Check out the western announcement trailer for Super Monkey Ball 3DS! The trailer is all CGI and highlights the three games that will feature in Super Monkey Ball 3DS, classic Monkey Ball rolling, Monkey Fight and Monkey Race. There also seems to be a new bad guy on the block!
I’ve been a monkey ball fan since the first game but I’ve avoided the series since Monkey Ball Deluxe. This is due to the direction the series has taken, using the party games as more of a gimmick to show off a new control scheme instead of focusing on what’s important. Making fun, fleshed out games.
Super Monkey Ball 3DS seems to have returned to the ‘quality over quantity’ notion, and Monkey Fight and Monkey Race, two of my favourite party games, have returned, although they seem to have new gameplay mechanics. But unfortunately my favourite party game of the lot, Monkey Target is absent!
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Honestly I really don't like the Monkey Ball franchise, better SEGA drops it someday. And it doesn't sell well, the last on the Wii sold very bad.
Well this game is a gimmick as well then, it isn't showing off a new control scheme. It is showing off new graphics.
I never played Monkey Ball cause Nagoshi decided to cancel it and port it to Gamecube, says a lot about him. Others at Sega still have a hard time letting go of the Dreamcast days, but not Nagoshi he dumped it in a hard beat, all he ever did for the system was an updated port for Daytona USA.
While I don't like him his decisions worked out really well, his games are barely above average yet he is still the most recognized SEGA designer today, where as true talent like Makato Uchida, Yu Suzuki, Noriyoshi Oba are no where to be found.
Super Monkey Ball sells very well actually…
and Nagoshi has been involved with some of Segas best games… I don't know why you have such a hardon for the Dreamcast cube… He did exactly what he should have done. Sega were going 3rd party and the Dreamcast was a dead end.
Truer words never spoken, Dreamcast was a dead end after all it was abandoned by SEGA and liquidated by the end of the year.
His cold detachment worked excellently for him, others however can't. Take Yuji Naka for example he developed Sega's last Dreamcast game and now wants to work on Dreamcast 2 (I know he was trying to get a publishing deal from a hardware manufacturer).
Although Nagoshi in the last 2 decades at Sega only started 3 original ips. SpikeOut was a critical and commercial failure. Super Monkey Ball on the other hand is a very good game, no question about it.
Yakuza is over rated, it costs millions of dollars to make but it shouldn't be compared to Shenmue cause it is a Beat Em up with RPG elements and an uncohesive, messy narrative that suspends the laws of nature and physics whenever it pleases. So yeah, it is his ability to move forward that has worked out for him and from a business stand point I figure it is a good thing, but as a SEGA Dev?
Yeah yeah, Sega KILLED the Dreamcast, Bayonetta is sexist, Yakuza is overrated… Blah Blah blah.
You know what's overrated? Shitty indie games for a dead console… and goats Just sayin'.
Yeah Cube, what is your problem? You curse out Nagoshi, but say people like Uchida need recognition? Only two of his games are great.
In any event… I liked this trailer a lot, the new yellow monkey looks great too, I hope he has a group like AiAi's, only evil and very yellow.
Super Monkey Ball is one of my favorite newer SEGA IPs honestly, so whenever I get a 3DS, I will be sure to pick this up, even with how laughable some of the elements have gotten since Banana Blitz and Adventure, I still love it all.
sorry cube_b3 but Nagoshi is an average developer??
– Daytona series
– Scud Race
– Super Monkey Ball Series
– F-ZERO GX/AX
– Yakuza series ….
no i don't think so!
and he is coming next year with a new major title, we will see how it will turn out to be.
@ Nagoshi: Daytona & SCUD were AM2, Nagoshi was quite low in the hierarchic command back then and was more involved in the porting deparment. The Saturn and PC ports for Daytona are inferior and regarded as Average. He failed at porting SCUD to the Saturn, and for some reason abandoned the Dreamcast update. DAYTONA USA is critically successful.
Another Nagoshi game is Planet Harrier, a huge failure.
F-Zero isn't his franchise but yes, he did make a critically successful game with Nintendo.
Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza are his games, and are currently considered average as well. They are nothing epic Monkey Ball isn't Sonic or Ristar. Yakuza isn't Shenmue or GTA, sure his games are fun but his studio has the lowest ranking if you compare them to any other Sega Studio current or past.
