As we’ve discovered time and time again, someone’s hatred for the classic videogame yellow paint rarely ever outweighs their need for it. The sunny signposting has become a universal language for guiding players through levels, but it’s also a regular point of contention in what some consider lazy game design.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi is the latest developer to weigh in on the debate after his own game was targeted for discussion in early 2024. “I get there is a debate about that: whether that fits with that world or not, whether some people want it, some people don’t,” he said. “I think as a game, there is definitely a need for that kind of thing in a lot of ways. I think obviously different developers experiment, try different things about what works best, what fits best, the right way of doing that in their game.”
I mean, yeah, Hamaguchi is largely stating the obvious here. For me at least, it’s never about the inclusion of yellow paint itself, but how egregious it is—I took particular umbrage with its slapdash usage in Stellar Blade for example, which is one of the only games I’ve played where it’s actively bugged me.
THE YELLOW PAINT VIRUS HAS INFECTED FF7 pic.twitter.com/calN0dqHf4February 8, 2024
And as we’ve seen in the past, despite people’s sour attitude towards yellow paint as a concept, it’s often a necessary evil. Assassin’s Creed Shadows was originally lacking in the stuff before playtests revealed that folks were having trouble distinguishing between what was and wasn’t climbable. Star Wars Outlaws went for the Switzerland approach and offered an Explorer Mode that let players toggle it off.
The Witcher 4’s design lead argued that it wasn’t the yellow paint itself, but rather the implementation of it and the feeling of making players feel like their hand is being held versus gently pushing without them knowing. It’s a sentiment that Hamaguchi seems to echo.
“The need to guide players around from a gameplay perspective and show them what can be done—what they need to do—there are definitely times where that is needed,” he said. “So I think obviously there is more of a debate about how it’s done, what level and what works. And there’ll still be people who say ‘no, that doesn’t fit at all. We don’t like that.’ That’s fine, but I think there is definitely a need there, and it’s something that is definitely worth looking at.”
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