Hmm… I suppose they're not wrong seeing the most successful action franchise today—Devil May Cry—took the combo simulator route, which's not necessarily bad, just not in line with the design principles of the genre's best games: Devil May Cry 3, Bayonetta, and Ninja Gaiden 2.
We need the challenging/awesome action balance to come back, for sure.
God, the cringe…
In case anyone forgot: this game was nominated for Best Fighting Game twice at the TGAs and still failed 😂 Both times ahead of far more deserving candidates—further evidence a good chunk of these awards is promotional crap.
You may wanna re-read my comment—I did not bring up cut scenes, or claim Naughty Dog games don't have enough gameplay sections.
My point was Naughty Dog's gameplay sections are uninspired, non innovative, and passable at best because they're more interested in telling a story than innovative gameplay.
Whether I like narrative-driven games or not is of no relevance.
Maybe not the length of the main campaign, but good luck 100%ing Cartherine, holy shit. Nevermind Full Body. There's like 8 endings combined + insane challenges and 64-stage game within the game. +100 hours easy, if not more.
Makes sense. Why they're not marketing more towards their growing Linux-based buyers is beyond me.
It's all relative. Mediocre is still better than garbage, but not necessarily interesting or innovative. It's just "fine" because the whole point of the gameplay in these games is to progress the narrative forward. Mastery is rarely, if ever, required and gameplay depth is of no interest to players or developers.
You ignore all of that and start comparing their catalog to Ubisoft pumping out generic trash for years (NGL that Prince of Persia game is sick though) and you get a much brighter picture that doesn't necessarily take all factors into account.
Personally, I play games for the hyper engagement they offer, which I expect from hobbies and cannot get from film or literature. Stories, on the other hand, I can find elsewhere, so I don't necessarily care for them that much in games.
Again, it's all relative.
I'm more excited about Kamiya's comeback and the Clovers drop. Noway Capcom let him do that without plans to revive Viewtiful Joe and God Hand.
In other words, Mikami comeback when.
I was gonna say "Yeah, they have a good track record making playable movies." But that's not fair to Jak and Crash.
Still, they haven't made anything with interesting gameplay since like 2004.
Hmm… I think it's definitely a spectrum. Even arcade games have stories. It's not what drives them, but they still do.
When you start considering something like Bandersnatch, the spectrum gets even wider.
I try them often, but haven't had much luck finding a favorite other than Crimzon Clover. Nex Machina and Furi got close, but not quite.
Some experiences were nice, but not replayable, which ruled them out as a favorite for me, like Hyper Light Drifter.
Some I had some fun with, but took issue with some of the design choices, like Dead Cells and Hollow Knight.
Some I outright did not enjoy at all like Hades or Stardew Valley.
Most recent indie game that got close for me was Kill Knight.
What are some of your favorite indies?
And this has Denuvo? 😂 It's a 2D Shinobi game in 2025, why are they spending money on Denuvo.