Earning weapons/abilities

[Mr.Squishy]

This is another subject that has bothered me quite a bit, partly because I have experienced it myself and seen people complain about it. What, you may ask? Two things - Losing your weapons and skills inbetween even direct sequels (I'm looking at you, zelda), and people saying they want to start out with something like the fatman or a gigantic-ass minigun or bazooka and progressing there.

Now, I, along with most of the people here on the escapist (I presume, at least), understand the idea of game balancing. It's only meant to be fair, right? Well, I admit I find it a bit annoying losing all my best equips and abilities and upgrades in a sequel, even if it's a direct one. But I often ask myself "what if Link had started out with the master sword, boomerang, hookshot and such in Majora's Mask?". The answer is that it would be really really unbalanced and finding new challenges and ways to solve them without repeating already stale issues is mildly put difficult. I would, however, like your thoughts on this too.

Next up, would it really be a good idea to start out with badass guns that shot various flavours of lightning or could tear an enemy to shreds in a split second. Sure, to start it'd probably be fun, but eventually most people get tired of the first weapons they get, and want more awesome guns, because everything else would feel like a step backwards. I ask, how in the hell would you top something like the land shark gun if you started with it and went through the whole game with it? Alright, that gun might be an exception, it looks fun enough to use...I guess...take the shurikens and lightning gun from Painkiller. If you started out with that, wouldn't you get tired of going into a room, cleaning out all the enemies with primary fire (shurikens), secondary fire (lightning) and combined fire (electrically charged shuriken mine-things). Again, imagine doing that the whole damn game. And what could top that gun without breaking the game so hard the sequel feels it?

Any thoughts you have will be eagerly recieved =3

 

[Katana314]

This seems like fairly obvious analysis. I'm actually wondering who disagrees.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

I can agree here it is quite annoying to lose all the big weapons and abilities at the beginning of a game and/or sequel. But at the same time i can give a guess as to why, and that is to make the user explore the game world and learn all the hidden parts and trick to the game so you know how clear the room of baddies while at the same time losing very little of your health

 

[orangebandguy]

Since big guns is my forté, I'm always dissapointed.

One can never have too much firepower, restrict my guns and I'll get angry.

 

[SantoUno]

Well if the mentioned character started out with everything from the previous game it would be a little game-breaking. For example every Megaman Battle Network game has a habit of making you play the exact same tutorial using the same strategies and chips, yet Lan describes it like he "forgot".

It would be difficult to make a sequel and make the character as strong as the previous, because then it would feel more like an expansion where you use your existing save file rather than a new game.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I concur, and I always hate games that have rocket launchers as primary weapons. They're just... bland. It might be fun to turn someone into giblets on the internet once, but after xXxsniPer?killqe45rxXx explodes into bits exactly the same way as Mr_Tru55les, then it's just not very satisfying.

(On a rocket launcher side note) It also sucks when a game has something awesome and explosive, but lacks destruction mechanics of any kind, it looks really lame. Many rocket launchers also seem to have really lame looking animations for reloading and such, almost like they were at the bottom of some kind of ugly man-childs checklist for game design and had to be pasted in really late.

/end rant

 

[Death on Trapezoids]

He's right, He's absolutely right. I know this from experience.
Also, for the whole sequel thing, and even just additional playthroughs, this forces players to try different paths. Like in bioshock, if you are a shotgun guy, and restart the game with all the same guns and plasmids, you really would have no incentive to experiment with other play strategies, like setting traps or the natural camoflage tonic.

 

[suhlEap]

isn't mass effect 2 letting you keep the stuff you had in the first one or something? it's kinda a good idea i guess. but you are right!

 

[rokkolpo]

i like how God of War does this.

in the beginning of GoW 2 you have the powers of kratos as he ended in the first game.
these get taken from you for a REASON.

so i was okay with that.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

PS. Just about every Zelda game is a fresh start. How can you be looking at Zelda when there are like 3 who have direct sequals?

Cheap, fast and unsatisfying answer: I watched yahtzee's phantom hourglass review and found out it's a direct sequel to I think it was wind waker and that for no reason at all (except a preqrequisite 'catastrophe' or something, I don't remember the exact wording) all the hearts, skills, weapons and friendly relations with npcs you had are reset like a snap of the fingers.

I concur, and I always hate games that have rocket launchers as primary weapons. They're just... bland. It might be fun to turn someone into giblets on the internet once, but after xXxsniPer?killqe45rxXx explodes into bits exactly the same way as Mr_Tru55les, then it's just not very satisfying.

(On a rocket launcher side note) It also sucks when a game has something awesome and explosive, but lacks destruction mechanics of any kind, it looks really lame. Many rocket launchers also seem to have really lame looking animations for reloading and such, almost like they were at the bottom of some kind of ugly man-childs checklist for game design and had to be pasted in really late.

/end rant

Gods. Yes! One of the most important things about weapons in all, which I think could reduce the demand for more "awesome" guns would definitely be some decent damage mechanics/animations and shit. Seriously, playing house of the dead and actually blowing off zombie limbs was goddarned FUN actually. As is setting people on fire in condemned...and caving in their skull with a bowling pin.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

I'm not annoyed at it with the exception of Metroid Prime, but that's because it's silly the way you loose it all.

*samus trips on a rock*
"Systems failure, Varia suit destroyed, charge beam destroyed, guns destroyed, missiles destroyed, morph ball destroyed, gonads destroyed."

 

[Pimppeter2]

I agree

I love gaining weapons/abilities. That's why I play RPGs.

 

[Fraught]

Losing them between different sequels I hate. Also, you're supposed to be some kind of God or some legend or something, but your equipment and weaponry's complete shit.

Of course, I understand why it's done like that, and I usually get over it after I yell "Why the fuck does he have so shitty items when he's supposed to be so powerful?!" to anyone in the vicinity.

I love it when they can explain it, though.

 

[Spiner909]

What if you started with the Total Inertion in Shadow Complex? How about the hookshot?(that would be pretty sweet actually)

I agree with the OP for the most part.