PixlBit

I kind of agree with your assesment of Ni No Kuni, from the impression I got from playing the demo at least. I've still yet to purchase the game, but mostly because I've been enjoying the openness of Xenoblade really. 

Yeah Xenoblade is awesome. It manages to have the old-school JRPG feel without many of the pitfalls of the genre. That beign said there are still a number of issues with the game, but overall I think this game exemplifies how the JRPG can grow and evolve to find its place in the current the gaming landscape. 

I went back and listened to this cast and I was worried that I may have come off a little more harsh on the game than I wanted to.  The game has charm, but I think the JRPG community is starved and made this out to be better than it actually is.  Still a fun game, and I'm glad to have played it, but it certainly has a number of issues.

I have no doubt the game is charming, Ghibli art and all, but I didn't like the linearity and grinding aspect. We'll see.

I really want to like Randy Pitchford. He's a handsome dude that does fuckin magic tricks, but there definitely seems to be a much less likeable side to him and his company. I love Borderlands, and anytime I saw Randy on Xplay or any other PR outing he's a really nice guy, but there's no transparency with him when things go wrong. He loves talking about games, managing teams, and being enthused when things go right, but he deals with everything else really poorly. I read a blog that reportedly a former employee wrote spilling some beans on Aliens, and it seemed there must be a dirty shameful story behind the game. There was a lot of conflict with contracts, timing, funding, transparency, team management. Gearbox just kind of frankensteined the game, had to remake some awful levels from scratch that the previous team(s) made, etc. Things went wrong, and the game was shipped as is.

I think it's a complex mix of things that made it a mess. People tend to try and solve the mysteries with the most simple explanation possible, which is fine, that's occums razor, but the answers people usually assume are "most simple" tend to just be, "Well Gearbox sucks, so the game sucked."

I bet it was similar to Duke Nukem, the game was a mess created across generations, with levels and gameplay designed by different teams. Passed from one to the next, and each next team trying to figure out how to make something in the mess work. All the while your dealing with contracts, budget, managing resources and trying to get Borderlands 2 done. So really there was likely very little probability that this game could be great in the first place. A mix of bad history, business and contracts, poor design, tossing it around like hot potato, and then to top it off I bet there was definitely a bit of mismanagement. But then again, Borderlands 2 turned out solid, so in a business sense is it really bad management to screw over the Aliens project in order to bulk up Borderlands 2? I don't know, that's why it's complex and shady and there must be a compelling story behind the history of Aliens.

Part of me wants to say that Gearbox just doesn't know what they're doing, but the other part of me says that they just aren't picking their battles well and not managing projects well. They CAN make great games, they just need to get their shit together and stop ending up steeped in wild development stories of vaporware, frankensteined games, and questionable management. Simplify your business, use better judgement, and bite off what you can chew Randy Pitchford, you make yourself look like an asshole, even if you aren't necessarily an asshole. There's a lot of potential and talent with Gearbox and Randy, but they're a mess for the moment.

Exactly - I want to like Randy too, but now I feel we've seen a different side to him.  His complete disregard to acknowledge that there is anything wrong with Aliens (and Duke Nukem for that matter) is incredible.  He touts that you learn from mistakes, but apparently hasn't learned anything.

If anything, this has taught me to be much more apprehensive about Gearbox developed software.  Won't be pre-ordering anything from them anytime soon.

That's what Rob was saying over at Nerds Without Pants, and you're both right. Gearbox has been making themselves look bad and I'm not sure people like Randy want to be honest about it. He has a lot of pride. I'm sure there's a lot of people at the company that know what's happening, have stories to tell, NDAs to uphold, and they want to make great games and develop a great reputation for the team. Randy and whoever else just don't seem to be doing the whole company mouthpiece/brand figurehead things very well. I'm sure shit goes down behind the scenes, people argue, debate creatively, and want to do things well. None of that comes across from Randy, he just seems dishonest with himself and the public. That's why I say he probably isn't being a good mouthpiece and figurehead for the teams he works with and manages. Refusing to preorder their games is a justifiable thing to do.

LOL, yes, I am very happy with Etrian Odyssey IV (which I pre-ordered and paid for in full as soon as it was available) as well as the other games I've been playing recently which are 999 and Fire Emblem Awakening. Also, since all of them are Japanese in origin, I suppose I am somewhat of a Japanophile, although I love plenty of western games too like Dishonored and Halo.