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Keiichiro Toyama and Bokeh Game Studios have been taking shots at IGN for giving their game, Slitterhead, a low review score

Draugoth

Gold Member
"Hi guys, lovely article - how about you start by giving us a better rating? Love, Bokeh," commented the studio. Keiichiro Toyama himself, the game's director and founder of the studio, responded to the IGN article with a less than happy emote.


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keiichiro-toyama-and-bokeh-game-studios-have-been-taking-v0-1bvxaav69p1e1.jpg
 

GHG

Gold Member
I already read all the drama, unironically comes across as whiny American millennial behaviour.
You're way better than this, Toyama.

The issue is that he seems to have an elevated opinion of himself and subsequently his work, this idea that he's some "misunderstood genius" that is incapable of outing out a product that isn't up to scratch.

He needs to accept that not everything he creates is going to be amazing, nor is it going to resonate with everyone, that's just part of the process of being a creative who leans towards experimental ideas.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
I hate ign, but a dev/publisher has no place in telling a reviewer how they should score a game in a review.
I doubt they intended to tell IGN what to score it. But they self published this and are fighting for their game. I think they are just pointing out the hypocrisy in that article because Slitterhead is exactly that. And the comments about people appreciating this in 2034 or whatever wouldnt surprise me at all. People are very shortsighted. I see people missing Neverdead now. It happens constantly.
 

Heimdall_Xtreme

Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
The issue is that he seems to have an elevated opinion of himself and subsequently his work, this idea that he's some "misunderstood genius" that is incapable of outing out a product that isn't up to scratch.

He needs to accept that not everything he creates is going to be amazing, nor is it going to resonate with everyone, that's just part of the process of being a creative who leans towards experimental ideas.
He created Gravity Rush.

So he is a genius understood.

😑


Now kiss his hand and say 3 times the Our Fathers.
 
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Cre8

You want a shot at the champ? [NG gif winner July 23]
I hate ign, but a dev/publisher has no place in telling a reviewer how they should score a game in a review.
Nah, that's just Toyama trolling IGN. We all knows IGN gave inflated score to games that feed their agenda and Slitterhead ain't one.
 

ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
I doubt they intended to tell IGN what to score it. But they self published this and are fighting for their game. I think they are just pointing out the hypocrisy in that article because Slitterhead is exactly that.
IGN's article is amateur pundit horsecrap, but it's not hypocrisy in the purest sense. It's just incomplete, and imo, wrong.

The small games that they're asking for have never, will never and should never be put on a pedestal just because they come from an "independent studio" or are "small games". Slitterhead is sitting at a 62 on metacritic, so IGN's review isn't an outlier. That, as we have seen, is potentially studio closure level failure for the big guys.

The indie houses, which I think are too many in number, should realize that they're not shielded from standards, and them openly attempting to guilt trip a major publication should be met with the same intolerance that people have just by the appearance of big publishers playing not!bribe.


And the comments about people appreciating this in 2034 or whatever wouldnt surprise me at all. People are very shortsighted. I see people missing Neverdead now. It happens constantly.
Shortsightedness goes both ways. If Slitterhead is appreciated in 2034, it'll be by a loud and very small cult, or because gaming is in a much worse place than it is now.
 

nick776

Member
This statement from the article sums up things for me succinctly: "If everything is ‘bigger and bolder’, who possibly has the time to play more than one or two games each year?" I do not have time to play overly-bloated games that were made "big" for the sake of doing it. Neither, then, do I play "live service games." Heck, I have not yet even beaten Spiderman 2 from last year or Alan Wake II due to time constraints (but I still play them both). I suspect I am not alone either. How long is it going to take for game companies to realize people actually WANT smaller, more manageable games without scores and scores of inventory, crafting and all the other nonsensical garbage that did not exist in the good ole days. I think Nintendo is the only company which still has a clue (but I would argue Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are 2 games that ventured into the danger zone insofar as they seemed unnecessarily long and packed full of unnecessary crafting, weapon upgrades and other nonsense that just take the joy out of gaming for me---I do not want to COOK food that I had to take time to obtain when the food itself is hidden all over the place on the map--NONSENSE). I think a lot of the audience that grew up on NES, SNES and the like are now middle of life adults with families and jobs who value their spare time so much that people such as myself will not even waste time with a game that is full of frivolity. I am genuinely surprised that gaming news outlets and game companies are mystified that the industry is in its current predicament when people have been telling them for years that what they are making are not what the market wants (or at least a certain part of the market).
 
