Unpopular Opinions about Video Games

[Abbadon's Gate]

The other big lie is the difficulty. Dark Souls games are difficult, but it almost always comes in the form of cheap shots and obscure nonsense.

Here's an example of the tough but completely fair difficulty. You are supposed to know that if you jump off a specific bridge you won't die, instead you'll land on a rooftop. Find the broken window and you'll end up on rafters, explore the rafters until you find a birds nest. Use the birds nest and it will say "pump a rum!". You are then meant to interoperate this as dropping a specific kind of throwing bomb into the nest, teleport into another level, come back to the hub, jump off the bridge again, and talk to the nest and you get an item. Do any of this out of order like going through 3 loading screens instead of 2 means you don't get the item.

There's a third lie, the idea that that item descriptions count as story telling. There's this theory that the world has great storytelling, you just have to look for it, and that's bullshit. What you actually have is decent storytellers on social media copium'ing a story that From Soft can't actually write because they're talentless hacks in the story department.

Seriously their style isn't enigmatic or mysterious or full of implication. They've been telling bad, surface level stories forever. I don't buy that its a stylistic choice for them, I think its a huge lack of ability.

 

[Matt Damon]

Seriously their style isn't enigmatic or mysterious or full of implication.

You can argue about whether it's good or not, but I think it absolutely makes it "enigmatic and mysterious". The more obtuse you make your world-building, the harder it is to Wookiepedia-ize your world and story. There's no Emperor Palpatine Surgical Reconstruction Center in Dark Souls and that's what really kills a setting.

Autistic nerds want to explain and quantify and catalogue and categorize everything and, in the process, they ruin every piece of fiction they touch.

 

[Pissmaster]

Then you have the whole "Super" line of games that were mostly made up of NES games that were remastered for the SNES. Games like Super Metroid Super Castlevania all the Super Star Wars games Super Punch out. That was Nintendo's thing with the SNES back then. Just add Super to the title make the graphics and sound better then rerelease it.

Those are all sequels. Remasters way back when were a rare thing.

 

[Abbadon's Gate]

You can argue about whether it's good or not, but I think it absolutely makes it "enigmatic and mysterious".

I disagree. I think you can be both vapid and empty in content without being enigmatic or mysterious. From Soft doesn't write stories because they're incapable of doing anything compelling. Always have been and likely always will be.

I mean they even hired that fat fuck GRRM, who is a hell of a writer love him or hate him, and Elden Rings storyline is still barely serviceable.

It doesn't feel like I'm fighting through a lived in world or a dead world or whatever they're going for. It feels like I'm trudging through a barren, open world game where ever six hours I find a good fight, but the rest of the time there's less to do than the average Ubisoft open world.

 

[Matt Damon]

the rest of the time there's less to do than the average Ubisoft open world.

I'm not sure what this means. You... play the game. What else do you expect to do?

 

[Abbadon's Gate]

I'm not sure what this means. You... play the game. What else do you expect to do?

Let me rephrase; when I played Elden Ring, not using any guides or anything, just on my own. I would frequently encounter situations where in order to progress it involved me wandering around a mostly empty map for hours looking for something to do.

On one hand there was content that was so much higher level than me it was pretty obvious that it was futile (even by Souls like standards) and on the other end there were piss easy mobs that offered basically no EXP and weren't worth fucking with. In between both were vast seas of literally nothing. Empty fields and forests. Ruins with almost nothing in them. It was a bleak, empty world that wasn't worth seeing or spending time in, and while when I did happen upon a challenging fight it was very enjoyable the amount of time spent doing literally nothing made the game very unappealing.

Other games through pacing, proper storytelling, or some sort of intrigue can pad this out. From Soft doesn't know how to do any of these things so unless you instinctively know exactly where you're supposed to be going (arguably defeating the purpose of the game being open world), there's fuck all to do way too often.

 

[The Ugly One]

There is nothing wrong with playing FPS games with a controller. Keyboard and mouse are more precise but sometimes I just want to sit back and relax with a controller in hand and an FPS is perfectly enjoyable and playable with a controller.

Kids on Xboxes kick my dick in, and I play CoD on PC with a mouse. So yeah.

 

[Matt Damon]

Let me rephrase; when I played Elden Ring, not using any guides or anything, just on my own. I would frequently encounter situations where in order to progress it involved me wandering around a mostly empty map for hours looking for something to do.

