I always loved retro-style games, long before I learned that they’re considered retro. I’m not sure what makes them so fun but they completely dominate my gaming nowadays.

Naturally, I became curious about the games that had inspired my favorite titles. I tried many of them, and eventually came to a conclusion: most of the time, retro games are nothing but a historical curiosity.

Ultima 4 has fairly unique concept but falls flat with its roleplaying feeling forced, its bland gameplay and its setting with no originality whatsoever.
Compare this to Moonring. Gameplay rivals many modern roguelikes (the classic definition, so Brogue, not Isaac), great setting that sucks you in immediately, and so so many mysteries.

Ambermoon pretends to be an open world RPG but is actually a linear RPG-lite with combat feeling more like a puzzle (and a wrong solution punishes you by 15 mins of you and your opponents missing each other every turn).

That’s not to say that retro games aren’t important - the modern indies are standing on the shoulders of giants. Yet I can’t say that retro games worth the trouble of getting into them, compared to the polished modern indie titles.

  • Xraygoggles@lemmy.world
    3·
    16 hours ago

    Can you imagine if you had all the time back you spent watching attack animations in RPGs over the years? There is definitely an immersion argument to be made, and this is why I just want the option to be available. I tend to be very mechanics focused and I play mostly puzzle games so I’m just here to ‘figure it out’. For visuals and storytelling I’m reaching for different media first, that’s personal preference not a knock on VG.

    I just want to illustrate that I kind of still have ‘down time’ where I’m just staring at a screen that isn’t changing, but the difference is that I’m playing the game in my head and thinking through things not being trapped for 2 seconds to watch somebody swing a sword. Especially if I’ve seen it a million times already and fully finished appreciating how cool it looks.

    Your argument is really strong when it comes to action games though, but I guess we could also think about how it creates a build up and release of tension if applied mindfully. But that’s usually not the case, it’s just ‘the formula says we need a cut scene here’.

    Maybe the convergence of ideas here is to stand up brighter lines between playing and watching?