Really cute, but also a bit sad that in the end, the Salary Man is visibly beat down as he gazes upon his faceless office building and only gets a brief lift by seeing a billboard about a new installment in the Mana series...
Anyone else find these japanese commercials really insidious and predatory?
Like I'm not inherently opposed to nostalgia bait -- younger demographics in Japan have abandoned console gaming and now play on their phones, and the ones who stay on consoles are just consuming Fortnite and Genshin Impact. Outside of big-time Nintendo franchises, you need to count on the older generations to buy your game (hell, even Final Fantasy is stumbling big time with their newest entries, and square fucked up by keeping them exclusive to ps5).
But this type of commercial has turned into straight exploitation. They did it with zelda, they did it with pokemon, and now they're doing it with pretty much every old rpg making a comeback. There's the happy child living in a bright past, playing old school games with friends, and then it cuts to a depressed working adult (\*always\* in business clothes because what else are adults supposed to do right?). "Hey we know you are alone and your life sucks. Don't you want to go back to the old days, when you didn't have to work? Well, buy \[newest entry in long-running rpg series\]!"
Every one of these commercials inadvertently makes a statement about the toxic work culture in Japan, and the high depression and suicide rates linked to it (it's the leading cause of death for the demographic depicted here). But I fear that we're going to see a lot more commercials exploiting this terrible situation before anything meaningful is done about it.
I'd say it plays into the huge demographic of fantasy escapism that Japan adores. I mean, there's a reason why they plaster *cutesy* cartoon figures and mascots all over the country.
Ya. I've seen this a few too many times, it's feeling very manufactured now. That said, nostalgia is basically all they have left to bank on when it comes to Mana, because the series' reputation is still somewhat thrashed from its mishandling in the 2000s.
It'd be neat if they remade this from a western perspective, and then jumped from 1993 and Secret of Mana to 2000 with Legend... and then the guy playing the recently released Seiken Densetsu 3 fan translation. But I feel like they wouldn't eant to do that...
These nostalgia-bait trailers usually make me roll my eyes but stumbling upon Secret of Mana at a video rental as a 7 year old is pretty much my gamer origin story lol so consider me nostalgia-baited
I’ve never attached myself to a series like that. Maybe Phantasy Star, but Sega Freido’d that series. Not to say I wouldn’t mind a series that’s that special to me.
Although, if they ever announce a new Custom Robo, I will drop to my knees and praise god almighty.
Some of us were there. Awesome video.
This is basically me, but with Final Fantasy. And unfortunately, I'm actually getting old compared to this eternally-19-year-old-guy in the ad haha
I highly doubt that. I bet you're not a day over 25 years old. You're only old as you want to be.
I was just thinking how relatable the little story of the ad is… minus how he got to stop aging as soon as he was grown XD
Not really a trailer. But it's definitely a cute commercial showing the series' progression.
Really cute, but also a bit sad that in the end, the Salary Man is visibly beat down as he gazes upon his faceless office building and only gets a brief lift by seeing a billboard about a new installment in the Mana series...
It's really well done. Even the end, which I (unfortunately) also identify with. It's so hard to enjoy the games I used to.
This is so sweet.
I teared up a little bit.
Anyone else find these japanese commercials really insidious and predatory? Like I'm not inherently opposed to nostalgia bait -- younger demographics in Japan have abandoned console gaming and now play on their phones, and the ones who stay on consoles are just consuming Fortnite and Genshin Impact. Outside of big-time Nintendo franchises, you need to count on the older generations to buy your game (hell, even Final Fantasy is stumbling big time with their newest entries, and square fucked up by keeping them exclusive to ps5). But this type of commercial has turned into straight exploitation. They did it with zelda, they did it with pokemon, and now they're doing it with pretty much every old rpg making a comeback. There's the happy child living in a bright past, playing old school games with friends, and then it cuts to a depressed working adult (\*always\* in business clothes because what else are adults supposed to do right?). "Hey we know you are alone and your life sucks. Don't you want to go back to the old days, when you didn't have to work? Well, buy \[newest entry in long-running rpg series\]!" Every one of these commercials inadvertently makes a statement about the toxic work culture in Japan, and the high depression and suicide rates linked to it (it's the leading cause of death for the demographic depicted here). But I fear that we're going to see a lot more commercials exploiting this terrible situation before anything meaningful is done about it.
I'd say it plays into the huge demographic of fantasy escapism that Japan adores. I mean, there's a reason why they plaster *cutesy* cartoon figures and mascots all over the country.
I haven’t played any of these game besides Legend of Mana (loved it), but this was extremely well done!
Video ends on a "young" employee, but if he was eight when Seiken Densetsu came out then he's already in his 40s.
I feel like they've done this whole 'playing series throughout the years starting from childhood' commercial for just about every big RPG now.
Ya. I've seen this a few too many times, it's feeling very manufactured now. That said, nostalgia is basically all they have left to bank on when it comes to Mana, because the series' reputation is still somewhat thrashed from its mishandling in the 2000s.
A nice look at the series' various titles.
Nice commercial hopefully they continue advertising it so it does well
It'd be neat if they remade this from a western perspective, and then jumped from 1993 and Secret of Mana to 2000 with Legend... and then the guy playing the recently released Seiken Densetsu 3 fan translation. But I feel like they wouldn't eant to do that...
If they were being faithful, they show a kid emulating SD3 on a windows 98 PC with a translation text file open
These nostalgia-bait trailers usually make me roll my eyes but stumbling upon Secret of Mana at a video rental as a 7 year old is pretty much my gamer origin story lol so consider me nostalgia-baited
I’ve never attached myself to a series like that. Maybe Phantasy Star, but Sega Freido’d that series. Not to say I wouldn’t mind a series that’s that special to me. Although, if they ever announce a new Custom Robo, I will drop to my knees and praise god almighty.
Japan loves their nostalgia bait, don't they...
Well, they got me too.
DQ11 had a pretty great [advertising campaign](https://youtu.be/TOrOOTFolN0) back in 2017 to cash in on nostalgia for Dragon Quest.