sad update: im getting burnt out, hard. im at chichen itza and its not necessarily a difficulty spike, it’s just defintitley an increase in difficulty. and also an increase in a test of patience. this has been an issue throughout the game for me but idk how much more getting stuck on geometry and then having to spend 10 more minutes to fight another set of enemies i can take (tbf its really only gotten that bad with how long battles take here), but good lord it’s not really fun rn, i would be running from a lot more battles but given the difficulty im having, i fear what comes next and i’d rather take the xp.
anyways, that all is to say im not giving up on the game, im not actually sure how far in i am, maybe like 1/3rd? but the battles do take a while, which is sadly an issue that i feel like can arise a lot in rpgs where theres a gimmick with attacking. (like xenogears’ combo system that isnt actually a combo system because theres always 1 combo thats just better than every other combo) i will definitley try to come back to it soon, im just burnt out for now.
so i think i might go back to granblue fantasy relink for a bit, that game has been fun as hell so far. i just didnt want to juggle 2 RPGs at once, but i feel like relink’s will definitley be easier to remember and keep track of, lol
Baku Baku Animal - okay match game, watching the animals chomp stuff is cute but the sound effects get pretty annoying after a while. A 2D game where the characters are named Polly and Gon
Courier Crisis for the Saturn is an extremely sad proto-Crazy Taxi
The Lion King for the Genesis is gorgeous and cruel and has maybe the best sounding voice samples of the 16-bit era??
Marble Madness (Genesis) everyone knows this is good!!
McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventure - I picked it as a joke and then the Treasure logo popped up! Not groundbreaking but pretty good platformer as it turns out, music is great
Playing Shadow Tower. The game’s main quality is an immersiveness that comes from the first person view, lack of music, very strong sound design. And the weakness of the main character. He’s so slow for a videogame character! He could be me! I could go in the Shadow Tower and survive for a few hours.
Meanwhile, I would instantly die in Elden Ring Nightreign. Any enemy would destroy me. I would have a heart attack just getting carried by that giant bird.
That strong « grounded » quality of the early games has still been a core tenant of Demon’s and Dark Souls, but has been steadily set aside since. I loved the Memories of Murder dropkicks in Dks2 DLC and rollerskating blades in Dks3, but they were maybe the beginning of the end. Combat pace has increased and with it, enemy difficulty.
FromSoft level design has remained great but the bosses have been overtuned lately to the point that they’ve started to poison the well IMO.
Bosses in Shadow Tower were almost an afterthought… deaths come from the environment, the element of surprise from new enemies, player greed (staying at low HP to not waste a healing potion) It’s very refreshing after Elden ring. The game asks something else if it’s player, more adaptability and less skill.
It’s been described as insanely difficult on the internet but I disagree, I think it’s just been a struggle for new players to adapt to this kind of challenge
(I wouldn’t say that old FromSoft was necessarily better, I find the PS3 Souls to be the perfect middleground between both approaches)
My favorite moment so far has been when I could finally turn off all the Trap Fires in the Trap Fire world
It should have been a relief but the fire had been providing light and warmth to the place, the atmosphere of the place instantly turned lonely and dark, and I was left with the sound of my footsteps reverberating on the cold metallic walls. I was almost tempted to turn the traps back on. Then I remembered I still had a couple of torches in the inventory I could use
parking garage rally circuit is a hole made for me specifically. it is basically a dream game, the kind of game i personally would make if i made games. i haven’t finished playing yet (rolled credits but need to gold a few more), but so far straight up 10/10 no notes
here’s an extremely critical review!
Parking Garage Rally Circuit just isn’t that fun to play.
i’m ambivalent to ska most of the time (though riding with you and booji in PA and listening to stuff heightened my appreciation considerably) but this particular soundtrack is absolutely spectacular. even the hater in the big red barrel review couldn’t hate on the OST
the vocal tune in the last track hit just the right sega saturn sonic R type note (except ska), absolutely spot on shit
Thank you hacked PS3 so that I might finally indulge in From Dust an Eric Chahi game. Populus/RTS style stuff is never my thing so I stayed away from this for years. Then I bought the Steam version which straight up does not work and it should be illegal to sell it. I again was so nervous about starting it I think it took me six months to find out it doesn’t work.
Anyways I should have trusted Eric. The civilization stuff is pretty much all hands off. You as a little whisp just move around the sand and water and watch humanity grow and make plants and eventually suck all the life from those plants and then animals show up and sometimes a stupid little story about The Ancients happens. Then you rush your little guys to the portal to the next map.
It has been very video gamey about adding a new mechanic each map. Where I stopped for the night and maybe the game entirely I was informed this map has Fire Trees and I need to put Water Trees next to Fire Trees because Fire Bad.
This always makes me think about Capybara Games’ first game: Critter Crunch. A cute enough little puzzle game that couldn’t figure out when to stop so kept adding special pieces until the game was an unweildly mess and you stopped playing.
Thanks Eric Chahi! You probably aren’t getting residual checks from From Dust and it is always okay to pirate from Ubisoft because they are French, and we are Americans.
One of my favorite PS3 games though tbh my memories are mostly of crushing my terrible ex girlfriend’s spirit 1v1, probably should have realized that wasn’t a normal competitive thing
While I have not ever beaten Faxanadu in all my years of living I think I would rather Eolis remain in an unchanged state of permanent autumn than avail against it
I played a little No More Heroes III and though I like some things it’s doing in the opening I do not like this combat enough to spend more time with Tim Rogers Deadpool
They’re called “no more heroes” and yet they kept making them, two more of them in fact. Right up there with Grasshopper Manufacture not actually manufacturing grasshoppers.
