They are making a Zelda CDI Homage

[AnonymousSpeed]

Yo, it's your boy, AnonymousMonthLate. Have you heard about Arzette, the Jewel of Faramore, an action-platform made in the style of the Zelda CDI games?

Spoiler

I have mixed feelings. So, so, soooooooo many indie games really have no purpose other than being derivative of something else, typically with an anime girl protagonist for added superficial appeal. "It's like Mega Man, but not!" "It's like Castlevania, but not!" "It's like Mega Man Legends, but not!" I swear every Mega Man spinoff and subseries has one of these except for frickin' Rockman Strategy. "We use sprites and/or low-poly models as an artistic choice!" I'm sure you do.

However, I actually like the CDI games. I've never played one in my entire life and I don't plan to, but they're a real monument in internet meme culture and I love the cutscenes very dearly, so I'm actually kind of excited to see something imitate that style. It also kind of seems like one of those things (along with FMV games) that got left in the 90s not merely because the technology evolved past them but because the artistic standards for video games solidified into something which didn't include...this.

Ultimately and all excuses aside, I would have to see if how the game turns out and would actually like if it were-

Spoiler

 

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by AnonymousSpeed
appeal =/= appear

[Etrurian emperor]

Great! I'll get my stuff! I can't wait to bomb some Dodongo's.

[Shaky Jones]

If you don't hear me beat this game in a month, send dinner.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Quote

It's like Mega Man Legends, but not!!

Hey um, can I get a steam link to this supposed Mega Man Legends-like game? Cause I'm playing the new Armored Core and I made basically the Gustaff with a Servbot as my emblem.

Yes of course I've posted the trailer for Arzette in one or two discords. I think it may be the most compelling announcement of that day. Certainly better than the stupid Gex trailer everyone keeps sharing with me. I am NOT playing any more Gex. It's time to move on.

[AnonymousSpeed]

3 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Hey um, can I get a steam link to this supposed Mega Man Legends-like game? Cause I'm playing the new Armored Core and I made basically the Gustaff with a Servbot as my emblem.

My dude your Labor Day is about to get goofy.

Delta-Gal is a Mega Man Legends derivative, and while I think there's a playable demo it's apparently still in development.

It is not to be confused with the hilariously similarly named Protodroid Delta (it has stylized spelling but I do not care), another game claiming to be inspired by Mega Man Legends featuring Brian Protodude as a writer. It looks more like Ratchet & Clank to me, but the guy who made it said Legends and that's what some people care about.

@Shaky Jones

3 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Yes of course I've posted the trailer for Arzette in one or two discords. I think it may be the most compelling announcement of that day. Certainly better than the stupid Gex trailer everyone keeps sharing with me. I am NOT playing any more Gex. It's time to move on.

This is like a heartbreaking scene at Clint Eastwood's mayoral residence.

 

33 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Great! I'll get my stuff! I can't wait to bomb some Dodongo's.

28 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

If you don't hear me beat this game in a month, send dinner.

You dare bring memes into my layer? You must eat dinner.

[Etrurian emperor]

12 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

You dare bring memes into my layer? You must eat dinner.

You've...fed...mweeeeee!

good

[Shaky Jones]

17 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I would beat the child

 

and then I would beat my wife.

17 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

You dare bring memes into my layer? You must eat dinner

No! Not into the stomach! It bombs

[AnonymousSpeed]

Just now, Shaky Jones said:

I would beat the child

 

and then I would beat my wife.

Silence, boner man. This child is incredibly based.

Just now, Shaky Jones said:

No! Not into the stomach! It bombs

Stink, Duke Mayo is under attack by the evil forces of Dodongos. I'm going to the kitchen to aid him.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

14 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

My dude your Labor Day is about to get goofy.

Delta-Gal is a Mega Man Legends derivative, and while I think there's a playable demo it's apparently still in development.
 

