I just got finished with beating Riven for the first time. I adored the way the game seeped into my real life with pages of notes about the world I was discovering. Are there any other games that can match this feeling? That really work best when you have a journal in hand?

  • kazerniel@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    My most recent such games were Her Story and Return of the Obra Dinn.

    During Her Story I ended up with an A5 sheet full of keyword ideas I wanted to search the recordings for.

    Obra Dinn had me draw multiple iterations of a ship deck while trying to figure out who was likely to sleep in which hammock :D

  • ThermonuclearCactus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    7 days ago

    Elite: Dangerous, because every time I tab out of the game to check INARA for the closest outfitting or something there’s about a 30% chance of it crashing and becoming unlaunchable until I restart my computer. Hence writing system names down on paper before launching the game.

  • Swifter@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Riven is one of my favorite games and IMO the best of the Myst series of games. My recommendation is Outer Wilds, which doesn’t necessarily require real life note taking although you could. However it is a fantastic puzzle/exploration game that is easily on par with Riven, and will hit that same vibe of learning more and more about the world and using that knowledge to progress. Trust me, its very worth it. Also get the DLC too!

  • JakenVeina@lemm.ee
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    5 days ago

    Honorable mention fir Outer Wilds, cause taking notes and keeping track of things you learn is critical to the gameplay, but the game actually provides an excellent UI already it already.

    Also, Elden Ring and other FromSoft games are a contender, cause when you meet a random NPC that says like 3 lines of dialog and doesn’t repeat them, you’re gonna have trouble remembering any of that 20 hours later when yoy meet them again.

  • ChronosTriggerWarning@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    For me with this ADD, a lot, honestly. But, if you’ve ever tried your hand at breeding in Ark, you kinda understand what is like to be a CPA in tax season.

  • brsrklf@jlai.lu
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    7 days ago

    Three very different games I actually took notes for :

    La Mulana. In the “modern” version you have limited memory space to save some of the many texts you find, but you’ll need more than that to solve the puzzles anyway. Good luck trying to scribble the weird pixelated symbols on your notes, too.

    I play Shin Megami Tensei games with notes to optimize fusions, when I have a particular demon in mind and I want them to inherit the right skills. Later games let you see fusion results, but only one step ahead.

    And then there’s spacechem. I love Zachtronics games in general, and all the following ones tend to be progressive in difficulty and let you experiment from a good enough solution to better solutions. As the first, less refined one, spacechem is special. Before long it needs planning and calculations to even get something that works.

  • tux@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Love that your example was riven. Was my first thought on the title.

    The myst games, their newer game Obduction, the Talos Principle. Those puzzle games all are awesome and take some pen and paper.

    Escape from mystwood mansion, the house of da Vinci are a couple others that feel the same way.

    Less adventure, more “must optimize!” games like Satisfactory, Factorio are other games that require me to bust out pen and paper or at least a website, spreadsheet or calculator.

  • Pyrin@kbin.melroy.org
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    7 days ago

    Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall the Non-Unity edition. Where you’re going to have to remember some locations, characters and whatever else to get by.

    And just any old-time classic RPGs from the 80s and 90s, who didn’t hold your hand.

    • brsrklf@jlai.lu
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      7 days ago

      I am curious how you scribble your way out of Daggerfall’s dungeons. Even the game’s 3D automap is basically too messy to be of any use.

    • tranxuanthang@lemm.ee
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      7 days ago

      Second this. If I remember correctly, at some points in VLR, you have to enter some certain passwords to deactivate some certain things or something terrible will happen. But if you play this game on 3DS which has an additional touch screen, you can utilize integrated notepad feature of the game to write down what you need to remember ;-) It is crucial to play these kind of games knowing as little as possible, so I won’t disclose any more details.

  • Eccentric@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    Return of the Obra Dinn. Indie darling puzzle game where you are an insurance adjuster working on a recovered ghost ship. Very thematic and satisfying to take notes by hand

    Edit: whoops someone already mentioned it

  • Hupf@feddit.org
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    7 days ago

    Funny you mention Riven, that was my first offender too way back in the day.

    Recently, it’s mainly with KSP and Cities:Skylines for planning stuff while I don’t have access to the game.

  • Yokozuna@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I’ve wanted to do this for awhile with a RPG - you might have convinced me to do this on the next one I pick up.