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alterego
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CloseDoes watching longplays count as playing videogames? I surely hope so because I'm too cheap to buy games these days, and I'm kind of glad for that right now... So! "The Last Of Us" was one of those games for which I was considering coughing up the dough to finally buy a PS3. It caught my attention ever since it was announced. The setting, the graphics, everything looked amazing! But the game turned out to be such a let down. Beyond the repetitive gameplay, dubious AI, and the average plot (Things that could arguably be said about most games ever), my biggest disappointment was the missed opportunity of exploring a cool sci-fi premise...
Most things that deal with zombies never delve on how the virus came to be, how it spreads to a global scale, or how could it be combated. They mostly dwell in cheap scares, gore, and drama. So why? WHY? did they decide to introduce the immunity/cure element into the story if they weren't planning on developing it? The game could have very well been about this dude fetching the girl to those people for whatever reason and then finding out they were going to harvest her organs or some shit, and then saving her anyway because *insert father-daughter bond here* And the game would have been exactly the same. EXACTLY.THE.SAME.
And then I find out the game got a perfect score pretty much everywhere!! Like, wtf... I've played better games in my days. -_-
Anyway, just a random rant that I didn't know where to post. And I'll probably be back with more sometime in the future. =P
Most things that deal with zombies never delve on how the virus came to be, how it spreads to a global scale, or how could it be combated. They mostly dwell in cheap scares, gore, and drama. So why? WHY? did they decide to introduce the immunity/cure element into the story if they weren't planning on developing it? The game could have very well been about this dude fetching the girl to those people for whatever reason and then finding out they were going to harvest her organs or some shit, and then saving her anyway because *insert father-daughter bond here* And the game would have been exactly the same. EXACTLY.THE.SAME.
And then I find out the game got a perfect score pretty much everywhere!! Like, wtf... I've played better games in my days. -_-
Anyway, just a random rant that I didn't know where to post. And I'll probably be back with more sometime in the future. =P
Why are we as a culture obsessed with zombies as a villain so much lately? What is the cultural narrative here? What does it say about us?
...and what does my complete disinterest in zombies say about me, relative to society?
Anywho, I kind of want to start up something that I could really sink my teeth into (which I haven't in forever). I was considering some of my old backlog of games, like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, FFXIII, or Dragon Quest VIII - none of which I have played but do own.
Any suggestions?
...and what does my complete disinterest in zombies say about me, relative to society?
Anywho, I kind of want to start up something that I could really sink my teeth into (which I haven't in forever). I was considering some of my old backlog of games, like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, FFXIII, or Dragon Quest VIII - none of which I have played but do own.
Any suggestions?
Dragon Age. Either of them. They're good games with strong story-telling. Some say II wasn't that great but I found it enjoyable and it was nice that the menus and battles were better than the first.
XIII - maybe if you have the rest of the series? It is very linear with no branching, no towns (as in no safe zones) and you are literally just walking a straight line from start to end with little to no deviation. Battles are interesting, though.
DQVIII - a lot of people say it's the best of the series and while it's decent I wouldn't go so far as to agree with them. It is pretty but I found having to grind money/drops just to be strong enough to progress was really annoying. I don't mind grinding stuff but it's quite annoying. (I stopped at the ghoulmagus fight because, ugh, could not get past and I was grinding for ages. Screw that.)
I'm playing This War of Mine which is really good so far. I like it a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. Survival War simulation where you have survivors and have to scavenge different areas at night to get materials to survive. It's a quick way to kill a day, that's for sure. Didn't even notice the hours fly by. >.<; Day 26 is my current best so far.
XIII - maybe if you have the rest of the series? It is very linear with no branching, no towns (as in no safe zones) and you are literally just walking a straight line from start to end with little to no deviation. Battles are interesting, though.
DQVIII - a lot of people say it's the best of the series and while it's decent I wouldn't go so far as to agree with them. It is pretty but I found having to grind money/drops just to be strong enough to progress was really annoying. I don't mind grinding stuff but it's quite annoying. (I stopped at the ghoulmagus fight because, ugh, could not get past and I was grinding for ages. Screw that.)
