Wow. Can that even be called a review?

@ jetrii

Lol! You think Famitsu has credibility in Japan. They are known to give good scores to hyped game (ala most Gundam/Dynasty Warriors games,etc.)

outlawauron, what makes you think Famitsu doesn't have any credibility in Japan? Have you ever been unfortunate enough to walk into a store as it opens and have a wave of kids storm past you to get the latest Famitsu? The beauty of Famitsu is that it's not only read about the hardcore gamers, casual gamers read it as well. So yes, speaking from personal experience, I will say that Famitsu does indeed have a lot of credibility. I may not work in the video game industry, but I have a lot of fellow simulation programmers that have decided to enter the game industry as physics programmers, and trust me, they care about Famitsu.

Perhaps JRPGs are suffering from what I call the Playboy Paradox. The PP states simply that anything  that is popular long enough will eventually find itself under the contradictory expectations and demand that it change and innovate while staying exactly the same.

Playboy was once considered very avant garde and daring but eventually was facing competition from magazines that were far more explicit. If they didn’t go pink they would lose out with the new  young subscribers and if they did they would lose long time subscribers who had grown older and more conservative. It took the middle ground and survived but was never the icon it once was. National Geographic faced the same conundrum, stuck pretty much to its traditional format and saw its readership age and shrink to the point they had to (God forbid) sell it off the rack.

I’ve seen successful game IPs and genres get to where they are being hit by critics and fans for being both too same old-same old and too different depending on the reviewers. IPs often seem to respond with changes that appear significant enough to please the one group yet leave the game fundamentals intact enough to please the others. Sometimes the result is gimmicks and sometimes that actually works.

Mario Karts Double Dash on the GameCube seemed different enough to justify a new version but if you just ignored the second guy the game was virtually unchanged.  Mario Kart Wii offered enough change in control system that they could go back to the old one man-one kart game. Otherwise Mario Kart could have become Mario Bus.

I’ll get jumped on for this but in my personal opinion, GTA 4 replaced the genuine creativity seen in GTA SA with gimmicks like cell phone calls and TV shows which did little IMHO to actually improve the game.

Need for Speed ran out of good new ideas long ago and has resorted to gimmicks instead.

COD responded to increasing groaning and moaning about “another WWII FPS” to bring out one modernized  version to show they  could and then returned to the mothership immediately.

JRPGs have been around since the 80s. Fresh ideas may be in short supply. People are either into them big or not. If you read the postings here you definitely are hearing both cries.  Those that are disappointed that the low score seems to indicate little new excitement and those that keep responding with, “if it’s like xyz I’ll be happy.”

Question people, does anybody know when Dengeki PlayStation is gonna spit out their score list plus comments of why and what?? Plus who's going to buy the Japanese version next week?

FAIL

what's the point of the score without the review?

That's what some people here point out. The reviews doesn't justify the low score it got. (auto-whatt? :P, Chat problems haha LOL)

So did the 4 reviewers of TLR from Famitsu made the right reviews by giving it a total of 38? (not stating it's technical failures etc etc...)

In my opinion IU and TLR's Famitsu review was too cheeeeezzzzyyyyy if you compare it to the review of WKC...

Wow... You quoted me but didn't read what I wrote? The Famitsu reviews typically only point out the POSITIVE elements in the game. Even if the entire game is total trash, they will give it a poor score and comment "It's a neat game but it could use a bit of work." Again, Famitsu doesn't like to rip on games unlike western reviewers. The game received a poor score because they thought it was subpar, not just because of chat problems.

Although I do agree TLR got a higher score than I would have given it, the game probably had elements which they really liked. The composer of the game also worked on MGS and FFVII AC and the art director also worked on FFVII, FFVIII, and FFX. Perhaps that was enough to boost its score.

TLR

Wow... You quoted me but didn't read what I wrote? The Famitsu reviews typically only point out the POSITIVE elements in the game. Even if the entire game is total trash, they will give it a poor score and comment "It's a neat game but it could use a bit of work." Again, Famitsu doesn't like to rip on games unlike western reviewers. The game received a poor score because they thought it was subpar, not just because of chat problems.

Although I do agree TLR got a higher score than I would have given it, the game probably had elements which they really liked. The composer of the game also worked on MGS and FFVII AC and the art director also worked on FFVII, FFVIII, and FFX. Perhaps that was enough to boost its score.

When the art director for Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 10 is also the director of TLR, you know a few people are going to love the art, even if the game itself isn't as great.

Oh I think it's a fantastic mag to read for previews, news updates, interviews, and pictures of new games, but I think that Famitsu has been a joke for reviews a while ago. Much like Play Magazine. You only buy it for the cool news and pretty pictures.

That's perfectly okay, I respect your opinion. Personally, I don't agree with Famitsu on a lot of things, but my personal dislike of it doesn't make it any less influential to the Japanese. It will affect sales whether or not the score was deserved. 

wow you knew? hehe