@Marissa Moira Can't quote you for some reason, but let's take this piece by piece:
Astrobot is probably the most mechanically sound game that they put out in a long long time that was developed entirely by them. Outside of maybe the touchpad ball controls being a bit weird, everything was pretty solid and refined as a platformer game. There was really no annoying extraneous stuff that always plagued many Studio japan releases. Both knack games had a load of tedious bullshit, the ape escape sequels never quite hit the mark of the original(especially 3). If they were to take the Astrobot mechanics and put it in to an entirely different original character for a full priced game it would still play well. Japan Studio was regulated to a support studio for many years because they were never really able to land a hit.
Based on that article you linked, Japan Studio's real problem is that was
very poorly managed, and failed to really create a hit since the PS3. We know that there's been something of an exodus of talent from the studio, such as the creator of
Ico leaving the company, so it seems the the whole studio was beset by internal strife. However, that still ultimately places the blame at Sony's feet because they seem to have made no real move to try to right the ship before writing it off.
Breath of the Wild wasn't really a return to Zelda's roots. Playing both original Zeldas they're two very different games from what Breath of the Wild is.
Original Zelda while it did give you some room with making choices on what dungeons, you still had to clear them all to proceed. All the while gathering items and upgrades that were used throughout the game to clear obstacles. It was the same formula that OOT and MM did, but they had more elaborate side quests.
Zelda 2 has had no previous or future zelda play like it, it tried some weird RPG systems and a very limited world map that had some level of exploration but the world was really empty outside of random encounters. The exploration and challenge came from the side scrolling dungeons.
Something like Link Between Worlds is much closer to the original Zelda games than Breath of the Wild is. Breath of the Wild mechanically behaves like a western open world game.
One thing you are overlooking is that these games are over 20 years old. Of course Breath of the Wild isn't going to look or play exactly like them, but Nintendo themselves have made it known that it was the original Zelda and its openness they were looking to when making this game. Of course they had to take into account the multiple decades of evolution in gaming when making said game, but Breath of Wild isn't quite like any other game on the market, even other open world sandboxes, since its embraced the "go anywhere, do anything" mantra far more than even the best ones do.
Map icon spam I'm going to have to disagree, you have the korok seeds, the locations of buildings and shrines, you have the world bosses like the Ogres and Rock Creatures, there's a ton of stuff on BOTW's map. They're more than a couple hundred things in total.
Having a few buildings, ruins and towns in the world is nowhere near comparable to what Ubisoft does. That's just basic shit you'd see in any open world game. And while the game has Korok seeds and shrines:
a) They aren't marked on your map at all, unlike in a Ubisoft game where they would be.
b) You have to discover them, and most require some kind of puzzle or special action to reveal. You don't just go there, find the thing and leave. What's more, the shrines are basically mini temples that fulfill a gameplay function, and you have to actually clear the shrine after finding it.
c) its all optional and the game doesn't even expect you to find most of either the shrines or Korok seeds, so places no emphasis on them, while Ubisoft literally shoves all the extraneous shit in your face, and most of the actual major sidequest are tide to the extra map icons. The Shrines and Korok seeds are not really tied to many (or really any) other sidequests in BoTW. You either find them or you don't.
Here's the dragon quest quote they gave around the time 11 was going to come out
This article is really just them musing on the history of Dragon Quest and why it didn't find root in America, interesting, but not some grand elucidation on their current policy. Heck, at the end of the Article they even comment on the fact that, while the series had made many iterative changes, such as going 3D, or releasing an MMO game, they've gone out of their way to keep the Dragon Quest series unchanged in actual gameplay so that it will always feel the same to fans.
Every press release when the 12 trailer debuted kept metioning the darker take they want to give the series and that the there will be global release, it's not going to be Japan first and then the rest of the regions later like with 11.
A darker take is probably what's needed for the franchise at this point, as long in the tooth as it is. Its also something they haven't done before. But, as the article you linked to pointed out, it will still play and basically be Dragon Quest. The game getting a global release also isn't unusual; Dragon Quest has been getting more popular and notable in the west over the years; it makes sense that the release would reflect that.
I don't know if you had heard. But just breaking this to you, Bandai Namco has absolutely pledged itself to Western Audiences and is going to become left wing as fuck.
https://www.sankakucomplex.com/2021/10/01/bandai-namco-falls-pledges-itself-to-globalism-diversity/
I'm seeing a whole lotta marketing speak in that statement. Not sure what, if anything, Diversity means in this context. We will just have to wait and see.
In fact, one of the their recent games, The new Idolm@ster Starlight Season game which was only released in Japan has been censored. No more boob physics from cute anime girls
I admittedly don't get what the point behind this change is. Though it does seem like they've been downplaying the jiggle for awhile.
