A ScrewAttack Fantasy Retrospective is a short series of three videos from 2010, where Craig discusses Fantasy in games.
Part 1[]
This short series was sponsored by Dragon Age Origins.
| A ScrewAttack Fantasy Retrospective Part 1 | |
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| Upload Date | some time in 2010 |
| Hosts | Craig, Jared, Destin, Chad |
| Series | A ScrewAttack Fantasy Retrospective
Random Awesomeness
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| Link | http://www.screwattack.com/shows/originals/random-awesomeness/screwattack-fantasy-retrospective-part-1
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Swords, magic and rescuing damsels in distress are awesome. Since we can't do that in real life, we have games to live out fantasy. Fantasy games used to be far simpler. All fantasy games take from Dungeons and Dragons (a power glove points at Craig saying "NERD!!!!") It's still easy to poke fun at people who still play it in their mom's basement like Jared, but we wouldn't have these games if it weren't for D&D. A power glove points at Craig saying "Totally in self-denial".
Classes, hit points etc all came from some mom's basement! You either play as a player going on an adventure, or the dungeon master, who plays everything else! It was only a matter of time before someone turned it into a video game.
The game used big descriptive words, and the player had to use their words to tell the game what they are doing. There weren't buttons to move or jump. It was "Open door" etc. Colossal Cave Adventure was one of the first games of its kind. It has elves and dwarfs in it. Dwarfs + elves = fantasy!
Dungeon crawlers started to come up. These games now had pictures! Travelling through these dungeons, the player had one goal - to come out with as much treasure as possible. These games were great, but they never had a strong story, or had a feeling of going through the world. In these games, players were solving puzzles and killing monsters.
Part 2[]
Many games are based on Dungeons and Dragons, so someone said "Let's do this our way!" So they did.
| A ScrewAttack Fantasy Retrospective Part 2 | |
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| Upload Date | some time in 2010 |
| Hosts | Craig |
| Series | A ScrewAttack Fantasy Retrospective
Random Awesomeness
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| Link | http://www.screwattack.com/shows/originals/random-awesomeness/screwattack-fantasy-retrospective-part-2
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Craig discusses how Enix was a small company from Japan, until one game called Dragon Quest changed their company forever (or Dragon Warrior if you're American). This game kept the RPG tradition alive with Experience points, gold etc, and created their own universe, taking on slimes and knights.
Even with armor and swords, you could cast magic spells like "Heal" and "Hurt" and "Hurt More!" It was something different. The game started selling poorly in the west to begin with, until Nintendo Power started giving the game away.
SquareSoft tried to take on the genre with Final Fantasy. It played a lot like Dragon Warrior, except with four party members, and players could change the party's classes. They also had spells like "Ice" and "Nuke". You don't have to walk everywhere, as you have a ship, canoe and airship! Final Fantasy took players to places no one had tries before, such as flying castles, and the past.
The Legend of Zelda for Nintendo is the same idea. Nintendo had a lot of original monsters such as the octorok. Instead of spells, Link has awesome items. Bombs, boomerangs, flutes, and pointy ears. Which means Link is an elf! Fantasy!
In Super Mario Brothers, Mario isn't a knight, he's a courageous plumber. Instead of goblins, there are goombas and Koopa Troopers. Magical items help Mario grow, shoot fireballs and become an unstoppable death machine! At the end of each level is a dragon, and there is a damsel in distress. Toad might as well be a dwarf. FANTASY!
There are so many games that can be played from Dungeons and Dragons, and there are only so many times you can play something without coming up with something new. Gamers got to experience something completely different.
Part 3[]
From Dungeons and Dragons to video games that wanted to be different. All games started to become exactly the same, so developers had to change once again. D&D lets players explore an open world, so why couldn't games? Craig gets busted playing D&D.
| A ScrewAttack Fantasy Retrospective Part 3 | |
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| Upload Date | some time in 2010 |
| Hosts | Craig, Chad, Destin, Jared |
| Series | A ScrewAttack Fantasy Retrospective
Random Awesomeness
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| Link | http://www.screwattack.com/shows/originals/random-awesomeness/screwattack-fantasy-retrospective-part-3
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The Elder Scrolls series successfully accomplished this. There were massive caves, people to talk to and lots of things to do.' Multiplayer made it better - massive multiplayer. Elder Quest and World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft has one of the richest laws in the history of games. It's a shame it usually gets ignored. All these games are kind of samey.
After 6 Final Fantasy games, they had to change it. Final Fantasy 7 featured guns, giant robots and motorcycles. They went futuristic. it kind of did what modern Warfare did for FPS's.
Fantasy Star did this first however, with hacking, grenades and guns. They also had goblins and elves. FANTASY!
Unfortunately, Fantasy started to be stopped being made in favor of shooters and sci-fi games. Developers are not letting them go completely though. Maybe they will make a return - otherwise, we will go back to playing D&D in our parent's basements.