Yeah in Mineral Town, if you read a guide it will have you racing all over town, each day‘s schedule fully packed to get maximum output. it’s a very min max, macro farm experience. Which is ironic because it‘s the smaller game, which can be played on 2" gameboy micro screen.
In Wonderful Life, it’s a lot more focused on improving relationships with the characters, and walking much more slowly to get about 3 or 4 things done each day sometimes, haha.
I don‘t think there’s a canonical “most loved” Harvest Moon game. There‘s always been a very low key fandom over at Ushi no Tane, but since it’s always been a casually approachable nonviolent cute ass farm sim, there‘s more normal people playing than hardcore fans. It just depends on what game that person got as a kid! However it’s still worthwhile to look at the timeline of the series and form your own opinions. There was a time where the same base game was ported, retooled and changed slightly over and over for a swath of about five games in a row. Mineral Town, 64, Back to Nature, and many more are kind of fuzzily separated. So this is a lot more complicated.
I don‘t really think about games being nice to me or how much friction the play experience has…. Sometimes those things are what makes the play experience for me…. If anything I am annoyed by games being too nice I guess, if I have to put it that way. I can’t reiterate enough that I just don‘t play a lot of new games, and I haven’t for the past 2 console generations. There's already enough games for me to play to last the rest of my life, haha.
As for Undertale, it's funny because I didn't think the visuals or design were what set it apart. It's an RPG maker game. The visuals are largely 2-tone pixel graphics. I was scared to play it at first because there was the chance that my friend made a game I would think was dumb or missed the mark. But the sentimental story is what the game is about. I wasn't spoiled at all and I cried so much towards the end that, I'm scared to replay it because it brings up so many hard feelings compounded by the fact that my old friend from a poor family got super famous and does business with the likes of hip tanaka and shigesato itoi now. I don't pay attention to any fandom, or anything stupid on the internet... Undertale has tons of stupid content and I just ignore it and live in my own world. I didn't play DDLC nor will I ever.
@cubbienathan#14489 I agree with everything you said here and I think I gave up at around the same place you did, although I didn‘t look up a Let’s Play because I had completely lost interest in the story. I was a huge fan of the original NieR, but Automata never quite reached the highs that that game did. Honestly, I have the feeling that I wouldn't even like the original that much if I went back, although I do still believe that it was at least a far more interesting game.
Also I didn't like 2B's skirt flowing up and revealing her pants every time she moved! It made me feel like a creep!
I didn‘t like GoldenEye and all these years later that opinion still gets me into a lot of trouble. I understand why GoldenEye hooked so many people, but I just didn’t enjoy it. Why? To put it short, I was playing Quake at the time …
@sosadillatron#14526 I have an inverted perspective to this; as a kid I played more FPS and militaristic titles to fit in with “friends”, and I got some enjoyment out of them. As an adult, I don‘t play any of them any more. I pick up DOOM occasionally on my gameboy micro because it’s cool. I may play through it fully someday, but probably not?
The original Nier is a lot like Deadly Premonition in that it‘s a sum-of-its-parts holistic vibe of pure weirdo energy that is actually not all that fun to play. And both sequels kind of whiff trying to recapture that lightning in a bottle. I’d rather admire both games than interact with them. Engaging with a lot of art is like that, I guess.
Re: Stardew, there's been a real cottagecore zeitgeist happening across culture (cf. Little Women, Emma, period shows on Netflix; renewed interest in cooking shows/British Bakeoff; Taylor Swift and other pop stars returning to folk music influences; Animal Crossing and twee games in general) and it'll be interesting to see how it further manifests as we (fingers crossed) begin to exit the pandemic in 2021. It'd be an easy thesis for someone to write.
- There's a lot to be said about being a “hipster” about media… ideally we strive for maturity. Lol. Finding self worth is a part of growing up :j
- Sekiro is the only Souls game I skipped. Probably much enjoyment to be had, but the major thing I get from souls is making my Mary Sue character and dressing them weird! And I always prefer spellcasters with the moonlight sword from king'a field and they just keep nerfing that play style more and more with each game! It's D&D or die baby!
