Inafune Explained: How The Mighty Have Fallen | Past Mortem [SSFF]
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2024
- Father? Businessman? Hack? Conman? Now that we've broken down the Mighty No 9 kickstarter campaign, it's time take a closer look at the man at the center of it all, Keiji Inafune.
Narrated by Grace Kramer
Written by Grace Kramer & Derek Alexander
Edited by Derek Alexander
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its funny how shes basically laughing under her breath while delivering inafune's self-aggrandizing quotes
tibbarabbit she’s so close to losing it.
Can you blame her, Keiji Inafune being overly ambitious, outspoken, implying he will change the gaming industry of Japan, he just proven himself as a laughingstock businessman.
@@theorigionaldrew ÷w
@@MaxBraver555 i find hilarious how Inafune claimed that japanese games were over.
Meanwhile a guy named Hidetaka Miyazaki realeses Dark Souls and actually make an impact on gaming.
Monster Hunter finally reaches a bigger audience with some alterations but without sacrificing its cores.
DMC5 wipes away the stain that was dmc.
Meanwhile western studios run Dead rising into the ground
And platinum games becomes a name of respect on the hack and slash world
If anything people now go to japanese game to escape from the western same old same old gritty realistic serious games.
@@BioMatic2 It gets better as it doesn't end there.
Bethesda end up under fire from all sides by the end of the 2010s. Even as early as Oblivion and Fallout 3, they had alienated the existing communities for both franchises in an attempt to gain mainstream appeal (a poor contrast with Monster Hunter World a decade later). Then TES stagnates from constant Skyrim rereleases and disappoints the modern TES community they built up, while the corresponding modern Fallout community get disgraced by Fallout 76. Meanwhile, Skyrim in particular comes under increasingly heavy fire for its bugginess and shallow combat, comparing very unfavourably against modern (and mainly Japanese) ARPGs like Dark Souls, Monster Hunter, and Dragon's Dogma.
As the relative low point of the Dark Souls series, 2014 had been the perfect time to release a clone capable of challenging or even outdoing Dark Souls II. The western-made Lords of the Fallen came out that year and spectacularly failed to do so.
Nioh comes out and shows how to do a Dark Souls style game properly, while combining it with influences from Ninja Gaiden (aka another victim of Inafune's attitudes at the time).
The Castlevania: Lords of Shadow trio disappoint many in the Castlevania community. Some saw Demon's Souls/Dark Souls/Bloodborne as how to do a modern 3D Castlevania properly. Others wanted more 2D Castlevanias instead. A few years pass, and Bloodstained happens.
Western-made indies like Shovel Knight and Hollow Knight take inspiration from classic Japanese games. Others like Salt and Sanctuary and Blasphemous are influenced mainly by more modern Japanese games.
A number of prominent fangames based on Japanese franchises are released, such as AM2R and Castlevania: The Lecarde Chronicles. Romhacks of old Japanese games remain on the rise, to the point that Nintendo produced Super Mario Maker in an attempt to counter SMW hacks. How much of this do you see for western franchises?
Activision acquire Blizzard and proceeds to destroy one of the most beloved American developers over the span of a decade. This is also closely linked with...
...The rise of FFXIV from its catastrophic failure at launch to reaching the very top of the MMORPG genre.
The Operation Rainfall fiasco showing that there was still demand in North America for JRPGs on the Wii.
Dragon Quest XI showing that there is still a place for very orthodox, classic JRPGs in the modern industry.
Nintendo releasing Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe becoming the best-selling kart racer in history.
The 7th generation being the best for Nintendo in terms of hardware sales. By extension this is also the best for hardware sales from Japanese companies as a whole (combined DS/PSP/Wii/PS3 sales stand at ~424 million).
The Xbox 360 as Microsoft's most successful console just _coincidentally_ happens to have had greater support from Japanese developers than any other Western console in history. It also stands alongside the 3DO as one of the best selling Western consoles ever in the Japanese market (though admittedly this isn't saying much).
To be fair, you could just go on and on. While most of these things happened after Bionic Commando and the other ventures of Inafune's push for the west had already failed, they serve very effectively as yet more nails in the coffin for this ideology. It's just even more hilarious when he realised the direction the winds were blowing in, quietly conceded his mistake and completely changed course for Mighty No. 9 just to fail dismally again, this time against those western-made indie kickstarters like Shantae and Shovel Knight that made better 'Japanese' games than he had - and then for Capcom to seize the opportunity as well and release Mega Man 11. As if that wasn't good enough already, Inti Creates got out of that mess without any blemishes and promptly showed how to do it properly with the Mighty Gunvolt games.
Probably the two biggest mistakes of Inafune's "Japanese games are dead" ideology were mistaking 'stagnation' for 'death' and completely ignoring the situation of the handheld market, which was still dominated by Japanese games in all major markets throughout this time. Even on home consoles before he had done much to implement his "Japanese games are dead" masterplan there was still Valkyria Chronicles; and Monster Hunter was still generating momentum in western markets, with Tri being the first to break the 1 million sales mark outside of Japan.
I just had a thought: Inafune is basically Wily:
He had a hand in creating Megaman, got angry at his friends for not give him recognition, left to do his own thing and let his ambition and greed get hold of him, to the point where he tried to create a clone of Megaman that despite seeming more powerful actually was proven inferior. Heck, he even created Zero, a creation of WILY.
He let his own ambitions and pride get the best of him, to put it bluntly. He is not "evil" like Wily, but you see my point.
Sad but true...
It's just a matter of time until DmC and Mighty N.9 become self aware and start attacking mankind and Capcom has to send Megaman to stop em
@@chiyo-chanholocaust8143 Send Dante to kick Donte's ass. Hell, I think Nero could beat his ass especially considering Nero in DMC5 is a way better version of Donte without being him.
