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Post by Woody Alien 2 on Nov 3, 2023 7:02:30 GMT -5
Sorry that I can't describe the topic more concisely, TvTropes defines them as "Creator's Oddball", meaning something that has nothing to do with what one author/developer/company is mostly known for or usually makes. Remember when Wes Craven made a musical drama biopic? Or when David Lynch made a film with no mindfuck whatsoever? Well, the same thing, but with games.
One that comes to my mind is Treasure's Light Crusader. Treasure usually makes games that are very "anime", really fast-paced, colorful, with memorable setpieces, bizarre characters, nonsensical plots and full of explosions and effects straining the consoles' power. Light Crusader is none of that: a very Western-style RPG with muted colors, fairly realistic portraits, generic settings and which is also quite dull and repetitive. Also it has a strange emphasis on physics and an isometric perspective they never adopted before or since.
A more recent example would be The Talos Principle by Croteam. They will be forever be known for the Serious Sam franchise that revels in being as over-the-top as possible and a mostly mindless shooter where you have to mow down literal hordes of bizarre monsters. But "Talos" is a philosophical puzzle game on the nature of self and such, that is very meditative and features no violence whatsoever (as far as I know).
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Post by retr0gamer on Nov 3, 2023 8:14:27 GMT -5
Infinite Space from Platinum. Didn't expect a hardcore management Sim rpg from a developer specialising in character action games.
Einhander from squaresoft when they were at their height of rpg output on PS1. I find it even more incredible that they managed to nail making a shmup so well and it's a shame they never followed it up.
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Post by excelsior on Nov 3, 2023 8:53:17 GMT -5
Off the top of my head when MonolithSoft, known for their grand scale JRPGs made Disaster Day of Crisis. It's an action driven level based disaster themed game. There's bits of Disaster Report in there but there's enough to differentiate it too, being something more influenced by disaster action movies. Of course it's pretty clear MonolithSoft were not in their comfort zone here as it's not the most polished experience and doesn't live up to the developer reputation. I'll try and think of more. Remember when David Lynch made a film with no mindfuck whatsoever? No. |
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Post by Snake on Nov 3, 2023 11:23:57 GMT -5
My mind is still trying to wrap around the concept of Mulholland Drive. Every time I drive on that road, I think of all the weird sequences that happen in the movie.
Squaresoft definitely threw a curve ball with Einhander. Kind of a pity they haven't done even more shooters. Another one is Racing Lagoon, underground street racing in Yokohama paired to a jazz-fusion soundtrack.
Bust-A-Move/Bust-A-Groove is a stand-out for Enix. Rhythm dance versus battle video game?
As Hideo Kojima goes, Penguin Adventure and Boktai are quite the departure in mood from Metal Gear, Death Stranding, Zone of the Enders, Snatcher and Policenauts.
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Post by dsparil on Nov 3, 2023 12:32:34 GMT -5
Platinum's involvement in Infinite Space is a little misleading. The box outright says they only "produced" it, and their credits on it don't touch anything development related. That was all Nude Maker and some standard outsourcing.
There's some companies that had oddball stuff before got very associated with one specific genre like Bioware and Shattered Steel or most of Square's FC/NES output like Rad Racer.
Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis is a weird one though. It started out as an internal demo for the primary engine they use to this day, and for some reason they decided to actually develop it out to a full game.
