I want to find more games which take place within a single neighbourhood!! Ideally these games don’t rely on combat, but are about staying within a small where you build familiarity withs its current residents.
I suppose it relates to Warren Spector’s idea of a One City Block RPG, but I don’t need progression mechanics. I just want vibes!
Some candidates:
A Short Hike. You’re a temporary visitor, but plenty of people there are on holiday too. It feels good to understand the shortcuts through the hills, and to find characters roaming around.
Shenmue. A deeply flawed game, but a very successful neighbourhood sim! The day night clock works well too, showing characters and shops at different times of the day.
Chulip. It’s not fun to play, but it is a fantastic example of a persistant place with familar characters. I sometimes think about a Chulip Remix where it abandons the main premise and just has you enjoying the location with interesting folk to meet.
What are some good criteria for this genre? What are some good examples?
i haven’t played it (yet?), but thank goodness you’re here seems to be one of these
there’s probably some farming games that also fit…
i sometimes think about games that take place on a single island (like alba), which seems to be a similar idea
Game of the year 2021 Sumire takes place within a single little town, where a young girl makes the most of a single day by deepening her relationships with the people in her life and understanding herself better along the way. There’s a couple minor characters in this game that still occupy pretty large parts of my mind with how authentically human they are. Modern masterpiece of the neighborhood game genre in my imo. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if the growing popularity of indies has also grown the popularity of this style of game just as a matter of scope
On the opposite side of the spectrum is Detective Gman, which is far from a polished or even “good” video game but it does have some interesting ideas wrt being locked into a single town and probing all the depth that location can hold
the Insert Credit forum favorite Before the Green Moon is certainly a neighborhood sim. You and your neighbors exist together, and it’s upon you to determine what that means in terms of building relationships or not. Unlike a Harvest Moon or Stardew you don’t have much agency over what others do or think about you. Instead you and your neighbors are on your own life paths yet subject to the same forces and events. It’s about being a part of something with people who may have different desires, perspectives, motivations, etc.
“neighborhood” is tricky bc I can think of a half dozen small town encompassing games and others that take place across neighborhoods and sections of a larger city. So don’t know if those count.
Also, have to take issue with the claim that Shenmue is deeply flawed
I think we can consider those central town hub adventure games like Diablo, Light Crusader, Everblue or even Baroque. While most of the experience is spent in field excursions, the little recurring town becomes a pleasantly familiar element that often slowly evolves over time. You might even start thinking of it as home.
Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories mainly sticks to a single town, before going on the road in the final act. There’s no combat - it has the stylings of an RPG but is really more of an adventure game.
Mostly just hanging out chatting with townfolk, doing some little side quests and enjoying the writing and music.
Night in the Woods fits this very well. Especially with its focus on reconnecting with your old neighbourhood and friends. From getting to hear a new poem from Selmers every day to going to band practice with your mates it’s very much a local experience, even if it’s technically not just one neighbourhood I guess.
depending on how far you stretch the concept, minish cap could qualify - it’s a really small-scale zelda centered on one major town, and the single space opens up as you progress through the game. so you’re not unlocking new areas, but returning to an old one with new understandings of how to navigate it. (obviously it is also a zelda game so there’s still a lot of non-neighborhood adventuring, but i feel like it maintains that vibe)
wirewalk is a very nice little zeldalike that takes place in a cyberpunky city - all the dungeons exist in cyberspace, so you dive into machines in order to fix them. it’s a bite-sized game so there are maybe three or four overworld screens, but it’s got a great sense of place and a real wit to its design - i really liked it, and it’s beatable in a day!
i don’t love omori but i think it counts - it’s basically a neighborhood game crossed with a quirky motherlike rpg adventure. the rpg aspects take place in the main character’s dreams, and the neighborhood game takes place when he’s awake, just walking around town, talking to friends, and working part-time jobs. the whole point of the game is to, like, be about a kid returning to the world after a traumatic event, so the real-world neighborhood stuff is about grounding him in something tangible - definitely fits in this categorization. (edit: @freakscene beat me to it!)
The yakuza games are an obvious one - most take place in one neighborhood or two. It represents what a neighborhood looks like in a relatively large city, so more like my actual life experience - you can get to know some people near you quite well, but there’s always a cast of unknowns shuffling through who make themselves known, or need help, or who simply wander around anonymously (to the player anyway).
This is also maybe an example of what a more suburban neighborhood feels like, in my experience. A short bus/car/train ride, or longer walk, to take you to the major places in your life where you’re most likely to hang with the people you know or access the stuff you want. Persona 3 presents this kind of area with a snappiness of travel that makes the places all feel like one neighborhood. You got your school, the mall, a shrine, the place where people live, and a couple places with other things to do.
It’s not the local neighborhood of a BokuNatsu but neither is it a large sprawling city. It’s familiar even though things are slightly farther apart. It’s your neighborhood.
Oh, here’s an unusual choice maybe - Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor. It all takes place within the inside of the yamanote line ring. It encompasses several neighborhoods, but sort of redefines central tokyo as one big neighborhood. What if you couldn’t take the train everywhere, all around the edge, but instead had to walk between these central locations like spokes on a bike wheel? It doesn’t really explore that too much but it made me think about it, so I’ll throw it in here.
Oh dang. I’ve had this one for ages (in the US as Shadow of Destiny) and not played it because for some reason I thought it was more of an FMV thing (the back of the box screenshots plus the word “adventure” most likely). But now looking at these photos I wanna play this right away!! Even if the town is mostly empty, I love to walk around a zone.
