TheDanslator

Fun fact: Journey to Silius started as a Terminator game. IIRC they lost the license, so reskinned it a bit. You can still totally see the connection, though. Unfortunately it's a bit bland.

@bluemage1989 I'd rather be a contrarian weeb (whatever that even means) than a stonecold jerk.

I had to watch the video twice to even see it at all.

Yup, sure is a game-breaking error that shows Gamefreak's dark heart and money-grubbing agenda. Boy howdy, they're basically Hitler at this stage.

I'm a sad baby who is mad that my toys don't match my platonic ideals. So of course I'm buying both but angrily telling the internet it's neither.

I pre-ordered the blood version, which comes with blood. It's only available in the back of my work shed. Hurry, while supplies last.

Great, now fix the script.

Simple story about a celebrity geeking on Nintendo immediately devolves into orgy of alt-right hate? Must be a weekday at NintendoLife.

@JRJalapeno I picked this up last week. You learn about the kraken almost immediately after the game starts. This is no more a spoiler to the story than describing the setting would be. I promise, the intrigue is all still quite hidden!

Definitely Europe or Japan here. I picked Japan because anything this quintessentially Japanese looks weird without blocks of Japanese text to go with it. I also like the vertical orientation better.

It's a secret to everybody!

"You can't charge me $10 for this sandwich. I ate here last week and you charged me $10, so it should be less now it's a week later and the same experience!"

That's how you sound, you dullards.

"Virtue signaling", "injecting politics..." Yeesh.

If you're alright with it, just say so, but stop hiding behind your dog whistles and pretending it's the rest of the world's problem that you lack empathy.

Oof, none of these is great. Awkward art all around, and annoying screen shots and flavor text clutter the European/Japanese ones.

@Spudtendo Careful! That type of reasoned, logical take on a review isn't looked too kindly upon 'round these parts. In NL's comments, it's reactionary double standards or GTFO.

@Priceless_Spork A vacuum would imply it was created outside of culture entirely; outside of time and space, even. That sounds like an excuse you use to pretend you're not accountable for how/why you process art.

@Bliquid I played this whole thing the day it released on PS2 in one sitting, and came away crushed at how utterly Capcom failed to get anything right. It was though they played the first one and deliberately designed #2 to be the opposite experience: graphics, enemies, story, and acting are all bad. This version adds in the ravages of time, which I'm sure did the drab, cookie cutter design no favors. Honestly if I had reviewed this, I'm not sure I could have even given it a four.

@Gauchorino Art criticism involves understanding the context and social issues of the world art exists in. No art exists in a vacuum, no matter how much you may want that to be so. All the gaming websites I visit do so, including this one. Just because you happen to disagree doesn't make it trashy or wrong. And a "bait-and-switch" implies deception. I don't recall Polygon ever once advertising that you won't find the type of materials they write.

Laughing at "Polygon = tabloid" while posting comments on NL. If they're somehow a tabloid, so is every internet gaming rag. You don't agree with their positions on issues, so they're not "real news." Classic 2019 politicking.

How could anyone do this!

Interesting to see some say that the simplicity of the Western designs turns them off. I've always felt that the simple design choices invites the imagination to run wild with the possibilities of the adventure within. I remember being very small and just staring at my brother's gold NES cart with its simple label, and longing to know what it was about.

I like the European art here. It doesn't have that obnoxious ad for the color dungeon, and the black background makes it stand out in comparison to the traditional gold of the series.

@HappyMaskedGuy Stealing doesn't require intent with copyright. They took a manga they don't own the rights to, and scanned pages pages for use in their for-profit product. Under current law that would be enough for Bandai to sue Nintendo, and given the money involved in the Sailor Moon property overall, two million is chump change.

Yes, it's money over people. That's how they roll; that's how the whole world rolls. I'm not endorsing it, but to act like this was an anomaly is baffling.

@HappyMaskedGuy They didn't just make a reference, they straight up stole assets and used them without even asking Nintendo, with whom they contracted to do the work, let alone Bandai. That kind of action would absolutely be prohibited by their contract. And for Nintendo to avoid a lawsuit, they needed to show that they took it seriously: that means holding the people responsible accountable, and making a proactive offer of payment.

I'm not saying it's not ridiculous. But this is the world that billion dollar corporations move in, and they're the ones who've lobbied to have laws written to maximize their profits and crush competition.

@HappyMaskedGuy If they hadn't caught it and Bandai Namco found out about it later, it could have cost them much, much more than this. The ridiculously litigious nature of corporations combined with draconian copyright law means Nintendo has to take it seriously, regardless of what should be. After all, the Big N knows how viciously they protect their own assets!

$20... Christ, I spent more than that watching the last Avengers movie; at least this is an original idea. If you're going to go money/hours = value, you're going to miss a lot of joy in life. Hell, by that metric a crappy freemium phone game is the greatest gaming investment available!

I love seeing the ridiculous hills NL's commenters come to die on. Good show, fellas! (And it's definitely the fellas.)

He lied about a key factor used to determine eligibility for a record. It's no different than when the Chinese lie about the ages of gymnasts to get a potential leg up over the competition. At the end of the day, whether he's capable or not is moot: he broke the rules and then lied and gaslit his accusers. To me, that stinks of a lack of sportsmanship through and through, and the response was proportional and reasonable.

Christ, these comments. Thank you for once again relieving me of my faith in humanity, NL commentariat!

@CurryPowderKeg79 No need to beat yourself up over one missing 'o.' It happens to the best of us!

