Illegal Operation: Of Beast Links and Satellite Servers

Carda here.

Quick note to our readers: I wrote this one a while back and posted it elsewhere; I would have posted it here right away but I kinda wanted to get my feet wet first.  I’m endeavoring to maintain this as a weekly feature here, likely skipping any weekends we have a new podcast for you.  We’ll see how well I can hold to that schedule.  ^_^;  At any rate, here’s my very first IO article ever.

Okay, I have to know: do the Japanese think that Americans are just stupid or something? You would think so, after seeing what happened to the US release of Mega Man Star Force 3 (Ryuusei no Rockman 3 to you purists).

Under the cover of “licensing issues”, the game has seen several of its auxiliary game features locked from normal access. By normal, I of course mean “without the use of a cheat device”. These features include the Noise Modification Gear, the Purpose (aka “Rezon”) cards, and the Secret Satellite Server. Incidentally, these are all features of the game that add an incredible amount of depth and strategy to the otherwise run-of-the-mill play experience.

Is it any wonder these games get rated so poorly by the critics? If the game had been released with all of those additional functions intact and accessible, I have no doubt that SF3 would have been praised for its deep gameplay aspects and excellent customization. Instead, the game got a lukewarm reception and was heralded as “just more of the same” and “nothing like the Classic series”.

That’s funny, I seem to recall that the Classic series fans got exactly what they wanted a few months ago, and the game wasn’t that great because it was hard. There’s a reason they call it “Nintendo Hard” over on the TV Tropes wiki. Mega Man 9 was exactly what the fans claimed they wanted: a sequel in the Classic series. Those Classic fans forgot to take off their rose-colored glasses to see what they’d been forgetting: the need for insane platforming (and pattern memorization) skills, unforgiving design, and more. The more hardcore fans who grew up on those old-school torture tests may have enjoyed it, but I tried my hand at Mega Man X recently after many years away from the Classic and X series… and I sucked so much that it wasn’t long until I was digging around the internet for cheat codes.

But I digress.

Star Force 3 wasn’t the first time Americans got a game that was lacking what the Japanese version had. It happened all the way back at the release of Battle Network 6. Remember the Beast Link Gate? If you never got into the Battle Chip scene, you probably don’t. That’s because just like its predecessors, the Beast Link Gate never saw the light of day outside of Japan and imports. The thing about the Battle Chip Gate and Progress Chip Gate, though, was that the American releases of Battle Network 4 and 5 still had the chip gate functionality in them. Considering you never saw these features (Operation Battle mode for both 4 and 5, while 5 actually let you use the gate to switch to your other team navis during normal gameplay) unless you had the respective gate plugged in, it makes sense that Capcom could have just left those features in and no one would be the wiser.

So why the heck did they remove the Beast Link Gate functionality from the American release of BN6? It’s not like anyone who didn’t import would even know about it anyway, just like the last two times. And unlike Star Force 3, the feature wasn’t just locked, it was flat out removed. Trouble is, they didn’t do a good enough job. I’ve read numerous reports of battle chips that were supposedly removed alongside the Gate code that pop up randomly in the super-rare gold memory data anyway. Some of these chips can still be used in battle, and have a chance of crashing the game while they’re at it. Smooth, Capcom, real smooth. Also, including a few extra side-quests that required the e-Reader+ to access in the Japanese version (another gadget not released stateside) is hardly equivalent exchange.

So why even bother removing these features? Most of the time avid fans will buy the Japanese version first, then the American release when it comes out (and let’s not even get started on the emulation community). These people are pretty likely to notice when a prevalent feature of the game is missing in the latter version.

One common thread I’ve noticed between both BN6 and SF3 is that the removed material added depth and additional replay value to the games above and beyond “Beat Story Mode, Beat Epilogue Mode, Collect One Of Everything”. So why remove them?

Simple. The Japanese have a low opinion of American intelligence. We clearly can’t fathom such intricate gameplay systems. And yes, I know that they’ll be sending giant robots to my house to soundly thrash me for saying so with such a sarcastic tone.

Seriously, though, I’ve spoken with at least three different people on this very topic, and without any knowledge of each other’s responses, they all said the same thing: “The Japanese think we’re stupid in America.”

Now let’s be fair: we do bring a lot of it on ourselves. Will Wright, the creator of Spore and The Sims and a man who is considered to be one of the greatest visionaries of the video game industry, admits that we in America seem to have relegated video games to the domain of children. As a result, much of our game design leans in the direction of 12-year-olds.

And of course there’s the various comments our current President has thrown at gaming. He seems to view video games as an absolute waste of time, which is quite the odd sentiment to be coming from someone who spent quite a bit of his campaign aiming his advertisements directly at the gamer community.

But even for all that, there’s still quite a lot to counter the argument that Americans are too dumb to play video games that have deep and meaningful gameplay. Ever played Command and Conquer? The StarCraft series? Any BioWare RPG? World of Warcraft? All these games are perfect examples of games that can be as deep and complex as the player desires.

And that is the key. It should be left to the player how deep his gameplay experience goes. If a younger gamer wants to blitz through the story of the game and then move on, that’s fine. But the completionist who wants to experience more should be able to do so, and he shouldn’t have to “cheat” to do it.

Let’s clarify something here. I do believe that cheating is a bad thing. And I do believe that some cheat codes are exactly that: cheating. Using a code that gives you 99 of everything? That’s cheating. Using a code that lets you walk through walls to explore areas you’re not supposed to have access to? That’s cheating. Using a code to unlock a feature of the game that is fully coded and translated, and would have been accessible in the game if not for some external factor?

Well, that’s a different thing.

I also find it interesting that unlocking these features automatically flags your game on Capcom’s WiFi matchmaking system, making you ineligible for any sort of non-localized multiplayer experience. This makes absolutely no sense either, since almost all of these features (specifically the Noise Modification Gear) are automatically disabled upon entering a random WiFi match.

Is it any wonder, then, that the American releases of these games continue to fail? When features are removed, we notice. And we’re usually not very happy about it. And many of us will do whatever seems necessary to get those features back. Why? Because a lot of us like deep, immersive, strategic gameplay. I know I sure do.

Because that’s how I operate.