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Oddly enough, one game that hit me hard with the violence in it was Pikmin. Simple and cute, you can't help but learn to love and nurture your little underlings

Oddly enough, one game that hit me hard with the violence in it was Pikmin. Simple and cute, you can't help but learn to love and nurture your little underlings, but as the game progressed it became tougher to overcome challenges and before long you started having to plan on sacrificing percentages of your Pikmin just so you could achieve your goal. The first Pikmin death (with a beautifully haunting wail) hit me pretty hard. I never fully got comfortable with their sacrifices and felt every death fairly strongly. This is of course fairly different than something like your average game where death isn't permanent or particularly impactful, especially when killing nameless/faceless opponents.

vlunkr 12y ago
haha, I've never thought about it that way when I played it, but it does seem especially heartless since you have no choice but to let some of them die occasionally, after you raised them to help you.
Crito 12y ago
In Kerbal Space Program, I have launched rescue mission to save stranded Kerbals that took several hours of planning and flying. Anytime an engine breaks off a lander or a ship runs out of fuel, I feel compelled to send a robotic rescue mission to bring them back home (even though they won't die when merely stranded). I'm not sure what about the game creates that feeling, but I think the game is much better because of it. Some of my best moments in the game were during rescue missions (one time I had a lander on the Mun with no docking ports and only enough fuel for a short sub-orbital hop; I managed to rendezvous with the lander mid-hop, then EVA the kerbal into the rescue craft.)
emsy 12y ago
I was too young to "appreciate" the gruesomeness of Pikmin when I played it, but your post got me thinking if it was intentional. For anyone interested, I found an interview that covers the topic right at the beginning: http://www.gonintendo.com/s/208519-miyamoto-on-pikmin-3-and-death-ds-3ds-experiments-inspiration-and-a-4th-playable-character http://www.gonintendo.com/s/208519-miyamoto-on-pikmin-3-and-...

vlunkr 12y ago

haha, I've never thought about it that way when I played it, but it does seem especially heartless since you have no choice but to let some of them die occasionally, after you raised them to help you.

Crito 12y ago

In Kerbal Space Program, I have launched rescue mission to save stranded Kerbals that took several hours of planning and flying. Anytime an engine breaks off a lander or a ship runs out of fuel, I feel compelled to send a robotic rescue mission to bring them back home (even though they won't die when merely stranded). I'm not sure what about the game creates that feeling, but I think the game is much better because of it. Some of my best moments in the game were during rescue missions (one time I had a lander on the Mun with no docking ports and only enough fuel for a short sub-orbital hop; I managed to rendezvous with the lander mid-hop, then EVA the kerbal into the rescue craft.)

emsy 12y ago

I was too young to "appreciate" the gruesomeness of Pikmin when I played it, but your post got me thinking if it was intentional. For anyone interested, I found an interview that covers the topic right at the beginning: http://www.gonintendo.com/s/208519-miyamoto-on-pikmin-3-and-death-ds-3ds-experiments-inspiration-and-a-4th-playable-character http://www.gonintendo.com/s/208519-miyamoto-on-pikmin-3-and-...