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Masahiro Sakurai discusses performance, development, & refunds regarding Cyberpunk 2077 [Via Source Gaming translation]
- Thread starter Neoxon
- Start date
What? Level design in my opinion is fantastic, even generic gigs have multiple ways you can make your way through them.. when I played Deus Ex games, System Shock, Vampire Bloodlines, Alpha Protocol or the newest Prey, I always thought that these kinda games can only exist with hub based designed maps and missions.. this is first time that I'm playing a open-world "Deus Ex" game that has the same quality of level and mission design than those way, way smaller games have .. level design is in fact the area where I think the game shines the most ..
Audio design isn't bad, but the mixing is all over the place
I played all of the side missions etc. I guess I braced myself for the shortness of the campaign. But in terms of the story, I feel satisfied.
Just me though :)
Yeah for sure, I've also been pleasantly surprised by the level design. That's one marketing speech they delivered on in my opinion, that you have multiple ways to clear missions. In many gigs you can basically get straight to the objective avoiding most if not all enemies, if you just find the way and have the attributes for it when required. And I'm also quite happy it's not as reliant on vents like Deus Ex is (I adore the series), spending so much time in vents insn't really visually stimulating. And there definitely isn't anything as dreadful as Nosferatu Warrens in VtMB.
I don't feel the highlights accurately reflect the column. For just one example, here is SourceGaming's translation of the refund comment: "He was surprised by the serious response...by Sony when they removed it from the store and issued refunds to people who bought the game since that kind of situation was unprecedented until then." He does not appear to offer any further commentary. Versus what is written under highlights: "Dealing with refunds is something that makes even me feel deeply moved. This kind of sincerity was never heard of before."
I would say the additional context changes the meaning of almost every bullet point. Even the bullet point immediately after the above in which he mentions his lack of issues of the Pro is questionable on its own as it can come across as hand-waiving console performance issues, but in SourceGaming's translation that line is followed by Sakurai saying that it does not seem worth trying the game on base PS4.
And these "highlights" are producing comments like this:
My mistake. I commented after only reading Siliconera. I thought they were just refering to the translation made by Kody/Source Gaming, so I thought it'd contain the exact same info. Now I know that they had their own - worse - translation up, before Source Gaming shared a more thorough one.
The word 'sincerity' really threw me off.
I think that's an understandable mistake and served as a good example of why the first post should be changed. I thought that description of the refund debacle was pretty... strange... as well.
Japan just dismisses Western criticism of the social aspects of Japanese media as polikore (political correctness). So don't expect them to change any time soon.
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Sorry I was gone, I ended up dozing off. On top of the old stuff being removed (I'm glad the actual translation doesn't paint a rosy picture compared to the old one), how's this for a new title?
Sakurai talks Cyberpunk 2077: Mostly played on PC & PS4 Pro, faced a few bugs, reflects on hopes for game vs. development realities
Sakurai talks Cyberpunk 2077: Mostly played on PC & PS4 Pro, faced a few bugs, reflects on hopes for game vs. development realities
Once again a thread goes up before a proper translation is available. Sometimes it's best to wait for the facts to emerge, especially when it's oh so common for these Sakurai columns to have a shoddy first pass when there's only leaked excerpts to go on. Posting a thread on Era isn't a race.
Oh man, this absolutely.. I think Prey didn't had vents or atleast in way less cases than the Deus Ex games or Bloodlines.. but yeah, you can make a game build around the choice to go with a stealth approach, combat, hacking and talking without the need of vents :) and even those moments where you need to use guns or going straight against an enemy/boss, you still can use hacking in an offensive way and in a fast way in combat and you still can manage - in Bloodlines I didn't really put my points into combat abilities or skills and I had bad times in many missions and at the end, oh boy, that was maybe great for someone who build his gun or melee type character, but for me it was almost a nightmare to go through.. the same in Deus Ex HR, the first boss was awful for me for someone who played that game to that point stealthily .. thank god the weapons in CP2077 are powerful enough even at the start (and thank god the game has the most impressive and fun gunplay in my opinion in this type of games) and fun to use - even though I still play the vast majority of the game stealthily and using hacking
Funnily enough, speaking of vents in the Deus Ex games, just last week I read an article about the vents in Deus Ex Mankind Divided :D
Deus Ex Gets Air Vents All Wrong, According To An Architect
+1. Especially to those comparisons you made. Haven't played AP though, but now I might have to!
