Speaking personally, I’m not impressed with this move, as fighting games were one of the few genres of gaming where I’d defended the move to DLC as an improvement over the previous system of doing things. For those of you who weren’t following fighting games before patching games and DLC were standard, if changes needed to be made to the game, it meant a whole new copy of the game had to be made, often with a new character thrown in just to placate people who had got the older game, which, had this practice continued, would have meant spending £40-£60 for what was essentially a new character or two and gameplay tweaks. DLC brought that cost right down and negated the necessity to make new copies of the game for gameplay tweaks, which arguably has made fighting games less financially difficult to keep up with and justify their purchase more in a time when (at least outside of Japan) arcades are functionally dead to most people.
Then this happens.
Now, I’m going to take my hand off the pitchfork for a few seconds and point out that, as of this writing, we have no idea what the actual pricing for the DLC characters is. While anyone familiar with how DLC characters for fighting games tends to go will already have a bad inkling of what it is likely to be (around £5 for any character bought individually and the expected packs likely to be in the £20-£30 range, with the all-in-one download likely the cost of the game again), it is very possible that Arc System Works are aware that this price range is ridiculous for this many characters and will be selling the characters at a much cheaper price. This doesn’t necessarily make up for this much of the cast being locked behind a paywall, but would be a very good way to show that they are very much aware that asking for so much money for half of the cast is silly and having the packs be very cheap would help gain back some of the ill will the game has acquired so far. I will also point out that other fighting games have had a ratio of base-to-DLC characters similar to this game in the past, though, in that case, the DLC characters came out over several years and were done in seasons, effectively meaning it ran on a modification of the original fighting game release system (and, at least in the case of the most recent Killer Instinct, those new seasons were free!). Lastly, it might very well turn out that the entire cast can be unlocked in game, which wouldn’t necessarily make things look any better, but would at least take some of the sting off (and be a case where the “encouraging longevity” argument might actually hold some water, especially if the DLC store is deliberately kept closed for a month or so with regards to the characters to encourage players to unlock them legitimately). Heck, if they WANT to encourage the longevity, have the characters unlock on post-launch dates and mix it with that system of being able to unlock the characters in game, effectively punishing those players who would just buy all the DLC and not actually play the game by forcing them to wait for everything to become available and making it easier to just unlock them normally (actually, that would probably be a good system, now I put it like that!)
Alright, back to the flaming.
First of all, why did Arc System Works think that having half of the cast be DLC on one of the most anticipated fighting games in recent memory was a good idea? While non-fighting game fans will likely be scratching their head at that “most anticipated” comment, let’s remember that all of the franchises have some good attention: the BlazBlue franchise has been a highly regarded fighting game franchise for several years, so it has a built in fandom for it already, the Persona 4 Arena games tend to be beloved by fighting game fans and I’m sure there are a great many Persona 4 fans who got introduced to fighting games through them, so Persona 4 fans, by and large, will be supporting this release, RWBY is a reasonably popular web series that has many fans who aren’t fighting game fans, but who will happily buy one just because the cast are in it and Under Night In-Birth, while very much a cult classic in comparison to the other three, is also highly regarded, with many fans outright demanding that the game get a sequel (which this is reasonably close to counting as, since the story mode could potentially be continuing the story of the characters who appear in it). This basically means that this is the fighting game which fighting game fans will be overjoyed about (it’s a new game in a franchise which had functionally finished its main story with its last instalment, bringing back the cast of a beloved fighting game for one last time and potentially serving as a sequel to a game which fans have wanted a sequel to for a long time) and also bringing in a new audience who might very well have ignored the game normally (as this is the second game the RWBY has been involved with...and the first was originally a fan game, so some would debate how much it should count!). As such, pissing off all four fanbases could easily cause the game to flop. Whether this news has become the point of no return is hard to say, but I know that a lot of RWBY fans will not have reacted well to the fact that they don’t even get the main quartet in the base game (I know I was annoyed when the final character reveal came out and the news later reached me that what I had seen was all the base game had to offer) and revealing that there’s half of the game which has to be bought post-release will have soured them on it quite dramatically. While fans of the other franchises MIGHT be a little bit more forgiving over some characters being missing (BlazBlue has 36 characters, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax has 21 and Under Night In-Birth, include the two guest fighters, has 20: even if you restricted the RWBY team to just the main 4, you’ve got over 80 characters to choose from, so fans will understand having to leave some of them out!), you’d have thought that the first thing written down on the game’s design document would have been “RWBY main quartet in by default” so that, even if the rest of the fandoms react negatively to the DLC stuff, then at least the RWBY fans will have something to be happy about and that will keep some goodwill about the game going.
