#i don't care how many times i've played this game this death is mandatory

[gwydionae]

"That old witch caught Graham 'toad-ally' off guard."

[chrismerle]

so, I like horses (was a certified Horse Girl growing up and took lessons for several years, shelves are still full of horse knickknacks). I like video games. I played a handful of horse games when I was younger and I've observed enough conversations on horse games to agree that a lot of them suck, but also I really disagree with a lot of things people say should be mandatory for good horse games. I think a lot of the hyper-exact controls and minutia of endless competitions and keeping track of strides and pacing makes for boring games. the horse game I played the most as a kid was Equestriad 2001 because it had cross country and I could use cheat codes to ride a flaming death horse with metal hooves and send the rider careening 50 feet before ragdolling every time I missed a jump.

every time I see a game where it's like 'breed however many horses, master these incredibly fiddly controls' it's like ... why. if you have 72 horses that are all basically interchangeable except for coat colors and you're just maximizing stats, then it could be a motorcycle racing game and very little would change. like, no shade to people who do like those games, they are just not what I want and I get tired of hearing 'I found an ACTUALLY GOOD horse game' when I know it's going to be something that I won't like. see, I like narrative-heavy games. some horse games don't have stories, some do, but if you can buy, sell, and breed horses at the drop of a hat, then the horses can't actually be included in the story. they can be props or macguffins--you own a stable, you own a ranch, you inherited a farm--but if there's a revolving door of horses then they can't be an integral part of the story. the game may as well be about running a chop shop and racing on weekends.

so what is my personal ideal horse game, then? picture, if you will:

at the start of the game, you get to design one human character and one horse. they can look like whatever you want, within reason. the human is the player character. you're a courier in the apocalypse. i see no reason why a horse game can't be fantastical. if i wanted to play RDR then i would.

your character already knows how to ride. they've been a courier for a while. the horse is already trained. but the horse is not your horse. you and the horse are strangers to each other. you had a previous horse. the horse had a previous owner. but it's the apocalypse and shit happened, and now you and the horse have each other. as you get to know and trust each other, you adapt to each other, are willing to do more, and improve skills you already have.

but you can choose how you treat the horse. you can camp at designated milestones and take care of the horse, or you can choose not to. you can be kind to the horse during gameplay, or you can choose not to. if you bond with the horse and treat it well, or if you treat the horse like an automaton that's just to get you from point a to point b, that will impact the game.

for instance, certain skills aren't available without a certain level of trust; the horse will refuse to do them. if you dismount and wander off on foot, a horse that doesn't like you will eventually start to wander off on its own, so you'll need to track it down again. a horse that doesn't trust you will spook more easily and be slower to calm, so getting through the Designated Apocalypse Zones unnoticed is much more difficult. if you decide not to use designated camps for too long, eventually the horse can't go on any farther and you're forced to just camp where you are, without a proper camping set up and no effective way to make sure the area is truly safe, so once morning comes you're as exhausted as your horse.

if you camp properly, you're both well rested. if you and the horse trust each other, the horse is willing to do weirder shit without balking. if the horse trusts you, it's calmer and more cooperative in Designated Apocalypse Zones, so getting through without being noticed is easier. if the horse likes you and you dismount to check something out on foot, then the horse will be waiting more or less where you left it when you come back or will come to you when you whistle.

I don't know what the actual STORY is, but at the end of the game, there's a good end for a courier and horse that have a strong bond, a bad end for a courier that the horse can't fucking stand, and maybe a neutral end where you're basically polite coworkers with the horse.

basically I want a horse game where the minutiae of strides and leading legs and how you're holding the reins are whatever, but you are incapable of forgetting that the horse is, in fact, a living, breathing character that can't be replaced with countless reskinned clones.