Mechanical Alchemy: The Dreaded Wonky Camera

Once, long ago there was a boy who was in love with a small grey box. Inside this box was a doorway to seemingly endless adventure, a bastion of hope throughout the doldrums of summer and an unfailing escape from an intrusive Italian mother. Over time this grey box was traded for another grey box and then another. As the years passed the worlds began to become increasingly real, developing more life like detail and a third dimension. It was so that an afternoon could melt away in moments, an evening in the blink of an eye and when the morning sun would pierce the veil of sleeplessness, this boy, who was now very much a man would look up from his digital stupor and wonder: "How in the hell did the camera in Dissidia Final Fantasy pass QA in testing?!"

When a game takes you out of the moment it can be the worst feeling. It can make you feel betrayed by a product on which you've spent your time and money. This is especially obvious when the camera is not doing what it's supposed to be doing. By its nature the camera should provide a streaming, panoramic feed of the environment and take into consideration all factors that may impede its execution. This creates countless variables that if not properly appraised can cause gaming displeasure. Case in point: the camera and targeting system in Final Fantasy Dissidia. In this RPG/Action Fighter the targeting system acts as a sort of quick reference when lost in the often times labyrinthine stages, reconnecting you to the location of your advisary. The problem here is not the target itself, it is the lack of an immediate return to an over the shoulder perspective when one is not targeting a foe. I feel it is important for me to say the camera is by no means broken but having to constantly baby sit the most pertinent of mechanics in a game so dependent on its 3-D environs hinders the game's ability to cast its spell. When a game looks as pretty as this one, breaking this spell is a tall order but this is not a first in a Final Fantasy action game.

A similar problem occurs in Square's/Disney's Kingdom Hearts. Here the camera is set so close to the avatar that the environments feel practically squished inside of Sora's shorts. It generates a clunkyness to Sora's movement making it very difficult to find your way around unless there is an object or heartless to target. The platforming segments become maddening trials in approximated depth perception forcing the player to guess on their landing marks using memorization and imagination while battling the camera. This generates game time spent on these platforming "puzzles" formulated of pure guesswork that is frustrating and not fun. Anyone that tells you that this adds to the challenge would be absolutely correct but this type of challenge comes out of poor design rather than careful planning and it breaks the cardinal rule in any RPG: don't pull the player out of this world, don't break the spell. Both games manage to address camera problems and as a result make the games playable. Here are some of the mechanics utilized in attempt to fix the aforementioned issues.

In Dissidia, in open spaces you can use the d-pad to reposition the camera manually, again pulling you out of the experience and forcing the player to make awkward choices. This works when the enemy battler is at a distance but when things get tight the camera drops the view forcing you to either relock onto your enemy or reposition the camera. So we find ourselves quite literally at a loss while running from a death-dealing blow. In Kingdom Hearts you can utilize the dodge and jump features to assist but it can quickly become exhausting for those less tenacious. For Dissidia this arises when activating the "quick move". Used as a catch-all for most interactions between avatar and milieu this one button has the potential to pull your character out of harms way, if the camera didn't need to be manually turned around Every. Single. Time! This forces the player to think of the current view and imagine stage elements from a reversed angle read: not on the screen! So if you are running from one of Garland's finishing attacks and you need to run up a wall to move out of harms way the player must imagine the surface and layout of the wall in perfect detail otherwise the quick move fails and the player loses the match. Again poor design; A player should never have to move towards themselves into an area "off the screen" this much. I understand that this is sometimes nessecary, however this type of mechanic would only truly work if utilized in a real world, panoramic, 3-D environment. With a surround screen the player could physically turn their body around to continue the action. On that 40" HDTV or PSP it just feels awkward.

Now SquareEnix/Disney did something magical with Kingdom Hearts 2. Here the camera opened up the perspective and removed the player from Sora's asscrack. Rarely will the player find themselves in tight spaces and one could use the targeting system for what it was meant for: targeting enemies and chaining combos. For manual direction when necessary the pan controls were moved from the awkward shoulder triggers and placed befittingly on the analog sticks making combat and exploration a truly enjoyable experience. This game represents a prime example of how to design a camera that works with a player not against him.

I should mention that in Dissidia I am coming close to logging 200 hours of playtime and the original Kingdom Hearts gets an annual play through. I am in no way saying these games are poor. Quite the contrary, I love them. They both excel in story and manage to walk us through themes of family, courage, and coming of age. Each character shines from a pantheon of psychological archetypes fleshing out the concepts of free will and choice. Yin and Yang. These games are important but because of camera issues they both escape perfection.

In a game with three dimensions the camera is the most important mechanic. Without a good camera the player is constantly called upon to bridge the gap between poor design choices and the world created within. This often times generates play mechanics out of necessity causing frustration and pulling the player out of the experience. In a world as rich and complex as our own it is up to us to portray our best stories in a light equally comprehensive by not leaving the finer details by the wayside. This is when games can truly be seen as art, an expression of our consciousness, uninterrupted and seamless as possible.

Care to share some of your own adventures with the wonky camera?

ROCsteady
Posted to Video Games on 8 November 2009 · Comments (7)
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