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[PA Comic] Friday, January 25, 2013 - Chest Intentions
Geth
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
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Whenever I see these I think, fuck it, one more chest I'm never going to open.
The Mimic Job from FF5 is an example I can think of off the top of my head.
I love the Lego games, but this is entirely how they work and it is super frustrating. Starting a game and being surrounded by a bunch of things that you can't access until you've acquired every skill does encourage you to go back and play through a second time, but it prods the parts of my brain that get really frustrated at having to run past a load of things I want to access.
See: http://namcobandaigames.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=13045&sid=a0cb9893db70b894b9f7d4a473764774&start=250
F*ck Namco Bandai and especially Digital River. Shady and unprofessional doesn't begin to describe this mess.
It's a kind of backtracking I don't necessarily mind, but if the game is frustrating in any way it's just making me play more of it to complete it.
kingworkscreative.com
kingworkscreative.blogspot.com
With Legend of Zelda it's different. Because it's probably a heart piece or ammo upgrade or something, and by the time I have the upgrade needed to access the chest, I will have forgotten its existence.
I look at those chests/items and immediately know that I'm leaving that man behind; unless something brings me back to that area of the game.
"Locktease" has my full support :^: ; I motion to super approve the new phrase in all of its current and future applicable use.
On a side note, Ni No Kuni is part of the reason I finally pulled the trigger on getting a PS3 this holiday season and am looking forward to immerse myself in its world very soon.
I haven't played the Lego games, but that's a very important aspect. The absolute worst is when you're not sure, so you spend 20 minutes trying to get to a chest before you realize that you can't. Or you assume you can't and come back later to realize you could have and man that reward would have been nice back when I was here the first time.
Plus, with the Lego games, you always know that whatever it is, it'll be something you want. No coming back to find out it's 50 gold when you already have 10,000, or a piece of random junk equipment worse than what you already have.
EVERYBODY WANTS TO SIT IN THE BIG CHAIR, MEG!
See, I'm too much of a literalist. I see that chest with a silver 50 on it, and I get stuck trying to work out the mechanics. How long does it take to insert all those keys? How can 50 keyholes fit on this one chest? The keys must all be identical, since it doesn't matter what order you get them in, so why can't I just use one key and unlock all 50 locks? Do I have to somehow turn all 50 keys at once? What the hell is going on here?
I mean, I'm sure the answer is just "it's magic, dumbass," but I still can't help trying to figure it out.
your = belonging to you
their = belonging to them
there = not here
they're = they are
Hellball was my go-to "Open every chest in this room" spell.
I can only recall playing one game in which high-explosives were considered an acceptable substitute for a key: Crusader: No Remorse .
The moment I discovered this mechanic is one of my all time favorite moments in gaming.
especially the lego LoTR game. you essentially have to beat the entire game before you can actually start beating the game.
That ONE shard!
I think that's always been kind of the way though. Lego games are considered easy because you can't die, but they're only easy if you consider seeing the end credits to be beating the game. For me, I don't consider it beat until 100%, and that is not an easy task. I never minded having to return to levels because just playing each level once would have felt hollow in those particular games. Lego games aren't about the destination, they're about relaxing as you collect.
Someone notify JonTron. I think I've discovered the spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie.
Sure, I just think that if you know you're going to give me an axe or whatever, you should plan on a more logical means of keeping loot away from me than a series of flimsy wooden chests.
Ha, funny, my problem with those chests was that there was never anything worthwhile in them since the best weapons all came from shops and quests. You'd pop out some nifty sword with a cool backstory and then never use the thing because it did way less damage than what you had already.
Gearhead is a neat little indie freeware RPG based largely on mech combat, but with lots of on-foot adventuring as well. It has a dedicated lockpicking skill, but to my everlasting joy one can purchase a laser cannon or a bazooka from a weapon shop and just wreck every door they see.
This is the same game where I once failed a mission, and almost died, because my plasma rifle set the carpet on fire and the resulting inferno cut me off from the building's exit. I had to wait until a nearby wall burned through, then run out through the flames while my armor burned.
I support opening of locked chests with a weapon by bashing at it. But only if it can also have negative consequences, such as the chest is open and inside is a bunch of broken glass and rapidly dissapearing into floor cracks potion of awesome.
@Smrtnik --that's the best and most horrible thing a DM can do--fill a chest with healing potions that weren't packed very carefully, and wait for the party to smash it.
Yeah, but they were also counting upon the fact that no sane person would just sit there and loudly bang on the thing for ten straight minutes, for fear of alerting everyone in the building. But I'm not sane, I'm an RPG protagonist. I've already killed everyone in the building, and if banging on the chest with an axe still somehow makes guards appear, I'll do it even more so I can kill the guards for their pocket change.
Again, I have to state that I love these games, but yeah that's been ticking away at the back of my mind while we've been playing Lego LotR. The previous ones at least kind of let you go back and pick up stuff as you go through, so you feel like you've got a secondary progress bar creeping up under your first one. But LotR just keeps near enough everything until the very end, and that's been setting me off something fierce.