darkSpyro

Let's face it of all of the toys-to-life games Skylanders can be most closest compared to Diablo dungeon crawling level's, mixed with action/platforming. And it seems the Diablo side of things is becoming more prominent. I for one am super happy about this as I prefer the RPG elements to platforming or puzzling. But what I think is a super exciting addition is randomized loot.

So let me explain from when I first played Skylanders with Swap Force. When I first was learning about how the game worked I was getting informed through an IGN Wiki on "what you need to 100% the game". And it listed off 8 Swap Force characters, four expansions and a giant character. And basically what you were paying for was access to a few hats, legendary treasures and two more game levels and two arenas. It seemed like an extremely high price for just that. But I was super into the game and slowly collected the characters. But whenever I came upon an elemental gate it felt BAD that I couldn't explore it. Also whenever I finished a level it felt BAD that I couldn't obtain all the stars. So I was buying characters not because I wanted THOSE specific characters, but because I wanted to 100% the game.

This eventually led to me selling the game and giving up knowing that my budget couldn't possibly keep up. And so Trap Team was announced and I got wrapped up in the excitement again with the villains and it was even worse. Now I needed 10 expensive trap masters (couldn't even use old Skylanders) for elemental gates and 10 traps which were hard to find and ended up being more expensive then characters in some cases. So I eventually gave up again and focused on Disney Infinity.

So Superchargers comes out and I decide to dip my toe in again. Fool me thrice? Well this was a massive breath of fresh air. Yes you need to basically buy three "racing actions packs" to get the full experience. But for a modest investment in two vehicles and the reduced cost digital game you could 100% the levels.

And in the Skylanders Academy there is the elemental gate, there is the supercharger challenges, but I don't feel BAD anymore if I cannot access a certain one. I am not loosing out on loot. And THIS HAS MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE to how I play and spend money on the game. I feel free! Because now I have a huge bunch of stuff to collect (which is exciting) and whatever I do choose to do in the game I am rewarded with sweet sweet loot. It's not locked away behind a paywall. I can have it all eventually.

So what all of that is there to say is I feel super good when I play and the rewards I am getting vs feeling like am being forced to buy a hat or a legendary treasure.

In my mind, yes, they reduced the completion requirements...which also lessened the need to collect and explore. Which to me made the game even easier and quick to put down once I was done. There's even nothing that required grinding until the latest Boom 5000 update. So, for those that want to keep playing, SC is a major letdown.

Yeah,but you lost interest every time over pixels and stat bonuses that don't ever matter. The loot is useless unless you really love every single hat, as is the 100% mark. Gotta have a bit more self control when you pay triple for completion.

I absolutely despised that the randomized loot included essentials like Soul Gems and Sapphires; I took so long to get the stuff I needed I just don't care about hats anymore since every time I got one I felt like getting punished for exploring instead of the boring grinding on the Academy Store. Randomized gold/geabits/stardust(until you max out of course)/XP is fine,but not what made the ingame collecting fun to begin with. I didn't like the price tag but during Trap Team it actually made me rethink if I REALLY want that 2 minute puzzle or upside down bucket on my skylander,and I can look at that 40% completion without a regret in mind.

It's a different mentality I feel with randomized loot then knowing where it is and collecting it. For me if I didn't own a figure I felt bad for not having access. But now even though I don't own all 40 characters I don't feel bad. I feel like I can go to a shop and pick up the ones that look cool and feel cool.

The stats might not matter as much because this game is 80% focused on racing, but you still want to collect it all I feel. Also I think they intended this game to carry on being interesting through multiplayer racing (like Mario Kart). At least on Xbox One there is nobody playing this game.

Nah,hat stats don't matter on the other games either. Before I'd run around with the quest top hats thinking it was the only way to compensate for difficulty but nope,replaying Giants on Nightmare now that I'm more animation-savvy, haven't had issues or needed a single one - and I reset everyone in my collection.
And that's the main thing, surely it feels bad at first that you won't see an area or whatever,but it's not worth quitting the series over. That'll be 2 minutes of playtime,and you probably won't come back in future runs because you got everything there already; feels more like a waste of money if you bought a character you don't like just to unlock pixels you don't need.

Actually randomized loot is good and bad, just like fixed locations for items are good bad. In reality there should've been a little of both.

Quote: TakeYourLemons

Actually randomized loot is good and bad, just like fixed locations for items are good bad. In reality there should've been a little of both.

