Comparisons in gaming that you just don't get/disagree with

[The DanMan]

Title is fairly self explanatory; are there any comparisons involving video games that you simply don't understand or flat-out disagree with?

For instance: a lot of people started saying Scalebound, an upcoming Xbox One and PC game, looks like Monster Hunter. That's incredibly superficial, as they have very different aesthetics and gameplay.

Another one: people generally classify Azure Striker Gunvolt as a "not-Mega Man" game, and I couldn't agree less. It's meant to be fundamentally different and does it's own thing- it's really apples to oranges here. What's worse is this has actually harmed the game's reputation somewhat, as there are people who've gone in expecting something Mega Man-esque and ended up disappointed.

Last but not least: "Monster Hunter and Dark Souls are similar". Umm... kind of? They both have a steep learning curve, certainly, but gameplay, aesthetics, and overall focus wise they couldn't be much further apart. For instance: Monster Hunter is very much a multiplayer game, while Dark Souls is designed for solo play first and foremost. Monster Hunter wears its' Japanese influences on it's sleeve, while Dark Souls is often confused as being developed by a Western developer due to its' visual style.

Those are just my current little peeves at the moment, but I'm sure you have others.

Edited August 26, 2016 by The DanMan

[Original Alear]

I actually do feel there is a strong similarity between monster hunter and dark souls. I don't know how to explain it, but the feel of the pacing of combat is somewhat similar between the two games. There are lots and lots of differences, but both series have a very particular feel to begin with. Pacing, the reliance on bread and butter style attacking techniques over over the top supermoves...I don't really know the souls series all that well, and haven't messed with magic, so maybe I'm off base, but in terms of how I played the games, dark souls 1 and monster hunters tri, 4u and generations feel fairly akin to each other.

Being single VS multiplayer isn't necessarily as huge a factor in differentiating games as you might think, IMO. I mean, sometimes there's a gigantic difference between singleplayer and multiplayer in a game world (for instance, strategy games usually have starkly different single and multiplayer modes - usually because single player has far more asymmetric battles than multiplayer). But if you compare, say, playing mario kart 1 player grand prix vs mario kart grand prix, the main difference is the fun of playing with someone else (and probably having an opponent who's substantially better or substantially worse than the cpus). I think multiplayer in Monster hunter and dark souls have important differences, but that's not enough for me to not feel like the games don't feel very similar.

I don't know a lot about scalebound, but it does look pretty damn different from monster hunter.

[Tryhard]

I can see monster hunter and dark souls, but pretty much everything else seems to be compared to dark souls a lot.

[Azure Sen]

Pretty much the "x is the Dark Souls of y!" comparison because it tends to be a very superficial comparison by people who have never actually played Dark Souls.

Edited August 26, 2016 by AzureSen

[Zera]

@HELP Mario Kart doesn't have a true single player mode because computers fill in for the other players. The mission mode in Mario Kart DS and Octo Valley in Splatoon are completely different because they are true single player.

[Topaz Light]

I don't know how much this qualifies, but the only thing that really comes to mind is actually an anecdote from when I was discussing Chrono Trigger in the comments of a YouTube video on a Dark Pixel Gaming's channel. I brought up that the game has framework in place for combatant positioning to be a major factor in combat, and yet it gives the player absolutely no control over party member positioning during battle. Aside from, like, maybe one ability Ayla has that I'm forgetting the name of and may have just imagined, the control over combatant positioning is 100% in the hands of the enemies. The point I was getting at was that I felt it would've been really cool if the game had done more with that particular mechanic instead of implementing it such that it just barely rises above feeling tacked on (in my opinion).

The response I got?

"So you wish the game was more like Secret of Mana, then?"

I don't know why that bothered me as much as it did, but it felt like a massive assumption about what I meant. If anything, I'd be suggesting that Chrono Trigger would've benefited from incorporating elements of Live-A-Live's combat system, how it handles letting the player move party members around on the playing field. I absolutely do not think Chrono Trigger would be improved by turning it into an action RPG or something, and I felt that that was that person's takeaway from my statement, which was very frustrating to me.

EDIT: Also, when people compare literally any game under the sun with a 'mons mechanic to Pokémon. I get where it comes from, since Pokémon has dominated that genre for decades to the point that there are people who don't even know that it's a whole genre of games including but not limited to Pokémon, but it still gets on my nerves, because you don't hear people comparing every platforming game ever to Mario, for example.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Topaz Light

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

dqm compared to pokemon

dqm is really more like smt, but then again im pretty sure smt is amongst the first monster collecting games alongside dq5

[Azure Sen]

dqm is really more like smt, but then again im pretty sure smt is amongst the first monster collecting games alongside dq5

Technically the first Megami Tensei game, Digital Devil Saga: Megami Tensei released in 1987, predates every other monster collection game (DQ5 was released in '92).

