Why Game Companies Should Stop And Think

[Xanien]

So while I was home in the USA this Xmas I bought 6 games. I've beaten 3 and I'm down to my final three. One game is DBZ Budokai 3 (78% done. I just have to get the special attacks for everybody and unlock two optional characters). The other two are Disgaea and Xenosaga II. I had put off Xenosaga II cause I thought it was going to be a decent game (I had heard it wasn't as good as the first two games) so I wasn't expecting much. Boy was I let down. This game is almost unbearable to play. I'll start off with the beauty of the past games as compared to this steaming pile of shit.

Music
Xenogears/Xenosaga I: Really great stuff. I think Yasanori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, amongst other games) did the music, as well as the London Philharmonic Orchestra for XI. I loved it. I even bought the CD for X1. Very powerful and epic.

Xeno II: I'm about 5 hours into the game and I feel like I'm playing one of those shitty NES games that nobody played before cause it was so horrible. Take Megaman music done by a middle school student on his computer and this is how it sounds. I feel like putting mute on sometimes. The game is actually buggy and the music cuts out from time to time so it saves me from doing that. And the soundbytes the characters say make me want to go inside the game all "Reboot" style and beat the living shit out of them.

Graphics
Xenogears/Xenosaga 1: Gears wasn't much to look at, but the designs of the Mechs and the scope of the game was magnificent. Saga 1 was sorta anime-ish but endearing. It was highly polished and I loved the movie sequences and character emotions.

Xeno II: They changed all the character looks except for Ziggy and Jr. Gave everybody gayer/sluttier costumes. Mechs are stale and slow. Btw, they changed all the voices expect for Jr's, and it sorta pisses me off that they couldn't even get the smaller parts played by the same people from the first game. Even with all these changes, game feels less polished than the previous ones and rushed. Level design is stagnant and boring to run around in, and the camera angles are even worse. Somebody really fucked this game up.

Story

This is the only part where Xenosaga II will probably succeed . . . if I can only bare through the horrible voice acting.

Gameplay

Xenogears was cool. You could get into your Gear whenever you wanted to (as long as it could fit where you were). And fighting with Ether and learning attacks was very well done. I especially liked the final attacks you learned at the end of the game.

Xenosaga was okay. The charge function was still there, and you even had the new moves learned after you got to certain levels. But they just gave them to you. I felt this game was dumbed down a lot, and I don't know why. Mechs were okay, and used fine ... but you could get through the game without using them at all. I guess since the game isn't called "gears" that's fine, but it's still lame.

Xenosaga II: So I've had about 10 battles against giant Mechs so far, and each time I couldn't even use a Gear to fight in. What's up with that? Fucking lame. It's not bad ass when the enemies are so pathetic that a little girl with a baton can beat them up.


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So yeah, I'm upset cause this game has to last me until I go back to the USA in July/August . . . and it's one of the only games I haven't beat. Thank go Disgaea is an 80+ hour game. I feel better now (Note that I'm living in Japan, it's Winter, nobody goes out in the winter, no people to hang out with, so the majority of my time is spent indoors watching movies, playing games, and getting online. It sucks. But Spring is about a month away. Weeee.).

[Drabe,ThePirateking]

well, even if that game was a horribly horribly let down, you've gotta play it, or else you'll not be able to find out all the lead up to what happend in xenogears and the ones after it. so ha, they can make the games ok or even terrible, but since we all want to learn the story of cosmos or what the hell happend in there universe we have to push on. just like the dot hack games, but they were all good, but if some werent, we would still have to play them all to feed our thirst of knowledge. but i do agree, i can barely play xenosaga II. games might be going down hill but they are starting to learn a chapter like system, so instead of being scattered and random like the ff's they can make muuny easier than normal. so bitch all you want, games with chapters, have you like a worm on a hook.

[Xanien]

There will be a point when gamers just wont' give a fuck though. Then the companies will be fucked.

[kaos]

actually Drabe I think he has a point.

Chapter games are the STABLE bread and butter of the game industry.

if you have a succesful first game.
the sequeal with the next chapter is somthing you MUST play to see whats up with the storyline.

its why they take all the risks in changing the gameplay in chapter games.
buyers are guranteed.

if they were to try somthing new with an unkown game title. word gets out that it sucks and its an instant flop with no future.
its sort of a evil buisness trick.

I dont think their will ever be a point were gamers dont care.

more and more gamers are becoming more mature and realizing that there is a need for more than just fun gameplay. if they were to ignore that need. we'd be back into the nintendo days were none of it mattered.

were all you needed to get by was a flashy looking main character and some decent action gameplay.

I think what game developers really need is to do what they do more with Demo's
playtesting is cool. but its still an internal process.

they need to have real feild test for the new ideas and make decisions based on the information that get back.

dont you wish they feild tested ff8's magic system first?
I do.

[Xanien]

I can't believe that nobody speaks out who is a beta tester for games these days. How did trash like Xenosaga II, DMC 2, or the .hack games ever come out. I mean, who wants to really play 80 hours in a crappy graphic world and repetitive world where the story is not even compelling?

Really hated the .hack games. Beat the series though, and sold all the games afterwards. Beta testers or whoever gives feedback on these games are pussies. Grow some balls and tell them howmuch these games suck.

[Chewi]

I don't think that's what the beta testers are really for. They're mainly there to make sure the game works properly and not to comment on whether it's actually any good or not. By that stage, it would really be too late to make any drastic changes. They need outside feedback at an earlier stage, possibly before any code has even been written. This is how things (are supposed to) work in software projects but the difference with games is, there is no specific client to get feedback from since the client is the general public.

[Xanien]

There needs to be some type of quality control for the sake of the gaming public though. Like, if the game isn't at E3 or some other event for you to see and play you should be VERY cautious of it. Gaming is a multibillion $ industry now, even more than the movie industry these days. They have test screeners for movies, so why not have test gamers? While the game is still in development? Well, I mean that would be okay with the US game companies, but the Japanese one is what I'm reall worried about.

[Chewi]

Like, if the game isn't at E3 or some other event for you to see and play you should be VERY cautious of it.

I think that's a very unfair statement. Generally only the biggest games with the biggest funding make it to E3. Big funding does not equal good games. In fact, games have interested me far less in the past few years due to the fact that gameplay and storylines, the "cheapest" elements of games have taken a back seat to graphics and marketing, the "costly" elements of games. And I really, really hate EA for eating up everything in sight. Fuckers.

[Mik]

Beta Testers don't speak out for a reason NDA's, getting sued sucks.

[Chewi]

I think he meant speak out to the developers, not the general public.

[Drabe,ThePirateking]

yeah, look at unlimited saga for instance, my friend bought the game for like 80 bucks. it was terrible, but those bastards gave it good reviews, what the hell? really games on the one thing are risky business just go after the titles that have grown on you and buy them. dont trust anything you dont rent or a friend played and gave it a good review. thats the way i buy my games, i also play snes emulated roms, but thats the thing they dont cost me any income. so unless your positive of its greatness don't take the risk, but if your going to complain and still buy games, then they've got you by the balls just like politicians sorry if this is offensive to anyone

[Mik]

pay the bribes and game mags will say anything, independant game reviews don't get attention / funding as a soon as they do they get bought out and the good name gets the audience but the reviews are bought and paid for.

Risk vs Reward


it's a sad cold business question is the Risk of something new and never tried worth it ?

Halo 2 is the fatest selling game in history, it was shite even for a halo game, but the reviews where awesome.

[Xanien]

Speaking of good/addicting games for a change. .. just started playing Disgaea and it's the most fun I've had playing a game in a LONGGGG time.