"Iizuka said that he wasn't surprised by the feedback and that once players get their hands on Sonic Frontiers, they'll understand what makes it feel unique when compared to other Sonic games."
"Unique" does not equate to "enjoyable". I hope, for their sake, that this "uniqueness" isn't just another flavor of "mediocre".
Technically speaking, I think the consensus is that "plants don't feel pain and fear in the same way that humans/animals do"...and I think that's the "loophole" that people use to ease their conscience.
It bears mentioning, however, that the do feel "stress". And that stress they feel when being uprooted/pruned/chewed is a clear enough indicator to me that said plant is not having a good time.
"Innovation" is essentially Nintendo's strong suit. It's one of the main reason they've been able to last in the console space for the past few generations with hardware that is significantly less capable than the competition.
"Lateral thinking with withered technology" is what they called such a strategy, if I remember correctly.
Considering the very public backlash against the state of the game (even getting pulled from PSN for a very lengthy period), I highly doubt that.
It's entirely possible that "all that negative press was worth it in the end" could be a sentiment among investors, but I sincerely doubt any of them is going to actually think "nothing was ever wrong".
If it's more RE, MH, or SF, I'm not interested. Give me Megaman, Darkstalkers, Dragon's Dogma, Power Stone, Rival Schools...a new entry in any of those franchises would be great.
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