How Nostalgia Is Holding Games Back

there is no better get-rich-quick scheme when it comes to basically all media than banking on nostalgia we live in a perpetual age of throwbacks references revivals and remakes which shows no sign of stopping soon hell the entire spider-man franchise has not a single unique idea in about 20 years and that's still going pretty strong everybody remembers nostalgia right it's that thing where you get to see something you already like but enriched with fond memories of what it used to be like how in dark souls 3 the game just totally blindsides you by slapping anor londo an iconic location from the original game towards the end of irithyll not only is this a great reveal of a beautiful area on its own merits but players who remember dark souls 1 will be able to see this once grand temple city ruined and its inhabitants corrupted witnessing for themselves the dwindling cycle of rebirth and ruin that the series is all about the additional ptsd of the archer ramp of doom is just a bonus or what about the way the legend of zelda games use musical motifs to feed into the idea that you're playing through just one retelling of the same legend getting the master sword always plays a grand orchestral riff on the classic chest opening music and zelda's theme constantly calls back to itself whenever the titular princess is on screen or when tetra pulls a michael jackson these sorts of nostalgic payoffs are the foundation for some of gaming's best moments from recurring motifs in long lasting series to new games that tap into our nostalgic memories to bring us an experience that's in equal parts fresh and familiar in many ways nostalgia is our gateway to the past allowing us to relive our most cherished memories whilst also adding to them with new experiences from the present nostalgia is great right well we certainly like to remember it that way don't we most discussions of nostalgia and media begin and end with that sort of surface level sentimentality but i think the nostalgia is more than just fondly remembering something you liked when you were younger so often when we talk about this topic we ironically get so bogged down in reliving our own memories that we forget to take a look at the way nostalgia itself can both enhance and harm the ways in which we engage with video games as a medium i first really began to notice this when i went back and got my teeth stuck into a group of games that have made waves recently that are all trying to capitalize on nostalgia for pokemon look at temtem coramon nexomon and monster crown the influence is obvious and these games do a great job of replicating the flavor of the various different eras of pokemon coramon takes big influence from the gba games monster crown has a chunky game boy aesthetic you get the picture however even though these games are great at replicating the feel of pokemon and at times improving on the series boring battle system and anti-consumer splitting the game in two things they've always done i still couldn't really get into any of them i really enjoyed getting to experience my love of pokemon all over again from a new point of view but in spite of their objective improvements i dropped all four of these games just a few hours in why well to put things simply i think that coramon temtem and all the other games that tried to capitalize on throwbacks to retro pokemon were so consumed with their own nostalgia for their inspiration that they not only forget to have their own identity but they also lose sight of what made the original games good fun and memorable to begin with essentially what i'm talking about is the idea that nostalgia is a double-edged sword i'll get back to these pokemon knockoff games later for now let's break down what i mean by nostalgia potentially leading us astray basically the power and risk of nostalgia comes from the fact that people don't simply remember things in objective terms instead our memory is always linked with an emotional context this goes back to early human evolution emotionally resonant events good or bad evolve to stick in the brain more powerfully so that they can be recalled and learned from more easily and in the modern day this still holds true think about your most clearly remembered nostalgic moments like finding out just how big the world is in breath of the wild or that awesome moment where you slice open the metal gear in metal gear rising or even the instantly meme worthy line in skyrim i used to be an adventurer like you until i took an arrow to the knee which now that you mention it isn't what the guard says he actually says an arrow in the knee and everyone just quotes it wrong something that i didn't find out until i went to go and get footage kind of proving my point which is that nostalgia recalls our emotional state when something happened with extreme clarity what it doesn't do is remember the event itself you probably didn't remember the unhelpful combat tutorial for metal gear rising or the slightly aimless wandering that comes after you beat the great plateau because those bits are much less interesting you only remember the way you feel during the emotional high points and the most obvious simplistic bits of symbology this idea that we sometimes forget the nuances that make great games work is something that can be seen really clearly when it comes to the successes to basically any really influential game like portal for example there are a bunch of really well designed games out there that are directly inspired by portal but never quite have the same staying power or sense of constant discovery despite being cosmetically quite similar i think this is because these games draw their influence from nostalgia rather than from the deeper more fundamental and less memorable reasons that their chosen inspiration actually works so well look at superliminal cube or the turing test they all make a real point of orienting themselves around both a single gimmicky physics mechanic and a voice that talks in your ear constantly this makes sense these are the most iconic and nostalgic elements of portal the portal gun is an