Your video game hot take(s) thread

[Casual Shinji]

I was never too big into Souls games, but I could always appreciate the immense visual creativity that they held. With the coming of Black Myth: Wukong though, it's like a dam broke for me. Maybe this was always kinda there for me, but with this game the rich, ancient, castle/temple, epicness that is typical for Souls games has really started to blend together into incoherrent noise.

 

[BrawlMan]

Not really a hot take, but what the heck was Rare thinking when they made Dixie's partner in Donkey Kong Country 3 a toddler? It's such a bizarre choice. Who wants to play a toddler? Kids certainly don't! What could possibly be the rationale?

Rare wanted a buff, top heavy Kong character, without actually making Kong playable again. Ironic, was all they did was make a worse version of DK2. It's why I prefer Tropical Freeze over DK3 and even DK2 and DK1 to an extent, even though I do like the latter two.

The fact that Deadlock is a straight up MOBA makes me incredibly unexcited for it.

That's one by Valve. What are they even doing anymore?

I was never too big into Souls games, but I could always appreciate the immense visual creativity that they held. With the coming of Black Myth: Wukong though, it's like a dam broke for me. Maybe this was always kinda there for me, but with this game the rich, ancient, castle/temple, epicness that is typical for Souls games has really started to blend together into incoherent noise.

I am confused. Do you like the Wukong's environment design or not? Sounds like you're fine with it, because the game does things differently. Nearly everything else that's a 3D Souls game blends in the medieval setting for most of them. Funny thing, the developers of Wukong has stated multiple times this game is not a Souls stlye game and it shows.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

That's one by Valve. What are they even doing anymore?

What are they doing? Anything they possibly can to avoid counting to 3.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I am confused. Do you like the Wukong's environment design or not? Sounds like because it does things differently, nearly everything else that's a 3D Souls game blends in the medieval setting for most of them. Funny thing, the developers of Wukong has stated multiple times this game is not a Souls stlye game and it shows.

Folks have lost their mind with the "soulslike" label. This also came up in yesterday's Windbreaker podcast, with different ideas of what makes it soulslikes.

So my hot take is to definitely define "soulslike":

A "soulslike" game is a game with real-time challenging action combat, upgrade currency that is acquired primarily through defeating enemies that is lost upon death but may be recovered once at the point of death. Enemies respawn at checkpoints. There are boss fights.

This is my definition because the whole "feel" that defines the primary gameplay loop is that continuous sense of risk. The currency thing is absolutely crucial to the experience. From what I heard, Black Myth doesn't have that so, no, it's not a soulslike.

 

[BrawlMan]

Folks have lost their mind with the "soulslike" label. This also came up in yesterday's Windbreaker podcast, with different ideas of what makes it soulslikes.

So my hot take is to definitely define "soulslike":

A "soulslike" game is a game with real-time challenging action combat, upgrade currency that is acquired primarily through defeating enemies that is lost upon death but may be recovered once at the point of death. Enemies respawn at checkpoints. There are boss fights.

This is my definition because the whole "feel" that defines the primary gameplay loop is that continuous sense of risk. The currency thing is absolutely crucial to the experience. From what I heard, Black Myth doesn't have that so, no, it's not a soulslike.

People have become addicted to the term or labeling it on games that are clearly not that style. Trying to force something a game is not. The only thing WK has in relation to a Souls game is the camera, but that's not something Souls games are unique for nor created.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

People have become addicted to the term or labeling it on games that are clearly not that style. Trying to force something a game is not. The only thing WK has in relation to a Souls game is the camera, but that's not something Souls games are unique for nor created.

Yeah I mean I do think it's fair to credit/blame/correlate various trends in gaming to FromSoftware, even if it's things they didn't invent but certainly popularized.

The two that come to mind are using bumpers for attacking and emphasis on parrying.

One Assassins Creed of all things started using R1 to attack, right as Dark Souls 3 become massively acclaimed and ushered in a new generation of players into the subgenre, it really did seem to me like- oh, this is how we're all doing combat now I guess.

And then of course every goddman game with the parrying and delay attacks, right after Sekiro and Elden Ring, respectively.

But those are just combat mechanics that Souls/From pushed into the forefront. In fact I would even say that it's this same instinct among vocal online gamers and FromSoftware themselves that has people calling all difficult action games with boss fights "soulslikes" and also makes actual Souls games have more and more tough and fast and crazy combat.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I am confused. Do you like the Wukong's environment design or not? Sounds like you're fine with it, because the game does things differently. Nearly everything else that's a 3D Souls game blends in the medieval setting for most of them. Funny thing, the developers of Wukong has stated multiple times this game is not a Souls stlye game and it shows.

