XZero
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But wait Nintendo isn't the Hardcorez for not listening to operation rainfall!!!
[tangent]That reminds me, the other day they copyrighted a whole long list of Wii U things, including Wii Fit U, Wii Sports U, etc. Now I know as well as anyone else that copyrighting something doesn't mean it currently exists or ever will (they just don't want someone using the name, kind of like how Activision screwed up and never registered the domain name modernwarfare3.com and whoever beat them to it linked to Battlefield 3's website). Still, this suggests intent to continue pursuing the blue ocean strategy with their next console, just as calling it the "Wii U" indicates the same.[/tangent]
I'm holding out hope that Wii Fit U will feature a game where your Mii has to run away from some big robot, and the penalty for being too fat and not running fast enough is that it dies a horrible, bloody death. If you make it to the end of the stage, Mega Man (see what I did there?) jumps in and destroys the thing with ease while saying--as voiced by Ian Corlette--"By the way, I'm in the next Smash Bros. game!"
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pretty much :\
I'll forgive when they restart Legends 3 or announce a Mega Man X9 with SNES style graphics for digital download. Or remake Ducktales.
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Off-topic, but localization of Last Story and Xenoblade has begun. Still nothing for Pandora's Tower, but 2 out of 3 is not bad at all.
http://oprainfall.blogspot.com/
Scroll down to see the July 7th posting.
I did see that on their website, but until I get some official confirmation from Nintendo, I'm only cautiously optimistic. Plus, Nintendo's curt response that had no explanation of its rationale didn't exactly do much for me.
Back on topic, IGN had some comments from Inafune posted today:
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They can't be serious. Blaming fans for not getting involved in that whole development room thing? That's got to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
I think if fans knew that their involvement was some sort of magic prerequisite to getting the game to come out, everyone would have signed up on that stupid website and posted some garbage idea just to show support. And in the end of the day, aren't they pawning off part of the job of making a game to the fans? And if that's the case, why not be more blatant about it? Seriously, why not outsource the project to a group of talented fans and retain oversight over it to ensure quality control?
Folks, the gaming industry is weird. Capcom claims there was insufficient fan involvement in the development of MML3 to justify finishing the game. SquareEnix shuts down a decent-looking 3D Chrono Trigger remake because it violated their IP, but the only reason it became serious enough for them to hear about it was because it had so much fan support. Nintendo blatantly refuses to release 3 games that have comparatively high fan support, one of which would simply be a matter of repackaging and changing from PAL to NTSC. We support a bizarre industry.
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I skipped around in the gameplay videos, so maybe I missed something, but does anyone else think that this looks like the deformed, possibly incestuous lovechild of FFVII Crisis Core and FFXIII?
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Much as I love their reviews, Gametrailers' scoring system is pretty wonky. In general, I'd advise ignoring the score entirely and looking for common threads in the reviews themselves. From what I'm seeing so far, I think we're in for a solid game.
Yeah, I only mentioned the score since it happened to fall so directly in the middle of the other scores this game is getting. The substance of their review is really fair, or at least sounds that way from what I've seen and experienced with the demo.
Either way, we know that everyone generally is in agreement that the game is good, so you're completely right: we are in for a solid game. Can't wait till next week to finally play the full version!
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Keits reports that the new complete roster has been leaked:
Capcom: Firebrand, Strider, Frank West, Nemesis, Phoenix Wright, Vergil
Marvel: Hawkeye, Ghost Rider, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nova, Rocket Raccoon
Sounds reasonable. Phoenix Wright is pretty exciting, and so is Nemesis. Don't know any of the Marvel characters except Ghost Rider. Still no Mega Man, though, which means fans will continue to be mad.
