In 2010 the word 'gamification' received a surge of interest.
I don't think it's unfair to say that this term has a mixed reputation.
The word itself is loosely defined as trying to add game mechanics to non-game environments. Leaderboards for sales teams, good behaviour points for schoolchildren, that sort of thing. Leveraging game mechanics where they don't traditionally belong.
Ring Fit Adventure is an example of this process working in reverse. Rather than bringing game mechanics into a realm where they don't belong, Ring Fit Adventure takes something that doesn't usually belong in a video game, a full-body workout, and creates a game world that attempts to accommodate a full-body workout so well that you forget that it was ever a stranger to the gaming landscape.
Spoiler: I think the mad lads did it.
This is the 103% Review of Ring Fit Adventure
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WORKING OUT IS SHITE
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Let's establish one fact of life upfront. Working out is shit. Big shit.
Those people who like working out? Freaks. Fools. Outliers. Not to be trusted. Forget them. They already have an intrinsic enjoyment associated with their gym routine or they have found a sustainable way to suffer there. These people may have even tried to recruit you into their sad sweaty (and often noisy) world in the past. But as a fitness solution, the public gym doesn't work for everyone. Let's consider the other options available, but before I do...
Not everyone feels the pressing need to actually have a regular workout routine at all. A lot of people are happy without one and that's their business. Don't be that guy, even if you think you're helping. But for those looking to take on more exercise, if the gym sucks... what else?
You could take classes? The more structured activities sidestep some of the gym politics, but it's still a matter of finding a class to suit you at a time, location, and vibe calibration that suits you. In many ways, this option has a lot of the same downsides at the gym, and often costs more, not to mention that a lot of the options for classes are rolled up into gym memberships because that's how the economics of the fitness industry works. Personal trainers are great but can cost a bomb, and you still have to find the right fit for you.
You could just take up jogging like I did for a bit, but it gets old really quickly and I like in the UK so a good chunk of the calendar makes it really unappealing to put on my running shoes.
The best option? I'd say sports. Football, bouldering, hockey... whatever it is. If I'm engaged with a PvP contest, or a PvE challenge (bouldering) then my focus and attention are on that aspect of the activity and I can focus less on the exertion and pain I'm dealing with. I've done 'reps' in the gym before and believe me, I'm counting every single one of those fuckers, and I'm counting down.
But I'll play football for two hours without so much as blinking. I'll climb bouldering walls until my arms turn to stone. It's engaging enough that my brain is content to chew on tactics and strategy rather than focus on pain and fatigue.
That is of course when I can make time for it. I'm less and less able to get a game of football going, especially with people who are at my level either way. Bouldering is great, but it's not something for which I can always set aside time and wallet space. It also makes me feel like a hypocrite because I like it. Remember what I said about people who enjoy working out? Freaks. Fools.
But do you know what kind of engrossing, engaging activity I regularly make time for? I think you know the answer.
Now let's talk timers.
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EVERY SECOND IS EARNED
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One thing I've never really understood about video games, in general, is the ubiquitous 'hours played' counter on save files through the ages. They are especially visible in the world of JRPGs but they are everywhere, and platforms such as Steam are also keenly tracking playtime as well. You have to wonder why these timers are so prevalent, but you don't have to do the research. I know that I haven't. Because of in-game timers, I know that my current Shin Megami Tensei save file is running at 42 hours and counting. Why is it so important that I know this? I don't know but I can tell you how it makes me feel.
One feeling is "Wow, I can calculate precisely how many hours of play I've gotten for my investment in this game unless, of course, the game timer does that really annoying thing where it continues to tick over during idle time or that one time I took a really long dump in the middle of a gaming session and it counted all such moments because it didn't have a mechanism to deal with pause screen time."
Another more useful feeling is "Wow, I've spent quite a lot of time being engaged with this world, story, and gameplay systems. Good job, game."
I can't recall exactly how much time I've spent exercising with Ring Fit Adventure, but I do know that the cumulative game timer is based on real movement and activity, as the in-game save timer only ticks up during active exercise time, and stops the clock if you much as stop to catch your breath. I can say with some sense of pride that I've burned more than ten thousand calories in my Adventure Mode save because I get to look at my cumulative calories burned each time I start a session. I have become a literal sweatlord, and I have the receipts to prove it.
