@killercondoms: How is not volunteering market share to your competition "bullying"? Salesforce is a US$50B tech company in a highly competitive market, not some sad kid in school who can't afford to buy lunch anymore.
@drysprocket: I know plenty of hardcore Blizzard fans, both personally and through YT'er and streamers I watch, and I don't know any that hold Bliz up as some paragon of originality?
@piratex: They definitely prioritise world building over explicit story. But they don't 'begin with out a plot and at the end nothing [happens]'.
As to whether the game seems familiar to the other Team Ico games? Yes, I agree. And that's exactly what I want from it.
A lot can be inferred about the world of Ico from the design of the world and the game. About the relationship between the witch and the township, the castle, the two types of magic, the horned boys, Yorda, etc. It's this detail and story delivery style (also present in SotC, and a huge inspiration for the design of Miyazaki's Souls series) that elevated Team Ico's games. So whilst it feels familiar in style, I don't think that means just the same game with a dog swapped for Yorda. It will be a new world and a new mythos.
@xantufrog: Ico is one of my favourite few games, and I still play it on occasion, so what you're saying is exactly what I want from this game. Obviously I hope it resonates with today's audience, because I'd like to think games like Ico and SotC would still do so. But I also hope the game is aimed at people like me looking for classic Team Ico.
@domiddian: I'd throw mediocre in with the bottom group. To me 'fair' is those games that are enjoyable enough to be worth playing, but never excel in any department or become particularly compelling (and I think 6-7 should be what most games get). But below that 1-5 make no difference, as they all mean 'not worth playing'.
@fil_phish: I suppose if you don't count having cutscenes, and story told through atmosphere, visuals, gameplay and environments, as stuff happening, then those games don't actually have much happening?
@wretch1d: Which is great. More games reaching more people should be a positive thing in any ones eyes.
I could understand a PC gamer being mildly annoyed if they had for some reason bought an XBO on the promise of unreleased games they thought would be exclusive, but not much.
@ice12tray: Ultimately it is better someone gets it than nobody with a 'was never going to happen' game like B2. But often it is just funding to buy exclusivity, not because the game would never be able to happen without it, in which case I think timed-exclusivity is a better answer.
@butterworth: If you hadn't heard or read elsewhere, regarding the other players not being there the whole time; I read a dev interview a long time ago that said the idea behind that was to allow each player to do the activity they wanted to do, without the presence of other players compelling them to herd together.
jecomans' comments