The crux of this
post is going to depend on whether or not you consider Bloodstained:
Ritual of the Night to be an indie game.
I do, basically, since Kickstarter helped it exist (resoundingly),
and it’s not as if it’s the product of one of the big companies like EA or
Activision. I mean, it’s here specifically
because a well-known company in the industry (Konami) either would have
rejected it preemptively, or actively resented its potential existence to the
point where the heads -- in their unfathomable wisdom -- let Castlevania mastermind
Koji Igarashi escape from their employ.
Mostly, I just want
to call it an indie game because it’d give me the chance to lump it together
with some of the other games I’ve been playing (not named Smash Bros.
Ultimate). Namely, Katana Zero and
VA-11 HALL-A. Also, it’ll be
easier for me to use it as a paddle with which to whoop the backside of the modern,
big-budget, AAA game industry. As if
they weren’t whooping themselves already.
Let’s be fair
before the paddling commences. Even if
the companies with the biggest names, brands, workforces, pools of resources,
and pockets tend to skew toward evil, there are times when they’re a necessary
evil. I mean, look at Disney. The house of mouse is doing its damnedest to
own everything under the sun (and also the sun), and while their tactics toward
world domination rely heavily on nostalgia-baiting and franchise
bombardment, their products -- I’d argue, at least -- still manage to qualify
as quality art. Granted we’ll see if I’ll
eat my words once Toy Story 4 drops in full, because I’m not entirely
sure why that movie exists besides nostalgia bait, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut at
least before that we got Toy Story 3.
Star Wars is still making a ton of people happy, so that it doesn’t
have to end on the prequel trilogy.
Resident MCU apologist that I may be, it has a globe-spanning fanbase
for a reason.
The saying goes
that “money is the root of all evil”, which is true in more cases than there
are people on this planet. But pragmatically
speaking, you have to use money to do pretty much all of the things --
especially if you want to do them well.
So as easy as it is to begrudge the big boys out there for their bulging
bags of bucks, in the right hands that money goes to good use. You think Nintendo kept the purse strings
tight to make Breath of the Wild?
I doubt it. At most, they only
spent less relative to AAA developers surpassing the GDP of small countries
just to launch one game. Yet we don’t
begrudge Nintendo, the Zelda team, or their latest game (for now). Why?
Because it was good.
Effort, talent,
creativity, ambition. When you mix those
four together, you get art. That’s what
the best providers in the entertainment industry understand. When you don’t mix those four
together, or even have one on tap, then…well…
As of writing, we’re
hot off of E3 2019. I’m sure there are
still plenty of people out there riding high from the residual fumes. I can’t say I’m one of them; my approach to
the big event this year is to maintain casual awareness of some of the big
stuff (and memes) while picking and choosing so that the content that does
interest me makes it to my eyeballs.
Hey, guess what? It works for
me. Now I don’t have to waste time
ramming my face into my monitor to see every individual second of every
individual conference -- which, thankfully, has spared me of sitting through
anything EA-branded. Hard to believe I
haven’t touched anything with their logo since a thirty-minute test run of Battlefield
4.
I guess I’ve
reached a point in my life where I don’t care about that stuff anymore -- not
even for the sake of griping about it in a blog post…besides this one, I
mean. Am I down for something like Cyberpunk
2077? Oh, absolutely, with or
without Keanu Reeves, because I feel like I can trust the devs to put out a
good game. Am I even going to give Watch
Dogs: Legion a glance? Not a chance. Even if you ignore Ubisoft’s
less-than-stellar business practices, I’m convinced we’re only at a third game
in the franchise is because 1) franchises are king, 2) too many people bought
the first, and terrible, game out of goodwill/curiosity/low information to ward
them off from the mediocrity, and 3) franchises are king.
Last Ubisoft game I
played: the For Honor beta. Take
that as you will.
I don’t want to automatically
dump on these big-name, big-budget games, because I know there are real, good,
honest people who have to slave away -- literally -- in order to put these
endeavors out in the wild. Sometimes I
wish I could pull them out of the prisons the industry has locked them up
inside, so that they could be free to work on their passion/dream
projects. I have a sneaking suspicion
that some of these guys aren’t exactly enthused to work on the next Call of
Duty.
