Adrián-S
Adrián
Towns Folk
Hey everyone, so this will be my first real full-length forum post, so sorry if there are any mistakes in the formatting or something..
This whole post is about a game called Morphie's Law, which I have followed since its inception for a few years until it finally landed on the Switch around this time last year. I'd followed this game because I really thought its concept looked enticing: 3rd-person, gyroscope, Splatoon-like shooting mechanics, Mexican-style world and character design plus the mega-cool-looking added gimmick of "mass stealing". Mass stealing was really interesting to me. Basically, when a player shoots another part of an opposing player's body, they gain mass from the other's body while the opposing player's body part becomes smaller, and the abilities of each player change accordingly. For example, if I had been shooting another player's legs, my legs would become big, allowing me to run and jump more efficiently and use a "butt rocket" to soar around the battle field, while the player I'd stolen mass from would be smaller and able to avoid shots much more easily and access tightly-squeezed areas to avoid enemy fire even more. And of course, the map designs generally allow this concept to work pretty well.
When the game finally dropped, I played it for around 150 hours with friends and whenever I had a chance to alone as well. It was a little bit bare-bones with only a few modes and maps, and somewhat limited weapon customization options as well, (though the character design features were super decked out, even if they were incredibly un-intuitive). However, as seems to be the case with modern games these days, I figured a large bulk of the game would roll out later on. Honestly, I didn't even care if it was paid DLC or free updates, if the content was substantial I would be pretty psyched because I was really starting to enjoy the game. The controls were pretty finicky and it didn't quite feel finished; it was definitely in need of some tweaks and changes all around. However, I really liked what the game stood for and what it offered: a unique idea combining a lot of interesting mechanics with the promise of growing into a really great, polished game. Games like this could really be system-sellers for the Switch if they're given incentive to continue to polish the game further. Watching the trailers for this just made it all look fun. I know Nintendo features games on their news page and on the recently released page on the E-Shop (for like a few seconds anyways until they’re covered by newer titles), and even sometimes on the "Nindies" program, but Morphie's Law just didn’t really seem to benefit a whole lot from any of these things. Having left it around December of last year and booting it up again just recently, I've found that hardly anything has been changed or tweaked in any noticeable way.
But, the biggest issue here: I couldn't even find one match with another player. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON WAS PLAYING. I waited a long while to join a match but I couldn’t find even one other player. When the mode finally booted up after the "waiting for other players" clock had ran out of time, the game didn't set me up with some bots, no, nor did it just end the match, it had me run around a barren map with only myself to run the mode alone. Very. Sad. It's so awful to me to see a game with such promise become so unpopular over the course of just a year. And I can't help but imagine what would have happened if Morphie's Law had somehow switched places with Splatoon in some alternate dimension where it was a new Nintendo IP, and Splatoon was made by an indie studio; Morphie's Law would have had a thick layer of polish and much better designed elements that would've made the interesting concepts come to real fruition and become incredibly fun to play for years to come. Of course I know that this is definitely to be expected with thirrd-party indie developers with less experience making games and vastly less resources than Nintendo, but it just makes me really disappointed to see such great creativity and potential stomped out by the simple fact that the team didn’t have the means to successfully create their ideas. In looking for any sort of news on the game, i read that the game recently rebranded to "Morhie's Law 'Remorphed'", but it's really not clear what that actually means and I can't find any information about it online either which is pretty confusing.
Similar things have definitely happened with other games I was super excited about as well. The main one being Absolver. Absolver looked INCREDIBLE all throughout it's development, and like Morhpie's Law, the concepts just looked absolutely incredible. But because of mistakes and shortcomings of the relatively small development of the game, it was released in a state that felt really rough and unfinished just like Morphie's Law. Both games have received some updates, but none are game-changing in my opinion and none have gotten the initial player base to be interested once more in the series, which is really sad. I know this post doesn't solve anything for anyone, but I honestly would just like to bring some kind of attention to Morphie's Law, it's a great game that just fell victim to a lack of resources, and I wish there was some way that games like it could get the real care that they need to become incredible.
