The first step in remastering any game is to make your character slider easy to use, where you can get an instantly good looking character, like in Dark Souls 2 and Monster Hunter:World. The developers could've changed the model creation to be that of Bloodborne or Dark Souls 2 and 3, where people can post real numbers for easy duplication and adoption by others.
Further, there's nothing in the rule books to say that they can't have one of the covenants allow for changes in appearance like in Dark Souls 3. Lastly, why not also have overlay armor, so you can layer over the good looking armor over your Havel's?
Since I thought this will be exactly like last generation's Dark Souls, I used the default Jubilant Catarina, and pushed the slider towards the more serious expression side. That was the only change I made in the old game, and although she's not going to win any beauty pageants, she was actually decent-looking.
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| Exhibit A: Crossbreed Priscilla |
Sadly, it doesn't seem that From software will give us character sliders of their bosses and NPCs. Who wouldn't want their character to look like Crossbreed Priscilla (Exhibit A) or Laurentius (Exhibit B)?
The next sad thing I saw is the iconic "You Defeated" was changed to "Victory Achieved" as this unfortunate change came from last generation PC Prepare to Die Edition. Fortunately "You Defeated" was kept intact for the Console versions back then. Sadly, the developers of the Remastered edition didn't see the importance of "You Defeated". I'm not sure how that was lost on them given the iconic nature of the statement.
I think this is why we Console Gamers are considered "peasants", because PC Gamers can easily change this back to the correct "You Defeated". Also, you all have DS Fix, so you didn't need to buy the Remastered in the first place!
As of now, instead of "You Defeated", I can say that "I'm Defeated", failing at the character creation sliders.
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| Exhibit B: Laurentius of the Great Swamp |
In the meantime, I'll continue to play Monster Hunter: World, working on Crown farming, and looking forward to the Summer event that includes new monster Behemoth from Final Fantasy.
What are you thoughts? Is it too superficial to not play the Remastered version due to these unfortunate features?
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Honestly one of my biggest pet peeves of the industry right now are unnessecary and pointless game remasters. They can be a terrific tool for people to experience amazing worlds from aeon's past that just might not be as playable anymore for hardware limitations, or because the developers messed somethings up with it that we as an industry later learned more about, mistakes were made that we wouldn't do today.
ReplyDeleteDark Souls could have used a remaster, there are plenty of problems in the original that we could've fixed, the big one's being things like 8 way rolling, missing features, Demon Ruins and beyond, the list goes on. Yet none of that was done. We did get a few minor changes, the Dragon Head Stone is more useful now, I guess that's good? We got some more fun bugs to play with, amazing right, totally worth buying the whole game again. The graphics aren't actually improved, they're just redone. Some places look better, but some places look worse. I would be fine with it, if I knew why they were changing it in the first place, Dark Souls looks a little outdated by todays standards looking at the likes of Rise of the Tomb Raider and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but they're more than servicable, you'd happily play those graphics even if they could be better, it won't ruin your experience.
I hope people leave the remaster money train behind, I hope people stop making them for the sake of making them and leave them to games that truly use it well like the Crash Bandicoot and Final Fantasy 7 remasters. It's a terrific tool, one with tons of potential for the games industry, I don't want it to fall to bad press like Lootboxes and Micro-transactions have.
I do find quite a few video games need remastering, esp the old classics like Chrono Trigger, ff7, and hopefully Demon's souls. The DS remastered makes sense, but only if Miyazaki decided to fix demon ruins and izalith like he was supposed to, but couldn't due to time constraints. Graphical upgrades can really make the experience much better, and I'm thinking of getting the Tales of Vesperia upgrade. I wish Eternal Sonata will be made for the PS4 so I don't have to dig out my PS3.
DeleteI felt DS1 original looked better than BotW by far. BotW has probably the worst graphics I've ever seen this and last generation. Well maybe the 3ds Monster Hunters were worse, but that's not saying much. Nintendo could NOT use anti-aliasing b/c you need enough polygons to smooth over in the first place! BotW is very dated and equivalent to 1990s graphics.
To be fair to Breath of the Wild though, you're very much comparing the WiiU verson of a next next gen game. Persona 5 also looked like ass on the PS3 surprise surprise, but you have to make comprimises to put it on weaker equipment. It's actually a really big positive that they offered it on the weaker platform at all, knowing it would be an inferior version, because not everyone would be buying a Switch for it.
ReplyDeleteIronically, BotW was initially made for the WiiU, and they were going to implement the cool gamepad as the Sheikah slate, but that got scrapped b/c they didn't want the WiiU to have this advantage over the Switch. So that definitely counts for my bitterness.
