>>42131899Because, amazingly, it was an American production.
The balance of power seems to be shifting towards the west, with Japanese companies now relying on brand awareness and media coverage to make sales.
It used to be that Japan would put in the extra effort to make a genuinly enjoyable game and the West would cobble together anything as long as it had a brand that would sell, but thanks to the rise of Indie passion projects we're seeing that change. Just compare Tem Tem to SwSh. Say what you want about Tem Tem, but you cannot deny the sheer level of detail and love poured into that game by its developers.
Another example is Sonic. The Western-made Sonic Mania focused on what made Sonic great and expanded on that. The Japanese made Sonic Forces threw in gimmicks for the sake of a hook and relied on the brand to make sales.
And funnily enough, even the Sonic movie showed a willingness to delay itself to adjust Sonic's design based on negative feedback, something GameFreak doubled down on when the backlash towards Dexit and the reuse of Models after claiming they were remaking them.
Japan has figured out that shit will sell even if its bad. It arguably started as far back as Final Fantasy XIII, but has really taken over in recent years.
Give them about 5 years to implode in on themselves as the backlashes chain together until the PR is so bad that investors start pulling out and they'll change their tune.