He's also Copy-X. As in, believes himself a hero before having accomplished the fears he says he can, and ultimately finds superficial solutions that work on paper but make people angry at him while he wonders why.
I find it funny that he was complaining so much about the Japanese game industry last gen, but this gen has been something of a revival for it. Last gen, Japanese publishers tried to 'westernize' and it ended up alienating their core audience and failing to gain a new western audience. People play japanese games because they are different. We don't want every game to be the same.
I wish japanese Horror games made a comeback though. Resident Evil 2 Remake is the only japanese horror game that i'm legit excited for. I feel like last gen was the chopping block for that specific genre...
Fatal Frame? Dead
Silent Hill? Dead
Siren? Dead
For real, most of the games I play are from Japan. Mainly due to me being sick of how much shit the western game industry is descending into.
He was behind the westernization ironically
Well the chart says
didn't alienate me one bit.
This is like a sitcom episode where the rambunctious teenage child yells at their parents that they can survive on their own, and 15 minutes later all their plans fall through and the real world is too hard.
That's way too accurate to describe Inafune's situation.
sounds like Inafune had an over inflated ego and believed that any idea he had was amazing and couldn't be wrong.
XBladeVanitas he came up with zero's Green tits sooo.... yeah
I forgot about that till you mentioned it...
XBladeVanitas it's hard not to notice after the First time, that's why i prefer the Megaman zero series design, Green tits free
he made dead rising.
So... George Lucas?
Six years later and Inafune lives up to his Scam Man name: selling NFTs.
It's not hard to see Keiji Inafune's tale as one of arrogance (especially with that "Those other companies didn't have Keiji Inafune" line). He thought his projects were guaranteed successes, that his vision and that of his colleagues would make them instant successes worthy of media empires...so he planned for that eventuality, but not the eventuality that they would fail. And fail they did, like Icarus and his wings held together by a poorly-chosen adhesive.
Timothy McLean is it though? Perhaps he’s too arrogant for his own good. But he keeps trying. And that is what will lead him to success one day. He’s lost millions. However, it only takes one media empire to bring in billions. That’s why he keeps keeping chance after chance. He screwed up by not focusing on ensuring M#9 was successful before trying to expand it out. That much is clear.
There is a point where you need to just stop, and give up.
@@morosforhire4544 why? Who the fuck do you think you are to tell anyone else at all to stop pursuing *their* dreams? You sound like an oppressive dickbag. Just because you weren't loved as a child and your parents constantly told you that you would never amount to anything doesn't mean you can go around telling other people to stop doing something they want.
He is a greedy asshole.
Kamiya put it best, he’s a producer not a programmer.
Just a slight correction, Inafune did push for DmC: DMC, since that game was started around 2008, I know this because in that Siliconera interview with the quote: "Lost Planet 2 was too Japanese."
As for the man himself, I really think he ended up screwing Capcom last gen and has eyes bigger than his belly and that causes him to make terrible decisions.
Yeah I figured out why
The thing about making global games makes some sense, but so many devs forgot that the distinctive Japanese style is what makes them popular.
Devil May Cry may be the biggest microcosm of that in recent memory.
If we want a Western Style game, why not buy a game made by Western Devs who understand what a Western Game is and what it should be?
The funny part is that western studios did understand that but the japanese studios pushed back on their ideas to make the game "more western"
Look at the concepts for dmc... They really look amazing and i even like the character designs
But no capcom refused their designs because they wanted it to be completely different from the other games...
Exactly. I buy Japanese games specifically BECAUSE they're Japanese, and feel Japanese.
BTW, the 3DS and Vita releases of Mighty No 9 aren't even listed as TBA on the Wiki page anymore. Pretty safe to say that they'll never be released.
And Red Ash? 2017? That's a laugh. While there was a Red Ash: Gearworld CGI short released in 2017, the game is still nowhere to be seen in 2019, without even a release date. I highly doubt the game will ever be released.
dont forget the movie,series and comics
man imagine all the scammed people more than 4 millions
To be clear though, the CGI Short is independent from the game. But yeah, nothing else came out of that since.
Inafune is like a tragic Dark Souls character, always seeking glory just beyond his grasp.
stranger59 more like a cocky dark soul player attempting to fight 3-4 bosses at the same time and had his balls kick
Keiji's blood stains are all over the gaming industry landscape...
He's like the crestfallen knight, just sitting there, does nothing all day, only open his mouth to criticize you, can't count with his help, and when the ships are down and is the time for action, he fails miserably and goes hollow.
Wow, Keiji Inafune's ego is kinda on par with Kanye West's XD
well at least the gay fish create something still acceptable.
:3 i work under this project with low paid.
GtTehOneTehOnly
The real question is who's is greater
Naw, Kanye's an amazing rapper. Inafune has yet to prove he can put something quality outside Capcom (a company recovering from him now that he's done).
He's like those people who keep screaming "If I have the money I will show you all!" kind of guy but always coming up empty.
I respect the hell out of what Infune was trying to accomplish, but its just really sad the man must have never read the Tale of Icarus and let his lofty ambitions send him plummeting from grace.
Great way to describe his mess. He flipped off the sun and got burned by a solar flare.
Well that's how I see it.
Gojiro7 yo, weird question and it’s quite late, but is your Profile Pic FLCL? If not, what is it? Looks radical
@@metagas6946 yeah its a picture from FLCL, ive never once changed it and have been rocking it from the very start of my youtube profile ^^
I don't, that goofball single handly destroyed Capcom and the whole gaming industry in Japan for decades.
And because of that I had to wait for ten years to see DMC 5. That's enough for me to not respect his delusional ambitions.
Edit: Typo.
