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Hey, I just wanted to say that I recently found your channel through your video on Signalis, and I've gotta say your videos are fantastic! I hope your channel grows into something big!
Thank you. I've been a player of the much more open, less focused games for years, but I really appreciate how you highlight the attraction and challenge of creating free-exploration, *with* purpose.
Great video! Seems like "Open World" should be more a description then a genre. I'd much rather play a dystopian horror game with an evil train that happens to take place in an open world, then an open world game with an evil train... if that makes sense😅
Ha! I'm glad the April Fools thing was just a short segment at the beginning. This seemed like a good video, and I didn't want it to turn out to be 30 second skit and 20 minutes of a blank screen. Great work on the video!
First, "gigaspider" is a PHENOMENAL way to describe Charles himself. Second, I'm kind of surprised that Wavetale didn't make its way into this video. I suppose it's not exactly open world, but my time with it, as fun as it's been, has very much been the "main quest guided tour", and the only thing that keeps that from being a total drag for me is that, much like The Pathless, movement is fun and fluid with few interruptions and a heavy emphasis on momentum. Third, I love that you actively want more weird shit. Weird shit is what makes games fun! It's what makes the experience uncertain! For a long time, I've thought of appeal as being in an inverse relationship with narrowness. If something has something for everyone, everyone can enjoy it, but it's only ever gonna hit that 7/10 experience because there's a whole lot more bits for someone not to enjoy. Meanwhile, a game like Choo Choo Charles knows who it's for, what it's trying to accomplish, and, as you said, how to deliver on its premise in a tight, interconnected package. Thanks as always for a fun, insightful, slightly kooky, and always creative essay. 💜💜💜
OH, Wavetale totally slipped my mind! I loved my time with it. And I agree, the movement was phenomenal. After a certain point, there are just so many games, you know? 😅
choo choo charles was unironically amazing to be honest. great video, ive been trying to put this feeling into words for so long and i just couldnt. honestly, i find open world games to be overwhelming BECAUSE of how much guidance there is. seeing all those map markers just pop up on my map gives me anxiety. which i think is the opposite intended effect...choo choo charles and elden ring really nailed it though in that sense
breath of the wild seems like an odd example. yeah theres quest markers but theyre far enough apart that youll find like a billion interesting things on the way anyway, to a point where players getting sidetracked from the main quests by exploring is something people often joke about with the game. it also leaves the paths pretty open, even aside from the fact that the divine beasts can be done in any order (or even not at all) there are many different ways you can go about reaching their respective locations. i dont really understand why it was given as an example of hand holding.
@@filmotter yeah it’s a different game that’s a real time strategy/action game but you play an actual character rather than an omniscient camera and openworld of course
