As a late 20-something veteran, lapsed gamer, it's great to see out-of-the-box games like this expanding and challenging the norms of gaming conventions and I am more hoping more games challenge norms and conventions of fantasy and sci-fi dominated gaming.
you know what we need? we need a game with this energy that's all about creating a third-nature space out of an industrialized/colonized space. maybe mixing in a bit of the vibe that Book of Travels has going on. free ideas for any game devs out there!
The note about life being the things between fights, not the fights we engage in to protect those things, is a really important one i think. This is a topic i consistently grapple with as a ttrpg fanatic, and GM for life, because so often people are not as engaged by life itself, but also, losing sight of those facets makes the fights feel meaningless before long, because they become meaningless without the actual lives around them.
Love TRPGS too, and enjoy the social aspects, just roleplaying as the character in conversations or when doing normal things. my current GURPS character reflects this bias with more points in roleplay spells and skills and only 1 attack spell and the shield skill.
The notion of small fetch quests feeling 'meaningful' really resonated with me and reminded me of Death Stranding. Something about how important connection was and how much of a sense of actually doing something helpful for people in the struggling world made me completely unable to stop playing until I had completed everything in the game, including a perfect score on all 500 deliveries. There's just something special about games that have you take your time and really immerse that's just so rewarding in a rare way. Edit: another *huge* one of those games for me was Spiritfarer; please please check it out if you haven't already and you enjoy vibey immersive games with a whole lot of heart in them.
This is so wonderful I even chuckled "porpoise" joke. Ah, who am I kidding, I enjoyed it. Thank you! I think the biggest problem that TOTK has--and BOTW before it--is how singularly detached Link feels from Hyrule. Link is Hylia's Very Special Boy(tm) and while he's running around Hyrule he doesn't have much of an impact on it. Even Hudson and Rhondson don't act like Link did all that much for them, when he absolutely did. In BOTW, after freeing Vah Ruta, the Zora are always happy to see Link and remark on what he's done, but that's not mirrored with the Rito, Gorons, and Gerudo. In both games, Link is so detached from his world that it feels genuinely stark, cold, and lonely for him. Add to that the way the Sage avatars don't even act like Navi, Midna, or Fi, and Link still feels *alone* until... [spoiler]. I haven't played Tchia-the-game yet, but it really looks like Tchia-the-protagonist gets to spend time with the NPCs, enriching their lives in tangible ways so far beyond the "here's your thing, give me my reward, I was never here!" that happens with Link. So while TOTK could be argued to be a masterpiece in a game mechanics sense, that lack of connectedness that Link has, whether it's a deliberate or accidental side effect of being Hylia's Very Special Boy, sure is a weakness (which also holds true for BOTW). Even an Elder Scrolls Chosen One seems to have more affect on Tamriel and her denizens in the last three TES titles (the only ones I've played) than Link does in BOTW/TOTK Hyrule. Even in paper-thin Skyrim, NPCs will treat the Last Dragonborn differently depending on the LDB's actions in the world and to/for the NPC in question. TES games aren't nearly as story-driven as other RPGs. Even with a companion NPC, they're closer to BOTW/TOTK than to, I dunno, Baldur's Gate III, a title I've just grabbed from thin air for no reason whatsoever.
I think the best open worlds for me are ones that have you returning to all corners of the world, encouraging you to cross the main trails (or side routes) multiple times. Skyrim and The Witcher 1 & 3 excel in having towns and trails to anchor players at all parts of the map; even when you progress through the game or complete all of the "content" areas in the world, you're always zig zagging through the world (especially when you play without fast travel) and returning to the many homely town areas. That's what I don't like about BG3 actually, is that it's A) a bit too repetitive and restrictive to get through early game content when you want to restart another playthrough, and B) all of the spaces are liminal and linear in their progression where you just "go kill baddies" and abandon the area when you're done with it. By the same token... "bandit killing," raiding ruins, and indigenous "enemy factions" are a pretty fucked up tropes that really should die out in open world games.