unforgettably cool bit of kit as is glados as a character but are these things really the reason why portal works so well i'm not so sure each of these games zero in on their respective gimmick perspective power distribution or making boxes in much the same way the portal appears to but actually playing them reveals that this tiny palette of mechanics isn't enough to support a game that's already being constrained by the requirement of being a first person platformer and all three of these games sort of run out of ideas and start defaulting to boring boxes on switches puzzles after a while even narbacula drop the game that inspired portal to begin with isn't immune to this it's exclusively about portals and that means it burns through its ideas and starts repeating itself before even its 10 minute run time is up the reality is that even in the original portal the game is constantly throwing new mechanics at you that more than stand on their own while the gun clearly unifies the experience portal's more than happy for you to do some platforming fight turrets play energy ball tennis or do some navigation puzzles as well the game even outright mocks box on switch puzzles several times before abandoning the concept completely towards the back half it's that confident in its variety hell when valve made portal 2 they roped in an entirely different digipen team who made tag the power of paint and just sort of put that game's fully formed speed up and bounce paints into the sequel along with a bunch of other stuff portals titular portals are and forgive me here a gateway to lots of different puzzling mechanics rather than the overriding singular focus they initially appear to be the same goes for glados she's not just a joke machine or the guardian of some hidden spooky dark backstory which is the stuff we tend to remember she's also an amazingly effective motivator even before the game officially reveals her villainy glados screws with you tells you puzzles are impossible and generally makes your life more difficult and as a result she drives you to succeed and keep playing in spite of her we remember glados because of how good it feels to beat her at her own game not necessarily why she made us feel that way many of the games that follow on from portal 1 and 2 are great in their own right like quantum conundrum which was actually designed by the original level designer of both portal 1 and our bacular drop but despite containing all the same recognizable winning ingredients it never quite comes together into a cohesive feeling whole i think many would be successors to nostalgic beloved properties run into this same issue of engaging with the iconography of beloved games without really getting to the core of what made them so loved in the first place countless really terrible minecraft clones copied blocks and zombies because we all remember surviving our harrowing first night and a cobbled together hut but it's the more subtle journey of conquering the wilderness using nothing but our own creativity that actually makes minecraft so compelling you could even argue in its early days that terraria was guilty of this until it forged its own identity by adding bosses an evolving world and a clear progression structure only for that stuff to get copied in games nostalgic for terraria with no regard for their purpose basically nostalgia is a constant conflict between creating those satisfying connections to the past and actually making something that's good in the present many people looking for a nostalgic experience just sort of end up chasing memories that conveniently leave out all the bad bits of the games they love and that's something that can be seen very clearly in retro revival throwback games often games that accurately recreate the way games used to be are less successful at creating a feeling of nostalgia because they include all the boring and bad bits that we'd rather not remember take ukulele for example a game that's you know fine but that gets a lot of bad press for having confusing world design very abrasive writing and kind of clunky controls particularly in its mini-games don't get me wrong these are all completely fair criticisms but if you go back and play banjo-kazooie the series that ukulele is based on made by the same people it commits many of the same mistakes that hawaiian guitar faithfully replicates banjo has some fairly infuriating mini games some levels with such dull palettes that they're impossible to navigate like rusty bucky bay and banjo-tooie has a whole bunch of backtracking with new abilities that people criticize yooka-laylee for some people genuinely wanted an accurate-ish remake of an n64 classic and came away pretty satisfied with ukulele but those like myself who wanted an improved version that kept the high points and cut out the bad stuff were left disappointed the same dynamic occurs in the genre of so-called boomer shooters which don't really have anything to do with baby boomers and are instead all about replicating the early titans of the first person shooter genre doom quake duke nukem that sort of thing modern boomer shooter revivals often faithfully remake their source materials design and end up not being very much fun as a result of the games i played ion fury and hellbound in particular two very faithful recreations of doom and duke nukem respectively have maze-like bland levels very generic weapons ripped straight from their source material meaning that they weirdly fail to hit that nostalgic sweet spot because they're designed to replicate the actual games that exist rather than the heightened imaginary experience that our nostalgia remembers that's why some of the best retro revival games actually aren't very similar to their purported inspiration because they're instead angled to mirror our expectations rather than reality building on our nostalgia to create something both new and that actually exists fans of old school shooters remember them being lightning fast tense and with no down time so games like dusk do just that making combat arenas bigger enemies smarter and levels more consistently paced breaking several