I just got finished with beating Riven for the first time. I adored the way the game seeped into my real life with pages of notes about the world I was discovering. Are there any other games that can match this feeling? That really work best when you have a journal in hand?
I sketch out factory designs for Satisfactory
Tunic!
The “final” puzzle took a whole page of paper. It was brilliant
I still smile whenever I stumble upon these pages of my college block
The loading page was some straight up bullshit though.
So many instances of…
“…no…nooo… NOOO”
Then it works
The following games all typically do not hold the player’s hand. They are to varying degrees, some give you a map and/or journal, some do not.
- TES III Morrowind
- King’s Field 1-4
- Snatcher on SEGA CD
- Dark Souls 1-3, Demons Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring
- Ultima Underworld
- Silent Hill 1-4
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Tunic
- Super Metroid
- Hollow Knight
- Rain World
- System Shock 1,2
I love the Morrowind recommendation. Also, unlikely suggestion, but I had to get a pen and paper for The Great Crystal dungeon on Final Fantasy XII.
I hear Lorelei and The Laser Eyes was specifically designed around the idea of the player using a physical notepad to help solve the puzzles. Recently released and reviewed strongly, you should check it out if not already on your radar.
It definitely does, and I’ll second the recommendation, but at least one set of puzzles only really requires the the notepad because they didn’t give you sufficient software tools in game, not because it couldn’t be done well in game.
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Riven is one of my favorite games and IMO the best of the Myst series of games. My recommendation is Outer Wilds, which doesn’t necessarily require real life note taking although you could. However it is a fantastic puzzle/exploration game that is easily on par with Riven, and will hit that same vibe of learning more and more about the world and using that knowledge to progress. Trust me, its very worth it. Also get the DLC too!
Seconded, though I would advise getting the DLC after completing the main game.
The last game I recall breaking out pen and paper for was Tunic. You can definitely beat the story without, but the later puzzles call for it.
Animal Well.
Tunic
Elite Dangerous
Death Stranding
Tunic 💯💯
Why Death Stranding? I don’t understand this one…
I kept some paper logs of what was needed where. Mostly for building things, but also for deliveries. I was trying to be relatively efficient in hauling stuff around.
My most recent such games were Her Story and Return of the Obra Dinn.
During Her Story I ended up with an A5 sheet full of keyword ideas I wanted to search the recordings for.
Obra Dinn had me draw multiple iterations of a ship deck while trying to figure out who was likely to sleep in which hammock :D
Honestly it was really handy to have a pen and paper around for Elden Ring for me. There was just so much I wanted to keep track of so that I could come back or to make connections. But it’s also a very acquired taste kind of game to go through!
The legend of grimrock 1,2. I have pages of notes and a hand drawn map on gridpaper for them!
Myst was my answer even before reading your post, so I would say the rest of the series. Also Quern, in the same genre. Maybe The Talos Principle if you like puzzles, though I don’t remember reaching for my notepad while playing.
I usually wrote a lot of scribbles for Stardew Valley, at least when trying to go for perfection.
Heaven’s Vault feels like it should have its own journal, but it really didn’t.
Sid Meier’s Pirates! could use a notebook at points or at least scrap paper.
Morrowind, Factorio and Stardew Valley
