Notices by Calvin (calvin@cdrom.tokyo), page 4

@Pawlicker @lina @atlas_core @hj @coolboymew Maybe it will pick up with time. I think we’re still trying to figure out what to do with any federated service, to be honest. I’m not sure if it’s just that we haven’t struck the right set of features or we don’t have the right goal/aim.

@ChristiJunior @coolboymew I agree. I mentioned FPSes, because it didn’t seem as much an “FPS console” like PS2 and later Xbox were. But, that’s mostly just a perception issue, I guess.

@ChristiJunior @coolboymew The N64 was starved of a lot of conventional elements that were commonplace on other systems (JRPGs, RPGs in general, FPSes, Fighting Games, etc.), so it largely ran on the one thing it had a surplus of: genuine creativity and inspiring uniqueness.
Hopefully, the growing homebrew scene can help backfill some of those gaps. One of the brighter devs has been working on a full recreation of Portal for the 64 and is doing a phenomenal job. So, I’d say there’s some hope.

@coolboymew That’s partly why I’m fairly selective, since many of them are massive timesinks, whether it be the story, game mechanics, or both. So, it’s a matter of “is this worth it, to me?” Same with most games, honestly. Even 10-hour ones are not always worth playing, in general.
The experimentation part, though…I often don’t feel invited to experiment in many of those games. It’s either “demanded” of me or it feels more like a test that I have to pass or fail. That’s more a design philosophy and execution problem than a genre one, I think.

@coolboymew I was mostly thinking in terms of whether it was your stats that were the deciding factor in victory or the strategic application of what you had.
Some games utilize an element system or a “type” where one thing is explicitly weak or strong against another. Sometimes, bosses or monsters are weak against a certain spell or item and you wouldn’t know unless you talked to every villager and side character, experimented a lot, or read a guide online (or in paperback) and it could mean the difference between winning or losing (at least, at a reasonable level).
I’ve had some experiences where it clearly was the application of knowledge that meant I won the battle or not, but other times it would just come down to: are my total stats and such enough that I won’t lose even in a worst-case scenario. So, basically grinding. A good example is the worm battle early-ish into Lost Odyssey. It’s damn near impossible to get through on a first try and you have to do a fair bit of grinding beforehand and make sure you play smart.

I’m mainly talking about the standout negatives, more so than just common features in every encounter in every game. But, it bugs me more because I keep wondering if I could have overcome that through skill, if I had been given the chance. Idk. Mostly just venting and sharing stuff, at this point. Not really countering any point you made.

@coolboymew I’ve never been a huge fan of turn-based JRPGs, because they require and utilize zero hands-on skill or ability from the player, while also being very unintuitive or highly random (meaning strategy is dependent on elements that most people would need to look at a guide to know how to use, or that even exist, or it’s heavily dependent on RNG).
Some of the Tales of games have a nice balance of the type of combat environment that turn-based JRPGs have and a somewhat skill-based combat system.
Another one that really surprised me was Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones. Still some RNG, but a really solid strategy combat system: very simple, but robust and allowing player’s understanding and intuition+logic to have a large sway over the chances of victory or defeat.
But, I digress. My point was that I favor other qualities than just “stragerty” in games, so I’m not sure how much that summation of DQ1 would dissuade me from it. And that I find many other JRPGs wind up being distilled to the same thing, but with unnecessary complications that give the illusion of “depth” and nuance. Just like readable “lore entries,” game devs often forget that a complex system is not always worth investing in or even engaging with in a meaningful way for players (and, consequently, for developers, as well).

@coolboymew

The big issue with Quest 64 is that the game feels severely unfinished.

That might have been what he was talking about fixing.

There’s a reason why 1 party member JRPG doesn’t exist anymore and haven’t for decades, because or else it’s just a pure stat game, it’s pointless

Huh. I’ll have to think about that. You’re saying that JRPGs solely revolve around strategy elements and, thus, taking away the mixed element of having multiple party members breaks that? Or something else?

@coolboymew There was an N64 dev that acted as a judge in one of the last N64 Homebrew Game Jams and he was asked “which game for the N64 would you like to remake?” And his answer was Quest 64, saying, “there’s just something about that game. I don’t know what it is.” I think the forest is the farthest I went, too. But, I agree with him. It would be nice to fix that game up a little or something.

@coolboymew I’ll have to try that, next time I get the motivation to play. I’m not sure what the farthest I got was, since I only rented it from a video rental store a couple decades ago. I’ll probably just do an emulator until I finally decide to buy it. Lol
Gotta get those physical copies!

@coolboymew I’ll credit this game with why I don’t do drugs, then. Lol
Love you. Quest 64. Someday, I’ll finish you

@coolboymew A long while back, my mom and I took a chance on a movie called The Guilt Trip with Seth and Barbara Streisand…it not only didn’t suck, but was one of the only movies where Seth actually played a somewhat decent person. If I had to pick one movie he’s in that was worth watching, it’d be this one. Also helps a lot that he didn’t write or direct it.

@MaleGoddess @mmmfeet That would have been the actual proof of anything. Also, they have a black manlet versus a white chad (tall, handsome, good fashion and hair), so that definitely makes a difference, especially with the women.