Every once in a while the question comes around as to whether "indie" games (which now basically just means smaller-scale games that aren't internally developed by employees of AAA publishers) are as good as the best games of the 90's or whatever, but I think I'm asking this more on a content and production level. At the very least I think this gen we just hit a point where the biggest indie games are on that level, but it still takes a ton of time to develop them.
Without internal game clocks and with the passage of years it's hard to remember exactly how many hours it took to beat Chrono Trigger or a Mega Man Zero game or something. A year ago when I beat Breath of Fire 1 and 2 on Nintendo Online it clocked my game time at 30+ hours for each, but honestly a ton of that time was padded out with random trash mobs. How does that compare with the content in a game like Undertale or Cosmic Star Heroine?
I ask because people seem to lament that dedicated handhelds were the last bastion of 2D games made with the full production muscle of major publishers like Square Enix or Capcom. I wonder if playing games like Hades and CrossCode and Hyper Light Drifter on a Switch Lite (or even a phone) makes up for that.
One issue is the time it takes to make these games. Capcom was able to pump out four Mega Man Zeroes and six Battle Networks on the GBA within like six years. A typical indie developer seems to take four years just to make one of those games. On the other hand there's a larger total number of indie developers pumping them out so the total number of releases doesn't feel that different to the end consumer.
Maybe the production level at which big publishers used to put out a Final Fantasy Tactics or an Igavania (how big is something like Axiom Verge in comparison?) just doesn't translate to 2D games with today's game development tools. Maybe the equivalent of that game today is Fire Emblem Three Houses or Valkyria Chronicles 4.
Without internal game clocks and with the passage of years it's hard to remember exactly how many hours it took to beat Chrono Trigger or a Mega Man Zero game or something. A year ago when I beat Breath of Fire 1 and 2 on Nintendo Online it clocked my game time at 30+ hours for each, but honestly a ton of that time was padded out with random trash mobs. How does that compare with the content in a game like Undertale or Cosmic Star Heroine?
I ask because people seem to lament that dedicated handhelds were the last bastion of 2D games made with the full production muscle of major publishers like Square Enix or Capcom. I wonder if playing games like Hades and CrossCode and Hyper Light Drifter on a Switch Lite (or even a phone) makes up for that.
One issue is the time it takes to make these games. Capcom was able to pump out four Mega Man Zeroes and six Battle Networks on the GBA within like six years. A typical indie developer seems to take four years just to make one of those games. On the other hand there's a larger total number of indie developers pumping them out so the total number of releases doesn't feel that different to the end consumer.
Maybe the production level at which big publishers used to put out a Final Fantasy Tactics or an Igavania (how big is something like Axiom Verge in comparison?) just doesn't translate to 2D games with today's game development tools. Maybe the equivalent of that game today is Fire Emblem Three Houses or Valkyria Chronicles 4.
