Or good combat systems? Seriously. I don't get it. I DON'T GET IT. Western devs have had more influence on the game industry for far longer than Japan, yet they act like they're making first year school projects while games like Dark Souls are masterclass and have half the budget. The problem with American devs and bosses came to a head with the Mass Effect franchise. "Why do you always need a boss???"... because it's the ultimate test of the games mechanics? Jesus christ, western devs.
I'm more than halfway through Dark Souls and I can declare it's a masterpiece before I even beat it. Can't even think of something that could happen that could lower my opinion about it (I just did that shitty Lost Izalith and I STILL want to play it), the bosses and weapon based combat is brilliant and there's so many to describe it, it's like Ninja Gaiden Black meets Legend of Zelda - it's like Diablo (or ARPGs in general) but actually good.
So to figure this out, I've included the four horsemen of the western dev apocalypse. The four games that are a reflection of modern western design as a whole. My post about them coming up
>Arkham Asylum and Arkham City The series so toxic for the industry I had to include it twice. I don't feel like Batman, despite claims as such, and it's bad enough you don't have real bosses, but instead you get gimmicky shit like the Poison Ivy fight or an entirely scripted sequence like Killer Croc, both of which were in Arkham Asylum, and as the series went along, this never improved. What's worse about the Arkham games is their influence. Arkham Asylum was popular, but Arkham City was a megahit. I couldn't even look at western made games for a couple years because they'd all be inevitably an Arkham clone.
>NuGod of War Back in the day, we used to raise our noses up at God of War 1 and 2 on the PS2. "Ho ho, square square! What simple games not as good as our precious Devil May Cries!" Now? They're absolute character action game classics, and nuGod of War is the ultimate backstab and casualization of a franchise that ultimately didn't deserve a fate this horrible.
>Half Life 2 The odd one out, sure, as FPSes are still the only genre western devs can deliver on, but HL2 represents a regression of the amazing combat system introduced by Duke Nukem 3D and its engine (which subpar games like Blood would use, and great ones like Shadow Warrior would take advantage of). The scripted sequences in HL1 were impressive for the time because there was nothing like them, truly, but by HL2, only a retard would be impressed by these 20 minute long cutscenes you can't skip.
Western devs suck, but they make good autism sims like Slay the Spire or Rimworld
Joseph Cook
Western game devs strive for making games feel "real", while japanese devs have no problem with making games feel "gamey".
Dominic Reyes
>Western game devs strive for making games feel "real"
Which is impossible and you end up with a weird facsimile of real life that's not fun to play.
Adrian Cook
>RDR2 is one of the most popular western games >It plays like absolute dog shit
Somebody explain
Easton Brooks
Doom 2016 had solid bosses and the non boss combat was great.
Joseph Hall
Has a massive advertising budget and looks pretty
Nicholas Garcia
The west doesn't actually care about good gameplay. They care about having a cool experience. Last of us, Uncharted, BamHam, God of War, none of these have good gameplay, yet they are among of the most popular games in the last decade. Why? because people in the west just want to feel cool and look at epic setpieces. Gameplay really doesn't matter, in fact it often gets in the way of the kind of experience the average western gamer craves.
Carter Miller
games in the west often are just interactive movies nothing wrong with that, if you want that kind of stuff.