@ Sanus: I am not cursing Nagoshi, I stated he has made fun average games, while they don't push the limits or take things to the next level for SEGA. He is a formidable business man who can make the right decisions, no question about it. I do however question his validity as a 'true SEGA' designer.
I could list down all the reasons why I support Uchida, but i'll make it short he made AFO; the first console game in history with online play to allow its players to communicate with their real voices using a supplied microphone attachment.
I'll also acknowledge that I'm bias when it comes to Uchida, I just really want to see him produce something original. On topic hopefully that Binary game of Nagoshi could be something to look forward to, the little i've seen so far however isn't.
@ Sharky: Most people don't even know about the existence of indie games, so how are they over rated.
I thought I was having a mature discussion, but you try and make pathetic immature personal attacks on a public platform. It reflects poorly on you and this site.
Try and behave yourself.
You are the only person on this entire site that believes that Yakuza is considered average… It sells extremely well in Japan (Its target audience) has a cult following in the West and is received well by critics all round.
Not to mention one of these JRPG length Yakuza game has been produced almost annually for a number of years now and has pretty much got better with each sequel… I couldn’t name you many who have done that, let alone many in Sega.
Thank You, I serve as a reality check :D.
I am not big on annual releases unless they are Sports Games or Arcade Upgrades like VF5:FS or SSF4. With story based games I wish they would polish a cohesive story line with a balanced character roaster.
Y1 had an interesting premise but by the end of it the game was so convoluted I couldn't make sense of any thing and the ending was simply ridiculous.
Y2 offered very little, the story was absurd and it reflects in the games poor sales and lack of reviews. Several sites simply ignored Yakuza, even Sega didn't give the game a proper box art, it was an edited cover of Y1.
Y3 is on my play list, but I have 4 other games (Condemned 2, Alan Wake, Uncharted & Dead Rising) to beat before I reach there so it would probably be during summer vacations. So i'll hold off from commenting.
Nagoshi is doing the annual thing with Monkey Ball as well.
Team Valkyria is doing the same thing at Sega.
Sonic Team is unfortunately releasing 5 new Sonic games a year, hopefully they plan on slowing down.
Sonic Team is also doing the annual thing with Phantasy Star.
Outside Sega you have Assassin's Creed and those military FPS Call of Duty and Medal of Honor that keep coming out.
Is annual release a big thing?
You seem to have a problem understanding satire and comedy… Yes Yakuza games have some ridiculous and unrealistic moments but so do the Metal Gear Solid games… They aren't made to be realistic all the time, in fact both I would consider them both to have a lot of comedy elements,funny BECAUSE they are ridiculous and absurd. But I can see how this would be a problem if you lack a sense of humour.
You actually think that the reason Yakuza 2 had little reviews was because of the 'absurd' plot? Come on dude…
Many of the games you just mentioned as having annual sequels aren't even being developed by the same teams as the previous game.
Nagoshi has not done a Super Monkey Ball game annually…
Okay we're still at it, let's hope we can reach an amicable agreement by the end of it :).
Removed due to spoilers
I have minored in English Literature and Journalism and I assure you my issues with the game do not fall in the failure to understand comedy and satire.
For a better understanding of Satire try reading the works of Mark Twain or George Orwell, Animal Farm is a fine example of satire.
Wiktionary:
"In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement."
I haven't played MGS but let me try rephrasing my point for you.
Magical resurrections of characters and immunity to explosions are not only unrealistic, they simply are incongruent and an example of poorly written plot twists.
____________________________________
Sonic Team makes most of Sonic games, yes?
They did make Colors & 4 in the same year.
They've also make a lot of PSO stuff that I don't keep tabs on but I know they are annual for sure.
Team Valkyria makes Valkyria Chronicles, yes?
They did make 1,2, and the 3rd entry.
I don't follow Creative Assembly but they are always doing something with Total War.
Sports Interactive also releases yearly Football Managers and Championship Manager.
I've removed some of Cube's comments because of spoilers, but in anycase, none of what he implied actually happens like he thinks it happens.
Yakuza is also rated very well with the critics, so him calling them average has no real basis in reality. But then that's not hard to come to a conclusion with when you object to a man paid and employed by SEGA by a "true SEGA designer"
Cube tells people to behave themselves, but how can anyone have a coherent argument with a man who keeps making insane points?
