Dragon’s Dogma, Rise of Ronin, backtracking, microtransactions, controversial tweets, and comparisons to Symphony of the Night.
A Dogmatic Response To Designed Inconvenience (The Jimquisition)
Dragon’s Dogma, Rise of Ronin, backtracking, microtransactions, controversial tweets, and comparisons to Symphony of the Night.
Love your videos generally, and your criticisms of the microtransactions are valid, but I don’t think it’s good to assert your subjective view of what constitutes good design as better than what other people prefer, I think the fans of DD2 are sincere when they say they like the “inconvenient” aspects of its design. Some people legitimately really enjoy experiences that many would find boring, those kinds of preferences are niche, not wrong. I appreciate your efforts to make games better for both consumers and developers, but please reconsider your arguments regarding design, people that like really niche or strange design decisions deserve stuff they like too.
I mentioned this on Twitter, but something that really stood out to me in the waves people trying correct you on Dragon’s Dogma 2’s travelling, is how it sounds like a less enjoyable time if you don’t dig deep through it.
I highlighted a comment made by Suzi Sphere Hunter where she mentions that travelling is a lot less monotonous if using the oxcart & hidden caves, just as a way of her to say “you ain’t giving this game a chance”
But honestly? The game sounds more *univiting* if you happen to be a neurodivergent person (like myself) that struggles with patience & impulse control, so when paired that with microtransactions that is meant to prey on those very same people, It makes you wonder if the more steaper world design is of a deliberate ill-intent.
depending on the game, i sometimes refuse to fast travel… but the game has to make movement fun and and my experience varied for me to want to do so. like “Dying light” or “infamous”
paople will defend any bad decisions triple a publishers make.
Putting aside the microtransactions (which suck, I hate them and I wish they weren’t a thing like with all of capcom’s games lately) once you started comparing it to Rise of Ronin it just started feeling like you didn’t like the game (which yeah, you didn’t, I get that) but also that you can’t see why anyone would like the game. The thing about a lot of your complaints regarding the fast travel and the long winding roads and stuff is that that’s kind of what Dragon’s Dogma fans wanted? The first one was also very much like that and people loved it for that too, most people I’ve seen talking about the quality of life changes in dark arisen (like way more ferrystones and portcrystals) saw that as a negative because it meant they weren’t doing the walking around and fighting random mobs/giant monsters on the walk. Like if you took out a lot of the stuff that you disliked about Dragons Dogma 2 (at least from what you were talking about in this video) it wouldn’t really be the thing people wanted anymore. Unfortunately the existence of the microtransactions being what they are muddies the fuck out of all of this
How are there still people who defend MTXs?
Do they still think the company will notice them and thank them with free games?
I just realized that they’re exactly like incels white knighting pretty women in the hopes of something youtube doesn’t like hearing.
4:12 This is how I feel about Dark Souls 1
If it’s not fun to walk back and forth along the same 20-,minute path and fight the same series of enemies over that 20 minute span every time, then they didn’t make a fun game. I’ve never played Dragon’s Dogma 2, so I don’t know if it’s fun to do that, but I do know that running around a fighting monsters is more or less the point of the game. If fighting monsters isn’t fun enough on its own that just doing it for no reason and no reward doesn’t give you a reason to play all on its own, then the game is shit.
This isn’t a hard math problem. If people are having fun doing that, then they’re having fun. If you’re playing a game that wouldn’t be fun doing that, you aren’t having fun, you’re just being psychologically manipulated by some Skinner Box bullshit. It’s really kind of sad how many people literally can’t even recognize fun anymore, and just complain when there’s no Skinner Box bullshit to chase because that’s the closest thing to fun they can experience in a game.
