Posts Tagged ‘Capcom’

Thinking back to last year’s Tokyo Game Show I recall the excitement I felt as I queued in the rain waiting to go in. The expectant crowd and I anticipating the moment the doors would open so we could enter the three huge halls that comprised the Makuhari Messe exhibition center. Everyone in line was doing the same thing; contemplating what we wanted to see when we finally got in.

By comparison this years event had decidedly less of the energy I felt in the crowd the previous year. I was still excited about going to the show but more of the rush came from being able attend the industry days. Reduced foot traffic would mean access to more games and my appointments would enable me to get time with developers rather than just being patronized by the (cute) booth staff.

Entering the floor bore out my predictions. It was quieter, as demonstrated by the fact within an hour I had played more games than I managed in a whole day the previous year, but somehow it was also less exciting. Perhaps the thrill of the open floor was muted by the realization that there were few titles I was interested in. None of the big titles I wanted to see where on the floor, and the games that were had distinctly less buzz than those at the ’08 show.

Both Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter 4 had been present in 2008. These were franchises that shaped the way I look at games, the two games from my youth that I remember most fondly. Their presence alone had had me agitated with excitement at the prospect of seeing what Capcom had planed for my cherished memories. By contrast the ’09 line up was filled with series that I acknowledge are top tier (such Final Fantasy XIII) but held none of the nostalgic impact for me.

Another contributing factor to my comparative indifference to the show resulted from the lack off publishers present. I wasn’t aware before the show how few of the big western developers made the trip to Japan, but when many of the years big releases are the properties of companies like EA and Activision their absence becomes painfully evident.

It wasn’t just western publishers who had deemed not to attend either. I don’t know whether it was an economic reason or a lack of product, but a number of the larger Japanese companies were also missing in action. SNK was among these notable absentees. Last year had the company present in full force with a huge display for King of Fighters 12 that occupied much of the entrance hall, but their nonattendance this year saw their floor space filled with mobile phone game developers. Tecmo and Koei’s merging this year also resulted in a reduced floor presence as the two huge areas they had previously occupied were now reduced to one.

To compound feeling of a lack of ‘AAA’ titles, many of this year’s big releases have been rated ‘Z’ by CERO Japan’s governing classifications body. Under this rating the games in stores are segregated from other games and put out of reach of under twenty-one year olds. At the show this translated to them being hidden from view in darken rooms. Thus it was only on my second day that I realized a number of games I wanted to see were present. Left 4 Dead 2, God of War 3 and Heavy Rain all remained hidden from view, making them hard to find if you explicitly go searching for them. This ended up being quite costly to my coverage because games that weren’t immediately self-evident I assumed were casualties of the diminished developer presence.

It may seem like I was unimpressed by my TGS ’09 experiences, but despite the lack of energy it remained a fascinating weekend. I got to see, and more importantly play, lots of fantastic games.

The highlights for me remain the time I spent with Q-Games, Capcom and The Behemoth (expect a transcription of my interview with them soon). Each of these companies had knowledgeable representatives (PR or developers) on hand who were happy to answer all my questions, rather than just bustle me through their booth. While they were obviously there to promote their games it didn’t dilute the feeling that these were companies confident in their products and happy to push it to the community.

In the end I was lucky enough to actually see the majority I wanted to. I did miss Okami Den and Valkiria Chronicles 2 but for the two days I was there I think I got to see about as much as I could have hoped to while leaving myself time to cover what I saw in a timely fashion.

If truth were told I was almost at breaking point through out my two days at the show. Existing the first day on three hours sleep and without food, I ran from 5am on Friday until 4am Saturday when I finally decided (after writing up eight articles) that I should try and sleep before my 8am alarm for the following day. The second day I was in two minds about even attending, remembering my success (or lack there of) on the previous year’s open days. Unfortunately one site I was writing for had requested photos of booth babes and coz-players (not something I am comfortable with) and as there were no coz-players on the industry day I had to make the return trip. As I took the pictures I reasoned that I was skillfully hiding hide myself among the crowds of Japanese otaku trying to get up skirt shots, making me feel less self conscious. I wasn’t of course, I am nearly two meters tall with red hair, but it made me feel a little less perverted as I took my surreptitious photos.

It was also nice to see the larger crowd on the public day, as while the industry days expedites coverage, the enthused visitors create an excitement around the event that is infectious. Sadly though it was immediately apparent that the audience was significantly diminished from that of ’08. Even accounting for the extra space created from the reduced developers attendance the halls felt empty (or at least as empty as any where can feel with around sixty one thousand people in a room).