I'm playing This War of Mine which is really good so far. I like it a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. Survival War simulation where you have survivors and have to scavenge different areas at night to get materials to survive. It's a quick way to kill a day, that's for sure. Didn't even notice the hours fly by. >.<; Day 26 is my current best so far.
author=kentona
Why are we as a culture obsessed with zombies as a villain so much lately? What is the cultural narrative here? What does it say about us?
...and what does my complete disinterest in zombies say about me, relative to society?
It says that you're one of the gifted people who actually have a fucking frontal lobe. I can't explain the zombie thing myself, I guess people just like tropey, boring narratives so much that they want to experience them time and again with all the excitement of a different title.
Play either Mass Effect or Dragon Quest 8, I'd lean towards Mass Effect though. Although form what I know about how much you like classic RPGs you'd probably enjoy DQ8's old school design.
Final Fantasy 13 and the original Dragon Age are really fucking boring IMO.
turkeyDawg
195
author=kentona
Why are we as a culture obsessed with zombies as a villain so much lately? What is the cultural narrative here? What does it say about us?
My honest guess: Its a horde of human analogues that you can kill in any gory manner you wish with no moral ramifications to ever worry about. Like robots, but easier to represent (a little make-up vs. CG) and explain.
I've also always figured game developers love them for that and that they can be copy-pasted ad nauseum, and since zombies are SUPPOSED to be dumb, they don't need to have good AI, either.
But I guess there might be some BS in there about how technology and mass media have made the common unwashed multitudes a bunch of zombies and so the subconscious desire to see the end of modern society and "get back to our roots" as a cure for socially-induced ennui or whatever if you want to look for it...
Anyways, I'm playing Lup*Salad still. Turns out there's another set of 100 puzzles after the first 100, and shit are some of these hard! No hints, either! @.@
Super Monkey Ball came in the mail yesterday, so I'll be playing that a bit, too.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9191
author=kentona
Why are we as a culture obsessed with zombies as a villain so much lately? What is the cultural narrative here? What does it say about us?
Zombie stories aren't particularly about the zombies from my experience. They're about the survivor's reactions to zombies. That's why you can make a whole bunch of zombie stories and they'll still be different because dealing with those zombies varies from game to game. Different characters, different environments, different reactions.
It's true that there are too many zombie stories today, though.
Anywho, I kind of want to start up something that I could really sink my teeth into (which I haven't in forever). I was considering some of my old backlog of games, like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, FFXIII, or Dragon Quest VIII - none of which I have played but do own.
FFXIII was incredibly boring. Stay away from it. I would recommend Mass Effect only if you're willing to go through an entire trilogy of games. I've never played a Dragon Quest game, so I can't talk about that one.
Dragon Age Origins is slow paced and a lot more story driven than gameplay driven. Personally, it's my favorite of the bunch, so that's my recommendation.
Zombies are part of a power fantasy: The end of civilization has come and you had the luck grit and determination and survival instincts to survive this hell on Earth! It'll take everything you've got, and a few things you didn't even know, to get you and your tribe to survive against the monstrous zombie hordes! Bonus side effect is you can now commit acts that against people would get you called something between "mass murderer" to "genocidal maniac" but since it's against zombies it's all a-ok!
I'll throw my hat for DQ8. FF13 is boring with awful writing and takes for-fucking-ever for any 'fun' to be had, ME1 hasn't aged well at all and its on the wrong side of mixing RPG and shooter elements, and I could never give a shit about DA.
e: bad at tags
I'll throw my hat for DQ8. FF13 is boring with awful writing and takes for-fucking-ever for any 'fun' to be had, ME1 hasn't aged well at all and its on the wrong side of mixing RPG and shooter elements, and I could never give a shit about DA.
e: bad at tags
Crystalgate
694
Kingdom Hearts. Destiny Islands beaten. Selphie's head also beaten some more times. Now I have only Traverse Town left and then the main story will slow down to a crawl until Neverland. Good buy to the voice of Sora's mom, it was the first time we meet and will probably be the last in the series despite the owner of the voice being alive. It's also good-buy to Riku as an interesting character, when we next meet he will be a total idiot. As for Kairi, while it's also good-buy to her, she was and will remain an uninteresting character.
On the plus side, the mini stories of all worlds are, while not particularly good, still enjoyable and Donald and Goofy are fun in this game. The story tends to work whenever Nomura doesn't try anything more complicated than 2+2 and gets a bit wonky when he does.
