"When I land on a planet, my brain shouldn't just be chasing icons on my map or HUD, but rather how to best approach chasing those icons given the environment of the planet."
I could not agree more with this sentence. It's not necessarily a criticism of just NMS, but a lot of open worlds. I know this may sound a little bit of an odd thing to talk about, but some of my favourite open world moments have come in Skyrim and Fallout where I have jumped my way up a seemingly unscalable mountain face in a way that the game clearly was not designed to allow. I enjoyed doing that because A) it was unique to my playthrough, but also B) because it took a certain level of skill to get up it that I had to plan out. I know it's not quite the same as what you are saying, but I think the broad point is similar!
Nice read by the way! I agree with pretty much everything you said about the open world genre in general!
I find it hard to provide critique on your critique of this game as it has been so long since I last played it and all but the major story beats are now just a jumbled mess of different scenes and distant memories. They possibly were always that way, but my 13 year old self did not possess the ability to distinguish jumbled from complex, and wonky from deep, but at the time I loved every moment of it.
However. I do remember distinctly how engrossed I was in the game from the end of Disc One and the Temple of the Ancients all the way until the end of Midgar being attacked by Weapon. I read all of what you wrote about this section and of course I understand that validity of it all, but for me my experience was entirely different. It almost felt like a stretch of penitence for the guilt that I imagined Cloud must be feeling for having been, in many ways, responsible for Aeris' death. The struggle through the cold and the snow, the super tough enemies, the angry fight with Jenova, and then this climactic scene where Cloud finally caves in. The journey until that point was to find and punish Sephiroth, but when it came down to it Cloud was looking to punish himself.
I appreciate how the snowboarding section feels completely out of place, but at the time at least it was little more than just a moment's respite from the seriousness of that whole section.
To then have this capped off by, in my view, the most atmospheric bit of the game where the Weapons are released and the whole section in Midgar under attack was just a perfect stretch of engrossing story for me. Again, I understand your criticisms, but it is still a scene which I occasionally look up on YouTube just to soak myself in all its eerie goodness.
But yeah look, I can't disagree with your criticisms. Even if I wanted to I couldn't. I just don't remember enough about the minutae to form logical arguments. Either way, I always enjoy reading this blog. Since I started reading it, I have re-downloaded FF7 to my Vita twice, only to promptly delete it again when it stops me from downloading whatever PS+ offering there is this month.
Interesting thoughts on the role of character and first person perspective. I'd never really considered how that might affect the way you play through the game.
it's interesting to hear about how your relationship started with Delilah and progressed, and how that was ultimately different to my experience!
Good write up anyway man! Just goes to show how even almost entirely linear experiences can be enjoyed on completely different levels!
@darth_navster: I love Turkish coffee but my partner really wasn't a fan so I guess it depends on your taste. If you have it with sugar then it will be incredibly sweet, but if it's made without it then it's extremely bitter. There's not really any in-between as I think you have to add the sugar during the making of it. But yeah, it's very thick and if you don't drink it very quickly then it will end up sticking to your teeth.
I don't see why it wouldn't be just as good over there providing you have the right ingredients to start with. It's mainly in the preparation that makes it distinct from just an espresso. And then I guess the quality of water makes a difference (or so the coffee gurus tell us), but then I would guess the water quality in Canada trumps the water in Istanbul by a mile! It would be interesting to hear what your impressions are!
@darth_navster: Haha god really? Even on PC? That's terrible. I really don't normally get hung up on technical issues, but it was painful in Firewatch. But yeah, the relationship you form with Delilah was a definite high point in the game for sure. Glad you got something out of it. If you have the patience for slow storytelling, you should try Everybody's Gone to the Rapture! I loved that.
Incidentally, sorry I haven't been able to keep up with your posts recently. I'm in Istanbul on business (suicide bombs and all) and it's been hard to find the time to sit down and really go through them. I only have the time for leaving flippant remarks on the brexit thread! But i'll defo come back to them once I'm back in Dublin!
This sounds like something I could really enjoy with my partner. I've been putting off buying it until it is on a major sale or on PS+ as I know for me it will be a one-time play type thing, but maybe I will jump in earlier.
I really enjoyed Heavy Rain first time round (perhaps aided by being a bit caned), but when I went through it a second time and tried to see what I could do by letting things play out in different ways I was left severely disappointed by how much it funnels you into certain story climaxes. Is Until Dawn different in that sense?
Have you played oxenfree? I've been umming and erring on that for a good while now too. I think it looks really interesting.
Is there some specified reason that Geralt so often speaks without using a subject in the sentence? It's not always, but it just really jarrs when he doesn't use one...
To be honest though, I think most of the dialogue in this game is all over the place...
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