I bought Octopath Traveller on release for my Nintendo Switch and still haven’t finished it, not because it’s an exceedingly long game but because it takes effort for me to keep going. Continue reading Playing Octopath Traveler – The Narrative Issue
Tag: Narrative
Odyssey – Has Assassin’s Creed lost its identity?
Since last week I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and while I’ve been enjoying my time in Ancient Greece—which is not difficult considering how much I love the ancient Greek world and Greek myth—with my new buddy Alexios, the experience has felt off, as if there were things missing.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is an open world RPG, much like origins but going all in on the genre tropes, up to and including resource and level grinding and conversation options. But along the way, Ubisoft left out those iconic elements of the Assassin’s Creed series in favour of going all in on the RPG. Continue reading Odyssey – Has Assassin’s Creed lost its identity?
VAMPYR – Prologue Commentary
Vampyr released yesterday, a new game by DONTNOD, a developer that continues to impress me with their ability to tackle different genres and play styles. To say Vampyr has been on people’s radar is one hell of an understatement, it certainly was on mine. So, is it good, or does it at least have a compelling opening? Time to find out! Continue reading VAMPYR – Prologue Commentary
Twinned Reviews: Without Escape & The Thin Silence
So yeah, doing this again, having a couple of games in the same review article. The format is here to stay! This time’s it’s Without Escape and The Thin Silence, a couple of puzzling adventure games, the former dealing with surreal situations and disturbing imagery and the second with depression, suicide and other sensitive subjects and both out on PC right now! Continue reading Twinned Reviews: Without Escape & The Thin Silence
Revisiting The World – .Hack//G.U. Issues
For the past two weeks I’ve been replaying .Hack//G.U nonstop, thanks to the PC re-release, .Hack//G.U. Last Recode, which in addition of bringing back the original game and upscaling it, adds a new episode at the end. I can’t really comment on this last episode as I’m still playing through the three original ones.
But as I’ve slipped back into the shoes of the Terror of Death, Haseo, I’ve noticed things now that I never did on the original release years ago, things that when you’re going through the games you don’t really care about or notice unless everything is fresh in your mind, from either taking copious notes, having good memory or binge-playing through the volumes as I am. Continue reading Revisiting The World – .Hack//G.U. Issues
Dungeon Master Writer – How RPG Storytelling can improve your writing – Part 2: Adaptation & Characterisation
Weeks ago, I spoke of how much I enjoy storytelling and my love for being a dungeon master. I do really love creating and playing in fantasy worlds and taking players through perils and adventures.
But even though I consider myself a storyteller first, writer second, the art of storytelling, specifically being a Dungeon Master—or any kind of RPG narrator, again just using one of the most popular titles—has had a profound impact on my writing, as I’ve learned many things in taking people through the theatre of the mind.
I began this series last week with lessons on Knowing your Audience and Sensory information. Here’s part 2 for your enjoyment!
Dungeon Master Writer – How RPG Storytelling can improve your writing – Part 1: Audience & Senses
Weeks ago, I spoke of how much I enjoy storytelling and my love for being a dungeon master. I do really love creating and playing in fantasy worlds and taking players through perils and adventures.
But even though I consider myself a storyteller first, writer second, the art of storytelling, specifically being a Dungeon Master—or any kind of RPG narrator, again just using one of the most popular titles—has had a profound impact on my writing, as I’ve learned many things in taking people through the theatre of the mind. Continue reading Dungeon Master Writer – How RPG Storytelling can improve your writing – Part 1: Audience & Senses
Gaming Tendencies – Button Holding
I’ve been playing games for decades now and I’ve seen many trends go by, some all about the graphical power of a game and many more on control schemes and in-game mechanics. Some hang around for a while like a bad cough and others, thankfully, go by without much consequence.
But for the past few years there’s been one such trend that has not only remained but seems to be spreading across the entire industry, infecting games of every genre and developers or every calibre. This trend is not only annoying on its impact on gameplay but also on how much it diminishes what used to be a valuable tool for creating tension and excitement.
The trend I’m being vague about is pressing and holding the buttons down for every single action, from picking up an item to opening a door.
Puzzle Games – Open vs Sequential
Last week I spoke of the two categories I separate puzzle design into, those being the story driven ones, the ones with a close tie to the game’s narrative and game universe common sense, and the challenge driven, those placed in the game just to give players something meaty to bite into, often tied to the game’s plot by theme rather than adhering to the plot, the locations, the character’s common sense, etc.
With those two in mind, I’d like to talk to you today about two other categories, but these are the ones in which I separate the games that feature these puzzles. Despite the article’s title, I don’t like to call them puzzle games, as puzzles in both categories can be in a variety of genres, with the puzzles being just another challenge offered to players, without them being the core of the experience—take the Resident Evil franchise for example, the first and latest titles heavy on complex puzzles but not their defining feature.
I base these two categories on how the players interacts with the puzzles in the world. They can be Sequential or Open.
Puzzle Design – Narrative vs Challenge
If there’s one thing that you can expect from an adventure game, it’s puzzles. They’re part of the genre, and even the slew of choice-based adventures we’ve seen in the past few years have at least one puzzle in them, a little challenge to break the pace from the monotony of watching interactive cutscenes.
If the above sentence makes it sound like I don’t like choice-driven games, you’re getting close, though it’s not exact either. I like challenges and puzzles in my videogaming, and when it comes to adventures, I want puzzles, be it logic, inventory or even conversation based. It’s why I loved Life is Strange, it didn’t sacrifice the puzzling for the choices, finding a good balance between them.
But as I sit here contemplating adventure games I realise there are different approaches to puzzle design, and while this might a gross oversimplification and generalisation, I believe you can put the overall design approaches into two categories: Narrative Driven and Challenge Driven. Continue reading Puzzle Design – Narrative vs Challenge