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Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Do Game Mechanics Make or Break Anime?
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bassgs435
 Posts: 305 |
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A funny thing now that I think about it is that adaptations/spin-offs of actual stat based games don't have the levels and stats
Devil Survivor 2 the Animation Various Pokemon anime and manga Various Final Fantasy anime Dragon Quest Dai no Daibouken These gamey level and stats stuff that is seen in anime like Solo Leveling or Shield Hero isn't in these works. An interesting thing that videogames (including stat-based ones) have been adapted for a long time and yet it's modern LN stuff that has introduced all these menus and levels as a part of the story |
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Azure Chrysanthemum
Posts: 124 |
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Pour one out for the poor PVP players sticking to Frontlines in FFXIV, Crystalline Conflict's balance is fantastic and the job designs are really cool but in the chaos of Frontlines it just hasn't really been working.
I definitely approach Anime that spend too much time with stat screens with extreme caution. It very often comes off as a crutch to storytelling. I've generally been enjoying Shangri-La Frontier which uses stat screens a fair bit but since it's about a sweaty Ultimate Raider making his way through a VRMMORPG it kind of makes sense so I can forgive it. There's still a lot of meat in the character interactions and chemistry and some cool fight scenes to keep it moving. |
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2464 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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I am once again asking light novel authors to please have a life experience more substantial than “playing a lengthy JRPG” before they start writing.
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2275 Location: Online Terminal |
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There are also plenty of shows that have nothing to do with gaming but whose stories are basically the standard VG plot of "defeat enemies, get stronger." I still think that unless you have something interesting to say about the artifice of video games (or isekai), it's just a crutch. |
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2266 |
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>starts the article talking about the gamification of life
>completely ignores tomozaki airing this very season Tragically missed opportunity. The first season was great in showing the effort and care Tomozaki puts into improving his life while also talking about how standard social goals aren't necessarily fulfilling, and the second season's building on the first by putting Tomozaki in the teacher position to put his experience to use and also challenging him with the downsides of his increased involvement in social dynamics. |
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Hal14
 Posts: 695 Location: Heart of africa |
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I said it in the Isekai TWIA from a coule weeks back, but Danmachi remains my favourite execution of game mechanics in anime/LN. Having the stats screens as back tatoos is more interesting visually, and explains why characteres aren't constantly checking stats (although it would be funny to see them constatnly take their shirts off after each fight). Stat updates being something only deities can do makes them happen less often and feel more noteworthy. Also like how the dungeon and guild stuff are incoorporated into the setting
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OpenYourEels4TheNextFeels
Posts: 87 |
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Disappointed that not a single mention of Shangri-La Frontier was made.
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<('_')^
Posts: 59 |
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I don't think I've ever taken a fantasy anime that uses game mechanics seriously, outside of Log Horizon. It's just so lazy and unoriginal. Like the author did not want to bother researching foreign cultures or myths for inspiration so they just pick up Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy instead. Or worse, just going with the trend and mimicking other anime or light novels.
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Oggers
 Posts: 369 Location: Ontario, Canada |
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I personally find that inserting video game mechanics into anime/light novels that aren't specifically about playing video games really wrecks my immersion into the story. Light/web novels in particular seem to use them as a crutch for easy worldbuilding by just making the setting "fantasy world that runs on Dragon Quest/Final Fantasy rules" instead of trying to make their fantasy worlds unique or interesting. I like video games myself, but I'd rather just play an actual video game than see another stat screen pop up in place of actually putting effort into the setting.
In Scott Pilgrim's case, the video game mechanics are at least used pretty effectively for humour--like in the original comics when Scott beats Matthew Patel and Matthew leaves coins behind like a typical video game boss, but since he's the first boss he doesn't even leave enough change for Scott to take the bus home. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18285 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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DanMachi is a stand-out for a lot of reasons, and I'll definitely agree that it having one of the smoothest integrations of game-like mechanics into its world-building is one of them. For series that do it in what's become the more traditional fashion, So I'm a Spider, So What? is still one of the most interesting cases, mostly because the entire overarching plot of the story has to do with why the game-like system exists in the first place. (This is only vaguely alluded to in the content that's been animated so far, though, so I'll forgive anime-only viewers of this one for not fully picking up on that.) It's one of the rare cases where the original author actually thought carefully about how the game mechanics fit into the world (rather than just using them as a crutch or gimmick) and thus made them part of the story rather than just part of the setting. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4655 |
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This. For the love of God, this. Chucking random generic RPG mechanics into your fantasy world usually screams, "I'm a bad writer who can't do proper world-building to save my life." |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6087 |
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Given how series that attempt worldbuilding ultimately crumble under their own weight due to getting cancelled or other issues not too bothered with writers who use it as a crutch.
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Cho_Desu
 Posts: 206 |
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What I've always found strange (or amusing, or sad) is how there are so many of these stories that are clearly just meant to be JRPG settings with game-themed elements, but extremely few of them actually try to tell a JRPG-esque story. There are plenty of decent narratives to be found in series like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Tales of, and so on. But all these light novels, manga, and anime pretty much never attempt to even approach that level of world-building, character development, or engaging plots (with twists, foreshadowing, coherency, any sort of pacing, the raising of stakes, a try-fail cycle, and so on). I suppose it's not strange that so many stories would fall short, but what I do find strange is how accepting general audiences are of it all. There are good JRPG-setting stories to be had... in the actual games. Including things like levels, spells, guilds, classes, ranks, stat bonuses, and what have you aren't the elements that make your anime a compelling narrative.
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Thesarum
Posts: 428 |
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So many game-mechanic heavy LN/Manga/Anime give the impression of being written by someone who skips the cutscenes in games... (except maybe the one scene where you hand over the thing to the girl to trip the relationship flag... they then never talk to that character again for the rest of the game having "achieved" the desired status) and also someone who has never seriously thought about what makes a game good or bad, they just chase the dopamine hit of making the little numbers go up and then move on. |
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Fluwm
 Posts: 918 |
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It kind of breaks my brain because in all my life I have never -- not once -- thought of *any* of these RPGs systems or mechanics as diegetic.
And it's just... really boring to watch. Or read through, as the case may be -- often is.
Yeah.... I keep coming back to this fact that so many WN/LN writers seem to think the most compelling/engaging/interesting part of playing through an RPG, apparently, is fiddling with the menus. Which is wild. Honestly I kind of get the impression that many of them don't really like RPGs at all, or even play them, they seem to have so poor a grasp of the appeal -- evident first and foremost with these profoundly generic settings. Really makes me feel for the animators tasked with taking these stories that are full of menu-fiddling and then animating them in something that, ideally, at least begins to approach the general idea of being somewhat interesting or entertaining. It's an impossible task. |
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