- comparing Persona games.... Yeah.... Haven't played P5... Call me a hipster but I like the first person dungeons in the earlier games more than a 3D crawl. 😛
- sonic is just dumb fun. Often unforgiving and unintuitive, yet so simple and smooth, except when it's not. I am jealous of those who have mastered the dance... I certainly have not. What really annoys me most about the game is the BOSSES. Sonic "clicked" for me with Sonic Pocket Adventure for Neo geo! I intuited that you can ramp real high off certain slopes in chemical plant zone. Its mastery of the physics like that that is so satisfying and I think it's an extremely steep difficulty curve, which is why fans find it so rewarding!
The story, writing, and characters are basically a big fat 0 for me. Enough has been said about the disconnected stories. Yes, it’s awkward and badly executed, but that’s not even my main complaint.
Every character has exactly one trait or “thing” and not a single dimension beyond that. The dialogue is 95% platitudes and cliches. It’s kindergarten depth, except they talk about whores and use profanity? Who are they writing for? The concept of little story vignettes could’ve been cool if the stories and characters had any substance at all.
I think people generally agree that while the story isn't great, the visuals, music, and battle system make up for it. The art is definitely the strongest part of the game, but even that teeters on being gaudy for me with those HDR effects and serif fonts. The music is good, but music is all about associations, and I associate it with playing this game, so I can't even get into that. The battle system is pretty fun and satisfying at first, but eventually it just makes the battles you've won over and over take so long to finish.
There's my rant. Couldn't really get into Undertale either, but that's been discussed here already!
@thiccnick#14783 did you play sonic as a kid (edit:I see in your subsequent post that you did not)? I did not (i was a “nintendo baby”) and sonic mania was my first sonic game. I played it over and over again trying to understand the appeal, all of my complaints were similar to yours. I have learned to have fun with it a little bit cause it is fun just to pinball around, and I think the art and music are both amazing. But I feel like I am unable to enjoy it as much as I would if I played the old games as a kid, where maybe my more impressionable brain could have enjoyed the incomprehensible level design lol. I tried playing the original sonic and sonic 2 to try to gain an understanding, and I just can't get into those games at all, the refinement to the mechanics that sonic mania has incorporated has made those tough to play imo
On a related note, trying to play sonic has really made me appreciate the timeless quality of Mario games...like sonic mania has to take somewhat large steps to make the mechanics of sonic moderately acceptable to a modern audience whereas SMB/SMB3 etc still feel great. Even the art of the Mario games seems like it's aged better (I might be biased) though sonic mania has some of the best pixel art I've ever seen
None of this is to say that if you're a big sonic fan I think you're wrong! I think the games are really cool and I wish I liked them more!
@thiccnick#14783 You (and a lot of other people in this thread) are really touching here on the weird psychology of having opinions (and meta-opinions) in public. I feel like someone could write a whole book about this. Well, multiple people already have, I'm sure.
It's still bizarre to me that I'm not capable of just liking things. In my case, whenever I encounter something I might possibly like, this automatic chain of thought starts engaging about what all the implications of me liking this thing might be, e.g. how will others perceive me as a person who likes this? will adding this to the list of things I like make my taste more interesting? is this thing a genuine example of what it's trying to do, or are there better things trying to accomplish the same objectives but more successfully that I should like instead?
Even though I've spent the past how ever many years trying to not think like this, it's still the natural way I end up approaching new experiences. Just letting myself appreciate things for what they are requires a very deliberate effort on my part. Though at the very least I have managed to outgrow being mean to people for liking certain things.
I feel like I have a tendency to project this weird thought process on others, so I often implicitly assume that when other people talk about liking things that there must be some hidden ulterior motive. I mean, this is sometimes the case -- there are definitely some political implications to liking certain things and it's probably good to at least be conscious of them -- but I can't help but feel I'd be a better person if I just assumed everyone's being 100% genuine about their likes and dislikes unless proven otherwise.
I'm not sure where this all came from. Maybe if I took more literary theory classes in college I'd have a better understanding of this whole process. What you said about forming one's personality based on the media they consume is probably a big part of it. In my case, as a high school student, it felt like that was the only thing there was to form a personality around. I assumed the way to make friends was to find people who had similar taste to mine so we could spend all day competing with each to see who can deliver the hottest takes about whatever it is we like. It's weird! It's bizarre! I can still feel that thought process lurking inside of me! I wish it could just go away.
