Topic: What if CV games were longer?

[zangetsu468]

I'm still not agreeing with the term "artificial lengthening", because it's too subjective in my mind. Sotn had those extra halls for loading and an inverted Castle, some could call those artificial ways to lengthen the game. Super Mario 64 probably had less enemies to surface area ratio than the older games making it feel "more empty" - some could call this artificial. Then there's games that reuse or recycle areas or involve back tracking.. Etc.

I think the fact that an individual believes a game has been lengthened or vice versa by means of "being cheap" is too subjective to measure accurately. In the case of TP, one can argue that's what they believe, on the other hand the argument can be made that in terms of narrative in a Zelda game it probably easily has one of the most (if not the most) amount of narrative throughout the game in relative terms. Compared to a more traditional Zelda like ALTTP where you get story at the beginning, end and maybe a snippet in the middle.

Back onto the main topic I think there's only so long you can play a game and explore a world in through one continuous narrative without it getting stale. 

[JR]

i'd like something which scratches the obsessive-compulsive itch of collection/completion without bursting the balloon with too many things going on at once.  i had to put down skyward sword because there was just too much shit to collect, it began to boggle my brain and seemed like one giant fetch quest after another.  designers are always looking for ways to artificially extend play time, evident in long winding maps that lead to an otherwise simple destination, or other modes of gameplay that are essentially the same as the main game (lookin at you, hard mode, time attack, boss rush, etc...)

This happened to me with Far Cry 4 just recently. It made me feel like, "WHAT THE FU...okay, fine, I'll do all of it. YES, all of it. Goddammit."


Length of game for a CV really would depend on what kind of game it is. Like already mentioned, a side-scrolling platformer could get tedious if stretched out too long. An exploration-based game would be a different story for me, though. If something could hold my interest as well as Dark Souls does, I could play it for ages. Just depends on the amount of real depth put into the game, and whether or not it's fun.

[GuyStarwind]

I would love a long Classicvania style game. In a classic style, you don't return to previous areas as you would in a Metroidvania (obviously we know this) and so in order to have around 50 hours of game play you would need a lot more areas and content. Of course, you could have several branching paths and whatnot. I know I would be down for this type of game.

[theANdROId]

I feel like LoD had some enjoyable features to draw out play time what with the four different playable characters.  CotM had 5, but they were all the same-ish.  I think that's what I generally hope for games to do (especially CV games it seems)...throw in one or a few extra characters with different play styles at the least.  Alternate paths or storylines to go along with them is icing on the cake.

I don't mind things like achievements or collectibles or whatever.  I always thought the SotN reverse castle was kinda cool and lame, depending on different parts of it.

[X]

make it like Julius mode in AOS where get stronger after beating each boss,

SotN also did this with the Richter mode. Took me a while before I noticed that Richter's health was recovering more slower with every life-up item I collected, as well as take more damage then before.

[zangetsu468]

SotN also did this with the Richter mode. Took me a while before I noticed that Richter's health was recovering more slower with every life-up item I collected, as well as take more damage then before.

I actually noticed this on my first Richter playthrough when Sotn first came out and wondered whether anyone else would, because it doesn't exactly make it apparent.

[Lelygax]

wow, it must be a really gradual increase.  after all the times i've played it i've hardly noticed but sort of figured it was the case.

It is. If you increase your health a lot, enemies on the inverted castle wouldn't munch away almost your entire lifebar with an attack anymore.

In AoS it took some years to discover that. It was really bad to reach Graham and only do 8 damage for each hit.

[BLOOD MONKEY]

I want a CV game with a layout like Dark Souls.

[AdrianTepes]

For a classicvania, I think something close to Dracula's Curse or Super Castlevania IV's length wise is perfect.
Branching paths and secret areas could be a good way to increase the lenght without making it too long
Maybe adding some RPG elements like those in Vampire Killer could work too, but always keeping them on the lighter side to avoid overdoing it or turning it into a Metroidvania.

cutscenes between stages like in Ninja Gaiden

This is something I would love to see. I know that Konami didn't take Castlevania's lore seriously on the first game, but  for Simon's Quest and Dracula's Curse cutscenes like those would have been something really amazing.

[X]

Welcome to the Dungeon TOMOYA 

[AdrianTepes]

Thanks, X! I just noticed I have ridiculously bad manners and jumped into the conversation without even introducing myself first, but the talk was too interesting for me to resist.

[X]

Don't worry too much about it. You aren't the first