So why does american game reviews hate anime-turned games so much?

[asaqe]

Yeah, after reading X-play's list of things they have pledged enternal hatred to, it seems a lot of it involves Japan is some way. They hate Anime Turned games, they hate Megaman, they hate DMC, They hate JRPGs. But mostly, why is there an hatred towards anime turned games? I mean compared to what shovelware cartoon/popular kids series turned games here, there is a huge difference.

So why the hate?

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by asaqe

Yeah, after reading X-play's list of things they have pledged enternal hatred to, it seems a lot of it involves Japan is some way. They hate Anime Turned games, they hate Megaman, they hate DMC, They hate JRPGs. But mostly, why is there an hatred towards anime turned games? I mean compared to what shovelware cartoon/popular kids series turned games here, there is a huge difference.

So why the hate?

Well, the simple truth is most of the anime based games do suck. There have been some good ones, but the majority are crap. As for the rest, they probably do it because they think it'll make them look cool to their target demographics. I doubt the average x-play viewer is a hardcore gamer who'd be likely to play rpgs. Of course that's just a guess, I don't know and don't care who x-play's targeted at.

[vorpal83]

How could anyone hate megaman, cept cos it's so retardedly hard...

[Z3120]

Well, if you can tell me how Tales of the Abyss deserves an unanimous 9 from it's loyal fanbase compared to more than satisfactory score of 8, let me know. Love Abyss to death but it doesn't mean it deserves a 10 or even a 9. Same thing with Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria.

[GoldenCrystals]

Well some anime games arn't good. There are good ones and there are bad ones. I think I rated the bad ones thats all.

[Verist]

Originally Posted by vorpal83

How could anyone hate megaman, cept cos it's so retardedly hard...

They don't hate Megaman, just that the fact the franchise has been raped repeatedly, in a effort to milk profits. Release same game after the same game basically.

[Phantasmagoria]

I have never once played a crap anime game..
I look out/research for good stuffs, and that's probably why I haven't encounter one yet

[Vexx]

Well.. first of all Xplay does not equal "american game reviews". Its just one site that appears focused on the demographic subset of gamers that some of us roll our eyes at.

Most "american game reviews" simply don't have japanese games even on the radar because the technology is often a decade or two old.
... and by "anime game" ... do you mean
1) games that have been adapted into anime? (visual novels, srpg, etc)
2) or anime that have spawned games?

[Claies]

Most "American game reviews" don't give JRPGs that much light because...
1) Simply not the target demographic sometimes. For example, look at visual novels. Well-written ones that become the rage in Japan don't make it here simply because most American gamers prefer action over reading a wall of text. Gakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney became popular in the West because, well, despite it being a visual novel, it's not a wall of text all the time. There's a lot of thinking, decision-making, and "a-ha" moments involved.

2) Stagnant mechanics. Most Japanese gamers love their huge series (check Final Fantasy, Tales of Series, Devil May Cry, etc.), and you see a lot of their favorite console games going up and above the number 5. Above that, they really dislike having too much change in their series, preferring the simple "more of the same, except much prettier" goal. I don't remember where I've seen it, but a poll showed that Japanese gamers want games like Dragon Quest to stay pretty much the same in terms of mechanics. Guess what American reviews go for? They like creativity, and anything that's not creatively unique gets dragged down to average score. That doesn't go well with Japanese games.

[Benoit]

How could anyone hate megaman, cept cos it's so retardedly hard...

It's only hard for people who suck at games.

They don't hate Megaman, just that the fact the franchise has been raped repeatedly, in a effort to milk profits. Release same game after the same game basically.

That's not entirely true. While the base is mostly the same, they get new stuff in, and make improvements each time. The Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX series the best example of that. They have a nice story, too. Things have changed since the Mega Man series on the NES, you know.

[GuidoHunter_Toki]

Well first of all I hate X-Play with a burning passion. In fact I hate game reviews in general because most of the time when I buy games it seems like my perception of how good a game is differs greatly from what most reviewers think. I could care less about the story or graphics(although they're nice) as long as the game is fun to play. Many reviwers like to demote games for graphics or a bad story.

As for anime based games I can enjoy some of them greatly. I love Gundam Battle Assult 2, Dynasty Warriors Gundam, Digimon Rumble Arena and Tekken 5(which is not really an anime game but I felt like giving it an honorable metion).

[Z3120]

Oh, anime based games? My bad for the misunderstanding. I was automatically thinking we were talking about J-RPGs.

Yeah, anime-based games do usually suck...

[lilguy]

Anime-based games do suck, same for translated anime-based games in America. I mean, if you look at it, each and every single Yu-Gi-Oh game for a handheld is the same game repeated over and over again.

[qtipbrit]

Originally Posted by vorpal83

How could anyone hate megaman, cept cos it's so retardedly hard...

Most things are hard the first time or two you try it, take cliff-diving, for example.
I remember struggling to get through the intro stage in Megaman X when I was a wee lad, but then after I got used to it, I flew through the rest of the game.