DeleteThe difference though is Persona 5 actually is an incredible game with well-developed characters and story-telling, the fun stealth, combat, and puzzle-like dungeons that I don't think I'd mind if the graphics were bad--after all, I love Chrono Trigger and FF7 and they have even worse graphics than BotW.
The issue is that BotW doesn't have anything else riding on it (except gliding and cooking which were addictive), so the poor graphics made it even cringier! I do admit that if I ever do get the Switch (i.e. if build quality is improved and can last for at least 5 years), I'll most likely get BotW just for the cooking and gliding! I don't know what it is, but it's adorable seeing Link cook the items, and seeing the items bubble like that in hot oil.
Sure, but later in development they made the decision to go up to the Switch, offering a superior version. It got delayed until it made more sense to make it a switch release title and sell consoles, a really smart move for both Breath of the Wild and the Switch.
DeleteBreath of the Wild was a terrific game, just didn't hit the right buttons for you. It's probably the single best example to mind of an open world, adventure game. It's just that isn't what the Zelda franchise has been for a really long time, since the very start even, it's incomparable to other Zelda games like Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time, taking much more inspiration from the first Zelda game to release, one that was much less about stopping Ganon, clearing dungeon's and such, and more about exploring a world, building a map and finding out what's behind the next corner.
It is a fair point, saying it really doesn't matter if Persona 5's graphics are bad. They were pretty bad on PS4 version as well, just not as bad as PS3. It doesn't matter because the game doesn't lean on it at all, it doesn't rely on visual's for 99% of the game, and the 1% it does matter, they use hand drawn cinematic cutscenes to get around that. However with Breath of the Wild, it is a game where graphics certainly do matter. If Breath of the Wild looks ugly, it's going to be a chore to do more or less everything in it. A huge chunk of the game is just exploring the land, wondering what's over the next hill, taking a trip to that funny looking rock you seen through your binoculars, then planning a route to get there and being offered several options such as climbing a mountain and gliding off to it, or shield surfing down the side, or sneaking up on a horse and going around the outside on the road, or plenty other paths you might not immediately spot at first. If it's a chore to do that, then it's no surprise the game isn't going to hold out.
I'd recommend getting a Switch, if only because it's a modern console I'm on and need more people to group with. Totes not biased though.
I'll pass on the Switch this generation--reports that after 1 year of use, Switch is cracking (not to mention bending) most likely from overheating. I wouldn't recommend it at all for this generation despite it getting ports of Wii U--it's not durable, sadly. they're coming out with a revision, but that's only to make it harder to hack, I don't think they're improving build quality.
DeleteGreat point about the necessity of BotW having beautiful visuals, as it seems to be more of a walking simulator, which Death Stranding might also become.
the issue though is I didn't feel like exploring because nothing interesting is over the hill except yet another Korok seed. It wasn't like DS1 where you'll find something amazing like my beloved great scythe, a covenant, a shortcut, and so forth.
it's really a shame b/c Nintendo was going down the route of traditional zelda, which took years in development, only to scrap that and have Monolith Soft take over, they're the developers of Xenoblade series, and then had to rush out the project for Switch. I think BotW looks rushed and not well thought through as a result. I gave it a C if it weren't AAA, but a C- b/c it's allegedly AAA. I think you said it was more of a 7, which is a pretty good score?
That's largely the different I was talking about Alice, about the different types of exploration. With Breath of the Wild, Skyrim, etc, you aren't exploring in search of something. You aren't expecting some new weapon or piece of armour, you're exploring because you enjoy exploring and you want to go on an adventure to some place. There will probably be something waiting for you when you get there, just because of how many shrines and korok seeds and what have you there is to find, but those are an afterthought. Whereas with Dark Souls, you are intentionally cleaning a level out. Making sure to kill each and every enemy, trying to find every single item. Your eye is on the prize, the loot at the end of the tunnel, less on the journey getting there in the first place. It's something that I think shows a lot of preference in your ideal gaming scenario, what you want out of the game, it's just not something Breath of the Wild offers and so isn't something you particularly enjoy as a result. It's why I liken it to playing to get lost vs playing to find your way.
DeleteI do feel the game was kinda held back a little bit, by the fact you still had the traditional Zelda storyline, and it goes back to how I was saying whether the story matched the gameplay, and in truth it doesn't really. Granted it does a much better job than my example in Fallout 4, however I have felt ready to face Ganon for the past 12 hours or so, however I haven't fought him yet because there's still Divine Beast's to finish, and the master sword to collect. They've given us a story that's very investing, very high stakes, however in an environment where you're encouraged to forget it completely and find another quest to do.
