History ZeroPunctuation / TropesQToT

--->"It's all clashing colors and [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation1 PS1]]-era 3D models with worse animation than the little dudes on a foosball table. And environments that look like someone opened the level editor and then threw their laptop out the window of a speeding bus. And texture work that looks like the brooms from ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}} The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]'' got set loose in a water-damaged gift wrap shop. And an interface that looks like it got molested inside a crowded novelty photo booth at a {{juggalo}} convention. Complete with a health meter that takes up an entire quarter of the active screen and looks like an untreated hernia. Et cetera, et cetera."

** {{Discussed|Trope}} in his Extra Punctuation "Do Games Have to be Fun?", which was written partly in response to ''{{VideoGame/Scorn}}'', a very gross, unsettling, uninviting horror game that was bleak [[IntendedAudienceReaction as a deliberate part of the horror experience]], an approach that polarized critics and audiences. Contrary to the title, Yahtzee makes the claim that expecting games to be "fun" as a sign of quality is focusing on the wrong thing -- the bigger point should be whether or not the game is "engaging", enabling the player to explore the furthest possible regions of the human experience, with fear and disgust being valid in their own right as such. Yahtzee defines what counts as "engaging" as less being about resisting the urge to be unsettling at risk of alienating audiences, and more about actively commanding player interest through well-developed context (effective storytelling and theme), fair challenge, and catharsis that rewards players for their investment.

** {{Discussed|Trope}} in his Extra Punctuation "Do Games Have to be Fun?", which was written partly in response to ''{{VideoGame/Scorn}}'', a very gross, unsettling, uninviting horror game that was bleak [[IntendedAudienceReaction as a deliberate part of the horror experience]], an approach that polarized critics and audiences. Contrary to the title, Yahtzee makes the claim that expecting games to be "fun" as a sign of quality is focusing on the wrong thing -- the bigger point should be whether or not the game is "engaging", enabling the player to explore the furthest possible regions of the human experience, with fear and disgust being valid in their own right as such, but still requiring they actually command player interest through well-developed context (effective storytelling and theme), fair challenge, and catharsis that rewards players for their investment.

** Used in one episode of "Acclaim Entertainment Hall of Shame":

* TWordEuphemism: Used in one episode of "Acclaim Entertainment Hall of Shame":
-->So far, the ''Zero Punctuation Occasional Guide to R-word Moments in G-word H-word'' has covered publishers with bad ideas, developers with bad hairdos, exclusivity deals, graphical quantum leaps, and moral panics. But how could I have overlooked the one aspect of the games industry that is the most prodigious seam of R-word-ation of them all: marketing?

* SilentProtagonist: {{Discussed|Trope}} in his review of ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceRemake'', and to a larger extent the accompanying Extra Punctuation "Is the Era of the Silent Protagonist Over?", revolving primarily about former silent protagonist Isaac Clarke becoming SuddenlyVoiced in the remake. Yahtzee's conclusion is that while Silent Protagonists are far from extinct, they aren't as compatible with as many forms of modern gaming that don't rely on the GrandfatherClause (such as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] or [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]]), and that many triple-A narrative-based games have more or less weaned off the idea of established player characters with in-universe identities and personalities that inexplicably don't talk. He specifically cites Gordon Freeman's treatment in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' where characters simultaneously revere him as a savior of humanity while also [[LampshadeHanging snarking about him being silent as an in-universe character trait]] (as opposed to the previous game where it could be implied he ''can'' talk, [[HeroicMime but the game just prefers not to show it]]) as a demonstration of the trope [[GameplayAndStorySegregation causing overt conflicts with the narrative]]. To that end, Yahtzee considers the choice to update Isaac to actually speak and express his own personality a reasonable one, because him being silent didn't even make much sense in the original, either.

** He described ''VideoGame/StarWarsJediFallenOrder'' as perfectly adequate (because it used ideas from good games like ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime''), despite being produced by [[AcceptableTargets EA and]] [[TakeThat therefore having no soul.]]

* StarbucksSkinScale: A ButNotTooBlack character is dismissed as "dipped in tea".

