#but the combat and general gameplay mechanics are so boring/frustrating/tedious

[ping1n]

Thaumcraft thoughts again but this time I'm thinking gameplay rather than lore. Comparing 4 and 6.

To start off, 6 is obviously unfinished. This alone means in a comparison w/ no addons 4 wins without a doubt.

Still, even without addons there are interesting points to make here based on what we saw in thaumcraft 6 and what we might have seen if azanor didn't fall down a well or whatever.

Fundamentals: The first tab of the 'nomicon is far more straightforward, and much less likely to give a new player an aneurysm as soon as they open the book. The only part of this I dislike is how long it takes to get to golemancy. The research system is explained on this tab, but we'll save that for last.

Auromancy: Auromancy in 6 is far more fleshed out than in 4. Plus, I personally prefer the casting gauntlet to wands. It feels much more thaumcraft, and less fairy tale magic. You're using your gauntlet to force the world to your desires. It's badass. And the modular focus system allows you to accomplish so much more. The excavate focus in 4 is a joke. It's slow, the range isn't great and it doesn't do enchants. It makes you feel sad and wet and pathetic. In 6, you make a plan silk touch excavate lvl 2 focus and you tear out 5x5 blocks of raw stone. You feel like a thaumic god, shaping the world to your desire. Is it balanced? Absolutely not. Having auromancy draw from the chunk-based vis system is hilariously broken. Vis cost doesnt matter because you move 8 blocks over and all your magic is back. But so much in thaumcraft is underpowered for the required time and effort compared to other mods, that it's nice to feel powerful for once. Ofc its limited by the small amount of effects in base tc6, but we're going to discount that for fairness.

Golemancy: The tc6 (and possibly 5? idk I never played that version) version of this mechanic is much more useful and interesting. Making golems is a pain in the ass now but theres so much more depth with the customization system. And not having to make a new golem for each task in your process makes life much easier. Though it must be said with how cheap golems were in 4 you could get a golem-based farm up and running much faster. It suffers in some areas, combat golems being pretty much useless except as bodyguards, in which case they try their best ig.

Artifice: The new arcane bore is slightly less expensive and clunky, but it's still ass. Splitting artifice and infusion was an excellent decision. The vis generator is a great addition, though it feels simultaneously underpowered and overpowered - it's basically free, but the generation is so bad you need a few to get the same power as an IE windmill and you'll burn through the aura eventually.

Infusion: Again, splitting this into it's own category is common sense. There are a few interesting new things in this tab: the verdant charms, especially the feeding one, are excellent QOL. The stabilizers and upgrades are good too, but I dislike having to purposefully destabilize an infusion to unlock the research, especially as its essential for what little endgame there is in base. I think the eldritch and void stone altars are new in this version, but they're unobtainable in base.

Alchemy: Tubes work better now. It's a fun time. The transducers are better tho, and can easily trivialize essentia organisation. Hedge alchemy I think is also new, and it adds some nice utility. Aversio is a nicer name than telum and no one liked Arbor anyway.

The Eldritch: Lol. Lmao.

And finally, Research:

NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO STOP RESEARCHING TO GO MAKE A DAYLIGHT SENSOR? OR GET A PHIAL OF AN ASPECT ONLY FOUND IN SHOES? OR WAIT FOR A SPECIFIC PHASE OF THE GODDAMN MOON?? WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH WHAT IM ACTUALLY RESEARCHING?

It's somehow simpler and infinitely more tedious than the tc4 mechanic. At least that was a minigame, albeit a tedious, frustrating game that required multiple thaumonomicon dives (or, yk, an online tool). It also doesn't make sense. Nothing I'm doing here relates to what I'm trying to learn. In 4, the research pattern often had fun nods to what you were actually doing, like having Venenum in a research about poison, or linking all the primals for a late game research. Celestial observations suck. I sleep at night I'm not gonna grab my scribing tools and paper to scribble a drawing of the moon. MC Eternal lets you buy curiosities, which just makes everything so much nicer.

Moving on.

In terms of things I would have liked to not be left behind in 4, firstly I'd like my goddamn outer lands please. Also centivis, but without nodes it really wouldn't make sense. Tbh the whole chunk based aura system is a bit meh, it breaks a lot though it is convenient.

I was going to discuss addons in this post but this is already really long and I'm tired so I'll save that for another day.

[shadowglens]

it’s so frustrating when a video game has a good narrative but bad mechanics

[bimboficationblues]

So I’ve been running through the FROM Software games over the past month, here’s thoughts:

Dark Souls (Remastered)

The original Dark Souls really agitated me at first because of the one-two punch of the third and fourth bosses on the standard route, but once I broke through that wall I got really into it. I love the interconnected world and the tactically oriented combat; it really captures a great feeling of both adventure and foreignness. 

Thematically I think it’s pretty interesting, even if I’m not sure the narrative is communicated in the best way possible. The player-character is essentially a sacrificial lamb for the powers-that-be (often without even realizing it as the player), and the boss encounters and world-building reveal the ultimate hollowness that stand behind thrones and crowns. Also, the bosses are great! I’ve been keeping track of which ones I’ve enjoyed most throughout the series and the vast majority of my favorites are from DS1; there are some serious low points (most of them in the Demon Ruins), but the high points are incredibly high. It makes me sad that the Remaster didn’t include anything new, like DS2′s Bonfire Ascetics, to allow me to refight Quelaag, Ornstein and Smough, or Artorias the Abysswalker.

The main things that keep me from lavishing DS1 with praise are certain tedious design choices (kindling bonfires, the inability to warp to any bonfire after unlocking warping, the incentives towards turtling up, and the incentives for finding cheap and unexciting ways to defeat bosses) and the truly disappointing last third of the game. The Duke’s Archives is a great level and I have mixed-but-positive feelings on the Tomb of Giants, but the Demon Ruins/Lost Izalith are hideous and full of boring encounters and bad bosses, and the New Londo Ruins is a slogfest from beginning to end (died to the boss? have fun on your way back to it, which requires going down an elevator, up a staircase, across a bridge, past five dragon enemies, through swaths of quick-attacking humanoid enemies that wear black in low lighting, all because there’s no bonfire in the vicinity).

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

Dark Souls II is not as bad as it’s made out to be and I disagree with the substance of most of the traditional complaints, but it is still pretty underwhelming. The enemy placements can be frustrating but are generally a good change for people already familiar with DS1′s approach to encounter design; the Shrine of Amana is singled out for this, but it’s really not that bad, especially if you summon for it. 

The narrative--a falling into darkness, the cyclical decay and disappearance of states, the direct and observable involvement of Nashandra and the Emerald Herald in the plot--is arguably more interesting than DS1′s, though it takes longer to get off the ground. New quality-of-life changes, like the revised system for weapon durability, are also good. The introduction of new healing items was also helpful, although I disliked having to farm for them sometimes (the inevitable result of a very hard game tying healing items to currency, which is also an issue in Bloodborne). 

