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Hideki Kamiya: "to say that Yoko-san saved Platinum would not be an exaggeration."

Rymuth

Member
I'm curious if they've started making a sequel yet.

Generally independent studios have to sign projects six months in advance, but all the statements surrounding this game suggest that Square Enix wasn't sure that Nier would do well enough to sign up a sequel right away, so they might have to actually ship a non-service game to have an available team to work with.

Then again, Scalebound's cancellation may have changed that.

GranBlue, right? Do we know how big is the team size for that game?
 

patapuf

Member
I guess so. I'm going to assume that that experience with ms and how much of a close call it was have made platinum quite weary with whom they'll work for

The biggest problem for midsized devs is that nowadays there's not a long list of pubs that are even willing to contract that's not a licenced product or a service game.

One of the console manufacturers contracting an AAA game is pretty much best case scenario (aside from running a scuessful service game).
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
GranBlue, right? Do we know how big is the team size for that game?
That's a service game actually, which is why I made that statement. They could plausibly be working on that with a large team for 5+ years after launch if it's successful.

Similarly, I imagine Lost Order will keep needing art assets for a long time.
 

Regiruler

Member
I'm pretty sure they already said that they want to make more mainstream RPG titles with platinum strenght in the future because Character-Action doesn't sell.

However, i can't find that statement right now, so i might be misremembering.

That's precisely my concern.

RPG mechanics kill action games.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Automata succeeded because it was developed by platinum, not because of the name Nier. No one cared about this franchise before platinum stepped in.
They basically saved themselves

What a garbage opinion. One of the biggest reasons this game was successful was because of YT's entire thematic injection into Platinum's technical side.

On the flip side, without Platinum, this would have likely been another YT game that was beloved by me and many others but no one outside of that bubble because of its lack of production values and technical polish.

Whereas Platinum gave his vision the appropriate production value and fast a fluid gameplay that Platinum games does best.
Pretty much how most people view it.

Even with a video explaining the story of Nier i could not give a shit about the original game even if its a cult classic.'

Its a combination of Platinum and 2B being so marketable that even Yoko asks for the porn of her.

Who is "most people" Seriously, go away with that.

Tired of these trolls coming around saying it was 2B's ass and Platinum's gameplay alone that did the business. YT was the heart of this production as the director and writer and he deserves a big portion of the credit.
 
Automata is not hard to play compared to previous Platinum games. They went out of their way to make it more accessible for people, to the point where there's an Auto-chip available in Easy mode where your character can fight without you controlling them.

To be honest, that auto-chip sounds right up my alley. Thanks for the tip, I'll probably pick up Automata after .Hack though.
 

Rymuth

Member
That's a service game actually, which is why I made that statement. They could plausibly be working on that with a large team for 5+ years after launch if it's successful.

Similarly, I imagine Lost Order will keep needing art assets for a long time.

Whoops - I had it pegged as a single player ARPG. Should still keep the lights on at PG if all goes well.

I completely forgot they were making Re:Link. That's a huge deal, since Cygames basically has unlimited money to throw at anything they want to get done.

Yep ~ CyGames has more money than God, so the one thing we can count on is the game not lacking in budget.
 

DR2K

Banned
The fact that Microsoft almost killed platinum should serve as warning to any developer working with them. What an awful situation.
 

jugann

Neo Member
I'm happy to hear so! I enjoyed drakengard 3 story but was not fan of the combat for obvious reasons. I have yet to purchase this game (Summer exams D: ) but it's one my hit list! Congrats Yoko and PG.
 

Valero

Banned
I think Platinum Games waking up and smelling the coffee and divulging a big title on the PS4 and it's giant fanbase after years of going with Nintendo(Bayonetta 2, Star Fox:Zero Wonderful 101) and Microsoft(Scalebound despite it being cancelled) might have helped this company. 3 games on a failed platform like Wii U and none for the PS4 until Nier Automata just doesn't make much sense. It's good to see Nintendo get 3rd party support do not get me wrong but it just didn't make sense at the time for Platinum games.