Either make sense or dont say anything at all. Right now you don't make any sense at all.
And I have removed your incorrect statement about me :).
I'm done, trying to rationally talk with you guys for the day.
… fuck me.
Sonic Team have multiple teams, at least three. Within the group. Each working on individual game. Sonic 4 was developed by Dimps. The Phantasy Star: Portable games were co-developed with an outside developer doing most of the code.
Creative Assembly do not release a game a year, They also have at least three seporate teams, two in England and one in Australia.
Football Manager, which is mostly text and spreadsheet based game is hardly comparable to a game like Yakuza with 80-100 hours of content.
Valkyria Chronicles I'll give you, they have scaled down to developing on PSP but I will agree they are another of Segas top tier developers… Just like Nagoshi and his team…
Cube's argument is stupid and he is trying way too hard to hate the Yakuza series. A character survived an explosion that happened in another room's safe!??! Impossible! Next you will be saying the Shinobi series sucks because he does not sweat through his outfit or something…
On the topic of Monkey Ball… The original few games in the series are some of the best games SEGA ever made in my opinion. What is funny is that those are the only games Nagoshi actually directed and programmed for.
And Nagoshi was the main director and designer for Daytona USA, the most popular arcade racer of all time.
@ Aki-At: I've acknowledged the Monkey Ball games as good but as of late the series, has dropped to average. I could google references but i'll just leave you with the last game for the wii fit.
I would also appreciate if you can move past Sonic 06, the game clearly sucks and silver sucks, but I enjoyed the Sonic and Shadow arc, so what?
@ Sharky/Sanus: I don't hate the Yakuza series I've only played 2 games, I enjoyed the first one Gameplay was fun, story for the most part was excellent, graphics were average, load times were absurd (and shouldn't have been present in the US version) and the build up to the final fight with Nishiki was messy convoluted and disappointing.
Although the plot picks up again after the conclusion and the conclusion was satisfactory. I spent good money on Yakuza and expected the next Shenmue, which was perhaps my fault.
Y2 on the other hand fixed the load times, enhanced the gameplay but dropped the ball on the story. It wasn't as well written as the original and their is no way anyone can justify the Terrada ark.
@ Sharky 2nd Point: Well atleast they are 2 studios at Sega doing the same thing, I could argue that Dimps made 2 Sonic games in 1 year, but I won't.
IN CONCLUSION:
Sharky we are both hardcore Sega fans.
You obviously love Nagoshi, he is talented and has made good games, I like him too. On a personal level as a fan of Sega Hardware I was disappointed to see him dump the Dreamcast so quickly but I fully understand his business decision, you can not make executive decisions on emotions.
I had great expectations with Yakuza 1 and you can't blame me for being disappointed, it was marketed as the next Shenmue or Sega's take on GTA with an emphasis on fist fighting.
Y2 did not cost as much, and I had less expectations but It didn't improve the narration issues of the last game and made it worse with a million new characters, and this time I didn't have a prequel movie to put things in perspective.
Every review I've read has acknowledged Yakuza's convoluted plot.
I hope you can see my perspective with this final post, if not let us agree to disagree.
Respectfully
Billy
Except Nagoshi has not worked on the series since the first two games. Again, you aren't making any sense, do you dislike the people who once worked on Sonic and Golden Axe but no longer do anything on the series and consider their work average? Highly unfair and it seems to me you have something against Nagoshi.
Furthermore, nothing is good about that game, nothing at all. You are the only one, with the exception of some diehard Sonic fans, who has anything remotely positive to say about the game or even "enjoy" it despite it having more problems than Yakuza 1 or 2 did at their time.
And now you went and called the Yakuza games had average graphics, they were some of the best on the Playstation 2 as far as technical specs go, that is, not assisted by CGI or highres still artworks.
Almost every review has said how Yakuza has top level narrative and great storylines. Everything you say cannot be explained can be explained very easily, you just opt to not see it. If you think the plot of Yakuza is poor towards the end, you must dislike every single video game plot in existence, with the exception of probably Mafia.
And holding something against Nagoshi for not supporting a console on it's way out is very immature, especially when Shinobi, Panzer Dragoon Orta and a whole host of other SEGA titles were moved on, it's easy to see it was a decision from SEGA and not Nagoshi himself, he was not the head of development then like he is now.
