You could say the diegetic impact of a game mechanic is its narrative impact as well... though that's not really the full picture either, as how easy/hard a mechanic is to execute for the player can also matter. Narrative of physical execution, narrative of diegetic impact... gameplay is narrative!

But regardless, one should always consider the narrative impact of their mechanics. If you can't find a way to have the mechanics reinforce the overall narrative goals, at least make them "weightless" - because if your mechanical and textual narratives clash, that can very easily sour the experience

Granted, mechanics at a sufficient level of abstraction can be relatively "narrative-free". Like why do you battle enemies through a deck of cards in Slay the Spire? There's no answer, it's just a "pure" abstraction for combat (though what's in the character card pools does contribute to narrative)

Mine is an X570 too, as a matter of fact... (Asus Taichi)

On one hand, the two stick 64 GB plan would obviously be better for gaming, especially with my new 9070 XT, but on the other hand I don't exactly play a lot of new AAA games and could def use the four stick 128 GB option for work. Choices, choices...

Just for reference, there's nothing wrong with the concept of machine learning-based scaling algorithms. It's not a new idea either - NNEDI3 is a solid ML-based general purpose scaler from 2009 that's worth using even today. Can recommend giving it a spin whenever you next need to upscale something

Dread really is a fun example here because it leans into gameplay being narrative with probably the most actual developer intent the series has ever had in that regard. And while Metroid fans can find stuff to complain about with Dread, Samus' portrayal is usually not one of them, people love it lol

While the linearity does lessen the replay value, I still consider Fusion a solid one myself because it has the good kind of linear design where progressing still feels like organic discovery when you're out there running through the world. So yeah Fusion is def better than some of the newer entries

Other M is clearly far more important to establishing who Samus is as a character than any silly "gameplay" games like Super Metroid. She has so much more ~actual text~ in Other M than any other Metroid game, so clearly it's the most meaningful and defining entry. Wait, why are you all booing me?

And this is the additional reply I made after which I got blocked. bsky.app/profile/daiz...

That's because the person you're replying to blocked me. This is what I said bsky.app/profile/daiz...