Kings Quest: A Knight to Remember review

Disclaimer: So before I start this review, I'm going to get it out of the way that I am not a big fan of adventure games, or more specifically, old school PC adventure games that were mostly of the point and click style. Pre-school stuff I had as a kid aside, the only one I think I've ever played and enjoyed was Inherit The Earth, which was alright. Of course I never exactly wanted them to die down like they seem to have, but these games just aren't for me. Even the newer format that has been molded and kept by Telltales many series, and Dontnod's Life is Strange series has felt kind of mediocre. So take my review as a grain of salt since I just don't typically like these kind of games, and I am no expert. I also haven't touched the old series this game is based on, and I don't know how a nostalgic fan would react to its changes. Now that that's done, lets get on with the review.

Once upon a time...

The first episode in a 5 part series begins with a very elderly king Graham telling a story to his granddaughter, Gwendolyn. The story (and game) is all about re-collecting the events that lead him to inherit the kingdom of Daventry. You'll start off wandering around a cave which turns out to host one of the more dangerous moments in the game: snatching a magical mirror from a dragon. Little context is given because, as custom for any wacky adventure told by an elder, the best stories are told out of order. Afterwards, you'll get a glimpse at present day Daventry before being taken back in by past events. The 2nd major piece of the game (and 70% of the experience really) takes place before your mirror snatching. Young Graham has just found himself arriving in Daventry for a chance to become a knight. Unfortunately, things already don't look so good when it becomes clear you're late. Things only get worse. With budget cuts, bridge trolls lifting the bridges for a strike, clumsy knights that love reciting rules more so than being useful, and angry wolves, you'll find the kingdom has seen better days. Regardless, you'll still be up against 4 major tournament challenges competing up against many other contestants, each possessing an ability that appears more intimidating than what your character is cut out for. Only one can become a knight, and earn a spot in front of the fading yet still powerful King Edward.

I had some doubts about an out of order, and episodic story at first. Thankfully, no fear was valid. Its actually really clever in how things are done. You have an exciting prologue, but one still handled in a way that carefully pulls you in and prevents many mistakes through the setting of a tight cave. Things that happen later will also get eerily explained by things you notice in the past, if that makes any sense at all. However the fact of the matter is, the story in just the whole game is just really good. The meta-story vibe gives off a nice fairy tale vibe, and gives room to a smaller outer story and conflict going on. The way King Graham remembers his story, and his actions within it, help teach and inspire Gwendolyn in her own contest. Meanwhile the casting is full of great talent and voices. I don't keep up with actors and celebrities very well, but for those that do know the names better there's Wallace Shawn, Josh Keaton, Zelda Williams, Tom Kenny (actually one I did instantly recognize: the 2nd voice of Spyro, and rabbit from 2011's winnie the pooh. Most of the internet will know him as Adventure Time's Ice king), and Christopher Lloyd who is the main voice as the elderly King Graham. Even those that I couldn't find a quick name to, like the guardsmen, or Acorn, had very familiar and great voices. Every character had a very distinct presence, from their amazing acting, to their well written lines, or of course their eccentric traits. The story is perfectly set to create a lot of great laughs, some heart felt moments, and yet leave you curious enough to go right back in it again to see if you missed anything. There's also a ton of great puns in there for good measure, the title is far from the only one. The conclusion to episode 1 wraps up perfectly, with a satisfying ending to the short term events on the game, yet a nice little cliff hangar on the end of the meta-story.

The very first thing that'll meet and delight your eyes in this game though is the art. I don't even want to call it graphics, I want to describe it as traditional animation, art, or 80-early 2000's disney-esque. At first glance, you think its another cell shaded game where bright colors, bold lines, and stylized feeling make up the visuals. However there's just something off about it that puts it beyond what we call "cell shading". There's a certain drawing feel here, and everything from the way the characters are physically designed, to the way they move make the game feel more like you're watching some kind of hand-drawn 2D animation that inflated itself into 3D CGI. That's because you partially are seeing 2D drawing at work, as the artistis have used a form of rotoscoping to put traditional art over top of 3D modeled characters. Heck sometimes the 2D art is just slapped right into the world, with hand drawn distant sky boxes greeting you as you gaze at distant mountains. Its a work of art in motion. Even occasional clipping that typically occurs in games like this, doesn't distract from how wonderful it all looks. Oh and the music is good to, but... kind of a little safe and what you'd expect with the given style. The music is at its best when its literally working with a cut-scene, as in foot steps triggering an instrument. Nothing too notable or memorable, it just works out alright for immersion.

WOW! wait... I mean, uh oh.

Of course, the more important thing might be how the game plays. Sort of.... I mean, is gameplay actually that important to story adventure fans? Okay that awkward question aside, King's Quest sort of follows its own path by going in between past and present adventure titles. The game has you in direct control of your character and actions like a modern day Telltale game, and also gives you a feeling of choices and consequences in the world you're a part of. However unlike those games, the choices don't come from babbling with NPCs and getting some corny "this guy will remember that" moral feedback. Instead the game's gameplay is ran by action, and the dialogue is merely there to progress that action or get advice by it. In that way you might consider it a step closer to old-school gameplay. In fact this also ties in to the genius choice system, which is themed around attitude and action rather than good/evil. Your morals run on 3 things: Kindness, wit, and strength. These actions influence character dialogue, future events, and even Gwendolyn. Sometimes the way you make choices aren't even obvious in terms of normal game logic, rather you really look and think about your possibilities, and when put into motion they're surprisingly fluid and believable things a person of that attitude would have done. Nothing is exactly right or wrong, instead its just about how you choose to solve problems. This also helps define who your character actually is, as its all about the moment and real decision rather than what you simply intended or thought to become. I went in aiming for wit, but ended up with kindness, and yet also somehow had the blacksmith (who encourages strength) telling me how great of a knight I would be. There's also a clever little bit in the story that changes if you went in expecting certain moral results, and came out with another.

Unlike older adventure games (or even some more modern ones), there's no super contrived illogical puzzles, and you wont find yourself stumped over silly things. Well at least aside from one weird pattern memory game, which sort of comes out of nowhere. The game works in ways that just make sense. You'll face problems like trying to cross dark woods, so you need to put together a light, starting with the discovery that a shop has a lit candle. ...Or, you'll race up against a brainy character who wants to hypnotize you with potions before a challenging board game. So you need to find a way to fix his potions ahead of the match, and then beat him at the board game. Its all very simple, and largely helped by a very quick and easy inventory system. Walk up against something, press square, get the item, and you'll have your response. It also helps that the screen zooms on the thing your inventory will focused on when you open it. If you at all find yourself dying or losing, you're almost rewarded for it with a hilarious dialogue line from the narrators ("uh... wait, no. I'm remembering this wrong"), or sometimes a new cut-scene that'll try and spin you back into a loop before you lost. That isn't to say you'll always feel great for feeling lost, stuck, or losing. Besides the obvious lack of progression, there's a repetition to it, because you actually have to endure the cut-scenes over and over and over again if you're not doing things right. Sadly there's no skip. If you were just experimenting to see different results, or just waiting for that "ah-ha moment", or simply coming back from a gamer over screen, you'll be tasked to see things over again and there's no way to skip them. I understand these games are heavy on story, but at the same time it felt like a heavy flaw that I had to sit through and watch the some of the scenes as much as I did all around one time just because there's no skip command.

Dark? Simple, find a lantern

 Like the story, even the length isn't disturbed by the episodic format. It takes probably around 5-8 hours, depending on how good you are with your choices, moving in the world, and puzzle solving. Then you can go back and do it all again for a different path, or two, or three. For $10, I think the first episode offers a lot on its own.

