Seeds of Destruction
Hey, guys, sorry about the lack of updates in the past few days. I did intend to post new pages on Friday, Monday and today, but the long weekend (and a renewed love for Odin Sphere) sort of messed up my groove and I didn't manage to. But there'll definitely be a new page tomorrow (or rather tonight, as they tend to go up the evening before, lately).
Just thought I'd mention something, though, because it struck me as interesting and it's one of the main reasons I've become re-enamoured with Odin Sphere. Item systems in videogames are tricky terrain. Too simple and people will complain about a lack of depth. Too complicated and you'll have people exasperated and wondering why they're bothering even playing. A tip in either direction can easily spoil an otherwise splendid title. But if a developer manages to find that perfect balance it can really make a game shine.
A speal like that makes it seem like I'm going to complain about specific issues I find in item systems, but actually, I'm just going to talk about a few of the things Odin Sphere does right. Now I'm not that far in yet, but it's really made me enjoy fiddling with my inventory, which is particularly impressive because I'm usually not too fond of that kind of stuff. There are two main reasons for this that I can think of at the moment.
For one, many of the items (almost all if I'm not mistaken) have multiple purposes and uses (and I'm not saying that other games don't do this, they just usually don't do it enough). Obviously, there's the usual main use and the possibility to sell for some quick cash if you're in need, but I'm talking beyond that. Seeds, for instance, are something I thought were pretty useful when I first started the game. You can plant them in a stage and phozons (read: shiny glowy things dropped by enemies) will automatically ripen the seed, cause it to germinate and in turn drop useful healing items. I thought this was great until I started feeling like I had way more seeds than I'd ever be able to use, especially since certain seeds produce seed-bearing fruit in what can only be described as an unholy doom cycle of seed production, continuously taking up valuable inventory space with perpetuates of the problem. Some people may also know this phenomenon as "agriculture". Anyway, just as I was feeling as though the seeds were getting on top of me, I found a new item: the egg. So when you use an egg, it hatches into a chick, which you can feed your extra seeds! Brilliant! So now that we've got a new use for that abundance of seeds, what about the chick? Well, the chick will become a full-grown chicken after 3 seeds and can lay more eggs if you give it even more seeds. "That's great!" I said, "No more extra seeds in my inventory! But now what do I do with these chickens?" That should have been pretty obvious. You can turn a full grown chicken into food, which counts as yet another healing item. So at this point I've only really mentioned seeds and chickens here, but already we've discovered two possible uses for each of them. And this isn't taking into account the other possibilities, which include selling the items, refining them into various potions and even taking them to a restaurant to have them made into a meal for you. So there's a real sense that each and every item is valuable and you're never just collecting miscellaneous garbage you find on the ground.
The other thing is that you've got a limited inventory space (divided into "pouches" that your character theoretically carries around), which is a concept that's usually an exercise in frustration if you ask me, but here it actually improves the game. For one, it prevents hoarding of items and makes you use what you've got continuously in order to make room. This has allowed to developer to essentially force you to take advantage of the stuff they've put into their game, without it really seeming that way. Again this plays into the idea that every item is valuable, because as you play, you know you're going to have to use them all, just to make space for the ones you get next. The other brilliant thing they've done is allowed you to upgrade your inventory space. Again, I'm not saying no other game has ever done this, but it's really well-executed here. For instance, when you upgrade your inventory capacity, you don't just get a bigger pouch and throw away the old one. You get a bigger pouch on top of your old one. So you really feel like it's an improvement. As I did this, I realised that it's the same feeling I get when I level up my characters in RPGs (especially those in which one level is substantially different from the last). This is undoubtedly a good and rewarding feeling and I believe that it is one of the biggest reasons people play RPGs. There's a real sense of improvement in that feeling (even if it is kind of artificial).
And on top of all this, the "ring" interface is friendly, simple and wrought with oodles of precious nostalgia. So yeah, I just thought I'd mention that.
Just thought I'd mention something, though, because it struck me as interesting and it's one of the main reasons I've become re-enamoured with Odin Sphere. Item systems in videogames are tricky terrain. Too simple and people will complain about a lack of depth. Too complicated and you'll have people exasperated and wondering why they're bothering even playing. A tip in either direction can easily spoil an otherwise splendid title. But if a developer manages to find that perfect balance it can really make a game shine.
A speal like that makes it seem like I'm going to complain about specific issues I find in item systems, but actually, I'm just going to talk about a few of the things Odin Sphere does right. Now I'm not that far in yet, but it's really made me enjoy fiddling with my inventory, which is particularly impressive because I'm usually not too fond of that kind of stuff. There are two main reasons for this that I can think of at the moment.
For one, many of the items (almost all if I'm not mistaken) have multiple purposes and uses (and I'm not saying that other games don't do this, they just usually don't do it enough). Obviously, there's the usual main use and the possibility to sell for some quick cash if you're in need, but I'm talking beyond that. Seeds, for instance, are something I thought were pretty useful when I first started the game. You can plant them in a stage and phozons (read: shiny glowy things dropped by enemies) will automatically ripen the seed, cause it to germinate and in turn drop useful healing items. I thought this was great until I started feeling like I had way more seeds than I'd ever be able to use, especially since certain seeds produce seed-bearing fruit in what can only be described as an unholy doom cycle of seed production, continuously taking up valuable inventory space with perpetuates of the problem. Some people may also know this phenomenon as "agriculture". Anyway, just as I was feeling as though the seeds were getting on top of me, I found a new item: the egg. So when you use an egg, it hatches into a chick, which you can feed your extra seeds! Brilliant! So now that we've got a new use for that abundance of seeds, what about the chick? Well, the chick will become a full-grown chicken after 3 seeds and can lay more eggs if you give it even more seeds. "That's great!" I said, "No more extra seeds in my inventory! But now what do I do with these chickens?" That should have been pretty obvious. You can turn a full grown chicken into food, which counts as yet another healing item. So at this point I've only really mentioned seeds and chickens here, but already we've discovered two possible uses for each of them. And this isn't taking into account the other possibilities, which include selling the items, refining them into various potions and even taking them to a restaurant to have them made into a meal for you. So there's a real sense that each and every item is valuable and you're never just collecting miscellaneous garbage you find on the ground.
The other thing is that you've got a limited inventory space (divided into "pouches" that your character theoretically carries around), which is a concept that's usually an exercise in frustration if you ask me, but here it actually improves the game. For one, it prevents hoarding of items and makes you use what you've got continuously in order to make room. This has allowed to developer to essentially force you to take advantage of the stuff they've put into their game, without it really seeming that way. Again this plays into the idea that every item is valuable, because as you play, you know you're going to have to use them all, just to make space for the ones you get next. The other brilliant thing they've done is allowed you to upgrade your inventory space. Again, I'm not saying no other game has ever done this, but it's really well-executed here. For instance, when you upgrade your inventory capacity, you don't just get a bigger pouch and throw away the old one. You get a bigger pouch on top of your old one. So you really feel like it's an improvement. As I did this, I realised that it's the same feeling I get when I level up my characters in RPGs (especially those in which one level is substantially different from the last). This is undoubtedly a good and rewarding feeling and I believe that it is one of the biggest reasons people play RPGs. There's a real sense of improvement in that feeling (even if it is kind of artificial).
And on top of all this, the "ring" interface is friendly, simple and wrought with oodles of precious nostalgia. So yeah, I just thought I'd mention that.
posted by Kristof at
10:17 AM
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