Excellent points, CelticWhisper, especially...
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I think what it all comes down to is suspension of disbelief. It's required for any reading, viewing, or playing experience to be truly immersive.
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Exactly, and there is no way of achieving this immersion for every possible player. The way I see it, it just has to click. Could be the story, the dialogue, the style of the artwork, the music, the gameplay, any combination thereof, could be anything. You mentioned Legacy of Kain, undoubtedly way up there among the best-written games ever. But I remember my initial disappointment with Soul Reaver. After having played Blood Omen over and over for three years, the departure from many aspects which had made the original click for me was too much. The presentation, the moody graphics, the (then) gorgeous lighting effects, the haunting music, the sophisticated concepts, the deep story, the unprecedented excellent voice acting let me forgive and forget the sometimes tedious gameplay and the ridiculous loading times which made you think twice about changing your spells or items. Is Blood Omen a perfect game? Certainly not, but for me it comes close. (Of course, once I got over my expectations, Soul Reaver clicked on its own pretty soon. Unfortunately I had to discover that the German disc featured only the horrible localization, but after hunting down a UK disc, all was well again in the land of Nosgoth. To think that I had to buy both games twice just because of the dialogue...)
Anyway, there obviously isn't a sure-fire formula how to make a game fun. A good story can be key (see Silent Hill, another example of a series where everything comes together), but a bad one can seriously detract from the overall fun (see MGS2 - as much as I love intricate plots, I'd have been perfectly happy with a run of the mill story in exchange for this nonsense). On the other hand, if I find enough aspects to my liking, I'm willing to forgive even those shortcomings a game shouldn't get away with. An example: I don't like turn-based combat รก la Square, least of all those with random encounters. I've never been able to find the least bit of enjoyment in any Final Fantasy title. Along came Koudelka, and for some reason I liked the location - the mood, the graphics, the sound - so much that I suffered through every single boring encounter. They all featured one of two tunes. Both were horrible - I hated every single note, and even today I can whistle them. The encounters occurred unbelievably frequently (to lengthen the otherwise short game), and they involved the same boring monsters over and over. Yet I have fond memories of the game. Talk about a forgiving player...
Apart from the atrocious (although sparse) voice acting and the story, Symphony of the Night has no shortcomings I can think of off the top of my head - if it's not perfect, it's pretty damn close -, but if I listen to Michiru Yamane's score outside of the game for too long, I just have to pop in the disc and play. But I don't just start over. I load my last save before the final battle and just hack away for a while, running around almost invincible, mindlessly killing everything that crosses my path with one blow - not because I enjoy the power-trip, just to get to the various locations within the game. See? If I like a game that much, the actual gameplay or the challenge takes a backseat. The only Tomb Raider outings I consider worth mentioning - the original and Legend -, the Prince of Persia trilogy, the original Devil May Cry, the REmake, MGS, Headhunter on the DC... Every now and then I have to play several save files just to revisit the places (never because of an interesting boss battle or some such thing, though). However, these are bad examples, because in most of these cases the gameplay is a huge part of the fun; I'd still play them if it wasn't, though. Oh well, I hope I've made myself remotely clear.
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Originally Posted by CelticWhisper
I'm not sure what I'm really going for here; it's late and I'm trying hard not to ramble.
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I've just joined the club, it seems
Zorro
Jam it back in, in the dark.
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Zorro