Fbh
Gold Member
You know what I'm talking about:
" To upgrade your armor you need 3X Purple Wolf Pelts and 2X Orange Fire Spiders and 5X Bullshit Ores"
It has been a part of games for a long time, and now that increasingly more AAA titles are adding some form of RPG and gear mechanics it's becoming all the more common. It's in everything from Demon Souls remake and Horizon Forbidden West to Tears of the Kingdom. And the more I encounter it, the more I realize it's a mechanic that I've never enjoyed.
In the vast majority of games it's pretty much just a way to waste time and make already lengthy games even longer. Getting the materials generally isn't fun nor does it involve skill, it involves spending time going to specific locations to pick up specific items and maybe ocasional kill specific regular enemies, If the game wants to be extra annoying it can also lower the drop rates so you need to spend even more time killing the same enemies over and over for the item to drop. You can go the "legit" way and spend yet more time looking for these items on your own and figuring out which enemy drops what, or you can do what most people do and just look it up online.
In the worst cases I've found it to hinder my enjoyment of the game. Like in Horizon Forbidden West I rarely tried out new weapons and armor because for them to be better than my current gear I'd have to upgrade them which is such a pain and feels like a waste of time in a game that's already pretty bloated. Or in Demon Souls remake I found myself intentionally killing my character to lower the world tendency so the Rock Worms would drop their fucking Chunks of Greystone more frequently, and it was hard not to think what the point of this mechanic is.
I realize devs want to give you a sense of progression or keep you from fully upgrading every piece of equipment you find (so it feels more like you are making a choice). But isn't there a better way?
Like I don't know, some sort of limited universal currency or item that's used for all upgrades and which you find through questing, exploring, beating enemies, etc so it feels like you can progress towards your next gear upgrade while actually engaging with the core content of the game instead of having to go out of your way to gather specific items.
" To upgrade your armor you need 3X Purple Wolf Pelts and 2X Orange Fire Spiders and 5X Bullshit Ores"
![Zelda-Tears-of-the-Kingdom-Upgrade-Armor-Header.jpg](https://assetsio.reedpopcdn.com/Zelda-Tears-of-the-Kingdom-Upgrade-Armor-Header.jpg?width=1200&height=1200&fit=crop&quality=100&format=png&enable=upscale&auto=webp)
It has been a part of games for a long time, and now that increasingly more AAA titles are adding some form of RPG and gear mechanics it's becoming all the more common. It's in everything from Demon Souls remake and Horizon Forbidden West to Tears of the Kingdom. And the more I encounter it, the more I realize it's a mechanic that I've never enjoyed.
In the vast majority of games it's pretty much just a way to waste time and make already lengthy games even longer. Getting the materials generally isn't fun nor does it involve skill, it involves spending time going to specific locations to pick up specific items and maybe ocasional kill specific regular enemies, If the game wants to be extra annoying it can also lower the drop rates so you need to spend even more time killing the same enemies over and over for the item to drop. You can go the "legit" way and spend yet more time looking for these items on your own and figuring out which enemy drops what, or you can do what most people do and just look it up online.
In the worst cases I've found it to hinder my enjoyment of the game. Like in Horizon Forbidden West I rarely tried out new weapons and armor because for them to be better than my current gear I'd have to upgrade them which is such a pain and feels like a waste of time in a game that's already pretty bloated. Or in Demon Souls remake I found myself intentionally killing my character to lower the world tendency so the Rock Worms would drop their fucking Chunks of Greystone more frequently, and it was hard not to think what the point of this mechanic is.
I realize devs want to give you a sense of progression or keep you from fully upgrading every piece of equipment you find (so it feels more like you are making a choice). But isn't there a better way?
Like I don't know, some sort of limited universal currency or item that's used for all upgrades and which you find through questing, exploring, beating enemies, etc so it feels like you can progress towards your next gear upgrade while actually engaging with the core content of the game instead of having to go out of your way to gather specific items.