iiotenki

The Tony Hawk of Tokimeki Memorial

A most of the time Japanese>English game translator and writer and all the time dating sim wonk.



DevilREI
@DevilREI

One of the worst things about being a Sega fan is accepting how much Yu Suzuki simultaneously built and screwed up the company.

He made Hang-On! Space Harrier! Virtua Fighter! All amazing, revolutionary stuff! His area of expertise is arcade games, and if he had stayed in that realm, I feel like arcades might be in a very different place today.

But that's not what happened. He had an idea for an epic multi-chapter gaming ~experience~. He fucking nearly bankrupted the company because nobody seemed willing to tell him "no" to any bizarre request or idea he had! And that finally caused Sega to put him on a leash before he left!

(It's weird, because while I hate a lot of corporate suit mandates that prevent creators from trying bold and exciting things, I'm forced to acknowledge there's also got to be some oversight to prevent shit from getting out of hand. Like with Yu hiring an actual interior designer for Shenmue for realism. What?)

Since then Yu's found himself constantly wooed by and employing the services of less-than-competent (if not downright shady/scammy) individuals, who seem to have gotten where they are by showering him with praise and attention. And now these individuals, who know he's a mark for "revolutionary technology," have brought him in on the NFT grift.

Thing is, Air Twister is weird and great and arcadey and awesome! It's proof that Yu still has it in him to make amazing stuff in that vein! He just needs proper oversight and guidance from people who aren't shitbags!

I don't know if he can be helped at this point, really. He outright admits that he doesn't play games or do much online himself, so anyone with some impressive-looking/sounding tech and sufficient hero-worship will get in his good graces and he'll be none the wiser. It's heartbreaking, really.

Man. Maybe we could have avoided this timeline if Psy-Phi released.


Kinsie
@Kinsie

In a 2018 career retrospective with EDGE Magazine, long-time collaborator Toshihiro Nagoshi paints a word-portrait of Yu as someone perhaps a bit childlike in both curiosity and temperament, with an inability to stop himself if he wants to do more and a deep aversion to design documents in favor of "finding the fun" during development. Which can work if you're making an arcade game that's only supposed to last 2-20 minutes a pop with a small team, but when you're making Shenmue...

The bit about oversight just reminds me of how effectively Kickstarter and other crowdfunding initiatives taught the world that publishers, for all their much-deserved bad reputations, exist for a reason and are generally pretty good at ensuring that the visionary set don't wind up half a decade late for their own release date having sold off all the sequel rights to make up for budget shortfalls. (Not naming any Steves, of course)


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