Learning from games in 2023
Hope everyone has a good New Year!
18 Games
Writeup: https://www.backloggd.com/u/HotPocketHPE/review/732665/
Lesson learned: Actually most games are bad
Lesson learned: Actually most games are bad
AC1 writeup: https://www.backloggd.com/u/HotPocketHPE/review/643273/
AC1-2AA writeup: https://cohost.org/HotPocketHPE/post/1429455-armored-core-mini-re
Lesson learned: PvP combat is a great foundation
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From what I've played (through AC3), this series consistently struggles with enemy design, level design, economy balancing, and pacing. But the movement and aiming is so deep as to carry everything else on its back for game after game. Apparently Armored Core had a sizable PvP scene, so in retrospect it's not surprising that it had so much thought put into it.
AC1-2AA writeup: https://cohost.org/HotPocketHPE/post/1429455-armored-core-mini-re
Lesson learned: PvP combat is a great foundation
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From what I've played (through AC3), this series consistently struggles with enemy design, level design, economy balancing, and pacing. But the movement and aiming is so deep as to carry everything else on its back for game after game. Apparently Armored Core had a sizable PvP scene, so in retrospect it's not surprising that it had so much thought put into it.
Lesson learned: Appreciate the vibes
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Soured some on the mechanics of this game, but in retrospect the sleek structure (excepting the new game+ stuff), art direction, and characters are hard to really dislike, and the combat does shine when frantically dodging hordes of projectiles. I would vastly prefer more games like this to Miyazaki's recent output. It's basically an Ace Combat game!
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Soured some on the mechanics of this game, but in retrospect the sleek structure (excepting the new game+ stuff), art direction, and characters are hard to really dislike, and the combat does shine when frantically dodging hordes of projectiles. I would vastly prefer more games like this to Miyazaki's recent output. It's basically an Ace Combat game!
Writeup: https://www.backloggd.com/u/HotPocketHPE/review/703771/
Lesson learned: Parry-centric gameplay isn't great
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Technically knew this one since Sekiro, but felt it hard here. It's frustrating to see all the different systems here being mostly dragged down by the insane power and universal application of the R1 button, especially compared to Nioh's stamina which uplifts the systems around it.
Lesson learned: Parry-centric gameplay isn't great
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Technically knew this one since Sekiro, but felt it hard here. It's frustrating to see all the different systems here being mostly dragged down by the insane power and universal application of the R1 button, especially compared to Nioh's stamina which uplifts the systems around it.
Lesson learned: Taste is subjective
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Obviously I knew this before, but this was the strongest I've felt it in a while. I know quite a few people who really resonated with BOTW, but I just didn't personally.
On a mechanical level, it feels like they put in a massive amount of effort to try to meticulously design for the Ubisoft open world structure (watch design retrospectives), but at the end of the day the core system of traversal that you use to engage with any of that just isn't very interesting. There are cool things you can do with the chemistry system, but they are finicky to set up, and TOTK completely supersedes it in that aspect.
All of this could be overlooked though if the atmosphere and tone hooked me, but I just didn't viscerally experience that like I did with many other works this year. Intellectually I can see how the themes of impermanence and attachment weave through the game, but I couldn't touch those threads for myself. Not for me I guess.
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Obviously I knew this before, but this was the strongest I've felt it in a while. I know quite a few people who really resonated with BOTW, but I just didn't personally.
On a mechanical level, it feels like they put in a massive amount of effort to try to meticulously design for the Ubisoft open world structure (watch design retrospectives), but at the end of the day the core system of traversal that you use to engage with any of that just isn't very interesting. There are cool things you can do with the chemistry system, but they are finicky to set up, and TOTK completely supersedes it in that aspect.
All of this could be overlooked though if the atmosphere and tone hooked me, but I just didn't viscerally experience that like I did with many other works this year. Intellectually I can see how the themes of impermanence and attachment weave through the game, but I couldn't touch those threads for myself. Not for me I guess.