If you look at the stuff in addition to extra characters that will be included, it's really annoying. It's all a bunch of content that should have been included in the original release to begin with. I might consider picking this up used (or new if it's on clearance like SSFIV was when I got it last year). MvC3 was a good game, but I got bored with it fairly quickly. It really lacked the longevity of Mortal Kombat, which is truly saying something since, as a PS3 owner, I couldn't even play MK online for a good solid month after getting it. I don't think these additions would really encourage me to return to it.
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I'm seriously tempted to upgrade from the normal to "love is over edition". Not sure...
Already pre-ordered it when that option became available way back.
I tried that the other day and GameStop isn't taking collectors' edition preorders anymore. I called a buddy at the store I used to work at to have him hold one for me if they happen to get an extra one in. All those little goodies make me really want it, if only for collector purposes.
On another note, GameTrailers posted its review today. It adds to the inconsistency of this game's review scores, but it seemed like the most honest assessment. It gave it a 7.8, praising the story elements, pointing out some minor flaws with the controls, and essentially saying that if you're looking for something different that delivers a great experience, this is right up your alley.
Looking at Metacritic, the review scores are all over the board. The game's average is 8/10 (which, by the way, makes it one of the best reviewed games releasing this summer so far).
The one comment that's really consistent, despite the game's ridiculous inconsistency in scores, is that this is one of those really rare games that is actually Mature instead of "mature." Despite the oversexualized box art and promo images, apparently there's no actual nudity to speak of, no sex besides references, and nothing overly graphic. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I'm glad Atlus managed to keep this game classy rather than creepy--apart from the creepy-in-a-good-way demons, of course. Other Japanese publishers could learn a thing or two from this (if you haven't played it, NIS's Atelier Rorona starred a 14 year old girl and many of the characters fantasized about molesting her in some very, very uncomfortable dialogue bits; the US version changed her to 17, which only makes it marginally less creepy).
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A world with one less Megaman game, is a world one step closer to perfection.
Here come the flames....
No flames, just a pleasant observation
The Legends series is the one Mega Man series that Capcom didn't completely drive into the ground the first time around. The classic series got ridiculous (Clown Man) and wasn't redeemed until about a decade later when they cared again (Mega Man 9).
The X series was incredible at first, but was highly inconsistent. The 3 SNES games were all pretty good, but 1 and 4 are usually seen as the best of that series. X7 was garbage shat out by Capcom. X8 had about 3 stages that redeemed X7, and a whole bunch that made the world glad the series was put on long-term hiatus.
The Zero games were all pretty good, but they came out in a very condensed time period. Zero 3 is probably the best of those. ZX was decent, but lacked something that was not lacking in the Zero series.
The Battle Network games started out alright, but there was no reason to have 2 versions of each from 3-6. Then there were 2 or 3 versions of each of the Star Force games. Even hardcore collectors of all that is Mega Man often disregard this series.
But then there's Legends. The original came out on the PS1 and received 2 ports (PC and N64). There's a direct sequel that improved on the gameplay, graphics, and sound quality. There's also an oddball pseudo-sequel in Misadventures of Tron Bonne. But with only 3 games, it is the smallest series (besides ZX, which is really just a DS continuation of the Zero series, hence the reason I put them together). It was the one series Capcom didn't completely abuse and repeatedly release games until they got so ridiculous or non-fun that fans didn't buy it. It's also one of the only Mega Man games to have a decent storyline, which generally isn't important in Mega Man, but there's something to be said about a good story in any adventure game.
So while in general, the world has plenty of Mega Man games, another Legends game would hardly be as problematic as further driving of some of the other series into the proverbial ground.
See? No flaming!!! Just a logical, rational explanation
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The idea of putting it on the 3DS was actually a good one. There are very different expectations of handheld games than there are of console games. If this game were released on PS3/360/Wii U, it would basically need to have big, expensive graphics, boatloads of voiceover, and would ultimately cost an arm and a leg for a franchise that has a very loyal, but comparatively small fanbase. Portable releases have more profit potential for something that doesn't have a huge following. They're a lower-risk business proposal, and Mega Man games aren't nearly as popular today as they were when Legends 1 and 2 came out. Legends 3 wouldn't have hurt the 3DS sales, but it probably wouldn't have been a system seller, as The Derrit noted.
