Repopulation

From TheAlmightyGuru
Jump to: navigation, search
Before and after repopulation in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon.

In video games, repopulation describes when weaker enemies are replaced with stronger enemies as the player character's strength increases. This game mechanic is a form of dynamic difficulty which helps ensure the player will continue to be challenged throughout the course of the game.

Personal

I first saw this game mechanic implemented in the game Castlevania: Circle of the Moon where, when I returned one of the earliest sections of the game looking for hidden rooms, I was shocked to see the previously weak monsters replaced with more powerful monsters. Upon reflecting on it, I thought this was a wonderful idea and was surprised that subsequent Castlevania titles, or any other Metroidvanias for that matter, didn't use it, as it makes the older sections far more interesting when you invariably have to backtrack through them.

Usage

The mechanic can be implemented in a variety of ways. For example, in a game's story, a villain is trying to awaken an ancient evil in hopes that she will be able to control it and bend it to her will. However, the great evil destroys her and sends out its minions to ravage the land. Now, the areas that were once sparsely populated with weak monsters are now teeming with stronger monsters. How is this accomplished? In the game's internal memory, there is a variable which stores whether or not the villain has awakened the ancient evil. When the game starts, the variable is set false, then, when the pivotal scene occurs, it is set to true. In the game's map, there are spawn points for both the weak and strong monsters. However, when the map is loaded into memory, the game checks the value in the variable. If it is false, the game loads the weaker monsters, if it is true, it loads the stronger monsters. A game doesn't have to use a binary value, it could instead store the numbers 1-5 which correspond to five different levels of monsters, each one being triggered by something different like defeating a boss, acquiring an item, or discovering a new section of the map.

Instead of using scripted events, the game can also base repopulation on the player character's strength. For example, if the player level is 1-10 use the weak monster, if it's 11-20, use the medium monster, if it's 21-30 use the strong monster, and, if it's greater than 30, use the strongest monster. This method makes the difficulty more dynamic, but, it also isn't as thematic.

Examples

Title Released Developer Notes
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon 2001-03-21 Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe Upon defeating Death, the weaker monsters in the Catacomb and Eternal Corridor are repopulated with stronger monsters.
Final Fantasy VI 1994-04-02 Square The World of Ruin replaces the bulk of game monsters with more powerful ones.
Hollow Knight 2017-02-24 Team Cherry Around halfway through the game, the infection spreads and replaces various early monsters with more powerful variants.
Kingdom Hearts 2002-03-28 Square When backtracking through the various worlds later in the game, you'll find them repopulated with more powerful Heartless.
Metroid Prime 2002-11-18 Nintendo Chozo ghosts are added to previous areas once they're awakened.
Pinstripe 2017-04-24 Atmos Games Once there ceremony beings, the map gets repopulated with flying monsters.
Resident Evil 1996-03-22 Capcom Later in the game, rooms you thought you had cleared will be repopulated by more powerful Hunters.

Links