@@amber9040 I love the way an Elder Scroll/Witcher/Fallout has you backtracking because that's where you get some of the best emergent gameplay with an open world, finding hidden nooks, mini quests, and environmental storytelling. When I'm returning to an area in BOTW/TOTK, I'm only doing so to turn in a quest or farming for parts (aka bullying specific enemies), and that's it. I haven't thought of BG3 as being in any way an open-world game, but more in line with the long history of non-open-world RPGs made by BioWare, SquareSoft/Enix/SquareEnix, whoever made Phantasy Star, even the Ultima games to an extent, etc, where there's a finite number of quests in area. When places are left open to you, it's for shops or resources. If that's not your jam, that's fine! I like both types of RPGs for what they do. TBH, I still find even Skyrim's opening to be pretty repetitive b/c you really are better off going from Helgen to Riverwood to Bleak Falls Barrow to Whiterun before starting to explore beyond that region. Honestly, even Fallout: New Vegas keeps you to a very specific area, else you run into cazadors and deathclaws. BG3's format feels, deliberately(?), like a tabletop experience, especially if you're doing a pre-written module. If I was playing a TTRPG that started like Skyrim, with a huge setpiece, and then the DM just plonked a map down said, "Go wherever", I wouldn't know what to do with that. Oh, God, I've spent a lot of time thinking about Skyrim's Forsworn and the more I do the more awful it gets. That series has a bit of a reckoning to do with the Nords'/Atmorans' history of genocide. It's not hypocritical of them to not want to be genocided by the Aldmeri Dominion, but it's still a hell of a thing that needs to be addressed.
I realised I've watched every video you made in the last 6 months so I've gone back to videos I skipped because I didn't think they would interest me (in this case because I don't really play computer games). It's inspiring how indigenous people are using every medium to tell their stories.
How did I miss this video!? The entire game is beautiful and is the first one I pre-ordered in a LONG time because I was worried physical copies wouldn't be in ready supply if it didn't sell well. Its blend of elements and themes was so unique for a video game of its time. I spent hours playing with the photography alone.
I love this game, it feels... I don't really know. There is a feeling to it that is so new but something you have experienced before and it's just mythology that is not Western nor Eastern. It feels like it is inspired by Africa but if it was island nations. You have to ask "Why the hell is that? It is based on... New Caledonia. Is that like a novel? It's a place on Earth!" then you go find what New Caledonia is.
9:33 i thought james cook was much more well known for """discovering""" australia. but perhaps for your american audience, people only know him for his expedition to hawaii? anyway, hes a pretty notorious name here in australia.
I’m Polynesian, not Melanesian but seeing someone not from our Pacific culture educate about Blackbirding was incredible although sad ❤ thank you. A lot of settlers here don’t know about it.
Interestingly, I’ve seen some gameplay where the players preferred the industrial land because it felt more familiar and ‘developed’ and ‘real’. You got the same feeling I did though of it being more decrepit.
Congrats, for the first time in I think 2 years or more you got me to buy a game. Update: game is fun but should have paid attention when you mentioned the dead chicken, that scene was disturbing, anthropocentrist genocidal fascism doesn't stop being fucked up all because brown humans are doing it or because they use a simpler tool.
As a late 20-something veteran, lapsed gamer, it's great to see out-of-the-box games like this expanding and challenging the norms of gaming conventions and I am more hoping more games challenge norms and conventions of fantasy and sci-fi dominated gaming.
you know what we need? we need a game with this energy that's all about creating a third-nature space out of an industrialized/colonized space. maybe mixing in a bit of the vibe that Book of Travels has going on. free ideas for any game devs out there!
The note about life being the things between fights, not the fights we engage in to protect those things, is a really important one i think. This is a topic i consistently grapple with as a ttrpg fanatic, and GM for life, because so often people are not as engaged by life itself, but also, losing sight of those facets makes the fights feel meaningless before long, because they become meaningless without the actual lives around them.
Love TRPGS too, and enjoy the social aspects, just roleplaying as the character in conversations or when doing normal things. my current GURPS character reflects this bias with more points in roleplay spells and skills and only 1 attack spell and the shield skill.
