These type of systems have been around forever, but it feels like they've really become much more standard in a bunch of adventure games these past 5 years or so. Think that's largely in part of massive games like BotW, FFXV, and Monster Hunter World using them extensively. It doesn't get a whole lot of discussion, so I assume most people are just ok with these systems.
I on the other hand, rarely if ever find enjoyment or reward in them, and generally dislike them. For a lot of reasons.
I know I can be compulsively specific with the way I play games (scouring every inch generally), but just the simple idea of timed buffs/status effects in this way annoy me. Many of the games these buffs are featured in are free form, but every game's rules are different. So I'm already irked about when the countdown is active.
For instance, I eat a meal before a big boss fight in Kakarot that gives me a lot of buffs. But then before I go fight the boss, there ends up being a lot of NPCs I want to talk to. Are my timed buffs being wasted while I'm talking to them? Or are they "paused". Is the timer even paused when the game is paused? In some games this is easier to tell than others (in Kakarot I still don't know), but regardless if the timer isn't paused with stuff like that, that's going to push me to rush through those types of conversations or other things.
Also because of the timed nature of them, it's hard to tell when the best time is to eat them. Should I just eat some random dishes when running around in BotW? Well that seems kind of like a waste in a lot of cases. Maybe I should eat right before a boss fight? Oh shit, I just walked into a boss fight and didn't realize it. Oh well, guess I'm never eating it. Then there's other weird shit like Monster Hunter, which from what I remember only allows you to eat a meal before a hunt. So I go through this trouble of making what I think is a good meal, only for the buffs to wear off 10 minutes into a hunt when I could be on it another 20 mins. It's hard to prepare around.
Building on that point, most of these systems have a ton or ingredients and a ton of recipes as well. So eventually, especially with my habits described before, I just end up with a TON of shit. Each making stuff that may be just incrementally better than another recipe, all while the base buffs themselves are generally incremental too. I end up not even wanting to go through the cooking process just to get a buff that I'm not even sure will make a difference or I'm unsure of when to use.
I dunno, like I said I'm sure some of this is a personal problem. These systems just aren't my jam. They're not enough to put me off of a game entirely. But I'm wondering if anyone else has similar hesitations towards these types of systems.
I'm really glad it brought us this though.
I on the other hand, rarely if ever find enjoyment or reward in them, and generally dislike them. For a lot of reasons.
I know I can be compulsively specific with the way I play games (scouring every inch generally), but just the simple idea of timed buffs/status effects in this way annoy me. Many of the games these buffs are featured in are free form, but every game's rules are different. So I'm already irked about when the countdown is active.
For instance, I eat a meal before a big boss fight in Kakarot that gives me a lot of buffs. But then before I go fight the boss, there ends up being a lot of NPCs I want to talk to. Are my timed buffs being wasted while I'm talking to them? Or are they "paused". Is the timer even paused when the game is paused? In some games this is easier to tell than others (in Kakarot I still don't know), but regardless if the timer isn't paused with stuff like that, that's going to push me to rush through those types of conversations or other things.
Also because of the timed nature of them, it's hard to tell when the best time is to eat them. Should I just eat some random dishes when running around in BotW? Well that seems kind of like a waste in a lot of cases. Maybe I should eat right before a boss fight? Oh shit, I just walked into a boss fight and didn't realize it. Oh well, guess I'm never eating it. Then there's other weird shit like Monster Hunter, which from what I remember only allows you to eat a meal before a hunt. So I go through this trouble of making what I think is a good meal, only for the buffs to wear off 10 minutes into a hunt when I could be on it another 20 mins. It's hard to prepare around.
Building on that point, most of these systems have a ton or ingredients and a ton of recipes as well. So eventually, especially with my habits described before, I just end up with a TON of shit. Each making stuff that may be just incrementally better than another recipe, all while the base buffs themselves are generally incremental too. I end up not even wanting to go through the cooking process just to get a buff that I'm not even sure will make a difference or I'm unsure of when to use.
I dunno, like I said I'm sure some of this is a personal problem. These systems just aren't my jam. They're not enough to put me off of a game entirely. But I'm wondering if anyone else has similar hesitations towards these types of systems.
I'm really glad it brought us this though.
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