I played Spiritfarer at Pax West, and fell in love with the game immediately. It’s a perfect example of a wholesome game that deals with deep issues. Beyond excited that it’s on Gamepass, but might buy it to directly support the devs.
Found a Twitter account for the game that said there’s an issue in Europe with the rating assigned to the game so it’s down for the meantime.
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special rating for gratuitous anime cleavage?
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Absolutely. I like my women like I like my Liberty, tits spilling right out as they lead the charge.
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My personal life turned suddenly turbulent so I’ve been spending way less time on games lately, and even when I am playing something it’s usually more of a distraction than anything else. That said, I’ve made it to Chapter 3 in Death Stranding and I think I might love this game? The storytelling is needlessly vague and it’s filled to the brim with nonsense, of course, but the feeling of cresting a hill after a particularly treacherous climb and looking out over the devastated landscape? That’s pretty sublime. Its sense of quietude is perfectly in sync with my emotional state right now, too.
Other than that I’ve put a few hours into Undermine, which at first I thought was just another top-down roguelite, but there must be more to it than that because I keep coming back to it. It has neat little interactions between elements, almost like D:OS, like how a piece of meat will cook in fire, and there’s a decent amount of variety to the power-ups even if they don’t rise to the level of something like The Binding of Isaac. It’s a good game to play absent-mindedly while you’re lost in thought, which is very much where I’m at right now. I’m kind of in the same boat with Xenoblade Chronicles, particularly because JRPG busywork like inventory management and fetch quests are such comfort food for me. I just fought Xord, which means I’m about to hit the point where I fell off on the Wii original and start seeing new content. I very much appreciate how it’s able to devour hours without too much thought required on my part.
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Would like to thank PEGI for ensuring I don’t have to awkwardly hide my Switch on public transport so I don’t go viral
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Turns out Banner of the Maid has been taken down on the eShop around the world, something about IARC rating it received. Unclear what.
Also, I’m vaguely terrified that this game might be 5,000 hours long. I’m not that deep in, but we’re still in Napoleon’s first Italian campaign. If this game wants to go all the way to the Hundred Days, this could be insane.
the plot thickens. shoulda picked it up sooner
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Selling my switch for $1000 because it has the Napoleon titty game.
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Playing TLOUII has me thinking a lot about alcoholic beverages.
I can count on one hand the number of times I have had alcohol in my life and even fewer times the number of full alcoholic beverages I have consumed in their entirety. Whenever I try one, 90% of the taste I get is just alcohol. It burns. It pollutes everything. Whatever other ingredients may have gone in there are completely lost in a sea of liquid fire.
The story in TLOUII is the alcohol.
It’s not that the story is somehow incoherent. It gets that sometimes you need light parts. And then it ratchets up the nihilism for about four hours while basically going nowhere, and then we go around again. There are a lot of parts of that game that are made with a lot of love and care (under poor labor conditions, I know) and some very impressive technical achievements. But the story leaches into everything. You’re just murdering people so…you can murder more people? Or fighting the Infected, which is like itching your face with sandpaper.
I’m mostly playing it because I wanted to see how things wound up, but…I could just read a plot summary on Wikipedia and replay Nier: Automata instead.
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Had the energy to play a game with a story for the first time in weeks today, so I went to my Switch backlog and decided to start Blasphemous. But then it had to download an update for 10 minutes, so I got bored, thought about how little I felt like being challenged by a Souls-style game right now, and started Timespinner instead.
And yo this game is really good! I am maybe 40% of the way through — it’s quickly-paced and doesn’t seem super long — and I’m very much enjoying myself. The combat is relatively simple, with depth that doesn’t feel overwhelming but does give me some choice of different attacks and stat options. I like the overworld, and the music (very Metroid-ish) and art style (it’s sort of reminiscent of Owlboy, in that kind of soft, 16-bit pixel art way), and the movement physics feel good, which is usually the determining factor in whether or not I enjoy a metroidvania game. I really like the setting and the way it tries to mix some fantasy and sci-fi tropes, and the time-travel mechanic, while a bit more basic than something like The Messenger still feels really rewarding. And I’m getting glimpses of where its narrative seems to be going, and while it’s pretty basic so far it does seem to be taking on some interesting themes around colonialism, empire, cycles of violence, and the like. Great characters too. Basically, just a very good time for someone who enjoys metroidvanias.
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Managed to finally finish The Evil Within last night. That was a fun ride, I think it’s as good if not better than RE4 too.
I really liked the stealth sections, planning my route and avoiding enemies. The combat arenas were fine but they just didnt always feel fair, but that was likely just my problem with hording special ammo for the harder hitting weapons instead of using it.
Still not sure I understand the story though tbf
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After completing RDR2 I replayed Red Dead Redemption as it had been a decade since I initially completed it so I wanted to see how it held up as well as hopefully getting a greater pay off for the former gang members that you end up targeting. Turns out the answers to those are “not well” and “not really”. I remember having fond memories of this and GTA IV for attempting at least to tell a more mature character driven story but the large proportion of the storytelling, dialogue, missions or characterisation do not create the pathos needed for the emotional closing section of the game. In a weird way playing the prequel simultaneously gives greater and lesser poignancy to John’s ending and his final confrontations with Javier, Bill and Dutch because the writing in the second game is great and yet every time you confront the three in the first game they are filled with cliche ridden dialogue and motivations as well as little time to actually form any bonds with the targets.
Gonna go back and listen to the Waypoints on this as I initially felt it was harsh but I reckon they were likely bang on. Even the characters I remember liking in my first playthrough - Bonnie, Jack, Abigail especially - are much shallower than I recall.
Ah well.
