Minorikawa's Game Club Lounge with Coffee and Booze

[Minorikawa]

We gamers have a tendency to do a lot of complaining. We see the negative and gripe about it, and understandably so. Even after Cyberpunk 2077 released to such a disaster last year, we're dealing with an incomplete and poorly handled GTA: Definitive Edition ("Aaah shit! Here we go again!"). Despite the promising marketing of Battlefield 2042, the actual game makes too many deviations from the core design to frustrate long-term fans while simultaneously having enough technical and design issues that it could really use a delay. As in, a year-long delay. Square Enix has gone Live-Service happy, and while EA might be losing the FIFA license (because of all the image problems FIFA has as an organization, loot boxes are going too far), they're promising that NFT's and block-chain gaming (a.k.a. "play-to-earn" because there's no way that can't get exploited) are the future of gaming. Not to mention my own personal gripe: Sony kicking all of their Japanese origins to the side in favor of Western-based Oscar-bait-style game design.

However, despite all of these depressing trends and regular wrongs of the biggest publishers, there's still plenty of things to be feeling good about. As such, I wanted to create a thread that encourages people to come and discuss whatever has them loving the hobby and medium. So:

• If there's a game you've been playing that you really love, then feel free to discuss it
• If there's a company that's been really exciting you on the regular, feel free to discuss it
• It doesn't matter if the game(s) is/are new or old, feel free to discuss
• It doesn't matter if it's well known or some obscure little indie title, feel free to discuss it
• And, as always, feel free to respond to and add to the discussion of another's post
• Now that we're several pages in, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO JUST BREAK IN AND CHANGE THE SUBJECT! There's a lot being discussed and therefore a lot to catch up on, so as long as you read up to this point, you're good to jump in and just discuss whatever, regardless of what's being discussed at the moment.

So, for me to start, I'd just like to focus on Capcom. Things were looking really hairy during the 360/PS3 generation, what with things like Bionic Commando, Resident Evil 6, DmC: Devil May Cry, Dark Void, and more. Not everything was trash, obviously, but it felt like the company was losing their way trying to compete with the biggest financial successes of the era (such as Call of Duty), rather than just making the sorts of games that developed a loyal, international fanbase in the first place. While we also saw some excellent releases like Dragon's Dogma, there were such long absences of classic franchises and wrong turns that it felt like Capcom was a shadow of its former self.

But, they course corrected. They started to focus on fewer projects, properly scoped their projects out within reasonable budgets, and... well, just look at their releases since 2017, starting with Resident Evil 7. Monster Hunter World is now their biggest selling game ever, the Resident Evil 2 Remake feels both faithful and old-fashioned while being modernized in every way, Mega Man 11 felt like a proper, modern sequel to a classic gaming icon, Devil May Cry 5 was... just perfect, absolutely perfect and feels like a miracle it exists and is just so good, Monster Hunter Stories 2 was one of the most talked about JRPG's this year and beloved even by those that dislike or apathetic to the genre, Monster Hunter Rise is probably my go-to game for when I'm feeling nothing else or want to group up with friends, Resident Evil Village is... well, it's different, especially if you were expecting 7 to indicate a new course for the franchise, but it's so fun in a "this feels like a fucking video game!" way, and just... it feels like Resident Evil 3 is their lowest point for the past few years, and it's still better than most of their bad-to-mediocre releases of the 360/PS3 generation.

Now, they did also put out Resident Evil Resistance, which is clearly an attempt to catch onto the Friday the 13th/Dead by Daylight crowd, and they are prepping up that Re:Verse competitive multiplayer game. I've never played either, though Resistance looks like it could be alright. Problem is... I don't actually know anyone that played it. Still, that Capcom is releasing these games as a sort of "side dish" as opposed to the main course is still a good sign that they know what their fanbase wants.

In the end, I don't think enough people appreciate just how great Capcom has been doing the past half a decade, and while the end of Resident Evil Village does fill me with a fear that they'll repeat 6, I just... feel really positive about the current direction.

So, do you have any thoughts on Capcom in recent years? Or do you perhaps want to talk about a different game or company that's got you feelin' the fuzzies for gaming? Comment below and lemme know!

[Pixel]

I came here for the coffee, hoped maybe for a few arcade cabinets, but I have a lot of thoughts about this.

