Materia and Banned Turnips
Why are gaming franchises from the 90s so popular right now? And why did the most peaceful game out right now get banned in China?
One of my greatest passions is playing, reading, and writing about video games. Specifically, I like to focus on the gaming industry, community, and development behind this incredible medium. So every week, I set out to find the most interesting articles about these topics and put together a nice list o’ links, tied together with my input on each article.
This week had a lot of great articles about game development and some fun behind-the-scenes of huge titles like Final Fantasy VII Remake and incredible Indies like Rogue Legacy.
Enjoy the read!
COMMUNITY
Game composers and YouTubers are in a murky battle for copyright control
I really love music in video games, so I leap at the chance to link any article I read about it. This one is a great insight into the world of video game music and YouTube. It’s a really great in-depth read, so I won’t take too much of your time so you can spend it on reading this.
We’ve all been apart of the problem — listening to video game music uploaded by some random account, unaware of how we’re taking views and recognition away from the original creator. I think the key is to be aware of what we’re listening to and who posted it. Let’s continue to support these incredible musicians and celebrate this music that brings us together.
p.s. the Risk of Rain 2 song, “The Rain Previously Known As Purple” is a video-gamey tribute to “Purple Rain” by Prince, and I nearly lost my mind when I recognized a certain part of the song. Do yourself a favor and listen to it!
DEVELOPMENT
Redesigning Midgar, Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s gritty cyberpunk metropolis
Here’s an interesting look into the development behind Midgar, the set piece for Final Fantasy VII Remake. This is the place that the entire ~40 hour game takes place in, so I would hope that a lot of care and attention was put into it.
People seem to be loving FF7Remake, even though it’s lacking in some areas. If you want a wrap-up of multiple perspectives, here’s a Critical Consensus.
While I’m thinking about it, what’s the next installment in the Final Fantasy VII Remake going to be called? There’s still a lot of game left, so I’m interested to see what Square Enix comes up with. Maybe a VII — 2 or Part 2, what do you think it’ll be?
p.s. this image can act as your Zoom background for all of the meetings that are keeping you from playing Final Fantasy VII Remake
Why Frictional Games Returned To The World Of Amnesia With Rebirth — Interview
If you’ve been following Load Save on Twitter, you’ve probably seen me talk about Amnesia: Rebirth. They’re doing some cool marketing stuff on their socials, including playing real-life tapes of recordings from the upcoming game that have really intrigued me.
I’m excited to see a return to Amnesia. I remember the first game was the first horror game I played on PC, and it did not disappoint. I had never experienced that type of horror where I was in control but so helpless at the same time. Hopefully that feeling can be captured and improved upon in this game.
The Cooking Mama Game for Switch That Came Out, and Then Disappeared
Quarantine is causing all of us to go a little stir-crazy, which is very apparent in this deep dive on Cooking Mama: Cookstar.
First, read this article. It’s pretty crazy, right? Nobody wants to own up to developing this game, but I’m assuming people are still getting paid for it, so why doesn’t anyone claim it? Enter the cryptocurrency rumor.
Some people have proposed the idea that Cooking Mama’s early press release that describes using blockchain within the game to help trade with other players could mean that this game is a front for Bitcoin farming. Basically, the idea is that the Switch processing power that’s not being used while playing Cookstar would be used to farm cryptocurrency.
The publishers of Cookstar have dismissed this as craziness. But the game is still in limbo, so who knows what’s true!
In the end, this game is still bad. It would have been really cool if this game was a good game that nobody could get, but it’s just not. An underwhelming end to a very hot story…. unless it’s really a cryptocurrency farmer in disguise.
Google Stadia free version now available
This is kind of big news, but nobody is talking about it. That just goes to show how dead-in-the-ground Stadia is right now. Not even offering their services for free is bringing attention back to themselves. They’ve done this to themselves, and it’s a shame that this cool idea couldn’t be executed by a company that has so many resources.