“Dudes in armor” bosses are good, and DS2 does have some great dudes in armor (specifically the Fume Knight and the Looking Glass Knight), but the problem with DS2′s bosses (irrespective of whether they’re humanoid or monstrous) is that they are not well-served by the game’s camera direction, the arenas they’re in (which are consistently and observably just big empty circles), and their visual designs (which are generally drab). Ornstein and Smough felt like forces of nature, pale shadows of themselves who nonetheless tower over you and will wreck your shit through sheer inertia; their rough equivalents, the Throne Watcher and Throne Defender, feel like beefy standard enemies. Overall I think most of the bosses are “boring but practical,” which is not really what I wanted.

One thing I consider unforgivable in this game is the ruining of the parry system; not only are the timings very weird and hard to pin down, the changing of riposte attacks from a quick, desperate counterattack to a slow, arduous process of executing a prone enemy is really annoying. I would probably have made a parry-centric character as I did in DS1 and taken the time to learn the new attack timings, if it were not for how unrewarding it feels to riposte in DS2.

Dark Souls III

DS2 also makes changes that carry into DS3, namely the ability to warp at the start of the game between any accessed bonfire, the use of a hub world, and the need to regularly return to the hub for leveling up. These are all bad choices imo. Immediate access to warping is probably a good thing, but it instills a sense of relief at being done with a chore, as opposed to the unique atmosphere of curiosity and dread that DS1 instilled. In DS1 I was always excited and fearful to see what I’d run into next; in the sequels I was often hoping to barrel through to the next bonfire. The hub world also contributes to this lack of curiosity, and having to return to it to level up means you never really feel like an adventurer in a strange and terrifying land because you can--and must--just nip back home if things are getting too rough. DS3 is a little better about this with a slightly lower number of bonfires, but not by much. At the same time, DS3 abandons good ideas from its immediate predecessor such as the ability to refight bosses, lifegems, and the “power-stance” for dual-wielding weapons. 

DS3 also introduces a god-awful mechanic; in DS1, there’s pretty much no real downside to being Hollow, while in DS2, remaining Hollow after repeated deaths will steadily decrease your max HP. DS3 instead puts a hard cap on your max health. (This is framed as losing a 30% HP “bonus” from being “Embered,” rather than a 30% cap, but they achieve the same basic effect, especially since being human is supposed to be the “base” state. If DS2 did this shit, people would be mad about it.) In general I dislike when these games punish players who are having a difficult time with a section or a boss by making the game even harder (which is also why I’m really not a fan of the PvP system).

DS3 also accelerates some of the frustrating things in encounter design from DS2; not only are there many areas with insane swarms of enemies, but those enemies are all often obscenely fast and hit like a truck. The new Silver Knights (who were some of my favorite foes in DS1) are the worst offenders so far; they were slow and methodical but punishing, but now they’re used as a gank-fight.

Finally, DS3′s narrative is mired in nostalgia-bait. While DS2 asked about Gwyn, Lord of Cinder, “who’s that?”, DS3 acts like Anor Londo was the most important kingdom to ever exist, undermining both previous games’ themes. It doesn’t really feel like it’s telling its own story. So even though DS3 is more technically polished than DS2, and I think definitely has a better selection of bosses and levels, I think it’s the inferior product overall.

Bloodborne

Bloodborne is definitely the most moment-to-moment fun alongside DS1 imo, but is less visually interesting so far compared to the hideous muck of Blighttown, the splendorous ocean of Heide’s Tower of Flame and grim industry of the Iron Keep, or the terrifying, frostbitten beauty of the Boreal Valley. But I also don’t own a PS4, so I only got a third of the way done playing on my friend’s. However, the new approach to warping, the streamlining of the weapons system, the emphasis on parrying, the rallying system, and the increased speed and flow of gameplay are all great developments and I’m excited to explore the game more in future when I’m able to.

Demon’s Souls and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Demon’s Souls is next if I can acquire a PS3 copy (or if one of my friends gets a PS5), and while Sekiro strikes me as very different in kind from the rest of these games, it’s still on my to-play list.

[davidmann95]

What'd be the current ranking of KH games for you?

Haven’t played the assorted X mobile games or Dark Road, otherwise:

9. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

The only Kingdom Hearts game I got kinda bored with and stopped playing in the middle of for awhile (other than Chain of Memories, but that’s not the same because there I was stuck on Captain Hook, this I just plain lost interest in). The gameplay is slick enough, but that barely matters in the face of the at first unbelievably frustrating and later unbelievably tedious Drop mechanic, and more importantly, it steals what needed to be several subplots and reveals threaded through Kingdom Hearts III proper and crams them into the retread climactic world here, stretching out an entire game worth of padding before getting there. This ranks at the bottom because it’s the only one I can earnestly say the series would be better without.

8. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days

This has a lot going against it; the gameplay’s pretty tepid (though I do appreciate that different weapons have different combo strings for once), the mission structures while initially inventive by series standards become repetitive, there’s a lot of it I simply can’t recall, and it’s the only one in the series where I’d say you do in fact outright have to read the Ultimania guides and interviews to entirely get what’s going on. But it redefines the role of the antagonists in the narrative for the better and gives the series some of its most heartbreaking moments and characters, so it’s definitely not the worst.

7. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

There is a very real argument to be made that Chain of Memories has the best story of the lot - I wouldn’t make it, but it’s there to be made - but god, the cards were A Mistake. Also in its PS2ification Riku’s big badass line in the final battle against Ansem, possibly the coolest moment in any of these games, is turned into a complete groaner, and Axel no longer says hell, so that docks it major points.

6. Kingdom Hearts: Coded

Underappreciated! The story’s thin at best, but it still does some interesting, inventive things with what space it’s allotted, the dialogue is conspicuously a league above its brethren, and for my money it has the best gameplay in the series.

5. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep

Had to put on my thinking cap as to whether this came out ahead of the next entry, but I decided in the end that there’s fairly little in here I remember prior to the run-up to the finale, Terra’s voice actor is painfully phoning it in, and the upgrade/ability system here is the absolute pits. Still, said finale is gangbusters, the overall arc of the conflict and its major players are defined here, and upgrades aside the command deck system was brilliant.

4. Kingdom Hearts

The original has aged awkwardly in the ways such things always do, but it remains likely the best-paced, the emotions and ideas it digs into remain palpable enough to propel the story forward almost 20 years later, its platforming remains much-missed, and there’s an ineffable atmospheric, fairy-tale quality to it that’s never quite been recaptured outside A Fragmentary Passage and maybe Chain of Memories at its best. Perhaps it requires a level of stripped-down that its ever-expanding world would go on to render impossible, or maybe it just needs a fresh injection of mystery.

3. Kingdom Hearts III

Ah, the poor kid who could never live up to the expectations its older siblings foisted on it. It indeed has problems, partly due to content belonging in here being stripmined by 3D through no fault of its own, but partly due to a wonky beginning, impatience to achieve closure in pursuit of the next ‘saga’, its bizarre shortchanging of central characters, gameplay that while fun still discarded the most important innovations since II, oddly structured DLC, a couple dud worlds, and David Gallagher cold giving up on giving a shit. Still, in retrospect without the weight of expectations on it this game is a total blast that brings plenty new in its own right to the table gameplay-wise that even fixes some of the series’ longstanding issues, offers some of the *best* Disney worlds, sets up genuinely fascinating things to come, and ends on a finale of jaw-dropping catharsis that managed at the last to successfully reframe basically every major villain without feeling like a last-minute jab at depth. It’ll forever be defined by what it failed to be, yet at the same time I suspect age will be kind to it.

2. Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage

The most limited in scope, this turned that into an advantage with the chance to do something radically different tonally, a miniature odyssey through nightmare and depression unlike anything the other entries approach. While the very same out-of-the-way status that gave it room to experiment bars it from the top spot, it represents the fruition of some of the franchise’s most potent aspects and hopefully points towards further things to come.

1. Kingdom Hearts II

The one all others are defined against. Yeah, yeah, press triangle to win, we totally owned you lamers, did somebody say Door to Darkness, all of it. This is where Kingdom Hearts fully defined its aesthetics, conventions, and concerns going forward, and fundamentally still holds up well as an experience 15 years later as a game and as an emotional narrative. The worst I can say is that a lot of the combat systems like magic/summons/limits feel fairly redundant; the entire identity of these games as a whole, the general understanding of them among even those who don’t play them as something other than simply an odd kiddie crossover cash-in, spins backwards and forwards through the series out from the baseline formed here, and it has yet to be comprehensively exceeded.

[thesteadydietofeverything]

Top 10 Games of 2019

This was an extremely good year for games. I don’t know if I played as many that will stick with me as I did last year, but the ones on the bottom half of this list in particular constitute some of my favorite games of the decade, and probably all-time. If I’ve got a gaming-related resolution for next year, it’s to put my playtime into supporting even smaller indie devs. My absolute favorite experiences in games this year came from seemingly out of nowhere games from teams I’ve previously never heard of before. That said, there are some big games coming up in spring I doubt I’ll be able to keep myself away from. Some quick notes/shoutouts before I get started:

-The game I put maybe the most time into this year was Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. I finally made the plunge into neverending FF MMO content, and I’m as happy as I am overwhelmed. This was a big year for the game, between the release of the Shadowbringers expansion and the Nier: Automata raid, and it very well may have made it onto my list if I had managed to actually get to any of it. At the time of this writing, though, I’ve only just finished 2015’s Heavensward, so I’ve got...a long way to go. 

-One quick shoutout to the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy that came out on Switch this year, a remaster of some DS classics I never played. An absolutely delightful visual novel series that I fell in love with throughout this year.

-I originally included a couple games currently in early access that I’ve enjoyed immensely. I removed them not because of arbitrary rules about what technically “came out” this year, but just to make room for some other games I liked, out of the assumption that I’ll still love these games in their 1.0 formats when they’re released next year to include them on my 2020 list. So shoutout to Hades, probably the best rogue-like/lite/whatever I’ve ever played, and Spin Rhythm XD, which reignited my love for rhythm games.

-Disco Elysium isn’t on this list, because I’ve played about an hour of it and haven’t yet been hooked by it. But I’ve heard enough about it to be convinced that it is 1000% a game for me and something I need to get to immediately. They shouted out Marx and Engels at the Game Awards! They look so cool! I want to be their friend! And hopefully, a few weeks from now, I’ll desperately want to redact this list to squeeze this game somewhere in here.

Alright, he’s the actual list:

10. Amid Evil

The 90’s FPS renaissance continues! As opposed to last year’s Dusk, a game I adored, this one takes its cues less from Quake and more from Heretic/Hexen, placing a greater emphasis on melee combat and magic-fuelled projectiles than more traditional weapons. Also, rather than that game’s intentionally ugly aesthetic, this one opts for graphics that at times feel lush, detailed, and pretty, while still probably mostly fitting the description of lo-fi. In fact, they just added RTX to the game, something I’m extremely curious to check out. This game continued to fuel my excitement about the possibilities of embracing out-of-style gameplay mechanics to discover new and fresh possibilities from a genre I’ve never been able to stop yearning for more of.

9. Ape Out

If this were a “coolest games” list, Ape Out would win it, easily. It’s a simple game whose mechanics don’t particularly evolve throughout the course of its handful of hours, but it leaves a hell of an impression with its minimalist cut-out graphics, stylish title cards, and percussive soundtrack. Smashing guards into each other and walls and causing them to shoot each other in a mad-dash for the exit is a fun as hell take on Hotline Miami-esque top down hyper violence, even if it’s a thin enough concept that it starts to feel a bit old before the end of the game.

8. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I had a lot of problems with this game, probably most stemming from just how damn long it is - I still haven’t finished my first, and likely only, playthrough. This length seems to have motivated the developers to make battles more simple and easy, and to be fair, I would get frustrated if I were getting stuck on individual battles if I couldn’t stop thinking about how much longer I have to go, but as it is, I’ve just found them to be mostly boring. This is particularly problematic for a game that seems to require you to play through it at least...three times to really get the full picture? I couldn’t help but admire everything this game got right, though, and that mostly comes down to building a massive cast of extremely well realized and likable characters whose complex relationships with each other and with the structures they pledge loyalty to fuels harrowing drama once the plot really sets into motion. There’s a reason no other game inspired such a deluge of memes and fan fiction and art into my Twitter feed this year. It’s an impressive feat to convince every player they’ve unquestionably picked the right house and defend their problem children till the bitter end. After the success of this game, I’d love to see what this team can do next with a narrower focus and a bigger budget.

7. Resident Evil 2

It’s been a long time since I played the original Resident Evil 2, but I still consider it to be one of my favorite games of all time. I was highly skeptical of this remake at first, holding my stubborn ground that changing the fixed camera to a RE4-style behind the back perspective would turn this game more into an action game and less of a survival horror game where feeling a lack of control is part of the experience. I was pleasantly surprised to find how much they were able to modernize this game while maintaining its original feel and atmosphere. The fumbly, drifting aim-down sights effectively sell the feeling of being a rookie scared out of your wits. Being chased by Mr. X is wildly anxiety-inducing. But even more surprisingly, perhaps the greatest upgrade this game received was its map, which does you the generous service of actually marking down automatically where puzzles and items are, which rooms you’ve yet to enter, which ones you’ve searched entirely, and which ones still have more to discover. Arguably, this disrupts the feeling of being lost in a labyrinthine space that the original inspired, but in practice, it’s a remarkably satisfying and addicting video game system to engage with.

6. Judgment

No big surprise here - Ryu ga Gotoku put out another Yakuza-style game set in Kamurocho, and once again, it’s sitting somewhere on my top 10. This time, they finally put Kazuma Kiryu’s story to bed and focused on a new protagonist, down on his luck lawyer-turned-detective Takayuki Yagami. The new direction doesn’t always pay off - the added mechanics of following and chasing suspects gets a bit tedious. The game makes up for it, though, by absolutely nailing a fun, engrossing J-Drama of a plot entirely divorced from the Yakuza lore. The narrative takes several head-spinning turns through its several dozen hours, and they all feel earned, with a fresh sense of focus. The side stories in this one do even more to make you feel connected to the community of Kamurocho by befriending people from across the neighborhood. I’d love to see this team take even bigger swings in the future - and from what I’ve seen from Yakuza 7, that seems exactly like what they’re doing - but even if this game shares maybe a bit too much DNA with its predecessors, it’s hard to complain when the writing and acting are this enjoyable.

