2/16/2024 0 Comments Guts and glory game veeringBut still, inventory management is just not fun when compared with the main game’s activities. In a sci-fi game you could say that nano machines instantly form the item you want when you want it, and return to a dormant state when you’re finished so you’re carrying around less mass but have access to several blueprint items that form and reform on command. In a game that has magic as a world element, you could argue that the items are shrunk, and that’s okay, but I don’t think they do it here (correct me if I’m wrong). Each time I came back to the game this got in my way and ruined my immersion a bit. I see The Witcher 3 praised (and rightly so) all the time for its story, gameplay, animations, etc, but nobody that I’ve seen has ever talked about why Geralt would/could carry so much stuff around and raised that as a negative. That’s part of the game balance process during production anyway. You either lower the game’s prices for items, or give more gold for quests and less for selling loot. Yes, if you gave less ‘loot’ for kills and treasure chest raids, then shop items would be harder to afford. Just because it’s a trope doesn’t mean that it’s good design, or even that players would miss it if it was gone. In most games there’s an ‘overburdened’ mechanic that slows you down or otherwise impedes your abilities if you carry too much, but that’s a weak ‘fix’ to the issue of being incentivised to carry around half of the world’s economic resources in your backpack. It’s an RPG trope to just hoard everything until you can get to a shop to sell it, so you can buy new things. Why, then, would he pick up and carry a dozen clubs and maces (that he can’t even wield in the game), ten other steel swords, and whatever else he’s got? Don’t say ‘Economy’ A silver one for monsters, and a steel one for humans or animals. In fiction, Geralt even repeatedly mentions that he carries two swords. You could argue that it’s my fault for picking stuff up, but that’s a pretty central tenet of all RPGs, which is actually my main problem with the genre (me not having enough time isn’t really the genre’s fault). Then I think to myself, if I’m role playing a demon hunter riding around the countryside on horseback, why am I even carrying this much stuff? I should be travelling light, with only vital supplies and potions. The problem is that (and I’ll take The Witcher 3 as a recent personal example), every time I do get a few hours to come back to my save file, I take a look at my inventory and between the dozens of clothing items, clubs, swords, foods, potions, and wolf guts that I’m apparently fitting inside my pockets, I can’t remember if I’m wearing optimal armour, or checked to see if I’m using the best weapon, and the first thing I get, before any gameplay enjoyment, is the frustration of choice paralysis. This is all to make us feel more invested in the world like it’s a living, breathing place that we’re really escaping to for a few hours. Huge budgets often go into making the worlds vast and sprawling, with dynamic weather, super-realistic lighting and shadows, and natural NPC and animal AI. You’re meant to come to see the world through their eyes and get totally immersed in the experience of deciding what that character would do in hundreds of given situations.ĭesigners go to great lengths to make actions and dialogue choices affect the world around you minutes, hours, and even years later in the case of the original Mass Effect trilogy, where some minor choices could resonate into the sequels. You’re supposed to get very involved with your character, whether they’re an original creation of your own, or a given hero like Geralt of Rivea. RPG stands for role-playing-game (or rocket-propelled-grenade. Actually, this would apply almost equally to most survival/crafting games, but I’ll focus on RPGs today. This problem, though, is exacerbated by my second biggest problem with (most) RPGs – inventory management. There’s just been an increase in releases, sales, and bundles, and a decrease in the free time I have that’s taking a toll on my game completion, especially in RPGs. I even now keep a spreadsheet of games bought vs started, finished, and abandoned or dropped in favour of watching a YouTuber finish it. And I’m not someone to abandon a game lightly. As I wrote about two months ago, I also started Mass Effect: Andromeda and have since finished that (I think I just get more immersed in space opera than fantasy RPGs). In the last few years I’ve started but not finished The Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Dark Souls, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and numerous others. So, my biggest problem with RPGs is that I don’t have time to play them.
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