Let me put this in the most direct way possible, my life is filled with constant disappointment. This is a direct cause from hype; hype leads to false expectations in my mind, which ultimately leads to disappointment. My most recent feeling of disappointment was this past January. The video game Bayonetta was released on the Xbox 360 and PS3 on January 5, 2010. Not only was this a game I was looking forward to, but it was the first major video game release of the new year, which is always exciting. You may be thinking, why is he so disappointed about some video game? Well in a very brief explanation about myself, I have a passion for computers and video games. I am going to school next year for Game Programming, and I spend most of my free time playing video games. This is why 3the cause of most of my disappointment is video game related.
In order to be disappointed by something, a person must have some sort of expectations for that something. In order to fully understand my disappointment with the game Bayonetta, you must first understand my expectations for the game. My expectations for this game were among the highest in recent history. The game was produced by Platinum Games and directed by Hideki Kamiya. I am sure you have no idea who this fellow is, but understanding who he is is the basis to my expectations. Hideki Kamiya is a Japanese video game designer who worked on the critically acclaimed games Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Viewtiful Joe 2, Okami, and most recently Bayonetta. Now the previous games he directed are all personal favorites of mine. They all have unique styles that brought something completely new to world of video games. This is what originally got me excited for this game to be released when it was first announced.
Over the year following the game’s announcement, all of 2009 essentially, things only seemed to get sweeter. A few trailers were released here and there and as more information was released it only got better. Here is what was known, it is a third person hack and slash 3D action game and the main character is a female named Bayonetta. Bayonetta is tall and slender witch with black hair. She uses four pistols, one in each hand and one on each leg. At first this idea seemed absurd, but when I saw the first trailer with her using all four pistols in action it flowed really nicely and looked awesome. Another big factor of this game was the fact it was multi-platform, being released on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. This meant that owners of either console could enjoy the game.
With concept art released here and there, and the occasional blog post it seemed like the game couldn’t come soon enough. Well my personal expectations only grew larger due to one coincidence. When I attended New York Anime Festival 2009 last year in September, there was a playable demo of the Japanese demo in English! This totally took me by surprise, and I immediately played the demo and took some videos of the game in action. The demo played smoothly, it reminded me a lot of Devil May Cry, which wasn’t a bad thing. The game’s music sounded fantastic, it fit the gameplay style, the enemies seemed varied in both design and attacks, and the boss battle at the end of the demo was epic. Not only was this the weekend of my birthday, but it was among the best weekends in recent memory. I thought to myself, I must have this game as soon as possible.
The game was released on October 29, 2009 in Japan. I had the option to import the game, but decided not to due to the fact it would cost me nearly double what the game will retail for in the U.S. As with most Japanese developed video games, once it is released in Japan you can find all sorts of content on the game through YouTube and online blogs. Well it seemed like all this new content made the wait for the game even worse. The game received a perfect scoring in the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, but with one catch. The Xbox 360 version received the perfect 40/40 score, the PS3 version scored a 39/40. My immediate thought when I read the headline to this article was, why would this happen? Is the Xbox 360 version superior to the PS3 version? According to what the four critics in Famitsu had to say, the Xbox 360 version had a much higher frame rate, quicker loading times, and less screen tearing. I figured that it was only a one point difference, what could the big deal be? I figured this because I was trying to be optimistic because I am a PS3 owner. In Japan the PS3 version of the game still doubled the sales of the Xbox 360 version, I realize now that I blinded myself to the fact that I knew this didn’t matter, PS3 versions of games always sell better than Xbox 360 in Japan, regardless of which version is superior.
Once November rolled around, I pre-ordered the game at my local video game store. As some time passed, I was excited to play the game and for its release, but I was content with waiting once again. Then in December I watched the Japanese commercials for the game on YouTube and thought, wow less than a month of waiting left. Then came the pinnacle of my expectations. I knew that there was a U.S. commercial that would premier at the end of December before the game released. It just so happened that one day in late December I was on my break at work and the TV was on in the break room. I can’t remember what the channel was, but a commercial came on with the Sega logo appearing across the screen. At the time I wasn’t aware of what it was a commercial for, I didn’t think Sega had any major titles being released soon. Then the main character, Bayonetta, dropped onto the screen and chills ran down my arms. It was just one of those moments were you weren’t expecting something, then it comes from no where. While the commercial did not feature the theme song from the Japanese commercials, which I loved. This wasn’t even a problem though, it was classy and that was all that mattered. It suited the game perfectly. This commercial signified that the game was only less than a few weeks away. The week before the game was released, people who pre-ordered the game could pick up a collection of five posters, featuring the main character Bayonetta on them. I immediately picked up the posters and hung them on my wall. Tuesday, January 5, couldn’t come any sooner.
