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Denver, 1:40 PM
Mon Dec 14
36 posts in the last 24 hours
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07/14/09
07/13/09
No wonder the R4 is so popular.
07/13/09
This game is sweet, delicious, and fresh. I've played a while past the opening cutscenes and have discovered this game to be a meaty, charming affair.
That's just my 2 cents. The reason there are so many bad reviews on Amazon is probably b/c all the people who like it still have their noses stuck in their DS playing away.
07/13/09
07/13/09
The only reason this is getting slammed so hard is because the Japanese otaku community seem to be offended by the ganguro pixie character.
As anyone who's read about the 2chan/otaku community would know, these people are a bit retarded (they were burning a manga before because the character had a boyfriend once in the story and was no longer "pure"..).
I'm sure the game is great.
07/13/09
I can see how the ganguro character would get on some "pure fans'" nerves, but the little she has shown up so far has been amusing and her attitude serves as a good contrast to the Main Character, who, as the Hero, wants to help out everyone whereas she only takes things at face value and doesn't think anything about calling people "kimoi" and wanting to desert those in need.
So far, I can see myself playing this on the train for a long while to come.
07/13/09
07/13/09
haha, j/k, sorry.
My guess is that if someone sleeps w/someone, kisses someone, or whatever, they are not as pure/innocent as someone who hasn't.
07/13/09
Granted, tempo is not an issue to me as I take long enough to read the Japanese text, and my M3 cart laughs at the single save data, but still.
The game is fun, simple and unpretentious, better than anything I've played recently, specially on the DS.
07/13/09
But I'm a foreigner, student of Japanese language, so her quirks even have some learning value to me. I can see how she could piss off some people that already have to endure people like her every day.
07/14/09
we should play DQIX together at some point if you know what i mean!
07/13/09
Yes, the "Gal" character is very annoying...especially the way she talks. In Japanese, there is something called "Gal-Go" (Gal language)...which could be equated to something like a Japanese "valley girl" kind of langauge. Well....every time this character opens her mouth...its "Like, Oh my Gawd....that was like SO not like KEWL!" I'm certainly not surprised that the DQ fans are upset that this character is in their generally austere series. I am about 7 hours in already, and fortunately the screen time this character has received so far is minimal
Also, I don't understand the logic of "Putting this on the DS was a mistake....6000 yen is too much for this." If this game was on a home console...it would easily be selling for 8000 - 9000 yen. (On a related note...the MSRP is something like 5980 yen...but wherever I go I see the game on sale for about 5300 yen...oh well, guess I'm splitting hairs.)
And bitching about 'the system' in a Dragon Quest game??? There's a system??? Well, besides 'get experience and level up"?????
07/13/09
I just figured it out.
Gal = Jar-Jar Binks.
07/13/09
Anyway, jes' sayin' it's not all copy 'n' paste is all.
07/13/09
Yeah, but it kind of seems to me that complaining about the 'system' in a DQ game is kind of a moot point. I mean, I've played 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, and the 'system' in 9 seems to me to be 99% untouched.
Also, whats the deal with bitching about 'lousy post-combat cut-scenes.' Now, I'm kind of foggy as to what a 'post-combat cut-scene' is...I am assuming that it is what is displayed on the screen after you've defeated all of the enemies. Now, normally in a DQ game, after you've taken care all of the baddies, text pops up telling you how much EXP / Gold you received. Now, the only thing I could call a 'post combat cut-scene' in this game, is that on the top screen the camera slowly pans around the main character....is that UPSETTING people??? Huh???
Speaking of 'post combat,' one thing I don't like in 9 is that when a battle is over, the amount of Gold you received is displayed on the top screen, while the amount of EXP you received is displayed on the bottom screen. I know it may sound like extreme knit-picking, but for a grind heavy series like DQ....its pretty annoying to have to look at two different places.
07/13/09
In Japan. No surprise either. What we might see as total and utter rubbish, I foresee the Japanese will complain, but put up with it.
Edit: Hey cool, we get to use breaks now? Thats sweet!
07/13/09
The point is, though, there is, quite possibly for the first time, major dissent within the Dragon Quest ranks. Enix has been content to sit idly by and expect the Japanese to eat up whatever they throw out for the past 20 years. This might incite some radical changes in the game for DQX...
...or it'll be the exact same as DQ8, and it'll sell better because it's not on a terribly low-power handheld.
07/13/09
Transformers 2 has a 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, and has made almost $700 million worldwide.
Enter the Matrix - which was generally received as anything from "mediocre" to "just plain awful," sold five million copies and was Player's Choice for all three consoles.
Sales don't necessarily reflect quality.
07/13/09
As for this whole business, I'm chalking it up to a combination of the 3 factors you posted below. Signaling out one factor seems highly unreasonable, whereas a combination of factors seems far more likely.
07/13/09
07/13/09
The hardware for the DS is about 10 years old. Remember the 64? That came out in 96. This thing runs slower than the 64.
Anyway, I sort of hope that Square will take this as a sign that it can't keep punishing its longtime followers, but I doubt they'll take it seriously when they start seeing the sales come in and they can't hear the fans over the sound of pockets being lined with cash. That whole thing with the bunnyface in XIII got my hopes up though, but I get the feeling it'll be the same ol' crap as usual.
07/13/09
Everyone I've spoken with that played the game says it's amazing. Have you bothered to research the game or are you just going to rip on it regardless?
