NeoGAF

duckroll · 11:31 AM

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/r4zj/info/index.html

There's a report out now that that Fatal Frame 4 has several bugs. When a certain condition is triggered, the game can lock up. There are also Ghost entries in the database that remain blank, and an extra option unlocked after the game is cleared that is unselectable. Tecmo wtf!!!! Did someone forget to pay them their super incentives too? :(

Edit: If anyone has the game here's what you need to do to avoid the game locking up.

During "三ノ蝕忘日" (it's a day/chapter in the game I believe) after you have obtained the 暗号のようなメモ (coded memo), if you open the door to the doctor's room on the 2nd floor of the hospital the game will lock up. To avoid this, after getting the memo go to the director's office in the first floor and enter the 3 digit code into the interphone first.

Edit2: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4179550

This video shows that there are a bunch of collision detection and/or invisible objects in the game. Looks pretty annoying and it's amazing how this got through testing.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4181290

This video shows the game freeze issue.

Victrix · (08-05-2008, 10:30 AM)

I believe the Mission Mode DLC for NG2 is still breaking people's single player games. I get the feeling Tecmo software is not safe to be buying at the moment :/

Tenbatsu · (08-05-2008, 10:30 AM)

Wow, this is real bad.

AmMortal · (08-05-2008, 10:31 AM)

Itagaki's revenge...

Vorador · (08-05-2008, 10:31 AM)

Talk about a rushed job. Seems Tecmo really wanted to get the game out no matter what.

vareon · (08-05-2008, 10:32 AM)

Ow, first the control impressions and this. Poor FF4 :(

duckroll · (08-05-2008, 10:36 AM)

Okay, I'm going to put this in the OP in case anyone imported the game and wants to evade this problem. I'm not familiar with the game and the context of the scene, so I'm going to spoiler text it just in case.

During "三ノ蝕忘日" (it's a day/chapter in the game I believe) after you have obtained the 暗号のようなメモ (coded memo), if you open the door to the doctor's room on the 2nd floor of the hospital the game will lock up. To avoid this, after getting the memo go to the director's office in the first floor and enter the 3 digit code into the interphone first.

Ysiadmihi · (08-05-2008, 10:43 AM)

This doesn't sound good. My hype for this game is fading fast.

flipping_heck · (08-05-2008, 10:46 AM)

fix it before US release please.. if theres a US release.. :S

duckroll · (08-05-2008, 10:51 AM)

Originally Posted by Victrix:

I believe the Mission Mode DLC for NG2 is still breaking people's single player games. I get the feeling Tecmo software is not safe to be buying at the moment :/

Yeah I heard about that, afaik MS pulled the entire pack from Marketplace right? Did they ever fix it and put it back?

Aske · (08-05-2008, 11:04 AM)

They fixed the mission mode, but the patch to make it work still breaks the SP game.

Totobeni · (08-05-2008, 11:11 AM)

Originally Posted by duckroll:

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/r4zj/info/index.html

There's a report out now that that Fatal Frame 4 has several bugs. When a certain condition is triggered, the game can lock up. There are also Ghost entries in the database that remain blank, and an extra option unlocked after the game is cleared that is unselectable. Tecmo wtf!!!! Did someone forget to pay them their super incentives too? :(

Edit: If anyone has the game here's what you need to do to avoid the game locking up.

i think you should blame Grasshopper too not only Tecmo , it's not like the other Grasshopper games on Wii and other systems are flawless or something .

offtopic , anyone know why Grasshopper developed this game and not the old team in Tecmo ?

Nocebo · (08-05-2008, 11:12 AM)

I had high hopes for this game (success wise) but if the controls didn't crush those hopes then this certainly did.

duckroll · (08-05-2008, 11:13 AM)

Originally Posted by Aske:

They fixed the mission mode, but the patch to make it work still breaks the SP game.

...........

What a clusterfuck. I'm glad I didn't buy that. :(

Stumpokapow · (08-05-2008, 11:15 AM)

There was a reliable crash bug in Forever Blue in Japan as well, and in terms of non-Nintendo published games, Age of Empires DS has a very common easy-to-trigger bug that actually renders your card permanently unplayable, and Taiko Drum Master DS 1 has a save-deleting crash bug.

Not exactly a good record for this stuff.

alistairw · (08-05-2008, 11:16 AM)

Well, this is massively disappointing.

Kyouji · (08-05-2008, 11:18 AM)

I'm done with importing Wii games on Day 1. I got caught with the Forever Blue bug last summer and this summer I get the Zero 4 bug. Where's the Nintendo Seal of Quality now, Iwata?

