True. They really are.
I was especially dismayed to learn that they had won out against Monolith Soft when it came to developing the new Star F0x.
After seeing the new Xenoblade Chronicles game, I can only imagine what MS would've brought to the table...
Alright, I wasn't initially planning on commenting on this thread, given my somewhat-limited experience with Platinum's work, but
Star Fox was brought up, and I feel honor-bound to shed my opinion on Platinum's recent undertaking of the series.
I was originally really,
really skeptical when I heard Platinum was the 3rd-Party support behind
Star Fox: Zero, especially when I saw how uncannily-similar the game looked and played like
Star Fox 64.
But then, with further research, I found out that the decision to make the game look and play the way it does was not made by Platinum...but by Nintendo. Shigeru Miyamoto explicitly stated that the game would be recycling assets, visuals, concepts, and gameplay ideas for the cancelled
Star Fox game they had been making for the Wii many years back. Platinum's main role is to aid in the design of levels, bosses, gameplay obstacles, and---according to Miyamoto---the "tone and feel of the game's cutscenes."
The decision to play it safe and make the game as painfully-similar to
64 was Nintendo's: they want to re-imagine the game in the same way Crystal Dynamics "re-imagined"
Tomb Raider into
Anniversary, and slip into the series' continuity before continuing the series with a full-blown sequel that'll look and play drastically-different on its own.
And btw, Monolith was
NEVER considered for the making of a new
Star Fox game---and in response for their "boundless potential shown with
Xenoblade Chronicles X", you have to understand how differently both games were made in terms of design intentions.
Zero was made to replicate the arcade-shooter nature of the older
Star Fox games, whereas
Chronicles X was intended to replicate the immersion of mech-games like
Mech Warrior and
Steel Batallion. And for looking different graphically---Nintendo has already stated how the
Star Fox Zero was intended to be a next-gen re-imagining of
64, so it'll naturally retain the original game's look and feel. They also said the simplistic art style was chosen to benefit the strain on the game's engine (since it has to project two very different images on two screens, while holding up a blistering 60 fps), whereas games like
Bayonetta and
Xenoblade only have to project ONE same image on two screens.
Now, the question is: will
Platinum's involvement with the game harm or benefit the experience? In this instant, I'd say benefit.
The concept for the game, and core design has already been painstakingly laid-out by Miyamoto and the rest of Nintendo R&D---all Platinum needs to do is give it the necessary polish and extend some of its features.
And regardless of the varying quality of their core games, this is something Platinum has undoubtedly excelled at. All their games, in spite of how I feel about them, are all presented to a consistent standard of quality. None of their games are half-finished, buggy, unplayable messes like some of their competitors...and given how they have so little to mess up in this scenario, especially with the gaping delay for the game's release, I have faith in what they can bring to the table.
The lead Platinum Memmber working on the game has also presented a number of ideas for a future
Star Fox sequel, so I do expect them to work on any later entries.