Challenge Club Inaugural Challenge - SUIKODEN (Default Runes Only)

clubs
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I was watching some Dark Souls challenge run Youtube content, and… well, ok, if you insist on knowing what I was watching, this was one hell of a watch:

…ok, now that you’ve put aside an hour to watch that, I’ll get to what I meant to post about.

I once organized a little fun Challenge Run game with some friends that I called something like the Challenge Run Potluck, at that time it was within Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition.

The premise of the game was that everyone who participated came up with their own unique challenge run of Dark Souls. They didn’t need to be coherent, or even proven to be beatable, or on the other hand, they didn’t need to be esoteric, or even difficult. The point of the exercise was that the challenges had a funny or interesting theme. If I recall, one of them demanded you rush to the Dragon Covenant and play as the dragon form. Another was a Breaking Bad themed run where you could only use a few shitty weapons and certain offensive consumables. And so on and so forth.

Once all participants had submitted a concept for a challenge run, the Potluck part of the name began. Everyone who submitted a challenge run concept got assigned a random one from someone else. I don’t recall too much coming of any of it, but, I do remember hitting my head against the wall on the one I got because it was that goddamned Breaking Bad themed one and it was way too hard lol. But it was definitely a fun thing to do.

Challenge runs are fun and/or funny, even if they go poorly, maybe even especially if they go poorly. And so I propose to the forum community–do you want to start a club dedicated to those in the community interested in doing Challenge Runs of games together, and then have a big weird thread where we share our experiences with a weird challenge run? Perhaps even organize a Challenge Run Potluck of some kind?

I could see this occurring on a pretty drawn out timeline, think like, taking a few weeks to brainstorm a game to play, and a structure for the challenge or challenges, and then we just let it play out over a few weeks for short games, or months or perhaps even longer for more complicated ones, sharing fun experiences in the threads, helping each other theorycraft, celebrating those who conquer their challenge, and so on and so forth, only really picking a new game/challenge structure once it seems like the current running one has run out of steam or everyone who participated is done. Something like that anyway.

  • I want to play videogames in dumb ways alongside a fun community vibe
  • I’d be interested but it’d depend on the game whether I participate
  • I’m interested and honestly that Dark Souls Potluck thing sounds fun, let’s do that first
0 voters
4 Likes
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May participate if it’s not Dark Souls.

5 Likes
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I love Dark Souls, but have no interest in a challenge run of something I already struggle with in many parts.

Voted for the other 2 options.

1 Like
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I’m not married to Dark Souls, well, aside from the fact that I am literally married to Dark Souls because I love and respect it and will share the rest of my life with it. I just remember the Potluck concept being fun and that was with Dark Souls.

I always want to be mindful of, like, not excluding people based on the accessibility or price of a game, so, perhaps something like an easily… acquirable… JRPG makes more sense.

2 Likes
5

Idea: Bubsy 3D try not to cry challenge

i’d be down! I like a game with a good randomizer or something like the FFV four job fiesta: https://www.fourjobfiesta.com/help.php

2 Likes
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In any case if anyone thinks the sound of some kind of Challenge Run Club sounds fun, I welcome any and all proposals for a game or structure or theme or anything like that.

We don’t even necessarily need to be playing the same game… maybe we could pick a challenge run that sort of makes sense across multiple games of a (similar enough) genre, like for example a solo character challenge, and everyone gets a different JRPG, and the fun will be in seeing who ends up with the easiest/hardest/weirdest time!

4 Likes
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That one’s easy, because Bubsy 3D is actually a completely okay game!

4 Likes
8

A solo character challenge sounds good to me. Or even a Single Class Challenge (the other SCC), which is maybe a little more accessible. Plenty of games with job systems too.

Generally, I’d be down as long as it’s not something prohibitively difficult.

2 Likes
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I’d like a game that’s:

  • Easy/cheap to obtain
  • On (or emulatable on) common hardware
  • Has a short (<10hr) runtime
  • Flexible enough for fun creative challenges
  • Not frustratingly difficult on its own

Examples:

Dragon Quest
Gunstar Heroes
Pikmin

(Not necessarily great examples)

4 Likes
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Let’s get a running list of breezier JRPGs

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That sounds like it’d be lots of fun with the right game. Technically not single class but I did Dragon Quest III with 3 Gadabouts until they could become Sages. That was a hell of a time

1 Like
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Some more abstract ideas:

  • Play the game you bought longest ago but have not started.
  • Caravan mode- we pick a time limit (like 30 minutes) and challenge people to get as many Mario 64 Stars as they can, build the biggest SimCity they can, etc within the time limit

Here are some games with randomizers:

Pokemon Randomizer - Releases · voliol/universal-pokemon-randomizer · GitHub
Dragon Warrior Randomizer - https://dwrandomizer.com/
Final Fantasy 1 Randomizer - Final Fantasy Randomizer
Fire Emblem Randomizer - GitHub - lushen124/Universal-FE-Randomizer: Properly universal this time.
Chrono Trigger Randomizer - https://ctjot.com/
Suikoden (or others with big casts we can do a Random.org character selection randomizer)

And for something different:
Metroid / A Link to the Past randomizer - https://samus.link/
Symphony of the SotN - https://www.symphonyrando.fun/
A Short Hike - A Short Hike Info
Kirby Super Star - Great Cave Offensive randomizer - GitHub - nickcat03/KSS-Randomizer
Star Fox 64 - GitHub - punk7890/Star-Fox-64-Randomizer: A Star Fox 64 randomizer with a variety of options. Coded entirely in ASM and is hardware compatible.

