Are there games which don’t use this mechanic? Might be interesting to check out.
Comment on Let's discuss: Stardew Valley
squirrel@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 months ago
I love this game (500 hours played), but I have to bring up a point of criticism…
One aspect which has not aged well IMHO is the “kindness coin” mechanic: The exchange of goods for the NPCs’ friendship and/or affection. You give the NPCs stuff, then you give them more stuff, then some more on top, then you get a cut scene and then you get back to giving them stuff until you trigger the next one.
Yes, the requests on the blackboard and the occasional personal quest mix up things a little bit, but overall the mechanic remains the same and for me over the years this has cheapened the interaction with the NPCs for me somewhat: They are mostly transactional and predictable to the point where you can calculate their outcome.
You have to give character A so-and-so many objects X to romance them. It takes so-and-so many days to do that.
Sure, the “kindness coins” mechanic was industry standard at the time, but I wish there were more variety in regards to the interactions with the NPCs, because they are amazingly written and I wish there was more to do with them besides giving them stuff over and over again.
Pyro@programming.dev 5 months ago
squirrel@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 months ago
The most famous one ATM is probably “Baldur’s Gate 3” which offers a wide variety of mechanics and stats to measure if an NPC member of the player’s party is romantically interested in the player character. Two examples given in the talk I linked are the VNs “Monster Prom” or “First Bite”.
SteposVenzny@beehaw.org 5 months ago
My understanding of Baldur’s Gate 3 is that everybody is romantically interesxzted in the player character.
Maybe I’m just a catch?
squirrel@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 months ago
Yes and no. Like in Stardew Valley, technically you can romance every NPC in your party, but in practice you have to meet certain criteria to do so and those differ from character to character. Of course, it is possible to “game” that system.
princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 months ago
If you haven’t played since relatively early in it’s release, I believe that was a bug that has now been fixed.
Midnitte@beehaw.org 5 months ago
I’m sure he’ll probably use a different mechanic for Haunted Chocolatier, probably too late to change it for Stardew Vallery, given it’s age and the existing complexity of the game.