On one hand there was content that was so much higher level than me it was pretty obvious that it was futile (even by Souls like standards) and on the other end there were piss easy mobs that offered basically no EXP and weren't worth fucking with. In between both were vast seas of literally nothing. Empty fields and forests. Ruins with almost nothing in them. It was a bleak, empty world that wasn't worth seeing or spending time in, and while when I did happen upon a challenging fight it was very enjoyable the amount of time spent doing literally nothing made the game very unappealing.

Other games through pacing, proper storytelling, or some sort of intrigue can pad this out. From Soft doesn't know how to do any of these things so unless you instinctively know exactly where you're supposed to be going (arguably defeating the purpose of the game being open world), there's fuck all to do way too often.

Maybe so. I haven't played Elden Ring and I think is a very common problem with game franchises "going open-world" in general.

But I thought we were talking about Dark Souls.

 

[Abbadon's Gate]

But I thought we were talking about Dark Souls.

We were talking about "lies" involving Dark Souls. Incidentally they almost all also apply to Elden Ring as Elden Ring is just Dark Souls but with an open world this time and because From Soft only knows how to make like two games.

 

[Matt Damon]

Elden Ring is just Dark Souls but with an open world this time

That's a pretty big "just". Metro Exodus is just Metro Last Light with an open world and it completely ruined the pacing of the original formula. Making a linear series "open-world" is nearly as consequential to core gameplay concepts as a 2D series transitioning to 3D.

 

[Spud]

There's a third lie, the idea that that item descriptions count as story telling.

It is though. From the Iron and Sun armour set.

Solaire's incredible prowess must have come from rigorous training alone, for his equipment exhibits no special traits.

Here the game is telling you that Solaire's strength is the result of his training as his armour is plain and lacking in magical enhancements.

Ornstiens Armour Set

Ornstein is believed to be the captain of the Four Knights. His golden lion helm is imbued with the power of lightning and should provide good protection against it.

Here the game is telling you that Ornstien is believed to be the captain of the four knights and that his golden lion set is imbued with lighting leading it to have better protection from lightning attacks. Just cause you're to lazy to read doesn't mean its not there.

Tax: The Ornstein and Smough fight is overrated. A fat guy who hits hard and a smaller guy who's faster wow so original. The Demon Firesage has more originality

 

[Abbadon's Gate]

That's a pretty big "just". Metro Exodus is just Metro Last Light with an open world and it completely ruined the pacing of the original formula. Making a linear series "open-world" is nearly as consequential to core gameplay concepts as a 2D series transitioning to 3D.

It is and it isn't. I see your point and I agree with it. So I will attempt to refine my thoughts once again for clarity's sake: Despite being an Open World version of Dark Souls, in terms of core mechanics and combat, there is not a significant difference between Elden Ring and Dark Souls say for the openness of the map design. Like with Metro Exodus in your above mentioned opinion, I feel that Elden Ring's more open design was ultimate detrimental to the over all experience.

 

[Girl Named Sandoz]

Let me rephrase; when I played Elden Ring, not using any guides or anything, just on my own. I would frequently encounter situations where in order to progress it involved me wandering around a mostly empty map for hours looking for something to do.

what? there are golden beams of light everywhere that show you where to go. they tell you about them at the very beginning of the game and they’re even marked on the map

 

[Super Hans v2]

It is though. From the Iron and Sun armour set.

Here the game is telling you that Solaire's strength is the result of his training as his armour is plain and lacking in magical enhancements.

Ornstiens Armour Set

Here the game is telling you that Ornstien is believed to be the captain of the four knights and that his golden lion set is imbued with lighting leading it to have better protection from lightning attacks. Just cause you're to lazy to read doesn't mean its not there.

Tax: The Ornstein and Smough fight is overrated. A fat guy who hits hard and a smaller guy who's faster wow so original. The Demon Firesage has more originality

If you asked me how my day was going, would you accept a unabridged history of my kitchen table as a satisfactory answer?

 

[Abbadon's Gate]

what? there are golden beams of light everywhere that show you where to go. they tell you about them at the very beginning of the game and they’re even marked on the map

The Beams of light indicate where the next "Objective" is, however the next objective is not something that should always even be attempted after finishing the previous objective. Case and point would be to look at Max0r's Elden Ring videos and note how when you follow the initial golden beams of light to the first boss of the game, you get there fairly underequipped and under leveled and then have to fuck off elsewhere on your own for an indeterminant amount of time to gain enough exp and equipment to come back and actually win.

