What are the most pretentious games ever made?

[Michael Wade]

Analogue: A Hate Story
View attachment 5997159
You can read about the sheer pretentiousness of this game on Wikipedia, but to summarize, it's Handmaid's Tale but with Space Korea and AI waifus.

The tranny who wrote this, Christine Love, gave an interview with Kotaku where he complains about getting drunk while writing the game. Personally I believe the game was his fantasy, where he could be a victimized woman only wanted for her womb, an empowered girl boss, and finally a cute waifu. What's more gender affirming than that?

Interesting. I remember thinking the plot had a cool hook from reading TV tropes. I liked the aspect of Boarding a dead spaceship/space colony and trying to figure out what happened more then the love drama bullshit.

 

[SIMIΔN]

Interesting. I remember thinking the plot had a cool hook from reading TV tropes. I liked the aspect of Boarding a dead spaceship/space colony and trying to figure out what happened more then the love drama bullshit.

The tranny who wrote this, Christine Love, gave an interview with Kotaku where he complains about getting drunk while writing the game. Personally I believe the game was his fantasy, where he could be a victimized woman only wanted for her womb, an empowered girl boss, and finally a cute waifu. What's more gender affirming than that?

I played the demo, and was actually tempted to buy it for 75% off. Then I googled the designer and got a big rant against gamergate.
I also think an author's background affects the message. Christine was neither a Korean, nor a woman, so it lost artistic value as a critique of traditional Korean sexism. I also enjoyed Bioshock Infinite, but I would have appreciated the plot thread about An insincere baptism being moral-licensing to continue past evil more if Ken Levine was Christian.

 

[std::string]

Surprised no one's mentioned it (probably cause it's a vn), but Doki Doki Literature Club is rather pretentious. Creator didn't like tropes, so he made a game with the characters having tropes but creepypasta style (realistic eyes and blood and all). Once you know the twist of it, there's no point in continuing.

This game and FNAF (though not really pretentious) became some kind of weird cancer in the indie scene.

Creepypastas, secret lore, open-ended (usually terrible) writing. Stuff like that.

 

[Big Brown Schlub]

You think Kojima games as they released are bad, supposedly, according to his staff, his writing was such an incoherent mess that once his editors finished trying to make any sense of his writing they basically had an entirely different story on their hands.

Granted, I can't for the life of me recall where I read this, but I can certainly believe it

Wouldn't be surprised if the same happened whenever Kojimbo wanted to implement the most harebrained gameplay mechanics known to man. The MGS games are consistently praised for their insane level of detail and I imagine that this is a result of a team of tardwranglers separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to the shit Kojimbo wants in his games, for example Kojimbo wanted to make a game where after you game over even once you can't ever play the game anymore.

 

[That Chris Guy]

Horizon series. Just the first few bars of the main theme tune is enough to make me feel physically nauseous at how fart-huffingly faux emotional it all is.

There are no lyrics - just some German broad whimsically moaning different notes.

The game itself feels like it was designed by committee to be as inoffensive as humanly possible. It's a giga-budget movie game that's desperate to tug at your heart strings and create some sort of feeling inside you, like an Avatar on steroids. It even goes for all the same hooks - women are strong, tribal people are noble, and we must protect Gaia at all costs.

I think i'd rather slit my own scrotum than endure an hour more of this series.

I haven't played it beyond the prologue to this day. I wanted a multi-faceted story where you played different characters in a tribe trying desperately to survive in a world with limited resources and robot dinosaurs that were increasingly more aggressive. Instead, it became The Aloy Game, and that was such a squandered amount of potential to be replaced by a gay Ginger Pocahontas that I still can't bring myself to suffer through it.

 

[Super De Quico]

Anything that gets turned into "e-sports". Not because of trying to be artsy or pompous, but rather on how they want the games to be seen as serious business.

 

[X Prime]

I don't know if it's the translation team's fault or if the native language is just that pretentious, but every single high profile jap game (titles like Persona, Bravely Default, Final Fantasy etc.) sooner or later gets unbearably pretentious, spiritual and feels like both the writers and protagonists are huffing their own farts 24/7. You always transition from regular turn based RPG experience to turn cringe RPG where you beat the shit out of some kind of god or a mystical concept made flesh, and spend half the time contemplating the nature of frienshit or freedom, romancing teammates for some fucking reason or whatever gay faggot retarded shit only a 14 years old sperg or a 20+ westoid manchild permavirgin would consider deep and profound. Japs have no sense of scale, to them the stakes have to rise exponentially, you always have to go from beating rats to beating gods, there are no exceptions.

It's not the translation's fault most of the time.

I will try to explain the weird navelgazing about freedom this way.

Do you know how most Western game designer types are left-wing, usually counterculture types, yet are avid consumers of mainstream culture slop?

The same thing applies to Japan. But that society in general is much more conformist and collectivist, so there's less ways to express that in a safe manner. Enter externalization: notice how many stories are about being against conformity (which is distinctly a Japanese problem) but end up having a distinctly Westernized figure as the final opponent. That's the trick, it's an aspect of Japanese society that is made safe to root against by disguising it as something else.

