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Feb. 20th, 2015 06:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmxratedSome real-life stuff did happen yesterday, but in case I end up showing this to anyone, I've already mentioned in the discussion under what's now currently Pickup Gourmet (needs a better title still) that I need to re-think what I'm really thinking of as a whole, after encountering certain complications. So, for those of you who don't read any video-game-related stuff on this blog, this will all be behind a cut.
To begin with, that trope notwithstanding, I don't actually have an obsession with food per se. What this all started with, was my fascination particularly with the wide variety Earthbound and Mother 3 had to offer (and especially how "gimmicky" many foods in the latter game were). As I had mentioned months ago, this is exactly one thing I intend to uphold with Day of the Beehive (a planned Lucky Star RPG of mine, based on this fic of mine).
With that mentioned, several other things are also worth noting. First, is that while this whole thing is tropeworthy, Chelle told me during a PM exchange that this is just one form of game design variety as a whole, and the same could be applied to things like trees, weapons, loot, potions, etc.
(She has also suggested that I figure out an actual number for each food group, since "vast variety" can be perceived differently between people. Gonna have to make a list of some games that don't qualify for this trope before I decide on something.)
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Another thing, is that the way this trope is implemented varies between games. In RPGs, you carry them around with you (and text-only representations are common, too), while in many other games, you just eat them upon obtaining them. In the latter case, sometimes, they still restore some health, while other cases just have them award points. A fair number of games involve cooking; in the Paper Mario and Tales series, the end result usually serves to recover HP and/or FP/TP, while the purpose in a Harvest Moon game is to make a profit.
Where it's become confusing, is the possible inclusion of any food-themed puzzle games out there. Take what Candy Crush Saga does with all kinds of sweets, or what the old, obscure, and much simpler Hatris does with any manner of hats, replace it with food, and you'll have an idea of how puzzle games might just implement the trope (if it actually could apply to that genre).
This, in turn, leads to the possibility of the food as enemies (for instance, Panic Restaurant). That is something I explicitly stated does not count during the initial discussion, but at this point, I'm starting to reconsider.
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I've already stated that Level Ate (at least as one part of a given game) does not constitute whatever I really have on mind, nor is it enough for the game itself to be food-themed (even though such is bound to overlap with this). If I were to extend this to other media, one thing that would still not fall under this is the animated movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (not even the game adaptation, which I haven't actually seen but would assume isn't any different). During the last arc in particular, a lot of food either guard Flint's then-haywire machine or fall from the sky and crush things, some licorice is used as a rope, some roasted marshmallows are used as torches, and there are French fries that Flint and co. use as stepping stones across a pool of boiling oil.
Not what I have on mind, but even in works where it's much more consistent--for example, The Busy World of Richard Scarry (a cartoon), where food is how most vehicles are designed, or Aqua Teen Hunger Force (another cartoon), in which the characters themselves (at least the core cast; only superficially familiar with the show itself) are anthropomorphic food items--whatever I'm thinking of still isn't there.
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Yeah, you're probably thinking at this point, "What the hell ARE you thinking of, then!?" Even SolipSchism asked me that, and even I'm trying to figure that out for myself. Like I said, I don't normally have an obsession with food; this is something that started two years ago with the Earthbound trilogy, and then just the other day with Paper Mario.
So, let's take some quotes from this old entry, not about food, but about the kind of aesthetics I happen to like in general:
[W]hat fascinates me [about Candy Crush Saga] isn't so much the actual gameplay itself, but the variety of cute little items each game consists of. For example, from what I've seen on their respective ads, Farm Heroes features things like suns, raindrops, strawberries, turnips, and carrots, all in a uniform size, while Bubble Witch has things like snakes, batwings, frogs' eyes, skulls, and spiders all in uniform-sized bubbles.
Come to think of it, another good analogy here would involve certain games such as Jason Storm in Space Chase 3, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Banjo-Kazooie, which all have various little items in a tiny, uniform size, even if they're a different genre altogether.
If anything's ironic, it's that what I've just described is a visual aesthetic, even though Earthbound and certain other games I had listed on the page only represent any kind of baggage in text. Earthbound was the game that inspired me to create that page in the first place. (It's possible, though, that that game makes up for lack of item visuals by having a wide variety of not only food, but weapons, accessories, battle items, etc. Not all categorized in-game (except for equipment), but done so by the player's guide and in walkthroughs.)
(There might be other points that will come to mind later, but this should hopefully be enough for now.)
-----
Mom had a dentist appointment yesterday, and dropped me off at the South Country Library to look around in the meantime. Found season 1 of Little Busters on DVD, and also discovered this magazine series called Otaku USA (they somehow have the issue for this coming April, which is more than a whole month away). Learned from this past December's issue that Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, the show that season 1 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was made from, is actually set to make its way here, unbutchered this time.
Still have five episodes of The Legend of Korra left to watch, as well as those three Princess Tutu DVDs still sitting there for more than a week now and certain other things I keep neglecting to do. But, while I did manage to finish up the Starbound lemon (save for the opening events) and am still (actually) reading Dewey, Paper Mario has just been so damn addictive since I started playing it. Each time I clear one part of the game or complete a few certain side-tasks, I can't help but think about the next part of the game. Seeing how well I do in my third bout against The Master is part of what had been compelling me, though it does help that I actually had managed to beat him after clearing chapter 5.