On the plus side, the mini stories of all worlds are, while not particularly good, still enjoyable and Donald and Goofy are fun in this game. The story tends to work whenever Nomura doesn't try anything more complicated than 2+2 and gets a bit wonky when he does.
J-Man
4684
Been playin' some Hyperdimension Neptunia Re Birth1. Very repetitive game, but the dialogue definitely makes up for it. :D
Started playing Super Mario Sunshine after so many years.
... I'm starting to see why people have mixed feelings about the game. Honestly the cleaning segments aren't that bad and it's not like you had to spray absolutely everything to get through it, but it encompassess a big issue with the game as a whole: There are too many balls hard, completely mundane and repetitive tasks you have to do in this game.
From kicking a bouncy fruit into a basket to get a blue coin, to the red coin levels where each coin is either very well-hidden or require that you perform some pro-level platforming to complete, to having to backtrack through long routes after missing a jump due to how expansive every level is. The game kind of wears on your nerves after a while.
The part that made me rage quit one playthrough was where you had to get a yoshi to access a green pipe on an island. To do all of this, you need to get the fruit the yoshi egg wants, wall jump onto a roof to get to that egg in the first place, wait for a slow-moving cargo boat to appear, jump on that boat without falling into the water (you'll lose Yoshi that way), jump off the boat to another island without falling into the water, wait for ANOTHER boat to jump onto while restocking on fruit to keep your yoshi alive, jump on that other boat without falling into water, do absolutely nothing for a few minutes until the boat takes you towards a small wooden platform, jump onto that platform with your best precision since you don't want to fall into the water. Take the fruit that's on there to keep yoshi alive (the designers knew they what they were doing, clearly), wait for YET ANOTHER boat, jump on that boat without falling, wait till it carries you to the island you want, jump onto that island without falling into the water, and finally spray that lava-like goop over the pipe to enter...
OH WAIT THERE'S MORE! As a reward for going through this stupid process, you are treated to a red coin mini-game where the water kills you, and you have to guide a decaying leaf raft with your FLUDD towards the end, while collecting red coins along the way. Sounds easy, but the raft is hard to control and because of the current of the river carrying you, you can't backtrack to retrieve any red coin you missed, so once you are toward the end, you don't get shit. If you dare go back to that green warp pipe, you are taken back to the hub and the entire puzzle RESETS ITSELF.
What evil bastards were in the level design department for this game?
... I'm starting to see why people have mixed feelings about the game. Honestly the cleaning segments aren't that bad and it's not like you had to spray absolutely everything to get through it, but it encompassess a big issue with the game as a whole: There are too many balls hard, completely mundane and repetitive tasks you have to do in this game.
From kicking a bouncy fruit into a basket to get a blue coin, to the red coin levels where each coin is either very well-hidden or require that you perform some pro-level platforming to complete, to having to backtrack through long routes after missing a jump due to how expansive every level is. The game kind of wears on your nerves after a while.
The part that made me rage quit one playthrough was where you had to get a yoshi to access a green pipe on an island. To do all of this, you need to get the fruit the yoshi egg wants, wall jump onto a roof to get to that egg in the first place, wait for a slow-moving cargo boat to appear, jump on that boat without falling into the water (you'll lose Yoshi that way), jump off the boat to another island without falling into the water, wait for ANOTHER boat to jump onto while restocking on fruit to keep your yoshi alive, jump on that other boat without falling into water, do absolutely nothing for a few minutes until the boat takes you towards a small wooden platform, jump onto that platform with your best precision since you don't want to fall into the water. Take the fruit that's on there to keep yoshi alive (the designers knew they what they were doing, clearly), wait for YET ANOTHER boat, jump on that boat without falling, wait till it carries you to the island you want, jump onto that island without falling into the water, and finally spray that lava-like goop over the pipe to enter...
OH WAIT THERE'S MORE! As a reward for going through this stupid process, you are treated to a red coin mini-game where the water kills you, and you have to guide a decaying leaf raft with your FLUDD towards the end, while collecting red coins along the way. Sounds easy, but the raft is hard to control and because of the current of the river carrying you, you can't backtrack to retrieve any red coin you missed, so once you are toward the end, you don't get shit. If you dare go back to that green warp pipe, you are taken back to the hub and the entire puzzle RESETS ITSELF.
