I just got finished with beating Riven for the first time. I adored the way the game seeped into my real life with pages of notes about the world I was discovering. Are there any other games that can match this feeling? That really work best when you have a journal in hand?
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The following games all typically do not hold the player’s hand. They are to varying degrees, some give you a map and/or journal, some do not.
- TES III Morrowind
- King’s Field 1-4
- Snatcher on SEGA CD
- Dark Souls 1-3, Demons Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring
- Ultima Underworld
- Silent Hill 1-4
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Tunic
- Super Metroid
- Hollow Knight
- Rain World
- System Shock 1,2
I love the Morrowind recommendation. Also, unlikely suggestion, but I had to get a pen and paper for The Great Crystal dungeon on Final Fantasy XII.
Love that your example was riven. Was my first thought on the title.
The myst games, their newer game Obduction, the Talos Principle. Those puzzle games all are awesome and take some pen and paper.
Escape from mystwood mansion, the house of da Vinci are a couple others that feel the same way.
Less adventure, more “must optimize!” games like Satisfactory, Factorio are other games that require me to bust out pen and paper or at least a website, spreadsheet or calculator.
I’ve wanted to do this for awhile with a RPG - you might have convinced me to do this on the next one I pick up.
For me with this ADD, a lot, honestly. But, if you’ve ever tried your hand at breeding in Ark, you kinda understand what is like to be a CPA in tax season.
Probably not what you’re looking for, but Elite Dangerous. I’m about to print out pictures of the controls just to teach myself to use them.
I would bet others like EVE Online for the bill better.
I use paper because the game tends to crash when I tab out to figure out where I was supposed to go. And then it won’t launch again until I restart my computer.
The last game I recall breaking out pen and paper for was Tunic. You can definitely beat the story without, but the later puzzles call for it.
Dungeon Master
Still got my notebook as a kid with the spells like ZO KATH RA still around my parents house
Subnautica, if you want a map, you have to start triangulation and drawing
Tunic
Elite Dangerous
Death Stranding
Tunic 💯💯
Why Death Stranding? I don’t understand this one…
I kept some paper logs of what was needed where. Mostly for building things, but also for deliveries. I was trying to be relatively efficient in hauling stuff around.
Star Trek: The Next Generation, for Sega Genesis certainly fit this criteria.
Nobody said Myst or Nethack???
Animal Well.
Steam Workshop 😭
Tunic!
The “final” puzzle took a whole page of paper. It was brilliant
The loading page was some straight up bullshit though.
So many instances of…
“…no…nooo… NOOO”
Then it works
I still smile whenever I stumble upon these pages of my college block
