games with morality systems that think are good
i either have extremely high standards or morality systems are just done terribly in most games. probably a little of both. for the purposes of this list, i do not consider a game with just choices to have a morality system if there's no in-game system that reflects positives and negatives of making those choices, i.e. dragon age: origins has choices that greatly affect the plot, but it does not have a morality system. also, alignment systems by themselves are not inherently morality systems, so games like shin megami tensei: strange journey do not apply to this list either.
5 Games
i think one of the most important things about having a good morality system is that both sides need to be compelling and tempting to players who would normally do the other side.
dark soul is appealing because dark chips are extremely overpowered, and can save you from a situation where you could've potentially game over'd and lost progress. furthermore, their introduction/execution in the plot is well done and gives you a free sampling of what it's like to use them without any of the negative costs. dark soul also has the ability to pull up dark chips immediately and a get out of jail free card with berserk status when being deleted. conversely, the costs of permanently losing a point of HP is very steep if you're a completionist or excessively use them, on top of losing access to specific powerful chips like gundelsol EX.
meanwhile, light soul is tempting because the game rewards staying light by making full synchro easier to achieve the more light you are. the SP navi chips are stronger than the DS navi chips, and there's the added bonus of there being no cost associated to being light soul, unlike dark soul. if anything, the only downside to light soul is that you lose safety nets when doing netbattles and access to dark soul chips like muramasa, which isn't the biggest cost in the universe compared to chips that require light soul that are significantly better, like holy dream.
it's not a perfectly balanced morality system, and i would say the game gives more of an advantage to light soul than dark soul, but there is temptation and advantages to going dark soul. i like this system and i think it's very well done for what it is.
dark soul is appealing because dark chips are extremely overpowered, and can save you from a situation where you could've potentially game over'd and lost progress. furthermore, their introduction/execution in the plot is well done and gives you a free sampling of what it's like to use them without any of the negative costs. dark soul also has the ability to pull up dark chips immediately and a get out of jail free card with berserk status when being deleted. conversely, the costs of permanently losing a point of HP is very steep if you're a completionist or excessively use them, on top of losing access to specific powerful chips like gundelsol EX.
meanwhile, light soul is tempting because the game rewards staying light by making full synchro easier to achieve the more light you are. the SP navi chips are stronger than the DS navi chips, and there's the added bonus of there being no cost associated to being light soul, unlike dark soul. if anything, the only downside to light soul is that you lose safety nets when doing netbattles and access to dark soul chips like muramasa, which isn't the biggest cost in the universe compared to chips that require light soul that are significantly better, like holy dream.
it's not a perfectly balanced morality system, and i would say the game gives more of an advantage to light soul than dark soul, but there is temptation and advantages to going dark soul. i like this system and i think it's very well done for what it is.
i don't adore the morality system in this game because it's fairly obtuse and not communicated that well to the player, but i do think it adds depth to the game's setting. i don't think there's an especially good element of temptation or communication of what either alignment would give you, but there are distinct advantages to either alignment that, once understood, do have their pros and cons. if nothing else, the fact that it's mostly an afterthought to the game is probably for the best, as morality systems tend to be obtrusive, and i can see a version of this game that would be for the worse if it had doubled down on character tendency as a main mechanic.
yes, it does lie to you in what LV and EXP stand for. i don't consider that an unforgivable sin and instead find that to be a clever play on expectations as well as it playing with RPG tropes. i think it's a creative take on the idea without being intrusive whatsoever, which is likely why it's one of the strongest points of the game for many people.
this is a very borderline case, but i think it's significant enough to warrant an inclusion on this list. the idea of a game tracking your empathy without your knowledge or communicating it to you whatsoever is interesting, and i think it's part of what makes the game's final twist so thought-provoking. i think it could've been done better, but it's interesting and there's perfectly decent explanations/temptations for why someone may have received a lower empathy score than they expected to.
okay thanks for reading my list! if you haven't gathered from how short this list is, i strongly dislike morality systems in most games and find them to be very poorly done. most of the time, you're expected to be good for good's sake, and vice versa for evil. why should you kill this character if you're good? what's the temptation? why should you save this character if you're evil? what's the temptation? i find that most of the time the games expect minimal story/character changes to justify morality systems and that the idea of a choice is more important than the actual ramifications of said choice. moreover, a lot of them are just imbalanced, i.e. bioshock 1 makes going evil nearly objectively inferior to going good because you get more rewards from going good while you get nothing for going evil. do i think morality systems have potential? yes, but not when they're just there to tell the gamer "you are a good character who has done good things. here is the plot telling you that you are good." morality systems work best when there's an actual struggle of desires within the player on some level, imo.
either way, i don't expect to add many games to this list, but i would love to be wrong about that.
either way, i don't expect to add many games to this list, but i would love to be wrong about that.