:lol

Cosmonaut X · (08-05-2008, 11:18 AM)

Originally Posted by Totobeni:

i think you should blame Grasshopper too not only Tecmo , it's not like the other Grasshopper games on Wii and other systems are flawless or something .

offtopic , anyone know why Grasshopper developed this game and not the old team in Tecmo ?

AFAIK, Grasshopper were involved with character design and story, and it appears the rest of the work was handled by Tecmo's Team Tachyon. Suda was on board as joint director with Shibata Makoto, and Keisuke Kikuchi producing.

duckroll · (08-05-2008, 11:19 AM)

Originally Posted by Kyouji:

I'm done with importing Wii games on Day 1. I got caught with the Forever Blue bug last summer and this summer I get the Zero 4 bug. Where's the Nintendo Seal of Quality now, Iwata?

:lol

[IMG]http://i34.************/33xd6px.jpg[/IMG]

Narcosis · (08-05-2008, 11:19 AM)

Well, any chance of this getting fixed before the US version releases?

Dascu · (08-05-2008, 11:20 AM)

It's not bugged, it's haunted.

Let's just hope they fix up all these issues for the NA and PAL releases (maybe with a different control scheme too).

duckroll · (08-05-2008, 11:30 AM)

Seems more serious than I thought.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4179550

This video shows that there are a bunch of collision detection and/or invisible objects in the game. Looks pretty annoying and it's amazing how this got through testing.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4181290

This video shows the game freeze issue.

Phife Dawg · (08-05-2008, 11:33 AM)

Originally Posted by Stumpokapow:

There was a reliable crash bug in Forever Blue in Japan as well, and in terms of non-Nintendo published games, Age of Empires DS has a very common easy-to-trigger bug that actually renders your card permanently unplayable, and Taiko Drum Master DS 1 has a save-deleting crash bug.

Not exactly a good record for this stuff.

Super Paper Mario also crashed on me (first time for a Nintendo published game) and it wasn't even that well-known bug, but just a random crash.

Zefah · (08-05-2008, 11:35 AM)

Wow what a mess...

Why is almost every 3rd party Wii game a complete rush-job mess?

duckroll · (08-05-2008, 11:37 AM)

Originally Posted by Zefah:

Wow what a mess...

Why is almost every 3rd party Wii game a complete rush-job mess?

This is published by Nintendo though, wouldn't the burden of testing and approval rest with first party certification? That's even more worrying imo.

Vorador · (08-05-2008, 11:40 AM)

Originally Posted by duckroll:

Seems more serious than I thought.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4179550

This video shows that there are a bunch of collision detection and/or invisible objects in the game. Looks pretty annoying and it's amazing how this got through testing.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4181290

This video shows the game freeze issue.

They really rushed the Q&A (if they even did it). That shit is not acceptable.

Troidal · (08-05-2008, 01:19 PM)

Man that's just terrible...Tecmo post-Itagaki doesn't seem too good.

Septimus · (08-05-2008, 01:24 PM)

Originally Posted by AmMortal:

Itagaki's revenge...

Came to post this. :lol

alistairw · (08-05-2008, 01:28 PM)

Originally Posted by duckroll:

This is published by Nintendo though, wouldn't the burden of testing and approval rest with first party certification? That's even more worrying imo.

I'd assume so, yeah.

dark10x · (08-05-2008, 01:43 PM)

Hmm, how odd.

I must say, I'm also disappointed in the visuals. The only real upgrade I'm seeing over the PS2 games is the usage of a perpixel flashlight.

I'm glad I don't have a Japanese Wii, though, as I would have purchased this game right away. Seems like it needs a fix first. Those collision errors are horrible.

I wonder if that door opening issue near the end of the one video is related to loading? The PS2 games used doors as loading points and I'd assume the same of the Wii version. It reminds me of the Metroid Prime series when one would shoot a door and have to wait for it to activate with it occasionally returning to its initial state (system couldn't load data fast enough).

Relaxed Muscle · (08-05-2008, 01:56 PM)

Originally Posted by dark10x:

Hmm, how odd.

I must say, I'm also disappointed in the visuals. The only real upgrade I'm seeing over the PS2 games is the usage of a perpixel flashlight.

I'm glad I don't have a Japanese Wii, though, as I would have purchased this game right away. Seems like it needs a fix first. Those collision errors are horrible.

I wonder if that door opening issue near the end of the one video is related to loading? The PS2 games used doors as loading points and I'd assume the same of the Wii version. It reminds me of the Metroid Prime series when one would shoot a door and have to wait for it to activate with it occasionally returning to its initial state (system couldn't load data fast enough).

I think texture wise it looks a bit better, and the models too.

