Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@roy130390
Completely agree. One example is the fact that Sidon used to be a monster Hunter for the zora. Most will never know that because they don’t find the zora tablets worth their time.

@DarthNocturnal Nah. Past games had routes with branching paths and optional areas/dungeons to explore. Sun and Moon was just a hallway simulator that stopped you every three seconds to do a rival battle, or a conversation from some of the worst characters in the series… coughHauandLilliecough.

@Ralizah Elden Ring has pretty much the same style than every other Souls game, including an opening cinematic in which a hint of the story is given but you have to discover everything else through interpretation of the dialogue with characters as well as events happening. It's a larger game with more story because of that, but not more exposure of it. You literally interact the same way than in others Souls games, finding many events that you might miss or change if you don't pay attention and who's right or wrong and what to do as well as beliefs are up to interpretation.

As for storytelling, these games aren't trying to do that in a conventional way or as direct and that doesn't make them "improper". If they feel like "rough notes" that's because that's what they are trying to do, although personally the information is too clear to be compared like that in my opinion. Item descriptions are somewhat brief, at least until you realize how much there's out there and how they connect. Characters will tell you things that happened in the past and instead of a cinematic showing perfectly what happens and how, you just hear different sides and chunks of information here and there. In my opinion putting some lore in items is a fantastic idea and a brilliant way to do "optional storytelling" as it's reserved for the people that want to know more without forcing it while leaving the necessary stuff through things that you can't miss.

Not all the story is exposed on tapes in Phantom Pain. It's simply more light in comparison to other MGS in terms of cinematics but there's still a considerable amount. As a fan of the series for many years, MGS always used other things to gather the whole story, like many optional Codec calls. They simply improved the pacing on the game and didn't overcharge the game with information as they usually do.

BOTW, at least from what you are saying, is pretty much doing the same thing that these games are doing in that regard, and of all of them, I see it as the one with less exposure of said things. All of these games, at least in terms of the core of the story, are minimalistic and you get as much exposure as it needs from those brief cutscenes and mandatory dialogue.

It really is a matter of another approach and just as with everything it isn't for everyone. It doesn't mean at all that it's flawed. Not every game has to expose everything about every situation and that's why different narrative styles exist. There's a predominant, easier way, but not mandatory, and neither of them is superior and simply up to preference.

@blindsquarel Exactly. And when you gather more information you can visualize how the champions were even better. They don't paint the whole picture because they aren't trying to. They are putting you in the shoes of Link, who is slowly remembering some aspects about it but there's still some blurry things because that's intended.

@roy130390 My friend told me recently, that soul games are amazing for there environmental storytelling, sounds about right.

Oh Did I tell you I got elden ring two days ago?

@lolwhatno Do people really say that? Because that just doesn't make sense at all, not to mention some people can't even play VR without getting sick.

@Snatcher Your friend pretty much summarised perfectly what I tried to say with my ramblings haha. That's great! I'm honestly pretty curious about your impressions and I really hope that you enjoy it. If you need help with anything, feel free to ask me.

@roy130390 LOl, its funny because they told me that before I started the game, telling me the story is in my face like that.
As for help oh yes, I actually do need help, I'm at soul level 22 at the moment I think, and I just can't get pass one of the guys to progress the story, when he pulls out the hammer, I never get far, and I might roll to much, but I have gotten used to I framing his moves.

As for what I think about to game, I actually have it all on pushQ, so I will post it on the souls thread soon.

Do post about that in the Soulsbourne thread, @Snatcher .... I'm not immediately sure which boss you're talking about, though! Which area, etc?

@BruceCM I think there name is margit? I think.

OK, @Snatcher .... Well, there's always the go around exploring more option? I think I was level 25 for that 1, with some better weapons than the starting ones
Others may have more ideas if you like to ask in the other thread, though! Sorry if that's not much help

@BruceCM No no it is, all Tips are helpful, as I never played a souls game before.

Yeah, well, I only played Dark Souls Remastered before Elden Ring, @Snatcher .... It's much more open than that, so there's more options! There was at least 1 decent sword just in a chest with no particular guards, for instance, fairly soon after coming out of the tutorial cave if you explored a bit
I might not be the best advisor, I died about 1000 times playing the game.....

@TrainerRosa I forgot to mention regional variants but those were a great addition, I'm glad there have been more of those in the following games. Though I think they've slightly overcomplicated the concept by introducing exclusive evolutions for some of the regional variants. I would prefer it if any new evolutions were also available for that Pokemon's standard form to evolve into.

The only good things from sun and moon were regional variants and the new pokemon. The rest made for a horrible experience, aside from Team Skull.

Pokemon moon is actually my next game I'm going to play after I'm finished with DKCR 3d. Trying to keep a steady flow of one 3ds/WiiU game and one switch game at a time since my backlog is getting out of hand for those 3 systems.

Regional variants were a neat idea at first but my feelings on them now are quite mixed. On one hand it's nice breathing new life into old Pokemon (including adding new types, stat distributions and evolutions)...on the other hand, I tend to prefer the original designs more and I often wish that the new evolutions went to the original forms (see: Farfetch'd).

I also feel like they're gonna cause problems for the series in the long run in terms of bringing Pokemon back.

@Buizel Preferring the original designs is entirely subjective so I won't fault you there (even if I personally prefer almost all variants compared to the og's) but in regards to the whole regional evolution thing, I really like it personally since it lets them make Pokemon that you simply couldn't see working with the original. Obstagoon is a perfect example: it looks wildly different from regular Zigzagoon/Linoone but when paired with the Galarian variants that precede it, it looks totally natural. Plus, it's a great way to both give love and attention to a neglected line whilst fitting in an important part of British culture with rock. Also, if we're to go off Stantler and Ursaring in Legends Arceus, it seems their not done with plain old regular evos just yet.

As for bringing mons back, each game from SwSh on has a selective amount of Pokemon brought back with each generation, with some having regional variants and others not. That's probably going to be the way they keep the amount of different Pokemon they need to bring back down in each gen. SwSh itself didn't have all regional variants (Alolan Muk why did they do you so dirty) so it'll probably be the same in Scarlet and Violet as well.

Gen 6 is what brought me back to Pokemon after a hiatus. After being disappointed by Diamond, I skipped Heart Gold/Soul Silver, Platinum, Black/White and Black 2/White 2 but then became interested in X/Y from the Directs. I enjoyed it a lot (Gens 3 and 6 are my current favourites).

After playing through Brilliant Diamond, while it does have issues like pacing between the 2nd and 3rd gyms as well as overall difficulty (e.g. Cynthia is brutal) I get the feeling that the biggest problem with Diamond back then was actually franchise burnout.

For that reason I'm unsure whether to bother with Scarlet/Violet, it feels way too early for Gen 9.

@Fizza good points tbh - I'm glad PLA has at least shown they're willing to give old forms evolutions still.

As for returning regional forms - it is true that they've managed to bring a few of them back but they mostly amount to trades / gifts which is a bit of a shame. But perhaps trades would make most sense moving forward (and would actually make in-game trades worthwhile, which hasn't been the case in most games IMO).

I think regional variants are a pretty good idea. I vastly prefer most of the ones we've gotten to the original designs, and they offer a new opportunity to old and forgotten pokemon that people rarely use or like. Sword and Shield were the first time I actually wanted to use Zigzagoon on my own team. They also offer a way to get "new" pokemon, while only having to make a new form, instead of having to raise the dex count.