(Aug 9, 2023 at 6:32 AM)Fun With Despair Wrote: dk64 with the anytime kong swap mod is decent though going for 100% in that is still an invitation to neck yourself
The thing that every person who plays DK64 in modern times misses is that
the game was not primarily made with the intent of you 101%ing it. THIS IS A MODERN INVENTION.
super mario 64 was not made with the intent of the average player getting 120 stars, either. the ENTIRE GAME is based around the idea of a 70 star run stuff like the 100 coin stars are there in case a player were to really enjoy a world so much they actually went and got all of them. very few players were ever meant to see yoshi at the top of the castle, that's something you do if you ENJOYED going out of your way and doing everything. DK64 is the same shit and no one who played it well after it came out notices because OH MY GOD HOW AM I MEANT TO GET ALL THESE COLLECTIBLES
YOU FUCKING DON'T
these games are made with the intention of you having so much content to go through that it's down to player choice on what you do to beat the game. that is the actual game design goal of a properly made ""collectathon"" 3d platformer. they are fun precisely because they offer choice to the player, not the tedium of painstakingly collecting everything to satisfy some completely unnecessary urge.
you do not have to come even CLOSE to 101%ing DK64 to beat it. there is an ENORMOUS amount of leeway in what exactly you do to clear each world and beat the final boss. if anything, i would say the biggest game design mistake is the two completely random retro coins you have to get to fight the final boss as they have nothing to do with the rest of the game. the game has an insane amount of content in it, you're meant to pick and choose at your fancy what interests you and clear worlds that way.
snides hq and all the blueprint stuff is completely optional for the most part, too. there's so many because you do definitely want to have longer to do the final level but you don't need THAT fucking long. again, there's a lot of leeway specifically so you can pick and choose how you go about doing shit. if one of the blueprint guards is inconvenient for you to kill then, just, don't kill him. it's totally fine. you're not breaking any laws of gaming or some shit.
"but draku the game has a 101% ending! it was clearly intended!" AS AN EXTRA
IF YOU REALLY REALLY liked the game SO MUCH and thus DID NOT FIND IT TEDIOUS to do everything, you are rewarded for it in a cheeky way. they know your ass went above and beyond, so 101%.
"but draku there are so many bananas in inconvenient areas and i NEED to get all of them!"
wrong again fucker, EVEN FOR THE GAME'S 101% COUNTER they always intended for there to be a large amount of leeway on that end, hence why they're all over the god damned place. you only need 3/4ths of a stage's total banana count to get all 40 banana medals if you really, really must. and how many of those 40 do you need to beat the game normally?
15.
FUCKING FIFTEEN.
LESS THAN HALF.
and guess what? five of them aren't even tied to banana collection and are just part of hideout helm!
and hell it's only to unlock jetpac for the gayass rare coin anyways. so you don't need them with any urgency, you just slowly get those 10 over the course of the entire game and you're fine. chances are you will get most of those without even really intending to. otherwise the huge surplus of bananas is just to unlock boss doors which don't need anywhere near all of the bananas in a given level to get through.
speaking of half, there are 201 golden bananas with 1 being a secret extra that has no holding on completion.
you need 100 to beat the game.
banana fairies? optional! they just give you little bonuses! the 1 banana from them literally can not be the deciding factor to open the way to hideout helm anyhow.
just pick the shit you want to do. frustrated by a part of the game or don't want to stick your nose into EVERY corner? then don't! you were straight up never really meant to!