DON'T NOD states that Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and Jusant underperformed

Let's be blunt. None of their games since Life is Strange were truly mainstream or successfull with a larger market.

Partly because of bloat and feature-creep (Vampyr, Banishers), partly because of agressive content for the non-existent modern audience (Tell Me whyyyyyyy). And mainly because they were simply written in a very uneven maner. Cannot stand the random wheadonspeak in Banishers and LiS2.

Doesn't help that gameplay was never a particular strength of the studio. Even a short-form Jusant was almost 2 hours longer than it should be, bar the lousy writing.

It's a miracle that they are still kicking, really. And since they still can't replicate their LiS moment, I think we are just witnessing the slow unwinding of a prominent studio.
 
Wait, hold on the fuck a second!

Are you people telling me that Don't Nod the company, Don't Nod is not woke?

I'm seriously asking because I've been believing they are woke.

Are you sure they are not woke? Why did I think they were really really woke? Where did this core memory come from? This is like a Berenstain Bears thing for me.
 
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Gamer_By_Proxy said:
Now comes the layoffs

www.ign.com

Don't Nod Announces Layoffs That Could Impact Up to 69 Workers - IGN

Don't Nod's ongoing struggles continue, with the company announcing it's preparing to implement a reorganization that could result in layoffs of up to 69 employees.
www.ign.com www.ign.com
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Awkward Season 2 GIF by The Office
 
NeverYouMind said:
A climbing game and an action game with no interesting playable characters... How could those possibly not have mainstream appeal? /s
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It's Square Enix, they rant and then meet their target numbers right after that, I don't understand the logic behind it but it's always been like that.
 
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Zacfoldor said:
Wait, hold on the fuck a second!

Are you people telling me that Don't Nod the company, Don't Nod is not woke?

I'm seriously asking because I've been believing they are woke.

Are you sure they are not woke? Why did I think they were really really woke? Where did this core memory come from? This is like a Berenstain Bears thing for me.
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They're French.
That's like inherently woke-adjacent.
 
Sanepar said:
Banishers is a good game. That's why we are infested of purple hair gaas crap games. Gamers don't buy the good ones.
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Yep, for all its faults its still in the top 5 of this year. The game is so my jam and I have no regrets showing up and paying full price for it. Sorry Im just not into some bs anime jrpg not made by the Persona team.
 
Having finished the game, I can see why it performed poorly. They place the black female character Antea front and center, yet I would say Red is the main character. Antea is a ghost for 99% of the game and Red is who you play as, with Antea providing commentary and assistance. The game lays it on pretty thick at times with woke BS, like pissing and moaning about colonialism during the late 1600s in America. And every small camp has a lesbian. The most badass masculine character in the game is a woman called Thickskin. Antea belittles Red way too often, while he is nothing but kind to her. Red really carries the game while Antea can make it drag. Antea has cool combat abilities and her history is interesting. They almost make a prequel with Red and Antea seem more interesting exploring their past. Once she dies early in the game, she blames Red and switches between being helpful and bitchy, because Red "messed up". If only he were a perfect woman, none of this would have happened. If Dontnod wants to keep going down this path, they will not make any money off of me in the future. I see this game as nothing but a lot of lost potential.
 
JayK47 said:
Having finished the game, I can see why it performed poorly. They place the black female character Antea front and center, yet I would say Red is the main character. Antea is a ghost for 99% of the game and Red is who you play as, with Antea providing commentary and assistance. The game lays it on pretty thick at times with woke BS, like pissing and moaning about colonialism during the late 1600s in America. And every small camp has a lesbian. The most badass masculine character in the game is a woman called Thickskin. Antea belittles Red way too often, while he is nothing but kind to her. Red really carries the game while Antea can make it drag. Antea has cool combat abilities and her history is interesting. They almost make a prequel with Red and Antea seem more interesting exploring their past. Once she dies early in the game, she blames Red and switches between being helpful and bitchy, because Red "messed up". If only he were a perfect woman, none of this would have happened. If Dontnod wants to keep going down this path, they will not make any money off of me in the future. I see this game as nothing but a lot of lost potential.
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Man, the thing I don't get is who the fuck do they make this shit for?

The pre-me too era wasn't great because it wasn't woke, it was great because executive will call you a retard if you tried to put that kind of shit into something that mostly young men are interested in. But we got rid of them because they were too white and too men, so we hired people because they aren't white men, so the agenda becomes making "non white men" games.

It's just sad because instead of course correcting, they will blame everything else (gamers don't want this kind of games) and chase trends.
 
