Koei: The laziest video game company ever? [SW3 Update]

[Flyentologist]

If any of you are familiar with the Dynasty Warriors series, then you should know who Koei is.

I've been paying attention to their games lately, and a recent announcement of theirs has forced me to lose all faith in them as a company.

The Dynasty Warriors series had gone literally unchanged through 4 sequals of the game. Dynasty Warriors 3-5 were recycles of Dynasty Warriors 2, using minorly upgraded graphics engines each time, with zero gameplay change throughout.

Until Dynasty Warriors 6. New gameplay. Which is good. But then there were only 12 real characters, the others simply became clones of eachother. Character count goes from 42 I believe, to 12. The amount of levels declined from over 50, to 11.

And now, instead of focusing on the potentially series-saving DW7, they've been putting out multiple versions of Dynasty Warriors 6, each with tiny perks unique to each version.

As of a few days ago, they are now up to 6 versions of DW6, each with something unique miniscule in each, instead of just adding these additions onto the original DW6.

It's an a*****e move, forcing loyal completist fans to pay for a full-price game for a minor perk in each reiteration of the game.

So for me, I've given up on Koei..

At least the Samurai Warriors series is still in good shape.

So, for those of you who know Koei, what do you think of their business practices? Do you think there's any practical reason to create so many versions of the same exact game to lure customers to spend more money?

And any other game companies you feel have questionable marketing and production?

 

[Moonlight_HuangHou]

I'm very disappointed in them...and a few other companies as well.
For Koei: ...I was terribly disappointed in DW6. They left out so many characters and some changes were terrible. Then in empires it was much better and Zhang he got back his claws...but they changed some characters like Ma Chou now with a big sword which looks bad for him since I prefer the old spear which worked better since he was mainly on a horse. Which Cavalry typically used spears.

The characters looks good...well for some. Others looked worst than before. So their artwork was OK on the most part. (Like Zhen Ji looked prettier before and Zhang He looked better with his old hairstyle and clothing style.)
The graphics in the background weren't bad but I was disappointed in how repetitive everything was. From character duplicates to same battleground maps just different stories. >_> So annoying!

Squaresoft: There games aren't that amazing. They are heading more for a realistic graphic look for characters which look awesome but the storyline for some aren't that amazing compared to before. Them joining with other companies...can be good but it can also be bad..this jumps down to Enix and Squaresoft working together on Star Ocean 4....

Tri Ace: Their Star Ocean 4 was OK. It could have been so much better! Like for example..it seemed that they only consentrated on working with maps instead of towns or mini events or character AI's like the older games.
I hated that:
-During battle characters can't really develop as close a relationship as before in friendship/romance. Instead it's very hard and they don't seem to react as intelligent as other games like Star Ocean 2. (Ex. You see more emotions from characters counting on relationship lvl's in battle how they react and what their AI does...in Star Ocean 4...the characters are less 'intelligent' in battle.
-Less voice acting: The characters repeat almost the same thing too many times. They used to have more phrases.
-Private Action reduced. PA made Star Ocean unique. They removed it and left it for only the space ship and this alone wasn't good at all. Instead...the PA's were more like mini clips with Tri Ace moving the side clips the way they wanted it instead of you choosing a path you like yourself.

I really don't know if these terrible changes were due to Square and Tri Ace joining together...but it sure was disappointing. But I DO like the character and graphics. It was rather good.

All in all it does bring up another something I was going to point out soon. All/Most game companies seem to be mainly concerned with graphics more than storyline. No?  

[Flyentologist]

Square tends to make good RPG's, but lately they've been hitting a streak of rather generic releases. I am however still looking very forward to Final Fantasy XIII.

Companies have definitely forgotten about good storytelling in place of good graphics. It's the struggle to have the prettiest game.
Graned, there's some games out there with beautiful graphics and amazing storytelling.
Fallout 3, Bioshock, and perhaps Fable 2.

Ma Chou's switch to the great sword was a surprise. I don't really like his character design either. He used to be embroidered in golden dragoon-type armor. Now he's down to leather padding and a circlet. Hopefully when Dynasty Warriors 7 comes around, they fix his whole design.

Koei Warriors, a huge fansite for the company, has even admitted that all the DW6 re-releases has them a bit pissed. To get everything the Dynasty Warriors 6 series ((may as well be a series of its own)), you'd have to spend over $300, when you could easily have $60 for the base game price, and have the new characters, stages, and modes as DLC for $10 a pack. It's pretty money-grubbing.