As for the 3DS, anyone who disparages the 3DS at this point is missing the big picture for the system. Yes, its game selection at the moment, excluding 1st party stuff, is largely crap. But think back to the original DS. It came out in November of 2004 with a port of Super Mario 64 and a demo of a Metroid game. Then it got a WarioWare game 3 months later. Finally, nearly a year later (October of 2005), Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow released and led the way for a parade of quality games that lasted into 2011. The poor sales of the 3DS are more a reflection of its garbage lineup, something that Nintendo will almost certainly remedy over the next year. Based on its history, it is likely that by this time next year, the 3DS will be riding the high of a strong lineup just as its predecessor did for about 6 years.
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I hated MML the first time I played it because my only other Mega Man games were Mega Man 6 and Mega Man X and I was expecting something more akin to those. But after playing it for an hour or so, I grew to like it, and eventually to love it.
Capcom could really do without 4 separate versions of Street Fighter IV floating around out there. Instead of wasting resources on improving that game, they should have left it at Super Street Fighter IV on the consoles and dedicated whatever manpower was needed to MML.
As for what's left on the 3DS for the foreseeable future, we have another N64 port (not knocking it, though; I love Star Fox 64), another Mario Kart, another Mario platformer, and... well actually that's probably about it.
EDIT: Forgot the new Devil Summoner game. Not really new, I suppose, but if you missed it on DS last year, this version seems worthwhile.
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I have it preordered. I enjoyed the demo, which is what ultimately prompted the preorder. Well, that and the core storyline.
I've seen 2 professional reviews on it so far. IGN gave it a 9, praising its originality, difficulty, and general mechanics. Game Informer gave it a 7, complaining about its difficulty and the story payoff. The most telling thing about the Game Informer review was when at the end, the reviewer noted that he spent 13-15 hours just to get a bad ending and didn't want to replay the game from the start to get a better one. Consequently, he deducted points from the score and complained about the story not being very satisfying despite being completely gripping throughout. I suspect the IGN guy got the good ending because he completely praised the story. Thus, I'll probably use a walkthrough to make sure I get the good ending when I play it. I doubt I'll go for the platinum trophy considering I have almost every game I've bought this summer still sitting in a pile by my PS3 (I've been working on finishing--not platinuming, just finishing--Lego Harry Potter since early June, and I've bought like 4 games since then).
For my money, the story is definitely interesting and unique, and I figure it'll pay off as a rewarding game. The block puzzle gameplay aspect wasn't something I was originally too crazy about, but it's grown on me. Yes, I'd prefer a full-fledged Persona 5 after the beauty and majesty of Persona 4, but I'll take this and enjoy it for the time being.
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Harry'd be 37, as would Ron and Hermione, since their birthdays are earlier, and Ginny would be 36.
The Battle of Hogwarts would be close enough to the end of a school term, so jumping forward exactly 19 years would also be at the end of a school term. Since the epilogue happens as Harry's kids are boarding the Hogwarts Express to go off to school, it makes the most sense to say that it's 19 years and two months later. Harry is 17 for the majority of the book, including the battle, so exactly 19 years from there, he'd be 36. BUT, he has another birthday, at the end of July, before the school term starts, so he'll be a young 37.
Wait, so 17 + 19 =/= 35? I honestly had taken the new term of school and other factors you mentioned into consideration, and 17 + 19 = 35, and 17 + 19 + 2 months = 36 for Harry is what I came to. Thus, I have successfully proven why I went to law school. We call smart people like you to be our expert witnesses because we suck at stuff like this
And by the way, on Brandon's point, am I mistaken, or did Ron look like he was starting to bald a little and wearing a sweater?
