is the best way to play.
Think from a speed-runner's perspective. Someone who has minimized the time it takes to get through every boss fight. Would you say that they have any lesser grasp on the strategy because they might take damage in some way that speeds up the fight? The end goal is only to win the game. So why couldn't a developer define a perfect run that way? Why can't a perfect boss run be built around something more than dodge, attack, dodge, attack?
I think there are all kinds of perfect runs (in SNK and other games) and they might not have an exceptionally clean or singular-per-game definition. When the goal of the game is simply "defeat the enemy and survive", a player can find their own definition. It may be to beat it as fast as possible or without getting hit, or to beat it while showing off every technique or without blocking. Maybe it's as grey as beating it while retaining 75% of the life bar. I'm not saying anything can be anything as long as you can win - that's the exact opposite of Igarashi's point - but that what the developer should be focusing on is that there is something that the player can maximize so as to improve their play. It's kind of like what I said in the podcast about the player not necessarily needing to master the game to get the most out of it, but needing to be able to see the path to mastery. You get better at something to the point where it stops being fun, and that's the perfect run. If the developer has an idea of that perfect run, a way to get the absolute most out of the fight, and has put in ways to strive toward it, that's good enough. That to me is the generalized aspect of Igarashi's quote when removed from the setting of no-miss runs.
Scoring / rating / achievements are obviously the simplest way to get players engaged with this mentality - unsurprisingly, a couple people mentioned in the podcast that they've only taken on challenges when offered these carrots. We scoff at these tools sometimes, but if they help people to get more out of the game, they have their use. If the developer has a particularly obscure notion of what makes an interesting "perfect run", that's something they can nudge the player toward with a trophy or a bonus challenge.Statistics: Posted by Yourself — Tue Mar 25, 2014 1:02 am
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