I feel bad because a couple people in a discord were joking about this but it got me thinking on like, how I think maybe control schemes in games being so normalized it kinda boring? Idk. It was brought up wrt Armored Core and Eternal Ring, and people were talking like it was just a From Soft thing to have the right analog stick do weird things that aren't the camera, but like! There's a whole ton of 3D games that did not use normal camera controls, and while some are clunky, I do think there's plenty that are perfectly fine to this day. I never really had want of analog camera controls in a lot of games. Hell, people joke about the Monster Hunter claw but even MonHun you generally only needed a left-right camera turn approach. And yes, to me, even old Armored Core games are fine because while the camera controls aren't what every other game does, I think the game is built around the controls it has. And that applies to a lot of other games with more digital camera controls (assigned usually to a left/right d-pad, or shoulder buttons).
I don't know, I like when controllers for games take advantage of doing functions that are built around the controller's shape I guess but you don't really feel that anymore because basically every modern controller is the same? I think I just dislike the expectation of normalized controls. I don't hate it necessarily but more, when I see criticisms of older games for having these simplified camera controls while focusing more buttons on other functions, or just simply having better automatic cameras without the need to manually control it all the time, it's a bit disheartening! Mainly because I am used to seeing people lament (rightfully so) how... samey and formulaic games have gotten especially in AAA spaces, and I would think that should also extend to peripherals and other console related design?
I guess I could also be being unfair. Maybe these controls do just feel bad to the person. But I guess that's where it's hard for me to understand since a lot of the time I didn't mind it? Of the ones mentioned my only real complaint is PS2 MonHun doing the attacks on the right stick! Otherwise though like, there's an entire console generation, fake as that terminology feels, that has 3D games that were designed perfectly fine around the controllers they were made for. Not all of them were great at it but the fact successes were there shows that you don't necessarily need every controller to be shaped like a dualshock with 2 analog sticks, 4 face buttons, etc. Not that it matters to complain about because that's what we have, but I do think it'd be neat if devs felt more incentive to try neat things with the controls.
Back on the original topic? I think From Soft has always been good at this especially in mecha games. Another Century's Episode and Gundam Unicorn, Armored Core, all feature lots of weird bizarre controls at a glance that feel natural when you are actually playing the games. It's why I also hate the stupid fake backwards controller meme with AC4 because that isn't actually a true thing lol. It was always a joke. But now people assume it isn't a joke and go in expecting to hate controls. Idk. Just a weird brain thing. But I like when controls can be experimental. From leaving manual control of the camera out of the players hands, to using interesting buttons like having a 'shift' key on the controller (as Gundam Unicorn does).
Ultimately my argument isn't like, that all games have bad controls nowadays, but more lamenting that even the idea of experimentation with controls seems like something people are against now I guess, which can feel weird to me with most people's malaise about Games at large.