I understand they would not have been able to do any of these games without either's support but I think the neglecting of the PS4 wasn't the best decision for Kamiya and his main team. What was the last game he has put on a PS console? Metal Gear Rising which was a multiplatform game?

Between this and now getting Vanquish/Bayonetta 1 on Steam, Platnium game is starting to make some wise moves.

Lol you dont know how Platinum operates at all.
 

Neff

Member
One more reason to change that, no?

I'll get round to playing it at some point. I'm hesitant because the demo didn't excite me, and because I can't stand the first NieR.

nier basically saved platinum from death by microsoft

That's probably a bit dramatic but NieR is certainly a big turnaround in reception/sales for them. They needed a hit after a year of middling reviews and the Scalebound debacle, and NieR was it.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I'm happy to hear so! I enjoyed drakengard 3 story but was not fan of the combat for obvious reasons. I have yet to purchase this game (Summer exams D: ) but it's one my hit list! Congrats Yoko and PG.

Drakengard 3's combat wasn't bad, I would argue it was much better than original Nier in terms of melee combat. But the performance was absolute trash.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
The fact that Microsoft almost killed platinum should serve as warning to any developer working with them. What an awful situation.

Would not be the first time. Devs like Atlus, Level 5 and such luckily still live to tell the tale, but devs like Tri Crescendo and such...
 

Arion

Member
They did, SE is to blame in the sense of them not paying for the development of a patch.

P* is only doing contract work afterall

but platinum did get paid to make the port in the first place right? Not trying to hate on platinum (they are one of my favourite devs) but piling all the blame on to se for a collaborative effort seems unfair.
 

Hektor

Member
this has to mean they are working on new stuff now after nier's success

They'd be working on new stuff regardless, can't just have all these devs sitting around.

but platinum did get paid to make the port in the first place right? Not trying to hate on platinum (they are one of my favourite devs) but piling all the blame on to se for a collaborative effort seems unfair.

The fault in the port having issues is indeed their, however they can not develop a patch to fix these issues without SE telling them to, so the reason it hasn't been fixed is SE's.
 

Aters

Member
The fact that Microsoft almost killed platinum should serve as warning to any developer working with them. What an awful situation.

Japanese devs should stay away from MS moneyhat. I think they've learned their lessons.
 
Well its obvious that YT is the G.

And some people said Nier A was just a niche title that woulden't amount to anything prior to release. I'll admit even i didn't expect this kind of result even if i hoped for it.

i expected nier: automata to be the glorious end of platinum

it was indeed glorious, but i'm glad it wasn't the end
 

Ridley327

Member
That's precisely my concern.

RPG mechanics kill action games.

Depends on how they're implemented. Considering the holy grail status that DMC3 and DMC4 continue to enjoy, the Style system still requires a lot of grinding in order to unlock the full potential of each of them. Even Ninja Gaiden requires a fair bit of grinding in order to upgrade the weapons, including one that is impossible to obtain otherwise.
 

nameless_joe

Neo Member
Its sad that most games from Platinum dont sell well. Thats the industry of today, the majority doesnt care anymore about japanese action games. Hence why we havent heard of Devil May Cry news in years.

To be fair, the only platinum game that clicked with me was Okami. Tried bayo, transformers, vanquish and didn't like any of them. Okami was 10 years ago btw...
I gave them a chance, but somehow i didn't like them.
Nier: automata is the first platinum game since Okami that is in my top 10 GOAT.
Glad it's succesfull and really hope to see more of both.


And to answer to a different guy on page 1: i mostly bought this because of Nier cult-status. Havent played the game myself. But always read here it was incredible
 

TissueBox

Member
The fault in the port having issues is indeed their, however they can not develop a patch to fix these issues without SE telling them to, so the reason it hasn't been fixed is SE's.

