The Bayonetta Situation

 Another sore spot in the Industry has the centre stage.

Video games are one of the most profitable entertainment industries in the world as long as you're not the consumer... or a voice actor... or a freelance programmer... or a games tester... or a lower rung developer... or an indie developer... or anyone who isn't a publisher. Yes, if you're a publisher than there's a good chance that video games are the most profitable grift you've ever muscled into, and that's why bottom-feeders like Phil Harrison attach themselves to it's underbelly for life despite being terminally incompetent at any and everything gaming. As such it's always a bit of a kick to the balls when some key personnel flops out of the woodwork to reveal some dire financial injustice visited upon their person in such a stark manner which just makes us go "Wait a minute; what are we spending all this money on? How can gaming be switching itself up to £70 per game, with microtransactions and DLC packs, and opt-in subscription models and season passes slapped on top of them, and still the people making the damn things can't be given a fair wage?" Which is just another reason why you should spit in the face of all the scumbags begging for floor prices to be raised on new games.

But that's beside the point today. Today we're looking at a very specific question of what in the earth is happening to voice actors and denigration of the worth of their talent by major industry players. Specifically, we're looking at the injustices apparently visited upon Hellana Taylor, a fellow brit and the iconic voice of the classic action adventure game star, Bayonetta. Over the space of only a few entries Bayonetta managed to worm her way into an, admittedly under-served, subsection of gaming and cement herself as a legend alongside the likes of Dante and Castlevania-games-protagonists-sometimes. In large part due to the gameplay fronted by experienced talent in the field of making games like this curtsey of Platinum Games, but in another part due to the unique character of Bayonetta herself, with her very... particular... personality... look, I'm trying to find a softer way to say that she comes across as a 'dommy mommy'; because that's only a quarter of her whole being, there's more going on there... alongside the piquant sexual appeal. 

What I'm trying to say is the character of Bayonetta is an achievement of performance and design as much as of implementation and gameplay; if not more so, actually. The personality and character of Bayonetta are key marketing traits that summon the image of the character, more so than what she can actually do, which is stark considering the fact her clothes are made out of her hair and she can turn those clothes-hair into whacking implements. As such, when it came around to bringing Bayonetta to her highly anticipated third entry, you'd expect every person involved in creating the personality and image of the protagonist, artists and actors and the like, to be treated like the integral parts of the operation that they are. But according to her iconic voice actress, Hellena Taylor, who was recently replaced with the legendary Jennifer Hale as the voice of Bayonetta, that was absolutely not the case.

In a series of video tweets (Oh god, you know it's serious when we've evolved past the twitlonger!) Hellena Taylor was unflinchingly transparent about her work as a voice actor and the reality of trying to make a living through it, especially in today's financially strained times. Actors, as you well may know, are essentially jobless between gigs and so have to rely on the income of their working months to supplement them until their next role; which is a very hand-to-mouth way to try and live your life. That can become especially galling in the times when you've scored the leading role of a popular character who is coming back for her vastly anticipated third outing, and make no mistake Bayonetta is a beloved franchise at this point, and the company offer you no more than 4000 British pounds for your entire performance. That's not per session, that's the whole package. £4000. Good thing Hellena has her theatre work to make up the difference... oh wait, the British theatre's are hurting too... well that's just dandy, isn't it?

So okay, it's not as though they we offering to make poor Helena here destitute; she was offered a rate close to the market standard and she would be free to book another job to back up her income. Afterall, she's only reprising her fan favourite leading role in a mulitmillion dollar franchise; why on earth would that be worth more than the absolute bear minimum pay? I'm being sarcastic, of course; it's simply laughable that Platinum games were unwilling to reasonably negotiate a higher wage with their leading star in a reoccurring role and sought to replace her the second she got lippy; and the apparent fact that they didn't appear to see the issue in this probably means that it's ingrained in their company culture to try their hardest not to pay rolls their worth. I wonder how much the developers are making? Are they meeting rent? These are the sorts of thoughts that shouldn't really be even entertained in when talking about a successful game's company.

The actress in question was quite upset about her offer and turned down the role, but stepped a bit further to voice her feelings out to the world in order to start a larger conversation. Really lighting a bit of a match, which she could only do by potentially breaking NDA. When the voice of Zero was recast in Metal Gear Solid, that actor also spoke about getting an insultingly small offer, but couldn't go into details like Hellena did and so it was harder to make that real in fan's minds and have that spark the hornets nest like this has. Hearing the vague statement that a role's pay is 'not worth their talent' isn't quite as real as hearing 'I make so little I have to seriously consider if I'm going to be out on the street sometime in my near to mid future.' Of course there are many sides and perspectives to consider in a situation like this but one thing is for certain; voice acting in the games industry sounds like a bit of a raw deal; doesn't it? Maybe they should consider becoming room-mates with a anime artist, together they'll be able to make enough to rent out a shared capsule apartment to live out of.

What I find interesting in all this is the reaction of the game director, who is one half of the childish duo of action game developers who have spent their career's drooling menacingly at each other like a pair of lobotomised fighting dingos. I'm serious, the two of them have the cattiest and most embarrassing rivalry this side of the game's industry; and that attitude infects just about every situation they address. As such, the game director of Bayonetta took to Twitter to harshly lambast some unspecified 'untruth' like he's Magnus Carlson flinging cheating accusations, and then promptly reminded everyone on this public social media platform he willing chooses to engage with, to abide by the insular set of posting rules he hides behind like a coward or face being banned.  Really grabbing the situation by the horns there, huh? (This is why people hire media managers.)

But then there's another dimension to this story to consider... Jason Schreier, a respected and typically on-the-ball, source has refuted the pay claims. He has two sources that claim Hellena was offered 4000 per session over four sessions, which she turned down in favour of a six figure overall sum and residuals. (A simply ludicrous offer by this industries standards that would never be so much as entertained by even the biggest in the industry.) Afterwards Helena was offered a cameo role over one session for 4000, which she then refused. Further evidence for this being in the fact that Bayonetta, surprise surprise; is a union gig, meaning that a lump sum of 4000 over several sessions is, in fact, breaching the terms they signed up to. Hellena denies this categorically, obviously, but the seeds of doubt has been sown. Not by the game director however; he was too preoccupied being childish on Twitter.

