Platinum Games Price Comparison

[robthebob11]

To those defending the price by saying it's from Platinum Games and therefore worth it, I have a genuine question for you. No offense to Transformers: Devastation, but aren't Platinum's games usually longer, more complex and a deeper overall experience than this?

I remember Bayonetta being quite a packed game. Howlongtobeat.com places completion averages of Bayonetta (main campaign only) at 11 hours and Bayonetta 2 at 10. Everyone I'm hearing from is saying this game is 3-6 hours tops.

Comparing this for $50 to Bayonetta for $50 (at its original launch price) just drives the absurdity of the price home for me.

[Gackt the Immortal]

Going by that site:

Metal Gear Rising was 6 hours to finish the story
Anarchy Reigns was 6
Mad World was 6
Vanquish was 6

6 hours is actually the norm. Kamiya made Bayonetta and Wonderful 101. Those are the two longest Platinum games. The guy working on Star Fox Zero made Bayonetta 2, which is almost as long.

The director of Transformers made Metal Gear Rising. Transformers costs as much as Mad World, and maybe Bayonetta. But again, Bayonetta is a kind of once-in-a-generation sort of great.

[Jack Deth]

Now look at the Completionist times for those games.

Games like this tend to bank on replayability (mostly for those into the genres). I put far more than 11 and 10 hours on Bayo 1/2 respectively. Your argument is biased because it tries to make all games equal and disregard the specifics about them.

UMvC3 is not the equal to Dead Island. the fighting game genre in general can technically be beat on normal modes in maybe 20 minutes or an hour depending on how skilled you are. This doesn't take into account the characters or extra modes.

Transformers has different characters for different playstyles, item grinding and secrets to be found and collectables to snag.

So sure, for those who just play a game through once regardless of getting/unlocking things or only playing for the story (i.e. on one mode either easy or normal) the price isn't worth it. Those who are used to/prefer games that offer replayability options it's a better fit.

As for deeper...well I wouldn't say they are. the story for Vanquish and Bayonetta were passable at best for me, what kept me was go figure...the gameplay. Then again I'm the type of gamer who cares more for gameplay (and the enjoyment derived from it) over sitting around and watching an animated movie with clich plots and voice acting.

Not that I'm defending the price, as it stands I believe most games should be no more than $30 (but then I'd say why aren't they $15), but I'm a miser and a consumer so I would rather have lower prices than higher.

[robthebob11]

You both make fair points and I remember paying the same $50 for Chrono Trigger as I did for something as simple and silly as Clay Fighter back in the day.

I would, however argue that standards have changed thanks to the advent of the indie market. When there are countless indie or lower budget games offering a similar amount of content and - in some cases - even production value for $20, that $50 price tag is going to seem less justifiable.

Tastes are what they are. Some people will replay this game dozens of times. Some people will replay The Witcher 3 or Skyrim dozens of times. But the market in which Transformers: Devastation costs almost as much as a game with 100+ hours of content covered by a 600 page strategy guide just isn't as palateable now that consumers have a better sense of what they can get with their money.

[Marundo (Mark)]

Is a game worth more because it has a longer completion time? In that Civ5 or JRPG's are the best game per dollar ratio. Bayonetta is the best of the genre, it won more then a few game of the years awards in 2010 (When Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead came out two of the best games of the generation). This game plays like a game of the year contender, and it stars Optimus!

Platinum games are inspired by 80's and early 90's arcade games, all of them, its about gameplay and score.

If you didn't grow up in that era and have a love for it then I understand why you would not value the dollar per hour ratio. It's not for everyone... It's not a bad opinion. I understand people will buy this and want something different, not expect an uber Japanese game.

Being 34 I loved going to the arcade as a kid, and was a proud Sega Saturn owner (which was all arcade ports), I also love Transformers, this game makes perfect sense to me.


If you are only going to play the game once and thats it, then yes, the dollar ratio is a problem... But even then, being an adult with more games than time I really appreciate a short game.

[robthebob11]

Originally posted by Marundo:

Is a game worth more because it has a longer completion time? In that Civ5 or JRPG's are the best game per dollar ratio. Bayonetta is the best of the genre, it won more then a few game of the years awards in 2010 (When Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead came out two of the best games of the generation). This game plays like a game of the year contender, and it stars Optimus!

Platinum games are inspired by 80's and early 90's arcade games, all of them, its about gameplay and score.

If you didn't grow up in that era and have a love for it then I understand why you would not value the dollar per hour ratio. It's not for everyone... It's not a bad opinion. I understand people will buy this and want something different, not expect an uber Japanese game.