I hate ign, but a dev/publisher has no place in telling a reviewer how they should score a game in a review.
If they notice reviewers thoroughly suck at a game or missed/misunderstood key concepts/mechanics, then they absolute do. More game developers need to keep these wannabe gamers in check and call them out if they fuck up.
 
Two things can be true at once. They could have made a bad game, but if they made the main character trans they would have got a better score.
 
This an indie action/horror game. Problem is that the reviews nor the media were consistent with how they treated acknowledged that fact
 

proandrad

Member
If they notice reviewers thoroughly suck at a game or missed/misunderstood key concepts/mechanics, then they absolute do. More game developers need to keep these wannabe gamers in check and call them out if they fuck up.
Criticizing a shit review is different than asking for a score to be changed. Stay on topic.
 

ShaiKhulud1989

Gold Member
Both look like idiots for all I care.

Slitterhead is on top of my Disappointment of the Year list (and cannot be refunded either), but IGN are truly really stupid. A match made in heaven.
 
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I doubt they intended to tell IGN what to score it. But they self published this and are fighting for their game. I think they are just pointing out the hypocrisy in that article because Slitterhead is exactly that. And the comments about people appreciating this in 2034 or whatever wouldnt surprise me at all. People are very shortsighted. I see people missing Neverdead now. It happens constantly.
There's like 5 people on this site that have even played Slitterhead. Trolls on here don't know anything about the game. Like it or dont is fine, but they have no opinion and know nothing about it.
Right on. Folks only feel confident in ripping games like these/this apart due to the review reception. Its easy low hanging fruit. They seem to sincerely believe that half these journos are unquestionable qualified subject matter experts.

Meanwhile, these same hacks have been caught being awful at video games, have shown conflict of interest on multiple occasions, to be poorly informed, whine about difficulty or turn them into some awkward segue for political commentary... and people vest their trust into them telling about which video games are good, bad or worth playing?

These journos are partially responsible gaming innovation has stagnated. Its happened more than once they trash anything that tries to differ from the mainstream or introduces something new. Then they disseminate these faulty verdicts to the masses.

Criticizing a shit review is different than asking for a score to be changed. Stay on topic.
I tried to implicate an adjacent relation here. A horribly misunderstood game can lead to bad scores. It gets glossed over too often.

I'll give you that requesting a score change can look arrogant in the public eye. That said, seems to be them taking a shot at IGN's hypocrisy in this case.
 
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ShaiKhulud1989

Gold Member
Did you play the game? What didn't you like about it?
This game, man... You either vibing with it or you don't.

I don't vibe with Slitterhead at all, it's an essence of all the bad design and visual choices straight from the PS2 bin. Essentially this is a very strange and overbloated take on a Forbidden Siren franchise that has posession, overdesigned combat, sloppy platforming, inane stealth and even battle arenas with visible wall blockers. It lacks only open world and Towers to unlock further areas, because this idea was too new, it's from PS3 era.

Otherwise, Slitterhead is a museum of PS2 cliches and bad mechanics. It's quite a fascinating tour-de-force from a veteran team that reminds us why some things must be left in the past and why Sony maybe was kinda on-point about shattering Japan Studio. Doesn't help that the game is very low-budge. Even VO and facial animations, things that can be generated by an AI in this day and age, are not present here at all.

If it's you're jam, I'm happy for you. But as a huge Toyama fan (spesh Gravity Daze) I'm kinda dissapointed. Pure IMO ofc.
 

Varteras

Gold Member
Toyama will only really be remembered for two things. Directing the first Silent Hill and then spending 20 years wasting Sony's time and money never achieving that level again. I say this as someone who liked Gravity Rush. Though that's probably more Sony's fault than his. Even Microsoft eventually shit canned Bonnie Ross after 10 years of fumbling Halo.
 
Shadows of the Damned seems like a good analog. A great game imo but didn’t sell or review great at the time. Well guess what, the remaster reviewed even worse. Having cult status doesn’t mean the general audience will love the game even after re-evaluation.
 
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