I legit cracked up when like an hour into this Viewtiful Joe video Matthermatosis just tosses in the idea that we should support wildlife conservation efforts so that future generations can tell that the rhino boss will charge based on their knowledge of rhinos
You can kinda see stuff like that happening with floppy discs being used as a symbol for saving, and the existence of telephone booths in certain works. Movies used to be written with the mindset that people didn't have cell phones to communicate to one another from anywhere. It's the same idea, but with a living creature.
“Experienced players will see a cheeseburger, and assume it restores health, when its real-world equivalent arguably does the opposite” Matthew’s sense of humor man, it’s understated but when it lands it sends you
2:40:50 - “By contrast, at least 17 staff from Devil May Cry would work on Resident Evil 4 … again.” Probably my favourite line in the entire commentary. I got a good laugh out of that one the first time I heard it. One of those typically deadpan but hilarious Matthewmatosis lines.
@@ZedAmadeus It’s mostly the delivery, really. He could have simply said that the same people who made Devil May Cry went onto make Resident Evil 4, but instead makes a little joke about DMC’s unique history of being the result of RE4’s first build spinning off into an entirely new IP. The idea of all the developers having to go back to work on RE4 proper after already trying and making DMC instead was what I found funny. Pausing for effect especially was what made it work. Since Matthew talked about that quite a bit in his DMC commentary, I found the way he wrote this bit to be a clever way of tying both videos together. It’s a very nerdy and esoteric thing to laugh about for sure, but that’s kind of why I watch Matthew’s videos in the first place.
Now I understand why I couldn't beat the boss rush... Edit: Other than getting completely stuck at Boss Rush + Leo -- No hits isn't so hard. My best achievement is Bayonetta 1 Pure Plat Pistol Only. (No halo farming) (Pulleys Butterfly is best) Bayo 2 Pure Plat Pistol was too easy. (Umbran Climax OP) Lets hope Bayo 3 is a bit harder. Edit edit: If you are silly enough to go for V+🌈V no-hits: Get used to using the pinwheel attack. A lot. Always go for knockdowns. Always go for reflects. And use the air-bomb to jump higher and cheese some fights by building fire. Sidekick > Uppercut > Air juggle > Divekick You can toss a bomb in there on single targets / bosses.
@@WaddleDee105 That's probably for good reason. 3 hours for any game is arguably excessive. There are hardly movies that dare to be 3 hours long and even they are considered inaccessible. I'm half convinced these videos are popular mostly as a background comfort blanket/sleep aid.
Me: You gotta be pretty smart to develop a game, lotta respect for the job Mathew: If the rhino goes extinct, this boss could become more difficult to predict for future generations Me: You're right, how could they be so stupid?
The talk of tension and punishment, fairness, lives systems and demanding consistency from players alone would have been great for a video by itself. 'Lives are not outdated.' YES! Thank you. You have no idea how irritating it was to hear people regurgitate the notion that they are as 'common sense'.
I've heard Matthew talk about pounding Mipha, being birthed by Rouge the Bat, and Meryl doing something as of yet undisclosed with a bandana...but nothing he's done has surprised me more than this whistle
6:04 - (Head Explodes) Whaaaaaaat!? All these years, after playing this game so many times with all the different characters through all the difficulties, I thought I knew everything there was to know about this favorite little gem of mine. This detail was something I never noticed or knew about until now! That's incredible! Holy zen! And a viewtiful Captain Blue fight at the end. You managed to handle his Mach Speed mode quite well. In my (questionable) opinion, I always felt that Mach Speed in conjunction with his lightning pillars were seen as a bit unfair if your positioning or the given scenario (a previously placed single pillar of lightning in a safe spot for example) wasn't right. Still, wonderful fight to end on a wonderful video. I've never, ever done a full Rainbow V run on any difficulty much less Ultra V-Rated. In a way, watching this has made me question myself as a fan of Viewtiful Joe, haha. I still remain quite impressed all the same. I know you're never going to go through such trouble, but given how solid Viewtiful Joe was, I would have loved to hear your commentary towards its sequel; Viewtiful Joe 2. I remember being so excited for Viewtiful Joe 2 only for that excitement to deflate in subsequent playthroughs of it. The majority of it felt the same which was great because Viewtiful Joe had a great gameplay feel, but a lot of it also felt... very wrong and had some questionable game design choices. Not Devil May Cry 2 levels of questionable design decisions, but you could tell the soul of Viewtiful Joe 2 just wasn't on the same level as the first game. Either way, thank you so much for making such a video. Quite entertaining to watch and, as always, very strong commentary towards this viewtiful game. My kind of juice!
I'm so glad Matthewmatosis is doing a deep dive on this game because I know everything will be touched on. It's a top 15 game in my opinion and one of my favorites from gen 6.
Agreed, it's top 5 for me too. One of those games that takes place in its own world with its own rules and expects you to learn its mechanical vocabulary to play it let alone master it.
I really, really enjoyed Captain Blue as a playable character. The weird ways his hover mechanic interacted with the world and the combat were really compelling to me for some reason. Example: his hover moves _faster_ when you use slow mo. I was confused when I first discovered this, but then I add realized this was actually the game letting you imitate his blue afterimage teleport he does in his fights with you. That's what he was doing when that happened; using slow mo on you!
As someone who started a TAS project of this game purely because nobody else had on-record 100% this game at the time: Not enough people know about this game. Thank you, Matthew.