 

[Michael Wade]

I was playing Immortals relm of something or other. That expensive ass pretty unreal engine 5 game nobody cared about.

The sad thing is while it looks beautiful, and doesnt even play that bad. It's just so... bland with a twinge of insufferableness. LIke the opening of the game has an ugly back chick and a bunch of orphans die to give your guy some motivation and I felt less then nothing.

It's just so... Stock standard and pushing the very EDGE of the line in terms of games on this board. I dont even hate the main character, he's decent enough to be likeable but they give him a shitty haircut and have him defer to an old black lady boss.

 

[Dysnomia]

Analogue: A Hate Story
View attachment 5997159
You can read about the sheer pretentiousness of this game on Wikipedia, but to summarize, it's Handmaid's Tale but with Space Korea and AI waifus.

The tranny who wrote this, Christine Love, gave an interview with Kotaku where he complains about getting drunk while writing the game. Personally I believe the game was his fantasy, where he could be a victimized woman only wanted for her womb, an empowered girl boss, and finally a cute waifu. What's more gender affirming than that?

I actually liked this game and it's sequel. Rather woke. But the setting was interesting and Mewt was awesome. Especially in the sequel. Hyun-Ae not so much. I mean I felt bad for her and the ship was doomed anyway. She really got fucked over big time. But still...That's horrifying. How could you do that?

But I see where you are coming from. I had no idea it was written by a tranny. I assumed it was just some random Koreaboo.

If you played Hate+ it's revealed that the entire downfall of the ship was started by some crazy bitch who groomed an oatmeal flavored betamale into doing her bidding by riding his dick. So in the end all that horrible sexism was a woman's fault.

And you know what? When I got to that part I thought it was very strange that it would go that way. But if it was written by a tranny I guess that explains it. Deep down they really hate real women no matter what they say.

It doesn't change the fact that I enjoyed the story. It just really makes it more icky considering the tranny thing. I didn't pay attention to who made it. It was on sale and I liked the setting. And later I got the sequel. Sometimes when you go in blind you are surprised at exactly what went into what you consumed.

 

[My cravat doesn't flutter]

This Bed We Made. What could've been a compelling commentary on mental illness and homophobia in the 1950s fell flat on its ass by making all the gay characters awful people. It's a murder mystery that doesn't outright confirm who the culprit is, but it seems to be leaning toward a Murder on the Orient Express type of ending where every suspect was guilty (Agatha Christie is referenced in the game). We end up with an innocent man being brutally murdered because his wife wants to run away to California with her college roommate and said former roommate's young son. She's an author who hired a gay man fresh out of a psych ward to stalk her so she can get in character, so to speak, for her next novel. He then follows her to another country after his contract has ended and creeps on the hotel staff. The player character, Sophie, is a 21yo woman being pursued by her much older female coworker.

As a cherry on top, they had an achievement for telling your boss "You can't fire me, I quit!" that was ever so tastelessly named "Sophie's Choice". The name was changed shortly after release.

Defenders of the game all have this "bye sis" attitude and can't see past "Brave lesbians choose to run away and be together in the homophobic 1950s."

edit: grammar

 

[My cravat doesn't flutter]

It doesn't change the fact that I enjoyed the story. It just really makes it more icky considering the tranny thing. I didn't pay attention to who made it. It was on sale and I liked the setting. And later I got the sequel. Sometimes when you go in blind you are surprised at exactly what went into what you consumed.

Never realized the writer was a troon, either. Makes me feel kinda weird about my Hyun-ae plush.

I liked the idea of human civilization and society being on something of a perpetual loop.

 

[Dysnomia]

Never realized the writer was a troon, either. Makes me feel kinda weird about my Hyun-ae plush.

I liked the idea of human civilization and society being on something of a perpetual loop.

In Hate+ it's mentioned that there was another AI named Star who was destroyed in a riot centuries before. It was a navigation AI and the ship was already off course for awhile because of this. I would have liked a story about this incident and what was going on at the time that caused this. I doubt we'll get one though.

There's an earlier freeware game called Digital: A Love Story. I'll have to check that one out and see what it's like.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

In Hate+ it's mentioned that there was another AI named Star who was destroyed in a riot centuries before. It was a navigation AI and the ship was already off course for awhile because of this. I would have liked a story about this incident and what was going on at the time that caused this. I doubt we'll get one though.

There's an earlier freeware game called Digital: A Love Story. I'll have to check that one out and see what it's like.

It sounds like the usual retcon of "those people were doomed anyways so my waifu didn't do anything wrong". Classic case of an author realizing only after release that the female character he wrote done something that is heinous when you aren't simping for her.

 

[Colon capital V]

for example Kojimbo wanted to make a game where after you game over even once you can't ever play the game anymore.

Tf? This is literally what OneShot (the original version, not the steam version) did.

