I’m fed up with demons souls now. I can’t consistently get through the 2nd level of the storms place or the swamp place. I just die over and over again to dumb shit and have to start all over, it’s irritating. I can’t roll in the swamp so I get hit and die and my sword is too slow against the rolling skeletons and half the time I get a hit off it’s just doing some stupid shoving move instead for some reason. this feels only half like a sword fighting game like the other souls games and half still in king’s field dungeon crawler mode. you can’t just pick x weapon and be x weapon guy they want you to at least be x weapon and shield with a y weapon backup and also you should use these spells and this miracle to not go insane from frustration, which I don’t care for but I guess because of that the bosses have been more like puzzles than some fancy pain in the ass sword duel thing. and I guess what I’ve liked about the game is it’s ugly in a ps2 looking way, which is good looking, instead of ugly in a ps3 looking way like dark souls 1, which is just hideous, and all of tower of latria was more interesting than any dungeon in those games.
they turned them around in 5 days lol, not bad
I would like to start Disonhored Death of the Outsider, although I have not played the former episodes. Will I miss much? Are there any sequences I should I be aware of, before starting it?
frustration is good
I think Death of the Outsider fills you in on what happened pretty cursorily in the intro animatic. It is coming after a lot of other plot stuff, but nothing that’s going to render you incapable of playing or enjoying the game if you don’t know all the details and characters and ins and outs ahead of time.
I mean I would recommend playing basically the whole series, if we’re being honest, but only because it’s all very good, rather than due to out on missing lore. Regardless, Death of the Outsider is absolutely some of the best Dishonoured that’s out there. Enjoy!
The true Demon’s Souls starts here
Tower of Latria is still a miracle to me. Unmatched oppressive atmosphere seething through each section of it, then whoops you get to fight some rando online wrapped in a goofy gold towel at the end.
Thanks!
that ain’t what you all are ever saying when it’s time to disguise yourself as mosley in gabriel knight 3, a much less confusing and frustrating game than any souls game
Is there any better world in a game than Latria?
I’ve been playing the truly excellent roguelite shmup Monolith for months, always muted while listening to my own music. It’s a perfect game for that kind of thing. After 47 hours of silent play, today I finally accidentally played it with the sound on. Damn, this game has really solid sound design! It has so many lovely NES style sound effects, and a lot of great chiptune music with interesting atmospheric effects over it. I almost want to keep playing it with sound on… but that would defeat the whole purpose of playing a game like this for me!
Boletaria
Valley of Defilement
I bought Tunic immediately after hearing that the game’s manual exists as a diegetic part of the game, torn apart and found inside the game world, and offering partial solutions while also being written in code. Is this the first game since the gamecenter CX games to have in-game documentation work like this?
I am somewhat concerned that certain peculiarities of the game’s level design suggest that a no-kill playthrough of the game is possible.
love valley of defilement
feels like a triumph to get through all the slugs and pull the moonlight greatsword
also been playing tunic. i am usually sceptical of retro style indie games, and the first hour or two of this one were pretty rough…
but it really really picks up from the mid game onwards, im right near the end and i think pushing towards a secret/alternative ending.
the manual stuff felt a bit trite early on, but as it goes on the balance between meta-game stuff and in world ~lore~ ends up being a really nice balance. it ends up getting away with a lot of stuff that would normally piss me off in videogame narratives. ends up making me think of the witness quite a lot (way more than fez, which seems to be the thing i’ve heard other people reference), in the way that even the things that don’t work for me at all end up being core to the design in a way i can appreciate.
So I was playing Metroid Dread for a little while this morning since my thumb was feeling better, and after a while I had to ask myself if I was really having a good time? And I think the answer was a firm “no”. Many games of its kind funnel you along with locked doors etc., but I think a lot of games are at least better about letting you explore and hit the dead ends. Whereas this one feels very strongly like you’re getting funneled through by a lot of one-way paths until you’re able to return later. It feels very restrictive in a way that I’m not enjoying. It doesn’t help that the visuals and music are pretty bland and that what “story” there is I just can’t bring myself to care.
I wanted to like this more than I did, its announcement was such a surprise and it seemed like they were taking the game in an interesting direction but maybe I should have just played Fusion instead or something. Or maybe I’ll just stick to the indies, I like the way they do this kind of game better.
I still didn’t click with Undertale on a recent revisit, though it looks incredible on [a screen where black is black].
Deltarune, otoh, is something else. If I sit down and do the algebra the… differences from Undertale are everything I love. Recalled, at times: Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Grim Fandango, SMT IV, MGS4, KRZ. In addition to, you know. It feels vital and messy.
It’s also a technical accomplishment that will delight anyone who thought the bullet hell mechanic was novel. I love the clashing fidelity of beautiful wind-swept animations next to flipping a frame 180 degrees laterally.
If you saw the free “demos” and thought of waiting for the full release, this release is full and like KRZ the wait between chapters is part of the experience.
well, that’s endorsement enough for me
The scaffolding they got GameMaker to do is literally incredible