Hai yay YAY. I hoped we would all have made up by now :(.
I have to throw references at you now.
1) Yes he has.
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/by_…
&
http://archive.videogamesdaily.com/features/sega_…
He designed the first 3 Monkey Ball games, then Banana Blitz while retaining supervisional roles for the rest.
So suck it. I am sorry getting a little frustrated now. Will try to remain respectful.
2) The game has open environments and no invisible walls, it encourages exploration where as in unleashed I was simply holding down the Y button and hear Sonic going woooh and a few mins later the stage is over :S, the enemies don't even attack Sonic most of the time, I even ran into an enemy (without boost) and didn't get any damage, it just stood there :S. Sonic 06 as shitty as it is, it feels like an evolution of the Adventure design, where as Unleashed is a new kind of mess and I have no Nostalgia for Sonic Rush style cheap side scrolling segments :S. While the 360 version is better than the Wii version, I have briefly played it (5 hours or so) but it is still mostly autoplay.
Just because I managed to squeeze a few moments of fun, from a terrible game doesn't make my opinion Null. Very recently forum member Wilhelm enjoyed playing Blue Stinger, a medicore game from DreamPast. It is possible to enjoy bad games. Furthermore Graham prefers it over Unleashed as well :P.
3) I am not talking Technicalities, to me Shenmue, RE4 or GTA:Vice City, all look better.
4) No I don't dislike every single plot in exsistence, I read several reviewers appreciating the stories depth and scope but criticzing the convolutedness and pacing issues. Please google a few reviews. I can't, really can't right now. So if you want we can agree to disagree on this :).
5) It was his decision, he was head of his division.
Yu Suzuki managed to release Shenmue 2 for Dreamcast.
Tetsuya Mizuguchi managed to release Rez.
Yuji Naka supported it with the last Sega game in Fall 2003.
All these games were released after 2001, and the system couldn't be anymore dead where as Nagoshi was the first one to cancel his game, SMB hit American Arcades in 2000, a console port should've been done by Early or Mid 2001, instead he cancelled it and released it in Q3 2001 for Gamecube. It made very little fan boy sense at the time, I was looking forward to it, the game could've been ported to Dreamcast instantaneously it was a NAOMI game. So yeah, I don't feel to good about it, had he released it maybe I would've been as in love with him as you guys are.
See, I love all the Sega designers cause I grow up with them. I just have to play their games and look forward to them. When it comes to him I don't have love, but I like him. He puts Sega on the map, he is the current head honcho but I don't blindly love his games and I will voice my disappointments he has enough love from you guys as is.
Yakuza isn't all that better from Shinobi:
http://www.gamerankings.com/ps2/561199-shinobi/in… http://www.gamerankings.com/ps2/929568-yakuza/ind…
Other designers suffer because of their past success, he doesn't have to push the envelope, cause his envelope is empty. His past games weren't all that Daytona for the Saturn got mixed reviews, Planet Harrier didn't do all that well (though I would've liked a DC port), SpikeOut bombed. He's just gotten 2 good games.
You guys are blindly in love with him.
Was Yakuza a bad game?
Ofcourse not.
Was it a good game?
Sure.
Was it something out of this world?
Not really.
Is it a technical leap like Shenmue, GTA or Valkyria?
No, atleast not initially the recent installments are displaying some intresting motion cap stuff.
Most recently, the latest Yakuza trailer stole Lickers from RE. I was the only one who call him on that bull shit, while you all rationalized it. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one as more recent trailers show the Lickerish creature altered.
Can we, call a truce now?
1) Supervisor or producer are minor rules, Naka did not really do much in Shadow the Hedgehog, he is still the producer. Again you don't seem to grasp things about game development, so you suck it.
2) Comparing a terrible game with an average game elevates your opinion how? Furthermore, not an incorrect opinion but rather, purely bad taste, this is what you have.
3) They all look better, this is your opinion, but the fact is Yakuza IS one of the best looking games on the PS2, this can't be argued. Of course since you rate a game were they don't even have fingers, higher than Yakuza, shows just how little you seem to grasp about the technical aspect of the game
4) So from every review you've gone to several reviews, after a while you'll see you're only picking reviews which can support your argument. The fact is most reviews talk about Yakuza's narrative, characters and storyline as it's strong point.
