It goes without saying that anime style games are very popular in Japan and also have gained traction and popularity in the west as well. The Hyper/Megadimension Neptunia series, the Atelier series, Ni No Kuni, Catherine, the Persona series, and so many more all have a big standing over here and there. Those are just anime-style games, what about games based of actual anime/manga properties though ?? That's where what I plan to talk about comes in, there are lots of games based on anime series, but what about their quality. Why is it that you can have certain franchises and properties and companies take so much time and care with them yet others are totally half-assed, thrown-together, garbage just to make a quick dollar. It irks me to no end that companies basically prey on people like myself, yes that's what I'll call it, who expect good games for their favourite franchises but are handed dog shit instead. What's worse is some of those dog shit games come from quality developers you'd expect a lot more from than what you are getting.
You have franchises like Dragonball, who after years and years and tons of different games, have it refined to an art form and produce high-quality games for their series. Yet even with them for every Xenoverse quality game you get a "Battle for Z". What I mean by that is it's an anime game that is absolute hot garbage. Then you have amazing properties that a lot can be done with and you get something that just honestly feels like they spit it out over the weekend. I'm putting four trailers for games based on franchises I enjoy (Seven Deadly Sins, Kill la Kill, Tokyo Ghoul, and Black Clover) up and giving you all the opportunity to see what I saw at first.
| |
| |
That's when you realize why half-assed anime games exist because that the entire industry is a cash grab; one that you have to carefully keep your eye on so you don't lose a lot of hope and faith in certain devs or a lot of money in your wallet. A big problem for me is that for a lot of these Japanese games I prefer to have a physical version, whether it is packaged with some kind of awesome side content or it is just a copy itself it's great to have and own. The problem at the same time with my wanting physical versions of these Japanese games living in the West in order to get a physical copy of these games you have to pre-order them or they'll never come to our city. Thus, these anime games will always have me over a barrel because I can't properly research them knowing I'll be able to get a physical copy without a pre-order. It's on me to trust that these developers don't half-ass an anime title and I get burned because of it, it mostly seems to be games based on licensed properties that turn out half-baked garbage as those series I mentioned before like the Atelier series, for example, is consistent with high quality releases.
Cashing in on licensed properties with half-baked garbage, particularly anime ones, to a Western market where these aren't readily available is the ultimate business move. How can a developer make big money quick, find a way to license a game about a franchise like Tokyo Ghoul or One Piece and shit out a generic piece of garbage to get those sweet dollars from sucker fans. If you're going to half-ass something, just be honest in things like your trailers and gameplay videos so I can judge myself, I'm usually willing to put effort into something if a developer even meets me halfway.
Though they'd prefer to do this with their half-baked garbage like Tokyo Ghoul re: Call to Exist