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TalkBack / Re: Sonic Lost World Video Demonstration
« on: September 23, 2013, 08:48:43 PM »
Looks very nice. Love the bell idea. I think this one will be a winner.
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TalkBack / Re: The Japanese (Dragon) Quest for Perfection
« on: August 06, 2010, 06:59:01 PM »
I do think the Japanese culture and spirit plays into their video games style, of course, but at the same time I think of grinding and turn-based battles as essential to the genre (as old as D&D and wargaming, perhaps). I mention turn-based battles because they're often complained about in the same sentence as grinding and because they're kind of related. Let me explain.
Basically grinding is essential to RPGs because you need to reach points in the game where enemies are obviously tougher than you are. In fact, there should be parts where you seemingly cannot even enter a dungeon because the enemies outside are so difficult in comparison to another area of the map. This gives a sense of place and travel. It also tells the gamer that he has a lot of work to do to progress beyond the level of those monsters, and proves you can lose if you go ahead too far. But more importantly an RPG would be a smooth ride (no bumps in difficulty) without those spots where you need to grind. You would feel like you're taking a ride, or on an escalator, rather than climbing a tall, winding flight of stairs that has rotted wood and is missing guardrails. My point is that the difficulty would never seem to change and the enemies would seem interchangeable with each other because without grinding everything would be a smooth progression.
This plays into stats, though. Unlike action games that rely on skill and dexterity, in a roleplaying game even an expert player can't face off with the hardest enemies (or dungeons) right away without working his way up. Without stats, and turn-based battles, you take away this fundamental element. You are no longer role-playing (getting into character, such as that of a 16-year-old boy first striking out on his own) but are instead just playing an extension of yourself -- fighting games are the exact opposite of role-playing games because you don't identify with the character you play so much and everything rests on your skills (all the characters are designed to be balanced, usually, in their move sets). So you see, with out grinding you take away the sense of progression and growing stronger, which in turn is tied up with your self as playing a character who gets better outside of your talents as a video gamer. You can't do that without stats: in action games there's no good, detailed way to represent things like agility, strength, intelligence, etc. This has to be done with stats, with turn-based battles, and finally with grinding.
Basically grinding is essential to RPGs because you need to reach points in the game where enemies are obviously tougher than you are. In fact, there should be parts where you seemingly cannot even enter a dungeon because the enemies outside are so difficult in comparison to another area of the map. This gives a sense of place and travel. It also tells the gamer that he has a lot of work to do to progress beyond the level of those monsters, and proves you can lose if you go ahead too far. But more importantly an RPG would be a smooth ride (no bumps in difficulty) without those spots where you need to grind. You would feel like you're taking a ride, or on an escalator, rather than climbing a tall, winding flight of stairs that has rotted wood and is missing guardrails. My point is that the difficulty would never seem to change and the enemies would seem interchangeable with each other because without grinding everything would be a smooth progression.
This plays into stats, though. Unlike action games that rely on skill and dexterity, in a roleplaying game even an expert player can't face off with the hardest enemies (or dungeons) right away without working his way up. Without stats, and turn-based battles, you take away this fundamental element. You are no longer role-playing (getting into character, such as that of a 16-year-old boy first striking out on his own) but are instead just playing an extension of yourself -- fighting games are the exact opposite of role-playing games because you don't identify with the character you play so much and everything rests on your skills (all the characters are designed to be balanced, usually, in their move sets). So you see, with out grinding you take away the sense of progression and growing stronger, which in turn is tied up with your self as playing a character who gets better outside of your talents as a video gamer. You can't do that without stats: in action games there's no good, detailed way to represent things like agility, strength, intelligence, etc. This has to be done with stats, with turn-based battles, and finally with grinding.
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