I've been playing the Paper Mario 2 remake lately. It's still as charming and funny as ever, lovingly riffing on JRPG tropes by way of a children's cartoon. Most of the changes have been relatively minor but appreciated, like updating the localization or excising some of the more infamous tedium. The underlying mechanics are all pretty much the same.
Paper Mario's battle system (let's put aside how western JRPG devs who have only played 10 games in their lives think it's the holy grail of turn-based battle systems, that is neither here nor there) is simple but engaging. Every attack has a brief mini-game attached where you need to press buttons with the right timing or the right order or rapidly enough et cetera to do full damage. When the enemies attack, you can reduce damage by pressing a button with the right timing, or completely negate damage with a separate, much tighter input.
Squeezing out another one or two points of damage is crucial because Paper Mario combat works on small numbers. You start the game with Mario's jump and hammer doing 1 and 2 damage, respectively. By the end of the game - without tweaks from badges - they'll be up to 3 and 5. An enemy hitting you for 10 damage is a serious threat. The hidden superboss at the bottom of the 100-battle gauntlet challenge has 200 hit points.
The aforementioned badges cost Badge Points to equip and give you access to passive buffs or special attacks that cost FP (read: magic points) to use. Think like an increase to your max HP, the ability to jump on spiked enemies without taking damage, or reducing your damage while increasing your defense. Maybe you'll put on the badge that gives your hammer a defense-piercing strike, or one that lets you jump on the entire enemy line in a row.
When you level up, you can choose whether Mario gains 5 max HP, 5 max FP, or 3 Badge Points. You can also pay hidden late-game NPC Chet Rippo to re-allocate your choices, and here's where I - armed with knowledge of the original - simply cannot stop my brain from Being This Way. I beelined straight to the Danger Mario build.
If you're a serial optimizer like me, you notice pretty quickly that there's little point in choosing anything but BP on level up. There are (rare, to be fair) HP Plus and FP Plus badges that increase your max by 5, and they cost 3 BP to wear; that's equivalent exchange, baby! ...Except you can re-allocate your badges at will. If you focus exclusively on BP, you'll have more than you know what to do with; it goes up to 99 and the rarest, most exclusive badges (that you probably don't even fucking need!) take a maximum of 7 points.
An easily farmable badge is Power Rush, your standard "do extra damage while at critical health" fare (the "critical health" threshold is 5 HP, since you start the game with 10). But remember, Paper Mario runs on small numbers. An extra two damage is like ordering a regular cheeseburger and getting a double-double. When a boss has 40 HP, Mario's basic jump going from 2+2=4 damage to 4+4=8 damage is... well. If my math checks out, that guy's dying in half the time, if you're willing to ride that HP line.
Power Rush costs a mere 1 BP. You can equip as many as you have.
I have seventeen.
As long as I'm at 5 HP or below, Mario gets +34 damage to every hit. I paid Chet Rippo and traded away health for more BP. My maximum HP is at 5, so Power Rush is always active. The basic Power Bounce badge, where you can jump on an enemy as many times as you can nail the shrinking timing window, is guaranteed death in at most two turns. And if something does manage to get a shot in, I'm loaded up with other badges that increase dodge chance at critical health, halve damage at critical health, increase defense, et cetera, as well as Life Shrooms that revive you with 10 HP if you hit 0.
The battle system, simple but engaging as it is, may as well no longer exist. I have optimized the fun out of the game.
Meanwhile...
I picked up a recent Humble Bundle that included Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise. I have never played a Monster Hunter game before.
I've played Rise for two or three hours and I have no fucking clue what optimal looks like. I feel like I'm fucking up constantly. I do not yet understand which buttons do what. How much damage is good damage? What weapon am I supposed to use?? Should I actively be trying to find these mushrooms or these brightbugs or whatever??? Which Palico specialization was I meant to pick???? It takes how long to defeat one large monster????? AHHHHHHH
The optimizer's curse is destroying me and I haven't even truly started. I've talked to some friends who play Monster Hunter and they often aren't even sure how to explain things because the series relies so heavily on institutional knowledge and muscle memory at this point. What is the fundamental difference between the Switch Axe and the Charge Blade? I don't know! How could I possibly know!
I feel adrift, and I... think I'm enjoying it...? I'm not even sure. I am sure that if I can zero in on the right ratio of optimal to simple, I'm likely to gravitate towards it. The curse at work. I can talk a big game about enjoying "friction" or whatever in games but I'm probably the first one in line to smooth out my own gameplay experience.
I've been rewatching Thunderbolt Fantasy with a newcomer recently, and at some point the comically serious edgelord Screaming Phoenix Killer says, "I've begun to think that the security an opponent's death brings might be a type of cowardice." Is it perhaps also a type of cowardice to always go for the most optimal strategy that makes the game as easy as possible? Does it matter if I'm still enjoying it? What if I'm not enjoying it properly?
I think ultimately a lot of these games are power fantasies; I assume that isn't a controversial opinion. And it's also nowhere near a new observation to note that games often encourage a pursuit of power to the point where you become the "master" of a space, invulnerable to its threats, forced to seek out a new zone and new thrills.
Perhaps it is in that seeking that the actual fun exists. I'm a serial optimizer, but I think just having that optimal build is less engaging than being able to see the build on the horizon and working towards it. The anticipation of intentionally making a plan and seeing that plan come together. Searching for that last little gear that'll make the whole damn clock start ticking.
The friction I'm experiencing with Monster Hunter right now is that I just don't understand enough of the systems to be able to make a plan. I've been handed a hammer and told to go hit some dinosaurs without quite knowing why. What can I make with these pelts? What weapon do I actually want to use against this owlbear lookin' motherfucker? How many antidotes do I actually need to pack?
I can't optimize the fun out of the game, not yet. But once I learn enough, maybe I can seize the opportunity.