Funny because I actually thought about you while watching this. Though you gave up. There really isn’t *that* much out there about this game compared to the endless stream of “reviews/analysis” of the latest AAA ventures
I love your closing statement. And it's that sentiment and your attitude about games in general that gets me to watch a 3 hour commentary about a game I've never played and barely heard of. Your works great man :)
This was one of my favorite games as a very young child. Before I knew what action games were, before I was ever interested in mechanical complexity or what made certain games tick. Something about it just felt really special to me. I am extremely excited to hear Matthew explain why this was my childhood obsession. I fucking love this channel
Same. Loved this game even when I was only 14 and hadn't played many action games before. Viewtiful Joe sucked me into Hideki Kamiya's brilliance and hasn't let go since.
I also played it as a kid. I never knew that the skull icon told you that the enemy attacks were coming in low or high, so I always just guessed. I thought it was completely random....I was a pretty dumb kid.
1:18:16 Le Grand Bleu (The Big Blue) is the name of a french 80s movie by Luc Besson, which in japanese was localized to グラン・ブルー(Guran Buruu). Gran Bruce is word play on this along with the Jaws reference.
I’ve rewatched this a few times since its release and I have to say, I think this is probably Matthew’s greatest video yet. It’s not _just_ a viewtiful joe commentary, not necessarily. It goes in depth into so many disparate aspects of video games as a medium, with the kind of thoughtful insight and effective taking points usually reserved for shorter thinkpiece videos about game design as a whole. There’s so much here in this massive package, it’s just such a joy to listen to and to think about. Thank you for making this, Mr. Matosis. You’re a fucking class of your own
When I beat the game for the first time, it never occurred to me that the ending was a cliffhanger. I just figured that it was an "and the adventure continues"-type ending. I was honestly surprised when VJ2 picked up right where the first one left off, since it was heavily implied the alien invasion was just something Blue whipped up for Joe and Silvia to defeat for the sake of making a movie.
"Old news is still news to somebody, and you never know when they may need to hear it." - Nika Harper, from her talk "Originality Complex" I think that quote is relevant to a few points you made in the video, most notably in regards to Kamiya not consciously aware of coin placement in the Mario games.
The existence of this video pushed me to finally beat this game after years of owning it before watching. It was great going into it blind, even though it was brutal at times. This commentary was the best reward after beating the game.
There are many people who could talk about Viewtiful Joe for three contiguous hours with no breaks, but very, very few could make every single minute of those hours unironically engaging and thought-provoking.
I'm only one hour into this, but I'm honestly baffled that there was this much depth to this game. I always saw it as a quirky little gamecube game, but it's almost unnatural how thoroughly you're able to dissect a lot of the intricacies of the combat system. I may need to replay it now, though I will say even without understanding it before, the visual stylishness of it stuck with me regardless.
I didn't like difficult games as a kid, and Viewtiful Joe was a turning point on that for me. Have been a huge fan of games that push me to do better since. I didn't only beat the game, I beat it on all the difficulties. Never quite managed to hit a Rainbow-V run though, the points threshold was always too strict for me. Very happy to see you finally cover this.
I have watched this video a long with your other commentaries all at least 3 times. I love how in each one you always manage to find a new angle to explain things in an interesting way. You have given me so much entertainment over the years and I am grateful for that.
"Hit the glowy bit" and "Just go up and to the right" are things I say a lot when fellow gamers ask for advice on any game without ever hearing which it was. Tropes really do take on a life of their own.
40:25 Internal consistency in mechanics and theming is a sound pattern. Brain meat want pattern, pattern everywhere -- meat happy! Thank you very much for sharing your pattern research!
I bought this game more than 5 years ago and haven't played past the second stage. Thanks Matt for incentevizing me to beat the game before watching this video
HOLY SHIT! This is incredible! I've been hoping for 3 years now that you'd do a Viewtiful Joe video! I've actually been replaying the VJ games this past few weeks so it's on my mind as well. What a nice coincidence. :)
A new Matthewmatosis video? This years off to a good sta- 39:30 No matter where I go I can't escape JoJo references. All jokes aside it's always interesting to hear someone eloquently explain thoughts on game mechanics that I've had myself mixed with anecdotes and odd facts.
I listened to this in one sitting, although I did watch the gameplay a little here and there when Matt directs the viewer to see a point play out for themselves, and I'm blown away. It boggles my mind how well put together and surprisingly concise this three hour long epic of a game commentary/analysis is. Sure, you could argue that by having the commentary on in the background as I played a game (a roguelite shmup called Monolith, which is great btw) I was passively listening to it and that makes me the wrong person to ask about if the flow or structure of this video's script is good, but I think the opposite is true. By playing what is also a very well put together game in its own right, although of a different genre than Viewtiful Joe notwithstanding the short shmup segment in that game, I found myself looking for examples of the game design points Matt brought up. When I found my dodge reflexes slacking in the later levels of a run I remembered the detriment theory mentioned in the commentary, I started questioning if the attack patterns and formations of the enemies I was facing were initially fair or fair on repeat, I even questioned the reason I was playing Monolith, which was to get a certain achievement on steam, right then and there when the commentary cautioned against playing games for empty trophy-hunting purposes when there's more enjoyment to found in the minute-to-minute gameplay itself, and that's just to mention a few moments. That all might seem simple to people who know game development well, but for me at least, having it eloquently explained in this long-format commentary was a real treat. The wait for this video was worth it!
I went to a grocery store with wifi while traveling just to download this for later... such a great commentary as always. Thanks for doing what you do!
