First off I’d like to thank you for giving a voice to all my misgivings with the state of gaming as of late, and for also educating me on business and putting the spotlight on the game industry’s lousy attitude towards gamers.
But in the last few months that I’ve been reading your posts about gaming being in the content business and how Nintendo should really focus on giving customers new content to explore or old content in a new context made me start thinking about a company called Atlus.
Most of my game purchases in the last few years have been from this company. They are mostly known for making “retro games” in recent years, such as old-school dungeon crawlers (like Etrian Odyssey and Class of Heroes) and other niche games. They’ve been making games since the NES days and they have made games for just about every genre over the years, everything from platformers, to RPGs, and brawlers, across all gaming systems. They’re also responsible for Trauma Center (which made me think of the good old days of playing MASH for the 2600).
In recent years, they’ve mostly been recognized for making Shin Megami Tensei. This was a series of RPGs that was originally based off a Japanese novel written in the late 80s (or early 90s). The first two were for the NES (er, Famicom), and then the next two were for Super Famicom. What sets this series apart from its contemporaries (at least back then, and even now, really), is that instead of taking place in a fantasy setting, these games embraced contemporary settings and cyberpunk themes.
The main premise, however, is that you play a silent protagonist who, rather than getting powers and spells, can instead recruit and summon demons (from various mythologies) to fight alongside him. The games themselves seemed to take more inspiration from Western RPG notions, by having the game play out in first person and even had an alignment system ala D&D. Your character’s alignment could affect what kind of demons you could recruit, and even how the game unfolded. In order to recruit demons, you would have to negotiate with them, and how that went could be affected by the Moon Phase. These games were also known for being brutally difficult.
Afterwards, Atlus would make spinoffs to those games, such as Devil Summoner, …if (yes, I swear to god that’s the title) and Persona. These older games played similarly to each other, but the more recent ones have branched out and tried applying things in a different context. The later Persona games are a mix between dungeon-crawling RPG and a life-simulator. The recent Devil Summoner games are action-RPGs that take place in 1920s Japan. Devil Survivor is a strategy game for the DS, and now Strange Journey for the DS, which returns to the old-school dungeon-crawling notions of the Super Famicom titles.
Now, the reason I bring this up, is in light of your recent posts about Infinity Ward and Activision. They’re an example of a company that doesn’t really care about its customers, only their money. These guys put out Modern Warfare, a game that many people enjoyed, and then when they made the sequel took away features and overall behaved in a manner that put off their customers.
Now I wanna talk about Atlus, because they’re the opposite. They mostly cater to niche gaming, but because it’s a niche, they seem to put that niche audience on a pedastal. When their customers has complaints, they address them. They don’t go to TGS, and they don’t seem to really involve themselves in the “industry”. They put up websites for their games that actually tell you what the game is about, and actually gives you a good idea of whether you would wanna play it or not. No bullshit, no hype. And I’ve actually bought many of their games because of this. There’s no disconnect between them and their audience, their customers.
Where do I start? I’ll start with Persona 3. This was a Playstation 2 game and was part dungeon-crawling RPG and life-simulator. The game took place over a set period of time and it forced you to kinda factor in time management. Anyways, one thing that the fans hated was the fact that you could only control your main character, the silent protagonist. The other party members were AI-Controlled it really made micro-managing combat annoying at times. The developers put themselves before their customers when they did that. However, when they started working on the fourth game, they actually listened to their fans’ feedback, and they put direct control over your party back in the game, and did a lot of other little things that made the next game much better than the first one, all of which put the player first.
Next is the last two Devil Summoner games. The action-RPG games. Their first foray into this sort of game was less-than-stellar. But again, they listened to their fans’ feeback and when they made the follow-up they improved on everything, and they even have a hidden little easter egg that breaks the fourth wall a bit, and a demon asks you how you got to be able to use two demons at once (could only use one in the first game), and one of the responses is “The fans really wanted it.”
In the last year I’ve been really into playing these games, not necessarily because of the gameplay, but because of the content. Most RPGs take place fantasy settings, and it’s gotten to the point that’s well beyond cliche. But all these Shin Megami Tensei games take place very close to the here and now. The characters are much easier to connect to, and the developers have done a good job of keeping the games fresh and presenting the content in a different context (such as their Devil Summoner games that takes place in the 1920s, when’s the last time you saw a game that wasn’t about mobsters in that time period?).
These are not really best-sellers, but I think it’s like you said about Metroid, these games are not commercial darlings, but they sell deeply. The content creates a new and interesting world for the player to become absorbed into. And like you were saying before, these games make references to things that happen off the game, off the screen, that spark your imagination. And the music, oh god, it’s like the developers have a Japanese version of Chris Huelsbeck working for them.
And when I look at this small little company which is able to create a series of games that is so rich in content and history, so unique, but at the same time made on a budget (because these guys are definitely not in same arena as Square or Activision in terms of resources or money), and will actually listen to their customers, it really shows me the creative bankruptcy and lack of respect for customers on the part of the game industry.
In Persona 2, the story centered on the notion of rumors becoming reality. The bad guys were spreading rumors that caused serial killings, and the main characters had to fight back by spreading rumors of their own, which was an integral part of the gameplay. You would talk to people, and then go to the Kuzunoha Detective Agency and spread the rumors, and you could even tweak what the rumor did. There was so much content in this mere Playstation game. So much to find and explore, so many nods and off-handed references to other SMT games, and I have never played another game that ever brought up such an interesting concept as “If you say it will happen, then it will happen.” The cast was also very down-to-earth. The main character was a journalist for a teen magazine, her best friend who had a propensity to swear a lot (and amusingly bleeped out during combat) and had boy problems, a really sharply-dressed computer hacker, and a by-the-book and hip police detective.
This year I played Devil Summoner 2, for the Playstation 2, this year. This game was utter bliss for me to play. The game had a much faster pace, and there was so much music. There was upwards of like seven battle themes, where in most RPGs you’re lucky that the generic battle theme doesn’t put you to sleep. The combat was much more fun now, and challenging without being over-convoluted. You could negotiate with demons to have them join you, and sometimes they would get into amusing conversations with each other. This game had so much content and so much polish, that it actually fills me with rage when I see a game like Fallout 3 on the PS3 and 360 that is as riddled with bugs and glitches as it is. I see a sequel to a PS2 game that has all sorts of new features and content added to the it, and then I see a game like Modern Warfare 2 actually lose features and content. It blows my mind.
The last thing is that for a good while, Atlus has been releasing their games with extras, like artbooks and soundtracks and such. They don’t charge more for these. Persona 3 and 4 were both 40 bucks on launch with artbooks and CDs and all. All copies of Devil Summoner 2 came shipped in a big case with a plushy mascot from the game. 40 dollars, but that game was worth more than most of the garbage that has come out for the 360 and PS3. It’s one of those rare cases where it doesn’t feel like the company is trying to rip you off with extras, but is actually rewarding you and saying, “Hey, we’re really glad to have you as a customer and we’re gonna bust our ass to make sure we keep you happy.”
Anyways, I know I’ve rambled on for quite a while, but I thought I’d like to tell you that there are some game companies out there that actually do give a damn about their customers and it does give me hope for future game companies to treat their customers with respect. And I hope you’re enjoying NSMB, because I’m looking forward to enjoying it with my nephew!
Yes, I’ve heard of Atlus. =) You have to snap up their games fast because they print below what they could sell so they always have sell-outs.
What do you mean playing Mario 5 with your nephew? Don’t you know that multiplayer gaming can only be defined as playing only over the Internet? It’s true! I read it in many professional game reviews!
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