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It seems like you can’t take two steps inside a videogaming without running into elemental weaknesses and resistances, elemental systemic mechanics, characters with elemental theming and even entire worlds split into elementally-themed chunks… but why? What makes the elements so special that makes them such a common theme that everyone seems to be able to interpret in the same way?
Well, The Architect, after taking a quick sojourn to ancient Greece, stopping by Azeroth and sauntering through the forgotten realms – all whilst trying to avoid Nickelodeon’s lawyers – has an answer. The elements aren’t just a cornerstone of culture, they’re an inherent part of our psychology too – and that means no matter how hard we try, we’ll never be entirely rid of them… but is that a good thing?
You saw:
Dark Souls 3 – 2016
Genshin Impact – 2020
From Dust – 2011
Dota 2 – 2013
Super Smash Bros Ultimate – 2018
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim – 2011
World of Warcraft – 2011
Baldur’s Gate 3 – 2023
Darkest Dungeon 2 – 2021
Battlerite – 2016
Persona 5 Royale – 2019
Pikmin 4 – 2023
Pokemon Soul Silver – 2009
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time – 1998
Mega Man 11 – 2018
Final Fantasy 7 Remake – 2020
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga – 2003
Heroes of the Storm – 2014
Borderlands 3 – 2019
Wizardry 2 – 1982
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – 2023
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – 2023
Team Fortress 2 – 2007
Overwatch – 2019
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition – 2020
Elden Ring – 2022
Another Crab’s Treasure – 2024
Hearthstone – 2014
Atomic Heart – 2023
Diablo 4 – 2023
Grim Dawn – 2016
Path of Exile – 2013
Resident Evil 2 Remake – 2019
Dark Souls – 2012
Destiny 2 – 2017
Doom Eternal – 2020
Don’t Starve – 2013
Passpartout 2 – 2023
Wizard of Legend – 2018
Fortnite – 2017
Opus Magnum – 2017
Potioncraft – 2021
The Legend of Korra Game – 2014
Spellbreak – 2020
Bioshock – 2007
Psychonauts 2 – 2021
Banjo Kazooie – 1997
Mario Kart 8 – 2014
Far Cry 2 – 2008
Final Fantasy 14 – 2010
Noita – 2019
Control – 2019
Max Payne 3 – 2012
DOOM – 2016
Hitman 3 – 2021
Slay the Spire – 2017
Magicka – 2011
Daikatana – 2000
Half Life 2 – 2004
Horizon Forbidden West – 2022
Super Mario Wonder – 2023
Terraria – 2011
XCOM 2 – 2016
Subnautica – 2014
Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom – 2024
Journey – 2012
Abzu – 2016
Nier Automata – 2017
Ori and the Will of the Wisps – 2020
Starcraft 2 – 2010
Alan Wake 2 – 2023
Rayman Legends – 2013
Half Life Alyx – 2020
Superliminal – 2019
ULTRAKILL – Early Access
En Garde – 2023
Halo Infinite – 2021
Halo: The Master Cheif Collection – 2014
DUSK – 2013
Into the Breach – 2018
Devil May Cry 3 – 2005
MTG:A – 2018
Honkai Star Rail – 2023
Pokemon Scarlet – 2022
Pokemon Ultra Moon – 2017
Pokemon White 2 – 2012
Fire Emblem Engage – 2023
Final Fantasy 10 – 2001
Palworld – Early Access
Teardown – 2022
Dishonored 2 – 2016
Super Mario Sunshine – 2002
Yoku’s Island Express – 2018
Celeste – 2018
Mario Maker 2 – 2019
Donkey Kong Country 2 – 1995
Sonic Generations – 2011
Xenoblade 3 – 2022
Unicorn Overlord – 2024
Super Mario 64 – 1996
Crash Bandicoot – 1996
Spelunky – 2008
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater – 2004
Shadows over Loathing – 2022
Nexomon Extinction – 2020
Coromon – 2022
Temtem – 2020
Shovel Knight – 2014
Cassette Beasts – 2023
Amnesia: The Dark Descent – 2010
Rain World – 2017
OFF – 2008
Cultist Simulator – 2018
Book of Hours – 2023
Spore – 2008
Minecraft – 2009
Dragon Quest 9 – 2009
The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap – 2004
Reventure – 2019
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – 2019
Divinity Orginal Sin 2 – 2017
Kirby and the Forgotten Land – 2022
Lords of the Fallen – 2023
source
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Twitter, Tiktok, Reddit, Discord, long ago, the four elements lived together in harmony, but everything changed when the twitter people attacked!: https://twitter.com/Thefearalcarrot
hihi I put the elements in my game because I wanted to give each character different abilities
Elements are made of ideas, and we have far more room for creativity with them then we allow ourselves to explore. The trick to being novel with them is to take any concept of realism and completely destroy it.
And I will show you all how.
BWAHAHAHAHA!
…Eventually.
battleborn also had a fire elemental healer (ambra) 🙂
miyazaki has confirmed that there is a poison swamp in the elden ring dlc. he said it was a point of reflection for him and he hopes the players feel the same way.
It seems like there's a tricky(in the sense of easy to fall foul of) distinction between successfully bending or working outside a given paradigm and remaining more or less entirely in its shadow but making some cosmetic changes that only confuse people(as is very common with some of the would-be Pokemon contenders that are doing basically the same type system, but with the names filed off, so it's just confusing rather than innovative).
