I love Nioh, and can't wait for Nioh 2, but "masocore" is a really stupid way to refer to your game.
BS genre names
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How has no one said shlooter yet? Last year that was the worst. I don't think any company used it officially but people were trying to get it going.
Edit: someone did 15 minutes ago
Edit: someone did 15 minutes ago
Just google "character action game" and set your parameters to ancient days.
Two references before DMC came out. You'll have to probably use WayBackMachine to find any more. And then you can watch Double Fine's dev play of Spyro. Granted, it definitely wasn't common.
100% accurate. "Soulsborne" sounds awful and adds absolutely zero descriptive value over "Souls".
I always thought spectacle fighter makes it sound like a shallow experience, to me its more about mechanics than spectacle. I prefer character action just because I feel it means that the action has personality conveyed by the character being used like how Bayos action is like a dance and how playing Nero is more visceral.
And then there's the name of their battle system.
Linear Motion Battle System
Enhanced Linear Motion Battle System
Aggressive Linear Motion Battle System
Trust and Tactical Linear Motion Battle System
Multi-Line Linear Motion Battle System
Three Line Linear Motion Battle System
Crossover Linear Motion Battle System
Flex Range Linear Motion Battle System
Aerial Linear Motion Battle System
Dimension Stride Linear Motion Battle System
Evolved Flex Range Linear Motion Battle System
Combination Aerial Linear Motion Battle System
Style Shift Linear Motion Battle System
Double-Raid Linear Motion Battle System
Cross Double-Raid Linear Motion Battle System
Fusionic Chain Linear Motion Battle System
Liberation Linear Motion Battle System
Petit Linear Motion Battle System
Condensed Linear Motion Battle System
people who hate genre descriptors that give you a very good idea of what the game is like because they're not the dewey decimal of video games are the worst
I don't think anyone actually says "shlooter" seriously except people on here hoping to discredit the genre.
I want to say this term has actually existed for a while, but was pretty much meant to refer to "I Want to Be the Guy" type games...which Nioh is not.
But I'm sure non-Namco publishers wince in pain at the thought of describing their game as "like Dark Souls but with [x]".
Honestly I don't mind these subgenre specifiers. When someone describes a game as "Soulsborne" or "character action" I know what I'm getting, whereas if someone were to just say "third person action game" you really have no idea.
Walking simulator... when I hear that, I expect something like Death Stranding, not an adventure game with most of the interactivity stripped out.
It's always "belt scroller".
Like refering to a driving game as a "pedal pusher".
Those actually describe it unlike the game as a whole's "genre", so it's fine.
Like refering to a driving game as a "pedal pusher".
Those actually describe it unlike the game as a whole's "genre", so it's fine.
Why do you think Kamiya gave every character in Bayonetta glasses
I mean, yeah, it is an umbrella term under which varying kinds & degrees of role playing is possible. That's why people generally slap some descriptive word in front of it. Fantasy RPG, scifi RPG, cyberpunk RPG are pretty good indication of what you can expect, at least in terms of setting. Or action RPGs, strategy RPGs, open world RPGs when it comes to some prominent gameplay aspect.
it was a term created by people who were dismissive and hostile towards those games and it's criminal that is stuck
Metroidvania? I feel like for a good minute every side scrolling game was lumped under that category, and it has always felt intellectually lazy and means almost nothing at this point. I still disagree to this day that the Metroid and Castlevania series offer similar experiences. Super Metroid feels nothing like Symphony of the Night which feels nothing like Hollow Knight or Ori and the Blind Forest. Although Axiom Verge certainly did give me some Metroid vibes...
And I say that as a huge fan of the "genre".
And I say that as a huge fan of the "genre".
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That's crazy. Very interesting seeing stuff like that which has changed outright.
I don't mind silly or misleading genre names one bit, then again i've spent a lot of time in the world of music. Often times the press will make up a genre name to describe a single game on a whim, then it'll be forgotten or maybe stick. Then something else will get that label for a tenuous connection, and after a few more through a game of telephone, the genre's concept has outgrown the name.
There's certainly an argument for properly descriptive names, since newcomers will be less confused, and we all know that a genre name too general becomes less useful. But the downside is that the more descriptive a name, the less useful it gets in terms of using it for a wide variety of games, which is a good thing, so I guess it's a balance.
Something ostensibly ridiculous like masocore is instantly understandable and can be used to describe a lot of games. In music they're referred to as descriptors sometimes instead of genres. As well in music, genre has as much to do with genealogy and history than sonic characteristics.
Metroidvania is a really good example of all of this, and we saw it happen right in front of our eyes. On a purely literal interpretation, it doesn't make sense to apply it to anything other than a group of Castlevania games that borrow heavily from Metroid. It can be controversial these days but it seems like it has become general to the point of being a descriptor (basically an alias for "has something fundamentally in common with super metroid").
JRPG would be an example of a genre connected mainly by geneology. It seems to a lot of people be far more of an abstract concept than its literal meaning. It's also very controversial even after all these years, with many people preferring a literal interpretation anyway.
sorry u read my ramble XD
There's certainly an argument for properly descriptive names, since newcomers will be less confused, and we all know that a genre name too general becomes less useful. But the downside is that the more descriptive a name, the less useful it gets in terms of using it for a wide variety of games, which is a good thing, so I guess it's a balance.
