Loop Hero and the Pure Value Of Novelty
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- čas přidán 24. 06. 2024
- Loop Hero is already one of the best games of 2021, and I really felt the need to sit down and talk about why it is, and how it got so popular so quickly while being an entirely new IP from a new developer!
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Main Channel: / wanderbots
Patreon: / wanderbot
Twitter: wanderbots
Twitch: twitch.tv/wanderbot
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Wanderbot Prime is my side channel for highly edited, high effort, low output, tabletop, and VLOG content that doesn't really fit on my main LP channel. If you want to see more gaming content by me, go check my main channel out!
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00:00 - Opening
00:33 - Intro
02:02 - A Game No One Expected
03:10 - Why Is Loop Hero Special?
06:04 - The Pure Value Of Novelty
07:04 - Accessibility Is Key
09:04 - 10/10 Original Soundtrack
10:22 - The Future Of Loop Hero
12:26 - Closing Thoughts
14:20 - Credits Q&A
15:53 - ???
The faces oh my god the faces :D im so distracted from the video by how hilarious they are. Nice touch!
I enjoy the new animations, great work to whoever made it.
Chelle did the base sketches for the poses, and I did everything else!
Wander's drawings did a wonder to this video, it had set a great vibe and setting.
This was quite enjoyable!
There's no other words that are a better description
Man Loop Hero is so good. While you were focused on the bigger picture of why Loop Hero got so popular and didn't mention many of the specifics about the game, the originality of the soundtrack wasn't the only cool original thing they did. Spoilers ahead: I really loved some of the Lore in this game. While it was a minor aspect of the game as a whole, it really made the game stand out to me as something more than a good game. The two major bits that stand out, that I remember, are the awesome role of vampires which is unlike most other games and even media in general, as well as the details regarding the Lich himself. You have Vampire Lords that act as the guardians of people in nearby towns in exchange for blood which is a super cool twist on the traditional vampire. Also I like how in game you can see the effect of the vampire's influence on nearby villages, at first they turn the village into a ghoul filled ghost town on account of their hunger, but once sated the village becomes a full blown town that is much better off now that the vampires are protecting them. As for the Lich, I loved how they made him a wizard that slowly used magic to automate and enhance every part of his life until even the very act of living was done not by flesh and blood, but by glyph and ward to the point of becoming immortal and powerful enough to cause oblivion.
tldr: Lore real good in Loop Hero
You're getting better at this kind of content! These are so fun to watch!
Games that have Suprised Me is an interesting question as i am someone who rarely plays games on release, but there are 2 games that i will probably never forget.
The first was The Witness, I first played it in summer 2019 and still haven’t forgot about it, the simple concept of grid puzzles in The Witness made it easy to first start playing (It was the first 3D game my grandmother played) even for people who have never played a 3D game.
What shocked me about the Witness is how Uniqe some puzzles were able to get and how complicated later ones were and. loved that, i never felt like i was in a rush or had to hurry up becouse of an invisible timer. Now i have never 100% completed the game becouse „The Challenege“ takes The part of the game i like the Most away.
The game was also Stunningly Beautifull, and to qute my Grandma (rough translation) „I remember the days me and your mother were playing super mario and thought it looked beautiful but now i see what Video games have come too“
Too this day i use the Random the Witness puzzles on my phones Alarm screen becouse that is a thing that makes me fully wake up every day.
The 2nd Game that i Will never forget is Octopath Traveller, This was one of the few games i played on release to remain spoiler free.
I Loved the stories and the Job mechanic which is something i have never seen before.
Every of the 8 characters has a Uniqe store that in some way or another is connected to anothers story and i loved that.
I rememeber on a Flight to poland with my Grandma just sitting in my seat for hours just playing away. and i loved it.
I never wanted to open a Wiki becouse of the fear of spoiers so I took the time to find out the best tactics against every boss even though i might take me hours for the hardest ones.
