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What causes Platinum to become so hit-and-miss with their games?

Soodanim

Member
Once upon a time I thought Platinum was entering the realm of "Anything they touch is instant gold platinum". I think that was just after MG Rising or Vanquish, both solid titles.

I think Korra is a great little game.

Their strength is gameplay mechanics, and that doesn't always sell games. They seem to need a strong IP to get recognition. Mikami and Kamiya were big enough names to substitute as a draw for a while, but who knows. I haven't played their more recent games.
 

Beer Baelly

Al Pachinko, Konami President
No Way Abandon Thread GIF
 

daclynk

Member
Star Fox Zero: Seriously bad. Though unknown if it had to do with Platinum or simply Nintendos meddling.
Seriously! Have you played it? Star Fox Zero was an awesome game, those that didnt like complained it was the graphics and the controls was innovative like Wonderful 101.
 

daclynk

Member
Great summary. I forgot about a lot of their titles. I've had discussions with friends who swear by Platinum but as your post outlined there are more middling titles than great. I'd argue even most of the good to great games have something about them that diminishes Platinum somehow. Wonderful101 was extremely short. Nier: Automata gets a lot of deserved praise but it's greatness isn't really in the gameplay and is more attributed to Yoko Taro and the amazing soundtrack. With MGSR they inherited a lot of assets and worked under the direction of Kojima. Vanquish had good gameplay but wasn't for everyone due to how Japanese and campy it was.

I am still a fan of them and will always be interested in learning more about whatever they work on. But it's clear to me that they work better with outside direction or at least a clear idea of what the game is supposed to be.
They developed Astral Chain, which was awesome. it like many people didnt play that GAME. If u havent GET A SWITCH and play it. It was unique and FRESH!
 
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Reizo Ryuu

Member
Dunno what you're smoking, transformers is absolutely great, the combat mechanics are immaculate.

Anarchy reigns was a ton of fun as well in coop, but I did have a dedicated group of people to play it with.

Korra is a budget title, but they absolutely tried their best to make it as accurate and faithful as possible; earth bending was a blast and the pro bending mini game was surprisingly fun.

Tmnt had some problems, like running at 30 fps for some reason, but once again the actual combat is good, with the most challening bosses ever in a p* game.

Don't regret buying any of them, especially since a bunch were delisted.
 
I will defend Star Fox Zero till the end... that game is good, it was a very faithful reboot of Star Fox, with elements of Star Fox 1, 2 and 64.
Exactly.

I don't like Starfox 1 and 2, and 64 bores me a bit. But that's the exact experience, bar the gimmicks that I got on Star Fox Zero.

I think they did a "good job" unless all games in the series actually suck, so I'll just say that I finally concluded that the series isn't for me.


EDIT: Some others games they did, I can agree with generic (art directionwise) or low budget, but I don't think they're horrible if you take that into account.

In fact I do think Platinum Games biggest problem is art direction. I don't think they fluked something 100% on the gameplay front yet.


EDIT: The game they did that I really didn't like was Wonderful 101. But it got a port down the line and what I really disliked the first time around was really the controls.

Madworld decidedly felt like a alpha build of a demo pitch though. Still fun as a sandbox, but no polish/variety.
They developed Astral Chain, which was awesome. it like many people didnt play that GAME. If u havent GET A SWITCH and play it. It was unique and FRESH!
I would get it, but getting a switch to play a game is something I'm not looking forward to, price is too high and controllers are crap.
 
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Azurro

Banned
Even the games they make that are good are a disappointment of sales in this industry

Yeah but come on, Platinum has no one to blame but themselves. The Wonderful 101 is a really weird game that looks completely out of step with the mass market and sold accordingly.

I'm surprised they are still around, someone should acquire them, give them a proper budget and not greenlight completely stupid projects.
 

Kev Kev

Member
ive never played a single one of those games and none of them sound appealing to me, tbh. sounds like they are very niche and sometimes their crazy ideas just dont stick the landing
 

trikster40

Member
Never been a fan of Platinum, looking through the list, every single game was Blah to Meh for me with the exception of Nier Automata.

Perhaps they’re overhyped Rather than under-delivering.
 
I think they pick some internal projects over others, Aliens: Colonial Marines style, where a studio gets contracted and phones it in.
 
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dezzy8

Member
I blame the Korra, TMNT, and transformer games on budget and lack of dev time. They were good games but I could tell they didn’t have enough time to flesh them out.
 

Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
Like how people said THEY SHOULD GIVE STAR FOX TO THEM and see what happened. the game BOMBED even though it was an awesome game. Pls released it for the Switch and see it do Well.


They would have to significantly revamp the controls and the game might be better for it. Also, I don't think Platinum had creative control. They only did the boss design or some other such stuff.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
They got canned from the recent granblue fantasy rpg game.

That's a weird and very opaque situation. The game's always looked good but its been delayed and delayed and the art-style has clearly been completely revamped over the course of development. Then of course there's the other big Cygames project which again seems to be stuck in some kind of development hell...

