04-24-2014, 12:23 AM
Now, Sakurai has stated that the game isn't going to have an adventure mode that is cinematic like the Subspace Emissary, but he didn't quite rule out an adventure mode more akin to what we had in Melee. That said, I'd like to break down my vision of how they could make a decent yet simple Adventure Mode that I think everyone could enjoy.
For starters, let's break down the good and bad parts of the previous Adventure Modes.
The Subspace Emissary was a mode that was not well liked by a lot of people. Personally, I thought it was pretty great and don't really have any issues with it ... with the exception of The Great Maze (that really should have been a separate mode rather than a required level at the very end of the game; all it did was make everything feel like it was getting really gummed up at the last lap). But even so I can completely understand the issues that people had with it. Some common problems people have with it are:
- It was much too long. Given the Smash series' status as fighting games, people are not used to having to fight their way through a long drawn out campaign. And even though Brawl's Adventure Mode was really more of a 2D Beat-'Em-Up rather than a fighting game, even most BEMs can be completed within a single sitting. (Plus let's face it, a drawn-out story only really works with cinematics, which we already know we aren't getting).
- Additionally, many of the individual levels were also way too long. Many also involved obstacles that were obscenely difficult to avoid for many characters.
- Another problem that people have had is that there is no way to play through the entire campaign with a single character of their choosing. Even if you go back and play levels after completing the entire game with every character unlocked, you still have to pick additional additional characters to cover for you in the event that you lose a life. There is no traditional "stock mode".
But despite all the things that people complain about, the mode did involve some improvements over Melee. For instance:
- Enemies actually had fighting A.I. and forced you to fight your way through them. True, some of the enemies were just obnoxious and could have been left out altogether, but it was an improvement over the few enemies that actually appeared in Melee, which served no purpose other than to give the player something to wade through to slow them down slightly.
- Plus there were actual levels for you to traverse. The few "levels" that appear in the Melee Adventure Mode contained very little content and were really nothing more than a short distraction to make it feel like you were moving from place to place. Really, there was so little actual content in these "levels" that it was fundamentally exactly the same as just playing Classic Mode. Melee's Adventure Mode was a nice proof-of-concept at best, but ultimately didn't really feel like much of an "adventure".
- Finally: Bosses. If there was one thing that was definitely awesome about Subspace Whatsit, it was definitely the presence of bosses for you to fight; in particular the ones that were straight out of represented franchises (Rayquaza, Ridley, Porky). The "original" bosses ... admittedly not quite as awesome, but still somewhat fun.
But therein my final point lies one of the biggest issues with trying to make a satisfying new Adventure Mode; everyone wants to see a boss from each represented franchise, but they also want a campaign which they can complete in a single sitting. Bosses can slow the game down considerably, so it would be a nightmare trying to force 12+ boss battles into a game they already have to design levels and fit battles against actual fighters in. So do we have to take boss battles out? Not necessarily ... and that brings me to my proposal.
Here's how I see it playing out:
1) Each major franchise has one full, yet short, level. I think a good approximation of level length would be Green Greens from the original Kirby's Dream Land. (That would be the first stage of Spring Breeze, for those of you not acquainted with the original Game Boy game). Some exceptions may be made for franchises who do not have traditional levels to traverse; such as Wii Fit and Animal Crossing.
2) Each level contains enemies unique to that franchise, with decent AI for you to fight them. They've already included such enemies in Smash Run, so it's not much of a stretch for them to be included in this mode.
3) Each level resembles a specific moment in that franchise's history. I'm not saying copy a level from that franchise one-to-one like they did with Brawl's Mushroomy Kingdom, but it should be reminiscent enough for people to say "hey, I recognize this place". (I may post some ideas for specific franchises later when I'm not so tired).
4) Like in the Mushroom Kingdom stage in Melee's Adventure Mode, each stage whose franchise includes more than one fighter should have a "mini-boss" fight somewhere in the level, where one of the playable characters is battled before you can move on.
5) Also like the Mushroom Kingdom level, the completion of each level is followed by you being transported to a normal battle stage, where you will take on another fighter from that franchise (the "true" fight, so to speak). For games where an antagonist is included as a fighter, they will probably usually appear here.
6) Like in Melee, each level is followed by a small scene transitioning you from one world to another. However unlike Melee this actually happens for each stage rather than only a select few. (Alternatively I'd also like to see it done Sonic 3 style, but that would probably take too much work).
7) (optional) Levels may not necessarily be in the same order for each character. If possible, each character's personal level should be the very last stage they play through. This would require them to rearrange the stages so that they still transitioned in a way that made sense though ... so it might not actually be feasible. (Although I do have a really good idea about how to make it work with minimal effort, but that would require a lot more explanation than I'm willing to type out at the moment).
8) So I spent so much time talking about them earlier, where do actual bosses lie within this set-up? Well, that is why I made point #7. Rather than having a dozen or so bosses within a single campaign, each franchise has a single boss that appears at the very end of the adventure. It's kind of like a personalized Master Hand for each franchise. So at the very end, Samus fights someone like Mother Brain or Ridley, the Kirby characters fight someone like Nightmare or Dark Matter, etc. etc. (Characters from franchises that don't have bosses, like Wii Fit or Animal Crossing, will probably just fight Master Hand again).
9) But if you want to fight another boss with a character from a different franchise? Never fear, we still have Boss Rush. After each true boss has been met and defeated at least once, Boss Rush opens up for all players to play through with all of the bosses to fight. In this way, a plethora of bosses don't bog up the Adventure Mode, and each one can still be fought by every character in some form.
Woof, I'm tired. I'm sure I had more things on my mind that I wanted to say, but I'm too exhausted to remember much more at the moment. I am completely sure than any sort of actual Adventure Mode in the new Smash will be nothing like I described, but I consider this the best case scenario. Anyways, if anyone is actually interested in all the bullshit I'm spouting, I can post some more of my ideas about this tomorrow.
