Collecting games Based on "Themes" rather than genre or franchise

[dharmajones93]

Hi all,

I'm always looking for ways to inspire my collecting, experimenting with different strategies for finding games I want to play.

In the past I've gone for genre. Early on I was attempting to get the "must have" RPGs for the consoles I owned. I quickly learned that A) they were too expensive and rare, B) too long to actually play through (they just sat on the shelf), C) occasionally I'd get s stinker.

I've also done franchises. I've gone for complete collections (or at least one version [e.g. PS3 or 360, but not both] of a game in a franchise) for series I enjoy. For example I have dozens of Bomberman games, and I'm closing in on all the Wonderboy games (curse you Dynastic Hero...). I enjoy this, but sometimes I move on to a new series before I finish and lose steam.

Lately I've been going for theme. I've been reading a lot of Cyberpunk and Cthulhu Mythos literature. I've recently acquired the Deus Ex games (super excited to dig into those tonight), and I grabbed a ton of games with Lovecraftian vibes such as: Eternal Darkness, The Sinking City, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Dead Space, etc.

I've found it incredibly fun and rewarding. There's no rhyme or reason to the franchise or even genre. Many of them are FPS's, walking sims, platformers, RPG's, whatever, but I've found myself getting and playing games I would not have otherwise considered. I'm still looking for Cyberpunk games. I did play Snatcher (so good!), and I'm waiting for the Observer physical release.

Has anyone done this? What themes do/would you collect for? Happy collecting!

[dhaabi]

I have a modest subset of games revolving around rural and suburban Japanese life.

Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale - Nintendo 3DS
Boku no Natsuyasumi - PlayStation
Chibi-Robo: Plug Into Adventure! - GameCube
Chulip - PlayStation 2
Katamari Damacy - PlayStation 2
Mister Mosquito - PlayStation 2

And one more, although this is relating to rural Chinese life.

Road to Guangdong - Nintendo Switch

[Flashback2012]

I kinda do this when it comes to quirky Japanese games that get a US release. Ribbit King, Cubivore, Chulip, Magic Pengel, and many more. A more prominent theme is buying up titles from particular publishers, regardless of what they put out. I did this for a long time with Ascii and Agetec as well as Atlus, Sunsoft and UFO Interactive. Found LOTS of off the beaten path games that way. 

[ignition365]

Yeah, I have a habit of buying Mech games, I'm not talking Armored Core strictly, I'm talking any game revolving around Mechs of some kind.

If I find out a game has Mechs, I generally try to buy it.

[dharmajones93]

I have a modest subset of games revolving around rural and suburban Japanese life.

Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale - Nintendo 3DS
Boku no Natsuyasumi - PlayStation
Chibi-Robo: Plug Into Adventure! - GameCube
Chulip - PlayStation 2
Katamari Damacy - PlayStation 2
Mister Mosquito - PlayStation 2

And one more, although this is relating to rural Chinese life.

Road to Guangdong - Nintendo Switch

Ahhh this is cool! I loved Attack of the Friday Monsters! No Shenmue? I've not played it myself but seems like it would be a good fit.

Yeah, I have a habit of buying Mech games, I'm not talking Armored Core strictly, I'm talking any game revolving around Mechs of some kind.

If I find out a game has Mechs, I generally try to buy it.

This was actually a phase I went through too. I grabbed Armored Core 3, SideArms, and Daemon Ex Machina all around the same time. Seems like there are alot of good games in this theme, just not ones you catch out in the wild often. I'm always on the lookout for Viegues: Tactical Gladiator for Turbo.

[kashell]

I tend to gravitate towards games that have really creepy, haunting atmospheres. Something about those unsettling locations makes the games more immersive. Also, anything to do with ancient Japan is right up my alley.

[dharmajones93]

I tend to gravitate towards games that have really creepy, haunting atmospheres. Something about those unsettling locations makes the games more immersive. Also, anything to do with ancient Japan is right up my alley.

Any games with the haunting atmosphere's you'd recommend? I don't have a PS4 or 5 but Ghost of Tsushima and Nioh are at the top of my list to collect when I do!

[kashell]

I tend to gravitate towards games that have really creepy, haunting atmospheres. Something about those unsettling locations makes the games more immersive. Also, anything to do with ancient Japan is right up my alley.

Any games with the haunting atmosphere's you'd recommend? I don't have a PS4 or 5 but Ghost of Tsushima and Nioh are at the top of my list to collect when I do!

Hmm. I just finished Call of Cthulu on Xbone, which was pretty good despite some clunky moments. It's available on PS4 as well. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne are overflowing with atmosphere. Ghost of Tsushima is a fun game but I think it's too pretty if you're looking for something more haunting. Nioh/Nioh 2 are more that speed.

Getting more niche, the first Shadow Hearts on PS2 has a lot of locations that are unnerving. The two Death end;re Quests on PS4 (they might be on Steam/Switch) are also pretty great. If visual novels are your thing, then I recommend Collar X Malice.

[telly]

I tend to gravitate towards games that have really creepy, haunting atmospheres. Something about those unsettling locations makes the games more immersive. Also, anything to do with ancient Japan is right up my alley.

Any games with the haunting atmosphere's you'd recommend? I don't have a PS4 or 5 but Ghost of Tsushima and Nioh are at the top of my list to collect when I do!

If you like 2D Platformers with atmosphere, check out Salt and Sanctuary!

[pzeke]

[...]

Lately I've been going for theme. I've been reading a lot of Cyberpunk and Cthulhu Mythos literature. I've recently acquired the Deus Ex games (super excited to dig into those tonight), and I grabbed a ton of games with Lovecraftian vibes such as: Eternal Darkness, The Sinking City, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Dead Space, etc.

