Elder Scrolls becomes less of a deep RPG and more of an action game with each iteration.

I find this to be an extremely puzzling and often frustrating occurrence among games. At one point you will be playing a certain game, and as time goes on maybe the sequel. Before you know it years have passed and you are on game number 4 or 5 in the series and somehow it’s gone from being an RPG to a straight up Action game or whatever the scenario may be. I don’t even know how to describe this. The only thing I can really think of is possibly Genre Drift? Is that a thing? Well I’m making it a thing and if it’s already been thought of then I’m officially taking credit.

The game that made me think about this recently was Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move. It’s a downloadable title on the 3DS eShop where you control tiny clockwork Marios and guide them to their destination. There has actually been several of these game over the years, except they never started out that way. Let me go back…

Back in 1994 Donkey Kong came out for the Game Boy. It includes the first 4 levels of the classic Donkey Kong arcade game and features Mario pitted against his gorilla nemesis but that’s really where the similarities end. In this version Mario can perform a handstand maneuver and jump, do some kind of side flip, pick up objects, etc. It’s great and there are a crapload of levels. Fast forward to 2004 and a follow up game (or maybe relaunch, I’m not sure) was released called Mario vs. Donkey Kong which has essentially the same game mechanics except every so often there is a level where you have to help little clockwork Marios get through dangerous obstacles. Two years later we’d get a sequel, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, except you don’t seem to control Mario at ALL. Hell, you don’t even use the control pad. You tap the screen to direct little clockwork Marios around. This was followed up by Minis March Again, Mini-Land Mayhem, and now recently Minis on the Move. What was once a platforming game with puzzle elements is now purely a puzzle game. I’m not saying the later games are bad in any way, but they are a huge departure from the series roots. It’s mind boggling.

It’s also happened in several other instances. If you look at the Elder Scrolls series you will noticed that with each new iteration it becomes less of deep RPG and more of a straight up action game. Mass Effect was an RPG with shooter elements but it kind of did a reverse into a shooter with RPG elements. Granted the drift is more gradual with these examples and not as steep a change as is the case with Mario vs. Donkey Kong, but you can obviously see genre drift.

Now I’m not saying that any of these changes are necessarily bad. I actually enjoyed all the games I mentioned. However there is a definite change in how the games work and often results in compromise to gameplay elements, which does tend to polarize people. I know that a lot of the time I expect a game series to maintain certain features and qualities and build upon them rather than chip away and compromise them. This can lead to expectations that aren’t met and possible disappointment. I’ve seen it happen quite a bit.

It kind of reminds of the radar/spider graph or whatever that they use in Pokemon games when you feed pokemon different gummy types. Depending on which trait you raise more it tends to pull the graph in one direction and away from another. The more you pull towards tough and cool the less cute you are. Similarly it seems the more you drift towards one genre the more you drift away from another. I realize this analogy is really obscure and likely only makes sense to me. At least it does in my sleep deprived state.

I’m not trying to say the change is bad or anything. Well, admittedly I am not a fan of change but that’s hardly the point.