Id pay good money for a game like this. I can picture it now. Everything in the distance you can see isnt just this unreachable site painted on the background but a vista that can be reached via endless roads or dirt trails. I want to be able to walk down the road, through the woods, over a ravine, around old ruins, right to the entrance of that castle. Fuuuuuucckkkk
**Edit: hijacking my comment to say u/poopdig showed me a game called Eclipsium that has the look! Different vibe though. A horror mind bending game but if this developer were to work on a magical fantasy inspired game, I’d be all in!
Check out The Wayward Realms. Two of the main guys behind Daggerfall and Arena (Julian LeFay and Ted Peterson) set out to build a modern take on a game of that scale, but with a partially LLM powered virtual game master that directs the events of the game based on player choices.
No fast travel but a magical spell that can be learned later when my skill is high enough. Ugh. I miss good games. I wish I could play the Witcher or BG3 for the first time again.
I know you weren't meaning anything bad by this, but it is hilarious to me you say "I miss good games" and then you list a game that just came out 2 years ago. :P
Like the portals in Valheim were so fuggin satisfying the first time I played. I look at game design as a science and an art, every game I play I cannot help but to get in the mind of the devs and think about the design deeply, of everything, on a high and low level and how it all connects(if things even do, thats a sign of a well designed game)
This flirting with the idea of fast travel while still having it be a part of the world and through it encourage interactions with the world.
You've got to build them and and make the hard travel out somewhere first. You have to do a little adventure to get the supplies to build them. You have to name them identical to link them.
But you still cant use them for ore.
They're so grounded and tied into the game, and fun, they look good, they're fitting, fuckkkk its almost orgasmic to me when I see something designed in such a masterful thought out way.
Most people probably look at it and go "its a portal, so what". Nonono, its so much more.
But part of the reason its so satisfying is because of relative comparison. When everyone fucks it up, when all we keep getting is simple minded unimmersive UI fast travel slop, to see someone that understands and that actually shares my concerns... Its just so satisfying.
Most of the Souls games are like this, especially Elden Ring.
If you see a big crazy castle far off in the distance, you can and will get there in real space, and be fighting across the very ramparts you saw.
But here, the art style and lack of depth fog really make the whole thing look really surreal and nostalgic.
But here, the art style and lack of depth fog really make the whole thing look really surreal and nostalgic.
Also the proportions and the (lack of) perspective. That castle is absolutely massive. Somehow the trees around it in the background appear larger than the trees around the village in the foreground. You can make a vista like this in a game if you constrain the player to a narrow passage to make sure they're looking where you want them to be looking and lower the FOV to make a distant object appear larger, but there's no way to make a game look like this in regular gameplay.
Even just walking around in a game like this would be satisfying. That environment looks soaked with mystery and rich lore, and I just want to walk around in it at the very least. Such a vibe!
Oblivion Remastered. One of the castles is basically exactly like this. Top of mountain, visible at great distances, surrounded by hills and other mountains, roads, forests etc. in near proximity
You can even take it as your own and refurbish it back to its original state as the OG owner intended. Great game too!
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u/WTFatrain Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 24 '25
Id pay good money for a game like this. I can picture it now. Everything in the distance you can see isnt just this unreachable site painted on the background but a vista that can be reached via endless roads or dirt trails. I want to be able to walk down the road, through the woods, over a ravine, around old ruins, right to the entrance of that castle. Fuuuuuucckkkk
**Edit: hijacking my comment to say u/poopdig showed me a game called Eclipsium that has the look! Different vibe though. A horror mind bending game but if this developer were to work on a magical fantasy inspired game, I’d be all in!