Well, they could have at least had it so that the actual type of item (soul gem, hat, winged sapphire, etc.) but randomized which one it would be (such as, you know there is a soul gem, but which specific one it gives you is random)

I'm ok with randomized loot as long as it doesn't include Soul Gems, Winged Sapphires, Story Scrolls and Legendary Treasures.

I didn't thought they included those items as well in the randomized pool of possible loot, and I was extremely annoyed to find out that what I bought at the shop was the content I could have found exploring (consider I was at World 3/4 so I was left with nothing more than hats, mods and decorations for the Academy).

In the end it was my mistake, I understand it, but after 4 games of a certain collectable system I wouldn't have thought they would have changed it so radically in a single entry.

For me it's welcomed to stay in the series but the above listed items should remain fixed to specific locations, for exploration and replayability sake.

I enjoy the randomization with Soul Gems, Winged Sapphires, Story Scrolls and Legendary Treasures. At least, it's one of those moments where we deal with chaos instead of order.

I don't buy Skylanders to play a wannabe Diablo clone.

Skylanders seriously messed up this year. It's a fair game at best, compared to the previous years. Exploration was taken out in lieu of a cheap randomized chest gimmick. Adventure Packs sorely hurt the longevity of this game, and heck, maybe it's for the best, because they would have probably crammed a car down my throat on those levels too.

Elemental Gates are missing, which makes level diversity feel sorely lacking. Oh, and speaking of the lack of Elemental Gates, that basically rendered our Skylanders we've spent thousands on, useless. Trap Team was the starting point for giving the finger to those who've bought landers prior to that game, as they basically said "hey, buy Trap Masters or kiss our rears."

Then they take our Magic Items and turn them into useless garbage.

Just a huge mess this game was. I like how in Giants, Swap Force, and Trap Team, they tell us "your adventures with your Giants, Swap Force, and Trap Masters is just beginning." Yeah right. A year after each game and guess what? They're 15 dollar normal Skylanders that forego their proper functionality. Well, in Superchargers, there is no adventure, just car, car, car, with slight on foot battling.

Skylanders is feeling less and less like Skylanders every year they keep removing things that helped set Skylanders apart from other games.

You know you're misinterpreting Eon's dialogue right? RIGHT after each and every time he says that,you're put back in the hub and introduced to replay value. That's what he's talking about - no future games,it's that you can still play.

That's interesting. Swap Force was the only game that remotely had lengthy replay value after the story was over. Only thing we got in TT was a tower defense mode and in SC, car, car, car.

Giants and SA had nothing extra to do after the main game was over, unless you wanted to boost stats that wouldn't mean anything by time Giants released. Thank God I didn't do every HC with my initial 37 landers.

No matter what he meant, my point stands. A year after release, more expensive Skylanders become regularly priced Skylanders, among my other gripes listed above, which includes this game trying to be a Diablo clone with the whole randomization of chests.

SSA and Giants had the adventure packs,battle mode, collecting the things, that's what they meant. As a kids' game,they obviously don't expect people to finish with 100% at the final boss.

To 100% in Swap Force, you had to complete Story mode one time on any difficulty other than Nightmare. Then do the whole Story again on Nightmare. Then do the whole Story again in Score Mode. Then do the whole Story again in Time Attack. You think I'm gonna say this was great replay value? No, it was too long and repetitive so I did not bother doing it, the levels are too long. You also have a bunch of Accolades that require you to own all toys from previous games. Some of these toys like Boomer, Wham-Shell, Ghost Roaster and the Sidekicks were rare/expensive to get back when we were first faced with these requirements. Also, you need to load all 256 Swap Force combinations in the game for one Accolade, have fun Bonus Missions, Survival Arenas and Battle Arenas were great, nothing bad to say about them.

About randomized loot, I think it was refreshing and shook up the usual formula a bit. I think Soul Gems and Winged Sapphires should have had fixed locations. Soul Gems would be at the end of Supercharged Gate areas, and Winged Sapphire would be reward at the end of Sea and Sky objective areas (there would be 20 total, not 10). Hats, Legendary Treasures and Kaos Diaries are fine as random loot. Skystones should have been only awarded at random when you defeat Skystones player. After getting a Soul Gem or Winged Sapphire in a fixed location, it transforms in a random loot chest.

