Was Yuji Naka really as horrible as most people claim?

[Celestia]

Ohhhh my bad, I thought you were talking about Yasuhara, lol. I completely forgot Ohshima got removed from the SADX credits. So ridiculous.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Yesterday was the anniversary of NiGHTS.

As is the way, developers who worked on the game have come out to say 'Happy Birthday', even Yuji Naka... 

Would you like to see how?

 

This is all very well... wait... whats up that first pic?

That figure which is blacked out is Oshima. One if the co creators of Sonic and NiGHTS.

And... Yeah Yuji Naka blacked him out.... The original photo doesn't have this.

Meaning he not only went out of his way to find this old photo. But then went to the effort to photoshop out Oshima.

This didn't go unnoticed and lots of people have commented on it... only... Naka hasn't taken it too well...

Along with this rather massive rant which is aimed at both Square Enix and Oshima...

 

He has been busy trying to Bury all discourse surrounding his own attempts at pulling "The Oshima Vanishes".

For the last 18 hours, yes 18 hours. Naka has been hiding responses to is tweet of anyone who even mentions Oshima. Some have been outright blocked.

And as I type this. He's been doing another round of blocking and hiding of comments.

[Polkadi~☆]

Yeah, okay. It's time to acknowledge that while Yuji Naka is responsible for some amazing games (Sonic, NiGHTS, Phantasy Star Online, even Rodea outside of SEGA), he's an asshole as a developer and as a person. The track record goes back far enough now to prove it, his ego built up by being a hotshot talented programmer at SEGA which turned him into a really shitty person... or was he always like that?

It doesn't make me enjoy his games any less. The Mega Drive trilogy of Sonic games are still all time classics, and Burning Rangers is vastly underappreciated, but I have no respect for Naka if he has no respect for his co-workers (or even empathy, in the case of wishing for another SEGA console after the company was barely bailed out of bankruptcy by a fluke donation.)

I've read enough developer stories to know that even on a good day, Naka is still a dipshit for pushing people far beyond their limits just to meet his ambitious standards.

[Badnik Mechanic]

He's now reached cartoon villain in terms of what he's trying to 'hide'... This is one of the hidden tweets which he just 'hid' about 10min ago...
 

 

I... Can't stop laughing.

[Blue Blood]

Christ... We've known for years that Naka is egotistical and petty. His behaviour right now is pretty unhinged and he's making a total fool of himself. But his behaviour before has always been underhanded, almost shady. What he's doing right now is so cavalier and open that the everyone is laughing at. 

Balan was a train wreck. We all know this. And he was removed from the team. I understand that that probably left him heartbroken, especially because Oshima was an old friend of his. But this is not the behaviour of an innocent man who was wronged whilst working on his passion project. This is the behaviour of a spoiled brat. He's burning so many bridges right now. 

[VO.SUPER]

Naka comes from a time when being a programmer was as close to being... everything on a game. You were like the art director, level designer, etc. All at once. 

And while I have my qualms with him that I've aired out before. I do understand how he got into positions of power he was really not suited for. A lot of drama would've been saved if he hadn't really risen through the ranks. 

And like I said in the other thread, this isn't the first time Naoto Oshima got blacked out by Naka. 

[Eurisko]

He's gone full Dr Evil

[Tornado]

He's gone so racist that now he's even attacking Japanese people!

[VO.SUPER]

5 hours ago, Eurisko said:

He's gone full Dr Evil

He doesn't give much of a damn anymore. After Balan, I doubt he has much to lose. When you air laundry like this, you clearly don't. 

[VO.SUPER]

I want to admit I was wrong. 

 

This is my first time really reading these words from Senn, saying what he heard was all rumor, not even knowing if STI got the program, which you'd think the head of the project would know. Yeah, pull your jokes, but yeah I didn't do as much research as I could and yes, made myself look more like an ass for it.

However, the idea nobody took it suprises me. It's not even like I think Naka would be covering for the rumored outburst, because I'm sure in his mind he would feel justified for it. So did the engine actually come or not?  Whatever, not like it matters anymore.  