I will never forget that gme as it shows that games can have stories fitting for everyone, maybe you like the Priestes Ophilia and the story of her and her sister, or maybe you are more interested in the Huntresses Hanits search for her master. you will most likely find a story that you love. which is what makes this game unforgettable.
(English isn‘t my first Language sorry for the Mistakes)
I hope some developers see this video, notice the Success of LoopHero and maybe try to go for riskier options and go for novel ideas. As always a very good essay.
I like the video. Found out about this channel from an offhand comment on your nova drift video. Tried searching for "video essay" lol. It's clear that you put a lot of thought into the philosophy of gaming, I think a lot of your viewers would like this channel if it was promoted more.
Ehrgeiz: Forsaken Dungeon was a game that completely blew me out of the water with how unique and novel it was despite being a PS1 game. Imagine a roguelike dungeon crawler mixed with an almost Tekken or Powerstone combat system, mixed with a hunger system that has a purpose; the foods you eat effect how good you are at certain things. Meat for protein and physical attacks, fruits and veggies for vitamins and spell power, minerals for health bonus, this game has the works. Even had two characters you could swap between and level up independently with their own unique style. That game was a massive inspiration to me as a kid and really effected my tastes in games.
Good essay! I think you did a great job of highlighting exactly why Loop Hero stands out.
Those faces, though. While they're admittedly hilarious, I think they distract too much from the rest of the video - in your previous video, where the expressions were conveyed purely through poses, that served the same point and is a bit more subtle.
Another tip: I think the cards introducing a new part could be a *little* bit longer?
And now I'll pack up my unprompted advice and leave, have a good day :p
I dont want to sound like a broken record, but that Fallen Legion revenants game I keep recommending was a huge surprise to me. It revived the relatively unique Valkyrie Profile or Indivisible combat, then did new stuff with it like adding a megaman battlenetwork style grid and real time elements to the combat. Then it added a telltale like decision system that mattered a lot in what levels you played, how hard bosses were, what characters and spells you found, or whether you discovered one of the dozens of bad ends or 4 plus good ones.
Wander, you sound too kind to fit the image of the angry Wanderbot xD Liked the video! Keep it up! It is noticeable that you enjoyed making this video and it makes it all the more fun to watch!
This may sound weird, but.. Civ 4: Colonization. It was the first real strategy game I got, and while I sucked at it and left it to lie for years, coming back (with mods and more sense of what to do) it ended up clarifying what kind of game I really wanted: a swords to plowshares simulator. And playing other games of the genre since it really highlighted how that hasn't quite been done yet.
See, what sets Colonization apart from the other Civ games is: your soldier units and your resource gathering units come from the same place. They're both citizens, they're interchangeable in the colonies (even if, with specialisations, you definitely want the doing their designated function). The game itself doesn't maintain this vibe into the later stages of a session, but you do kind of have to balance deploying, say, master weavers or expert fishermen as soldiers when a colony is threatened, or putting soldiers in the lumber mills or cutting down forests to rapidly expand a colony or produce more luxury goods faster. This then removes them from their other job. Something similar goes on in Thea: the Awakening, but that's more of a teambuilding thing than a civilisation-wide thing. Thea is pretty unique, too, very fun, if flawed in different ways. Well, maybe not flawed but somewhat unsatisfactory, at least to my tastes.
I've had some ideas on how one might deploy a true swords to plowshares simulator, but nothing concrete, since I could never settle on a win condition and a loss condition. A Loop Hero-like set-up might be part of the answer, though, solve some of the issues.
I love these videos. I know I need to pick up Loop Hero as my brother has played it and loves it.
I was completely unaware of Hades somehow and I'm really glad I got to step into it completely blind.
Thanks man! I love this style of thoughtful video essay from you, keep it up!