Verdict & Closing notes

I'm really glad I took a chance on this game. It essentially the video game way of doing a fairy tale, and that's two of my favorite things I never expected to see cross. In just one episode it tells a great tale on how some boy one day comes to a crumbling kingdom, beats the odds and all the strength of his opponents, and becomes a knight. Meanwhile there's a fascinating plots going around that leaving more depth, details, and question than just that simple but well told story. If the continuing episodes are as good as this game was, with the incredible voice acting, the clever writing, the interesting choices you make by action rather than word, and the perfect type of logical puzzles, then I am indeed ready for more. In many ways I kept comparing this game to one of my favorite movies: The Princess's Bride. ...and its not just because Wallace Shawn's character is strangely similar to the one he played in the film (though that does help justify the comparison). Its because its a great light-hearted fairy tale story that brings out emotions of joy, laughter, and a sense of adventure all at once in a great fantasy setting. If that interests you, then its well worth the given price (for the single episode at least), and I hope the rest of the series can live up to the great introduction. A knight to Remember is truly worth remembering, and it stands as the most fun I've had with an adventure game. For once, I'm truly excited for an episodic game.

Just wonderful!

Back-up text score

Score: Awesome

Pros:

+  Stellar visual quality that justifies rotoscoping in gaming, and builds a beautifully animated world

+ Perfect voice casting where every character is pleasant to hear.

+ A well written story that gives you a good lengthy tale, and wraps it up neatly before the credits. It'll leave you wanting more, but in a good way.

+ Adventure gameplay that is kept simple, but fun. Puzzles are done just right.

Cons:

-No skipping past cut-scenes.

Journey Review

So I've been meaning to actually review this for a long time. It feels like its been quite a while since Journey released as well, though it was really just 3 years ago. I remember back when all there was were just two trailers for it, and a distant release window, and I just thought to myself upon seeing it for the first time "wow, this is going to be something special." This was before the main hype built up for it, before the massive critic acclaim, before Journey stayed on top of PSN's digital sales for half a year, and before it was well regarded as basically an instant classic. My original idea that this was simply going to be a fantastic special little game to look forward to, was an understatement. I still remember the excitement of downloading this game on the night of its release, waiting patiently on it, brewing a special cup of tea to suit a good mood, and then making sure nothing would bother me as I loaded it up, and 2 hours later it proved itself well beyond my expectations and left me in emotional tears. The high praise was a shared opinion with the majority of other players, as countless other wonderful stories, and high recommendations came pouring in from gamers on the internet. Well that, and it was the first thing my friend at school was all hyped up about the next day. With discussions on it lasting, and it seemingly being marked as a classic, its no wonder if feels like its been so long. The game quickly got the sort of recognition most old genre defining classics got lucky with. Now with the PlayStation 4 re-release out, its time to assess and see how if it still is that good... or of course, if the port does its job.

Core experience:

So first lets just talk about what Journey does in general. Journey is made by That Game Company, a small indie-like (indie now, but was contracted by sony for the bulk of their career) team that has always aimed at producing small emotional games. You could call their work around the unconventional art game genre, like say Gone Home, Dear Esther, The Path, Proteus, etc. Before Journey they're most known for the small hit PSN game Flower. So right off the bat, you kind of know this isn't going to be a heavily mechanic driven or typical game. Its short, should be accomplished in one sitting, and you can't lose nor compete. However don't turn away quite yet if you're fearing of a game where you just press move to win. There's more at work here than that.

You play as a mysterious robed figure who is just in the middle of the desert for whatever reason. Its like he/she was simply dropped or woke up there. All you have surrounding you at first is sand, and the sight of a distant surreal mountain which has a beacon of light coming out of it. It becomes pretty clear by instinct that that mountain is your ultimate goal. The game's control methods are simplified down to the point where they could work on an NES controller. You have a button that lets you jump/float around, and a button that lets out a little chirp sound. The chirp can be built up or just spammed, and it works kind of like a "use" command letting you trigger certain things around you. Very few tutorials are necessary to instruct you on how it all works. You can even use the camera by motion controls rather than the right analogue stick, if you wish for a more gentle motion control based feeling of looking (but stock camera controls are there to just to be clear). There's also a meditate button as sort of a "pause" function, but that isn't necessary for gameplay.

Once you pass a certain early point, there's a hidden element to the game which is activated behind the scenes, and one you typically wouldn't expect within this kind of game: multiplayer. A person at random, from who knows where, will eventually get dropped into your game and look exactly like you (with the exception of maybe one major variable, but I wont spoil it). There's no name tag, no cosmetics, and no voice chat. You could mistake them for an NPC with a serious case of ADD if you didn't know about the online ahead of time. They will pose no threat to you as you're both working on the same goal, and with the same controls and mechanics. You can only communicate by chirping or maybe wacky movements. This system creates a space in which you both empathize with each other's goals and feel sense of camaraderie as you both try to work with each other to make it to the mountain. Of course you can also ignore and ditch each other if you wish, and the game will find some other time to reconnect with a different guy if you find yourself getting separated by so much. One of the biggest mysteries of this game is how it manages to pull off everything so smoothly. I don't think I've ever once noticed any lagging, and disconnects work with meditation animations rather than total vanishing. So TGC has managed to pull some kind of wizardry and make the most perfect and secretive online handling I've ever seen, despite the fact that there's no options existing to help fine tune things. Maybe I've been just lucky. Also for the record,  the online isn't actually mandatory (though you've got to manually disconnect to turn it off), but it does come highly recommended.

Of course what would the game be if there was no adventure? The adventure you're undertaking is a well designed one, despite its short length. You go from crossing desert hills, saving trapped cloth creatures, climbing up ancient industrial mechanisms, slide down covered remains of a lost society, explore a haunting cave, and more as you make your way ever closer to the mysterious mountain with a buddy. Whether you're able to notice or not, the game's adventure is broken into chapter pieces. Each time you complete one, you're treated to a small voice-less scene depicting a message through pictures before being reminded about your quest to get to the mountain. The gameplay around this adventure are mostly about working with your environment at the given time. You'll be flying around with cloth creatures you've freed at one point, but maybe the next will have you activating switches that slowly flood a facility allowing you to swim up it. Those are just two examples, but in both cases you're exploring, finding something new, and interacting with the chirp. Each moment in which something interesting is happening, the music is there perfectly translating the mood your riding on into an audio effect. I especially love the desert part where you're freeing cloth creatures (The 3rd chapter, I think?). Its probably the most open area of the game, where you're just able to roam across sand hills and find creatures to free or ruins to climb around. Once they're free, you can kind of sing with them using your chirp and just sort of run around, or even get them to pick you up and fly up in the air. Its got that sort of innocent exploration fun I used to enjoy so much from back when I first experienced 3D gaming as a little kid.

One area where I'll have to disagree with a lot of people on is the idea that the game is only artsy, and is somehow robbed of actual gameplay. Sure I did say and stand by the fact that as a whole this is an unconventional art game, but one of the things that makes Journey so amazing is it doesn't ironically tie itself to the genre trope of excluding gameplay for over-oppressive minimalism. It knows its a game, and it accommodates itself with clever extras and interesting moments tied to its simple mechanics. Along the adventure you'll be on the look out for two extra bits: Shining power-ups (no official better name), and glyph walls. The power-ups are actually essential to a certain degree, but enough of them will be in plain sight for you to not worry about that. Each piece adds on to an ever-growing magical scarf your character has. That scarf has magic symbols on it that, when lit, allow you to almost fly. Without it you can't even actually do a basic jump. Each collectible power-up lets your scarf go even longer. When you spend some of the magic, it easily regenerates back with the touch of almost anything. Another player, a cloth creature, water, or another power-up all regenerate that magic to let you fly off again. The more scarf you have (from collectibles), the longer you can jump around or fly. So its darn fun to run around and look for as much as you can. Glyph walls on the other hand are just extra bits there to be atmospheric and give you a trophy. You find them off to the side of places, and trigger them to light up with a chirp to get glyph type writing. Both of these elements add to the exploration, and teamwork. On top of that there are even easter eggs to look for, and obstacles that can actually... frighten you. The less spoiled on that, the better. If you're really hardcore about it and decide to be a completionist, there's even a little cheat code type of reward.