EDIT: Also, completely unrelated to the age issue, here's a report about the box office information for the movie: http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/07/16/box-office-harry-potter-deathly-hallows-part-2/
Not unexpectedly, it is well on its way to trumping The Dark Knight's opening weekend, and it comparatively decimated Twilight New Moon, which I never saw (or had any interest in seeing), but Twilight apparently held the record for best midnight and first day release with about $70 million. Harry Potter earned $90+ million from 12am to 11:59pm on Friday. I'm assuming this is explained by the fact that this HP movie was the end of the whole franchise, which makes it de facto a huge event, and also that it seems to have a broader appeal than Twilight, particularly among the adult demographic.
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Considering Radcliffe is 21 now but looks 15, the aging seems reasonable.
Actually, I personally thought his aging looked the best of the 3. In the Harry Potter universe, Harry is 17 when he kills Voldemort since the battle happens somewhere around late-spring or early summer and his 18th birthday would be the end of that July. The epilogue is 19 years later, so he and the others are only supposed to be 35 (Ginny), 36, or 37. A young-looking person still looks fairly young, even into their thirties.
Hermione, however, aged very gracefully. And by that, I mean pretty much not at all. Still, I'm glad they went with the approach of just trying to make the cast look older rather than casting someone else to play their adult selves.
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Story ended on part 1, and now part 2 will be just action. It's simplistic but it's the way I see.
It's actually like 60-40 action to story. There is a lot of action to be sure, but the story elements are really strong and interwoven throughout.
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Alright, so here are my thoughts (and as a word of caution, this will probably be riddled with spoilers, so if you haven't read the book or seen the movie and plan to do either, you probably shouldn't read this).
I saw the movie in IMAX 3D. This was the first 3D movie I've ever seen, and honestly, I wish it was in 2D. There were some cool 3D moments to be sure (the Gringott's bank sequence and the fire escape in the Room of Requirement stood out), but it just didn't do it for me.
As for the substance of the movie, it was awesome. It was a little rushed at first, but once they got to Hogwarts, everything was excellently paced and beautiful. All of the actors and actresses were undoubtedly at the top of their game. The final battle between Harry and Voldemort was much improved over the battle in the book. I enjoyed the epilogue as well, though the characters didn't quite look like they aged the appropriate amount of years. Mrs. Weasley's "Not my daughter, you bitch!" got a big cheer, as did Neville decapitating the snake and Prof. McGonagall's leadership during the battle at one point.
I need to take a moment to mention Snape. The movie opens with him overlooking the students entering Hogwarts in a beautifully chilling scene. Lily Potter's theme music, which was composed exclusively for this film, plays over the scene. Voldemort killing Snape is handled largely off-screen. You see Harry and the others' view on one side of a snowy window, so you can't see any detail at first. You hear Nagini attacking Snape about 4 times with these horrible sounds as he bites Snape in the neck, and each time, if you look on the glass pane, you see more blood appearing. It's handled brilliantly. Snape's other two scenes are where he is warning the students to turn over Harry if they know where he is (in a very well-delivered monologue) and the backstory scene, which was basically perfect. It interwove pertinent clips and lines from the previous movies before coming to focus on Snape and Dumbledore's direct conversation. It couldn't have been handled any better.
I do have a few small gripes, though nothing to ever suggest it was anything but fantastic. First, the movie's 2 hour and 5 minute runtime feels very short. It's over so quick. The one thing they should have done was use a little more time in the scenes dealing with Dumbledore's brother to flesh out Dumbledore's back story. In the book, we find out all sorts of things about him in the years prior to his becoming headmaster of the school. There are references to those, but not enough. The second thing I wish they included was at least a passing mention that Harry did in fact use the Elder Wand to restore his own that Hermione broke during the last movie. He snaps it in half and throws it off the bridge leading to Hogwarts, but if you didn't read the book, you get the sense that he's now decided to stay with the wand he used during the battle, which is not true.