* TalksLikeASimile: For humorous effect, given the nature of the similes. As an example, one of them involved the voice acting in a game being comparable to being raped in the ear by a man wearing a sandpaper condom. Though technically it wasn't ''him'' who said it, it was his roommate. And "Not in those exact words, of course."
** Matt maintains he actually described it as like driving a corkscrew into his ears.
--> "I wonder if the Geneva Convention covers torturing metaphors?"

* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: Yahtzee set a rule for himself to not review games that were still on Early Access, since anything he might critique could be patched out before the official release. He outright ignored this rule for VideoGame/ShadowsOfDoubt, because he felt it shouldn't apply if he was going to end up praising the game overall, presuming that the developers wouldn't patch out anything that is good.

* SerialNumbersFiledOff:[[invoked]] Has accused many games of being this, most notably ''VideoGame/DantesInferno'' to ''VideoGame/GodOfWar''.

* StupidEvil[=/=]StupidGood: One of his biggest issues with any game that has a KarmaMeter is that, inevitably, since the best options are usually found by playing through the game as either "all evil" or "all good", it results in neither side making any sense, since they stick to their prescribed morality regardless of whether it makes sense for them to do so. Consequently, the former plays as a cackling moron who murders and extorts ForTheEvulz, while the latter plays as either a bland VanillaProtagonist[[invoked]] or a suicidal TechnicalPacifist.
-->''"Look, if you have two equally viable, equally difficult solutions to a problem, then the evil option is just irrational. And you can't relate to a character whose actions don't make any fucking sense."''

* SignatureHeadgear: "Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder." The hat originally appeared in [[MythologyGag his own games]], ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'', worn by the character of Trilby. The hat itself is known as a Trilby hat, and it tends to get him [[CreatorWorship more attention]] [[http://twitter.com/YahtzeeCroshaw/status/11013246821 than he really wants]]. In his ads for his audiobook ''Existentially Challenged'', he even throws in a non-sequitur about how he doesn't wear it in real life anymore.

* SpoofAesop: The lesson of ''Catherine'' seems to be "men are all directionless tidal waves, and [[AccidentalInnuendo women are all dikes]] built in the path of their raging floods."

* StupidEvil[=/=]StupidGood: One of his biggest issues with any game that has a KarmaMeter is that, inevitably, since the best options are usually found by playing through the game as either "all evil" or "all good", it results in neither side making any sense, since they stick to their prescribed morality regardless of whether it makes sense for them to do so. Consequently, the former plays as a cackling moron who murders and extorts ForTheEvulz, while the latter plays as either a bland VanillaProtagonist or a suicidal TechnicalPacifist.

-->I've been raking myself every night before bed. [[ADateWithRosiePalms I'm at risk of going blind.]]

** He ended up giving a lukewarm review of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake'' in large part for this. Yahtzee speaks highly of the original ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' particularly because of its pitch-perfect balance of [[{{Camp}} campy jank]] alongside genuinely revolutionary, exciting, and fun gameplay, feeling that its imperfect tone was not only unique, but added a refreshing level of self-awareness to an increasingly ridiculous franchise which started to suffer from taking itself too seriously. As a result, he felt having a remake that intentionally sanded things down to make it more consistently "good" subsequently made the game much less interesting.

** He ended up giving a lukewarm review of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake'' in large part for this. Yahtzee speaks highly of the original ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' particularly because of its pitch-perfect balance of [[{{Camp}} campy jank]] alongside genuinely revolutionary, exciting, and fun gameplay, and thus felt that having a remake that intentionally sanded things down to make it more consistently "good" subsequently made it much less interesting.

** He ended up giving a lukewarm review of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake'' in large part for this. Yahtzee speaks highly of the original ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' particularly because of its pitch-perfect balance of [[{{Camp}} campy jank]] alongside genuinely revolutionary and fun gameplay, and thus felt that having a remake that intentionally sanded things down to make it more consistently "good" subsequently made it much less interesting and fun.

* SoBadItWasBetter: [[invoked]]He claimed to find ''VideoGame/{{Sacred}} 3'' a lot less fun than the infamous ''VideoGame/RideToHellRetribution'', since while the latter was incompetent drama with completely broken gameplay and therefore hilarious, the other was incompetent comedy with incredibly bland gameplay and therefore painful. He said something similar about ''VideoGame/DaysGone'', which he went so far as to call "''Ride To Hell'', but actually functional."

