In my last post, I talked about the state of my gaming thtis year. I didn’t hand out cute little awards as I normally would because, well, there wasn’t much point to it this year. I have not played many new games and there aren’t any that I would actually want to give an award to. There was Stray (BlueTwelve Studio), but since I could not actually finish it (which pained me to no end. Well, annoyed me, really. There is just no excuse for that, even though it’s an indie studio). I have beaten this drum for as long as I have been playing cozy/indie games. If your game is not focused on gameplay (and it doesn’t have to be!), don’t put it in. You are most likely not going to do it well. This is especially true with platforming (I’m looking at you, FromSoft). If it’s not the focus of your game, then you’re not going to do it in an organic way.
FromSoft loves them their platforming, and they are SO BAD at it. Even with a jump button in Elden Ring, they are still so bad. SO BAD. In fact, somehow it’s even worse because it’s one more dimension they are not taking into account.
So back to Stray. Normally, I would be more forgiving because it is an indie team. But we are in the year of our pandemic 2022. People need to be aware of disabilities if they aren’t already. And in a game that is about helping a lost cat find his way back to his friend, it really should be for everyone. And that includes people who cannot hammer a button repeatedly and fast enough for the developers.
Look. I get that they want there to be danger for the cat. I understand it. But it’s not like it’s little-known that hammering a button over and over again isn’t something everyone can do. Nor should everyone want to do it because it’s bad for your fingers. Haven’t people heard of repetitive stress syndrome? More to the point, there’s no reason for it. It doesn’t prove anything, really. It’s not a skill. It’s not even really reflexes. It’s just literally pressing the same button over and over again as quickly as you can. That’s not fun. At all.
I know some reviewers have mentioned this, but I do not know if BlueTwelve Studio did anything about it because I quit the game roughly 2/3rds the way through and have not looked back. Beause here’s the thing. Games are supposed to be fun or enjoyable in some way.
It is not fun and it is not enjoyable when you literally (and I mean the authentic meaning of literally) cannot do what the game wants you to do. I put my controller down after failing yet another hammering the button event and said fuck it. I’m not doing this. It would have been so easy (I think?) just to have you hold the button rather than hammering it.
Honestly, since my medical crisis, I ain’t got time for that. I am not going to play a game that I physically cannot play. Or, you know, they could have made it so that you could skip the sections after failing them five times. I wouldn’t have felt good about it, but I certainly would have done it. Having to do those sections and fail over and over and over…and over again? No. If Ian had been here, I would have made him do those sections. I’ve done that before. Made him do the sections I can’t do. This was in Saints Row IV.
Which, by the way, had one of the best pseudo-endings ever. There’s a mission in which you can choose to end the world’s suffering by allowing the villian to kill you. I said yes because what were they going to do? Actually kill me? Yup. That’s what they did. They actually killed me. I turned to Ian, indignant that they had the gall. But that was what I had chosen! Of course, I was able to start over again, but how refreshing that was.
Where was I? Oh, right. Game awards. I normally give out awards with funny names to games I’ve played in the given year. This year, however, it’s different. Why? Because I mostly played one game and one game only. Then, I played it some more. It’s only been in the last two months or so that I’ve moved onto other games.
What’s the game?
Well, let me set it up first.
June of 2021. Summerfest Games. Geoff Keighley’s thing, of course. He teased there would be a trailer for this game. We all waited all night for it. Every trailer–would this be it? Nope. The indignity of Kojima promo-ing Death Stranding, Director’s Cut with a very weird and cryptic trailer.
The show dragged on and on and, indeed, on. And on yet again. It came near to an end, and I was nervous that we would not be getting the trailer I wanted. But then, the ‘oh, one more thing’, and it was…
Elden Ring, of course! Like there was any question.
When I saw the trailer for the first time, I got tears in my eyes. And I had all these plans as to how I was going to play it. Big, grandiose plans. Then, I died. Twice. And came back. Twice. Suddenly, all my plans for ER went out the window. The only thing I cared about was that I had another Miyazki-built world in which to wander (wonder!) and explore. I had to buy a new desktop that my brother put together in order to play it.
Was it everything I was hoping for? Yes, and so much more. It wasn’t perfect. Of course it wasn’t. No game is. Not even games that receieve a slew of 10s in review. The PC port had issues upon release, though I was fortunate enough not to suffer too many of them. Microstutters and two hard crashes. That was the extent of the issues I had.
The world was incredible, as was to be expected. After finishing the tutorial and opening the door to Limgrave, I was filled with awe. I had tears in my eyes as I started exploring. I did not expect to be able to play another FromSoft game because I should have been dead. Or, more optimistically, I should have been alive, but not functional. I should not have been able to walk and talk, let alone play a video game. Though, the PT did say that I could play video games as therapy. She mentioned that she and her son played an hour of Breath of the Wild every night. Which was very sweet.
I consumed Elden Ring with all of my free time. I could not stop playing it–which was how I got with FromSoft games. It was all I wanted to do. When I was playing it, I was thinking about it. I even started making a list of all the NPCs–which, thankfully, became no longer necessary because From added their locations on the map in a patch. That was so great! In part because my notes were shit and I could not make heads nor tails of them.
I was worried about the open world bits becasue I don’t like open world games in general. And I was worried about the map because From doesn’t do maps. Except the joke map in Sekiro. It was an overview map with the general areas marked on it–and that was it. It was hidden deep in the Options menu, and you could go through the whole game without ever seening it. My theoriy is that Activision (boooooo) demanded a map and Miyazaki said, “You want a map? FINE. HERE’S YOUR MAP.”
Because it really has ‘fuck you’ energy about it. Other than that, they don’t have maps in their games. I was worried about how they were going to include one in this game without it being intrusive.
I should have not worried. The map is amazing, and I can’t believe i ever doubted Miyazaki. I’ve read it’s similar to the map in Breath of the Wild, but I wouldn’t know because I’ve never played it. But the deal is that the map is all fogged out. You have to go to an area and find the piece of map for that area. Then it’ll show you the main points, but you have to actually travel around to get the specifics. Before all that, you can see where the stele with the map fragment is and where the mines are, and a few other things, but it’s all so vague.
It’s a thing of beauty to build the map. And it just keeps getting bigger. And bigger. And bigger! I cannot overemphasize how massive this world I thought a certain area was the end game area, but it wasn’t. It was maybe halfway through. So that’s my running joke now when I reach that area. “O,h I’m at the end of the game!”
That was at the 100 hour mark. My first playthrough took me 225+ hours, but I’m very slow and bad at these games. I have no probblem admitting that. Ian and I argue about this. As well as if the games are aimed at me. I say no; he says yes. Here’s the thing. I am bad at these games for someone who loves them. And they are absolutely not my kind of game in general. I am ill-suited for them, but that cannot be helped.
I will admit to some fatigue by the time I reached the true end area of the game, but that always happens when I play FromSoft games. I consume them and they consume me until they are all I can think about.
This is most definitely running long because I can talk about Elden Ring for days. And I shall. Meet me back tomorrow at the same time for more thoughts on my Game of the Year.