NightSky Dev: Kojima is Terrible At Making Games

[SL33TBL1ND]

I've only ever played MGS 1, 2, and 4 and I've only enjoyed 1 and 2. 4 was really really bad. Everyone hates on Raiden in 2, but the gameplay was was more than good enough to make up for it. MGS4 is just so damn boring to play. I will say that MGS1 and it's VR missions where two of the best games I've ever played.

 

[Zetatrain]

uh huh, well I disagree, played all of games and enjoyed them immensely, but whatever good for him.

 

[default]

I fucking hate all of Konami's games. They're twisted, clunky, fucked up pieces of junk. Great concepts behind them, bloody terrible execution.

It's the gameplay, people.

 

[BrotherRool]

Oh, pish posh. Kojima's a crazy sob whose rediculous characters and loooong, silly stories put the developers in a unique position to do a lot of things that aren't as encouraged in other games. Its weird, but what's so bad about such silliness existing?

He's fellated as a genius and a great storyteller.

So because it's factually provable that several million people enjoy his work he should stop doing because he's encouraging people to like things that a dude from IGN doesn't like?

I mean Metal Gear Solid 4 is my favourite all time game, what am I meant to say? Sorry? It's not even like I'm in a minority, his games sell really well and as you kindly pointed out are absolutely adored by loads of people

EDIT:
What the _fudge_ is this?

 

[repeating integers]

You're not wrong about that website. Awesome stuff is awesome.

 

[zefiris]

There are plenty of really, really good indie japanese games. I bought quite a number.

Grief Syndrome, New Super Marisa Land, Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, koumajou densetsu 2 and Recettear, to name a few.

It just doesn't fit the muscle guy mold male gamers demand, so of course western companies won't consider such games as good.

So because it's factually provable that several million people enjoy his work he should stop doing because he's encouraging people to like things that a dude from IGN doesn't like?

You're not allowed to like a good game because it doesn't fit that person's gaming standards, don't you get it? You bad, bad person, you!

 

[sb666]

wasnt journey made by a japanese indie game? im prety sure it was.

 

[SoranMBane]

Okay, so one random game developer mentioned his less-than-favorable opinion on Kojima and the Metal Gear series in an interview... And that's news, somehow? Really slow news week, I guess? Because I don't see how any of this is relevant to anything at all. It's just one guy, who is probably also a gamer with the usual diverging sets of opinions that gamers tend to have, sounding off on a popular franchise; that's not news. Also, the interview went over a bit more than just his opinion on Metal Gear. He mentions his opinion on the PC vs XBLA as platforms for indie developers, he mentioned new games and projects that they're close to releasing, and he mentioned how he thinks game devs today should focus more on making shorter-but-sweeter games rather than huge time-sinks; literally all of that is more news-worthy than what he thinks of Hideo Kojima.

 

[-Drifter-]

Kojima's imagination is wild, off the wall yet grounded enough to not come under fantasy and fairy tales. His stories are insane, yet genius. Character's are like actual freaking people, bar the crazy imaginings of them.

If "actual freaking people" is a roundabout way of saying "walking exposition dumps with no sense of urgency" I agree entirely.

At the risk of getting flamed to death, I sort of agree with Mr. Rodrigez. I think that Kojima can write well-rounded characters and interesting stories, but anything good he does is always bogged down by massive amounts of boring, redundant exposition, ridiculous and poorly scripted action scenes and a million unnecessary plot threads.

If he could just learn to look at his own work with a more critical eye and cut shit out when necessary, Hideo could probably be a great writer, but I doubt his massive ego would allow that, especially with people saying things like...

I truly believe that Hideo is the Da Vinci of gaming.

At this point, I'd say he's more the Amanda McKittrick Ros. [http://www.cracked.com/article/170_5-people-who-failed-their-way-to-fame-fortune/]

 

[Raika]

Hideo Kojima is a pretty piss-awful writer, that's true(one of the industry's worst and that's saying something) and Metal Gear Solid 4 was pretty laughably awful. How is this news, though?

 

[Marudas]

Metal Gear Solid 3 is easily the best in the series, and, if you don't mind occasionally putting the controller down and enjoying some exposition, its a well thought out epic. But hey, if I were an ex-editor turned small video game porter/developer with one game that has about the complexity of a jack in the box under my belt, I'd throw around my dislike of a game as proof the developer sucks too.

 

[Dresos]

I love all Metal Gear Solid games and Kojima is fantastic.

 

[Weaver]

I agree with this sentiments. I don't like the metal gear franchise and I think Kojima is a hack.

 

[internetzealot1]

"I haven't enjoyed a game of his since maybe the original Metal Gear Solid."
Well maybe you just don't enjoy Metal Gear Solid, considering that's all Kojima makes.

 

[Woodsey]

Ironic that he's made one of the best video game series around isn't it? Seems to me that the guy accusing Kojima of being a terrible dev is not really thinking like Kojima.

Of course Kojima doesn't care about smaller markets or smaller projects, that's not his cocking style. When Kojima get's a hold of a game engine, he knows he can freaking put War and Peace into a bloody game, and make it 4 hours longer than the actual book itself.