It's pretty cool that you were talking about the performative nature of the game around 1:54:20 ish, my first encounter with this game was in a gamestation on a display gamecube. I used to pass by it after school and would pick it up usually in one of the first 3 levels and there was almost always a few people passing through the shop and watching, looking at it now it's a perfect game to showcase and I always felt it was about putting on the best action movie that you could, not using too much slow-mo or speed-up.
I think the smartest I feel is whenever Matthew mentions something, I then think about it, and come to a similar conclusion before he returns to the thing later on in the video. In this case it was about the shop vs. skill trees.
It was so popular that I picked up being a Zelda, mario, etc first party kid. Way too hard for me so never beat it haha but yeah only time recently it came up was in context to this video.
I mean a lack of accessibility and relevance are pretty big reasons. Devil May Cry's games are available on every modern platform, with a major sequel in 5 being relatively new. In contrast, Joe's only games are locked to the Gamecube, PS2, PSP, and DS, with no follow-ups or ports in sight (unless you choose to count the Wonderful 101). Why that is the case remains to be seen, but I hope it's something rectified in the near future.
It and onimusha were really hurt by it not getting ports to modern consoles. Hell as someone who was obsessed with Video Games during the 7th gen and knew all the bullshit all major publishers released, I didn't really know onimusha was a major, well respected franchise until the HD remake of 1 came out
I really wanna know what it's like to be Kamiya or some core developer of this game, and wake up in 2020 to find a 3 hour video of insane skill and intelligent commentary on it long after it's fallen outta gaming eyes.
I disagree with your point on controllers vs brain input. We're a species that's built to use tools. There's a certain degree of enjoyment that comes from using tools that can't be gained from direct brain input. Moreover, having a separation between your mind and your hands lets a player decide what to do in their head, before finalizing the decision with their hands. A game that reads brain input would require a player to form a mental barrier between what they're thinking in terms of "these are my thoughts when figuring out what to do", and "these are my thoughts that I want to be executed". That kind of mental separation is possible, but I don't think it's as fun or intuitive as using a tool like a controller is.
Agreed, anyone who has ever played a sport or practiced a hobby which requires dexterity like knitting or woodworking can understand intuitively the satisfaction you get from skilled hand-eye coordination.
I think in a far-enough future with our pain-inducing motivators and SOMA-style virtual interfaces, there may not be so large a gap between a tool and and action. Even just sitting in some VR game station, convincing your brain that your virtual-body is holding a virtual-controller could speed up inputs dramatically - there goes any input delay from telling your body to push the button to the game registering the button pushed.
Thank you for another fantastic video, mister Matosis. I've learned a few more things regarding making good games, which is a great thing, being a gamedev myself. Ive also learned a lot of very good tips for playing this game at a very optimal skill level. Keep up the amazing work, youre great
I've played through this game at least 6 times but you are already blowing my mind in the first 10 minutes with all the stuff I missed. I would have NEVER noticed the difference in stun time based on the ducks above their heads if you didn't point it out.
I can attest to impressiveness of this challenge having done a couple of rainbow v runs myself. Although, I confess I always use the strategy to skip most of The Viewtiful Escape because it's my least favorite level. I'm actually more impressed that Matthew was able to lay three straight hours of commentary without it getting dull or devolving into rambling nonsense. With the Let's Play's fall in popularity, I think this style of video might be a suitable replacement as these days UA-cam seems to favor longer more in depth content. Sure there's a lot of reviews and retrospectives but very little that goes into the art of game design. Meanwhile, we have no shortage of content about filmmaking or music theory.
I remember when I had a PS2 demo disk with this game on it, brings back good memories, until the disk snapped. Really looking forward to watching the video!
Man I never thought you would make this! Your Devil May Cry commentary is my favorite video of your's, so I'm so excited to watch this one as well. Cheers!
Great commentary and I have to say I'm impressed with the attention to detail that you've put into this video. Your ending message and call to action was very nice and I'll try to see if I too can raise awareness for a near forgotten game someday.
Finally finished the commentary, wonderful insights. The highlights are always the bits where you just extrapolate and talk abstractly about en entire subject in the context of something the particular game at hand is doing.
That’s why it’s particularly unfortunate that Viewtiful Joe hasn’t been remastered or ported to modern systems and been given a chance to find a new audience. The game feels timeless in a way that few others do. Almost 20 years on, and it’s still a brilliant beat ‘em up that deserves to remain relevant.
Hey Matthew! I've loved your videos ever since I saw your review of Devil May Cry 1 back in the day! Your reviews are of the exact same games that I cherish. Absolutely stoked to see Viewtiful Joe (one of the most unique beat-em-ups out there) ! Matt, you don't know how good it is to see you back on the 'Tube!
