Hideo Kojima hasn’t left Konami – he’s just having a very long lunch!
Konami Is in Utter Denial
Konami lost interest in console development in 2011, right around the time when the release of their Dragon Collection app helped the company to increase profits by 80%. There has been reports since march that Hideo Kojima was planning to leave the company once work on Metal Gear Solid V wrapped up, and then in July Snake’s Japanese voice actor confirmed that the studio had been shuttered following the project’s completion. Now just this month [October 9] Kojima had his official leaving ceremony at the Konami offices. The event was well attended by Konami employees, both past and present, along with industry veterans from other companies, though the shindig was conspicuously unattended by Konami executives.
Funnily enough, despite this widely observed and remarked upon event Konami are still denying that Hideo Kojima is leaving the company. It is hard to know whether this continuing farce is Konami merely lying for the sake of lying, or whether it has to do with Metal Gear Solid V‘s launch day sales being the biggest entertainment opening of the year. Maybe it is more to do with Konami attempting to string gamers along in order to maximise the shekels they are able to fleece from them through FOB construction and base insurance? Whatever the case, it is like watching somebody arguing for the seaworthiness of the Titanic, even as the ship breaks apart and sinks beneath the waves. The events of this year have been evident for all the world to see, and yet Konami would have us believe that Kojima has not left the company, but instead has gone on a very long holiday! On the topic of Hideo Kojima’s departure from the company, a Konami spokesman had this to say:
“Currently, Kojima is listed as a company employee [at Konami].
Currently, Kojima and the development team are finished developing Metal Gear Solid V and are taking a long time off from work.
Because the development time for console games is so long and fatigue builds up, it’s common for employees to take extended periods of time off when development is finished.”
Yeah, Kojima is currently taking a really long time off from working at Konami – one imagines that he will be on perpetual holiday until the day of his retirement! Lusipurr.com readers should not be surprised if this is a working holiday however, as one fully expects to see Kojima moonlighting for other game developers while he is on his extended holiday! He is still totally working for Konami though!
PICTURED: The Lucian Army’s feared Catamite Corps!
Fabula Homo Fistallis
Hajime Tabata went full Trig Palin [again] this week in an effort to explain precisely why Final Fantasy XV‘s party looks like a tornado picked them up and blew them through a Hot Topic before depositing them in a sperm bank’s waste materials skip – and boy does this justification ever jump the shark! Apparently the party are all wearing the official garb of the Lucis military – with the character’s stylistic differences denoting their military status. Finally, the reason that they only wear black is because they are all affiliated with the Lucis royal family, whose colour is black. Thus, everything from Noct’s knee-high boots, to Gladiolus’ designer poofter mullet, to even the gay little scarf that Prompto ties around his virtually non-existent bicep all appears to be military issue. Small wonder then that the Lucian army was so soundly routed by Niflheim forces, forcing the party to flee their homeland.
“This is Director Tabata.
The clothing worn by the four main characters is the official battle gear of the Kingdom of Lucis.
Noctis is a member of the royal family and the other three characters are parts of various Lucian national organisations and they are each wearing the specific battle dress relevant to their individual stations.
In the Kingdom of Lucis where our heroes reside, the colour black has historically been treated as a special colour. Because of this, the attire of the royal family and those in occupations closely tied to them are unified by having black as a base colouring.
This part of the lore is the reason why the outfits of all four main characters are black. For the finished game we also intend on having their clothing having effects in battle and not just being a part of the world and its background. So watch out for that too!”
Every time one runs the faintest risk of shedding even the minutest modicum of pessimism towards the Final Fantasy XV project, Tabata once again opens his mouth and reveals emphatically that the lunatics are still running the asylum. When it was revealed that weapon changing would now be handled manually by the player it was a good thing, yet gamers have had all of a fortnight to enjoy this slight mitigation before Tabata brought it all crashing back down to earth.
On the positive side of things, this embarrassing load of nonsense provides us with a fascinating insight about the ways in which Square Enix has changed since Hironobu Sackaguchi’s departure. The story of Final Fantasy VII required that Cloud and Zack wear paramilitary uniforms, and so Sackaguchi had Nomura design appropriate attire. The story of Final Fantasy VIII required that the main party be dressed in mercenary uniforms at various points in the game, while also requiring that the secondary party of Laguna, Kiros, and Ward be dressed as Galbadian soldiers – and again Sackaguchi had Nomura design something appropriate that looked the part. This is no longer the case however, as these days Nomura has complete freedom to design the characters as he pleases up front, while it subsequently falls to the narrative team [and to the the development team as a whole] to justify the appearance of his characters after the fact, and try to somehow integrate them into the world they are building. Often times this does not make for an elegant fit.