5. Control

Control feels like the kind of game that almost never gets made anymore. It’s a AAA game that isn’t connected to any larger franchises and doesn’t demand your attention for longer than a dozen hours. It doesn’t shoehorn needless RPG or MMO mechanics into its third-person action game formula to hold your attention. It introduces a wildly clever idea, tells a concise story with it, and then its over. And there’s something so refreshing about all of that. The setting of The Oldest House has a lot to do with it. I think it stands toe-to-toe with Rapture or Black Mesa as an instantly iconic game world. Its aesthetic blend of paranormal horror and banal government bureaucracy gripped my inner X-Files fan instantly, and kept him satisfied not only with its central characters and mystery but with a generous bounty of redacted documents full of worldbuilding both spine-tingling and hilarious. More will undoubtedly come from this game, in the form of DLC and possibly even more, with the way it ties itself into other Remedy universes, and as much as I expect I will love it, the refreshing experience this base game offered me likely can’t be beat.

4. Anodyne 2

I awaited Sean Han Tani and Marina Kittaka’s new game more anxiously than almost any game that came out this year, despite never having played the first one, exclusively on my love for last year’s singular All Our Asias and the promise that this game would greatly expand on that one’s Saturn/PS1-esque early 3D graphics and personal, heartfelt storytelling. Not only was I not disappointed, I was regularly pleasantly surprised by the depth of narrative and themes the game navigates. This game takes the ‘legendary hero’ tropes of a Zelda game and flips them to tell a story about the importance of community and taking care of loved ones over duty to governments or organizations. The dungeons that similarly reflect a Link to the Past-era Zelda game reduce the maps to bite-sized, funny, clever designs that ask you to internalize unique mechanics that result in affecting conclusions. Plus, it’s gorgeously idiosyncratic in its blend of 3D and 2D environments and its pretty but off-kilter score. It’s hard to believe something this full and well realized came from two people. 

3. Eliza

Eliza is a work of dystopian fiction so closely resembling the state of the world in 2019 it’s hard to even want to call it sci-fi. As a proxy for the Eliza app, you speak the words of an AI therapist that offers meager, generic suggestions as a catch-all for desperate people facing any number of the nightmares of our time. The first session you get is a man reckoning with the state the world is in - we’ve only got a few more years left to save ourselves from impending climate crisis, destructive development is rendering cities unlivable for anyone but the super-rich, and the people who hold all the power are just making it all worse. The only thing you offer to him is to use a meditation app and take some medication. It doesn’t take long for you to realize that this whole structure is much less about helping struggling people and more about mining personal data.

There’s much more to this story than the grim state of mental health under late capitalism, though. It’s revealed that Evelyn, the character you play as, has a much closer history with Eliza than initially evident. Throughout the game, she’ll reacquaint herself with old coworkers, including her two former bosses who have recently split and run different companies over their differing frightening visions for the future. The game offers a biting critique of the kind of tech company optimism that brings rich, eccentric men to believe they can solve the world’s problems within the hyper-capitalist structure they’ve thrived under, and how quickly this mindset gives way to techno-fascism. There’s also Evelyn’s former team member, Nora, who has quit the tech world in favor of being a DJ “activist,” and her current lead Rae, a compassionate person who genuinely believes in the power of Eliza to better people’s lives. The writing does an excellent job of justifying everyone’s points of view and highlighting the limits of their ideology without simplifying their sense of morality.

Why this game works so well isn’t just its willingness to stare in the face of uncomfortably relevant subject matter, but its ultimately empathetic message. It offers no simple solutions to the world’s problems, but also avoids falling into utter despair. Instead, it places measured but inspiring faith in the power of making small, meaningful impacts on the people around you, and simply trying to put some good into your world. It’s a game both terrifying and comforting in its frank conclusions.

2. Death Stranding

For a game as willfully dumb as this one often is - that, for example, insists on giving all of its characters with self-explanatory names long monologues about how they got that name - Death Stranding was one of the most thought provoking games I’ve played in a while. Outside of its indulgent, awkwardly paced narrative, the game offers plenty of reflection on the impact the internet has had on our lives. As Sam Porter Bridges, you’re hiking across a post-apocalyptic America, reconnecting isolated cities by delivering supplies, building infrastructure, and, probably most importantly, connecting them to the Chiral Network, an internet of sorts constructed of supernatural material of nebulous origin. Through this structure, the game offers surprisingly insightful commentary about the necessity for communication, cooperation, and genuine love and care within a community.

The lonely world you’re tasked to explore, and the way you’re given blips of encouragement within the solitude through the structures and “likes” you give and receive through the game’s asynchronous multiplayer system, offers some striking parallels for those of us particularly “online” people who feel simultaneous desperation for human contact and aversion to social pressures. I’ve heard the themes of this game described as “incoherent” due to the way it seems to view the internet both as a powerful tool to connect people and a means by which people become isolated and alienated, but are both of these statements not completely true to reality? The game simplifies some of its conclusions - Kojima seems particularly ignorant of America’s deep structural inequities and abuses that lead to a culture of isolation and alienation. And yet, the questions it asks are provocative enough that they compelled me to keep thinking about them far longer than the answers it offers.

Beyond the surprisingly rich thematic content, this game is mostly just a joy to play. Death Stranding builds kinetic drama out of the typically rote parts of games. Moving from point A to point B has become an increasingly tedious chore in the majority of AAA open world games, but this is a game built almost entirely out of moving from point A to point B, and it makes it thrilling. The simple act of walking down a hill while trying to balance a heavy load on your back and avoiding rocks and other obstacles fulfills the promise of the term ‘walking simulator’ in a far more interesting way than most games given that descriptor. The game consistently doles out new ways to navigate terrain, which peaked for me about two thirds of the way through the game when, after spending hours setting up a network of zip lines, a delivery offered me the opportunity to utilize the entire thing in a wildly satisfying journey from one end of the map to another. It was the gaming moment of the year.

1. Outer Wilds

The first time the sun exploded in my Outer Wilds playthrough, I was probably about to die anyway. I had fallen through a black hole, and had yet to figure out how to recover from that, so I was drifting listlessly through space with diminishing oxygen as the synths started to pick up and I watched the sun fall in on itself and then expand throughout the solar system as my vision went went. The moment gave me chills, not because I wasn’t already doomed anyway, but because I couldn’t help but think about my neighbors that I had left behind to explore space. I hadn’t known that mere minutes after I left the atmosphere the solar system would be obliterated, but I was at least able to watch as it happened. They probably had no idea what happened. Suddenly their lives and their planet and everything they had known were just...gone. And then I woke up, with the campfire burning in front of me, and everyone looking just as I had left it. And I became obsessed with figuring out how to stop that from happening again. 

