Self-playing ‘games’

[fub]

When I saw that there was a mobile game coming out for Ni No Kuni (“Cross Worlds”), I was very excited. I have had so much fun with the two games, especially the second. The world-building, the visuals (Studio Ghibli was involved in the first game, and the visual style was kept) and the gameplay all made them stand-outs for me.

Yesterday was the launch, and while I didn’t have that much time to dive into it, I really liked what I saw when I started it up. There is an actual story line, and NPCs and almost everything is voiced. So much content, and it’s amazing to think that it is basically an MMORPG on a phone.

It is an action RPG, and that means that part of the screen is given over to the touch controls, which takes away the haptic feedback one relies on when pressing buttons on a controller. And since the screen is small, there is less ‘real estate’ to put things like quest markers and mini-maps on, and the battles can get quite hectic with visual effects, especially if there are multiple players battling.

The way the designers ‘solved’ this is to automate nearly everything. If you activate a quest, your PC will automatically walk to their destination. When you start a battle, your PC will keep fighting for as long as there are enemies and automatically use their skills when they are available.

This means that the game, essentially, plays itself. Gone is the exploration, checking every nook and cranny of the map to see what you find. Gone is the skill needed for the battles. This morning I did the five daily Swift Solutions quests by merely activating them one by one, and the game did all the work: it went where it needed to go, it battled the monsters it needed to battle. All I had to do was to accept the rewards and activate the next quest.

It looks gorgeous, and I really want to like it, but there’s just too little ‘game’ for me to get excited for.



I made a fresh-faced Witch to play with, but I think this is as far as she’ll you. Unfortunately.

Crossposted from my blog. Comment here or at the original post.

Comments

[andrewducker]

That's a huge shame! What a waste of gorgeous design.

[fub]

Yeah, it's baffling. Apparently there is a PC version of the game in preparation, which you probably could play with a keyboard or controller to make it more of a game. But I fear that will also have the auto-questing thing.

[andrewducker]

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2022/05/30/noony-nokuni