So why have I intentionally not highlighted the potential misrepresentation as a key of this blog? Because Hellena has started a conversation that is genuinely important to a lot of people in the industry, even if she did it dishonestly if we're to believe the journalists over her. (I'm not sure who to believe; inside sources would certainly be inclined to lie if they broke union rules.) At the end of the day, voice actors in the games industry have been fed raw deals for a very large part of their collective careers, to the point where some find the work unrewarding for anything over than filling a spot in their CVs. It makes no sense for the most profitable industry in the world to be the least rewarding for actors; and though one might argue that performances are perhaps on the lesser scale of the skillsets needed to make solid games, an honest scaling of that work's value needs to be evaluated, other then the seriously weak status-quo that a lot of the industry are brainwashed into being happy with. The current state of Anime artist pay shows how easy it is for naked injustice to become the 'unconfrontable standard'.

Babylon Fell

 And it won't to get up.

The world loves itself an underdog story about a scrappy little something-who-could who defied the odds, spat in the fact of those who stood dubious and went on to secure itself as one of the true greats of history. It's a invigorating archetype for a story, isn't it? A moral tale of struggle and triumph that teaches us all that it doesn't matter how overwhelming the odds against us, how unbelievable our chances in the face of insurmountable adversity, at the end of the day hard work and grit will always win the day. Because we want to believe that, don't we? That hardwork is the cure-all for all the troubles of the world. But reality isn't ever quite like the morality stories, now is it? It's unfair, it's ruthless, it's belittling, and the at the end of the day it's utterly meaningless. No grand morality lesson to be taught, no overarching force of 'destiny' guiding us towards the path that 'works out in the end'. That is why this is not an underdog story; this is a reality story. It's the story of a game called 'Babylon's Fall'.

Babylon's Fall spawned out of a development studio renowned for it's incredible highs and pitiable lows. One day Platinum Games would but out a modern masterpiece with the near peerless 'Nier' games, and then they'd throw up a 'Legend of Korra' game into their barf bucket before rolling back over and trying to sleep through the hang over. I don't think I could name another company with the range of ultimate good and ultimate trash on either end of a single scale. That's some true 'Anime protagonist' levels of moral imbalance. Such that when the director of 'Metal Gear Rising: Revengence', one of those studio masterpieces I alluded to, is pursing his next lead project after years in the background, no one could predict whether this would be another slam dunk or a total gutterball. (I'm mixing my metaphors, but in a way that's what Platinum Games is; a confused metaphor.)

I have no doubt that, given total autonomy, Babylon's Fall could have been another weird and wild success story from Platinum games; but autonomy is a rare prize. Instead, Square Enix, Platinum's pay masters, were desperate to try and secure that Live Service that could be their cash cow just as Epic Games' Fortnite was for them and Activision's Destiny and COD Warzone was for them, and so on and so forth. So for some inane reason, Platinum, a company known for developing stellar single player action games, was recruited to slap up a state-of-the-art multiplayer cooperative Live Service that would rope players into an endless loop of buying cosmetics to chase expensive gear forever in that loop of power creep which is poisoning modern game design. Something which even the greats and practised in this genre type have trouble nailing a lot of time. Square wanted Platinum to just summon that, out of thin air. And we wonder why Square Enix is failing lately...

What resulted was a game that slipped quickly out of everyone's mind the second it was revealed, each time it was revealed. Every industry show people came away with the exact same impressions. "Well that looked boring, Oh Platinum Games is making it? Well it might be good then." Hardly singing endorsements. But then the game dropped and everything sort of shifted. People who thought this was going to be an inoffensive and forgettable slasher were treated to an exceptionally forgettable and all-around boring action game. One with a hilariously ugly art style, dull world, pathetically thin gameplay loop, surprisingly floaty combat, non-existent level design and terrible voice work. The inconsistent and unpredictable phantom of Platinum Games had struck again; Babylon's Fall was a undeniable downright disaster. 

And unlike some of the other big disasters of recent memory, your Diablo Immortals and Saints Row Reboots, this one didn't have a recognisable brand name for clueless fans to desperately latch onto under the lie that the game is really good and everyone else in the world hates it for it's genius. The game had no fans, it was making no fans, and thus it's slip into obscurity was all but guaranteed. What seemed absolutely insane was the amount of effort that Square and Platinum Games were dedicating to the project despite knowing how poorly the thing initially performed in sales. The game was averaging less than 10 players on Steam and for one period barely a month after launch had only 1 confirmed player on Steam. And this is an online game, remember; people couldn't play the thing without being connected to the internet and thus logging their activity on Steam charts. It was just that unpopular. 

Yet still the company came out to promise they would update the thing, and even launched a cosmetic cross-over event with Nier Automata of all properties! To think that masterpiece of a franchise shared the same screen-space as Babylon's Fall is... unconscionable. But the appeal seems to have been short lived, as now here we are, in the same year that the game released in, receiving the news that Square Enix are preparing to pull the plug on the service before it reaches it's third 'season'. Yes, after killing off all their western studios and declaring they have no idea how to make a profit for a western audience, Square are also killing off their Japanese Live Services and just hoping investors don't take the small leap to realising this means Square just simply don't know how to make profitable franchises full stop. Babylon's Fall is another predictable failure in a string of failures for a company that has lost touch with their consumers.

Babylon's Fall is still going to pick itself up for a final tour before being put out to pasture, the team are going to extend Season 2 and then pretty much just redo Season 2 again but call it 'The Final Season'; all whilst delivering your typical "We did everything we wanted to do" statement that makes consumers so tired of the dishonest line of communication between developers and players. They'll never admit when things are falling apart, which means they'll never be able to receive that key developer-player feedback to learn how to adapt in ways that might make their supposedly community-dependant game work well within the community. Of course, on the other side of that sword; had they actually listened to the consensus of the committee, this idea would have been struck down in it's infancy and replaced with a sequel to MGR or something...