@cubbienathan#14864 @thiccnick@treefroggy i only had a genesis and sonic games as a kid but i‘ve come around to a similar take. i think the level design is often at odds with the speed and fluidity of sonic’s movement. there are countless examples in sonic 2 of enemies that are positioned to just burst out of hiding at an unavoidable speed right at the end of a hill you‘re hurtling down, etc. i really don’t like level memorization as a game mechanic. i haven't played sonic mania tho
and yeah as nick said there are weird one-off mechanics, e.g. the ceiling running, that aren't tutorialized at all, which would be fine if the penalty wasn't immediate death. bosses are like this too. i've actually never beaten sonic 2 because i just don't get the final boss at all and you're given no real opportunity to figure it out
I personally don’t mind if someone hates something I like. I didn’t make it, doesn’t matter to me. But I also have learned that it’s not worth hurting someone‘s feelings if they’ve bundled a sense of their own intelligence or values with a media/art thing. It's not an uncommon thing even if I don’t share the habit. Speaking as someone who not long ago “ruined a family gathering” with my opinions on hamilton
@GuyOnline#14862 Big agree here. Octopath does not provide any new experiences for me that I don‘t already have available from games on older consoles… The juvenile writing but with adult themes peppered on top is insulting and I’d wish we were past that by now. Naming an RPG after its main gimmick, rather than something in the story or something vague, makes it seem like that‘s all it has to offer… It’s advertised as an amazing, fantastic new experience…. Just play Romancing SaGa?
@cubbienathan I was 100% a mario kid too... Ashamed to admit it.. At least the main mario games I had were the weird ones, Mario Land 1,2, and Wario. I guess that makes me a Wario kid, actually. HA!
One thing about Sonic is the fandom is as expansive and productive as the likes of mario and pokemon, there are tons of different versions and patches for the games adding new mechanics into older games. I'm still looking for some kind of comprehensive "idiots guide to playing sonic the right way" video.
At the end of the day, all we have is anonymous advice from the box art:[URL=https://i.imgur.com/xluaviH.png][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/xluaviH.png[/IMG][/URL]
Rather than take it literally, I see it more as the definitive sonic game design philosophy.
Sounds like a hipster take, but Sonic Pocket Adventure is the best. Like Sonic Advance, it's a lot friendlier to the player. The chiptunes are slammin'. The clicky control stick makes sense for Sonic.
@saddleblasters#14865 really respect the honesty here, i do a similar thing. ultimately it‘s my opinion that everyone goes through this at some point and whether they are conscious of it is a different question. i think there is a stage of enlightenment where 1.) i acknowledge i have a natural compulsion to calculate how everything i do in the public sphere affects my social standing 2.) i accept the truth that there’s literally no need to live this way, especially at this point in my life: i‘m secure in my social group, my friends and family love me, etc. there things out there, they are external to me, i can form connections with them, i can like or dislike them, there’s no need for any consideration beyond that. it gets easier as i get older. i hope i fully ascend one day~
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@yeso#14869 “ruined a family gathering” with my opinions on hamilton
how to do not do this?? happened to me with SNL before, also colbert. only solution is to say nothing
@tapevulture#14877 Super off topic at this point but my family could not be more polarized politically. Radical left on dad‘s side, radical right on mom’s side. This has made me an expert diplomat. Keep it positive, always, and judge the tree by the fruit it bares. Outright ingnore/divert from anything that could start a fight. As far as social standing, social real estate, etc. I let the freak flag fly and don‘t care what stupid people think, I sometimes just go live in the woods by myself for months at a time with my solar powered video game rig. Life is sloppy and people don’t make sense, best learn to deal with it. Does that help?
one habit I learned from my time as a lit student dumb ass is to consider where and how a work is “successful” in an artistic/meaning-making sense rather than judging what’s “good” or whatever. Kind of helps to avoid rubbing people the wrong way and signals that your disagreement is with the work rather than a person's taste. “Didn’t work for me” is more amenable. I should probably take this advice more often myself
@tapevulture#14877 I tried to maneuver my way out of the conversation by just lying and saying I liked it, but nobody bought it lol
I just finished Snatcher for the first time, I wouldn‘t say I dislike the game but I don’t think I love it as much as many people seem too. There are several really clumsy exposition dumps throughout, awkward dialogue and worst of all is like constant perverted comments or the female cast acting out male fantasies, it‘s really gross.
I know it’s a product of it‘s time etc etc but it isn’t something I can just ignore. Still the story as a whole was pretty neat, the premise was incredible and the overall artistic style and production quality was staggering.
