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What is the Logical Course of Action?
Jun. 16th, 2023 05:11 amWell, on a more positive note:
I am OBSESSED with the mechanics design in Octopath Traveler.
I just recruited Alfyn and like...OK, my particular mechanics design hobbyhorse for a while has been making healing more tactically interesting in turnbased RPG gameplay, and also increasing the importance/interesting-ness of consumable items (enough to overcome the "but I only have 85 of them" impulse of the average RPG player, at least, I guess). I've been rotating Edward from FF4DS and the Chemist job from FF5 in my head a lot, but Alfyn's kit so far is pretty much exactly what I wanted to see from a charcter that interacts a lot with consumable items. The effects you get with Concoct are pretty multilayered, and picking a delivery vector + ingredient gives you a lot more structure than just tossing shit together as Chemist and hoping you remembered the insanely good combos.
(Hilariously, the way Alfyn's Concoct command is set up, using character-specific items basically, is way easier to set up in RPGMaker MV than either the Chemist's Mix or Edward's Salve, because for whatever reason it's unusually annoying to make items have wildly different effects when used by a particular character. Also NO THANKS AT ALL to the guy who completely fucked over my attempts to see if anyone had successfully recreated Salve on the RPGMaker forums, because he decided to start every single post with "Salve, Game Makers!" which ISN'T EVEN CORRECT LATIN it should be "salvete" because you're talking to multiple people grrrrr arrtghghdklfsh)
I love Path actions so much, like...I dunno, it just adds so much texture to the "safe zones" of the game. Like OBJECTIVELY there isn't THAT much difference between a sidequest where you talk to people for evidence and piece together the mystery and a sidequest where you use Cyrus's dedicated Sherlock Holmes button to gather evidence that also goes in your "Knowledge" inventory and that you can later share with other characters or use to get through a deduction monologue but like. IDK having more mechanical structure FEELS different. The physical clue inventory is pretty rudimentary compared to some super robust systems I've seen in like, point-and-click games for example, but I mean...this isn't a mystery game, it's an RPG, so a simple system slots in really well and just makes the typically more nebulous parts of the game feel like they have a little more grip.
Also so far the only character who hasn't grabbed me has been Ophilia, and that chiefly because the setup was like.."A young priestess struggles with her fear of an upcoming dangerous pilgrimage, while her grief over her father's failing health tests her faith. Anyway you're playing her sister lol".
Like, I want the upset scaredy-cat in my party instead :(
Cyrus is my favorite though. I love it when he says that one opening-battle voice line that's like "Can't we settle this like gentlemen?" and we're fighting like, a really big clam or a giant rat or something. I love that he seems to be the only British guy in the whole world. I love his little thoughtful-hand-on-chin pose and his goofy little cravat. I hope some bad things happen to him (affectionately).
I am OBSESSED with the mechanics design in Octopath Traveler.
I just recruited Alfyn and like...OK, my particular mechanics design hobbyhorse for a while has been making healing more tactically interesting in turnbased RPG gameplay, and also increasing the importance/interesting-ness of consumable items (enough to overcome the "but I only have 85 of them" impulse of the average RPG player, at least, I guess). I've been rotating Edward from FF4DS and the Chemist job from FF5 in my head a lot, but Alfyn's kit so far is pretty much exactly what I wanted to see from a charcter that interacts a lot with consumable items. The effects you get with Concoct are pretty multilayered, and picking a delivery vector + ingredient gives you a lot more structure than just tossing shit together as Chemist and hoping you remembered the insanely good combos.
(Hilariously, the way Alfyn's Concoct command is set up, using character-specific items basically, is way easier to set up in RPGMaker MV than either the Chemist's Mix or Edward's Salve, because for whatever reason it's unusually annoying to make items have wildly different effects when used by a particular character. Also NO THANKS AT ALL to the guy who completely fucked over my attempts to see if anyone had successfully recreated Salve on the RPGMaker forums, because he decided to start every single post with "Salve, Game Makers!" which ISN'T EVEN CORRECT LATIN it should be "salvete" because you're talking to multiple people grrrrr arrtghghdklfsh)
I love Path actions so much, like...I dunno, it just adds so much texture to the "safe zones" of the game. Like OBJECTIVELY there isn't THAT much difference between a sidequest where you talk to people for evidence and piece together the mystery and a sidequest where you use Cyrus's dedicated Sherlock Holmes button to gather evidence that also goes in your "Knowledge" inventory and that you can later share with other characters or use to get through a deduction monologue but like. IDK having more mechanical structure FEELS different. The physical clue inventory is pretty rudimentary compared to some super robust systems I've seen in like, point-and-click games for example, but I mean...this isn't a mystery game, it's an RPG, so a simple system slots in really well and just makes the typically more nebulous parts of the game feel like they have a little more grip.
Also so far the only character who hasn't grabbed me has been Ophilia, and that chiefly because the setup was like.."A young priestess struggles with her fear of an upcoming dangerous pilgrimage, while her grief over her father's failing health tests her faith. Anyway you're playing her sister lol".
Like, I want the upset scaredy-cat in my party instead :(
Cyrus is my favorite though. I love it when he says that one opening-battle voice line that's like "Can't we settle this like gentlemen?" and we're fighting like, a really big clam or a giant rat or something. I love that he seems to be the only British guy in the whole world. I love his little thoughtful-hand-on-chin pose and his goofy little cravat. I hope some bad things happen to him (affectionately).