What surprised me is that every time the sun exploded, it never failed to produce those chills I felt the first time. This game is masterful in its art, sound, and music design that manages to produce feelings so intense from an aesthetic so quaint. Tracking down fellow explorers by following the sound of their harmonica or acoustic guitar. Exploring space in a rickety vessel held together by wood and tape. Translating logs of conversations of an ancient alien race and finding the subject matter of discussion to be about small interpersonal drama as often as it is revelatory secrets of the universe. All of the potentially twee aspects of the game are balanced out by an innate sense of danger and terror that comes from exploring space and strange worlds alone. At times, the game dips into pure horror, making other aspects of the presentation all the more charming by comparison. And then there’s the clockwork machinations of the 22-minute loop you explore within, rewarding exploration and experimentation with reveals that make you feel like a genius for figuring out the puzzle at the same time that you’re stunned by the divulgence of a new piece of information.

The last few hours of the game contained a couple puzzles so obfuscated that I had to consult a guide, which admittedly lessened the impact of those reveals, but it all led to one of the most equally devastating and satisfying endings I’ve experienced in a video game recently. I really can’t say enough good things about this game. It’s not only my favorite game this year, but easily one of my favorite games of the decade, and really, of all-time, when it comes down to it.

[realstarfarts]

My General Thoughts on Bless

Writing a huge synopsis of the Bless experience is, in my opinion, fruitless. It was a game that failed in far more ways than it succeeded, and I seriously doubt more than a few hundred people in the entire world will miss it. That said, from the first moment I loaded in I knew the world itself was something special, and something I had to explore. I understood I would only have a couple months before it was closed down so I forsook the story and leveling for seeing as much as I could--and I’m so glad I did. The unimaginable effort put in by the artists, modelers, and other creative types was an incredible feat and I wanted to honor their endeavor by preserving as much as I could.

I knew also that my style of videos and screenshots are boring to basically everyone. A YouTube movie with no commentary? No memes? Screenshots with no action? What is this blasphemy?! But that wasn’t my goal: I wanted and still want to show things that real, live human beings poured herculean skill into making and that could possibly never have been experienced. Thinking that as I walked around the world of Bless I couldn’t help but be sad.

————————–

I’ll end this before I stray further into existentialism. Here are some of my general thoughts on Bless Online, in no particular order:

1. Some classes were utterly boring to play, and I really couldn’t believe they were intentionally designed like that (pally and ranger specifically).

2. I don’t fucking like lolis. After 30 years of life, I finally started watching anime out of morbid curiosity, and even though, two years later, I’m hopelessly addicted, I still can’t fathom why the Japanese phenomenon of cuteness inevitably falls right into loli pedo shit. The Bless loli race was obviously fapbait, and I hated it.

3. It was impossible to mail or transfer costumes between alts.

4. First impressions of combat were absolutely terrible. I really don’t know why the early game grind was made so un-engaging, but it’s really no wonder so many people dropped the game after a couple hours. Some classes drastically improved their gameplay after 30ish levels, but that was still a stupid design choice.

5. Just like most Eastern MMOs, Bless had way too much autopathing between too-distant quest objectives. In line with this, mount movement was also slow, and mounts would run out of stamina far too quickly, making the grind for mount feed resources a huge chunk of the metagame. Also, the autopathing would regularly go through huge mobs of enemies and result in death.

6. Insane pop-in (although still not as bad as BDO), especially with shadows.

7. There were no NPC turning animations, and everything from humans to animals and monsters would just snap around at the end of their routes. It looked awful.

8. And also, NPC design overall was bad. There were some fantastic designs (especially in the waifu department), but in the end 90% of all NPCs were reskins chosen from a pool that was far too small--it was so bad that in my estimation 90% ended up looking like clones.

9. And more on NPCs; 90% of all city inhabitants were guards. Probably another 7-8% were vendors who cycled through lightning-fast idle animations endlessly with no expression changes. Seeing a regular citizen was rare.

10. I can’t remember the specifics of this note, but I wrote that the death mechanic was stupid.

11. Large segments of cities were not aligned. This was most obvious in Campagna where the entire central city square was uneven by about five feet. It might not sound too bad, but it was jarring and just lazy--worse because Campagna is a large city and it should have been perfect.

12. There were golden statues in the faction capitals that displayed what I assume were high-ranking guild members. It was a really cool sight to experience, and if the game was worth playing in general I can imagine the fight to be shown in gold for everyone to admire was probably fun.

13. There were a load of low-resolution or generally-unfinished areas that were clearly not meant to be seen. I figure this is due to the central locomotion mechanic of autopathing and they just decided “why bother” with out-of-the-way zones. Well I noticed.

14. The Imperial cities and towns were significantly more comfy and interesting than their Union counterparts. Even the mostly-reskinned buildings had far more detail on the Imperial side.

15. The lighting was beautiful as a whole, but there were some serious problems with artifacting and however it calculated the camera angle (ie, beyond the lighting and shadows popping in, it would flicker and distort depending on how it was looked at).

16. One of my favorite mechanics was the “dynamic” hunting system. It made grinding mobs enjoyable because I could get large chunks of bonus XP just by slaughtering trash.

————————– 

I do wish I’d written down more positive impressions during my 113 hours in Bless Online, but the gameplay at large was tedious and frustrating. The world that was meticulously constructed, however, was brilliant and I wish all the best for the art and design team in whatever future endeavors they may pursue.

Lastly, a special shoutout to the very few real human beings I encountered:

---> ioioio15 ---> Lalalemna ---> Manzaniita ---> Radeghast ---> SoulenX ---> Raphah

————————–

(Master post)

[tamgerines]

KH3 First Impression and Complete Thoughts

BACKGROUND: i've played kh1, com, kh2, bbs, 2.8, and a bit of khux. i've watched coded and 3d on yt, so i know the story relatively well. this is an impression of my first playthrough. i did my run on standard mode and watched the secret ending on yt. i mostly did this for story, so this will have my initial impressions based on my run that will not cover extra content like the phone mini games and cooking.  my opinions are subjected to change if i ever do any later playthroughs. pls, feel free to disagree w/ me.

!!! WARNING: THERE WILL BE A LOT OF STORY SPOILERS!!!

AUDIO: 

Music: utada is queen!!! that opening song!!! also i kept noticing how lit the songs are in each world esp frozen???  and aqua's. worth a replay just for the soundtrack alone.

Voice Acting: everyone sounded great for the most part. sora’s va have certainly improved and sounds less strained. his vanitas voice has suffered significantly though lolololol. i think i read that someone called it a wannabe dark knight voice? the organization sounded incredible, w/ my fav being xemnas, marluxia, and larxene. the disney and pixar va’s are incredible w/ my fav probably being randall in monster’s inc. 

some ppl did not get vas like xaldin and laxeaus. and phil in hercules. which were all very disappointing bc in the scenes that they were in, they would just stand around woodenly, and it’s very noticeable. 

VISUALS: 

mostly a+. environments are beautiful. water and frost textures are amazing!!! you can really feel that waterga and blizzaga. fur textures in monster's inc. could use some work. little details like the sails moving in potc rly make the worlds come alive. this could be a me prob, but environments in certain worlds make it very hard to see map markers, treasure chests, and disney emblems (which are supposed to be hard to find, but still). mostly in tangled.

strangely enough, this is the only game where i prefer in game graphics to cgi. it's already highly expressive and there's something creepy and uncanny about the cgi esp in the final fight. and it's mostly bc sora's thin chapped lips throughout the entire game suddenly becomes full.