Finally the day of the release of the game had arrived. I stopped by the mall on my way home from school that Tuesday. I purchased the game, sped home, and put the game in my PS3. What awaited me was a nice long load screen. I figured this was just because of the upcoming opening cinematic. It was only a simple taste of what was to come. The opening cinematic was over the top with action, blood, violence, sexuality, and profanity. I played the game for around five hours that night, and I definitely did enjoy it for what it was, but something didn’t quite feel right. The game just came off as over the top. I don’t believe the game was meant to be taken too seriously, as most of it seems like a joke from the developers at how serious the game and its characters are taking themselves. At that point I was around one third of the way complete with the game. The gameplay was extremely solid, the game was fun to play and to this day remains fun to play. The main character controlled exactly how you would want her too. The weapon choices were varied and all fun to use. The music was excellent. It flowed with the game and was catchy. My favorite song being the remixed version of the classic song Fly Me to the Moon. The song would play whenever the action got really intense, the lyrics and style of the song just contrasted the action going on so much that it seemed to fit beautifully. The voice acting was acceptable and the sound effects were appropriate.
My praise for the game does not mean there weren’t problems. These problems that constantly presented themselves were game crippling. Remember that long loading screen before the opening to the game? Long loading screens were a constant throughout the entire game. Whether it be pausing the game and waiting five seconds for the pause menu to come up, picking up an item and waiting three seconds for the item information to come up, or waiting twenty to thirty seconds for the next chapter of the game to load. All of these times were unacceptable in my mind and detracted from the experience. What really got me was that the Xbox 360 version didn’t experience such long load times. It really upset me that I paid full price for a less superior version of a game. I had no other options, but that isn’t fair to the consumer. The major problem with the PS3 version is that Platinum Games did not develop the PS3 verision. The PS3 version was a mediocre attempt at a port by Sega, the publisher of the game, of the Xbox 360 version. Essentially a port of a game is taking the base coding and engine of the game and using it to run on a different system instead of building the game from the ground up for that system specifically. What happens is there are hiccups with how the coding is processed. These hiccups can cause longer loading times, reduced frame rate, and screen tearing, all present in the PS3 port. These problems would not be present if Sega took the time fix these hiccups and make sure the game ran smoothly. However, the video game industry is a business, and I am sure they did the best they could with the time alloted. My big issue is that this is rarely ever the case with games released simultaneously on multiple platforms. Ports usually only occur when a game is remade or released later on a different console. This idea seemed so strange to me, why would they not just develop the game for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 together? The answer is simple, it would take more time to do this. The more time it takes, the more money it costs to make the game. The biggest and worst thing Sega did to try and fix their failure of a port was to last week release a patch for the game which allows PS3 owners to install the game to the PS3 hard drive. Installing the game to the hard drive allows the game to load of the hard drive instead of the disc the game is on. The speed at which a game can load from the hard drive is much faster than that of the disc and it also creates less wear and tear on the disc drive of the system. Sega should have included this feature in the U.S. release of the game, if not the Japanese release. This feature is present in most Sega games released on the PS3, why would they not include this feature on a game they know could use such an option? While Sega may not have been left with any other options, don’t try to fix your failure by side stepping the problem a month after the game is released by allowing users to install the game to the hard drive. In the end it is better late than never as they say, and it does successfully reduce the load times of the game.
Other issues with the game is the feeling of enemy repetitiveness and lack of cohesive story. Every single level of the game seemed to follow the same formula. Progress by defeating the enemies, which all the minor ones seem to be the same, then fight a boss. Once you defeat this boss, it appears along with the minor enemy charters throughout the following levels., and you fight a new boss. This ended up getting repetitive and frustrating in time. My last complaint is the story of the game. It is utterly ridiculous, incoherent, and makes no sense. Now I am sure this goes hand-in-hand with the entire game taking itself too seriously as to be a joke, but being left scratching my head, wondering what is going on, after a majority of the cutscenes is never a good thing.
Through the positive and negative aspects of the game, I can say as I did in the beginning, I was disappointed with Bayonetta. Once I played through the game and all way said and done, it didn’t live up to the extremely high expectations that I had for it. This is the case with most games though, as publishers want people to be excited for their games, raise the hype level, and have people buy the game. In no way am I saying that it is a form of false advertising, but it is merely my own fault. It is my fault for letting myself get so excited for something that is merely just a game. I personally play video games for enjoyment and relaxation, but I spend so much time building up false expectations for a game before it is released. This creates a feeling of disappointment when all is said and done and the game is finally released. As I’ve grown older, this disappointment only grows larger and happens more often. In a way it seems pathetic, my biggest disappointment of recent memory is that a game, that I enjoyed playing and would rank among my favorites, did not live up the clear false expectations I had set for it.