Speaking of Mon game comparisons: Digimon to Pokemon and vice versa. They're hardly anything alike, but because they're Mon series that became popular around the same time people to this day constantly compare them. (This doesn't necessarily apply only to video games.)

Edited August 26, 2016 by AzureSen

[Reality]

New rougelikes with FTL.

Some editors seem to treat it like the staple rougelike nowadays, which I always found bizarre given how streamlined it's equipment system and the kind of on hands approach to combat it has.

It dosen't help that binding of issac and spelunky are also rougelikes, while being even further than a vanilla experience outside of their procedural generation.

[Etrurian emperor]

I've never been to fond of the comparisons between Pokemon red and blue and the Fates games. Conquest and birthright are different experiences that use the same assets while red and blue are the same game with minor differences. The Zelda oracle games always struck me as a much more accurate comparison.

[peener weener]

@HELP Mario Kart doesn't have a true single player mode because computers fill in for the other players. The mission mode in Mario Kart DS and Octo Valley in Splatoon are completely different because they are true single player.

mario kart does have time trials and such though?

[C. Turtle]

I've seen Splatoon compared to Call of Duty a lot, whether it's to say one is better than the other, or to say that Splatoon is "Nintendo's Call of Duty".

Like, they're both part of the shooter genre, but they're completely different games otherwise.

[Irony]

Me: *Playing Etrian Odyssey*

A: Etrian Odyssey is like Pokemon.

Me: ....Erm, no?

This actually happened. And I don't see how Etrian Odyssey is like Pokemon?

[Original Alear]

@HELP Mario Kart doesn't have a true single player mode because computers fill in for the other players. The mission mode in Mario Kart DS and Octo Valley in Splatoon are completely different because they are true single player.

Um, that doesn't make sense. What makes it "true" or "not true" single player?

I understand that multiplayer is the focus of mario kart for mostly everybody, but 1p exists fully and completely in every mario kart game I've played.

Your post doesn't really state a concrete justification, but it seems like you think that there needs to be additional features to single player that make it unique from multiplayer in order for it to be "true." If that is your justification, that's just some arbitrary construction you've come up with on your own. I could just as easily say that human players fill in for computer players in multiplayer mode.

Me: *Playing Etrian Odyssey*

A: Etrian Odyssey is like Pokemon.

Me: ....Erm, no?

This actually happened. And I don't see how Etrian Odyssey is like Pokemon?

I would play FOEmon. Edited August 27, 2016 by HELP

[Zera]

Your post doesn't really state a concrete justification, but it seems like you think that there needs to be additional features to single player that make it unique from multiplayer in order for it to be "true." If that is your justification, that's just some arbitrary construction you've come up with on your own. I could just as easily say that human players fill in for computer players in multiplayer mode.

Now you get it! The reason Mario Kart's "singleplayer" and "multiplayer" modes feel so similar is because they are in fact the same mode. It'd be more accurate to call Grand Prix a "single-human-player" mode.

[Honey Bunny]

"Isn't Monster Rancher just a clone of Pokemon?" No, no, not even a little. Shut up I won't stop talking about Monster Rancher

Sure you train cute(ish) monsters in each, but they have such radically different ways of going about it that they're hardly in the same genre.

[Anacybele]

"Mew and Mewtwo are cats."

Uh, no. I'll admit they do have vague similarities to felines, but I always thought both, especially Mew, looked more like kangaroo rats. Mew has a very similar body shape to them, with the small body, large back feet, and really long tail with a wider tip.

[Original Alear]

Now you get it! The reason Mario Kart's "singleplayer" and "multiplayer" modes feel so similar is because they are in fact the same mode. It'd be more accurate to call Grand Prix a "single-human-player" mode.

Or just go with how nearly everyone else uses singleplayer and call it singleplayer, because every game which has a mode with only one human player could be called a "single human player" mode. Playing a game of solitare with an actual set of cards could be called "single human player" since there is only one human player.

[The DanMan]

I've seen Splatoon compared to Call of Duty a lot, whether it's to say one is better than the other, or to say that Splatoon is "Nintendo's Call of Duty".

Like, they're both part of the shooter genre, but they're completely different games otherwise.

Heck, if anything Splatoon and Gears of War is a better comparison as at least both of them are 3rd person shooters.