design and technological limitations of their predecessors like quake in the process one of the most effectively nostalgic boomer shooters not a fan of the name i've ever played is the early access game ultrakill objectively speaking it's nothing like a 90s fps with its score attack gameplay acrobatic platforming and weird health system based on drinking enemy blood but all of these additions massively encourage the kind of constant aggressive action and nice edge strategizing that make those old games great and ultrakill feels all the more nostalgic for it platformers are no different the reason why the likes of sonic mania was so successful for example was that while it pretended to pay homage to the genesis games it actually made some pretty radical changes adding new moves cutting out the lame puzzle solving and the incredibly heavy physics in exchange for lighter faster and more streamlined action strangely leading to reviewers calling the game quote fetishistically devoted to old school sonic when really mania is designed to trick you into thinking it's old school when it's actually not so i guess it was successful there the thing is though is that while carefully designing a game to evoke someone's nostalgic memories with a fresh functional coat of paint can pay dividends it's hard work and it isn't always successful because nostalgia is ultimately personal in nature people who are nostalgic for the same thing may have completely different interpretations of it some people who really like the stress and intimate setting of the old resident evil games love the newer remakes but for those more into the goofy b-movie style horror and the unique presentation they'll come away disappointed that's why instead of building on existing nostalgia many games opt for the much easier technique of just sort of reheating the same stuff you recognize already and serving it to you again for a quick cheap burst of oh yeah i recognize that and not much else to show you what i mean let's go back to those pokemon inspired games i mentioned earlier all of them aren't just bursting at the seams with pokemon references from the way that the not pokemon centers look to your choice of three starter creatures even to very specific stuff like the way the catching monsters animation has this three-step confirmation before finally resolving it's impossible not to be reminded of pokemon while playing these games and don't get me wrong this can be fun but it also sets up a dangerous precedent namely the players can get more attached to having that nostalgicated too than the actual game underneath meaning that when these clones dare try and step out from pokemon shadow that break in such a powerful nostalgic illusion creates one hell of a whiplash effect both nexomon and coromon for example vastly simplify pokemon's typing system having both fewer types in general and removing dual type monsters objectively speaking this is very sensible because it removes the weird redundancy pokemon has and it makes balancing quite a lot easier but i was being reminded so often about how much i like pokemon that it just made me nostalgic for the way those games work how much i like dual types as a concept rather than endearing me to the game i was actually playing the same goes for temtem's grinding it would be a mild niggle in any other rpg but because pokemon specifically is easy enough to almost never acquire grinding it brings the necessity of slaughtering wild creatures to level up into frustrating focus even though pokemon being too easy is a constant complaint with that series yeah see what i mean about nostalgia warping the way we remember things getting to see a contextless reference to the past can feel affirming and engaging but the high never lasts long and will only make you more hungry for your nostalgia fix in the long run because the emotional basis to that nostalgia isn't actually being satisfied the problem with these pokemon successes is that they burn you out on comparisons to their inspiration long before you can get attached to the perfectly good game they actually are of course this isn't to say that just referencing stuff people are familiar with is always bad that's ridiculous basically all memes and depending on how pretentious you want to get all humor is based on recognizing references and getting that little chemical reward for doing so and games are no different it doesn't have any deeper meaning or appeal when cute old-timey pixel mario pops up for these 2d sections in odyssey or when final fantasy pulls yet another moogle out of its backside but it's still fun to see them again however there's still an important distinction to be made between giving someone a satisfying experience that builds on what they love already and just endlessly rehashing the same ideas in many ways a game or a person investing too heavily into nostalgia creates kind of a shell that only gets more difficult to break down as time goes on look at metroidvanias for almost 30 years that entire genre has been trapped in the gravitational pull of a single game super metroid and both indie fans and nintendo themselves have been so obsessed with remaking and rehashing the visual and design symbology of metroid that they've kind of forgotten why collecting upgrades and having a lock and key world design was so fun to begin with this has gone to the point that relative outsiders like superland tokitori and unsighted managed to engage with the idea that your main adversary is the world itself and your main source of progression is learning its intricacies than actual metroid games more recent genres too have this same sort of issue of nostalgia and tradition overpowering more fundamental good design when it comes to souls like games people have started taking that terrible genre name a bit too literally and no more so than in the case of sakura oh sorry did you think i was going to say old ring there ah easy mistake to make sakuro shadows die twice is a game that really wants to be a lean tight character action game with stealth elements like tenchu which is a series that fromsoft developed for a lot in the