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August 04, 2007

Here's This Rant: Gaming Needs More Novellas

Fuck, I did it. Ordered Persona 3. Dammit.
We'll see what that does on my budget. I need to not buy anything now that I'm set for work and set for gaming for this month. Bleh. I dunno. Sometimes I just dislike how little restraint I have for niche games. Luckily, most of the time these games are budget priced or portable, so it's not so painful. This game is full price (though I am saving five dollars on Amazon), but it's not like I'm not getting a good value. It's a big game, and it comes with some nice extras. I'm not angry they're charging it. It's more just me.

I've done half-rants about this before, but a thread on Talking Time a long while ago made me realize that I am a lot different than I used to be, and one of the reasons I like portable games more now is because they're normally shorter, or designed to be consumed without marathon sessions. I like download games from XBLA because they're designed similarly. I cannot handle console RPGs anymore, no matter how much I like them. I loved FFXII. I got maybe halfway through, and I can't play it anymore.
Gaming Needs More Novellas.
I am not interested in a game with "70+ Hours Of Gameplay!" on the box. I am not interested in a game that waters down gameplay to add those hours and keep me from beating it. I want gaming novellas. I want the awesome, and I want it to end the moment it starts to feel like a chore.

Examples Of Games I've Played Recently That Are Novellas:
Paper Mario. Basically the whole Paper Mario series meets this. Paper Mario lasts exactly the right length. They aren't too long. They end right after they give you all their toys and you feel fufilled. If you're one of those people who need to milk every hour possible, they have extra bosses and dungeons to slog through for tiny rewards. But that doesn't matter. The game is beat.
Wonder Boy in Monster World: It was a perfect tiny chunk of Metroidvania! I know it wasn't made with this in mind, and it probably would have frustrated me if I hadn't used a walkthrough for some things. But it was a very solid game that ended very quickly, with no backtracking or anything required.
Kirby's Adventure: Most of the platformer Kirby games meet this as well. They're easy and fun, you have a great time the entire time you play, and then you're done.
Crackdown: If you want to play Crackdown as a game that you beat, then it works very well as a novella. You gain new skills at a very good pace as you beat the bosses. You always have something new to fiddle around with, whether a new gun or a new jump height to explore more, and just when you get all the skills and have seen about everything, you beat the last boss and win. If you want more, you can play co-op or single player and dick around. But the core game is a novella.
Katamari Damacy: It builds to an amazing climax and then you're done. You can go back and replay it, but you're finished, and it doesn't take too long to get there, and you enjoy every moment of it. It having shipped originally at a budget price was just a bonus.

Most XBLA games I play through likely fall into this category as well. If not, they're build around doing one little session and then putting it down until later (like Uno or Catan). But things like Band of Bugs, that's exactly what I want. A well-made chunk of Tactical RPG that I can beat without investing hours and hours.

I can't be the only person who feels this way. I'm not really busy, and I feel too busy to invest hours and hours into a RPG. Gamers are getting grown up and getting actually busy, and they must feel similarly. There needs to be more of these things. There really does. Nobody seems to beat games anymore. Most gamers who buy the numbers of games I do don't beat them. I've seen people on Talking Time being excited when they actually beat Super Paper Mario, remarking how long it's been since they beat a game. Beating a game is a good feeling. It really is.
They need to find the good part of the gameplay, not water it down in the least, and just give it to you. An amazing gaming novella will leave a much, much better impression on me, and I would think everyone, than a decent game that's long, long, long.

Anyway, there's my rant. I'm going to bed. I've got to work tommorow so I can pay for Persona 3... yeaaaaah...

Posted by poetfox at August 4, 2007 02:14 AM

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