Akai Katana: Cause unlike Diablo III, this game does work!

Discussion of other non-rhythm/music games

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Pokebis
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Re: Akai Katana: Cause unlike Diablo III, this game does work!

Post by Pokebis » Wed May 30, 2012 12:41 pm

It wouldn't hurt to try.
The issue is reaching the global audience, which Cave kinda' needs to do to stay on its feet. And while it's doing more of that than say, Namco, it needs to actually, actively market to more countries, properly localize, and, I hate to say it, casual-ize its games to meet a larger audience. Apparently Jamestown had some trouble getting on Steam, because Valve themselves is worried about the sales of shmupz, but I think there is a good market there and, if done the right way, can still be profitable. Otherwise Cave will soon be one of those old companies that people look back at nostalgically, yet are no more.
Midway would have died much earlier than it did if it didn't have Mortal Kombat (although it sorta' lives on through WB games now). Cave still has some value in its IPs; it's just gotta' be more focused. And, like the article said, don't try to "westernize" everything like Capcom is doing, just take the innovations that are profiting the modern FPS, MMO, and RTS.

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Re: Akai Katana: Cause unlike Diablo III, this game does work!

Post by SoDeepPolaris » Wed May 30, 2012 2:56 pm

Pokebis wrote:It wouldn't hurt to try.
The issue is reaching the global audience, which Cave kinda' needs to do to stay on its feet. And while it's doing more of that than say, Namco, it needs to actually, actively market to more countries, properly localize, and, I hate to say it, casual-ize its games to meet a larger audience. Apparently Jamestown had some trouble getting on Steam, because Valve themselves is worried about the sales of shmupz, but I think there is a good market there and, if done the right way, can still be profitable. Otherwise Cave will soon be one of those old companies that people look back at nostalgically, yet are no more.
Midway would have died much earlier than it did if it didn't have Mortal Kombat (although it sorta' lives on through WB games now). Cave still has some value in its IPs; it's just gotta' be more focused. And, like the article said, don't try to "westernize" everything like Capcom is doing, just take the innovations that are profiting the modern FPS, MMO, and RTS.
I thought Japanese shmups were made to be mind-fuckingly difficult?

I can't think of a game that has had mass market appeal and been super duper challenging (MAYBE act3/4 inferno in D3) in America lately.The prevalence of CoD-type shooters has taken a lot of the skill out of aiming that was present in old school shooters like CS and Quake. Most MMOs are super carebear now in comparison to stuff like EQ1 and UO (some changes were great, others not so much). SC2 is MUCH easier to get into higher levels of competitive play than Brood War.
I really love CS:GO's 64 tick servers.

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Re: Akai Katana: Cause unlike Diablo III, this game does work!

Post by Pokebis » Wed May 30, 2012 8:14 pm

That doesn't mean there can't be good difficulty scaling.
Try Kid Icarus: Uprising. That game did difficulty scaling right. You have a slider that you can change any time you select the level to "I'd rather watch the game" easy to "holy shit I'm about to die fuckfuckfuckfuck" hard. If you died the difficulty would go down a bit and it rewards you for playing on harder difficulties. It also has a boatload of "achievement" like goals that gradually show tiles on an image and unlock various content for you. Plus it has diablo-like stat generating weapons (with over 100 unique models/types that actually do different things) and a item fusing system and powers for you to outfit yourself with so you could build your ultimate weapon/build. That game is one of the best designed I've played in a very long time, but it gets a lot of negativity because people can't use the controls, I guess? I have no issues with the controls and it feels better than a gamepad ever did in TPS. It's no mouse and keyboard, but I'd say it's better than dual-analog. Annnnnnyways, the game is as hard as you want it to be so both casuals can approach it and gradually learn to be better. They can go back to any point of the game at any time to challenge themselves with new loadouts and difficulties.
/end

The problem with the shmup genre is the approachability; not the difficulty of each title. If they had good difficulty scaling (which I'm under the impression Jamestown DID) they can design it to be however the hell hard they want and then tone it down gradually for easier modes. I mean, Muchi Muchi Pork sort of did that in real-time, but it was still hard and too complicated for any normal human being to comprehend. That's another thing. The game should explain every little bit and quirk of the scoring system instead of having players read FAQs to even have a basic grasp of what-the-fuck's going on. Telling me which button is my bomb and which is shoot ain't quite enough anymore.
Cave's games are sort of based on a design originally meant to eat quarters. The first two to three levels are easy enough, but then the difficulty level jumps on elitist-gamer mode and stays there for the rest of the game. It's not a gradual build-up; it's a sudden jump and it's REALLY off putting for anyone not in the genre. Amongst most "hardcore" gamers maybe 1 in 10 will even give two shits about shmupz because of how off-putting the genre is. It's just unapproachable and all the companies that still make them just want to out-hardcore each other so the market is completely polarized. There should be some easier options- and Cave had the right idea with Deathsmiles- but they still did some things wrong with that. Namely, the Gothic Lolita theme. Seriously, they tried to give that game a global appeal, but dammit Cave, you'd honestly be better off with the airplanes. At least most Americans now know what your game is when they look at the cover. "Gothic Lolita" is only in the vocabulary of weeaboos in America. The weebo market is small and the shmup market is smaller so you get a ridiculously small market with that. I refuse to play Ar Tonelico III while I live with my parents, because of those fucking perverted cutscenes. I wanna' play a good JRPG, but I don't want this innuendo-filled shitfest of pedophilia.

tl;dr
Cave needs difficulty scaling and less intimidating themes. People in 'Murka will at least look at Raiden's box.

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Re: Akai Katana: Cause unlike Diablo III, this game does work!

Post by Fluffyumpkins » Thu May 31, 2012 8:17 am

I refuse to play Ar Tonelico III while I live with my parents, because of those fucking perverted cutscenes. I wanna' play a good JRPG, but I don't want this innuendo-filled shitfest of pedophilia.
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Re: Akai Katana: Cause unlike Diablo III, this game does work!

Post by Merk » Thu May 31, 2012 9:01 am

Pokebis you are one of the good ones
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Re: Akai Katana: Cause unlike Diablo III, this game does work!

Post by Pokebis » Thu May 31, 2012 12:59 pm

If I have the time at Digipen (maybe a week during summer break) I'll play it around my roomates while wearing a maid outfit.

I forgot to say that people in America basically don't pick up any game with anime characters on the box 'cause it's just another one of those "weird ching-chong" games. But they know that airplanes and explosions will be a game with airplanes and explosions. Not gender-swapping, flying people and explosions.

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