Fatigue system ruins the game for me

[Charlemagne]

I just want to open the game and have fun, why i'm being punished to play with the character that i like most? Imagine if a open world game like The Witcher forced you to play all the side quests in the world to be able to finish the story. Just let me play how i want... Not receiving the bonus passive for playing other characters is okay, but being punished is straight up bad game design

[alpasy]

You mean you want to play with infinite stamina? John would be immortal then, with his shield always up; Lucy would be able to keep up her mirrors indefinitely (and be invisible for enemies), Linda will kite forever (even more than she's able to now). Meaningful resource management is one of gameplay keystones in this genre.

[Charlemagne]

Originally posted by alpasy:

You mean you want to play with infinite stamina? John would be immortal then, with his shield always up; Lucy would be able to keep up her mirrors indefinitely (and be invisible for enemies), Linda will kite forever (even more than she's able to now). Meaningful resource management is one of gameplay keystones in this genre.

Fatigue and Stamina are completely different things. Corruption Fatigue is a system that punishes you for playing with the same character by removing a big portion of its HP.

[alpasy]

Oh, right, sorry. Yeah, fatigue isn't fun if you insist on playing with one character only, but you can still do it (with less HP though, so more challenge ;). This game is story driven first of all, so it makes sense that it pushes you to play with different Bergsons.

Also, later on you'll be able to get mysterious eggs which allow you to respec and clear fatigue as well.

[Kozhan]

That's not bad design, that's how they designed the game. You don't like it? It's simple, don't play it.

[SMJSMOK]

Playing as different characters is one of the core mechanics of the game. The fatigue system gives you motivation to do that. I understand why someone might find that restrictive or patronizing, but I'm personally ok with that.

[Charlemagne]

Originally posted by Kozhan:

That's not bad design, that's how they designed the game. You don't like it? It's simple, don't play it.

If we follow that logic, there are no bad games in the world

[Charlemagne]

Originally posted by SMJSMOK:

Playing as different characters is one of the core mechanics of the game. The fatigue system gives you motivation to do that. I understand why someone might find that restrictive or patronizing, but I'm personally ok with that.

The passive system gives motivation to play with different characters. The fatigue punishes you for playing with the same. Motivation is great, middle term is what most of the games do but punishment is another level

[Kozhan]

Originally posted by Operat:

Originally posted by Kozhan:

That's not bad design, that's how they designed the game. You don't like it? It's simple, don't play it.

If we follow that logic, there are no bad games in the world

No. The game has no gameplay issues, you just don't like it, that's not a bad design, it's just your preference. Bad design would be something that is unplayable.

Personally i don't like Battle Royales, cause they force me to loot for 5 to 10 min until something happens. That's not a bad design, just that kind of games are not for me.

[alpasy]

This argument makes no sense. "Unplayable" belongs to the same subjective category as "i don't like it". And "bad design" is also an opinion, same as "bad games".

[Kozhan]

No, unplayable means that the game has so many flaws that NOBODY can play it. You can keep playing CoM, yeah it "forces" you to change family members, but that's a decision DEVS did as it's THEIR game.

[Kozhan]

As an example, i played all Darksiders games. I don't like what they did with Darksiders 3: they turned it a kind of Souls-like (easier but similar in its mechanics). That's not bad design as i could still play it. It's just a decision they made.

[Charlemagne]

Originally posted by Kozhan:

As an example, i played all Darksiders games. I don't like what they did with Darksiders 3: they turned it a kind of Souls-like (easier but similar in its mechanics). That's not bad design as i could still play it. It's just a decision they made.

Good game design means setting up expectations and meeting them. Dark Souls is a game with clunky movements and fights worth of rage quit, but they are a perfect example of a good game design because they set up high expectations for the feeling of reward after a fight and guess what? People who enjoy these games feels like their hard work paid off and they are REWARDED.

Children of Morta is a good game, the passive system across characters is good game design because it REWARDS the player for choosing another character but the fatigue is pure PUNISHMENT. (Bad game design)

Also, battle royales don't force you to loot for 10 minutes. Looks like you are the type of player who hides at the start of the game instead of jumping where everyone else is jumping. Which means that the game is not PUNISHING anything, you are the one PUNISHING yourself by playing bad.

This would be the same for me if i came to the forum i said something like "My characters are too weak because i don't like playing with other characters to stack up passives". This is an example where i would punish myself, not the game, which is the case of the fatigue.

Now that it's proven that the game is punishing me, and not me punishing myself, there's a lot of other people having the same problem:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/330020/discussions/0/3166519278492286891/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/330020/discussions/0/1634166237651919787/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/330020/discussions/0/1738887616129910750/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/330020/discussions/0/1755771676004901478/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/330020/discussions/0/1634166237647262767/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/330020/discussions/0/1694969274388318664/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/330020/discussions/0/1741136244263883373/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/330020/discussions/0/1634166237645877803/

(sorry bad english)

[alpasy]

Yes, it's a punishing mechanic, but i'd argue it's not bad game design. This game has many punishing mechanics: for example, it takes away your health when you fail to dodge enemy attack. If you do that enough times, you die and has to start over. That can be pretty punishing (i myself felt frustrated when i died third time on the Spider King in the very beginning of the game).

I'd say punishing you with fatigue the game actually protects you from boring yourself with playing the same character over and over again (also it goes against the story purposes). But you have your right to disagree of course and not to like this decision. I doubt the devs would change anything at this point though.

[Charlemagne]

Originally posted by alpasy:

Yes, it's a punishing mechanic, but i'd argue it's not bad game design. This game has many punishing mechanics: for example, it takes away your health when you fail to dodge enemy attack. If you do that enough times, you die and has to start over. That can be pretty punishing (i myself felt frustrated when i died third time on the Spider King in the very beginning of the game).

I'd say punishing you with fatigue the game actually protects you from boring yourself with playing the same character over and over again (also it goes against the story purposes). But you have your right to disagree of course and not to like this decision. I doubt the devs would change anything at this point though.

The game doesn't have many punishing mechanics. Failing to dodge an enemy attack is part of the combat, which is very balanced and fun to play and maybe one of the reasons this game is any good.

It's simple, just divide the game elements into systems, they either need to be balanced or rewarding. That's exactly what the passive system across characters is. Don't like playing with multiple characters? too bad, because you will need their passives, but in return your other characters will be stronger.

What's the payoff of the fatigue? There is none, it's like a questline without XP, Gold or Story progression.

Also, it's up to the player to judge what bores them. That's why games have cheats, mods and easy mode

[Filthy Cur]

I can only speak for myself, but I've found enough eggs (sometimes 2 in a single run) for the fatigue system to not be an issue. Also, I enjoy playing as the different family members, so the fatigue system is even less relevant to me.