Have you ever looked at a game and didn’t quite pick up on what it was? Like it might have looked interesting, but you didn’t actually understand what the game was even about? Or maybe you’ve heard all the hype behind a game but thought it just looked way too boring or uninteresting to be worthy of all the hype it’s been given?
The great joy of games is the interactive element of them. It’s what sets them apart from just about every other medium there is. And because of that, just reading about or watching a game being played is so different from sitting down and playing the game yourself. And these games are some of the most prominent examples of that. It just won’t make sense until you try it for yourself.
Undertale is one of those games that you know is massive, but it’s pretty hard to understand why. What makes Undertale even harder to get into is the fact that it became a cultural phenomenon on the internet basically immediately after its release, and to penetrate it felt like you had to cut through layers of discussion to comprehend the game. Like it was some kind of endless ARG
Of course, you may also just play the game. It really is quite special. I stepped into it years after the fact, and refused to engage with all the online discussion because I would never give the game a chance otherwise. And it is genuinely one of the stronger examples of a game that is so painfully aware of what it is, down to the very idea of why combat even exists in games and what we accept as the default.
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One of Dragon’s Dogma ’s strongest selling points is something that in any other game would be seen as a glaring flaw. It does not have a single curated companion, with all of them organically created by other players for you to hire along your adventure. From the outside, it can be hard to understand why, exactly, this is seen as such a good thing.
And it won’t really make sense until you play it. Hiring these companions, Pawns they are called, feels so much more personal. They learn from their own masters, and that means they will act differently from any other Pawn you hire, even with the same class and inclination. I met a Pawn called Frog Nasty, and they terrified me in a way that only a deranged human mind can in a spur-of-the-moment decision. Frog Nasty would never find their way into a full game as a curated companion.
Just about every game from Team Ico (now GenDesign) are renowned. Ico forms the studio’s original namesake, while Shadow of the Colossus is often held in incredibly high regard. Even the studio’s most troubled game, The Last Guardian, is regarded as an exceptional game. But praise doesn’t really mean much without acting on it.
Words and videos can only go so far. It’s not until you have to guide Yorda yourself, until you have to plunge a blade into a Colossus yourself, until you have topainfully guide Trico yourself, that these games finally click. The weight of the controls, the barren areas in which you find yourself. It makes sense when you’re the one pushing the buttons.
There’s no point in acting like FromSoftware’s games are some unheard of, complex gems. They have been emulated ad nauseum, they are incredibly popular, and they are only still increasing in popularity. And while they can have some complex writing that really only makes sense when you experience it first-hand, it’s still fairly approachable from the outside.
No, it’s in Dark Souls 2 it gets more complex. There is a great reason that it is such a controversial game, simultaneously heralded as From’s best and worst game. Looking at it from outside, you would struggle to understand what’s even different. The combat and enemy design seems the same, the levels are made in a similar fashion. What’s the big deal? Except those opinions are anathema to the camps that both love and hate the game, and it takes playing it to really understandwhy.
Except Kingdom Hearts is so much more. It is incredibly earnest, and play with its Disney characters in ways that aren’t really seen anymore. And yes, it is priceless to see Final Fantasy characters interact with people like Mickey Mouse, even if some of it just feels like fanservice. Who are the people who wanted to see Mickey Mouse fight Sephiroth, I’ll never know. But it is hype moments and aura all around.
When Stranger of Paradise was announced, it was cast aside before it even had a chance to shine. It was treated like a meme from day one. A protagonist who looked incredibly generic, and was admitted by the developers to just be an incredibly, irredeemably angry man. It didn’t help that in its initial demo, the performance was very dodgy, and the graphics left quite a lot to be desired.
But seriously, Stranger of Paradise is one-of-a-kind. I am completely serious when I say Jack Garland is atop-tier Final Fantasy protagonist. As you play the game, the story will feel so disjointed, your companions will talk as if there’s something you’re already meant to know that’s never been said. And then, finally, it clicks. Not just for you, but for Jack as well. This journey is for both of you. So get out there and kill Chaos. It’s so very much worth it.
I am a glutton for grand strategy games. I simply adore them and their copious menus. I feel like I spend more time in them scrolling through menus and navigating the map learning values and locations than I do actually doing any specific task. And I get it. If you’ve never played a grand strategy game like Crusader Kings, it can seem impenetrable. I mean who plays a game just to juggle like 50 different menus?
But it’s about what those menus represent! When I figure out exactly where my armies are coming from, I know who I can effectively conquer. If I trawl through someone’s family tree, I can find their living descendants and put someone more amenable to me on a foreign throne instead. The menus give rise to roleplay opportunities. And sometimes that goes wrong. It’s not exactly exciting to look at, but it is obscenely enjoyable when you’re managing all those menus for your own goals.
PlatinumGames is known for itscharacter-action games. They are flashy and stylish, and also incredibly fun. The likes of Bayonetta can be incredibly punishing, but it is also more forgiving in terms of how you’re able to build combos, letting even the uninitiated get into these games. But then you also have The Wonderful 101, and that is a game that just visually does not make sense.
The Wonderful 101 is a character-action game. It is action-packed and exhilarating. And yet even with all that, it’s kind of impossible to look at it and actually comprehend what’s going on. There are literally hundreds of people running around on screen at once, it’s all from an isometric perspective, and you have to draw your weapons in real-time. Frankly, even playing the game will still have you struggling to click with it, but it’s not really like much else out there.
Death Stranding is about walking. If you’ve ever watched a trailer for Death Stranding, you have been misled on what the game is actually about. Those trailers ar basically the definition of hype moments and aura. Death Stranding actually has very few of those. You will be walking everywhere. You will be falling constantly. You will be damaging cargo. You will not be sneaking around and engaging in firefights. That is not what a porter does.
Even in Death Stranding 2 where the more action-oriented elements are pushed to the forefront, this is still first-and-foremost a walking game. The quintessential walking simulator. And I’ll be the firs to admit that just watching that is not fun. Walking is not fun to watch! But when you’re the one planning the journey, choosing what to bring with you, and being careful with literally every step you take, then you’ll get just how exciting and stressful Death Stranding can be. ‘Fun’ is not the be-all and end-all of game design.