Oh yeah I remember this one. Perfect aesthetic adaptation. They said development was paused, but this year saw the release of 24 Killers, a game in development by one dude for 9 years since its $4000 kickstarter ended. So I won't count this out.

Quote

 

 

The LA Motorist line gets me every time. Toon Disney would not have aired this lol

[vanguard333]

2 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Yo, it's your boy, AnonymousMonthLate. Have you heard about Arzette, the Jewel of Faramore, an action-platform made in the style of the Zelda CDI games?

I understand making an indie game in the style of good games, but games so apparently bad that they're only remembered today out of infamy and for memes? Isn't that a bit like trying to deliberately make a "so bad it's good" sequel to a movie that was accidentally "so bad it's good"?

 

2 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I have mixed feelings. So, so, soooooooo many indie games really have no purpose other than being derivative of something else, typically with an anime girl protagonist for added superficial appeal. "It's like Mega Man, but not!" "It's like Castlevania, but not!" "It's like Mega Man Legends, but not!" I swear every Mega Man spinoff and subseries has one of these except for frickin' Rockman Strategy. "We use sprites and/or low-poly models as an artistic choice!" I'm sure you do.

Yeah, the amount of "like this classic title but-" indie games does get excessive at times. I get the mentality; if a series you love hasn't seen a new good title in years, it's natural to think, "Alright; I'll make one myself then!" 

Incidentally, I doubt that there's an indie version of Megaman Star Force, but I am ready to be surprised.

[AnonymousSpeed]

4 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

I understand making an indie game in the style of good games, but games so apparently bad that they're only remembered today out of infamy and for memes? Isn't that a bit like trying to deliberately make a "so bad it's good" sequel to a movie that was accidentally "so bad it's good"?

People have been doing that in the form of YouTube Poops for twenty years. Yet this is why I have the mixed feelings mentioned in the opening post.

4 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Yeah, the amount of "like this classic title but-" indie games does get excessive at times. I get the mentality; if a series you love hasn't seen a new good title in years, it's natural to think, "Alright; I'll make one myself then!"

While a sympathetic mindset, it's ultimately a damaging one. You'd prefer they made a sequel when they had a good idea for one (an idea which built on the original) rather than just so there would be another. Art for art's sake is an empty phrase, yadda yadda yadda.

4 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Incidentally, I doubt that there's an indie version of Megaman Star Force, but I am ready to be surprised.

You know what, I forgot about that one, as have most people apparently.

[vanguard333]

45 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

People have been doing that in the form of YouTube Poops for twenty years. Yet this is why I have the mixed feelings mentioned in the opening post.

While a sympathetic mindset, it's ultimately a damaging one. You'd prefer they made a sequel when they had a good idea for one (an idea which built on the original) rather than just so there would be another. Art for art's sake is an empty phrase, yadda yadda yadda.

You know what, I forgot about that one, as have most people apparently.

I have no idea what YouTube Poops is. When I came up with the comparison between this and movie sequels trying to capitalize on the surprise success of a "so bad it's good" movie, I was thinking of actual cases of movie sequels to "so bad it's good" movies (though, admittedly, I haven't actually watched any of them as I haven't actually watched any movies that are considered to be "so bad it's good").

Oh; definitely. I originally meant to add to my point by saying that, while I understand the mindset, it should only be done when the person or team has ideas beyond just "make a game that's like this classic game", and I would've used Shovel Knight, Bug Fables and Ocean's Heart as examples of games that do exactly that: have real ideas. But I couldn't think of the right words at the time, so I stopped my statement at just saying that I sympathize with the mindset behind it.

Understandable; Star Force only had three games before getting cancelled. The third game wrapped up every plotline well enough that I originally thought the series ended on its own terms; imagine my surprise when I found out there was going to be a fourth game that got cancelled. It was rather saddening for me, as I really enjoyed Star Force despite each game's various flaws and I would've liked to see what the fourth game would have done.