I randomly found a playthrough of Return of the Obra Dinn on CZcams in October when I was recovering from cubital tunnel syndrome, and I could barely put down my device. I watched six full hours of gameplay in absolute glee, and I haven’t been able to find anything like it since, though I have been searching quite a bit. (Funny enough, a recommendation to try Outer Worlds as a similarish game was what led me to find this channel!)
The soundtrack is absolutely top-notch, though it creeps me the hell out if I listen to it too late at night. The deep, complex logic puzzle is exactly the type of game that I love. The graphics are really unusual, but they work so well with the theme. Once I forget everything from the playthrough I watched, I intend to play it with a friend.
In summary, Return of the Obra Dinn was really surprisingly amazing and probably my favorite game. This was an awesome video, and I love watching the content on this channel. My compliments on the facial expression animations as well!
I loved that game, i kinda wish there was more like that
For me there are 2 games that got me surprised and those would be Valheim and Calamity mod for Terraria
So Valheim case is quite interesting - Suddenly one of my friends on discord would get on to voice chat we usually were at and ask if we wanted to play Valheim. And so tempted by low requirements (damn you my decade old computer) I got the game as well, and like that we started playing it. Lucky for me I first played it on my brothers computer so I could run it on max settings, and oh boi I fell in love. While the graphics for me were not that bad since I play mostly platformer type of games or ones with low requirements (once again curse you decade old computer) the gameplay felt so nice. The game was just peaceful and I loved it. The building in this game was so good to the point where together wit the bois we decided to postpone progressing just to get a better looking base, and we enjoyed it for some part, but then bad servers, our friend would get his progress on his port base deleted and so we decided to pick up the game later. I am still waiting.
Now if you had been playing modded terraria for some time then you probably know about the Calamity mod, currently largest mod for the game.
My story with it is simple. Back then I had around 500 hours on terraria (I dont remember exact number, I am already past 2000hr) So I had been playing terraria for quite some time, and nothing from the vanilla version would surprise me anymore so I decided to pick up tModLoader. It was so long ago when 1.4 wasn't even announced. I had already played through several mods (which were good but often gave either vanilla+ expierience or had too much bs) and decided to go into Calamity mod. Just like that my hours in Terraria would slowly grow, as did my love for the mod. It felt like a complete remake of the game with how they added new Revengance difficulty, or with just sheer amount of items. Suddenly, I found myself with tons of new mob drops, more unique bosses which didn't stand out in bad way like some modded bosses or blended in too well with ones already in vanilla version of Terraria. Sheer amounts of new items felt refreshing enough, as if I were playing another game, and finally the soundtrack. DMDokuro did wonders for this mod and I will never forget how I first entered a modded Sunken Sea biome and were welcomed by it's peacefulness. Now this biome had both the looks and the soundtrack to show you that it won't try to kill you like let's say jungle. And that wasn't my first time playing Calamity mod, just replaying it after the update, and even now I'd be happy to replay this mod as it is constantly updated, and the bosses are still a lot of fun to fight. Challenging but not enough to make you want quit the game (at least not end game bosses).
Hope to see more of this kinda of vid
I am loving these commentary discussion type videos. Keep it up please!
Great essay!
Cute animation too :p
Wander talking like a video game journalist sounds weird me but it's a nice change of pace
I followed your main channel essentially for this, I more so enjoyed hearing your opinions than I did the gameplay. I just found this channel today and I could not be happier, this channel is a dream come true for me, thank you for the effort you put into these videos, they are top notch
Great Vid. Hope to see more like this in the future.
Aww man. I just subscribed because I'm digging your commentary, unfortunately for me, it seems your vids helped me find a line of dead pixels on my brand new Alienware QD-OLED monitor... bittersweet but, not your vids fault. I like your commentary, it's refreshing and you've a knack for it.... I just wish Samsung had a similar knack with creating OLED panels which don't get dead pixels less than a month out from the buy date...
EDIT: .... Somehow it seems to have fixed itself??? Totally confused lol.
