LogFAQs > #939062032

Prelude to the Decade:

I was thinking to myself how much more Western this bracket looked in comparison to GotD1 and BGE2, before remembering that I already knew why that was the case. The PS360 era hit Japanese developers HARD; many of them had admitted to simply not being ready for the transition to HD, which had become abundantly clear by 2010. Capcom, Konami, and Square Enix, three Japanese companies whose fame stretches back to the NES era for their high quality and frequent output, not only slowed down immensely, but put out some of their worst work this generation. The most high-profile series of each of these companies appeared very infrequently (Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy), were significantly scaled down relative to previous generations (Kingdom Hearts and Dragon Quest moving to handheld or Mega Man reduced to putting out 8-bit games), or just plain sucked (Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Castlevania, Final Fantasy again). The fact that a mainline, non-MMO Final Fantasy game came out in 2010 and doesnt even warrant a spot on the snubs list speaks volumes; we KNOW why it didnt make the bracket over XIV or XV.

Despite the Wii being considered a laughing stock, Nintendo propped up Japans high-quality output for quite a while this generation with games like Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess. Unfortunately, 2010 was the last year their output remained on par with the GC/early Wii era. When I was researching potential snubs, I noticed that GameFAQs, of all places, didnt manage to get high-quality Donkey Kong and Kirby games into bracket, though admittedly those are two series that do alright in character battles but are hardly ever represented in games contests. There was also Metroid Other M except no there wasnt, no such game exists outside of fever dreams and nightmares.

Ultimately, it was the smaller Japanese companies that were doing alright for themselves and picking up the slack. In 2010 Platinum released what is essentially their flagship title in Bayonetta, along with Vanquish, two games that are considered top tier representatives of their genre and put the company on the map. Grasshopper Manufacture was churning out games left and right, with No More Heroes 2, Shadows of the Damned, Lollipop Chainsaw, and many more coming out in quick succession. And of course, theres what may be the biggest breakout story of the decade, FROM Software, but well get there when we get there.

This generation was the Wests time to shine. It was no longer Nintendo and Square and Capcom setting the rules and pushing the boundaries; it was Naughty Dog, Bethesda, Bioware, and many more that were leading the charge. Now if you ask me this was all for the worse, and the PS360 generation is my least favorite since the NES. The color spectrum of gaming shifted from a vibrant rainbow to three shades of grey and brown. Simple and intuitive game design was no longer deemed enough for 20 gigabytes worth of game and were tossed out in favor of overcomplex bloat that had to be taught by endless tutorial boxes, where you have to steel yourself for not being able to actually play the game for an hour or two. On and on my critiques go, but what may be the worst of it is that Japan followed America right off the edge. Is it any wonder that games like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow or Resident Evil 6 ended up the way they did? It wouldnt be until the latter half of the decade when Japan would start to reassert itself as the capital of innovation and whimsical fun.

Whinging aside, Id say our bracket was spared the worst of things, and that we did a good job representing the best this generation had to offer.

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