Okay, I have a ton of questions. 1. What difficulty did you play The Last of Us on? 2. Where did you stop playing The Last of Us? 3. What's the best example of an open world that isn't Elden Ring? 4. Do you truly believe the bigger a game is the better it is? 5. What's the difference between Arkham Asylum and The Last of Us specifically other than the obvious? 6. Can you explain what "Freedom" means for gaming? 7. Do you dislike slow burn games in terms of mechanics? 8. What's the worst cinematic aspect in your opinion? 9. What's your favorite game of all time? 10. What game do you consider close to perfection?
Okay I'll try and answer them as best as I can: ------------- 1. I played The Last of Us 1 on Normal because I always try and play games on the 'intended' difficulty 2. In that game I got about halfway 3. The best example of an open world other then elden ring is oblivion, skyrim, fallout etc, as they give you a true sense of freedom 4. I never said that. Size does not equate to freedom. Look at ds1 compared to final fantasy 13. Ff13 is bigger and has more content, however ds1 has more freedom and is infinitely better. 5. The difference is that arkham Asylum allows you to approach scenarios in a wide variety of ways using the tools available to you. You also have the option to go back to previous areas and explore them. I am talking about freedom here however in the way that you are allowed to approach a specific scenario from a variety if ways, not a predetermined way that the game wants you to approach if, aka call of duty 6. There are 3 types of freedom in gaming. The first one is 'World freedom', this is exploring an environment freely. Games like elder scrolls and fallout do this exceptionally well. Then there is what I'll call 'level freedom'. This what dark souls does well, allowing you to explore different levels of the game at any point you want. Such as doing the catacombs or blighttown or undead parish or darkroot garden first in ds1. Finally there is what ill call 'gameplay freedom', this is when a game allows you to approach a scenario in a wide variety of ways. Dishonored, batman, and ratchet and clank do this very well. Where you are presented with a combat scenario in front of you with a load of enemies, and you have the freedom to take on those enemies in anyway that you choose, not what call of duty does. 7. I'm not sure what you are referring to here as a slow burn game, as no game I spoke about I would describe as a slow burn. That's a time I more use for TV shows. 8. Games taking away your control. Forcing you to slow down to talk to a character for one and taking away your ability to press buttons or do certain actions to maintain that cinematic experience. Cod campaigns again. 9. Dark Souls 1 10. Dark Souls 1 ---------------- I am considering remaking this video as well to try and get across my points better. This video was unscripted and I think this conversation is better suited to a scripted format.
@ChaosSoulYT Thanks for the very detailed answers. Now I have a better understanding of your perspective. Okay so The Last of Us, you said halfway but I'm not exactly sure where that is specifically but anyway. You mentioned you can't walk out of encounters but you can in Arkham Asylum. I get that but what exactly are you going to do? Just waste time doing something until you feel like going back? How I approach this is simply either walking away to figure it out mentally or play something else. This is a problem with the modern day gamer. If you can't take care of it then and there then it's a flaw, no it's called problem solving. You don't take a test and just walk out when you feel that you can answer one question. You try your best and if you fail then you have time to think it over for next time. This expectation of games bending to your will is a ridiculous outlook. You have a mandatory encounter so deal with it now or later. I have stopped playing a game for weeks so I could collect my thoughts on a difficult situation. I don't have to progress immediately. It took me almost a year to complete Elden Ring due to the standards I apply. This of course doesn't apply to everyone and you seem to be in the general play category and that's totally fine. The Last of Us on Normal may seem like the intended but it's not. When you have that many difficulty options there's no telling what's the ideal experience which is why I despise any over four options because it's tremendously inconsistent. Normal was probably what the game was designed around but that doesn't make it the perfect difficulty. Grounded or Survival Mode is the correct answer to your question in terms of finding out the complexity of choice which is something many players miss. Batman Arkham Asylum only has three difficulty options which is ideal and clear. Easy, Normal and Hard. I find it fascinating that you make these claims about The Last of Us that simply isn't accurate. The game has plenty of options and you gain more options as you continue. Some cinematic scenarios are lame that only allow one path of combat however I personally look at them as mini-games. I hope you don't take my responses as an attack in any way, but as a concerned gamer that noticed another gamer missing out due to unclear aspects of a game I personally consider close to perfection. I definitely want to continue talking about this because you seem to be very passionate about this subject and I don't get conversations like this often. As for Dark Souls being your favorite and something close to perfection is definitely interesting. It was my favorite before Elden Ring but nowhere near perfection so I'll have to ask further about that later because you either don't notice the amount of issues or you're completely ignoring them. Once again I'm not upset or angry. Just very curious.