Winged Sapphires at the end of paywalls? No thanks >w> Supercharger gates are justified since the soul gems are all for Superchargers anyway, but the sapphires are pretty valuable on your first run if you want to make full use of your new purchases(which won't always be the gimmick, as it happens to me every time). I think they're better for the easy to miss far-off areas that a ton of levels had to showcase "exploration", like the impratical house under the start of Cloudbreather's Crag. If the point is to reward having a good eye but not just shower the player with goodies,it's perfect.

I think they should be earned after a challenge/objective, not easily found by only deviating a bit from the main path. In Swap Force, all Winged Sapphires beside one were found in Elemental Gates or Swap Zones. Also, the expansion levels had more Winged Sapphires than the Story levels.

They did? That's a bit odd, Elemental Gates are justified since,again, expanding your collection is usually the reason you'll want them,but I'm still against having them at the bigger paywalls. I was just trying to think of some existing area for them; if I was the one doing level design I'd make some harder puzzles(or out-the-box solution for some puzzles,like say continue redirecting a Crystal Beam into a second thing after you're done with the obvious one) or really good secret area challenges so you really fight for that discount.

Quote: Bifrost

You know you're misinterpreting Eon's dialogue right? RIGHT after each and every time he says that,you're put back in the hub and introduced to replay value. That's what he's talking about - no future games,it's that you can still play.

Oh, so THAT'S why he didn't say it this year....cause there was none.

My biggest concern was always having access to all gameplay areas in the levels more than having access to every item in the game. Though, that being said, I preferred the idea of soul gems being non-randomized, especially since it would let me hunt down a particular soul gem I wanted rather than hope for random chance.

Also I think the original idea of having basic elemental gates in every game was a good one. Once you bought a Skylander of every element, you'd be set for all future games. But then they went and ruined it in Trap Team and Superchargers, with the elemental gates now being restricted to Trap Masters and vehicles. I wish they would just go back to the original elemental gates.

Or better yet, they should expand on the concept of areas that can only be physically traversed by a given element: lava areas for Fire skylanders, oceans for Water skylanders, electrified power plant and factory areas for Tech skylanders, super windy areas for Air skylanders, plant-based areas with vines and trees that won't grow without a Life skylander, haunted areas for Undead skylanders, enchanted areas for Magic skylanders, areas with earthquakes and rockslides for Earth skylanders, pitch black areas that only become visible with a Light skylander, and super bright areas that only become visible with a Dark skylander. That would give us the benefits of elemental gates while also making it feel less like a paywall that you're just buying a key for.

Quote: Muffin Man

My biggest concern was always having access to all gameplay areas in the levels more than having access to every item in the game. Though, that being said, I preferred the idea of soul gems being non-randomized, especially since it would let me hunt down a particular soul gem I wanted rather than hope for random chance.

Also I think the original idea of having basic elemental gates in every game was a good one. Once you bought a Skylander of every element, you'd be set for all future games. But then they went and ruined it in Trap Team and Superchargers, with the elemental gates now being restricted to Trap Masters and vehicles. I wish they would just go back to the original elemental gates.

Or better yet, they should expand on the concept of areas that can only be physically traversed by a given element: lava areas for Fire skylanders, oceans for Water skylanders, electrified power plant and factory areas for Tech skylanders, super windy areas for Air skylanders, plant-based areas with vines and trees that won't grow without a Life skylander, haunted areas for Undead skylanders, enchanted areas for Magic skylanders, areas with earthquakes and rockslides for Earth skylanders, pitch black areas that only become visible with a Light skylander, and super bright areas that only become visible with a Dark skylander. That would give us the benefits of elemental gates while also making it feel less like a paywall that you're just buying a key for.

Absolutely agree.

As I said many times SA had some of those features along with Elemental Gates.
Fire Skylanders could walk across rivers of lava, there was a certain spot where only Life Skylanders could make vines grow and reach a far island, Earth characters could destroy Purple Tzo Crystals (maybe not all of them could) and I'm pretty sure there were a couple whirlwinds in Stormy Stronghold only Air Skylanders could use.

They absolutely need to improve and expand that concept and drop forced gimmicks alltogether.

Quote: newkill

To 100% in Swap Force, you had to complete Story mode one time on any difficulty other than Nightmare. Then do the whole Story again on Nightmare. Then do the whole Story again in Score Mode. Then do the whole Story again in Time Attack. You think I'm gonna say this was great replay value? No, it was too long and repetitive so I did not bother doing it, the levels are too long. You also have a bunch of Accolades that require you to own all toys from previous games. Some of these toys like Boomer, Wham-Shell, Ghost Roaster and the Sidekicks were rare/expensive to get back when we were first faced with these requirements. Also, you need to load all 256 Swap Force combinations in the game for one Accolade, have fun Bonus Missions, Survival Arenas and Battle Arenas were great, nothing bad to say about them.

