So, the author mentioned a couple of delightfully strange recent games. The thesis of the article is way too broad and unsupportable. If you’re sick of mainstream settings, then stop playing AAA games.
I can understand why fantasy settings are pretty stale, not just in games but in a variety of other media as well. Fantasy can be complex, and using old, familiar tropes (elves are haughty and love nature, dwarves are stubborn and love gold, humans are the world’s jack-of-all-trades) lowers the barrier to entry, which is really important when you want something to be easily marketable to as large an audience as possible. People know what to expect from familiar fantasy tropes, which means they can focus on plot and gameplay rather than going “so what’s that character supposed to be?”
But it’s boring. I love it when a fantasy setting isn’t afraid to trust the intelligence and curiosity of its audience and do something weird.
Anime if anything seems to be doing worse at this. Nearly every fantasy or fantasy adjacent anime goes for a knock-off D&D MMO style and it feels so tired. They don’t want their audience to need to make the smallest effort to understand the world and the role of the characters in it.
That’s so disappointing. I haven’t really kept up with anime in recent years, but what I loved about the anime I watched when I was much, much younger was how different it was compared to the western media I was familiar with.
At least some of take a super unique approach… like being reincarnated as a vending machine.
You got a title for that one? Sounds like something I’d enjoy
Jidou Hanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyuu wo Samayou
It’s actually alright. Not something I’d rewatch though.
I count that as more gimmicky than creative. Like they are taking the same structure and just doing a bit of madlibs.
Yeah, that was kind of my point lol.
“That one time I was reborn as ____ and now I ____!”
*cue big ol’ anime titties
Dr. Stone, Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen – you don’t have to look very hard to find anime that doesn’t look anything like western fantasy
The person you were replying to was explicitly talking about current (‘new’) anime, not industry darlings like AoT.
Dude, the last episodes of AoT haven’t even aired yet, how current do you want?
I was explaining what they meant, I don’t personally care. Their complaint, as I understood it, was an absence of new and original work.
You’ve not played Caves of Qud, I see.
I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 a ton over the past two years and honestly I’m really glad I’ve spent so much time in the setting, it’s so not traditional fantasy and it’s richer for it. I wish that more fantasy played with the expectations of the genre. Tolkien-esque fantasy is a great jumping off point but I wish authors/creators did more with it than just start and stop there
Really wish this game had controller support. I want to try it on the steam deck but only community bindings are available!
Yeah I agree, especially bc it’s on steam now and the steam deck puts a premium on games with controller support. But even on PC sometimes I feel like I’m short on buttons, but there’s probably some way to play comfortably on a controller and anet really aught to invest in it
This is nothing new, been the story across media since Tolkien, really.
