/v/ - Video Games

I appreciate the effort when developers write up extra back story like that. The first Mass Effect did this really well, adding a bunch of small details and some cool scientific data about the game universe.

Bestiaries used to be my shit. I would spend more time reading through all the descriptions of items and monsters than I would playing the actual game.

Lately that sense of discovery has been muted. I don't enjoy them as much as I used to, but I still appreciate their presence.

The autopsies from Eternal Darkness are bloody amazing. That's mainly due to the character that narrates them though.

I like encyclopedias in vidya, it gives me something else to complete and also sheds light on the lore. It helps give games character, which is pretty lacking in todays industry.

>>14270209

Might as well embed.

Realizing that every book can be read is one of the magical feelings of playing an ElderScrolls game for the first time. Short books or articles that give advice in a game can be a great way to teach or expand the story without a tutorial or exposition dump.

Mass effect had a fully voiced codex that was expanded the furthe you got and to which you could listen while doing other tasks. I forgot if the sequels had one and I don't feel like checking.

Pikmin 2's Piklopedia and Treasure Hoard are pretty great. In addition to Olimar's thoughts on each enemy and item, the Treasure Hoard has the ship's sales pitch, and the Piklopedia has unlockable recipes for the enemies.

>>14270140

It doesn't help that, aside from recipes/titles that require them, the only relevant codes are elemental codes (for making enemies/your weapon elemental), stone/metal codes (for making enemies/your weapon strong), and ill codes (for making your enemies/weapons shit). I know its a DS game and not terribly complex (and Judgement Link is too over powered) but it would have been nice if the brown or purple codes were used for changing enemy behaviors or other personality traits. Too bad it will never get a sequel and the developers are consistently trapped in mobile hell.

>>14270280

Even the cheaty joke units had good descriptions, too

>>14270276

Here's my wishlist for Avalon Code improvements (since we'll never have a thread about it and I'm probably not going to make a video or article about it)

>If I had to pick between Judgement Link as a mechanic, or staring at rocks as a mechanic, I'd pick staring at rocks. Having both on the same button is a terrible fucking idea.

>My personality code altering idea. I think it would be amusing if, like in real life, gold made things weaker too.

>I'd do a spiritual sequel rather than an actual one. Probably would also have a rival character with a different but similar book, rival battles with somebody on your level are sweet as hell.

>>14270365

Judgement Link is just really questionable as a mechanic. Instead of going in to combat and getting basically nothing but maybe some points for your book, Judgment Link

>Takes you out of battle and pauses everything after a little bit (which is just enough time to still fuck you up at first)

>Gives you healing and money

>Not only gives you the usual points for killing more enemies, but gives you points for getting a higher score

The only reason you wouldn't want to use Judgement Link is because Judgement Link is really boring and has kind of obnoxious music, or if you really wanted to use the kind of shallow combat (which is more interesting than Judgment Link). Even having a few basic combos with the weapons could be interesting. One weapon type could even get enemies in the air so you could juggle them yourself. Maybe you could make one weapon type stun before you can launch them. It would give you a reason to use anything other than two of the most powerful weapon of your preferred type in both hands. Doesn't need to be great, just competent.

>>14270451

Yeah, I'll admit it needed some work. And as for Judgment Link, I mainly wound up using it to restore MP on the go so I could use other things as need be.

>>14270482

That's fair, you're less autistic than me, hah. The fact that managing code takes MP is a little questionable, but since that's kind of a big deal I'm not sure I mind it having a cost. Now that I think of it, some non-screen-clearing magic would be fun to toy with. Since modern handhelds have a D-pad and a stick, the stick can be used for movement while the D-pad has four elemental spell options on it.

>>14269782

It's pretty useful for things like that, but utterly worthless when used to explain the majority story or background in an insane "Read not tell" approach, fuck you FF13.

>>14270280

AoM encyclopedia was comfy as fuck, I literally spent entire afternoons reading it when I was a kid

>>14271751

Haven't played Xenosaga myself yet. Did 2 have a smaller one in comparison, or somehow have none at all?

>>14271965

>Implying the anime works quite like the games

Of course, I have no clue how closely the western Pokedex entries follow the Japanese ones, so maybe that was something the western RBY team came up with that stuck around.

>>14272008

There is no Vulpix with a single white tail in the games either.

These are my favorite parts of games if done well.

Pharaoh had descriptions of Ancient Egypt. It was accurate historically too.

Jagged Alliance 2 had a story for every mercenary. And in fact they had an effect on gameplay as well - for example certain mercenaries would dislike some others, or get drunk and lose stats.

>>14269853

Pokedex sucks - it's full of lies and shit that doesn't affect gameplay or even contradicts it.

>>14270280

I've actually learned a lot of mythology from it. Very nice.

>>14269782

I really love games with in-game encyclopedias, especially RPGs.

It's an easier way for devs to immerse the player in the world/lore they created.

Even simple things like monster descriptions are good enough for me.

The in-depth ones like in those RTS games like AoM and AoE2 got me interested in reading about the real thing.

>>14275553

>I really love games with in-game encyclopedias, especially RPGs.

>It's an easier way for devs to immerse the player in the world/lore they created.

>Series starts out as a single individual game.

>No bestiary, doesn't even have ingame names for the monsters fought or attacks done (for better or worse; the "what the fuck is that? What is it casting?" factor can help), but does have item descriptions and portraits that go beyond what the item simply does.

>Next game adds not only names but also a bestiary and an actual "item book" so to speak, allowing you to read back on items you may no longer have in the inventory.

>Sequel to that adds an NPC database on top of the others to provide more information about characters met, playable characters now have descriptions in their status screens, and keeps all the above.

>Final game in series has everything the prior game did.

>The descriptions for recurring items/equipment/characters actually vary from game to game in description and portrait rather than being copypasta of the prior one.

>At the same time, the above are generally optional, but there if the player so desires to learn more about the series' world.

>>14275662

Except these days you're lucky to even get a physical manual with your game outside of an even more expensive CE (though I think most of those these days, if they have a printed book, are just an artbook or walkthrough, and leave what manual there is to be digital), assume the game even sees a physical release at all, even if you were to buy a CE ("Game not included").

Brigador has a good one. But that's because because there's where all the LORE is.

>>14275790

Prism just so happens to be the hands down best agrav. Good choice.