a slightly more coherent rant than the previous one. featured moon channel video: • Kawaii: Anime, Propaga... catch me on twitter: / diet_gun catch me on twitch (if you feel like it): / whiskeyed join my discord (or don't): / discord
astro bot's purpose seems to be "brand ambassador", but i hope playstation realizes astro's real potential and doesn't keep the series stunted. he could be the modern sackboy (rip)
i wonder if they'll actually address this in the final game. would be pretty nice, as im kinda tired of calling the spiky guys... well, the spiky guys. the enemies need names to be any more than just moving obstacles.
exactly! i also think the “spiky robot guy” design is a little underwhelming, but i could stomach it a little easier if they called it “ooplo” or something
Some of the shown bosses are from Rescue Mission, I think it will take some time until they become something like bowser ect. The alien is the final boss from rescue mission so it's probably also the endboss of the new one! If we look at Mario Odyssey, there are also many new enemies, most of them I don't know the name. I think it will just take time :D Most of the well know characters are from the first few games. And I actually love the Playstation theme because it's like searching eastereggs! :D
this is a very good point. the world of mario has had decades to build itself up and astro is still a newer IP. that being said, we are coming up on the third game in the series, and by mario 3 things were getting a little more interesting worldbuilding-wise, so i hope to see the same in this game.
@@riley_hogan That's sort of debatable, the only really notable characters from Mario 3 are the koopalings, and even then, they aren't very well known by just anyone like how Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Bowser are, but it is still important for Astro to build it's identity soon, because Mario games were perceived well because they were some of the first
I mean Ratchet & Clank didn't get their series main antagonist Dr Nefarious until Ratchet & Clank 3, and while Sackboy has had a main antagonist in all the LittleBigPlanet games, I believe Vex from Sackboy A Big Adventure is the series best antagonist. My point is that we should give AstroBot another game or two before worrying too much about it having an iconic main antagonist OR an even better idea; considering AstroBot leans heavily on utilizing AstroBotified PlayStation Characters, why not also utilize AstroBotified PlayStation Villains? Like Clockwork from Sly Cooper, Kor from Jak 2, Kessler from Infamous, Zeus or Thor from God of War, Zarok from MediEvil, Chairman Drek from Ratchet & Clank, The Cleric Beast from Bloodborne, and maybe have one original villain whose sending these other villains to defeat AstroBot, that way we get the nostalgia of facing old villains from other PlayStation Games, but we also get an original Villain for AstroBot whose intimidating and powerful enough to pull villains from other universes to do his bidding. Plus it gives the AstroBotified PlayStation Heroes a reason to lend them their gear like what AstroBotified Kratos does in the trailer with the Leviathan Axe, I mean imagine imagine Astro using Sly Cooper's Cane, or one of Ratchet & Clank's many weapons, Rivet's Hammer? Or The Hunter's many weapons or Jin Sakai's blade, or Aloy's Bow & Arrows, or Nathan Drake's AK-47.
@@JP_Loco_93 hmm. bot-ified villains is a pretty good idea, but i think that leaning too hard on nostalgia might make it hard for the series to stay interesting long-term. this is certainly a subjective issue, but i feel that sticking too hard to the “brand nostalgia” thing limits astro bot’s potential.
I've heard of rescue mission, and seen gameplay, the alien is the villan in both games and we also have the gorilla, bird, and big brother but that's stupid n' dumb corrections, I like the video
@@drvnzer1128 i definitely appreciate this perspective, but i feel like without its own identity the gimmick will wear thin. i was already kinda sick of that aspect of it by the end of astro’s playroom, and that game was an actual playstation tech demo. i just think that as an ongoing series, it needs something more to stay interesting
Putting Big the Cat in S tier is one of the few things we can agree on. Personally I don't think Astro is trying to do anything other than be a Sony/Playstation themed platform adventure and that's fine for them and understandable of you to want or wish for more with expectations for the genre from other franchises
i agree that astro isn’t trying to do more, but that is precisely the problem i have with it. they have laid out most of the foundation for a good platformer but left behind a core tenet of what makes these games stand out, and that makes me sad :(
I think the bowser for this series will be the green alien in the ufo from the trailer because he was in rescue mission. But I don’t have access to the game right now. I agree with you tho. I feel like there should be a name for him. Like “Goop” or something. And he is also holding the chip we see in astros playroom in the CPU plaza
@@dominiqueolson6520 good eye! i think the alien does have the most personality out of any of the enemies, but i still think there needs to be some form of dialogue, narration and/or worldbuilding to really elevate the series to the next level
You are making good points, but despite the lack of naming and personality of the villains, they exist. Astro's main antagonist is the green alien. Astro Bot Rescue Mission also had way less PlayStation iconography and it worked out very well. I'm confident they can give it more of its own identity (back) in the future.