To address your last comment first, I 100% know there are issues in Dark Souls 1. However they have never been big issues to me. Lost Izalith is annoying but it has never been that much of a negative moment for me. The game is perfect for me, despise it's flaws. Much like my girlfriend 🤣 I'll reply to the rest later when I have more time 👍
Not all games need to be created non-linear, we have lots of open world games and developers keep making them one after another. I hate open world games and because of that I don't get to play much. So I love these games and I am happy that there are still developers out there making them. Making linear games is not a problem, they have their own fans and you are not a fan of it, still doesn't make it a problem.
Personally, I enjoy games most when they strike a good balance between being linear and non-linear. You can have some parts of the game that include lots of player choice in what order they want to tackle things but also have some parts be more streamlined to help progress the game forward Mark Brown from GMTK pointed this out with Dark Souls 1. He essentially split the game into 5 separate "Acts" Act 1 saw you completing the tutorial and making it to Lordran Act 2 had you ringing two bells of awakening in whichever order you want In Act 3 you were pressing on through Sen's Fortress and Anor Londo to obtain the Lordvessel Act 4 had you seeking out the four Lord Souls in any order you wanted Finally, Act 5 had you rushing your way into the Kiln of the First Flame to take on Gwyn and link the fire He said the games structure follows a sort of accordion design throughout which gives you lots of freedom to do things differently on repeat play throughs but also has points of forward progression which for new time players helps keep the game moving along in case you're not sure where to go The beginning of Dark Souls 2 could be more or less linear depending on if you went Heide's Tower way first and found miracle lady to open Huntman's Copse or when you're able to drop down the pit in Majula. But then has lots of forward progression once you get to Drangleic Castle This is why Elden Ring is my favourite open world game by a long shot. Yes, it is open world and has TONS of freedom in the order you can tackle things, but so much of the world is also locked off to linear progression. Not only do the legacy dungeons help split up the open freedom of the world with more streamlined progression, they themselves have non-linear exploration. Also, many parts of the open world funnel you into a more linear progression (Sellia to unlock Dragonbarrow, either center valley or high cliff in east Liurnia to access Altus Plateau, Stormveil Castle being a choke point to Liurnia to name a few) On top of that, the world design is nothing but genius. Having the areas come one after the next, after the next instead of having them all in a massive cluster like every other open world helps with player navigation, spacial awareness, and forward progression. I think the Erdtree had something to do with this also. I'm sure many other players like myself knew they wanted to get to the massive Golden tree. FromSoft really knocked it out of the park This is one of the reasons why I don't think I enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom that much and will probably not enjoy going back to play Breath of the Wild either. Yes, those games have an insane amount of freedom but you can literally trivialize nearly everything possible in TotK using zonai parts and ultrahand alone If there's one thing FromSoft has taught me is that I enjoy a mixture of both freedom and linearity in video games. This is probably why I also love metroidvania's so much
This is an interesting opinion. I personally feel like do, I think that dishonored is another game thay makes "going from point a to point b" entertaining. Now that im older and work and family take up more of my time I really enjoy story driven linear games. I dont have hundreds of hours to play games anymore. I finished/loved blood borne, the dark souls games, and sekiro. Im currently playing through lies of p and really enjoying it. I still have yet to finish elden ring. Some of that is my fault the other part is that the time investment is so large.