I've found it incredibly fun and rewarding. There's no rhyme or reason to the franchise or even genre. Many of them are FPS's, walking sims, platformers, RPG's, whatever, but I've found myself getting and playing games I would not have otherwise considered. I'm still looking for Cyberpunk games. I did play Snatcher (so good!), and I'm waiting for the Observer physical release.

Sorry for the anal sperg out, but cyberpunk is a subgenre, so if we're to adhere to the premise of your post, then what you would mean to say is that you're into games with dystopian and transhumanism themes. Similarly, "Lovecraftian vibes" essentially translates to Lovecraftian horror, which is also a subgenre, so it'd be apposite to say that you like games peppered with supranatural and cosmicism themes. This is based on the examples you gave, of course; and as prefaced, I know I'm sperging like a nerd, but I felt that distinction needed to be made, specifically given you yourself stated there being "no rhyme or reason" to collecting games based on their genre.

[kazumn]

I've done it before mostly for the japanese ps2, i'm currently trying to get all the racing games for the system, aswell as the sega ages releases.

I've done the simple 2000 series before with adding a few games each year i ended up with all 123 numbered releases for the base set. There is another one called simple series ultimate that i have yet to complete.
While not really a genre perse since they include just about every genre imaginable, but since they are numbered i figured they fit the discription of the topic starter.

[dharmajones93]

If you like 2D Platformers with atmosphere, check out Salt and Sanctuary!

This comes up a lot on my radar. One of these days I'm going to have to pull the trigger!

Sorry for the anal sperg out, but cyberpunk is a subgenre, so if we're to adhere to the premise of your post, then what you would mean to say is that you're into games with dystopian and transhumanism themes. Similarly, "Lovecraftian vibes" essentially translates to Lovecraftian horror, which is also a subgenre, so it'd be apposite to say that you like games peppered with supranatural and cosmicism themes. This is based on the examples you gave, of course; and as prefaced, I know I'm sperging like a nerd, but I felt that distinction needed to be made, specifically given you yourself stated there being "no rhyme or reason" to collecting games based on their genre.

It's okay, I hear you. Though, I did say I've been reading Cyberpunk and Lovecraftian literature (which would be a genre/subgenera of literature, but not necessarily video games: e.g. FPS, Platformer, RPG, racing). I didn't mean to imply they were themes; I only included them to demonstrate the context. The distinction didn't need to be made,  because it's just a light hearted forum post intentionally open to allow the most people to reply in a way that's meaningful to them. You're right though, those themes are great at describing what I'm after!

I have a tendency to be pedantic, but on the internet it doesn't tend to go well. Sort of how you feel the need to be apologetic for making the comment (I'm assuming you're not apologizing for being Aspergian!); you know it's not going to go over well, so you just go with the flow and contribute understanding of the thread and how it influences your collecting. I also don't mean to be inflammatory or rude, I'm just speaking from experience. Then, to your understanding, what "themes" have, if at all, influenced your collecting?

[sworddude]

I'm definitely a genre or franchise collector

Collecting on themes doesn't work for me each theme will have titles wich I'm not interested in not to mention that if where talking just game themes that the playstyles will usually be wildly different per game if I where to go collecting for games surrounding a certain theme.

Military themes have tons of boring fps games
Japanese culture has tons of dating sim games
Monsters has survival horror a genre wich I gave a shot plenty of times but just don't enjoy to much.
Scifi has tons of subpar adventure games or really subpar 2d fighting games to name some examples

I could go on for days

I will say that it is a very interesting way to approach in how one collects I'll give it that.

[dharmajones93]

I'm definitely a genre or franchise collector

Collecting on themes doesn't work for me each theme will have titles wich I'm not interested in not to mention that if where talking just game themes that the playstyles will usually be wildly different per game if I where to go collecting for games surrounding a certain theme.

Military themes have tons of boring fps games
Japanese culture has tons of dating sim games
Monsters has survival horror a genre wich I gave a shot plenty of times but just don't enjoy to much.
Scifi has tons of subpar adventure games or really subpar 2d fighting games to name some examples

I could go on for days

I will say that it is a very interesting way to approach in how one collects I'll give it that.

I definitely agree. This has been the biggest challenge, especially with cosmic horror/Lovecraftian games; they always tend to be survival horror. I like them, but sometimes the obtuse nature of them and skill ceiling are a little high for me. It's take me something like 20 years to finally beat the first resident evil!

Likewise, the Cyberpunk style games always tend to be visual novels that I'm just not interested in. Point and click adventure I'm good with, but visual novels are just not my style.

[oldgamerz]

I'm definitely a genre or franchise collector

Collecting on themes doesn't work for me each theme will have titles wich I'm not interested in not to mention that if where talking just game themes that the playstyles will usually be wildly different per game if I where to go collecting for games surrounding a certain theme.

Military themes have tons of boring fps games
Japanese culture has tons of dating sim games
Monsters has survival horror a genre wich I gave a shot plenty of times but just don't enjoy to much.
Scifi has tons of subpar adventure games or really subpar 2d fighting games to name some examples

I could go on for days

I will say that it is a very interesting way to approach in how one collects I'll give it that.

I definitely agree. This has been the biggest challenge, especially with cosmic horror/Lovecraftian games; they always tend to be survival horror. I like them, but sometimes the obtuse nature of them and skill ceiling are a little high for me. It's take me something like 20 years to finally beat the first resident evil!

Likewise, the Cyberpunk style games always tend to be visual novels that I'm just not interested in. Point and click adventure I'm good with, but visual novels are just not my style.

I personally only collect for Genre and Franchise, I can't think of what classifies as a game as only one theme, for example a lot of the games I play have multiple themes within the same exact game, like some games have certain levels with Dinosaurs, or Jarrassic theme, other games on a different level could have a lava world or a greek or roman theme