Hey have you played Braid yet? It’s an Xbox Live Arcade game. If you haven’t I strongly suggest buying it right now and playing it because it is one incredible game. Lemme use one statement to describe it:
Braid is a game.
That sounds silly but so many games lately are not games, they’re movies with disconnected playable aspects. Movies that disconnect you from the game. Games are meant to be played, not watched. In Braid, right from the start you control your character until the very end of the game, where you are still in control of your character. There are no cutscenes. In Braid you play as a character, presumably named Tim, who interacts with a world where time acts strangely. Using time to your advantage, you solve a series of platforming puzzles. This is all.
It’s a very simple concept with astoundingly fun and intriguing results.
Lately I’ve been sick of the gaming industry’s arrogance. It’s funny because people accuse Braid of being pretentious but it’s really the other way around, the gaming indsutry as of late has been pretentious.
Let’s look at this from a purely gaming driven standpoint. Right now the hotness in the gaming industry is the same concept over and over. FPS, RTS, RPG, etc etc. Recycled playstyles with one or two meaningless gimmicks tacked on and repackaged as a new game. As if that’s not enough to turn you off to new and (un)exciting games, mostly all of these games have design flaws and serious gameplay issues because of the pursuit of realism or aesthetic design.
Let me give you an example: Bionic Command Rearmed. I’m going to use this example a lot because I think it’s the perfect one; it is part of Xbox Live’s Live Arcade summer bash, it is a game created by a huge gaming production company (Capcom) and it is rated extremely highly on gaming sites like IGN (a 9.4, nearly perfect) while Braid is rated lower (an 8.8). In Bionic Commando you play as a character who has a bionic arm that can latch onto ledges and swing. In co-op mode, the 2nd player is given a character in a red suit. Whatever, that makes sense, right? It’s bright, saturated, and easy to see. Except in the very 2nd level, EVERYTHING is red. He’s nearly impossible to see! And I’m not just complaining about playing in standard def, this was in full HD, on a huge TV. That is a serious game flaw. And see, my point is, that most gamers or most developers would just say “You’re being nitpicky, that’s a minor issue.” But no, it’s not a minor issue, because my game experience it being compromised by the fact that I can’t see shit. This is something that should be reworked. I should not have to work so hard and strain my eyes in order to enjoy a game. Gaming is not a job, where I NEED to suck it up because that’s how it is. It is a form of entertainment; it is a luxury. It is not unnecessary or excessive at all to change a whole aspect of the game because of this problem. I understand that the level in question is lit by flares and that inherently it’s hard to see because it’s dark and you’re in a non-lit area… but that’s not fun. Not being able to see isn’t fun. And that’s what I’m trying to say. Game design shouldn’t be compromised by this shot at realism or effect. If a “mood” compromises how fun the game is, which is more important? The mood, or how fun the game is? It’s a game first and foremost, not a movie.
In Bionic Commando you cannot jump. Already the intuitive design is gone. Bionic Commando features an extremely familiar concept (sidescrolling platforming) with one of the most ingrained features taken out. Instead of jumping you’re given this clunky control scheme that requires you to swing in set arcs around the playing field. Okay, I can understand implimenting an alternative control element for the sake of new gameplay elements, but Bionic Commando doesn’t even give you that.
Lemme explain using another game: Product Number 03 for the Gamecube. It was a commercial and critical flop, but I loved it. There was repetitive level design, but the reason I enjoyed it was its implimentation of the game design. The game was designed around the gameplay. People complained that you couldn’t move while shooting, but it’s unnecessary because the game was DESIGNED with that in mind. The levels completely cater to the fact that Vanessa is immobile while she fires, and gives you apt cover in the situations where you need it that is accessable by simply using the strafing ability implimented into the game. The problem was that the game didn’t imply enough that this was the point of the game. Instead gamers instinctively wanted Halo controls and they weren’t getting it. Therefore, to them, it sucked.
