You know, it's hard to stick to your convictions when the shoe is greener on the other side.
I've told people that DMC games should have a dedicated dodge because a) it'd be more efficient and b) sticking to old systems like that is what makes games grow stale and eventually trimming those who are willing to play it till only the 'core' fans will to play the games leaving it unable to support itself.
Well, OniMusha: Warlords has just been announced for modern systems and while looking at the new features I get apprehensive at the prospect of some of these features.
First off, you have the implementation of the DMC1 digital sticks option, just like the HD REmake. Onimusha built around tank controls, the combat revolves around it. It wasn't hard to get used to it and it's how the game was meant to be played, and yet I can't deny that no one outside of those of us who are attached to that system is going to want to play the game with tank controls. It's the reason I could never get into the old RE games. If I want the game to succeed, to reach a new audience, I have to be willing to let them make more accessible to those who would dismiss the game for something like that, who'd find it a deal breaker (plebs) even if it takes away something as fundamental to the experience as that. The most important thing about this particular prospect, though, is that this is not a replacement but an option. That
I can still play the game as I see fit.
The wide screen support seems a bit... arbitrary? Counterproductive? I don't know what the word would be. In REmake and RE0HD the widescreen isn't an expansion of the camera to show more, it's trimming the top and bottom to fit to moder displays and you're really only getting more real estate when using the original camera but, again, got to keep the masses happy if we hope to get the series a bit more love.
The one thing, though, that I definitely don't want to be true is that they might've replaced the Japanese dialogue with other actors. They said that they re-recorded the soundtrack and the dialogue but who did they get to re record the voices? The huge selling point of this game was the fact that this was the first time they'd used a real human being in a video game. They scanned an actor/model and used his likeness and that dude happens to be Takeshi Kaneshiro, a Taiwanese/Japanese actor who happens to be in one or two favorites of mine from both China and Japan, so I really don't want him replaced. I'm kind of a fan. I mean, just look at that ridiculously handsome bastard:
I frickin' hate dudes who are better looking than me. Now I know how women feel.
A lot of people, including myself, often said that this game would never be re-released for the modern console. The theory was that these games, which featured real people, would have to get the permission of the models to use their likeness again, which would require to pay them (an assumption I made because the actors of SH2 never received compensation for their work on subsequent re-releases and the actor for James, a lawyer, sued) or, in the case of OM2, their family, and since then they've only gotten more famous since back then it just wasn't feasible. I'm hoping I'm wrong, but what if the solution to this was to simply to replace Kaneshiro with another voice actor? That it wasn't his likeness but rather his performance they couldn't reuse? I'm super glad this game is being made for the 4K generation, even if it has to be altered to for the layman, but I don't want to see one of my favorite actors replaced, even if it's just his voice.
Here's to hoping for the best.
Apologies to all the people who've had to put up with me for that long.
*Teeth grinding* That's... Ok...