Finally, a word on the music. Lily's Theme is beautiful, and fits so perfectly with the world. But for me, it was the use of Sorcerer's Stone themes by John Williams that made the movie. A few of these return, most pertinently "Leaving Hogwarts" as the second and final song of the epilogue, and what sounded like the first half of the credits music from the first movie. We didn't stay through the credits because the epilogue was before them.
All in all, this movie was great. As a standalone movie, it definitely worked, but its strength is when you realize that it is the balancing half of 7.1. Combined, the two Deathly Hallows movies form the single best Potter film in my opinion.
Oh, and as an aside, my screening didn't show the Dark Knight Rises trailer, so for someone who sees the movie today, can you let me know how it looks? We just jumped straight into the movie at 12:01.
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God help them if they take out the house elves attack or "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!"
No, that was confirmed to be kept. Back in April, a bunch of people got to see a version of it missing a bunch of special effects (apparently green screens were visible all over the place). They all verified that that line is present and awesome.
Reviews seem to be saying that the first half feels slightly rushed, but the second half is borderline perfect for a Potter film. Radcliffe's acting is getting mild criticism, but if you've gone this far, people are agreeing that this is still infinitely better than all of the other movies. Personally, I never had a problem with his acting, so a performance at the top of his game is fine by me.
A few reviews criticized the final battle, though without spoiling anything, suffice it to say that while the dialogue was great in the book, the actual battle itself was lackluster. So from what I can gather, the film is a vast improvement over that, but it's not quite up to par with other epic final battle sequences. Your mileage may vary.
Finally, universal acclaim is being given to Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) for stealing every scene he's in. The soundtrack features a 6 minute track that's labeled as playing over the major flashback that fans are waiting for (and no, I'm not saying what it contains). Essentially, everyone is in agreement that this scene is the absolute highlight of the whole movie, even compared to the awesomely epic stuff that follows it. It makes sense if you've read the books, but it's nice to know that they pulled it off perfectly. Though after seeing Rickman's consistently strong performances in the last several movies, there wasn't much chance of him screwing it up now.
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7.1 was better, though. Splitting it up was a good decision.
Which is funny because I remember everyone complaining about that announcement and accusing WB of just wanting to get as much money from the franchise as possible. While I have no doubt that their corporate interests are exactly what the fans were saying, the way these movies were handled shows that movies 4 and 5 probably could have afforded to be given similar treatment. Here's hoping for Peter Jackson-style "Super Extended Blu Ray Editions" next year.
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Basically, I didn't read the books when I was younger because my mom was wary of witchcraft-related stuff. I got in trouble once for smuggling a witch book home from the library and hiding it in the boards under my bed.
One person from her church recommends Harry Potter on his blog, though, and all of a sudden she wants to read it too. Oh, Mom.
Oh, don't worry. I'm sure the movies turned you into a damnable devil worshipper. Have fun in hell. But don't worry; you'll be in the cool hell.
I have a side job at the Catholic church I've been a member of since birth, and I was talking with one of the priests there about Harry Potter earlier this year. He said that when parents were starting to worry about it, he was actually asked by the bishop to go see the first movie to see if it's something that they should be concerned about. He came back to work about 3 hours later and basically told the bishop that any parent who worried about it was insane; it was harmless and he sensed some Christian themes and imagery in it. If parents took the time to see it with their kids or read it for themselves, they'd see that it isn't going to destroy our nation's youth.
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The movie opens nationwide tonight for midnight screenings, so I thought I'd get the obligatory thread going for those who want to discuss/analyze/evaluate it.
Little note: OC Remix doesn't get a whole lot of trolling like this, but please, don't even post if your entire post can be summarized as "Harry Potter iz teh gay!!111!" If you don't like the movie or the series, voice some well-reasoned opinion by all means. But if you just want to make fun of fans, don't. Go on YouTube to do that.
