10-21-2010, 01:16 PM
Anyway, Super Paper Mario and Recettear are two games I've played fairly recently that do this. When I first beat SPM, I was kind of let down by how easy the main part of the game was, but I did still have the two Trial Pits and the Sammer Kingdom to beat. They weren't much harder (just kinda makework) though, and their rewards were kind of meh seeing that the game had already ended. But hey, it was able to keep me playing the game a bit longer than I would have otherwise, especially seeing that I never completed the pit in the second game. I think this game could have benefitted a bit from a slightly expanded story afterwards, maybe involving some "clean-up" missions of some sort, such as a sidequest to bring Bleck's minions back together, etc.
As for Recettear, after you've completed the "main" story part of the game, the story actually continues, allowing the player to trudge through more of the same randomly-generated dungeons, fight a few new bosses (and a lot of old ones... several times), and gain access to two new characters (both of whom are pretty cool). Personally, while the random dungeon system provides some difference between each play, I feel as though it actually makes them slightly more stale and repetitive than if each dungeon had actually been fully pre-designed. Pre-designed dungeons would at least ensure that each particular dungeon would be different, while this specific implementation of randomly-generated dungeons actually results in just about every dungeon being essentially the same thing, only with different backdrops and different exact layouts. Some of the random floor bonuses (such as double attack power or speed) alleviate this to some degree, but only because it speeds up the otherwise slow and boring process.
In the end, I suppose neither game nails the endgame extras quite right, but they do have their good points. I enjoy Recettear's extra story and new characters, and Super Paper Mario's... uh... well, I can't think of any off the top of my head for that one, heh.
I'm thinking that they may want to actually focus more effort on the things before the story ends, rather than work on too much endgame, but having endgame is still kind of nice, especially if it does come with some sort of nice reward (in my case, some extra story and development).
Why is it so easy for me to write this, but not my papers?
Endnote: Whoa text wall. Also, I don't usually like newgame+, because I don't want to have to start all over again, even if it's with new stuff. That's what gameover/restart is for.
As for Recettear, after you've completed the "main" story part of the game, the story actually continues, allowing the player to trudge through more of the same randomly-generated dungeons, fight a few new bosses (and a lot of old ones... several times), and gain access to two new characters (both of whom are pretty cool). Personally, while the random dungeon system provides some difference between each play, I feel as though it actually makes them slightly more stale and repetitive than if each dungeon had actually been fully pre-designed. Pre-designed dungeons would at least ensure that each particular dungeon would be different, while this specific implementation of randomly-generated dungeons actually results in just about every dungeon being essentially the same thing, only with different backdrops and different exact layouts. Some of the random floor bonuses (such as double attack power or speed) alleviate this to some degree, but only because it speeds up the otherwise slow and boring process.
In the end, I suppose neither game nails the endgame extras quite right, but they do have their good points. I enjoy Recettear's extra story and new characters, and Super Paper Mario's... uh... well, I can't think of any off the top of my head for that one, heh.
I'm thinking that they may want to actually focus more effort on the things before the story ends, rather than work on too much endgame, but having endgame is still kind of nice, especially if it does come with some sort of nice reward (in my case, some extra story and development).
Why is it so easy for me to write this, but not my papers?
Endnote: Whoa text wall. Also, I don't usually like newgame+, because I don't want to have to start all over again, even if it's with new stuff. That's what gameover/restart is for.