[Fabulously Olivier]

Real talk. Sea of Stars is amazing, but those derpy animated cutscenes immediately reminded me of CDI Zelda.

[Lord_Brand]

On 9/4/2023 at 9:28 AM, AnonymousSpeed said:

I have mixed feelings. So, so, soooooooo many indie games really have no purpose other than being derivative of something else, typically with an anime girl protagonist for added superficial appeal. "It's like Mega Man, but not!" "It's like Castlevania, but not!" "It's like Mega Man Legends, but not!" I swear every Mega Man spinoff and subseries has one of these except for frickin' Rockman Strategy. "We use sprites and/or low-poly models as an artistic choice!" I'm sure you do.

 

There's a benefit to being able to explore ideas without being constrained by copyright, licensing fees, and existing canon. Planet Freedom, A Robot Named Fight, One Step From Eden, Bloodstained, Ocean's Heart, Rogue Heroes...I've played many of these (not PF yet, but it's on my list) and had fun. I'm even planning some similarly inspired games myself. There's a thrill to designing something that scratches your itch while at the same time adding something different and personally appealing.

Also, the existence of these titles means the companies who own the original IPs have to stay on their A-game lest some indies steal their rep and their profits by putting some actual effort into alternatives. Competition is healthy for the industry.

Edited September 22, 2023 by Lord_Brand

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

"Seedy Eye Software"? A bit too on-the-nose, innit?

Anyway, there are so many indie games out and about today, that I suppose something like this was inevitable. Of course, there's an inherent dilemma - it's trying to emulate a bad game. If it turns out to be a good game, then it's failed at its task. But since it's failed, it's now a bad game. But since it's a bad game, it's achieved what it strove for in the first place. Thus making it a perfect game. Perfect at being bad, so-

Er-herm. Hope the folks who pick this up enjoy it, at least.

[AnonymousSpeed]

On 9/20/2023 at 11:18 PM, Lord_Brand said:

There's a benefit to being able to explore ideas without being constrained by copyright, licensing fees, and existing canon. Planet Freedom, A Robot Named Fight, One Step From Eden, Bloodstained, Ocean's Heart, Rogue Heroes...I've played many of these (not PF yet, but it's on my list) and had fun. I'm even planning some similarly inspired games myself. There's a thrill to designing something that scratches your itch while at the same time adding something different and personally appealing.

Also, the existence of these titles means the companies who own the original IPs have to stay on their A-game lest some indies steal their rep and their profits by putting some actual effort into alternatives. Competition is healthy for the industry.

I personally do see how this satisfies the actual market sense of competition, since someone buying those games is probably already buying the games they're based on (to the extent they are currently being sold) and competition implies some degree of choosing one thing over another.

I don't know, man. But they didn't make Zelda into a franchise by copying Adventure. They made a game to replicate the feeling exploring games- and they copying themselves and making worse games for it.

[Lord_Brand]

It's more that if they don't put out satisfactory games of the base series, fans will migrate to alternatives like what happened with Paper Mario. Paper Mario-likes cropped up during the Color Splash-Origami King era, the most notable of which being Bug Fable, and many longtime fans no doubt chose to play those over the modern Paper Mario games that got rid of so much of what they liked about the series. Ergo, competition.

Fast forward a few years, and now Nintendo's announced a TTYD remake to much rejoicing. Years of mediocre to poor sales (Color Splash didn't even break 1 million, making it the worst-selling Paper Mario game by far) combined with the emergence of competition like Bug Fable no doubt forced Nintendo to reconsider their approach to the Paper Mario series. Bringing back TTYD is no doubt a test run with audiences, and when the game hopefully sells millions - or at least more than the past three combined - that will send a message to Nintendo that fans want more of that Paper Mario. Paper Mario with partners, badges, growth through combat experience, and a story beyond "Bowser has done something bad. Go stop him."