JayK47 said:
Having finished the game, I can see why it performed poorly. They place the black female character Antea front and center, yet I would say Red is the main character. Antea is a ghost for 99% of the game and Red is who you play as, with Antea providing commentary and assistance. The game lays it on pretty thick at times with woke BS, like pissing and moaning about colonialism during the late 1600s in America. And every small camp has a lesbian. The most badass masculine character in the game is a woman called Thickskin. Antea belittles Red way too often, while he is nothing but kind to her. Red really carries the game while Antea can make it drag. Antea has cool combat abilities and her history is interesting. They almost make a prequel with Red and Antea seem more interesting exploring their past. Once she dies early in the game, she blames Red and switches between being helpful and bitchy, because Red "messed up". If only he were a perfect woman, none of this would have happened. If Dontnod wants to keep going down this path, they will not make any money off of me in the future. I see this game as nothing but a lot of lost potential.
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There's one positive about this - the game lets you banish characters related to investigations. I got rid of several annoying female characters that way and smiled as they kept insulting Red during the process. :)

For me the biggest problem with the game was its length. The world is too big and there's not enough fresh mechanics unlocked as you progress. You get only a few skills related to exploration and many activities feel and play the same. Only the side investigations are truly unique and worth finishing.
 
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Ozriel said:
The GP deal probably saved them from even more loss, since it apparently struggled to sell on PS and PC.


What part of Jusant is 'woke'? The climbing?
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Obviously, I mean fucking Duh!

Woke whiners like to throw that term around about absolutely everything because they love to hate shit for no reason and to point fingers. Its a pathetic personality characteristic.

Jusant was a perfect GamePass game. A short, unique experience. They should put it on Switch 2 at a cheap price to capitalize on the launch craze.
 
FingerBang said:
Man, the thing I don't get is who the fuck do they make this shit for?

The pre-me too era wasn't great because it wasn't woke, it was great because executive will call you a retard if you tried to put that kind of shit into something that mostly young men are interested in. But we got rid of them because they were too white and too men, so we hired people because they aren't white men, so the agenda becomes making "non white men" games.

It's just sad because instead of course correcting, they will blame everything else (gamers don't want this kind of games) and chase trends.
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Still chasing the people who bough life is gay, their first game.
 
KungFucius said:
Obviously, I mean fucking Duh!

Woke whiners like to throw that term around about absolutely everything because they love to hate shit for no reason and to point fingers. Its a pathetic personality characteristic.

Jusant was a perfect GamePass game. A short, unique experience. They should put it on Switch 2 at a cheap price to capitalize on the launch craze.
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they are desperate for their "rare victories" so try to attach their retarded agenda to any underperforming game.
nobody boycotted banisher because it was "woke" lol
 
Life is Strange is cringe to me, so by default I'd not be interested in anything they put out because of it, not necessarily because of "woke" but because it comes across as very pretentious. Jusant looked okay, its still on my list to try tbh. Judging by the comments here I may give it a shot.
 
Always wanted to try Banishers because looks like something I would like, but for me there just has been too many games and too little time, which is the main reason I miss all these interesting games. I like Don't Nod, at least when they are trying new things like Vampyr, Remember Me of Banishers. Life is Strange is complete crap though and nothing that interests me. I hope they are not closing shop, that would be really sad.
 
GymWolf said:
Still chasing the people who bough life is gay, their first game.
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Except the game was not really gay or doing much pandering. It was about teenagers, but it had a good story, told well.

The real issue is that developers for a long time have circled around some of these topics and have been praised for it. Like the gay stuff in TLOU. The media praised that stuff and asked for more and devs thought that more will just mean more praise. The problem is that gamers don't care if everything else is good, but quality started going down because of the push of that stuff.

Gamers are willing to tolerate the amount of pandering only when the game is really good and makes up for it. Baldur's Gate 3 is the golden example.
 
JayK47 said:
Having finished the game, I can see why it performed poorly. They place the black female character Antea front and center, yet I would say Red is the main character. Antea is a ghost for 99% of the game and Red is who you play as, with Antea providing commentary and assistance. The game lays it on pretty thick at times with woke BS, like pissing and moaning about colonialism during the late 1600s in America. And every small camp has a lesbian. The most badass masculine character in the game is a woman called Thickskin. Antea belittles Red way too often, while he is nothing but kind to her. Red really carries the game while Antea can make it drag. Antea has cool combat abilities and her history is interesting. They almost make a prequel with Red and Antea seem more interesting exploring their past. Once she dies early in the game, she blames Red and switches between being helpful and bitchy, because Red "messed up". If only he were a perfect woman, none of this would have happened. If Dontnod wants to keep going down this path, they will not make any money off of me in the future. I see this game as nothing but a lot of lost potential.
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That's weird, I had heard otherwise - that the game was not "woke," did not deal in feminist nonsense. Some people are kind of blind to it, though, because it's become normalized.

