FTL: Faster Than Light; Exploration and Discovery

[Warning Spoilers? on a 5 year old game? maybe?]

FTL: Faster Than Light is potentially my most favourite game, top 3 easily. There are many aspects of this game that I love, but I want to mention the designed natural discovery process that takes place; I know, contradictory.

This is a rouge like, heavy play oriented game, where the only portions of written story are the random events that occur when warping to a new location. "This space station is on fire, select 1 to save them, select 2 to leave, select 3 to use your fireproof alien race crew member" and so on is what you can expect from these events. But then I warped to a specific star system and found a rebel ship yard that contained blueprints for a new unlockable ship. The horizon of potential adventure opens up from here, with multiwarp point quests that can span the entire length of the game world.

[FTL: Faster Than Light]

Discovery through exploration is created so simply here by not tell you when or where events/quests are going to happen. The game world is randomly generated every play through while only giving you 2 pieces of information; where the exit to the next level is, and where you are now (I included an example sector's beacon map as a... well... as an example). Every star system in between is open for potential adventure. The layout of the star systems are non-linear, enforcing an exploration heavy path, and indirectly pushing you towards new discoveries.

There seems to be a conflict in game design about discovery. We have both extremes shown in the Legend of Zelda series, where a secret is literally an arrow pointing towards it (a crack in an outlined section of wall), or a secret is in any given tile that needs to be bombed to open a new door (or a tree tile that needs to be burned down). FTL lands itself in an enjoyable middle location of this spectrum where the player is not directly pushed towards a secret, or forced to press up, down, left, left, etc, to unlock a mystery. The level design and layout allows exploration to happen naturally through play in a way that is not obvious, which in return generates the self satisfying sense of discovery when you are forced to land on a random star system that contains a new quest.

[Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past, The Wind Waker]

FTL is awesome, if I can give the game anything, it is not justice for how fantastic it is. Have yourself an adventure and check it out.

Type Advantage; Pokemon Platinum

Can we talk about how frustrating battling based on types in Pokemon is?

I have been playing Pokemon Platinum recently to revisit the generation 4 world with a few game limiting self imposed rules, and long story short, I had to challenge the second gym (grass type) twice. The first time was with weak to neutral type match ups, where I had an enjoyable battle, just falling short of the victory. The second time I took in 1 super effective bug type with a "same type attack bonus" (STAB) move, which deals 2x and 1.5x damage respectively, and swept through using only that Pokemon.

The mechanic here of how powerful super effective STAB moves are needs to be toned down. I like the idea of each of these mechanics on their own (STAB move but not super effective...) along with the benefits they grant, but together it may need to be modified to stop the pattern of 1 or 2 hit knock outs being the most viable and enjoyable method of battling. I like to use my entire arsenal of supporting moves (status effects, stat manipulating, regenerating moves) but these are vastly over shadowed by the effectiveness of turning into a 1 punch man.

I think a simple lowering of the numbers is what is needed to eliminate the power creeping of damage dealing moves. This in affect should create more interesting and dynamic battles, which in their own way can be a personal story rather than a game mechanics to move the plot along. The battles can then be stories in the same way that "an underdog sports team wins the championship", or how a celebrity is villainized by the media is a story (2 extra-contextual examples in the normal world, which I am uncertain about their validity, for the non-nerds out there). Also this would allow for specific Pokemon to still be usable in all or most situation while still being at a disadvantage. Currently I feel it is presented that a Pokemon is either not usable, or the only usable option in a battle.

As a note: this does not apply to the competitive battling scene or any Pokemon related interactions not designed for a 6 year old or a 6 year old at heart.

I like Adventures; An Introduction

I am going on an adventure through the beautiful world of the electronic art form we all love to call "video games", and I am making note of my personal angle and perspective about each experience. I have no outstanding skills or knowledge about what I am going to share, but I am passionate about games, have an internet connection, and a strong opinion. You should expect less formal, more conversation/rant style posts, and disagreeing or agreeing, I would absolutely love if you commented with your opinion as well.

So until next time, this is where I get off.

[Half Life 2]