Babylon's Fall is a lesson in failing to read the room and delivering on a promise that nobody wanted. Even if this game hadn't been total garbage to play, the sheer fact that it was a Live Service aimed at an audience who were reared on single player action games meant that this game was never going to hit the numbers it needed to be a success. Perhaps it will also be a lesson to Square Enix that they really need to go back to funding the sorts of games that their players go back to buy entry after entry, rather than desperately trying to remix everything into a Live Service mega franchise so they can secure their immortal meal ticket for the next ten years. Its a sad and transparent gambit from them that has sunk game after game and will continue to do so unless someone slaps Square Enix in the face and teaches them that they can't be the Activision foil they're so desperate to be. The failure of Avengers wasn't total enough to do that to them, but perhaps the annihilation of Babylon's Fall is that wake-up call they've been waiting for... and dreading.

How to handle failure

 Babylon stirring?

We all experience it at some point in our lives, a crushing slip and humiliating fall from grace which strikes hot across the face and leaves a lingering, searing, reminder that we were not worthy. Little stings as bad as failure, because when things are done ostensibly right, and we invest the effort, and push ourselves towards an end that doesn't ultimately work out, suddenly everything you've donated and sacrificed feels like a huge waste of time. No magical 'Chris Martin' is going to fly down from the stars to guide us home and fix us, all we have is ourselves and our embarrassment to show for a gainless venture. And if you allow it to, that wound can fester, and ingrain, and someday even go so far as to scar the soul. Which is why we always want to pick ourselves up and try to make the best of a bad thing.

But what do you do when you've got nothing to work with? I've had this thought ever since I looked at the recent colossal video game failures that have been blasted all across the industry because despite myself I feel bad for them. Sure, most of the time a bad AAA game comes and endures all the hatred and ridicule only to make half of Gibraltar's GDP and rock back home with pay raises all around. Typically it doesn't matter how badly you do for some in this industry, because once you've reached a certain size, as a COD MW3 achievement once aptly stated, you become 'Too big to fail'. But somehow, against the laws of nature, two big games from massive producers haven't enjoyed that immunity to consequence, and it's become more than a little pitiful.

I already mentioned Battlefield 2042 recently, and the fact that it's failure has been so resounding that just a few months after launch this once-legendary multiplayer franchise is seeing less than 1000 concurrent players on PC. But you must acknowledge how bad this is for DICE and EA. Battlefield games are not a case of yearly releases, so that one huge failure will last until the next financial year and then be swiftly forgotten. These games take time, and that's usually why they come out so polished and content rich, winning the hearts of fans who love this distinct style of military shooter even when the overall quality is as questionable as it has been these past few entries. Battlefield V came out in 2018, and 2021's Battlefield 2042 is the next follow up. If 2042 dries up it's player base before month six; that's 2.5 years of silence until the next game during which DICE is going to be tearing out it's hair to keep their antsy bosses at EA from chewing on their limbs in mad hunger. (I don't think EA would ever destroy DICE; they rely on them too much. But you know EA prime are going to be sweating out DICE for this humongous screw up of a game.)

Now what if I told you there's an even more embarrassing failure out there? One so pathetic it makes me cringe to even think about, and one which was actually published by Square Enix, developed by Platinum Games, and directed by Kenji Saito, the man who directed Metal Gear Rising: Revengence? No, clearly I'm not talking about 'Stranger giving Paradise a reach-around in the empty parking lot of a Burger King at 3am', that game has it's defenders who just love mediocrity for some reason; this is about Babylon's Fall. The little live service that couldn't. Couldn't nail a decent art style. Couldn't sell a remotely interesting premise. Couldn't keep a player base. Both TheGamer and Tech Rader (neither site links to the other, so I can't be sure who spotted this first. And I don't believe both sites just happened to have an alert set-up for Steam Chart) reported that on April 13th the player base was less than 10 people. For an online game. That is... stunning. 

And to be clear: I'm not saying that Babylon Fall doesn't deserve it! The game is, by all accounts, a joyless, soulless, messy water-finger painting nightmare, chock full of bad voice acting, terrible world building and a smear of Vaseline to make a muddy art style look undecipherable. And to round it all out, contrary to what one might expect given the development talents here; gameplay loop is dull too! Funnelling players through mostly identical levels with slow-paced combat and a combat complexity that demands a mastery no one can be bothered to stick around long enough to attain. Right now the game is sitting at a 'Mostly Negative' rating on Steam, because some people out there have this 'pity gland' which switches on in the face of absolute crap and forces them to stand up for a mess that doesn't deserve it. Try to recall this was sold at full triple A price with a painfully optimistic cosmetic store stitched onto the package.

How do you come back from lows like that? Battlefield devs are treating their game like a summer project, making incremental improvements piece by piece at such a slow rate that we should have a decently playable game here to coincide with the release of Battlefield 8. What hope does Babylon's Fall have in the face of its own, greater, woes? Coming from a property that no one has nostalgia for, struggling to break more than 200 players on it's best day? Well preppy pop songs off the latest Kidz Bop album will tell you that the first step is to "Never give up"; and indeed, Square Enix is married to the idea of sticking with this, capsized and already-sunk, ship. "There are no plans to reduce the scale of development." They affirmed on that most prestigious of platforms, Twitter. And indeed, if anything these guys appear to be blindly charging ahead with development for a game with less players than an on-pitch Football team on it's bad days. That's dedication, I guess.

Platinum Games launched this game with their planned content for the second season already completed and were about-gleeful to announce the start of their feverish work on the third season. This week has marked the start of a crossover event between this and one of my favourite Platinum Games of all time; Nier Automata (that one hurt to read) all they need to do now is beg Konami to allow them to do a crossover with MGR next and I would be buying the damn thing tomorrow! (Make Senator Armstrong a player skin; you know how much money it would make you!) And the question I have coming out all this is, will it work? I mean we're looking at a colossal failure that seemingly has no chance of grossing anything near enough to so much as break-even with development, but Square is funding the team to truck along regardless, is this all it takes? Is the solution to dealing with failure- simply forget about it until the failure becomes success?

