/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.8868035]

What makes a game soulful?

[Anonymous No.8868039]

Its existence. The separation between the spiritual and the physical is entirely illusory

[Anonymous No.8868046]

>>8868035
love and passion

[Anonymous No.8868059]

The influence of Sega.

[Anonymous No.8868062]

>>8868035
When the people behind it are passionate and make the best effort the possibly can. That's why even technically poor games can be soulful. It has nothing to do with actual skill although actual skill is a large bonus.

[Anonymous No.8868070]

You played it as a child.

"Soulful" is any game from more than 10 years ago. "Soulless" is any game from less than 10 years ago. A "soulless" game can become "soulful" simply by becoming older.

[Anonymous No.8868074]

>>8868070
What a miserable outlook on life. I've played some very soulful games that were released in the last few years.

[Anonymous No.8868082]

>>8868059
Sega used to have a visual style they used to do that I just cannot nail in describing it but when you see the games you know its likely on a Saturn or Dreamcast. Talking the 3D games here of course.

[Anonymous No.8868086]

Soul is a dumb nebulous term that changes definition depending on who you ask.

All in all, maybe just use your words.

[Anonymous No.8868087]

>>8868035
It's a meme used by people to push old good and new bad 95% of the time

[Anonymous No.8868093]

>>8868059
>>8868082
Also the Genesis soundchip producing a unique sound and music for the console you wouldn't ever get anywhere else.

[Anonymous No.8868096]

>>8868070
Replaying a game you played as a kid and recognizing it for the piece of shit that it is must be forbidden magic by /vr/ standards...

[Anonymous No.8868098]

Developers paying attention to details. Whether is in graphics, design choices, dialogues, sound or anything else that makes you notice that people behind the game were passionate.
Those games that even years after the original release, you still see people finding new secrets or small details

[Anonymous No.8868104]

>>8868035
A youtube telling you it is?

[Anonymous No.8868112]

>>8868035
i think it has something to do with spontaneity? rich colors and high contrast seems to help too. its really hard to articulate. even more odd with how those ai image generators are so capable of producing the same kind of effect, so its not some /pol/ shit about literal souls. there definitely is something to it but i feel like "sovl" is ultimately a really inarticulate way of referring to it.

[Anonymous No.8868179]

Soul is not something that can be quantified.
But my best attempt at doing so is "a game with a lot of memorable stuff in it".

[Anonymous No.8868202]

>>8868074

It's how /v/ and /vr/ use the term, even if they lie to themselves and say it's about how much "passion" the developers put into the game.

Give it 5 years and you'll see a screenshot of Nuketown captioned "SOVL" on /v/.

[Anonymous No.8868216]

Cute/cool and fun. It is actually pretty simple.

[Anonymous No.8868224]

>>8868216
Case in point. The Witcher 3 and Ape Escape 3. One of these is cute, cool, and fun. It also has soul. The other is not cute, not cool, and not that fun. It is soulless.

[Anonymous No.8868283]

>>8868035
soul = devs made it for themselves, to satisfy their own desires and standards
heart = devs made it to spread joy to others, they had something they believed in and wanted to share it
soulless = devs did what they were paid to do but weren't personally invested in it
heartless = game was designed by commitee to appeal to a demographic based on market trends

[Anonymous No.8868291]

Ostensibly, soul is love and passion put into a game. On 4chan, though, soul just seems to mean "the first version of a game I had".

[Anonymous No.8868294]

>>8868059
Soulless as fuck dude. Sega lost its soul when it entered the 2000s.

[Anonymous No.8868303]

>>8868283
Can you give examples of
>soul but heartless
>heart but soulless

[Anonymous No.8868324]

>>8868070
>>8868087
/thread

[Anonymous No.8868352]

I think technology makes things less soulful. The further it progresses for development, the more soulless the products are.

[Anonymous No.8868552]

>>8868303
I think Heart but Soulless might be Crash Bandicoot 3.

[Anonymous No.8868593]

>>8868352
I feel like 90/2000s era has more soul than the Atari days. Or maybe that's just my nostalgia.

[Anonymous No.8868598]

>>8868035
plot
no overhyped marketing
minimal gameplay
challenging gameplay
nice artwork

[Anonymous No.8868601]

>>8868352
Not exactly. 64 was more soulful than SNES which was more soulful than NES. The soul just dropped when the 2000s arrived and we've been recovering ever since.