[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:30] - History
[00:05:11] - Obscure Mechanics
[00:07:44] - Difficulty Levels
[00:09:32] - Effective Randomness of Slot Machines
[00:10:12] - Launching & Juggling
[00:11:18] - Combos & Scoring 1
[00:14:31] - Cancels
[00:15:37] - Offense, Defense and Slow Dodge
[00:17:07] - Shop Systems Recap
[00:17:33] - Field of View
[00:18:26] - Target Prioritization & Rock On
[00:20:20] - Character Design
[00:21:36] - Themes
[00:22:52] - Patterns
[00:24:21] - Practicing Attack Strings
[00:25:25] - Puzzle Rooms
[00:25:46] - Deceptive Complexity of the Shop
[00:26:23] - Ranking as a Safeguard
[00:27:24] - Balancing Upgrades
[00:29:35] - VFX Gauge Reset (Encounter Variety 1)
[00:31:08] - Secret Encounters
[00:31:55] - Critical Dizzy Algorithm
[00:33:16] - Unlocks & Pacing
[00:37:11] - Bats & Target Prioritization
[00:38:38] - Visual Design
[00:42:12] - Timeless Visuals
[00:43:36] - Consumables
[00:44:28] - Ukemi
[00:45:49] - Tasteful Homages
[00:46:34] - Combos & Scoring 2
[00:47:31] - Discovery & Mastery
[00:49:16] - Unknowns
[00:51:34] - Stage Hazards (Encounter Variety 2)
[00:52:06] - Cutting Content
[00:53:34] - Explaining the Magic
[00:54:22] - Gelbies & Jokers
[00:55:59] - Slot Machines (Encounter Variety 3)
[00:56:36] - Hulk Davidson Trivia
[00:57:09] - Hulk Davidson Intro
[00:58:28] - Viewtiful Forever
[00:59:43] - Conveyance
[01:01:48] - Genre Shifting
[01:02:56] - Memorization & Execution
[01:06:29] - Aerial Movement
[01:07:10] - Pure Logic (Encounter Variety 4)
[01:08:03] - Kick Landing
[01:09:37] - Fast Walking & Redundant Button Presses
[01:13:30] - Heads Up Display
[01:15:44] - Hypothetical Replay System
[01:17:19] - Importance of Collaboration
[01:17:53] - Gran Bruce Trivia
[01:18:52] - Gran Bruce Strategy
[01:19:38] - Intermission
[01:19:46] - Escalation & Replayability
[01:21:15] - Initial Fairness & Subsequent Fairness
[01:23:06] - VFX Turbocharger
[01:24:47] - Ordinary Joe, Alastor & Nuanced Mechanics
[01:27:07] - Slow Mo vs. Mach Speed
[01:28:03] - Custom AI (Encounter Variety 5)
[01:29:01] - Black Box Analysis
[01:29:54] - Metal Leos
[01:30:55] - Another Joe
[01:31:48] - Voomerang, Predictability & Lock On
[01:34:42] - The Viewtiful Escape
[01:35:42] - Unranked Encounters
[01:36:25] - Black Leaders
[01:36:55] - Padding
[01:38:49] - Camera Behavior
[01:41:26] - Rosettas & Sylvia
[01:42:38] - Programming Consistency
[01:45:55] - Generating Coins & Gourds
[01:47:25] - Backgrounds
[01:48:15] - Influences
[01:49:02] - Trivia
[01:49:55] - Higher Difficulty; Higher Scrutiny
[01:50:12] - Explaining More Magic
[01:51:23] - The Megacombo
[01:52:25] - Intensity Scaling
[01:53:38] - External Motivations
[01:56:04] - 9999
[01:56:36] - Alastor Intro
[01:57:20] - Meta
[01:58:13] - Electricity & Tactical Defense
[01:59:19] - Alastor as a Rival
[02:00:03] - The Magnificent Five
[02:01:17] - Time & Punishment
[02:02:59] - 1HP
[02:05:39] - Life Systems
[02:06:40] - Exceptional Design
[02:09:58] - 49 Useless Film Reels
[02:10:43] - Boss Critique
[02:12:02] - Music & Sound Effects
[02:14:34] - Audio Cues & Accessibility
[02:17:19] - Flashy Abilities
[02:17:57] - Utilizing 3D
[02:19:12] - R.O.B.
[02:19:47] - Enemy Health & Presenting Information
[02:22:24] - Time vs. Score
[02:24:03] - Slow Mo Nuances
[02:26:33] - Metal Leo Spam
[02:27:26] - Buying Snacks
[02:28:37] - Ranking Motivation
[02:30:15] - Magnetic Coins
[02:31:09] - Salvaging Failure
[02:33:06] - Framerate Dependence
[02:37:08] - VFX Inspiration
[02:37:42] - Kamiya's Style & Inaba's Role
[02:38:26] - 2D vs. 3D Animation
[02:39:26] - Guiding With Pickups
[02:40:24] - Evolution & Revolution
[02:42:17] - Spoilers
[02:44:38] - The Bit Where I Whistle
[02:45:03] - Abusing Voomerangs
[02:45:32] - Mech Design
[02:45:57] - Raising Stakes
[02:47:21] - Excessive Repetition
[02:48:00] - The Second Sphere Virtue of Fairness
[02:49:17] - Comparing Phases
[02:50:51] - Final Boss
[02:53:30] - Tension
[02:54:03] - Ace Attorney Trivia
[02:55:23] - Joe & Sylvia
[02:57:43] - Credits & Extras
[03:00:52] - Conclusion
Matthewmatosis Matt I fucking love you your videos are beyond important
god damn thats a lot of time stamps
Voomerang
Jesus Christ lmao i RESPECT it Mr. Matosis
I legit cracked up when like an hour into this Viewtiful Joe video Matthermatosis just tosses in the idea that we should support wildlife conservation efforts so that future generations can tell that the rhino boss will charge based on their knowledge of rhinos
That's hilarious but also depressing af.
You can kinda see stuff like that happening with floppy discs being used as a symbol for saving, and the existence of telephone booths in certain works. Movies used to be written with the mindset that people didn't have cell phones to communicate to one another from anywhere. It's the same idea, but with a living creature.
Mayo Chan the earth is dying 😢
@@y2kjetters317 At least we still have Viewtiful Joe... 😥
@Führer des Benutzers That dosen't mean it's not worthwhile to preserve what we have before that happens.
"Hello welcome to my 102 hour commentary of Okami. This is an all sidequests, all weapons, all treasures, all stray beads full playthrough."
I would watch that in a heartbeat. As long as it was broken into movie sized episodes of course.