Something ostensibly ridiculous like masocore is instantly understandable and can be used to describe a lot of games. In music they're referred to as descriptors sometimes instead of genres. As well in music, genre has as much to do with genealogy and history than sonic characteristics.
Metroidvania is a really good example of all of this, and we saw it happen right in front of our eyes. On a purely literal interpretation, it doesn't make sense to apply it to anything other than a group of Castlevania games that borrow heavily from Metroid. It can be controversial these days but it seems like it has become general to the point of being a descriptor (basically an alias for "has something fundamentally in common with super metroid").
JRPG would be an example of a genre connected mainly by geneology. It seems to a lot of people be far more of an abstract concept than its literal meaning. It's also very controversial even after all these years, with many people preferring a literal interpretation anyway.
sorry u read my ramble XD
Metroidvania.
I have no idea what to make of a genre name involving a slow-paced linear action game about whipping vampires and a space game about exploring a massive labyrinth planet. The venn diagram is just two circles that don't touch.
I have no idea what to make of a genre name involving a slow-paced linear action game about whipping vampires and a space game about exploring a massive labyrinth planet. The venn diagram is just two circles that don't touch.
I will never not laugh at hobby-grade.makes me think of this one
JRPG, on one corner we have people screaming that it means an RPG game made only Japan, while the other screams that it is any RPG games with turn-based combat. It is just a confusing mess when someone does a recommendation thread
It might have made sense applied to something like Dear Esther, but you seem to hear it tagged on anything with a lot of walking now. Pretty much any open world game with a lot of traversal. And yeah, it's also a derogatory term people use for games they don't like.
Abso-fucking-lutely
"Soulsborne" always felt like a really artificial and unnecessary attempt to push Bloodborne's importance higher.
it's a i know you can't just mind your damn business simulator
The problem is that many immersive sims are not RPGs; e.g. System Shock, Thief, and many emergent/systemic games are not immersive sims; e.g. Breath of the Wild.
Games like Deus Ex, Dishonored, Prey, System Shock etc. that simulate a world with consequences, and try to make it as interactive as possible - so that the player can come up with their own solution to problems, rather than following the one solution that the developer intended - like most games do.
If given an objective to get inside a certain building and retrieve an object, solutions exist beyond "find the red keycard for the red door".
- Find the key.
- Pickpocket a guard.
- Pick the lock/hack the door if your skill is high enough.
- Wait for someone to enter and deal with them as they open the door.
- Find an alternate path in; crawl through the vents, stack boxes to climb up and get in through a skylight etc.
- Find the door code by hacking a computer elsewhere and reading someone's emails; or a note which is visible through the window, via hacking a security camera feed, or stuck in another location etc.
- Find a terminal in another part of the building which can unlock the door.
- Fire a dart through a cracked window at just the right angle to hit the button which opens the door from the inside.
- Ignore it and do without the item, hoping to find a way to bypass whatever that item was for - or fail that mission and accept the consequences, with the game continuing rather than resulting in a "game over" or "mission failed" screen at the end of the level.
- Blow up the door.
I'd argue that the problem is the way the genre has been diluted over time such that it no longer has any meaning.
Having stats in your game doesn't make it an RPG, but that's apparently the modern definition. If you see a number anywhere on the screen, call it an RPG.
I cringe any time someone adds "-borne" after Souls. As good as Bloodborne is, it's not a big enough departure to warrant adding to the genre name.
I feel like video game RPGs and tabletop RPGs are two very different things even at the start.
So first there were text adventure games, which was fair enough, I guess, but then they got graphics, so they just became "adventure games". When mice became a thing they could be "point and click adventure games, which is much better. But people still like to use the term "adventure game" or "action adventure game", but who on earth knows what you're talking about?
"I like adventure games"
oh, you mean Monkey Island, or Tomb Raider or Zelda...
"I like adventure games"
oh, you mean Monkey Island, or Tomb Raider or Zelda...
Tired:
- "Character action game" - Literally could describe every non-turn-based game with a character.
- "Immersive simulator" - Extremely vague and non descriptive; used by a small minority of people and will never catch on.
- "Walking simulator" - Sounds derisive but actually describes gameplay of these games perfectly. Has a fun ironic quality to it.
- "Looter shooter" - Catchy way to describe the now-prominent genre of shooters where the focus is to collect loot. Don't see a problem here.
Metroidvania makes sense when you dissect it a bit. It was coined (I believe) as "this Castlevania game plays a lot like Metroid" (in reference to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night): It's a game about exploring a massive labyrinth castle instead of a planet, but otherwise is very similar to Super Metroid: It's not linear, has upgrades you get scattered around the map (often guarded by bosses) that usually let you access new areas/open new doors, heavily emphasizes exploration and backtracking to acquire powerups once new abilities have been obtained, etc.
Confusingly, while all Metroid games are Metroidvanias (I think?), not all Castlevania games are. All of the linear Castlevania games pre-SOTN are not Metroidvanias.
These days the term "Metroidvania" gets used a little too often and its meaning is kind of diluted, I agree, but it DOES makes some sense when you look into it.