This is clearly a game through the whole way, its just that mechanical things are downplayed compared to emotional draw. However you still have incentive to explore, you still have the connections and reasons to interact, you still have multiplayer, and you also still have a small threat to face within your adventure. This isn't another "look, but don't touch" type of art project. TGC didn't hold back the gameplay for the sake of the art. Instead, Journey gives you both because it respects you as a player, and gaming for what it is. If you want a strong contrast, go see something like Proteus.

Porting, visuals, and presentation:

So how does Journey hold up on the PlayStation 4? Well nearly identical to what I had before on PS3, which is a good thing. Nothing noticeably bad happened with the PS4 version. There was a fresh batch of trophies for this port to work on all over again, and naturally things like the resolution and framerate are buffed up. Online still seems to work fairly good, although I think I got stuck with a guy who kept on checking a walkthrough. They would stop for a good minute or so at a time, and then spring back up and start backtracking to seek some collectible we missed. No real errors to really bring up, and the graphics look better than ever. Its kind of funny to think of it, but honestly this is actually one of the best looking games on the PS4, and it really didn't need to do much to achieve that considering how well done the graphics are. It made an easy transition to better hardware, and is a natural fit on the system. Journey always has simply looked beautiful, and I'm glad they could give it just a little more room to show that off. Now it can also be recorded and pictured from any system as well, thanks to the share button.

While we're discussion the graphics from the port, why not just say how well designed the game has been from the very start? Everything about the game was built with a lovely art style, from the choice in scenery, to the technical graphics. It oddly accomplishes this with a style that feels neither catoonish, nor realistic. Things just feel... well its tough to explain. It has a softly cell shaded look to the way its colors feel, but textures and models that surpass what you'd usually see from a cell shaded game. Everything else is just best explained by moods, like mysterious, happy, sad, haunting, etc. There's a moment where you're sliding down and go into an open tunnel with the camera aiming towards the sunset coming through large gaps in between pillar walls. At one point the sun's bright burning orange color mixes with the sand you're sliding on in a way that looks like the ground is turning into liquid gold. I think that's one of the most graphically beautiful and mesmerizing things I've ever seen through a television screen. I tried tried to take a picture (now that I can on PS4), but there's still no way a screenshot does it justice.

Still amazing though

This too!

Meanwhile the environments, story telling, and actions sort of center around a spiritual vibe. You've got this eastern culture feel to things, but nothing quite too specific to finger point at a specific religion or mythology. Its the sort of thing that instantly clicked with me even back when I was just excited from the trailers, I loved this idea of a travel focused game with a vague spiritual theme presented in a minimalist tone. Journey pulls it off perfectly. It fits very universally as well. The lack of language, physical character features, or specific references justify the emotional experience as one of pure feeling and intuition with no distractions. Its an accessible game to pretty much anybody, with no pop-culture, language barriers, or pre-existing knowledge or social expectations necessary. Its just another one of many feats Journey has accomplished in how it gets its goal across.

Verdict & Closing notes:

Yup, proudly the first Legendary score I give out goes to Journey, and its well earned. It might be short, and unconventional, and that'll always possibly turn some people away. However recognizing it for what it is within that medium, and how moving it was to me personally, I find it to not only be amazing in its field but in-fact so groundbreaking for the artsy minimalist genre that I'd say its the best highest standard it'll have for a very long time. It should be what Final Fantasy 7 is to the JRPG genre, Mario to sidescrollers, or Doom to FPS games. Its such a well-crafted masterpiece for such a weird previously unproven area of gaming, that it aught to be thought of as one of the best games in video game's history, and a modern classic. No other emotional focused game experience has had the same effort, effect, and value as I've found in Journey. Its a game I've come back to again and again for what it does, and every time its managed to deliver a compelling and entertaining experience, even if the ending always has me in tears of mixed delight.

There's a lot of reasons to summarize on why its just that amazing. Its a living embodiment of the idea that the Journey is the real thrill, and not the destination. The unique one of a kind multiplayer interactions are revolutionary and perfectly handled. The harmonized audio effects not only set a tone (like normal music in mediums) but manage to speak it with you, as if the music is an invisible companion there for the ride. The story is compelling and well done enough to give you a good story, but cryptic enough to always keep you curious and making you question your own adventure in the right ways. The visuals feel uniquely stylized in a way that sits at an unrecognizable, yet always comforting depiction of a mysterious world. However unlike most of its companions in the genre, Journey is more than just a pretty picture telling a one trip emotional story. It manages to also incorporate familiar gameplay elements that make full use of its fantastic world, and gets the player excited to come back for more than just a single run. It respects the fact that its still a game; after-all its only in video games that you could accomplish an experience this moving, this well crafted, and this unique. It uses the very best the medium has to offer, and taps into the things that only games can do. The only possible negative I can come up with for this game, is that you simply can't rewind and have your first experience or the original sense of wonder come back again. For a game this emotionally investing, that's a sad downside that may slowly dampen the experience over time. Though you will always have a unique online buddy if that helps to shake the surprise up a bit.

Back-up written review card:

Score: Legendary

Pros:

+ Incredible emotional experience, with amazing atmosphere expressed without need of words or typical mechanics

+ Subtle but perfect multiplayer implementation that builds companionship fit for the journey

+ Perfect presentation with incredible visuals, and a soundtrack that always speaks for your mood.

+ Perfect mix of gameplay elements in an otherwise unconventional game experience.

Cons:
-You only get one first journey.

Top 5 games I'd love to see remastered

oh if only...

Despite being fed up with overpriced re-releases, I really don't hate them for being what they are. I'll always support the idea of games being supported on modern formats with upgrades provided to match more modern standards. This applies especially if they decide to revive something once limited like multiplayer, or revisit and fix up objectively broken mechanics. However a question I commonly ask myself is what games would I truly love and wish to see this treatment done to? What games that I love would most benefit from this? Well lets try and name off 5 good ones. The big rule here is, despite the heading picture, we're not talking about full remakes or games beyond 1 generation of age. We're talking about simple ports brought over from the recent generation; Games that haven't quite fallen apart technically, yet could still use a nice shine. However as weird as it may sound, franchises and series can still get a mention as long as they've got a strong presence within last generation.

Honorable Mentions:

...and man do I have a bunch.

Space Marine

One of my favorite 3rd person shooters ever, and just amazing to play. Not so much on the eyes though, as everything is just flat, grainy, and it doesn't help that the setting stays so dreary and repetetive. I get that there's no fixing that last bit, but the rest was better on PC from what I can tell. You can tell there was a lot of great effort put into the game's detail, especially the gore, particle effects, and general aesthetics, so why not get a nice remake to help show it? Oh and all that ridiculous amounts of cosmetic DLC. It really just needs to be bundled in, and maybe throw in death squad (a tiny promotional twin stick shooter game) as well. Well I guess its just not a big priority game, and I've got to admit as much as I'd like to see it there are better choices out there. So... I wont hold my breath for it, and I can't even put it anywhere on the real list.

Bad company 2

Seriously Dice, if you can't seem to get your act together and make another good battlefield game, the least you could do is port over the most loved recent one. BC2 was the last time we saw a solid campaign, true destructible environments, good support, and just a generally positive attitude from this franchise. A lot of people I talk to, even fans of the ongoing stuff, say that this was really the last golden game from Dice in a while. Naturally I'd think it'd be great if it were brought back. Still it really isn't the end of the world if it isn't... and lets face facts, its not going to be.