5) Except half of SEGA's known development went completely to the rival consoles. This indicates more as SEGA wanting to support the Gamecube, Xbox and PS2 rather than any ulterior motives you've span in your head. Fact is Monkey Ball, a franchise SEGA believed to be kiddy, was made ready for a kiddy console.
And please, I do not "love" Nagoshi, however I will disagree when someone who clearly has it in for someone because he decided not to support that person's favourite console, the fact you think it shows "A lot about the kind of person he is" by not supporting the Dreamcast is quite childesh.
Daytona is THE MOST SUCCESSFUL arcade game of all time, how can he not push the envelope when he has one of the most successful SEGA game of all time as one of the games he was credited on? Then he has F-Zero, the game that brought the series back with a bang, followed up by two of the best puzzle games made and then finally he has made the Yakuza series which is both critically and commercially successful.
You also just said Valkyria Chronicles was a technical leap? Hahaha yeah right, if you can consider that technical leap, than so is Yakuza thanks to the level of detail it has.
And I did not rationalize it, I completely shot down your point because you make it sound like none of the Yakuza games have referenced any SEGA titles, when the simple fact is outside of Shenmue, Nagoshi's Yakuza series has referenced more SEGA titles than any other SEGA series. So should we hate all SEGA designers now with the exception of Nagoshi and Suzuki? Of course not. So please, drop your agenda against anyone who does not fit your criteria, since you seem to have made up some fictional bible of how to be a SEGA man in your head as shown quite perfectly by you questioning his validity as a true SEGA designer, simply put, childesh.
Your not meeting me even half way.
1) He was highly involved in Banana Blitz, as he wasn't doing anything else at the time. After Y2 he immediately picked up the wii, in the same interview he talks about not even owning a ps3.
Also he is the head of studio, the studio does something good he gets credit for it. Studio makes bad games, he gets credit for it. Same for Naka/Sonic Team.
3) I'm not going to dig up technical details:
http://www.google.com.pk/images?um=1&hl=en&biw=13… http://www.google.com.pk/images?um=1&hl=en&biw=13…
The screen shots speak for themselves, is their some technial jargon which makes a better looking game technically inferior?
Although if I do go into technical details, Yakuza load times show poor coding.
If there is, it doesn't matter, as I am not a coder. I go with what appeals to the eye.
5) No, I don't hate him. I've acknowledged his success and failures. I am not on a childish vendetta, I am also not the one consistently hurling insults. Despite your attitude I am also making an effort to take in every point you make.
6)For the last time Daytona is AM2, he did the Saturn port which was poorly reviewed, he failed at porting SCUD. Though he did deliver a good dc port/upgrade. His other 2 arcade games were a failure, SMB started off on a strong note, F-Zero as well. Y1 & Y2 were international failures.
7) To the naked eye it seems like a technical achievement via the Canvas Engine. The fusion of RPG/Strategy is also an achievement. I haven't played Valkyria yet, just read a few reviews. Where as Yakuza as you all describe it is a beat em up with rpg elements, hardly anything special. I've not played the GG versions of Golden Axe but Sega appears to have done that 15 years ago. From a graphical perspective it looks like an over head GTA.
In this entire debate I've not said anything about Yakuza + Sega references, I criticized the plagiarism, you rationalized and praised the team for addressing that. Bringing in a debate on "Yakuza + Sega References" is deflection.
1) He was designing Yakuza Kenzan at the time, Yakuza 2 came out in December 2006, Yakuza Kenzan came out in March 2008 so do a bit of research next time
And studio heads do not deserve any credit for the game, maybe a special thanks but it means nothing if all they do is say yes, this is fine, rather than design anything else. Especially considering we are discussing his skills as a developer.
3) You linking me to general pictures of Resident Evil 4, especially considering the Playstation 2 version is vastly inferior in graphics to the Gamecube version again shows me you have done very little research. And even so, Resident Evil 4 is one of the best looking games of the last generation so how you can claim Yakuza is average, when the average games look no way as good as Yakuza, beggers belief.
As for poor coding through load times, yeah you could hold that to the game, but the game completely loads another set of gameplay. But this does not relate to the point of graphics, of which Yakuza is one of the best. Again saying a game were no one has a defined hand, let alone body, tells me that you have something against the series.