The notion of small fetch quests feeling 'meaningful' really resonated with me and reminded me of Death Stranding. Something about how important connection was and how much of a sense of actually doing something helpful for people in the struggling world made me completely unable to stop playing until I had completed everything in the game, including a perfect score on all 500 deliveries. There's just something special about games that have you take your time and really immerse that's just so rewarding in a rare way.
Edit: another *huge* one of those games for me was Spiritfarer; please please check it out if you haven't already and you enjoy vibey immersive games with a whole lot of heart in them.
If this comes to a platform I own, I am definitely going to have to pick it up
You haven’t got a computer?
It’s on pc (though for some reason it’s on the Epic Ganes store 🤢)
It’s coming to steam in march
@@Goawayplease417it’s already on the Epic store…
but that would require remembering the Epic Store.
This was beautiful. Thanks dad.
This is so wonderful I even chuckled "porpoise" joke. Ah, who am I kidding, I enjoyed it. Thank you!
I think the biggest problem that TOTK has--and BOTW before it--is how singularly detached Link feels from Hyrule. Link is Hylia's Very Special Boy(tm) and while he's running around Hyrule he doesn't have much of an impact on it. Even Hudson and Rhondson don't act like Link did all that much for them, when he absolutely did. In BOTW, after freeing Vah Ruta, the Zora are always happy to see Link and remark on what he's done, but that's not mirrored with the Rito, Gorons, and Gerudo. In both games, Link is so detached from his world that it feels genuinely stark, cold, and lonely for him. Add to that the way the Sage avatars don't even act like Navi, Midna, or Fi, and Link still feels *alone* until... [spoiler].
I haven't played Tchia-the-game yet, but it really looks like Tchia-the-protagonist gets to spend time with the NPCs, enriching their lives in tangible ways so far beyond the "here's your thing, give me my reward, I was never here!" that happens with Link. So while TOTK could be argued to be a masterpiece in a game mechanics sense, that lack of connectedness that Link has, whether it's a deliberate or accidental side effect of being Hylia's Very Special Boy, sure is a weakness (which also holds true for BOTW).
Even an Elder Scrolls Chosen One seems to have more affect on Tamriel and her denizens in the last three TES titles (the only ones I've played) than Link does in BOTW/TOTK Hyrule. Even in paper-thin Skyrim, NPCs will treat the Last Dragonborn differently depending on the LDB's actions in the world and to/for the NPC in question. TES games aren't nearly as story-driven as other RPGs. Even with a companion NPC, they're closer to BOTW/TOTK than to, I dunno, Baldur's Gate III, a title I've just grabbed from thin air for no reason whatsoever.
I think the best open worlds for me are ones that have you returning to all corners of the world, encouraging you to cross the main trails (or side routes) multiple times. Skyrim and The Witcher 1 & 3 excel in having towns and trails to anchor players at all parts of the map; even when you progress through the game or complete all of the "content" areas in the world, you're always zig zagging through the world (especially when you play without fast travel) and returning to the many homely town areas. That's what I don't like about BG3 actually, is that it's A) a bit too repetitive and restrictive to get through early game content when you want to restart another playthrough, and B) all of the spaces are liminal and linear in their progression where you just "go kill baddies" and abandon the area when you're done with it.
By the same token... "bandit killing," raiding ruins, and indigenous "enemy factions" are a pretty fucked up tropes that really should die out in open world games.
@@amber9040 I love the way an Elder Scroll/Witcher/Fallout has you backtracking because that's where you get some of the best emergent gameplay with an open world, finding hidden nooks, mini quests, and environmental storytelling. When I'm returning to an area in BOTW/TOTK, I'm only doing so to turn in a quest or farming for parts (aka bullying specific enemies), and that's it.
I haven't thought of BG3 as being in any way an open-world game, but more in line with the long history of non-open-world RPGs made by BioWare, SquareSoft/Enix/SquareEnix, whoever made Phantasy Star, even the Ultima games to an extent, etc, where there's a finite number of quests in area. When places are left open to you, it's for shops or resources. If that's not your jam, that's fine! I like both types of RPGs for what they do.