It transpires that the crowd was in fact some ten thousand fewer on the first public day this year, almost solely accounting for the dip in overall attendance. Honestly I don’t know what to attribute these reduced numbers to. Initially I assumed it would be linked to the amount of coverage the games on show have already received, combined with the fact that for anyone who had attended one of the other recent previous events, such as E3, PAX or Game Com, would have already seen the demos on offer. This certainly seemed to be the feeling among foreign games press who made the journey to Japan to cover the event only to be met by the same games that they had seen less than a month previously at PAX. But the missing ten thousand people would nearly all be Japanese consumers, almost all of whom would not have attended the overseas events.

So perhaps the reduced numbers were related to the reduced number of developers and big name games at the show. The 2008 show was full of big name Japanese titles; Final Fantasy XIII, Kingdom Hearts games, Resident Evil, Street Fighter and King of Fighters were all on so and some time from release. 2009 only really saw Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear Solid still flying the flag for the big Japanese franchises. With the Metal Gear demo hitting the internet almost simultaneously with the show opening and Final Fantasy XIII just around the corner, gamers were probably more eager to save their entry fee and train fair (over ¥30,000 in the end for me) and put it towards buying the games rather than queuing to play them.

I finally gave up on the show at about 3pm on the Saturday. Having only had time to see two games in the length queues I decided my time would be better spent typing up previews for the fourteen games I had already seen rather than joining the two and a half hour line for a play of Heavy Rain. So I headed home along with my crushing headache, probably a result of sleep deprivation. It was a different and far more productive experience than 2008, but it remained expensive, tiring and something I am glad I don’t have to do too often.

It seems that recently the gaming world exploded on Resident Evil 5’s portrayal of race. It feels like every major gaming enthusiast site had something to say about it. Opinions have ranged from indignant to uncaring, but whatever your stance it is a debate worth having. Many of the articles seem worthy of a response, some even making me reconsider my own position. The more I read the more I appreciated that, for some, images in the game could conjure uncomfortable associations. Rather than re-treading numerous online theological discussions on this topic I am going to keep this short and explain why, especially from my point of position viewing Japanese media as an outsider, I don’t feel this game is racist.

Even Obama isn't safe from Japanese 'comedy'.

The thing to remember is that this is not a Western game. As I type this I am watching a female Japanese comedian dance around on prime time TV with shoe polish on her face pretending to be Michael Jackson. Last week I watched a man with his cheeks painted white, burbling absurdities interspersed with the word ‘fucking’ as an impersonation of Quinton Tarantino. While the Japanese are aware of the race issue the culture is not as sensitive to it. There is a lack of exposure to foreign cultures, and the exposure most people receive do are curios. That these curios could be offensive to the ethnicities they represent doesn’t enter the viewer’s consciousness. It is this environment into which you have to place RE5.

Capcom isn’t ignorant. It makes entertainment media for the world market and is aware of the issues involved; but maybe not fully. No matter how much you educate yourself on the subtleties of issues as historical and as deeply felt as race you can never truly appreciate it without living it. Resident Evil 5′s imagery does contain negative or offensive implications to some, but I suspect all of the scenes people are reacting to are iconic images drawn from other media (primarily cinema). The white muscle bound hero, the zombies in African tribal ware, the rioting mob even the (incredibly out of place) victimisation of a white blonde woman are all Hollywood tropes. While any individual element could be dismissed or explained the cumulative effect of all of them viewed concurrently become difficult to ignore. Capcom’s awareness drove them to create their paper thin narrative explanations for their design choices, but these became thinner with each passing digression.

Let’s face it this isn’t the first time Capcom has made use of racial iconography.

What I am trying to say is that you have to imagine that Japan and Capcom’s sensibilities are stuck in the early 70’s. Much like my father they use the world view they have been surrounded by for the majority of their life. Sometimes this leads them to say things which could cause offence but with no hate or malice. While they should be savvier to the audience they intend to reach, the reality is that their errors are ingrained, the imagery they use is just what they feel is an accurate representation of what they want to convey. Arguably even the Japanese could simply do with being more enlightened and cosmopolitan. But perhaps equally we have to be more understanding and excepting of the culture that produced this fantastic game, rather than judging it messages by our standards.