I worked with videogames for quite a long time and I saw progression in games from a certain point in games come to what I felt was a halt. We entered an era where every company seemed like they were playing it safe and there was hardly any experimentation anymore. 

Remember being a kid and going to blockbuster or Hollywood video, or whatever the hell was around you, and renting a game for your N64 or PSX, and when you brought it in for another the next week, the game you picked would be practically NOTHING like the one you played last week? Plus there were GAMING MAGAZINES. That had ads like this!

That sort of variety is long gone in main line releases and for a while I felt like Capcom, one of the bigger names in game development and publishing, was in a very bad era. They'd screwed over Keiji Inafune as well as estranging Mega Man fans, RE6 turned what used to be the most reputable horror franchise in gaming into like, the fucking Expendables. That being said I actually did enjoy Revelations quite a bit, the Marvel vs Capcom franchise took a huge dump in quality IMO, trying to focus too much on marketing MCU relevant things instead of just making a great mashup game, and the manic depth of the classic games seemed to be absent.

It seemed like we were just getting rerelease after rerelease/special editions of games they already made like Street Fighter V, DMC, Okami and the like with Monster Hunter sprinkled in here and there, with very little NEW content from them, considering how many franchises they were just sitting on.

I've been doing other things for the past half a decade and I've been sort of out of touch with gaming, but it seems like Capcom has been capturing lightning in a bottle recently. RE7 was pretty cool, I played it, but I question if RE8 would have been such a success without the mommy complex of the internet hyping it because apparently people have never seen tits before. The new Monster Hunter is awesome and the collaborations are great, we've gotten MegaMan11 and a new Devil May Cry, even Ghosts n Goblins got some attention, but I'm still waiting on a new Viewtiful Joe among other things.

It's progress, but they're definitely not where they were ten years ago. That's just my take on things. 

[Minorikawa]

I think part of the problem is that it's unlikely Capcom can't be doing as much as they used to. Games have become more complicated to make than in the old days. I mean, Resident Evil 2's development was completely rebooted halfway through and the end result was put together in just a year, and with a far smaller team than you'd have working on the game today. Even for smaller budget games and with all the tools available, 3D games are just complex these days. Even ones by smaller indie developers that play really well have cut corners and lack some polish.

Believe you me, I'd love a new Rival Schools/Project Justice, or another Breath of Fire, or more Dragon's Dogma. However, if my choice is for all of Capcom's releases to be excellent but few, or many but with fewer highlights, then I'll take the former, which is where I think we are.

Actually, Breath of Fire is a good example, because as soon as everyone made the jump to PS2 you could already see plenty of games being impacted by the ballooning budgets. In order to keep up with graphical standards, Breath of Fire V sacrificed a large world and chose mechanics to increase replayability in order to try and get more playtime out of the player. Dark Cloud was designed in a similar fashion. Unless you were putting crazy amounts of cash into the game like Squaresoft/Enix with Final Fantasy X, then you had noticeable compromises (and speaking of which, FFX did, given how linear map/dungeon design and a lack of an open world started there before it even hit FFXIII).

Also: I'd argue you mean to say they're not where they were 15-20 years ago, because 10 was 2011, and that's when they were in the middle of their darkest phase.

So while Capcom's output isn't as much as it once was (and, let's be real, it can't be in a reasonable way), they're releasing hit after hit consistently. Plus, let's not keep our rose-tinted glasses on here, because Capcom of the late-eighties and 90's was pioneering those annual release trains by flooding the market with multiple brands of Mega Man, causing the quality in each series to be of questionable or deteriorating quality as time progressed, as well as multiple versions of each variant of Street Fighter. They were releasing a lot of stuff that wasn't really that great and milking their many properties too hard. It's just that they always had slam dunks and new IP alongside that stuff, and by time the 360/PS3 era hit, the biggest difference was the dust gathering around certain franchises and the increase of mediocrity amongst all releases.

To that end, I think you could argue we're actually in the best era of Capcom right now.

[Pixel]

Oh... That's right... 2011 was.... Was ten years ago...

