i personally felt like the game kinda trails off in the end tbh and i thought the direction of the story was a little corny… but besides that, having played it for the first time in 2018… i was pretty blown away by how much i enjoyed it and how much honestly complete of an experience it felt like compared to a lot of modern AAA games. the aesthetic felt very well-considered, with all the blown out oversaturated look and gaudy wallpaper. it mixes horror with some comedy elements and it feels simultaneously comic-booky and also very dark and serious without undercutting either of those things. and it goes to so many different environments in a surprisingly ambitious way. aside from a few clunky old PC game-isms the mechanics feel pretty simple and streamlined too compared to earlier Looking Glass games. just like… great game all around. might even consider it an all-time favorite if not for it tapering off a bit at the end (to me, anyway).
The longer I play this game the more clear it is that at one point in development, this was probably half the length it ended up being in the final release. The writing is pleasant, but about half the story so far has been “We need to go a place and find a thing/talk to a person”, and then if you’re lucky you’ll get some exposition and if you’re not lucky you’ll just get another mystery to follow up on. Like they realized they could double the length but I’m not sure there was enough story here to justify doubling it?
The combat has been kinda mixed. The dungeons are increasing in complexity (albeit, still not increasing much in size), and the enemy mixes feel more uneven. There’s some really great perfectly paced segments, there’s segments where you fight an enemy type twice, and…a handful where you just keep having to smash the same things.
The most frustrating thing is that some of the time it feels like they couldn’t think of interesting positioning moves for the enemy to do, so they compensate for just making a lot of the dodges harder to pull off?
All in all it’s a kind of mixed bag but the story’s pulled me in enough to keep going with it. I think some folks on here would love it despite the flaws, and I think some folks would almost certainly hate it.
have you tried delver? it’s a similar game from around the same time (i think?), and it takes a much less minimalist approach than eldritch. also it looks really really nice
So like, Steamworld Dig is better than I thought it would be. Progress is gated by equipment in the way you’d expect of a Metoidvania but the whole of your exploration is pretty much in one direction: down. There are offshoots to go check out and stuff but the order of the day is go dig your way to the bottom and occasionally return to the surface to sell loot and buy gear. There are some more substantial powerups that are found through exploration, although they seem basically impossible to miss. The game does tell you “go here” on a few occasions but overall you seem pretty free to explore at your whim. I sorta dig the gameplay loop.
I stopped playing after about 90 minutes or so but I think I’m going to put a little time into the sequel because reviews make it seem like it is the first game but more/better so maybe I’ll spend more time with it.
still exploring lsd dream emulator. doing like 2-3 runs every day, and I keep seeing new things. I think I saw the grey man who pursues you yesterday? he’s started appearing more often since
today I found this map which I’m wondering if it actually corresponds to anything
Yep, second is definitely better. It’s a bit more metroidvania-y, but you’re still primarily going down and the movement options are better. Plus the music is dope as hell
And don’t miss Steamworld Heist. Totally different genre but maybe their best work.
(I finally got around to trying Steamworld Quest recently. A short way in, I concluded that I don’t have the patience for a game like that right now, or maybe ever.)
Started up Footsies and this game makes me feel like a fraud. In my quest to actually get kinda decent at fighting games again I feel like I know less than ever and these training tools are wrecking my thirtysomething thumbs. I really love fighting games but lately I feel like I just plain suck at them and that the only enjoyment I get is coordinating moves rather than playing actual matches. Melee (Slippi) and Granblue Fantasy Versus have both recently given me this sense of being a masochist when really I just like controlling characters. I can play competently enough but the grind to getting good is paved with misery. I’ll train at Footsies more until I get my soul back. Who knows maybe I’m just a Musou fan waiting to burst out of this fraud ribcage.
Thanks for the suggestion, I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet but I think that might work for me. Also I imagine using a yoga mat or just wearing shoes probably helps too. I should just get some actual gym clothes, I’ve just been flopping around naked style
The land of Rune hath been saved from Dark Dragon. I was worried that my aversion to grinding had screwed me initially but ended up finessing my way through (as I did for most of the game). Thought it was cool that my hero character dies in the end…
split between “I’m still playing Genshin Impact for some reason even though there is literally no content available other than grinding” and “I could be doing another playthrough of Trials of Mana which is just 95% the same game”
