Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5949188-20140704194818/@comment-1457172-20141019012630

Meower wrote: Machomuu wrote: Roberto.zampari wrote: A funny notice: http://mynintendonews.com/2014/10/18/hino-says-he-wants-level-5-to-be-more-like-disney I get it...but I don't know if I agree. I mean, I love Hino and his games (Danball Senki, Inazuma Eleven, and I'm looking forward to Youkai Watch), but one thing that I've always known Level-5 for is their ability to make incredibly unique games. You won't find other games like Dark Cloud, Inazuma Eleven, or Ni no Kuni, and they're not only unique, but incredibly well crafted.

And I get what he means, but I feel that if someone really were to make other things than just games (not limited to shows, it could be anything really), I think it should be a derivative company. He's probably more worried about sales coming from animes and merchandise are much larger than that of the games, at a much lower cost and mainteinance. I understand his sentiment, given that aside from Layton, InaDan and YW, most of their stuff is really niche in the west and at best a moderate seller at home.

Makes sense they want to push their abilities as storytellers, but I feel we'll lose a big asset to the improvement of vidya. But the ironic thing is that, of the games published and developed by L5, IE, Danball Senki, and Youkai Watch aren't even close to the top selling or the most recognized. Especially in the west,  Games like Fantasy Life, Dark Cloud, and Ni no Kuni are far more recognizable than the former titles, and they largely owe this to advertisement despite not having had extended media. After all, here, where there's little advertisement for the former titles, they far more niche than they could be (especially compared to Japan or, in the case of IE, Spanish Speaking countries). This can be attributed to lackluster advertisement and overall small presences (Well, not YW.  Not yet, at least).

Regardless, I'm not too big a fan of extended media or a push for it. Mainly because when there's an emphasis on it, you really rely on the interests of the consumer to be diverse enough to enjoy the other media and the media itself to be good enough to live up to or surpass the source. Heck, I was hesitant to watch IE, which I really only ended up doing because 3 and later were (and still are) unavailable to me. It ended up being good, and Danball was a similar case, but game adaptations are a real wildcard that I only give a chance situationally.