The_Liquid_Laser said:
No. I asked what was the last game with a big budget that takes risks and is well executed. Elder Scrolls games are trash. Rockstar games are decent but highly overrated. I'll withhold judgement on Witcher 3, because I haven't played an CD Project Red games. (It may be good, but I just haven't played it.) Those other 2 games, I know are not well executed according to my tastes. I mean, I made it pretty clear I'm just talking about my tastes. Also, you and I have very different definitions of what "taking risks" is. IMO, GTA 3 is the Rockstar game that took risks. All of their other open world games were refinements and/or mild variations on the formula. Skyrim is also a refinement on the Elder Scrolls formula. BotW was a reboot of the Zelda formula and not just a refinement. It took risks. I don't expect BotW2 to reboot the formula. I expect it to be some variation and/or refinement of BotW. Dark Souls 3 is also not a game that I would say took risks. It was a fun game that I enjoyed a lot, but it was also basically what I expected from a Dark Souls game. Elden Ring is From Software trying something way out of their personal comfort zone (and it is also not a clone of some other game). They are reinventing what a Souls game is. That is what I mean by "taking risks". |
Elders Scrolls games are great!
Regardless. This is a really strange definition of what taking risks is. I mean, if you have an RPG franchise that is turn-based and all they always have been is being turn based we can expect it will be very risky do then release an semi open world action-rpg rebooting the gameplay mechanics completely solely because they never worked with it in first place. However action-rpgs are so common and so popular that is quite hard to see any risky in this move at all, specially if the gameplay is nothing but a copy of other franchises, and yes I'm targeting FF XV with this one ;)
I'm not implying BOTW and Elden Ring aren't risky games, they are, but the reasons you stated are among the least important things that would made me think of that. Just rebooting and/or changing gameplay mechanics is, imo, quite irrelevant as you can "reboot" a mechanic to something that is done to death and is widely know to be successful and popular
For me a risky game is any game that (This list is not meant to be comprehensive, merely discursive):
1) Try to do what haven't being done before in therms of mechanics, story, design, etc, or at least was done but in a very niche space and/or a vastly different genre
2) Purposefully subverts common expectations and conventions expected in a specific genre or franchise
3) Repeat elements that were tried before but were met with lukewarm to negative reception
4) Have a very different set of controllers or technology used to play that aren't common know yet (like VR, motion controls, introducing a genre into 3D, introducing online multiplayer, etc)
5) Remove aspects that players are so used to (not only used to, but take for granted) have and somehow integrate this absence on the game new approach, design, concept, etc
In reality anything you can't predict how reception will be based on the past is a risky... well at least imo