DESIGNS: 

i don't love everyone's outfit or sora's outfit changes in this game besides toy story. this is something i alrdy knew going in, but i've always felt like the outfits in kh1 and 2 rly suited each of the character's personalities. and this is not just destiny trio but even chars like roxas, the twilight town kids and the hollow bastion crew. the move towards a uniformed look makes no sense to me like is it to unify the key bearers as one force against the organization? i could understand why destiny trio was wearing plaid but why the twilight town kids also? by the end of the game, almost everyone was wearing black and it's just boring to me. like there's a right way to do uniform while retaining characters' individual looks, and that's the wayfinder trio in bbs. in this game, not so much.

an aside, but i'm sort of disappointed in the hud moving to 3d too. the 2d portraits have always been part of kh so it's kinda a bum to see it go away.

i don't love the lvl designs but it might also be due to a narrative and pacing issue that i'll expand on. any case, vertical maps are a challenge to figure out. i don't consider myself bad at directions but there are so many moments, esp in hercules and tangled where i would be like where the heck do i go next (and i have the map) only for me to look up and find a shotlock teleport point (and this isn't so much a thing that heightens the difficulty but a time waster).

lvls and bosses in previous kh games have always been known for their gimmicks and mechanics, but in this game particularly i found it to be more tedious? and this mostly applies to frozen: who the fuck designed frozen? who the fuck thought it's a good lvl design to have sora climb a mountain, get kick off it twice, and climb it again as good lvl design? who?

all the disney bosses started blending together for me bc they're literally all giant monsters and rly easy. i think the mistake here is the fact that the disney worlds are put back to back whereas in kh1/2/bbs you have the interruption of original worlds and an actually playable important parts to the main story, in this game all the important storyline in radiant garden are locked in cutscenes interspersed throughout the game between finishing disney worlds.

a lot of ppl might disagree w this, but i miss the cinematic reaction commands and limit attacks. we still have them but i find them to be on a much smaller scale in the form of drive finishers and situation commands, but i find them to be less imaginative in kh3 in order to be less """"disruptive""" to the gameplay. i've always found cinematics charming in previous games as a way to show sora interacting with his party members during combat. little things like beast putting a hand on sora's shoulder, aladdin leaning on him, or riku bumping his fist have a way of making the friendships he forms feel organic. outside of link commands/ summons, in this game, he........just throws a lot of ppl around or is thrown around?

GAMEPLAY:

already sort of went through parts of it in the previous section, but overall combat was smooth. i love how mobile sora is in this game. the improvement to his running speed and addition of all the mobile skills like dodge roll, super slide, flow motion, blizzard skating, etc. makes combat feel fast paced and juking so easy.

magic is super improved on ever since 2.8 and feels satisfying to use esp bc i feel like ur given a lot more mp now and with the ability to save the last of your mana for cure, it feels like you're not always budgeting your magic.

underwater combat was smoother than i expected.

it's a mistake putting almost all the commands on the triangle button. there's so much options you can do in combat and you'd mean to activate one thing, but then an attraction flow comes out and you just want to die. it gets a bit easier as i went on and got more used to the controls, but in general, i still think it's a mistake to not to have an ability or something to disable certain features like in kh2 fm.

gummy ships continue to be a thing. why. i don’t like how i have to turn the camera myself now ;;;. 

i'm not a speedrunner or anything, so i can't say too much else about fighting. the physical combos to me did feel like he was spinning a bit too much tho.

STORY: oh, fucking boy.

i'm not mad, i'm not disappointed, and i'm not even surprised. i already knew that post bbs, kh has already departed far from the franchise i loved as a kid and still today, at least story wise. but let's walk through it.

Disney Worlds: the disney worlds was literally a retelling of their movies. and unlike in kh2 and bbs, where visits to disney worlds were split into two parts, with the first part following the disney story and the second part being heavily tied to the main kh story and thus having original content, the disney worlds in kh3 only get one long visit. and the integration of kh into disney was just done so poorly. remember how kh villains used to kidnap princesses? remember how they used to actually conspire to take disney characters' hearts and turn them dark? remember, you know, when they were still evil and actually interfered with the worlds? in almost every world in kh3, an org member just comes says vague menacing things to sora, calls him stupid, and then leaves. yeah. and oh, maleficent and pete looks for a black box only to not find it, and leaves. AND THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE FOR THE REST OF THE GAME.

the pixar worlds + bh6 were the only ones with any actual new content and they feel so fresh. i esp loveeeeeeeed toy story omg. the script was so good, funny, and heartwarming. the pixar consultants should have helped kh all the way tbh.

like previous games, there's an attempt for each disney world to thematically tie into the main kh story. in this game, it was as heavy handed as ever, probably even more so. 

Original Worlds: onto the meat of kh, the main story was rushed up until the end. you have a slew of disney worlds, then bam, they slam you with all the human bosses and the important story stuff. 

the ‘awakening’ of roxas, xion, and ventus were very rushed. you literally have one moment they’re no there then two seconds of white screen and all of a sudden they’re there. 

there’s a shit ton of shoehorned character redemption arcs: vexen, demyx, saix, eraqus, xehanort, xemnas, ansem. all were done either offscreen or by some miracle, they reached an epiphany after sora beat his keyblade into their heads. 

the only death scene that i actually liked, that a lot of ppl complained about, was vanitas bc yes, although i thought his character had so much potential, it was at least a consistent and sympathetic death. bless him, born a villain die a villain. same with xemnas bc i loved his last speech. 

xehanort was a shitty villain through and through. no one understood his motivation; it’s like nomura took a page from thanos’ guide of how to write villains, gave him some stupid ass goal to have a keyblade war to restart the world, and then just have him...get everything he wanted? his estranged friend comes back in ghost form for whatever reason and is just like ok we’re cool man even tho u took my student and indirectly murdered me and then gets taken up to heart heaven, like O K. and like what’s the most frustrating is that it’s implied they’re keeping him as a villain??? bc fucking ymx is like ooohh imma just go back to my own time via time travel. it’s too late for u sora hurdur. 

and the younger members of the organization, the ones that we do know were in khux. we don’t get to know how they became nobodies and they don’t get a redemption??? really???  

you can tell they tried, TRIED, hard to give everyone closure. and they miserably failed to close plot points. they actually opened more. who the fuck is the unnamed girl in lea and isa’s storyline? why the fuck did you mention her if you were going to play the pronoun game and not name her??? what the fuck was in the black box??? why are they looking for it when no one know what’s in it??? why the fuck was repliku inside of riku the whole fucking time??? why have org members be norted if they can still have agency and choose to betray xehanort??? why the fuck was BOTH sora and riku in different worlds in the secret ending????? ? ? ? 

and tho i’m very glad that wayfinder and sea salt trios get their happy ending, the destiny trio had their characters assassinated. kairi was teased to become an independent character of her own and fight alongside sora, only to get shafted to become a damsel in distress, again, literally replaced by xion in one of the last battles, AND referred to as ‘motivation’ for sora by xehanort lol. sora, the guy who’s always going my friends are my power, ONLY grieves about losing kairi, accrediting all of his strength ONLY TO HER. riku, who spent the first game desperately trying to get kairi’s heart back, and who protected her from saix in the second, suddenly doesn’t give a shit about her and is just there as sora’s moral support. it’s so frustrating that nomura has the audacity to say that this series is primarily about friendship and then pull this shit lol. it’s transparent. 

