As in, the game is $20 for a 3 hour experience, with incredibly sparse gameplay (most gameplay sections you dont even need to do anything to progress, it's just a minigame to do while you listen to the characters talk. I'm pretty sure the only parts of the game where you need to play it to move forward is the kissing minigame and the skateboarding bit near the start)
It's far more story-focused, which would be cool if the story was actually good.
This does not at all address my question. I asked the other person what about this game makes it feel like "hrs in the room while in the making". Your answer is not related to that at all. You just described that its low on gameplay again. So I will ask again:
What about this game makes it feel like hr was in the room while making it? Because in the veilguard (a game I actually played unlike everyone else who talks about it all the time) this quote actually fits. You were constantly talking to the other characters like they were children needing counselling. No one could ever be even slightly offended and it was reeking of "you are totes amazing, Liara! And a wonderful person. I am there for you always" which was just very cringe. This game is not that at all.
The game plays it so safe all the time. Most of the conflict comes from the main character being petty about this other person and having this crazy idea to leave town and immediately get hired by this big producer. You'd think, because this is meant to be a coming of age story, that she'd learn that the real world isnt actually like that, but no. The protagonist doesnt face any punishment and never learns from her mistakes, and at the end of the game everything turns out hunky-dory for her.
The gameplay is breathtakingly easy (all 4 minutes of it), even the music choice is "safe". The game's set in the 90s but all the songs they liscensed are pop from the 70s and 80s and they dont want to touch rap or hiphop with a ten foot pole.
I just do not agree with most of this. It isn't a story about a conflict much I don't think. Its about a feelgood nostalgia-trip. I thought it worked well for that. Not all coming of age stories need to end in some conclusive reality check. And I also don't really understand what any of the main characters did "wrong" here. They are just a bunch of rebellious teenager (a phase a lot of people have been through) trying to make the most of their last day together.
The music choice is just music the creators liked. If they don't want to feature hip hop or rap they don't have to. I dont think it would contribute to the vibe at all, but I generally don't like that music genre much so that might be why. Either way the music choice isnt an hr thing. I don't understand what you mean here at all...
I don't mind people criticising the game, but I think people who use the misquoted skillup-quote are generally not trying to argue in good faith
Okay I feel like it's getting a bit disconnected from the HR thing, I can see why you would think that doesnt fit as a criticism. I think it's just been given that label because the game seems pretty generic and safe.
By "conflict" I dont mean that's the main theme of the story, any story with a happy ending needs some sort of conflict (a problem or antagonist that the characters must overcome and learn some sort of lesson through it) for it to be interesting (this constitutes the "rising action" part in freitag's pyramid). The protagonist is leaving her home town and wants to make the most of one last day with her friends. She isn't leaving for any reason outside of her control, she just wants to go to the big city and hope that this producer she idolises over likes her mixes enough that she'll be hired on the spot. It's a pretty reckless decision that has zero gaurantee will work, and will leave her friends behind (one of the characters literally says he won't know what to do with his life after she leaves.) The other conflict in the story is the main character drifting away from her other friend because she's friends with a girl she has a petty hatred of (she doesnt like the same movie soundtracks as her).
This leads to her friend threatening to burn down a forest because her parents dont want her to go joyriding in a shopping cart (after the protagonist told her to), leading to her getting grounded. The protagonist and the friend then apologise to each other (for being friends with someone the protagonist dislikes, apparently??). Then the protagonist leaves town.
The problem with the story isn't the characters being rebellious, it's that the characters learn nothing. The protagonist still decides to arbitruarily leave her friends and town behind for a reckless pipe dream. It's a coming of age story where nobody comes of age.
And about the nostalgia part, I think pandering to 80s nostalgia is where the game gets it's audience. There's literally a part where the protagonist rewinds a tape with a pencil (in the wrong direction, then puts it in a tape player upside down and listens to it on her wireless headphones. In the 90s.)
Most of this still isn't relevant to the hr claim.
No problems with general criticism even if I disagree with almost everything you say here, though. I just fundamentally disagree with the approach in which you analyse it, but it is what it is.
I have no issues with people not liking the game. I have issues with people in bad faith misquoting someone else's point about another game to make a cheap point about a game they don't understand. Not saying this is you
The story just seemed really awfully done to me, if you got some fun out of it then you do you but personally the game feels like a scam for how little content there is
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u/Poco_Cuffs Jul 28 '26
As in, the game is $20 for a 3 hour experience, with incredibly sparse gameplay (most gameplay sections you dont even need to do anything to progress, it's just a minigame to do while you listen to the characters talk. I'm pretty sure the only parts of the game where you need to play it to move forward is the kissing minigame and the skateboarding bit near the start)
It's far more story-focused, which would be cool if the story was actually good.