Writeup: https://www.backloggd.com/u/HotPocketHPE/review/849991/
Lesson learned: Devs often don't know what they're doing
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The scattered nature of the game itself combined with the recent Aonuma interview has convinced me of this. How do you put so much time into a single feature while designing so much of the game as if it didn't exist? Obviously I can sit in my chair and act like I know exactly what they should do, but it's not even like they had trouble executing, they just didn't really try!!! I had a lot of fun with TOTK but it's such an insanely baffling game to me.
Lesson learned: Devs often don't know what they're doing
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The scattered nature of the game itself combined with the recent Aonuma interview has convinced me of this. How do you put so much time into a single feature while designing so much of the game as if it didn't exist? Obviously I can sit in my chair and act like I know exactly what they should do, but it's not even like they had trouble executing, they just didn't really try!!! I had a lot of fun with TOTK but it's such an insanely baffling game to me.
Writeup: https://www.backloggd.com/u/HotPocketHPE/review/1002058/
Lesson learned: Nintendo doesn't do systemic design
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Like I mentioned in my writeup, so much of this game is screaming out "classic roguelike" but it's really hard to see Nintendo taking any influence from that direction. Weird to juxtapose with TOTK, which was designed with explicitly systemic elements but runs into similar issues when trying to reconcile that with the typical Nintendo structure.
Lesson learned: Nintendo doesn't do systemic design
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Like I mentioned in my writeup, so much of this game is screaming out "classic roguelike" but it's really hard to see Nintendo taking any influence from that direction. Weird to juxtapose with TOTK, which was designed with explicitly systemic elements but runs into similar issues when trying to reconcile that with the typical Nintendo structure.
Lesson learned: Systemic design isn't incompatible with balance
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My first classic roguelike! Shocked at how streamlined and balanced this is, while still creating frequent opportunities for wacky interactions. The environment generates weirdly and contextualizes everything you do, which is a far cry from many roguelites I've played. Not sure how I feel about identifying items (apparently many other classic roguelikes ditched this) or how the balance holds up in the end, but it's been a joy to play so far, especially the RapidBrogue fork.
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My first classic roguelike! Shocked at how streamlined and balanced this is, while still creating frequent opportunities for wacky interactions. The environment generates weirdly and contextualizes everything you do, which is a far cry from many roguelites I've played. Not sure how I feel about identifying items (apparently many other classic roguelikes ditched this) or how the balance holds up in the end, but it's been a joy to play so far, especially the RapidBrogue fork.
Lesson learned: In minimalist games, small changes have big impacts
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In many ways, The Last Guardian isn't all that different from Ico. But those differences are so important that they elevate the game from interesting artsy experience to true masterwork. Reframing your AI partner from human to animal makes it much easier to buy into the illusion of life. More explicit storytelling enhances the tone and themes without sacrificing the dreamlike atmosphere these games are so known for. The patience required when interacting with Trico puts me in a relaxed but engaged state similar to Tarkovsky's film Stalker: exactly the headspace for drawing out the nuances present all around you. Ueda's vision finally blossoms!
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In many ways, The Last Guardian isn't all that different from Ico. But those differences are so important that they elevate the game from interesting artsy experience to true masterwork. Reframing your AI partner from human to animal makes it much easier to buy into the illusion of life. More explicit storytelling enhances the tone and themes without sacrificing the dreamlike atmosphere these games are so known for. The patience required when interacting with Trico puts me in a relaxed but engaged state similar to Tarkovsky's film Stalker: exactly the headspace for drawing out the nuances present all around you. Ueda's vision finally blossoms!
Writeup: https://www.backloggd.com/u/HotPocketHPE/review/920161/
(Note: Amazing game but you should probably consider pirating it)
Lesson learned: Depth creates more, not less, opportunity for expression
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When trying to represent experiences through mechanics, it turns out that having deeper mechanics to work with allows for more experiences to be represented! Final Fantasy 7's combat has flashy animations that are fun to look at, but the resources and their relationships are so simple that it has to lean entirely on that graphical presentation. Ruina, through having an actually robust combat system, has the ability to represent emotional states by believably matching them with play patterns in the game! Magic the Gathering has leveraged this for many years, but Ruina ties it to a linear narrative to create something I haven't seen anywhere else.