I've been re-doing Swap Force to 100% this past December and it wasn't so bad, I'm 5 figures away. In fact it was better than I had remembered it. I was able to do loads of the achievement stuff on the cheap thanks to lots of discount sales to complete my SF collection. It was actually way more fun replaying the long levels a bunch of times than the super short Superchargers for me because it was a lot of work to get those rewards vs little effort put into SC.

SuperChargers was way too easy for me and I didn't have to work hard to max the game out. Of course you do have to buy every figure and vehicle in SC to properly 100% but the racing concept bored me so I didn't bother. Getting all the typical loot stuff was enough for me but I bought all that through the store and farmed early chests or the well for everything else and I didn't felt very rewarded like in prior games.

I'm definately into the series for exploration and reward and I love to be properly rewarded for amount of effort put into the game. SF was a bit too much for most people and SC too little, but I perfer my gaming on the SF side of things as I very rather devoted to the games I play and they are not disposable a month later.

I'm sorry to say, but if people don't own at least one character of every element, after 5 games, then those people are playing the wrong game.

There is no harm, or paywall that is outlandish, in TFB/VV keeping Elemental Gates in the game, with fixed rewards at the end of each gate. The game alone comes with characters in any given element. I think it's a lame excuse brought on by brand loyaltists who are defending the poor choices TFB made with TT's Elemental Gates and VV made with getting rid of Elemental Gates altogether.

To do so, alienates why we even collected all figures to begin with. Personally, if they keep making poor choices, this brand will die, while others thrive. It's bad enough we can't get set release dates for figures, as well as what figures we will be getting each year, and now they make our past collections a bunch of junk, while removing things that made Skylanders unique. Now it has become a lame random loot game clone, with built in racing/driving game.

But I won't subscribe to the theory that Elemental Gates are paywalls and if they are, it costs upwards of two dollars per used Skylander at Gamestop, where you can get 6 of any given element for around 12 bucks (or cheaper) if that years starter pack has 2 characters, or 5 for 10 if that years starter pack has 3 characters in it. That's just lame, because this game, if it follows the path SSA took, only requires a Skylander in each element to open all gates. That's cheap compared to other paywall games, and I shouldn't have to pay the price for supporting this game, by having what I (or others) like removed and my collection trashed, because they're trying to tailor to people who may or may not even care in the long run, compared to serious fans of the brand? If that's the case, and they want to bury their head in the sand, they might as well pack up now, say their plan failed, and get out of dodge and leave the TTL genre to people who don't break what isn't broke.

I wouldn't have bought Ignitor if I didn't like his gameplay and would've stayed without a Fire character until now(if Spitfire wasn't expensive). So please do not try to tell people how to play the darn game; some can't even afford 10 even if they love it.

Quote: GameMaster78

Now it has become a lame random loot game clone, with built in racing/driving game.

It's just one entry. Can't they try different things sometimes instead of doing the same formula?

Ok, this will probably be the last time I'm going to say what I'm about to say, but...

I'm happy SuperChargers has been created.

Not specifically because of it but because devs and Activision showed us they put dedication in what they do to the point they would even change the formula of the series just to keep it interesting.

Now, to me SuperChargers is more a fail than a success but simply by looking at it you can see they experimented as much as they could with it: gimmick is the focus and is a side feature instead of integrating classic gameplay , roster has been drastically reduced, old characters were re-imagined with all new movesets, the way the levels are separated has changed, lots of other aesthetic and toy-related things have changed or been removed, online, microtransactions, tons of variants and much more.

If all these experiments can help making a better and fantastic Skylanders 6, then I'm all for them.

It's funny how I always see V.V.'s games as fundamental iterations which help the series advance a lot but at the same time are full of problems when taken as single titles: in my eyes Trap Team is a better made version of SWAP Force (yeah, personal opinion, deal with it) and hopefully Skylanders 6 will be what SuperChargers should have always been but could have never become if it didn't came out the way it did.

Maybe I got lost in verbs so, long story short: V.V. games are the weakest to me, but they are important because they make the series progress in the form of TfB's better executed titles.
Absolutely opinable but this is what I think.