Thanks for the input. I was going to check the game out eventually, but I'll take it off my list. The tropes you describe leave me feeling tired and annoyed. They pull me right out of the game.
 
Jusant is a masterpiece. Beat it on GP and bought it right away just to support it. Self-published title as well.

I played the demo for Banishers and it really didn't click for me. I've heard people on here enjoying it so maybe someday on a sale.
 
Punished Miku said:
Jusant is a masterpiece. Beat it on GP and bought it right away just to support it. Self-published title as well.

I played the demo for Banishers and it really didn't click for me. I've heard people on here enjoying it so maybe someday on a sale.
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Kind of the opposite for me.

Jusant didn't click with me at all, Banishers was far more my thing, but I'm probably gonna switch to easy just to get the slog fights done quicker.
 
Jusant is ok and thats it. Main mechanic is sooo underused, they could do so much more interesting stuff with levels.
 
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Humdinger said:
That's weird, I had heard otherwise - that the game was not "woke," did not deal in feminist nonsense. Some people are kind of blind to it, though, because it's become normalized.
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This.

The Overton window has moved wildly. Colonialism yapping, random lesbians, men being portrayed as pathetic... this is beyond parody at this point. These people can't write anything without smearing it with bullshit.
 
I mean Banishers released with no marketing and had a half a year physical delay.
It's not surprising.
Or maybe I'm thinking of another game...
 
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TGO said:
I mean Banishers released with no marketing and had a half a year physical delay.
It's not surprising.
Or maybe I'm thinking of another game...
Click to expand...

The first time i've ever heard about the game was via this thread so that's probably a factor.

EDIT: and i'm even interested in this team's output, i just had no idea this existed at all.
 
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I've learned my lesson with indies. They better be the best indie ever or I'm out. The reason is that I've bought dozens of these games and maybe play them 1 time. Rarely does one hook me like Hades, Inscryption, or Wukong.

The last two I hated were Animal Well and Slay the Princess so you are starting to understand the level of quality I need to not actively hate an indie game. Nothing against them and they always look cool and novel, but for me they tend to fall flat and drop off quick.
 
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KungFucius said:
Obviously, I mean fucking Duh!

Woke whiners like to throw that term around about absolutely everything because they love to hate shit for no reason and to point fingers. Its a pathetic personality characteristic.

Jusant was a perfect GamePass game. A short, unique experience. They should put it on Switch 2 at a cheap price to capitalize on the launch craze.
Click to expand...

Perfectly correct here!
 
JayK47 said:
Having finished the game, I can see why it performed poorly. They place the black female character Antea front and center, yet I would say Red is the main character. Antea is a ghost for 99% of the game and Red is who you play as, with Antea providing commentary and assistance. The game lays it on pretty thick at times with woke BS, like pissing and moaning about colonialism during the late 1600s in America. And every small camp has a lesbian. The most badass masculine character in the game is a woman called Thickskin. Antea belittles Red way too often, while he is nothing but kind to her. Red really carries the game while Antea can make it drag. Antea has cool combat abilities and her history is interesting. They almost make a prequel with Red and Antea seem more interesting exploring their past. Once she dies early in the game, she blames Red and switches between being helpful and bitchy, because Red "messed up". If only he were a perfect woman, none of this would have happened. If Dontnod wants to keep going down this path, they will not make any money off of me in the future. I see this game as nothing but a lot of lost potential.
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I'm sure having an annoying woman follow you around complaining 100% of the time and never shutting up will be a big hit with the married men demographic.
 
I'm anti woke and all, but these were good games. Sure there were some elements in Banishers, but nothing too bad. The publicity for these games was just shit. If didn't accidentally found about them on this forum, which I read daily, I would have never known they existed. Most people are not on places like this.
 
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They could turn it all around overnight if they just released one game that appealed directly to me.

Edit: I'll remove my description of Strange is Life so I don't offend anyone. Mods'll get a chuckle if they can read my edit, lol.
 
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Humdinger said:
That's weird, I had heard otherwise - that the game was not "woke," did not deal in feminist nonsense. Some people are kind of blind to it, though, because it's become normalized.