I can't for the life of me comprehend why Inafune thought the world would accept a media empire that revolved around a game that was still in production. It's like the unparalleled success of the Kickstarter went to his head. It probably did, but it seems the seeds of megalomania were already there.
mighty number 9 is the cheetahmen of 2016
CAPTAIN-WOLF
cheetah*
CAPTAIN-WOLF Cheater
AND NOW THE MIGHTY
Look, I didn't like MN09. But it was no Cheetahmen....
If this was a troll comment then how could it get so many upvotes? Lmao i've seen you everywhere in this comment section and you're one hell of a butthurt fanboy huh, keyboard warrior? Nobody cares whether you like this game or not and nothing you could do to stop this game from becoming a failure.
Just goes to show how you DON'T plan out an ip. planning a manga and tv show while alongside making the game is a absolutely terrible idea. You make the game first, then create other medium versions of that ip. For example, John Wick, there is going to be a John Wick comic book coming out in the fall published by Dynamite comics, There have already been 2 successful movies of John Wick first, then a comic book. That is how it should be done. Pokemon; game came out in 1995 in Japan and the show wasn't released until 1997. sounds like Inafune has a huge ego and doesn't know self-control. Take a game like Axiom Verge where the ENTIRE GAME was made by 1 man and it was one of my favourite games I played last year (even though technically it is a 2015 game). just goes to show all the money in the world can't make a great game.
ZiKoN22
To be fair, Pokemon HAD to work that way because it barely made it out of development... Multiple Times actually. It wasn't until Gen 3 that they were basically guaranteed to continue main-series games on an almost yearly basis. The first games barely happened because of funding, The second games needed an update to the Cartidge because it was so large and the game wouldn't have been released otherwise, and GSC was planned to be the end of the series until Masuda (I think) took over for Gen 3.
Yeah, sometimes it's better to play it safe and take small steps.
super late reply, but at that point in time, cross media franchises were being announced left and right in japan. Yokai watch was announced the same year as Kaio. It was expected to do alright, but it ended up blowing up a bit after the game released in July 2013 (it wasn't that it wasn't successful at launch. Sales simply exploded shortly after launch).
Capcom, ironically released their own cross-media franchise without any prior announcement in April 2013. Geist Crusher, which was set to release in december the same year. I have no real info on when the manga and anime released, but the game did pretty terribly, and after one sequel, has pretty much ceased to exist as a franchise ever since the end of the manga in 2015.
For another (nsfw) example from Marvelous, look at what happened to Valkyrie Drive as well. Unlike it's sister-series, Senran Kagura, Marvelous DID have huge plans for it, considering they announced everything from an anime, manga, a Vita game, and a mobile game, all slated to release that same year. I believe the anime did terribly, then the Vita game also bombed. I know the mobile game apparently did okay but was shut down fairly quickly. (I mention Senran Kagura, because it started off in the opposite way, with only a game and a promotional manga being released, with everything else coming only after the first game was a modest success)
>Stridently criticizes Japanese gaming industry and Capcom in particular
>Pushes for a big stupid western push that results in a number of shitty games
>"What, why isn't anybody sad I'm leaving :("
>Fails to see the irony that the game that actually saw the most success is the most Japanese game he ever made.
Those games had other development problems than inherently "pushing for big stupid Weston games"
@@somethingsomething9008 don't bother these people uncritically worship everything japanese
I'm a weeb too but yeah
@@credenzamostro Ok inafune
And now he's shilling nfts
At this point, Inafune is basically gaming’s equivalent to Butch Hartman.
Inafune: Japan is finished.
2016: No, Inafune, you are finished.
He was cooked
The sad thing is I really think Mn9 could have been could if Inafune kept his eyes on only making a good game just for a couple consoles. He stretched himself too thin and is now considered a joke. Which is a shame since he does have talent.
He put himself in a bad situation by having so many stretch goals geared toward adding more and more versions of the game. Yeah, it helped secure more funding, but as you say, it stretched them so thin and no doubt led to so many of the game's issues due to corner cutting.
Oh what it could've been.
Frizzurd This video makes me think Inafune is kind of a douchebag.
he baited all of us. the king of troll. if only we knew. .if only we saw the line in the water before taking the bait. now we're all in a fish tank. hello friends.
He isnt talented.
Other people that worked with him are.
Atleast while he was still at Capcom.
So basically Inafune was a man with really good ideas and vision...But he only looked at the big picture, and not the parts that made it.
Suika Ibuki succinct. perhaps he was too used to it due to his.last.position. he really didn't take the time to build them up
Nope. He was a greedy asshole who wanted to make money by kissing Western ass.
@@aamirsahil9339 Its easy to say that. But if you look at sales numbers, theres no denying that games like GTA5 will never be matched by any Japanese game sales and profit wise. Money can cause people to get greedy.
@@StriderVM Who cares? I'd rather play Street Fighter or Devil May Cry over GTA 5 anyday.
Rather why would gamers care? We play what we wanna play cause we think it's fun. Sure sales are important, but who cares when the games lack depth and craftmenship?
@@thienbaongo7997 Fair enough. But there is a reason companies like EA really like their "games as service" mantra.
Excellent work guys!! This was a fantastic watch.
Who would've that an innocent question of mine to Hideki Kamiya would lead to such shenanigans? I don't regret it, but man, the fallout was much, much greater than I anticipated. What if Kamiya had blocked me instead?
Great stuff, SSFF!!
i feel like you are indirectly responsible for INAFUNE's downfall. if it werent for that post you made, maybe it would turned out something different for INAFUNE and his life.
Otoshigami - I think that if it wasn't me, it could've been someone else that asked the question. Also, Kamiya simply could've ignored the question or blocked me outright.
Sylverstone Khandr You did the right thing, and so did Kamiya. :3
HOLY SHIT YOU DID THAT??
You're my fucking hero *kneels over*
@@starkillerguy193 Crazy, right?
