JinTypeNoir • Comments

• Resident Evil: Revelations introduces wacky new costumes

• JinTypeNoir 16/05/2013

  The new costumes are supposedly free unlockables, not downloadable wallet-rapers. Reply +1

• Ace Attorney 5 will be an eShop-only offering

• JinTypeNoir 14/05/2013

  @kassmageant That isn't true. I think EG is going off the press release, but according to Japanese pre-release materials and the freakin' boxart, the main antagonist is the a creepy-looking guy called Jin Yugami. I'm not sure he has a name in English yet though. The Capcom press release only mentions the first case, the bomb case, which, like all other titles, is a tutorial like case that sees an appearance from someone in the Payne family.
  
  Also people who are railing on Capcom to release Layton vs. Ace need to realize Level 5 has the rights to publish it (Capcom has nothing to do with the publication in Japan too) and it is not up to Capcom on whether it gets translated or not, so direct your attention to Level 5. Reply +4

• Retro shmup/metroidvania A.N.N.E. hits its Kickstarter goal

• JinTypeNoir 13/05/2013

  More versions'll come out tomorrow, bet your bottom pledge, that tomorrow there'll be a Mac version! Just thinkin' about tomorrow, clears away the stretch goals and the sorrow, 'til there's gender swap mode! When I'm stuck a day, that's gray, and lonely, I just wait for my pledges, and grin, and say, Ouya'll come out tomorrow, so ya gotta hang on til tomorrow! Come what may! PSN! Vita! I love ya! Wii U, you're always a day away! Reply +1

• Silicon Knights is "very busy" and "definitely alive"

• JinTypeNoir 10/05/2013

  What is this the GlaDOS definition of still alive? Busy doing what? Wasting investors' money while chomping on potato chips and watching re-runs of Mork & Mindy? Reply +4

• Level-5's horror adventure curio The Starship Damrey due next week on 3DS eShop

• JinTypeNoir 09/05/2013

  I'm Japanese and I generally can only play Japanese region games, though obviously I understand English. I post on English sites because I've always liked foreign games and have been able to understand English to a degree since I was a wee little dickhead. I've been waiting for some sign that Lego City or Sonic Racing Transformed will come here, but no such luck.
  
  Since I don't always come into these comments sections, if you want, you can PM me for info and reviews about e-shop games that are translated from Japan. I usually buy them all each week. Reply +3

• JinTypeNoir 09/05/2013

  If EG won't do it, I will.
  
  Friday Monsters: Fun and charming, but entirely dependent on enjoying the atmosphere. It does in no way capitalize on its wondrous idea, because its just too short. You can tell it was meant to have a lot more budget and time put into it and something was cut. The only thing you can do to lengthen the time is play a card game, which isn't all that deep. Similarly, beside that, there isn't much to do. You mainly go around and talk to people and just enjoy the atmosphere, kind of like Animal Crossing without all the extra activities and the setting removed to 1970s Japan. Its one of those "Play for a couple of hours and get sucked into the atmosphere" indie games that are all the rage these days. Also has an absolutely gorgeous use of 3D and one of the best looking games on the system. I sat there at one location and just listened to the environmental noise for about 15 minutes while watching the animation and it was just a very healing and relaxing experience in a non-batty-New-Age way.
  
  If you've heard of Boku no Natsuyasumi (My Summer Vacation) which is related to this game, those titles are far superior in terms of play value, but this is a nice chunk of nostalgia and sweet, cute childhood for what it is. If you are one of those people who are like, "LOL, Super Mario Bros. shouldn't cost anymore than the price of gum these days because its a ROM" than it might be a good idea to stay far away from this one. If you like games like atmosphere games Dear Esther, Yume Nikki, Knytt or Flower then I it can be recommended.
  
  Bug Tanks: Ew, I hate bugs. -1000/10 Though from the Japanese e-shop, this game has the highest rating and sold significantly better than any of the other Guild 02 releases. People have said the missions can feel samey and some don't like that you don't seem to have complete control over the tanks, but there's more content than the other two games, I believe. Definitely not for people who are squeamish for bugs, because even for people who have a high tolerance for bugs, it seemed they were grossed out and got slightly sick playing this game.
  
  Damrey: Play it, you might like it. Again, a review is pointless for this one. Its something you should read after you play it. Take a chance if you think you might like it. It was highly polarizing in Japan. Some people really loved it and considered it one of the best experiences they'd had all year, gripping, intense and fascinating. I would be in that camp. Other people thought it was not nearly as clever as advertised and was pretty banal and badly written. The whole point of the game is to try to replicate what these types of mysterious story driven games were like in the days back when there was no internet to spoil the surprises or give you any help in defeating it.
  
