• The joy of RPG cooking: why games shouldn't abandon the culinary arts
    13 replies, posted
[url]http://www.pcgamer.com/the-joy-of-rpg-cooking-why-games-shouldnt-abandon-the-culinary-arts[/url]
It sounds a bit ridiculous at first but I love what he's getting at. Games don't reward more humble tasks such as cooking like they could
A lot of games have huge issues filling their open world with anything useful to do, and when they try it ends up being homogeneous and ultimately very flat and boring when it comes down to it. Open world is nice, but being able to actually interact with the world beyond [PICK UP THING WE SPECIFICALLY SCRIPTED TO BE PICKED UP], [KILL THIS THING], or [GET 3 LINES OF DIALOGUE FROM MAN] can add immensely. Shit, fill the quintessential player home / player town with a ton of fun mini-games that represent the more 'menial' chores of our day to day lives and people will like it; give those chores outcomes that can improve your core game experience (like rare dishes with great long-lasting buffs), and you've got something people will love. Not just the cop-out click-3-buttons-and-you're-done game design of today, im talking about mini-games that perhaps have some challenge to them, and can be considered masterable instead of simply grindable.
[QUOTE=ntzu;52204134]A lot of games have huge issues filling their open world with anything useful to do, and when they try it ends up being homogeneous and ultimately very flat and boring when it comes down to it. Open world is nice, but being able to actually interact with the world beyond [PICK UP THING WE SPECIFICALLY SCRIPTED TO BE PICKED UP], [KILL THIS THING], or [GET 3 LINES OF DIALOGUE FROM MAN] can add immensely. Shit, fill the quintessential player home / player town with a ton of fun mini-games that represent the more 'menial' chores of our day to day lives and people will like it; give those chores outcomes that can improve your core game experience (like rare dishes with great long-lasting buffs), and you've got something people will love. Not just the cop-out click-3-buttons-and-you're-done game design of today, im talking about mini-games that perhaps have some challenge to them, and can be considered masterable instead of simply grindable.[/QUOTE] I think it was fable 3 that did that. One of the mini games would make this hilarious fucking sound if you missed a beat. My older cousin and I kept failing it because every time we missed a step we couldn't stop laughing.
[QUOTE=ntzu;52204134][PICK UP THING WE SPECIFICALLY SCRIPTED TO BE PICKED UP][/QUOTE] This is why, no matter what, I'll always come back to Bethesda RPGs. No matter how bad the story or combat or whatever else is, the world is as far from a static setpiece as you can get and I love that.
Nothing makes me feel more cozy than making fruit soup in Breath of the Wild.
I really like how Odin Sphere implemented the cooking into the game and rpg mechanics. During missions you can find various food items and use them to cook meals by yourself or deliver them to a cook that can prepare exceptional dishes. Eating food regenerates health and gives you xp, you actually level up mostly by eating well prepared food. I think it's an excellent idea to implement such a system into a game. Furthermore the art style is awesome and it looks extremely appealing.
No, stop putting food in games. I hate playing Skyrim and constantly being hungry for smoked meats and cheeses.
More like this PCG, please. This is a good article.
And maybe a bit more interactive or something. Chugging 30 apples and 10 loafs of bread because I need 20 health is stupid
[QUOTE=General;52206684]And maybe a bit more interactive or something. Chugging 30 apples and 10 loafs of bread because I need 20 health is stupid[/QUOTE] Also the benefits need to be proportionate to the size and type of food as well. Granted, it's because they are almost the same item with a different sprite, but a lot of people found it weird that in Ragnarok Online eating an entire pumpkin healed less than eating an apple. Or that Monster Feed, basically trash scraps of meat that look like an iguana on a stick heal more than actual, human friendly meat.
Reminds me in Rune Factory games where I would train out my cooking skills a lot, and eating a well-done cake is akin to drinking a bunch of healing and mana potions and getting buffs. I would survive just about any encounter by eating my culinary works of art and going from almost dead to full health.
Breath of the Wild made cooking really damm fun, you discover most if not all of the recipes by yourself and you arent stuck with pre-determined recipes, you can still mash different ingredients that add specific buffs and get something great
I remember playing Harvest Moon: Back To Nature on PS1. I loved cooking in that game. You had to first find recipes by being good friends with villagers or by listening in on a cooking show that played once a week. You then had to have the right cooking utensils and ingredients to make the food. It felt really rewarding, fun and completely optional unless you wanted to partake in the Cooking Festival.
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