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Rev's post on Braid got me thinking
Pangloss | 10:32 AM on 03.19.2008 1 comments


In Rev's gushing preview of Braid, he touched on something I've been thinking a bit about lately. That is, he held up Braid's foundation on simple, intuitive platformer mechanics, with the deep, added mechanic of time travel as proof of Braid's accessibility. I've seen other games that presented a similar case like this, such as Fez, Portal, and many, many others. And all of these games (that I've gotten a chance to play) have been pretty much awesome.

I'm gonna be bordering on NVGR, here, but I've noticed this phenomenon in other mediums as well. In particular, Death Note, at its core, is a fairly straightforward mystery tale, built on the foundation of a set of arbitrary rules. Where the twist comes in is the complex philosophical conundrum that rides on the concept of Kira. All the suspense we feel throughout the series is characteristic of mystery thrillers, the added ingredient is our contemplation of justice and its costs. It's no coincidence that Death Note's my favorite anime ever.

So, it looks like the format of "familiarity with a well-crafted twist" is very successful, both in video games and other artistic fields. My question is, why is this so compelling? Feel free to let me know.



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wardrox's Destructoid Blog
Because it's awesome. Adding something new, like the perspective shift, time travel, portals (to an extent) makes you feel your playing something brand new. Using the tried and tested grounding in something like a platformer makes you know what to do.

"This is new, I am ace at it" is a nice feeling :)


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Alternatively: I'm a 22-year-old student at the University of Memphis, majoring in Japanese, minoring in Weeaboo, with a certificate in being ridiculously nerdy. Inexplicably, everyone I meet in real life seems surprised that I am a nerd at all. I play just about every genre of games out there, with an especial focus on stultifyingly intricate RPGs and soul-shatteringly hard action games. I listen to a vast array of bands that bring me glee when I hear their sounds, and have a slim chance of overjoying me again when I meet someone else who's heard of them. I take and enjoy philosophy courses. I read obscure English poems. As my handle may indicate, I'm obsessed with Voltaire. I watch a whole lot of anime. I'm developing a penchant for beer snobbery. I'm writing short stories whenever I have time. I am prone to bouts of self-criticism and navel-gazing. I am painfully self-aware. I am, in short, nerdiness personified.

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