There’s three big moments in the game that I think got it for me; Amaurot, Close in the Distance, and The Dead Ends. But there’s plenty to feel more invested in, especially with all the side quests that focus on so many personal endearing struggles. Heck, even the Dark Knight job storyline has a great emotional payoff to it.
There may in fact be a few games where empty spaces and a sense of vastness actually contribute to the atmosphere and make for an enjoyable game. But NOT in a game that’s divided by fucking loading screens with not a single “vista” to look out at.
Blame the gray resellers. If the world courts had found those sites illegal, then devs could likely still set regional prices without having 90% of them getting resold to the outside world.
This is true for a small category of sites I won’t name, but there’s also lots of sites that have a direct business relationship with the publisher. Ex: greenmangaming, gamersgate.
Someone working minimum wage wants to get the most of their refurbished PS4. They might try spending $60 on an unforgettable 12-hour singleplayer adventure, but then they’d run it a second time for achievements and have nothing else to play the rest of the year, having an old hospital and car bill to pay off. Instead, they either play F2P to stretch their dollar, or buy a 100-hour Ubisoft game padded with content. When they do get a bonus from work, they feel invested in that F2P and buy the skin they always envied.
I’m of course not suggesting these games are masterpieces, but it’s not so hard to imagine the appeals they cater to.
This is exactly what I’ve wanted. Anytime we get a plot point that fits in the following lists, I feel like it severely handicaps the writing potential of any other stories you could tell.
Humanity was created for the sole purpose of ???
Everything you’ve experienced is part of a simulation.
Our entire lives are lived for the fight against the ???. But it turns out that whole war was a conspiracy by the patriarchy.
There are many enemies around us. But we may as well throw our swords and guns in the trash, because the only ones who can fight them are the chosen ???, born with special powers.
Not much of humanity is left, so we need to preserve what we can and never ever get into any major conflicts.
It annoys me because I’m writing my own story, agonizing over excess word count and trimming every scene I can, but I still feel like they’re all additive and value - even if not to the core plot, to some very valuable theme.
Then I play a JRPG and there’s just a random scene where two characters go play hide and go seek for pure padding.
It seems to make for fun clips, but I can’t tell what the gameplay is other than walking into a room, seeing something, dying with no chance of escaping, and then hitting the “record clip” button for your audience.
I might be a bit unusual, but I feel like the main thing I’m looking for in a JRPG isn’t just good characters, but good storyline that gives each of those characters real moments to shine. Something in the vein of Cloud Strife
spoilerrevealing he built up a fake persona based on his idol
, or FFXIV
spoilerhaving your team resolve a generations-long war against dragons
. I have heard that Sea of Stars has one really impactful/good character in your party, but not heard much in the way of super-heavy story beats; and it’s seemed the same way for a lot of JRPGs that have come from the indie sphere.
I tend to be less excited for prequels because of this. Good stories can go in a completely unexpected direction, for instance having a villain “win” in an unexpected way, or killing off characters you expected to survive. Prequels are often just an excuse to give more content of the same, especially in order to star someone that’s been killed off in other media.
We here at Naughty Dog respect that, though they are great games, our fans have felt some exhaustion at seeing only remasters of Naughty Dog’s old games. Hence, we are proud to announce our newest project: Skyrim Remastered.