And take Final Fantasy IV: it's the most difficult game of the franchise by far, but it's still very enjoyable, and I found it to be one of my favourites of the series, having played the original and both ports (yes, I was able to go through all of Final Fantasy Chronicles. [2-in-freaking-1 much? Chrono Trigger + FFIV = Epic win, Epic Win - little to no updates - amazingly slow loading times = decent at best.])
And I thought that Chrono Trigger finally had a great remake.

Originally Posted by Claies

2) Stagnant mechanics. Most Japanese gamers love their huge series (check Final Fantasy, Tales of Series, Devil May Cry, etc.), and you see a lot of their favorite console games going up and above the number 5. Above that, they really dislike having too much change in their series, preferring the simple "more of the same, except much prettier" goal. I don't remember where I've seen it, but a poll showed that Japanese gamers want games like Dragon Quest to stay pretty much the same in terms of mechanics. Guess what American reviews go for? They like creativity, and anything that's not creatively unique gets dragged down to average score. That doesn't go well with Japanese games.

Most American game reviewers know not of the existence of Japanese visual novels.
Ehh, and Final Fantasy is a pretty huge franchise in America, and both the Tales of ____ and Devil May cry had some large reactions as well.

[asaqe]

Well X-play posted Dating sims as their enternal hatred list.

-Card battle games such as Yu-Gi-Oh!.
-Games based on anime series, especially Naruto, Dragon Ball Z and Fullmetal Alchemist (in one episode, Adam and Morgan stated that "we don't actually hate anime games, we just hate games that suck and it just so happens that most anime games do suck"). However, Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 is an exception to this category.
-Escort missions, where the player is forced to keep an NPC character (who has its own health meter) from dying. This often proves difficult when the NPC's A.I. is so insufficient that they continuously place themselves in harm's way (leaving the player with little or no chance to save them). However, Resident Evil 4 was stated as an exception to this category.
-Japanese dating simulation games like Sexy Beach 2
-Repetitive games like the Dynasty Warriors series
-The continuous release of Mega Man games
-The fact that there are so many World War II strategy and first-person shooter games on the market (during the review of Moscow to Berlin: Red Siege, Morgan remarked "That's it! No more World War II games! According to my contract, I only have to review 75 World War II games per year, and I already hit my quota in March!").
-Japanese RPGs (this is Adam's personal pet peeve, as his biggest gripe is against those who claim that the Final Fantasy series is perfect in every way ... although he did openly admit that Final Fantasy VI was his favorite 16-bit RPG).
-The Devil May Cry Series, calling it a "last generation" franchise

[Jays]

The target demographic in the Western world isn't the same as that in Japan, or Asia for that matter. If you look at games like Gears of War, which have characters that appeal to Western customers, but no so much Japanese gamers, and then you take a game like Blue Dragon which is the opposite.

X-Play does have a skewed way of going about their business, although they do a good job at representing what most gamers think, well Western ones at that, they can be sometimes overly critical. If you look at the list posted by asage though, they did a good job with that.

Judging from my own experience, Devil May Cry 4 was a last gen game; it even had the same problems that DMC3 had, if not worse. It was a disappointment for myself, and I thought X-Play did a good job at critiquing the archaic game design employed by Japanese developers.

[Traece]

A good majority of the anime-games really do make me question... I try to steer away from anime-games that don't have 'Gundam' in the title or a mobile suit on the cover. <_<'
The Gundam games are good, and for the most part they get average ratings. Mobile Suit Gundam Federation vs Zeon has somewhere in the 8.0+ area on Gamespot, I believe. Plus they're planning to throw out a multiplayer Gundam game, finally (hopefully they will port it and ACTUALLY release it). The .Hack games were popular around that time too, actually. A lot of people went there, at least that I knew. I went there too, but to be honest I was never big on RPGs. Naruto has a nice line-up of games, and Bleach has Shattered Blades (*smirk*). The two of them maintain a higher range in the scale as far as ratings go. Not all anime games are shunned, in fact most don't even think about the U.S., much less come here. I think America has a right to hate most of those games, and for good reason too. However, like I said, fortunately there are some developers that are willing to put some effort in to the anime-gaming industry.

[mazer8]

Well I think that anime turned games do suck. It seems like the nearly all of them are fighting style games and 1v1 games at that. Their controls are always sluggish and the games are repetitive...but I think the same about FF style RPG's as well. The only reason I enjoy playing them is for the storyline.

Random rant: If you haven't noticed it already X=play just sucks at the Microsoft tit. They consistently rave 360 games at the expense of others...but I agree with the fact said earlier that it is much because of the differences in a culture's definition of a good game. In my opinion though, Bungee made three nearly identical games that differed in no way except graphics and map layout. Yes it's probably one of the more entertaining multiplayer games (for guys at least)...it reminds me of my days playing Goldeneye (still a huge fan). X=play just has some huge biases when it comes to their rating system.

[OutPhase]

Most anime games are crappy, half-assed, buggy, and are made just for the purpose of making a quick buck. They are cheaply made so they can push out as many titles in as little time as possible, and it doesn't help that some of them stray away from the canon (party games, fighting, etc.). Since people keep buying them, they produce more until the day when they cannot profit from the series, and abandon it and go onto the next cashcow.

I'm looking at you, Bandai.

[WanderingKnight]

I'm looking at you, Bandai.

If I had a dime for each anime title Bandai has mercilessly raped into disgrace...