fight! train! choose whether or not you're a jerk!

[_mike]

Trent Polack takes issue with Mass Effect 2"...whatever shallow or complex character I create in the dialogue/story bits of Mass Effect 2 is entirely irrelevant to the character I play as during the overly abundant shooty bits of Mass Effect 2. It’s not a matter of ludonarrative dissonance, it’s ludonarrative irrelevance

Comments

[yeloson]

Eh. I wonder what he would have to say about stuff like Persona 3, where the social choices determine how you power up your fighting monsters...

To be sure, there's plenty of times in ME I wish there were a few more options, and it's only a tad better than KOTOR in the melodramatic choices dept. but shrug -it's an action adventure game- you come for the action adventure.

(Mind you, if we want to talk about the crappiness of ME2's tactical balance... I'm all there. Nothing is set up to make flanking a really good choice, so all you do is hide behind cover and hit people with powers until they drop. Repeat the whole game.)

[_mike]

Yeah, Persona 3 is kind of a weird case. There's definitely feedback between the adventure system and the combat system, but it's oblique as hell--there's no logical reason that befriending the Old Couple should increase the power of Hokuto Seikun. Which...it's mysticism! It's not supposed to make sense that way; it operates on the level of symbols, etc. (i'm almost talking myself into it actually making sense again, dammit.)