We've said it before and we'll say it again: Luigi's Mansion 3 is a wonderful game. There's something immensely satisfying about wandering around and exploring the hotel at your own pace, and while the lack of any real RPG-style upgrades for Luigi to work towards might put some players off, it no doubt makes the ride more enjoyable for others.
The game's director, Bryce Holliday, has shared a fascinating little tidbit of info regarding this very topic in an interview with Kotaku. As the conversation turned towards the seemingly endless amount of cash stashed away in the hotel - and particularly the way in which this cash can be spent by players - Holliday, along with lead producer Kensuke Tanabe and producer Yoshihito Ikebata, revealed that an upgrade system simply wasn't needed.
Holliday: "Upgrades and skill trees aren’t very Luigi. He is a reluctant hero who already has the skills and bravery needed to tackle any problem. Players are helping Luigi overcome his nervousness to expose his true talents. Cleaning, destroying and collecting are engaging, Zen experiences that everyone is familiar with since childhood. It is compelling even if there is no other reason than the act itself.”
It's a surprisingly deep response, and one that actually makes a lot of sense. Completing new tasks in-game often ends up with Luigi letting out an almost relieved sigh, surprised at himself for being able to defeat the ghouls around him. It's a nice change of pace having a character like Luigi taking centre stage, so perhaps it's only right that the game itself changes things up a little, too?
In the same interview, Ikebata said, "We had decided from the beginning that [the cash] would be used as an evaluation criteria for when you clear the game". Apparently the team had considered having players spend their money on the hints you can get from E. Gadd, but ultimately decided this would put people off asking for help.
If you're interested, you can read the full interview right here.
Have you played Luigi's Mansion 3 yet? Do you like it the way it is, or would you have prefered it to take on one or two RPG traits? Let us know in the comments.
[source kotaku.com]
Comments 37
I think the solo game is fine, just wish multi-player was a bit beefier.
Games like this wouldn't be better with skill trees, I think. So leaving them out is good.
Hahaha, that’s a brilliant answer! Much funnier than just saying ‘we didn’t want to’ or ‘it wasn’t considered’. Glad to know they have Luigi’s best interests at heart.
"Cleaning, destroying and collecting are engaging, Zen experiences that everyone is familiar with since childhood"
Destroying and collecting perhaps but my kids certainly aren't familiar with cleaning!
It's a fun game. It doesn't need to take itself seriously with every aspect of gameplay and strategy. It's a fun game about sucking up ghosts and banking cash lol. Not every game needs a skill tree.
I do like having skill trees in games, but I never felt like this game needed anything like that.
Skill trees are overused these days and are more often than not a lazy way of gating progression, outside of true RPG's. From my experience so far they have come up with plenty of ways to use the existing mechanics so they definitely made the right choice
Waluigi's Mansion would be a fun twist. Or instead of Gooigi, they should have Waluigi as a partner.
@Kalmaro - I dunno, for what it's worth the matches are quite fun, though it's limited by the actual ghost types themselves. Which is a game "problem" than a MP one.
Slightly off topic, but how does saving work in this game?
I was put off the 3DS version because of having to redo so much when you died.
Still haven’t picked this game up but it’s my next purchase for sure. Working through too long RPGs now (DQ & SwSh) so this will be a great change of pace.
This is a nice answer, but I find the question a bit weird to be honest - like was there anyone who thought skill trees would improve this game!?
@Mii_duck It saves whenever you go through a door between rooms, so basically it saves CONSTANTLY
That completely makes sense to me!
Thank goodness we still have amazing devs like this working for Nintendo. They are becoming so hard to find nowadays.
@Mii_duck; there is an auto save feature in the game
It was fun but it did seem to be missing something.
I’m in the process of finally getting around to finishing this game, and I’ve been able to enjoy the whole thing in co-op with a friend. We’ve collected everything on every floor and just have to take on the final boss. I can’t overstate how charming and enjoyable this game is, and I dare say it’s one of the best looking games on Switch.
I really liked the upgrade system in Dark Moon, it made searching for money worth it and that was something I feel a lot of people would have liked to have been in Luigi's Mansion 3
But they gave us an upgrade... and then used it 3 times (and 2 were only important for 100%). That bugged me more than anything else, the upgrade was fairly meaningless. Either do upgrades that are needed more than once, or just don’t do upgrades?
@BranJ0 and @Welshland - thank you.
Definitely one for the future then, when I reduce the backlog a bit.
I really want this game but all the talk about not being able to invert the y-axis worries me. Did they ever add it?
Never went back to this game got to about level 5 I think, tho it’s always on my mind to go back! X x upgrades and skill trees can be fun they can certainly add variety but yeah not every game needs one x x x gonna play Yoshi island SNES have a great weekend everyone x
Why would anyone expect RPG elements in non-RPGs anyway. I don't see why this is even something they would need to explain?
I'm fine with that actually, what's not okay is there's no invert Y axis option. Why you wouldn't include, by default, the correct way to play is baffling, even more so that it's 2020 (2019 at launch).
I agree, keeping it simple and pure. It isn't a rpg.
Could of at least made more use of the coins then just being a way to get more hearts, perhaps giving Luigi different powers or even costumes like odyssey had.
Mario..? Marioooooo!!!!!!!! 😱
Love the scaredy cat but still beats the crapp out of everybody. Mama mia, putaloteto..
@carlos82 definitely agree with you. I'm so tired of seeing skill trees everywhere.
I don't mind that Luigi's Mansion 3 doesn't have a progression system like the previous installment.
However, it bugs me how the more you progress into the game, the more linear it gets, which was something I didn't want to see upon starting this game.
But the Poltergust gets upgraded late-game. Why not do more of that? Or at least upgrade it earlier on, say, floor 8?
Upgrading the vacuum is something that E. Gadd would do though.
The game is so boring and repetitive.
It's a simple, cute game that can be enjoyed by players of all skill levels. For more experienced players, it's a wonderful diversionary game that's great to play in short bursts.
It seems like there are some people just disappointed this was some epic game that required high skill level to progress in. I like games like that, but I'm fine with the direction they took LM3.
It's a good game, but it is definitely lacking in the area of skills. New skills would create new puzzles and challenges for the players. After the first few floors, nothing new is really brought to the table. The bosses were cool, but when you have a limited skill set, the game becomes very limited in what you can do.
I don't buy the "new skills aren't needed for the game" argument when they designed the game around not having new skills. The previous games provided upgrades, no excuse why this game shouldn't have.
This is honestly my least favorite in the series. 2 > 1 > 3, imo.
@Muddy_4_Ever I never expected a high skill game, but I didn't expect something shallow and non-evolving, based on the previous entries.
Why should all games have tacked on XP, Skill Tree etc.?
Ghost Recon Breakpoint became worse because of this crap.
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