It was but a few scant days ago when Team Ninja's Tomonobu Itagaki was mouthing off about how Tekken 6 sucks and yet he's already back on the diss-wagon, slandering yet another game he hasn't played yet. Next up on the chopping block is Heavenly Sword, the September-bound action adventure heading to the PlayStation 3. In a recent issue of EGM, our gobby game creator had this to say about the game with the world's greatest cutscene:
"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."
Yes, you read that right, Itagaki has never played a good game with big button icons in them. But hold on, isn't this the guy that liked God of War? I guess he was lying that time, since GoW has such icons. What about Resident Evil 4, I suppose that sucked too, right? Then there are all those rythm action games that are obviously half-assed. Sorry, but that was an incredibly lame statement, regardless of whether Heavenly Sword is a good game or not. Must try harder with your controversy, Itagaki-san.
Naturally, Heavenly Sword's producer Kyle Shubel had a few things to say about such criticism, but if you want to read his words, you need to press that big green button down there, in a manner that would sicken Mr. Itagaki. Go on, I dare you!
[Thanks to Christian Hernandez for this]
Kyle Shubel:
"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."
He's right, really. Trying to do certain action sequences manually would be a nightmare for developer and gamer alike. I've always enjoyed the button presses in God of War (less so in RE4, but that's more execution than format) as it allows you to look at some great animation without completely feeling like you are not the one directing the action. It's always felt very satisfying and fun for me to take part in such sequences. Some of my most thrilling moments in gaming came courtesy of this very same formula in Fahrenheit. Oh, and don't get me started on Gitaroo Man.
So like I said, Itagaki missed on this one.
Contest:
2:32 PM on 08.05.2007
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He attacks games that are almost exactly like the games he makes, but a little better. He's afraid of them.
He's sort of like a PS3 PR guy in that way.
i like heavenly sword and will be picking it up in september.
:D
he should have simply said 'heavenly sword looks like a shitty god of war rip off'
That is all.
HARDCORE!
Ita is a weird man.
Quicktime events are so yesterday and when I played the "demo" (which doesn't deserve the name because it was a qquicktime event plus 2 minutes gameplay) of HS.
Also Itagaki was born with his shades on, so who do you critize anyway ;) ;) ;)
We are talking about the guy who won't ever allow the DoA girls to appear nude in any form, because he considers them his daughters. Yeah...those polygons are very daughter-like...I know a lot of fathers who would give their little girl a ridiculous boob job, dress them in outrageously skimpy outfits, and make them fight each other or play beach volleyball while a voyeur takes pictures of them.
Yep...any good father wouldn't think twice about allowing that.
I don't want the game to go on without me while I wait for some interactive moment where I get to press a single button to continue the story. It's a placebo, that's all it is. It gives you the illusion that you're actually playing but you're just sitting there.
What I'd like to see is games that make controls intuitive so you can actually perform such acts in real time, rather than focus on making over the top cutscenes that play nothing like the actual gameplay.
Or you know, something along those lines. But I guess it's good to keep your cool when responding to such things. Whats the point of Itagaki trying to slam these other games? Worry about your own shit. It's not like you always turn out winners Itagaki.
I totally agree. I wish more games played like Itagaki's DOAX, where I only have to use two buttons to play volleyball.
No manual movement for me plz!
I guess you weren't a fan of God of War or Resident Evil 4, huh?
SPOILAR GET!
The sequence in Gitaroo-Man when U-1 plays an electric version of the earlier (acoustic) Legendary Theme for Kyra is one of only two video game moments that actually made me tear up. The other, inexplicably, is Eva's speech at the end of MGS3. Yeah, the Aeris thing? Can't really get on that bandwagon.
SPOILAR END!
There's a place for handholding in game design and a place for ridiculous manual dexterity. I love Ikaruga's almost psychotic reliance on reflexes, and I also weirdly enjoy the occasional need to hold down four buttons simultaneously to shoot around a corner in MGS (R1 for first-person, Square to raise the weapon, L1 to line up the sight, L2/R2 to lean), but there are moments in which you can't expect the player to perform an action best left to the hands of a skilled animator.
You want to do all those elaborate moves from God of War's boss fights by hand? You'd need way more buttons and at least another joystick. And unless you're the video game equivalent of Keith Emerson, the game would crush you so hard you'd be sneezing teeth for a week.
one could argue that this is all games do, essentially. time-wasting, button-pressing procedures designed to produce a reaction in the player. you may happen to like this type of button-pressing procedure less than the others, but its not a whole lot different in the long run.
that being said, itagaki was just being inflammatory here. heavenly swords "big button" sequences are more open-ended than resident evil's or god of war's. i am never a fan of the game mechanic but i understand why its there.
in fact, it seems like heavenly sword handles it far more interestingly than other games that use the technique. where generally they are used as a binary pass/fail (continue/gameover), HS allows you to miss the button press and still continue,albeit in a worse state. try "missing" a few big button presses in the rope event or the pillar fall event and see what happens.
personally, i can't wait for heavenly sword. and you know that itagaki will be sitting there tugging his crank to the hot heroine as well...