Ben-DutkaMany have been concerned about Japanese gaming lagging behind their Western counterparts in terms of technical achievement and general quality.
But there are still plenty of uber-talented Japanese developers out there, and some of them work for Platinum Games. Director/producer Atsushi Inaba and President and CEO Tatsuya Minami, for example.
And during another edition of "Iwata Asks" (as cited at DualShockers ), Minami took it upon himself to comment on the current status of Japanese development, and how his company is faring in regards to promoting Japanese quality:
"It’s often said these days that Japanese industries are looking sluggish. But I don’t think so. With what we make, I want to show the world the strength of what it means to be made in Japan and to play a part in that work, and I think that has great significance for developing PlatinumGames on a worldwide scale. As a result, having people say, 'Japanese games really are great,' was one of my purposes in founding PlatinumGames, so my goal is to achieve that…blaming the times is just an excuse. So we strongly want to be a studio that can win with games that are made in Japan."
Platinum has already delivered the critically acclaimed Vanquish and Bayonetta , and they're currently working on Bayonetta 2 (for the Wii U) and are just about ready to bring Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance to market. So they do seem to be doing their part…but it may not be enough, as other industry insiders have stated in the past.
man I have to say I'm disappointing with the MGS Rising demo. I really had my hopes up for it. On one hand it looks gorgeous for being 60fps but on the other I just am not feeling it from a action-slash-stealth gameplay aspect. I tried two different times to get into its 'groove.'I'll wait for reviews to persuade me differently. Though I expect the reviews to come in a little soft if the game play isn't refined for the final release.
I was not happy with the demo either. It felt… weird.
I felt the camera was too close for how fast he can move. I also thought, from what I could tell, his move set was pretty limited. I had major issues trying to get the camera to line up for the manual slice while in action. Then there's the items… which from I could tell are there for you to 'get a drop' on the action by blasting someone first with a rocket or something. Because trying to throw a gernade or anything was way too slow for the in-action pace.
Plus, the whole rip the blue spine and crush it thing over and over again to restore health just didn't seem to fit the Raiden I'm familiar with. I don't know. If the game play was more my thing I'd be more amped. As I said it looks real nice and it's a cool setting etc. I'm hoping the final game is heavily tweaked because I expect better from Platinum Games.
Loved the demo of Metal Gear Rising is what I expected to get and was awesome only problem I had was an audio one when Raiden was talking on the codec, also the tutorial wasn't good the only way I could learn how to parry well was with the boss and he was kinda hard, killed me like 6 times.
Last edited by Oxvial on 1/25/2013 2:21:12 PM
Fingers crossed for this one. I'm such an MGS fanatic I have a feeling I'll pick this up regardless of what the reviews say, but whether it's really my cup of tea remains to be seen.
I think I will buy it at some point, but it wasn't quite right.. all seemed a little off balance to me.
still, it was impressive, but just not incredible.
I think the gamers want the old translation of awesome back as in it leaves you in awe as opposed to new awesome which is wicked crazy slam bang pow action.
Not that there isn't a place for that, Grasshopper Manufacture is at the forefront of it, but we sorta miss having that larger scope in favor of a focus on attention-deficit disordered gamers who will just skip right over cut scenes. Can Japanese games still punch you in the face? Sure, but we'll never forget the sound that Strider's blade made, is there anything in Revengeance we will never forget?
Platinum Games should of used the same control format of MGO Raiden. I hope in the final version anything you slice isnt hollow. I am a huge MGS fan. But, I guess I was expecting more from MGR demo seeing how it took so long to make this game.
Just finished Vanquish yesterday, and thought it was excellent – well-crafted with passion and skill :).
Vanquish is awesome. Pop 'n fire reinvented for those who grew bored of the slower rinse and repeat scenarios of something like Gears.
Japanese games are great. Not Square Enix though, they suck now.
Japanese games are great, always were, always will.
As for Rising's demo, I find it fun, and also 60fps all the time.
The only problem I have with the game is that if you're gonna make a fast-paced action game, where the heck is the block or dodge button?
Evade by jumping?
That's ok but can't jump in the middle of a combo?
That's one big flaw there.
it sort of expects you to 'parry' everything and just keep killing.
it actually works quite well!
most games dont let you dodge or block during a combo, but this lets you parry at any time.
only thing i wish they would add to the parry is make it throw eneies off their gard, disorientate them or something.
especially that robot dog he was f*cking frustrating!
he charges you so you parry, causing him to go flying back than charges you again rinse and repeat.
your never get a chance to get some hits in, especially because when you parry him he goes flying back.
you really need to try pin him up against a wall or something.
id be better if when you parry it disorientates enemies giving you a chance to finish them off, or get one off your back while dealing with others.
A few of the times I parry the dog I could also attack at the same time launching him to the air and combo/slash him and I didn't need to be near a wall or something, not sure if was the timing because the tutorial of the game is useless, is like if the boss fight was the parry tutorial! and that was hell! tutorial should of be easy not that!
Last edited by Oxvial on 1/26/2013 9:19:04 AM
About time japanese devs have confidence in what they're good at.
we do, just no where near often enough!
PG are really the only japanese studio who is proud of that and makes sure all their games reflect that!
if all japanese develoeprs acted like PG did, this wouldent be a problem.
its not that people dont like japanese games, its not that there not good, its that theres so few of them!
gotta say though i finished the demo last night and really enjoyed it!
i was a bit worried when PG took the rising badge, but its nice to be able to say this may be the first PG game i actually enjoy!
its SO fast paced and i really like the parry system.
id be nice if it caused enemies to become disorientated or something like that, but besides that the combat system works really well!
only thing that disappointed me was the graphics and the linearity of it.
graphics were, well, pretty muddy!
everything looks like its had mud smeared over it, just looks a bit too brown and not really crisp as you would expect.
the levels are so linear as well, you enter a open courtyard and theres enemies on the ground and the stairs.
so you say ok ill take out the enemies on the stairs first, but you cant because its such a closed area enemies are always watching eachother.
it would of been cool if you could run up buildings to get a height advantage and take them out that way, but nooooooooo.
this is exactly why i love crysis so much!
it ALWAYS lets you go around your enemies, its never ok here are the enemies walk straight past them!
oh, gotta mention the convoluted cut scenes too.
sigh.
jesus tap dancing christ konami how did you manage to make things WORSE!?
at least in MGS4 you have a 20 minute cut scene than thats it you play the level.
now its a 20 minute cut scene, than the level starts take 2 steps, cut scene, 2 steps, cut scene, 2 steps, cut scene, 2 steps, cut scene, 2 steps, cut scene!
christ, is this a game or a movie!?
going to replay it again tonight time how much cut scenes there are and how much gameplay there are, but 50 bucks says theres only 10 minutes of gameplay the rest is cut scenes!
gotta love it how games are made, people bitch to high heaven about something, so developers completely ignore it AND make it WORSE!
people bitched to high heaven about the convoluted WAY too long cut scenes in MGS4, so they have gone and made them even worse in this!
fantastic!!!!!
Well finally an article in were this game wasn't blasted by the Metal Gear fans, I can see people picking on the combat but with legit reasons,IMO I luvd it!, I had my doubt watching videos but damn it was so natural for me, maybe I'm already a Platinum Games fan.
Well finally an article in were this game wasn't blasted by the Metal Gear fans, I can see people picking on the combat but with legit reasons,IMO I luvd it!, I had my doubt watching videos but damn it was so natural for me, maybe I'm already a Platinum Games fan.