Quite the opposite, Blizzard's an amazing company. Too bad they take upwards of 8 years to create a single game. They're probably the slowest game company in existence, but the final product always comes out to near perfection.

 

[Moonlight_HuangHou]

What do Blizzard make by the way?

I honestly am looking forward the the next final Fantasy game too.

You know, I just Koei's main site forum there. If you want you can leave suggestions and even requests or thoughts on their games. As soon as I found out I joined but I wonder if they listen.

Warning! DW Character Rant:
Ma Chou even kinda looks like a copy or Lu Bu or something. He just doens't look great in that new suit. And I miss his "5" voice actor unless it's the same guy and he just changed his voice a bit. Zhou Yun on the other hand still sounds ridiculously fake. Then the other new voice actors for most sound terrible. Like SunShangXiang just being plain annoying. Also, why did they make her look younger?! It's like...most the character relationships look like pediophiles. Ex. Zhou Yun and Xiao Qiao. He looks older and mature and she looks like a 12-year or girl. SunShangXian and LeiBei looked OK before. Then the made her look like a teen too. Oh sure they made LeiBei younger but his new 'look' and the 'old' sunshangxiang would have been perfect. Now LeiBei really looks like a *****.
Rant End

You know good old games? Like Shenmue 2 or Jade Empire. They should make sequels to those. I'm also looking forward to Kingdom under Fire Creators making another game. Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom is a perfect example of a good gameplay company that just concentrated on graphics and no storyline or gameplay AT ALL. Did you try it? It was terrible. But hopefully the next one which will be like "Kingdom under Fire: HEROS" will be a nice grab.
 

[Flyentologist]

Blizzard's responsible for World of Warcraft.
I'm a Starcraft guy though. Starcraft 2 has been in the works for about 6 years now, and it was announced 4 years ago.

Final Fantasy XIII has definitely been taking an absurd amount of time. Took 8 years. That's ridiculous, considering Final Fantasies usually release within a span of 2 years of eachother. Let's hope it's worth it.
And actually, that's only the standard FF13. Versus and Agito still don't have a release date. Word is, the recently announced Final Fantasy XIV will be out before Versus and Agito.

My DW Character Opinion: For the most part, I loved most of the new character designs, considering that all the characters had what may as well be zero change between games. Lu Bu is still the best change so far. And Zhao Yun. Wei Yan's new appearance looks baller, but his weapon looks like a giant flower. :/
Haven't heard anything about the voices, but I doubt they're worse than Samurai Warriors 2's voices.

 

[Moonlight_HuangHou]

About DW Character change.
True. Most were always the same. But I guess it never really bugged me. ^_^ It'd be nice if you can choose in the next DW between if you want the regular weapon on new weapons for the characters. A lot of people also requested for that to be in DW7 but who knows if they'll have time to do that.

Final Fantasy XIII took 8 years?! Seriously?! I really hope it's good then!! Now I can't wait to see it. I'm also looking forward to Tekken by the way~! I haven't gotten to play since Tekken 3 b/c I don't have a ps2. I did play it once on my cousins ps2 but that was for a short time. I hope the tag battle system is better than I remember.  

[Flyentologist]

Oh my gosh, you totally read my mind, I was just talking about Tekken 6 to some friends. I can't wait. Eddy Gordo's the s**t. I'm actually learning Capoeira IRL.

DW6 has so little replay value. DW3-5, you could go back and replay every character to get their ultimate weapon. DW6, no ultimates. It's like, once you play as the 12 musou mode characters, that's it, nothing else to do.

 

[Arch Angel Neko]

damn imiss playing these games.. eek  

[Arch Angel Neko]

and about dynasty warrior.. i must say that you are correct.. i have been actually wondering what the change was when they released the latest DW .. oh well *shrugs*  

[Moonlight_HuangHou]

iGoldman

Oh my gosh, you totally read my mind, I was just talking about Tekken 6 to some friends. I can't wait. Eddy Gordo's the s**t. I'm actually learning Capoeira IRL.

DW6 has so little replay value. DW3-5, you could go back and replay every character to get their ultimate weapon. DW6, no ultimates. It's like, once you play as the 12 musou mode characters, that's it, nothing else to do.

lol So cool! I can't wait either. My favorite was always Xiao Yu/Jin/Hwoarang.
Did you see the graphics? They're really good. ^^

True True. Once I'm done with DW 6 I'm sure there isn't anything else to it. The challenge modes get slow after a while.
Just a while back I was hooked on DW 6 Empires. Now that was fun. Then I decided I'd finish up Star Ocean 4. I might just go back to empires next or another game I stopped midway.