Quote: Drek95

Ok, this will probably be the last time I'm going to say what I'm about to say, but...

I'm happy SuperChargers has been created.

Not specifically because of it but because devs and Activision showed us they put dedication in what they do to the point they would even change the formula of the series just to keep it interesting.

Now, to me SuperChargers is more a fail than a success but simply by looking at it you can see they experimented as much as they could with it: gimmick is the focus and is a side feature instead of integrating classic gameplay , roster has been drastically reduced, old characters were re-imagined with all new movesets, the way the levels are separated has changed, lots of other aesthetic and toy-related things have changed or been removed, online, microtransactions, tons of variants and much more.

If all these experiments can help making a better and fantastic Skylanders 6, then I'm all for them.

It's funny how I always see V.V.'s games as fundamental iterations which help the series advance a lot but at the same time are full of problems when taken as single titles: in my eyes Trap Team is a better made version of SWAP Force (yeah, personal opinion, deal with it) and hopefully Skylanders 6 will be what SuperChargers should have always been but could have never become if it didn't came out the way it did.

Maybe I got lost in verbs so, long story short: V.V. games are the weakest to me, but they are important because they make the series progress in the form of TfB's better executed titles.
Absolutely opinable but this is what I think.

And I, good friend disagree fully.

VV's games are the strongest in my opinion, compared to TfB's already strong games.

Understandable.

What about the reasons why SuperChargers was made.
Do you agree with what I said?

I'm in the middle of the fence here. If TFB and VV stopped pushing features out like they're proving some point and sat down to go 'ok, this and that worked in TT, this and that didn't work; put the former on SC' and so on, people wouldn't be so split on the games. We should combine innovation and polish, not fight over which is better.

Quote: Drek95

Understandable.

What about the reasons why SuperChargers was made.
Do you agree with what I said?

To show that Acti is seemingly willing to change up the Skylanders formula?

Yes.

I can say this...the one and out "dump the gimmick" will kill fans of this series. I mean, it's super obvious to me. Why don't they see it? Please don't tell me some stat modifier for the trap is ok. By the same token, when the gimmick is so different from the traditional formula I know I wouldn't want them in the next game/.


That my friends is why the gimmick worked best when they were simply modified skylanders.

They advertised Elemental Zones as randomly generated,but I'm probably not the only one that expected nothing less than randomized tracks,not 'lol look this placement of the thing is random despite only having 3 places to begin with'.

I personally felt deflated by the randomized loot. I get the point that it's nice knowing you can get everything without buying a bunch of toys to open areas to get the items. But in my mind that is a design choice. They can still hide items in the game without requiring you to buy extra toys if they wanted, they just chose not to. I don't believe the loot needed to be randomized in order to avoid that concern...it was just something different they tried.

But again, for me this deflated a lot of interest and enthusiasm I had when I found items in Superchargers. I remember points in past games where you saw a soul gem and wondered how to get to it and when you did it felt rewarding. That's gone in Superchargers. I may be wrong, but my experience with Superchargers felt more like "Hey, didn't ace that level. I'm going back and doing it again. Wait...I got a new mod before and just got another new mod." Once that happened, I honestly felt like there was no real excitement anymore in finding the "loot". I guess the counterpoint would be random loot does feel good when you get something, but it really fell flat for me.

I really don't like the new randomized treasure chests in superchargers. Very annoying.

In a previous world where Skylanders wasn't toys to life and just a $40 budget kids game I could see Skylanders Kart Racing being a standalone game. But the whole success of toys-to-life has meant Activision has put all their ideas and "features" into one annual title. I mean the franchise and universe could easily have spawned several spin-off games. But they have decided to keep it 1 annual game.

But honestly I guess for me I don't just look at Skylanders as a singular game mechanic. I see it more as a whole bunch of fun things to do wrapped up in this cool Saturday morning cartoon world. And I do like the changes this year. And I also loved the traps mechanics from last year. And I loved the swap force mechanic from that year. Basically it's variety and man games like this need it BAD!

Look at the Lego games those games are so samey samey it literally lives or dies on the brand it's based on. There is no buying a lego game (including Dimensions) because of the awesome gameplay. The only exception I would say was Lego City Undercover.

Without this annual model and the expensive toys to go with it this series would be a cheap downloadable game with half the polish and content. But the big money it pulls allows them to hire top tier voice actors year after year. They are now doing an animated series and finally doing a card game proper.

Things are looking up and I genuinely look forward to what the next gimmick will be this year.