Video Game Logic

[TheDarkOne]

Here's another one relating to Resident Evil. When you find certain keys, your map automatically changes to show which door that key will open. Oh, and when you have unlocked all the doors you can with said key, somehow you automatically know that "this key is useless now" and you can "discard" it. Really, it's so nice to be clairvoyant enough to know when no more doors can be unlocked by a certain key.

[TheDarkOne]

Another one I've noticed when playing some old-school stuff. The classic game Elevator Action is an awesome game and a format that isn't used much. Here is my only issue with it: sometimes when you enter a red door to retrieve whatever documents you are after, you will exit the room only to have one of the enemy agents come out right behind you. It seems to me if he was in the room when you entered, either you or he would have been shot. Even if he was hiding, he still would have tried to kill you while in the room, since that is precisely what he tries to do after you both leave the roon.

[King Aquamentus]

Maybe your character shot out the light in the room and is now being chased?

[TheDarkOne]

I think he would need to be able to see in order to collect the documents he was after.

Final Fantasy VI..does this strike anyone else as odd? (SPOILER ALERT) Terra was taken by the Empire as a baby, so was likely raised to believe in the Empire and its rule. So then why do they have to use a "slave crown" to make her do their bidding? Would she not work for the Empire of her own free will, being that it was what she believed was right?

[CJC]

To some extent, yes, but unlike the mage knight Celes her power was not one that the empire designed and so it was inherently unstable. Also, both Celes and Cid were raised in the Empire and both railed against the authority. It is possible that as Terra grew into her powers she saw the corruption and attacked (I seem to recall the opening mention her as the witch that burned some soldiers), only to lose her memory of the whole situation after being subjected to the slave crown.

[TheDarkOne]

I think she did that AFTER being subjected to the Slave Crown, to test her powers. Or, as you said, she could have lost control of her powers and killed those 50 soldiers, hence the Slave Crown. I hadn't thought of it that way.

From the same game, Celes was a general and high-ranking in the Imperial army, but she then changes her mind and defects, but it is never fully explained WHY she changed. It is only said that she "realized the war was stupid." She was fighting in this war, so what happened that made her see the stupidity of it? Why is this never explained?

[CJC]

(Man, I really need to play 6 again)
Perhaps Celes turned away as the emperor put more and more faith into his newest general Kefka. The man was clearly insane; his actions even drove General Leo to defect (though it didn't work out so well for Leo) after that fiasco with the Espers. Seeing something you believe in fall to the madness of a charismatic lunatic can be pretty jarring, to the point where death seems the preferable option.

I don't know, though. It sort of feels like the plot started as a story about a magical amnesiac but Terra didn't have any romantic prospects, so they redirected to another lead. I mean romantic prospects in both senses: an interpersonal relationship with someone who literally knows nothing about the world or her past is inappropriate and the tension of knowing nothing is shattered as soon as the character learns her past; there's just not a lot of room there to be dynamic as a protagonist.
Conversely, Celes presented several avenues of literary growth; she walked the road of seeing the corruption behind something she believed in, suffered the catastrophic grief of knowing that her actions directly lead to the destruction of the world, and carried the weight of knowing the man she had feelings for was using her as a surrogate for his dead fiance. She's an incredibly deep character and perhaps the writers felt that supplying more details of her past before the defection would rob the audience of making their own leaps. It's a parabolic correlation, where too few or too many details generate disinterest in the audience.



Changing the subject, in the Sega Genesis version of the Jurassic Park game you can play as a raptor, but the raptor is specifically hunting Doctor Grant. There are literally DOZENS of guards in the game (which, by the way, doesn't make sense because the island was evacuated in anticipation of the incoming tropical storm) but none of them are good enough to eat. No, it has to be Doctor Grant. ...Why?

[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

[TheDarkOne]

Changing the subject, in the Sega Genesis version of the Jurassic Park game you can play as a raptor, but the raptor is specifically hunting Doctor Grant. There are literally DOZENS of guards in the game (which, by the way, doesn't make sense because the island was evacuated in anticipation of the incoming tropical storm) but none of them are good enough to eat. No, it has to be Doctor Grant. ...Why?

I think it has to do with trying to keep the game going. After all, if the raptor just ate a bunch of those guards, then she (remember, they were all females) would not be as hungry and would have no reason to pursue Dr. Grant. Unless the raptor is pursuing him out of some sort of malice, but very few animals--even highly intelligent ones--are ever motivated to attacking just because of that.

[rock_nog]

Here's one from virtually any Star Wars game - any enemy taking multiple hits with a lightsaber to kill. I mean, we establish right at the beginning of "A New Hope" that a lightsaber can cut through virtually anything - Obi Wan takes a dude's arm off with a single swing. I'll ignore the fact that anyone hit with a lightsaber should fall to the ground in pieces, because PG after all, but it gets really ridiculous when a guy can take several hits and still be standing. I get it, in a few cases, there are things like cortosis armor, which can deflect lightsaber blows (though even then, it's supposed to completely shut off the beam, not simply be more resistant). But you know, take, say, Jedi Academy - a dude a garish costume advertising his ability levels doesn't automatically have lightsaber protection just because he has a lightsaber himself. He can block, sure, but one hit should be the end of it. Of course, I guess that applies to the player, as well, though at least you can have the half-cocked excuse of wearing a shield belt. But seriously though, I'd love to see a game where a single blow just shreds through most enemies.

On a related note, what's the deal with having a lightsaber and needing to look for a key? There needs to be a game where if you come to a locked door, you can just cut a hole on it and pass through like it's no big deal. Really, ultimately what I think I'd like is a Star Wars game with a truly realistic lightsaber - where you can hack off arms and legs like butter, and where if something blocks your way, you can just slice through it. I realize it'd be incredibly unbalanced, but I dunno, I just feel like the games suck at conveying how powerful those weapons really are.