In Bionic Commando, however, the level design does not cater to the unique gameplay ability and instead offers tons of awkward, clunky situations. You’ll oftentimes find yourself swinging and then hitting a wall releasing your grasp of the platform you were swinging on and not being able to relatch on, falling to your death. Anyone who’s played this game knows exactly what I’m talking about because it’s so common. And why is it so common? It shouldn’t be. It’s frustrating and awful and I ultimately find it pretentious because the developers and even the gamers will say to you “well, you just don’t get it.” No, I do get it, it just sucks and it is unfun. That’s not something that you can brush off and go, “oh ho ho well obviously there’s something I’m not getting” because there isn’t anything you’re not getting. That’s the way the game is and if you do something that is normal and natural in every way, you’re punished and fall. There is absolutely nothing fun about that and it’s poor game design. Nearly every situation in Bionic Commando makes me wish I was playing Contra 4 instead, because the charm of Bionic Commando is supposed to be the swinging aspect, but instead I always get more satisfaction out of killing an enemy. Do you agree? They take several hits, and the duck and cover system, while incredibly simple, is pretty satisfying. It’s intuitive, quick, and easy to understand. While implimenting Contra 4’s controls (otherwise, with jumping inserted), Bionic Commando is faster paced, easier, and more fun to play. Contra 4 also has a grappling hook, but it is used to only go vertically straight up, which is something you can do in Bionic Commando that is actually something that is useful and required often in the game design. In fact, every element of the game involving the grapple arm BESIDES the swinging aspect is cool. The boss fights requires you to use it often to latch onto objects that are typically far away from you. That’s cool. But since the swinging is such an integral part of movement which takes up nearly all of the game, the game is rigid and frustrating to play, even after you’re familiar with the controls. Play a game of Bionic Commando and then play a game of Mega Man X. You will notice an instantaneous sense of refreshment. That’s not a mistake, it’s not an accident, and it’s not something you need to “get over.” It’s a natural occurence and it will always be there because Bionic Commando’s controls suck. This is why I find Bionic Commando to be a pretentious game. It makes you feel like you’re not doing it right and accuses you of doing shit wrong by severely reprimanding you by adding more frustrating navigation to your already hefty plate of required frustrating navigation.
But this is also a problem with PN03. The game does a poor job at letting you know that the point of the game is to control like this, hide behind walls, and rack up combos. Instead it makes it seem like it’s not doing anything right and just comes off at a poorly designed 3rd person shooter rather than a pretty sweet strategic shooter. It just expects you to understand what’s up and reprimands you for not knowing something that isn’t too terribly obvious. I said earlier that gamers instinctively want Halo controls and they weren’t getting it therefore, to them, it sucked. This is fine, because it’s true. I’m not saying it’s the fault of the gamers for “not getting it,” it’s the fault of the developers for not letting us know, and that’s why it is pretentious.
Let me give you one more example because I opened with my gripes with story implementation and haven’t touched on it yet. JRPGs in general are heavily story driven but often feature the same gameplay with very few elements changed or reused only with a gimmick or two added on. So typically, the gameplay isn’t satisfying so much as the fight for the conclusion to the story. After all, would you play a JRPG with no story? Would you really sit through 80 hours of grinding and fighting monsters repetitively over and over again with no intention other than just… to do it? I can’t imagine many of you would. Actually, lemme put it this way: if an RPG allowed you to move along and skip every random encounter so you were just walking from place to place learning the plot and knowing the characters only having to fight bosses, would you even try to battle smaller monsters?
So we can agree that the story is important to the appeal of a JRPG. But why, then, is it so disconnected from the gameplay? How many times have you played a JRPG where you level up a specific character to be absolutely amazing only to have that character die very easily in a cutscene? JRPGs are constantly spitting in your face because all of your hard work simply doesn’t make a difference. The story doesn’t care whether you like this guy or that girl, it only cares about itself and what the writers designed it to be. Barely ever do the game designers take into account the story and actually make the gameplay involve it. Barely ever do they purposely make a character suck in order for you to intentionally hate that character and be satisfied when you see that character die. There’s barely EVER a relationship between story and gameplay.
If story is so important to playing a JRPG, then the idea of the game would be to complete it in order to finish the story, but if the ending sucks, doesn’t that just eat you up? 80 hours of your life gone just so you can see a mediocre conclusion that may not even make any sense. That is pretentious, in my opinion.
Futhermore, let’s talk about gameplay elements of JRPGs too, while we’re at it. Most JRPGs have “random encounters.” Monsters that will come up and battle you in a disconnected, unrelated playing field. This is one of the worst gameplay ideas I have ever experienced in my entire life and I really don’t understand why it exists still and is still critically acclaimed. When you are walking around on the map, you are usually doing one of 3 things. You are either advancing forward in the game, exploring, or fighting monsters deliberately. In all three of these cases random battles are annoying. And why should a game be annoying?
