this is why I wrote the game off after the demo, and was surprised that its been so popular among certain circles of the internet. I hate the overloaded controls, it tells me all I need to know about their game ‘design’ process.
2 Likes
The UI is…so overwhelming lmao. I played so much of The Long Drive which has awkward controls but they’re simplistic enough that you learn what micromovements to do in order to get around and it becomes second nature.
2 Likes
the closest thing I played to it before was jalopy, which was perhaps too simplistic, but at least it isn’t an absolute nightmare to do things in
4 Likes
I also played Jalopy, it’s a masterclass of…weird inventory management. Items can go a bunch of places and get tucked into things, but they don’t roll around as physics objects. The game starts really rough but once you get enough momentum it’s really great. Really captures the vibes of rolling into town at 2am and checking into a hotel.
4 Likes
I have finished this now, it’s pretty good! Plays very similar to the 7th Sword & Fairy / Xuan Yuan games in that it’s a fast hack n slash action RPG ala Nier Automata etc.
It has most of the same issues though, like no i-frames when dodging, tanky enemies that don’t respond much to being hit, healing items that are either useless or hard to come by. At one point early on, I got locked into a long sequence of the game with practically no healing items left, no way to get more, culminating in a Dark Souls style boss that I basically had to defeat without the ability to heal. Enemy variety is also a bit lacking, you’ll be fighting the same evil slug demons for most of the 50 odd hours.
Also this game feels very weird playing on Steam with a PS4 controller. I don’t think they quite worked out how to translate the controls to a gamepad. Like you have one button for examining things, which is a separate button from the confirm button. Then in menus there’s always weird button combos you have to press to do simple things like cancel a minigame etc.
The story is pretty good, it’s a bit weirdly structured in that it feels like a bunch of nested plotlines that send you on wild tangents before resolving the previous events, but it keeps things fresh and interesting. Eventually you are journeying into dreams within dreams, kingdoms of swallows, 2D worlds made up of traditional artwork and puppetry and other crazy things. Lots of great scenery as well.
Also this is your best bud, his name is Persimmon:
He’s just a poor widdle guy…
Eventually you get to establish a little holiday home in a pocket dimension inside a lotus seed. This unlocks a whole bunch of fishing / crafting / farming / base building systems. Persimmon invites his entire extended family to be your workforce, so you basically have all these rodents hanging around that you can send off on errands (as long as they’ve been fed enough shallots).
There’s also an entire Toads Treasure Trackers clone hidden away in there.
Unfortunately the crafting is extremely grindy and frustrating though. To get crafting recipes, you first have to do a research minigame (where you play as Persimmon). If you happen to fail any of the events, like a multiple choice question such as “how long should we roast the fish?” then you are screwed and will lose all the materials.
Anyway, despite it’s flaws I loved it overall. Very nice hangout game where you can just wander around towns and listen to the tunes and look at all the crazily detailed environs.
14 Likes
I played a bit of Gujian 3 but haven’t finished it. I liked what I played, though! I’ll have to get back to it soon, Persimmon is absolutely a charmer.
1 Like
I’m nearing the end of the Relink journey, with only… 5? 6? Terminus weapons to go
RNG is a cruel mistress
I’ve gone insane; the following is a transcription of the highest damage Ferry rotation:
Launcher (A+X/X+Square) -> aerial finisher (Y/Triangle); repeat
video games are good
5 Likes
what’s insane about this. this is just dynasty warriors? am i too far gone…
wait until you see how warriors orochi 3 players talk about their attack strings
3 Likes
it’s more I’ve arrived to the point where the optimal and, therefore, correct option is to spin up and down over and over on hitboxes instead of doing anything vaguely intelligent like paying attention to strings, managing resources or making sure I do positioning good
it’s fine though, I can just farm weapon leveling materials and mosey on over to a character I don’t understand.
or I could play Zeta and loop one-button divekicks all day
3 Likes
yeah no sounds like videogames are good
2 Likes
I played through Skyblazer on SNES which on first brush seems like an okay B- game but the longer I played it (which was until it ended) the more I was convinced it was a True Doom Murderhead video game. The bullshit parts are to be met by the player also pulling some bullshit whether that is farming extralives or abusing invincibilty frames. For once I am glad the Mister didn’t have save states because I would not have recognized how it is built around the video game bullshit in the best way possible.
Now I have to play the dev’s other games Punky Skunk and Hook.
12 Likes
Hook owns
Punky Skunk is extremely Okay. until the last world, at which point the level designers wake up and go “huh? oh, right, video games”
You gotta play Spawn too
3 Likes
Guess what is on sale folks.
1 Like
did you notice that skyblazer’s passwords are based around a square, a triangle, an x, and a circle, each assigned to acardinal direction.
the directions and colours are different to the playstation controller, but being a pre-playstation game from sony, i think that’s vaguely interesting
11 Likes
i started full metal demon muramasa, an 18+ visual novel not to be confused with the vanillaware game
starts out with soldiers slaughtering a village to set the tone. it’s dark and disgusting tho not visual. after that we get moved to the perspective of i think high schoolers and their classes are used to get us up to speed on the alternate world history which i’m not all that sure of, but whatever, it’s not what i’m really her for. there’s a lot of setting building around this too, but mostly a lot of uhhh… anime comedy. i do appreciate how unfiltered the dialogue in vn’s like this is tho
pretty sure i’m gonna switch perspective over to the cover art guy at some point, so i think this part is just to set things up for the main thing
5 Likes
Got that new Shiren since I can’t FF7R. It’s pretty good so far. I suck at it!
7 Likes
Sonic Advance 2 & 3 (GBA, in mGBA)
They start out somewhat innocuously but soon graduate up to criminally inscrutable boss fights and throwing me into pits.
So, having tried most of the official 2D Sonic games–except the xDS ones–I’ll now go back to the first one I tried, which seemed at the time derivative and like I should play the games it was aping first: Sonic Mania. Well, I’ve played those games, and aside from Sonic 1, from which it didn’t borrow as directly anyway, they were unpleasant to the player. So I suppose I can understand now why people think so highly of Mania, since it at least isn’t all insane on your buns. It’s a low bar for Sonic fans.
I put the three Sonic Advance games up on eBay for one lowball price and they sold within minutes, so that was cool.
6 Likes
discovered that the creative director of Pacific Drive also worked on Mafia 3, I am playing both games at once
11 Likes
lmk if u ever want a rescue…
3 Likes
will do, though i haven’t gotten anywhere near far enough to feel like i need it yet.
1 Like