Another example of this is Mega Man. Fans get tired waiting for Capcom to put out new Mega Man titles and so create their own Mega Man-inspired games, like 20XX and 30XX.

We've reached a point where gamers don't have to shrug and settle for what the Big Names are making - if they don't like what's available, or if they can't find what they're looking for, they'll make it themselves. And I think that's amazing.

On 9/20/2023 at 8:54 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

"Seedy Eye Software"? A bit too on-the-nose, innit?

I JUST GOT IT XD

Edited September 24, 2023 by Lord_Brand

[lenticular]

10 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

We've reached a point where gamers don't have to shrug and settle for what the Big Names are making - if they don't like what's available, or if they can't find what they're looking for, they'll make it themselves. And I think that's amazing.

I wouldn't really say that we've reached that point, more that it has always been the case. Through the entire history of video games to date, there has always been a continuum of game creators from hobbyists through indies to mid sized and then to the biggest companies. The big corporations with their enormous marketing budgets want us to believe otherwise, but they have never had the monopoly on games that they want.  It's good that there's a growing awareness of indie games, but they aren't anything new.

[Lord_Brand]

14 minutes ago, lenticular said:

I wouldn't really say that we've reached that point, more that it has always been the case. Through the entire history of video games to date, there has always been a continuum of game creators from hobbyists through indies to mid sized and then to the biggest companies. The big corporations with their enormous marketing budgets want us to believe otherwise, but they have never had the monopoly on games that they want.  It's good that there's a growing awareness of indie games, but they aren't anything new.

There was a time when video games were limited to hardware distribution, meaning someone had to pay for the production of cartridges or disks, which could get quite expensive. That meant even indie developers were often at the mercy of publishers who had the money to foot the production costs; this is why only 14,000 copies of the original Shantae for GBC were produced in the early 2000s. Not every company had the cash to produce their own game console either, hence why the majority of video games were and are third party and why there have only ever been a handful of first party companies in the industry at any one time.

Nowadays, virtual distribution means developers no longer have to rely on publishers to foot the hardware costs, nor are they limited to consoles. True, PC gaming has been around for a long time, going back to the MS-DOS days, but even those were usually distributed on floppy disks or CD-ROMs. Nowadays, you can purchase a completely digital game and download it directly to your console or computer.

Edited September 24, 2023 by Lord_Brand

[lenticular]

43 minutes ago, Lord_Brand said:

True, PC gaming has been around for a long time

I am primarily a PC gamer, with PC having been my main system going back to the '90s when I switched over from older proprietary 8-bit home computers (the Amstrad CPC in my case). I've always had consoles too, but they've always been suplemental for me. So that does definitely shape my perspective. I've been playing indie games pretty consistently since the 1980s.

But with that said, even if you're only looking at consoles, I still don't think that indie games are particularly a new thing. Direct digital distribution on consoles is around 15-20 years old now. XBLA launched in 2004, WiiWare in 2008. Thinking back to some of the successful indies of that era, there's the likes of Braid, Castle Crashers, and World of Goo, which all released in 2008.

And do remember as well that the concept of the "AAA" game is not all that much older than that, only dating back to the late 90s. Prior to that, relatively small budgets and small dev teams were the norm. While the stuff that got published on consoles in the 8- and 16-bit eras typically wasn't what we'd recognise as indie by today's standards, it also wasn't anything close to a modern AAA game. The industry was sufficiently different then -- in both creative and business aspects -- that modern terms just don't fit all that well.

So even on consoles there was only a period of maybe a decade or so after AAA games appeared and before direct digital distribution allowed indies to proliferate. And even then, it's not like indies didn't exist at all; Shantae may have been held down by the cost of publishing, but it was still there.

Oh, and since I'm talking up the history of indie games, I will just point out that two of the most successful and influential video games in history are indies: Tetris (1985) and Minecraft (2009).

Anyway, this is getting increasingly off topic and I've said my piece, so I will bow out now.