In many ways that sort of obstinate brutalism is an ideology I ascribe to myself already; wherein I push at a medium I've no real talent for and just keep at it until I'm confident enough to either pretend I'm decent, or actually can't stop anymore. So maybe it's my own bias, but somehow I find that approach admirable. Sure, Anthem stuck around for too long and ended up costing everyone undue time on a project that was never going to go anywhere, but maybe Square will be the little studio that could. (Not so little studio, to be fair.) Platinum are crowd-sourcing solutions, so it really does lie in their hands to change things around. You know, presuming they actually take the advice of people who are turned off from the game and are offering ideas to win them over, rather than the nebulous braying of the self-hypnotised lobotomites who are trying to peddle this slop as an undiscovered gem of the industry. So how does one handle failure when they're a modern games company? Ignore it, apparently. 

Babylon is lost

 Elden Ring at home:

It's a strange phenomena that sometimes, inexplicably, you can just smell a disaster coming from a mile away. Like watching the songbirds and small mammals quickly vacate the area before a hurricane, or seeing that trailing swirl of death-feeder vultures overhead; there's something about a doomed project that stinks for a mile and which everyone can detect. Even if you can't explain why, you still know it. It's human nature to respond to subtle indicators, and to detect and be repulsed by danger and disappointment. Thus I don't think a single person really sat down and bubbled with excitement, rubbing their hands in anticipation for the release of 'Babylon's Fall', regardless of the accomplished talent helming the project. Platinum Games, and the absolutely huge publisher bankrolling the whole thing, Square Enix. You can't even pretend you didn't know the thing existed, because Square dragged it around to all the trade shows like a Dance-Mom trucking around LA determined to break their kid into an acting gig. But no one ever took the bait onto the decrepit, three-wheeled hype wagon that Square were pawing off-price tickets for; even an unmarked, tinted-window, hype-white-van would have been more appealing.

And I was in the mood for some Platinum Games action, more so than I typically am at any given time, because as you can see from my recent lineup- I just got done playing through and reviewing an incredible title from their library: 'Metal Gear Rising: Revengence'. A true gem bobbing above a sea of tepid middle of the road stocking-stuffer action titles, elevated by truly great writing, over-the-top performances and another neatly slick and stylish combat system from those Platinum veterans. Because they are talented developers; really talented. And they don't typically mess around with average titles, no they put out extremes; it's either the best of the best or a chore upon every waking sense of the body, there is no in-between. Which has encouraged me to develop the 'leap-frog theory' wherein I say it's highly likely that immediately after putting out a good game, Platinum Games must deliver a bad one for the sake of cosmic balance. How does Babylon's Fall factor into that equation? Well, barring some mobile titles which I don't factor into my event chain, the last proper console release from Platinum Games was the rather well received 'Astral Chain'- oh... guess that doesn't bode well, does it?

Indeed, much like it's many lukewarm gameplay tease trailers over the years have implied; Babylon's Fall is a bad game. But worse than that: It's a boring one. A game with no discernible purpose, identity, unique points of interest, initial depth, narrative intrigue or even any unashamed sexual gratification. (All 3DS shovelware titles knew that if you couldn't make a good game, you could just through some huge Anime boobs with ridiculous physics in a prefab map of Akihabara and call it a day. But Babylon's Fall couldn't even manage that.) First impressions don't lie and today it seems they proved more reliable than a card-carrying wiccan Soothsayer; cause sometimes if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, than it's probably a duck. Or some sort of man in a duck shaped outfit, according to world-renowned duck-expert Adrian 'Vigilante' Chase.

I covered this game in the past, and in that little rant perhaps the only positive I had to relay was that I thought the ingame combat looked good. But in hindsight, looking at the finished product, I may have to even revoke that; because in comparison to their own back catalogue these animations are stiff. But at least the combat has animations, because the same could not be said for the cutscenes; good lord the cutscenes! These pre-made artesian narrative-containing nuggets are, quite frankly, all total trash. They're stiff to the point of rigor-mortis, badly choreographed, sometimes feature poor sound mixing, and have the inexplicable trait you see out of some strangled budget Japanese games wherein the style of the cinematic changes drastically on the whim of the wind. The smarter games will hide this with thematic consistency, so that certain breeds of cutscene feature the lower budget approach so you develop a rough expectation of what to expect out of each cutscene you encounter. Babylon's Fall is not one of the clever ones. You can expect to be totally blindsided at random by cinematics that feature an equivalent level of movement to the 1966 Captain America animated show. (I am not exaggerating. Some scenes are genuinely comparable to that, paper-clip budget, show.) 

And that's just the gameplay itself. (I say just as though that's not the single most important part of a game.) Square Enix made the 'inspired?' move of trying to 'Agent 47 garrotte wire' the already-on-life support marketing efforts by revealing very early on that this was going to be a Live Service game. Yes, to put the half-digested cherry on top of this termite-filled rotten sand-cake, (ew, made myself gag a little with that one) Square Enix wanted to pull the ol' 'half finish the game and try to trap enough curious fans with greedy MTX schemes in hopes that they can personally bankroll the rest of development' trick. For some insane reason that sort of announcement never seems to go down well with people. And so it was, that a game which was already looking rougher than a Saturday night in Blackpool, managed to turn-off anyone gullible enough to even view it as a charity case. (Oh to have the traitorous Square Enix marketing team backing you up, all the while trying to shoot you in the rear.)