Seems really unpopular to have a positive opinion about Cyberpunk :/
(Playing on PC by the way)
(Playing on PC by the way)
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AP is a Obsidian game, so that means = great roleplaying, great dialogs, great choices and consenquences system, great characters.. un-polished product, bad animations, bad AI, average gunplay at best, bugs, weird sound mixing, etc.. for me personally it was one of the best games from 2010 and it really remembered me of Deus Ex games and Bloodlines.. my main problem with the game was this = I don't think any mission is really, memorable.. for example Bloodlines has the Ocean House mission, has Jeanette/Therese quest, it has a mission about snuff movies made in Hollywood, it has a mission on a cementary where you need to defend its gates against hordes of zombies, a quest about a serial killer in the city, etc.. just so many memorable quests from the game.. but AP ? I remember characters and the dialogs and their consenquences, but the main story and the missions? Not so much.. just nothing that would really stuck in my head and memory.. that's why in my opinion it isn't great as the games I mentioned earlier.. but if you want to play a espionage RPG with great characters and dialogs, but made with a AA budget and some problems, absolutely worthwhile
Great video about the game :
Context on refunds in Japan
Just for context, refunds in Japan are far less common than they are in other countries like the US. For example, most of the big electronic stores offer refunds or exchanges, but only for extenuating circumstances like incompatibility (wrong size or format) or defects. Stores do not have return/exchange counters like you'd see at a Target or Walmart.
The only big retailer I'm aware of that lets you flat out change your mind is Amazon Japan, and this is clearly something inherited from the US headquarters. (EDIT: IKEA as well.)
Even retailers can't return stock to distributors or publishers if they ordered too many, or negotiate a discount, hence the prevalence of the "bomba bin."
It makes sense then that Sakurai would be very surprised at CDPR offering refunds. It's a very unfamiliar concept in Japan and people on this forum who aren't familiar with Japanese retail practices shouldn't take that for granted.
The only big retailer I'm aware of that lets you flat out change your mind is Amazon Japan, and this is clearly something inherited from the US headquarters. (EDIT: IKEA as well.)
Even retailers can't return stock to distributors or publishers if they ordered too many, or negotiate a discount, hence the prevalence of the "bomba bin."
It makes sense then that Sakurai would be very surprised at CDPR offering refunds. It's a very unfamiliar concept in Japan and people on this forum who aren't familiar with Japanese retail practices shouldn't take that for granted.
It's the business model of Don Quixote as far as am I aware. It is the only place in the world where you can find a bunch of discontinued sex toys, a bunch of discounted low grade whiskey, a mop, a shelf full of discounted Halloween costumes from 5 years ago, and two $15,000 USD Rolex Submariners within 5 metres of each other.
After someone told me how they buy stock that retailers couldn't shift at a discount, the completely crazy product range and organisation made complete sense.
The comments on the first several pages were made before a proper translation was available.
I dunno.
Cyberpunk refunds mostly revolved around digital. Most Japanese gaming companies are either on PSN/XBox/PC which already offer robust refund options for customers. It has little to do with Japanese culture, it's more about the company (Nintendo) or this particular individual's.
Many major retailers also allowed returns of opened copies of the game with the receipt for a whole month. Likely in cooperation with CDPR.
Yes, I'm aware of that. But let's be real, the percentage will be much lower than digital due to the hassle. I haven't watched the full video of the translation, but did he specifically mention digital/physical?
Digital gaming is still a minority market in Japan and Sakurai is famed for having an extremely large physical game collection. This comes down to Sakurai's personal perception, which people must understand is not necessarily going to always align with the average Westerner.
Refund policies exist for the stores you mentioned, but there is far less impetus for the Japanese consumer to use them than in other countries. And as I said, digital is a minority here.
According to the video translation, the full extent of his refund comments is as follows: "He was surprised by the serious response...by Sony when they removed it from the store and issued refunds to people who bought the game since that kind of situation was unprecedented until then."
This should be in the OP; people are making claims over literally "fake news" translation, like you still see the comment about him "being deeply moved" when it's not true.
It os good to hear the translation isn't what we learned at the start. I tale back my earlier comment.