(Note: Amazing game but you should probably consider pirating it)
Lesson learned: Depth creates more, not less, opportunity for expression
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When trying to represent experiences through mechanics, it turns out that having deeper mechanics to work with allows for more experiences to be represented! Final Fantasy 7's combat has flashy animations that are fun to look at, but the resources and their relationships are so simple that it has to lean entirely on that graphical presentation. Ruina, through having an actually robust combat system, has the ability to represent emotional states by believably matching them with play patterns in the game! Magic the Gathering has leveraged this for many years, but Ruina ties it to a linear narrative to create something I haven't seen anywhere else.
Writeup: https://www.backloggd.com/u/HotPocketHPE/review/1069897/
Lesson learned: I am still bitter towards modern FromSoft
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I'd be lying if I didn't feel perverse glee at seeing this studio completely outshine FromSoft mechanically by simply creating a collage of Souls, Sekiro, and Bloodborne. For those who think this game is soulless and phoning it in, I've got some bad news about Dark Souls 3.
Bad faith comments aside, I'm slightly colder on this now due to formulaic level structure and my general coldness on the modern Souls formula, but it's still a solid game. Looking forward to this team's future.
Lesson learned: I am still bitter towards modern FromSoft
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I'd be lying if I didn't feel perverse glee at seeing this studio completely outshine FromSoft mechanically by simply creating a collage of Souls, Sekiro, and Bloodborne. For those who think this game is soulless and phoning it in, I've got some bad news about Dark Souls 3.
Bad faith comments aside, I'm slightly colder on this now due to formulaic level structure and my general coldness on the modern Souls formula, but it's still a solid game. Looking forward to this team's future.
Lesson learned: The 90s-00s was level design's golden age
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This is the sweet spot: just enough detail to be expressive, but not so much to preclude abstraction. The result is comparatively fast iteration times that enables individual authorship at every level. Even though the vanilla Quake maps are often flawed in execution, being able to sense "oh, this is a Sandy Petersen level" through all of his design proclivities is a joy seldom felt in more modern games. I'm still playing custom maps!
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This is the sweet spot: just enough detail to be expressive, but not so much to preclude abstraction. The result is comparatively fast iteration times that enables individual authorship at every level. Even though the vanilla Quake maps are often flawed in execution, being able to sense "oh, this is a Sandy Petersen level" through all of his design proclivities is a joy seldom felt in more modern games. I'm still playing custom maps!
Writeup: https://www.backloggd.com/u/HotPocketHPE/review/1093339/
Lesson learned: Enemy design, enemy design, enemy design
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This entire series is carried by Grunts, Jackals, and Elites. It's shocking to me that despite the overall weakness and inconsistency of the level design, I would still place Halo 1 in the top echelon of single-player shooters. Its mix of AI dynamism and enemy differentiation is just that good.
Lesson learned: Enemy design, enemy design, enemy design
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This entire series is carried by Grunts, Jackals, and Elites. It's shocking to me that despite the overall weakness and inconsistency of the level design, I would still place Halo 1 in the top echelon of single-player shooters. Its mix of AI dynamism and enemy differentiation is just that good.
Writeup: https://www.backloggd.com/u/HotPocketHPE/review/1124732/
Lesson learned: Being "overdesigned" is a real thing I guess
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If there's any game that "overdesigned" could apply to, it's this one. Not much more confident in my thoughts than when I did the above writeup, but the core way this game handles resources, player movement, and enemy movement seems like it can't be fixed by adding and scaling. You have to change what's already there!
Lesson learned: Being "overdesigned" is a real thing I guess
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If there's any game that "overdesigned" could apply to, it's this one. Not much more confident in my thoughts than when I did the above writeup, but the core way this game handles resources, player movement, and enemy movement seems like it can't be fixed by adding and scaling. You have to change what's already there!
Lesson learned: Abstraction is powerful
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Don't play the original translation!!!!!
