General random thoughts you have on any video games in general
- Thread starter Mike Wheeler
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- MarioWiki
- CaptainOdyssey
For some reason, I feel like I like having the option to be evil in rpgs, but then I always end up playing the standard goody two-shoes dork in shining armor each time. I thinks it's something about just the idea that I could do otherwise seems cool.
LuigiFan24
#LuigiForLife
While Mario is my favorite game franchise of all time, my favorite non-Mario games are Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Splatoon 3, and Sonic Mania. 
Man, updates that change negatively change how a game feels are the worst. Pokémon Unite changed its shop interface to remove the flavor idea of there being multiple storefronts. This slightly streamlines the menus, since each store had to be opened to reach its menu interface, at the cost reducing the feeling of Aeos Island being a place you can move around. Which sucks because I really do think Pokémon Unite's greatest strength is taking a hodgepodge of mechanics and constructing a wacky, oddball, but sincere interpretation of Pokémon out of them. Removing the lore weakens the sincerity. Without the storefronts players spend less time around the original characters. And instead of having three environments to go between, there's a single clinical "showroom" so the player can't pretend to window shop. Its harder to pretend (some might say "roleplay") that Pokémon Unite follows Pokémon Journey set up when the world is having its nuances revoked like this.
LuigiFan24
#LuigiForLife
I don't know if Switch Sports will receive anymore DLC sports, but with the small chance that it does, I would like to see Baseball from the original Wii Sports and Power Cruising from Resort.
Looking at maps of levels which have a foreground plane and a background plane gets trippy. Here's a link to one such map: Sonic Retro's map of Sonic Coaster Rails from Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 2. (Technically this is a bad example, since Sonic Coaster Rails has a foreground, midground, and background plane, but the background plane is only used for the very last part of the level.)
I think Undertale's battle system is better than Deltarune's. I feel like it's more unique, and Deltarune is just borrowing Undertale's. The only 2 things I think they added to the battle system was TP, and Spells. Still a great game though.
For some Solaris forsaken reason, Sonic Mania Encore Mode (basically New Game +) makes the dreaded Chemical Plant Mega Mack climb harder than it is in the original Sonic Mania. There are fewer moving blocks than in the original, and their movement are more esoteric than they are in the original. The player is more likely to flub this climb and drown or get smashed into a wall by the blocks. The climb is one of the callbacks in Mania that I think should have been scrapped. The climb was too much in Sonic 2 and its still too much in Mania, mostly because its the second zone in both games. Why make it worse?
The thing about Encore Mode is that the layout changes aren't universally to make things more difficult. Some areas actually get easier in their Encore Mode counterparts. Most notably, a rising and falling hallway in Titanic Monarch Act 1 loses its spikes in Encore Mode. Those spikes are notorious for being a crushing hazard to the impatient, thanks to an especially low ceiling. (And if there's any case for keeping an aggravating hazard, its in the game's final zone.) The one reason to make the Chemical Plant Mega Mack climb harder is if Encore Mode is supposed to be a hard mode, which it isn't.
The thing about Encore Mode is that the layout changes aren't universally to make things more difficult. Some areas actually get easier in their Encore Mode counterparts. Most notably, a rising and falling hallway in Titanic Monarch Act 1 loses its spikes in Encore Mode. Those spikes are notorious for being a crushing hazard to the impatient, thanks to an especially low ceiling. (And if there's any case for keeping an aggravating hazard, its in the game's final zone.) The one reason to make the Chemical Plant Mega Mack climb harder is if Encore Mode is supposed to be a hard mode, which it isn't.
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What's trippier than level maps of levels with two planes? Level maps of levels where the route forward rotates around and terrain makes use of three dimensional components. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to parse Sonic Retro's map of Sonic Generations Sky Sanctuary Act 1. Also, I think the springs and item monitors are oversized on the map compared to their appearance in the actual game.
I am not liking Disney Illusion Island. Like, its an okay Metroidvania, but the environments are often super empty (in part because enemy mechanics have been downplayed such that Mickey & Friends don't have attacks) and for some reason they didn't give the player a dash to make going through these empty environments faster. (Likely because multiplayer logistics are easier to manage, especially when players have different skill levels, if everyone moves at the same speed and the only modifiers is the game making players in the back go faster so they don't get left behind.) I wouldn't make this post otherwise, but I met a character named Dash Dolphin, who I fully expected to give me a dash skill. Nope, he gave me a full game scavenger hunt, which I will have to complete without a dash. Why Dlala Studios? Why?
Revin
I like wheels.
- MarioWiki
- Reverse Input
I played Disney Illusion Island when it was free on NSO for a game trial late last year, and I felt much the same. The game certainly has good presentation (art, music, etc), but the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. Some thoughts I wrote down at the time:
a quick little bonus, this was available as a switch game trial for a few days through NSO. i would say it's worth about what i paid for it, and if i didnt have the time limit i may not have actually seen it through to the end
the structure has the illusion of a metroidvania, but the design isnt really anything like that at all. although its an interconnected world, everything is pretty much linear paths from one point to the next, with a bit of backtracking until you reach the next teleport, which usually spits you out at the spot you need to go. blockages are mostly arbitrary, like the doors that stop you from continuing before you get 3 keys, but usually just end up making you go down the only other available path and do a loop where you pick them up and get spat out back near the door. there are ability unlocks, but most places you come across that are blocked the first time around only lead to optional collectibles because, again, the world design is essentially linear.
