Monday, May 7, 2012

Is there such a thing as too much detail in an LP?

One of the things that make my LPs stand out, and something I'm rather proud of, is the fact that I will show everything I possibly can in the games I cover. Of course, I have my limits - I ran away screaming when the Nintendo Gallery reared its ugly head, for instance (and I have yet to see a single person complain about that - I love you guys). But what about things that don't rank as high on the scale of tediousness, but you still wouldn't wish on your worst enemy?

If you've been keeping up with Chuggaaconroy's Super Paper Mario LP, you know what's coming tomorrow. Chapter 2-3. The place where many games were ended, never to be continued again, out of the sheer tediousness of the thing. Sure, you can look it up on GameFAQs and be done with it in three minutes flat. But the sole fact that if you don't you're in for one of the most painful, what-were-they-thinking experiences to ever hit gaming is still enough to convince many players to quit playing the game entirely and shoot for a refund.

And if I were to venture a guess, the guy's going to go the extra mile and do things the "legit" way. Mad props to him if he does that - and really, he's in a position where you just can't win. As Nightlingbolt eloquently put it over at FMT, "Chuggaa's fanbase is unpleaseable either way. Easy way, someone calls him out for being a *. Hard way, someone calls him a retard for not taking the easy way."

Now, if this were my LP I would go for the three-minute cop-out, because the stage is just THAT BAD. This is where you find Slim because GameFAQs said so, this is the code for the safe because GameFAQs said so, there, stage over. This is coming from the guy who goes out of his way to show everything the game has to offer, but this is beyond my threshold of pain.

So the question I want to ask you is this: in a hypothetical scenario where I did just that, would you be left unhappy because I wussed out on the treadmills and hamster wheels, or would you not mind at all? Alternatively, if I decided to torture myself by going the hard way for the sake of being complete and/or "professional", would I be an idiot for missing out on the easy, three-minute way?

(On that note, I would like to reassure anyone who's never played Super Paper Mario: yes, it IS that bad. Don't buy the game just to see if that one stage is as bad as I say it is. IT IS.)

15 comments:

  1. I wouldn't mind if you wanted to skip all of this, because let's face it, it's a really boring part that totally breaks the pace of the game.

    But it's not really that tedious by the point you reach the hamster wheel if you're willing to keep pressing the right directional button for like 10 minutes while doing something else entirely, like reading a book or spending time on the internet at the same time. That's what I do anyway, because my memory is so bad that I never remember the access code to the easy way out and of course I never think of writing it down. I could check the code directly on GameFAQs, but it's not like someone is actually watching me play and putting me under pressure or anything. During my first playthrough, I actually found my way out of this chapter without any help, but that's probably because I like to check everything in a game almost as much as you do and I had talked to everybody which made the chapter go more or less smoothly.

    I got more frustration out of the labyrinth of Chapter 2-4 to be honest, because not only I suck for trying to find a way out of these kind of things, but my luck is also always terrible. I roamed there randomly for almost a whole hour while freaking out because of Mimi's surprisingly creepy transformation.

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  2. if I were hi I would do the tredmill thing untill 100, then get the code from the guy who sells it and go to the hamster wheel for 10, 000 then go to the vault.

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    1. That's the way you're meant to beat the level. Too bad forcing anyone to go through that is one of the worst ideas a game designer has ever had.

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  3. I would probably skip half of the video if you did it the actual way out of sheer boredom from watching you on a hamster wheel for eons. (and i hate skipping around in lets play videos)

    As it is when I played it myself I was DETERMINED to do it without gamefaqs, and even i just made sure the button was held down and walked away for a while. I would literally love the game if it wasn't for that one chapter part being present. So unnecessary.

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  4. If it were up to me, just do it the cheap gamefaqs way, while giving a thorough explanation in the LP of why the "real" way blows chunks. I've come to expect that Chugga's LPs (or LPs in general) do not *really* follow exactly what a first-time player would do. What Chugga does best is present an informative, do-as-I-do kind of walkthrough. Filling vast tracts of time with interesting monologue is not something that most commentators do well (you being the exception to the rule). As long as I feel that not too much of my time is wasted, and all ways to complete a given task are properly acknowledged, then I am a happy camper.

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    1. Yeah, that's what I'd do. I'd probably spend a few seconds on the treadmill and a few on the hamster wheel just to say, here, this is how you're meant to do it, but I suggest you give that method the middle finger.

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  5. First time I played Super Paper Mario was in the hospital. I found out how to get Slim, the passwords, and the easy Rubees by myself... Unfortunately, it took me quite some time to do so (Passwords? Really?)

    I still like the game better than Paper Mario 2... Chapter 2 of that was just horrible, and I never got back to the game because of it.

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    1. That's funny, most of the complaints I've seen about PM2 are about chapter 4, not 2. Probably means you'd quit the game again if you tried playing it once more.

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    2. I thought that Chapter 4's mindfuck was pretty cool, but I agree that the backtracking ruined it...

      I guess that Chapter 2 was simply annoying because of how stupid the Punies are...

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    3. Bingo.
      Escort Missions in games with a partner that's just... Eh isn't my idea of a fun video game. Made worse when the game itself has a million more examples of horrible backtracking later on in the game.

      Give me Paper Mario 64, please.

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    4. Then just download it for the Virtual Console on the Wii. That's what I did.

      I personally enjoyed Paper Mario 2's many sidequests, enhanced battle mechanics, amazing choices in badges and how it was challenging, but I can understand how people might hate it without giving any credits for the few things it had right.

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    5. I already have the original on the N64.
      Now if only I had an N64 to play it... I'll find it some day.

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  6. If it were me, I'd still show everything, with the exception of obvious cuts. I'd talk to everyone in the level, 2D and 3D, then show that you can access the VIP room by paying 100 rubees for the password, and then show that you can get the safe combination by paying 10,000 from the VIP room. I'd obviously cut the sections where I was just grinding for rubees, but it doesn't take long enough for me to not bother with it. I still do the same thing every time I play through the game. I just think it's more "complete" if you show the process, the way you're supposed to figure the level out. It is poorly designed, to be sure, but it's part of the game nonetheless.

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  7. I would like for you to just enter the password without grinding, so long as that wasn't it's own episode.

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  8. I don't remember Super Paper Mario all that well, but I do remember the slavery until you make enough to buy your way out part. I thought taking shortcuts was the way you were supposed to do it, not some kind of a cheat. I got through it without guides. And it's funny that you pay her with her own money that you stole.

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