So I’m vibin to lo-fi while trying to wrinkle my brain when I realized another way Sony had dropped the ball with the PlayStation Vita. The Vita offered remote play, cross-save, and cross-play. But I feel they missed an opportunity to really push what cross play meant.
There are a few games I can think of that support(ed) cross-play/save. eg: Retro City Rampage, Minecraft, Hotline Miami(I think). The thing is, that cross-play in these instances meant playing the same game on a different device(so more cross-save). That’s cool if you think about how far we’ve come from a tech standpoint, but why not the same game but completely different way to play? Nintendo has experience with this sort of thing. One such, case is with The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker & Legend of Zelda(GBA title I forgot)*. You could link a Gameboy Advanced running(whatever that Zelda was called, or maybe you just needed the GBA) to a GameCube that was playing a copy of Wind Waker and could activate a support role as Tingle on the GameCube using your GBA to guide Link to treasure and secrets. While the games that(maybe) are involved are two different games, they share a universe and have two different experiences to the other. Provided other examples in the Nintendo library are similarly more or less like a move to push peripherals and work synergy among franchises, we can address that later.
For now let’s take a quick look at Ernest Cline(Ready Player One)’s book, “Armada”. The dirty rundown of the book is; The Last Starfighter went MMO and has two versions. One for people who play RealTimeStratgey base builder/defenders and pilots. The game that everyone has been playing has actually been really and everyone was piloting drones fighting an alien threat.
Without going to deep into that(because you should read it for yourself), Think about the shared universe of that game. You have two completely different playstyles/types/genres who’s actions affect the other. I’m sure that implementing that across to hardware platforms in the same family of products is not impossible, but could be challenging. So how would I make it work?
First step is look at IPs. I imagine it be easier to see what Sony and on deck that could open itself up to a wider player base while not positioned to terminate its storyline anytime soon. With Armada in mind I’d probably use something like Killzone or M.A.G.(which should’ve got more love than it did). Since miltary/combat are at its core of those IPs, the play can be different between systems. The PS4(could’ve been 5 too!) would be your standard shooter, but the Vita could be a an RTS that has an online mode that could actually determine allied forces to to place in their online battles over console.
What about the story?
Look at how Free-To-Play games like Apex, Warzone, and Fortnite handle story each season. I’d suggest for the current design in question, that if any player(s) have a significant, organic, effect on the meta, that they’re mentioned in future season’s story. Not up for constant war? No Worries, virtually anything that requires a team is ripe for cross-play. Racing fans behind the wheel on one system and part of of the pit crew on the other(I actually have some ideas on this). How about Overcooked with specialist add to the kitchen via Vita who are focusing on specific dishes? Harder difficulty but higher bonus in team play.
Second, look at the hardware. The Vita added a second analog stick as well as, rear/front facing cameras, rear touch pad, touch screen, and microphone. Imagine playing a stealth game where your guy-n-the-chair is whomever is using the Vita and you could actually see them(if they wanted). ‘GNTC’ rapid firing WarioWare style through a series of puzzles to hack things in the agent’s environment. And if either fucks up in their role the other could be setback or sabotaged because of it. This could beyond the similarities of the Zelda game mentioned earlier. The Vita’s version of the game is focused on puzzles and information. Playing through the campaign and/or completing challenges unlocks secret actions or events when playing with an ‘Agent’. Likewise, playing the ‘Agent’ on the home console unlocks things for the ‘GNTC’. Because of things like the rear touch pad and screen, this means that the puzzles you solve can have special spatial attributes that you can only explore on Vita(don’t even get me started on ARG!). Say the ‘Agent’ was tasked with stealing an artifact. Depending on how the agent gets it or conditions of the mission/object, when its sent to the lab(because there’s always a lab), the ‘GNTC’ will be able to examine it and see things only viewable on Vita. You give Vita players a completely different game set in a shared universe with equal engagement. Which brings up the third point to making this work, Synergy(told you we talk about it)!**
I’m not up to date on my Excue-Speak, but ‘synergy is a word I throw out a lot(in the contest of Enter the Gungeon). Here the synergy is gaming between the Vita and PS console. The previous game example promotes a title in the franchise on the other to get more out of they game. Using established IPs that have room to explore other facets or stories in the world helps by pulling in grass roots fans of a series. It strengths exclusivity of IPs to Sony, and possibly generates more sales of either unit.
The Vita got cut to soon for a lot of reasons. I know this can’t be one of them, but the wasted potential here kills me.
*You didn’t need a game in the GBA
**Technically Sony had stealth game series that linked between the PSP and PS2. I t was MGS: AC!D 2 $ MGS 3: Substance respectively. But it was more like taking pictures in Ac!d 2*** and uploading them into MGS3:S.
***Can we take a second to acknowledge that there was a cardboard box in Ac!d2 that turned the PSP into a 3D view finder and the PS Vita had nothing that was trying to do that despite being ale to connect to a PS4?! Like how the fuck did you make all these improvements, but never though to try some thing like that since that one game Sony?!
Monopoly On Distractions 