Video Game Logic

[Xyvol]

Something that's always bothered me about video games and particularly RPGs is the fact that the world is coming to an end, but all of the magic McGuffins you need to stop it are conveniently located within the same country or--if not--tucked tidily in the center of some ancient ruin. The magic nya-nya is never accidentally buried in somebody's backyard or dropped in the ocean or something.

In Ultima IV, there are three items that are require a ship so you can recover them from under the waves. Of course, this is as simple as going to the location and choosing "search." Then again, the stones you need in the same game are all in dungeons, which are kinda like ancient ruins.

So how about Final Fantasy in general? Ever notice that the towns you visit always have better equipment (weapons, armor, accessories) than the towns before it? And if an upcoming boss has a specific elemental weakness, a weapon that can exploit that weakness is available to either find or purchase before you fight said boss. You might as well just have the boss hand you a weapon and say "this is the weapon that is most effective against me."

But the shopkeep needs to sell it to you for 500,000 gp, then retire to his own private island. After the world is saved, of course! You should check this out, if you haven't seen it already.

Doom - or really a lot of early FPS games - the levels just tended to be a bunch of random mazes,

This is pretty much true for most dungeons in RPG games. In reality, a castle's dungeon would be it's jail. Cells, torture devices, the works. In games, they are long winding labyrinths of corridors and rooms. May or may not contain dragons.

Wall turkeys. Honestly.

Homage