When you are advancing forward in the game, you are looking forward to the next plot point, or the next boss fight, or whatever you’re looking forward to. Instead, you are constantly stopped abruptly by several pointless, uninteresting, repetitive monsters. This is annoying, because they are standing in the way of your advancement towards something you WANT. It’s not a fun obstacle, it’s an annoying and disconnected obstacle. It is not like platforms or a puzzle presented in front of you in a platformer that was integrated into the game and give you a fluid, satisfying experience. It’s a disjointed hiccupy feeling element that is completely unrelated to your previous satisfying control scheme of walking forward towards your goal.
When you are exploring, random battles are ESPECIALLY annoying because the game is reprimanding you for wanting to explore. The more you explore, the more interrupted you get and the more frustrated you get, and this is often due to lazy level design. There is a treasure chest dead ahead of you, but your only obstacle are three random encounters you’re about to face at any given time. It’s not a path you can travel down at your own pace. It’s as if you’re playing Metroid, trying to expore every nook and cranny, and then randomly someone snatches the controller away from you and says “I won’t give you the controller back until you finish this completely unrelated minigame.” It’s frustrating, irrelevant, and annoying, and it won’t stop until you turn off the game, so you’ll never enjoy it to its fullest. It’s especially annoying that most modern RPGs reprimand you even more because you DIDN’T explore. Now it’s becoming more like work. You’re a bad person for not wanting to get that super rare secret item that you can only get by walking around for ages being interrupted every second trying to find a secret treasure chest. Even MORE annoying is specifically in Final Fantasy XII where there are treasure chests that reprimand you for just opening them! If you haven’t played the game before, I am being dead serious here, there are treasure chests in the game you’re not SUPPOSED to open in order for you to get an ultimate weapon! Are you kidding me!! Now I can’t even enjoy OPENING A TREASURE CHEST without feeling guilty or paranoid or afraid! When is the game fun?!
When you are just wandering around fighting random monsters, or “grinding,” is also annoying! Because first of all, you have to walk in circles until you actually catch one, which last time I checked is not fun, and second of all, leveling up in modern JRPGs is at a rate now where you have to spend HOURS fighting the SAME monsters over and over again just to level up once! When was this repetitive gameplay fun?
People will argue, “well the bosses are fun to fight,” which I agree to! I love competitive Pokemon, because it constantly requires me to make strategic decisions, which is absolutely fun! But, wasting all this time, all this energy, and becoming frustrated… for a boss fight? Why not just make a game of ONLY boss fights? That way there will be no “missing a boss” because you were too powerful and stomped his ass, or hours lost just hitting the A button over and over so you can win against really weak enemies to level up for the boss. This is why Shadow of the Colossus is such a phenominal game! But that’s another topic entirely.
So all of this leads up to Braid where everything is done right. In Braid gameplay is never compromised. The game is beautiful while being able to clearly see where you can and can’t go. The story exists while neither acting as a crutch nor an obstacle. In fact, the story is completely optional. You can choose not to involve yourself in it at all, and the game itself still retains just as much quality. There is no sequence where a character is dying and you need to just hold left for an hour and hit A a bunch of times. That is not fun, because that’s not a game, that’s just mashing buttons disguised as a game and you KNOW your character won’t die anyway, because if you DO die, you get to retry it again right from the point you died. So what’s the point? How is that stimulating?
Braid is satisfying in that everything you get out of it is something that you yourself pat yourself on the back for, and you will. There are no fireworks or “YOU WIN!” or level ups or upgrades that trick you into thinking you’ve accomplished something. There is simply a real, pure sense of satisfaction that you can take with you wherever you go and remember the experience that you had on your own time at your own pace. There are no hints, no tips, or pointers. You simply learn how to play, and start playing. You can skip a puzzle, or go back at any time. You can solve any puzzle (except one) immediately without the aid of items or powers that you obtain later. You are not reprimanded for doing things out of order, you are not punished for dying. You simply explore and play and have a great time through and through. You can then take out of it any experiences you may have had playing it, whether they be emotional, mental, or just a good ol’ time.
Braid is about $15 bucks in the Xbox Live Arcade and it’s available right now. You can play a trial to see if you like it.
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