Like with Scalebound, these are partnership situations so its only fair to look at the performance of the other party as much as Platinum's contribution. Arguably you should blame the publishing party primarily as they are the senior, dominant member.
 

Petopia

Banned
That's a weird and very opaque situation. The game's always looked good but its been delayed and delayed and the art-style has clearly been completely revamped over the course of development. Then of course there's the other big Cygames project which again seems to be stuck in some kind of development hell...

Like with Scalebound, these are partnership situations so its only fair to look at the performance of the other party as much as Platinum's contribution. Arguably you should blame the publishing party primarily as they are the senior, dominant member.
Nah I'm good man Bayonetta 3 looks like a gen 7 developed game so why should I be surprised about anything at this point.
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
Too many bombs, low sales, not enough money, and not enough time/talent to put on games.

Without any breakout success, they're dying slowly.
Yup.

Unfortunately upon reflection they’re a mediocre dev despite a strong start. Taken as a whole, most of their games are garbage unfortunately.

Bayo 1 and Vanquish were great, most of the other stuff is shite if we’re being honest with ourselves.
Transformers Devastation
A great action game with authentic voices are inspired art style that came out after Bayonetta 2.
Thanks Jennings.

👍🏼
 

Labolas

Member
The problem with Platinum is that they're mostly hired guns and essentially yes men for other studios. When another studio puts limitations and restricts on them, it shows. When they aren't being held down and forced to adhere to another company's demands, their games are usually bangers.

And anyone saying Transformers Devastation is bad is objectively wrong.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
I feel budget is a big reason. All their games feel like they have a low budget tied to them.

Bayonetta and Vanquish were 2 of the best games of that generation, NieR Automata is a masterpiece (but mostly due to Yoko Taro's writing if i'm honest) but most of their games are not really great. Transformers is fun though, but its another beat em up with slow mo. Its one of the Plus freebies I sometimes boot up still, its a charming game with PS2 era feels.

I said it before and will say it again; they were better off as Clover with Capcom's backing. Now, give us remasters of Viewtiful Joe and God Hand.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
The company isn't driven by one "superstar" producer and they work with different publishers that don't say no. Pretty easy to predict the result.
 

A.Romero

Member
I know it's pretty much a sin the put responsibility in devs but personally I think that the problem with Platinum is management. When they get help from they can do great (like in Rising) but when they are on their own they can't make a good game because they just don't have proficiency in all the aspects needed to produce top games on their own.

I'd say their issues lay with their internal processes and the fact that their managers are originally devs. I work with devs and they usually don't have the best business sense. The more technically proficient they are, the more lacking they are on other skills. I mean, seeing them beg for work on the press is pretty telling, in my opinion.

With good directors and producers and they can probably do best.

I don't think tight deadlines and budget is the real issue as scopes can be adjusted to fit on those... It's just that they don't have the skills to do the fitting correctly. I really doubt Microsoft was unfair towards them, for example and look at the result...
 
It’s quite simple imo. They’re just not great developers. They basically peaked with Vanquish. Like Nier was cool but, it’s easily outclassed by similar games in the genre.

They got canned from the recent granblue fantasy rpg game.
Really? Who replaced them?
Yeah but come on, Platinum has no one to blame but themselves. The Wonderful 101 is a really weird game that looks completely out of step with the mass market and sold accordingly.

I'm surprised they are still around, someone should acquire them, give them a proper budget and not greenlight completely stupid projects.
Idk why this comment made me laugh but I agree overall. I used to be opposed to the idea but, PG is one of the only devs still making Japanese action games. Maybe I’m crazy but, I think if they have the budget and time to actually make what they want, they could be top tier.
Yup.

Unfortunately upon reflection they’re a mediocre dev despite a strong start. Taken as a whole, most of their games are garbage unfortunately.

Bayo 1 and Vanquish were great, most of the other stuff is shite if we’re being honest with ourselves.

Thanks Jennings.

👍🏼
No doubt. They really shoulda just stuck with Capcom; they seemed to be on their way so to speak. Wtf happened?
 

DonF

Member
I'm playing astral chain right now and God dammit that should've released in ps4/xbox1, the game tanks heavily, the switch can barely handle it. At 60 fps it would've been a true classic.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Regarding budget, they'd likely get more long term sales if they released games on more platforms. WHo knows how much $$$ Nintendo gives them for Bayonetta sequels, but many of their games are Nintendo only now. And we all know third party games on Nintendo systems usually sell bad.

By the looks of the game history, their best games and consistency came from around 10 years ago when they were doing multiplats across all systems including PC.
 

nush

Gold Member
If you take out Bayonetta from their catalogue (And that character is just a ripp off of Elvira, but with guns), they would not be noticed at all. Platinum are just jobber devs that understand mechanics and are good coders.
 

ksdixon

Member
They outright said at some point they essentially take contract work to keep the lights on, inbetween their big Platinum keystone titles.
 

Lethal01

Member
They make some of the best games out their and it gets little sales, then they make a lower budget game to get some cash.
 
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