As for me, I didn't grow up with Harry Potter like a lot of fans did. I was 12 when the first book came out, but I didn't hear of it until a few years later when the first movie was released in 2001. By then, I was 15 and far too "cool" (read: douchey) to be interested, despite some of my friends being into it. So for a while, I was one of those who said shit like "LotR >>>>>>> Harry Potter" and "Harry Potter's gay" with absolutely no real basis for thinking either of those things. Last year, at 24, I decided to give the movies a chance when the 6-disc box set was on sale for $40, and I fell in love with it. I saw movie 7.1 with friends from school at midnight, and this past January, I bought the whole set of books (also on sale). Throughout the spring semester of school, I read the books for an hour or so a night, and 5 months later, I can honestly say that it's one of my favorite book series out there. What I thought were simple kids books--and admittedly the first 2 or 3 kind of are--turned into an in-depth, character-driven experience. There's a weird feeling when you spend so many months reading these books every day and start to feel that the Harry Potter world is like a second reality. There's a resultant feeling of loss when you finish the books. Tonight, that feeling of loss is compounded by the end of an era.
I'll post my thoughts on the movie for anyone who cares sometime tomorrow, probably after others who have more initiative to stay up later into the night have already done so. For my part, I'm extraordinarily excited for this movie, and I'm hoping that it is a proper send-off for the characters I fell in love with just a few months ago.
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Got the Platinum trophy in Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Yeah, I know everyone's capable of doing that, but understand, the second-last combat challenge mission took me like 8 hours of practice to beat. After finishing it, I didn't have a sense of accomplishment. I had a sense of "Finally. Glad I'll never have to do that again."
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Transformers 3 was the best of the trilogy. But that's not saying much. To paraphrase the AVGN, that's like saying the shit I took today is the best shit I've taken in the last 3 days. As comparatively great as that is, it's still shit.
Here are the movie's various problems, which most people here and elsewhere have acknowledged:
--The humans, and especially the military, are secondary characters in the Transformers universe, but these movies have them take center stage
--The first half of the movie had way too much focus on Sam getting a job, which has literally nothing to do with anything in the movie
--The second half of the movie is nonstop action, but it has the Call of Duty problem of lacking juxtaposition. You can't have nonstop action for an hour. It's overwhelming and ends up being plain boring.
--The characters are stupid (like, actually mentally stupid)
--The scenes where the Autobots jump from out of nowhere and save something or someone were cool the first 2 times. Then the next 6 were repetitive.
--The special effects were cool, but don't lend to the story sufficiently
--The humor is embarrassingly immature. I don't want to come off sounding all high and mighty, but I honestly felt like the smartest person in the room when the rest of the theater was laughing at some of these juvenile jokes
--Skids and Mudflap were replaced by 2 equally annoying robots
--I think all of Megan Fox's lines were just handed to this new girl because it's pretty apparent that she and Sam weren't in a long enough relationship to have the lines make sense. They would have had Megan Fox been retained.
--This movie, along with its predecessors, commits the mortal sin of not understanding its source material. Yes, the source material was a 100 episode long toy commercial, but it had a plot, characterization, and made you care about the characters. This doesn't.
--Why does Sam yell more than half of his lines? Why?
I don't understand the argument that people just want to see shit blow up because it's entirely possible to have a cool movie where tons of shit blows up, but it supports a strong plot and characterization. If you're over 14, shit blowing up shouldn't be a strong enough justification to see, let alone approve of, a movie. The first third of the 1986 Transformers movie is better than the entire Michael Bay trilogy combined. That's not because of how cool the fight scene was. It's because there was a decent story behind the battle supporting it and because the robots took center stage. [Quick edit here: For purposes of clarification, I didn't grow up with Transformers. I only recently watched the series, and I saw the 1986 movie after seeing the first 2 Michael Bay films. Therefore, any criticism that I can't take off my nostalgia goggles when I look at the old movie is moot because I have absolutely no nostalgic attachment to the 1986 movie or the series, and thus I judged them objectively.]
