darkSpyro

Quote: hardcoreignitor

Quote: GhostRoaster

Fact: story in #4 will be convoluted and a mess to follow. A bunch of quirky people will be met along the way and Flynn will be around for "comedic" relief. Another toy gimmick...more variants...more reposes...more of the same.

Did I miss anything?

You forgot the fact that we will be told sometime I between January and Febuary and left in the dark until June-ish.

*clapclapclap*

Quote: melvimbe

I don't like the idea of playing evil characters since we'll be able to play them forward in the next game and would need new abilities. It's not sustainable IMO. However, they could make evil toys that go on the portal but are not playable but act like an adventure pack or boss battle. Possibly bring on a couple levels. Kaos could come in the starter pack (and would sell big), and other evil figures could come in dual packs. They could do something similar for the npcs.

One difference is you would need to keep the baddie on the portal to play his level/boss battle. That would mean a bigger portal.

But your idea causes pretty much the same problem as bringing playable villains into the game as toys, it doesn't make sense story-wise. Why are these villains toys and why do they unlock levels? I know the same could be said for the Magic Items but the difference is those weren't a gimmick for a whole game. And we all know they're going to shove the gimmick in our faces each year. If they base each game around a gimmick the gimmick should be good, should tie in with the game and story and make sense.

Skylanders was really great because it was so immersive and with each installment that has been fading away- they don't put in the extra effort to make the story feel so "magical" now, instead doing everything to get the plot over and done with and not really caring about the previously established lore or characters. And doing something like that making the villains/NPCs into statues that act as Location Pieces would just add to that problem, and it wouldn't really be very innovative or exciting since they'd just be glorified Adventure Pack items. If that were the gimmick of a game I'm sure it'd fail to wow many people, honestly.

Though actually now that I think about it I guess I wouldn't mind if they did some regular Adventure Packs and featured older villains/NPCs in them. Imagine an adventure pack where you're in an alternate dimension with a good Kaos that you get to work with. Or even a Sonic Generations type Adventure Pack where you get to visit little parts of old stages or battle old bosses or something. This definetly should not be the gimmick of a game and they should not use any villains or NPCs as toys, because that contradicts canon too much, though.

... Actually, maybe something like Adventure Packs would be a good gimmick because then they can focus on making the game good without really needing to develop a super duper new gimmick. However, knowing Acti, it'd probably just make them get the cartoony dollar-sign eyes and make the game have less levels with more adventure packs :/

Quote: Arc of Archives

Quote: hardcoreignitor

Quote: GhostRoaster

Fact: story in #4 will be convoluted and a mess to follow. A bunch of quirky people will be met along the way and Flynn will be around for "comedic" relief. Another toy gimmick...more variants...more reposes...more of the same.

Did I miss anything?

You forgot the fact that we will be told sometime I between January and Febuary and left in the dark until June-ish.

*clapclapclap*

Quote: melvimbe

I don't like the idea of playing evil characters since we'll be able to play them forward in the next game and would need new abilities. It's not sustainable IMO. However, they could make evil toys that go on the portal but are not playable but act like an adventure pack or boss battle. Possibly bring on a couple levels. Kaos could come in the starter pack (and would sell big), and other evil figures could come in dual packs. They could do something similar for the npcs.

One difference is you would need to keep the baddie on the portal to play his level/boss battle. That would mean a bigger portal.

But your idea causes pretty much the same problem as bringing playable villains into the game as toys, it doesn't make sense story-wise. Why are these villains toys and why do they unlock levels? I know the same could be said for the Magic Items but the difference is those weren't a gimmick for a whole game. And we all know they're going to shove the gimmick in our faces each year. If they base each game around a gimmick the gimmick should be good, should tie in with the game and story and make sense.

Skylanders was really great because it was so immersive and with each installment that has been fading away- they don't put in the extra effort to make the story feel so "magical" now, instead doing everything to get the plot over and done with and not really caring about the previously established lore or characters. And doing something like that making the villains/NPCs into statues that act as Location Pieces would just add to that problem, and it wouldn't really be very innovative or exciting since they'd just be glorified Adventure Pack items. If that were the gimmick of a game I'm sure it'd fail to wow many people, honestly.

Though actually now that I think about it I guess I wouldn't mind if they did some regular Adventure Packs and featured older villains/NPCs in them. Imagine an adventure pack where you're in an alternate dimension with a good Kaos that you get to work with. Or even a Sonic Generations type Adventure Pack where you get to visit little parts of old stages or battle old bosses or something. This definetly should not be the gimmick of a game and they should not use any villains or NPCs as toys, because that contradicts canon too much, though.