Even it isn't a huge upgarde of the PS2 versions, is easily one of the best looking third party games on Wii...

I supose they can't release a patch to fix all this problems...,it sucks seems fucking annoying, but why they rushed the Q&A? they really needed to launch this game the sooner the better?

_Alkaline_ · (08-05-2008, 02:00 PM)

Originally Posted by dark10x:

Hmm, how odd.

I must say, I'm also disappointed in the visuals. The only real upgrade I'm seeing over the PS2 games is the usage of a perpixel flashlight.

Meh, the visuals look fine to me, great for a 3rd party Wii game in fact. The key issue here is the controls - I have no idea why Tecmo designed them like they did, but according to impressions it doesn't seem to be paying off, and that has me worried.

No doubt I'll buy the game when it comes over here (it better!) but I am a perplexed as to why Tecmo went down that route.

Haunted · (08-05-2008, 02:20 PM)

smh

Either Tecmo needs a better QA team, or they were seriously rushed to get this out of the door.

Originally Posted by Dascu:

It's not bugged, it's haunted.

Tell me about it.

dark10x · (08-05-2008, 02:23 PM)

Originally Posted by _Alkaline_:

Meh, the visuals look fine to me, great for a 3rd party Wii game in fact. The key issue here is the controls - I have no idea why Tecmo designed them like they did, but according to impressions it doesn't seem to be paying off, and that has me worried.

No doubt I'll buy the game when it comes over here (it better!) but I am a perplexed as to why Tecmo went down that route.

I haven't read up on them. What did they do?

I hope they at least offer a Wii-mote based flashlight or something. :P

CTLance · 02:37 PM

Le sigh.

Just what is it with Nintendo consoles and third party devs... Are they required to donate live brain matter with every lotcheck? Does development hardware emit poisonous gasses? Is the documentation written in Sanskrit? Does QA involve virgin sacrifices and ceremonial self-mutilation? Honestly, I'm really starting to wonder. And I'm starting to strongly suspect that it's more of a fault at Nintendos side. Maybe the IDE or toolchain is insufficient, maybe the support is inadequate, maybe the APIs are unstable, or maybe its an attitude problem ... dunno really. It just feels like stuff like this happens far too consistently.

Anyway: How could these bugs pass QA? Haven't tried the game yet, but the controls sound pretty awful too...

How did Nintendo of all publishers let that slip by? How discouraging.

Originally Posted by dark10x:

I haven't read up on them. What did they do?

I hope they at least offer a Wii-mote based flashlight or something. :P

Uh... well... if I remember this correctly:

Twist wiimote left = aim left
Twist wimote right = aim right
Tilting Wiimote back = aim up
Tilting Wiimote forwards = aim down

No pointer usage. Twisting, as in doorknob usage movement.

solid2snake · (08-05-2008, 02:37 PM)

you get what you pay for :P
i never buy a Tecmo game again, hail Itagaki!

NEO Frog · (08-05-2008, 02:38 PM)

Hopefully all the bugs are squashed and Tecmo implements the requested motion-pointer control over flashlight/camera.

Fragile had better have motion-pointer controls!

crowphoenix · (08-05-2008, 02:41 PM)

Originally Posted by CTLance:

Le sigh.

Just what is it with Nintendo consoles and third party devs... Are they required to donate live brain matter with every lotcheck? Does development hardware emit poisonous gasses? Is the documentation written in Sanskrit? Does QA involve virgin sacrifices and ceremonial self-mutilation? Honestly, I'm really starting to wonder. And I'm starting to strongly suspect that it's more of a fault at Nintendos side. Maybe the IDE or toolchain is insufficient, maybe the support is inadequate, maybe the APIs are unstable, or maybe its an attitude problem ... dunno really. It just feels like stuff like this happens far too consistently.

Anyway: How could these bugs pass QA? Haven't tried the game yet, but the controls sound pretty awful too...

How did Nintendo of all publishers let that slip by? How discouraging.

Uh... well... if I remember this correctly:

Twist wiimote left = aim left
Twist wimote right = aim right
Tilting Wiimote back = aim up
Tilting Wiimote forwards = aim down

No pointer usage. Twisting, as in doorknob usage movement.

Twisting? Oh, no...

Man, I was looking forward to this game too.

Haunted · (08-05-2008, 02:44 PM)

It's not a bug, it's a feature.

big_z · (08-05-2008, 02:47 PM)

the collision detection video is a bit unfair as the person playing is basically walking into objects to get stuck. still if you're only slightly running into something the game should slide you around the object instead of getting stuck.

im not sure what was with the stair parts... im guessing japanese pervert panty shots? never noticed the chicks shirt is transparent before either.

dark10x · (08-05-2008, 02:55 PM)

Originally Posted by crowphoenix:

Twisting? Oh, no...

