Quit Bringing Back That Thing I Just Spent All That Time Killing
If monsters who refuse die bother you as much as they do me, I suggest you take a breather because up next are their stubborn cousins who die only to return again and again and again…
Let’s say you run a respected Japanese developer and publisher that’s spent three decades building up a portfolio of critically acclaimed and highly influential video games, many of which have gone on to become franchises that sell in the tens of millions. A substantial portion of the following your company has accrued over the years are also fans of your flagship franchise, a series that’s considered by many to be the pinnacle of the horror genre. Now let’s say all that success results in your loosing touch with your audience, which in turn leads to a handful of sequels being made that try to appeal to everyone but instead only water down what used to be the horror franchise to beat.
You don’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late, but that game you’ve had hundreds of people working on and invested millions of dollars into over the years — the same game you overburdened with the responsibility of reinvigorating the beloved franchise by making promises to its fans that it will accomplish exactly that — is about to fail spectacularly.
If all that subtlety left you bewildered, I’m of course talking about Capcom. All of the above is but a long-winded way of my saying no game should make it a habit of bringing back the same boss 3, 4, or even 5 or more times. Once is acceptable, but never more than that. Resident Evil 6 broke this rule numerous times across each of its 36-ish intersecting campaigns, and it hurt every single time.
