When built-in mechanics feel like cheating

[StaceyPowers]

example, in ES: Oblivion, the ability to make custom spells at the college feels like this. I mean, I made a spell to instantly max dispositions, and another to light myself on fire to level destruction, and another to corrode my armor so I can repair it and level armorer, etc.

[The Blackangel]

In the remake of FF8 you have 3 cheats that you can enable any time. Invincibility, 3X speed, and blocking all encounters. I like the 3X speed and use it all the time. I enable the invincibility if I plan on leaving the game on overnight to farm items. Blocking encounters is nice if I'm trying to do a side quest. And since I don't have to worry about Diablos to have it, it also saves me a bonus slot on the character he is junctioned to. Which for me is always Squall.

[killamch89]

20 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

example, in ES: Oblivion, the ability to make custom spells at the college feels like this. I mean, I made a spell to instantly max dispositions, and another to light myself on fire to level destruction, and another to corrode my armor so I can repair it and level armorer, etc.

I wish this was in Skyrim - we had to wait until we got mods to have the ability to create our own spells. Some combinations are so flipping OP though, I wish the NPCs could utilize this feature as well just to see what they'd come up with.

[Withywarlock]

The Elder Scrolls games, prior to Skyrim at least, had overwhelming balance issues. But then, RPGs are at their best when they're not balanced and sterile, but feel as organic as ES and the like do.

"Clever use of game mechanics" appears to be a problem with the Soulslike genre, including ARPGs that play pretend and call themselves Soulslike, but healing-over-time mechanics make the game significantly easier. Lords of the Fallen could be cheesed with a spell that could heal more damage than enemies could deal over its duration, and heavy armour combined with the endurance to wear it also prevented enemies from doing any damage at all in some instances. Remnant: From the Ashes has healing over time cooldowns and consumable items, but are much harder to manage so kudos to the devs for that I guess. And in Dark Souls II the ability to move while consuming a cumulative (not to mention cheap and in infinite supply) healing item makes the deliberate, emphasised moveset of the bosses and enemies all the more noticeable, and avoidable.

[Heatman]

On 4/14/2021 at 3:03 PM, The Blackangel said:

In the remake of FF8 you have 3 cheats that you can enable any time. Invincibility, 3X speed, and blocking all encounters. I like the 3X speed and use it all the time. I enable the invincibility if I plan on leaving the game on overnight to farm items. Blocking encounters is nice if I'm trying to do a side quest. And since I don't have to worry about Diablos to have it, it also saves me a bonus slot on the character he is junctioned to. Which for me is always Squall.

The invincibility cheat is one of mechanics that I really hated so much to a great extent because it makes mockery of the game.