What evil bastards were in the level design department for this game?
author=Ratty524
The part that made me rage quit one playthrough was where you had to get a yoshi to access a green pipe on an island. To do all of this, you need to get the fruit the yoshi egg wants, wall jump onto a roof to get to that egg in the first place, wait for a slow-moving cargo boat to appear, jump on that boat without falling into the water (you'll lose Yoshi that way), jump off the boat to another island without falling into the water, wait for ANOTHER boat to jump onto while restocking on fruit to keep your yoshi alive, jump on that other boat without falling into water, do absolutely nothing for a few minutes until the boat takes you towards a small wooden platform, jump onto that platform with your best precision since you don't want to fall into the water. Take the fruit that's on there to keep yoshi alive (the designers knew they what they were doing, clearly), wait for YET ANOTHER boat, jump on that boat without falling, wait till it carries you to the island you want, jump onto that island without falling into the water, and finally spray that lava-like goop over the pipe to enter...
OH WAIT THERE'S MORE! As a reward for going through this stupid process, you are treated to a red coin mini-game where the water kills you, and you have to guide a decaying leaf raft with your FLUDD towards the end, while collecting red coins along the way. Sounds easy, but the raft is hard to control and because of the current of the river carrying you, you can't backtrack to retrieve any red coin you missed, so once you are toward the end, you don't get shit. If you dare go back to that green warp pipe, you are taken back to the hub and the entire puzzle RESETS ITSELF.
Ah yes, that. I've never played sunshine but I've seen a few bits from this video and dear lord I feel sorry for you =(
time 4:07 -> 5:48 is the part I'm referring to.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9191
The Evil Within was an amazing game! I loved every single minute of it! I mean, the design of the monsters, the over the top gore, and the story were just excellent! I've never laughed that hard in my life!
Huh? What's that? It was supposed to be a HORROR game?
.... ooooooooh....
Huh? What's that? It was supposed to be a HORROR game?
.... ooooooooh....
I just finished Mother 3 for the first time. It's the first of the Mother series that I've played, actually.
Man, that was... Over rated. People hype it up WAY too much for what it is. Sure, it had some good parts but I mean, people make it out to be the most tragic and heartfelt story in the world with all these unforgettable characters and shit, and it just isn't. The only time I really felt "touched" by the game was during the final battle, and I've been way more moved than that before.
One thing I'll say is that the combat is awful. It's not like, hard to beat or anything, but it's just hideously boring and shallow. I'll admit, I ended up turning on some gameshark codes around the end of Chapter 5 just so I wouldn't have to sit there and be bored out of my skull in the fights anymore. Perhaps that's shitty of me, I don't know. But I was literally dreading every fight because all you do is smack the A button for 5 minutes and try to match a beat.
As for the story, I mean, yeah, it's more than your average "dark demon destroys the world" JRPG fare, but it still feels kind of dull and aimless a lot of the time. I never really felt anything pushing me forward in terms of the plot, it was just point A to point B kind of stuff. My favourite part of the story was actually before you even control older Lucas, when you get to play as Flint, Duster and Salsa and see how their stories all happen around each other. I feel like if they kept that kind of story telling going instead of doing the whole Needles thing I would have liked the game more.
People big up the characters a lot, but in terms of the main party there's nothing much to say. They barely even say anything or talk to each other during the game. The only one who really gets a character to speak of is Kumatora, who is thankfully a pretty good one at that. Flint was probably my favourite character of the whole bunch, not sure I can say why... Perhaps he reminds me of my own dad? Again, I might have liked the game more if Flint stayed the main character, but I guess that's not how Mother works.
The NPCs and side characters are all funny and well written, as is expected of Itoi's work. Of course, there's not much depth to any one in particular, again, to be expected. It's just a shame they didn't develop the main characters a bit more.
Spoiler complaints/things:
Anyways, despite all my bickering, the game looks fucking gorgeous, as is expected of Brownie Brown, and it's definitely well made. You can tell that a lot of thought and love went into its creation, as I expected from what I've heard about Itoi. I'd still give it a 7.5/10 probably, a perfectly average score (in my books).