Hey Soul, so the issue I take with linearity in games is that the "point a to point b" is (nowadays) meant to be this grand rollercoaster ride that is bombastic and amazing and akin to a moviegoing experience. My personal belief is devs are doing this because, let's be honest, people are growing ever more "short attention span" driven when it comes to video games. Every day, there's a new amazing (generic) AAA title being released. Naughty Dog releases Uncharted and Last of Us, and BOOM, video games are now cinematic experiences, and less about... gameplay. What you are saying is 100% correct, it's just really hard to square in a modern market how devs are going to create a game, pouring their heart and soul into the exploration elements with secrets and whatnot everywhere, when in reality you know the people buying your game are going to treat it like a flavor of the month, leave it, and never fully find all the cool stuff you put effort into as a game creator because a new Call of Duty came out. I think it would be awesome to hear you expand with videos like this on simple critiques of "key games" for different eras. Like. Ratchet and Clank was such a great game to highlight, you had secrets, you had multiple ways to handle everything, and while linear, it had 2 or 3 branching paths at times that all lead to the same place. Meanwhile, QTE in God of War and Assassin's Creed is what everyone loves, while Ratchet and Clank sounds like a chore to gamers nowadays because they have such short attention spans. Lies of P's linearity is not a problem, just like Dark Souls 3's linearity... because the gameplay is SO SO SO amazing. There is difficulty, you aren't just walking down a corridor like you mentioned in other games, you're going down a terrifying field of enemies with an arsenal you master and you tackle it in your mind the way you see best fit. Linearity isn't necessarily an issue, it's the effort put forth in the gameplay moment to moment that's a problem. Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 are games i've sunk literally THOUSANDS of hours into. They are so linear, so boring, and so simple in a way. Linearity in those games is almost a plus because you feel good shooting your gun. Whereas, Sea of Thieves is completely open world, open ended... you can go anywhere and do anything it feels like... yet it never grabbed my attention because the gameplay is so boring. Linearity isn't always a minus. It's almost like it could be a plus, if the moment to moment experiences are fun. I don't know how to better describe it, but I love your points and I think freedom isn't the right word, so much as... it's the personal accomplishment you derive from doing something in a linear game that matters. Like you said, Call of Duty is just "go here, shoot the rocket launcher, go here, snipe the person, go here, shoot the gunr". That's definitely not very "free". And yet, Dark Souls 3 and Lies of P mandate you go a linear path basically to progress, yet it's every single thing you do in the game with your own "style" that makes you feel incredible. You're not very free in Lies of P to choose a ton of different weapons, you have to farm ergo to progress down certain paths, and you don't always feel like you have the freedom to tackle any boss or enemy with any gearset you'd like... Yet it's SO fun. Eager to hear your thoughts if I'm missing the mark. Great video, see you in the next one!
For me another problem is more openly designed games that totally go WAY overboard with literal HOURS of tutorials or handholding until I can do what I want. Developers that are so deathly afraid somebody might possibly miss something or have a minute of confusion about a mechanic is insane. They want to serve everything they have on a silver platter so badly, that there is no real sense of discovery any more. There no joyous Aha! moments that you get for figuring something out by yourself. Total shame. I'm not a souls or souls-like fan at all, but I've put over 500 hours into Elden Ring, because the game lets me do what I want. It gives you a short *SKIPABLE* tutorial on how the game works and then off you go. So many areas are accessible from the get go and as you grow more knowledgeable it becomes more and more interesting to play through the game with all kinds of whacky builds and items.
Okay, I have a ton of questions.