StarHawk

This game just deserved better. Give it another chance, make a nice and shiney new port, and I will love you guys for the attempt alone. Still its kind of petty to beg for a port just to continue and try and revive an already lost gem of last gen. *sigh*

Resistance trilogy

...and by that I mostly mean Resistance 3, but oh what the heck why not just go ahead and re-do all of them. Resistance 3 was one of the better FPS games on the PS3. It had great balance, solid mechanics, fun weapons, cool enemies, a good story with a surprising twist or two, and was generally a great adventure. Resistance 1 was generic in its time, but impressively solid none-the-less, and it wouldn't hurt bringing that back either. For chronological sake, and the fact that it wasn't as bad as it sounds, Resistance 2 should be brought back as well... even though its the black sheep of the lot and did so much wrong. Overall It'd be a great series to have around on the PS4. Still there's much bigger fish to fry, and honestly it wouldn't hurt to stick around on PS3.

Mass Effect trilogy

Actually this ain't my vote at all. I really have no friendly ties to this series, and in fact think it (and bioware in general) are ridiculously over-rated. Still this is a very self-less and understanding pick for others out there, and I know this series would be appreciated and benefit greatly under a remaster. Not my vote, but nearly everybody else's. I'm quite honestly shocked one isn't confirmed to be on the way yet. Get on it EA, and you'll print money easily from it, while pleasing so many.

The real list begins now...

5) Crysis Trilogy

I'm not a big fan of crysis, but I still enjoyed the later two games, and I've had no reason to think sourly of the original. Regardless this is a series sadly underlooked, and mostly just noted for its graphics. Well fine, the graphics are great, but so is the gameplay. Why not port and enhance both? Its really not a major priority in my book, but it keeps crossing my mind as a good idea. With its various ways to play, great visuals, and its interesting suit focus that now fuels many present shooters, it'd be a great idea to re-do this stuff on the PS4 with a stronger than ever hold on console technology. Just maybe they'll also do something about those horrible ragdolls, but I hear that has something to do with legal problems so I'm probably just having wishful thinking here.

4) TES: Skyrim & Oblivion

Mostly skyrim, because we all know there were some messed up console ports last gen (especially on PS3). Its not only a game that could use higher PC setting updates to look nicer, but it could be totally rebuilt to fix a lot of issues previously had. Not only that, but with the new promise of mods on consoles for Fallout 4 we might even have a chance to retro-actively include some for skyrim (assuming their mod system idea is just that awesome). Furthermore can't we all just put down some petty hatred that some share and agree that Skyrim in some form, be it theoretical or time consumingly real, was an impressive RPG that deserves to be remembered and done justice to? To add to that, why not throw in Oblivion for those that prefer that more, and with good reason, and fix that auto-leveling problem it had. The idea of an Elder Scrolls double pack remastered form sounds amazing, and it would hold TES fans over until the next release (likely out in 2018). It might also make up for TES online, because even without touching that thing I can tell you its not faithful nor desired by many of the fans.

3) Killzone Trilogy (or at least 2)

Yeah you should have known this was coming on my blog. For the record Killzone 1 doesn't really need to be updated, but it would just be nice if they threw in the HD form. Of course I'd accept a remake to, but that's not what this blog article is about. In general I would just love them to re-do the Killzone trilogy but also with the enhanced form of the later games. Killzone 2 especially. On top of that, give us updated servers and online support. This again goes double for Killzone 2. Actually if you just did Killzone 2, truly did the visuals some justice (and if guerrilla works on it, you know they will as they truly care about that graphical polish), and gave us a repackaged or even rebalanced online play then I will truly be thrilled and have one of my favorite remasters ever in my hands. Besides, the game holds up really nicely. Just look at this and remember its an early 2009 game that still managed to hold one of the best engines I've seen in an FPS game. It would transition well onto better hardware with even better enhancements. However here are some things I would like to emphasize with making a proper re-release for the Killzone series:

• Do not take out server lists or screw them up in any way. If you do go with Killzone 3's multiplayer (which you shouldn't, I'll get to that later), add them into it like it should have been in the first place.
• Do not wreck the control scheme. R3 aim-down-sights was perfectly fine, and there was already an ability to flip buttons to R2/L2 for the mainstream PS4 method. Also KZ2's aiming is just fine.
• Do not just slap on Killzone 3's multiplayer just because of its higher number. I'll assume you'll only do one multiplayer if at all, and it should not be that one. Much like Uncharted 3, people seem to recognize and poke at a game's failure for becoming too big or too removed from what it should have been. The reality is the devoted parts of the fanbase found more quality in Killzone 2 and probably even still play it to this day. Its been longer running, more accessible, had stronger mechanics, and was just objectively superior on some notes like statistics, clans, and servers. It had its flaws, but those would be better fixed or even left alone than just updating the lesser Killzone 3.
• Do not totally scrap all multiplayer. I doubt this would happen completely. Still at the very least keep bot skirmishes up and running in all games. I wouldn't honestly be too surpirsed if true multiplayer is left out, but just to be on the safe side I would make a demand to keep bots in.
• Uh... we can totally do away with some of those nearly impossible trophies though. Seriously, you have to be like the 1% elite in online leaderboards for one of them.

So there you have it. I'd love to see this old amazing game up and running again at 60fps, 1080p, and with renewed online support for the serious fans that still look back (or even play) the game as a golden time in the mostly bitter FPS world of the 7th generation.

2) Souls games

Yes some of us are still prepared to die, and in higher enhanced settings. Dark Souls is not just a personal favorite of mine, but also an undeniable classic of 7th generation that has earned an extremely dedicated and hardcore fanbase that surprisingly rose to a practically mainstream level of discussion. Of course though that isn't without the much loved Demons Souls, and you know what, it'd be fantastic if both hit a re-enhanced release to the newer consoles. Give us updated servers to keep the almost necessary online play going, give us a framerate that actually survives blight town, and give us a remastered version of this amazing game. I was completely shocked and disappointed when the Dark Souls 2 re-release completely jumped over this opportunity, and turned down the many fans that still prefer the original even more. Personally I'd rank Killzone 2 a bit higher on my own priorities, but I cannot deny the world would just be a happier place with this game getting it more.

1) Ratchet & Clank: Future series

...and now allow me to contradict that and be totally selfish again with my final pick. Despite the fact that this sold the least well on this list, it shows an extremely good quality that will make people happy anyways. Naturally I'm one of those people. Ratchet & Clank is just one of those franchises you can always pick up and play again. Re-live the adventure, the thrills, the laughs, the mayhem, and still get a very similar kick out of it the same way you did the first time. Despite some references and pop culture jokes, its timeless in gameplay mechanics as its always been there surviving first and foremost on its lengthy single player campaigns, its nice art style, and its good story telling fused with varied and well delivered gameplay. You don't need to update much to make the game feel right at home with just about anybody that just wants a fun experience. So I feel its a nice fit for re-enhancing, making it age even better, and seamlessly fitting onto modern consoles for new and old alike to pick it up and enjoy a great franchise. I'm not asking for the whole franchise, just the 4 adventure ones from the recent 7th generation era. Tools of Destruction, Quest For Booty, Crack in Time, and Into the Nexus. You can keep the spin-offs on the PS3.