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07/13/09
No, but your DS bias shines though yet again. Shall I go though your history and dig up the countless, countless jabs you've made against the DS? If it was on the PSP, you would be gushing, of course.
07/13/09
The hardcore have been proven time and again to be at best 10% of the market, full of talk and noise, but shit for sales. And anyone who's been doing this long enough knows that.
07/13/09
As for your tirade against the hardcore, obviously the Wii is successful despite the outcry from the hardcore, but just because they are a minority in sales doesn't mean they aren't a force to be reckoned with. Hardcores are usually the ones that actually give a fuck about the industry, and the rest are just along for the ride. Hardcores provide feedback and ideas that casuals wont or don't care about. Hardcores are the ones who discuss on sites like this, and move the industry along in many different ways. You can be sure its not all casuals signing the L4D2 petition, its the hardcores.
07/13/09
It's entirely possible that this could be a concentrated effort, like 2ch getting pissed off or just trying to be funny, but I don't know.
I'd try to be witty or funny, but I've spent the last 8 hours writing a design document and my brain is just fried. Bleh.
07/13/09
SE does suck this gen. But then again I'm more of an ATLUS and NIS person myself.
07/13/09
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07/13/09
For the record, most Final Fantasy games show up for more than that.
07/13/09
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07/13/09
Not really, they're called MSRP for a reason so retailers can charge more or less if they wish.
Either way, Japanese gamers always had it worse. 6800Y was a standard for PS1-PS2 games and nowadays, you're looking at 7800-8800.
07/13/09
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07/13/09
The people actually enjoying themselves are playing the game and don't feel like throwing out reviews and the people that find it not whatever they thought it would be become the overbearing internet majority, which is sad because now we're going to get people here thinking "DQ9 isn't doing well! Oh no! I better not buy it!" despite it not being even close to how the actual majority feels, which is just a really really bad way of going about things.
07/13/09
Math does not work that way.
Assume that the Amazon reviews are representative of the entire group of people who bought the game. 223 / 503 is about 44%. That means that 44% of EVERYONE who bought the game didn't like it...which is a lot more than 223 people.
That's not necessarily true...but what you said didn't make much sense. OF COURSE there will be a few hundred people who don't like any given game...but the odds of them ALL posting reviews, ALL on the same site and ALL at the same time aren't very good.
As for the "everyone who's going to post a positive review" theory: that makes a little more sense, but Dragon Quest has a large and (at least up until now) loyal following. I can't imagine that, if the series fanboys saw these reviews and there wasn't at least some kernel of truth to them, that they wouldn't begin downvoting the negative reviews and adding positive ones of their own to counter.
07/13/09
Just because it's extremely popular, that doesn't mean the entire body of people that buy it will totally blast back against whatever comes their way.
My math works just fine. The numbers on that site aren't representative of anything close to the overall sentiment, I can guarantee you that.
07/13/09
Of course, this game could just suck. But the comments being made sound slightly like trolling to me.
07/13/09
http://kotaku.com/5046552/amazon-reviewers-do-not-take-kindly-to-spores-drm
That shouldn't be an issue with Dragon Quest, since it's a DS game. That said, both games had a ridiculous amount of hype before launch, and I wouldn't be surprised if at least part of this is the game failing to meet unrealistic expectations.
07/13/09
http://kotaku.com/5046552/
07/13/09
.... and then fuck-up the interface completely. As if they never, ever try actually playing the alpha, beta, or pre-final version for 2 minutes. Such things should only happen if you hire only sub-contractors to do parts of the job, and everyone stays in the dark for everything else.
07/13/09
These are the sort of issues that would appear in playtests, and no where else. I don't know why, but japanese developers seem to have more of a tradition of focus testing, and less of a tradition of playtesting. I suspect with the secrecy around DQIX, playtesting was even less common of an option than normal.
Combine low testing with a long cycle, and weird, problematic quirks are destined to appear.
07/13/09
Anyway, the "slow text" feature is such an obvious abomination, yet it passes.
07/13/09
A real shame though, as people had been waiting for this game for a long time. It will be odd not seeing more news stories about it.
I am sure these people will be silenced by praise soon enough.
07/13/09
But, yeah, the fact that even a fraction of the Japanese fanbase is unsatisfied with DQIX is incredible news.
This would be like if Halo 3 had come out, and gotten a 2.5 star rating in the US.
07/13/09
07/13/09
I beleive there was some dissatisfaction with 8 as well.
Small, very small, but still present.
07/13/09
KYUUUUUUUUUUUrious
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07/13/09
Where the hell am I??
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07/13/09
didnt millions buy this? or at least... hundreds of thousands? what about them?
07/13/09
07/13/09
Perhaps you've heard of an old political concept. I don't the official name, but it's effectively this: The 1 for 500 sample.
In politics, if somebody sends you a letter on an issue, it means at least 500 other people in your district(area,zone, etc) agree with the sender, just not enough to send a letter.
This same effect works similarly with most other walks of everyday life. If a product, especially a high-profile product, suddenly receives 200 highly critical reviews, it is likely indicative that thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands agree with them just as much.
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07/13/09
That's an awful lot of 1 star reviews- do you think it is people essentially being drama queens because they've messed with the notoriously formulaic (and enjoyable) Dragon Quest, well, formula?
07/13/09
I dont think theyve reviewed it yet, since the score doesnt seem to be anywhere on the internet
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