18
votes
What randomizers have you tried and what interesting runs have you had?
Hopefully the title says it all, I decided to make this generic because I think all game randomization is cool.
To be specific, this is not about games which have random elements, this is about games which have been modded to introduce some form of randomization.
The Pokemon games are reasonably famous for having fun randomizers.
I posted this because I recently started a Dark Souls 3 randomized run and got given a heap of really nice sorceries and miracles right at the start of the game. Luckily also a catalyst too. It was like it was begging me to be a mage, even though it's apparently hard as hell.
I love randomizers, and do pretty regular Archipelago multiworld runs with friends. Once during a Pokémon Blue run, I ran out of every single check available... Except for one! It was the item by the entrance to Route 9, the one next to Cerulean that's blocked by a tree. I didn't have Cut. So... I had to go from Saffron through Rock Tunnel backwards (blind) and get it, then head back. That builds character, I tells ya!
Mow that's cool! I saw archipelago in my travels recently and I won't lie, I didn't really fully understand the idea. It's more than just a randomizer right? It's like some kind of shared online ramdon instance you can run? How does that work can you maybe explain?
Basically, you and your friends can run multiple different randomized games at the same time. Whenever you pick up an item, it may give you an item you personally need - but it can also give your friends an item they need instead. So sometimes when your friends are stuck in their game, it's up to you to progress more in your game so that they get the key items (from you) that they need to progress in their game.
It's pretty cool and really facilitates proper communication. For instance, your game may have a shopkeeper that sells some items that belong in another game, and so you'd ask the friend running that game whether they need any of those items.
This whole system is even softlock-proof, so you generally can't end up in a situation where you are missing a key item necessary to reach a friend's key item, while they need that key item to reach your key item, and when you beat your game, it automatically sends all your friends' items that you missed to their respective games.
Oh man that sounds pretty cool! What a fun idea. I wonder if I could get some freinds together to try it out. It seems like a great way to bring together a bunch of single player games into a more interesting experience for multiple people too.
The thing I really like about it is that you can play any of the supported games with your friends, even if your friends aren't well-versed in your game. In fact, your friends don't need to care about your game at all, or even own it. It really fixes the only too common problem of "I want to play something with my friends, but my friends don't enjoy any of the games I do".
Wait what, hold on. Are you saying you can play any game on the supported list and somehow the archipelago server works out some way to juggle the randomization between different games?
If so that is utterly insane, I don't even understand how that works. If I pick up a key item X in my game which is for another game entirely, is it renamed or something? Or is it just like a normal item in your game is given some special flag which grants the other player the key item in their game?
I'm very confused now! Maybe I misunderstood.
I haven't played one myself but going by the FAQ it shuffles all items between all games. So one person playing Pokémon could pick up the hookshot in one location that usually has a TM. Once they do that the other person playing Zelda now has it (through both games communicating with a server), and they can open a chest which has the Cut HM that first person needs in their game.
Looking at the surprisingly long list of games I'm tempted to do something silly like Civilization VI and A Link to the Past so I can research a heart piece and find the Economics technology after defeating a boss.
That's completely wild. I wonder if it changes the ingame text too, because that would be properly cool.
They do - some will just note "picked up Archipelago item" and some will specifically say what they are, like in an Ocarina of Time will note the item so you can tell if you want to buy it.
Some also let you randomize music, some randomize spoken voice lines (Sonic Adventure 2), and some let you randomize literally every text box in the game (OoT, which leads to some incredible Ganondorf lines). LttP lets you randomize color palettes, which can get, uh, unplayable if you really let the thing go wild.
Not just the text, Archipelago can even insert the sprite for the item from another game into your game. To my knowledge this only works in some games though (mainly retro games that support arbitrary code injection, think the kind of shenanigans TASBot gets up to in GDQ segments; or games that are very easy to mod), but it's still pretty trippy to see a Zelda bomb show up in your Minecraft, for instance.
It's extremely fun as long as you're okay stumbling enough to rewire your head a little to find the nuance in dealing with the items out of place. As long as you like the game it comes pretty naturally after a while. Archipelago also lets you buy coins for hints on specific items, and most games have a tracker that acts as both an active map and checklist pointing out which checks are available with your inventory. The other nice thing is that it's asynchronous - you don't really need to be playing at the exact same time. If someone has a little trouble or learning, that's OK too - the more experienced people can pick up some of the load.
Shit, I'll go make a thread to gather some interest.
Depending on the amount of attention I need to give it I could be interested! Sounds like fun.
I did ALTTPR once, it was alright I guess.
I've always wanted to do a Link to the Past - Super Metroid run. Apparently the games are so that one can lead into another and unlocks would hold across both games.
Link (& Samus)
Don't let your dreams be dreams! Give it a go and report back what you think!