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

I'm quite impressed with how Capcom recovered from that dark era, though I'm familiar mostly with Resident Evil. The series went downhill immediately after RE4 (which, in my personal opinion, is a fine game but also laid the foundation for the two disasters that would serve as sequels) and the attempts to cash-in on multiplayer with games like Operation Raccoon City and Umbrella Corps frankly gave me the impression they couldn't do the series justice anymore. It took me a while before I played RE7 but when I did, boy was it tense. Ignoring the haters who complained about the game, it was proof that Capcom still could do good survival horror, further emphasized by the excellent RE2 remake and the quite good RE8 (Let's ignore the RE3 remake, for our sanity).

I think it'S fine if the company (or any other devs) don't release as many new games as before, thanks to gaming development getting more and more expensive. I'd rather have a finished, high-quality product than a bunch of janky, subpar ones (though we still get janky, unfinished games from triple A developers. Looking at you Cyberpunk and GTA Trilogy). If I had one complain against Capcom, it's that they never tried reviving the Dino Crisis series. 3 was terrible but the first two were solid, even though they switched from survival horror to just plain action. Considering how great the RE2 Remake was, a similar remake of the first Dino Crisis game would do well, I think. And hey, who doesn't like dinosaurs? Sad, soul-less people, that's who :D.

[Pixel]

Not gonna lie I completely forgot dino crisis was a thing, and for a moment I confused it for Time Crisis, that kick ass arcade shooter with the feedback in the light guns. I also recently saw a tomb raider arcade game, but I digress. I would be completely down to clown with some carnage courtesy of the Paleozoic era.

With RE7, that beginning felt like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and I thought it was awesome, it was creepy and had this sense of dread with the turn of every corner. Later it sort of fell into traditional Resident Evil formula, but that's okay because it's always worked. Plus, Ethan. Winters is the biggest hard ass the franchise has seen since Leon graduated into Mr. Scott Kennedy. Honorable mention to Piers, the true hero of RE6.

[Minorikawa]

I think there's a lot of folks eager for a Dino Crisis remake or reboot. Admittedly, I'd love to see it, if not just for the fact that there really is a good lack of proper dinosaur games. I have had Second Extinction on Game Pass Early Access preview for a while and am just afraid to try it and discover how bad a Left 4 Dead with Dinosaurs is.

By the way, speaking of Left 4 Dead imitations, Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a surprisingly solid budget take on the concept. Played it with some friends and not only did we have a blast, we were genuinely surprised at how much variety there was in enemies. Just as you might get tired of Xenos, they start throwing in new foes, then other new foes, but then come right back to Xenos at the end because they know the real star of the show. It's a shame, because I feel like this might be one of those rare instances where the $40 price tag is scaring folks off, plus the tragedy that is Aliens: Colonial Marines, and the faith put in Back 4 Blood simply because it's the Left 4 Dead devs (though, for my part, the beta just... didn't feel right. It didn't feel like Left 4 Dead, despite having a lot of the same ingredients. It's like they knew what was needed to make a cake, but not the quantity of each ingredient).

For my part, I've actually gone back and replayed RE5 several times, usually with friends because single player is... just... bad partner AI. But, it's clearly no RE4. It's missing a lot of what made RE4 great, but, as a co-op experience, it's at least one of a kind.

RE6, though... I've tried. I have certainly tried, but... I can't do it again.

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

Back 4 Blood as L4D's DNA but it's not L4D, it's probably better if you don't compare them, otherwise you get disappointed by the game's lack of personality. Gameplay is solid though and hey, there's a level where you fight monsters in a bar while the jukebox blasts some Motorhead so it's all good for me!

RE5 is indeniably better with a coop partner, which is probably why I hated the main campaign. Having an AI partner that gives you a game over when they die just makes the game even more of a pain to get through.  And RE6? I posted a whole rant on it in the video games section, if you feel like doing a little reading. but essentially, the campaigns were trash and the AI was still crappy but at least they couldn't give you a game over if they "die", they just fall on their ass waiting for you to revive them. It doesn't make them good but they're less of a liability. The only thing worth putting a few hours into it is Mercenaries Mode, where the game's combat actually shines.

I'm just glad the AI Trilogy is done (RE4-5-6, I call them the AI trilogy because each games sticks you with an AI partner). I'm sure there will be more abysmal RE games in the future but Capcom's doing fine so far, with the exception of RE3 Remake, which was a let-down.

