The Gamer's Quarter

[david]

Just finished all the "hard" time trials, so the game is totally clear. For whatever reason -- probably because I've been trained by video games to be obsessive and anal -- as soon as I finished the 'story' the first time and these other challenges got unlocked, I decided that I had to beat all of them, conquering and acquiring all the treasures, before I could relax and again enjoy the immersive adventure. Unfortunately, time attack drained the monsters of mystique, turning them into often-frustrating action-game challenges. In the same stroke, the landscape which had once been haunted by their distant beckoning started to look more like a pretty map.

The exploding arrows are a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to trying the parachute from various high places (it renders leaps into previously-inaccessable areas no less fatal, though). But why are there so many masks and cloaks that just make you stronger or heighten your defence? These don't make the game any more fun; there's nothing to try out once you've got them. They simply make the game even easier for someone who's already mastered it. Even the very last item, the Queen's Sword, is nothing but a more powerful sword. I was expecting some electricity magic or something. And the Sword of the Sun, which reflects light even in shadowy places, only allows the player to ignore his surroundings, which makes them less real.

Anyway, my admiration for this game has not lessened. The emptiness of the landscape alone is such a striking design move that it makes the game. The contrast between those sequences and the confrontations produces real drama. If gamers are willing to give up their expectations of being entertained by drip feed, served up X number of laughs per minute, and submit to games like this, the medium has an exciting future. Wanda to Kyozou is a game crafted and paced to put the player through a unique experience, to evoke certain feelings. Being out there on the south plains, near the cliffs, the player is discovering what it's about. More games should put players in a role, give him the means of expression he needs and set him loose to encounter what he doesn't yet know.
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[dessgeega]

[Shapermc]

My honest and serious guess is that who ever was over Ueda took a look at the finished project and said: "Put more stuff in there. We need to give the customer at least 40 hours if they want to get everything."

This would explain why most of the items are pointless by the time you get them. I mean, I plan on playing the game again in hard mode once I am around my nice tv/sound system agian, but I never plan on doing the time trials.

I have heard this exact story too many times.

These things are added to the game for people who don't really "care" about the game in the first place.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[david]

Someone suggested that items should have been scattered around the landscape on second play-throughs. They'd be in really out-of-the-way places, so you wouldn't find them unless you were climbing around on the south cliffs or something.
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[Shapermc]

[david]

Yeah.

I mean, more like, to get rid of the time attacks, just scatter the cool items like the parachute around the landscape.
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[Lackey]

I think if the objects were scattered about the landscape it would give too much of a material motivation for exploring. It's more personally rewarding when you know you aren't going to find anything. Scouring the land for items is a chore. I say this based on all the games I've played where that's been the case.

Not that it's a worse solution than the time attack mode.

As a sidenote I didn't find the lake with the fish until way way after I'd beaten the game. That and the beach where you can stand in the ocean.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[dessgeega]

i think my solution would be to keep the time trials, but give no rewards for completing them.
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[simplicio]

I'm totally grateful that I managed to finish it for the first time before I even heard about the lizards and fruits. Even knowing they're there makes it a less pure experience for me, though now my attention's been turned to collecting enough of them in Hard Mode (my second playthrough; I could swear I opened a time attack option when I beat it, but I can't find it anymore?) to climb the tower. Which in my opinion is the greatest reward this game could offer: further exploration.