If you were under the impression that Platinum Games' Bayonetta was going to be a casual walk in the park, then you might not want to get your hopes up, Game director Hideki Kamiya doesn't want you to be under any false assumptions about his game -- it's going to kick your arse.
"There are also cases where a game isn’t a kusoge [slang word for crap game], but it wasn’t exactly what you were looking for, so you feel burned by the experience. This is why we want to be completely upfront with what we are making so there are no hard feelings or misunderstandings," explains Kamiya in a recent blog post. "For instance, with Bayonetta, we would hate for someone to think it is a heartwarming tale and then buy the game to discover it is really a sadistically hard game (I hope …) where you play as a witch who laughs as she destroys angelic enemies."
So, now we are all fully prepared. I'm sure most of us felt that Platinum Games teaming up with the man behind Devil May Cry would not lead to an easy game, but at least nobody has an excuse for not getting what they expected anymore.
That said, I must say I am perpetually dismayed by this "hard for the sake of hard" mentality that some developers have, especially Japanese ones. I understand wanting a challenging game, but it gets to the point where some titles are simply showing off, and have thrown fun out of the window in favor of rather lazily designed faux-difficulty that just tosses a load of invincible enemies at you. That's bad form, in my opinion.
We'll see how Bayonetta fares, though. It's still one of my hottest titles of the year, and I hope Platinum doesn't eschew good design for bad difficulty.
Contest:
11:00 AM on 04.02.2009
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That's not completely true. How many western RPGs have we had that had statistics-based dice-rolling systems? And how about the horribly cheap AI (or otherwise utterly incompetent AI) presented in most games that feature dynamic difficulty.
The real difference is that a lot of Japanese games are based on pattern recognition and mastering an arbitrary system as opposed to realism, and to developing a modular skillset applicable over a range of games within the genre.
Being good at fighting bosses in Final Fantasy XII won't make you better at fighting bosses in Final Fantasy XII, but being good at playing Call of Duty will probably make you a better FPS gamer overall.
Long story short: try not to make blanket judgments.
dmc4 was cool, unlocking the other difficulties would shut up the peeps complaining about it being easy.
"Now, not all Japanese or Western games follow this stereotype, but the anecdotal evidence I've gathered from my playing points to it being prevalent in the ones I play."
It was all a "imo" statement based on what I have played.
Here's hoping the game is genuinely difficult rather than being genuinely cheap. We can all do without that.
In other news, Platinum Games is apparently well aware of anti-gaming watchdog groups.
It's usually an excuse for a mediocre game... Now nobody can say the game is bad because if they do they'll look like pussies...
Games are supposed to be fun not frustrating, dammit! That's why we call them GAMES!
Let's hope it's "proper" hard like a Megaman game and not the cheap kind...
its hard to go back to just one player.
the next one better be Dante and that chick co-op or it'll be LAME.
loved God Hand and played it over and over til I unlocked all those cd's.
I CANT WAIT FOR THIS ONE!!!!
There is a difference between well designed challenge and badly designed challenge.
The best games are those that you *could* complete in one try, but *probably* won't. That is a well-balanced game. Trial and error games that just throw hard enemies at you is sloppy and lazy design.
I shot through Ninja Gaiden & Ninja Gaiden Sigma without any problems. Replayed them on hard. No problems.
But Gaiden 2??? My god. Level 3 onwards is brutal. I have been stuck on that bloody "Fish Robot" or whatever it's meant to be (in the tube station) for months... Totally destroyed my enjoyment.
So yeah I know what you mean. I want it to be difficult, I want a challenge, but not to the detriment of my enjoyment.
I still haven't completed Ikaruga after 5 years ( I can get to the last level all the time but not finish) or so of having it but I still enjoy it cos If I die it's cos I'm being idiot and making basic errors.
I take your point on Seth btw guys. Anyone play Tatsunoko Vs Capcom yet? Super Cheap boss. I can do the first 2 forms.
This game has all the right things. A sexy main character that doesn't make me cringe, Yuri Lowenthal, and great developers. Maybe it will be GOTY if it features Laura Bailey somehow.
Good hard = Ninja Gaiden 1 (X-Box)
Bad Hard = Ninja Gaiden 2 (360)
I still finished both of them. Make the difficulty like NG1 please, where the enemies actively try to kill you and you have to learn to not die, and not like NG2 where the enemy is cheap as chips at a potato farm (ie Ninja Dogs that can stagger you and throw incidiary shurikens for infinite juggles).
Ninja gaiden 1 was way harder, the lack of healing at checkpoints meant you could go into a boss with zero health and have no chance of killing it!
Ninja gaiden 2 was the good kind of hard
We're on level 1-1.
or Cheap-Hard like Ninja Gaiden? i.e. After 40 mins of trying to beat a boss you never play the game again and sell it on. Even if I suck at it, I'm not going to keep going if I see no sign of reward or progression. That's just masochism!
Jim Sterling: Would you then say that Mega Man 9 is a lazily designed game? I think your statement in the comment above is too broad.
this means I'm probably going to rent Bayonetta now and this was a sure fire purchase before, way to go Kamiya