Comments on Pixel Poppers: Future's Past: Ratchet & Clank and the Problem of ...

@ uhzHiro I dunno. From here it seems like you do...

2010-01-21T16:23:25.222-08:00

@ uhzHiro

I dunno. From here it seems like you do get the point of the article pretty well.

Unrelated comment: When are you gonna play and wri...

2010-01-20T21:37:22.000-08:00

Unrelated comment: When are you gonna play and write about Demon's Souls? :P

I'm playing through it now and having a blast. "Don't punish the player with death"? PSHAW!

@Jave I wouldn't call the changes in the Nintendo...

2010-01-20T05:41:01.693-08:00

@Jave

I wouldn't call the changes in the Nintendo franchises revolutionary, but I think they compare in scope to the R&C changes mentioned in the article.

You have Mario changing from completely linear to a star system where you chose your level, pluss it's 3d now. Metroid changing to an fps is exactly parallel to what Dr. Prof is describing with one of the R&C games. Zelda changed to 3d, added light and dark mirror worlds (or young and old link worlds), in the most recent one you have two forms. It's different, not momumental.

So I'm not saying they changed a ton, just that they changed as much as Ratchet and Clank did, but their changes were mostly successful.

And I agree about FF, sometimes I hate the changes, but I still don't hope they make one "Just like FF__". I want to see something new.

@ uhzHiro I think his point is that you find what...

2010-01-19T17:20:01.660-08:00

@ uhzHiro

I think his point is that you find what makes those games fun in the first place (it's not always obvious) identify the points where you have problems, and just continue to refine everything. You don't need to keep hashing out the same game each time, but you don't need to reinvent the wheel either.

Final Fantasy is an interesting example, because they do reinvent so much, but if you go back and play through the old games in their original forms, you'll notice patterns. Things about each game that work will show up in some form in the next game (esper system gets simplified and becomes materia system, for instance) while things that don't work are shoved off (like pretty much everything about FFII) and the series continues to improve as a result.

And that said, for every FF fan who looks forward to changes, there's another that freaks the hell out in direct proportion to how much the new game deviates from their favourite one.

And sorry to nitpick your points, but the Nintendo franchises (as much as I love and adore them) are among the most stagnant in the industry. Zelda, in particular, has a formula and has held steadfast to it since 1986. The only games to really go off in their own radically different directions were Zelda 2 and Majora's Mask, and both of those are frequently regarded as the least popular.

And it's worth mentioning that the Metroid Prime trilogy was developed not by Nintendo, but by Retro, and even then, the games do much of the same shtick, just in first person, and Nintendo's only real deviation of the Metroid formula, Fusion, is again, the least popular (barring Metroid 2, perhaps, but that one's a bit of a black sheep in it's own right)

This article could use some more abstraction, beca...

2010-01-19T06:43:48.178-08:00

This article could use some more abstraction, because:

1) Many readers may not have played these games.
2) I'm not exactly sure what your point is

Is your point that sequels should stick to formula, and just make small tweaks? That's my best guess.

What then would you say about the evolution of the nintendo franchises, mario, zelda, and metroid? Their changes were seen as gambles, but they paid off, and you can't envision them any other way now.

What about final fantasy? You could argue that the individual changes are minor in comparison to ratchet&clank, but there are so many changes from one to the next - characters, battle mechanics, world setting, transportation mechanics, level ups - that I would say they are just as different from one another as R&C. Yet in that franchise, fans look forward to and expect changes.