Speaking to CVG, Assassin's Creed 3 creative director Alex Hutchinson has treated the videogame press to a bit of a broadside, claiming that reviewers are too easy on Japanese developers.
Asked about the success of Nintendo's franchises in particular, Hutchinson said: "I think there's a subtle racism in the business, especially on the journalists' side, where Japanese developers are forgiven for doing what they do. I think it's condescending to do this."
"Then Gears of War comes out and apparently it's the worst written narrative in a game ever. I'll take Gears of War over Bayonetta any time.
"It's patronising to say, "oh those Japanese stories, they don't really mean what they're doing". I just think the simple question should be; is the story any good?"
Give it to us straight, readers - have you noticed any tendency round these parts to trumpet Japanese releases without good reason?
By Sam Horti
10 comments so far...
CunningSmile on 17 Aug '12 said:
I never liked Bayonetta (as he says naff story, nor did I enjoy the play) and you trumpeted that.
OXM ETboy on 17 Aug '12 said:
I wouldn't trumpet the plot or how it's articulated, but I think as an exercise in tone and style Bayonetta is wonderful. Love the combat, too.
FishyGinger on 17 Aug '12 said:
I do think some japanese games makers inject LSD into their eyes before thinking of a story, and I do like a good coherent story. Maybe I've just missed recent ones but what happened to the likes of chronotrigger with regards plot. That was a good story.
I've not played bayonetta but it doesn't seem like a plot was necessary. Other than kill things because you can.
The Ferret Pants on 17 Aug '12 said:
Pretty sure he's missing the point, or at least not putting himself across well like too many devs these days. He might have a case in that some japanese stories are complete lunacy, like FF13 which i dont think anyone understands and writers were probably high as a kite, but then they get criticised for that anyway.
Using the example of Bayonetta undermines his point as it is deliberately ridiculous, knows it is and takes joy in being ridiculous and self conscious. Also you can easily ignore it as it has no consequence to the gameplay really. It was about as easy to understand as a crab doing a handstand in a bowl of ketchup but then it got criticised for that as well. Meanwhile you have to pay attention to the Gears story as its a relatively sober game environment so you have to know why you're currently in the middle of a worm or something. If Spec Ops: The Line just teleported you to the octopus land of candy fairies for 5 minutes then back into Dubai hell, you'd be bloody confused, whereas if you're in insaneoland anyway nothing has to make sense.
Also slightly fed up of devs essentially saying 'why are you criticising us, look at other people and criticise them' - if you made it good we wouldn't have to criticise!
Bezza89 on 17 Aug '12 said:
I have no idea what happened in dragons dogma, it got confusing, and the actual story bits were all poorly implemented away from the main quest, in fact there were none. Perhaps if you put effort into them or replay them then you understand them more, like with MGS, I know the story, it's very complex but it is straightforward if you put the effort in and replay, seeing different plot points with hindsight etc.
Kettch on 18 Aug '12 said:
Even Western games can lose a sense of reality. The Reapers in ME3 are around Earth for months, yet they still never managed to destroy humanity? With no serious opposition capable of posing a serious threat? I don't say this as a defence of Japanese games. I typically not a huge fan. I've not encountered a story that can be followed start to finish. Even very linear things like Dirge of Cerberus I struggled to follow. I just pointed and shot. But the games of my childhood had little story. Sonic, Bubsy the Bobcat (American), Cool Spot (American).
But....Mario and Pokemon games are always the same. They don't really do anything they haven't done a million times in the past and never get slated for it. They never get calle don it in reviews. Except to say "more classic Mario, and we love it"
xPearse on 18 Aug '12 said:
It just seems like your all racist and are trolling against jaoanese games just because your probably a bunch of 12 year olds who can't understand a games story. As jesus said "listen if you have ears" because it seems like you didn't use them when you played FF13 because I played it and understood the plot.
It's not like the story was layed out like the Interceptor which is all messed up in terms of plot and what the heck is going on while you are watching it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245736/
DaedricMince on 18 Aug '12 said:
The storylines of some Japanese games may be gibberish but the gameplay is what makes or breaks a game.
delmariachi on 18 Aug '12 said:
So basically, Because we don't understand the plot, it has to be automatically crap.
Surely the idea of games is freedom of ideas, even when they seldom make sense...And for that Bayonetta wins out,,, The story is completely rediculous but the game is great...
The only problem with games is that when they stretch into a series, they tend to drown in their own created back stories... But then that works with Western titles too... Streetfighter and Mortal Kombat for example do this badly... One Japanese, One American....
Anyway for a man whose company seem to be churning out Creed games once a year with a different backstory and same gameplay, he's in no place to talk...
msbhvn on 18 Aug '12 said:
A lot of Japanese culture doesn't translate and since Japanese games aren't the world dominators they once were, they've started making them for their own market rather than toning things down for the rest of the world. Like Log said about FF XIII, you end up with characters who don't say what they mean for 60 hours and then say what they mean and that's the end.
Dead Rising is a semi-recent Japanese game that makes sense. That may be the exception that proves the rule, though.