5) You are throwing insults and making villains out of people who you DO NOT EVEN KNOW, you've done this to the Platinum Games staff and you've started this agenda as soon as you saw a "licker" in Yakuza of the End
6) The level of research you've done is telling. Nagoshi use to work at AM2, of course you wouldn't know that. Did you know he worked on the arcade versions of Virtua Racing and Scud Race? Probably not, did you know he helped with Virtua Fighter 2? Again I do not think so.
The Saturn port was not poorly recieved? Eh no, it had a mixture of some really good reviews, okays reviews and the odd bad one
Yakuza 1 was an international failure yes, however both Yakuza 2 and Yakuza 3 were successes for SEGA, in particular Yakuza 3, in the Western markers because they revised their forecasts. Super Monkey Ball has had more hits than misses still.
7) As far as SEGA games, Sakura Taisen did what Valkyria Chronicles did a decade ago. Again do some research. And there has been many other games that have done what Valkyria Chronicles has done, play more games not made by SEGA. So now Valkyria Chronicles is "hardly anything special" since I've just told you there are many games that did Valkyria Chronicles long before that game came out
8 ) You don't seem to grasp certain words in the English language, there is a difference between parody, of which Yakuza: Of the End (Even the name is a parody of popular Japanese zombie films) does and plagiarism, which is what SEGA did for Revenge of Shinobi and Space Channel 5. There is no rationalizing, this is the truth.
And the fact is, the reason you began your agenda is because The House of the Dead was not referenced in it, but something from Capcom was. Despite it being the first time the Yakuza series has referenced a non-SEGA video game series.
Wow, I didn't expect you to go all the way onto page 2 and reply to my comments, quite impressive. Let's hope we can conclude this on a positive note. 🙂
1) I read in a Kikizo interview only with Nagosho's, he stated he was working on the Wii, looks forward to working more with Nintendo and hasn't started on the PS3 yet.
3) I showed you PS2 screen shots for RE4. Honestly Aki, i'm not doing some hate thing.
Are Yakuza's graphics bad?
Ofcourse, not.
Are they good.
I guess so.
Are they great.
No, not by a long shot. I was astonished to see RE4 on PS2, with Yakuza it seemed like a zoomed out GTA. The in game cut scenes are nice, but they might as well have been CGI it wouldn't have mattered.
I wasn't blown away by Yakuza's graphics they aren't bad, they are good not great.
I may even start liking Yakuza again, if Y3 is better than the original in terms of storyline. I am really looking forward to Y3 especially since the out of place 'dating segments' have been removed, they were stupid fun but PS3 has trophies for that crap and I can't be bothered to play them.
5) I shared something I felt bad about as a DC fan, no Villain making, when I picked up Y1 I didn't even know who he was. I was all psyched up for it, I watched the prequel movie like a 100 times, and showed it to like 99 friends. I enjoyed the game but I was let down. I discussed the same complaints I mentioned here while I was playing it 2 years back with George.
6) I've read interviews where Nagoshi discussed being mentored by Yu Suzuki, I read it recently in Suzuki's interview as well. I don't see AM2's logo on my copy of Daytona USA (saturn), wikipedia says AM2/AM4 [AV] are responsible for it. You are right I don't know, to many inferences on my part.
Although I am sure Yakuza 2 bombed that is why SOA took so long to port Y3. Nonetheless he has started 4 new franchises, Planet Harriers, SpikeOut, Yakuza, and SpikeOut. 2 out of 4 failed, but even those 2 have a cult following. SpikeOut can also be considered a spiritual prequel to Yakuza.
You won point 6 😀
7) Your right, I don't know anything of Sakura Wars, I looked up some YouTube videos right now of so long my love and while I see common elements, I don't see graphics and art matching Canvas Engine. The anime portions are most likely anime videos playing. The in game graphics are no where near the Canvas engine.
You have to give me this, keep in mind you said 10 years ago and I looked the the latest one, and it still doesn't look like Valkyria.
8) Come on man, it isn't parodying Resident Evil that creatured looked like it was in the wrong game and if you look at the new trailers the Licker has been significantly altered. Further more we rapped up the YOTE discussion in the forums.
Sega got in a lot of trouble with Shinobi and Space Channel 5. Part of why Space Channel 5 disappeared can be attributed to the law suit (I know, Sega won).
