Back in the day games were hard (often in unfair ways) to stretch out the game, because there was only like 4 levels and if it was easy you’d be finished in a single afternoon.
Now games are thousands of hours long and they hold your hand every step of the way to make sure you actually see all that content; and then the majority of players quit after completing only about 1/4th of the total game.
This is probably why I love Soulslikes so fucking much. I grew up with the first kind, and have suffered long enough with the latter kind. Soulslikes are the perfect blend of new and old school design philosophy (when done right). Tough, but also not short. They don’t hold your hand, but they don’t exactly keep you entirely in the dark on how to play. They reward community action not just in the game with the message systems, but also because it doesn’t spoon-feed you everything, certain deeper ideas are discovered more from talking to other players who found things you missed; which is something we did back in the day before the internet.
This is why I want a remaster of Space Channel 5, the timing is impossibly difficult (ESPECIALLY when emulated as video and audio isn’t synced), but it’s on purpose because if you aren’t stonewalled the game will only take one hour.
Nowadays buying a game that only lasts an hour is fine because the game’s usually not sold at full price anyway.
Back in the day games were hard (often in unfair ways) to stretch out the game, because there was only like 4 levels and if it was easy you’d be finished in a single afternoon.
Now games are thousands of hours long and they hold your hand every step of the way to make sure you actually see all that content; and then the majority of players quit after completing only about 1/4th of the total game.
This is probably why I love Soulslikes so fucking much. I grew up with the first kind, and have suffered long enough with the latter kind. Soulslikes are the perfect blend of new and old school design philosophy (when done right). Tough, but also not short. They don’t hold your hand, but they don’t exactly keep you entirely in the dark on how to play. They reward community action not just in the game with the message systems, but also because it doesn’t spoon-feed you everything, certain deeper ideas are discovered more from talking to other players who found things you missed; which is something we did back in the day before the internet.
This is why I want a remaster of Space Channel 5, the timing is impossibly difficult (ESPECIALLY when emulated as video and audio isn’t synced), but it’s on purpose because if you aren’t stonewalled the game will only take one hour.
Nowadays buying a game that only lasts an hour is fine because the game’s usually not sold at full price anyway.