@CurryPowderKeg79

A scribbled picture is a doodle, not doddle. We don't use doddle at all in the U.S. that I'm aware of.

Guys, they haven't spoiled the plot because it's literally impossible to spoil. If he typed up a detailed synopsis of the entire story in painstaking detail, it would still fail to spoil anything. It's like saying you can spoil Twin Peaks. This game is that completely bonkers from top to bottom.

As to the score, it's a subjective quantification of the reviewer's overall feelings. It is no more or less valid than your own, but to imply that it's a bad review because it disagrees with you is ludicrous. We may as well do away with reviews entirely.

Christ, the gall that NL didn't check literally every translation, and compare to every previous translation of every version, to ensure there were no mistakes...

I'd love to follow you lot around all day. I'm curious what it's like to have infinite time, money, and be absolutely perfect in everything you do.

@embison Yes, I know that. My comment was about pronunciation, not genre.

I say 'tah-tay," but I learned Japanese first, so I never had an opportunity to interpret it any other way. It just means vertical, so not terribly interesting. It's cool to think of others not knowing that but still going with the flow. Like the word Nintendo itself!

Leave it to NL's reactionary snowflakes to get all hot and bothered when a reviewer dares inject their 'politics' (read: common sense) when calling out the story. It's not like y'all are doing literally the same thing in calling for preserving the status quo. Hooray for hypocrisy!

Ah, more shining examples of the measured, nuanced perspectives I've come to expect from NL's comments.

Ah, another post exciting the reactionaries in your comments section. Look at them ostensibly giggling at all the supposed "snowflakes," while simultaneously and paradoxically being unable to stand one thing that dares challenge their worldview. It would be hilarious if it weren't so dangerous. Sigh.

I speak and read Japanese, and the Gengo translation is spot on.

If you don't think it looks good, that's a fair opinion and you're welcome to it - they can have redone everything and done a poor job of it. I don't really agree, but I won't say you can't feel how you feel. To say they're trying to obfuscate the truth because they're lazy is just utter nonsense, though. It's a Pokemon game, guys. Stop treating it like it matters enough for that level of gamesmanship.

@Deathwalka Sure, man. Whatever you say.

@Deathwalka
In that line of thinking, only people with criminal tendencies enjoy GTA; only people with murderous tendencies enjoy Mortal Kombat; only Japanese people enjoy Persona 5; only women enjoy Tomb Raider...

You see, none of those concepts threatens your worldview, so you see no active connection between enjoying the role-play and the character of the player. But as soon as the game is about a minority sexual identity suddenly we all have gay tendencies inside.

I do embrace myself, and I'm not the least interested in men sexually. No shade, just not my jam. I'm interested in this game, though, because I hear it's a well written lark and I think it's cool to spend some time in the shoes of people who are different from myself. I'm not sure why it needs to be more complicated than that. The fact that you seem utterly driven to make it more complicated says an awful lot more about your inner conflict than I think you're prepared to face.

@Deathwalka
Straight man here, and I'm going to play this. I've spent the last 30 years playing games starring dudes like me. It's always refreshing to get an opportunity to play as someone very different from myself.

Nothing about this makes me uncomfortable. I don't know why it should. You can't turn gay any more than you can turn straight. (But, like, who cares if I did turn gay. Oh no, now I like dudes! Darn!) You are what you are. If this game is making you feel something, maybe explore what and why. You might learn something about the world or yourself (or both).

@Tirza The reviewer was provided with a review copy, so they could review it and the developers can get some free press. This isn't exactly rocket science. Do you honestly think professional reviewers pay out-of-pocket for the games they review?

@WiltonRoots Good on you for keeping a level head and some perspective. You're certainly doing a better job than I am! You have a good weekend, too!

@WiltonRoots Well said, and a perfect analogy! My condolences, though, that you must suffer this in your professional life in addition to here... 😵

@WiltonRoots Exactly! I'm also getting this, and I was a day one purchaser of both original and DX versions on Gameboy. It's that good.

Not to mention, I paid something like $40 for this in 1993. That's in the neighborhood of $80 in 2019 money.

If you've never played this game before, it'll be a miracle if you can beat it in 10 hours. It's 15 easy, probably closer to 20 hours to do everything. And that's just the original content, and so not including totally new for this version.

Look, they're building this game from the ground up: new art, animation, music, and reworking the controls; they're probably redoing the localization too. To suggest that those efforts are reimbursed cheaply is preposterous. You're welcome to skip if you don't want to spend the money, but stop acting so self righteous about it.

@mgnoodle Must be why @dezzy seems so offended at people calling out his moronic comment.

Jason Schreier jokingly mentioned this as his crazy hope for E3 on last week's Kotaku Splitscreen podcast (which I highly recommend if you're not already listening). I wouldn't be surprised if some yutz misunderstood that as an actual prediction, and that's how this started.

FFS knock it off with the "but games with boobs are bad?!" straw-man counterargument to the support for this game. Few people argue that sex or fan service are objectively bad. It's the extreme emphasis on fan-service for straight men that gets the most grief, and thus the goal is to aim for a level playing field of representation. In a perfect world both this game and Senran Kagura would be part of a vast and diverse cornucopia of sexy games for everyone. That we need to comment at all is evidence enough that we're very far from a perfect world, so the fight continues.

@Tirza Go ahead and download this shovelware detritus, then. I'm sure that'll show 'em.

They can change the animation all they want. It's still going to be hot garbage.