You see it perhaps most sharply at the divide between really masterfully crafted fantasy and fantasy that is aware that just cribbing Tolkien is uncreative; but doesn't know how to avoid that.
The really good stuff can introduce its own absolutely wild vocabulary and rules of behavior and we're motivated to puzzle it out because we're getting a glimpse into a truly strange world. The less effective implementations have a fancy made-up name for each and every genre convention; but you can just feel yourself building a lookup table in your head for how each mysterious name maps more or less one-to-one to a well trodden concept.
Lightning attacks having lots of knockback, knockdown, or stun would make lots of sense right? But I almost never see that implemented in games. Guess not that many game developers ever experienced electrocution.
I'm really happy you mentioned Book of Hours because I was going to come down here and mention it anyway. You may need a notebook/word doc to play the game to its fullest, but the game is fantastic! Check it out.
nightmare reaper generally has a basic elemental damage system, but shortly after unlocking the upgraded grappling hook it introduces a bunch of enemies with electric attacks and it's around this time you learn that getting electrocuted temporarily disables your grappling hook
One time in college, my roommate and I were talking about the "four elements" and he pointed out that they aren't so crazy and are a decent representations of the phases of matter: earth = solid, water = liquid, air = gas, fire = plasma. That has always stuck with me, and has made interested in designing an elemental system for a game rooted more in the physics of each element. Earth practitioners excel at increasing covalent bond strengths between molecules, whereas fire practitioners can ionize and direct jets of plasma. This could lead to interesting extensions, such as lightning being a master level of fire, more precisely controlled and less wasteful.
Some day I'll work on this… some day…
The use of great effect twice in theee seconds upset my head to great effect
horse element beats arrow element
arrow element beats spear element
spear element beats horse element
They are lazy as well.
Fire can make metal or stone enemies take more damage.
Ice can make mechanical enemies or frendlies attack faster or harder. Or slip.
Lightning can make enemies gradually gather dust, causing damage and slowdown, until a melee attack, where the other party is zapped.
It is easy to add novelty into this 'paradigm' if you try.
It says something about me that I saw the thumbnail and thought, "TOO SOON!"
Probably that I'm as old as the ancients to bring up a reference that old.
I know this doesn't matter at all but the Chinese words in the intro are using a Japanese font for most of the characters
Something that would be a lot of work but would be cool is a soulslike or beat em up with the main character being a scientist. For magic or elements you'd have the entire periodic table, but to unlock them you'd have to either guess the atomic weight of the element, or fight a boss themed around that element, with heavier and lighter atomic weighted elements working as weaknesses to and strengths to other elements. But you couldnt go too low because then they would become unstable and explode where you hit them, hurting you in the process. Just an idea
what you call paradigms are usually called Tropes 😉
Burnout is such an insidious thing to go through. Please take good care of yourself, my friend 🙏
Big respect for your Patreons for supporting you through it, truly worthy of their shoutout!
Having suffered from a loooong depression and burn-out, it is my duty to cheer everyone I see going through this, however parasocial it might be, so take care of yourself, I hope it's going to keep getting better, and it doesn't last forever.
8:50 I wish you touched more on the idea that video games didn't invent these associations – they run deeper than even the elements. Grasslands are safe places because you can see predators coming. Dark woods are dangerous because you can't. Most animals know this instinctively, and we're no exception. Our sense of primal danger is not based on the media we experience, though it can be reinforced by them.
Swamps have been full of stench, poisonous plants and biting insects since long before humans existed, let alone video games.
Dragons exist in the cultural psyche precisely because they're scary. They combine things we instinctually fear — big teeth, big claws, giant bat wings, fire. We didn't learn that from video game conventions.
This is also true of the elements, to a degree (though I haven't finished the video yet and you might touch on this): while you said they're "scientifically nonsense", they're actually a reasonable proxy for the phases of matter (solid=earth, gas=air, liquid=water, fire=….fire). And these abstractions are not just an outdated paradigm, we STILL experience the world this way. We don't pour glasses of Dihydrogen Monoxide, even though that is a more precise elemental paradigm than "water". We don't burn ourselves on exothermic oxidation reactions.
A series that does a stellar job at putting a twist on a classic system is the Like a Dragon RPGs! Having "homeless guy" and "cabbie driver" as RPG jobs is genius, you have to actually use each job for a while to notice "oh, so this is supposed to be a mage" lol
Thanks for the vid
Fair play to Infamous Second Son for mixing the elements up: smoke, video, neon, concrete. I appreciate that
25 min video to say " Fire hot"
Cause it's rather intuitive to use elements we all know worldwide, regardless of language.
Other have use the Phoenix as a healer on top of damage
3:45
>The elements are scientifically-speaking… nonsense
Hey, save that crap for the Chinese elements. The western ones are literally just the four main states of matter. (score one for alchemy)
wait, starting with fire was a Brennan Mulligan DMing on Critical Role's Exandria Unlimited "Calamity" reference?
Am I the only one that thinks we should get a collection going for Adam's bail money after he floods Miyazaki's house with crap? Man is doing the Lord's work. lol
I was off work for the day once and was standing surrounding waiting for my ride when I got to thinking about these same elements. I had an epiphany.
Earth = Solids
Water = Liquids
Air/Wind = Gases
Fire = Plasma
The four basic elements are the four states of matter.