Home Gaming Itakagi blames poor Devil’s Third previews on lack of player skill

Itakagi blames poor Devil’s Third previews on lack of player skill

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13

Dthird

Tomonobu Itagaki is the long-haired, perpetually-sunglass-wearing chap behind the modern Ninja Gaiden reboot and the Dead or Alive series. Both of those series have gone on to critical claim, and have become revered in their respective genres. Since he split with Tecmo eight years ago, Itagaki has been busy a new action game, Devils Third. He promised it would revolutionise action games, and change perceptions. It’s meant to amalgamate the premises of Ninja Gaiden and Call of Duty, bringing gamers a genre mashup worth heralding.

He was wrong. The game has seen numerous previews, nearly all of them slating the game as being one of the worst in recent memory. I’ve played through the single player campaign myself, and can attest to its awfulness. According to Itagaki there’s nothing wrong with the game though; the poor reception is down to players not having any skill. Taking to Facebook, here’s what the head of Valhalla has to say about the negative previews:

Guys,

At last, I was be able to understand about the reactions.
Devil’s Third is the game which reflects the player’s skill directly/vividly.
This is truth.

He’s suggesting that people who’ve played the game and not enjoyed it suck at games. That’s the reason that it’s getting panned – not the terrible narrative, PS2-level graphics, bugs, glitches, boring, boorish gameplay and uninspired bosses. Nope. It’s because game critics are terrible at games.

Speaking in a recent interview with Famitsu, Itagaki spoke about how the game would take shooters “to the next level.”

“I didn’t want to betray fans. I didn’t want people to throw away their anticipation. The game is a grand sum of the work from all of the developers, so I really hope you pick it up. I think the game will become a breakthrough in the industry and take shooters to the next level.”

If he’s betraying anyone, it’s himself. It’s not very nice to rebuke developers, but I’m beginning to think that Itagaki may be operating under some sort of delusion, probably the result of the Dunning-Kruger effect. I love his previous work, and Ninja Gaiden Black still stands as one of my favourite action game experiences, but Devil’s Third doesn’t come anywhere close to being good.

Last Updated: July 20, 2015

13 Comments

  1. Alien Emperor Trevor

    July 20, 2015 at 08:05

    But have you heard Mehvil’s Turd?

    Reply

  2. Dutch Matrix

    July 20, 2015 at 08:13

    Way to win over your audience.

    Reply

  3. Umar

    July 20, 2015 at 08:23

  4. DragonSpirit009

    July 20, 2015 at 08:24

    Well that is kinda a slap in the to the people playing games!!

    Reply

    • Pattonfiend67

      July 20, 2015 at 13:58

      How is making fun of the press because of their lack of skill yet huge ego’s have to do with insulting the average gamer? There is no slap in the face. Itagaki and Kamiya go hand-in-hand. They know the Western press suck at action games. I mean, just look how bad they reviewed amazing gems such as the Wonderful 101 (I used that as an example because of controls.)

      Reply

      • DragonSpirit009

        July 20, 2015 at 14:14

        Its a slap in the face cause who are they to say gamers have no skill?
        They don’t know what skills some gamers have.

        If its an awful game then it’s an awful game… no need to blame the gamers for it.

        Reply

  5. Kromas,powered by windows 10.

    July 20, 2015 at 08:24

    Witcher 1 game-play sucked seriously hard – Great game.

    Your Argument Is Invalid.

    Reply

  6. Umar

    July 20, 2015 at 08:25

    Well he’s uploading PROPER gameplay soon showing us HOW to play lol…ok.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      July 20, 2015 at 08:26

      Would love to see it.

      Reply

      • Umar

        July 20, 2015 at 08:27

        Most anticipated video of the year lol

        Reply

  7. HvR

    July 20, 2015 at 08:59

    Releasing a crappy game called the Devil’s Third. Think he might be trolling the whole industry.

    Reply

  8. Gavin Mannion

    July 20, 2015 at 11:04

    He’s just confirming what we’ve always known.. Geoff sucks at games

    Reply

  9. Francois Knoetze

    July 20, 2015 at 14:30

    I think he needs to crawl back into his meth crypt(bec that is exactly where it looks like he crawled out of)…Who ever spews out such nonsense needs to come back down to earth. He is clearly delusional.

    Reply

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