5 Likes
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This rules, also, it made me think of something else fun, that isn’t exactly a challenge run but might be interesting and challenging for a game like an RPG with complex enough character/party customization.

Relay Mode: A single person in a larger team starts a game via an emulator. Would probably work best with as many people participating as possible, who have hopefully played the game in question before. We either decide collectively what constitutes a boss, or some other landmark or subdivision that would define some kind of smaller chunk of the game’s overall content/story, erring on the side of splitting up the game into many digestible chunks. After every boss/chunk of gameplay, the current single player saves the game, and then passes the save file on to the next person in the team. The process repeats until the game is over.

Only thing off-limits would be extensive grinding, otherwise making weird character or party customization decisions would all be on the table.

There might even be some room for cheeky sabotage. Maybe it could be that, instead of passing the save file along once you beat a boss, you can put the save in any kind of state you want before beating a boss or some kind of difficult or substantial section. Copy the save file, and then beat the boss yourself to prove that it’s possible to win in whatever busted state you left it in, or according to some other kind of restriction or condition. Then, pass along the original save file before the boss is beaten to the next person, who has to also beat it with the busted party or the imposed condition.

6 Likes
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The idea of Suikoden with a random party sounds really fun to me.

3 Likes
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Something I’ve done with my own friends is randomized single-type runs. Single-type runs on their own are interesting, but give way to real pencil-pushing planning ahead wrt choosing a good type for a game. It’s much more fun to randomize a game, choose a starter, then match that starter’s type with only luck on your side for the rest of the game and hope everything works out. Luckily all Pokémon games are easy enough where it’d still be extremely beatable with only one Pokémon, even when randomized, if you happen to be so unlucky

4 Likes
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Unfortunately Pokemon games also suck

6 Likes
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I miss when I could “Like” my own posts

6 Likes
18

All these ideas sound great to me.

In my tupperware container I bring a heaping helping of Bizhawk Shuffler. A fairly user friendly script which holds your state while flipping between multiple games. Originally known for “Megaman 1-8 but the game changes everytime you get hit”. It can include any number of games, console generations, change randomly or linearly, change based on a random or fixed timer, and so on.

Way more hectic than contemplative, but is a fun option for mashing up shorter games which lack the freedom of a challenge run. Multiple people could pick games that get mashed up. Maybe you can discard and redraw a game. Play Gunstar Heroes and Shatterhand! Play Sakura Wars but every fifteen minutes you must get back to NBA Jam.

3 Likes
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Ok, I think even if half of the 16 people who voted in the polls above were to participate, we got a Club going here folks.

I’m still thinking about all this and if no one else wants to get things organized I’ll start to see how we can pull things together.

I think it would be best if we were to start with something simple, and more uniform, so we’re all kinda doing the same thing. I think that would help with the community vibe I think would make all of this the most fun. But, I am also usually more of a fan of doing things democratically, so, I present the following polls, which are also another excuse to do a rank choice poll!! Yay:

What genre, series, or game do you want to start with?
  • JRPG (which game or games is TBD)
  • JRPG with monster/party member collection elements a la Pokemon (TBD)
  • Metroid-like (TBD)
  • Dark Souls
  • Zelda series (TBD)
  • Star Fox 64
0 voters
Irrespective of the result of the above poll, what types of challenge runs would you be most enthused to start with? Pick 1-3 options.
  • Randomizers
  • Game Shufflers
  • Parameter/Mechanic Restrictions (e.g. Single character, Low Level, etc.)
  • Caravan Mode (as detailed by Tradegood above)
  • Challenge Run Potluck (as detailed by Gaagaagiins)
  • Relay Mode (as detailed by Gaagaagiins)
  • A really cool other idea that I will share in the thread once I’m done voting
0 voters
The most recent console generation I would be able to emulate (THEORETICALLY BECAUSE PIRACY IS ILLEGAL) would be…
  • SNES, Genesis, etc.
  • PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, Saturn, etc.
  • PlayStation 2, Gamecube, Dreamcast, XBox, etc.
  • PlayStation 3, Wii, Dreamcast 2, XBox 360, etc.
0 voters
1 Like
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Before I vote, what’s the difference between a randomizer and a shuffler?

1 Like