skykiii
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2018
Basically, do you ever feel like "gosh, there's already like 50 of these released last week alone, we don't need another one!"
or its counterpart, "I used to like these kinds of games, how come they're so rare nowadays?"
And yes you CAN include sub-genres and variants.
Name them here. Maybe we could even help each other.
For me:
OVER-represented
Metroidvanias. Was once a time these were rare and cool, but now they're basically every game ever and I stopped caring.
Roguelikes. Gonna be honest I never liked these to begin with. Rogue and Nethack are fun as free games but I can't imagine paying money for random generation that often winds up feeling a bit shallow.
SNES-Style RPGs. My feelings about these are complicated.
UNDER-represented
NES-style RPGs. I know I just criticized their 16-bit cousins but RPGs on the NES were a different beast.
Myst-like games. Now obviously, first-person brain-teasers and point-n-click adventures aren't rare, but in my experience most of the time they're either narrative focused, or else they're basically "escape the room" games. What makes a game Myst-like is that it has to have some sort of almost-acheological narrative (remember how the first Myst has you figuring out what happened from environmental details?) as well as puzzles that rely on you understanding the environment around you, where everything has a reason to exist.
A game where you have to solve a sudoku puzzle to get a combination to a safe to get a knob you put on a drawer... is not Myst-like. That kind of puzzle is clearly artificial and video gamey.
Horror games that don't do the Silent Hill 2 twist. I've done multiple. rants about this before. Horror games used to be one of my favorite genres, but these days I've been burned too often by the story having a reveal that completely pisses on my time investment... and the only games that don't are meme games like FNAF where I just don't find the premise all that interesting. The only way to avoid it is to stick to games I already know, which is just lame.
Anyway, what genres do you think are overdone? And what do you wish there were more of? And also have you found any modern games that fit into the "under-represented" genres?
or its counterpart, "I used to like these kinds of games, how come they're so rare nowadays?"
And yes you CAN include sub-genres and variants.
Name them here. Maybe we could even help each other.
For me:
OVER-represented
Metroidvanias. Was once a time these were rare and cool, but now they're basically every game ever and I stopped caring.
Roguelikes. Gonna be honest I never liked these to begin with. Rogue and Nethack are fun as free games but I can't imagine paying money for random generation that often winds up feeling a bit shallow.
SNES-Style RPGs. My feelings about these are complicated.
I like the SNES library but a part of that is that they actually are from the 1990s, so they take me back to a simpler time and I can forgive aspects of them because that's just the expectation. But RPGs in general are a genre I'm disappointed hasn't really evolved in terms of storytelling or gameplay since the SNES. On the Playstation it really felt like the genre was growing up with the audience, with games like Xenogears that were introducing more complex themes and ideas.
So when I see these SNES-style RPGs they actually feel like a regression. A cliche plot about a hero who goes on a quest after the evil empire burns his village can be accepted as charmingly quaint when its an actual 1990s game, but when its in a 2020s game I just go "are you fucking serious?"
Also if you're gonna go with the 16-bit aesthetic, fucking stick to it. A lot of times these games break my suspension of disbelief by doing things--anything from artwork quirks to interface to dialogue--that would not have happened in the actual 16-bit days. Usually its the anime artwork clearly being modern anime rather than looking like the kind of anime that was actually prevalent in the 1990s.
So when I see these SNES-style RPGs they actually feel like a regression. A cliche plot about a hero who goes on a quest after the evil empire burns his village can be accepted as charmingly quaint when its an actual 1990s game, but when its in a 2020s game I just go "are you fucking serious?"
Also if you're gonna go with the 16-bit aesthetic, fucking stick to it. A lot of times these games break my suspension of disbelief by doing things--anything from artwork quirks to interface to dialogue--that would not have happened in the actual 16-bit days. Usually its the anime artwork clearly being modern anime rather than looking like the kind of anime that was actually prevalent in the 1990s.
UNDER-represented
NES-style RPGs. I know I just criticized their 16-bit cousins but RPGs on the NES were a different beast.
One of the primary feelings I get when I play RPGs on the NES is the player has more agency. The King can tell you "defeat the Dragonlord and if you can, rescue my daughter too" but how exactly you go about that is up to you. (Not an RPG but) Zelda can tell you the order of the dungeons but most of the time does not force you to do Dungeon 1 before Dungeon 4, so if you know Dungeon 4 has a really useful piece of gear and you can get it, you can go there first.
I also feel more engaged in battle in most NES RPGs, because my options mean more. I think I've made this rant before so I'll be quick.... in a game like Dragon Warrior or Wizardry, casting sleep on enemies can actually be a life-saving decision or at the very least allow you to focus on one group while another is incapacitated, while starting on the SNES status effects became useless and we entered the era of the "rock-scissor-paper" system, which in my opinion is not that good--that's basically just "keep doing one thing until the bad guy dies." Its boring and lacks any sort of real thought, weighing of options, any sort of dynamism.
But yeah, for some reason on modern platforms you never get something that's like an NES RPG (in terms of gameplay). It's either fully open world or its a scripted linear adventure, never quite the in-between you got on the NES.
I also feel more engaged in battle in most NES RPGs, because my options mean more. I think I've made this rant before so I'll be quick.... in a game like Dragon Warrior or Wizardry, casting sleep on enemies can actually be a life-saving decision or at the very least allow you to focus on one group while another is incapacitated, while starting on the SNES status effects became useless and we entered the era of the "rock-scissor-paper" system, which in my opinion is not that good--that's basically just "keep doing one thing until the bad guy dies." Its boring and lacks any sort of real thought, weighing of options, any sort of dynamism.
But yeah, for some reason on modern platforms you never get something that's like an NES RPG (in terms of gameplay). It's either fully open world or its a scripted linear adventure, never quite the in-between you got on the NES.
Myst-like games. Now obviously, first-person brain-teasers and point-n-click adventures aren't rare, but in my experience most of the time they're either narrative focused, or else they're basically "escape the room" games. What makes a game Myst-like is that it has to have some sort of almost-acheological narrative (remember how the first Myst has you figuring out what happened from environmental details?) as well as puzzles that rely on you understanding the environment around you, where everything has a reason to exist.
A game where you have to solve a sudoku puzzle to get a combination to a safe to get a knob you put on a drawer... is not Myst-like. That kind of puzzle is clearly artificial and video gamey.
Horror games that don't do the Silent Hill 2 twist. I've done multiple. rants about this before. Horror games used to be one of my favorite genres, but these days I've been burned too often by the story having a reveal that completely pisses on my time investment... and the only games that don't are meme games like FNAF where I just don't find the premise all that interesting. The only way to avoid it is to stick to games I already know, which is just lame.
Anyway, what genres do you think are overdone? And what do you wish there were more of? And also have you found any modern games that fit into the "under-represented" genres?