* SimpleYetAwesome: An increasingly common preference that Yahtzee's developed over the years when it comes to game design. He has a palpable disdain towards [[GameplayRoulette games that stuff themselves with countless gameplay features]] that add nothing for the core experience other than bloated admin, and he's conversely much more favorable towards simpler games that have a solid core gameplay loop and stick to it. ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' became a game ''he genuinely had no criticisms for'' due to being having exactly what it needed (creative portal-based puzzles and sharp writing) and nothing more -- even defending the oft-discussed [[ItsShortSoItSucks short length]][[invoked]] as that meant it didn't overstay its welcome. Compare this to ''VideoGame/Portal2'', which he still enjoyed (and later dubbed his favorite game of 2011), but he rated as lower than its predecessor as ironically, by indulging in SequelEscalation, it added padding through extended setpieces that served the plot and worldbuilding but added very little to the actual gameplay.

* SilentProtagonist: {{Discussed|Trope}} in his review of ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceRemake'', and to a larger extent the accompanying Extra Punctuation "Is the Era of the Silent Protagonist Over?", revolving primarily about former silent protagonist Isaac Clarke becoming SuddenlyVoiced in the remake. Yahtzee's conclusion is that while Silent Protagonists are far from extinct, they aren't as compatible with as many forms of modern gaming that don't rely on the GrandfatherClause (such as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] or [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]]), and that many triple-A narrative-based games have more or less weaned off the idea of established player characters with in-universe identities and personalities that inexplicably don't talk. To that end, Yahtzee considers the choice to update Isaac to actually speak and express his own personality a reasonable one, because him being silent didn't even make much sense in the original, either.

* SilentProtagonist: {{Discussed|Trope}} in his review of ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceRemake'', and to a larger extent the accompanying Extra Punctuation "Is the Era of the Silent Protagonist Over?", revolving primarily about former silent protagonist Isaac Clarke becoming SuddenlyVoiced in the remake. Yahtzee's conclusion is that while Silent Protagonists are from extinct, they aren't as compatible with as many forms of modern gaming that don't rely on the GrandfatherClause (such as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] or [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]]), and that games have more or less weaned off the idea of story-based games with established player characters with in-universe identities and personalities that inexplicably don't talk. To that end, Yahtzee considers the choice to update Isaac to actually speak and express his own personality a reasonable one, because him being silent didn't even make much sense in the original, either.

* ARareSentence: Wanna hear something crazy? "Titty-fuck labrador swimming up The Nile." [-...Oh yeah, and he [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/4181-Driver-San-Francisco liked]] ''VideoGame/DriverSanFrancisco''.-]

-->"Not only does this keep you invested in not being killed... (blimey, that was a weird sentence)..."

-->Want to know how to do a Gears of War witticism? Step 1: [[CaptainObvious Say something relevant but completely obvious]] to stir the players from the latest trance the combat put them into. Step 2: Continue talking uselessly until I hate you. "We need to go over there, and by 'over there', I mean towards that big, scary building full of enemies." [[SarcasmMode "Oh, great; so what's the good news?"]] "Well, the good news is that I'm very handsome and glib and--" ''<Yahtzee's voice cracks>'' '''[[BigShutUp SHUT THE FUCK UUUUP!!]]'''

* SimpleYetAwesome: An increasingly common preference that Yahtzee's developed over the years when it comes to game design. He has a palpable disdain towards games that stuff themselves with countless gameplay features that add nothing for the core experience other than bloated admin, and he's conversely much more favorable towards simpler games that have a solid core gameplay loop and stick to it. ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' became a game ''he genuinely had no criticisms for'' due to being having exactly what it needed (creative portal-based puzzles and sharp writing) and nothing more -- even defending the oft-discussed [[ItsShortSoItSucks short length]][[invoked]] as that meant it didn't overstay its welcome. Compare this to ''VideoGame/Portal2'', which he still enjoyed (and later dubbed his favorite game of 2011), but he rated as lower than its predecessor as ironically, by indulging in SequelEscalation, it added padding through extended setpieces that served the plot and worldbuilding but added very little to the actual gameplay.