  I will say that if it did that one thing it did the whole way through, it would have been an indisputable masterpiece, but it eventually becomes something else, which isn't bad, but not quite as inspired. And there is game play merit to not continuing along the lines of that one thing it did, because if it did, very few people would have been able to complete it on their own merit. I disagree that the writing is bad though. Not as original as it may claim, but certainly not bad.
  
  I imagine they will include the bonus material you can only get from having Guild 01 for free since there is no way you can buy the Guild 01 physical version overseas. Its a little extra piece of chilling short story that adds an extra dimension to one aspect of the story. Seeing that bumped up my opinion of it another notch.
  
  There's your reviews, happy now? Reply +19

• JinTypeNoir 09/05/2013

  It's neither a visual novel or a survival horror game. It's a tribute to the old PC story-heavy games of the past which had obscure and hard to progress points in it, but updated to be easier to complete. It's not very long, but if it gets its hooks in you, you might really enjoy it. Reply +2

• Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut review

• JinTypeNoir 08/05/2013

  @RussellGorall Hmm, I think a better analogy would be sex when someone tries something kinky that you don't like out of the blue and beyond your expectations, its not that bad, but you don't necessarily want to do it every time you have sex. Or sex with a funny valentine who's figure is less than Greek being surprisingly more memorable and satisfying than a flawless super model.
  
  No matter how bad a game's flaws are, I don't think it will have any impact on your long time health or have any chance of killing you. ;) Reply 0

• JinTypeNoir 07/05/2013

  I hope this game never disappears from the public consciousness of gamers, because it and Nier are the best arguments for why an experience considered flawless is not always a better experience. Reply +31

• Ocean views and indie gaming: introducing the developers on the tip of the African continent

• JinTypeNoir 06/05/2013

  Nice job! Again, it may not get you as many clicks in the short term, but I think these are the types of articles we've been begging for since time immemorial -- using your own noggin' to work out and write pieces about parts of the industry that aren't yet wildly known. I remember your last article about African developers and I hope you continue them. (It must be nice to get to go South Africa too.)
  
  Though I suppose you were asking to be comprehensive about the types of plans these companies I have, it struck me as odd whenever the AAA game question came up. AAA games these days, are much of the time, have no values any young and nurturing industry should aspire to.
  
  I'm going go try Broforce once Unity Web Player is done installing. Reply +19

• Persona 4 Arena review

• JinTypeNoir 04/05/2013

  You know, Eurogamer, I think I might have said this before, but its really inconvenient how you have the publisher listed on a different page, the product page, and then it may not even be the correct publisher. Your review for this, I'm assuming, is the European version, but you have Atlus USA as the publisher. Doesn't PQube publish this?
  
  When it comes to discussions about publishing decisions in Europe, its kind of important to know who to direct a kudos or complaint to. I would appreciate more basic information on the review more than I would a link to a site where I can get wallpapers for it. Reply +2

• Fire Emblem DLC censored in the west

• JinTypeNoir 04/05/2013

  @coderkind That scene you're referring was just as tame in Japanese, it certainly didn't have the connotation of a bastard.
  
  A lot of times the original Japanese is way more harmless and toothless than people tell you.
  
  Anyway, ever since I saw This Film Is Not Yet Rated, I've wondered about the reasoning behind things like this. Reply +1

• Suda51 blames publisher problems for low game sales

• JinTypeNoir 03/05/2013

  What's with all this, "They are guaranteed niche," stuff? Don't drink that stuff, man, it's dangerous. Anything can be a break out hit. If Jedward or Jersey Shore or My Little Pony or Pervert Mask can be a break out hit, so can Suda51's stuff. Where there's a whip, there's a way. Publishers need to have more confidence that they can create a viable market out of these things. Atlus and Namco Bandai did with Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. Disney trusted Square's bizarre Kingdom Hearts pitch and raked in the moola. Nintendo didn't just dig in and call it a day when the first release Animal Crossing didn't exactly light the world on fire. After Ico did only mildly well compared to stuff like Ratchet & Clank or God of War, Sony didn't just shit out Shadow of the Colossus, but gave it massive support. It can be done.
  
  Killer 7 would have been the Portal or Walking Dead of the PS2 generation if it had half as much hype and marketing behind it. Reply +8

• Gods Will Be Watching is a bleak, beautiful free survival sim

• JinTypeNoir 03/05/2013

  Nice coverage of less popular, but potentially interesting games lately. I hope you follow up on games like these as or when their story develops and don't simply call it off at a single article.
  
