In most games, we accept a quiet contract: mechanics are abstract, and characters are oblivious to them. A turn-based system doesn’t exist for the hero—it exists for us. Cooldowns, stat screens, and hit points are tools for the player, not truths of the world. But some games challenge that norm. They make the mechanics diegetic—a…
Month: May 2025
The History of AI in Tactical RPGs: From Scripts to Strategy
Tactical RPGs are defined by systems—grids, stats, classes, damage ranges—but behind all that complexity lies a quiet architect that shapes every encounter: enemy AI. Whether you’re facing down a band of goblins in Tactics Ogre or an alien ambush in XCOM 2, your experience is largely determined by how well the AI performs. Enemy behavior…
Support Conversations as Subtext: Storytelling in Side Mechanics
In the grand tapestry of role-playing games, players are often drawn to the spectacle: dramatic plot twists, epic boss battles, or world-altering decisions. But beneath the main story lies another narrative current—quieter, slower, often entirely optional. It lives in conversations between allies, bonds between comrades, and those tucked-away moments where no one’s saving the world—they’re…
The Rise of the Hub World: Between Battles and Belonging
In the high-octane realm of RPGs, action games, and tactical adventures, it’s not always the climactic boss battles or branching decisions that leave the strongest impression—it’s the quiet spaces in between. The spaces where nothing explodes. Where no enemy ambush waits. Where you’re allowed, perhaps for the first time, to just exist. These are the…
Romance Systems as Social Simulation: Mechanics or Marketing?
In the sprawling worlds of modern role-playing games (RPGs), combat isn’t the only battleground. Behind every sword swing and spell cast, many players are silently strategizing another outcome: Who can I romance? How do I unlock their story? Will they love me back? Romance systems—mechanics that allow players to form romantic or emotional relationships with…
Beyond Poké-Emblem: Tactical RPG Crossovers and Genre-Bending Experiments
Welcome back, Gaming Graduates! In our last session, Poké-Emblem showed us how a fan’s wild “what if?”—what if Pokémon Red/Blue played like Fire Emblem?—became a full-fledged tactical RPG reality. That ROM-hack crossover turned Kanto into a grid-based battlefield, proving that tactical RPG combat can thrive in the most unexpected worlds. Today, we’re zooming out to…
Turn-Based Combat and the Aesthetics of Deliberation
What Turn-Based Systems Reveal About Player Cognition and Control In a gaming landscape dominated by real-time action and split-second reflexes, turn-based combat stands apart—not as a relic of the past, but as a deliberate design philosophy rooted in thoughtfulness, control, and intentionality. While some players deride turn-based games as slow or outdated, others find in…
The Role of Memory and Repetition in Soulslike Design
Exploring Memorization as a Form of Player Progression The “Soulslike” genre is notorious. Not simply for its difficulty, but for the way that difficulty is framed, delivered, and most crucially—learned. In games inspired by Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro, progression rarely comes from character level alone. It’s not just your stats that increase—it’s your memory….
Spatial Storytelling in Isometric Strategy Games
Analyzing How Level Layout Functions as Narrative Delivery In isometric strategy games—where the camera looks down on meticulously arranged tiles and units like a god with a clipboard—storytelling is typically associated with dialogue trees, world lore, or faction politics. But beneath the surface text lies something more elemental, more embedded: the space itself. Level layout…
Games as Moral Simulators: The Illusion of Choice in RPGs
What ‘Player Choice’ Actually Offers in Complex Narrative Games Video games are often lauded for granting players what other narrative forms cannot: agency. Unlike books or films, games allow us to shape the story—or so we’re told. We can choose to spare or slay, to romance or reject, to obey or rebel. In the lexicon…