FUND IT
At least 80 of those hours spent fishing.
0:05 "This is an Ultra-V-rated Rainbow-V-Rank all film canisters run"
YASSSS
wait wat
108 hours for the extra symbolism points
“Experienced players will see a cheeseburger, and assume it restores health, when its real-world equivalent arguably does the opposite”
Matthew’s sense of humor man, it’s understated but when it lands it sends you
"Beat em ups and elevators have a long and storied history." Took me a second, but damn that's an efficient joke
thank you for pointing this out to me. Matt's humor is so dry i didn't even notice the joke at all
Can you explain to me what the joke means? I'm a little dumb
@@theancestor9345 Storied = Stories being passed in a moving elevator. Took me a fat minute too
@@audiovideo-w6o oh, shoot! Thanks, man. That was very helpful
@@theancestor9345 it's also that elevators in beat em ups tend to be absurdly long. Both long and storied indeed
2:40:50 - “By contrast, at least 17 staff from Devil May Cry would work on Resident Evil 4 … again.”
Probably my favourite line in the entire commentary. I got a good laugh out of that one the first time I heard it. One of those typically deadpan but hilarious Matthewmatosis lines.
What is the joke here? I know DMC was kind of an offspring of Resident Evil 4, just... not really what was so wry about it
@@ZedAmadeus It’s mostly the delivery, really. He could have simply said that the same people who made Devil May Cry went onto make Resident Evil 4, but instead makes a little joke about DMC’s unique history of being the result of RE4’s first build spinning off into an entirely new IP.
The idea of all the developers having to go back to work on RE4 proper after already trying and making DMC instead was what I found funny. Pausing for effect especially was what made it work.
Since Matthew talked about that quite a bit in his DMC commentary, I found the way he wrote this bit to be a clever way of tying both videos together. It’s a very nerdy and esoteric thing to laugh about for sure, but that’s kind of why I watch Matthew’s videos in the first place.
@@kidnameless oh okay haha, that makes sense
"If it frustrates you to see me using it (Ukemi) then maybe it's your excuse to do your own "No-damage" playthrough."
A glorious gauntlet toss.
YOUR MOVE, INTERNET.
Now I understand why I couldn't beat the boss rush...
Edit:
Other than getting completely stuck at Boss Rush + Leo -- No hits isn't so hard.
My best achievement is Bayonetta 1 Pure Plat Pistol Only. (No halo farming) (Pulleys Butterfly is best)
Bayo 2 Pure Plat Pistol was too easy. (Umbran Climax OP)
Lets hope Bayo 3 is a bit harder.
Edit edit:
If you are silly enough to go for V+🌈V no-hits:
Get used to using the pinwheel attack. A lot.
Always go for knockdowns.
Always go for reflects.
And use the air-bomb to jump higher and cheese some fights by building fire.
Sidekick > Uppercut > Air juggle > Divekick
You can toss a bomb in there on single targets / bosses.
Neat blog
This is probably the longest analysis of Viewtiul Joe that will ever exist
It's one of the first analysis videos of VJ in general! Despite being a beloved game, not many people wanna make a big video about it.
It's also one of the only ones.
And the best! I’m glad this was recommended to me
Someone out there is gonna read this comment and take it as a challenge.
@@WaddleDee105 That's probably for good reason. 3 hours for any game is arguably excessive. There are hardly movies that dare to be 3 hours long and even they are considered inaccessible.
I'm half convinced these videos are popular mostly as a background comfort blanket/sleep aid.
"you might say Joe is a "v"-shounen" goddamnit matt
Me: You gotta be pretty smart to develop a game, lotta respect for the job
Mathew: If the rhino goes extinct, this boss could become more difficult to predict for future generations
Me: You're right, how could they be so stupid?
The talk of tension and punishment, fairness, lives systems and demanding consistency from players alone would have been great for a video by itself. 'Lives are not outdated.' YES! Thank you. You have no idea how irritating it was to hear people regurgitate the notion that they are as 'common sense'.
I've heard Matthew talk about pounding Mipha, being birthed by Rouge the Bat, and Meryl doing something as of yet undisclosed with a bandana...but nothing he's done has surprised me more than this whistle
I hadn't made it all the way through when I saw this comment. I was thinking, what did I miss? What whistle? Just got there haha, hilarious
Timestamp?
@@debabratp I second this
me on my way to watch a 3 hour video to hear the whistle
2:44:32 for the whistle moment
6:04 - (Head Explodes) Whaaaaaaat!? All these years, after playing this game so many times with all the different characters through all the difficulties, I thought I knew everything there was to know about this favorite little gem of mine. This detail was something I never noticed or knew about until now! That's incredible! Holy zen!
And a viewtiful Captain Blue fight at the end. You managed to handle his Mach Speed mode quite well. In my (questionable) opinion, I always felt that Mach Speed in conjunction with his lightning pillars were seen as a bit unfair if your positioning or the given scenario (a previously placed single pillar of lightning in a safe spot for example) wasn't right. Still, wonderful fight to end on a wonderful video. I've never, ever done a full Rainbow V run on any difficulty much less Ultra V-Rated. In a way, watching this has made me question myself as a fan of Viewtiful Joe, haha. I still remain quite impressed all the same.
I know you're never going to go through such trouble, but given how solid Viewtiful Joe was, I would have loved to hear your commentary towards its sequel; Viewtiful Joe 2. I remember being so excited for Viewtiful Joe 2 only for that excitement to deflate in subsequent playthroughs of it. The majority of it felt the same which was great because Viewtiful Joe had a great gameplay feel, but a lot of it also felt... very wrong and had some questionable game design choices. Not Devil May Cry 2 levels of questionable design decisions, but you could tell the soul of Viewtiful Joe 2 just wasn't on the same level as the first game.