Kojima's imagination is wild, off the wall yet grounded enough to not come under fantasy and fairy tales. His stories are insane, yet genius. Character's are like actual freaking people, bar the crazy imaginings of them.

Kojima is exactly what the games industry needs. I truly believe that Hideo is the Da Vinci of gaming. His work is quite well known and popular among gaming circles, but when he pops his clogs and this generation of gaming is consigned to 'retro,' his fame will sky-rocket as one of the visionaries of the 7th generation.

There's nothing visionary about lumping a dodgy film (or rather, the equivalent of 5 or so dodgy films) into a game. The 'visionaries' of this generation will be the ones who made the best use of the medium. If not we may as well give up the "games can do good storytelling" schtick, because we'll have shown we haven't a clue as to what good storytelling is.

 

[Darkness665]

Thanks for link to the article and curse you bad writer (in jest of course) for the link to their web site! A word or two of description regrading 2D, retro or platformer would have saved my eyes from that atrocity. I am really glad you like it but that is god awful ugly.

 

[CoL0sS]

Hmm depends how deep you want to look into it.
Some people say he likes to criticize and make fun of western trends in his games. Other like to point out he's not a very good writer and that a lot of his dialogue is superfluous (try taking a shot every time Snake repeats last 2 words of other people's sentences in form of a question).

I respect his stubbornness, his determination to do things the way he wants to despite critics or more entitled fans (or perhaps as a giant middle finger to them). There's no denying he's been heavily influenced by movies and that he always wanted to make them.
I'll say this about Hideo. At least he takes fucking risks instead of porting popular indie games.
Here's another quote I don't fully agree with.

He encourages AAA and indie studios to make shorter blockbuster experiences to accommodate that on-the-go lifestyle and short attention span that modern technology has fostered. "I would totally pay $60 for a three-hour game that was balls off the wall incredible for three hours. Instead we get these games that promise 30-60 hours of content. They don't have to justify the price; they have to justify the quality.

I'm sure Nicalis as publisher would like to see these kinds of games, but players want more bang for their money. Darkness II was an amazing game in my opinion but everyone I know only rented it because they thought it's 5 hour story doesn't justify $60-$100 price tag. Besides, doesn't mobile gaming (despite often being dismissed) offer exactly that kind of experience. Granted not "blockbuster", but still fun.

 

[Zom-B]

Obviously Kojima is a pretty divisive name in gaming. Seems to me that people either love him and the games he makes or hate him. Personally, I've enjoyed every single MGS game. Sure, 3 is definitely the best, but they are all awesome to me, even the cut scenes and the writing. I mean, nobody can force people to like campy, off the wall military/spy stories and outrageous characters, but for people who enjoy that genre, with all the occult and sci fi themes mixed in, it's a can't miss.

No one game is going to satisfy everyone, of course. For example, I think the Gears of War games are steaming piles of brown boring, but hey, I sure don't begrudge anyone else enjoying them and their silly landscapes of perfect cover and bro-heavy comraderie and machismo.

Same goes for Kojima games. Maybe this Rodriguez guy just doesn't like Kojima's style and that's fine. But until he has a successful multi-game franchise under his belt, his opinion isn't worth any more than mine is.

Well after the complete shambles that was MGS2 i can understand where this guy is coming from. Though MGS3 somehow managed to be pretty damn good... The appeal of Snake's ultra smexy voice probably had a factor in there somewhere. And maybe Kojima was away during half of the cutscene to gameplay ratio meetings?

That makes sense i suppose. Since apparently (from what i've heard) MGS4 goes back to the loopy world of MGS2 where nothing makes sense and cutscenes are an hour long again. Oh joy. Wonder if a huge Diabolus Ex Machina turns up to invalidate two/three hours of gameplay in that game too.

Is MGS2 a "complete shambles" because Kojima pulled the rug out from every one and put Raiden in as the main player controlled character? Or was it something else that you object to?

I wasn't privy to the outcry when MGS2 released, but from what I've read, Kojima took a huge risk doing that, for no other reason than to do what he wanted. Personally, I think it was a pretty ballsy decision and it was still a great game. Once you get past your attachment to Snake and start playing the game, it's as good as any of the others.

For an interesting read on MGS2, check this out: http://www.deltaheadtranslation.com/MGS2/

It's fairly long, but if you have any sort of intellectual interest in MGS, MGS2 and what changed and why between the games, it's pretty intriguing.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

I can get where he's coming from by Konami being a shitty publisher, but Kojima? Yeah, MGS2 was fucking terrible, but you're telling me that MGS1 and MGS3 aren't great games that practically left a legacy of their own? Get the fuck out.

 

[KingCrInuYasha]

I just finished the first Metal Gear Solid and Rodriguez's claims aren't without some grain of truth. The bosses were good, the sneaking parts were nice and the controls were alright for the most part, but the story...oh boy. "How much info dump can we put into this cut-scene?" "How convoluted can we make the story?" "What silly thing will Snake and his friends say next?"

Spoiler: Spoilers for Metal Gear Solid and Zelda: Twilight Princess

Also Liquid Snake is the biggest badass villain turned crybaby I've seen in a video game since Zant from The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Those two need to get together, they'd just adore each other.

"I should have been the ruler of the Twili!"
"I got all the flawed, recessive genes!"