Mighty No.9 and the Decline of Capcom

With the phenomenal success of Mighty No. 9 on Kickstarter,  raising over $4 million and now getting a release on all major platforms, it is clear to see how many people wanted a new Megaman game (or at least a game in the style of Megaman).

The question that needs to be asked is why Capcom still hasn’t released anything to combat this obvious plea for more of the Blue Bomber?

For me, the success of Kenji Inafune’s passion project and Capcom’s lack of comment on the issue symbolises how far the company has fallen. The sad thing is that this is just one of many missteps and missed opportunities by the former golden boy within the third party market which has left in now an object of ridicule and hate, almost in line with EA or Activision.

 First off was Capcom’s ridiculous on-disk DLC policy, with games like Street Fighter X Tekken, which forced fans to buy for content which was already on the disk.

Secondly was their cancellation of Megaman Legends for the 3DS, which caused more anger amongst an already bitter fanbase. Along with their terrible port of Megaman X to iOS devices, which stripped out most of the fun of the SNES classic by adding micro-transactions and hints to the game.

Moreover, their continued resistance to really back Monster Hunter in the West seems utterly stupid. The western Monster Hunter fan base is one of the most loyal around and would only make Capcom more money of this well-loved franchise.

Also, the continual ‘dumbing down’ of the Resident Evil series, again only serves to smack loyal fans in the face with substandard gameplay and none of the survival-horror-goodness the series is famous and celebrated for.

While Capcom has brought out some good games in the past few years like Dragon’s Dogma or Ghost Trick, these gems are buried underneath the mountains of DLC fiascos and multiple releases of Street Fighter IV with scarce new content.

All these bad decision not only harm Capcom financially by denying mountains of cash (as seen clearly by the standard set by Mighty No. 9) but greatly impact their perception as a game company, with them seemingly abandoning hardcore fans to create mediocre games which no-one seems to be buying.

Thankfully, developers like Comcast and Platinum Games seem to be picking up the slack, thanks to former Capcom employees like Shinji Mikami or Kenji Inafune still making great games. It is sad to see that a company once known for industry standard franchises like Street Fighter and Megaman, is just running itself into the ground.

Unless Capcom can get back on track by releasing a new Megaman or bringing back some old favourites like Viewtiful Joe or Okami into the next generation, rather than trotting out a new Dead Rising, bereft of all charm and colour, we may see them become the Japanese equivalent of EA.

 

Sam Foxall

The state of: Narrative

One of the most important facets of a game is how it presents its narrative.

A narrative is not  only  the  basic  plotline,  but  also  the  experience  of  going  through  a  story.

The primary tools used are the plot and characters.

A game’s plot is the medium through which the general  impression  of  what  the  game  is ‘actually  about’  is  conveyed  to  the  player.  If  the protagonist  is  a  Special  Forces  soldier  and the plot  revolves  around  defeating terrorists,  then  this  tells  the  player  that  it  is  a  military narrative.

 Plot  cannot  convey  an  entire  narrative  on  its  own,  however,  and  is  itself affected  by  other elements  of any given game.

It’s easy  to  see  this when  you look at gameplay itself.

Even basic elements of how we play the game convey a sense of narrative, affecting  the  overall  ‘mood’  of  the  story.

If a game is a  straightforward  FPS,  the main  point  of  interaction  between  the  player  and  the  surrounding  environment  is through the gun. This shows that the game is primarily action orientated,  obstacles are overcome through combat, also  affecting  how  the  story  pans  out.

Imagine,  however,  if  the gameplay  was orientated  around  stealth.  If  the  protagonist  had  to  sneak  past  his  foes  rather  than running in guns blazing.

The entire mood of the game would be different. Gameplay affects narrative just as much as plot. We can see this with two other aspects – the game environment  and  the  enemies in it.

An environment tells us what sort of story is being told and, when used effectively, is a perfect medium for conveying the story itself.

The hellish otherworld in the Silent-Hill-series conveyed  that  this was a horror narrative, whilst the design of the city of Rapture helped tell the player about Andrew Ryan’s  vision  of  the  future.

Of  course,  the  environment  needs  a  story  to  work  with otherwise games seem less than their potential. The environment in Dark-Sector oozed character  and  atmosphere,  but the  story  was minimal  and  the  whole  effect  fell  flat.

Enemies  also  convey  narrative.  The  splicers  of  Bioshock  helped  convey  the tragedy of a fallen utopia, whilst the infected peasants of Resident Evil 4 helped show the effects of a sinister parasite overtaking a peaceful town.

The best games are ones that  weave  all  these  elements  –  plot,  gameplay,  environment  and  NPCs  together  to deliver  a  strong narrative.

If  used  correctly,  these elements can  go  a  long  way  in covering  up  a game’s  weaknesses.

James Dyson

The State of: Horror Games

It wouldn’t be overly exaggerated to say that as a genre in of itself, horror has gotten something of a raw deal over the last half decade or so, especially when compared to other triple A areas like action-adventure and especially fps’s.

Indeed, there are a good many  articles  and  online  videos  that  wonder if it  will  survive  at  all.

Certainly,  there have  been  a  few  games  here  and  there,  a Dead  Space  or  a Dead  Island,  though  they have  tended  to  miss  more  than  hit  the  mark,  either  becoming  increasingly  action-orientated to the detriment of any real ‘survival-horror’, or simply being action games with grotesque enemies in  them.

In my view, however, we are on  the brink of (if we have not already begun) a revival in the sector.

Amnesia was a smashing success met to  critical  acclaim,  and  the  future  looks  good;  it  has  a  sequel  incoming,  Eternal Darkness (a Lovecraftian cult classic which inspired the former) looks like its getting a spiritual  successor, Resident Evil Revelations is  getting  a  port  to  consoles,  and  Shinji Mikami is returning to work his magic on the new project The Evil Within, to mention but a few developments.

The  question  is  why are we  experiencing  this  boom? I  think  that  one  of  the reasons is that both developers and investors in games have realised that there is still a market for horror games as horror games.

Though the original Dead Space might not have been pure horror (compared to, say, the Fatal Frame series), it was still certainly a horror game, emphasising isolation, resource management and maintaining a strong sense of narrative, and managed to make a decent return.

 

Likewise Amnesia, made on far less of a budget, was popular not because of, say, outstanding Crysis level graphics or multiplayer, but precisely because it knew that it was horror and set out to be just that. Even Slender, with a virtually nonexistent story and poor graphics, has been a hit purely by dint of emphasising those key aspects of what makes horror of any medium successful – such as helplessness, a hostile environment, and a threat far greater than the protagonist.

It’s interesting to note that one of the biggest complaints about action games masquerading as  horror – in  particular, Resident  Evil  5 and  6 – isn’t  that  the controls  are  bad  or  that  the  action  isn’t  satisfying;  it’s  that  they  have  sacrificed everything  that  would  make  a  game  scary  in  favour  of  bland,  shooter-orientated design.

A possible path this illuminates for gamers who want to see horror return is to show the industry that there is still a viable market for horror qua horror.

Purchasing selectively,  and  even  looking  further  afield  for  smaller  games  that  don’t  require  as much investment as triple A ones, and hence do not have to dilute the horror formula to see a return profit, will continue  to show  the gaming industry as a whole  that  the genre still has potential.

That, and buy The Evil Within when it comes out. Do it.

 

James Dyson