Either way, thank you so much for making such a video. Quite entertaining to watch and, as always, very strong commentary towards this viewtiful game. My kind of juice!
I'm so glad Matthewmatosis is doing a deep dive on this game because I know everything will be touched on.
It's a top 15 game in my opinion and one of my favorites from gen 6.
yeah clover literally made classics after classics for the ps2
@@jac1011 don't forget the cube
@@TheTerrycore well god hand wasnt on the cube now was it?
Agreed, it's top 5 for me too. One of those games that takes place in its own world with its own rules and expects you to learn its mechanical vocabulary to play it let alone master it.
JuiceManVon I haven’t seen him go over why he slow mos the 2nd hit on the Cromarties every time. Can you explain why?
I really, really enjoyed Captain Blue as a playable character. The weird ways his hover mechanic interacted with the world and the combat were really compelling to me for some reason. Example: his hover moves _faster_ when you use slow mo. I was confused when I first discovered this, but then I add realized this was actually the game letting you imitate his blue afterimage teleport he does in his fights with you. That's what he was doing when that happened; using slow mo on you!
That's awesome!
You just blew my mind
As someone who started a TAS project of this game purely because nobody else had on-record 100% this game at the time:
Not enough people know about this game.
Thank you, Matthew.
Funny because I actually thought about you while watching this. Though you gave up.
There really isn’t *that* much out there about this game compared to the endless stream of “reviews/analysis” of the latest AAA ventures
Wow...it’s insane that the teased the Joe Commentary in your Devil May Cry Commentary finally became reality....4 years later
I love your closing statement. And it's that sentiment and your attitude about games in general that gets me to watch a 3 hour commentary about a game I've never played and barely heard of. Your works great man :)
5 HOUR GOD HAND COMMENTARY.
5 HOUR GOD HAND COMMENTARY.
5 HOUR GOD HAND COMMENTARY
Oh...oh yes
Is this really the time to be asking for another one? Lol
Everything is within the flows of causality.
@@G0LD3NF1RE Void would be proud
jac1011 I’m hip thrusting to this comment in real life.
This was one of my favorite games as a very young child.
Before I knew what action games were, before I was ever interested in mechanical complexity or what made certain games tick. Something about it just felt really special to me.
I am extremely excited to hear Matthew explain why this was my childhood obsession.
I fucking love this channel
Same. Loved this game even when I was only 14 and hadn't played many action games before. Viewtiful Joe sucked me into Hideki Kamiya's brilliance and hasn't let go since.
I also played it as a kid. I never knew that the skull icon told you that the enemy attacks were coming in low or high, so I always just guessed. I thought it was completely random....I was a pretty dumb kid.
1:18:16
Le Grand Bleu (The Big Blue) is the name of a french 80s movie by Luc Besson, which in japanese was localized to グラン・ブルー(Guran Buruu). Gran Bruce is word play on this along with the Jaws reference.
congrats on over 100k views on this! So impressed by your run
its boundary break
I’ve rewatched this a few times since its release and I have to say, I think this is probably Matthew’s greatest video yet.
It’s not _just_ a viewtiful joe commentary, not necessarily. It goes in depth into so many disparate aspects of video games as a medium, with the kind of thoughtful insight and effective taking points usually reserved for shorter thinkpiece videos about game design as a whole. There’s so much here in this massive package, it’s just such a joy to listen to and to think about.
Thank you for making this, Mr. Matosis. You’re a fucking class of your own
When I beat the game for the first time, it never occurred to me that the ending was a cliffhanger. I just figured that it was an "and the adventure continues"-type ending. I was honestly surprised when VJ2 picked up right where the first one left off, since it was heavily implied the alien invasion was just something Blue whipped up for Joe and Silvia to defeat for the sake of making a movie.
"Old news is still news to somebody, and you never know when they may need to hear it."
- Nika Harper, from her talk "Originality Complex"
I think that quote is relevant to a few points you made in the video, most notably in regards to Kamiya not consciously aware of coin placement in the Mario games.
The existence of this video pushed me to finally beat this game after years of owning it before watching. It was great going into it blind, even though it was brutal at times. This commentary was the best reward after beating the game.
When watching matthew I feel like I loved my all time favorite games for totally the wrong reasons lol
Anyways, a masterful playthrough
This was a better gift than anything from the holidays.
I never realised how DEEP this game is.
I honestly feel blessed whenever he uploads.
you can't do this to me as soon as i'm headed to bed.
ANYWAY love your commentaries and insights into games!
*gets notification from UA-cam*
*sees MatthewMatosis*
Well I know how I’m spending my nightshift tonight.
The fact that this video exists is my motivation to push through and beat this game. Once I do, I'll sit down and watch the whole video.
Just.
Go.
For it ! ;)
@@viewtiful1doubleokamihand253 Thanks. I just beat the game today. It was really fun.
Devil May Cry Commentary: Hideki Ka-me-ah
Viewtiful Joe Commentary: Hideki Kam-e-ya
KAAAAAAAAAAA
MEEEEEEEEEEEE
HAAAAAAAAA
MEEEEEEEEEEEE--
HA
@@lolocoaster1 YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
There are many people who could talk about Viewtiful Joe for three contiguous hours with no breaks, but very, very few could make every single minute of those hours unironically engaging and thought-provoking.