What Inafune implying around 11:30 is... that Capcom is owned by one big family called "Tsujimoto" and most of high-rank post is occupied by those who are related to them. Which make it harder to become in charge of the company. Many employee left capcom because they could not see any opportunity.
very good, lot of idiots fail to understand this. Almost all of capcom's talent have left to form companies like hexadrive, Game Republic(lol dead) Tango Gameworks, Platinum Games, Ignition Tokyo(dead), only some of the resident evil and street fighter guys are left and once they are gone capcom is fucked and they will end up like konami
@@tHeWasTeDYouTh This comment didn't age well.
@@Mordecai0799 well once a company has talent leave it is all over. I think Capcom is one of the few game companies that have made a comeback while others like Konami, Hudson and a ton of 90s Japanese studios are shadows of their former selves or dead. RE3 Remake was kind of meh compared to RE2 Remake but it was made by the b team so we will have to wait and see. I am sure capcom will go back to their old ways. they have some insane greedy people in charge
@@Mordecai0799 capcom still isnt as good as before, DMC5 is just play safe, some lots percentage of the stuff in DMC5 is still shitty, but they get away just because it's the DMC they know.
As long as you’re getting paid well, why does it matter if you can’t advance any higher? Unless you’re greedy.
"Japan is finished." Kind of harsher in hindsight, cause Japan is currently sailing smoothly while the West, mainly the US, is mired in its own "cultural war" that is stifling everything, including games.
Glad he was wrong.
"He's a business man. Not a creator." - Hideki Kamiya
The video continues on Kamiya's point that Kamiya seemingly has no ill intent towards Inafune. However, the video continues to show the irony in the quote because as a business man Inafune has met a lot of failure.
The quote is still heavily relevant in and out of context.
FLEMISHDOG she doesn't really dispell that him being a business man is exactly a good thing and was good for what Mighty no 9 is/was
and?
***** inafune was hypocrite, the second he gained independence what did he do? Make games in existing franchises or use existing formulas work and no new ideas.... Exactly what he critiqued the Japanese marker for.
If you want to go on facts let's talk facts
If anything good came out of Inafune's indie career, it was Soul Sacrifice for the PS Vita. That game is freaking amazing. I wish it got more attention.
Stonewall3000 Needs a console or PC port. Fucking great
I would hardly consider that an "indie game"
it was my first time hearing of this game, and from what I saw in this little video, it looks good! :O
Damion it's a Sony franchise so it can't come to PC
@@GiordanDiodato Horizon and FF7 say hi.
So, this is the first time I've watched a video from HVGN since he rebranded the channel to SSFF. I thought, "this looks interesting, why not! I liked derek and his content before, who cares if the format is a little different, right?"
Suddenly a wild not-Derek appears!
It was a good video still, but I got a chuckle out of the surprise.
"It's better than nothing."
As a 3ds backer, currently it STILL IS nothing...
@@ccggenius It still is nothing lmao
That is not his word, and mighty no.9 isnt as bad as what people think.
@@Hakaishi00 Lol that's a joke, right?
@@songoku2711 what joke? It's not as bad as people thought it to be, you guys are just salty.
Inafune is Japan's John Romero. Genius developer whose ambitions, arrogance, and miscalculations caused a major failure of a hyped project headed by a new standout studio.
Inafune's not even a dev. Romero at least did level design and directing. Inafune's just an "ideas guy", artist and businessman. He's never done real development. Artists and producers are important, but they're low tier on the dev creativity tier. Artists can be replaced easily.
history repeated.....
-"John ROmero is about to make you his bitch"
-"Make the bad guys cry like an anime fan on prom night"
but he was also the head guy for knowing what made Megaman fun.
Sadly, the problem was that MN9 was way too ambitious.
Romero was no genius.
I never understood the "Cry like an Anime Fan on Prom Night" thing. As someone who stayed home to game like a fuckin' NERD on prom night, I had a blast and didn't really felt the sting of regret until several years later. Even then, it's more of a "Huh, shoulda gone, oh well" more than a sobbing, soul-rending realization.
Shadow of Rome is godlike, it's a shame it didn't perform. Now the closest we have is Ryze...great.
I rather have 1st rome total war than Ryze as the closest.
Matias Bouzas Shadow of Rome is underrated. Easily one of my favorite PS2 games. Unfortunately the game was released in 2005 though, and was overshadowed by some overrated games. Nobody will agree with me but I would of preferred more games like Shadow of Rome instead of God of War.
I question Inafune's role in MM3. He's basically our only source for the game. I want more people to chime in. I don't trust relying only on Inafune.
Great job guys!
Shadow of Rome isn't an Onimusha clone at all. Literally the only thing they have in common is they're both set in the past.
So I originally only came cause I wanted to make sure I was pronouncing Keiji Inafune correctly, but this video really drew me in so I'm still watching it. Real nice work
First EP I've seen with Grace narrating. Don't know if this is new or what but it was a nice change of pace.
She did the Velez and Dubail episode as well.
AFAIK, that's the second episode with Grace narrating. The first episode was the one talking about Velez and Dubail games in the Punching Weight segment.
I'm pretty sure you're correct, but I can't be too sure
SkuzeeII I hope not. If so they lost a sub.
I bet she's the most wonderful person ever and I have nothing but respect for her as an individual but I do not enjoy her voice for narration.
Had no problem at all with Grace's narration, another fine video, thanks SSFF
I still remember Liam from the Super Best Friends almost crying over people criticizing Inafune during the MN9 hype cycle. Good times.
Yeah, he did not make any friends that day.
The reason for Keiji Inafune's unfortunate downfall, is a simple case of wanting to produce & create way too many things all at the same time w/o having delivered anything on his own in the first place & w/just 1/10th of the budget required for delivering it. He was asking for his house of cards to come crashing down.