Thanks for the input. I was going to check the game out eventually, but I'll take it off my list. The tropes you describe leave me feeling tired and annoyed. They pull me right out of the game.
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I'm as right wing conservative as they come and I finished and enjoyed this game. Just saying. It mostly suffered from a lack of marketing. If I wasn't a member of this forum and reading it at the right time, I wouldn't have known it existed when it came out.
 
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JusticeForAll said:
I'm as right wing conservative as they come and I finished and enjoyed this game. Just saying. It mostly suffered from a lack of marketing. If I wasn't a member of this forum and reading it at the right time, I wouldn't have known it existed when it came out.
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Fair enough. I have heard people who seem reasonably level-headed to me say that the game did not seem particularly woke or feminist/pandering to them, and they enjoyed it. I suppose we all have different levels of sensitivity to and tolerance for that sort of stuff. Maybe I'll just Gamefly it and see for myself.
 
There are plenty of other issues with the game. The "woke" elements absolutely did not help. By the end, I was very tired of the gameplay. The game is twice as big as Vampyr. It really felt artificially bloated to extend the playtime, but would have been way better at half the length. In order to upgrade weapons beyond a certain point, you need hard to come by items that seem to be in limited supply. So you do not want to simply upgrade stuff you do not plan to use, but also can't know if it gets to be the best item once you upgrade it. Yet your inventory is full of crap you do not need. Hundreds of linen and leather, but what is it for? You spend so much time grabbing useless items and going out of your way to get to a chest for, you guessed it, linen and leather.

I am not sure how you can play this and not consider it woke, unless your definition of woke is way different than mine. It is not near as woke as Veilguard, but woke nonetheless. Would you prefer to call it woke-lite? They clearly made certain decisions in this game that in no way improve the game, but simply sends a message. The whole game is a step back and down from Vampyr. It definitely has interesting elements that almost carried the game, but in the end, it was not enough to make up for the bad parts.
 
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Oh Banishers is the game where they were complaining about London having too many white people

cXpHMcj.jpeg


remember, you have to accept this racial discrimination against whites or you're just an annoying anti-woke who is just as bad as the purple hair people!!!
 
EtherLakes said:
Oh Banishers is the game where they were complaining about London having too many white people

cXpHMcj.jpeg


remember, you have to accept this racial discrimination against whites or you're just an annoying anti-woke who is just as bad as the purple hair people!!!
Click to expand...
Seems a bit of a stretch to say calling something 'as cold as a bishops arse and twice as white' racial discrimination. Especially when referring to the snowy weather. Unless I'm missing some context.
 
EtherLakes said:
Oh Banishers is the game where they were complaining about London having too many white people

cXpHMcj.jpeg


remember, you have to accept this racial discrimination against whites or you're just an annoying anti-woke who is just as bad as the purple hair people!!!
Click to expand...

Is this another case of out-of-context bullshit like in Alan Wake 2, when a few loudmouths (even here) got all worked up because Saga Anderson says something like 'another white asshole' later in the game? Apparently, those people either never played the game up to that point or didn't understand it, because in that case, the context absolutely makes sense, and such phrasing was deliberately chosen to serve the story - and, without wanting to spoil anything, to fit with what's happening in the game at that moment.
 
Ngl, I didn't even know that Dont Nod were making games other than Life is Strange. And I wouldn't call myself uninformed.

So maybe their marketing was not good enough.
 
EtherLakes said:
Oh Banishers is the game where they were complaining about London having too many white people

cXpHMcj.jpeg


remember, you have to accept this racial discrimination against whites or you're just an annoying anti-woke who is just as bad as the purple hair people!!!
Click to expand...
This is a case of seeing what you want to see based on your bias.
 
EtherLakes said:
Oh Banishers is the game where they were complaining about London having too many white people

cXpHMcj.jpeg


remember, you have to accept this racial discrimination against whites or you're just an annoying anti-woke who is just as bad as the purple hair people!!!
Click to expand...
Come on now mate. Even without having played it it's clearly completely taken out of context and even then it's a stretch.
 
Jusant feels half assed as soon as you reach the caves with those floating ballons.
It is a good game, climbing mechanics are good, but it lacks journey's storytelling and worldbuilding (since it is very obviously the inspiration for the game). It lacks Journey's magic.
Half the ride is great still.
 
Toots said:
Jusant feels half assed as soon as you reach the caves with those floating ballons.
It is a good game, climbing mechanics are good, but it lacks journey's storytelling and worldbuilding (since it is very obviously the inspiration for the game). It lacks Journey's magic.
Half the ride is great still.
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I completely agree. It started amazing, but it was rather disappointing in the end as it kept losing steam, especially during the "skips" of your journey. Still, it was a very enjoyable little game and I don't regret buying it.
 
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