Sadly the Future series has been scattered in releases with some going small and digital, and two more major releases where I know one lacked trophies. On top of that, Crack in Time (arguably the best game of the whole franchise) just does not suit bigger resolutions that well. It compromise to

Visuals will transition well

keep 60fps with its more advanced visuals lead to something giving, and that something was AA effects leaving the game pretty rough around the edges (literally) for bigger televisions and effecting most ready for 1080p now. A PS4 remaster would unify the games, give trophy support in places it lacked before, double the frame-rate of Nexus, smooth out and enhance the visuals (especially for Crack in time), and on top of that it would give people more of the story that the movie is trying to fill in for. Sure the movie is remaking the first game and you would think there's so much in between that and the Future series, but the first game is being remade specifically to fix it to be more based within the Future series. The movie/game is revamping the origin story to better fit with the Future timeline. Are you really going to make a movie & game tie-in to a filler plot point towards a part of the series that isn't even supported on your current systems? Well you can fix that with a remaster putting it into the hands of everyone on current hardware!

Of course some time I really wouldn't mind the whole series being bundled off somehow, but I can wait more for that. Like... when its all actually finished maybe. For now though I think it'd be a fantastic time to call for an update to the PS3 Future part of the series, where they can all be united and packed together nicely on the PS4 with what few fixes it needs in all the right places. Then with the freshly made movie and game out, we can dream of the potential future of the series (hoping it does in fact have one).

Classic Insomniac skies... always making you look up in wonder.
The article started with a pic like this, so it shall end with a good pic like this

Um... so more skylanders?

Amazing news! I thought about adding this to the last article, but that one is already lengthy enough for first impressions, so here's sort of a follow-up article: I hit a really great deal today and basically I'm going back in time with skylanders a bit early, and even more price efficiently. I was in town today, stopped at a place called five & below (which is what it sounds like, $5 or less sort of bargain store) and checked out some stuff. I knew at one point they had some sort of skylander figures, but I sort of had to look in the back to find them. They only had a small few of them left, but I found the Giant edition 2 type spyro and thought sure why not see how the modern incarnation of my favorite playable dragon feels, It should still work to some extent with trap team, right? I pass by the game area where like usual it was abysmal (had Killzone 3 for $5, but I already have it). Proceed up to the register and to my surprise the guy is just like "hey we got a bigger thing of those back here?" and points at how they have a whole pile of Wii U starter packs (game and all) for $5. Yeah you read that right, what launched as a $75 game and likely still goes for $30-50 at your typical store (I checked wal-mart), is there for the price of imported candy. ...and its the Wii U version, so it should have been in theory the best port for Giants. So yes please!

So far the game is honestly a weird combination of better and worse. I can now truly see what people meant when they looked up to this game as possibly the best of the series. Even though trap team has made obvious strides forward with visuals, higher upgrades, and of course the ability to freakin' jump, Giants just manages to do what it does a lot better. The environments feel more interesting, the writing is a lot better (completely destroys my kiddie complaint with trap team), and things just feel like they have that extra care on them. Treasures actually do something (allow you to customize your airship hub world), the world has more polish, you can permanently increase your base statistics

Steampunk dragon? Awesome!

rather than relying soley on hat cosmetics, characters have individual challenges laid out, and things are just better explained and smoother in experience. Plus while its nitpicking, the first level actually works completely with starter kit material and isn't already begging for you to buy more like trap team did. Oh and that first level is also background story context that helps tell a better ground story where as trap team is more like "Yeah so these guys exist now, and they're your problem for this game. Go get 'em!". Still that's not to say Trap Team is awful, but... I'm just already getting this stronger feeling of care and adventure with Giants.

The game also reminds me a bit of an older PS2 type of game in its faults and charms. Its silly, fun, and yet feels like the team forgot something (jumping), didn't perfect its streamlining, and the graphical quality is strangely PS2-like. As in it doesn't even feel naturally HD; Its like I'm playing an HD port to a PS2 classic. Still this all isn't something bad, I'm quite enjoying it in the end. I'm going to keep playing this while I'm around my Wii U, then I guess I'll hop back into Trap Team and try out how the Giant figures translate to that game. Thanks to Tree Rex I'll also finally be able to open up those stupid rock blocking turrets in the arena mode.

Now Playing: Skylanders Trap Team

This'll actually be broken up into two parts since this is such a weird ongoing series to just jump into. I feel I have enough discussion to bring to both blaber about it for far too long, and then describe my actual experiences separately. So... lets go to skylanders?

Ramblings on a weird series

Okay so I've had my eye on this series for a bit, but never took it seriously with its extreme price. I originally saw it back when it was just Spyro's Adventure, and... I actually took it better than most fans. I suppose we were coming off that time when old fans were still bitterly hating on it, and there were new fans behind the terrible (but still cult followed) Legend series, so naturally the 3rd entry was worth double the hate to many. Personally though... I saw it as a platformer. I saw a deformed spyro running past flames and other obstacles, beating up simple little enemies, and charging through lands held up in the skies by some seemingly (but unexplained) enchanted force... all of that like the old games. Sure spyro was ugly and activision was just dragging his beaten form through another property because some idiot marketing group pretended like new kids would totally know who spyro was (and that's even putting aside the fact that their spyro didn't resemble past spyro). Still that aside, nothing was new. Spyro wasn't ever showing signs of magically beaming back down to an eager Insomniac team, he was already ruined both visually, and gameplay wise with the beat 'em ups and sub-par games under the in-between stages of the franchise. Skylanders did nothing new and wrong, if anything it was closer to its older form than what we had for the several years LoS happened. However... I also got carried away thinking it really was a new 3D platformer, when it actually didn't even have jumping. So all my rambling aside, it was all in vain when I found out no true platforming was there at all.

That's not spyro... but I'm used to that by now

However upon returning later on to listen to the more mature fans discuss the game's merits, I was called out for saying I didn't like the lack of a jump button. It was apparently added either in swap force, or Giants. Nice! So where do I sign up for one of these games? Oh $75 entry fee, and then you can't even beat the whole game until you put down quite a few more. The estimated costs were running somewhere around $150-200 for this stuff. I don't like bad DLC practices, nor F2P paywalls, and this was that in overdrive with an entry fee worse than any full game (or whatever passes for "full" now). So naturally I didn't want to get in on this unless I found more reasons to. ....and I did.

I kept coming back and looking at the game, wondering how it actually handles. Is it just some game where you're a character that just smashes crap up from A to B? Was it like diablo where you're constantly getting loot and leveling up things? Is it finally like a 3D platformer about the obstacles, characters, and exploration? I couldn't figure it out until I looked really deep. Meanwhile the last major and good 3D platformer I played was... well Sly Cooper 4. Even Mario disappoints in that area now. The world of 3D platformers was drying up, and while some are coming with the new R&C, andd indie projects, what was there now? I just really wanted something a little new in that area, and skylanders just felt perfect. everybody else was comparing it to Diablo, so my imagination ran with the idea of Spyro mixed with Diablo. But that price... oh hey, PS4 version of trap force is $24 off amazon, and somebody owed me around $30 at the time. I researched hard into that specific game entry and worked out a deal and put some money down and ended up with the following:

-Trap Team Starter kit: $24

-Tuff Luck (trapmaster figure): $15

-Out of the box 3 set figures (shroomboom, funny bone, and chopper) off ebay: $7

My total was nearly $50 for a game that others are still selling for well over that much just to start with. I got in at a good time with plenty to test it with. I've heard from some upset fans that this may have been one of the lesser games to go with compared to giants or swap force, but honestly out of what I read in reviews and researched myself I'm having a hard time feeling bad about going with the higher up stuff. If I need to go backwards, that's pretty easy. That being said, this is also what I've grabbed so far to have had first impressions with. Did it live up to my expectations though?

The game so far...