I'm only one hour into this, but I'm honestly baffled that there was this much depth to this game. I always saw it as a quirky little gamecube game, but it's almost unnatural how thoroughly you're able to dissect a lot of the intricacies of the combat system. I may need to replay it now, though I will say even without understanding it before, the visual stylishness of it stuck with me regardless.
I never thought the day would come, I wish this could happen more often
I want this on the Switch so badly. Come on, Capcom.
Would be nice if they brought it to pc too. Probably wouldn't be demanding so less people would miss out.
I didn't like difficult games as a kid, and Viewtiful Joe was a turning point on that for me. Have been a huge fan of games that push me to do better since. I didn't only beat the game, I beat it on all the difficulties. Never quite managed to hit a Rainbow-V run though, the points threshold was always too strict for me. Very happy to see you finally cover this.
I love that "Take Star Wars as a totally random example" line.
I have watched this video a long with your other commentaries all at least 3 times. I love how in each one you always manage to find a new angle to explain things in an interesting way. You have given me so much entertainment over the years and I am grateful for that.
"Hit the glowy bit" and "Just go up and to the right" are things I say a lot when fellow gamers ask for advice on any game without ever hearing which it was. Tropes really do take on a life of their own.
40:25 Internal consistency in mechanics and theming is a sound pattern.
Brain meat want pattern, pattern everywhere -- meat happy!
Thank you very much for sharing your pattern research!
I bought this game more than 5 years ago and haven't played past the second stage. Thanks Matt for incentevizing me to beat the game before watching this video
Always a joy, thanks for uploading-- I'm looking forward to the video
HOLY SHIT! This is incredible! I've been hoping for 3 years now that you'd do a Viewtiful Joe video! I've actually been replaying the VJ games this past few weeks so it's on my mind as well. What a nice coincidence. :)
I'm making my own Viewtiful Joe inspired beat em up right now. Your DMC video and this one are invaluable to me, thank you
My favourite game of all time, what a treat. Thank you matt.
That irl rain during the whistling. Great, genuine content. Thanks Matt
A new Matthewmatosis video? This years off to a good sta- 39:30 No matter where I go I can't escape JoJo references.
All jokes aside it's always interesting to hear someone eloquently explain thoughts on game mechanics that I've had myself mixed with anecdotes and odd facts.
I listened to this in one sitting, although I did watch the gameplay a little here and there when Matt directs the viewer to see a point play out for themselves, and I'm blown away. It boggles my mind how well put together and surprisingly concise this three hour long epic of a game commentary/analysis is. Sure, you could argue that by having the commentary on in the background as I played a game (a roguelite shmup called Monolith, which is great btw) I was passively listening to it and that makes me the wrong person to ask about if the flow or structure of this video's script is good, but I think the opposite is true. By playing what is also a very well put together game in its own right, although of a different genre than Viewtiful Joe notwithstanding the short shmup segment in that game, I found myself looking for examples of the game design points Matt brought up. When I found my dodge reflexes slacking in the later levels of a run I remembered the detriment theory mentioned in the commentary, I started questioning if the attack patterns and formations of the enemies I was facing were initially fair or fair on repeat, I even questioned the reason I was playing Monolith, which was to get a certain achievement on steam, right then and there when the commentary cautioned against playing games for empty trophy-hunting purposes when there's more enjoyment to found in the minute-to-minute gameplay itself, and that's just to mention a few moments. That all might seem simple to people who know game development well, but for me at least, having it eloquently explained in this long-format commentary was a real treat. The wait for this video was worth it!
Viewtiful joe is probably the best game kamiya made
I grew up with this game, thank you so much for making this video.
I went to a grocery store with wifi while traveling just to download this for later... such a great commentary as always. Thanks for doing what you do!
Glad to see another commentary video! I always love to watch your Demon's Souls and Dark Souls commentaries.
Now this was a surprise to come home to. HENSHIN A GO GO BABY
This is simply one big flex!!
And, I loved every second of it.
It's pretty cool that you were talking about the performative nature of the game around 1:54:20 ish, my first encounter with this game was in a gamestation on a display gamecube.
I used to pass by it after school and would pick it up usually in one of the first 3 levels and there was almost always a few people passing through the shop and watching, looking at it now it's a perfect game to showcase and I always felt it was about putting on the best action movie that you could, not using too much slow-mo or speed-up.
I think the smartest I feel is whenever Matthew mentions something, I then think about it, and come to a similar conclusion before he returns to the thing later on in the video. In this case it was about the shop vs. skill trees.
I woke up still high at 3am to Matthew whistling the mario theme at 2:44:37 and was scared and confused
Wow, haven't thought of this game in over five years. Glad you were able to give me an in-depth three hour reminder of it.
Oh it's going to be beautiful to view...tiful... this video... I love your work Matt!
Maybe I should finally get around to talking about Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
Do it, that game has a lot more going on than it first appears
This video is sure to be a Wonderful One.
Welcome Back Matthew, glad to see you and your videos again.
Every time Matthew uploads I do a Little jig of joy
ive been rewatching ur stuff all week.....i needed this....
i was gonna sleep, but matthewmatosis dropped a 3 hour vid and im gonna watch this whole thing
A new upload from Matthewmatosis.
This is going to be a good day.
Back for my second viewing. Cant get enough of your reviews Mr Matosis. Thank you for the great content.
I was just thinking about this game a few days ago. It was pretty popular at the time but now I never see it mentioned on the internet.
It was so popular that I picked up being a Zelda, mario, etc first party kid. Way too hard for me so never beat it haha but yeah only time recently it came up was in context to this video.