[Minorikawa]

Funny thing is I feel like I'm alone in thinking Ashley was fine in RE4. You basically are given her just as you're getting comfortable with your surroundings, and then when it's time for new threats or ideas where she'd be too much of a liability they take her away and let you be solo again. I've never had many issues with her getting hurt or kidnapped unless I was playing recklessly or just not taking her into consideration.

But perhaps that's the shame of it: she was less of a problem as a vulnerable civilian AI than the combat-capable AI partners in the next two games were.

I'm honestly somewhat worried with whatever they're planning with RE9 given the loose ends suddenly dropped and left there with RE Village's ending, but I'll withhold judgment until I see it. Even if 9 ends up being another misdirection into action-heavy territory or something, Village is just... so dang replayable.

I'm more curious what Capcom's working on that hasn't been revealed. Aside from the Monster Hunter Rise expansion, there's no new info about 2022 releases. Pragmata was delayed, surprising no one, and we still don't even know what the heck it is. Perhaps we'll see a trailer for something new at the Game Awards?

[Pixel]

Thank you for that, Ashley Graham is my next waifu appreciation status.

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

Ashley is just one of those foundations that led to the shitshows that were RE5 and 6, one of those elements that were not too obstrusive in RE4 but led to some pretty bad ideas in the follow-up games. RE4 had just the right formula but it was as if Capcom didn't know what they were doing when they expended on these ideas, the exception being Mercenaries mode, which were awesome to play even in 5 and 6. I both like and hate RE4: I like it because it's a good action horror game with a creepy setting and some memorable characters but I also hate it because its features were the basis for the weak follow-ups. It's as if your grandfather had started a booming business selling beef jerky but then your dad and you successively inherited the business and turned the good old family recipe and made successively worse jerky. RE 4-5-6 is an actual case of "older was better", in my personal opinion. XD

Dunno what they have planned for RE9. trying to avoid spoilers here but I assume Miss RW might be RE9's own Sherry Birkin and act as protagonist. Or she's gonna be dropped in favor of returning to Chris, Jill and company. I just hope Capcom doesn't pull another RE4-5-6 with games that get progressively worse with each installment. Though Village is nowhere near RE5's level of mediocrity so maybe RE9 won't be the Winters' saga's RE6.

Dunno what Capcom has planned but it won't be a Dino Crisis remake/reboot so I expect to be disappointed. But you know what other game deserves to come back? Parasite Eve. Just because the first one was the only good game in the series doesn't mean it doesn't deserve to come back. Square Enix need to make it happen!

[Pixel]

There are no big swords or Marvel heroes in Parasite Eve, SQUENIX doesn't care about it anymore.

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

Devs are quick to ignore the franchises that made them in the name of profit XD. Okay, PE wasn't a big franchise for Square, that would be Final Fantasy, but still.

[Pixel]

Maybe if Akira Toriyama drew it they would be like fund that project.

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

Oh god XD. Could Toriyama even draw horror? 

[Pixel]

Probably but it would probably still just look like a dragon ball Z character. Like surprise it's cell but just enough to not actually be cell, but we know the truth.

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

Toriyama's style would be ill-fitting for something dark and horrifying like Parasite Eve. His art is a lot more suitable for comical action stuff, like Dragon Ball or Dragon Quest. Junji Ito, maybe? He could surely come up with some crazy monster designs for a PE game.

[Pixel]

Allow me again to digress by stating how stoked I am that G4 is back.

[Minorikawa]

17 minutes ago, Pixels said:

There are no big swords or Marvel heroes in Parasite Eve, SQUENIX doesn't care about it anymore.

I only contest this because, again, Voice of Cards exists and Yoko Taro continues to be employed. Also, Triangle Strategy may be cursed with an even worse name than Octopath Traveler but it exists and it's being marketed decently. Also also: the Mana series hasn't been fully abandoned.

Not to say that we're bound to get some Parasite Eve love, but I think it's unfair to judge all of Square Enix based exclusively on their biggest budget projects. I think people forget how absolutely huge they are now, and honestly, that a traditional turn-based RPG like Dragon Quest is given the budget and marketing it is even outside of Japan is more than what you'd see other publishers of such size doing. Again, it's something where, if you loved them in the 90's, it's a shame because that Squaresoft is dead and never coming back. But... well, I mean, say what you will of most Final Fantasy, the trailer for XVI was sick and is basically, in terms of tone and setting, what I've wanted from the stinking franchise for years.