It is quite a long essay, but the game is still very much enjoyable. While I may have been disappointed with the game, that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it.

Evangelion’s ED version of Fly Me to the Moon

Utada Hikaru’s version of Fly Me to the Moon

Johnny Mathis’s version of Fly Me to the Moon

Julie London’s version of Fly Me to the Moon

Nat King Cole’s version of Fly Me to the Moon

Which is your favorite version of the song?

Set to come out on April 22, 2010 for 3,990 yen in Japan. This is a great price for what you’re getting. The collection contains all the Mega Man Zero games, 1-4. It should be fun, I missed out on the Zero series.

Update!
Over on the Capcom-Unity blog it was announced that the U.S. will be seeing this game in the Summer of 2010, thank you Capcom, should be great! Hopefully it retails for 30.00 USD or cheaper, I trust Capcom with these things. They seem to do a great job with release dates and prices. Thank you Capcom!

Question: Something about online play in general…didn’t catch the question though
Answer: The game uses a system where if you cheat by disconnecting all the time or trying to beat the system instead of just play the game you will be matched to play with other people who play like you i.e. cheat. (There was more on this, I didn’t catch it all however)
Question: How was it balancing the game?
Answer: Because the focus of the game is fun for everyone, it isn’t as tightly balanced as say Street Fighter IV. No characters were favored, but there definitely isn’t as tight of a balance as a hardcore fighter.

Question: Why no Resident Evil characters?
Answer: Basically they have a very dark atmosphere about them, and it wouldn’t have worked out to well with the general gist of the fighting game for everyone. Not many of the characters are too dark in that style and it could have possibly upped the rating (F.Y.I. Japan uses an A,B,C,D rating where the ESRB in the U.S. uses E, T, and MA). Basically a higher rating could potentially lessen sales.

Question: Why use Mega Man Dash in the game and not the classic Mega Man?
Answer: Essentially the response was, while the original Mega Man is cool, Mega Man Dash has a variety of weapons and moves we could use in the game, where as the original Mega Man only has his blaster.

Question: How did this game come about? Did Tatsunoko approach Capcom vice-versa? (I asked this question)
Answer: Niitsuma-san responded by saying first Tatsunoko approached Capcom about making a game [with Tatsunoko characters] and Capcom thought it would be a good idea to make a Vs. game with both properties.

Question: Could you please go into depth more about the mini-game?
Answer: There is one shooting mini-game in the game, we didn’t do a bunch of mini-games because at the time we made the game fan feedback was against many smaller mini-games, so we decided to focus on just one enjoyable, great mini-game.
It really means a lot to me when a developer does these types of things to promote the game for the fans! It was a nice way to get an insight on how he felt about the game.

Question: What was your reaction to the internet information leak of the new characters?
Answer: While the leak was upsetting, I think it helped with the publicity of the game and in the end wasn’t a bad thing for it.

Question: Why no Dante from the Devil May Cry Series?
Answer: At the time we were making TvC, Devil May Cry 4 was just released and we were unsure of the fan reaction to adding him to the roster. You see now, all over the internet, that fans wanted Dante in the game. If there is a sequel to the Vs. series, we will try to put Dante in it.

Question: Why no Breathe of Fire or Power Stone characters?
Answer: There were ideas for both series to be in the game, but due to similarities in fighting styles it wouldn’t have made much sense to incorporate them.

Question: Why were the anime cut scenes at the end discarded?
Answer: We ran out of time to get them all licensed and approved, but there are still character stills in the game.

Question: Possibility of a sequel?
Answer: Yes, if the game sells well enough and enough fan support is there, there could very well be a sequel. (This wasn’t a confirmation or anything of the sorts)

I’m sure there were more questions, but I can’t remember a lot of them. It turned into a spam fest of copy pasta of dumb questions, which really pissed me off. Even if it wasn’t a dumb question, don’t keep spamming the chat, just wait until the current question is finished and ask it. If it doesn’t get answered, it is no big deal.
I am also sick of all this put it on the Xbox 360 and PS3 shit. Seriously, the game was developed for the Wii, there is no way it will be released on the Xbox 360 or PS3 unless it sells phenomenally well and a miracle happens (which it most likely won’t, besides the hardcore fighting game and anime Wii owners, no one will know what a Tatsunoko is). Of course I want the game to do great, and I hope I am wrong because I am super excited for this title. While a sequel could see light of day on the current HD systems, I still doubt it. If it is does well, I don’t think they would switch platforms. I don’t get why fans don’t understand that the game was released over a year age in Japan and that we are lucky it is being released in the States. They can’t just put the game on the PS3 and Xbox 360, it doesn’t work like that. To port the game over to the Xbox 360 and PS3 would be a big risk, where Marvel vs. Capcom, Super Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue, KoF XII, and SSF2HDT are all out or coming out soon on both consoles. The Wii deserves more great third-party games that aren’t shovelware.