I mean a lack of accessibility and relevance are pretty big reasons. Devil May Cry's games are available on every modern platform, with a major sequel in 5 being relatively new. In contrast, Joe's only games are locked to the Gamecube, PS2, PSP, and DS, with no follow-ups or ports in sight (unless you choose to count the Wonderful 101). Why that is the case remains to be seen, but I hope it's something rectified in the near future.
It and onimusha were really hurt by it not getting ports to modern consoles. Hell as someone who was obsessed with Video Games during the 7th gen and knew all the bullshit all major publishers released, I didn't really know onimusha was a major, well respected franchise until the HD remake of 1 came out
Thank you very much, this was a beautiful commentary.
Oh boy, thanks Mat. I knew i could count on you for a great friday night! Glad it's another commentary, definitely worth the wait!
We are so back Kamiya bros
I go out of my way to deactivate adblock so i can support you in any form. Please keep doing these type of videos, they're awesome!
I really wanna know what it's like to be Kamiya or some core developer of this game, and wake up in 2020 to find a 3 hour video of insane skill and intelligent commentary on it long after it's fallen outta gaming eyes.
omg I'm so happy this just popped up in my feed! Viewtiful Joe is one of my all-time favs and I feel like no one EVER talks about it anymore
On my second watch, I realized that at 17:33, you used the game audio to usher yourself into the next topic. Smooth move.
I disagree with your point on controllers vs brain input. We're a species that's built to use tools. There's a certain degree of enjoyment that comes from using tools that can't be gained from direct brain input. Moreover, having a separation between your mind and your hands lets a player decide what to do in their head, before finalizing the decision with their hands. A game that reads brain input would require a player to form a mental barrier between what they're thinking in terms of "these are my thoughts when figuring out what to do", and "these are my thoughts that I want to be executed". That kind of mental separation is possible, but I don't think it's as fun or intuitive as using a tool like a controller is.
ThatGastrodon What about using your brain to control tools in a virtual environment?
Agreed, anyone who has ever played a sport or practiced a hobby which requires dexterity like knitting or woodworking can understand intuitively the satisfaction you get from skilled hand-eye coordination.
I think in a far-enough future with our pain-inducing motivators and SOMA-style virtual interfaces, there may not be so large a gap between a tool and and action. Even just sitting in some VR game station, convincing your brain that your virtual-body is holding a virtual-controller could speed up inputs dramatically - there goes any input delay from telling your body to push the button to the game registering the button pushed.
Thank you for another fantastic video, mister Matosis. I've learned a few more things regarding making good games, which is a great thing, being a gamedev myself. Ive also learned a lot of very good tips for playing this game at a very optimal skill level. Keep up the amazing work, youre great
What a fantastic way to start the new year. Thank you for your efforts, Matt!
Thank you for mentioning Vigilance Decrement, this must be the reason why my first attempts of a session in any given game are always the best ones.
"Gameplay does not really happen in your controller; it happen in your mind" That blow my mind.
I've played through this game at least 6 times but you are already blowing my mind in the first 10 minutes with all the stuff I missed. I would have NEVER noticed the difference in stun time based on the ducks above their heads if you didn't point it out.
I can attest to impressiveness of this challenge having done a couple of rainbow v runs myself. Although, I confess I always use the strategy to skip most of The Viewtiful Escape because it's my least favorite level. I'm actually more impressed that Matthew was able to lay three straight hours of commentary without it getting dull or devolving into rambling nonsense. With the Let's Play's fall in popularity, I think this style of video might be a suitable replacement as these days UA-cam seems to favor longer more in depth content. Sure there's a lot of reviews and retrospectives but very little that goes into the art of game design. Meanwhile, we have no shortage of content about filmmaking or music theory.
DOES THIS MEAN WE’RE GETTING A THE WONDERFUL 101 COMMENTARY???
TheEggMaster I want more!!!
I remember when I had a PS2 demo disk with this game on it, brings back good memories, until the disk snapped. Really looking forward to watching the video!
Man I never thought you would make this! Your Devil May Cry commentary is my favorite video of your's, so I'm so excited to watch this one as well. Cheers!
Viewtiful Joe needs more love and I'm glad you gave it in the same way you gave DMC1.
Time to wait 4 years for the Okami commentary yay
Great commentary and I have to say I'm impressed with the attention to detail that you've put into this video. Your ending message and call to action was very nice and I'll try to see if I too can raise awareness for a near forgotten game someday.
Hell fucking yes Matthew. I've been waiting for a new commentary from you for over a year now.
What a way to start a new decade.
Good to have you back.
Finally finished the commentary, wonderful insights. The highlights are always the bits where you just extrapolate and talk abstractly about en entire subject in the context of something the particular game at hand is doing.
The King has Returned
This game's graphics have not aged a day. More stlylish graphics games please.
dude thank you for the "longform videogame analysis/retrospective" content, this is the most helpful thing for me to sleep
I was talking about VJ just yesterday so I may have summoned this. Thanks Matthew!
The cel shading made this game age really well visually
That’s why it’s particularly unfortunate that Viewtiful Joe hasn’t been remastered or ported to modern systems and been given a chance to find a new audience.
The game feels timeless in a way that few others do. Almost 20 years on, and it’s still a brilliant beat ‘em up that deserves to remain relevant.
Hey Matthew! I've loved your videos ever since I saw your review of Devil May Cry 1 back in the day! Your reviews are of the exact same games that I cherish. Absolutely stoked to see Viewtiful Joe (one of the most unique beat-em-ups out there) ! Matt, you don't know how good it is to see you back on the 'Tube!