24 minutes ago, DragonneRPG said:

Dunno what they have planned for RE9. trying to avoid spoilers here but I assume Miss RW might be RE9's own Sherry Birkin and act as protagonist. Or she's gonna be dropped in favor of returning to Chris, Jill and company. I just hope Capcom doesn't pull another RE4-5-6 with games that get progressively worse with each installment. Though Village is nowhere near RE5's level of mediocrity so maybe RE9 won't be the Winters' saga's RE6.

Actually I should quote the portion above, but I think the problem with RE5 wasn't so much the direction of RE4. The original gameplay trailer (not teaser) was a solitary Chris Redfield rather than teamed with a partner. From everything I could gather and read, it seems that most of RE5's development was as a single-player game, but it was changed to be co-op due to the increasing trend of online co-op gaming. If you really think about the game, and how Sheva kind of feels like a nothing character even as far as Resident Evil character depth goes, it honestly makes a lot of sense that they made major changes only after that.

In regards to Village, I do love 7, or most of it (the last stretch is kind of meh and not really horrifying, right up until... well, a great final confrontation), but admittedly, not being a major horror fan, I do prefer Village. It's combat is not really all that great, and it is more action than horror, but it's just... so many things, and they appeal to me so ferociously. But, just like with RE4, I get why folks are of divided opinion on that.

17 minutes ago, Pixels said:

Allow me again to digress by stating how stoked I am that G4 is back.

I keep forgetting that it's back.

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

Well, RE5 pretty much expanded from RE4 so I'd say that's still the problem, or part of it at least. I assume Capcom wasn't planning on Sheva but then, online multiplayer got popular so they thought about adding her to follow on that trend as well as getting bonus PR for having a black partner to soften the perceived racism of Chris fighting mutated african people. It's just a shame Sheva ended up in the one-shot RE character bin like Josh, Helena Harper, Piers Nivans and others I forget. At least we got good Rule34 stuff out of her. XD

The underwhelming aspect of RE7 and Village is that again, Capcom failed to put more depth into the "stalky unkillable boss" thing they had tried with Jack Baker and Alcina Dimitrescu. Jack only hung out in one part of the house and Alcina really was easy to lose. RE2 Remake's Mr. X was the height of staly monsters, only for the ball to be dropped again in RE3 Remake. But in case of Village, it's a minor complain, the game was still pretty fun and the Beneviento House alone makes up for the lack of tension in the rest of the game.

[Pixel]

PIERS WAS THE BEST OF THEM. 

I hoped to see more Jessica, honestly.

[Minorikawa]

Actually, that's why I quoted that bit. I actually want to see more of Jake and Sherry, oddly enough, and I'm sick to death of Weskers in Resident Evil (then again, I'm also sick of how everything comes back to Umbrella). As bad as the writing was throughout that game, I actually enjoyed the dynamic of those two.

But, yeah, it's weird how many characters in the RE universe exist just once, and then how many others keep coming back over, and over, and over, and over...

I don't mind the roaming Alcina A.I. being what it is since it's just a part of the game, and also a part of that level (and depending on how you progress, she's not alone at times, with one of her daughters stalking as well). Once you've gone through her castle a couple times, though, it's real easy to just navigate around and avoid her. Then again, that's part of what I love about it so much, since the course through the house is so perfectly designed.

...maybe I should have named this the Resident Evil thread...

[Pixel]

Resident Evil thread?

What about

Silent Hill bread?

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

Haha, Alcina is easy until you play Village of Shadows difficulty. Then she has Moroaicas getting in your way while you're trying not to get slashed to ribbons. XD

It just got to RE because we were talking about Capcom and RE is the Capcom franchise I'm the most familiar with. I'd love to see Silent Hill make a comeback but the series went downhill after the divisive Silent Hill 4. I wish they didn't cancel the reboot, I would've loved to see what Kojima can do with the series. Oh well, we might be getting a Kojima-directed horror game in collaboration with Junji Ito. This should be pleasantly disturbing.

[Pixel]

Konami has been in pretty hot water in general since the falling out with Kojima. Their games have been hitting all time lows.