 

[Spud]

If you asked me how my day was going, would you accept a unabridged history of my kitchen table as a satisfactory answer?

Yes.

 

[Matt Damon]

If you asked me how my day was going, would you accept a unabridged history of my kitchen table as a satisfactory answer?

It's a video game, not polite chit-chat with a coworker. If I wanted the basic facts of a story to be dryly laid out for me, I could just read a three-paragraph synopsis on Wikipedia rather than playing it.

As I said earlier:

Autistic nerds want to explain and quantify and catalogue and categorize everything and, in the process, they ruin every piece of fiction they touch.

Would Memento have been better if all the scenes had played normally in matter-of-fact chronological order? Would The Sixth Sense have been better if we'd been informed "psst, Donny Wahlberg killed Bruce Willis and now he's a ghost!" in the introduction?

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Do people have strong feelings about Geno?

He was an ancillary character in one game - and a niche game at that. I had to look him up just now to make sure I wasn't confusing him with Mallow.

I like Geno, and in my case I can recognize that it's probably more to do with me liking the game so much and having nostalgia for it than him being a great character. That might be why he's so popular when he's just objectively average in most ways.

Speaking of unpopular opinions: Tank controls are fine by me. They are literally RC car controls. They're excellent for third-person games where lining up your character is important, like in Grim Fandango. They don't work in fast paced action games, because you need to sidestep and dodge a lot.

I agree, in fact I prefer them when paired with a fixed camera, and think that should have been how horror games in particular stayed. This is probably an unpopular opinion generally, but I think a lot of horror fans at least agree.

Fire Emblem was always anime styled as far as I can tell.

It was, but the games up until Awakening didn't hyperfocus on relationships in the gameplay, and the stories were more typical high-fantasy and not bubbly anime vomit. They were a bit more dark and serious in their presentation, which is why I still think the best one was Path of Radiance for GameCube. It's a pretty straightforward revenge story, you're not an amnesiac self-insert dropped into a school setting with giggling waifus winning through the power of friendship, you play as Ike and are avenging your father.

This:

Became this:

Tldr; they dialed the animeness up to 11.

 

[Abbadon's Gate]

Would Memento have been better if all the scenes had played normally in matter-of-fact chronological order? Would The Sixth Sense have been better if we'd been informed "psst, Donny Wahlberg killed Bruce Willis and now he's a ghost!" in the introduction?

I appreciate the Nolan reference, but by that same token would Dunkirk and Tenet have been received better if they'd followed a more standardized story?

There's also a point where normal storytelling just does its job better than random factoids. Knowing the MCRN Tachi is normally docked inside the Donnager and that the Tachi has 6 PDC mounts that fire at 3000 rounds per minute is a cool touch for world building, but it isn't particularly useful when I want to know who the fuck Marco Inaros is and why the fuck he's dropping rocks on Earth and Mars. From Soft gives way too much of the former and not nearly enough of the latter.

 

[Judge Dredd]

There's a third lie, the idea that that item descriptions count as story telling. There's this theory that the world has great storytelling, you just have to look for it, and that's bullshit.

I've heard the claim that Miazaki said that in his youth, he was obsessed with western fantasy novels, but the language barrier meant there were gaps in the lore he had to puzzle together himself. That his goal with the first souls game (whichever that was) was to recreate that feeling. I've not heard him say that myself, but it's mentioned in a few videos I watched on Soul's and Kings Field over the years.

I might as well add the forth lie. That many soulsbourne fans were big into King's Field before the series went mainstream. Utter bullshit. Nobody played Kings Field. Before Dark Souls, FromSoftware were "the armored core people". And even if you were the rare 0.01% of people who used their chipped PS1 to play weird Japanese imports, your favourite was not going to be a janky JRPG that was primitive even by the standards of the day, that you couldn't even read.

This isn't just a Kings Field thing either. I see this all the time with Elder Scrolls. Arena sold 10,000 copies max, and even ten times that number doesn't come close to the millions Skyrim sold. Daggerfall was largely unknown too. Morrowind had a following among RPG nerds, and that's it. Same with Swery and Persona fans. Nobody had heard of Spy Fiction until Deadly Premonition became a meme. Persona 3 had a following among JRPG fans and was mildly controversial, but it wasn't until Persona 4 went mainstream in part due to Giant Bomb's playthrough. Again, a Japan only JRPG on the SNES was not something that would've had a big fanbase in the west.