Through my testing jobs I have played over 200 PlayStation 2 games, and with that I can say for a fact that Yakuza 2 is one of, if not the best looking game on the platform. The amount of detail, especially on the inside of buildings is literally astounding, and the fact they made the game just a year after the first one is literally mind blowing.
I cannot believe you are comparing stuff like Vice City to it, one of the highest budget games of last generation that was not even that graphically impressive. The biggest jump in quality was that they had more characters with moving faces.
And Daytona USA had a special release that had online play, completely directed by Nagoshi. It is quite rare, but it was known for running very well online, an impressive feat to say the least.
And I will back up Aki's point on Sakura Taisen. The battle system of the third, fourth, fifth and remake of the first all had an extremely similar battle system. Literally the only major addition Valkyria had was how characters reacted to the environment.
1) Check the credits of Banana Blitz, his only a producer in it.
3) http://www.segaonline.nl/blog/wp-content/gallery/…
If you consider this average than you've been playing in a different video game generation than the rest of us. Yakuza 1 and 2 look excellent and some of the best visuals on the Playstation 2. There is no two way about this, technically speaking the amount of people and detailed in the games are second to none on the PS2. Frankly it just seems like you have something against the series when you consider such work average.
5) To be fair, I do not agree with any of your comments, especially as you believe the major twist, chances are when you control the police and other major services, covering up something like that is plausible
6) AM2 did the arcade game and Nagoshi was working as an AM2 employee back then, thus my statement that he worked on the most successful arcade game of all time is not incorrect.
Yakuza 2 did not bomb, having seen the figures, it sold around half of what Yakuza 1 did and as Yakuza 2 only had translation costs mainly, it should recieve a moderate return. SEGA taking so long with Yakuza 3 is simply because Yakuza 3 is a 60 – 80 hour game in it's fullest.
Spikeout was a major success in the arcade for SEGA, it was thanks to this and Monkey Ball he was given the money to make Yakuza.
7) The CANVAS is nothing to sneeze at, just apply shaders and you're done, if you consider that technical marvel than you seriously need to reconsider what you consider a technical marvel. It's a refreshing change, but it's nothing great. As for the gameplay, as Sanus said, the battle system is extremely similar to Sakura Taisen.
8) The team stated they wanted to parody well known zombie franchises, this is why they have the name OF THE END and why we see them parodying Resident Evil. They've also made a parody out of Bruce Lee, samurai TV shows, detective shows and many other series. They do a lot of parody in the Yakuza titles, you may not notice it but I have.
1) Well then Kikizo was wrong, Nagoshi was wrong in the interview as well and in effect so was I. Thank You for correcting me.
3) Yes, it looks good I have said it looks good for like 3 posts now, average was an understatement. Great is on overstatement bare in mind we spend most of the game at a very distant angle.
5) This is a subjective thing now. I finally found it obsurd that X got shot and bled out in Kazuma's arms and flat lined in an ambulance, although it is probable that they did the whole X-Men Origins/Wolverine type drug thing, but without fleshing out the return it seems stupid. You can accept it, I can't. Just like you find a lot of plot holes in SA2 but they don't bother me. It is subjective. We agree to Disagree :D.
6) If Y1 didn't fail they wouldn't have removed the English dub.
If Y2 was a success they wouldn't have trimmed the dating and board game segments.
With a sequel you expect to out perform the original not 50%. SpikeOut has a following, but it was deemed to hard by most Nagoshi acknowledged that in his interview with Kikizo.
7) Great, now Valkyria isn't even anything special. Maybe it isn't I've only played it once at an airport for a few hours. I was blown away by the graphics and fludity, so for me at least and the reviews I read it looked amazing. I don't remember any critics talking about Yakuza's graphics, "go buy the game for it's visuals". According to Nagoshi the series banks on the "human drama" and if that is the case I want it to be perfect.
Let's face it (or atleast I am) long before the end of the 1st one I was bored of the constant battles and their insane load times, the graphics never amazed me to begin with. So the only thing that was driving me through was the conclusion of the narrative.
I'll say it one more time, the conclusion was satisfactory for the 1st game, with a few ridiculous moments. For the 2nd one, it was all a mess but it is probably one of those "over the top" things that you people like so much.
I personally was wondering why Majima and all of Kazuma's pals are waiting downstairs letting every Tom, Dick and Harry go up to the roof while Kazuma is all alone.
8 ) Okay, if you say so. But it is odd to see the Licker no longer resembling the Licker anymore then?
