My Opinion of Action Adventure Games

[mariotheace]

Hello 360Haven. I am here to post my opinion on action games. If you would like to input your opinion, then feel free to do so. Know first and foremost my favourite game genre is RPGs. My first experience with action adventure games was The Legend of Zelda series, particularly The Ocarina of Time. I had a lot of fun playing that game start to finish on multiple occasions. With the Xbox 360 and PS3, new games of the genre have been released with their own intrigue on the genre. You would think that since the Nintendo 64 days, more effort would be put into games of the (new) generation of consoles. The latest game I have played is Darksiders (the 1st one). Almost every moment of playing this game has been tedious, annoying and, frankly, boring. I feel that this game was meant for children, lacking the aspects to make it for mature audiences. Now comparing this to, say, the Ninja Gaiden series, there is a great degree in quality between the 2. They both involve killing monsters, collecting currency from killing said monsters and have the goal of saving the world. Yes, Ninja Gaiden has boobs to gawk at, but I am excluding that aspect in my opinion. With every pain in the ass minute I have with Darksiders, I have a hell of a great time with Ninja Gaiden, even the xbox original game. Similar games I find plain are the God of War series, despite all the hype and jive about the series. Story is kind of important to me. Maybe as an RPGer I lack a taste for most games which involve hacking and slashing to the end. Maybe I'm right in that such games are not give decent enough attention. I don't know. I just know that Darksiders, God of War and others bore me, whereas Ninja Gaiden entertains me. That is my opinion. If you would like to give yours, then please do so.

[DecoyOctopus]

I think you might need to play NG again, the story was insane after the first game, and while they fixed the camera issues (mostly) in the sequels, they also made it less technical and far easier.

NG Black may be the best action game of all time.

[Emerald Lance]

If you liked Ocarina of Time, you should consider trying the other Zelda games (if you haven't already), especially Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess. All three games tell an extremely deep story (even by Zelda standards), and each one has so much to do outside of the main quest. The only Zelda game that tells a better story than any other is Skyward Sword, and it's only good for a single playthrough (pretty much no replay value).

I recommend Wind Waker especially. A lot of people knock it for its cartoony art style, but if you can get past that (or even enjoy it like I do) then you'll see that the story is amazing! Plus, it's the only time we ever get to hear some backstory to Ganondorf, which is also a plus (painting him out to seem like a tragic villain was a brilliant move on Nintendo's part). In fact, Wind Waker's portrayal of Ganondorf is my favorite so far, from his sad past to his maniacal Joker laughs (endgame spoilers http://youtu.be/sDf5qQ2EM0w?t=3m45s also beware that whoever recorded the scene didn't have a very good audio setup).

Majora's Mask and Twilight princess are great for the players that want something just a little darker, especially Majora's Mask (which is a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time).

Back on topic, I'm inclined to agree with you. Whether it's because it's actually true or I'm just inadvertently wearing rose-tinted glasses, action adventure games just don't seem to be as good anymore. It seems we as an entire industry have forgotten our old 8bit and 16bit origins (something the 32bit and 64bit games tried hard to keep in the then new transition to 3D). Personally, I think it's because there aren't any gamer's games anymore; everybody is trying so hard to bring in new fans that they've lost sight of what made the older games great. Don't get me wrong, I'm aware of the need to bring in new fans (otherwise our industry will surely go through another crash), but it seems that this is everybody's focus to the exclusion of all else.

Add to that, Nintendo is the last first party game company; Microsoft and Sony aren't actually game companies, but are rather giant multi-corporate empires that own relatively small video game divisions. You can tout your preference all you like, but the fact still remains that Nintendo is the only video game dedicated first party company anymore. When Sony started the trend of catering to the more "hardcore" audience back in the mid-90s, they changed the playing field entirely for everybody else. When Microsoft hopped on that bandwagon in 2001, it made it so that games that still followed the old golden age philosophies were largely outnumbered and overlooked in favor of the newer "edgier" game styles; "grim and gritty" as they called in 80s comic book lingo.

Unfortunately, this leads to an unusually quick stagnation in the medium. Every developer is trying to draw in as many people as they can by making their games as all-reaching in scope as possible, and all this serves to do is make every game feel like every other game. Aside from minute differences that only dedicated fans would know, Call of Duty is basically the same as Battlefield, Devil May Cry is basically the same as God of War, Dead Or Alive is basically the same a Tekken, the list goes on. Hell, one of the biggest reasons Dead Space 3 failed is because EA told Visceral to make the game less fear-based more action-based like Mass Effect 3, all because ME3 sold really well and they wanted to draw in that same crowd with DS3; we can use DS3's commercial failure as an example of where this mindset leads.

Honestly, I don't see a way out of another crash at the rate we're going. Again, you can tell me which one you like the most all you want, but our hopes for the survival of this age of gaming rests squarely on the shoulders of Nintendo; like I said before, the gaming divisions of Microsoft and Sony are just small parts of their respective companies, and as soon as the going gets tough neither company will have any reason to stick around. Nintendo, on the other hand, -HAS- to keep going, since making video games is the only thing they do. The problem with this setup is that Nintendo's version of damage control is basically summed up with the phrase "I LOVE BEING A MONOPOLY". They will go back to their 80s and 90s practices of being corporate overlords, and everybody will be left with the decision to either submit to their rule or don't have anybody to publish games for them. The fall of this age will be due to both the inability to adapt (or the fact that nobody wants to) and greed of all three groups: Microsoft and Sony will split the moment the market for games as they know them starts losing money instead of adapting to meet the needs of the ever changing market, and Nintendo will quickly move to fill the vacuum by establishing their old business models, which will drive them into ruination in this day and age.

Don't know how this all got side tracked to doom and gloom prophecies, but yeah. Short order, I agree with OP. ^-^;