Yeah, some kinds of games benefit more by having plenty of characters, others don't, and the kind of adventures Spidey, hell, super-heroes in general can have, means that both a game like PS4 Spidey, and Ultimate Alliance, can work.
So yeah, don't think they should stick with one formula or the other, just do whatever that benefits a specific game style, and never do something like just copying each other, otherwise it's just the same game with a different story, if they bother with even that much.
I suppose a Venom only game has potential, but who would become a villain? Carnage? That's too easy.
Maybe it could be from 90's Eddie point of view, a crazy take on villainous Spider-Man?
I could see fun game mechanics with using a Symbiote, maybe make it somewhat like Vampyr, so Your actions have consequences?
Man, now I want a Venom game :P
Last edited by Dzika_Sowa; 11-25-2020 at 05:05 AM.
Of all the Spider-People in the entirety of Marvel's multiverse, Betty? For real man? Betty?
I guess her dumbass lingerie costume would be nice to have a laugh, but outside of that, why lol.
This all has to be a dedicated bait...
I mean, Ultimate Spider-Man is essentially a Venom game from a story perspective, he's more connected with the plot than Peter, and the story revolves around him more, so yeah, a Venom game can totally work, unsurprisingly.
And yeah, as mentioned above, **** like Life Foundation and Knull can work, he can always get something else from other characters too.
Actions having consequences is something I honestly want in a Spidey game, what I imagine is something like, allowing the player to fail, failing a mission won't end it, and that can affect later missions with the villain still being out, and that could lead into other endings, but the actual point would be to allow the player to fail, and continue the game with the consequences, as Spidey's life is like.
A Venom equivalent of this, maybe the typical good path/evil path? Though without the nonsense of "good and evil give different abilities", that one was always odd to me lol.
Wasn't that system implemented in Web of Shadows? I don't remember much of that game tbh, had the Wii version like 10 years ago :P
But yeah, the consequences in that type of game should stick. The problem is, it's too much work for game Devs. Even if You look at the Witcher 3, the important decisions You make don't impact the story as much as You thought it would. In some points, you get one or two characters to live and help in final parts of the game, and more alternative cutscenes.
For this to work on Spider-Man level, we would basically have to get two different plots in one game, or something.
What I think would be fun to try out, are Social Links / confidants system from Persona series. Basically, You meet and spend time with people, and Spidey gets benefits from it, uncovers their personal stories and helps them. For example, maxing out relationship level with MJ uncovers a story where Peter has to help her with some movie deals, turns out Mysterio is involved, You get to fight a miniboss. Afterwards You can end up in relationship with MJ etc.
That would be a good way to add optional elements to the story, and You decide if You want to help. If not? Face the consequences, MJ dies in a plane crash or STH (wonder from where this idea came from) :P
The thing is... I don't think average western gamer would like this gameplay system, and Devs have to built it as an addition to an action game.
It was yeah.
Well, didn't say it'd be easy, but considering how much budget games have, and how massive they can be, hardly impossible.But yeah, the consequences in that type of game should stick. The problem is, it's too much work for game Devs. Even if You look at the Witcher 3, the important decisions You make don't impact the story as much as You thought it would. In some points, you get one or two characters to live and help in final parts of the game, and more alternative cutscenes.
For this to work on Spider-Man level, we would basically have to get two different plots in one game, or something.
Though it's unlikely to happen, specially from Triple A ****, since those like to play as safe as possible.
I did suggest once that a Spidey game taking cues from Persona would be cool.What I think would be fun to try out, are Social Links / confidants system from Persona series. Basically, You meet and spend time with people, and Spidey gets benefits from it, uncovers their personal stories and helps them. For example, maxing out relationship level with MJ uncovers a story where Peter has to help her with some movie deals, turns out Mysterio is involved, You get to fight a miniboss. Afterwards You can end up in relationship with MJ etc.
That would be a good way to add optional elements to the story, and You decide if You want to help. If not? Face the consequences, MJ dies in a plane crash or STH (wonder from where this idea came from) :P
The thing is... I don't think average western gamer would like this gameplay system, and Devs have to built it as an addition to an action game.
I doubt it'd be a problem for an average western gamer, 'cause Persona is pretty fucking popular, plus part of the point of Spidey is his supporting cast too, part of the reason that PS4 Spidey is so beloved is that the supporting cast is more developed than basically every Spidey game before it, so yeah, having the option of doing so would be nice.
Question is how that would be implemented though, 'cause Persona is an RPG, and doing social links isn't just so you can see some characters developing (Specially since some are colossally boring), it's to give you power, which is why even speedruns will have the players doing some social links, 'cause the reward is that good, and problem is, making a system like that in Spidey would be weird because Spidey's supporting cast just don't give him any combat related benefits, and I think it'd be awkward to make a game where they conveniently do that, so another reward would needed to be there, no idea what though.
You know if Yakuza can do a JRPG well, then so can Spider-Man.
Now I'm just imagining Peter's Spider-Sense going off because it's Valentine's Day and he romantically maxed out all his female Social Links .
I actually think a Persona-flavored take on high school Spidey could be interesting; while the open-world model has been preferred since Spider-Man 2, I feel like having some variety would be good for the brand. I'd also guess that this a reason why Shattered Dimensions is still well-regarded after release, because it offers a bit of novelty.
I'll concede that not every Spidey supporting character would "make sense" giving him direct combat experience, but if we're adopting an action RPG framework, I don't think it's that hard to come up with gameplay benefits. For example, if there is a crafting/equipment system, you can have Harry Osborn's social link give you bonuses when doing that system. You could also have May be involved in humanitarian work a la the Insomniac 'verse and have her give sidequests to Peter focusing on smaller scale issues.
I would prefer no RPG mechanics in Spidey games though, fact that PS4 Spidey has levelling up is one of the many things I have against it lol.
"Take my chocolate please, before I crush it."
Although it'd be really shitty to even have the option of dating more than one women, it "works" in Persona 'cause protagonists have as much personality as a wall, plus the whole harem genre in Japan, Spidey has a lot of personality and barely showed interest in dating more than one woman at once, he did try it back in Ditko era when a date with Betty wasn't gonna happen and decided to call Liz instead, but that didn't last.
Specially since Spider-Man games are adaptations, not a franchise with an usual formula like GTA, doing only open-world games is very limiting.
As long as not all of them make his combat better, I guess it could work... Your Harry example could work fine, but imagine trying to put MJ and give her a way to improve his combat, that'd be weird lol.I'll concede that not every Spidey supporting character would "make sense" giving him direct combat experience, but if we're adopting an action RPG framework, I don't think it's that hard to come up with gameplay benefits. For example, if there is a crafting/equipment system, you can have Harry Osborn's social link give you bonuses when doing that system. You could also have May be involved in humanitarian work a la the Insomniac 'verse and have her give sidequests to Peter focusing on smaller scale issues.
The hard part would be to come up with good ways of giving some benefit, and I don't think it should always be even combat related, maybe not even technically gameplay related, like say, a game with a mechanic like this has Peter already married with MJ, neglect her long enough and it can end in a divorce at some point 'cause he didn't try to make time for her (And they'd need to make it so you're really bad at this for her to divorce, 'cause MJ puts up with a lot of Peter's ****), that could affect some stuff like having Peter go live somewhere else, characters occasionally making comments about it in scenes, and Peter being more miserable, stuff like that.
The more I think of it, the harder it gets to imagine what kind of abilities would Spider-Man get from confidants.
...have we ever had a Spider-Man RPG before? I wonder how that kind of game would turn out to be. It coul borrow elements from Shattered Dimensions, to build Your own team of spiders etc.