  Is there a place to download this? I couldn't find one on the website. I don't like playing games like these online. It looks like it could be played online. Reply +5

• "The next generation is going to be, possibly for the very first time, the next generation of game design"

• JinTypeNoir 30/04/2013

  Last Window was awesome. Hotel Dusk was awesome. Corpse Party was awesome. The Wii sequel to Another Code was awesome. We need more games like that. We need some brave soul to trumpet games like that instead of constantly giving them the cold shoulder so they can gain hits by reporting about. Kudos to EG for reporting on stuff like this though. It's not their fault the developer can't stop running his mouth off and is more than a little silly in his comparisons.
  
  BTW, to anyone who liked those games above, I recommend Adventure: The Inside Job and Adventure: All in the Game. They are freeware titles that are downloadable from the Adventure Game Studio website. They are about non-violently solving the problems of adventure game characters forgotten by time and they are brilliant, brilliant games with memorable characters and fantastic dialogue. Reply +1

• JinTypeNoir 30/04/2013

  @Kami Shadow of Memories! The very last and best ending to that game left me awestruck!
  
  Anyone remember The Fool's Game? Neuromancer? Ihatov Story? Enemy Zero? Clock Tower? A Mind Forever Voyaging? Portal before it was associated with a Valve puzzle game? All more than 15 or 20 years ago. The designers of those games didn't need to toot the horns of the future, they just made those games and helped forged a piece of the future quietly. Reply +5

• JinTypeNoir 30/04/2013

  I sometimes wonder, if you're talking to a news outlet, why people say things like the headline? Yes, they might be screaming for attention, but what good will that do you in the long run? Hey look, I'm glad you're developing a non-combat-driven mystery game, I too think we need more of them.
  
  I do not think we need more amateurs fellating themselves they've solved the mysteries of the universe and because of this feel qualified to make massive statements about game design in an industry as wide and varied as this one.
  
  And if I hear one more indie-humping ideologue go on about excising game-like from games in order to make them better, I'm going to scream so loud everyone around the world will agree it's next generation screaming. Reply +45

• Tekken Revolution spotted

• JinTypeNoir 16/04/2013

  You wouldn't want to just replicate it exactly though. Dark Souls and Demon's Souls depend very very much on a heavily tuned visual range. The developers of those games obviously play tested it a billion times to make sure that players could see and not see just what they wanted them to in terms of architecture, distant features, visual cues and the number of enemies on screen compared to the player character. Shrinking that down 1 to 1 on the Vita screen would be a baaaaaad idea.
  
  A few small changes can go a long way into making it a better handheld game. There are almost no examples of console games that went straight to handhelds and did not suffer in some manner because the idiot developers didn't realize that a console and handheld offer different playing experiences quite separate from the issue that they've been traditionally seen to offer bite-sized gameplay bits. Reply 0

• JinTypeNoir 16/04/2013

  I don't know about claiming a Souls game wouldn't work because it can't be done in bite-sized chunks. Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, Shiren the Wanderer and Fire Emblem work really well on portables. It's really not the case any more that pick up and play is the only suited to them.
  
  It is, however, the case that consoles and handhelds are designed differently, so you still have to design something for one or the other. Whenever a successful console port does well on a portable, its usually it already was doing something that would translate easily, but it is more often the case that many console games are subtle, but often quite tricky reworks to make them work. For instance, even though it resembles New Super Mario Bros. 2 and its gameplay is conducive to portable play, New Super Mario Bros. U would be a disaster on the 3DS if Nintendo didn't rework considerably.
  
  What I'm trying to say is that the Souls series could absolutely have an original title on the Vita or 3DS, but From would be remiss not to redesign a great deal of how it works on a console. It could make for an even stronger game, who knows, but rather than say the gameplay of a Souls wouldn't work, its closer to say that its designed right now to be played on a big screen and in order to translate a similar experience, would have to be redesigned for a small screen. Reply 0

• Fire Emblem: Awakening review

• JinTypeNoir 15/04/2013

  Well even if we did treat X3can'tbebotheredtorememberhisname's post anything more than a troll, another problem being that quite a few of the people who can join in Fire Emblem Awakening aren't that good looking and there are several different races who join. Reply +2

• JinTypeNoir 15/04/2013

  @fusionblue Super Metroid was made by a development group in Nintendo who usually made hardware and was responsible for among other things, the handheld Warioland games, Rhythm Heaven and WarioWare. They got reshuffled into a new structure and no longer exist as the old group though. Intelligent Systems sometimes helped do grunt work since they were not predominantly a software team, and that's why you get the confusion.
  
