LogFAQs > #976779971

UnfairRepresent posted...

The gear in the game (as well as being puns) has a profound impact on both the gameplay and the meta-narrative. They belong to the previous murdered children who walked the path that you did. Every item telling you a little about their personality and having an effect on gameplay beyond just a stat boost.

For example the starting item, the warn bandage has terrible defense stat and no combat perks but allows 100% successs rate of fleeing. Other items regardless of damage stat will also have different rhytms or amount of attacks to appeal to different play styles. Or might sacrifice some defense stat for increased I-frames or deceased enemy attack time. Or it might increase the effect of healing items.

You can also use the equipment as an item in battle. The Stick for example can be used repeatedly at the game in actions with enemies at the cost of an inventory slot. Something you'd only learn if you were curious and exploring the world (Or googled it, you filthy cheater you!)

And this is all presented solidly in a gameplay mechanic wrapped in jokes/puns.

If you played the game but didn't pick up on either the story or gameplay connotations of your decisions and then wonder why they even have a equipment system because all it effects is the "stats"... That's just a really strange take.

Something the game never explicitly tells you but you pick up by playing. And the response of "Why even have equipment!" seems very very very very strange....

It's kinda like playing FIFA and saying you don't understand why they even have a soccerball.

Several RPGs have had weapons that have storyline significance. This is nothing special in the least. A lot of western RPGs weapons will have significance and aren't just "some random weapon you buy at the store."

Which isn't particularly interesting. And I have no idea why you'd even count this as something that's significant. In many cases, it barely makes a difference. It's not a particularly interesting combat alterations. It's certain not changing my approach to combat. It just gives you things that help you in slightly different ways.

Using equipment as items has been a thing in several RPGs from as early as games like Final Fantasy 1. You can't be serious on thinking this is interesting.

It's an indie game. And Japanese games tend to have a ton of puns.

No. I said... It barely has much outside of slight differences. Hence me saying "Paper Mario" style upgrades, as Paper Mario upgrades are simplistic and nature and generally change things about attacks. IE, you put on a badge that makes you immune to spike damage. There's no attack increase, but changes how you can approach combat differently. You can now jump on flying enemies with spikes. I meant what I said, and you confirmed it with what you're saying.

Yes, and when a person could potentially go through a game and not notice the effects of equipment, that literally solidifies my argument through your own acknowledgement that people could possibly not pick up on what equipment does.

No, it's kinda like playing a game and being told that the differences between a red and blue soccerball are super significant because the red ball is owned by Marco and the blue ball is owned by Luis.
UnfairRepresent posted...

I mean at the very base level yes, "kill everything" is obviously bad and "Don't hurt anyone" is obviously good but reducing the story/gameplay down to that seems pretty silly.

I would hardly say the Pacifist playthrough of Undertale is the same as a non lethal playthrough of MGS2 or that a genocide one is the same as a normal playthrough of MGS2 for example.

Especially genocide which is never even presented as a viable "route" to playing the game. The entire thing is a metanarrative about Flowey representing the player growing dettatched. Most games don't even have metanarratives at all, and the Undertale genocide route consists of spending a long time (probably hours on your first run) grinding enemy fights that are dull because at this point you know how to beat them and have tons of HP for literally no reason in a way that's purposefully supposed to be boring. Large sections of the game are literally missing, most bosses don't fight back and it's long ardous grind. All for some extra dialogue and 2 boss fights.

You massacre your friends and prove the world doesn't mean anything because you don't care anymore and just wanted to see the small bits of additional new content that are "different" because it's there. Yet you claim they happened so very often in games?

Name 7 pre 2015 games that did that.

It's just some very strange opinions.

Because that's what it is.

A non-lethal playthrough of MGS2 is significantly more challenging to do. Try doing something like that in Deus Ex or Alpha Protocol or Planescape... It has some different implications and adds a significantly different approach to tackling the game.

It's a shitty metanarrative that shoots itself in the foot.

"Friends" yes, the people that were all trying to kill you. That's exactly what I would call a friend. The people that you could spend most of it running from when combat presents itself.

You mean name games that had good and evil systems before 2015?

KOTOR, KOTOR2, Alpha Protocol, Fable 1-3, Jade Empire, Dragon Age all of them (they don't specifically monitor them, but the game keeps track of them for you). That's like... 10 right there. All pre 2015. Like seriously, this wasn't breaking any new grounds. Like... Every Bioware game made it a thing, and that's before you even count games like Wasteland or Fallout or anything that tries to resemble DND.