Quote Originally Posted by kotora View Post
they wish they were becoming "Western". At least we'd have some goddamn interactivity if that were the case. The problem is that them japanese don't know how to innovate and stick to the old ways of "bit of gameplay here followed by a smurfload of cutscene".
Not that I've played Yakuza, but that doesn't seem to fit it. And I don't think Valykria Chronicles was like that either. MGS, okay fair enough it did, but they were fairly epic and the basic gameplay was interesting.

And certain Japanese developers are clearly getting it right in the RPG genre. Valkyria Chronicles I already mentioned. Demon Souls is another one. Neither is a traditional old-school JRPG, nor is it a fully-blown Western adventure either.

I think XIII was going down the right track. It made battles quick and exciting. The majority of its characters were more 3-dimensional than in previous FFs outside of the major character/s. What it did wrong is it stripped down too much. People like RPGs to tinker, which was basically not happening in XIII. The battle system probably erred towards to too little control. The world was too stripped down and linear. Why? Probably because it got rushed at the end and was too determined by the results of focus groups.

It would appear that the same thing has happened with XIV. There were a lot of ideas that obviously came through but they couldn't be implemented. So yes, the corporates have clearly interfered too much.

I am very curious to see Versus XIII. Nomura would probably not allow any interference in his work from those above him, and they would have to deal as he is too important and influential in the company. And I'd like to see what the creatives at Square-Enix can produce without too much interference from upstairs.

There also seems to be a lack of polish in Japanese games these days too. Gran Turismo 5 is a case in point. Brilliant gameplay dynamics but horrible to actually set up a race.