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GOWTLOZ on 21 June 2016
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MTZehvor said:
GOWTLOZ said:

No, Santa Monica Studio and Ninja Theory have always created great hack and slash games. Platinum has not. There Anarchy Reigns and various licensed games have all been bad, but they did a good job with Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising.

The key word here is "consistently." Platinum is responsible for Metal Gear Rising, Bayonetta 2, and Wonderful 101 all within the past three years. The studio also has Vanquish and the original Bayonetta on its resume, as well as games like the original Devil May Cry and God Hand from its time back as Clover Studios. In other words, they've been heavily involved in the genre over basically their entire existence.

As far as hack and slashes go, Santa Monica has the God of War series, and that's about it. And the last good God of War title they made was almost a decade ago now. They haven't really done anything in the genre since then, and God of War 4 is looking less like a hack and slash and more like a cross between a brawler and TLoU, where the focus is less on style and long combos.

Ninja Theory has produced only two games that could remotely be qualified as hack and slashes over the course of their existence, namely Heavenly Sword and the Devil May Cry reboot. I'd argue both of these games were pretty bad, but even if you consider them the most amazing titles ever made, it'd be hard to say Ninja Theory was consistently involved in the genre. 2 titles over the course of ten or so years of game development isn't exactly consistency.

Consistently you say? Platinum has made grabage games in recent years, Anarchy Reigns, Transformers Devastation, Legend of Korra and TMNT. They have made four good and four bad games, and the story in all their games has been questionable at the least. The gameplay is vriable, again, far from consistent.

Also, only three of the good games made by Platiinum are hack and slash, while all four that are bad belong to this genre. Scalebound and Nier Automata could go anywhere. They are consistently hit or miss developers.

Santa Monica has CONSISTENTLY made great hack and slash games. 2005 - 2013, not nearly decade ago lol. All God of War games have been excellent, not even one of them I would say is anything below very good. We haven't seen much from the new God of War game to decide its genre, but I wouldn't say a different approach than the usual hack and slash game makes it a non-hack and slash game.

Ninja Theory has made less great games than Santa Monica, but still Heavenly Sword and DMC Devil May Cry are good games, not bad. DMC gets unnecessary hate, its a pretty good game, but is derided by fans due to Dante's design. Its still better than Devil May Cry 1 and 2. Hellblade looks like it could be a great game though.