So there's no getting around the fact that I've really enjoyed my time with the game so far. I've sunk quite a few hours in it, lose track of time, and have already maxed out a couple of characters in terms of abilities (not the actual level cap (highest is level 10 tuff luck)). At first though I was a little disappointed, and a little confused. The controls are very simple limiting your attack moves at first and already downplaying the ARPG aspect. Jumping is a unified loose thud, with a camera that is fixed and never moveable. Then upgrades are... well very odd. Basically you're upgrading a character by purchasing their stuff as though it were some store bough item, and you've got to collect it all before you can move onto a 2nd tier path choice. So you're essentially crossing things off a shopping list rather than truly getting XP. XP itself however is still present, but its just a completely passive effect that buffs things like your health. Its so weirdly passive that the game doesn't mind giving away free level ups as though it were just another power-up that comes in a reward box. So diablo is kind of out the window, as your really not getting anything close to a real ARPG or build developing kind of game. Meanwhile the game was totally patronizing and playing up its kiddie demographic, spamming the same tutorial messages, and being pitfully careful about itself, only reminding me of the adult world when stopping to ask for more skylander and cash to pass doors in the tutorial level (where you'd think it'd be a smooth ride tailored for people who only just got the starter kit).

So why was this so much fun then? Well it hit me in the arena mode area, which is amazing in itself. The game wasn't just some random ARPG or 3D platformer combo, but rather it was ridiculously familiar to one specific game that already loosely combines the two things: Ratchet and Clank. I was sitting there with my 6 figures swapping them back & forth, memorizing their moves and weaknesses, going into each new area wondering who would be most suitable, and most importantly: who needed the exercise in grinding? I was using characters in place of R&C's weapons. Then there's the random door puzzles, the lazy NPC that thinks he's the best hero ever, the colorful world, the fact that you HAVE to go back to levels to unlock small tokens or new powers, and all the extra activities for gold stuff to do. This was Activision's Ratchet and Clank, and aside from some gripes in its execution I'd say they made a really great alternative while fans like myself wait on a true new game in the series. R&C does everything better and cheaper, but still this game is undeniably fun for some of the same reasons. I don't exactly think they made it feel like it intentionally, but I find it quite funny that Skylanders is poking at two of the best Insomniac franchises ever.

So okay dropping all comparisons, the game is just fun. I'm running around, doing missions, trying the arena, then I'll run off to do something else, try to scratch some change up to make sure I can buy X upgrade, replayed a level, experimented with villains, etc. There's just so much to do. Love the arenas, the card game is a nice little distraction, the villain tag team piece is a nice power-up style concept, and I just generally enjoy the game. I do wish hero upgrade structures were a bit more complex though (and that you could actually change paths), but I suppose there could be numerous reasons as to why they're kept pretty simple.

The game still has its share of issues though, and we're not just talking about the figurine stuff. I wish the kiddie pandering was less present. I'm all for a friendly welcome atmosphere for all ages, but there's a clear difference between good writing that suits all ages, and writing that makes you feel terrible if you're participating above the age of 8. I get that there's different things for different age groups, but as a person who grew up around 3D platformers and quickly ditched the putt-putt pre-school crap, I can tell you even a little kid that can barely comprehend most games will still appreciate a truly well done family game over one that just baby talks you unnecessarily. You can have a cutesy mascot, silly catch phrases, and cheesy puns, but going any further is going out of your way to alienate people of just about any age but kindergarten. While Skylanders is very simple and markets to younger kids, it mechanically works for any age group and should be capable of using that. Its just that writing they chose makes it so forced into the kiddie territory, and it simply doesn't have a big benefit and feels more like an amateur decision, especially this late into the series where they know there are more than just kids playing it. Yet the funny thing on top of all this is its not even gamer friendly all-around in its presentation. There are very basic things they never address, even in simple tutorial fashion. Don't get me wrong, its completely refreshing to have a game let you figure things out, but when I'm getting stuck for a moment like I'm missing a page in a game that has otherwise been treating me like an 8 year old it feels polarizing and just reminds me that once again the game was poorly written in a few areas. Why can certain skylanders change their paths? Never brought up. What does this statistic do? Take a guess. What does the gate off to the left of the acedamy do? I think its a DLC based portal, but that's only a guess. Even the NPC specifically there to tell you about it, doesn't actually tell you about it. How does this puzzle mini-game work? uh... just push buttons until you figure it out. It gets more complicated later, but you'll just get it. That's the sort of attitude the game takes while also somehow pretending every player is barely in elementary school. Just bad design guys.

Second major issue is that leveling up has a system in which you can't change your paths, except for shroomboom for some reason. I just don't know why they'd leave it out for skylanders unless its to make you buy two figures, but even then you've got that inconsistency where you can change the path on some. It just doesn't make sense. I also don't quite feel great about the Soul Gem system. Make them collectibles that play a promotional role and help your completionist goal, but don't force characters to collect them in some nonsensical linear order. Why do I have to wait until near the end of the game to get my well experienced and ridiculously rich trap master's final ability just by the random chance that her soul gem was put there? And don't give me any balancing excuse, there are some amazing stuff like chopper's rocket spam that you get early on. meanwhile the one I want is just a small area of effect damage attack.

Still in general the game is a lot of fun. All complaints aside I'm glad I gave the game a good shot, and I really would like to buy a couple more things for it just to go a little further into the side stuff. I still lack any presence of a fire, magic, earth, or air type for anything. I might also give a look into the older stuff, since my portal is backwards compatible and swap force by itself is just $5 on the PS4. Still first thing is first, and that means finishing the game. One last odd compliment I will note though is that for an annually released kids game, the polish and lack of updates is amazing and its kind of weird that this is just one of those games that perfectly accomplishes that rare mark of release quality. I guess kids still have it good, just like it was in the PS2 days for me.

Are re-releases overpriced?

I loved Uncharted 2. How could I not? It was my first true PlayStation 3 game, and brought a wave of amazing technology together in a great 15 hour campaign. Great cinematic presence, scripts and cut-scenes that worked seamlessly within the gameplay, outstanding visuals with small details that catch the eye like snow actually sticking to you, and minor gameplay enhancements over solid cover shooter gameplay. It was a great game with a nice treasure hunter theme. Its probably my favorite game from Naughty Dog as well. Uncharted 3 is nice as well, though with a fair share of issues that put it somewhat lower on the chain from Uncharted 2. Still its great. So why then would I not complete the journey with Uncharted 1 and grab it all in a remastered, better than ever, PlayStation 4 bundle? Because its $60 for a port enhancement. No thanks!

I mean really, as a guy that owns and has played 2 of 3 of the games at least three times (actually playing the first as well now), and still owns them, its hard to tell me that I need to put down full game price to replay the games again no matter how glorified your enhancements are. Yes I'm sure the games would be great in 1080p, 60fps, and with maybe some bumped up texture/models, and of course there's a capture mode function. Its not worth paying the price for a full game though. Oh and as for the original Uncharted game I didn't have by the time of this announcement? Its $5 at gamestop. I'm not going to wait until October to put down $60 just to experience the oldest (and depending on who you ask, worst) game in the series while its directly competing with itself at $5. I went out and bought it for $5 in its original form, and its playing just fine thank you very much. However what's even more laughable is how God of War 3 is dong that exact same thing all by itself. That one lone game at the edge of a trilogy is being re-released and put out on the very same shelves that hold the same game at $5. Its charging $40 for the re-release. Oh and there's been a full blown saga release that has 5 games bundled on the PS3 all together, making it a more complete franchise for fans or new comers for the price of $30 at launch... years ago (you can grab it for $20 now). Quite ridiculous really, but if you gotta have that photo mode I guess you can still find value in that $40 re-release of one lone game.

The cost is equivalent to its bloom: too much

It doesn't really end there though. Sleeping Dogs was $50 when it launched, and that was just a simple cult hit that barely did any enhancements with its game. Dishonored, one of my favorite games of last generation, is aiming to do one at $40 which is the same price they launched their collectors book at. So its genuinely a cost of brand new content without being anything brand new. While I love that game a ton, its very hard to see myself picking it up over brand new fan servicing content like the collector's book for a huge price. I already bought the game twice anyways, GOTY edition being $15 (not used) at the time I got it. Yes that's right, you can get everything there is to Dishonored for the price of a common PSN game, and yet its going to be placed beside a $40 texture bumped version charging more than double. This is just absurd. What's going on here?

