I might be cheating a little since Bastion is an action RPG,
but it’s elements lean more towards that of an action game than an RPG and it’s
a game I have played recently, thus it makes it much easier to write about it.
Within an action game, the most important feedback elements tend to relate to
damage, namely how much damage the player has taken, when the player takes
damage, how much damage the player can take before being knocked out or killed.
These same elements need to be applied to enemy characters. The player should
know when they’re causing damage, how much damage their attacks are causing and
when an enemy is causing damage on the player.
Bastion solves the problem of player health feedback much
like other action games; by way of a health bar. The health bar will decrease
when the player takes damage as well as change color when the player’s health
decreases past certain levels. It looks like there is also a bit of a screen
blur effect if the player’s health gets very low. The bar increases when the
player drinks a potion. Both damage and potion drinking have corresponding
sound effects. There is also controller feedback in the way of vibration when
the player takes damage. An enemy’s health is displayed in a circular health
bar that stays on the ground beneath the enemy. The health bar decreases block
by block while the player attacks the enemy. There are also corresponding sound
effects, plus a visual effect in the way of the monster character blinking and
glowing red when badly damaged.
In most action games and any game in which there is a fair
amount of combat, the player needs to know what weapon he is using. Bastion not
only lets the player know what weapons he has equipped by way of an icon that
appears next to the health bar but also tells the player to which button he has
mapped the weapon by way of a button icon appearing directly next to the weapon
icon. Because there are ranged weapons with ammunition in Bastion and because
feedback with any kind of ammunition-based weapon needs to be in place in order
for the player to manage his ammunition, there are weapon-specific ammunition
displays for each weapon concerned. Some weapons are either single-shot weapons
or else can be thrown but have a cool-down timer before they can be used again.
In these cases, a weapon-specific cool-down bar appears when the weapon is
fired or thrown, indicating how long the player has until the weapon can be
used again. A similar cool-down display appears when the player is reloading,
accompanied by a small “reloading” message hovering over the player avatar.
How Bastion displays navigation is a bit different from
other action games in that there is no map. It’s tempting to write this off as
an oversight and say that some kind of in-game map should have been provided,
but in reality this does less to make the game more needlessly difficult and
more to add to the immersion. The world in which Bastion takes place is a
floating wasteland, the very earth having crumbled away beneath the survivors.
One of the character’s abilities, granted to him by an artifact he carries,
involves tiles of land forming up in front of him as he walks around. In this
way, almost immediate feedback for where the player should go by way of the
tiles forming up in front of him, the player knows where to go. Also, thanks to
the level design, it’s usually pretty easy to figure out where you’re supposed
to go, though there are some problems encountered when pathways branch off as
it’s sometimes difficult to determine whether you’re going off to a secret path
or advancing the level to the point where you won’t be able to go back and
explore.
In any game where there are items which can be picked up or
interacted with (read: almost every game created in the history of gaming ever)
it needs to be made clear which assets can be interacted with and which are
there for just decoration. Bastion does this by way of having items that can be
picked up give off a sparkling particle effect and levitate off of the ground.
Items which can be interacted with typically display an arrow floating above
them signifying that the player needs to press a button in order to advance. In
rare cases where there might not be an arrow (I can’t remember any but there
might have been one or two, particularly in the trial levels where the player
is afforded the option of re-starting a trial by way of pressing a reset
button), an in-game pop up will display over the button telling the player what
button on the controller to press to interact and what the interaction will do.
Lastly, in an action game as well as an rpg, the player
needs to be given feedback on what he has equipped and what skills are
available to him. In most roleplaying games or action games, finding this out
is as simple as dropping into a pause menu. In Bastion, it’s a bit different.
Skills in Bastion are set by way of spirits. As a player levels up, slots for
spirits are unlocked in the distillery in the Bastion, the game’s main hub. The
player is able to equip spirits to different slots by moving over to a slot,
hitting the selection button and choosing a spirit to be placed in the slot.
Each spirit has a short explanation on what it does to help the player, the
effects ranging from special abilities to increased attributes. As stated
before, a player’s equipped weapons are displayed on the screen during
gameplay. In order for the player to equip new weapons and weapon-specific
abilities, however, the player needs to enter into an armory, either in the
game world or at the Bastion. This environment is similar to the distillery,
with certain aesthetic changes. Slots for each of the two weapons a player can
have on him at the time, plus the third slot for a special ability, are
displayed while in the armory. Selecting a slot lets a player pick a weapon or
skill to place in that slot. In addition to these areas that allow for weapon
and buff selections, there is also a smithy where a player can increase
weapons, each weapon having several slots and different upgrades to switch back
and forth from, a lost and found where the player can purchase items, a
foundation where the player can claim awards for in-game achievements and
challenges, and a pantheon where the player can choose added challenges to
gameplay while at the same time boosting his exp and money gain.
All in all, the interface for Bastion is very successful and
easy to use. There are no movement bugs where the player can get stuck and it’s
very easy to tell what everything does without needing to look at a play manual.
If I could make any change to the design, it would be that perhaps there should
be some way to tell what kinds of spirits the player has equipped without going
to the distillery. I feel, however, that there doesn’t need to be an option to
swap out weapon and skill sets while in game as part of the idea behind Bastion
is to plan ahead with weapon and skill combinations. The drawback, though, in a
game like Bastion is that it’s not always apparent what is going to be in an
area the player is going to enter into, so a player could pick a combination of
weapons that doesn’t suit the enemies in a given level. Because of this, it
might be nice if the game provided some hints as to what kind of enemies a
player could expect in a given area. Care would have to be given, though, in
not spoiling any surprises. Part of the thrill of any game that has multiple
enemies with different behaviors (read the aforementioned almost any game ever
created) is encountering a new enemy type and trying to figure out how to
battle against it.
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