The Clockwork Game Design Podcast
Leisure:Video Games
Hey all! Today I have a new episode where I’m going to be talking about two things. First, I’m going to report on a bunch of RPGs that I’ve been playing or trying out, and give my takes. I say more about each game on the podcast, so make sure to check that out. Here are some quick bullet points, though!
What I’ve been playingSCARLET NEXUS – Extremely polished, simple but fun combat. Kind of “adolescent anime” feeling story, a little silly and a little too fantastical in its basic universe for me, but seems well written. Overly smoothed out, like most modern big production videogames. Bad level design.
TALES OF BERSERIA – GREAT opening, compelling main character and good plot gravity. Sadly, also a way overly complicated combat system and overall it has “modern videogame over-smoothed-ness”.
IN STARS AND TIME – Very cool game that I recommend you go check out. Great art, great music, good writing. It’s this and Octopath Traveler 2 I’m most excited to play next. Combat system miiiight be a little too simple, I don’t know. Turn based (I think it’s made with RPG maker but they do a good job of not making it feel like it).
OCTOPATH TRAVELER 2 – This is probably my favorite of all of the games I’ve been playing, but, I am a little bleh about the way it tells its story. Doing 8 “90 minute character intro chapters” in a row sounds terrible. Introduce characters in a more natural way, please! Cool combat system, good art, good music – overall, good stuff. And it’s actually turn based, whaaaaaat!
DONE WITH BALDURS GATE 3 – You know all about Baldur’s Gate 3. Listen to the podcast to hear me say more about it. The TL;DR is that honestly this game’s biggest flaw is the D&D license. Still one of the best RPGs of the last decade, though.
FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS – Too depressing and cynical and 90s edgelord for me. Also I appreciate Obsidian’s attempt to Un-Bethesda the Bethesda Game, but the damage was too deep.
KINGDOM HEARTS – As much hate as it seems to get, it sort of seems like videogames all turned into Kingdom Hearts over the 20 years I wasn’t watching. Surprisingly fun combat, but forced crappy minigames and why on earth would I want Cloud to talk to Mickey Mouse???
FINAL FANTASY XVI – After playing a bunch more Kingdomheartslikes and getting more used to that, I’ve gotta say, this is a very well made Kingdomheartslike. Still needs more color and sensitivity. Probably just needs to be way more overtly gay.
Next up on the docket are Trails in Cold Steel 1, Demon’s Roots and Suikoden 2.
Some bad qualities in RPGs
Recently, I wrote about the three most important qualities in an RPG. Today, I’d like to talk about some of the worst things in RPGs, and I’m specifically going to be talking about JRPG-style RPGs here, more than western-style RPGs, since that’s what I’ve been playing… a TON of, for the past few years. Let’s get into the list.
That’s about it for today. Hope you enjoyed this article/podcast combo! If you did, please consider supporting my work over at patreon.com/keithburgun.
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BONUS: Humane Storytelling with Jenny Bee
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Episode 60 – Eric Zimmerman on game design theory (also, randomness with Brett Lowey)
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