I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 273 - 112: Everything can be cut back on, except for Elizabeth!_2

Chapter 273: Chapter 112: Everything can be cut back on, except for Elizabeth!_2

Therefore, designers need to add elements rich in gameplay within a level.

Be it close-quarters combat or remote firepower suppression with firearms,

ancient and magical spells or alternative parkour assassinations,

you always have to give players something to play with.

So, a new problem arises.

There’s only so much progression within a level, and gameplay and story need to be presented separately.

If players want to experience both the narrative and the gameplay fully, they would need to spend twice or even more time within a single level.

If the process of a linear game gets stretched too long, it inevitably feels hollow, and players can gradually become bored, which is quite a terrifying prospect.

However, if you integrate the story directly into the game, it can shorten playtime.

But then a more peculiar situation appears.

You’re in the midst of a fierce battle with the enemy, and at that moment, a string of narration pops up, you’re firing "dadada" at the enemy, with gunfire and screams incessant in your ears.

Meanwhile, the narrator’s droning voice or subtitles pop up right under your eyelids.

This can give players a very chaotic feeling, leaving them neither fully exhilarated by the action nor clear about the plot, ending up with something that satisfies nobody.

Therefore, the design of early games usually adopted a certain approach.

Focus on gameplay, lighten the narrative.

Games like Hollow Knight and Stardew Valley refine the story to the extreme through subtraction and then integrate it into the world background.

For players who are not interested, playing the game without knowing the story is also fine.

Those who are interested can deduce and complete a world view from the details presented in the background.

When it comes to games like Pubg, which are competitive online games,

it’s even more straightforward and brutal.

There isn’t even a storyline.

Storyline? What do we need a storyline for?

I don’t need players to know my story; I just want them to wreak havoc in my game!

But Infinite’s approach was quite ahead of its time in that era.

It focused on the narrative, with gameplay taking a backseat.

A massive amount of resources were poured into presenting the Ninth Art in an exquisite and vibrant manner.

However, while narrating, its combat system was significantly reduced because it couldn’t coexist well with the story,

resulting in a lot of cuts.

Players were only able to carry two different types of firearms, and excess weapons couldn’t even be put into a backpack but had to be thrown on the ground.

Although there were weapon upgrade options, the feedback from the upgrades was not noticeable; and throughout the whole process, it was difficult for players to upgrade multiple weapons. They usually ended up sticking with two weapons until the bitter end.

It’s evident that the designer deliberately pared back the combat aspect to make way for artistic quality and narrative style.

This also doomed the gameplay to uniformity.

At the time, this was an incredibly forward-thinking and bold idea, but due to technological limitations and developmental bottlenecks, even a big company like 2K was hard-pressed to do a full circle.

This issue has actually been well resolved in later generations—open world.

Immersive open-world games, like Grand Theft Auto 2 and Breath of the Wild, have excellently demonstrated what it means for combat to coexist with storytelling and for upgrades to soar along with worldviews.

However, Ke Jin did not intend to turn Infinite into an open-world game.

As an open-world game, what it lacks in details is not a trifling matter.

Instead of putting effort into perfecting details, it would be better to roll out Grand Theft Auto.

Moreover, what Infinite needs is not an open world; its linear setting is already perfect as it is.

It just needs a little help from a time-traveler from the future who has experienced the evolution of the gaming era.

To transform Infinite from its original linearity into a diorama!

The scenes within Infinite actually have quite a few buildings, but most of them are textures; the houses are not accessible.

As a top player with design experience from Pubg, making open houses has become second nature, and open houses won’t alter the core direction of the entire game.

Players can enter the homes of various passerby NPCs to explore and collect.

However, the types should still be limited to simple supplies like ammunition, Blood Medicine, blue volume, and Gold Coin.

At the same time, they can also hear a few brief lines of dialogue from the NPCs.

The content doesn’t need to be too rich, just enough to fill in the historical background that wasn’t well presented in Infinite,

and to reflect the true portrayal of the contemporary people in that era.

Then,

while keeping the core of the main story unchanged, some of the less critical main storylines are shifted out and presented to players as side stories.

This allows players who only want to follow the main story to quickly gather what the story is about without ending up confused at the end, summarizing it as a Western thought culture, which is also a kind of sadness.

And for those who wish to have a complete experience, they can discover the interpersonal dynamics among these NPC characters through various side missions, adding more detailed facets to their characterization.

Secondly, an innovation in the combat system.

Keeping the original style of the weapons, enhance their strategic use in different scenarios, rather than letting most players mindlessly use one type of weapon to complete the game.

And add a feature that allows carrying multiple weapons, but reduce the availability of ammunition to highlight Elizabeth’s value.

Lastly, reduce the unreasonable Gold Coin cost of upgrading weapons in the game and strengthen the positive feedback each firearm upgrade gives to players, rather than making them feel like their money is spent without any noticeable increase in power.