With this going free and the 2-months free of Stadia Pro, I might try it out! There’s not too many games that come with Pro that I’m interested in, other than Destiny 2, so the only reason I would use it is to see how it really works. If I do, I’ll definitely stream it.
What about you? Are you going to give Stadia a try now that it’s free?
Game Design Deep Dive: How Rogue Legacy handles tutorials without being boring
If you’ve never played Rogue Legacy, you really should. It’s a super fun game with permadeath and permaprogress, i.e. when you die you start over, but you keep your gold from your previous run. So you’re constantly upgrading by dying, if that makes sense. There’s a lot of games like it nowadays, but this was one of the first of its kind that I played and I really loved it.
This is a really cool insight into the Tutorial of this game. As you can see by my attempt to explain the game above, it’s not easy, so the tutorial is incredibly important to suck the player in. We’ve all been through the awful tutorials, like most of the Assassin’s Creed games, and you know how much it can turn you off of a game. The way the tutorial was designed in this game was to avoid that, and it’s done expertly so that you don’t even realize how long the tutorial really is.
This article timing is great because Cellar Door Games just announced Rogue Legacy 2! So if you haven’t played RL1, maybe you can wait until RL2 to experience it.
INDUSTRY
China bans sale of Animal Crossing: New Horizons after it becomes a haven for Hong Kong protesters
If you’ve been keeping up with the international game industry over the past few months, you’ve heard about China and Nintendo Switch games. They recently launched the Nintendo Switch through Tencent, a publishing company in China, which is a huge step for the very strict Chinese marketplace. However, there’s only been three games officially released for the Switch, and they’re all Mario games.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons was on track to be the fourth game added to that lineup, but now it’s been banned by the Chinese government. It’s likely because the ability to create pictures and images has lead to players breaking one of China’s laws about video games: including something that harms China’s ethics or cultures and traditions.
Tencent is trying hard to open China’s gaming industry more, but it’s proving challenging. We’ll see if China officially announces why they banned it (which they probably won’t) and if Nintendo makes any response (which they probably won’t).
The industry mines for ’90s nostalgia
This is a topic that a lot of people have been thinking about, even if they haven’t realized it. Some of the biggest games of the past 12 months have been remakes: Resident Evil 2 and 3 and Final Fantasy VII Remake are just a few that have been critically acclaimed and taking top spots in sales. So why does this work for some franchises but not others? This article explores that question.
There’s also a noticeable difference between remakes like Resident Evil and Remasters. With Resident Evil, a whole new engine was made, game mechanics were changed, and it delivered a whole new experience to gamers, even those who played the original multiple times. Now think of some other recent remasters: Shadow of the Colossus, Spyro, and Crash Bandicoot. These games are beloved franchises and they looked beautiful, but they weren’t anywhere near as successful because they didn’t undergo the Remake treatment that the others did. There’s a big difference between the development of those types of games, namely money, which is a big differentiator. So next time one of your favorite franchises is getting a remaster or remake, make sure to pay attention to the verbage used to describe it. Will it get a Resident Evil treatment or a Spyro treatment? It might help you decide if you want to buy it.
What do you think will be the next big franchise to get the Resident Evil treatment? If we’re throwing out ideas, might I suggest Legend of the Dragoon? They could redo the combat system and even switch the story up some, but keep those incredible characters. That would be my dream come true. Let me know yours!
Before You Go
This curated list of articles was originally created for the Load Save newsletter, a weekly newsletter focused on gaming industry, community, and development. If you like what you’re reading, why not subscribe to get it in your inbox every Saturday?
Creating this newsletter is the highlight of every week for me, so I do hope that you enjoy reading it. If you have any feedback or just want to say hey, feel free to leave a comment below! I would love to talk with some of the people who take time to read what I write. You can also find Load Save on most social platforms if you want to say hey there! I’ll post more gaming related articles on my Twitter and Facebook throughout the week if you want even more gaming articles.
As always, thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time!
