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Yuji has apparently left Square Enix


Zoomzeta

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So, Yuji has left Square-Enix...not really surprised.

You may call the following an assumption, and in fact, it most definitely is, but I have always thought Yuji Naka was more into his creation, NiGHTS than he was into Sonic. I mean, we have seen more games like NiGHTS than games based off Sonic, Rodea and Balan Wonderworld, to be exact. I know Yuji was working on a Sonic type platformer during the days of Prope, but he never finished it.

Still, I respect the man, but with his performance as of late, with what happened with Prope and now Square-Enix, and given how he left Sonic Team during Sonic 06's development, a part of me thinks it good that he is not a part of Sonic Team anymore and not a part of making Sonic games. I would not say he would have made Sonic games worse if he was still on the team, and the current games could be better, yes. Still, a part of me can't see Sonic games being any more successful than they are now if Yuji Naka was involved. Just an opinion, and a thought.

Still, the news of him leaving Square-Enix is rather sad.

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I feel bad for Naka-san. It was disappointing to see something like Balan, which he had a lot of passion for, just get absolutely panned by YouTubers and critics. Given, it was panned for good reason, but it still sucks. I wish him well in retirement, if that's the path he chooses. Hopefully he can at least contribute to another project so something like Balan isn't his last.

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On 6/5/2021 at 10:30 AM, Shade Vortex said:

I mean, I get it, he was known for Sonic in the past. But it's been a long time since then and he's had nothing to do with the series for a decade and a half. There will be zero affect on the Sonic franchise's trajectory from this particular incident, other than hopefully shutting up the people who thought Naka should for some reason come back to work on Sonic games (even though 06 was entirely his fault; he left that project with half of the development team halfway through 06's development). I think this whole fiasco has shown that for better or worse, this man is kind of all washed up; it's hard to remain an influential creator in this industry, you must be able to adapt with the times, and that's clearly something Naka could not do.

I must ask, how badly behind the times is Naka for insisting on one-button controls, when even at the time he was developing the first Sonic game, two buttons were the standard, and the Genesis had three?  I keep hearing this assertion that BWW's failure is a result of Naka's stubborn refusal to adapt, but based on what I read he didn't even start Sonic out as a game that only used one button.  In fact, he didn't start it as Sonic.  Initially he just wanted to make a game that was fast, their first draft starred a rabbit that threw projectiles, and only upon deciding that aiming these required the player to slow down did he conceive the idea of combining jump and attack into one action, buffing it past Mario's jump attack by making it function from any direction.  That was when they decided their protagonist should be a hedgehog instead, since they can ball up to injure foes with quills, and only at that point did Sonic became a one-button game.  Assuming this origin story is true, it hardly gives an impression of Naka as an old fart with unreasonable tastes that can't adapt to new types of games.  Sonic's entire point was to be a new type of game and Naka did a good job of refining it into a viable concept via trial and error. 

Possibly being the boss has made him less pragmatic and more, well, bossy, but again, does Naka's post-Sonic output really indicate any attachment to one-button gameplay as an end in itself?  Maybe it does; I like many didn't get a Saturn so other people would have to inform me on that.

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Well, back then, you could definitely get away with it more. But 3D platformers do not work well with that mentality.  Regardless of how he -used- to be, he has made it very clear -how he is- now. Every single game he's been involved with in the last decade has been overly simplistic, and the worst of the bunch was Let's Tap. Ivy the Kiwi was basically Kirby's Canvas Curse. Other than that, he's worked on minigames like Streetpass stuff.

But I don't want to sound like I'm calling him a hack or anything; -everyone-, no matter how creative, eventually runs out of steam.

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I think he just underestimated how many people are inherently familiar with the standard controller layout now. Gaming has been mainstream for over 20 years now and the PS/Xbox layout is etched pretty firmly into everyone's minds. There's always room for simpler games that let people into the hobby/genre on the ground floor, but I think Balan executes the idea in a way that actually complicates things overall.

Makes me wonder how late the decision to go to console was since a lot of clunk would go away if this game was just touch controls.. It...probably would have ran better on phones than it does on switch too.

It's biggest problems are way more fundamental than the one button thing, IMO. As far as just moving and jumping goes it's the worst platformer I've played in decades. The control scheme probably could have been patched into something workable but it's a lot harder to get around fundamental problems like that.

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If he did return to Sonic Team, I wonder what would happen now? Given that Yooka-Laylee got a second chance in 2D (to the point where the original is retroactively not considered the failure it ended up being), I could see him not ending up as much of a disgrace as Inafune ended up becoming. Given even Iizuka has been here since 3, yet ended up as much of a paraiah among fans as Pontaff and Penders... 

 

I also wonder if he had any involvement with pre-production of the Storybooks, Unleashed, and possibly even Colors? 

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