All I can hope is that the online gameplay doesn’t lag to the point of unplayability. If that works I’ll be a happy camper.

I hope the my insight helped out any fans, it was definitely cool to be part of the Q&A experience. Thank you Capcom-Unity, Niitsuma-san’s Translator and Niitsuma-san for taking your time to doing something this satisfying for the fans!

Anime wise I caught up to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood a few weeks ago and have been keeping up with it. It is getting really intense, I can’t say which series I prefer more (not that it matters), but I am enjoying it just as much as the first. I also started watching Kimi ni Todoke, which I planned on from the start, but finally got around to it. What inspired me to get my ass moving was that I picked up the first volume of the manga and really found the story sweet and the art was funny to boot. I really like Kazehaya and Sawako’s characters. I am currently at episode 5, so still a little behind. I finished Welcome to the N.H.K., finally. I then started to rewatch Trigun since I bought all six Remix volumes over the summer. I pre-ordered the Gundam Unicorn volume 1 Blu-ray and Eva 1.11 Blu-ray this past week, but other than that things haven’t been to crazy anime wise.

I picked up a few volumes of manga at my closing Waldenbooks book store for 50% off, I haven’t gotten around to touching most of it yet, but there is no rush.
The day before New Year’s eve I also got some Star Wars novels, manga, and picked up the Bayonetta pre-order bonus poster collection.

Then on January 5th I picked up Bayonetta for the PS3 when it was released. I have only gotten to play it for about 5 hours (beat the first 7 chapters) and I can say it is pretty good. It has its flaws with load times, screen tearing, and confusing story, but it is just damn fun to play. Hopefully I will have more to write about it as the time comes.

I feel like I have exhausted myself Pokémon wise for the next few months until the U.S. release of Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Over the past week I easily put 50 hours into the games and now find myself wanting a break. In Soul Silver I finally defeated Red, beat the Elite 4 the second improved time, and caught all the Legendaries I could. The time spent with the games is enjoyable, but can feel overwhelming at times and obsessive. Just to throw it out there, January 30 – February 12 at all U.S. Gamestops is the Pikachu colored Pichu distribution event. It isn’t anything too crazy, but will be useful come March 14 when Heart Gold and Soul Silver are released (or for me and any other importers the day the event starts) because the Pikachu colored Pichu is used to unlock the Spiky-eared Pichu in the Ilex Forest. I won’t spoil any back story to it, but it is worth getting. Also any importers, don’t forget you can download the Champ Path for the Pokéwalker now for a limited amount of time via Wi-Fi.

Since I need a break from Pokémon, and I have a ton of titles I want to play, I need to decide to start somewhere. I am thinking I will start with Persona 3: FES. I spent around 10 hours with it when I first got it, but since then I haven’t played it and I am lost. I will most likely start a from scratch with a new game and see how it goes. I feel like I need to play and beat P3:FES before I start Persona 4. I also will try to play some more of Bayonetta too, I am not sure how engulfed I will get though (not that I have too, I just want to enjoy it).
January is usually a pretty decent month in the year, things start off with a few good game releases and there are a ton to look forward too. At the end of the month Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is being released on the Wii, early February will see the release of both Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope and White Knight Chronicles on the PS3, and March will bring Final Fantasy XIII, God of War III, and Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. That actually seems a bit crazy! We’ll see how it goes and what I pick up, most likely all of them though. A definite goal of this month and upcoming year is to post more consistently. I always feel like I have so much to do and write about, but just end up feeling overwhelmed and then don’t do any of it. Things should be slowing down at work too so I will have more time to do what I enjoy, but getting paid isn’t too bad either.

While I think the $50.00 price point for one episode of an OVA series is steep, it is the equivalent of the Japanese pricing, so I can’t complain or be to frustrated. Also factor in the fact it is a Blu-ray, worldwide, simultaneous release. The day I found out about the Amazon exclusive, I pre-ordered because $35.00 is reasonable in my mind, as a Gundam fan. So support it if you can because this is a real rarity for us the states. Based on the material I’ve seen so far (trailers and such) it looks promising. Only time will tell, expect more this March when it is released.

Gundam Unicorn Announcement Video and Trailer (with English subtitles)

Gundam Unicorn PV

Pre-order at Amazon.com

Official Gundam Unicorn English Website
The website includes some character and Gundam summaries and the English voice actors.