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I know nothing about this game that hasn't already been covered in the OP, but I can already tell this is going to be an absolutely wild ride 
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Jun 14, 2022 01:07
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There are games where I think Nat's argument in favour of hoarding makes sense, but this is very much not one of them, and I can tell that even without having played it. A fairly small inventory cap of 20, coupled with how frequently the vials drop, screams "use these things already so you're not leaving free value on the ground!". In this kind of system, being at maximum capacity is inefficient. Hoarding because something worse might come later makes a lot more sense in contexts of games with larger, persistent inventories, and when any given item is less fungible (and less easily replaced). I find this whole thing fascinating, too, because Nat was very free with the Molotovs in an earlier episode in a way he can't bring himself to with healing vials, and the Molotovs honestly seem a lot stronger (at least right now, maybe they fall off in effectiveness later?), or at least more game-changing as a strategy. It might also be worth talking about the different philosophies games can have where health is concerned. Some games view health metres strictly as what I'll call a "mistake buffer", in which skilled/correct play is expected or assumed to avoid all damage, and the health meter is a measure of how many times you get to screw up before losing progress (this is more common in genres like action or platforming but obviously not exclusive to them). Other games treat health as a resource for the player to manage and have a baseline expectation that you're going to be losing and gaining it frequently, and might even make avoiding all damage impossible (you see this a lot in RPGs, but it's prevalent in a lot of action genres too). This isn't a strict dichotomy (and I'm sure there are other paradigms beside these too), but I bring it up because so far it looks like Bloodborne is leaning more toward the "mistake buffer" side despite having some resource elements. There seems to be at least some expectation that you should be avoiding damage more often than not (or, when you do make a mistake, take the opportunity to correct it by beating your health back out of the enemy), and "how many hits can I tank" seems pretty far from the most relevant question when considering if you can win a fight or not. Which, practically, means I think it's better to view the vials as an "oh poo poo, undo my mistake" button than a resource to be hoarded for some challenge that might require them. I could be talking completely out my arse here, but that's the impression I get from what I've seen so far. Intentionally ignoring the signals the game is sending doesn't seem like a great recipe for success.
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Jun 22, 2022 00:37
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Nat look what youtube threw at me, someone's done a gun-only run of Aria of Sorrow. Back on topic, I think I agree that the vial system is less good at communicating how they want you to interact with it than Hollow Knight's soul is, and it sounds like later From games have improved in this aspect.
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Jun 22, 2022 02:40
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EricFate posted:Just play 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' over it, since there was a stretch of time where it was the go-to song for videogame background music once it entered the public domain. You're nicer than me, I was going to suggest Yakety Sax.
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Aug 18, 2022 23:16
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I don't think you need to apologise to us, for whatever that's worth. You showed us your honest experience and I think that's just as important as seeing all the enthusiastic ones. I've gotten the impression from this LP, and a lot of the conversation around these games in general, that they tend to be very polarising, and players end up either loving or hating them. I know a lot of people who are really into them, and have had quite a few conversations trying to piece together why because I personally just don't get it (and have no personal desire to play them). For better or worse, these games really click for some people and not at all for others. I can appreciate a lot of the aesthetic craftsmanship (though I'll also admit it isn't exactly to my taste either), but the gameplay sensibilities are antithetical to what I want out of a game in a lot of ways. I'm genuinely not sure to what extent any of that is worthy of criticism: clearly enough people like this that it's doing something right, but at the same time, if literally everything is a matter of taste in the end, there's no such thing as valid criticism other than "I, personally, do not like this", and that's absurd. Also, to complicate this further, sometimes bad game design can actually be good game design; there have been plenty of games that end up being better player experiences in some way due to something that on paper should be a flaw, or even due to outright bugs or broken mechanics (e.g. look at all the enjoyment people get out of breaking Gen 1 Pokemon). In the case of the Soulsborne games I think it's more that the game is intentionally designed to create a very specific sort of experience, that happens to be one I don't want to have (and which I suspect Nat doesn't enjoy either). I don't have any final thoughts or clever insights to sum this up, except that I am interested in these games as a phenomenon to the precise degree that I'm uninterested in playing it personally. Let's go on to better things. I played Mega Man Rock & Roll a couple years ago when it first came out, it's great and you're going to love it. Edit: on the specific subject of penalties for death, this is one of the precise issues I have as well, especially when I compare this to something like Celeste (which is often praised specifically for how little it penalises you for dying, and how quickly it gets you back into action so you can keep practising). I have a friend who praises the penalties to the skies, precisely because it increases tension and anxiety in the player, and he enjoys that ("it makes your decisions feel like they matter"). Meanwhile I have an anxiety disorder and absolutely do not come to my pastimes to be given more stress. I do think this is ultimately, a matter of taste, but it's made it very difficult for me to talk about game design with him (and has seriously impeded our progress on some mutual projects, because we're often working at cross-purposes). Explopyro fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Sep 13, 2022 |
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Sep 13, 2022 00:46
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