Now I must decide what to play next... But not until my vacation in Newfoundland is over.
Man, that was... Over rated. People hype it up WAY too much for what it is. Sure, it had some good parts but I mean, people make it out to be the most tragic and heartfelt story in the world with all these unforgettable characters and shit, and it just isn't. The only time I really felt "touched" by the game was during the final battle, and I've been way more moved than that before.
One thing I'll say is that the combat is awful. It's not like, hard to beat or anything, but it's just hideously boring and shallow. I'll admit, I ended up turning on some gameshark codes around the end of Chapter 5 just so I wouldn't have to sit there and be bored out of my skull in the fights anymore. Perhaps that's shitty of me, I don't know. But I was literally dreading every fight because all you do is smack the A button for 5 minutes and try to match a beat.
As for the story, I mean, yeah, it's more than your average "dark demon destroys the world" JRPG fare, but it still feels kind of dull and aimless a lot of the time. I never really felt anything pushing me forward in terms of the plot, it was just point A to point B kind of stuff. My favourite part of the story was actually before you even control older Lucas, when you get to play as Flint, Duster and Salsa and see how their stories all happen around each other. I feel like if they kept that kind of story telling going instead of doing the whole Needles thing I would have liked the game more.
People big up the characters a lot, but in terms of the main party there's nothing much to say. They barely even say anything or talk to each other during the game. The only one who really gets a character to speak of is Kumatora, who is thankfully a pretty good one at that. Flint was probably my favourite character of the whole bunch, not sure I can say why... Perhaps he reminds me of my own dad? Again, I might have liked the game more if Flint stayed the main character, but I guess that's not how Mother works.
The NPCs and side characters are all funny and well written, as is expected of Itoi's work. Of course, there's not much depth to any one in particular, again, to be expected. It's just a shame they didn't develop the main characters a bit more.
Spoiler complaints/things:
Hinawa's death isn't "tragic" like people make it out to be. Everyone I've heard talk about it acts like they were moved to tears, but come on, it's barely even on par with Aeris kicking the bucket, and Aeris' death wasn't sad AT ALL. How can you feel bad about her death when you've known her for all of 5 seconds? She has like 3 lines before getting gored to death.
I understand it might be sad to think about losing a mother and stuff, but it really doesn't come off like that, because as a player you aren't invested in Hinawa at all. You don't even know her. The best thing I can say about her death is that they handled Flint's reaction very well, and it was a beautiful way to do it- no talking, just animation and the condolences of the villagers.
Also, while we're on the subject of Lucas' family, they don't really try hard enough to make the reveal of Claus being the Masked Man very surprising. If you pay attention at all it's pretty much written on the walls that he's Claus. "Wow, the commander sounds and looks exactly like me, and somebody in the pigmask army is pulling needles like I can? I WONDER WHO IT COULD BE? Maybe it's supposed to be some kind of dramatic irony or something. I don't know.
I understand it might be sad to think about losing a mother and stuff, but it really doesn't come off like that, because as a player you aren't invested in Hinawa at all. You don't even know her. The best thing I can say about her death is that they handled Flint's reaction very well, and it was a beautiful way to do it- no talking, just animation and the condolences of the villagers.
Also, while we're on the subject of Lucas' family, they don't really try hard enough to make the reveal of Claus being the Masked Man very surprising. If you pay attention at all it's pretty much written on the walls that he's Claus. "Wow, the commander sounds and looks exactly like me, and somebody in the pigmask army is pulling needles like I can? I WONDER WHO IT COULD BE? Maybe it's supposed to be some kind of dramatic irony or something. I don't know.
Anyways, despite all my bickering, the game looks fucking gorgeous, as is expected of Brownie Brown, and it's definitely well made. You can tell that a lot of thought and love went into its creation, as I expected from what I've heard about Itoi. I'd still give it a 7.5/10 probably, a perfectly average score (in my books).
Now I must decide what to play next... But not until my vacation in Newfoundland is over.