Being 34 I loved going to the arcade as a kid, and was a proud Sega Saturn owner (which was all arcade ports), I also love Transformers, this game makes perfect sense to me.


If you are only going to play the game once and thats it, then yes, the dollar ratio is a problem... But even then, being an adult with more games than time I really appreciate a short game.

That's good to hear. I'm 35 and loved Transformers as well, though probably not as much as He-Man or GI Joe. Yes, the feeling of "getting your money's worth" is absolutely subjective.

Today, gaming is still my main hobby. I usually play multiple games at once, so the price comparison probably stands out more to someone like me than someone who possibly bought this as their only game of the month.

To give you an idea of my recent points of comparison, I'm currently playing Disgaea 5 ($60), Metal Gear Solid V ($60), Mad Max ($60), Soma ($30) and two Final Fantasy re-releases, V and IV: The After Years (both $16).

Since I've been pouring an enormous amount of time into the $60 games and know I'll likely blow through the cheaper ones but still enjoy the ride, the $50 price tag of Transformers: Devastation jumped out at me and honestly, stopped me from buying the game even though I wanted to play it.

So to me, I can't justify the price in comparison to the dollar/value ratio of other games I spend money on. The game is on my "wait for a sale" list, and I look forward to playing it when the price investment better matches the enjoyment I expect the game will bring me.

[Marundo (Mark)]

Gaming is still my favorite thing as well, I just don't have energy for it when I get off of work.

Originally posted by robthebob11:

Originally posted by Marundo:

Is a game worth more because it has a longer completion time? In that Civ5 or JRPG's are the best game per dollar ratio. Bayonetta is the best of the genre, it won more then a few game of the years awards in 2010 (When Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead came out two of the best games of the generation). This game plays like a game of the year contender, and it stars Optimus!

Platinum games are inspired by 80's and early 90's arcade games, all of them, its about gameplay and score.

If you didn't grow up in that era and have a love for it then I understand why you would not value the dollar per hour ratio. It's not for everyone... It's not a bad opinion. I understand people will buy this and want something different, not expect an uber Japanese game.

Being 34 I loved going to the arcade as a kid, and was a proud Sega Saturn owner (which was all arcade ports), I also love Transformers, this game makes perfect sense to me.


If you are only going to play the game once and thats it, then yes, the dollar ratio is a problem... But even then, being an adult with more games than time I really appreciate a short game.

That's good to hear. I'm 35 and loved Transformers as well, though probably not as much as He-Man or GI Joe. Yes, the feeling of "getting your money's worth" is absolutely subjective.

Today, gaming is still my main hobby. I usually play multiple games at once, so the price comparison probably stands out more to someone like me than someone who possibly bought this as their only game of the month.

To give you an idea of my recent points of comparison, I'm currently playing Disgaea 5 ($60), Metal Gear Solid V ($60), Mad Max ($60), Soma ($30) and two Final Fantasy re-releases, V and IV: The After Years (both $16).

Since I've been pouring an enormous amount of time into the $60 games and know I'll likely blow through the cheaper ones but still enjoy the ride, the $50 price tag of Transformers: Devastation jumped out at me and honestly, stopped me from buying the game even though I wanted to play it.

So to me, I can't justify the price in comparison to the dollar/value ratio of other games I spend money on. The game is on my "wait for a sale" list, and I look forward to playing it when the price investment better matches the enjoyment I expect the game will bring me.

Gaming is still my favorite thing as well, I just don't have energy for it when I get off of work. Soma is on my list of things I want to play, though I've only put an hour or so in to Alien Isolation (a game that was dinged for its length). How many hours a week do you have time for gaming?

I usually beat around 20 games a year, this year hasn't afforded me much over ten sadley.

The thing is this game will still be just as good on sale, I hope you enjoy it then, hopefully it sells well enough for a part 2. I would love more, or to dig into t he 86 movie universe, sadly Activisin left this game out to die.

Since my post and playing another hour there was a Space Invaders tribute in the game. 2 Hours, two chapters in.

Rob what are you enjoying most from the month?

[karl-emil]

Thing is, if you enjoy these kind of game you're going to get your money worth. I go by a 1€ = 1 hour of enjoyment rule and i'm sure i'll spend more than 40 hours on this game, just because of the near perfect gameplay. (and Platinum literally can't make a bad game)

[Reizo Ryuu]

It took me 13 hours to complete, but I started on commander difficulty where 3 hits from a boss = dead.
But aside from that, bayo really isn't that long either, I can easily run through it in around ~4 hours, heck the same is true for virtually every character action game.
The length really comes from cutscenes and figuring out your weapons and the enemies.