WHAT HAPPENED TO DEREK'S VOICE
Droopy eyed armless children he got hit with the sex change Ray
That would be Grace, and AFAIK, that's the second episode with Grace narrating. The first episode was the one talking about the Velez and Dubail games in the Punching Weight segment.
Hmm that voice..don't want to be mean but I don't like it ;( Can't get through the video
I mean, her voice isn't good but I can deal. It's not her fault. It could even be mitigated with equipment or vocal training, I'm sure.
dollarsshower uh, I didn't say anything about her....
I really respect Inafune's drive and his persistence to do whatever it took to break free from Japan's admittedly antiquated salaryman corporate structure. However, the gleam in his eye was much too large to start with. Particularly when you start your own company (in his case, 3 companies), you need to humble yourself, stay realistic, build a respectable product and prove to consumers that you can be generally trusted with these productions.
I strongly believe that if Inafune humbled himself a little and started off Mighty No. 9 as a full attention game only, it had the god-tier funding needed to sweep consumer perception for his companies perfectly. Backers could have been really happy, Beck would have garnered more than enough love for Inafune to easily suck in interest for a Mighty empire, and any of his future failed projects would never have been shrouded in this miasma of uncertainty and bitter memory.
This was a prime example of learning to walk on your own before you can sprint. After dropping himself out of Capcom's cushy footing, Inafune tried to mad dash on a road fraught with mines. If he carefully and humbly walked through it instead, he would have reached his intended destination slower, but he could have made it. Instead, he stepped on almost every landmine trying to get there faster.
Thank you for such an reasonable comment. Everyone else has immature crud and apparently that's all they have. We fans aren't angels either after how that thing was handled.
I feel like he's not exactly wrong about the Japanese business culture being kinda toxic to video game development in the 21st century. But at the same time, him ranting about "IT'S LIKE COMMUNISM" and the "Inafune Brand" also makes me feel like he cares less about the actual development of games and more "this system isn't good enough for ME".
Khaden Allast that has NOTHING to do with suicide rates but oh well, another typical “western” over exaggeration lol.
@@roccoanthony8930 Haha Japan has one of the highest rates of teen suicides.
Japanese school culture is awful.
shingshongshamalama and that has NOTHING to do with what I just said in my comment section.
The fact that you reacted in such way proves that you’re one of those “hate everything about Japan” ultra-nationalist lol.
Let me guess, from your idiotic comment, you’re an ultra-nationalist from China or Korea? In that case, these two countries have MUCH higher Suicide rates than Japan (China obviously covering it up by giving false numbers).
And besides, have you actually SEEN school-life in Japan. Your generalization probably comes from over exaggerated Western propaganda news. Your intellect fails me lol.
western one isnt proving to be much better
So... he quit capcom because of his ego?
"Having production roles on almost every entry since"
Inafune's first job as Producer was on Mega Man 8. MM2-7 and MMX1-3 had Tokuro Fujiwara as producer.
Not a producer, but a hand in producing the games
So in a sense, Inafune is why we lost Mega Man Legends 3. We could of had it, but his pride cost us. I really don't know how to feel about this. It does seem like my hate to Capcom was at least somewhat mislead...
@Strigorvious Dregorous
I know. I'm just sad cause of all this, MML3 will never see the light of day.
Not really in a sense, he was legitimately the reason MML3 got canned.
All he had to do was stay on until the game was finished but he couldn't even do that. It was going great until his departure.
He then started saying that "he would work on MML3 outside of the company and was hurt they cancelled it." Which is quite manipulative.
The guy was toxic. He really didn't need to leave before it got greenlit. Your hate was indeed mislead but he needed that anger to build MN9, so...
@@SamWiseTheGreat Can i ask a bit more detaiedly-..how coudl Inafune be fully responsible off this game not being released anyways?
@@lsebastian9086 I wouldn't say fully responsible as Capcom could have at least attempted to finish the game without him. Mostly responsible, would be right. They kind of just gave up when he left.
He spearheaded the project, you see. He was the guy leading the direction and development of MML3 and Universe.
When he abruptly quit the company mid development, he must of known there was a strong chance of his games at the time would be cancelled.
He pretty much left Capcom in a headless chicken state where they didn't really touch the franchise until MM9. Which they admitted in an interview.
@@SamWiseTheGreat Hm... i see. S this is how the situation coudl ahd been due off the timing at the day he had quitted. this whole deal is honestly complicated so im trying to see all the angles to understand the cancelation offf MML3
Mega Man 11 and DMC 5 where the greatest comebacks of all time
Don't forget Resident Evil 7 bring back Resident Evil series back to horror roots again .
The western-developed Strider turned out way better than DmC, Lost Planet 3, or Dead Rising 3.
It was made by Double Helix the team that made Killer Instinct 2013
Grace, Derek little advice, don't use VGChartz as source for sales, they're innacurate.
Ditto. All of the other sales figures in the video were sourced from proper charts if not the Capcom Financial Reports.
If ReCore has barely any information, cite sales charts and related articles.
i know. I checked sales for Tales of Destiny and despite not coming out in Europe, there were sales for the game in Europe.
Wtf
i loved this video i really did..but why does she sounds like is about ti cry? o.O
It's a tragic tale, who wouldn't be breaking up a bit?
Kriegsaffe No. 9
...lol XD
o c e a n m a n
PFFFF AAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Oh shit, what night is it?
This dude. I was just thinking that.
I believe the adage here is "don't count chickens before they hatch", putting aside the litany of franchise-kickstarts that were consumed by their own flames, Inafune was looking at the whole thing bass-ackwards. Granted, he may have had a point when criticizing Japan's gaming market...but any point he had was lost in his own hyperbole (and to an extent, a press that was all to eager to put over their 'boys' in favor of missing the point).