 

[ratnoid]

Unsure if it is the most pretentious game ever made but "The Void" was up there for me. Same developers who made Pathologic. Basically a game that disguises herself as something very obscure and super deep, meanwhile the message can be summarized as "be yourself". Wow thanks Dubowsky. Never could've figured it out myself.

Both Pathologic games are pretty pretentious too. Shit like dialogue with the developer through some npcs which do the smug soyjak at you and the whole "kids are our future and adults are retards". Then the dev studio's founder gets into a pedo accusation scandal.

 

[Forsaken Wanderer]

I get that sprites aren't easy to make and are time consuming but if you take the easy way out and make your game entirely out of single colored squares and then pretend that makes it deep then it is incredibly gay.

There is one in particular I am thinking of but I can't recall the name, it's something like "and then john dies" or "the boy falls" or something like that. Asking the player to do all the work in the imagination department and pretending this means the game is full of meaning makes the developer a jar of basalt powder.

 

[Green Kitbash]

Analogue: A Hate Story
View attachment 5997159
You can read about the sheer pretentiousness of this game on Wikipedia, but to summarize, it's Handmaid's Tale but with Space Korea and AI waifus.

The tranny who wrote this, Christine Love, gave an interview with Kotaku where he complains about getting drunk while writing the game. Personally I believe the game was his fantasy, where he could be a victimized woman only wanted for her womb, an empowered girl boss, and finally a cute waifu. What's more gender affirming than that?

You know back in the day I followed Christine Love on twitter alongside a bunch of other indies that turned out to be crazy. They would go on spiels on how hard to was to find a boyfriend because they were bi, then in a later post claiming to be gay and how they feared going outside because men would attack them. Totally figures that they turned out to be a troon. Every single goddamn time.

Same crowd would say shit like "representation is endorsement", as a negative! Basically showing racism or violence is endorsing it. This was pre-gamergate shit that was boiling in the background. Game journos at the time were all about huffing the shit from these indie art pieces and talking down AAA games with gameplay. Oddly enough things have fucking reversed but the indie sphere is still rife with this bullshit.

 

[Señora Airi]

This game and FNAF (though not really pretentious) became some kind of weird cancer in the indie scene.

Creepypastas, secret lore, open-ended (usually terrible) writing. Stuff like that.

That cancer would be known as the "solo dev" phenomena.

 

[My cravat doesn't flutter]

I'd say the Great Ace Attorney duology is kind of pretentious. It's set in Victorian England for the sole purpose of being a shitty Sherlock Holmes fanfic and a shoehorning in a story about racism. They turn Sherlock Holmes (Herlock Sholmes due to copyright) into a complete retard and the racism story is handled with all the subtlety and nuance of a brick to the face. Said brick has the words "You are Japanese" engraved into it and is wielded by a drunken ballerina.

Spoiler: said drunken ballerina

All I can think when he does that is how easy it would be to just tip him over.

Victorian England was fucking terrifying. Your wallpaper could kill you. It was fashionable to build guns into everyday objects like canes and rings. You could shoot someone with your ring. The limitations of the time period are null and void because Herlock Sholmes and his partner Iris Wilson can just invent shit to do anything and everything. I despise Great Ace Attorney. I fucking love every other game in the Ace Attorney franchise, but GAA is just garbage. To this day, I cannot say the words "assassin exchange" with a straight face. It sounds like somewhere you'd take your broken 47 for a replacement.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I get that sprites aren't easy to make and are time consuming but if you take the easy way out and make your game entirely out of single colored squares and then pretend that makes it deep then it is incredibly gay.

There is one in particular I am thinking of but I can't recall the name, it's something like "and then john dies" or "the boy falls" or something like that. Asking the player to do all the work in the imagination department and pretending this means the game is full of meaning makes the developer a jar of basalt powder.

You are probably talking about Thomas was Alone, and yeah it was pretentious shit

I'd say the Great Ace Attorney duology is kind of pretentious. It's set in Victorian England for the sole purpose of being a shitty Sherlock Holmes fanfic and a shoehorning in a story about racism. They turn Sherlock Holmes (Herlock Sholmes due to copyright) into a complete retard and the racism story is handled with all the subtlety and nuance of a brick to the face. Said brick has the words "You are Japanese" engraved into it and is wielded by a drunken ballerina.

Spoiler: said drunken ballerina

View attachment 6004224View attachment 6004223
All I can think when he does that is how easy it would be to just tip him over.

Victorian England was fucking terrifying. Your wallpaper could kill you. It was fashionable to build guns into everyday objects like canes and rings. You could shoot someone with your ring. The limitations of the time period are null and void because Herlock Sholmes and his partner Iris Wilson can just invent shit to do anything and everything. I despise Great Ace Attorney. I fucking love every other game in the Ace Attorney franchise, but GAA is just garbage. To this day, I cannot say the words "assassin exchange" with a straight face. It sounds like somewhere you'd take your broken 47 for a replacement.

Ace Attorney is silly for silliness sake. It never tries to say anything. Plus Sholmes is the usual anime "acts like a retard but manipulates everyone without their knowing".