Recently watching “Delicious in Dungeon” anime (available on Netflix) reminded me of Diablo 1.
Smaller simpler game without open world, big skill trees, big map filled with markers, mob scaling to level, generators/spenders/cooldowns, skins, mtx shop.
One town and a randomly generated dungeon. Slower and difficult gameplay but in an interesting way. Every loot drop matters. I didn’t play Diablo 1 much because of clunky controls but idea and simplicity of it is cool and I’d like to try it in modern version.
Would you be interested in an old school hack n slash like this or it’s too late to go back to old game design?
Remake or remaster? Big difference here. If it’s a remake I’m not against the idea, just as the FF7 remake was actually pretty fun for me, and I enjoyed it. However it would depend on what they remake and how it was implemented. If it’s just Diablo 1 with prettier graphics, that’s a remaster, and I doubt it would sell very well.
I definitely mean remake. D2R as remaster was great but D1 would need better modern character controls, new sounds and graphics but original attacks, skill, itemisation design and difficulty.
I wonder if smaller hack n slash like this could still get players interest nowadays.
I couldn’t get into it. I tried the demo, and borrowed a disc for a longer sampling - not for me.
Big fan of the original, but everything after 10 wasn’t for me. I know a bunch of diehards loved 12, but I wasn’t one of them (despite finishing it). I could easily replay anything X and lower.
D1 wasn’t difficult. None of the Diablo games have been.
And you really want equipment breaking, permanently? And Shrines that can yield permant stat decreases or item durability decrease? Those are the mechanics in D1.
Well a remake is a new game in some way. “Back to the roots” but modernised. To feel that risk and excitement exploring dark scary dungeon where every corner can have mob or some trap that can be deadly and discovering step by step its mysterious lore. Diablo 1 did it very well.
Honestly why not as a side game in form of remake. People like the risk of their items disappearing from failed crafting in Path of Exile. Diablo 4 would still be the modern state of the series etc but if the remake would be received well it could change the approach for Diablo 5. D4’s mmo open world design isn’t that succesfull.
7 for me was great as long as you weren’t doing the annoying side quests. Those were just boring as all hell. I loved the combat and the additional story put in though. Playing through Yuffies story, which I still need to finish, is still fun and she has the best combat mechanics I think hands down.
I loved the original too, but having played it semi-recently, it does drag on in parts. Especially if you aren’t using mods to help you along the way or get rid of some nuisances.
I’ll be honest though 10 and forward, aside from 11 and 14 (haven’t played 15 or 16), just weren’t great to me. 10 felt more like watching a movie, extremely linear, fairly easy, and you couldn’t even die on the last boss. The voice acting (English dubs) was also pretty bad by certain characters. It felt like watching a Hallmark movie set to FF.
The combat was good, music had its moments, cinematics were of course amazing for the time, but the story was kinda meh for me. I think if I had the option to play it with Japanese voices it would’ve resonated more with me, but can’t say for certain.
10-2 has by far the most evolved and fun version of the traditional ATB system but literally everything outside of combat is a cringe-fest. If you can get past that it’s incredibly fun. It does also have the same linearity problem as 10, though; while new locations open up as the story progresses, if memory serves, you’re basically re-treading the same entire path through Spira five times, once per chapter.
Not sure if you’d played that (sequels often get overlooked and you weren’t super keen on 10) but I wanted to mention it because it is an absolute blast to play but man is it hard to sit through the narration.
It would be nice, sometimes future is in the past. There were some game designs like the way the skill books and dynamic “campaign” works that I believe would be refreshing nowadays for the franchise if well executed.
If they make a remake of it, it may be a good thing even as an object of study for developers.
I did play 10-2 actually, and yes I loved the combat mechanics. I will agree, I wasn’t all that invested in playing Charlie’s Angels find long lost boyfriend, but it was what it was.
Also I believe you are correct, we had a handful of new areas, but the majority were just from the previous game as we went around ‘walking the earth’ and getting into or out of situations. As Vincent would say, “They got a name for that Jules. It’s called a bum.”
I would prefer a Fallout 1/2 style Diablo that is semi turn-based with a solid story and that allows you a lot of latitude in making decisions that matter. Combat would be more strategic and with today’s tech, it could provide a lot of replayability and evolve. Difficulty can be tuned to Story Mode to XCOM style that is Hardcore and punishing.
there are quite some mods. currently im playing the hell 3 mod. Touches up the graphics a bit and adds a ton of classes and subclasses. also new quests, mainly those that didnt make it into the final release. (map of stars etc etc)
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