this leaves you with just the gameplay to be the saving grace and it's... fine. servicable, if i had to use a single word to describe it. the movement is pretty slow (probably since there's 4 players, it feels like rayman legends or nsmbw but without a run button), extra moves are either kind of lame (double jump is the first unlock but is basically just a tiny little boost, similar to throwing cappy in mario odyssey for extra height and distance... throwing cappy, not jumping off him) or feel stiff (grapple hooks can only be used in specific places and you have no control, there's basically no momentum at all because it's a fixed animation), and all the initial movement is really basic (except for there being a side flip for some reason????). not only that, but there is no combat at all, apart from boss fights. this means all enemies are just obstacles and can't be interacted with. this makes me really appreciate the combat more in games like silksong, because man does it just slow down the game and make it boring. all you can do with enemies is avoid them, and since the movement is limited, you can't really do that very well. usually you have to just stand around and wait for the cycles, with no way to alter or interrupt them. all put together, it just makes the game feel like an absolute drag of busywork where nothing feels like its really all that fun or interesting.
for what it's worth, the animation, voices, art style, music, etc all looks very nice but it just isn't very engaging at all.
the structure has the illusion of a metroidvania, but the design isnt really anything like that at all. although its an interconnected world, everything is pretty much linear paths from one point to the next, with a bit of backtracking until you reach the next teleport, which usually spits you out at the spot you need to go. blockages are mostly arbitrary, like the doors that stop you from continuing before you get 3 keys, but usually just end up making you go down the only other available path and do a loop where you pick them up and get spat out back near the door. there are ability unlocks, but most places you come across that are blocked the first time around only lead to optional collectibles because, again, the world design is essentially linear.
this leaves you with just the gameplay to be the saving grace and it's... fine. servicable, if i had to use a single word to describe it. the movement is pretty slow (probably since there's 4 players, it feels like rayman legends or nsmbw but without a run button), extra moves are either kind of lame (double jump is the first unlock but is basically just a tiny little boost, similar to throwing cappy in mario odyssey for extra height and distance... throwing cappy, not jumping off him) or feel stiff (grapple hooks can only be used in specific places and you have no control, there's basically no momentum at all because it's a fixed animation), and all the initial movement is really basic (except for there being a side flip for some reason????). not only that, but there is no combat at all, apart from boss fights. this means all enemies are just obstacles and can't be interacted with. this makes me really appreciate the combat more in games like silksong, because man does it just slow down the game and make it boring. all you can do with enemies is avoid them, and since the movement is limited, you can't really do that very well. usually you have to just stand around and wait for the cycles, with no way to alter or interrupt them. all put together, it just makes the game feel like an absolute drag of busywork where nothing feels like its really all that fun or interesting.
for what it's worth, the animation, voices, art style, music, etc all looks very nice but it just isn't very engaging at all.
Yeah, the metroidvania "structure" is really just branding and a weight upon the game. Really, had this been a standard level based platformer it would have better pacing. (There are achievements for going down certain initially blocked paths, so I guess the idea of a metroidvania was kept in mind.) I also agree that the weak double jump being first unlock is really bad and leaves a terrible first impression; the game would be better if it was cut without a replacement and the wall jump was received first. I think the grapple being fixed has some interesting qualities, since it means you get instant momentum in the chosen direction even if the player was going in the opposite direction they are about to grapple into, but actual momentum physics would probably be more fun. Even if there isn't a momentum system, I also think enforcing grapple direction when grappling from long falls would have passably simulated a momentum system. I'm also annoyed at the ground pound, because it has very little utility outside of breaking rocks that never respawn, meaning the more you use it the fewer uses it has. (It also activates seesaw launchers, but turns out nearly every one of those is skippable by doing side flips and double jumps off the seesaws.) It really should have stunned enemies, as a quick additional function that would at least keep it in the player's head when they aren't in rooms explictly labeled with rocks.
I actually disagree on the enemy point. I think in a vacuum, a platformer where enemies cannot be defeated isn't a bad idea. But this game has too many enemy types which cannot be maneuvered around during their attacks in any way. (and various multi-projectile spitters where the correct answer is to stop dead between the arcs of their projectiles.) I think being more mindful of both enemy design, enemy placement, and environment design could have reduced the number of times the player absolutely has to wait for an enemy cycle by offering alternate (slower) paths around enemies or tight passageways through enemies. The game's primary underwater section has perhaps the best examples of being able to bypass cycles through precision movement, but even then there are some stinkers. And letting the ground pound stun enemies would also help by giving the player a panic button against any one enemy when sneaking through looks risky.
I actually disagree on the enemy point. I think in a vacuum, a platformer where enemies cannot be defeated isn't a bad idea. But this game has too many enemy types which cannot be maneuvered around during their attacks in any way. (and various multi-projectile spitters where the correct answer is to stop dead between the arcs of their projectiles.) I think being more mindful of both enemy design, enemy placement, and environment design could have reduced the number of times the player absolutely has to wait for an enemy cycle by offering alternate (slower) paths around enemies or tight passageways through enemies. The game's primary underwater section has perhaps the best examples of being able to bypass cycles through precision movement, but even then there are some stinkers. And letting the ground pound stun enemies would also help by giving the player a panic button against any one enemy when sneaking through looks risky.
I assume the developers were aware of movement not being all that fun and exploration not being engaging because of that and the secret linear structure since the game's final unlock is fast travel to any previously unlocked checkpoint. The game is lousy with checkpoints, which means movement across the map essentially becomes optional. Which isn't a great band-aid to slap onto a design.
Melon_Ball
Melon Ball
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I have been replaying Ocarina of Time in Preparation for the Remake, and something I've noticed is how all the ladders are 2D assets, which isn't the most surprising thing for an N64 game, but it seems that they doubled it and layered 2 ladder assets on top of each other. It gives a good illusion (and a Drop Shadow effect) when you don't look at it too closely. I wonder if this was the intention..
