Continuing to prove himself to be one of the most miserable and immature individuals to have ever been forced upon audiences, a recent wave of legitimate criticism directed towards his own past anti-Japanese video game attitudes has prompted two-time former G4 host Adam Sessler to throw yet another public tantrum.
The fuse for Sessler’s latest pompous explosion was lit on February 28th when, in an interview given in promotion of the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI with YouTuber Austin Bolliger for his Skill Up channel, veteran Square Enix producer Naoki Yoshida revealed that the term ‘JRPG’ carried a particularly negative weight in the Eastern industry.
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“For us as [Japanese] developers, the first time we heard it, it was like a discriminatory term,” asserted the producer. “As though we were being made fun of for creating these games, and so for some developers, the term JRPG can be something that will maybe trigger bad feelings because of what it was in the past.”
“It wasn’t a compliment to a lot of developers in Japan,” Yoshi-P added. “We understand that recently, JRPG has better connotations and it’s being used as a positive but we still remember the time when it was used as a negative.”
In light of Yoshi-P’s comments, fans – many thankful that the Final Fantasy XIV director finally brought this issue to public attention – took to social media to provide direct evidence of the Western video game industry’s historical (and continuing) anti-Japanese feelings.
A particular fountain of such rhetoric was the original incarnation of G4, which many noted regularly dismissed and insulted Japanese-developed games – as well as the nation itself – simply for being ‘too Japanese’.
One particular instance which garnered widespread attention was provided by YouTuber Turkls Gauntlet, who in sharing the clip on March 3rd explained, “Some people weren’t around when JRPGs were being dragged by mainstream gaming press and have no clue why some devs felt slieghted by the term, so I want you to take this 2006 Baten Kaitos Origins ‘review’ from X-play as an example.”
https://twitter.com/TarksGauntlet/status/1631809089385660416
“We all know who will replace us,” host Morgan Webb prefaces the review. “India, the billion-strong faux vegetarian tech support call taking behemoth of a nation. Or the Chinese. But certainly not Japan, because while they may be technologically advanced and financially powerful, they’re already in decline. You want proof? Here’s Baten Kaitos Origins.”
From there, Sessler begins dismissively recounting, “Alright the story, let me guess, there’s probably a young hero with some sort of memory problem who is fighting a vastly overwhelming, evil, fasco-magical empire. The cliche burden boy of action who will save us all is named Sagi.”
“Rhymes with Sake, which I could use a lot of right now,” he then remarks, prompting a deluge of photoshopped individuals – including Mel Gibson and former North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il – to intermittently shout ‘Sake!’ in a stereotypically Asian accent throughout the rest of the review.
Proceeding to declare that “apparently nothing says prequel like improved breast physics on the shopkeepers,” Sessler ultimately ends his entire review by turning up his nose at not just the game itself, but also the entire genre.
“Baten Kaitos Origins is an RPG for the Gamecube,” concludes the host. “That enough says it all.”
As this clip of G4’s obviously bad-faith critique began to pick up steam, it eventually caught the attention of Sessler himself.
Retweeting Tarken Gauntlet’s original post, the disgraced entertainment personality dismissed the criticisms of his anti-Japanese rhetoric as nothing more than the YouTuber being “angry I didn’t like his consumer boner stimulator in 2006.”
“A truer gamer there never was,” he added.
“Wow, my replies are a stirring reminder of just how happy i am getting out of the circle-jerk of sophomoric narcissism that is gaming these days,” he would further whine in a follow-up tweet. “Wanting an apology out of my opinion…wow. I got lotsa shit to reckon with in my life just not my take on a juvenile sub-genre.”
Essentially an attempt at hand-waving away audiences’ actual issues, this response unsurprisingly did nothing more but inflame further criticism, instead leaving many astonished at Sessler’s inability to engage with anyone with even a modicum of good faith.
One such critic was GameSpot editor Jessica Howard, who replied to Sessler’s doubling down by opining, “I have no idea how you could watch this and grow defensive rather than admit it was 15+ years ago and the whole thing was pretty insensitive/is not content you’d stand by making today. That’s wild and disappointing.”
In turn, Sessler would lash out at Howard, declaring “I’m not defensive and I’m also not apologizing to the MAGA weirdos with anime porn in their timeline,” before demanding that she “maybe tend to your own godd–n garden.”
As the criticisms continued to pile up against Sessler, he would ultimately attempt to absolve himself of his involvement in the discourse by giving his “Final thought on the latest Alt-Right Cause-Celebe/Progressive Knee-jerk catharsis I find myself in.”
“As I’ve said before, I’m not your monkey and i’m not gong to participate in these meaningless charades of public rebuke and contrition because I don’t,” said Sessler. “I’m willing to be your racist today, just as i have been your drug addict, your censor and your homophobe time and again. It seems to serve a purpose and i have no image i care to maintain that i’ll let it run the same course as all the others.”
“At the end of the day my only true regret I’ll admit to publicly is that I spent as much of my life as I did in the thrall of such an insipid culture and audience,” the once-minor celebrity concluded. “I love the games and game design but the rest is an orgy of desperation that I wasted decades on.”