TBH, I still find even Skyrim's opening to be pretty repetitive b/c you really are better off going from Helgen to Riverwood to Bleak Falls Barrow to Whiterun before starting to explore beyond that region. Honestly, even Fallout: New Vegas keeps you to a very specific area, else you run into cazadors and deathclaws.
BG3's format feels, deliberately(?), like a tabletop experience, especially if you're doing a pre-written module. If I was playing a TTRPG that started like Skyrim, with a huge setpiece, and then the DM just plonked a map down said, "Go wherever", I wouldn't know what to do with that.
Oh, God, I've spent a lot of time thinking about Skyrim's Forsworn and the more I do the more awful it gets. That series has a bit of a reckoning to do with the Nords'/Atmorans' history of genocide. It's not hypocritical of them to not want to be genocided by the Aldmeri Dominion, but it's still a hell of a thing that needs to be addressed.
ThatDangDadJoke
Edit: the porpoise line, not you. Love your stuff
Looks beautiful!!
For some reason I had to fight back tears at multiple points in this video.
What a thoughtful review!
Wish I could play on my tablet.
Gonna share this review around.
Thanks
♥️🍉💯🕊️💪🏾🔥🖖🏽
I realised I've watched every video you made in the last 6 months so I've gone back to videos I skipped because I didn't think they would interest me (in this case because I don't really play computer games).
It's inspiring how indigenous people are using every medium to tell their stories.
More people need to play this. Wish it wasn't semi-exclusive to playstation & pc
How did I miss this video!? The entire game is beautiful and is the first one I pre-ordered in a LONG time because I was worried physical copies wouldn't be in ready supply if it didn't sell well. Its blend of elements and themes was so unique for a video game of its time. I spent hours playing with the photography alone.
I love this game, it feels... I don't really know. There is a feeling to it that is so new but something you have experienced before and it's just mythology that is not Western nor Eastern. It feels like it is inspired by Africa but if it was island nations. You have to ask "Why the hell is that? It is based on... New Caledonia. Is that like a novel? It's a place on Earth!" then you go find what New Caledonia is.
9:33 i thought james cook was much more well known for """discovering""" australia. but perhaps for your american audience, people only know him for his expedition to hawaii? anyway, hes a pretty notorious name here in australia.
Once again recommending gems
Excellent as always.
I’m Polynesian, not Melanesian but seeing someone not from our Pacific culture educate about Blackbirding was incredible although sad ❤ thank you. A lot of settlers here don’t know about it.
This seems like a neat game and a lot less time intensive than TotK. I'll have to pick it up sometime, thanks
Interestingly, I’ve seen some gameplay where the players preferred the industrial land because it felt more familiar and ‘developed’ and ‘real’. You got the same feeling I did though of it being more decrepit.
What a stupendous video
Lovely.
I learned about this game from Nerdcubed
Is that a custom Bobby Duke Star of da Channel sail? Instant buy
Ha I wish! It was one of the sails you can unlock that I think is supposed to be a local deity
@@ThatDangDad Heh, doubles as a RUclips Rorschach Test then! Now I can't unsee Bobby Duke
I am totally confused where is wind blowing when looking at the sail and flag.
maybe the wind was inside us all along
@@ThatDangDad We fart into the sky so the non binary flag flies high?
VIDEO GAMES!
Think i like this game😃 Also think i love the bisexual pride flag on your raft 😊 Natural comparison to LoZ:TotK, and good diatinctions!
Ugh... *distinctions (why does autocorrect only work when you don't want it to?!?😭)
Exploring and getting sidetracked? Sounds like my kinda game. 😁
Video gamer
we gamin'
Congrats, for the first time in I think 2 years or more you got me to buy a game.
Update: game is fun but should have paid attention when you mentioned the dead chicken, that scene was disturbing, anthropocentrist genocidal fascism doesn't stop being fucked up all because brown humans are doing it or because they use a simpler tool.