Famitsu Sucks

"Whenever a Japanese game has a high anticipation level, Western gamers can't wait to cite the high Famitsu score. There's a problem with this, however, and I'll show it to you." -Heath Hindman discusses overworked reviewers, deals with game shops, a slanted scale, 2-sentence reviews, and other problems with a magazine that seemingly everyone puts on a pedestal.

[knifefight]

B-b-b-but they're in JAPAN!!!! :o

[Dante112]

LMAO, when gamers got on a couple of review sites about their reviews, the US gaming media went "It's all opinion, respect that. Don't judge they way we review games". Yet here, they're telling the Japanese reviewers that they don't know how to review games and that they're basically incompetent. Gotta love the US.

Edit: @ Capt

So true. No one questions US journalists/reviewers when they pick CoD as the best FPS or even GOTY each year claiming "innovation" (*cough* GT *cough*).

[imoutofthecontest]

The article does a pretty good job of describing why Famitsu is a special case though. The described review conditions are crazy =/

[decimalator]

I am going to move to Japan and start a business where I shit on a plate and sell said shit-plates for $60 each. You might want to start buying stock.... now.

[Criminal]

The N4G reports' screencap is priceless.
Good read.

[Pozzle]

Eh. I don't think anybody takes Famitsu that seriously tbh. It's just interesting seeing what review scores are given to games from a Japanese perspective. And since Famitsu is the most popular gaming mag in Japan, that's the one everyone pays attention to.

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

I actually respect Famitsu. There one of the only reviewers I trust. They gave FF12 and 13 good scores because they ARE GOOD games. The only reason that I think a lot of people hate them is because they weren't like a regular FF's. So they actually don't just give a game a good score because of the title. It usually does for most other websites or magazines though. They are the most fair reviewers imo. But I can see how some people don't like them because they review some of those really obscure games that only the Japs like.

[knifefight]

What have they said in reviews that you have agreed with?

Edit:
Not sure how one "disagrees" with a question, but OK.

No I'm honestly curious for a discussion here. Please let me know what sorts of views their reviewers have shared that have really struck a chord with you.

(Side: Props for FF12 love -- I'm with ya there ^^.)

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

Tbh I don't really agree with any reviewers. Each reviewer has his or her bias. I don't always agree with Famitsu, but I like there scoring system and when they give a high score to a game I usually like that game. The games Famitsu likes I like. I guess I like japanese games.

To me game reviews are broken. If you look at movie reviews not a lot of movies get perfect scores. Yet when you look at games, anything remotelly enjoyable gets a 100%. Say CoD gets a 10 of 10 and then a game like Uncharted gets a 10 of 10. In my eyes that means they are both as good as the other. There is something wrong there. CoD is in no way even close to being as good as games like Uncharted, FF's, or a lot of games. The whole system is broken.

Btw I'm actually not that 1 disagree if you thought it was me.

[knifefight]

Well said.
I didn't know if you'd read some or what, from the comment and am always looking for in-depth discussion on the matter.

I'm right there with you on game reviews in general. There are a lot of reasons they've gone downhill in recent years. This Mega64 video speaks volumes:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

It's funny, because it's all too true.

[specialguest]

You have got to be joking. They gave FF13 a 39/40, a near perfect score. FF12 got a 40/40 and FFX got a 39/40. You're telling me that FF13 is top 3 best FF game of all time? That's insane. There's a big difference between as you stated "ARE GOOD games" and near perfect games.

In addition, Hirokazu Hamamura, the former Famitsu editor-in-chief, is the current president of Enterbrain, the company that publishes Famitsu. He also appears in an ad campaign for Peace Walker from the game's publisher, Konami. A two-page spread. And he's even on a Konami Peace Walker website.

They gave Peace Walker a perfect 40/40. There's something terribly fishy going on there, like the score could potentially be bought.

[Inception]

But, i think Peace Walker deserved that score. It had a lot's of variety and i had a blast with it. One of the most fun MGS i played in recent years (even topping MGS 4, for me).

[VampiricDragon]

Yeah and nobody complains about ign, or any other western review site right?

This is just another example of insecure westerners hating on japan

[knifefight]

Um? Tons of people complain about IGN and other sites, where have you been?

I hate to defend such places (shudder), but at least they write more than 10 words in their reviews and share WHY they feel a certain way. Read the article ^_^ (The author is a Japanese citizen so be careful about your assumptions ;) )

[RaidensRising]

The mag isn't meant to offer in depth reviews.

[GillHarrison]

The magazine is biased towards Japanese games because it's a Japanese magazine. I don't mean biased as a derogatory term either, it's just the culture split. Japanese people like Japanese game design and Americans like American game design.

If you think a game looks interesting, buy it. Don't blame opinion pieces known as reviews.

[Hicken]

That rather ironic, because, as an American, I prefer Japanese game design. Do I have my wires crossed somewhere, or could it be that where a game is made should honestly have very little to do with whether or not someone likes it? Final Fantasy, despite being very obviously Japanese as a franchise, is exceedingly popular in the US, and the West in general. Is it just some anomaly?

A good game is a good game, regardless of where it's made.

[Tuxedo_Mask]

Why don't we just stop worrying about review scores altogether and use our own minds to decide which games we want to buy or not.

I don't care whether the scores come from Famitsu or any other magazine, the fact that some people treat them as the be all end all is the real problem. Do we really need scores to tell us which games are good and which games are bad? The back covers of most bad games usually speak for themselves, and if you're still not sure you can look it up on the internet. Even YouTube has gameplay videos available of almost every game ever made.

[Qrphe]

Bubbles, I know way too many people who live for the reviews irl.

[StarWolf]

they probably work hard dont insult them. if u dont like it then dont buy it.

[Mike_Tha_Hero]

Funny, the same can be said for American outlets. This is obviously just a case of American superiority.

He somehow believes that because he writes for an American website that his low opinion of a game is above someone who thought it was great.

[imoutofthecontest]

Yeah the half-Japanese, editor of a JRPG website, Japanese citizen author who has appeared in Famitsu is clearly suffering from a case of American Superiority syndrome haha XD

[Mike_Tha_Hero]

He's American, so my point stands.

[imoutofthecontest]

"He's Half American, so my point stands."
^ Fixed.

But you'll see what you want to see so I guess it doesn't matter. It wouldn't matter to you if this were co-written by Hideo Kojima and the Emperor of Japan, you'd still find some way to blow it off.

[LostTokens]

I think Famitsu gets more of their love for the simple nostaliga factor; it's one of the oldest gaming mags on the planet, so akin to Nintendo Power it stays around.

[Canary]

This. It's the same problem we have with places like Gamespot and IGN. They're not reliable (at all), and are, in fact, notoriously unreliable (and even unethical) but have far more prominence in the gaming media than they deserve simply because they're old, established names that people are familiar with.

It's brand-recognition, pure and simple.

[JonnyBigBoss]

Garbage magazine imo. I prefer GameRevolution personally.

[Qrphe]

Well, they review Japanese games, of course there are marketing schemes to promote Japanese games. And the same is in the West (GameInformer, Gamasutra, Game Revolution, IGN, ect).
Get over it guys.