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Shuhei Yoshida says Horizon Forbidden West didn't sell as well as he expected

Topher

Identifies as young
No I’m not Herman but cmon with these threads bashing Sonys greatest exclusives all of a sudden (Spider-Man 2 yesterday)—Sony killed Killzone for this Horizon franchise and that was a BIG risk that I think paid off.

Sony's greatest exclusives?

GIF by Steve Harvey TV
 
They didn't listen to any of the biggest complaints from the first game. Not one. Usually the second game is quite better, this wasn't the case.

They kept the same problems, made it bigger with more complex systems, same shitty combat, same useless exploration, no secrets to find, Ubisoft style open-world boring template, even more woke story.

It deserved to fail even more. A game like this one published nowadays ? it would flop so hard.
 

HRK69

Member
Which is a weird name I've never heard of another Dutch man called Hermen. Herman? Yes all the time. I've never heard of anyone else named Hermen.
Hermen is rare I guess. Never heard it before either

Interestingly, I actually know two people named 'Keimpe,' which is remarkable considering how uncommon that Dutch/Frisian name is
 
Fuck this super mediocre franchise, I'd rather have another cookie cutter FPS in the form of a new Killzone at this point...

Awful boring characters, ugly art-direction, boring combat with no "oomph", typical OCD inducing open world and as for the story...I think it has run its course after we learned what happened to the world of yore and Ted Faro.

Herman Hulst is the worst thing that has happened to this company.
 
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Illyria

Neo Member
The machines and gameplay was great to me. The story was meh. Characters were kinda meh. Vaarl & the chiefs stood out. I've read multiple people having various issues with Aloy.
 
I've tried to get into both games and they're just so fucking boring. The story and characters are just not interesting and I just find that I don't give a shit about what's going on.

Sony have so many more interesting IP they could be working with, but no, Horizon seems to be the one they want to focus on.
 

mrMUR_96

Member
I way preferred the first one, second one felt like a chore. The story was less interesting and the combat was non-stop dodging and then getting knocked down, super tedious to actually play. Aloy just isn't particularly likeable as a main character either.
 

GymWolf

Member
What’s hilarious is that they were building up Varl to be her love interest. He ticked the box of being black, but he was a man, so they killed him instead lol.
Avad was the bigger candidate, in the first game you literally have a dialogue choice to tell him that you want to pass more time with him after fixing the planet, varl wasn't even close to get a line like that.

Pretty sure aloy is bi more than full lesbian.
 
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Fake

Gold Member
What’s hilarious is that they were building up Varl to be her love interest. He ticked the box of being black, but he was a man, so they killed him instead lol.

With is super strange. I played a lot HZD and they really push this ideia of many possibles love interest. I remember you make love compliments to the guy with a hammer in the end of his quest.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Avad was the bigger candidate, in the first game you literally have a dialogue choice to tell him that you want to pass more time with him after fixing the planet, varl wasn't even close to get a line like that.

Pretty sure aloy is bi more than full lesbian.
Eh, don’t agree. Avad was pushing for it, but she returned nothing. She told her dead father she liked Varl and even wanted to show him all the stuff from the metal world.

Whatever the case, the choices could have been Erend, Varl, or Avad.
 
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Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
With is super strange. I played a lot HZD and they really push this ideia of many possibles love interest. I remember you make love compliments to the guy with a hammer in the end of his quest.
Don’t know if it’s true, but I heard that before the final quest, there was supposed to be a romance thing a la Mass Effect when Aloy goes to be. It was apparently scrapped.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
In terms of sheer sales, PlayStation veteran Shuhei Yoshida reveals that he thought the sequel could have performed better.

Speaking in his first interview after departing from PlayStation in 2024, the former president of SIE Worldwide Studios for Sony tells Kinda Funny Games that one game's sales figures, in particular, left him surprised

According to Yoshida, he expected the sequel to sell better as it came after an already well-established IP.

Simple reason: HFW's sales completely flatlined after the game got added to PS+.

image.webp
 

GymWolf

Member
Eh, don’t agree. Avad was pushing for it, but she returned nothing. She told her dead father she liked Varl and even wanted to show him all the stuff from the metal world.
You don't agree with her literally saying that he want to pass more time with him in a romantic choice that has a small heart icon? Especially when it's right after avad make clear to prove something for her? Yeah agree to disagree, that's the only scene in the first game where she says something remotely romantic to a dude who clearly feels something for her, varl is nowhere near as direct as avad, he is impressed by aloy, avad looked thirsty as fuck :lollipop_grinning_sweat:

What he says to rost is probably that he like varl as friend because he is basically the first friendly dude she encounter after receiving the title of seeker of the nora, showing him the outside world can perfectly be a friendly thing, it doesn't have any romantic note imo, she want to show varl the world because the nora are the most secluted tribe and they can't leave their territory like carja and oseram can do, so the dude literally never saw more than nora territory and meridian at the end when he help in the final battle.

To sum up, i like you gaiff but i don't want to fuck you :lollipop_grinning_sweat:
 
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onQ123

Gold Member
I think he is pandering because the 1st game sold over 20 million when a game sales that much 1st go round you're not going to automatically think the next game is going to sale more you worry that it won't reach the success of the original.
 

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
But, but, some Sony fanboys told me Horizon is a huge franchise and thats why LEGO Horizon exist.

Yoshida must be lying. He must be on team green now.

You guys praise Resident Evil 4: Remake for selling 9 million copies in 1.5 years, but it's a disaster when it's Horizon.