I mean, just look
at the AAA industry. Look at it. Different strokes for different folks,
sure, but so much of it to me is so wearisome that I can’t even summon the
energy to look in its direction. Oh, hey,
Borderlands 3 has a billion guns or whatever! Too bad I don’t give a toss about loot, and
the previous game’s humor made me want to twist my brain like a wet dish
rag. Oh, hey, Gears of War 5 is…going
to exist at some point? Too bad I
mentally checked out after 3. Oh
hey, I’m tired of this gag and don’t feel like scrolling through the other E3
news, so I’ll just offset it by being excited for Astral Chain. That’s how much faith I have in a
not-insignificant chunk of the game industry right now.
Some companies have
done, and will continue to do good work.
But these days, it’s more like “guilty until proven innocent”. And can you blame me? After the live service debacle that was Anthem,
EA may or may not be hoping to
try again with more (?) success with Dragon Age 4, even though Inquisition
made me tap out hard. After the world
premiere of Squeenix’s Avengers game and promises of not having loot
boxes or P2W guff, news came out that there
would still be microtransactions.
Whoops! And not to be outdone, EA’s
back at it again by trying to claim that loot boxes are ethical, fun “surprise
mechanics”. Not for any particular
game, but just in general. Yeah, how
about you play Overwatch for 2 years and grind out boxes just to get the
one skin you want before the event that unlocks them in the first place goes
away? Nothing says “surprise” like a “fuck
you” in a box.
Far be it from me
to play armchair CEO (because my chair doesn’t even have arms), but these big
developers have no clue what they’re doing.
Chasing trends, chasing dead-end trends, homogenization, bloated
budgets, needless features, questing for money, questing for more money,
breaking games over their knees just to squeeze out a few extra pennies -- it’s
so much so often, and the games themselves have suffered as a result. We’ve had so many cautionary tales over the
years, but the lessons haven’t stuck to the people that matter. Now the industry might as well be a parody of
itself. Why did Capcom try
to sell us an $8000 jacket? Why is Shenmue
III, another Kickstarter Cinderella story, screwing
over a decent chunk of its backers by staying locked behind the substandard
Epic Games store? Why would Squeenix outsource
the remake to one of the most important games in history to a company whose
track record for gameplay is well below par, and then run that decision back,
which could only negatively affect the development cycle?
I would say that
the answer to all of those questions and more is “money”. Maximizing profits while minimizing
costs. But the way these guys run their
businesses? It’s more like they hate money. To quote Pat from Castle Super Beast, companies exist to create value. And they’re not. Nowadays, there are so many games and so many
companies that make me ask “how are they going to fuck it up?” because that’s
exactly what they’ve done in the past.
And they’ll do it again. They’ll
sell out for the sake of profits that aren’t even guaranteed because they’re
too busy vying for the sake of profits.
It makes them suffer. It makes
their employees suffer. It makes the
games suffer. It makes us suffer.
And sometimes, I
don’t want to deal with that. Therefore…
It’s WAY too early
for me to say anything substantial about Bloodstained, but I’m having
fun with it. I’m intrigued by it. I want to play it more. The cynic in me says that my appreciation of
it just stems from my fond memories of playing/clearing Castlevania: Dawn of
Sorrow -- to the point where a decent chunk of my time spent so far was
while wielding a massive axe, just like I did with Soma’s big adventure -- but
at least I have appreciation. Pared down
to basics? Yes, it’s just another Castlevania. Guess what?
Castlevania is good. Even
if I’m only two hours in, the prospects of this game are exciting. Exploring a castle. Surviving one near-death encounter after
another. Building a character that suits
my tastes to the letter. Using the accessories
given to make Miriam into the ultimate waifu…as one would.
There was always
the question in the back of my mind over whether or not Bloodstained would
actually be good. As part of the trinity
of fan-supported spiritual successors, I wondered if it would share the same
fate as Mighty No. 9 and Yooka-Laylee. Right now, it looks like I didn’t have to
worry at all. Even if Metroidvania-types
are pretty common these days, getting a fresh installment from one of the genre
kingpins is a sweet fortune.
