Here's the thing with these memes. Videogames haven't changed THAT MUCH between 2001 and 2021. However games changed TREMENDOUSLY between 1990 and 2000.
Look at the jump between Final Fantasy 6 (1994) and Final Fantasy 7 (1997)! So much changed in just 3 years! Games evolved so fast in the 90s!
Heck look at the jump from FF9 (2000) to FFX (2001)! I feel like the transition from PS1 to PS2 was the last really huge technical leap between successive console generations.
(Fun fact: FF9 began development before FF8 was completed)
If you remember the transition from 16-bit to 32-bit then that's why "20 years ago" will forever feel like the era of sprite based games.
I say all this with love. I enjoy every era of games. 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, 128-bit, 2D, 3D, 2.5D they're all good!
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I always have so many mixed feelings after posting a long bottled up hot take. On the one hand it's reassuring to see I'm not alone in these frustrations. OTOH hand I feel bad for putting so much negativity out there and making others feel bad (even when I disagree with em)
Thanks for your kind responses. And also, to all the people who disagreed with me in good faith, thank you you too!
I'm a middle child (from a large family of many VERY AGGRESSIVE A-types) so it's my natural inclination to always look for the path of least resistance. It's deeply uncomfortable for me to deal with direct conflict. But that's an important life skill!
The original Nier came out in 2010, at the height of the "Japanese games are bad!" meme in the Anglosphere. I'm so glad that awkward (and frankly xenophobic) phase of games discourse is over!
I know I sound like I'm beating a dead horse here, but you gotta understand, during those ten years or so of US gaming press (and industry folks!) shitting on JPN games, I was constantly told I was being overly sensitive and crazy for having such an intense reaction against it.
Do you love Streets of Rage 2? You know, one of the greatest beat-em-ups of all time? Well Ayano Koshiro was the art director on it, and pretty much the chief game designer too!