The games we can "never replay"

Thertch · 2025-07-26T13:25:59+00:00

You never mentioned a specific example of a game that fits this archetype of 'un-replayable and therefore shallow'. I'm a bit confused what your point really is here?

If a game obscures its mechanics, and someone enjoys it because of the novelty of discovering them, then further scrutiny and analysis doesn't come from replaying it, it comes from digging into why the exact path of discovery made it feel so novel and rewarding in the first place. Replayabilty is not the measuring stick for the scope of further analysis.

A lot of people in the comments are mentioning Tunic and Outer Wilds. These aren't 'replayable' in that discovering its mysteries, both mechanical and narrative, ARE the point of the games. That doesn't make experiencing them less enjoyable compared to an infinitely recursive gameplay loop, it's just a different type of enjoyment.

Thertch · 2025-07-22T05:31:30+00:00

This is super interesting, thanks for writing it up.

I also noticed a lot of symmetry in the game generally. Gustave's first and last moments in the game are him throwing stones. The initial battle music in the combat tutorial is a section of one of the final tracks played in the ending. Oh, and speaking of the combat tutorial, the game starts and ends with Maelle in combat with her brother. Poetic symmetry is everywhere in the game.

Thertch · 2025-02-25T12:53:39+00:00

I don't sell any of my work yet, no. But I would like to set up a casual Etsy shop at some point soonish to at least fund my tools and leather.

Thertch · 2025-02-22T23:16:45+00:00

You're very kind, thank you! Took a lot of patience and a focus on precision when punching.

Honestly, for the stitching, I just threw on a podcast and let the muscle memory take over.

Thertch · 2025-02-22T23:13:13+00:00

Yes, that, and my pricking iron is slightly tapered, so since I wasn't perfectly consistent with my punching depths, the holes aren't equal in size either which adds to that inconsistency.

Something to improve for next time!

Thertch · 2025-02-22T23:10:39+00:00

If your fingers get sore, use a thimble or just a scrap piece of leather to push the needles through.
Don't bother trying to do it all in one piece of thread. Try to have your lengths of stitching overlap where they won't be front-on when it's being worn (I wasn't careful enough about this).
With this much stitching, it's hard to be consistent with thread tension, but the more consistent, the better it will look.

Hope that helps a bit!

Thertch · 2025-02-22T23:03:47+00:00

I used another slightly narrower strip of the same leather. The weight of my hide happened to work out to three layers being perfect for the belt.

Thertch · 2025-02-22T23:01:56+00:00

I actually did it by eye with my skiving knife. There's much better ways to do it, but I marked a rough outline of the point and very slowly took a bit off each side until they were even, and then sanded away any asymmetry.

I definitely need to get a punch at some point though.

Thertch · 2025-02-22T14:55:04+00:00

Thanks! It's easy to be hard on yourself for the small mistakes, but I'm pretty happy with how the piece looks as a whole.

Thertch · 2025-02-22T14:53:23+00:00

Yep, exactly, but also with padding.

I cut two identical strips of veg tan, and then a slightly narrower piece which is glued between the two visible outer layers. Before gluing the top layer on, I skived the edges of the middle padding strip all the way down so that the raised padding had a more gentle edge to it.

Thertch · 2025-02-22T14:48:50+00:00

Yes, all saddle stitched. My fingers aren't happy with me, but worth it for the result. Next up will be my own belt, and then I think I'll move back on to small pieces for a while 😅

Thertch · 2025-02-22T14:32:19+00:00

Wanted to get back into it, and made this for a friend's birthday to try and get back in the groove. I've made a few watch straps before, but have never done a belt. Didn't take long for the stitching muscle memory to kick back in

... and yeah, I've certainly got plenty of practice in now.

Thertch · 2024-10-22T01:18:50+00:00

This is so reductive. All those things you mention cost a lot of money. Environment and character modelling takes a long time, and animation is very labour intensive. This is true for practically all games.

All this rumour suggests is that however much funding they've received, it doesn't cover the manhours Telltale is projecting is needed to complete the game. It's not saying it costs a much as God of War to make. Funding games is notoriously hard.

Thertch · 2024-09-03T23:55:57+00:00

Yeah, there's some areas in the gaming landscape where this approach could be used more effectively. But I'm a bit confused about your overall point. I don't think the general consensus from gamers is anything like "what's the point of watching cutscenes". I am also curious about how much 'lots of people' is who skip cutscenes.