In short, Nomura has too much power within the company, and he is not subject to enough oversight and direction – a bad combination made worse by his poor taste and judgement. The Final Fantasy XV team would do well to just shrug this off and not attempt to justify the unjustifiable, as it looks quite unbecoming of them. Final Fantasy fans are already well aware of Nomura’s proclivities, so it is best that Nomura’s co-workers not share in failings that are uniquely his own.
The corrosion of free expression is a horror show for us all!
Nintendo Censors Western Version of Fatal Frame V
Congratulations social justice warriors, everything you have been working for is beginning to pay off! Cannot stand the lewd female form? Worry not because Nintendo has got your back! Do you find pubs to be distasteful? Nintendo will turn them all into milk bars!! Rejoice NeoGaf, your false prophet Anita has led you to a great victory against Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, by convincing Nintendo to censor the shit out of it! This is what you wanted! Hey, why the long faces? Oh, this was not the kind of censorship you were looking for? You do not like it when a game’s narrative content is compromised in order to spare the feelings of those who are triggered by an attractive female body? So you have decided to be anti-censorship this week? That is so cute.
Free expression is not a continuum, it is a binary fucking proposition. One has the freedom of expression, or they do not. One supports free expression, or they do not. As a hive of worthless SJWs, NeoGaf has long stood against the concept of free expression, to the extent that they even put a fraud like Anita up on a pedestal – yet it seems like this was the wrong kind of censorship! Apparently it was the mainstream bro games and the sexy fanservice titles that were supposed to be censored into empty husks, not niche Japanese horror titles! Oh the fucking hypocrisy!
One apologises for the profuse abuse of exclamation marks, but nothing else can adequately express one’s incredulity at NeoGaf complaining about censorship in their games. NeoGaf were fine with the censorship when they thought it was just a few alternate sexy fanservice costumes that had been cut, but as soon as it became apparent that Nintendo had taken a pair of shears to the game’s story content then apparently everyone is a free speech advocate. Newsflash: it is not the developers of controversial fare like Grand Theft Auto who take SJW protestations to heart, rather it is aggressively conservative publishers like Nintendo who wish to avoid all the fuss – and they will take it way too far. For clarification, there is a flashback scene in the game where the character Miu, a gravure idol, is in the middle of a photo shoot which now no longer makes sense because her outfit has been changed to more conservative attire. Niche Gamer describes the context of the scene as such:
“in this cutscene Miu is saying things like “I’m nothing. Nothing but an empty shell,” as well as “I do whatever I am told. I know all too well what you want… how dumb.” With her wearing less risque clothes, the dark, adult tone behind this scene is lost.”
The hypocrites over at NeoGaf are not wrong for being upset at the pulping of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water‘s mature content, but they are absolutely wrong for objecting to this kind of censorship while enthusiastically supporting the censorship of games they do not care about. If elitist arseholes do not care when other people’s content gets sterilised, then why would anyone else care when it happens to them? Fanservice is not a crime, and weebs have just as much right to their fanservice as these high-minded ponces have to their edgy, brooding story content. These people have contributed to a climate where depictions of dozens of school girls hanging by their necks from a tree are now viewed as less controversial than a Japanese girl in a swimsuit – and they would do well to reflect on that!
I’ve got your mammaries right here!
Anime Spotlight: Valkyrie Drive Mermaid
Set on five artificial islands, Valkyrie Drive Mermaid follows protagonist Mamori, who is apparently a mermaid in spite of the fact that she looks just like a regular teenage girl. Mamori is a new transfer to the islands, and it would appear that local hospitality is somewhat lacking, as she is immediately set upon by ruffians. Mamori is saved by another new transfer to the islands, Mirei, yet unfortunately what their would-be assailants lack in hospitality they make up for in dogged determination, and the two are pursued until their backs are against the proverbial wall. Just when all seems to be lost Mamori and Mirei share a passionate lesbionic kiss, which transforms Mamori into a sword, allowing Mirei to wield her in their defense! This premise sounds like extremely fertile ground for lewd activity, and, if nothing else, the plot sounds agreeably bonkers!
Valkyrie Drive Mermaid is part of Funimation’s new fall simulcast line-up, and new episodes air on Saturdays at 12:00 PM Eastern time. The series began its run on the tenth of this month [October], and there are currently two episodes available.