Ultimately, I think the downfall was him having the small bit of a savior complex. Not full messiah, mind you, but the single-minded idea that it was on him to 'save' a part of the industry, even as it reacted to paradigm shifts around him. Ultimately, he was a victim of his own success.
Shadow Of Rome is one of the best games on the PS2. Seriously.
I mean, the advances in third person melee combat that came since might make the controls feel a little bit clunky nowadays, but once you get past this, it is an AMAZING game, a real overlooked gem.
The stealth bits with Octavianus are a bit unfortunate, but when you are in the arena it feels like a mix between a brawler and something like Tony Hawk Pro Skater, where using as many different moves as possible and being "creative" with them is super important, to please the crowd and receive gifts from them (badass giant golden weapons) in the middle of combat. And the fighting system forces you to be constantly improvising, changing your approach to battles on the fly based on incoming opponents and your available weapons nearby. The game even does a great job of mixing things up as you go, with special gimmick battles and combat outside the arena, fighting lions and tigers and an even an elephant, chariot races at one point, and a battle where you need to break into a mock castle built into the arena, etc. It really is amazing! I would LOVE to see an updated version of this game done with more modern action RPG-like design.
If I remember correctly, one possible reason for the games' poor performance was that it came out at the same time as the first God Of War, which was a juggernaut in advertising and sales, it completely took over that month.
"monster hunter just hasn't found an audience in the west"
*laughs in monster hunter world*
also laughs in Monster Hunter Rise
I'd like to see the story of how Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem became Toyko Mirage Sessions because that seems like it'd be an interesting story.
problem is, we don't know how that happened. They were really quiet for a bit, then suddenly in 2015 it came out.
From what I remember reading in pre-release interviews Atlus's team was given huge creative freedom, and they wanted to try making a light-hearted game as a change of pace.
This is a perfect example of getting one thing done well first instead of trying to do everything at once.
Just something I'd like to point out, using Street Fighter IV as an example of diminished Japanese sales proportions isn't entirely accurate because of the arcade industry. The Arcad-> Console->Arcade cycle is more visible in a heavily urbanized country where arcades are everywhere, so the real number of people buying a game isn't just measured by sales of the console version, they're still going into arcades to play the game there. That's probably part of the reason why SFV hasn't been as successful, because the game has no arcade presence. Capcom was probably led by the nose by Sony into making it console/pc release at launch when in reality they should have been firmer about getting it out in arcades.
I think Inafune is definitely capable of some really amazing things but he's been tackling these projects in a very misguided way. I think the idea of creating media to fit his and his company's collective vision is a really awesome thing, they can make what they want (and customers demonstrate they love projects with a clear focus, Doom being a great example) rather than melting their vision down into a thin grey paste to please the current market's status quo - I think we all got sick of the me too modern military shooter nonsense that mercilessly dominated the market last generation. I think its fine to have a big ego if it fuels your creative drive and pumps you up to make the things you want to make but keeping a level head and your eyes on the road, staying grounded in what to expect and properly managing your projects at all times is incredibly important, all of which Inafune has been unfortunately unsuccessful at in his chase to became a global media powerhouse.
Hopefully third time is the charm and I do believe he is totally capable of learning from his mistakes as any other human is and I just hope the next big project he might be cooking up will work out well for everyone. It's still a huge shame all this nonsense happened and will probably go down in the history books of gaming but oh well, let's hope things will be a little brighter in the future.
Ah, Dark Void. Bad times. Lemme tell ya, working at Airtight was one of the worst experiences of my entire career.
You worked at Airtight?
J S Unfortunately. I was a producer there, but was let go shortly before Murdered: Soul Suspect launched because the studio was hemmhoraging money, and shut down not long after.
Bad place to be?
J S Horrible.
Amelia Bee Weren't they the company that made Quantum Conundrum?
haha at 14:00 you can almost hear her trying not to laugh at how ridiculous inafunes claimes are
I love the hell out of Shadow of Rome. That game is WAY underrated.
Her voice comes so close to breaking down with laughter, I can hear it. And I love it, lol.
Grace did pretty well. Still prefer Derek's narration, but I'm sure she can get there. Keep it up guys!
lies?
Abe Reeder I dunno. I find her narration to be rather... loud and hard to sit through. It's alright, but I'd much rather have Derek narrate this instead.
Her narration sounds, to me, like someone reading with Derek's speech patterns and trying to copy them EXACTLY. I think she needs to find her own way of narrating.
Is it just me or... the recent rise in quality of Capcon games can be credited by Inafune leaving...?
Well with the way thigns were handled, one feels that Inafune was really causing a huge mess...
i think inafune was a little jealous at kamiya's viewtiful joe, which had its own show and some merch. coincidence?
Hardly. The Mega Man Battle Network series alone had a long running anime series and even a movie to go with it
Besides, Joe is barely even known when compared to Mega man
Funny in hindsight how since this video, Capcom has made an incredible revival with a clear western influence in their classic game series: Resident Evil 7, Monster Hunter World, and even Devil May Cry V (compare Nero's redesign to DmC Dante). Monster Hunter World has become Capcom's highest selling game ever due to its massive international push.
Inafune had a good idea with pushing for more western appeal; he just went about it the wrong way.
Phil Lycosidae The difference being that, rather than outsourcing to no-name Western developers and completely imitate the West, Capcom instead took Western influences and added their own Japanese take on them. That’s how you do it; not imitating the West and abandoning Japanese roots, but by adding distinctly Japanese flavors to Western ideas.
Capcom had ALREADY been pursuing the Western audience for decades. Games like Resident Evil, and Street Fighter II were tremendous successes in the West. Finding games that could be both popular in Japan and America is a skill Capcom had already developed. Inafune just has a fetish for Western media, and thinks its inherently better. As such, farming out to Western devs is better because they're western and better. They're not. In terms of raw skill, Japanese devs are some of the greatest in the world. It's also Inafune's plan to block DMC4: SE, and DMC5, and instead push for a full Western reboot with a Western studio.
