No Straight Roads Director Saddened By Hurtful Comparisons To Hi-Fi RUSH

So... I've never heard of this game. I clicked the link to the game in the article, and PureXbox has literally no information on it. It's still listed as "coming soon" and there are no critic reviews, user reviews, or anything else. I wonder if by "what should have been" they mean actually marketed and advertised? That affects business, no?

I am sure that's the same with many Studio's as 'their' games are often compared to others. How many times have we heard about a 'CoD/Halo' Killer game coming out - Titanfall 'CoD Killer', What CoD MP wants to be when it 'grows up' - then came the Advanced movement CoD's.

We hear all the time how Publishers 'influence/pressure' the Devs - yes we'll back your Project if you make it into a Battle Royale, make it like 'this or that' game, make it 'online', make it 'co-op', make it 4v1.

I know it maybe 'tough' for very small, independent studio's to get 'backing' but I do think that Devs these days are in a 'better' position as they can self publish much more easily, not rely on trying to find a Publisher to pick up and/or distribute your game. MS themselves has 'self publishing' tools and Game Pass could reach your target audience to.

There was talk about devs being able to use 'Game Pass' to get feedback and financial aid to 'finish' off your game. Project Moorcroft (I think it was called) was described as like going to PAX and trying out the developers Demo's and Alpha's of their games 'in development' in the hope that a Publisher will see the potential and 'back' them.

Basically, demo's could come to Game Pass and the 'more' people that try them, that play through the entirety and/or feedback, support the game, the more 'financial' aid they earn from MS to 'complete' their project and release.

I never played NSR to comment. As a creative, you often have to take criticism for your work and as a creator, you can take that criticism on board and use it how you want - either use it to 'improve' yourself, your products etc or use it to 'prove' them wrong.

I don't know why someone would say Hi-Fi Rush is the game NSR should have been, but you can 'use' that to look at what HFR got 'right', did 'better' etc and use that as a guide to shaping NSR2 - if HFR is 'popular', another Publisher maybe 'keen' to pick up an alternative they can market on a wider range of Platforms.

@XxEvilAshxX PX was resurrected in 2020. It’s obviously rough around the edges, and they don’t have the manpower to update and review every single xbox game that comes out, especially if it was released right after the site was relaunched.

It’s a shame. I think we often think of games in a vacuum and forget about the people who give up their hours, energy, sleep, and time away from their families to make it.

No one tries to make a bad game. People try really hard. And I can’t imagine putting so much of myself into something only to have people make mean comments about it online (many of whom probably never played it anyway).

Hi-Fi Rush is fantastic. But there’s no need to tear down another game to celebrate it.

Maybe it's me but this seems like a positive for this guy. It's not every day the creator behind some random anonymous indie that virtually nobody has ever heard of and a game nobody has ever played starts getting major shoutouts when a major AAA first party studio drops a new game that goes viral in 4 hours about how "oh this is like THAT indie game but better!"

Imagine being the creator behind some seldom noticed indie game that suddenly the internet blows up and says "Hey, this God of War thing is just like a better version of Kiss My Axe!"

I played about 1 hour of No Straight Roads and was hardly disappointed. It was garbage, I had high hopes in this game.
I will try out Hi-Fi Rush this weekend.

This is the first time I heard this game, but yeah, competition happen, nuff said.

I think I heard of No Straight Roads from a youtuber doing a voice role in the game. Otherwise I see this game in EB/Gamespot a few times. I questioned picking it up for the sake of trying Indie games that do get physical copies but wasn't sure enough.

I get the competition/business side though. I find comparisons fair for recommending the game not trashing it that's just silly. Both devs had different goals in mind with their games.

An Indie has less budget and difference of skill and visions for their products.

Some elements are more appealing then others to different people but it doesn't make the other product worse just not what people were looking for.

I always give Indies/AAs a chance most AAAs aren't to my taste and I'm willing to take the less budget or elements in certain areas as a sacrifice it doesn't bother me.

Most devs haven't been experiemental in years. Japan sometimes does with certain areas, keeping old genres alive even while the west just plays follow the leader and until we got Song of the Deep/Pentiment I was surprised. Sure you had your Xbox Live Arcade era for old IPs and many making mobile games at the time or your even older Alien Hominid in 2003 (Newgrounds devs before Castle Crashers and more since) on all platforms of sixth gen (besides Dreamcast as per usual of course).

I get what they mean though. But then again experimental titles aren't as common or aren't for everyone either.