Psychological benefits like improved memory or the like, I dont know, because (in theory), that could be the result of creating mental images as a result of reading which is somewhat removed with VN’s. That being said, there can still be alot of imagining how characters are acting specifically in VN’s, so I just have to end on “I dont know.”

I do think VN’s are basically just books though and can have more or less depth to them depending on what it is you’re reading. Maybe VN’s are closer to Light Novels in terms of diction or the like but I still wanna believe there’s benefits to reading VN’s over just…not reading anything at all.

Someone said Toy Story 2 and im gonna reaffirm that cause that was just a genuinely good game growing up. Its been awhile since I played it but it was fun. Runner up would be Stuart Little 2 being a decent collectathon platformer as well.

Another one thats actually okay is Cat in the Hat on PS2. They basically just cut to the climax of the movie with the house all screwed up and made a Klonoa clone but its remarkably competent. They even made sure levels were easier to backtrack in in case you missed any collectibles

Ghost Trick

Phoenix Wright (edit: as many people have said, yes sometimes you’ll need to look up a guide, but it is VERY easy to get spoiled so be careful looking up a specific character or for youtubers who spoil the case)

The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories

Ib, Omori, Yume Nikki (all 3 of these games are kind of the same vein but still recommended)

YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story (I havent actually played this one but its interesting and Its hard to bring up without spoiling it)

Spark the Electric Jester (at least 2 and 3 if you just want a wtf reaction to the endings)

Heres a controversial one, but in Fighting games, I think its really lazy to make a character whose whole gimmick is “they did this thing in the show once, and its not an attack, but we put a hitbox on it so now it is.” ESPECIALLY if you’re putting it onto a character who actually does know how to fight, but you’re going to have them pull a random object out of thin-air for this move.

This is usually more prominent in Fan movesets that people post online, or with characters that actually cant fight at all (Kirino in Dengeki Bunko, basically half the cast of Nick All-stars, etc.). I dont just mean characters who pull stuff out of hammer space either like Frank West in MvC and TvC as they’re more of a gray area I can also get into, but I always found it DEEPLY uninteresting in almost every case. I like it when characters feel like they’re actually FIGHTING in a fighting game. When you have Hugh pull out pizza boxes but the pizza boxes have a hitbox so I guess its an attack now, Its hard not to roll my eyes.

That being said, there are people who like these kinds of movesets and there are characters where you really NEED to do that to get them to work (Nick all-stars again of course needed to do that) but I find it much more interesting if you try to come up with an original moveset that still reflects the character. Shredder in NASB1 just pulling a grappling hook or Spear out of thin-air for three attacks is way lazier than just making him do an attack in my mind, and Danny STILL using the fenton thermos for a normal in NASB2 even though its also his super now is really disappointing. The character isnt better represented just because you’re adding something else from their show here. (disclaimer, Nick all-stars is still fun and I’d recommend it)

Balan Wonderworld.

The game itself isnt that bad to play but if you look at the game design itself, you notice just how many individual aspects they keep screwing up. Like, I can legitimately defend the one button gameplay, but…

• the game screws up a COOKIE CLICKER Side-game.
• This game doesnt support two people using the same keyboard to play.
• I know this cause I knew playing co-op breaks the game cause it gives you a double jump
• The costume that lets you double jump, is SUPPOSED to be gained after you’ve been to the final worlds of the game.
• I say SUPPOSED to cause you can actually get it almost immediately with Air cat and once you get that, you can skip entire levels if you want. I literally had to handicap myself so I dont use it cause I wanted to look at the game and level design specifically.
• Hell, you know how in Mario 64 you cant leave a level unless you’re standing on solid terrain? Well Balan didnt get the memo and you can quit a level at any time, and it might be preferable to do this cause falling off the stage makes you lose your costume, and quitting the stage and returning loses just as much progress but lets you keep the costume
• I got every costume besides Balan, including the post-game ones and took notes. I counted 20 out of the 80 costumes as being completely useless (counting the ones invalidated by Double jumper), 5 that are used for exactly one statue each (though I didnt get every statue), and this wasnt even counting the costumes that are literally just “Same as one you got already but now they break METAL block”

This game was BAFFLING. I could keep going about how many bizarre decisions this game makes. Its actually astounding. It legitimately plays like Yuji Naka hasnt playing a video game since the PS1 era.

100% this. Especially when I remember meeting nice people on League, eventually it got to the point where everyone thinks because theres a mute button, its acceptable to be as much of a dick as possible. I just straight up wasnt having fun anymore regardless of if I won or lost

AI has been used to make jobs easier. Plenty of tools have been made to make physics more convenient, do animation easier, or even make gameplay patterns or levels easier and more efficient to make so people can make better products.

However, AI is NOT a substitute for humans. Despite what some people think, AI generated content is NOT anywhere near on par with human creativity and intent.

I dont know what thread of logic you’re running on to say its ‘immoral’ for people to keep their jobs. Believe it or not, there are people who like working. Making art, coding, programming, creating ideas, stories, and gameplay concepts IS what fills people emotionally. YOU are the amoral one if you think we should replace all jobs with AI cause you want content to be made for you without needing to put effort into it.

Playing devil’s advocate a bit, gameplay can sometimes get in the way of storytelling. Most games aim to be “fun” as well as tell a story, but you sometimes see games lean too far one way (You have to win this boss fight in order to get a cutscene that shows you losing), or the other (The game does cutscenes that are way too long with maybe quick time events, or they’ll expect you to behave a certain way for the story to work then you dont read the games mind and do what it wants). There IS a challenge to telling stories through video games but thats arguably a result of trying to do more than one thing at the same time. Like imagine doing an action movie filled with explosions and fight scenes, but ALSO try to do a story that makes sense that isnt lost in all the chaos, and also a wellmade love story that is more than just love at first sight; Its hard to do.

Video games are also somewhat unique in that they have a “shortcut” to the player based on game controls and mechanics. You can make a character feel weak by literally taking abilities away from them, or you can make the player physically need to struggle to push an object open or something. Alot of games have used the players desire to see the game through to the end to FORCE them to do morally despicable things, like needing to hit a button in order to beat a character you’ve grown to love, to death. It can hit people really hard if done right.