[Tornado]

I don't think it's ever been considered just a rumor, nor do I think Naka has ever directly commented on the topic itself. If Senn is saying he never actually got it and only had heard rumors of it making its way to STI in the first place, and Naka is saying he never knew of anyone even trying to give it to them, that makes me wonder where the claims that all this shit happened came from in the first place.

 

 

 

Is this something Stolar made up to try and cover for the game going supernova under his watch? This is perhaps the most defining part of the legacy of the entire game's development being directly contradicted by the two biggest people who were supposedly involved with it.

11 hours ago, VO.SUPER said:

It's not even like I think Naka would be covering for the rumored outburst, because I'm sure in his mind he would feel justified for it.

Plus why would he lie about this when over the past month he's shown he already has no interest in not burning every bridge he's ever crossed

[Starnik]

It’s nice to see Yuji Naka address this particular story and provide some light on it.

[Guest]

On 5/19/2022 at 11:51 AM, azoo said:

Xtreme couldn't be saved. The video you posted are purely demonstrations made on CGI workstations, not in-game footage. The 32X can achieve none of that. And tell me true, do you really think if it was, gameplay-wise, that would've been serviceable? We're looking at a game concept there that looks hardly above Bubsy 3D. Sonic is clunkily running around strips of land made of nothing but squares; either meticulously treading over bottomless pits or stuck to the plane by invisible walls. It would've been impressive for maybe five minutes, but upended almost IMMEDIATELY when Nintendo revealed Super Mario 64 in November 1995.

Finally someone agrees with me here. Xtreme looked terrible. Pains me to say that because it would've been cool for there to be a good mainline Saturn Sonic game. But no, this game, had it been completed and released in the direction the dev team was seen going, would've been the Bubsy 3D before Bubsy 3D was a thing. It wouldn't have saved the Saturn. It potentially could have ruined Sonic as a whole... imagine Sonic going the way of Bubsy, doomed to meme status of his games never being good... What a fate that would be, right?... right?...

(But tbh I know the comparison isn't there since Bubsy was never popular. Sonic likely could've pulled through it like he did during the Dark Era of the mid 2000's, but who knows? Also could've made the Bubsy team wisen up and not release their game. Who knows?)

Also let's be honest, most of us either weren't born or were too young to know this era well. I had a Genesis, then got Dreamcast on launch day in North America (well my older brother did but yeah). I remember seeing Saturn games on store shelves, I knew it was the in-between console between Genesis and Dreamcast. But that was it. I wondered what I missed out on, Sonic-wise, until years later I learned... all I missed was: a port of a mediocre gimmicky "3D" 16-bit game I already had, a compilation of games I already had that came with a tech demo of Sonic in 3D yet moving clunky and slow, and finally, a very mediocre and clunky attempt at a racing game.

So really, in the end, lack of a Saturn mainline game didn't affect those who complain most about it nowadays.

Now, as for Naka...

Man, he's just spouting off lots of... info on his Twitter. I wouldn't call him trustworthy, but now I'm curious.

That Chris Senn interview is from nearly a decade ago and I'm just now seeing it. And if he had no idea about the supposed NiGHTs engine debacle, makes me wonder if it ever happened at all. I wouldn't take Naka's word for it, but if it had been a true story, surely Senn would've repeated it when given the chance, instead of calling it a rumor.

Anyways, I found this thread after finding out that Bernie Stolar passed away last month. Just found out today after watching some YouTube videos on Dreamcast then looking up some info. So I searched here to see if any of you had discussed it.

He's another questionable person apparently but he was important to the launch of one of the best selling consoles of all time (PS1), then the launch of one of my favorites- of course, the Dreamcast. So I have some regard for him and it's a shame he isn't around anymore to confirm some of this info we've been getting.

But back to Naka. After this thread and all the other info, I don't think he's as bad as I thought he was. Still did lots of shady stuff, but I feel a little bad for some of what he had to deal with. The lesson here is just to appreciate artwork/media and not idolize anyone you don't know very well, I suppose.

[Shiny Gems]

Bumping this thread if that is okay because of this.

 

[Zoomzeta]

48 minutes ago, ShinyGems said:

Bumping this thread if that is okay because of this.

The hell Naka!?