Yeah, the headline is just awful. The Inkbound Dev notes that they’re removing all in-game microtransactions. The goal is to move away from pressuring you to spend money on microtransactions as you play, and keep them where they belong: on the store page.
The devs are doing exactly what they said. The headline is either click-bait, or a result of awful reading comprehension.
Some people play games to get away from the challenges and struggles of their day-to-day. Others play to find new way to challenge themselves.
I like games with clear indicators of “good”, “better”, “best”, even inside wins. Having a grade, or at least some metric by which to measure just how good my success was, is fun to me. I still load Hi-Fi Rush because, even though I’ve beaten it twice over, there’s opportunities to get a higher rank in each stage or in the post-game challenge modes. I raid in FFXIV because I like trying to parse better and better every week. “Haha number go up” is a fun goal in any game where I find the gameplay engaging.
Does this mean I play games “right” or “wrong” while you do the opposite? Not at all. I’d assume we’re just there for different reasons, and that’s totally fine. The good news is there’s games for both types, and we don’t have to play them all.
I wonder if this 40-70% demographic has actively tried to play it a couple times? My first experience with VR was incredibly disorienting, and yes, made me feel nauseated. But after playing for 2-3 hours across a handful of 15-20 minute sessions (passing it around a few friends for an evening) that just went away. Once the body uses it a bit and learns, even high-movement non-teleport movement games stop being an issue.
I wonder if I happen to be in that upper percent, or if the numbers in question are a matter of people who tried it once in their life and felt sick. Clearly the author has put real time into trying to move past it, but that doesn’t say anything for the study he quotes the “40-70% of players are 15 minutes” numbers from.
Absolutely loved playing the OG Crystal Chronicles with three friends and was very, very excited when a remake got announced. I mean, it’s so easy now that everyone is playing on their own Switch, right? Imagine fucking up the concept and spirit of the game so hard with the remake.
These guys fucking get it. Buiilding the hypercube is absolutely Chad behaviour.
Just give me a procedurally generated infinite dungeon I can grab three friends and jump into, please. The combat, especially in multiplayer, is so fun, and as great as the story is, grabbing 3 friends to play the game through with is very hard.
A much more challenge/multiplayer focused mode that’s divorced from the story would be awesome.
I’vealways seen grids as a way to simplify what is otherwise a challenging mechanic to track and utilize. They function as something of a “good enough” for when you are willing to sacrifice accuracy for simplicity. And there’s something to be said for the way that simplicity can be appealing to the player, as it get some of the more fiddily mechanics out of the way and frees you up to focus on more substantial or engaging mechanics like character builds and team comps.
So, do I miss then when they’re replaced with the more intricate measurement systems that they were designed to simplify? Not really. But I can certainly see why some would feel that way.
Really encapsulates the meaning of beauty a couple different ways.
Tetris Effect, particularly if you can play in VR.
Though if you’re strictly talking “aesthetically pleasing”, the options get wider. I absolutely loved the aesthetics of Hi-fi Rush. The absolute beauty of this comic-esque, cel-shaded world with every element, background and forground, moving to the rhythm of the soundtrack just blew me away when I started playing. But I’m a slut for rhythm games, so there’s just something about everything tiny fiber of the space connecting and syncing up that gets me.
Just want to emphasize how wonderful of a game Wandersong is. Nothing in your list makes me point and go “if they liked X, they’ll like Wandersong”, but it’s just a really good smaller-y game. Heavily story driven, with a little bit of puzzle-platforming. I have 10.4 hours of playtime in it on Steam, so including some AFK time and some post-game fucking about, it’s probably a 6-8 hour play.