I’ve been going through some older rpgs, and I’ve found that the tutorials are both entirely out of character and mind numbing. It’s hard not to envision myself taking my time back by violence. Anyone else do something similar or am I peculiar?
Never - but if the tutorial is too boring, I just give up, quit the game and never open it again. If the tutorial is that tedious, I won’t enjoy the game either, so it’s just a waste of time. There’s always more important stuff than some annoying game that won’t even let me play it
This is why I dont care for any games made by cd projekt red. Tutorial goes on for fucking hours. Jesus christ let me just play.
I never think about violence against the tutorial NPCs if the game doesn’t have me beating them, but I’ll gladly admit to being a full-time hater of games where the tutorial is either too long or too handholdy.
Games like Portal or Baba Is You? Perfect! Barely even feel any sort of tutorialization of any part of the game.
Games like Final Fantasy X? The tutorial goes on a little too long for me. Every few feet more enemies coming in and now we get to learn some new battle mrchanic. Or have some other dialogue slowing me down.
I think Fallout New Vegas does a real good job by allowing you to do as much as you want and just leave. The section at Doc Mitchell’s house is also quick enough I’m not gonna scream.
Hell, even BioShock can sometimes feel a little lengthy when you combine the intro sequences and tutorial, at least up until you get your first plasmid.
Considering that violence against npcs who have unskippable text or are veritably annoying is documented everywhere and seemingly laughed at by everyone,* I’d say you’re not the only one. I know I’ve done it. How many memes have been reposted about an npc feeling dread as they watch the player character quicksave?
Tutorial specific is rare for me. I can’t think of too many tutorials I get annoyed at.
*Just thinking off the top of my head: mods for children in skyrim, I know I saw videos about the subject in fable, there’s an anime right now (shangri-la frontier) that dedicates a big chunk of the first episode to a character being exultant for the five seconds an annoying npc can be attacked, the memes I mentioned, oh god, the amount of hate patches gets, etc.
Considering that violence against npcs who have unskippable text or are veritably annoying is documented everywhere and seemingly laughed at by everyone
I honestly avoid gaming communities like the plague, so I appreciate you delving into places where I will not tread.
A lot of older games assumed you’d never played a video game before so had quite extended tutorials. It’s a tough balance to get it right for complete novices and gnarled grognards alike.
Creating two tutorials and an option to skip the tutorial is a foolproof solution. Give the absolute basics to players, don’t tell them they can sprint while they can only just walk. Three sentences or less. Preferably less- show, don’t tell. Dump the succinctly phrased advanced information in menus, if you can’t figure out how to organically offer it. Maybe let players unlock the information, a la Tunic.
I realize this is a big ask for older games, but I’m constantly baffled that modern games can’t manage it. It feels like the result of feature creep
The tutorial of Monster Hunter World is the most obnoxious shit I’ve ever seen. Multiple full pages of text it expects you to read and absorb.
Save that shit for the wiki.
So many Japanese games love making you read pages of text. I was watching a Dunkey video on the new Pokemon and the tutorial was long and strict and lots of text.
“Hey you, you’re finally awake.”
Beat me to it. This unskippable sequence has stopped me replaying Skyrim at least twice.
There are multiple mods which redo the start, some even have totally different locations and challenges compared to the default.
Been to long since I played to remember what they are called but worth a look maybe.
Alternate Start is the one I always use. 5k hours and 4.9k probably with that mod.
Now that is a lot of Skyrim. I do have to ask is that 5k hours playing or like 3k hours getting all the mods to work properly? I found modding Skyrim and playing modded Skyrim were 2 slightly different games when I was exploring mods for it.
A good chunk of that is modding but I’d still say a majority is playing the game. I’ve got somewhere in the realm of 50-100 playthroughs of Skyrim, some of which are a few hundred hours. Almost all of them are modded.
The tutorial for Hollow Knight: Silksong was definitely super long. Took me about 50 hours to get 100%, and a lot more to master it, and I still struggled when I played the main game of Silksong. I didn’t mind the extra long tutorial though, it was extremely well made.
So portal 1 is about 75% tutorial but it’s done so well you don’t mind.
The long grind tutorials have definitely put me off games before though especially in some older games.
If the tutorial is just playing the game, I’m fine with it. If the tutorial is 261% lore relevant, I’m fine with it. If the tutorial is entertaining, I’m fine with it. (Portal/lisa/undertale) If one more old man micromanages my battle against a goddamn training dummy, I’m sending unkind emails.
What about games with no tutorials what so ever?
Depends on the style of game. If it’s simple or well established, I’d prefer to figure it out on my own. You steal my time and enjoyment by stating the obvious. Make them optional. Anything else, the shorter the better. Leave the details in menus.
That seems reasonable. Far cry Blood Dragon had a really entertaining tutorial. Very tongue in cheek funny and lots of sarcastic comments from the main character.
Sometimes, yes.
Or shooting them.
“Ow, stop that nonsense!”