Remember the re-releases that happened across 7th gen? Collections, fully trilogies, HD ports of classics, physical versions of digital games, all being sold to you $30 or less. Ratchet & Clank for $30, Sly 1-3 with new (though shallow) mini-games and 3D mode support for the same price, what was once the entire franchise of God of War for $30 with all these examples bringing out some newly added trophy support and keeping a high framerate. Now we just have bigger resolution and newer features already built into our hardware as the consistent incentive (Maybe DLC if that wasn't already done before), yet they're giving us less games and raising the prices, and doing it with the old games still on the shelves for cheaper. Oh and lets not forget multiplayer is being lost on some of these. Its not that I'm complaining from my own stingy viewpoint (though that motivates me a bit), but I'm also baffled at just how stupidly unaware these guys are. They have no sense of sight, or record of just where their own games are. They're convinced that they have enough following that they can just put out a 3 year old or older game and take it about the same income as if they just made a whole new game. Its also bothering me from a deeper point of watching a generous offer turn into a greedy hand begging for more money, because at one time this sort of thing was phenomenal. Again we were getting big classics brought back better than ever for the cost of half a game, because they actually understood these games were older, built with less expensive tech, and needed to compete with 2nd hand markets. Now they aren't even aware they themselves still sell the games for a better value than what they're offering with their "touched up" newer copies.

$30! nah, why not make it $40 or $50?

This isn't to be taken as a hate speech against general re-releases. I want it to be understood that I'm still grateful whenever one of these games are announced. Its good to put more choice, more entry points, and more updated games out there on the market. Its great that they don't simply kill a game and let it stay forgotten, when they know people could still have fun with it in today's market. I will never turn down the concept of a re-release. My only disappointment actually comes where opportunitites to make it better are missed, like how Dark Souls 2 got a re-release without the original, or how God of War is just handing out one out of 6 of its games. Still even disappointments there is no sass towards the whole decision to put a new game out. Its just that in the end of things, they're screwing things up and making what should be accessible very hard to do so. I just don't think they're aware anymore of what they're asking for.

It takes more than rehashing the same old experience with a bigger resolution to get a full or even near full payment from a lot of us. I do believe these re-releases are overpriced and that's a shame. Don't just take my word for it though, take it from Sony, Bethesda, Square Enix, etc where their older games are significantly lower in price than what they're asking for with the new version that slightly bumps up the visuals. The games still look roughly the same, play the same, and have the same stories, so why are the prices more than double or even triple the worth these companies gave it? Price is always subjective, but if I've ever seen a better example of how to prove something is overpriced, its harder to find it than right here. Here's an idea, instead of paying $60 to enjoy Uncharted 2 again (even a little shinier), how about I just go over and put it in my machine for free. That sounds better.

Its still fun over on PS3

Lets talk about "inclusive" characters...

I'd normally link you to the big subject article that kicks off an event I discuss, but this is one of those times where I just don't want to give them any ad revenue. I wont even mention their names even if they're quite popular as it is. However its blowing up on the internet now as the interview named not as an interview but rather after a single loaded question: Why the next Zelda game (specifically triforce heroes) wont let you play as a female. This is yet another case of somebody making a problem where it doesn't exist. There's suddenly this growing idea that in order for you to make a good game, you need to make sure the game includes wide open options of some kind of blank slate character where you impose yourself upon them. You must be able to relate to a character and have it capable of representing a massive audience of gamers. Right now the issue is pushed with positive discrimination (which isn't actually so positive) towards females. Of course occasionally similar issues are presented with gays or various ethnicities, but the press loves focusing on female representation right now. However because I actually do believe in equality, my story and argument kind of covers this whole entire subject matter of character design, and unlike the press I'm not discriminating against or in favor of any specific region. That's because I don't believe there needs to be forced representation at all, and even if it does exist I question its meaningfulness. It should honestly be really clear by decades of past games that we do not need to design super inclusive/representing characters into all of our games in order for gamers to enjoy the product.

To give you some perspective, and a pretty good idea of my early viewpoint on wanting representation, I really didn't have much of one. I never once thought to myself gaming needed to better represent me or

1st favorite game character

anybody else. Now I'll admit I'm a white straight american male, so naturally the majority of modern releases do cover me. The "progressive" side may consider me lucky and disregard my opinion for such a thing, but that's not really something I feel lucky over, or care about. None of those white male protagonist games were what I played at my early childhood, and that's even when I exclude obvious preschool stuff like Freddi Fish and Putt-Putt. The oldest game I can think of playing which covered a biological relatable area via appearances might be Goldeneye, and even then that's a stretch. However before that game, I was left with all sorts of other characters types that were nothing like me. My favorite at a young age was a purple blocky midget dragon named Spyro. I loved platforming adventure games of that nature. Other favorites in that genre were being run by a smart alack gecko, a cartoon bear with a bird hiding in his backpack, and a certain famous cartoon Italian plumber named Mario who fights a turtle dragon in every game (maybe you know him). Somewhere before then I was playing DKC, and that to this day remains my favorite 2D platformer. It even goes beyond cartoon games though. The first serious human characters I remember playing as was Lara Croft and Joshua Fireseed (who is supposedly Native American, with the Turok series always featuring that sort of protagonist as a "chosen one bloodline" plot style). I'll admit that I did not play either game well at all considering my age, but never the less they were what I remember as my first exposure to serious human protagonist in gaming. I didn't have any trouble with that. I can recall I was fascinated by the worlds and plots surrounding the games and their characters. As a matter of fact watching my father play tomb raider (way better than I could) was just as amusing as watching television, because I just loved the adventure within it. I never felt torn away by the characters being different in heritage or gender. So naturally this idea that we must diversify, or must have things mirror the player, goes well over my head. I along with countless others grew up with neither of the two factors and there are people like me who adore gaming.

*gasp* they're not even human, how could this be a successful game?

Its not just up to me and my own little bubble of view point, or those like-minded individuals raised on cartoon platform gaming or weird exceptions. When you look around even well beyond my own playstyles and choices, the examples of how ridiculous these character demands are, get more embarrassing. We're not only talking about cartoon creatures, or a couple exceptions to the human demographic. we're talking about pixel characters and those games built off no character at all. We're talking sports games, we're talking pac-man, we're talking about RTS games where you're just a mere controller, or even freakin' pong where gaming was practically founded on two pixel walls being the best you had as a player character. We've come from a long history of empty characters, silly characters, using multiple characters at once, and also no characters at all. It wasn't until somewhere in the 2000's where you could even get the visuals to see a character that looked believably human in the first place (here's some of the best 1999 graphics. Not a very nice human figure is it?). We're talking about a medium where one of our most iconic past characters that helped build the present turned out to be a blue hedgehog wearing bright red shoes and getting help from a two tailed fox that could fly. One of the biggest publishers standing out there right now had a mascot that didn't even have limbs, and another sold its first console system with commercials of a man dressing up as a cartoon bandicoot shouting at a corporate building with a mega-phone. Multiple generations of gamers have cropped up around a time where there was absolutely nothing relatable to such characters, and gaming didn't burn with people crying of ill-representation. We just played them and enjoyed them for what they were.