CONCLUSION: 

i think for me, the quintessential kh trilogy has always been kh1, com, and kh2. as far as i’m concerned, the story should have ended there for destiny trio. and it’s like nomura said, how he feels more sympathetic towards villains now, i think nomura’s ideas have outgrown his main character. 

sora’s journey worked in 1, com, and 2 because he had an overarching goal to find kairi and riku and return home. not everyone has to understand heartless vs. nobodies or dark vs. light but at least, anyone can understand the desperation of saving your friends. when that framework is taken away, sora’s goals and motivations become unclear; he’s a kid and has little reason to be caught up in xehanort’s plans, the keyblade war, or the organization’s agendas. and his failure to grow with the increasing complexity of the plot, to investigate for himself the bigger picture or even come into a similar realization of his own darkness/ balance like riku, makes him unfit; he’s a reactionary character instead of an active one. that’s why this game, being experienced from his point of view, felt mostly like a catch up to speed for sora and a set up to nomura’s next big thing instead of a genuine ending.  i honestly don’t think nomura knows what to do with him and with kingdom hearts anymore. 

kh3 is a game wrapped in nostalgia and promised something bigger than it could fulfill. and aside from better graphics and improved gameplay, the story wasn’t worth the wait. 

[unclerippuascension]

So to feed my Ingo simpery I finally got PLA, and I can say that PLA’s story/themes and its gameplay are incredibly juxtaposed. Mainly in how utterly boring the combat mechanics are. I am SHOCKED, but not too shocked, that the fandom basically lied to me on how innovative the gameplay is compared to the ‘stale’ old Pokemon battle formula.

First of all, you never really need to battle unless its to fill out a mission in a Pokemon’s dex entry, with enough sneaking around and clever item throwing you can catch a lot of Pokemon without ever needing to throw out a Pokemon of your own. The only time I did it was to meet a requirement in a dex entry, or because Johnny Shitsnack from Bumblefuck Hills wouldn’t leave me alone.

Second of all, moves and move effects have been stripped back like hell. Even though you can get ganged up on by multiple wild Pokemon, there are no moves that hit multiple enemies. I have a Rhyhorn that knows Bulldoze, a move that hits multiple enemies, but in battles with two enemies it only hits one. Same for other moves, why? What does that add to the combat system? Nothing, in fact it takes away from the combat and makes it frustrating because I’m getting gang raped by a bunch of Staravias and I can’t do shit about it until my turn. Status effects like Sleep and Frozen have also been nerfed but also made overpowered, with sleep not actually putting the Pokemon to sleep, and ‘Frozen’ becoming ‘Frostbite’ which is literally just another version of poison. There aren’t any trainer battles either (well there are but they’re nowhere as abundant as other games, and for good reason narratively) or online multiplayer, so its not like I even have a reason to strategize in battles. I literally just go to strong style on my strongest move and hope the opponent dies.

Thirdly, there are no abilities. I don’t care what Bulbapedia says, I have eyes and when I look at my Pokemon’s summaries they do not have abilities. Now this is annoying from both a gameplay standpoint and a narrative standpoint, because this game is about learning about Pokemon and the various quirks they have, wouldn’t it make sense for them to still have abilities to encourage catching them more and getting to know them more? Like seriously they could replace the fucking “catch a heavy specimen” missions with “catch all abilities” mission and it’d make more sense.

As for what PLA adds to combat, the ‘Styles’ and ‘Grit’, it barely works as a bandaid for the problems combat has. All ‘Strong/Agile’ style does is have you move sooner or later than your opponent in exchange for your move hitting harder or softer. I’ll admit that the grit items make EV training less tedious though, but it doesn’t make combat any less shallow compared to every generation after Gen3. Battling has little to no strategy beyond the most basic of type advantages, and that makes combat a chore that I’d rather avoid, meaning that my Pokemon are only ever used as a back-up for when I get spotted by a wild Pokemon or for when I need to gather items. There isn’t a new spin on Pokemon Camp either, so I never feel like I’m bonding with my Pokemon in a time period where most people fear them.

You know what my Pokemon are in PLA? Tools. What seperates me from any of the evil teams from previous generations? Aside from my lacking urge to take over the world, not much. I feel the most arbitrary connection to my Pokemon, and that feels so fucking wrong. There’s a part of the game where Iridia expresses her dislike for Pokeballs and how she fears the player is using their Pokemon like an object and not a living breathing creature, and when you beat her in a piss easy battle she retracts that statement and tells us how we’ve bonded with our Pokemon; but I don’t agree with her. Aside from the fact that I like the species of Pokemon that my team is made up of, I don’t feel a strong bond like I did in past games. Even Sword and Shield, for as garbage as that game was, made me feel connected to my Pokemon.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 does everything this game does but better, I’m still going to play PLA to its conclusion, but only to really satiate my curiosity and maybe find some new characters to enjoy. (spoiler alert: so far the only character I like is Laventon, and that’s only because he’s a total dope of a man. Ingo doesn’t count because he’s existed since BW) Everything from the gameplay, to the story (which PLA is literally stealing from, the ‘frenzied pokemon’ are just the ‘rage rayed’ monsters), to the bonds I create with my collectible creatures is done so much better in MHS2. Yes PLA is a better game than SwSh so far (from a programming and visual standpoint and nothing else), but compared to previous generations its just as if not more limiting in what it does. I literally don’t know what the fandom is hemming and hawwing about over this game, like was SwSh that bad to where we think this is an “Innovative step in the right direction for the franchise”? I don’t hate the game, I just don’t think a game that’s sixty bucks should be congratulated for doing the bare minimum half of the time.

[hawffensive-blog]

Start Playing Dungeons & Dragons #1: Group-forming and social tips

So you want to play Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), but you’re not sure where to start? Got a group of friends who’ve never played before but want to? Is everyone looking for you to start the group and be the Dungeon Master (DM)?

The world of D&D can be intimidating. Grabbing the book and opening its thousands of words, some you’ve never heard of before, is a bit much. Fear not, traveler. I’m here to help.

A quick introduction. I’ve been playing D&D on and off over the last 2 decades, mostly playing in 2nd and 5th editions (5e), though I’ve had experience in 4th and Pathfinder as well. I’ve recently started DMing 5th edition campaigns for new players.

D&D has seen a sort of revival in the last few years. 5th edition cleaned up and simplified a lot of rules from previous editions. Web shows like Critical Role also brought a lot of people to and back to the game.

I’ll be doing a series of posts built around getting a group together and playing D&D. Most of it will be from the Dungeon Master’s perspective, but much of this is relevant to players. Even though these discussions should take place before the first session, they can (and will) take place as the campaign progresses as well. The things here come from a combination of my personal experience and what I’ve heard from other DMs. Many of these things I adjusted as I discussed as we played.