To begin with, that trope notwithstanding, I don't actually have an obsession with food per se. What this all started with, was my fascination particularly with the wide variety Earthbound and Mother 3 had to offer (and especially how "gimmicky" many foods in the latter game were). As I had mentioned months ago, this is exactly one thing I intend to uphold with Day of the Beehive (a planned Lucky Star RPG of mine, based on this fic of mine).
With that mentioned, several other things are also worth noting. First, is that while this whole thing is tropeworthy, Chelle told me during a PM exchange that this is just one form of game design variety as a whole, and the same could be applied to things like trees, weapons, loot, potions, etc.
(She has also suggested that I figure out an actual number for each food group, since "vast variety" can be perceived differently between people. Gonna have to make a list of some games that don't qualify for this trope before I decide on something.)
-----
Another thing, is that the way this trope is implemented varies between games. In RPGs, you carry them around with you (and text-only representations are common, too), while in many other games, you just eat them upon obtaining them. In the latter case, sometimes, they still restore some health, while other cases just have them award points. A fair number of games involve cooking; in the Paper Mario and Tales series, the end result usually serves to recover HP and/or FP/TP, while the purpose in a Harvest Moon game is to make a profit.
Where it's become confusing, is the possible inclusion of any food-themed puzzle games out there. Take what Candy Crush Saga does with all kinds of sweets, or what the old, obscure, and much simpler Hatris does with any manner of hats, replace it with food, and you'll have an idea of how puzzle games might just implement the trope (if it actually could apply to that genre).
This, in turn, leads to the possibility of the food as enemies (for instance, Panic Restaurant). That is something I explicitly stated does not count during the initial discussion, but at this point, I'm starting to reconsider.
-----
I've already stated that Level Ate (at least as one part of a given game) does not constitute whatever I really have on mind, nor is it enough for the game itself to be food-themed (even though such is bound to overlap with this). If I were to extend this to other media, one thing that would still not fall under this is the animated movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (not even the game adaptation, which I haven't actually seen but would assume isn't any different). During the last arc in particular, a lot of food either guard Flint's then-haywire machine or fall from the sky and crush things, some licorice is used as a rope, some roasted marshmallows are used as torches, and there are French fries that Flint and co. use as stepping stones across a pool of boiling oil.
Not what I have on mind, but even in works where it's much more consistent--for example, The Busy World of Richard Scarry (a cartoon), where food is how most vehicles are designed, or Aqua Teen Hunger Force (another cartoon), in which the characters themselves (at least the core cast; only superficially familiar with the show itself) are anthropomorphic food items--whatever I'm thinking of still isn't there.
-----
Yeah, you're probably thinking at this point, "What the hell ARE you thinking of, then!?" Even SolipSchism asked me that, and even I'm trying to figure that out for myself. Like I said, I don't normally have an obsession with food; this is something that started two years ago with the Earthbound trilogy, and then just the other day with Paper Mario.
So, let's take some quotes from this old entry, not about food, but about the kind of aesthetics I happen to like in general:
[W]hat fascinates me [about Candy Crush Saga] isn't so much the actual gameplay itself, but the variety of cute little items each game consists of. For example, from what I've seen on their respective ads, Farm Heroes features things like suns, raindrops, strawberries, turnips, and carrots, all in a uniform size, while Bubble Witch has things like snakes, batwings, frogs' eyes, skulls, and spiders all in uniform-sized bubbles.
Come to think of it, another good analogy here would involve certain games such as Jason Storm in Space Chase 3, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Banjo-Kazooie, which all have various little items in a tiny, uniform size, even if they're a different genre altogether.
If anything's ironic, it's that what I've just described is a visual aesthetic, even though Earthbound and certain other games I had listed on the page only represent any kind of baggage in text. Earthbound was the game that inspired me to create that page in the first place. (It's possible, though, that that game makes up for lack of item visuals by having a wide variety of not only food, but weapons, accessories, battle items, etc. Not all categorized in-game (except for equipment), but done so by the player's guide and in walkthroughs.)
(There might be other points that will come to mind later, but this should hopefully be enough for now.)
-----
Mom had a dentist appointment yesterday, and dropped me off at the South Country Library to look around in the meantime. Found season 1 of Little Busters on DVD, and also discovered this magazine series called Otaku USA (they somehow have the issue for this coming April, which is more than a whole month away). Learned from this past December's issue that Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, the show that season 1 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was made from, is actually set to make its way here, unbutchered this time.
Still have five episodes of The Legend of Korra left to watch, as well as those three Princess Tutu DVDs still sitting there for more than a week now and certain other things I keep neglecting to do. But, while I did manage to finish up the Starbound lemon (save for the opening events) and am still (actually) reading Dewey, Paper Mario has just been so damn addictive since I started playing it. Each time I clear one part of the game or complete a few certain side-tasks, I can't help but think about the next part of the game. Seeing how well I do in my third bout against The Master is part of what had been compelling me, though it does help that I actually had managed to beat him after clearing chapter 5.