Forum - View topicThis Week in Games - That Naruto Sounds Different...
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LinkTSwordmaster
 Posts: 563 Location: PA / USA |
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Anyone looking to purchase gaming or anime merch should really be cautious of Bandai right now. Every time I demo another game from them or see them pop up in the news these days, it's like their disfunction as a company continues to amaze me. Gundam Evo, Metaverse, good luck trying to get new Digimon stuff in English, weird handling of netcode.... Capcom is acceling left and right - I don't think Dragon's Dogma was ever originally like big big but now there's a ton of eyes on its sequel and Resident Evil is pure fire right now. When you have other companies really giving fans bang for their buck, I'm having a hard time pointing friends to anything Bandai that isn't a Souls game.... and even Souls games had a nasty netcode exploit a while back.
I wanna make room for the people that grew up watching Naruto on Toonami. I get that it's your comfort zone and the nostalgia factor goes a long way to connecting with those characters. Naruto is quite possibly the penultimate, objective example of why I avoid English dubs. I have thought that since the very first day the cast recordings were shown off that the intonations and casting in general missed the mark by a wide margin. It does not shock me that the latest Naruto game's dub has generated this headline. This is furthermore tragic because Ninja Storm games have actually been a pretty solid way for fans to live and experience Naruto moments. I'm trusting the VAs over anything Bandai claims. This is why unions are important. Think about it - one of three things happened here. 1) Ai was used and Bandai is lying. 2) The VAs did work but were not made aware it was separated for a game and thus were likely not compensated. 3) Bandai cobbled together existing takes and clips, and the VAs still likely would not have been compensated. I have yet to hear that the JP dub got this sort of throwaway treatment (wouldn't not be shocked if it did though) - it should be clear where Bandai's priorities are to potential buyers. Just be aware of the environment they're fostering if you're going to put some money in on them when there's not a sale and we've had one of the most jam-packed years for quality game releases. |
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djl33
Posts: 23 |
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Welcome, Isaiah!
 I enjoyed reading your column. Hopefully you'll stick around for a while.
The whole "indie" debate sounds like a can of worms being opened needlessly. If the studio/developer in question in owned by larger multi-million/billion dollar studio/publisher, then it absolutely should not qualify as an indie title. (This is regardless of the type of corporation; if Walmart creates/buys a small studio to make a small game it is not indie.) The whole defense of the games having an "indie spirit/vibe" is just inane and frankly insulting to those developers who go indie as a necessity not just to look cool. It would have actually been pretty awesome to see Baldur's Gate 3 get nominated in that category. |
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LinkTSwordmaster
Posts: 563 Location: PA / USA |
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I'm not usually a fan of it, but I'm looking forward to this year's Doritos Awards purely due to how much talent was in the pool this year. A lot of the titles up on the board legitimately deserve to be there, and I think it speaks to how Geoff Keighley is never going to stop being the Doritos man when he has to waffle and give such a "I guess it's up to our voters!" sort of answer. Am really glad these got covered this week, is a thumbs-up. |
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thekingsdinner
 Posts: 1105 Location: Geertruidenberg, Netherlands |
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This is why I just don't purchase new games anymore. I tend to wait about half a year or so until things are fixed for those with a rough launch, but in this case I trust the VA's and believe the company is pulling a "obligatory technical error" out of their ass.
The distrust I feel for game publishers these days have made me weary for every single new release and especially if they resort to something as awful as AI, I feel they failed in making a competent product. Feels like they're testing things and hope for people to be idiots, but I'm glad there's many out there who find this stuff real fast. |
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Cho_Desu
 Posts: 242 |
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It's funny to see "bad writing = must be A.I." arguments. I've worked story submission slush piles for years. People are capable of remarkably bad writing. For every story you read that makes you go "wow, this is complete and utter trash," I can promise there are at least a thousand manuscripts that are much, much worse.
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wolf10
 Posts: 931 |
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Is Baldur's Gate 3 "indie," though? Larian may be independent, but the licensing and financial backing came from Wizards of the Coast, presently a Hasbro subsidiary. I see it as less of an indie game and more of an independent studio landing a really big license. Not trying to deny the quality or the passion put into it, but the ending scroll is 45 minutes long. That is a massive collaboration rivaling the average modern AAAA game.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4671 |
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Bandai's explanation isn't exactly better than the idea that it was AI-generated. Frankly, my assumption was already that they had existing recordings, did some editing, and called it "close enough." It still amounts to corners being cut to avoid paying for any additional time spent on unique lines or calling somebody back to give a different read.
Bandai's statement that it will patch it doesn't inspire confidence. The company pointed to the editing and mastering process as the problem. To me, that means that somebody will be tasked with re-editing the audio and hope it won't be noticeably bad, instead of recording anything. |
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psh_fun
 Posts: 102 |
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If pixel art = indie then I say Octopath Traveler 2 and Star Ocean The Second Story R are the best indie games of the year for me.
Didn't Among Us win one year despite it being 2-3 years old at that point and only got relevant that year due to streamers? The rules have never been very concrete or rigid. I don't really care about The Game Awards though since the audience votes only count for like 10% of the vote compared to the sponsor's 90%.
