Beyond Collecting Pearls
By brooklyngrenade 15 Comments
So, you know what I spent a large of amount of Friday doing? Eh, take a guess...(like this serves a purpose, lol). I've been slaving over collecting these pearl items in Beyond Good & Evil; in a need to advance to the final segments of the game. I just finished getting the last pearl I need to complete this certain purchase of a part that will allow me to progress where I need to be. Boy did I work for those pearls! I must admit, while it seemed a bit daunting at first it was a fun and worthwhile session of gaming in addition to experiencing some extra goodness of BG&E. I will finish all that remains of its story in the morning.
There's one more thing I would like to discuss in terms of what I experienced today and have done the same in some other games. It's this game design component in which the player must backtrack to collect something or a number of things in order to beat the game. The primary examples that come to my mind are the previously mentioned title and Super Princess Peach; which if you had frequented my Gamespot blogs, knew I was proudly playing. With this game, the object of each level is to save all the toads that are trapped in these pink question-marked boxes. There's three in each level and while you can make it all the way to the 8th Area, you must have all the Toads of the previous areas rescued before you can face the final boss. Initially this seems like a slap in kisser to the gamer and surely some will be turned off by having to backtrack to such an extent.
So essentially, this design option can be a flaw or a significance. With Super Princess Peach, it is a slight flaw (even though I'm going back to get all of the Toads because I need to beat the damn game :P). With BG&E, it's a significance, because I indeed had fun collecting those amount of pearls I needed to move on today. This was also implemented in games like the beloved Final Fantasy VII. Actually, it seems to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, that this design component tends to appear in RPGs more frequently than in other genres. I think I'm wrong, but my point is, developers and game designers should be more cautious as to how this will affect the overall experience of their games.
Peace. :)
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