The original resident evil trilogy did something similar in those games helping your comrades make it out alive made the game HARDER with the ultimate reward being a happy ending and proving that rat bastard Wesker wrong in his ideology of betraying everyone he works with.

Honestly dude, this is some quality right here. Props on the script specialy

I thought you'd be a pretty big youtuber, turns out the video has no likes, no comments and you have 125 subscribers! This is really high quality. You have a great youtube career ahead of you if you keep doing this

i felt the same way with needy streamer overload, the requirements for the different endings were so specific that instead of learning more about ame as a character it felt more like the events were only there to get me to the ending instead of being meaningful character development

Can't say I really agree with this one. I think spiritfarer is a very meditative, aesthetic type of game, the one where the various tasks you have to perform exist to give you a constant goal to strive for that isn't difficult or complex. Like animal crossing, the intent behind the design is to let people into the space and feel productive, safe, comfortable, and aesthetically at ease. You don't think about your ultimate goal, you just keep doing your silly little tasks, getting rewarded by the expansion of your boat, your skills, and most importantly, peeks into the twisting backstories and well-written characters at the heart of your goals. You get so immersed you forget about why you're doing all of it - and by the time it's time for them to go, you have to suddenly make peace with letting them go and reflect in the silence that is their absence. I think it's okay if it didn't feel that way for you, but being their caretaker isn't *designed* to feel like a burden. It's designed to engender an easy sense of accomplishment and nurtuting love that grows as you attend to their needs. In general, I disagree with the notion that there is a "right" way to design stories, characters, mediums, or whatever. In youtube specifically there's a tendency to consider that there are "general rules" that one should follow, like you're saying here, but redesigning Spiritfarer to be more like Persona 5, for example, would make it less effective at what I think it does best.

I thought I was watching one of those 200k sub channel video essays... I'll leave a comment for the algorithm, hope you get the audience you deserve!

Damn bro, I'm seeing a worryingly low ammount of subs beside that red button over there, let me share my grain of sand! No like seriously, how tf haven't you got more subs? This could perfectly be the production value of a 100K niche videogame youtuber! You rock mate

I thought this was a much larger KZfaqr at first, and I had to subscribe right away. I really hope you get the subs you deserve soon man! Keep it up!

I love your editing style!

I have notifications on yet took me 10 hours to find your new video! KZfaq really does hate you

Awesome essay!

I recommend Rune Factory 4. The game has characters you can adventure with but they are not required in the least. You have to befriend them before they join you. The other “bonuses” you get involve marrying and raising a family, which creates gameplay benefits which might not even matter since by the time you get to doing all of that at least 1/2 the game is finished. And to get that far you have to have befriended them and seen certain events. The characters change dialogue very frequently, and there are random events that involve different characters that have a small bonus. They feel like real ppl and you’re not forced to utilize them.

Strange name, good content. Keep on keepin' on, Knob.

135 subs now... can't wait to see where this Channel goes!

I thought i was watching 100000 subscriber-ish channel turns out you only have 178 subscribers!!! Thats so underrated i dont even know how youtube recommended your video?!

Great take, keep it up, you deserve more subs, NOW.

To be fair to Persona, it's specifically only P5 that both has substantial gameplay bonuses for hanging out with characters and that emphasizes them whenever you meet someone who's not a member of the party, in the game's explicit text, you are only hanging out with them because they can benefit you in some way. The rest of the games just kinda have mild exp bonuses, nothing special, and though that still is technically a gameplay bonus I don't think many people found themselves progressing the social links of characters specifically for that EXP bonus. My point being, Persona 5 is bad, lmao.

Interesting video!

Lack a parasocial relation with character, stops them from being one. After all the are ilusion. And that problem is imposible to solve without complete disilusion like Bladerunner. But how much you belive in they existence is up to you and your desire for emotions. For me games with strong social aspect are deterrent.

dope

I always thought this was just a me problem, because outside of a few rare cases I've never felt truly connected to a video game character (for instance, some of the side characters in Katana Zero and Dark Souls 3)

Wha-, what... what about Kim Kitsuragi 🥺

Sea of Stars does the companions soOoOoo well!!!

HOLY SHITE GET THIS MAN AN OSCAR AND 100,000 TIMES THE SUBSCRIBERS

Dude Ryuji was great. Badly designed my arse he was useful and a good character

I think Fear & Hunger 2 does a good job with their "friendships". The game encourages you to kill them all because of 1. Plot reasons (basically a death game like Danganronpa with a 3-day limit), 2. Two of the three endings are locked behind this condition and 3. A lot of good skills are locked if you don't kill the character related to them. Keeping them in your party can make some fights easier but it also means you have to spend more resources (which are kinda scarce) to mantain their mind, HP and hunger, and some of them kinda suck like party members because they come with bad skills, making them a glorified normal attack or item button. The main reason why you keep them alive is because of how you feel about them. You can learn more about their backstory, personality and the reason why they are there through dialogues or reading their intros when you play as them. Also the characters are not stagnant: as the days progresses they may change locations, some of them might become recruitable or unrecrutaible, some of them might die at the hands of another participant or succumb to the horrible and oppresive atmosphere of the place, transforming into a monstrous version of themselves.

At least spiritfarer doesnt have any transphobia