Wow, good going SE... haven't been staying up to date but thought it would've gotten a patch by now. >_<
 

timberger

Member
Whoever at SE took the risk of greenlighting Automata really deserves a raise. Seems like everyone involved with the game has been a winner and the game is fucking awesome to boot. I'd probably call say it's the most enjoyable Platinum game I've played to date tbh.

More of this please... less of dross like that Turtles game PG shat out last year.
 

BadWolf

Member
Freaking MS, damn.

Would have never forgiven them if PG went down.

Drakengard 3's combat wasn't bad, I would argue it was much better than original Nier in terms of melee combat. But the performance was absolute trash.

Yup, the combat itself was very solid in D3.

It's unfortunate they didn't have the time/budget to make the experience smoother.

An excellent game either way.
 

Kent

Member
The Activision licensed games make a lot more sense when you consider they probably took those because they were relatively easy to complete and helped prop up active development on Scalebound, since reporters with sources involved in Scalebound's development state that Microsoft had halted payments and made unachievable milestones.

Generally-speaking, payments get halted when previously-agreed-upon milestones fail to be met. It can happen for any number of reasons, of course, including mismanagement of how many contracts can be handled at a given time, or tech issues when using an unfamiliar engine. We know that Scalebound got delayed twice, and was using the Unreal engine (which I don't think Platinum has used for any of their games prior), and over the course of its development, they've had eight or so games going through the pipeline.

In hindsight, these compounding together seem like a recipe for disaster - which is why the game got delayed before getting ultimately canceled at the start of this year. Considering the effect that delays, let alone cancelations, have on all involved parties, this sort of situation becomes incredibly difficult to salvage.

I haven't looked at the teams involved, but I suspect this is probably part of the reason why we got Bayonetta and Vanquish ported to PC - to fill in work for those who were slated to work on the Scalebound, opting to go for the very safe option of porting some of their older games to PC (which is almost guaranteed to have a high return-on-investment).

This is very similar to what I believe happened with Inti Creates after the Mighty No. 9 debacle (3DS/Vita version development is ongoing still, I believe), where they were contracted for Bloodstained, but then replaced as its developer (as in, they're no longer involved in the development of the main game, though they are developing the prequel game still) - open space in contract scheduling means you allocate people to low-budget and safe projects, which I very much suspect is why we got Mighty Gunvolt Burst and Blaster Master Zero.
 

Neonep

Member
Depends on how they're implemented. Considering the holy grail status that DMC3 and DMC4 continue to enjoy, the Style system still requires a lot of grinding in order to unlock the full potential of each of them. Even Ninja Gaiden requires a fair bit of grinding in order to upgrade the weapons, including one that is impossible to obtain otherwise.

It's still crazy that DMC3 & DMC4 still have that status and they came out 12 years ago & 9 years ago. You would think that they would have been surpassed in this era.
 

emag

Member
Yoko Taro and Platinum deserve all the success in the world for Nier Automata, the game that made an old cynic like me feel like a wide-eyed kid playing Chrono Trigger for the first time all over again. Especially after the last few Platinum games that I couldn't even bother to finish.

I'm looking forward to whatever either (or both!) of them have in store for us next.
 

Hektor

Member
not if they weren't getting any projects

in which case they would have to close the studio

which looked as a highly likely chain of events back in january

Even if you don't have an actual project you'd still start working on prototype stuff for eventual future use is what i'm saying.
 
That's precisely my concern.

RPG mechanics kill action games.
I think they can find a better balance in the future. As their first effort Nier is solid.
As I've mentioned before, it's somewhat similar to Kingdom Hearts in terms of progression and structure which is pretty popular inspite of its narrative.
imagine taro and platinum making a kingdom hearts spinoff together
Dont imagine Taro would be involved, but working with the usual SE collaborators like Nomura's designs and Yoko Shimomura's music would be great
 
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