Also this is imo the hardest P* game yet and I feel the combat is better than MGR's, great voice cast and awesome music, I'd say it's well worth the money.

Also yeah, I bought vanquish, got home and beat it in one sitting of 5-6 hours, had no regrets.
Length = money isn't the metric you should be using if it's something you really want to experience.

[The Snacrifice]

It's high, but I spent my money because I want to support platinum games getting licenses and games like this. If it wasn't platinum I'd probably wait for it to go down to 20-30.

[Broadsword]

Sunk over 12 hours into the game so far, probably about two or three chapters at least from beating it. That's probably because I started on Commander and have spent a lot of time getting good a the game, it's sort of like Bayonetta w/ TW101 timing.

I am not at all disappointed with the cost. In fact, the only thing I'm disappointed in is that we don't get more Platinum games on PC.

[Daddy Fuzzbottom]

Meh,
I'm just going to wait a while and get it off Gamestop or Amazon for about €22

That's a fair enough price for me.

[Chucs_Padina]

I put 7.5 hours my first time through. I tried to get as many collecibles as I could. I sort of gave up on the spy one's though. I'm going to replay the game with each bot and up the difficulty as well. I'm not saying that you should necessarily pay full price for replayability only, but there is a lot of it. I love the story and it will hopefully have a sequel. I'm an over-the-top Transformers fan and have been waiting for something like this since I was a kid in the 80s. I'm bias and know that, but I don't see why anyone who is not a hardcore fan would play this anyway. It's not marketed to anyone else in my opinion. There has barely been any coverage and IGN hasn't touched it. For the record I hate IGN, I'm just saying not even they are paying it much attention.

[Gobo McFly]

34 hours here and still going, only halfway through collectibles and still modding out weapons, but I beat the 1st 2 difficulties and working on the 3rd as we speak (although I had to leave it afk for almost 2 hours due to RL issues). I know I got 2 more difficulties to go after that, so that will keep me busy for a bit. Haven't touched the challenges yet. I also spent a bunch of that time sorting out my inventory and crafting/synthesizing, and doing the story mode side missions .

I also measure games by a time length to dollar comparison. I started doing this during my Elder Scrolls:4 days. And especially after Bulletstorm (8 hours for a 60$ game that had no replay value to me, I got burned big time). I know time to value is not a metric everyone should and have to adhere to, people like different things for different reasons. It's what makes a horse race.

I did, however, grow up in the 80's (34 here) and this game is pretty sweet. Definitely a great trip down memory lane with hardcore action keeping it pulse pounding every step of the way. Personally I didn't think they could make the 80's Transformers so intense. A definite surprise for me.

I actually bought this on a whim, not fully knowing what I was getting into. I did watch some reviews and videos of gameplay, but what made me curious was their advertisement of the original 80's look and voice actors. For one, I never see that in a modern AAA game almost ever (DBXenoverse is another who did that, loved it and clocked in over 200 hours). For another, that couldn't have been cheap (or easy to find them, though I am not so sure what their roles were after their Transformers days so I could be wrong). That alone told me it was a fan service game, and any company who does that has to do it right or the game will, and I emphasize WILL, crash and burn.

Yes I know this game is basically cashing in on nostalgia, but it does it oh so right.

[Shrapnel]

Ordinarily I would jump on the bandwagon and say$50 for 4 is ridiculous, but that ratio is misleading. If you're trying to speed run, 0% your game , yes you could probably do it in 4hrs on scout - but who plays a game like that??

But Im here to say that these guys hit my weak spot, I mean the art, the sounds, the etnire game feels like Im actually playing the damn TV show from the 80s, its that spot on.
99% of my body is telling me buy this but that damn 1% (my brain) keeps stopping my muscles from making the purchase

[Reizo Ryuu]

4 hours is really impossible unless you are playing on easy, or are replaying on normal.
I started on hard and afterwards I watched some normal gameplay. The gap of difficulty between these 2 settings is immense:
On normal regular enemies died in 1 combo even with default weapons and devastator only did like 10% damage per hit.
On hard however a hit from devastator does 60% and on v hard it's even 99%. Makes me suspect enemies would die by sneezing in their direction on easy.

Hard took me 13 hours and v hard took me 4 hours for the first two chapters (I lucked out and got an SS dark star saber after chapter 1). The only way I see people rushing through this game or thinking it sucks is if they played it on the easiest setting.
Even normal seems like it would take at least 7 hours for the average player (first playthrough).