I got the feeling that was the case, Pizza. But I recently read an article on how Earthbound changed everything, and all Nintendo games from Pokemon to Animal Crossing started copying them. Up til then, RPGs were mostly serious fare, but no-one thought to go into the surreal and wacky and funny territory, but I think when this came out, it *clicked*. The article author said he played Mother 3 when he was a little kid, and then when Pokemon came out, he said, "Oh, so this is the new Earthbound". Basically, more than anything, this game is influential and it has a seminal influence on gaming as a whole. Of course, a lot of its content is probably dated in terms of gameplay, but that's probably because it influenced a whole sphere of the RPG market, who used this system and iterated on it to improve and make it better over time. It's like going back and playing Myst and going "this is a crappy 3d adventure game, there's way better ones out there". Probably because Myst influenced them all.
turkeyDawg
195
Yeah, I don't understand the crazy amount of hype surrounding Earthbound and Mother 3. I think they're O.K. games with their own unique charms and quirks, and would recommend them to most JRPG fans, but "the closest thing videogames have to literature"? Mother 3? Really, TV Tropes? Where does this even come from?
I was something of an idiot when I played the game and never used the Frog Bank, meaning I spent the whole game broke, with selling items being my only income, and honestly... I think it may have actually made the game better for me. Lacking equipment and items put a bit more focus on PSI abilities and Duster's various things (Wall Staples are amazing... when they work), and the feeling of being a rogue group fighting against a corrupt government or whatever is really enhanced by being penniless. Also, I was actually appreciative of those occasional NPC money gifts that were supposed to be somewhere between humorous and pitiful in how small they were.
Speaking of over-rated, I beat Portal's 1 & 2 recently. I mean, the Portal gun is a fun and novel concept, the humor is pretty decent, and they don't burden you with constant cutscenes or extraneous shit, but man, the puzzles feel like they're in tutorial mode for pretty much the whole game when they're not just outright copy-pasted and stitched together in different orders. Portal 2 has a few decent puzzles near the end of the game, but that's really the best I can say about it in that respect. Portal 1 Still Alive version has extra Challenge maps, but really only the last 3 of these pose any challenge. I haven't played much of Portal 2's co-op mode yet, but what I remember playing seemed better than the main game.
e: @Cashmere... I dunno about that. I'm no video game historian, but I'm pretty sure there were some "wacky" RPGs before the MOTHER series (though maybe not with as modern a setting). Nintendo games in general had been of the somewhat "wacky" and relatively "down-to-earth" variety for pretty much their whole history anyways, especially their early NES and arcade titles. Also, I seriously cannot see any real connection between Earthbound and Pokemon or Animal Crossing. Pokemon isn't even all that wacky.
I was something of an idiot when I played the game and never used the Frog Bank, meaning I spent the whole game broke, with selling items being my only income, and honestly... I think it may have actually made the game better for me. Lacking equipment and items put a bit more focus on PSI abilities and Duster's various things (Wall Staples are amazing... when they work), and the feeling of being a rogue group fighting against a corrupt government or whatever is really enhanced by being penniless. Also, I was actually appreciative of those occasional NPC money gifts that were supposed to be somewhere between humorous and pitiful in how small they were.
Speaking of over-rated, I beat Portal's 1 & 2 recently. I mean, the Portal gun is a fun and novel concept, the humor is pretty decent, and they don't burden you with constant cutscenes or extraneous shit, but man, the puzzles feel like they're in tutorial mode for pretty much the whole game when they're not just outright copy-pasted and stitched together in different orders. Portal 2 has a few decent puzzles near the end of the game, but that's really the best I can say about it in that respect. Portal 1 Still Alive version has extra Challenge maps, but really only the last 3 of these pose any challenge. I haven't played much of Portal 2's co-op mode yet, but what I remember playing seemed better than the main game.
e: @Cashmere... I dunno about that. I'm no video game historian, but I'm pretty sure there were some "wacky" RPGs before the MOTHER series (though maybe not with as modern a setting). Nintendo games in general had been of the somewhat "wacky" and relatively "down-to-earth" variety for pretty much their whole history anyways, especially their early NES and arcade titles. Also, I seriously cannot see any real connection between Earthbound and Pokemon or Animal Crossing. Pokemon isn't even all that wacky.
author=turkeyDawg
Yeah, I don't understand the crazy amount of hype surrounding Earthbound and Mother 3. I think they're O.K. games with their own unique charms and quirks, and would recommend them to most JRPG fans, but "the closest thing videogames have to literature"? Mother 3? Really, TV Tropes? Where does this even come from?
