innerdude
Legend
** WARNING: This post may contain spoilers for the Star Wars: Jedi Survivor video game. **
Two nights ago I reached the narrative climax / end of Jedi Survivor. I'll do my best not to give away too much about the final "boss" battle, but be warned that some spoilers may slip through. If it's important to you to maintain a spoiler-free view of the game, proceed with caution.
And I had a very revealing experience about my own preferences as a gamer that night.
The final boss battle is with a character you've had contact with throughout the bulk of the game's storyline. The battle proceeds through a series of "tiered" levels, where after whittling down the boss to a certain amount of HP, a cutscene happens and the situation of the battle changes slightly. But overall, you're generally just expected to use all of the skills/tricks/powers you've accumulated along the way to win the fight.
The problem, however, is that this particular boss battle goes out of its way to sort of "cheat", in the sense that many tactics / moves you've used successfully in the past are basically made null / shut down by the boss. The game programmers have made the boss impervious to certain tactics.
In addition, the boss's action economy seems to be more . . . robust than yours. You, as the main character, are generally bound by the limits of certain actions and the animations that go with them. Meaning, there are some actions that force you to go through the entire animation sequence before changing tactics. It's supposed to be a bit of a rock/paper/scissors effect, with a heavy tonnage of timing involved as well.
The problem is it appears the boss is NOT bound by the same action economy restriction. The character can perform action chains without being interrupted by your attacks, and overall just seems to be programmed to have more "freedom" of movement and action than you. The character animation sequences for the boss give you no real clue as to whether they can be interrupted, if it's effective to even try, if it's better for you to simply keep your distance and re-engage or go in full force.
Basically, none of the "cool powerz" you've acquired throughout the game really have any effect. All of your hard-earned skill-tree XP building is wasted in this battle. You can't Force push/pull/lift/slam the opponent, the enemy is impervious. You can't force mind control, obviously, that would be too easy. Your "advanced" saber moves, based on various stances, are too risky, because they require you to go through a full action animation that the enemy is just going to shrug off and counter-attack at great detriment to you.
So what ends up happening is you're basically left with the most bare-bones combat "mini game" possible.
But even readily acknowledging that I am not the most skilled player, this boss fight ultimately felt like I was being cheated of my hard work. This was a case where I had spent 45+ hours carefully curating force powers and saber stances to play the game in a way that appealed to me. And all of that was tossed out the window.
I made two attempts at the final boss battle at the "Jedi Padawan" difficulty, and was thoroughly beaten both times.
And you know what my immediate reaction was?
"Screw it."
I was too far into the game. The plot was basically over at this point. I fully expected to get a typical Star Wars denouement where the character reflects on life and the Force after the fight was over (and I was not disappointed in that expectation), but beyond that, there was nothing left of the narrative to experience. The narrative tension was complete. There was no point to this battle other than to simply test myself to see if I was good enough at the core mini-game minus all of the additions and special exceptions I had accumulated.
And I wasn't angry, per se, at this turn of events. But I was certainly nonplussed. It was kind of like, "Oh, so you're not going to respect the work I've done up to this point and just turn this into an exercise in button mashing?" Yeah. Not happening.
I instantly went into the gameplay settings, changed the difficulty to "Story Mode", and finished the game.
But afterward I was beset by questions.
Had I made that choice because it was simply "too hard"? No, even at Jedi Padawan level, I'm sure I could have beaten the boss in another 3-6 attempts. Another 45 minutes or so of time and I could have beaten it. It wasn't that I couldn't beat the final boss. It was that there was something about the setup/situation that just completely turned me off. I simply didn't care to approach this boss battle the way the developers intended. And I had not felt this way at ANY POINT PRIOR during my gameplay.
So why did I feel that way now? What was it about this particular situation that made me just thumb my nose at the developer, turn on "Easy mode" and be done with it?
Percolating in all these thoughts are parallels to tabletop GM-ing and roleplaying. I think I was upset because I was being denied access to the narrative conclusion that I sought, but not only was I being denied, I was being denied in a way that thoroughly negated my in-game choices to that point. It was a double-denial, of sorts. Denied the emotional resolution I craved, and denied the satisfaction of knowing I had played the game well.
And it has gotten me thinking about what sorts of things a GM might do in a similar fashion to likewise disempower a player or party in such a way that leads to the same kind of dissatisfaction.