Now to be totally fair to the absolute troopers who were sent early review codes for Babylon's Fall; some people have stuck this mess out for the long haul. The rest of us just sniffed the trial gameplay and nope-ed right the hell out of there like Vergil from his parental responsibilities, but for some unfortunate souls out there it is quite literally their job to stare slackjawed at a game with the chromatic palette of a mud landslide. (At least they're getting paid for their suffering. No doubt that's one full paycheck for every eye vessel that burst itself in protest rather than enduring this sleepfest.) They mostly report that, incredibly, there is some progress to the challenge and even a little bit of depth in the game if you hate yourself enough to stick out the game for around about thirty hours. I doubt it's nearly enough depth to make the time spent feel even vaguely worthwhile; but there's the silver lining for your overcast day.

Square really isn't cementing the best of track records with their Live Service initiative, now are they? First they helmed a decent game with a seemingly unbreakable franchise behind it, only to ruin the whole thing with a business model that most critics agree is directly hurt by it's Live Service elements, in their Avengers game. Now they're beating a limping, sickly horse with Babylon's Fall. Both times all they wanted to do was magnify the profits of these otherwise singleplayer games with recurrent revenue buttons so they can subsist off the lifeblood of desperate hooked up fans like human batteries out of The Matrix. Is that so much to ask? Now these two financial bombs, (And seeing that Babylon's Fall is struggling to top 1000 concurrent players on Steam sort of indicates that this title is indeed, a bomb) makes it all the less likely that Square will ever deign go down this route in the future. Same with Platinum Games, who also flirted with swearing a deal to the same Milton-esque demon in their own statements.

 

All of this is a prelude to say: stop trying to make live services a thing, because you're just embarrassing yourself and the industry more and more with each attempt. Or better yet, at least try to make sure your game can't be classified as phycological torture in breach of international human rights laws before you tack your life-blood sucking hooks onto the product. Or even better than better; don't try and release your paper-weight action slasher game within the same week as freakin' Elden Ring; are you serious? Babylon's Fall is what happens when all cylinders are misfiring at the same time so that gameplay, writing, marketing, and basic common sense simultaneously break down to create that imperfect storm of 'bleurgh.' My only wish was that this total spew-of-a-game was more entertainingly bad so I didn't have to rely on a hundred similes in order to get through this blog without my brain rotting from lack of oxygen. So in short: 5/5 stars, best game ever, pick it up today!

Metal Gear Rising: Revengence Review

 This isn't my sword

Sometimes all it takes is a good meme to bring us back to something that we love. And given the game in question today, that seems like a rather fitting sentiment: no? When first I happened upon Metal Gear Rising Revengence, it was in the deadly serious context of spin-off to my beloved Metal Gear franchise which looked like it would forsake everything which made the series a phenom. None of the ground-breaking stealth gameplay, none of the all encompassing game detail wrapped into every gnat of code by a passionate auteur director, and no Snake. Didn't we try this before? Removing Snake? It didn't go too well as I remember. And yet to say that MGR won me over is an understatement; I consider it one of the best action-adventure Hack'n'slash games to this day. I adore the game, love the characters, and that was my mindset back when I played this far too young to understand what the story was even about. (And too young to be playing a game so violent, probably.) So maybe I'll love it even more today!

My attention was turned back onto this title after the absolute deluge of memes around this game just from reposting bits of the cutscenes; because they carry enough gold material in them raw. Then there's the parody Youtube channels who make fantastic voice acted spoofs of moments in the game, and the rediscovery of the soundtrack which sounds typically rock-heavy for a game of this type but actually carries a smart edge behind the headbanging melodies. Basically the Internet has been rediscovering what an incredible little gem that Metal Gear Rising is and that encouraged me to renew my vows and pick up the high-frequency blade once more. Thus what is coming your way is not a fresh-faced review, but an old friend meeting with his buddy once more, and the observations I have to make will be coloured by that old fondness as well as the recent playthrough I snuck in during Halo 4 downtime, so keep that in mind. Also, I'm going to go full spoilers here so if you just want my thoughts without the spice, you can find them in the summary at the bottom of the page.

Raiden Returns

To this date, MGR remains the furthest along in the Metal Gear timeline out of any game in the franchise. Further than 'MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots', far beyond Kojima's last game 'MGS 5: Phantom Pain', and in a whole other universe than that abomination Konami turd 'Metal Gear Survive'. And of course, Platinum games, in their infinite wisdom, chose to expand the story of a well established former protagonist, Raiden: the undesignated Snake. All the way back in Metal Gear Solid 2, (2001) Hideo Kojima would pull one of the most successful bait-and-switches in history when he advertised a game featuring Snake through every level only for the actual game to feature Snake leaving after the prologue of MGS 2 and anime-blonde kid, Raiden, taking his place. Fan reaction was- negative would be putting it kindly. Fans hated Raiden, from his anime-school kid haircut, to his toothless youthful persona and just for the fact that he wasn't the gruff solider fans had come to love. They rejected Raiden. And Kojima took that personally.

Kojima really liked Raiden, so much so that when helming the first 'last game of the franchise' (Kojima made that promise a few times) MGS 4, he decided to do everything he could to make Raiden too cool to be ridiculed. He made Raiden a superpowered Ninja with a high-frequency sword capable of cutting through the Gecko UGs in the game like butter. He also had one of those cool automatic eye-visor things that slid over his face by itself and made the noise with the glowing red LED for effect. (So cool!) And Kojima didn't make the little twerp the surprise main character this time around, all of which helped fans get over themselves about Raiden and even somewhat like the white-haired punk with his inexplicable faux happy ending. So the image reform was complete and Raiden was finally an alright guy. "But that's not enough" I can only presume Kojima said when selling this Metal Gear Rising to Platinum Games. "Raiden might be likable now, but that's not going to cut it anymore, oh no! They made fun of my baby, and now... now they're going to worship him! We need to go... further." "But Mr Kojima sir; are we sure his character can handle anything else thrown at it? He had his happy ending off in the sunset with his wife and son." "He can be more, I feel it- don't you? We can rebuild him, make him- cool. We have the technology." And thus; Metal Gear Rising's Raiden was born.