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Post by lurker on Nov 3, 2023 14:33:25 GMT -5
Bandai Namco developing New Pokémon Snap
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Post by excelsior on Nov 4, 2023 0:02:19 GMT -5
Bandai Namco developing New Pokémon Snap I don't think this one is unusual since Namco developed the Time Crisis series. Rail shooting games are definitely in Bamco's DNA. What's more they had a Pokemon development team created for Pokken, with New Pokemon Snap being a continuation of their work. Presuming this team continues to work on Pokemon spin offs, which I guess isn't a given, this development would only appear more normal. How about Ganbarion making Pandora's Tower? An unusual game by any measure, but definitely outside of their usual anime licensed work. Factor 5 making Tony & Friends in Kellogg's Land. Not unusual for them to do licensed work, but LucasArts were their usual partner, and this one doesn't comply with their usual commitment to quality. This definitely seems to be something to pay the bills only. Suda 51 Directing and writing Fatal Frame 4, despite not being otherwise involved in the series. |
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Post by retr0gamer on Nov 4, 2023 4:07:20 GMT -5
I know it's their biggest franchise now but at the time Resident Evil was a massive departure from the games Capcom normally made so much so that management was quite nervous about it.
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Post by retr0gamer on Nov 4, 2023 4:08:02 GMT -5
My mind is still trying to wrap around the concept of Mulholland Drive. Every time I drive on that road, I think of all the weird sequences that happen in the movie. Squaresoft definitely threw a curve ball with Einhander. Kind of a pity they haven't done even more shooters. Another one is Racing Lagoon, underground street racing in Yokohama paired to a jazz-fusion soundtrack. Bust-A-Move/Bust-A-Groove is a stand-out for Enix. Rhythm dance versus battle video game? As Hideo Kojima goes, Penguin Adventure and Boktai are quite the departure in mood from Metal Gear, Death Stranding, Zone of the Enders, Snatcher and Policenauts. Square Enix own Taito who originally developed that game. It makes more sense then as it's a very Taito game. |
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Post by Woody Alien 2 on Nov 4, 2023 13:00:30 GMT -5
I remembered that several years ago I reviewed for the site Origin's Metal Morph, an action-platform game/shmup hybrid by a developer usually known for RPGs and flight simulators like Wing Commander. It was really horrible and it's quite clear why they never tried to make action games again. They also made the futuristic FPS Cybermage but I never played it. I heard that it's not bad though.
excelsior I was referring to "The Straight Story", a family film about an old man trying to reach his estranged brother before he dies. As far as I know there's no trace of weird stuff in it. |
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Post by dsparil on Nov 4, 2023 13:30:28 GMT -5
Origin has a handful of other action games kicking around e.g. the two Crusader games, but an SNES exclusive action-platformer is pretty out there for them. Off hand, the only other "console" exclusives I can think of were the two Ultima: Runes of Virtue games for the Game Boy with the sequel also on SNES.
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Post by Natalie on Nov 4, 2023 16:47:18 GMT -5
FromSoftware have made some of the most esoteric and inaccessible games to crack the mainstream, full of foreboding atmosphere and demanding gameplay. They also made The Adventures of Cookie & Cream.
In a sort of reverse example, Star Control 1 & 2 are so vastly different from everything else Toys for Bob would ever touch that it's a wonder they happened at all. I always felt like that team was wasted on their modern work.
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Post by chronotigger65 on Nov 4, 2023 22:36:14 GMT -5
Not sure if this counts as it's the first game they made but I watched earlier today a video about a fighting game called Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft. It was published by Akklaim but was made by Take Two for them. It was the first game that they made and it is very bad I hear.
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grad
Full Member
Enlarge my avatar, yea or nay?
Posts: 129
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Post by grad on Nov 6, 2023 1:35:56 GMT -5
Every once in a while, I will encounter a really good adventure game on the PC98—but when I go to look for more by the developer, they are all porn.
This has happened twice to me now. I theorize that porn-game developers build up a whole bunch of non-porn ideas while developing numerous porn games—and then unleash all those ideas into a single non-porn title that is really good (but ultimately puts them out of business, as their fan base of porn aficionados does not know how to react).
... and so, Simba, we are part of a great circle of porn.
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Post by excelsior on Nov 6, 2023 4:54:48 GMT -5
Woody Alien 2 - Ah, I've not seen that one. I think the weirdness is the appeal of David Lynch tbf. -- SNK's Crystalis perhaps? Unless I'm missing something from them that explains this.
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