The latest Famitsu published images of the upcoming line of Uniqlo gaming shirts. Featuring classic games from Tecmo, Hudson, Namco Bandai, Sega, SCEJ and Capcom I will admit to being more than a little excited at the prospect of kitting myself out in these this April when they are released.

 

Resident Evil and Street Fighter provided some of the more subtle offerings. Neither displayed prominent character or logos, siding more with words and symbols. Unfortunately my photos taken surreptitiously in a Lawson didn’t come out to well so I had to fall back on images snapped up from the web which didn’t include my two favorites. The RE5 khaki long sleeved t-shirt with a small BSAA insignia on the front (with Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance written in full on the back) and the Street Fighter shirt with only the iconic down, down forwards, forward, punch symbols emblazed across the chest. Day one purchases for me.

 

Also available are shirts in which iconic characters and logos take more prominent place. The Pacman shirt pictured on the right here is one of the more stylish examples of this. A simple logo on the chest (and four ghosts on the arse) offers a mere suggestion of your favored pass time instead of physically assaulting onlookers eyes with it (like the garish Ridge Racer and Ape Escape shirts).

Uniqlo’s tagline for these shirts is ‘Find one that says exactly how you feel.’ Well evidently I feel ‘exactly’ like a geek, as I am very excited about these and have at least five shirts I am ready to run out and buy already. Roll on April.

 

Images taken from – UTxGame

Logic would dictate that having just bought Street Fighter 4 I would probably not be needing another one on one fighter for some time. Logic be damned! A week after purchasing SF4 I saw the Wii equivalent on sale in Japan and snapped it up.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is a continuation of the X vs. Capcom games (where X = Marvel, X-men or SNK) a series of Street Fighter variants on acid. It takes the core elements of SF and super charges the jumps and special moves to the point of ludicrousness. Jumps can span three screens; super moves make the screen explode in a sea of colour and bosses dwarf the player characters. It takes a game which is familiar to many, removes much of strategy and skill replacing it with the silly (oh and mini-games).

The other element to know about in understanding the game is Tatsunoko. A Japanese comic and cartoon brand most famous in the west for Battle of the Planets. Beyond that they are pretty much unknown outside the otaku fan community (side note – interestingly otaku is in the Microsoft Word dictionary, update – so is sayonara). This doesn’t stop the game being fun, but does mean you gravitate towards the familiar Capcom characters.

That is really what the game is about; character and personality. It isn’t balanced. It doesn’t pretend to be. You pick the two characters you like or are familiar with and hope that the designers deemed to make the one of the stronger characters. For two players it’s great you jump in with who ever you fancy, fight and then argue about why you lost. It is a party game Street Fighter game.

Its fun (most of the time) assuming you have some knowledge of the characters beyond Ryu and Chun-Li. Unfortunately the single player becomes infuriating towards the end. Remember my complaints that Seth was cheap? Well this puts everything in perspective. Seth is easy, reasonable and huggable compared to this piece of shit. Yes I said shit. The majority of single player is actually quite easy, and then you meet the final boss (as seen in Okami). Supposedly the ultimate evil, it has three forms. The first is reasonable enough. The second provides reasonable challenge. The final form however takes the form of unreasonable frustration, which I am near positive on normal difficulty is impossible without two of the stronger characters to make up you team.

That said apart from this frustration of the final boss it is the perfect fighting game for the Wii, far more suited to the majority of the Wii audience than SF4. It requires very little experience to enjoy, and it looks better than the majority of titles available for Wii. It is less complex than the traditional Capcom fighters making it easier for inexperienced player to pick up. The classic punch and kick buttons are replaced with context dependent light, mid and heavy strikes as well as adding a partner button. Counters, parries and reversals are all replaced with partner moves and baroques which while retaining the depth are more easily executable by novice players. Any time you do anything even mildly note worthy you are rewarded with rainbow colours and screen shattering effects. Its Street Fighter Smash Bros. taking the most enjoyable and accessible elements of each and making a fighter experienced players and casual gamers can enjoy on near equalled footing.

A lot of gaming enthusiasts are hoping this game gets a western release. But I wouldn’t you’re your breath. The Tatsunoko character licences are divided in the west and even if they could get them back together only the hardcore would be interested in the licence; and they can import it (with a Freeloeader #Update – not any more#). As I said, it’s a game that relies on character and personality and when you only know four or five characters (and that is generous for the majority of Wii owners) it looses something. Perhaps if they remade it with Hanna Barbera it could work. Scrappy Doo vs. Ryu anyone?