Creative director of Assassin’s Creed 3 Alexander Hutchinson has quite a bit on his mind regarding video game journalists. More than anything, he hates the “preferential treatment” that Japanese devs seem to get over Western ones.
In an interview with CVG, Hutchinson stated, “I think there’s a subtle racism in the business, especially on the journalists’ side, where Japanese developers are forgiven for doing what they do.”
Living in an era where Inversion and Final Fantasy XIII-2 – both Japanese developed – got severe dressing-downs for their overall quality, that’s definitely up for debate.
He goes on to state, “Just think about how many Japanese games are released where their stories are literally gibberish…There’s no way [a western developer] could write it with a straight face, and the journalists say ‘oh it is brilliant. Then Gears of War comes out and apparently it’s the worst written narrative in a game ever.”
Considering he prefers Gears over Bayonetta, it’s not hard to guess where the “gibberish” comment is aimed at. Which is funny, considering that no one praised Bayonetta for it’s story – not even for it’s tongue-in-cheekiness treatment.
Now if he brought up Final Fantasy 8’s odd narrative, we’d be inclined to agree. This is a game that needed Mulholland Drive’s “Death Dream” theory to properly explain what the hell was happening.
Then again, he did go on to praise Nintendo for “continuing to reinvigorating it’s franchises” by the way. The same Nintendo who was criticized for not innovating much in New Super Mario Bros. 2 but still delivering a fun experience overall.