Secondly, the roster choices from the Persona 4 Arena side have, unfortunately, caused some controversy. While I can understand why this particular decision was done (getting the four characters from Persona 4 who functionally serve as the main cast throughout the whole game makes a lot of sense), there has been no mention of any characters from Persona 3 making an appearance in the game (oh yeah, quick explanation for anyone reading that and wondering why that would be a problem: Persona 4 Arena and its sequel also serve as sequels to Persona 3, since several cast members from 3 are also in the game and the story of the games is confirmed as canon by Atlus). Unfortunately, due to the cast of Persona 4 comprising 8 party members, it is very likely that they will be the main focus for that game’s DLC instead of the Persona 3 cast, so there is a good chance that the Persona 3 cast will be locked out of the game entirely. Now, this is pure speculation here (bear in mind, as of this writing, the only DLC character confirmed is Blake from RWBY), but, due to having to cut down the roster to support four different franchises and the story mode hinging on battling as a team in 2 vs 2 matches, it would make an unfortunately large amount of sense for the Persona 3 cast to not make the final cut (though, as the games are confirmed to be canon, getting the Persona 3 cast in on the technicality of “they did become friends with the Persona 4 cast during the games” is still plausible, so I’m not grabbing my pitchfork on this one yet). As much as I think this one is still a bit of a non-issue until the full character list is made available, I do understand why Persona 3 fans will be feeling a bit upset that they haven’t had any character confirmed from that game yet, ESPECIALLY since the cast will be making a return for their own rhythm game this year (potentially even for the Persona Q sequel with the cast of Persona 5, though this is unconfirmed speculation on my part), so leaving them out in that game’s biggest year since the original game came out feels quite insulting (though I imagine that Arc System Works were unaware of the games coming out this year, as they would have had to be told by Atlus about it before any public news came out to have known to include any of the characters in the base game, which seems unlikely when you think about it: sharing news with someone who is technically your competitor about your confirmed plans for your future games isn’t a good business strategy!).
Things are also controversial on the BlazBlue front, as the game’s base roster is half BlazBlue fighters and fans are expecting that, because several BlazBlue fan favourites are still missing, that there will be more characters available as DLC. While I personally think the developers haven't done anything wrong here (it’s still a BlazBlue game, when you think about it, so it makes some sense for that franchise to have the most representation), I do think that the base game could have taken out one or two BlazBlue characters (Es probably could have been moved to DLC due to her role as the cute fighter with a huge weapon being already filled by Ruby and Hazama and Azrael, being villains in BlazBlue, might have been better off not being revealed as being in the base game to keep them a surprise for story stuff!) so as to ensure that the RWBY main quartet got into the base game (and MAYBE slip in a Persona 3 character into the base system to reassure fans that there will be Persona 3 characters in the game). The favouritism does make some sense, but, when you can fairly point out that the game has left out important characters who really SHOULD have been in the base game because of how much sense it made to prioritise another franchise which already has a large cast being represented, then it’s hard not to acknowledge that those saying that the BlazBlue cast are too prominent have a valid point.
Another controversy, albeit one which I think is making a mountain out of a molehill, is that there isn’t any crossover happening with the Guilty Gear franchise, which, for all intents and purposes, could be argued as being BlazBlue’s spiritual ancestor (it used a lot of the mechanics that BlazBlue uses and there are recognisable similarities between the cast members of both games, as well as also being by the same developers). There is certainly something to be said about the lack of a crossover having been made between both series, but I personally am not sure this would have been as good an idea for THIS crossover as many fighting game fans seem to think it does. Remember, Guilty Gear characters generally are WAY more powerful than BlazBlue characters (granted, having not played any of the Guilty Gear games, I am going off of Death Battle’s episode when Ragna faced Sol Badguy, which I know wasn’t as well researched as it could have been and was released when BlazBlue was still only in its third game, so he MIGHT have gotten powerful enough in that game to make this not applicable any more, but, factoring in Ragna’s maximum power being when he became the Black Beast still not stopping him from being destroyed in a single hit, it’s pretty clear that there is a major power level difference!), so having them appear in a crossover with the Persona and RWBY cast (probably the Under Night In-Birth cast too, though I haven’t played it yet, so I couldn’t tell you that for sure) would either require the Guilty Gear cast needing a massive power nerf to explain why they can fight on an even footing in the same setting as the other franchises or essentially making the entire game become like those matches where you use two or three characters against one single character (and, even then, that would likely still be underselling them). For a crossover between just the two series, that’ll be doable, but you’re not gonna find anyone who will be looking on the possibility of Sol Badguy (who, I’ll remind you, obliterated Ragna at his most powerful in one shot when he wasn’t using all of his power in Death Battle) getting beaten unconscious by Ruby Rose and Yu Narukami (the canon name of the Persona 4 main character, if you’re wondering who they are), who are functionally two teenagers (granted, teenagers who can withstand attacks that would kill most people easily and one of whom can summon daemons, but still, teenagers!) without calling bullcrap on it! So, while I do sympathise with the Guilty Gear fans who are just wishing Arc System Works would get back to the series or give it some representation to show that they haven’t forgotten about it, I have to be honest and admit that I’m not convinced that the franchise would actually make a sensible good crossover pick, at least not when there are franchises involved when the main cast are basically teenagers who, by all reasonable standards, would likely be knocked unconscious by a single blow from a Guilty Gear character. Maybe having Sol as a bonus boss for beating the entire story mode with perfects in every match (and only unlockable by beating him, though with unlimited retries once you make him available to fight and with an ability to start directly at his fight to alleviate some of the frustration beating him would require), but that’s it.