Oh! I also found out MangaCarta is coming out for x-box 360 also. I never played it before but heard lots about it.  

[Moonlight_HuangHou]

Arch Angel Neko

and about dynasty warrior.. i must say that you are correct.. i have been actually wondering what the change was when they released the latest DW .. oh well *shrugs*

By latest...do you mean that new DW that makes them all super human and demon like? Where they have two forms. XD I think it's ridiculous....XD It would be cool if they were just normal characters made up but they were taken from historical people from back in the Three kingdoms time so it just seems funny to me. ^^ Only some were made up characters.  

[Black_Angel_Flowne]

Honestly, I'm an obsessive Sims fanatic. And, well, the games on the PC have been awesome, but the ones on the systems, well... actually, I'm talking about the ones on the Nintendo DS. I recently got The Sims 2 Apartment Pets (because my computer recently died and I can't play any of those versions anymore crying ) God, it sucked!

That's something else, too. It seems like some companies are giving out everything to one system or another, and if they create it for something else... it feels like they've done little to nothing.
i.e. The Sims 2 for PC is great. Everything Sims made for the DS...
just awful.
And Harvest Moon: all DS games were wonderful. Tree and Tranquility for Wii, and Magical Melody for Gamecube.... severely lacking in storyline...  

[Black_Angel_Flowne]

I've grown to hate the Final Fantasy series, mainly because they switched the fighting scenarios in XII. I'm terrible at games where you have to make combos or really rush.

SPOILER:
I've seen previews from the new Final Fantasy XIII, and was disappointed. When did Shiva get a sister? Apparently, she has one on this game, and their special ability is to turn into a giant motorcyle. Apparently, all the summons can become some type of all-terrain vehicle or something...
Nice artwork, though...  

[Moonlight_HuangHou]

Black_Angel_Flowne

Honestly, I'm an obsessive Sims fanatic. And, well, the games on the PC have been awesome, but the ones on the systems, well... actually, I'm talking about the ones on the Nintendo DS. I recently got The Sims 2 Apartment Pets (because my computer recently died and I can't play any of those versions anymore crying ) God, it sucked!

That's something else, too. It seems like some companies are giving out everything to one system or another, and if they create it for something else... it feels like they've done little to nothing.
i.e. The Sims 2 for PC is great. Everything Sims made for the DS...
just awful.
And Harvest Moon: all DS games were wonderful. Tree and Tranquility for Wii, and Magical Melody for Gamecube.... severely lacking in storyline...

Does this mean you got Sims 3? ^^
Since your a sims fan? I've never played Sims before. It's very popular. I think I played on a video game console but that was only for a few min and it was too repetitive though for my taste. But I've heard lots of good things about #3.  

[Black_Angel_Flowne]

Moonlight_HuangHou

Black_Angel_Flowne

Honestly, I'm an obsessive Sims fanatic. And, well, the games on the PC have been awesome, but the ones on the systems, well... actually, I'm talking about the ones on the Nintendo DS. I recently got The Sims 2 Apartment Pets (because my computer recently died and I can't play any of those versions anymore crying ) God, it sucked!

That's something else, too. It seems like some companies are giving out everything to one system or another, and if they create it for something else... it feels like they've done little to nothing.
i.e. The Sims 2 for PC is great. Everything Sims made for the DS...
just awful.
And Harvest Moon: all DS games were wonderful. Tree and Tranquility for Wii, and Magical Melody for Gamecube.... severely lacking in storyline...

Does this mean you got Sims 3? ^^
Since your a sims fan? I've never played Sims before. It's very popular. I think I played on a video game console but that was only for a few min and it was too repetitive though for my taste. But I've heard lots of good things about #3.

Quote: "My computer recently died and I can't play any of those versions anymore crying "
So, no, I have not played The Sims 3. And while it looks good, I still think The Sims 2 is still a lot better. But when I get a new computer, I'll probably be right in the store buying the Sims 3 anyway! ^^
I actually really like the games they made for like bigger systems. But yeah, they can be a bit... boring after constant playing.
From what I can tell you, the PC versions are always better, but you usually have to buy a lot more expansions and stuff. I've spent about 200 dollars just for the full set of the Sims 2...
Another problem: memory space. Most of the expansions take a lot of memory, and so most of the expansions are just gathering dust in a shelf.

Hmm... Well, Ok, there's way too much stuff to say on The Sims, so I'll just make a game review right now... It might take a little bit, though, soo...