Man, I was looking forward to this game too.

Yeah, that sounds awful. That would actually be a huge downgrade for the series control mechanics. Why the hell would they do that?

The Wii-mote actually makes great sense for a game like this, but it sounds as if they've completely missed its potential.

ivysaur12 · (08-05-2008, 02:57 PM)

There is so much that needs to be fixed for a US release.

C'mon Nintendo. It's not like this one needed to be rushed out.

And twisting is the most useless Wiimote motion. It almost NEVER works correctly.

hirokazu · (08-05-2008, 03:01 PM)

Originally Posted by duckroll:

There are also Ghost entries in the database that remain blank, and an extra option unlocked after the game is cleared that is unselectable.

:lol

I'm sure Nintendo is not happy about this. Not that it should've gotten past their own internal testing in the first place?

Dascu · (08-05-2008, 03:10 PM)

Originally Posted by duckroll:

There are also Ghost entries in the database that remain blank, and an extra option unlocked after the game is cleared that is unselectable.

The extra option is probably pointer controls. A cruel joke.

Quote:

I'm sure Nintendo is not happy about this. Not that it should've gotten past their own internal testing in the first place?

Maybe the testers got too scared and never dared to finish the game?

Spotless Mind · (08-05-2008, 03:11 PM)

Ugh. That twisting control method sounds absolutely atrocious. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?

Relaxed Muscle · (08-05-2008, 03:14 PM)

Originally Posted by Dascu:

The extra option is probably pointer controls. A cruel joke.

Maybe the testers got too scared and never dared to finish the game?

So the people playing in the CM were actually beta testers...

CTLance · (08-05-2008, 03:17 PM)

Originally Posted by hirokazu:

Not that it should've gotten past their own internal testing in the first place?

Yeah, that really gives me an uneasy feeling. Normally Nintendo is quite protective of their own brand(s). I mean, even Miis are licensed to devs on a case by case basis. They know what a bad experience can do to a brands reputation. And yet they barf his game out in this unfinished state, published under their own name. That's just dumb.

Mithos Yggdrasill · (08-05-2008, 03:32 PM)

Originally Posted by duckroll:

This is published by Nintendo though, wouldn't the burden of testing and approval rest with first party certification? That's even more worrying imo.

I blame all this casual shit. Quality controls no longer exist it seems.

Cosmonaut X · (08-05-2008, 03:41 PM)

Originally Posted by Mithos Yggdrasill:

I blame all this casual shit. Quality controls no longer exist it seems.

Yeah, because Nintendo's casual games have been an absolute mess of bugs.

Oh, wait, no they haven't, they've been highly polished pieces of software, as has pretty much everything else the company has put out this generation, casual or otherwise.

ToastyBanana · (08-05-2008, 03:46 PM)

Originally Posted by big_z:

the collision detection video is a bit unfair as the person playing is basically walking into objects to get stuck. still if you're only slightly running into something the game should slide you around the object instead of getting stuck.

im not sure what was with the stair parts... im guessing japanese pervert panty shots? never noticed the chicks shirt is transparent before either.

I don't mean to jump on the defensive but having played 8 hours of the game the getting stuck bits of the video are deliberately done to poke fun at it. While the collision detection is generally poor in the game, it's more of a slight annoyance which you can get out of by moving another direction. :lol at the panty shots on the stairs (and the niconico パンツが見える！wwwwwwwwwwww)

While the controls aren't perfect they do work. What people aren't pointing out is that you use the analog stick to turn left and right which also moves your flashlight holding arm left and right. It's not as if you're stuck twisting the Wiimote in weird angles to look around. The doorknob twisting motion is largely useless in practice as you can only use it when walking and it's limited to a slow 45 degree pan from centre. You still have to hold a button (Z) to run which still seems weird to me but it's been like that the whole series. Holding Z while pushing the analog stick in camera mode speeds up the panning motion. When a ghostie is in range it'll also serve as a lock on.

The crash bug is definately an inexcusable QA issue. But like the GH3 mono fiasco, shit happens right? Here's hoping for some disc amending action in Japan. Since they're already aware of the issue I doubt it'll make it through to the EU/NA release. I'm up to chapter 7 atm without crashing. I'm one of those OCD gotta check everything players so I did the code thing first on chapter 3. Other than the control differences you're not doing much different from the previous games with a lot of the same game mechanics in place. They did work on more ways to creep you out though :D Earns it's place as a fully fledged FF sequel in my mind despite the lack of polish in places.