1. What difficulty did you play The Last of Us on?
2. Where did you stop playing The Last of Us?
3. What's the best example of an open world that isn't Elden Ring?
4. Do you truly believe the bigger a game is the better it is?
5. What's the difference between Arkham Asylum and The Last of Us specifically other than the obvious?
6. Can you explain what "Freedom" means for gaming?
7. Do you dislike slow burn games in terms of mechanics?
8. What's the worst cinematic aspect in your opinion?
9. What's your favorite game of all time?
10. What game do you consider close to perfection?
Okay I'll try and answer them as best as I can:
-------------
1. I played The Last of Us 1 on Normal because I always try and play games on the 'intended' difficulty
2. In that game I got about halfway
3. The best example of an open world other then elden ring is oblivion, skyrim, fallout etc, as they give you a true sense of freedom
4. I never said that. Size does not equate to freedom. Look at ds1 compared to final fantasy 13. Ff13 is bigger and has more content, however ds1 has more freedom and is infinitely better.
5. The difference is that arkham Asylum allows you to approach scenarios in a wide variety of ways using the tools available to you. You also have the option to go back to previous areas and explore them. I am talking about freedom here however in the way that you are allowed to approach a specific scenario from a variety if ways, not a predetermined way that the game wants you to approach if, aka call of duty
6. There are 3 types of freedom in gaming.
The first one is 'World freedom', this is exploring an environment freely. Games like elder scrolls and fallout do this exceptionally well.
Then there is what I'll call 'level freedom'. This what dark souls does well, allowing you to explore different levels of the game at any point you want. Such as doing the catacombs or blighttown or undead parish or darkroot garden first in ds1.
Finally there is what ill call 'gameplay freedom', this is when a game allows you to approach a scenario in a wide variety of ways. Dishonored, batman, and ratchet and clank do this very well. Where you are presented with a combat scenario in front of you with a load of enemies, and you have the freedom to take on those enemies in anyway that you choose, not what call of duty does.
7. I'm not sure what you are referring to here as a slow burn game, as no game I spoke about I would describe as a slow burn. That's a time I more use for TV shows.
8. Games taking away your control. Forcing you to slow down to talk to a character for one and taking away your ability to press buttons or do certain actions to maintain that cinematic experience. Cod campaigns again.
9. Dark Souls 1
10. Dark Souls 1
----------------
I am considering remaking this video as well to try and get across my points better. This video was unscripted and I think this conversation is better suited to a scripted format.
@ChaosSoulYT Thanks for the very detailed answers. Now I have a better understanding of your perspective.
Okay so The Last of Us, you said halfway but I'm not exactly sure where that is specifically but anyway. You mentioned you can't walk out of encounters but you can in Arkham Asylum.
I get that but what exactly are you going to do?
Just waste time doing something until you feel like going back?
How I approach this is simply either walking away to figure it out mentally or play something else. This is a problem with the modern day gamer. If you can't take care of it then and there then it's a flaw, no it's called problem solving.
You don't take a test and just walk out when you feel that you can answer one question. You try your best and if you fail then you have time to think it over for next time.
This expectation of games bending to your will is a ridiculous outlook. You have a mandatory encounter so deal with it now or later. I have stopped playing a game for weeks so I could collect my thoughts on a difficult situation. I don't have to progress immediately. It took me almost a year to complete Elden Ring due to the standards I apply. This of course doesn't apply to everyone and you seem to be in the general play category and that's totally fine.
The Last of Us on Normal may seem like the intended but it's not. When you have that many difficulty options there's no telling what's the ideal experience which is why I despise any over four options because it's tremendously inconsistent.
Normal was probably what the game was designed around but that doesn't make it the perfect difficulty. Grounded or Survival Mode is the correct answer to your question in terms of finding out the complexity of choice which is something many players miss.
Batman Arkham Asylum only has three difficulty options which is ideal and clear. Easy, Normal and Hard.
I find it fascinating that you make these claims about The Last of Us that simply isn't accurate. The game has plenty of options and you gain more options as you continue. Some cinematic scenarios are lame that only allow one path of combat however I personally look at them as mini-games.
