Shihali

That's another point brought up on Reddit as well: "puzzle" as a genre is for games that are overwhelmingly or purely about puzzles, without a separate fighting system and with no more than minimal exploration.

If finding a path through a level made a game a puzzle game, Super Mario Bros. would be a puzzle game.

Zelda? Wouldn't call that a puzzle game; too much fighting.

Point 'n' click adventure games might be the most similar genre, but they've been considered a separate genre for a very long time.

Remember having to enter DRULYB to get a different outfit?

I agree with Grailly's second and third ideas. Classic puzzle games gain very little from photorealistic graphics.

I also agree with a Reddit comment that point 'n' click adventure games, a closely related genre, could benefit tremendously from AAA graphics. The trick would be convincing companies to make and sell a game designed for players to get stuck for hours.

As a technological problem it could have a technological partial solution: the darker the skin, the higher the threshold to declare a match. This would also mean more false negatives (real matches not caught by the software) but not much to do about that.

Interesting. The small subreddits I follow either moved or are just as active. Most are just as active.

I'd like to spend more time here, but Lemmy is still not attracting enough people to support a lot of the small subreddits I follow.

"Shorter than Persona 4" is an awful lot of JRPGs. But it sounds like you specifically want something with a fast pace or more action.

Chrono Trigger got a DS port. Ignore the monster arena minigame and the "Lost Sanctum" dungeon. Both were added to the DS port and are bad. The "Dimensional Vortex" dungeons were also added to this version but they're well enough done to not warn against.

Final Fantasy IV had a PSP port and that's a short, fast-paced game.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is an option if you can stretch to GBA games. I liked it a little more than Bowser's Inside Story because it has more exploration but you might like it less for the same reason.

Replying again after my order arrived. It's heavy in the hand, but feels good for short scribbles. It's a good shape for my small hands and four-finger grip. I'll have to test it for a longer time to be sure, though. Ink capacity with the built-in converter looks very small, so be warned.

I read Harrison Bergeron in school. That's what would be needed for full equality of opportunity, if you think about it.

I agree that we (if we're in similar countries) can do a much better job than we do on meeting basic needs.

8

The thought exercise was good to show that if there were a race that is inherently 10% dumber, everything else would not stay equal for more than a few years.

There's nothing quite like Chrono Trigger.

Dragon Quest IV/Dragon Warrior IV was a strong influence on Chrono Trigger's medieval era. If you wanted an entire game about the Hero, DQ4 is the closest you're ever likely to get. (Does that make Recettear a sister game to Chrono Trigger?)

Phantasy Star IV has a similarly fast-moving and cinematic plot, but the graphics and gameplay are more archaic as befits a 1993 game. Strongly recommended if you want to play older JRPGs like DQ4.

Final Fantasy VI (released as "Final Fantasy III") is similar in quality and difficulty, but much longer and more complex.

Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross continue the story, but they have a much darker tone.

Earthbound/Mother 2 came out the same year and is another of the greats, but that's where most of the similarities end. Earthbound might be the only 16-bit classic whose tone is "all of them". Earthbound can be quite hard early on, so don't get discouraged.

For me it got good as soon as I went through the first time portal.
It got great at the second visit to the past.
It became immortal at the first visit to the dark ages.

I find the first visit to the future to be a slog for the most part, although it has one of the strongest scenes in the game. Power through that segment and it gets better in a hurry.

Also, don't play Chrono Trigger with the sound off until you can play the soundtrack in your head. The soundtrack doesn't gently suggest atmosphere like a modern game. It sets the tone for the scene.