Bottom line, if you want to see where Transformers should have been after all this time, War for Cybertron is pretty cheap used. Get that; it does infinitely more justice to the series than Bay's movies ever did.
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So here's an interesting update. According to Operation Rainfall's blog post yesterday, Xenoblade is in fact coming to America and it's localization is complete. Last Story is getting the same treatment. No word on Pandora's Tower yet for either Europe or America.
http://oprainfall.blogspot.com/2011/07/source-ntsc-xenoblade-done-last-story.html
Now this has to be taken with a grain of salt because their information comes from an anonymous source at Nintendo (and thus is completely unable to be verified for its accuracy). I do believe wholeheartedly that the OP:RF guys received such information from someone claiming to work at NOA. It's just a matter of waiting to see what happens going forward. They have no reason to make something up like this if it weren't true, but it's conceivable that there's an ass out there who just wants to screw with them.
Xenoblade comes out in a little over a month in Europe, by the way, as it's release date was moved up by about 2 weeks.
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Here's a brief quote from that blog post:
Nobody bought any RPGs on DS besides Pokemon. Nobody bought Crystal Bearers or Fragile Dreams. Nobody buys new Nintendo franchises like Steel Diver and Chibi Robo. Nobody bought ExciteBots. Nobody buys the various WiiWare games that are only released in America.People were buying the RPGs on the DS (Dragon Quest IX apparently did pretty well, as did FF IV) if there was some sort of marketing support behind them. Crystal Bearers was a conceptually decent RPG slaughtered by the Wii's control scheme. I recall there being problems with Fragile Dreams as well. Steel Diver was a mediocre and downright boring game. Chibi Robo is creative, but it's arguably more of a niche title than RPGs are. I can't really say why nobody bought Excitebots other than the fact that I didn't buy it because it didn't seem overly interesting. And as for the various WiiWare games, there is still a strong segment of the gaming community that wants a boxed product. Couple that with terrible marketing for even decent WiiWare games and I have to ask, what do you expect?
Nintendo's biggest problem with all of these examples, it seems to me, is lack of good marketing. Marketing, by definition, sells stuff to people. I wouldn't have gotten LA Noire if not for its marketing campaign that got me really pumped to play it. If Nintendo wants to reduce its risk in bringing Xenoblade to America, it needs to generate hype (to the extent that the game can live up to it). TV commercials, magazine ads, internet presence, free crap for a preorder that isn't just some DLC garbage, and posters in every GameStop, Toys R Us, etc. That is how you market a game. I guarantee you they have each and every one of these for Zelda, a game that hardly needs it. If they put half the effort behind marketing Xenoblade that they do Zelda or Pokemon, it would probably sell pretty well, certainly better than a quiet release without any of that marketing.
If you don't get people excited to play your game, they're not going to play it. Likewise, if you do get people excited to play your game, there is a lot of money out there that could be coming your way.
Mega Man Legends 3 Cancelled
in General Discussion
Posted
I'm not sure it's that strong of an anti-Inafune sentiment (and while they'd never give it away, I completely agree that it should be sold to him), but I think he was the proverbial glue holding these Mega Man projects together. It's fairly common knowledge that he's wanted Legends 3 made for a while and Capcom didn't want to do it. Universe came out of nowhere and ended up in the same place it started--nowhere. I think Inafune's influence at Capcom was stronger than most other creative directors at game companies (aside from Miyamoto, of course). There was probably more willingness to let him get away with projects, for lack of a better phrasing. Without him, projects that the higher-ups don't think will generate as much revenue as others are more readily swept aside.
I genuinely get the sense that even after Legends 3 was give the green light at Capcom, there were a lot of forces at work to stop the game's progress. Inafune leaving surely had no direct impact, but I have no doubt that his departure was as direct an indirect cause as anything could be. When the project lost the shield deflecting its dissenters, it was wide open to attack.