1) Nagoshi does not state it, only Kikizo does, Naka did precisely the same thing for the Sonic Team games he produced and was interviewed for and Iizuka did exactly the same thing with Sonic 4 and Sonic Colours, despite it being developed by Sonic Team and Dimps.
When acting as producer they more or less speak as the whole development team, solely to market the game more. This is why Kojima's name is attached to games he is not even part of, like Castlevania recently.
3) How is great an overstatement when THERE IS VERY FEW GAMES that are as good looking at it from a technical point? It's not subjective at all, Yakuza 2 pushes the Playstation 2 and is visually one of the best games on the console. Subjective is music, technology and what is done with it however can be very much objective. I'm afraid in this case for you, Yakuza 2 is very much an excellent graphical looking game.
There really is no two ways you can argue about this, you can say you do not like the art style, but speaking from a technical and factual standpoint, saying Yakuza 2 is anything but great would be wrong.
5) You can have explainations to this, some people naturally have this ability too, this is why some people are buried alive whilst there are some who can call on this ability. You could also factor that due to the Koreans already controlling the police force, you would think they'd have the ability to effectively fake someone's death and then he can go down the mystical drugs route.
I did not find plotholes that existed in Sonic Adventure 2 because it was not fleshed out, those were real plotholes that cannot be explained without breaking the plot. That is a plothole, not something that is not expanded on. A plothole is something that requires the plot to be broken to be explained, Yakuza 2 does not have that, Sonic Adventure 2 does.
6) They trimmed the dating stuff was for several reasons and sales was not one of them. The dating stuff is expanded way beyond what was in the original and two and SEGA seriously believed that not many people would care about these extra sidemissions. Clearly this was not the case. However you can still date the girls in Yakuza 3.
Spikeout in the arcades was a big hit though, unless you mean the Xbox game, in which case every SEGA Xbox game underperformed. Poor platform of choice.
7) Valkyria Chronicles has some of the worst animation in a highly acclaimed video game this generation. To call it fluid implies to me you don't really know much about technically specifications of graphics. And reviews have said how Yakuza has good graphics, a living city etc but to go out and play just for that? No one would tell you to go play a game just for it's graphics, in the end gameplay is what they recommend and most did recommend it in the end.
And if you do not like over the top stuff in SEGA games you are following the wrong publisher, this is one of the big traits of the developer, do you think Kazuma fights tigers and samurais simply to aid in the human drama of the series of because, just maybe, the development team feels that the series is still a video game.
Would you say Shenmue, a game that created a realistic world, is very realistic? Of course it's not. That does not mean it's bad, it just remembers what it is, a video game.
The simple fact is a lot is done for the sake of gameplay and this is also another thing that the series strengths or else they would not be improving the heat moves every game. Kazuma should be killing people by the end of the game the way he batters them, he does not. What happens in gameplay segments in many games is not what happens in cutscenes.
And good drama does not have to be based on a realistic setting, it just needs good emotions and acting skills. Consiidering the accolades it recieves from it's native Japan on a yearly basis, that is very much the case.
8 ) They still look the same? They had lizard like heads beforehand and they still have lizard like heads and the same body structure, what has changed?
I think you've nailed every point but I still have fight left. We're taking this discussion to page 3 bitch, lol (just kidding).
5) What about Kazuma fighting it out alone on the roof, where as the bad guys keep coming yet Goro et al just sit let every T,D, & H up?
Or do you suggest they were hiding somewhere in the building Goro was constructing?
As I said, it's a video game, by the end of the game Kazuma would have had over a hundred street battles, what isn't he stopped by the cops? Or how can you date two hostesses at the same time at the same bar? Why can characters take bullets ingame and not during cutscenes? As I said it's a game, during the gameplay segments, normal logic goes out the window or you just can't make a good game.
Sonic runs faster than sound, why does he run so slow in the game? How come Knuckles cannot fight against Robotnik in Sonic & Knuckles after being electricuted, but can otherwise do so in gameplay segments? These inconsistency exist solely to make a game a fun game, without all these baddies popping up everywhere, would the last level feel like a last level?
The game needs to break itself from normal logic or else it cant make good levels and so fourth. This is why I said you probably do not like any video game storyline barring one or two, they make a lot of expensives against logic just to make sure the gameplay is great.