past but sakura constantly struggles against his obligations of also being a souls-like and facilitating lots of different play styles and builds the result is that sakura's prosthetic tools and skills end up taking up a lot of your time but are mostly useless except in cases where they make the game less fun because they hard counter certain bosses like this otherwise worthless poison knife that just rinses these rifle-wielding mini bosses for reasons that aren't quite clear sakiro is at its absolute best in its no frills sword versus sword boss fights or its free running stealth bits in which your skills and tools are basically useless stuff like genishiro and ishin are only able to be fromsoft's best bosses ever because they're laser focused on a single toolset rather than having to compensate for a million different build combinations which is why it kind of sucks that the rest of the game doesn't have anywhere near as much clarity of vision as all these weird crafting upgrading and skill building systems constantly get in the way of a much simpler better and less beholden to the past game what i think when you get right down to it is that nostalgia is a tool to be used to a game's advantage not a set of rules that limit and confine it this is why i think that the retro style games that are most successful and also most stand on their own as a legitimate work do away with directly referencing the past at all shovel knight for example i bet you've been waiting the whole video for me to bring that one up it's such a successful and universally nostalgic icon because it doesn't call back to any one game or experience in particular it's a bit mega man a bit ninja gaiden a bit duck tales and a bit a whole host of other things but more than that it's just sort of broadly retro i'm way too young to have any nostalgia for the nes game shovel knight riffs off of but because it doesn't expect people to be nostalgic for those games just to appreciate that style in general that doesn't really matter same goes for hollow knight another game that feels very nostalgic and is deeply indebted to a few classics but manages to carve out its own identity and its own nostalgic fan base still waiting for the sequel because it keeps its inspiration at arm's length it takes broad aesthetic and big picture cues from dark souls and metroid rather than bogging things down with too many specific references that may clash with your nostalgia for those games even stuff that's a part of a particular franchise in orbit name like bloodstained tries to be more of a greatest hits collection of all of castlevania's best ideas than a remake of one specific game that will invariably disappoint people it takes the souls from the sorrow games the world design of symphony of the night and some narrative cues from order of ecclesia ending up with something that feels distinctly castlevania right down to the weird not very good graphical style without directly challenging anyone's nostalgia it's the same with games that harken back to a particular historical era hypnospace outlaw so brilliantly captures the feel of the web 1.0 wild west because it isn't set in the real world referencing real events or using real technology it's free to fast track straight to the emotional core of that nostalgia without needing to worry about misrepresenting people's poorly remembered specifics or distracting them from what it has to say with too many references like so many things nostalgia is a powerful part of experiencing media without it things would be a hell of a lot more boring but if we give in to the easy thrill of just recycling our favorite memories over and over not only do they become totally separated from reality but we prevent ourselves from enjoying anything new as well whether it's metroid portal dark souls or yes even pokemon sometimes the best way to honor the past is to take its legacy come to terms with its thoughts and use that knowledge to build something newer and better rather than languishing in the past forever of course the one exception to this being mudkip who i refuse to evolve and will never ever let go of it should be the pokemon mascot instead of that piss-covered rap pikachu and before you say it i find the very idea that i like this stupid thing because it's the first pokemon i ever got in my first pokemon game ever insulting it's clearly the best pokemon ever and it's been downhill ever since case closed hello and welcome one and all to the special after the video segment that very exclusive bit of the video that very few people actually watch it's uh it's kind of like the true ending route so uh congrats for making it this far relatedly this video might be my longest ever regular episode jesus christ anyway what i focus on here is giving people who really deserve it a well-earned shout out and this time around my internet person who you should check out is none other than james james is a developer of fantastic lo-fi horror games of which i am a huge fan i've spotlighted one of his games previously but honestly the whole catalog is worth a look he's got this fantastic blend of lo-fi presentation with brilliantly eerie writing and understated subtle horror that makes his work basically the best lovecraftian video games out there and some of my favorite horror fiction in general my favorite is water wombworld but i recommend checking out any of them that catch your eye they are all great just be 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Channel: Adam Millard - The Architect of Games

Views: 258,655

Keywords: Games, Video Games, Gaming, PC Gaming, Adam, Adam Millard, Architect, AoG, Architect of Games, Review, Analysis, Game Design, guide, Level design, New Games, Soulslike, Bosses, Elden Ring, Spider Man, Skyrim, Elder Scrolls, Zelda, Breath of the wild, Dark Souls, Nostalgia, Gaming Nostalgia, best retro games, retro, Shovel Knight, Portal, Pokemon, Best pokemon games, classic pokemon, temtem, Tem Tem, Nostalgic moments, Metal Gear Rising, Sekiro, Coromon, Castlevania, Hollow Knight, Mudkip

Id: 1pXJqs2bgi4

Length: 22min 56sec (1376 seconds)

Published: Fri May 06 2022