Mr Lightning Bolt

Raiden of Metal Gear Rising Revengence undergoes your typical act 1 evolution after a crippling loss, turning from a retro-futuristic swordman into an actual cybernetically-enhanced metal-high-heel-pumps wearing ninja one-man-army. They redesigned him totally, and can anyone argue with the results? Focusing purely on the way he is framed in the cutscenes, Platinum Games fall over themselves to show you how cool this guy is, from the way that he picks up a freakin' Metal Gear by the arm, catches a molten-hot knife with a high heel, slices a flying air drone neatly in two, and reads one of the most epically stupid final boss lead-in lines of all time. In so many ways it could have come across like the team were trying too hard to make their protagonist badass, thus reversing all that hardwork into points against his cool, (like Sunset Overdrive does) but somehow in the earnest way they just kept piling on layer after layer of cool tech, visuals, actions and lines; they pushed past the contrived-feeling. Raiden is just super badass now, it's the way things are.

Which isn't to say they bungled him down into some impeccable images of coolness that could never be touched. An iconic 'hero character' who's too precious to undergo any real hardship and is attributed only likeable traits and favourable actions to the tune of what is most commonly known as 'the mary sue model'. No, they don't do things like that over in Platinum. Jack has actual substantial character growth, moral challengings and questionable path changes that make him a deep and fleshly little protagonist. He actually has a more believable transformation story over the course of this game than Venom Snake does in Metal Gear Solid V; but the Kojima fanboy in me absolutely can not let it be known to anyone that I said that; so that opinion stays between you and me, got it? Surprisingly great main character work in this game, Platinum, even for you this game surprised me.

Jack The Ripper

But this isn't a character study game, it's an action title, and thus the gameplay is of key 'make or break' importance to the package here. In that style that Platinum Games know so well, Metal Gear Rising is formed to be a typical Devil May Cry-style hack'n'slash game with battle zones, missions and boss fights at the end of every level. But there's a gimmick too. Back in this game's previous iteration (known just as 'Metal Gear Solid: Rising') the stand out feature was the ability to enter a special slow-motion 'blade mode' in which you could slash in any direction you so choose and cut something in any way you want. This carries over to the Revengence version of the game with added visual flair and a handy counter which announces how many pieces you've cut your assailant into. Oh and when I say 'cut any way you want', I am indeed talking about people. And Melons if you want. But the draw is people. So it's fair to say this is one extremely violent and bloody game.

And yet I wouldn't call it gory. Aside from one example right at the end, all the organs stay inside the neat human chunks you cut up, making this more of an cartoon-style anime blood fest, rather than a squelching gut-spewing massacre with actually disturbing carnage going on. At the heart of these games you're supposed to have a fun time, and enjoy cutting through things, so this fictionalised approach to ultra-violence does help keep the tone of everything up and the adrenaline pumping rather than leaking out of your body in cold sweats as you contemplate the virtual warcrime you've just performed. That sort of introspection needs to be reserved until the story bears it down upon you for key-character-arc-moment effect. Only be horrified at the cue card please.

The actual fighting itself, however, just feels so good. Raiden has your light attack, heavy attack two button spread with a bevy of cool combos spread between a mixture of those presses, a speedy agility to all of his actions which encourages players to whip around the battlefield at top speed and overwhelm their enemies and a super intuitive parry system where all you need to do is identify an attack coming your way, push the analogue towards the attacker and hit the attack button just before the attack connects; instant cool parry move. (And it's very important for that parry to be so intuitive and easy to pull off, because it becomes integral to the flow of the boss fights.) My only gripes are Raiden's lack of aerial options and substantial juggling, and his dodge move which needs to be unlocked and activated at the start of the second level of the game. Woe be on you if you buy it without realising that you needed to activate it too, otherwise you'll do what I did on my first playthrough and suffer throughout the entire game without realising there's a dodge button. (But I did beat it. Don't even ask me how I took down Armstrong without a dodge; I don't know.)

We're all Sons of the Patriots now! 

The story of MGR picks up after the events of 'Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots' now that the Patriots legacy have been destroyed and the world is carrying on with it's war business as usual. Okay, I guess things aren't as bad as they were under the Patriots, but it's very clear that the world they built hasn't just disappeared overnight. Raiden stars in a tale that delves into the aftermath of this world shift and, in typical Kojima fashion, delves into the psychology of those who believe in extremism for the good of their own ends. The difference between this and usual MGS games, is that at it's heart Metal Gear Rising is an action slasher game, which means the story is relegated to tiny cutscenes here and there rather than full hour long speeches. Of course, a 'tiny' cutscene by Kojima standards is pretty much the industry standard length- so you're still getting a total full narrative playing out before you, just with the involved characterisation of a normal Metal Gear to spruce things up. 

The first time I played through I'll admit to having absolutely no idea what was going on or what the game was about, and I still had a total blast. Now I can see that the whole game was following the set-up of a conspiracy to cause an international incident in order to change the world precedent, a purpose neatly embodied in the names of the various co-conspirators who are identified as 'The Winds of Change'. That's literal, by the way. You have one boss called Mistral, the southern French wind from over the alps, another entitled Minuano (Aka Jetstream Sam), a cold wind that blows over the Rio Grande, and then there's Monsoon, who's pretty self explanatory. Of course each one of these characters has their own world views and goals which they're more than happy to chat about before your deathly duel, once more highlighting the levels of detail and love that always goes into scripts like these from Kojima. He never does a half hearted job, does he?

Of course, at it's heart the purpose of the narrative on a grandscale is to have Raiden confront his upbringing as a child soldier and question if the influence that has had on him as an adult made him a good person. There's no real consensus and Kojima is far too smart to land on one definitive decided for the audience, but instead we're treated to a buffet of ideologies and world views that assault our sponge, Raiden, until one manages to worm it's way past their moral split and lay seed, even whilst they've duelling under the setting sun. Characters like Sunny retain their faith in Raiden being a hero, however those lingering final few post-credits scenes paint a delightfully ambiguous picture for whatever could be next in our platinum kid's adventure. Really solid character work here, similar to how RGG Studio built up the iconic image of Kiryu Kazama through the narrative of Yakuza 0.