So Japan has been most successful when it takes Western media and stories, but develops games based on those with their own spin. Such as the Resident Evil, Metal Gear, or Silent Hill series. It might make some sense to hire some Western story writers or consultants to develop stories and settings, and then have Japanese developers make the game.
The problem wasn't farming out to Western developers, the problem was Capcom was cheap and outsourced to 3rd rate developers.
And a lot of DMC's problems were Capcom's fault not Ninja Theory's, Ninja Theory's original concept was actually a lot closer to classic Devil May Cry but Capcom kept telling them to make it different.
The problem was Capcom being cheap, not letting the Western devs they hired make the game they paid them for and simply not understanding the American/Western market in the first place.
So he's a reverse weeaboo?
I agree. Just look at how bad Dead Rising became when it was given to American devs. Now it's a shallow and boring franchise at best. The first 2 games are great because they have heart
Initially, he wasn't wrong with the direction the Japanese gaming market was in at the time, his words rang pretty true. Street Fighter and Resident Evil were successful in the West, but that did not mean at all that was due to a push into the Western market, as following decisions and events later on reflected that wasn't the focus for Capcom. Saying that was as if you didn't even watch the video to know differently. And like AxeCrazybot said, problems arose when they outsourced to inexperienced developers like they didn't give a shit how they turned out as long as they made money. Look at what happened to the port of RE: Revelations 2 for PS Vita, while playable and still enjoyable, there was a lot of polish left to be desired with what could have been done, and the audio was so damn hard to hear even when maxed out.
But to counter your own statement, there are plenty of examples of Capcom making just as many bad decisions trying to emulate Western games, Resident Evil the most obvious example of sending the series downhill for a good while. Strangely enough, it took Western influence to bring the series back up again with RE7, borrowing from games like Outlast and influences of Western horror franchises. Konami made the same mistake outsourcing to inexperienced developers with the Silent Hill series, so as much as you want to blame the West and act as if Japan has been flawless in their decision making with their IP's, history says differently and that those downpoints came about from their own poor decisions.
Also, Capcom has effectively buried a number of their own iconic and beloved IP's for the sake of concentrating on only a handful of them. And even then, still making poor decisions and almost tarnishing what they have left in the process. Examples, MVC: Infinite, Street Fighter V and monetizing the hell out of it, Street Fighter X Tekken and monetizing the hell out of it, now recently RE3 Remake ended up being a rushed product with even less content that the PS1 game from all they cut out to get it out quicker with a $60 price tag. Further they are apparently releasing RE8 and RE4 Remake consecutively in the next 2 years. I doubt that much time has been put into developing them also from the fact the last two Remakes also came out a year apart. Again, their poor decisions are on them and can't be blamed for some Japanese devs/producers seeing potential in the Western market.
Look at Hideo Kojima, you'd have to find fault in him as well, he said the exact same things as Inafune was that the Japanese gaming industry was behind and needed to follow a lead similar to the West and open up more than sticking to the same general way of doing things.
@@k.s.2935 Heres the problem, Inafune ISN't Hideo Kojima and never will be Hideo Kojima no matter hard he belives it. Love it or hate it KOjima DOES know what he's doing and CONSISTENTLY innovates AND changes the gaming landscape in Japan AND the rest of the world.
All of Inafunes schemes were just knockffs of other ips. When have you another game like Death Stranding?
i like how grace is laughing internally with all the egocentricity of inafune XD
Inafune was a bit too ambitious. Should have focused on making the game first, then the empire.
Hack? No. Egotistical? Oh hell yes. Inafune definitely should have focused more on getting MN9 made and should have worried less about the adaptations until the game was ready to sell.
he was already a ConMan when he made us believe he is the father of megaman
So in short, a talented and accomplished individual was brought down by its ego and ambitions.
Just another tuesday
Excellent video, guys! This is the voice I always thought Grace should have in these videos. Very informational and enlightening.
being over ambitious and over confident can make anything seem easier than it actually is. 3 businesses under one man is way too much to handle, regardless of its size.
I got a big old smile on my face when Mega Man Legends 3 was mentioned. Followed by an overwhelming sense of sadness...
on failed western outsourcing
they had the mt framework game engine whose documentation was all in japanese making it impossible to follow up on the quality of RE5, lost planet 2, and DMC4.
also globalization can be bad for identity, westernizing all the japanese titles made them lose their style and selling mark, japanese title sell now because they are foreign and exotic but relatable by that different culture
DMC4 wasnt finished but it was leagues better than D.M.C.
RE6 better than operation raccoon city
lost planet 2 better than lost planet 3
etc
they shoulda hired western devs to make NEW franchises, not picking up a japanese bred product
go ask silent hill devs and fans how that goes....
DmC > DMC 2
I played DMC2 for all but half a day, then never picked it up again. And my financial situation is that I HAVE TO beat EVERY GAME I buy because I just don't have the money to be buying games and not playing them!
"they shoulda hired western devs to make NEW franchises, not picking up a japanese bred product" Or maybe just worked with western Developers, to maintain the spirit of the original, while blending in Western Innovations in order to utilize the best of both.
RE5? *Good?*
....
A fellow furfag of god-tier taste.
ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
Sorry I will fuck off back to my corner now.
Really enjoyed this. There aren't too many out there who do retrospects in this likable way. Subscribed.
Since you asked, could you do a video on Silicon Knights?
When you leave a job, no matter how crappy it was, you miss and congratulate good people that move on. When someone no one likes leaves or quits no one goes out of their way to be congratulatory. I've worked in fast food, shitty retail, and hot factories growing up. This has always been a constant.
