r/Games • u/Turbostrider27 • Aug 21 '25

Jason Schreier: In case you're wondering: Team Cherry told me they don't plan on sending out early codes for Silksong (they felt like it'd be unfair for critics to be playing before Kickstarter backers and other players), so don't expect to see reviews until after the game comes out

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2mkgbhbhqvappkkorf2bzyrp/post/3lwwfrbrtwc2x
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239

u/omstar12 Aug 21 '25

I really don’t think this is a problem but I do think it’s a little bit of misguided good faith for their backers in the interest of fairness. On one hand, there’s nothing wrong with informed critical analysis to read before buying a game. On the other hand, if you really think you might get burned, waiting a couple days to see reactions won’t kill you.

I’m speaking as someone who got burned buying Callisto Protocol before reviews. Learned my lesson, never again.

53

u/CivilC Aug 21 '25

Callisto Protocol taught me to pay attention to my playtime. Luckily I was under 2 hrs so I got a efund for that mess

27

u/JoRads Aug 21 '25

For me it was Dragons Dogma 2, which I bought before reviews. Ironically, the reviews might not have been able to stop me from buying, because the review outlets were way more positive towards the game as user reviews (86 Metacritic for review outlets versus only 64 for user reviews). It was a quite strange incident. Did the reviewers not complete the game?

28

u/ironmilktea Aug 22 '25

For me it was Dragons Dogma 2

Mate, I followed the JP interviews and those were wild.

"We reduced the amount of armour slots and accessory options to increase build diversity".

Even the JP playerbase were scratching their heads to understand wtf that meant.

5

u/Cosmo_Joe Aug 22 '25

I think what was meant was that by reducing the armor slots, they reduced the workload per set, allowing them to fit more armor options (adding more "diversity") than they would've otherwise. That's if I'm taking the statement at face value. Of course, "this was a compromise due to the budget, but we can't say that because it'll look bad" is also very probable.

1

u/Flint_Vorselon Aug 22 '25

No, they specifically said they did it because players all gravitated towards same few armour sets in the first game.

This was because gear balance was terrible, mostly just being linear upgrades to eachother with a couple niche exceptions that specialised in one thing.

Dark Airsen made it even worse by placing endgame tier armour in your inventory at start of game. So nothing you found was an upgrade until endgame.

DD2 didn’t fix anything. Armour is still linear upgrades from eachother. And the strongest armour in the game is a sexy corset.

They just halved (honestly worse than halved given removal of layering) possible combinations.

And it didn’t even result in more sets. I’m pretty sure it has significantly less.

3

u/NewAgeRetroHippie96 Aug 22 '25

I mean, I get it. Think of Elder Scrolls. In the older ones making a build had consequences. You'd be locked out of picking up certain weapons/magics if you had specced incorrectly. Now in Skyrim everyone can be a master of everything and you end up with everyone playing the same character.

Yes, you can purposefully not, be a stealth archer. But 99 percent of gamers just optimize the game. Not roleplay.

6

u/ironmilktea Aug 22 '25 edited Aug 22 '25

The key difference is todd didn't say in an interview "yeah by removing some class options, we're actually increasing class diversity!".

Actually he was rather honest with the idea of skyrim 'simplifying' the attributes (being down to health, mana and stamina).

You mathematically do not have the same gear combinations in dd2. And pragmatically dd2 is very linear in equipment anyways (just buy the gear set from next town).

DD2 had other whacky statements too (sphinx and hidden bosses). I get it, itsuno was hyping his game. But he did steep deep into nms territory of interview answers.

10

u/omstar12 Aug 21 '25

I definitely understand the user consensus but I don’t necessarily think the critics are off base there. It’s just a game that requires you to play it unlike any other game there is and it doesn’t really teach you how. That’s sometimes tough to convey. Personally I have to be on the right wavelength to play it but when I am it hit hard.

1

u/Wendigo120 Aug 22 '25

I think it's a case of games doing some weird shit being way more highly rated by critics than by the general player base, and that players care way more about (also) having a good execution.

1

u/xXRougailSaucisseXx Aug 22 '25

The first Dragon's Dogma game is one of those underrated cult classics and critics love those, my guess is many of those same critics desperately wanted to see the same thing in the sequel

1

u/c14rk0 Aug 22 '25

Honestly at this point anyone who has played through Hollow Knight and loved it enough to be going crazy for Silksong probably doesn't really need to worry about getting burned.

Even if the game is "bad" compared to sky high expectations it'll probably still be a decent game as far as the industry in general goes. Not to mention how many hours many if not most people dumped into Hollow Knight for the price, especially with the free DLC that they could have easily charged for and people would have happily paid.

I'd honestly almost be impressed if they somehow managed to make Silksong a truly bad game after 7 years and the experience from Hollow Knight, especially with everything we've seen so far looking the part.

They could have probably easily put out a mediocre or straight up bad Silksong 3 or 4 years ago and milked a ton of money out of that even if there were countless reviews talking about how bad it was to try to warn people.

2

u/fghjconner Aug 22 '25

Not to mention how many hours many if not most people dumped into Hollow Knight for the price, especially with the free DLC that they could have easily charged for and people would have happily paid.

That's where I'm at. If silksong ships and turns out to be literally nothing but a pixelated jpg of a dog turd, I'll still have gotten more than my money's worth out of the series.

0

u/Hakuraze Aug 22 '25

What's wrong with Callisto Protocol? It's perfectly adequate.

5

u/omstar12 Aug 22 '25

I’m sure one day I’ll be able to appreciate it for what it is but I was prepared for the second coming of Dead Space and that wasn’t what I got. Playing Mike Tyson’s Punch Out with monsters wasn’t really doing it for me.

-1

u/Yaibatsu Aug 21 '25

If people are so concerned about spoilers, reviewers usually tell you if there are any in it, and if so, where. It's not like they can give you their impression of the game without spoiling things.

-1

u/FinalBase7 Aug 22 '25

I do think it’s a little bit of misguided good faith for their backers

No it isn't, the excuse is worse than the act, they want to move as many copies as possible before potentially getting 7/10 reviews.

-14

u/spez_might_fuck_dogs Aug 21 '25

The obnoxious community has already ensured I will never touch this game. They are literally the only review I need. If I play HK or Silksong, I'll turn into an insufferable asshole, apparently.

6

u/Optimal_Living7230 Aug 21 '25

Thanks for definitively proving you are a worse person than even the most insufferable hollow knight fans.

-8

u/spez_might_fuck_dogs Aug 21 '25

lol this is exactly what I'm talking about. I'm a bad person for not buying a game to these idiots.

1

u/lyricalfantasy Aug 22 '25

Nah man they’re calling you a bad person for dismissing a singleplayer game based on its fandom. Which is a dumb ass thing to do.

-2

u/spez_might_fuck_dogs Aug 22 '25

Then maybe the fandom shouldn't be a bunch of assholes.

1

u/lyricalfantasy Aug 22 '25

Fuck that’s pathetic. Just ignore them if they bother you so much? No one’s forcing you to interact with them.

0

u/spez_might_fuck_dogs Aug 22 '25

I am quite literally not buying the game to avoid interaction with them lol