For starters, let's break down the good and bad parts of the previous Adventure Modes.
The Subspace Emissary was a mode that was not well liked by a lot of people. Personally, I thought it was pretty great and don't really have any issues with it ... with the exception of The Great Maze (that really should have been a separate mode rather than a required level at the very end of the game; all it did was make everything feel like it was getting really gummed up at the last lap). But even so I can completely understand the issues that people had with it. Some common problems people have with it are:
- It was much too long. Given the Smash series' status as fighting games, people are not used to having to fight their way through a long drawn out campaign. And even though Brawl's Adventure Mode was really more of a 2D Beat-'Em-Up rather than a fighting game, even most BEMs can be completed within a single sitting. (Plus let's face it, a drawn-out story only really works with cinematics, which we already know we aren't getting).
- Additionally, many of the individual levels were also way too long. Many also involved obstacles that were obscenely difficult to avoid for many characters.
- Another problem that people have had is that there is no way to play through the entire campaign with a single character of their choosing. Even if you go back and play levels after completing the entire game with every character unlocked, you still have to pick additional additional characters to cover for you in the event that you lose a life. There is no traditional "stock mode".
But despite all the things that people complain about, the mode did involve some improvements over Melee. For instance:
- Enemies actually had fighting A.I. and forced you to fight your way through them. True, some of the enemies were just obnoxious and could have been left out altogether, but it was an improvement over the few enemies that actually appeared in Melee, which served no purpose other than to give the player something to wade through to slow them down slightly.
- Plus there were actual levels for you to traverse. The few "levels" that appear in the Melee Adventure Mode contained very little content and were really nothing more than a short distraction to make it feel like you were moving from place to place. Really, there was so little actual content in these "levels" that it was fundamentally exactly the same as just playing Classic Mode. Melee's Adventure Mode was a nice proof-of-concept at best, but ultimately didn't really feel like much of an "adventure".
- Finally: Bosses. If there was one thing that was definitely awesome about Subspace Whatsit, it was definitely the presence of bosses for you to fight; in particular the ones that were straight out of represented franchises (Rayquaza, Ridley, Porky). The "original" bosses ... admittedly not quite as awesome, but still somewhat fun.
But therein my final point lies one of the biggest issues with trying to make a satisfying new Adventure Mode; everyone wants to see a boss from each represented franchise, but they also want a campaign which they can complete in a single sitting. Bosses can slow the game down considerably, so it would be a nightmare trying to force 12+ boss battles into a game they already have to design levels and fit battles against actual fighters in. So do we have to take boss battles out? Not necessarily ... and that brings me to my proposal.
Here's how I see it playing out:
1) Each major franchise has one full, yet short, level. I think a good approximation of level length would be Green Greens from the original Kirby's Dream Land. (That would be the first stage of Spring Breeze, for those of you not acquainted with the original Game Boy game). Some exceptions may be made for franchises who do not have traditional levels to traverse; such as Wii Fit and Animal Crossing.
2) Each level contains enemies unique to that franchise, with decent AI for you to fight them. They've already included such enemies in Smash Run, so it's not much of a stretch for them to be included in this mode.
3) Each level resembles a specific moment in that franchise's history. I'm not saying copy a level from that franchise one-to-one like they did with Brawl's Mushroomy Kingdom, but it should be reminiscent enough for people to say "hey, I recognize this place". (I may post some ideas for specific franchises later when I'm not so tired).
4) Like in the Mushroom Kingdom stage in Melee's Adventure Mode, each stage whose franchise includes more than one fighter should have a "mini-boss" fight somewhere in the level, where one of the playable characters is battled before you can move on.
5) Also like the Mushroom Kingdom level, the completion of each level is followed by you being transported to a normal battle stage, where you will take on another fighter from that franchise (the "true" fight, so to speak). For games where an antagonist is included as a fighter, they will probably usually appear here.
6) Like in Melee, each level is followed by a small scene transitioning you from one world to another. However unlike Melee this actually happens for each stage rather than only a select few. (Alternatively I'd also like to see it done Sonic 3 style, but that would probably take too much work).
7) (optional) Levels may not necessarily be in the same order for each character. If possible, each character's personal level should be the very last stage they play through. This would require them to rearrange the stages so that they still transitioned in a way that made sense though ... so it might not actually be feasible. (Although I do have a really good idea about how to make it work with minimal effort, but that would require a lot more explanation than I'm willing to type out at the moment).
8) So I spent so much time talking about them earlier, where do actual bosses lie within this set-up? Well, that is why I made point #7. Rather than having a dozen or so bosses within a single campaign, each franchise has a single boss that appears at the very end of the adventure. It's kind of like a personalized Master Hand for each franchise. So at the very end, Samus fights someone like Mother Brain or Ridley, the Kirby characters fight someone like Nightmare or Dark Matter, etc. etc. (Characters from franchises that don't have bosses, like Wii Fit or Animal Crossing, will probably just fight Master Hand again).
9) But if you want to fight another boss with a character from a different franchise? Never fear, we still have Boss Rush. After each true boss has been met and defeated at least once, Boss Rush opens up for all players to play through with all of the bosses to fight. In this way, a plethora of bosses don't bog up the Adventure Mode, and each one can still be fought by every character in some form.
Woof, I'm tired. I'm sure I had more things on my mind that I wanted to say, but I'm too exhausted to remember much more at the moment. I am completely sure than any sort of actual Adventure Mode in the new Smash will be nothing like I described, but I consider this the best case scenario. Anyways, if anyone is actually interested in all the bullshit I'm spouting, I can post some more of my ideas about this tomorrow.