Nanomachines, Son!

But I can't feasibly give an entire review to Metal Gear Rising without dedicating a whole section just to the big bad, now can I? (It wouldn't be right.) So can we just put our hands together for MGR, the game that managed to take something as boring sounding as 'a US Senator in a suit was the man behind it all', and turn that premise into one of the most iconic villains of the entire genre. Senator Armstrong is a confidant, totally self-absorbed, larger than life character bubbling with so much glee and anger that you can genuinely see this man being the cult-like head of the extremist cell he created. There's this utter unshakeable belief behind his ideals that's just infectious, even when the 'dream' he's laying out to you is, in stark reality, that of a brutalist hellhole. In his dream and performance alone this character is unforgettable and the internet has memed about him endlessly, but he can back up his grand talk too.

"Don't F*** with this Senator" as the iconic line goes; because our man has the brawn and technology to stand up as a human tank all on his own! We get to see our protagonist, who up until now has been able to hold himself to a decent degree against the various deathly robotic terror's that have come his way, get tossed around like an American football, literally. The physical aspect of their one-on-one cutscene is just as entertaining as their dialogue, as they have what amounts to a political debate whilst tearing into each other in hyper-silly violent action. (Armstrong even gets an flurry barrage in on Raiden, Star Platinum style.) All of this legendary scene is only made sweeter with Raiden's final declaration, a summation of his moral dilemma summed up in a handful of lines that would be cheesy coming out of anyone else's mouth. "ARMSTRONG! I said my sword was a tool of Justice. Not used for anger. Not used for Vengeance. But now I'm not so sure. And besides, this isn't my Sword!" How do you say lines like that and make them badass? 'Quinton Flynn' is how.

The Winds of Change

The bosses of MGR are really the secret ingredient that keep this relatively lean hacker engaging from start to finish. The enemy compositions throughout the levels are fun, although I personally think it starts to feel like every enemy is a miniboss by the late game, (and so can be more frustrating than fun at times) but the bosses form the real set-piece moments of this experience and that's because they are just wild. You know this game means business when the boss of the prologue is a Metal Gear Ray! That giant aquatic weapon platform gets itself absolutely torn to sheds by Raiden, and from there the pace doesn't slow down. Mistral's fight is somewhat disturbing (What, with all the synthetic-armed dwarf geckos) but feels like a very traditional arena battle with straightforward gimmicks, Monsoon's is disorienting, bizarre, and has brief flashes of an endurance bout during his smoke bomb barrage, Sundowner is all-precision to a frankly annoying degree, Sam is a quintessential samurai-meets-samurai no tricks death battle, and Armstrong... Well, he's a special level of explosive. All of these people are personable enough to be enjoyable outside of the gameplay, and versatile enough to be challenging and memorable inside of the gameplay. This here is the best of both worlds.

And for me, I think a huge part of that comes down to the music tracks cleverly weaved in to tell the story whilst pumping the adrenaline. Stains of Time and the only thing I know for real seem like your stereotypical head-bangers, but they're all written to be sang from the perspective of the boss in question, so that when you get to the lyrics (which for some fights are dynamic depending on the progression of the battle) there's an extra little shade of understanding imbued relating to their mindset. Even if it's subliminally imparted. This comes to it's head, obviously, in the incredible final fight with the song It has to be this way, in which the team managed to circumvent the typically trite 'we're the same, you and I' trope by having the song say it instead. Using song lyrics to compliment the story- man that's going to get extra marks from me and you know it.  

Clever dog

Fans were lucky enough to receive two small DLC campaigns to compliment this package before the game was shelved by Platinum, and they both feature different characters with their own movesets that feel different but are similar enough for you to be able to ease into them without having to go through endless basic tutorials. (Although such tutorials are an option if you prefer.) Blade Wolf's campaign takes a different approach to the main game, having a mission and boss that caters to the stealthy approach more than direct carnage most of the time. (With a rather creative sneaking-minigame crafted into the boss' attack pattern.) Jetstream Sam's mission is much more traditional to Raiden's battle-orgy, to the point where Sam doesn't even have a stealth takedown move. I see Sam's mission more as a gauntlet of tough enemies crowned with three tough boss fights, even though each are recycled from the main game unlike Wolf's one unique boss. There's not much of a story to either of these two DLCs, but the different-enough gameplay warrants their existence and makes their short playtime stand out.

Summary

Metal Gear Rising Revengence is the Metal Gear Hack'n'Slash game that we never deserved, but I am so glad that we got it anyway. With great slashing gameplay, a free-cutting gimmick which is still impressive and unique all these years later and a stellar cast of villains to slice through during this story; this package is already solid enough. But throw in the somewhat intelligent character work with the protagonist, the typically solid Kojima writing for each boss and the subtly clever music tracks in the mix and this game become nothing short of legendary. Some have found it's rather short length to be an issue, but with the replay value here I think the lean narrative is totally reasonable and fine for no other reason than so that the game doesn't out-stay it's welcome; it's hard to note any significant blunder this hack'n'slash game is guilty of. Seeing if this game lived up to my memory only reinforced this title as one of the best of it's genre, easily worthy of a A Grade in my rating scale. Oh, and I recommend it to literally everyone, because of course I do. Just bear in mind that this is a violent and bloody game, and enjoy an incredibly exhilarating adventure that probably ranks as Metal Gear's most accessible entry. Now if only the stars would align for a sequel somewhere along the line, because our beleaguered industry really needs it around about now. "A little Revengence can do the gaming economy good, Trust me!"

Babylon's Fall

 Is this the scheduled bad game?