[Anonymous No.8868862]

>>8868035
passion and creativity that goes beyond just making a product for profit, something that becomes more and more rare each passing year
>>8868070
absolute retard take, either that or envious zoomer that missed out

[Anonymous No.8869030]

>>8868070
>"Soulful" is any game from more than 10 years ago.
Sonic 06 is soulless
>"Soulless" is any game from less than 10 years ago.
Rain World is soulful

[Anonymous No.8869039]

>>8869030
Rain world sucks though. Is that soulful? Bad?

[Anonymous No.8869069]

>>8869039
Get some taste and don't come back until do you

[Anonymous No.8869071]

>>8868035

[Anonymous No.8869119]

>>8868059
>>8868082
It's the blue sky

[Anonymous No.8869124]

>>8868035
Not talking like a retard.

[Anonymous No.8869130]

Redditor containment thread.

[Anonymous No.8869250]

>>8868093
>you wouldn't ever get anywhere else.
literally the most standard sound chip for arcades and jap computers

[Anonymous No.8869252]

>>8869250
Shit so that's the reason old Japanese computer games have a similar sound? I never knew about that

[Anonymous No.8869272]

>>8869252
DOS also had something similar before switching to MIDI
https://youtu.be/AUWdIuyVyvs

[Anonymous No.8869284]

>>8868059
Not enough blue

Let's add some more

[Anonymous No.8869306]

>>8869284
I think this is how I saw the world for the first 8 years of my life or so

[Anonymous No.8869317]

color makes soul

[Anonymous No.8869321]

Good gameplay.
>Verification not required.

[Anonymous No.8869356]

>>8869321
Pretty much, audiovisuals are a nice extra too that give gameplay some weight. Text heavy games are for failed game designers

[Anonymous No.8869376]

>>8869356
>some
I actually think that gameplay is like 60% important and the rest are visuals and music. Story/plot isn't important at all unless it's an RPG

[Anonymous No.8869383]

>>8868070
>"Soulful" is any game from more than 10 years ago.
Because they actually contained soul
>"Soulless" is any game from less than 10 years ago.
Because they're actually soulless

[Anonymous No.8869394]

>>8868059
every image is sunny and has blue sky, looks happy

[Anonymous No.8869396]

>>8869376
There are soulful games with no music and limited visuals, nothing beats good gameplay when appreciating a game imo

[Anonymous No.8869401]

>>8869383
>old good new bad!!
only applies to AAA

[Anonymous No.8869484]

>>8868059
So... basically providing visuals that rip off the Outrun arcades games?

[Anonymous No.8869591]

>>8868070
Shit take desu. It just sounds like nostalgia and childhood longing

[Anonymous No.8869625]

>>8869591
Ya just defined it brah, well done.

[Anonymous No.8869661]

Another thing to add onto these ideas is that sometimes on a project the dev team can be connected on a near psychic level, essentially working as a singular entity. A worker gains a highly calibrated sense of the others. The artwork sits in perfect balance with the music, the game play, level design that any one of these elements slightly changed or altered has an uncanny effect.

Yoshi's Island had a perfectly realised experience in which all elements of the game worked in harmony with each other where it essentially feels like a single unified vision realised rather than many workers put together.

It's just like how all the great albums, great novels, great pieces of any art seem to have an extra oomph that boosts it above the other, crappier art of that time. It was the right time, place, atmosphere, a moment captured where everything really came together.

[Anonymous No.8870395]

>>8868070
I know you're shitting on the idea of soul, but is a compilation release that's a bunch of ROMs with a menu "soul" if it's something you played as a child?

also
>was a child 10 years ago
makes sense

[Anonymous No.8870442]

>>8870395
It can be soul as fuck. Corny example I know but Sonic Mega Collection Plus is amazing

[Anonymous No.8870467]

Games don't have soul, (You) give soul to the games you play

[Anonymous No.8871605]

>>8869317
>elite

I'd recognize that qt little ship anywhere. It lives to this day as Elite Dangerous, the problem is shitty company in charge of it

[Anonymous No.8871626]

>>8868035
imo soul means passion.

you can tell when developers are waiting for the next pay check or are genuinely excited to build they game you're playing.

[Anonymous No.8871631]

Soul is basically passion and creative effort apparent and visible on screen, usually in spite of limited resources, both technical or financial. It's the rejection of any notion of a "minimal viable product" in favor of something that will endure for years and years, often paradoxically offering a sense of nostalgia to those who might be experiencing it for the very first time.