Sony has gone on record saying the game declined in sales after putting it on PS+
 

Ridaxan

Member
Forbidden West was visually very impressive, but I can't really say that I enjoyed my time with it. Aloy as a character was insufferable for the first 2/3 of the game. Easy plat though. I picked it up on PC again, so I will revisit it in future though.
 

clarky

Gold Member

More like the correct take , turns out quite a lot of folks think its just not very good:

It's super boring. I haven't been able to finish the second one after 3 tries. Beautiful game that's boring as crap.
Horizon is an amazing technical showcase to see but a dreadfully dull game to play.
Makes sense... Forbidden West story is VERY boring.
I dropped it because the combat was annoying. So much clutter and so many options. Sometimes that's not a good thing.
Played about an hour or it, and apart from the visuals I was completely bored. The first game was at least fresh in its art style and world, but more of the same just wasn't enough when the underlying game mechanics are just Ubisoft slop
Not surprising, the first one had great visual but the plot was downright average. Didn't help that the main character was bland.

I didn't even bother with the sequel.
Horizon is flat out boring. It doesn't even have a high competition rate. I think everyone bought it for the graphics.
People bought the first and realized they didn't like it. So why buy the second. I'm one of them. Same thing happened to FF7 Rebirth.
I way preferred the first one, second one felt like a chore. The story was less interesting and the combat was non-stop dodging and then getting knocked down, super tedious to actually play. Aloy just isn't particularly likeable as a main character either.
It was boring af. The first game was boring too but worth playing because it was something new.
 
It was boring and the writing/story was a massive step down from the first one (seems to be a trend with Sony sequels), especially with some of the dumb shit they brought in at the end.

Also pushed like crazy by a talentless hack who thinks the franchise is way more popular than it actually is.
 
Horizon ZD: heavily bundled, “complete edition” was available like a year after launch for $18 at Walmart any time you wanted it.

Horizon FW: not nearly as bundled, complete edition is $60, base game still $30 three years after release.

Barring some kind of generational leap in quality, it makes sense that the sequel sold worse. And the sequel wasn’t a leap in quality, it was a worse game in every single way except graphics. And even the graphics were ruined by some of the most laughably bad art I have ever seen in a game. I got the plat because it was easy mindless Ubisoft busy work, but if ZD was an 8 or a 9, FW is a 6 at best.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
You don't agree with her literally saying that he want to pass more time with him? After avad make clear to prove something for her? Yeah agree to disagree, that's the only scene in the first game where she says something remotely romantic to a dude who clearly feels something for her, varl is nowhere near as direct as avad, he is impressed by aloy, avad looked thirsty as fuck :lollipop_grinning_sweat:
She doesn’t say she wants to pass more time with him in the first game. As I recall, he says she’s always welcome, but she gives the typical Aloy response of "I got shit to do." Maybe I forgot.
What he says to rost is probably that he like varl as friend because he is basically the first friendly dude she encounter after receiving the title of seeker of the nora.
Possibly, but the dynamic between them is much more conducive to romance than with Thirst King Avad.

Anyway, point is, there were potential suitors in the first game that didn’t get much, but could have easily been fleshed out in the sequel. Not only did they ignore them, but the only option is a woman. It would have made far more sense to give multiple options.
 

danklord

Gold Member
I pushed myself since the pro came out to beat these games, almost through Forbidden West. Once you, as a player, commit -- it's pretty awesome. Fighting is always interesting, the graphics are routinely stunning, and the story continues to intrigue.

But I can't escape the feeling that the game knows it has elite production value and expects that hook to be enough to bring you in, but it isn't. You have to be a very generous audience member to seek the moment where it clicks and becomes a must-finish game.

It does everything an open world game should do, but it's missing that unique hook within the first hour that emotionally invests you. The production spectacle is just not satisfying enough to stand on it's own.
 

GymWolf

Member
With is super strange. I played a lot HZD and they really push this ideia of many possibles love interest. I remember you make love compliments to the guy with a hammer in the end of his quest.
Love compliments to erend? Like what?
 
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mdkirby

Gold Member
Horizon Forbidden West is so good, everyone with a PlayStation or PC has to play this game.
I dropped it 80% through, aloy was just insufferable for some reason. She seemed much less so in the first game.

The side quests were way more fleshed out, and incredibly well animated, but I dunno, if it was the characters of the dialogue, but I didn’t give a fuck about any of the support characters (except for those two archeologists), so mountains of dialogue and fleshed out quests were just wasted as the actual content was boring.
 

Luc2010

Member
I believe the next game should transition from Aloy to another character that is not female. Alloy as a character is boring and done.
 
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bender

What time is it?
It's super boring. I haven't been able to finish the second one after 3 tries. Beautiful game that's boring as crap.

I also have tried to play it a handful of time. I found the bow really unsatisfying to use and as soon as you leave the tutorial area, you are greeted with the typical Ubisoft-like open world map and it just kills my desire to keep playing.
 

Madflavor

Member
I don't understand why Horizon receives such a strong push by Sony. It's really not that interesting of a setting. It's pretty good for a single game, but it really didn't need a sequel.
 

GymWolf

Member
She doesn’t say she wants to pass more time with him in the first game. As I recall, he says she’s always welcome, but she gives the typical Aloy response of "I got shit to do." Maybe I forgot.

Possibly, but the dynamic between them is much more conducive to romance than with Thirst King Avad.

Anyway, point is, there were potential suitors in the first game that didn’t get much, but could have easily been fleshed out in the sequel. Not only did they ignore them, but the only option is a woman. It would have made far more sense to give multiple options.
I think she says that they are not ready for that type of engagement yet, even under a double negation that sound like aloy at least thinking that some day they could be ready for that.

But yeah it's not that important because although kissing the asian chick is also a choice and not canon, aloy clearly get more and more hyped to check her fish market from up close the more you go forward in the dlc, she was never that excited with the dudes.
 
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