... Actually, maybe something like Adventure Packs would be a good gimmick because then they can focus on making the game good without really needing to develop a super duper new gimmick. However, knowing Acti, it'd probably just make them get the cartoony dollar-sign eyes and make the game have less levels with more adventure packs :/

I feel like your saying Skylanders immersive-ness fading away to early. There only have been 3 games, one by a developer that changed many things about it and even got lazy at some points. TfB, I believe will fix this with the next game. SSA was perfect. Great lore, good story with fun characters and environments. Giants was a sequel that had a lot to live up too and succeeded in doing so adding deeper (And darker) lore to the world of Skylands. Swap Fore is were there were flubs. VV got rid of things that weakened the "toys with brains" aspect. HC were gone and the story sucked. This doesn't mean that the whole series is going downhill. Many, if not all, video game and movie franchises have one entry in to the series that wasn't the best. Swap Force is that, while a very good game when it comes to gameplay, the story and writing is where it fails. TfB are damn good when it comes to the story and lore of the games and I have a good feeling that they'll fix was VV f*#ked up on in the upcoming 4th entry in the series.

Yes, I agree. I don't know what it is... It's just that... It doesn't feel that magical anymore. It's still a great experience, but, not that immersive. Swap Force is a GREAT game, even if the story is not that good. But I'm sure that TfB will be able to take what was good from SA, Giants and SF, and add some cool new things, to create a great and fun fourth game. One thing I may "complain" about Swap Force is the character design; it is good, but the new Skylanders don't look like the "older" characters. And I'm sure this will be fixed aswell.

While I do think TFB have a better grasp with the story and will write it better like Giants, I honestly think the "magic" (read: characters referring to you directly in the game) may be in limbo right now. Kind of cautiously optimistic about it. On one hand TFB pulled it off wonderfully in the first game... On the other they didn't keep the same level of immersion in Giants.

Giants is still way better than SF in terms of story and has more heart and is a fun story on its own- but it's not immersive like SA either. The characters don't refer to you directly as often. Really, a lot of of the game refers to "the Skylander" and not "the Portal Master"(though to its credit, it leaves it ambiguous a lot as well with characters just saying stuff like "chief" and "buddy" and not nessicarily specifying who they're really talking about, and to be fair SA did that sometimes too but it still had way more of those "magical" moments where you saw Kaos or other characters talking about or to you). Like I said, it's much better written than SF, and look it doesn't ignore canon like SF, but I'm not putting my full faith in TFB. I'm hoping that was just the result of Giants being kind of rushed and that they don't just do that again, but I'm very wary.

Weren't there people who wrote for Toy Story that helped writing the first game? I'd guess they weren't hired again for the sequel and that might explain why the "immersion" wasn't there much afterwards.

The "magic" problem is that we're used to it...no harm or foul to either development team. Sure the story would help, but I think many of us hardcore players have clocked hundreds of hours in the game.

Acti will have to fundamentally change or introduce a new concept and not a bolt on for it to regain "some" of that magic--but being a very lucrative series I'm sure they will be ULTRA safe. It's the paradox that success brings to franchises.

Oh now I know that's just not true for me because I've played SA for hundreds of hours and I still feel Portal Master Magic every time I pick it up. That's just because of the way the game is designed. I can forgive the flaws it has because it is really unique with how it handles the story elements and sets everything up and it has tons of moments like that.

And I've said in another thread that seperating story and gameplay in the case of Skylanders is stupid because in the game(well the first one :/), it's handled in a way where they kind of blend together into one experience- the lore in the first game set up everything and have reasons as to why these Skylanders are frozen and why you're going on your journey and you were part of it basically with characters directly referring to you, and that kind of storytelling was a powerful motivator that was part of the experience. Plus, there are so many cutscenes throughout the whole game. You can't seperate them, you just can't. The way the game- Spyro's Adventure- is built, the story is an absolutely huge part of it and not just something that adds to it that's "on top of the gameplay". It really was like a massive interactive movie. All games are similar to an extent, but Skylanders was different, because again, you were part of it. You really got to be part of the game. You were part of the lore of the game, directly referenced in the story. Of course it's a game and it's not real- Magic thankfully does not exist in real life- but it was damn well-made and it felt like it was real, and that's what matters. I'm really hating the direction SF moved in because it completely ignored this and just tossed a bunch of cutscenes on top of a game, and they just weren't immersive or even interesting.