Totally agree with you about Loop Hero. I found myself tanking soooo much time into this game and completely couldn't nail down why. It was to the point that when my old rig died last year, I was left fiending for Loop Hero and Inscryption. Sure, both are on Nvidia GeforceNow, but, playing on a phone, even one as chonky as the Galaxy Note 10+ just isn't the same. I kinda am baffled as to why I didn't buy it for Switch, but, I finally got a new rig and can get back to both.
In recent memory, there´s really one game that came up from absolutely friggin' nowhere and, while it wasn't strictly revolutionary, it still caught my by complete surprise. Even though I supported them on kickstarter, I didn't expect *Dyson Sphere Program* to be as excellent as it ended up being. I basically spent 58 hours on it in a single sitting with sleep and food breaks when it came out >>
cortex command, due to modding support - it's got to be one of the most innovative and fun co-op games
Comment for the youtube algorithm!
I know Lobotomy Corporation has its own cult following, and probably isn't considered that surprising by most people, but I was not expecting the investment and interest I developed for the world it's based in and my excitement for the sequel despite being an entirely different genre. Etc.
Lovely vid, liked the character design and the talking point of novelty as well. I would definitely try out Everhood, but watch out bc spoilers. Feels like the type of game to play on your own time bc backseat spoilers. The gameplay is like a guitar hero fretboard but it’s you dodging attacks, themed after the opponent. All I will say beyond that is it’s worth your time.
moar essays pleas. they are awesome.
Hey Wander, in case you see this, another novel game that was really enjoyable was Inscryption
I got it day one and I really enjoy it. Its fun trying different stat builds and even though I'm KINDA getting burnt out with only having three characters to play as it's still fun....I will say that final chapter difficulty spike is kinda rough. I get what you're suppose to do though.
As for surprise hit games...I guess one that comes to mind for me is like...pokemon conquest? You wouldn't expect a game that seems so left field to be so...good deep and honestly surprisingly long it's a great overlooked game
Just discovered your channel through the Diablo II video, really liking the game-related content! You're a talented artist too so contrary to a lot of videos of this type, I actually watch instead of listen. Keep it up!
man it's the 2nd game i buyed on steam
Well Wonder u said u wanted to get into game reviews & u did with a smash. great vid, good review & I watched when u played & u explained it to a T. Can't wait to see what u make next
Hey Wanderbot i am running a homebrew campaign of my own and I was wondering if you had a written down pdf or document or just a system you used for the upgrade orbs that you used in your campaign grave of man. it would be very helpful Thank you!
i don't belive he does but for the most part they were just magic effect in orb form so you can make what ever you want with it
When's this game coming to the Switch is all I want to know?
Said it on discord already and I'll say it again. I love love love the new faces.
I played a game in my childhood called zoombinis and one of the songs in this game reminds me of it, now I cannot play without being reminded that pizza trolls are a thing. Apologies for sharing my curse.
Fleens? You're not fleens! Well, whatever you are, make me a pizza!
me gusta!
great video. I have a few critics though. you are reading a script and there is nothing is wrong with that but you can hear that you are reading off it. of course, I'm sure you know that since you make fun of yourself using the :v emote of the wanderbot, but here is why this is a problem for me I am not a native English speaker and a reading voice like the one on this video make"s it harder to understand and process the information even though I have no problem understanding you on the gaming channel(hell I even listen to you while I fall asleep sometime). For me, this is due to the fact that on here your speech patterns are a lot more predictable almost like on a rhythm as well as less "dynamic range" in your intonation. The message of this video is good as is the righting of the script but the form of it makes it hard to watch until the end. A great symphony is a mix of notes and rhythm.
hope this help. looking forward to hear your next piece.
I really don't like when Games explain every single detail there is. For example: I was somehow disappointed in Doom Eternal showing every weakness of every demon. I think it would've been way more interesting if the player had to find out where the weakpoint of a demon is