Cynical_Bear ı felt sorRy for you
B E T T E R
T H A N
N O T H I N G
These "investigations/analyzing" videos are some of the best gaming content on youtube. Keep up the good work.
Inafune = Japan's Peter Molyneux
Perhaps a video on the development of Final Fantasy XV up until its release. I'm sure that there is a lot of juicy information that can still be found about its entire development cycle.
So Kamiya's mistake was crediting Inafune as a business man when he wasn't even that. He's just a narcissist who by chance worked on some good titles. I hope he's been put on some industry blacklist by now.
There's a few oversights or misunderstandings that come to mind for making games, let alone media empires. First off, triple A studios in general just don't usually hit the mark for games. For Japanese AAA studios, I can't name many modern day successes. The industry focus over there feels like it's mostly JRPGs and anime-like design/story. The western industry crutches are military shooters and hollywood-like plots, characters, setting, contrivances, etc. The exceptions almost always focus on making fun, challenging, rewarding gameplay paramount and avoid crutches and profit short cuts (loot boxes, pay to win). Any subsequent "media empires" must be carried by the success and cultural value of the game itself.
"focus more on his creative processes rather than what people want" well isnt that just a great way to satisfy customers.
I really enjoyed this video! It feels kind of silly to long comment on a 5 year old video, but here it goes anyway. One thing that came to my mind a lot--in the area of trying to push side-content anime, manga, and such related to Mighty No, 9 and further in regard to him founding multiple companies and trying to do that for every game--is that it sounds like a decent amount of his concepts toward creation of a product and sales mindset is similar to the anime industry, even though it's not the primary, focused area of expertise he's in. The mindset in which so many Japanese anime, especially IPs not expected to travel much outside of the country, are made knowingly at a loss. Specifically, that the show, were it solely on its own, would struggle to make it in the black and that the way for so many production and publishing/distribution companies to be successful, is to often rely on a supplemental market of adjacent products, such as figures, cards, and many other random knick-knacks. That market gives many shows that wouldn't net profit the way to be overall profitable and sustainable. Hearing various statements and responses from Inafune, I couldn't help but feel his concept of the market was incredibly similar to such ways. I know the Japanese game market is similar, but not usually is as much a heavy-handed way. A game needs to be promising, hyped, and then perform well before getting the cross-media products going as hard as Inafune was trying to with every game.
At the same time, that's a little strange because in a lot of his statements about the Japan-is-done and making games aimed hard at the West and making games to be massive universe media empires, there's some fundamental dissonance when combination these concepts. It feels like, as a whole, his varying concepts amalgamated end up sounding analogous of that superficial mistake in Shadow of Rome, where Westernization was only thought to mean turning eyes blue and dying hair blonde, and is trying to combine too many ideas that point in different directions from each other. Insert joke about putting *eggs* in basket.
I respect (partially) that he's trying, but it's a combination of laser focus and trying to go in too many directions at once and confuses me.
~PS, further into the video and there's the creation of a *third* company that I hadn't known about, yet these companies combined have only 30 people? What? Have a company with three branches, my dude, it's only 30 people. Each new thing with a small team doesn't need a completely independent company for it. His assumptions for re-creating things that will appeal to the West stated as fact are also very confusing. He says he needs to study the West and how they live to better market to them, then shortly after is claiming he knows exactly what other people want... but also that his companies business models won't focus on giving the people exactly what they want...
Make the Chinese War Epic into pirates with animal characters- that is what they want and they don't know what they want if they say otherwise. I am a brand, and that brand is God.
07:09 It's Ben "It's better than nothing" Judd.
Inafune forgot one important rule of thumb: "Don't ever play Yourself"
Just my opinion as a fan; I like Grace and I enjoy her presence on Is It That Bad, but she just doesn't have the same voice over chops that Derek has. I think she ought to do some side projects/videos to work through her odd vocal quirks before doing another video on this channel. Or atleast on videos that aren't over 20 minutes long.
I turned on subtitles and muted my audio, really love the video but her voice was unbearable
I'm consistently impressed with the videos on this channel.
So, Inafune had delusions of being the savior of videogames and also the delusion of being the actual creator of Megaman, and thought that those were enough to create good videogames.
Once Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night comes out, you should do a Past Mortem comparing and contrasting its development with Mighty No. 9.
It's a shame; Dark Void had a pretty solid flight system with it's jetpack gameplay, and I was actually interested in the story they were establishing with an alternate world war 2...
It's refreshing to see a well produced short documentary that paints a picture of the subject rather than a series of fun facts that seem to litter CZcams. I would love to see more Past Mortem
Well, Capcom has kept outsourcing Dead Rising and the games have gotten worse, with almost a complete sense of a misunderstanding of what made DR1 great.
So Infaune was kind of right in a way actually.
They were all outsourced to the west. After Dead Rising 2, Capcom bought Blue Castle Games and made them Capcom Vancouver. They went on to develop Dead Rising 3 and 4. So even though they are now "developed by Capcom", they were still outsourced to a western developer rather than being made in Japan.
DR4 was fully americanized, to the point that they even got american devs, who knew nothing about how a Dead Rising game should be i might add.
Dead Rising 1 and 2 had more japanese influence. 3 and 4 are probably the worse in the franchise.
I've really been looking forward to this video! I love your Past Mortem series!
Dark void was fun but had a clear line of "we have no money."
Which is sad, because it had a good vision of the atom punk/buck rogers sci fi fantasy
With the context of the other tweets, I speculate that Kamiya's opinion on Inafune is that he doesn't have a problem with Inafune itself, he just has a problem with the man presenting himself and others presenting him as something Inafune's not.
Grace, you sounded great! Keep it up!
Oh. I just got it. Red Ash. Redash. Re-Dash. As in, Rockman Dash, the original name of megaman legends.