Ask Meta-Knight

Winters Thief Zero wrote:Would you like to play more Mario games?

Yep, there are quite a few of them I'd like to get someday but haven't had the time or money to look for. Galaxy 1, the very first NES game, 3D World, at least one Mario Party game, Paper Mario, and Super Mario RPG are top priority.

Never played most of the others, but Paper Mario 1 is great, you should really play it sometime.
What do you think of Great Cave Offensive in Super Star?

Nessness wrote:Never played most of the others, but Paper Mario 1 is great, you should really play it sometime.
What do you think of Great Cave Offensive in Super Star?

It's a fun sub-game, I like how it isn't simply "move from start to the goal", and how it encourages exploring. I love spending time exploring areas and looking for items, especially if it takes longer than two hours to finish. I like how you needed different copy abilities to get certain treasures, it made things a lot more interesting. Nicely designed areas and fitting music helped too.

To you what's the most interesting part of game design?

Snanta wrote:To you what's the most interesting part of game design?

I've only designed one game that took half a year on my own, so I'm not that experienced yet, but so far I'd have to say that coming up with the idea for the game is the most fun part. There are just so many possibilities (it isn't if you work with it, though), and so much potential for all the crazy stories or quirky designs you can come up with.

Are you planning to buy Fire Emblem Fates near launch?

Frost Thief Zero wrote:Are you planning to buy Fire Emblem Fates near launch?

Most likely, at least Conquest. It depends on how expensive it is. I'm mostly getting the games to complain about modern Fire Emblem's flaws (and because they may be fun to play), so I won't pay too much to get a copy around release.

Hm, I'm curious then, I know you've mentioned them before, but what do you think is the biggest flaw with recent Fire Emblem games?

Zero Revolution wrote:Hm, I'm curious then, I know you've mentioned them before, but what do you think is the biggest flaw with recent Fire Emblem games?

What I find the most aggravating, insufferable, unexcusable flaw with recent Fire Emblem games is the player worshipping due to the avatar character. I'm not opposed to NPCs in video games praising the avatar character, but it has to be for a good reason. You save the world? Let the NPCs stutter in awe when you look in their direction. You save the a beloved king of a country from being assassinated by bad guys? Let the monarchy lovers love you. You selflessly help everyone you meet? Let the common people praise you. But player worshipping can easily go too far. Fire Emblem isn't good at handling it. The three avatars - Kris, Robin and Kamui - are beloved and praised by most of the cast almost all the time. Even when they do bad or questionable things. As an example, Awakening's Robin. I didn't consider Robin an avatar character when I played - good avatars are difficult to make, but Robin felt like a mix between an avatar and a pre-determined character. The same can be said for Kris and to a lesser extent Kamui too, but I couldn't identify with Robin at all. But back to the topic, Robin does some questionable things without being called out for it by anyone. For example, burning a whole enemy fleet alive in chapter 14 (I think). It's true that they're enemies and would have killed Robin's gang if they hadn't been killed first, but no one questions the morality of the act and instead praise Robin for his brilliant tactical tactics. Especially since chapter 10 tried to show that not all enemy soldiers are evil mooks who exist only to be evil. Had they been Grima cultists maybe it would have been easier to accept, but burning a whole army alive without being called out for it bothers me a lot. One of the two possible endings is a good example too. If you choose not to sacrifice yourself/Robin, they choose to simply seal Grima for a few thousand years (or something), pushing the problem to a future generation possibly killing thousands and maybe even dooming the world just so the wonderful beloved Robin doesn't have to die. It's the needs of the few vs the needs of the many which could be handled well, but it just feels cheap. Not that the other ending is much better, with everyone in the army talking about how great you were after you sacrifice yourself. No one even cares if any other unit dies, but Robin is just so special. There's so much praising Robin and so little questioning less than morally perfect actions, I can't take the game seriously. You can play the game as an evil murderer sacrificing units to win battles, and you're still praised as a brilliant tactician who values survival and friendship above everything. A game can have player worshipping, but make them deserve it. Work hard and do good stuff and people will like you, be a jerk and do questionable things and they will call you out for it. Dragon Age: Origins handles that wonderfully for example, but IS just can't seem to handle it decently.

I got off-topic, but yes, the player worshipping. I can barely stand it. It's not the only problem, but I find it the most jarring.
I'm going to regret this rant tomorrow.

So now that it's been awhile, did you actually end up regretting that rant?

Zero Revolution wrote:So now that it's been awhile, did you actually end up regretting that rant?

Actually no, because my opinions haven't changed a bit since I wrote it. I do wish I could have written it a bit better.

It was pretty well-written, don't worry about it. ^^ Personally I really don't find it to be a major issue but I get where you're coming from.

How much of Xenoblade X have you played?

Zero Revolution wrote:How much of Xenoblade X have you played?

About 95 hours, I'm about to start chapter 12 after doing some affinity missions. I could have played it even more, but I want to vary what I play and avoid beating it too quickly.

Are there any games that you want to like, but for whatever reason can't?