There's a supposed formula, or more appropriately a curse, when it comes to Platinum Game's titles. (One which doesn't hold up to even the slightest scrutiny, by there it is.) Essentially people like to say that the quality craftsmanship behind their talented games sort of does a leapfrog, one year it's a bad game, the next year it's a good game. (Except, obviously, not sequential years because that would be a simply insane level of output on the studio's part. I mean, they at least took 2018 off) One release might be the heavily undercooked Legend of Korra video game, cause of many heartbroken Avatar fans over the world, whilst the next would be Bayonetta 2, a classic sequel to a classic slasher. Some other year you'll get the almost iconically terrible 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan', which somehow managed to take something as simple and well documented as an action-combat title and make it boring. (I don't know how you manage that.) Of course, then that game would immediately be followed up by a literal masterpiece in 'Nier: Automata'. So is there something to the Platinum curse?

Of course not. The Wonderful 101 was rather well received by all outlets and that game was sandwiched between the aforementioned Bayonetta 2 and 'Metal Gear Rising: Revengence.' (Which, for the record, absolutely slaps) But we like to conjure up these folk lore tales and weave 'curses' because it sounds more exciting and feeds into our desires for some supernatural in our mundane lives. I get it, sure I'll bite. But then, wasn't the very last game to come out of Platinum's doors the lauded remaster of 'Nier Replicant'? Well... I guess we're in for a stinker in this next game... Except no again, because technically that remaster was handled by Toylogic, Platinum Games proper were far too busy for any of that nonsense. Yet still, it paints a air of foreboding around the new Babylon Fall that was recently shown off during the E3 conference for Square Enix, and even if that 'curse' I just debunked is nothing more than ill-informed guesswork, all the writing is on the wall for this next game to be a miss.

Now let me assure that I love Platinum Games at their best, to the point of absolute adoration. I will argue till I'm blue in the face that Automata was robbed of the widespread recognition it deserved because of a relatively mundane and trite android-story competitor in 'Detroit: Become Human'. 'Metal Gear Rising: Revengence' makes me tingle just to think about, and pray that somehow Konami gives them the MG licence if Kojima's definitely never getting it back. These Platinum guys are like urban heroes of game design to me- so if their latest title has even me throwing up my hands and going "Woah there, buddy, I've think you've had a little too much to drink and should really rethink this whole doomed venture" Then maybe we all need to sit and have a talk because seriously, what are these guys thinking?

Well, I know what they're thinking. It's the same thing that every company thinks when they latch onto this most lamentable of trends. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself; what is this Babylon's Fall anyway? Well that was the question that many were asking when they saw this rather vague teaser reveal all the way back in 2019. It was just another curious little hack and slash game, but being fronted by a studio renowned for being the Hack-n-Slash guys. This title would feature a high fantasy drape over it's world and seep it's world with an almost Souls-ian colour palette. It received decent interest but didn't have people frothing out of the mouth for the next two years until a proper reveal like Elden Ring did. Well this E3 trailer actually lines up as an extended version of that trailer from all those years back, but it has a rather suspicious dislike ratio on their official Youtube upload. What is the problem? Several fold, actually, but it starts thusly; this game is a live service.

Alas, all the robins have fallen out of the trees, the fairies have lost their wings and the princes have turned to frogs; Platinum games have fallen into the Live service trap! Why god, why? I think that we, as a society, have moved past given the live service model of game delivery the benefit of the doubt by now, because at this point anything resembling success and a solid game in this genre is rarer than a two-horned unicorn with wings that can do the Hustle. We know this dance so well now; the developers will put out a weak title that pales in comparison to the other blockbusters they're known for, they'll beg players to stick around and keep paying money whilst the game is buffed out, basically treating fans like a secondary investment stream, only to pull all developers onto making actual games except for a skeleton crew that can hardly keep the servers online, let alone get around to adding new content. The game will struggle, less and less people will play it, and two months after launch you'll be looking at a multiplayer-only game with an average player count of less than a thousand. At which point the only question is how long they want to drag this decaying carcass behind them before doing the humane thing and cutting it off, pronouncing the thing ultimately dead.

There, I just pulled that synopsis out of my crystal ball for you and saved you having to invest yourself in this sorry affair to see it for yourself. But railing against the actually cursed business model is one, arguably beside the point, approach; what about the game itself, what does that hold? Visual disappointment, oddly. I'm not sure what it is about some accomplished developers coming out this E3 and showing us trailers that look fit to be rendered on a PS3, let alone a PS5; I mean what is this? The art of the game is slightly, almost imperceptibly, stylised; but it really doesn't save a game that just looks boring. Look, not every title needs to be Bluepoint's Demon Souls, I know that, but surely you can spare a bit of processing power towards rendering some better textures, maybe some atmospheric particulates, definitely some better animation.

Can I- Can I talk about the animation? It's going to be a rant, but I need to. In-combat slashing looks great, same standard of quality that Platinum has been hitting for over a decade now, I've got not gripes there. But there are a couple of shots of cutscene action and it looks so clunky I can't stand it! Well, that is to say it looks as clunky as you'd expect any other developer attacking a cutscene sword fight to put out. But this is Platinum, their cutscene fights are Legendary! This- This was an embarrassment. And thrown atop of the mundane scenes of online players chipping away at some bargain bin-looking boss enemy or platforming over basic frog-hop lava pits, (and maybe I'm feeding the bias here) but it just looks bad. There's none of that Platinum heart we love, I don't even find Babylon's Fall's world exciting, I just want Scalebound. (How did that reveal trailer look better rendered than this modern game does?)

For a new IP, Babylon's Fall is doing a wonderful job of putting everyone off before the home stretch has even begun, making this as yet another Square Enix product that hardly seems worthy of the studio's doors. Those guys are renowned for some of the most creative looking designs outside of FromSoftware's offices and yet they deliver something so soulless that even Platinum diehards like myself are left retching. I wish it made more sense to me, because then I'd at least be able to swallow the fact that this low-effort cash grab is yet another series that Deus Ex is being sidelined for. (Why do you hate my money so much Square Enix? I'll give it to you if you'll just make a Deus Ex game!) I'm going to cut myself off before this blog descends into something it's not, so in wrap up I'll say: Babylon's Fall, looks like generic trash, everyone involved is capable of leagues better and they belittle themselves with this whole project. And with that, Adieu.