Why I Love (and Hate) Capcom
I’ve always had a strange history with Capcom; every year I find myself loving and hating them a little more. I’ve never really sat down though and thought about how I can have such a balanced love-hate relationship with a company until now. So without further ado: the reasons why I like (and don’t like) Capcom.
The Bad
Horrible Rebranding
Let me start off by saying I enjoyed both of these series growing up, and I’ve had a hard time getting into either of their most recent incarnations. Mega Man has been rebranded so much it’s gone from a shooter-platformer to a FPS-Strategy RPG. On top of that, Resident Evil somehow made the jump from survival horror to a third person shooter of all things.
Mega Man has had six spin-off series, each one slowly getting further and further away from their collective origin. This wouldn’t be so bad if they hadn’t stopped producing a lot of them as they continued to develop newer ones. I enjoyed the new games early on, Mega Man X and Mega Man Legends were both awesome. When Battle Network and Mega Man Zero started up though, the redesigns of classic characters started to get to me. Everything good about the series was getting thrown out and I was pissed off until a couple years ago when Mega Man 9 was announced. That good will didn’t last though. As far as I’m concerned Capcom hasn’t repented for all the bullshit I’ve had to play through in the series while waiting for Mega Man Legend’s cliffhanger to be resolved.
Resident Evil on the other hand, made a much more logical progression from one genre with guns to another. But did we really need another third person shooter? Do we really need another shooter in general? That’s not everything the Resident Evil series was about after all. I remember Resident Evil for puzzles and tension, where even lowly zombies posed a real threat. Resident Evil 5 on the other hand reminds me of something related to Gears of War instead.
My point is, the latest incarnation of these titles are so far removed from their origins they’re unidentifiable. Everyone loves to call out Nintendo for not changing their series enough, but I’d hate to see something like this happen to Mario and Zelda so maybe they should shutup.
No more Breath of Fire
I rented Breath of Fire III when I was a kid, and I quickly fell in love with it and all JRPGs. When Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter came out, I shrugged it off as another one of Capcom’s redirection attempts. I hoped that maybe if it didn’t sell well, it would return to the style of previous games; instead the series just dropped off the face of the planet.
I’m not the only one who noticed either, a couple of years ago 1UP talked with Keiji Inafune (Head of Capcom) and asked him about it directly. They were told in so many words that not only was there very little interest in bringing back Breath of Fire and they didn’t really feel the need to make JRPGs at all.
I’ll level with them when it comes to the fact that they need a lot more staff to make JRPGs, but come on. JRPGs right now are struggling to survive as a competent genre as it is. If they used a shred of creativity it would be eaten up by the starving diehards of the genre.
Maybe I’m just feeling bitter though. I started Breath of Fire at the third game, didn’t get to experience the first two with nostalgia, and the last two deviated just enough for me to be uninterested.
Killing Clover
It should come as no surprise to anyone that I loved Clover, the studio behind Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and the incredibly badass God Hand. It’s also no surprise that I was hit pretty hard when I heard that the studio was being dissolved by Capcom.
Clover was put together to develop new and interesting games, and they did their job. Sadly, they didn’t sell as well as Capcom wanted so they got the ax. I suppose this is an understandable conclusion, but these were some of the most creative and fun games the company ever made. I still feel that rather than be killed off, they should have used the team to improve existing series.
I’m not so down about this one though, as Clover regrouped as Platinum Games and started working under SEGA. This led to the creation of MadWorld, Infinite Space, and the critically acclaimed Bayonetta. Hopefully SEGA isn’t going to follow Capcom’s example and sack them after they finish releasing the last game in their current contract, Vanquish.
In the end, Clover’s demise was just too much of an ugly truth for me. Money makes the world go round, and no matter how interesting or fun a game you make, if it doesn’t sell you’re out.
The Good
Monster Hunter Series
Now it’s time to start off the feel good train with Monster Hunter; probably the best handled franchise I’ve ever seen, and one I’ve been addicted to since the moment I laid my hands on it. Every sequel only improves upon the game’s framework, rather than dramatically changing things and destroying everything that made it what it was. I find its determination to remain itself even more impressive given it’s initial response in the western market being negative.
The game has an impressive amount of depth in it’s equipment, skills, items, and enemies. There are currently eleven families of weapons, a ton of skills that can be used to augment your performance, well over a hundred items consisting of potions and traps, and a diverse collection of monsters. All this variety helps ensure no two people will have the exact same experience with the game.
What’s really amazing to me about the series though, is how it is repetitive yet rewarding. Players will find themselves fighting the same monster many times, but each time is still an exhilarating and enjoyable experience. All the hours gathering bugs and plants somehow feels so worth it, once you’ve had them crafted into a new weapon or useful item. The feeling of reward and advancement is done so well, that the game can easily be played endlessly if you had the desire to.
Unlike the other two things I’m going to mention about Capcom’s good deeds, this game has no deep philosophical message to me. I simply love it and praise Capcom for it being a damn good game, that has continued to be good since it’s inception and will likely continue to do so.
Mega Man 9
This game came out around ten years after Mega Man 8, and in that time Legends, Battle Network, Zero, ZX, and Star Force all came into existence. It’s no wonder that after all that progress with so little attention to it’s origin, that we all shit ourselves with excitement when this was announced.
It easily could have been some flashy attempt at rebranding Mega Man yet again, but instead they did something amazing. Mega Man 9 would look and play like classic Mega Man on the NES, a retro love letter to the longtime fans of the series. How the hell did something so amazing happen? Why the hell can’t Sega just follow this example with Sonic?
That’s pretty much why I love Capcom for this, it didn’t really matter to me how well it turned out. It was a game made for the people who supported and made Capcom what it is today, and that’s just fucking moving. They even went so far as to create hilariously bad western NES box art for it. We’ve seen so many half-assed attempts at recapturing the original fans from guys like Nintendo and Sega, but Capcom showed them how it’s done, they used their whole ass and created something amazing.
While Mega Man still has a lot to make up for with fans, 9 was an important step in the right direction. Not just for Capcom, but for video games in general.
Cooperative Developing
Capcom has a long history of being friendly with the rest of the industry. They’ve made a ton a VS titles, joining forces with Marvel, Namco, and Tatsunoko over the years. They developed a few Zelda titles for Nintendo, waited with open arms for a spot on the Brawl roster, and even lent Dante to one of Atlus’ installments of the Shin Megami Tensei series.
It really makes me wonder why we don’t see this kind of thing more often. I mean Street Fighter and Tekken are in direct competition with each other, and yet Street Fighter vs Tekken is on the horizon. Even when money rules the gaming industry, it makes really happy seeing companies be willing to share that money.
It makes me hope for a day when the industry realizes as a whole, that they’re making entertainment. That money can be made while also making fans happy. Capcom is far from perfect, but when they do progressive things like this, it’s hard for me to hate them completely.
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