I loved La Mulana and don't mind tough games in general, but calling that game out for being ridiculously opaque at some points is totally valid. Anyone who finished the game without resorting to a FAQ must have super-human gaming skills. I couldn't even come close although did make very significant progress.
Doesn't mean it should exist, or even that it should be changed... but I wouldn't blame anyone for feeling stymied and/or frustrated by La Mulana.
Difficult games do though (Ideally super easy to pickup / great immediately (Using the available time to just watch cutscenes or do a tutorial really annoys me) and difficult).
If I was ever in a situation where work required more of my body (As opposed to my brain) then I would probably like hard puzzles though.
Work generally is easier for me when my memory is working well (Playing hard games that require lots of memorisation helps with that).
Other stuff improved as well when I started playing games again (Like doing lots of things at once).
Pro tip:
Just because you think puzzles or "what do i do?" moments in a particular game are hard does not make them "cryptic".
It means you are not good at that particular game or type of game, or that that particular game or type of game is not for you.
I'd be hard-pressed to think of any game that has been genuinely "cryptic" with puzzles or problem-solutions since the 8-bit era, and even then half the time it would be because of bad translation/localization.
I miss when video games were about perseverance. People tell me it's because of this older demographic not having as much free time; but I've got school and work to juggle too! If I boot up the game and still haven't figured out where I'm stuck in my short play session, I just try again next time! Maybe it'll be different when I have kids?
Trust me, when your free time gets scrunched even further, and that "next time" could be next week, challenge becomes a lot less appealing.
If I ever get too busy to play challenging games, I'll stop playing games, or at least single-player games. Games without challenge are pointless.
I miss when video games were about perseverance. People tell me it's because of this older demographic not having as much free time; but I've got school and work to juggle too! If I boot up the game and still haven't figured out where I'm stuck in my short play session, I just try again next time! Maybe it'll be different when I have kids?
Trust me, when your free time gets scrunched even further, and that "next time" could be next week, challenge becomes a lot less appealing.
If I ever get too busy to play challenging games, I'll stop playing games, or at least single-player games. Games without challenge are pointless.
I disagree - it's the games with that require too much of you that are pointless, since gaming itself requires largely non-transferable skills. However, I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree.
Anything- puzzles, skilled combat, collecting- has got to be a better game mechanism than "Push A A A A A A A A A A A" QTEs.
You could say Lego games are puzzlers, but not in those that make you think, but smash everything including that bit you haven't seen for 15 minutes. They aren't hard but annoying because they often aren't designed very well. Personally I think it doesn't matter how hard a puzzle is, just how well executed. Broken Sword was a great puzzle game, but was almost ruined for me having to spend 3 hours trying to tie a goat up due to questionable controls.
Isn't it obvious that Falco Lombardi is actually a parrot?
I miss when video games were about perseverance. People tell me it's because of this older demographic not having as much free time; but I've got school and work to juggle too! If I boot up the game and still haven't figured out where I'm stuck in my short play session, I just try again next time! Maybe it'll be different when I have kids?
Trust me, when your free time gets scrunched even further, and that "next time" could be next week, challenge becomes a lot less appealing.
If I ever get too busy to play challenging games, I'll stop playing games, or at least single-player games. Games without challenge are pointless.
I disagree - it's the games with that require too much of you that are pointless, since gaming itself requires largely non-transferable skills. However, I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree.
Yeah, we will. My main argument would be that I'm not looking for transferable skills when I play games, but I can actually think of quite a few: perseverance is one of them, if course; puzzles exercise the mind; I'm certain Majora's Mask and Pikmin 3 are direct contributors to how I've been able to manage my time better lately.
However, I play games just to relax and have fun. I just also need that stimulus to keep me interested. It's the chance of pass/fail that keeps it interesting. If there's no chance of me failing, it's really hard to get excited about it.
Memorization is definitely a transferable skill as well (Probably the most useful one I have - never needing to write things down has great advantages).
As is doing something exactly right and consistently.
(The Cinematic games I would agree have no useful purpose outside escapism which I guess is ok if you want or need it).
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Topic: Should games have cryptic puzzles even now?
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