How The Sims Has Changed

"Placebo7;c-17537331" wrote:
Ugh, those defending TS4 very often have not played other iterations, so they just have low expectations to begin with.

And while I get that "everyone has an opinion," the fact that the sims in TS4 have very little personality is not an opinion; it's a fact. Compared to the traits in TS3, for example, there are SO MANY FEWER to choose from. This is fact. There are also far fewer aspirations. FACT. It's also a fact that the traits you DO select do not have gameplay consequences the way they did in TS2 and 3. There are many videos to watch if you need to educate yourself on this. TS4 is taking more of your money for less content. WELL-DOCUMENTED FACT. Google it. So that seems like NOT something to be happy about, to me.

So for those who want a game that is a LIFE SIMULATOR, including, LIFELIKE, UNIQUE sims, TS4 is inferior. If you want something that LOOKS pretty, well, then, congrats, you got it. If you want something that is EASY TO PLAY and has almost no RISKS (like burglars, firings, sims being mad at you, etc.), well then congrats, you got it.

But a life simulator, no. TS4 is a step BACK from that, and if that is the franchise, then I think it is a fair conclusion that this game is worse than its predecessors.

This is so true. I mean, if TS4 was not a mainline Sims title, if it was a spin-off title called Sims Lite or a game made and published by a completely different company trying to dip their toe into the life sim genre, it would just be judged as an O.K. game that makes some technical stride here and there, but is still not up to par with any mainline Sims title, and it wouldn't be controversial to say that. But, it was released as a mainline title in a long-standing and well-loved cult hit franchise, so of course people are going to be harder on its failures and shortcomings, especially if they've played the earlier, deeper, more challenging titles in the series.

TS4 reminds me of another "Softer and Easier to Try and Pull in Younger Kids and Casual Gamers" entry into a long-running, well-loved, cult hit franchise: Monster Rancher Evo aka. Monster Farm 5. I've brought this up in other threads, but to make a long story short, the developers basically stripped most of the depth and difficulty out of the fifth game in the Monster Rancher series, which is a creature breeding, training, and battle sim that focuses on the bond between you and your monsters, fighting your way up the tournament ranks, breeding ever stronger monsters by combining your retired monsters, and being the very best like no one ever was. In previous games, you hand fed, disciplined, rewarded, and coached your monster through training, which involved a lot of micromanagement of their diet, training regimen, and the standards you set for them in terms of what performance should be praised and what they should be scolded for. MR1-MR4 are very deep games and I recommend that you check them out if you never played them before, especially if you have an old PS2 that's still in working order or can get them on virtual console somehow.

But, Monster Rancher Evo removed the tournament system, replaced the normal training with circus performances and arcade style mini-games that determined how said performances went, and completely removed the player from the monster rearing process by having an NPC automatically feed your monsters, having other NPC's deciding how to reward or motivate four out of five of your monsters, and having no real bonding interactions between you and the monster you were technically in charge of. That took a lot of the depth and challenge out of the game, even as they made massive improvements to the dungeon crawling aspect, the post game, and the game's towns. As a result, we got an O.K. collectable creature RPG, but a lackluster Monster Rancher title. They tried to rebrand this game outside of Japan as a spin-off title, but because it was released in the age of the internet, it was too little, too late. This game and its reception nearly killed this franchise, and it's a real shame.

In both cases, you see a loss of core gameplay depth and challenge that was meant to bring in new fans by making the game more casual-and-child-friendly, but frustrated and alienated long-time fans. All the things that made Monster Rancher Monster Rancher, at its heart, were stripped out or watered down to the point of being only barely recognizable. The surface elements--iconic monster species like Tiger and Mochi, battles, scanning your disks in real life to generate monsters in-game, filling your monster book, a female assistant character--were all there...but the meat, the soul of the game was gone in favor of attempting to reach "a new generation" and "a broader audience." That's why I call when this happens to a game "Monster Rancher Evo Syndrome." Like what happened to that game, it's usually the result of a company trying to make a game franchise more popular or gain the next generation of fans, but in their rush to do so, forgetting or failing to see what made that franchise good in the first place. As a result, you get an O.K. game...but a poor entry into the series as a whole that feels like a huge step back to long-time fans.