This whole post is about a game called Morphie's Law, which I have followed since its inception for a few years until it finally landed on the Switch around this time last year. I'd followed this game because I really thought its concept looked enticing: 3rd-person, gyroscope, Splatoon-like shooting mechanics, Mexican-style world and character design plus the mega-cool-looking added gimmick of "mass stealing". Mass stealing was really interesting to me. Basically, when a player shoots another part of an opposing player's body, they gain mass from the other's body while the opposing player's body part becomes smaller, and the abilities of each player change accordingly. For example, if I had been shooting another player's legs, my legs would become big, allowing me to run and jump more efficiently and use a "butt rocket" to soar around the battle field, while the player I'd stolen mass from would be smaller and able to avoid shots much more easily and access tightly-squeezed areas to avoid enemy fire even more. And of course, the map designs generally allow this concept to work pretty well.
When the game finally dropped, I played it for around 150 hours with friends and whenever I had a chance to alone as well. It was a little bit bare-bones with only a few modes and maps, and somewhat limited weapon customization options as well, (though the character design features were super decked out, even if they were incredibly un-intuitive). However, as seems to be the case with modern games these days, I figured a large bulk of the game would roll out later on. Honestly, I didn't even care if it was paid DLC or free updates, if the content was substantial I would be pretty psyched because I was really starting to enjoy the game. The controls were pretty finicky and it didn't quite feel finished; it was definitely in need of some tweaks and changes all around. However, I really liked what the game stood for and what it offered: a unique idea combining a lot of interesting mechanics with the promise of growing into a really great, polished game. Games like this could really be system-sellers for the Switch if they're given incentive to continue to polish the game further. Watching the trailers for this just made it all look fun. I know Nintendo features games on their news page and on the recently released page on the E-Shop (for like a few seconds anyways until they’re covered by newer titles), and even sometimes on the "Nindies" program, but Morphie's Law just didn’t really seem to benefit a whole lot from any of these things. Having left it around December of last year and booting it up again just recently, I've found that hardly anything has been changed or tweaked in any noticeable way.
But, the biggest issue here: I couldn't even find one match with another player. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON WAS PLAYING. I waited a long while to join a match but I couldn’t find even one other player. When the mode finally booted up after the "waiting for other players" clock had ran out of time, the game didn't set me up with some bots, no, nor did it just end the match, it had me run around a barren map with only myself to run the mode alone. Very. Sad. It's so awful to me to see a game with such promise become so unpopular over the course of just a year. And I can't help but imagine what would have happened if Morphie's Law had somehow switched places with Splatoon in some alternate dimension where it was a new Nintendo IP, and Splatoon was made by an indie studio; Morphie's Law would have had a thick layer of polish and much better designed elements that would've made the interesting concepts come to real fruition and become incredibly fun to play for years to come. Of course I know that this is definitely to be expected with thirrd-party indie developers with less experience making games and vastly less resources than Nintendo, but it just makes me really disappointed to see such great creativity and potential stomped out by the simple fact that the team didn’t have the means to successfully create their ideas. In looking for any sort of news on the game, i read that the game recently rebranded to "Morhie's Law 'Remorphed'", but it's really not clear what that actually means and I can't find any information about it online either which is pretty confusing.
Similar things have definitely happened with other games I was super excited about as well. The main one being Absolver. Absolver looked INCREDIBLE all throughout it's development, and like Morhpie's Law, the concepts just looked absolutely incredible. But because of mistakes and shortcomings of the relatively small development of the game, it was released in a state that felt really rough and unfinished just like Morphie's Law. Both games have received some updates, but none are game-changing in my opinion and none have gotten the initial player base to be interested once more in the series, which is really sad. I know this post doesn't solve anything for anyone, but I honestly would just like to bring some kind of attention to Morphie's Law, it's a great game that just fell victim to a lack of resources, and I wish there was some way that games like it could get the real care that they need to become incredible.
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