On one hand, I
wonder if indie devs ever feel constrained by the limits of their financial
status. Art through adversity can always
help them excel, but there’s an alternate universe version of these guys who
make entirely different games because they have a bigger pool of
resources. Are there a multitude of
indie platformers out there because of a genuine desire to put them out
there? Or is it because their makers
have to commit to realistic standards and constraints, thus pushing their real
dream games back into the darkest corners of their brains? Who knows?
On the other hand? The more time passes, the starker the
difference between indie and AAA development gets. Even if the latter has incredible amounts of
money, resources, and power, they’re the ones that end up getting chained to
the ground -- by shareholders, by investors, by the threat of financial
collapse, by their own second-guessing on trivial matters. I look at a decent-sized chunk of modern
games, and I see titles that are practically scared of their own shadow -- too
afraid to say, do, or be anything besides safe, predictable, and
familiar. Functional. Workmanlike.
Then I look, like,
four feet to my left, and I see the party that’s going on with the indies.
Katana Zero is short, but it’s so damn good. It’s a 2D side-scroller, but its core
gameplay mechanic transforms it into a powerful experience. It’s done strictly in 2D (barring under-the-hood
technical wizardry), but the presentation and animation quality are top-notch
-- to the point where some of its more brutal scenes are genuinely unnerving
despite them happening to masses of pixels.
There isn’t even a hint of multimillion-dollar casting or performance
capture, but the story told here kept me motivated from start to finish. I’d do a lengthier post on it if I wasn’t
afraid of the possibility that my “beating the game” was just me getting a BAD
END instead of the true ending.
Then there’s the
self-proclaimed “cyberpunk bartender action” game, VA-11 HALL-A, whose
title I’m only just now managing to type correctly without reference. On a surface level? As a game, its level of interactivity is
minimal; you won’t need split-second reflexes or one-frame links to succeed
here. The tradeoff is that the writing
here shines like a diamond in the sun, with a good cast, a developing world,
witty conversations, and genuine laughs to be had. I legitimately can’t think of another game
that’s (intentionally) made me have a laughing fit, but this one did it once
Streaming-Chan made her debut. Even if I
haven’t finished it yet, I’m already sitting here going “Sequel
when?”
I’ve been playing
games since I could tie my shoes. That
means, naturally, I’ve been following and investing myself in them for ages now
-- so I’ve seen the highs and lows offered across the medium’s history. These days?
Boy, are there some lows. The
worst part about it is that a lot of problems the industry faces are
self-inflicted wounds. It wouldn’t
surprise me if I booted up my computer one day and read in a headline that the
whole thing crashed. I know that that
wouldn’t happen the same way it did in 1983, but still. The effort AAA games are putting in (such as
it is) is unsustainable, and something has to give.
Meanwhile, the big
guys are barely even aware that the game has changed in the wake of indie devs
and their sterling titles. To be fair, not
all of them are critical darlings or heroes worthy of praise, but when they’re
on point, they’re on point -- and they have the opportunity to do so. While they’re also in it to make a profit, it’s
with these smaller teams and efforts that I feel the drive -- the desire to
make art, and not just a product.
I can respect that. And it’s
because they’ve earned that respect that I don’t feel the need to give them the
stink-eye just for existing. I would
sooner trust the little guys with major projects and brands than some of the
big guys…which, given the Sonic games, might be entirely justified.
This would usually
be the part when a writer better than I would feature a call to action --
something like “support indie devs” or “play more indie games”. I mean, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do
that, but I have a better way to end this post.
I can’t rightfully tell others what to do, so I’ll tell myself to do
something instead. From here on out, I’m
making a commitment. Knowing full well
what’s out there -- old and new -- I’m going to put more of an effort, personally,
to play those indie titles. In a modern-day
scenario where a lot of big-budget fare makes me more tired than excited, I’m
ready for a change of pace. Time for me
to see the best this industry has to offer, rather than the worst.
And that’ll do it
for now. See you next time.
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