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IT'S FUN ENOUGH
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But how much fun is Ring Fit Adventure? Well, the sub-title above kinda gives it away. This game isn't exactly teeming with juicy systems and a deep metagame. Your character has HP, an ATK stat, and a DEF stat. There are four types of damage corresponding to different exercise types and most enemies are weak against exactly one of them. Consumable items in the form of smoothies spice things up a bit and you can unlock gear sets, new exercises, and some stat bonuses through a skill tree.
It's fine you know? Bread and butter RPG stuff. It's not an awe-inspiring nor a brain-bending metagame by any stretch but it's not meant to be Xenoblade. It's meant to be a colourful excuse for a full-body workout at home, and it achieves that. At the end of each session always there is an itemised list of reps and distances covered by all of the exercises you've done and it never fails to surprise me how much I've actually done in each session.
If the game actually presented enough metagame exploits to allow swifter progress in exchange for less exercise, it would miss the point of this game so hard. It would also be less inclusive and take too much time away from the exercising part.
The typical RPG game flow goes a little something like this.
1. Fight some battles to gain EXP and resources (Core)
2. Futz about with systems and menus to improve your build (Meta)
3. Repeat until end credits (with lore breaks) (Loop)
A game like Ring Fit Adventure really needs you to engage with the Core (geddit?) of the game as much as possible. If you get too distracted with the Meta side of things for too long, the exercise class grinds to a halt, a water break can quickly transform into a coffee morning and that's no good for your atrophied abdominals.
The Meta side of things is very sparse, as skill points are earned slowly, and the best way to prepare for most enemy encounters and bosses is to be of a high enough level and have a good range of skill types equipped. Ring Fit Adventure even tries to introduce more exercise into the Meta side of things by requiring a few chest presses to create consumable items (or "smoothies", which is adorable), but you really won't spend too much time thinking about this, and when you do it isn't for long. It's just enough of that sweet RPG goblin goop for your infantile gamer brain to latch onto. If there was ever a time for a Skinner Box, it's here. And here it is.
It's not trying to be Gym Megami Tensei, and it would run the risk of being a poor exercise game if it did. That being said, I reckon most people won't finish the main campaign, let alone the New Game+ campaigns, and we'll explore that in The Verdict, which is now.
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THE VERDICT
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Ring Fit Adventure is a great piece of fitness technology. It's inclusive, versatile, and well thought out. Unless you are going very far out of your way to cheat the system, this game will give you the all-body workout you desire and teach you more than a few healthy life lessons about your body and your relationship with it.
Far from the gym bro grind-set culture that encourages you to treat your body like a fucking piece of shit that needs to be broken and beaten at every turn to promote muscular supremacy, Ring Fit Adventure treats your body as something to be taken care of and nurtured. The draconic antagonist Dragaux is presented as a tragic figure whose insecurities have led him down a toxic path of overtraining, and jockishness driven by unhealthy body image insecurities. The 'dark influence' of this bad attitude infects others around him. Ring Fit Adventure encourages a more sustainable exercise regimen accompanied by sensible eating practices. It is a welcome anathema to the unhealthy mindscapes often associated with extreme bodybuilding and drastic crash dieting.
If Ring Fit runs out of new tricks to keep you engaged for its main campaign run time of around 40+ hours of real exercise time. But my copy of Ring Fit Adventure remains the primary way I do my serious structured exercise at home. Ring Fit is a victim of a truth that its in-game coach Tipp will often recite, that it's best to change up your exercise regime once in a while to keep yourself interested. Don't do the same routines, change your hiking routes, and take up new sports. Ring Fit can only keep things interesting for so long, so I take breaks from it. But I always come back.
I may not play Ring Fit Adventure as much as I did when I first got it, but I certainly do a lot more exercise than I used to, and I've never been in better shape. In all honesty, I have to attribute this to Ring Fit Adventure. I strongly recommend trying it if you can get a hold of a set.
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THE EXTRA 3%
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Welcome back another extra 3%! The text-based 'check out my other vids' section! Taste the back matter!
My other reviews in this 103% series are:
BAN LIST
Games Published by Devolver Digital (I've done 2 from their label)
-- No new additions to the ban list, and Devolver Digital is still in the doghouse!
BLIND SPOTS:A console exclusive (Ring Fit Adventure was a Nintendo Switch exclusive)
A game that was released before 2019!
A mobile exclusive
A tabletop game
(Yeah that will do for now, could be here all night!)
Please consider interacting with me on Twitter @jak1oh3 and explaining to me what the hell the entity known as Paimon is and why everyone accepts its presence uncritically. I'll wait.
Otherwise, thanks again for reading, it goes a long way :)
Jak