in retrospect, i definitely wish i had at least watched a playthrough of rescue mission (i don’t have access to PSVR) when i was writing my script. i wanna be as comprehensively informed as i can be when putting these together! with or without that identity, i still think the astro series is a fun entry into the mascot platformer pantheon 🤝
i have high hopes for the game itself, and like i say in the video, i’m sure i’m gonna love it. i just think that there is a layer of corporate stink attached to the astro brand that, combined with its sparse worldbuilding, keeps it from attaining the level of something like mario. thanks for the comment! i really value this kind of discussion 😁
@@riley_hogan I get that but it's just not what Astro Bot is aiming to do. You can't compare mario and astro bot on the aspect of world building when the astro bot developers obviously don't care much about it. Personally I took what you see as corporate stink as a very cool homage to playstation's history.
many seem to be saying this! i wish i had access to psvr to play rescue mission before writing this. that being said, i still feel that the brand identity issue, at least according to the astro bot trailer, is hard for me personally to look past
@@agent3charamike120 the main reason i made the video was to express a frustration that i have with the series leaning so hard on playstation branding when it could be so uch more interesting if they gave it more worldbuilding.
I think that's the point of Astro Bot now, to sell people on the other IPs they have. Unlike Nintendo, Sony's more into realistic third person shooters and deep narratives, and Astro Bot could be that the one that introduces them to those IPs.
i definitely see where you’re coming from, but i also think that would be a mistake on sony’s part. i think most people who have heard of astro bot have probably also heard of all the other major sony IPs, and many of those games also have dramatically different gameplay from this kind of platformer. i think it would be pretty misguided to assume that there would be a ton of crossover between the audiences, but what do i know? maybe there is 😁 thanks for the comment!
i needed to hear somebody say this so badly, the game feels so "'brandy" the enemy and even the main character looks so generic, as if they are meant to be generic, as filler assests for a tech demo game, which i found wierd seeing them promoting it as a new mascot
I think you're overthinking this way too fucking hard, to say that Astro Bot "is just an ad" is selling this game short. By that logic, any kind of crossover game is "just an ad". The devs feel passionate for PlayStation enough that it shows all over, hell, not just PlayStation, Rescue Mission had homages to other games, like the minecart level or literally starting a level by falling to a hole. If this were just a corporate dick suck, then I don't think having an island with a giant enemy crab or not being restricted to the characters only the higher ups want represented would get past the drawing board. I'm confident that we might get a game that is separate from PlayStation next time (even though Rescue Mission is that), but I'm fine with Astro Bot being a solo protagonist, Atoi/Iota were on the same boat and so was Sackboy before 3. A better alternative is to build his world and I think they're doing a decent enough job with that like establishing level tropes or basic rules when designing enemies or characters. Astro Bot is not seeking to compete with Mario or Sonic, nor are he and his world as layered as... many other PlayStation characters, but the simplicity is what drove people in. Point is, you're overthinking, Astro Bot could use recurring characters, I know, but what they're doing now isn't just corporate sticking their dirty ahh hands where they shouldn't, the devs are experimenting with this series and I'm confident that Astro Bot will find his middle ground, do remember that Astro Bot himself first originated from a Playroom VR minigame, they're figuring out this series as they go. (Amy Rose in A tier? Respect)
There is another side of this argument. That reusing Bowser for instance is lazy and lacks creativity. How many people fondly remember SMB2 not having Bowser. (A lot?) I know you’re digging into the weeds a bit on this because obviously you’re excited for it. But I dont think this is an issue. If you played Rescue mission there are a lot of returning characters and some new ones. Leaning into the PS brand I think I’ll agree with you on. It feels like something that was pushed onto the game after playroom. Though if it leads to interesting mechanics, Im for it.