You’re right that no person ever fast traveled, then said that it would be more fun if they couldn’t fast travel and had to walk it. The person who likes walking would have just fucking walked in the first place. Like me. I played the entirety of Oblivion without fast travel because I liked walking around through the world. Just being there and seeing the sights was more fun for me than the idiotic main quest I never bothered to finish because I didn’t give a shit. God damn, this is literally the same argument as saying “No one ever played Super Mario Brothers, took the warp zone, and then said that the game would be fun without warp zones.” That’s not because warp zones are the best and no one actually plays without using them. It’s because the people who don’t want to use the warp zones just don’t fucking use the warp zones.
one might argue that level grinding is “game realism” you have to be XXX level to beat this boss… again should be optional.
but moving back and forth or weapon breaking can go suck an egg… because by that logic player characters should sustain minor – major fall damage (in every game!) from anything over 3 meters high… just saying…
If Dragons Dogma 2 was a more modern game maybe it’d be even better. I wish there were more permanent portcrystals in major towns now I’m closing in on the last few bits needing to be done, and that portcrystals were more liberally dispensed, with only one being given by the critical path. But I do love the weird, totally archaic, oddball game that Dragons Dogma 2 is. Exploring the twisting paths and finding caves and shortcuts and hidden places is gratifying. The atmosphere of the game world is luxuriously presented, that traversing through it for the most part is in of itself a joy. The vocation system and attached combat mechanics keep it all feeling fresh when you’re carving your bloody path. The quest system is bizarre, obfuscation present constantly, that maybe there’s nothing else quite like it (Shenmue is like this, I take it?). If you are keen on playing your games perfectly then Dragons Dogma 2 does resist this, and unless you’re following a guide you’ll probably make some mistakes and have a imperfect quest log, potentially missing out on or seeing alternative paths. It’s such a strange game, one that’s learned little from it’s predecessor, more a “second performance” to Dragons Dogma than a sequel. I’m glad we got it, and I’ve enjoyed my time with it, it’s been a great experience marred in places.
Loved the Short Circuit 2 theme in the beginning. Nice touch there.
I know it isnt the same but when i replay the witcher 3 i refuse to fast travel and its crazy how many little things, not just quests, you miss by fast traveling. Like i said though witcher 3 is a different game lol. Ive never played dragons dogma 2 so i dunno anything about it. Just playing devils advocate by giving a reason why you might not wanna fast travel.
Even for games where the movement is absolutely divine and the world is stunning (Gravity Rush and NieR: Automata, I’m looking at you), I still use fast travel, at the very least when I’m nearing endgame. At a certain point, when you’re cleaning up those last few quests or challenges, it just isn’t fun to meander back and forth anymore. It also goes back to a point that’s been made many times on this show, which is that once most of us reach teenage/adulthood, jobs, families, and life will absorb your free time. The fact that corporations are effectively weaponizing our free time against us by making us pay to maximize it is… sad. They’re overpromising and underdelivering and twisting things that should bring us enjoyment into more tedium, more work.
On an unrelated note, all the bonus points for using that graphic of Mr. Fooooooooo~~~~! himself, HardGay. I would give you a like just for that, but it seems like a Port Crystal might be worth more. 🙄
Nah man you’re just blinded by ego and arrogance
I think Jim should see if a game has all these mechanics that piss him off before he buys them. Lol. I don’t like simplistic turn based games, so I just dont buy them. Not looking to make a whole essay on how they suck.
BOTW and TOTK are both really good for slow backtracking, because those maps are so jam packed with _stuff_ that I almost always miss something my first run through any stretch of land
Well, time will tell.
I think time is saying that Breath of the Wild is an exceptional game and that Sterling’s opinion is an outlier. I liked the first Dragon’s Dogma and if the second one is anything like it, it’s also a pretty good game. Sterling’s criticisms just sound trivial overall. I do agree the microtransactions have no business being there but I don’t think the gameplay was altered to accommodate the microtransactions. Those were just crammed in.
Loving all the -ly/Lee jokes in this.
Keep up the good work Steph.
Just saw a couple fight about a kitchen remodel. They kept coming up with counter arguments.