I hope you don't take my responses as an attack in any way, but as a concerned gamer that noticed another gamer missing out due to unclear aspects of a game I personally consider close to perfection.
I definitely want to continue talking about this because you seem to be very passionate about this subject and I don't get conversations like this often.
As for Dark Souls being your favorite and something close to perfection is definitely interesting. It was my favorite before Elden Ring but nowhere near perfection so I'll have to ask further about that later because you either don't notice the amount of issues or you're completely ignoring them.
Once again I'm not upset or angry. Just very curious.
To address your last comment first, I 100% know there are issues in Dark Souls 1. However they have never been big issues to me. Lost Izalith is annoying but it has never been that much of a negative moment for me. The game is perfect for me, despise it's flaws. Much like my girlfriend 🤣
I'll reply to the rest later when I have more time 👍
Not all games need to be created non-linear, we have lots of open world games and developers keep making them one after another. I hate open world games and because of that I don't get to play much. So I love these games and I am happy that there are still developers out there making them. Making linear games is not a problem, they have their own fans and you are not a fan of it, still doesn't make it a problem.
Personally, I enjoy games most when they strike a good balance between being linear and non-linear. You can have some parts of the game that include lots of player choice in what order they want to tackle things but also have some parts be more streamlined to help progress the game forward
Mark Brown from GMTK pointed this out with Dark Souls 1. He essentially split the game into 5 separate "Acts"
Act 1 saw you completing the tutorial and making it to Lordran
Act 2 had you ringing two bells of awakening in whichever order you want
In Act 3 you were pressing on through Sen's Fortress and Anor Londo to obtain the Lordvessel
Act 4 had you seeking out the four Lord Souls in any order you wanted
Finally, Act 5 had you rushing your way into the Kiln of the First Flame to take on Gwyn and link the fire
He said the games structure follows a sort of accordion design throughout which gives you lots of freedom to do things differently on repeat play throughs but also has points of forward progression which for new time players helps keep the game moving along in case you're not sure where to go
The beginning of Dark Souls 2 could be more or less linear depending on if you went Heide's Tower way first and found miracle lady to open Huntman's Copse or when you're able to drop down the pit in Majula. But then has lots of forward progression once you get to Drangleic Castle
This is why Elden Ring is my favourite open world game by a long shot. Yes, it is open world and has TONS of freedom in the order you can tackle things, but so much of the world is also locked off to linear progression. Not only do the legacy dungeons help split up the open freedom of the world with more streamlined progression, they themselves have non-linear exploration. Also, many parts of the open world funnel you into a more linear progression (Sellia to unlock Dragonbarrow, either center valley or high cliff in east Liurnia to access Altus Plateau, Stormveil Castle being a choke point to Liurnia to name a few) On top of that, the world design is nothing but genius. Having the areas come one after the next, after the next instead of having them all in a massive cluster like every other open world helps with player navigation, spacial awareness, and forward progression. I think the Erdtree had something to do with this also. I'm sure many other players like myself knew they wanted to get to the massive Golden tree. FromSoft really knocked it out of the park
This is one of the reasons why I don't think I enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom that much and will probably not enjoy going back to play Breath of the Wild either. Yes, those games have an insane amount of freedom but you can literally trivialize nearly everything possible in TotK using zonai parts and ultrahand alone
If there's one thing FromSoft has taught me is that I enjoy a mixture of both freedom and linearity in video games. This is probably why I also love metroidvania's so much
Sometimes I like non linear but I also sometimes get decision paralysis sort of
I get where you're coming from in with the tech we have now we can make any game we want cheers.
This is an interesting opinion. I personally feel like do, I think that dishonored is another game thay makes "going from point a to point b" entertaining. Now that im older and work and family take up more of my time I really enjoy story driven linear games. I dont have hundreds of hours to play games anymore. I finished/loved blood borne, the dark souls games, and sekiro. Im currently playing through lies of p and really enjoying it. I still have yet to finish elden ring. Some of that is my fault the other part is that the time investment is so large.