I was something of an idiot when I played the game and never used the Frog Bank, meaning I spent the whole game broke, with selling items being my only income, and honestly... I think it may have actually made the game better for me. Lacking equipment and items put a bit more focus on PSI abilities and Duster's various things (Wall Staples are amazing... when they work), and the feeling of being a rogue group fighting against a corrupt government or whatever is really enhanced by being penniless. Also, I was actually appreciative of those occasional NPC money gifts that were supposed to be somewhere between humorous and pitiful in how small they were.
Calling something like any of the Mother games "video game's literature" is a joke. It's rather offensive to say it that way, but there are far better candidates. It's just the cult fanbase rearing its head to over hype the games some more.
Wait, the Frog Banks actually do something? I thought it was just a pointless step to get your money. Honestly, Mother 3's inventory/cash management is pathetically archaic tbh, so I was kind of expecting it to be a deal like that... But I never lost any money, and I always had all of it with me all the time.
e: @Cashmere... I dunno about that. I'm no video game historian, but I'm pretty sure there were some "wacky" RPGs before the MOTHER series (though maybe not with as modern a setting). Nintendo games in general had been of the somewhat "wacky" and relatively "down-to-earth" variety for pretty much their whole history anyways, especially their early NES and arcade titles. Also, I seriously cannot see any real connection between Earthbound and Pokemon or Animal Crossing. Pokemon isn't even all that wacky.
I was going to touch on this too. Even today there are no games like Mother games, so I don't necessarily buy that they were hugely influential to the gaming industry. Most of their success has been in cult spaces. Pokemon and Animal Crossing are especially dubious, Pokemon in particular, because the inspiration for Pokemon came from the hobby of collecting insects and Satoshi Tagiri's desire to replicate the feeling of connecting with pets and relieving stress by adventuring and having fun with them. Besides, Earthbound and Pokemon RBY were in development at the same time pretty much, so I'd find it hard to believe that they were inspired by something that wasn't even out yet.
turkeyDawg
195
I think Pokemon is also inspired by Shin Megami Tensei (the whole "recruiting enemy encounters" thing), but maybe it's just a coincidence?
It is. I literally did not use a single penny I got from beating enemies until near the end of the game, where I found out I had stockpiled 78 thousand smackers and proceded to steamroll the rest of the game with top-tier items and equipment, combined with the power-leveling I had to do at a few points beforehand.
When I said "something of an idiot", I really meant it. In Earthbound, every time you save, you're told how much money was put into your bank. You never get this message in M3, so I JUST ASSUMED that I wasn't getting any money. You're told that you "get Dragon Points for doing things", so after getting some money from the Golem job, I figured that maybe Itoi was working some social commentary angle about how it's hard to make money unless you work tedious jobs and whatever. And besides, why would the government give me its currency for murdering their scientific abominations and otherwise being a nuisance. If anything, they should be freezing my account... I have NO CLUE why I thought things out to that level, but I did.
Wait, the Frog Banks actually do something? I thought it was just a pointless step to get your money.
It is. I literally did not use a single penny I got from beating enemies until near the end of the game, where I found out I had stockpiled 78 thousand smackers and proceded to steamroll the rest of the game with top-tier items and equipment, combined with the power-leveling I had to do at a few points beforehand.
When I said "something of an idiot", I really meant it. In Earthbound, every time you save, you're told how much money was put into your bank. You never get this message in M3, so I JUST ASSUMED that I wasn't getting any money. You're told that you "get Dragon Points for doing things", so after getting some money from the Golem job, I figured that maybe Itoi was working some social commentary angle about how it's hard to make money unless you work tedious jobs and whatever. And besides, why would the government give me its currency for murdering their scientific abominations and otherwise being a nuisance. If anything, they should be freezing my account... I have NO CLUE why I thought things out to that level, but I did.
author=Red_Nova
The Evil Within was an amazing game! I loved every single minute of it! I mean, the design of the monsters, the over the top gore, and the story were just excellent! I've never laughed that hard in my life!
Huh? What's that? It was supposed to be a HORROR game?
.... ooooooooh....
Regardless, I found it fun. Was pretty tense in some areas. The Assignment does a better job of being a horror title though than the main game with more emphasis on stealth/puzzles.
