CRYSTALGATE'S PROFILE

author=Nivlacart
I heard a rumor that they won't remake FF7 until a FF game finally outsells it?

Some douche from SE did at one occasion name them not having the success of FF VII since then as a reason for not remaking it. I don't know how that's supposed to make any sense and SE has said a lot of different things about the possibility of a FF VII remake, so I wouldn't give that idea much credit.

It's also a ludicrous idea, the success of FF VII hinges a lot on timing. It was just the right time and situation for that game. In theory, SE could become better at making great Final Fantasies, but it's extremely unlikely that an opportunity like FF VII got will happen anytime soon.

author=LockeZ
Compare, say, travelling through 1000 AD in Chrono Trigger. You end up passing through the Millenial Fair, Truce Village and Guardia Forest a second time after returning from 600 AD a couple hours into the game. They could've skipped this with some guards arresting you right at the time gate, or Marle could've told you about a new shortcut that bypassed all the areas you had been through before, but instead the game let you make your own way through the familiar areas; this helps you see a world in your head instead of just a series of paths. Later in the game you arrive through a whirlpool and it connects to Lucca's house, where you've been before, instead of to a brand new location, and travel from there to the Millenial Fair a third time - this helps connect the whirlpool path to the world you've already build up in your head. There was no real need for any of this, the game could've just added a time gate leading to 600 AD at the end of Heckran's Cave - but they decided, very accurately, that it was more important to connect the player back to the world they know for a brief time and remind them how everything fits together.

This topic is about Minimizing Mapping and your examples of backtracking in CT doesn't accomplish that. If anything, that made mapping take longer since the mappers had to think about how everything connects.

When I wrote about backtracking, it's in the context of trying to cut down the mapping you have to do since that's what the topic is about. If you employ backtracking as means to cut down on mapping, then by necessity you're having the player go trough an area a second time when other games would have made new areas for the player instead.

I'm not sure if a few very interesting maps are of less work to make than a lot of less interesting ones though.

Anyway, I did enjoy revisiting worlds in Kingdom Hearts to gather anything I couldn't get before, but I did not enjoy the second mandatory run-trough of Hollow Bastion. This is also my general experience, voluntary backtracking can be fun, but mandatory rarely is.

Having single rooms or hub locations that you revisits frequently can work well. For example, there's the forest temple in Zelda: Ocarina of Time where ghosts steal four flames, which you then have to recover from their cold dead ectoplasm. You will most likely visit that room frequently. A single town that you visit between every dungeon dive is another example. However, backtracking trough long stretches of rooms and hallways is not fun.

It could just be my taste, but I don't think so. This fits what I commonly see people complaining about in various gaming related forums.

If you want to design an RPG where people have to backtrack a lot, my suggestion would be to structure it so that the player has a lot of control over when and where to backtrack. Let's say the player is chasing various leads. One lead points towards a place the player has already been to, but even though the player eventually has to backtrack, she/he can choose to instead go after another lead and put the first lead on hold for quite a long time.

author=CashmereCat
For example, would you rate Goat Simulator as a good or a bad game? There are tons of glitches, and a lack of an overall goal, but that's kind of the point. Is it a good game because it achieves what it set out to achieve? Or is it bad because it only appeals to a niche of people that enjoy those type of games?

Besides, do you review on the basis of recommending to the niche group of people that would enjoy that type of game, e.g. a visual novel? Or would you review it from the point of view from the general player who enjoys all types of games but just wants to look for something interesting?

Goat Simulator didn't look fun to me, so I would consider myself not part of the target audience and not review it. I will only review games which, prior to playing, looks like they are fun to me.

Suppose I actually did think Goat Simulator looks like fun and decided to play it. I would rate it according to how much I enjoyed it and then try as best as I can to explain what I thought was/wasn't fun and also provide additional information I think would be useful to others.

I think games should be reviewed for those who are likely to actually play it and not for everyone. People who don't like first person shooters will not play them, so it's pointless to review them from the point of view of someone who finds them boring. I will note that how the game it marketed will affect how I think it should be reviewed. If it's marketed to a niche, then it should be reviewed mainly for that niche. However, if it has a mass market appeal, then it should be reviewed for that larger group of people.

I didn't play Final Fantasy VI until around when the PS 2 was released at which point I downloaded its ROM. I ended up liking it, despite being well in my twenties, which hardly qualifies as growing up with it. I have also seen a lot of examples of both real life people and people I only know trough the Internet playing old games, that are considered not having aged well, for the first time, and still liking them.

If someone seems unable to admit any flaws in its beloved game, then it's most likely nostalgia goggles (or other goggles such as fanboy goggles) at work. However, you should never assume someone is watching trough nostalgia goggles for merely liking something.