This game has many flaws, but I was absolutely struck by how the presentation still blew me away in 2023. The pre-rendered backgrounds with fixed camera angles serve a similar function to a play stage, evoking sense of place without actually needing to fully represent it. Personally, this also puts me in the mindset to look for nuance and trust that more of what I'm seeing represents intentional artistic decisions.
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Don't play the original translation!!!!!
This game has many flaws, but I was absolutely struck by how the presentation still blew me away in 2023. The pre-rendered backgrounds with fixed camera angles serve a similar function to a play stage, evoking sense of place without actually needing to fully represent it. Personally, this also puts me in the mindset to look for nuance and trust that more of what I'm seeing represents intentional artistic decisions.
Lesson learned: Pacing is powerful
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(Warning: thoughts on writing, take with a grain of salt)
FF7's pacing is brisk, arguably too much so when many characters don't get time beyond their designated arcs. But there has to be a better way than this! The switch to fully 3D modeled locations and nonstop AAA slow walking sections form a caustic combination that frequently strips away any sense that I'm in an actual place and not an Unreal Engine level. Expanding on Midgar isn't a terrible idea, and is sometimes successful in fleshing out characters like Barret, but this increased runtime is so often abused with blatant padding and overwritten dialogue that it makes me think the pacing of the original was actually a guardrail that prohibited them from doing this.
Disturbingly, the combat is actually quite good on Hard if you endure the above and use mods on PC. Recommended mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy7remake/mods/586
Good writeup on the combat: https://www.backloggd.com/u/RexZakel/review/1123266/
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(Warning: thoughts on writing, take with a grain of salt)
FF7's pacing is brisk, arguably too much so when many characters don't get time beyond their designated arcs. But there has to be a better way than this! The switch to fully 3D modeled locations and nonstop AAA slow walking sections form a caustic combination that frequently strips away any sense that I'm in an actual place and not an Unreal Engine level. Expanding on Midgar isn't a terrible idea, and is sometimes successful in fleshing out characters like Barret, but this increased runtime is so often abused with blatant padding and overwritten dialogue that it makes me think the pacing of the original was actually a guardrail that prohibited them from doing this.
Disturbingly, the combat is actually quite good on Hard if you endure the above and use mods on PC. Recommended mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy7remake/mods/586
Good writeup on the combat: https://www.backloggd.com/u/RexZakel/review/1123266/
Lesson learned: Beat em ups are awesome!
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My first beat em up (and supposedly one of the best) totally blew me away. Simple to understand mechanics with minimal execution needed, but laser-focused on creating depth through spacing, positioning, and crowd control. Five totally unique characters paired with actually threatening enemy design! The arcade pacing is a huge breath of fresh air too, though perhaps it's still a stage or two too long.
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My first beat em up (and supposedly one of the best) totally blew me away. Simple to understand mechanics with minimal execution needed, but laser-focused on creating depth through spacing, positioning, and crowd control. Five totally unique characters paired with actually threatening enemy design! The arcade pacing is a huge breath of fresh air too, though perhaps it's still a stage or two too long.
Lesson learned: Nothing new under the sun
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It's one thing to understand intellectually that most action game design derives from beat em ups. It's quite another to play this and realize that a 1992 game not only has effectively full 3D gameplay, a fixed camera that keeps everything in view, and significant resource management, but would have a great case as the best action game of the year if it were released in 2023. I'm still pretty bad at it, and I'm sure it has problems (length being an obvious one) but nonetheless, it's crazy that in many aspects the 3D descendants of this have regressed for decades.
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It's one thing to understand intellectually that most action game design derives from beat em ups. It's quite another to play this and realize that a 1992 game not only has effectively full 3D gameplay, a fixed camera that keeps everything in view, and significant resource management, but would have a great case as the best action game of the year if it were released in 2023. I'm still pretty bad at it, and I'm sure it has problems (length being an obvious one) but nonetheless, it's crazy that in many aspects the 3D descendants of this have regressed for decades.
3 Comments
This comment was deleted
@Falzar Thanks, missed that.
Falzar
3 months ago
I'm just commenting to say you have the lies of P writeup on pikmin 2, at first i thought it was some joke but now im not sure anymore haha.