This first post will have tips for anyone trying to form the group, which is usually the DM, but could be anyone. I’ll be discussing some of the social aspects of D&D that are not specifically related to the gameplay, but are still important. Here we go.

1. Personality compatibility

D&D groups can form in many ways. Sometimes it’s a bunch of people from the same group of friends. Sometimes it’s a mix of different groups. It can be coworkers. It can include girlfriends/boyfriends. It can include family. The possibilities are endless.

Group compatibility is very important. If the group is going to be gaming for hours together at a time, the last thing you need is people not getting along.

It’s also not black and white. Two people who seem like they won’t get along, may. People who seem compatible may not game well together. A harmless joke outside of the game’s context may not be so harmless when someone’s character or play session is affected.

If you’re in a group that doesn’t have the luxury of being discussed beforehand (such as a pick-up group at your local game store or convention), don’t fret! My experience is limited, but I’ve had some success. It comes down to people coming in with an open mind.

2. Setting expectations on game type

Topic#1 — Amount of combat vs non-combat:

This isn’t called “Dungeons & Dragons” for all the fight-avoidance built into the ruleset. A large chunk of the “Player’s Handbook” is dedicated to how combat works.

However, there are plenty of non-combat things to do. You could run a game with little to no combat. Pretty much all D&D games will be a mix, with the dial moving between the two as the campaign progresses.

Most players are excited to just play, ready to be enthralled into the world of whichever DM they play with. But, it could be something worth discussing.

If you, as the DM, spend hours crafting layers of political intrigue and a conflict that requires intense deliberation, but your players want to kick in the door and kill some dragons, you may have set the wrong expectation.

On the flip side, if you spend hours building expansive dungeons with puzzles, traps, loot, and finely tuned combat encounters, but your party wants to frolic at the local bath house and get involved in whirlwind romances, you may have set the wrong expectation.

This doesn’t have to be a huge part of the pre-campaign discussion. It’s good to talk with your players for some ideas, but run the campaign you want to run and be willing to take feedback as things progress.

Topic #2 — Theme/feel of the world and game play:

It is well known that in serious situations, comedy is needed to keep one’s sanity. However, there is a general overall tone you can have with your campaign.

Is the subject matter serious? Are you dealing with heavy subjects like murder, mental health, genocide, or drug dealing? Or is it more light-hearted? Are your players trying to save a princess from the frog prince who wishes to charm her like a fairy tale?

Do you want a strictly developed and consistent universe, or do you want to pull from many sources? Do you mind if pop culture references or memes are featured heavily?

Players immersed in your carefully constructed fantasy could get frustrated if an out-of-place meme shows up during a tense moment.

Topic #3 — Player investment:

It’s nice to have invested players.

An ideal situation: When the game is going, all distractions are kept to a minimum. Phones are only checked periodically or when necessary. Players are paying attention even when they’re not involved in the present circumstance. If a joke is cracked, it’s not a full-scale digression that stalls play for the rest of the group.

But this is not guaranteed. Your players may not pay attention during important scenes. They may play on their phone when it’s not their turn.

If you’re players aren’t involved, ask yourself why. Is your content not compelling? Is the story moving too slow? Are they not taking notes and forgetting things? Are there too many players?

It’s possible your group “isn’t meant to be.” Maybe what you are looking for in players and what they’re looking for in a DM just don’t match up. Some players may not enjoy pen-and-paper as much as they thought they would.

Games without some level of player investment can grow boring, ending up as a slog of rolls and outcomes that feel meaningless and uninteresting. Not all players have to be actively involved and debating on every party decision, but all players should be paying attention, even if that involves sitting back and enjoying the show, jumping in only when they need to act. As the DM, it is important to discuss with your players your expectation of them.

Topic #4 — Rule strictness:

If you’re like much of my generation, you’ve probably played video games. To me, what makes D&D so special is that it’s not like a video game (though I still love video games, but for different reasons).

The “computer” of D&D (the DM) being a reactive human being opens up the game. Adding/subtracting rules can be as simple as adding or removing a dice roll. Making a playtest-ready version of a new class can take only a few hours.

On the other hand, modding a video game can take hours (unlikely), days, months, or years!

When I was a youngling, playing D&D with a group of friends, I remember a situation where a player wanted to kick a door down, but it was being held shut on the other side by goblins. The player still wanted to attempt it and the DM said he could. The DM assigned a -4 penalty (to signify the goblins holding the door) and allowed the roll. I don’t remember the outcome, but I do remember what I thought at that time:

The DM thought of that on the fly! If this was a video game, and no door-kicking mechanic was implemented, he couldn’t even attempt that.

In my mind, the world of D&D was opened. I became enlightened. I was snake-bitten by Gary Gygax’s ghost.

Therefore, I am personally very open-ended with my D&D games. Running for new players especially, I am more lenient on rules and I homebrew heavily to show the freedom of D&D. You want to play Batman? We can do that. You want to play some really cool character idea you thought of but couldn’t make in Skyrim? We’ll make it work. You want to try flipping off the table and catching that flag so you can climb to escape? You can certainly attempt it!

I’ve talked with other players and DMs who run strict ruling games. From what I hear, it’s just as fun, just different. It really depends on the group you want to run.

3. Scheduling and play frequency

If possible, most groups I’ve talked or been in run once a week, same day, roughly same time. But that may not be possible or wanted.

The recent group I DMed ran Saturday nights every other week. While I’m a nerd who spends most of my Saturday nights gaming, and such is true for most of my players… things would come up (random events, concerts, dinners, wanting to relax, etc). I didn’t find it reasonable to hold my player’s Saturday hostage with that much frequency.

I also played in another pen-and-paper game on alternating Saturdays. This meant, for the foreseeable future, all my Saturday nights were booked for a social activity. Being the introvert that I am, this started to wear on me.

Play frequency is important though. It can be tedious to have every session start with the players going “what are we doing again?” Any excitement for an awesome plot twist from the previous session may be gone by the time the next session rolls around if too much time has passed.

Find a schedule that works for your group. Playing at night on a workday may be viable. Playing once a month can work if your group is cool with it.

4. In Conclusion

Don’t overthink it! If you want to play D&D, play D&D. If you have the luxury of a group of friends who want to play, be the DM if no one else wants to be. If you don’t have that luxury, try searching for a group. If you have a veteran friend who wants to run and teach everyone how to play, that’s great! That’s what I am to many friends.

Just start playing. The things I mentioned in this article are important, but they shouldn’t be the reason you don’t play. You’ll get better as you play. Groups can change. People can come in and leave. Rules and themes can adjust as you find what interests your group.

Here are some great D&D channels with a ton of information. These guys have much more experience than me. They’ve taught me a lot and many of my own findings have been verified by them.

Critical Role (on Geek & Sundry) — https://www.youtube.com/user/geekandsundry

Matthew Colville — https://www.youtube.com/user/mcolville

Web DM — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7XFmdssWgaPzGyGbKk8GaQ

So, what are you waiting for? Get a group together and roll some dice! Oh, and come back for my next article where I’ll be going over game mechanics.