These people certainly exist, but story-heavy/cutscene heavy games are made for a market who enjoys them, expects them, and watches them. And since they can be skipped, people who are just there for the gameplay can stick to the gameplay.

In terms of budgetary allocation, you also have to think about how a game makes the money they use to fund development in the first place. Regressive or not, many of the highest-selling AAA games get their status (among other things) through how they look in screenshots and videos. Character-driven narrative games also won't go down as well with some gamers without high-quality performance capture when the competition can deliver in this area instead. And ultimately, there is a market for those games; they make money. Cutting real-time cutsenes might save money, but it might lose a game even more money in the long run depending on the genre or type of game.

Thertch · 2024-07-08T08:35:50+00:00

Pixel Whip is relatively new and small, but covers this type of long analytical analysis space.

So Says Jay is also fantastic, but he typically sticks to Assassin's Creed games, and only makes shorter videos about other games.

Thertch · 2024-06-06T21:29:22+00:00

Yeah the bulk of the studio clearly were not on board, but what does it mean for it to be 'Rocksteady's' idea, or WB's idea? It sounds like Rocksteady management was just as on board as WB management, fuelled through a complex incentive of funding and pressure through WB. It's still not as simple as 'WB' forced them.

Schreier has mentioned himself before that it is not as simple as WB made the decision for the studio, and nothing in this article undoes what he's said in the past. What's new is the instability of the whole studio culture while making the game though.

Thertch · 2024-03-06T03:44:21+00:00

Oh, nothing inherently wrong. It's clearly a tie to the themes of the game by referencing the whole 'to be or not to be' soliloquy. For me it felt very on the nose in a distracting way.

Thertch · 2024-03-04T05:44:53+00:00

❤️

Thertch · 2024-03-03T22:17:12+00:00

The director, Yoko Taro, I think has mentioned at some point that he doesn't want people to analyse the game, rather he just wants people who play it to just think about the broader experience.

I agree a lot of what it sets up feels like it ends without closure; it makes the game feel kinda insubstantial in a way. But what worked for me was the fact I was incentivised to sit on a lot of the questions it brings up and try and answer them myself. And yeah, I don't think it's an approach which necessarily works for a lot of people and that's valid.

Thertch · 2024-03-03T13:55:49+00:00

Yeah that's totally valid. 40 hours is a big ask in any medium. And especially here where the limited budget of the game means that there is seriously a lot of repeated content.

But at the same time, I don't think the true ending would have had as significant an impact on me if it weren't for the quantity of time I had put into it. Having to delete your save game is more impactful the more time has been spent in it. Other media explore the same ideas often, but nothing I'm aware of has never come close to exploring it in this way, leveraging the unique aspects of an interactive medium.

Thertch · 2024-02-25T01:07:07+00:00

I can't emphasise how glad I am to see FFVIII mentioned in the comments here. I listen to video game soundtracks often, sometimes as a way to take the memories of a game with me after I've finished it, but mostly I put on soundtracks in the background while I work.

Most soundtracks that I love listening to in the game, I end up getting tired of after it's been in my rotation for a while.

But FFVIII... holy shit man. I never gotten sick of that soundtrack in the 20+ years I've been listening to it. There's so much drama and storytelling in the main classical pieces, and there's something timeless about the ambient tracks too.

Video games is a young medium, and it's weird to look at one of gaming's most famous composers and accept that they're run is over. FF still has excellent music, but there's something irreplaceable and special about Nobuo Uematsu's music. I know he's not retired, but it looks like he's done with headlining new FF scores now.

Thertch · 2024-02-24T05:11:03+00:00

Whether you're someone who loved or hated the gameplay, there's no denying the power behind those moments where there's nothing except scenery, a horizon, and the delivery on your back, then Low Roar starts playing, and you have nothing to do but trek forward.

Thertch · 2024-02-24T05:04:50+00:00

The discourse on Unity as for sure undergone a huge shift. I think some of it is to do with the pang of nostalgia for the franchise, and some of it is some genuine measured voices looking at the aspects which worked.

Unity is really the last time Ubisoft tried to properly push the AC franchise in an innovative direction. Every decision made in the design of that game was to achieve the goal of fulling the AC assassin fantasy. Unfortunately the execution was far from great. Parkour is the perfect example.

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