"I've never played a good game where the developers put a big icon of the button you're supposed to press onscreen, I look at Heavenly Sword and it seems really half-assed, because it's asking you to do all these button-timing sequences but you are not getting much payoff from it."
-Itagaki Tomonobu
What?
Developer beef stewing?
Directors calling for war?
Gaming apocalypse?
Is isn't any of those, just a call to arms of 'fanboys' to relive a variant of the Devil May Cry 3 versus Ninja Gaiden Black battles they relished back in the days of the previous generation. It's the beginning of a "Ninja Gaiden 2 PWNS" this and "Heavenly Sword ROCKSMYSOX" that. However, this is not the story of two factions at war, and not the story of two innocent games caught in the crossfire, it is the story of a developer, a soldier fighting an internal struggle, a tug of war of publicity and professionalism.
Itagaki believes that Ninja Gaiden 2 will be the apex of action-adventure gaming. There is nothing wrong with thinking your game will absolutely trump everything in a genre, having confidence behind your product is one of the ingredients to a successful game. But, there is something fundamentally incorrect in criticizing a game's development process. Regular consumers themselves have no idea of a development cycle so when they say something it can be dismissed, but when a game director says it, it makes me question their experience of game design. They are the ones who know first hand the hours, polygons and vision that go into making even the simplest of games. Saying a director or a developer would "half-ass" a game is not only unprofessional, but a form of disrespect to the process itself.
Now, I might have only made a game or two in simple 'Netcool' programming language, nevertheless, they were made of the same things long hours, polygons in the second dimension and the vision to build a world painted in my mind. Now from that viewpoint, I would not put down a game as "half-assed" simply because I respect the process to make even the worst of games. Itagaki was out of line and this is not the first time, and most likely wont be last. He should take a good hard look at Xtreme Beach Volleyball before cutting down future games.
"My response to Mr. Itagaki would be that the intent of the Hero sequences is to empower the player to experience events that would be nearly impossible to play in a natural platforming state... for example, making the player run down ropes, leaping from rope to rope as they're being cut from underneath you, all while dodging other objects - that would be a frustrating experience to 99 percent of our users if we were to force them to do that manually."
-Kyle Shubel
A very classy response indeed.
-Games beaten to Games owned
-Amount of relative completion in games beaten
-What is my general desire for completion in games
Well Ihave probably beaten 10 games out of my collection of hundreds which span all the way from the SNES to the PS2 and the only game I have had a moderate level of completion in is Dynasty Warriors 5. Hmmm... I think thats a about a good rate. Most of the games I start I clock in about 5 hours give or take a half an hour. I can also officially state that games I do not touch, I have clocked in about 0 to 10 minutes.
But my general desire for completion is about 100 percent of everything the game has to offer, including max characters and all weapons and what not.
So I have come to a conclusion, I will not buy anymore games till I have 100 percented every single game I own unless it is utter trash. Then I will just trade it and take my cash and save up for a that damn Leather jacket with the chinese collar I always wanted.
Lets start with.... Kingdom Hearts II!