I'm not a fan of AI just being the new boogeyman people use when they see stuff they don't like with no actual evidence or reasoning beyong "ai = bad and this = bad, therefore, this = ai". Seen lots of artists and companies getting falsely accused of it at this point. Don't know about the Naruto or Silent Hill stuff being AI, but elsewhere I've seen the witch hunt hurt people. It's not like Silent Hill hasn't had tons of bad entries before or dubbing hasn't been bad before either. |
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Villain-chan
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And several dif sites ALL state the same thing... if u'r going to make this claim Isaiah, please post proof becus I ain't seeing it. Also, welcome, I believe this is ur 2nd week here actually, though 1st proper TWIG and good job on it, I read it all which has been a while since I've read the whole article for TWIG. :) |
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RDespair
 Posts: 245 Location: California |
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Funny to see the article say that Bayo 3 isn't an indie because it's owned by Tencent, only to then call Baldur's Gate 3 an indie, when it was made by a company that is partially owned by Tencent (Tencent is estimated to have about a 30% share of Larian Studios).
I really don't get why people keep wanting to call Baldur's Gate 3 an indie game. Larian Studios is partially owned by Tencent. Larian Studios does not own the Baldur's Gate license. The game is a licensed game using a well-known license (D&D). The game was most likely partially funded by Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast. The game had a massive AAA budget, a credits list well into the triple-digits, is one of the best-selling games of the year, and is critically acclaimed and will most likely win a bunch of GotY awards. But for some reason, people are treated it like it's some sort of scrappy underdog. Just because some companies decided to fund a AAA game that you actually like that doesn't make it an indie game. |
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dabanbo
Posts: 24 |
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2359 |
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Keighley's handwringing response to Dave the Diver is just the latest in how a lot of coverage botched the game's classification. Almost every review or article about it never mentioned that Nexon owns the developer. Not just bought, but was formed as a subsidiary. So yeah, this really sounds like a bunch of game journos (as well as the judges and Keighley) botched it and are now going "SHIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Just another example of how much of a joke The Game Awards are as any sort of ceremony, let alone a serious one.
In other news, we also need to talk about how the scrapped "evil princess" design for Mario Tennis decades ago was essentially a gremlin: https://twitter.com/SuperMarioOOC85/status/1730581096721465553 Seriously, that is pure chaos in the shell of a chibi Doronjo. Last edited by AiddonValentine on Sat Dec 02, 2023 2:28 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Hatless
Posts: 18 |
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'AI user!' really has become the new 'a witch!' hasn't it? The lack of any actual witches is proof of how good they are at hiding themselves using magic.
(I remember when people convinced themselves the narrator for Firmament must be AI because she did a funny accent, and what other explanation could there possibly be?) |
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juaifan
Posts: 154 |
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If I had to guess I would say there's such a stigma against AAA games that some people have to try to rationalize how something they like must not be a big-budget AAA game because the stereotype they're all Call of Dutys with season passes and tons of micro transactions and lootboxes. Ironically, there's a great example of an "indie game" from Larian Studio. It's called their Divinity Original Sin games, which actually had to be Kickstarted to get made. Presumably, Larian's previous success with their past games was why they were funded to make Baldur's Gate 3 as big as it is in the first place. I haven't played BG3 yet, but according to everyone I know and trust when it comes to CRPGs Divinity 2 is still a much more complex game mechanically in terms of combat and depth; which makes sense when you realize that BG3 was aimed at a more casual audience compared to their past games. If there was ever a reason to stereotype it as a AAA game it would probably be that.... In addition to the game appears to still be getting bug fixes and patches still so it's going to be one of those games that's best to play in a year after it's fully patched and complete. |
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LinkTSwordmaster
Posts: 563 Location: PA / USA |
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Divinity 2 gives you a DM mode where you can essentially have a friend DM your entire "tabletop" experience as you progress through the game so by default, it's got a leg up on BG3. The issue -why I've skipped on Divinity 2 up until now- is that it's just not really got that same "this takes place in the same world as Neverwinter" sort of feel. It's like if you're not a Tolkien fan but everyone is raving about the new fantasy game or media & it happens to take place in Tolkien's world.... It's hard to look at the characters and say "Ah, those look familiar enough to me that I'd like to get to know the cast". I think BG3 is unique in that it takes something that's a bit obtuse for new folks to wrap their heads around -what does all of the rules in D&D mean? That book sure is thiiiiick- and it makes it almost-instantly understandable. It is impossible to play even just the first chapter of BG3 and then not-know enough rudimentary information to sit at a D&D table and fill in the rest as you go. To make something with decades of complicated rules so easily-digestible to the masses, I think that's where the miracle and magic of BG3 lies. For folks already experienced with cRPGs and D&D-style play, I can see where I've had more solid experiences with Neverwinter Nights or Knights 2. It's why if people are having fun co-op'ing BG3 with friends and just want more, it's not a bad idea to send them over to Divinity II for a start. |
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