I gave WiiU emulator with some forgiveness a 7/10 score, which I felt was deserved at the time. However having actually played it on the better console, with less bugs, no forgiveness, no "Oh well I guess that's just the emulator", none of that, I'm raising it to an 8 or maybe even a 9/10. The game does plenty good things to deserve a fantastic score, and I'm only docking a point or two because it does have some glaring issues holding it back. Weapon durability is a double edged sword, it's great having to try different types of weapons and playstyles constantly keeping you on your feet, however it does make finding a new weapon so boring and almost disappointing it brings as much bad as it does good. Getting all link's tool's at the very beginning of the game, whilst almost nessecary for the open ended feel of the game, does leave much to be desired in the dungeon's and shrines design, there's only so many unique puzzles you can make with limited tool's. And the open world design on even dungeon's does make for some interesting design's, however you never really feel like you're going forward. There is merit to having some linear designed levels in your games, and Breath of the Wild completely subverts that.
To go into a bit more detail, some of the things I love about this iteration of the franchise, I don't think I've ever played a game as deep as this as long as I've been gaming in it's genre. Other open world games with large expanses of land will usually be stretched so bare that you barely get to explore every place you visit, because there's not a whole lot to do there. They make up for it by having lots of places, however Zelda has both. I could give many examples of times when little details had been added to truly sculpt out the world, those little details that make it feel like a real place I'm visiting, and not just a stage where the game takes place on. The game makes such a big deal about just getting from point A to point B, you have weather to contend with, which makes an active hazard you have to work around, it becomes a challenge you have to face, a puzzle you have to solve. And speaking of puzzles, the game plays to this to the utmost, I adored the puzzles where we had to recover Zelda's memories, and (bar one) really showed the game at it's best, where you had to survey these photo's and find locations based on landmarks you find in the world. The one I mentioned was the last one in the forest, which could be any forest path in the game, and wasn't even on a path, fuck that one. I looked online for that one, no shame, the other like 16 were terrific. (For the record, there was some merit to making that one so difficult player's wouldn't be able to find it without help, in that you wouldn't stumble upon it until you had the full context, and the powerful emotional scene wouldn't be completely lost on you. But still, fuck that one.)
DeleteYou can follow the game completely ignoring waypoints, in fact I'd actually recommend turning waypoints off and trying to find your way around the world without them. It's very do-able, and honestly a lot more enjoyable than just following the games directions for 5 minutes. It means you have to actually use your head to find your place, one anecdote from the very beginning of the game, I talked to one of the villagers in Hateno village and she told me about how her and her husband came to Hateno from Lurelin village, a fishing colony to the south. About how they had to come all the way over the Bridge of Eldin, how perilous a journey it was and how they almost died. Well I was entrigued, and wanted to find Lurelin Village now. So I set off on horseback to a road that started leading south, and came across the Bridge of Eldin. Fought my way over that, came across the other side and found a signpost leading to a stables, and stopped there for a bit. Asked for some directions, rested the night to better see the path int he morning, and rode off down the road they told us. Followed the road, med Cass for the first time, and every fork in the road thereafter, Lurelin Village was pointed to. Got to another stable, rested a little longer through the rain and lightning, and made my way to Lurelin village just over the bridge and down the road. It was a genuine challenge finding my way and I had to make a concious effort find my place. That experience, to me, is what Breath of the Wild is about, and why it's such an amazing, innovative game.
That's a great example that you pose Cheesus, though I think a lot of games have that (explained below). Interestingly, I found BotW had minimum amount of details, as the world looks dead (i.e. just green, white or brown screen), and not much of interest going on.
DeleteI think Skyrim made more sense to me that it's like exploring and adventuring where you have no goal in-site, and then you stumble upon unexpected things like a mini quest or something, that a lot of people rave about.
But then again, you can say that about Dark Souls, or any great game really. Like you're wandering around undead Parish on your way to cross the bridge, and bump into sunbro, which is very unexpected.
Or you see a boarded wall with crack and light, you break it, and see Lautrec. Or bump into onion bro on your way to gargoyles. I have way more sense of adventure with Dark Souls than any of the Zelda games, tbh.
And even in HZD that so many journalists condemn, you can also turn off all waypoints, I stumbled upon a woman with a black eye which was rather striking, and upon talking to her, you're pointed to your first cauldron (mini-dungeon).
Indeed, both DS series and HZD have worlds where you want to explore just to explore, since they're so beautiful.
So a lot of great games have those interesting and unexpected points, so I don't quite see how BotW is revolutionary in that respect...
but taking your points into account, I'm sure if I played BotW on Switch, maybe my rating will increase to a 7 at best, but certainly I don't think it'll jump to a 9 or 10.