It's the overt, epic, Fantasy realism that's a staple of Souls games and of the Korean and Chinese Souls-esque games. Whether Wukong is a Souls game doesn't matter, it has that same look about it, and while it's nice looking it's just started to blend together for me. And I'm just kinda exhausted by it. When I saw footage of Wukong I was hit by an overwhelming feeling of 'Oh, this stuff again'.

Might as well continue with the hot takes, but at this point it feels very similar to the military grey brown games that were everywhere in the pre-2010's.

 

[BrawlMan]

emphasis on parrying.

The original God of War did that already. Blocking and parrying uses L1. We know the later games starting with the fourth main line. Entry, use the bumper and shoulder buttons, but at least you could switch to classic style and have square and triangle glass your attack buttons.

And then of course every goddman game with the parrying and delay attacks, right after Sekiro and Elden Ring, respectively.

All Skeiro did was take parrying from Metal Gear Rising. Which Rising got from Bayonetta (when equipping the moon of khala). Which Bayonetta got from DMC3 & 4. Which DMC3&4 got from Street Fighter 3. Everything is relative.

It's the overt, epic, Fantasy realism that's a staple of Souls games and of the Korean and Chinese Souls-esque games. Whether Wukong is a Souls game doesn't matter, it has that same look about it, and while it's nice looking it's just started to blend together for me. And I'm just kinda exhausted by it. When I saw footage of Wukong I was hit by an overwhelming feeling of 'Oh, this stuff again'.

At least this game has the Chinese mythos to stand out. Considering how this game is taking the whole world and China by storm, it is more than unique enough for a majority of people. Just watch any play through a few hours in, and you can tell that the game is pretty much doing its own thing.

Might as well continue with the hot takes, but at this point it feels very similar to the military grey brown games that were everywhere in the pre-2010's.

At least the Souls games bother to have actual color variety and theory. I'm not a Souls fan, but I'll still take those games over the dull brown and gray cover shooters. Besides, it's just of cycle repeating itself and people already predicted this back in mid to late 2010s. It was just a matter of when and not if, for the fatigue to set in.

Before all that it was the Halo "killers". Before all that, it was the GTA clones. Before all that, it was 3d mascot platformers. Before all that, MK clones. Etc, etc.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

This industry is beyond the saturation point, which is why old games are often still more appealing. Damn near everything “new” has just been iterating upon the past three generations of similar game types let alone sequels to the point the older stuff starts to feel fresh again.

 

[BrawlMan]

This industry is beyond the saturation point, which is why old games are often still more appealing. Damn near everything “new” has just been iterating upon the past three generations of similar game types let alone sequels to the point the older stuff starts to feel fresh again.

It's why i've been enjoying the smaller budget and indie titles. They're either doing unique things with the old formulas or just making these games actually fun. Not just constantly nickling and diming the customers for money. Nor making games a second job.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

So my hot take is to definitely define "soulslike":

A "soulslike" game is a game with real-time challenging action combat, upgrade currency that is acquired primarily through defeating enemies that is lost upon death but may be recovered once at the point of death. Enemies respawn at checkpoints. There are boss fights.

My definition is "any game that expects me to bang my head against a brick wall until I've memorized by rote the exact frame-perfect responses to every attack from every last enemy in the game".

 

[BrawlMan]

My definition is "any game that expects me to bang my head against a brick wall until I've memorized by rote the exact frame-perfect responses to every attack from every last enemy in the game".

Like a speed-runner trying to get the next frame advantage!

I've memorized by rote the exact frame-perfect responses to every attack from every last enemy in the game".

Funny enough, you just described Royal Guard players.

After seeing Sphere Hunter's recent Resident Evil 2 Remake 5 years later review. I disagree with her on several things, but mainly the whole "RE2R's biggest crime was starting the heavy remake trend". No. I am not going to blame the game for other people's and companies' decisions and greed. RE2R didn't ask for all of these remakes. You, me, and the people asked for a lot of them in the first place (RE3R and RE4R). Not all of them to be remade/remastered/re-whatever, but it happened because the others sold great. Stop with the whole "there are too many remakes!" nonsense. If you hate them that much, then either play something else or don't play them at all. Resident Evil 8 happened, and Capcom just released two original IPs. Exoprimal and Path of the Goddess. Did your brain forget those already? I don't consider Exoprimal good, but there's still originality pumping out of Capcom just fine.

Sphere, I love you and everything, but Capcom is really not going to do another Resident Evil spin-off game . if you look back, most of the spin-off/gaiden games did not sell, are inconsequential and add nothing to the overall narrative, or are never followed up on. Which is something even the mainline games are guilty of doing multiple times!

 

[Drathnoxis]

My definition is "any game that expects me to bang my head against a brick wall until I've memorized by rote the exact frame-perfect responses to every attack from every last enemy in the game".

So I Wanna Be The Guy is a souls-like?

