Easily one of the worst games ever created and this is all due to one man's lunacy. It's a game that completely disregards both disabilities and the art form of making games.
The Quiet Man is a game that is completely silent, which just completely ruins the player experience. You cannot hear anything, and there are no subtitles, none for people that are speaking, and none for signs. That is until a patch came out later that put the sound back in but I'll talk about that later. Because the game has no sound, you will not understand anything that is going on throughout.
It's a beat em' up game with hilariously bad animations and wonky hit registration. The graphics are murky, and it just looks ugly as all hell. Even if the fighting mechanics were well crafted, it doesn't matter because again, you can't fucking hear anything. Also the game is extremely formulaic.
It goes like this: Cutscene, then you walk into a room, you fight some guys, then walk into another room, fight some more guys, then another cutscene, then some more fighting gameplay, and then another cutscene. And it just goes on and on until the game is finished. Repetition is putting it lightly.
The lack of all the audio is the fault of Kensei Fujinaka, the game's Producer. I'd like to quote some things that he said in an interview as to why the game is like this, and it makes so little fucking sense that you can't help but just laugh at it.
"Words are truly amazing. They possess the power even to change the world. This is undeniable. For me, words are as precious as they are valuable. That said, I believe we as humans are capable of connections that transcend words - for example, an infant need only to look into the mother's eyes to know he is safe and loved.
And in a world that overflows with cascades of words taken for granted. I can't help but think that it's often difficult to realize such connections exist. Words shape consciousness, indeed, some even say that "words are life." But what if we were to cast away such a life? What if somehow, we were able to understand one another through connections formed heart to heart, soul to soul, and could once again look into another's eyes and form a bond so pure?
This concept lies at the core of The Quiet Man. Feelings that remain after words are abandoned, feelings that can be conveyed even without words - aren't these the feelings that are so important in this life?"
So if you have no idea what you just read and if you don't understand how that relates to the context of this game, then let me answer that for you: It fucking doesn't. Kensei Fujinaka has made a game that doesn't even reflect to what the hell he is even saying.
Words are not sound, but this game HAS words. They're used as a form of communication just like me and you do. The presentation of the game is void of words, but only because it is void of SOUND.
The main character Dane, can clearly speak, even though the premise of the game is that he's deaf. And while he does at times act like a deaf person should, we can't hear him or anyone else ourselves. Basically, this Producer made a game that clashes with his own ideology and just misses the point entirely. The guy just doesn't understand how being deaf actually fuckin' works.
If I was a deaf person I would be pretty fucking insulted because of how poorly this game portrays what it's actually like to be deaf. There is no attempt whatsoever to educate on what it's like to live without one of your senses. It just presents itself and expects the player to make sense of its ridiculousness without giving any necessary context to how a deaf person perceives the world around them.
So instead, it feels like you were just robbed of one of your senses at random and you have to navigate yourself without the necessary preparation a deaf person has had beforehand. It just blows my mind that a game like this was even made.
The intent of this game was to put us into the shoes of Dane, but it doesn't work because Dane knows what is going on, but we DON'T, and there lies the problem. The gameplay only serves as a driver for the story in order to excuse itself as a video game.
This game is not just an insult to deaf people, but it's also an insult to both game narratives and game development as a whole, because everything in this game is DELIBERATE.
The funny thing is though, even when the sound is turned back on, it's still extremely hard to make sense of the story. It's a revenge story that doesn't make any sense. The voice acting is awful, the presentation is crappy, and it has twist ending that involves Dane...transforming into a superhero.
...What?
Anyway, a week after this game came out, a patch was released that put the sound back in. And after that, Producer Kensei Fujinaka responds to all of the negative reception, and if you thought the first quote was nonsensical, holy fuck it pales in comparison to this quote, in what can only be described as utterly ass-backwards:
"What really happened on that fated night... If the truth is indeed which that remains after words are thrown away, then can we resist the powers of reality that is spun from these words? I want to find what is truly important, without being misled by these overflowing words.
And with only that, do I honestly want to look at it carefully. That wish has driven me to make a story without words. However, when making this theme, that just wasn't enough. Yes, it really felt like "half" was missing. Approximately one week after release, via a free patch update, The Quiet Man will be reborn. A second version with sound and words called The Quiet Man: Answered.
The story will bring light to the truth, and maybe even uproot the mystery that was thought to have been solved as if to say, "I knew nothing at all..." The first version that threw words away. The second version, that brought words back in. A story dramatically transformed. This is the completed experience.
And so with everyone, I want to ask this: Can we really be strong to say we do not need words, even if we need them? In a word overflowing with words, can we really find something beyond them?"
And there you have it. A game created by a person with an over-inflated ego that has attempted to shit all over the artistial integrity of stories and video game development. A person who doesn't even understand his own ideology. This level of gross incompetence can only be described as meme-worthy.
Thank you Fujinaka for showing us just how much you have no fucking idea how to make video games and write stories. Maybe you should join Hollywood instead, they don't really have any standards whatsoever.