Now I'm going to be understanding and say that times change, and it may take new tactics and full use of our modern tech and understanding to make everyone a comfortable gamer. Besides, we all know of idiots out there so shallow as to think something like Spyro, Donkey Kong, or even Mario is just for little kids, and they'll seek something different in design. They may need to be pandered to in a different way, with characters they have different standards for. Then there are some people out there really do come to games for a very personal experience, and may want characters that reflect that even if it may mean giving up good character writing in the process. If only there was a place for them, right? Oh wait, there is and there's been a decent place for them for at least the last decade if not longer. RPGs like oblivion to dark souls, giant canvases for building a whole world like Minecraft, and games with a strategy in team building that lets you make alliances and armies like certain 4Xs and strategy games. Oh and of course there's The Sims. There's various types of games with quite a good amount of personal features, or just a strong selection of character variety. Fighters are especially good with character diversity, since they build around a potential of 40 characters and have to make different origin stories for each of them, often resorting to diverse mythologies and nations and different types of people and influences. They've existed for a right good while.

If I wanted to right now I could hop onto terraria, go back into a house I made out of pumpkins (because I love pumpkins), and sort through tons of costumes I have including a fox outfit, a sheet ghost, an archaeologist suit, and cardboard robot suit. Then I can dye them all by colors I've picked and made myself from world materials. That's all long after I built my character by clothing, skin color, and hair tone. Its a fantastic little sandbox experience when I just want something a little more personal or silly without giving up mechanical depth of a real game. That sort of thing exists, but it has a place and a purpose and is not necessary in every single game, nor would I want it that way.

Some games let you have it your way with the whole world, and some don't. That's just fine.

However The Legend of Zelda is not such a series to cover that "personal" area, and it never needed to be one to get its spotlight and place in gaming. The funny thing is you actually can in fact play as a female from the Zelda franchise, but that's in spin-offs and for good reason: its not a piece of the core game's experience. Its not what they wanted, and its not desired except by the pretentious hyper-progressive white knights who think its okay to make those kind of demands where it doesn't belong. Link was chosen as a hero and that's really all that needs to be discussed because he was the chosen plot protagonist with a lore backing it. If you're a Zelda fan looking for that extra bit of "what if" and would like to try feeling the might of another character, you've got Hyrule Warriors and smash bros to play as Zelda herself or others for that matter. That's what happens with a truly successful and major franchise that knows how to keep things going and keep people happy, they tend to have spin-offs to help cover some crazy design & gameplay choices so you don't end up damaging the main series with them by changing their traditional character and legend lore.

Thing is games are always about the experience and gameplay (even if the focus on gameplay might be intentionally shallow in some cases). The character re only as important as the gameplay and experience needs it to be. That's why a game like minecraft or terraria are so personal, it matches its open game plan. Its also why generic FPS games never have a meaningful character, they mean nothing to your viewpoint so they just toss you a name, a shallow image, and a baren story to move things along on the shooting. Every game genre has a character style to it that suits its needs and purposes, and shockingly there isn't need for much thought beyond that because what counts is once again in the gameplay and whether or not it gets the desired experience done. If you're caught worrying over something so shallow as your character's appearance in an adventure game, then you are the one with a problem. That's where the truly disturbing and ironic thing comes in with this progressive push from the press.

The press are asking odd questions while saying its their "job" (I'll get to that later, because the article comes right out and says its "doing my job" to be disappointed in character representation), and getting too fixed on something so worthless as the cosmetic appearance of your hero. As a matter of fact the press was called out big time when they tried to make racist accusations against Witcher 3, only to then be slammed hard by fact that they messed up by lumping Polish culture as just another form of "white". Meanwhile the Polish are in fact discriminated against in parts of Europe, and that shows the ignorance and problem with the press and these social politics. They accidentally divide and make their own racist, prejudice, and bigoted assumptions by pushing this sort of demonizing narrative. The press likes to make up their own check-list of what good representation looks like (often without a word from those they think they're speaking for I might add), and will tear apart your game with a prejudice against things that don't suit that imaginary list. They're making discriminations in a way that puts developers on the defensive, framing them as the monsters for simply making a decent game. Yet the fact is the only person judging gender and race are those who go about stirring up these controversies. The fact is games aren't built on their character's details, which is why their questions and slants are so weird. It doesn't matter if a character is a male or female unless the game direction says it matters, it just matters if the game is good and delivers the desired experience. Period. This shouldn't even be up for debate, its just simply what games are. They're games, not rainbows; games don't need to hit every spectrum of color to look nice in your eyes.

Diverse enough? Nintendo has been doing this for years, and don't need the pushy press

I'm not even sure why anybody truly would want a totally relate-able character in the first place. If it were up to just me alone, I'd say give me more dragons, more creatures, silly cartoon characters, and cheesy villains. Personally I'd rather have things "relate" to me in more of the art styles, objects, story structures, and soundtracks that I like. If you gave me the choice between an RPG game with a character builder, or sly cooper, I'd go with sly cooper. That's because I'm in it for the experiences. I'm in it to have fun, and playing as a funny cartoon racoon that steals things vigilante style sounds like a fun plot to a game to me. That relates to me more because I'm a fan of general robin hood stuff (theif vigilante heroes are awesome), love cartoons, and enjoy 3D platformers, so naturally Sly Cooper is more for me regardless of how distant the character is. On a similar note, one of the best things about Witcher 3 so far is the fact that the fixed character presented is soooo good and has given me a much better experience than some blank slate nobody guy I made in 10 minutes. If you want to relate to me or others, you'll have to just make what they like into the world rather than just letting them stamp their face on a character. Yet these questions take us away from that, and demand to leave everything more open and trying to fill out some sort of equal representation quota, rather than just making a fun or creative experience that you envision others may like.

We can all relate, right?

A lot of gamers (including myself) are just happy to travel to new worlds, to see interesting things, and to interact with the imagination of many developers. I don't want to see my own self mirrored into every game because that's just boring. That's why when this issue is brought up you hear people talk of playing the other gender in RPGs, or building crazy people in saints row. They don't always stuff themselves into a game, I mean just take a quick glance at what our most popular genres are like. We're using magic, shooting guns from exo-suits, charging cars into each other, taking over a whole city one territory at a time, or building an entire world, and if not building one than saving one. None of that is relate-able to anybody! Gaming is one of many forms of escapism, we don't need everything to reflect our lives. In order to get the best potential of some of these games we in fact want quite the opposite. Its not just games either, but cultures, and people surrounding them. The audience shares its fans alongside people that stick close by their superhero comics, who read massive novels of Tolkien-esque fantasy, stay tuned to the latest television dramas, joke about zombie apocalypses, and change contexts of captured images across the world wide web. We're all about the fantasy if it brings us entertainment, and while occasionally we try to immerse ourselves better by making that fantasy more personal, we don't need or even want that to be the way everything works all the time. We have a long history of following those fantasies in weird and interesting ways with the help of creators and developers, and the last thing we need is to bully or question them into losing that amazing creative energy and demanding what they do with their protagonist set ups.

Nintendo, contrary to what a press member told them, knows we are not "disappointed" in the lack of a female Link or substitute. Gamers have been enjoying their franchise for all these years without disappointment in character. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise, they're just pushing a crooked agenda that is trying to divide gamers where we never were before. ...and to the press site that pushed it, its not your "job" to feel disappointed in a fixed character direction, rather its your job to report on games. Its your job to review them. Its your job to inform us. Its your job to look out for the very consumers that help gave you your job to begin with. Last I checked most of  the press stand idle while some of the most despicable acts from certain publishers reign around this time, rarely questioning them on things that matter like good PC ports (the site that pushed this interview did nothing on the recent batman matter, they don't even have a basic PC review I can access). All you're doing is making matters worse by shoving identity and social politics into the mix. This needs to stop. This discussion shouldn't have even been needed, but clearly there are those in gaming who are in it to champion a white knight campaign rather than to cover actual games, and when they pile up enough I suppose it is needed to say something on the matter.

Its okay to keep picking up that sword Link. Gamers are behind you.