 

[NerfedFalcon]

So I Wanna Be The Guy is a souls-like?

"Behold, a Soulslike!" < Diogenes probably

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

JRPGs need to have settings to make the goddamn party members stop yelling their moves all the time.

I'm far enough into Tales of Arise where I want to finish the story but the combat is boring/annoying for all the reasons I don't often play these games- health-sponge enemies that you're supposed to defeat by screwing around with a million menu options (or just looking up the best tactics online) and button-mashing for 4 hours. And, as usual, it's fun and cool until it becomes boring and annoying.

But in this game there are 6 party members with lots of special moves so they're all yelling all the time. Plus the same small set of banter repeated over and over.

A game fails in its engagement when it actively encourages the player to use LESS of its mechanics. I have set the difficulty to "Story" and the fighting mode to "automatic" which means the game is playing itself unless I feel like interfering with inputs, while taking my headphones out of my ears during combat becaus if I never hear LIGHTNING TIGER STRIKE yelled in my brain again it'll be too soon.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Well it looks like Astrobot is going to be this year's Hi-Fi Rush: a perfectly good game that online gamer arguers, critics, and youtubers are going to turn into some cause celebre, some model of TRUE GAMING and weapon with which to insult other games.
Except this one is weirder because Astrobot is also like a huge commercial for the Playstation brand... which now you gotta pay for.
Oh, and I will pay for it, because the game looks hella fun, but no brand much less Sony/Playstation needs anyone outside of their C-suite board or marketing reps dickriding for them.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well it looks like Astrobot is going to be this year's Hi-Fi Rush: a perfectly good game that online gamer arguers, critics, and youtubers are going to turn into some cause celebre, some model of TRUE GAMING and weapon with which to insult other games.
Except this one is weirder because Astrobot is also like a huge commercial for the Playstation brand... which now you gotta pay for.
Oh, and I will pay for it, because the game looks hella fun, but no brand much less Sony/Playstation needs anyone outside of their C-suite board or marketing reps dickriding for them.

There's a good reason those two games elicit such response. It's not because they're masterpieces better than all other games, it's because they're the type of games that typically don't receive this level of production value. It's cause to celebrate when wacky, goofy games are given the same AAA finesse as a God of War, Resident Evil, or Final Fantasy.

 

[BrawlMan]

Well it looks like Astrobot is going to be this year's Hi-Fi Rush: a perfectly good game that online gamer arguers, critics, and youtubers are going to turn into some cause celebre, some model of TRUE GAMING and weapon with which to insult other games.
Except this one is weirder because Astrobot is also like a huge commercial for the Playstation brand... which now you gotta pay for.
Oh, and I will pay for it, because the game looks hella fun, but no brand much less Sony/Playstation needs anyone outside of their C-suite board or marketing reps dickriding for them.

I've learned to ignore those fools at this point. I'm in this play a fun game, like you. Not to act like a biatch that thinks they're better than everyone else for buying a product.

There's a good reason those two games elicit such response. It's not because they're masterpieces better than all other games, it's because they're the type of games that typically don't receive this level of production value. It's cause to celebrate when wacky, goofy games are given the same AAA finesse as a God of War, Resident Evil, or Final Fantasy.

I always do welcome more AAA games that take themselves less seriously, or something for all ages, but I'm not gonna go super overboard on praising them when we got a dime a dozen games like that on the indie and AA scene.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

jRPGs are worse than all the loot boxes, gatcha games, games as service, season passes, special editions, and battles passes combined. They should be outlawed.

I'm at the very end of the main campaign of Tales of Arise. I have done every side quest I could as I come across them, upgraded equipment and skills, all that stuff. My characters are level 43 and enemies are level 55. Even on "story" and "very easy" modes, it is impossible. All the sidequests I can find have enemies that are even higher level than the main game enemies at this point.

Which means- if I want to see the end of the story, I'm going to have to invest god knows how many more hours into leveling up by grinding enemies. How is this genre not only accepted but even beloved? It's a travesty.

 

[Casual Shinji]

jRPGs are worse than all the loot boxes, gatcha games, games as service, season passes, special editions, and battles passes combined. They should be outlawed.

I'm at the very end of the main campaign of Tales of Arise. I have done every side quest I could as I come across them, upgraded equipment and skills, all that stuff. My characters are level 43 and enemies are level 55. Even on "story" and "very easy" modes, it is impossible. All the sidequests I can find have enemies that are even higher level than the main game enemies at this point.

Which means- if I want to see the end of the story, I'm going to have to invest god knows how many more hours into leveling up by grinding enemies. How is this genre not only accepted but even beloved? It's a travesty.

That just means you're playing a bad JRPG.

Even then I'd rather a game have grinding than loot boxes. Grinding is just annoying and boring, loot boxes is having executives' fingers in your pockets.