What aspects of a game genre/gaming do you have problems with?

Started by the-pi-guy, Jul 30, 2020, 09:13 PM

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the-pi-guy

With explanation:.

This is based off some conversations with Xev that I've had.  And I hope I explain this correctly...  

But that he doesn't tend to like RPGs due to the tendency for levels to feel arbitrary. That they tend to include an arbitrary number to block you from making certain kinds of progress.  

Some RPGs don't do this, but there are some that basically demand that you are at a certain level in order to beat a boss, or worse fight a boss.  


So what kinds of aspects of a genre do you dislike or what kinds of features tend to feel bad or badly implemented in games?

Legend

I hate level scaling. I have to fight myself to enjoy games with it. It ruins progression if you're conscious of how it works.

Works amazing if you never realise it's happening though.

Xevross

Jul 30, 2020, 09:44 PM Last Edit: Jul 30, 2020, 09:47 PM by Xevross
Yeah you basically said that for me. So many RPGs involve just increasing some numbers for your character but the enemies also increase proportionally and in the end nothing actually changes, its just there for the sake of it because the game lacks more meaningful progression. The only thing that happens gameplay wise is you're locked out of higher level areas for a while and lower level areas become super easy and pointless.

These aren't too big of a problem when the game is otherwise designed well, but in cases like AC Odyssey its just awful. The main quest jumps in level requirements which basically just means you have to grind to make your number higher before you can carry on doing what you want to do. If the grind is fun it can be okay but for ACO it wasn't, it got so repetitive so quickly and side quests were pretty boring.

A totally unrelated thing is games and their need to escalate to ridiculous levels. Japanese games are the worst for this with the biggest offender being FF7 Remake most recently. I was loving the (mostly) grounded character driven first 75% of the game, it was so charming and beautiful and made me care about the world. But then towards the end it just went full on anime with ridiculous escalation of scale and boss fights for no other reason than to make a big bombastic ending. It was totally jarring and ruined the flow of the game, it came out of nowhere with basically no build up. Characters took a total back seat to the big whacky action on the screen. Astral Chain did something similar last year too as another example.

the-pi-guy

Level scaling is a big double edge sword.  Like it is there as an answer to Xevs complaint about blocking progress, but it also means that levels don't really mean as much.

Overall, it doesn't bother me per se.  But it's a design choice that isn't inherently good.  It basically has as many problems as it solves.  

Legend

Level scaling is a big double edge sword.  Like it is there as an answer to Xevs complaint about blocking progress, but it also means that levels don't really mean as much.

Overall, it doesn't bother me per se.  But it's a design choice that isn't inherently good.  It basically has as many problems as it solves.  
One method is to lock an area's levels once the player gets there. No blocked progress, no lack of feeling strong.


Core problem with all of this though is that the player is punished for knowing the rules.



I'm a fan of just good ol skill based gating. Like botw you can win the game with just a mop. Ac odyssey however pushes rpg upgrades as the only way to progress.

Xevross

Jul 31, 2020, 10:38 AM Last Edit: Jul 31, 2020, 10:40 AM by Xevross
One method is to lock an area's levels once the player gets there. No blocked progress, no lack of feeling strong.


Core problem with all of this though is that the player is punished for knowing the rules.



I'm a fan of just good ol skill based gating. Like botw you can win the game with just a mop. Ac odyssey however pushes rpg upgrades as the only way to progress.

Yep yep, skill gating is definitely best but if you're going to have RPG style stuff then soft RPG systems are much better than hard. Levelling up is fun if it just gives you more options or more refinement without just straight up increasing your power level.

Like in Ghost of Tsushima where you unlock a lot of new shame, lots of different skills and gadgets which makes you way more powerful in combat. But if you're good enough you could complete the entire game without unlocking any of it. iirc Horizon Zero Dawn was very similar. I love that Sony seems to be getting this stuff right in its open worlds. If you're going to have stat progression and levels then you should do it like God of War where the differences between min and max level aren't that huge, it just gives you a nice edge.