Of course the games won't be as magical as they weren't at first and the immersion will just become weaker the more you play but it faded away really fast in Giants (it didn't refer to you often like SA) with much less of it than SA and in SF it was totally absent and ignored for 90% of the game. And I just hate seeing this wasted potential. The Skylanders series could be something more truly unique and special and they are not taking this oppurtunity to make this kind of series where the story is so integrated to the experience. There are plenty of story-heavy games... But I never see many which handle it and immerse you with it so well. And I honestly think that kind of immersive story for games is ideal because then it makes the world feel more real, if it's done well, and thus it feels more like you're really interacting with the world in the game. And that's why I loved the first Skylanders game so much, besides all the playable characters and the gameplay and charming world- being part of the game, it truly feels unique to any other game I've played, personally.

Heck, there's even a piece of lore for why you can replay levels in the games! Portal Masters can travel through time with their Portals. That was confirmed in the Quiz Quest book. Granted, this wasn't explained in-game, but still. What other game series has gone to the length to do that and not just use the "it's a game" excuse?

I'd rather bow out of this discussion, though. I've made these points and I don't really have anything more I'd like to say.

I get the immersion point, and it's one the first game did wonderfully. I agree that would have a direct positive impact in future games. Now it's assumed that we're just tagging along with the story--much like a bolt on.

No need to bow out...love your posts. Keep it coming

I have to agree on the immersion point as if they are so bent on making a fourth game at this point that story should be the focus to keep people interested at this point. Compared to SSA I tend to put down Giants and only completed the first chapter of swap force since buying it at release for dark edition.

I feel from SSA there was a connection more with the characters - bash for me and it was a bonus to have spyro join in.

Series 3 should be a limit for character usage period. I still feel in a way in how the introduction of wow pows ruins the fact of your old collection of figures because of the additional attack which should be somehow accessed for owning a previous version of a character where as the attack should be tied to the game, not the character itself. Even from that based on the website, the natural stats of the figures by series rises, making the first generations far weaker than the series 3 or 2 counterparts as well.

That does lose immersion when your figures are considered less and you have to upgrade them like that and doing away with the challenges does make it harder to upgrade a figure without buying a new one. So you could take the elimination of the challenges as a cash grab.

I always thought of them in ssa and giants as another way to connect with your characters. The extra activities is nice, but some of the challenges in giants I simply enjoyed and had fun with simply because I was able to actually spend some time with the character more as such. You could say you get better with them in using them and they did get stronger with you from their training. If you like a character's looks and want to see how well they handle, best way to do so from challenges.

There should be far less focus on reposes and introduction of a line of new characters and just core ones. The gimmicks are over played and there has really been done what at all you could do with figures now. Bigger ones and swappable is about all you can do in that department. Anything about vehicles and anything else along that line, dark and light elements, enemies that are made playable is just stupid and too expensive. I really feel the well on gimmicks has run its course and dried up.

They need to get back to that basics there because I feel many have already are only getting fewer figures and there is no point to buying so many now. Lack of content, loss of immersion and more cheaper tactics at cash grabs. Buying much of the swap force seems like that compared to the previous games.

I also actually enjoyed the 3ds version of giants as well. I didn't expect that entry to be so good. I do like the carrying the whole collection with you of swap force though

The official facebook page talks really much about Spyro now and that he is there already for 15 years... maybe this is a hint for the next game that his old pals are coming? im not sure...

I agree. It would be fine for me too, if the focused more on new characters and gameplay, instead of gimmicks. But, hey, maybe they will surprise us with a spectacular new game mechanic, that perfectly fits a new "type" of characters, and that isn't just an addiction of a few mini games (even if some Swap Zones are really funny, especially the Sneak ones). Let's hope...

Quote: Rattlebuckler

skylanders rebirth kaos is back agian with his own evilized duplicates of skylanders to take over skylands kaoshas banished all good portal master and he has all portals of powers except yours so you take your skylanders to the core of light to try to stop kaos from evillzing the core there will be two new elements shape shifting and duplicating tell me what you think

I think you need punctuation.

I hope they bring the magic back for the 4th game. With Disney putting in Star Wars and Marvel for Infinity 2 I see a lot ppl jumping ship.