  Anyway, Fire Emblem Awakening was my game of the year last year and I'm on my fifth playthrough now. That's about all you need to know. Reply +7

• Saturday Soapbox: The high cost of high standards

• JinTypeNoir 07/04/2013

  Excellent, excellent, excellent article. There have been some smaller success stories on the consoles (the ones I know of include the original Portal, de Blob, Dark Souls and Demon's Soul, Catherine and Deadly Premonition) this generation and these are the models publishers should be upholding. I know shareholders complicate matters, but it seems like common sense to explain how upholding the model of being able to produce more games with more varied demographic appeal at smaller cost might lead to growth outside the dog-eat-dog triple AAA market.
  
  One reason that might seem unfeasible is because unless the game releases and gets a lot of continued support and great word of mouth from dedicated gamers, these types of releases tend to pushed under the bus by a great of the media. If they put as much effort in trying to give worthy games more attention as they did for the blockbusters, part of this could be avoided. So yes, I would love to see gamers take it down a notch and start looking past these superficial ideas of "HD gaming" for a change, the press needs to get into the act too. Reply 0

• Inside Japan's indie scene

• JinTypeNoir 29/03/2013

  @sickpuppysoftware There is an absolute shitload of Japanese indie games on the PC and other platforms. However, for one reason or another its more of a quaint and personal industry -- made by one person or a circle of friends for a very small group of people who share their interests -- and not really meant to be a business. Mostly its either freeware or the cost is there to cover the fees of creating the games in the first place.
  
  There are exceptions of course, but that is the big reason indie developers don't come together very often; they're all split into many different subcultures that don't interact.
  
  I guess if more people want to play our games and some people think that's important, more power to them, but I don't see the point. Its kind of like convincing old grandmas to share their hand-made doily collection to the world, their reaction would be like, "What? You're interested? Really?" Reply +10

• Saturday Soapbox: Christopher Nolan has ruined video games

• JinTypeNoir 16/03/2013

  It might be a dark night, but this is one of the brightest Saturday Soapboxes so far. Most people like to say its Michael Bay who is influencing game developers too much, but if you really peel back the layers of inception it is Nolan. Nerds are more proportionally interested in Nolan's movies than Bay's, which they are derisive of, because movies like Transformers are but trifling mementos of childhood. Nolan has a certain prestige and that makes the nerdmakers want to please nerdwhiners and further the nerdcycle.
  
  It is not so much that any one game resembles a Nolan movie, in that they all seem to believe lately the best way to be artistically relevant (and this seems to be the goal) is to be a dour and serious as possible. There are many shades of realism and the ones that made Nolan superfamous in the The Dark Knight is that of legitimizing silly things by putting lots of Adult Issues.
  
  And so, the gaming industry, which tried edgy and juvenile tones before with no result, says, "Aha! I need more Adult in my games! You there! Sprinkle in the Adult! Throw in the entire jar! Adults do not laugh. They THINK hard with hard liquor on hard issues with hard boners, so work hard so they we may party hard with hard cash!" I can see bits and pieces of it in everything from Splinter Cell to Dishonoered to Hitman to of course Arkham Asylum and The Last of Us. You can even detect it in something that is completely unrealistic, like Journey.
  
  The Walking Dead is the prime suspect. It is a TV series that took a shlocky piece of nerdy subject matter and made it relevant to the masses with Nolan Adult(tm). The game did the same thing. A Song of Ice and Fire is quite successful at legitimizing fantasy in an entirely different way than the whimsy and awe of Rings, but its considered because goddammit, its depressing, morbid and so rote in its glorification of Mature and Adult Themes to a level that is thoroughly retarded.
  
  One thing they all seem to forget is that Nolan has some pretty creative stories backing up his dour movies. In that sense, they are only two games I can think of that were as successful as this kind of Nolan Adult and it is probably because they simply share the same tone by accident: Grey Matter and Nier.
  
  Look on the bright side: Ken Levine doesn't seem to give a shit! Reply +4

• Former Sony employee sues Nintendo over 3DS glasses-free 3D technology

• JinTypeNoir 28/02/2013

  @ATARI Except Sharp also used it on a line of cellphone models with glassless 3D (also I believe a digital camera line as well). Those cellphone models didn't sell nearly as well as the 3DS though. Think about the motives on that. Reply 0