grandmothers.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Western game companies have never gone out of their way to make games that appeal to Japanese gamers.

Hm... Naruto games by Ubisoft and Mini Ninjas make me wonder if it's true.

[Skykid]

Western game companies have never gone out of their way to make games that appeal to Japanese gamers.

Hm... Naruto games by Ubisoft and Mini Ninjas make me wonder if it's true.

You're specifying themes tho, as in anime licenses and Japanese locales. In terms of design they're the same as everything else.

That said I loved the aesthetic of Mini Ninjas, that game had potential darnit. But it was just so dull I had to give up on it. Real shame that one.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Naruto license alone is a huge potential draw for quite a few Japanese. No idea whether Ubisoft seriously tried to sell the games over there, but I'm under impression that they wanted such potential when the development started.
When Capcom and Konami acquired western comic books and cartoons licenses, they didn't exactly redesigned gameplay on that occasion. Bucky O'Hare (not even that HUGE license) on the NES plays more like Mega Man than any western game.
As for Mini Ninjas, I imagine it's stylistically less outlandish to the Japanese than Throne of Darkness or Shadow Warrior, though I can't be sure if it was intended.

[GaijinPunch]

I really don't think that's what Inafune meant regarding it being a communist system. He's talking about it from an internal worker perspective: you work your ass off for nothing except the benefit of the company.

Once again... he is not describing a Japanese game company. He is describing a Japanese company. It's not even a secret... or new. It's been that way since Japan went corporate... most notably post war.

No. 'Retro Gameplay' doesn't exist.

It is also known as non-modern gameplay. Exist, it does, and generally exists in moving in X,Y coordinates only... not hunting a million items... being difficult... going for score... these are all things that are almost never found in newer games. Please define that gamestyle if it's not retro.

[Khan]

I think there is alot that goes on we dont hear about, I know pressure and stress is a huge factor over in Japan and most men hardly have time for their own family/social lives with the amount of hours in their day and the economic situation is pretty dire too.

I still believe there is a certain beauty in the games that they make that isnt just down to marketing names and gimmicks unlike here in the west where in about 5 years we will probably have call of duty 10 and Fifa 2016 :/

[Obiwanshinobi]

I still believe there is a certain beauty in the games that they make that isnt just down to marketing names and gimmicks unlike here in the west where in about 5 years we will probably have call of duty 10 and Fifa 2016 :/

They keep hammering Final Fantasy and Rockman to the fucking ground for far longer than CoD or FIFA (games) have been around. Is there really enough substance in the whole Rockman franchise to render each and every one Rockman game substantial? And what about Metal Slug; isn't it a bit tired at this point?

[Skykid]

No. 'Retro Gameplay' doesn't exist.

It is also known as non-modern gameplay. Exist, it does, and generally exists in moving in X,Y coordinates only... not hunting a million items... being difficult... going for score... these are all things that are almost never found in newer games. Please define that gamestyle if it's not retro.

You're specifying gaming objectives and content: that doesn't define retro gameplay. If you place any SFC game into 3D space, you'll still be inputting the same basic commands using a control axis and a set of buttons. The visuals are the trickery, the input is the same (up, down, left, right, run, jump, shoot, maim.)

Without getting too much into it, here's the original discussion thread. I agree with most of the comments in it, and I also run with Goichi Suda (and several of the shmups board) in thinking anything pre-Famicom is retro. Fami gameplay and objectives are basically the same stuff we have today, just dressed up differently.

Full discussion:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 802&hilit=

[gabe]

No. 'Retro Gameplay' doesn't exist.

It is also known as non-modern gameplay. Exist, it does, and generally exists in moving in X,Y coordinates only... not hunting a million items... being difficult... going for score... these are all things that are almost never found in newer games. Please define that gamestyle if it's not retro.

Don't forget a "Game Over" screen - a feature that seems to be absent from many modern games.

You're specifying gaming objectives and content: that doesn't define retro gameplay. If you place any SFC game into 3D space, you'll still be inputting the same basic commands using a control axis and a set of buttons. The visuals are the trickery, the input is the same (up, down, left, right, run, jump, shoot, maim.)

Without getting too much into it, here's the original discussion thread. I agree with most of the comments in it, and I also run with Goichi Suda (and several of the shmups board) in thinking anything pre-Famicom is retro. Fami gameplay and objectives are basically the same stuff we have today, just dressed up differently.

Full discussion:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 802&hilit=

In any event - "Retro Gameplay" was not my choice of words (hence my use of quotes). I agree that it's a bullshit term, but I was (and still am) unable to come up with a better way to concisely articulate the types of games generally preferred by the members of this community. Without getting into a debate of semantics, I would like to think that we could agree that there is a large swath of gaming-common-ground found on these forums; a common ground that extends beyond shmups.

EDIT: For the sake of clarity, I would like to say that I am including myself in these generalizations. As someone who is quickly closing in on 30, I'm certainly not calling anyone here old.