Two nights ago I reached the narrative climax / end of Jedi Survivor. I'll do my best not to give away too much about the final "boss" battle, but be warned that some spoilers may slip through. If it's important to you to maintain a spoiler-free view of the game, proceed with caution.
And I had a very revealing experience about my own preferences as a gamer that night.
The final boss battle is with a character you've had contact with throughout the bulk of the game's storyline. The battle proceeds through a series of "tiered" levels, where after whittling down the boss to a certain amount of HP, a cutscene happens and the situation of the battle changes slightly. But overall, you're generally just expected to use all of the skills/tricks/powers you've accumulated along the way to win the fight.
The problem, however, is that this particular boss battle goes out of its way to sort of "cheat", in the sense that many tactics / moves you've used successfully in the past are basically made null / shut down by the boss. The game programmers have made the boss impervious to certain tactics.
In addition, the boss's action economy seems to be more . . . robust than yours. You, as the main character, are generally bound by the limits of certain actions and the animations that go with them. Meaning, there are some actions that force you to go through the entire animation sequence before changing tactics. It's supposed to be a bit of a rock/paper/scissors effect, with a heavy tonnage of timing involved as well.
The problem is it appears the boss is NOT bound by the same action economy restriction. The character can perform action chains without being interrupted by your attacks, and overall just seems to be programmed to have more "freedom" of movement and action than you. The character animation sequences for the boss give you no real clue as to whether they can be interrupted, if it's effective to even try, if it's better for you to simply keep your distance and re-engage or go in full force.
Basically, none of the "cool powerz" you've acquired throughout the game really have any effect. All of your hard-earned skill-tree XP building is wasted in this battle. You can't Force push/pull/lift/slam the opponent, the enemy is impervious. You can't force mind control, obviously, that would be too easy. Your "advanced" saber moves, based on various stances, are too risky, because they require you to go through a full action animation that the enemy is just going to shrug off and counter-attack at great detriment to you.
So what ends up happening is you're basically left with the most bare-bones combat "mini game" possible.
- Time attacks
- Time your blocks
- Only use the most basic attacks for your stance (no special attacks)
But even readily acknowledging that I am not the most skilled player, this boss fight ultimately felt like I was being cheated of my hard work. This was a case where I had spent 45+ hours carefully curating force powers and saber stances to play the game in a way that appealed to me. And all of that was tossed out the window.
I made two attempts at the final boss battle at the "Jedi Padawan" difficulty, and was thoroughly beaten both times.
And you know what my immediate reaction was?
"Screw it."
I was too far into the game. The plot was basically over at this point. I fully expected to get a typical Star Wars denouement where the character reflects on life and the Force after the fight was over (and I was not disappointed in that expectation), but beyond that, there was nothing left of the narrative to experience. The narrative tension was complete. There was no point to this battle other than to simply test myself to see if I was good enough at the core mini-game minus all of the additions and special exceptions I had accumulated.
And I wasn't angry, per se, at this turn of events. But I was certainly nonplussed. It was kind of like, "Oh, so you're not going to respect the work I've done up to this point and just turn this into an exercise in button mashing?" Yeah. Not happening.
I instantly went into the gameplay settings, changed the difficulty to "Story Mode", and finished the game.
But afterward I was beset by questions.
Had I made that choice because it was simply "too hard"? No, even at Jedi Padawan level, I'm sure I could have beaten the boss in another 3-6 attempts. Another 45 minutes or so of time and I could have beaten it. It wasn't that I couldn't beat the final boss. It was that there was something about the setup/situation that just completely turned me off. I simply didn't care to approach this boss battle the way the developers intended. And I had not felt this way at ANY POINT PRIOR during my gameplay.
So why did I feel that way now? What was it about this particular situation that made me just thumb my nose at the developer, turn on "Easy mode" and be done with it?
Percolating in all these thoughts are parallels to tabletop GM-ing and roleplaying. I think I was upset because I was being denied access to the narrative conclusion that I sought, but not only was I being denied, I was being denied in a way that thoroughly negated my in-game choices to that point. It was a double-denial, of sorts. Denied the emotional resolution I craved, and denied the satisfaction of knowing I had played the game well.
And it has gotten me thinking about what sorts of things a GM might do in a similar fashion to likewise disempower a player or party in such a way that leads to the same kind of dissatisfaction.
