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Indie game developer on Japanese game industry: "Your games just suck."
According to the report, after the screening there was a Q&A session, where an unidentified Japanese developer came to the microphone and praised the movie, then asked Fish his opinion of the current Japanese game industry.
Fish responded, "Your games just suck," and went on to criticize Japanese development.
Look, I know that they're having a difficult time trying to break from their slump, but this isn't being outspoken, this is being a dick.
Comments
Yeah, totally not buying his shit, (so to speak).
I can't remember, is Phil Fish known for being a dick? I want to say yes, but it's been so long since I've paid any attention to the indie gaming community.
Is it just me or does anything indie have carry a risk of having an air of pretentiousness, like what just happened here?
Just you.
You're entitled to your own opinion but you're wrong
Hey, ask a question, an answer you shall receive.
More to the point, while it's true that there's a lot of pretentiousness going on in the indie scene (Mostly because it's made of iconoclasts and such), it still is kind of unfair to judge a whole way of approaching a medium solely because there are some twats behind it.
That article sucks. Or Fish himself sucks. I'm not sure which.
The important thing about this is NOT the fact that he said Japanese games suck, but rather his criticisms of the Japanese game industry.
I want to read what those criticisms were. Either he didn't give them in much detail or the article doesn't show them. And that's why either of them sucks.
I'd like to hear the criticisms, too. The Japanese games industry has its own problems, but Japan is also responsible for a lot of innovation and general creative divergence. Japan's games are a major diversifying factor in worldwide game design, so while some aspects might "suck", one also has to consider what they contribute to the greater context.
Indie developers tend to be awesome bros or tremendous assholes, with very little middle ground.
Still, siding with Glenn in that I want to see the specific criticisms he leveled at the Japanese industry. Cause, you know, there are a lot of completely valid ones.
There is a clear difference between criticism and being a jackass. In retrospect, what I said looks like I implied the same thing by condemning the entire indie game industry, but what I was really trying to say was each industry will have its twats. My apologies.
Make generic statements about an entire national industry? Have some back about indiegames: http://indiegamebingo.blogspot.com/
Um... Since when do Japanese games suck? I'm aware they might not be selling quite as well, but I certainly can't say that they suck.
Hell, even Square-Enix and all of their Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts whoring have managed to get some genuinely great titles out, such as Dragon Quest IX and Final Fantasy: the 4 Heroes of Light.
Decent game held back by its own gimmick, and third or so remake of the same game (albeit veiled well), respectively.
@Bee: Just because it makes a bunch of allusions to FFI doesn't mean it's the same thing. Hell, the AP system alone is enough to separate it from most other RPGs.
^^ Wait, FF t4HoL is a remake of FFIV?
http://kotaku.com/5891178/when-you-say-japanese-games-just-suck
Apparently, the information spread to Japan itself(specifically message boards), and frankly, they're having a field day with it.
And there's also a more descriptive article on his statements here.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/40061/GDC-Japanese-dev-mocked-your-games-suck?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+developmag%2Fifbh+%28Develop%29
Honestly, all I can say is that the video game industry as a whole has grown very stagnant. But it'd be dishonest to say that this doesn't apply as well to the west.
Heh.
Yeah, I mean, things are getting pretty stagnant on both sides of the blue. Seems like 3/4 of what comes out of the US is generic interchangeable black ops FPS or spess mehreens, and 3/4 of what comes out of Japan is generic interchangeable bishies rehashing the same outdated combat systems where half your spells are useless compared to regular attacks. Like, I get that there's such thing as a tried-and-true format, but come on.
"Seems like 3/4 of what comes out of the US is generic interchangeable black ops FPS or spess mehreens"
As much of a cliche this is to point out, I do have to figuratively agree. One of the things that made me more interested in the Wii was that it had a more inclusive, fun image while the other consoles had an image dominated by this machismo crap.
I've actually been curious how true these stereotypes are. I've personally seen a lot of buzz all the time about big-name JRPGs with innovative mechanics. As for western games, I've heard less, in part because I'm less interested, but I can only think of one big-name franchise off the top of my head that does FPS soldiering, Call of Duty/Modern Warfare.
Edit: Wait, there's Battlefield. and Crysis. And Day of Defeat. Okay, maybe I was wrong. Because I'm having trouble thinking of high-profile western stuff that isn't that, outside of Assassin's Creed, whatever Batman game, Anno 2070, and Saint's Row.
That said, I'm thinking of various colorful words for the JRPG thing but I'll hav eto look up which ones go with which ones. (Is "Resonance of Fate" a game? I forgot.)
"JRPG with innovative mechanics" usually means class changing (been around since Dragon Quest III on NES), some minor tweak to active-turn-based (usually insubstantial), or AI teammates (bad idea from the start).
I think the last JRPG I've seen that actually had particularly innovative mechanics was the Shadow Hearts wheel and having status effects screw directly with you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonance_of_fate
(Why must game producers constantly taunt us with female characters featuring prominently on the box art, yet having yet another male be the protagonist?)
"I've personally seen a lot of buzz all the time about big-name JRPGs with innovative mechanics."
Specifics?
^Thought so.
Hmm...lemme see...Resonance of Fate for its combat system, Valkyria Chronicles for its being set in a WWI-Europe-like setting (with vaguely-Fire-Emblem-like strategy mechanics plus action RPG elements thrown in), White Knight Chronicles (for being a JRPG/WRPG hybrid?), Radiata Stories (for having an unusually deep characterization of NPCs). And earlier, the whole Tales series for featuring a fighting-game-like battle system. These are all from my "want to try these out" list, though, so I haven't verified them myself.
Yeah, I wouldn't call those innovative. The word gets recklessly thrown around too much (in the sense that is more accurately labelled "unique") since a lot of so-called "innovative" mechanics have minimal impact on the genre as a whole.
Demon's/Dark Souls, for their death mechanics.
Monster Hunter for its whole tactical setup.
The game mechanics of the Tales series haven't changed significantly since the very first game, so I'd hardly use it as an example of innovation.
[sarcasm]Yeah they didn't change things up at all when they transitioned from 2d to 3d gameplay[/sarcasm]
That said since they have moved to 3d Tales series games have mostly been slowly adding things like jumping or new combo or supermode mechanics to their base of the free run battle systems.
I'll give you Valkyria Chronicles (loved it by the way). I wouldn't consider "unusually deep characterization" particularly innovative though, because that just strikes me as a flowery way of saying "bothering to write" which is kind of something that should be the default.
Not really plenty of games coast by on gameplay mechanics or the social engagement to entertain players and don't really see a need to bother with writing an actual story.
But if you're going to put a somewhat substantial story in there, it better be a good one rather than the cheesy dialogue and contrived plots most game stories are.