Maybe it's a matter of focus, but I like post-apocalyptic and dystopian settings a lot. In my view, more than anything that "post-" bit signifies the resiliency of humanity to survive a world-shattering calamity. In STALKER you're surrounded by other STALKERS all who delved into the zone for their own purposes, challenging fate for a chance at riches or fame. In the Fallout universe, you scrounge among the rubble unearthing the remnants of the past, trading scraps for better gear to go venturing into the wasteland further and further while going on some journey. Half-Life 2 is very dystopia and post-apocalyptic too; an indescribable alien force subjugated the entire planet after only 6 hours of resistance, and strips the planet for its resources, treating each human as barely sentient, more like cells in ones body. And yet it's a story of resistance against unthinkable odds and an unknowable enemy. Halo is fairly cataclysmic as well. Similarly, an alien civilization have come from the depths of space and has begun genociding entire planets while the UNSC mounts a mostly ineffectual defense, only finding success through tactics rather than their technology.

Under-girding each of the games I mentioned is an apocalyptic or dystopian setting, but in my view the very essence of each is the defiance of this trope and to rebuild society and lash out against extinction at all odds.


I do like utopian stuff quite a lot. Star Trek is definitely the universe I'd like to live in most, and by no means would I say I'd want to live in those dystopian ones, but I think they have an understandable charm to them.

I enjoy them a lot. As Anonymous above pointed out it's "post-" apocalypse, so while things are terrible and everything sucks, it could be seen as a point for moving forwards or starting a new path for humanity. Like Hokuto where Ken goes around purging all the bandits and evil from the world so civilization can rise up peacefully once more from the chaos it was plunged into.

>Isn't there enough of this stuff in real life?
Evidently not, considering the apocalypse hasn't happened yet. And it's not as if all post-apocalyptic fiction is like that, either. Watch pic related for something completely different.

The setting itself is fine it's more a matter of execution. Nier Automata does it really well, it really does feel quite atmospheric and I think that there really is the potential for really good media to be made around rebuilding fractured societies(and hopefully with Feudal warfare elements to it). The problem is that most media does not do it well, Fallout being a good example. It's supposed to be set many years after a nuclear war yet it looks like the bombs just hit, people live in filth for all that time without doing something so basic as picking up some garbage and debris and binning or burying it, they have not rebuild anything at all it's a dump. Games like Stalker do it better in that they are not building societies like that but even so it's an ugly and repetitive setting which is what I think you are getting at. Why then did I praise Nier for the setting then? Well I think it's because it's done differently at a different state of dilapidation. I don't like environments that look like dumps, like everybody just hurled everything they own all over the house and yard, destroyed all the furniture they have, leaped in their car, crashed it and then walked out of town. But when it looks like a city has been left for hundred of years, when it has been overgrown with trees and things are decaying because of time, where it looks empty and/or overgrow with nature, then I think it has appeal.

Uhh yeah, post-apocalyptic setting might can get repetitive but if your reason for disliking it is because it's not a happy peaceful world...
Isn't stories without any conflict and doubts to think about gonna be ultra boring too eventually?

>>80503
Post-apocalyptic settings can work, but you're also not wrong. It's very easy to fall into the trap of Western hyper-grit where everything is depressing and ugly.

My favorite post-apocalyptic settings are ones that are sufficiently removed from the apocalypse itself, where things have had some time to heal. It gives off a feeling of hope: like this is a new start for the world, and hopefully they can get things right this time around.

>>80530
>My favorite post-apocalyptic settings are ones that are sufficiently removed from the apocalypse itself, where things have had some time to heal. It gives off a feeling of hope: like this is a new start for the world, and hopefully they can get things right this time around.

Thats probably my favorite part of FNV

fuck post-apocalypse
what we need is more during-apocalypse

also custom robo on gamecube has an ebin PA setting

>>80542
What if we averted the apocalypse by all becoming friends?

>>80542
+1
need more like HOTD

I forgot I made this thread. I finished playing SMT4:A. SMT does it in such a good and creative way that I can't hate it. I was reminded of playing Nocturne over 15 years ago and how amazing the atmosphere was. Persona 1's atmosphere was really cool, too, but my memory is hazy.
I guess maybe my real complaint is that most of them are done in a really boring way. If it's just normal human conflict/suffering it's not very appealing to me.
The OP picture is a girl from the Atelier Dusk trilogy. The games are really fun and I like the characters, but the setting sucks. Humanity killed the environment, so the people are surrounded by ugly, barren land with dried up rivers and so on. While there's still pretty areas, overall the setting is purposely ugly. I don't need a video game to see a world with stuff like that.

>>80542
>PA
I like this acronym.
PA is a simple plot device to erase/replace aspects of modern technology while still placing it somewhere on Earth's timeline. Also adding to the fantasy RPG trope of the ancient ones, old beings of immense power.

DA would be about the destruction of culture and the struggle to protect it. 2 very different naratives that don't compete rather complement one another.

>>80503
I don't mind the setting. I'm also a big fan of settings werethe work gets warred back into the past like in sora no woto