1/10
The Quiet Man is a game that is completely silent, which just completely ruins the player experience. You cannot hear anything, and there are no subtitles, none for people that are speaking, and none for signs. That is until a patch came out later that put the sound back in but I'll talk about that later. Because the game has no sound, you will not understand anything that is going on throughout.
It's a beat em' up game with hilariously bad animations and wonky hit registration. The graphics are murky, and it just looks ugly as all hell. Even if the fighting mechanics were well crafted, it doesn't matter because again, you can't fucking hear anything. Also the game is extremely formulaic.
It goes like this: Cutscene, then you walk into a room, you fight some guys, then walk into another room, fight some more guys, then another cutscene, then some more fighting gameplay, and then another cutscene. And it just goes on and on until the game is finished. Repetition is putting it lightly.
The lack of all the audio is the fault of Kensei Fujinaka, the game's Producer. I'd like to quote some things that he said in an interview as to why the game is like this, and it makes so little fucking sense that you can't help but just laugh at it.
"Words are truly amazing. They possess the power even to change the world. This is undeniable. For me, words are as precious as they are valuable. That said, I believe we as humans are capable of connections that transcend words - for example, an infant need only to look into the mother's eyes to know he is safe and loved.
And in a world that overflows with cascades of words taken for granted. I can't help but think that it's often difficult to realize such connections exist. Words shape consciousness, indeed, some even say that "words are life." But what if we were to cast away such a life? What if somehow, we were able to understand one another through connections formed heart to heart, soul to soul, and could once again look into another's eyes and form a bond so pure?
This concept lies at the core of The Quiet Man. Feelings that remain after words are abandoned, feelings that can be conveyed even without words - aren't these the feelings that are so important in this life?"
So if you have no idea what you just read and if you don't understand how that relates to the context of this game, then let me answer that for you: It fucking doesn't. Kensei Fujinaka has made a game that doesn't even reflect to what the hell he is even saying.
Words are not sound, but this game HAS words. They're used as a form of communication just like me and you do. The presentation of the game is void of words, but only because it is void of SOUND.
The main character Dane, can clearly speak, even though the premise of the game is that he's deaf. And while he does at times act like a deaf person should, we can't hear him or anyone else ourselves. Basically, this Producer made a game that clashes with his own ideology and just misses the point entirely. The guy just doesn't understand how being deaf actually fuckin' works.
If I was a deaf person I would be pretty fucking insulted because of how poorly this game portrays what it's actually like to be deaf. There is no attempt whatsoever to educate on what it's like to live without one of your senses. It just presents itself and expects the player to make sense of its ridiculousness without giving any necessary context to how a deaf person perceives the world around them.
So instead, it feels like you were just robbed of one of your senses at random and you have to navigate yourself without the necessary preparation a deaf person has had beforehand. It just blows my mind that a game like this was even made.
The intent of this game was to put us into the shoes of Dane, but it doesn't work because Dane knows what is going on, but we DON'T, and there lies the problem. The gameplay only serves as a driver for the story in order to excuse itself as a video game.
This game is not just an insult to deaf people, but it's also an insult to both game narratives and game development as a whole, because everything in this game is DELIBERATE.
The funny thing is though, even when the sound is turned back on, it's still extremely hard to make sense of the story. It's a revenge story that doesn't make any sense. The voice acting is awful, the presentation is crappy, and it has twist ending that involves Dane...transforming into a superhero.
...What?
Anyway, a week after this game came out, a patch was released that put the sound back in. And after that, Producer Kensei Fujinaka responds to all of the negative reception, and if you thought the first quote was nonsensical, holy fuck it pales in comparison to this quote, in what can only be described as utterly ass-backwards:
"What really happened on that fated night... If the truth is indeed which that remains after words are thrown away, then can we resist the powers of reality that is spun from these words? I want to find what is truly important, without being misled by these overflowing words.
And with only that, do I honestly want to look at it carefully. That wish has driven me to make a story without words. However, when making this theme, that just wasn't enough. Yes, it really felt like "half" was missing. Approximately one week after release, via a free patch update, The Quiet Man will be reborn. A second version with sound and words called The Quiet Man: Answered.
The story will bring light to the truth, and maybe even uproot the mystery that was thought to have been solved as if to say, "I knew nothing at all..." The first version that threw words away. The second version, that brought words back in. A story dramatically transformed. This is the completed experience.
And so with everyone, I want to ask this: Can we really be strong to say we do not need words, even if we need them? In a word overflowing with words, can we really find something beyond them?"
And there you have it. A game created by a person with an over-inflated ego that has attempted to shit all over the artistial integrity of stories and video game development. A person who doesn't even understand his own ideology. This level of gross incompetence can only be described as meme-worthy.
Thank you Fujinaka for showing us just how much you have no fucking idea how to make video games and write stories. Maybe you should join Hollywood instead, they don't really have any standards whatsoever.
1/10