Hey Soul, so the issue I take with linearity in games is that the "point a to point b" is (nowadays) meant to be this grand rollercoaster ride that is bombastic and amazing and akin to a moviegoing experience. My personal belief is devs are doing this because, let's be honest, people are growing ever more "short attention span" driven when it comes to video games. Every day, there's a new amazing (generic) AAA title being released. Naughty Dog releases Uncharted and Last of Us, and BOOM, video games are now cinematic experiences, and less about... gameplay. What you are saying is 100% correct, it's just really hard to square in a modern market how devs are going to create a game, pouring their heart and soul into the exploration elements with secrets and whatnot everywhere, when in reality you know the people buying your game are going to treat it like a flavor of the month, leave it, and never fully find all the cool stuff you put effort into as a game creator because a new Call of Duty came out.
I think it would be awesome to hear you expand with videos like this on simple critiques of "key games" for different eras.
Like. Ratchet and Clank was such a great game to highlight, you had secrets, you had multiple ways to handle everything, and while linear, it had 2 or 3 branching paths at times that all lead to the same place. Meanwhile, QTE in God of War and Assassin's Creed is what everyone loves, while Ratchet and Clank sounds like a chore to gamers nowadays because they have such short attention spans.
Lies of P's linearity is not a problem, just like Dark Souls 3's linearity... because the gameplay is SO SO SO amazing. There is difficulty, you aren't just walking down a corridor like you mentioned in other games, you're going down a terrifying field of enemies with an arsenal you master and you tackle it in your mind the way you see best fit. Linearity isn't necessarily an issue, it's the effort put forth in the gameplay moment to moment that's a problem.
Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 are games i've sunk literally THOUSANDS of hours into. They are so linear, so boring, and so simple in a way. Linearity in those games is almost a plus because you feel good shooting your gun. Whereas, Sea of Thieves is completely open world, open ended... you can go anywhere and do anything it feels like... yet it never grabbed my attention because the gameplay is so boring.
Linearity isn't always a minus. It's almost like it could be a plus, if the moment to moment experiences are fun.
I don't know how to better describe it, but I love your points and I think freedom isn't the right word, so much as... it's the personal accomplishment you derive from doing something in a linear game that matters. Like you said, Call of Duty is just "go here, shoot the rocket launcher, go here, snipe the person, go here, shoot the gunr". That's definitely not very "free". And yet, Dark Souls 3 and Lies of P mandate you go a linear path basically to progress, yet it's every single thing you do in the game with your own "style" that makes you feel incredible. You're not very free in Lies of P to choose a ton of different weapons, you have to farm ergo to progress down certain paths, and you don't always feel like you have the freedom to tackle any boss or enemy with any gearset you'd like... Yet it's SO fun.
Eager to hear your thoughts if I'm missing the mark. Great video, see you in the next one!
I hope we never get the games you like.
this doesnt make any sense becuase the games i like already exist.
@@ChaosSoulYT sorry, I meant more games. Linear is much better.
@@artval5340how is linear better? Can’t handle choice?
@@thekrakenguy6962 tailor made is always better.
This god of war kids never understand wat really real gaming is
It'll be interesting to see if STALKER 2 keeps the lack of linearity of the original game.
For me another problem is more openly designed games that totally go WAY overboard with literal HOURS of tutorials or handholding until I can do what I want. Developers that are so deathly afraid somebody might possibly miss something or have a minute of confusion about a mechanic is insane. They want to serve everything they have on a silver platter so badly, that there is no real sense of discovery any more. There no joyous Aha! moments that you get for figuring something out by yourself. Total shame.
I'm not a souls or souls-like fan at all, but I've put over 500 hours into Elden Ring, because the game lets me do what I want. It gives you a short *SKIPABLE* tutorial on how the game works and then off you go. So many areas are accessible from the get go and as you grow more knowledgeable it becomes more and more interesting to play through the game with all kinds of whacky builds and items.