So yeah, basically, while SOME of the controversies are silly to my eyes, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle has basically managed to score an own goal with the DLC system it has gone for and has caused controversies that might have been avoided had one or two different decisions been made. While I’m hoping that Arc System Works are sensible enough to have already intended for the DLC characters to be fairly cheap overall (or have already decided to dial the prices back to a fairly cheap price behind-the-scenes), there’s a very unfortunate trend among the DLC culture with fighting games at pricing new characters at around £5, which, if followed here, means that the whole game’s roster will cost more than the actual game itself will cost on retail.
I am hoping that I am wrong and that the game is sensibly priced for the cost of the DLC characters (like, I don’t know, have the all-in-one pack cost £20 or something like that to make up for the large amount of them) or that every character can be unlocked via playing the game normally (which doesn’t make up for having so much DLC, but takes some of the sting off, at least). But, let’s be honest, if Arc System Works had been sensible, the base roster would not have locked out half of Team RWBY and the DLC trend does not always point towards being sensibly handled, so I’m not going to be surprised if the game launches and buying all of the DLC characters costs more than the base game.
Please prove me wrong, Arc System Works. I love your stuff and really, REALLY want to be able to gush about this game, but I refuse to support crappy DLC practices like what you’re doing here and, if this is going the way I think it will with the pricing and there isn’t a way to unlock the characters normally, then I will be telling you, in no uncertain terms, to take a long walk off a short pier for your greed with the DLC stuff you’ve done here and refusing to buy the game. I can accept a lot of DLC characters in a fighting game if it has been out for several years and I’m catching up on it, but on launch? You can fuck right off, and I don’t care what your reason is or who I’m speaking to when I say that!
STOP THE PRESSES! (sorry, always wanted to say that!)
Between the writing of this article and publication, it came to my attention that highlighted that the game will launch at a lower price than most games do and that the game plus full DLC will not cost that much more than a normal full price. While a detailed price breakdown has not been made available, it does sound as if Arc System Works are aware that so much DLC warranted a lower price for the base game and that keeping the DLC cheaper to make up for it was a sensible business strategy.
Personally, I don’t think this makes up for the handling of things (as this should have been said right from the start) or cutting the RWBY cast up so they aren't all in the base game and we will have to wait and see how much the DLC costs when the game actually releases before we determine how true this is, but this does make up for things a little bit. I will even go so far as to say that launching the base game at a lower price tag (which I had NOT expected would be the case, so props to Arc System Works there!) may actually turn out to be a huge point in the game’s favour, as it means that there’s more reason to buy the game over anything else that comes out that week because it’s not as expensive.
So yeah, I still am not amused over how much DLC there is, but this has taken a lot of the sting out of it and, if Arc System Works are telling the truth on the price stuff, then they have made up for it enough that I can’t get TOO mad at them.
Well, I can (especially since most of the assets are recycled, so people pointing out that this doesn't make much sense as a DLC practice aren't entirely wrong). But I’m going to save my anger for after the DLC cost breakdown and launch price of the game is revealed, because this has regained enough goodwill to stop me from engaging in further roasting for the time being!
Also, fun fact: I guessed £20 for all of the characters based on how much all of the DLC characters cost in the most recent BlazBlue game, as I'd found that fairly reasonable. If that's what the full DLC price ends up being, then I will be laughing my ass off and yelling "CALLED IT!" at the top of my lungs.
No comments:
Post a Comment