I’m a good few years into my Total War campaign as Rome and this is how the world is looking right now, As of this screen shot Rome, Suebi (Northern Europe), and the Hellenic Alliance between Athens, Macedonia and Epirus are the big three powers i’m aware of, lord only knows what’s brewing for me Eastwards. (Though my foothold in Spain looks iffy, I managed to make the rest of the Spanish factions my Vassals to protect them from the once huge Arverni Empire and also vassalised northern Africa to protect them from Egypt)
Anyway I was extremely friendly with everyone and everyone was friendly with one another, I had alliances with the other 2 of the big 3. My alliance with the Hellenic states has been strong since the begining and I’ve lent them my support in securing the Thraceand Dacia provinces, also with a war they had against Venici who were a huge power at the time, but as soon as they left their capital unguarded, it took it and they were eliminated in a matter of years.
A couple of turns after these screen shots, Subei decides to go to war with Athens, which means going to war with Macedonia and Epirus. Naturally i’m called to help, I have a great position to approach from the South and North West. So now below is the state of the world. Luckily I was preparing an army on the channel to go and mess with the British Isles but now my attention has been drawn to securing mainland Europe.
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So remember how I said I needed to take a break from Hollow Knight because parts of the exploration were frustrating me and the mood was so depressing I needed a change of scenery for a bit? Haha yeah neither do I.
So I just finished Hollow Knight. I ended up getting more frustrated with the exploration. There became so many areas that were so far from a Stag Station so it was just a pain to go back to the hub or anywhere to spend all the Geo I was getting. Which then made me more stressed and play worse, and creating a self fulfilling proffesy (how did I misspell prophecy so bad haha). Thankfully the most I ever lost was 2000, but probably lost 4000 overall. What kept me coming back despite these frustrations was the just wanting to explore and see more of the world though. I still have a ton to explore and haven’t figured out about the world too. I beat the game and only have 72% completion. There are a bunch of things I discovered that I have no idea how they play into the world. I’ll probably just listen to Waypoint’s spoilercast and read the wiki about these elements, but I find it amazing that there is still so much mystery in this world despite beating it with such a high percentage.
Also the depressing mood does not disappear. It doesn’t revel in it though. There isn’t one single thing or action that makes you go “this world is fucked”, it is just everything you discover and see as you explore the world. Even the ending seems to suggest this is some sort of cycle that the kingdom is going through. It’s just one Hollow Knight sacrificing themselves after another. The previous Hollow Knight even attacks itself while you fight it! Like it is fighting this infection the kingdom is under, but its sacrifice doesn’t seem to help the kingdom. It’s still in disrepair. Thankfully they throw you a bone a have a nice moment going to the Stag Nest and finding the open egg and the Last Stag becomes the Old Stag! Ugh my heart I needed that so much. I love my public transportation buddy!!
Overall I enjoyed this game a ton! Now to go start my farm and enjoy the simpler life in Stardew Valley!
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I finally got hooked on Spelunky after many previous attempts. I managed to beat Olmec, first from the temple shortcut and then from the mines at about 600+ deaths.
I liked this game before but it was just too frustrating for me. With every roguelite I’ve tried there’s this moment after an initial enjoyment stage when I feel I’m not making any progress and the experience just becomes repetitive, but something finally clicked this time after I opened the temple shortcut and I could feel myself getting better at the game.
Right now I’m trying to reach the golden city. I don’t know if I have it in me to beat hell though.
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Just wrapped up Indivisible, and wow did I really like it. The Metroidvania combined with a active time RPG mechanics really hit an itch I didn’t know I had. In structure, it kinda felt like where I would like to see the Paper Mario franchise go, with lots of platforming and timing based combat. But even without the Mushroom Kingdom, the game does a lot with its setting. Party members are all so creatively detailed with fun sidequests attached to each one (although waypointing for these quests could be better, and I really loved the main character, Ajna, and the genuine growth she experiences throughout the story. How Long to Beat has the game at 20 hours to complete, but I easily doubled that exploring every nook and cranny. Highly recommended!
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So quick Hollow Knight update before getting into the main part of my post. I listened to what I thought was a spoilercast episode, but was more of an end of the year discussion with some minor spoilers thrown in. I thought there was so much more, but it was still nice to hear the crew talk about the game in detail (PS miss you Natalie!). One big thing that I had no idea that I learned from this was there are multiple endings!!! WHAT?!? I just assumed you had to absorb the Hollow Knight since you did that with the previous three guardians. As I said in my previous post there is just so much about this game that I want to know. I’m going to have to find some breakdown of the story on Youtube because I want to know everything I can about that world.
Alright now for the real reason behind the post, Stardew Valley. I definitely don’t hate this game, but I don’t know if I like it either. There are elements that I enjoy so much, fishing, dislike, socializing/gift giving, and some that are a mix of the two, farming. I could literally spend ever day of my Stardew life fishing. I find it so relaxing, simple, and fulfilling. Maybe it’s because I’m a marine biologist that doesn’t get to do a bunch of marine biology now, but I just want to fish all day every day. Someone please make a simple fishing game like in Stardew and I’ll be there! For the socializing, there are just too many people to keep track of for me. Then you also have to track what they like and don’t like. Maybe I’m missing something that helps you find out what each citizen likes, but right now it seems like just a guessing game. Farming is so hit or miss for me. I love watering my crops and watching them grow. Then harvesting them and taking them into town to sell or fill out the bundle in the community center. It also feels very disorganized to me. Maybe that is on me, and I need to create so sort of system for my crops and constantly have seeds and be ready to re-plant after harvesting a crop. Ultimately, there just seems to be too much to do for me. Between the farming, foraging, socializing, combat, fishing, and others I just feel overwhelmed (especially the foraging and all the items you can get). It just isn’t clicking with me. I thought it would be a fun “simple” game to just play for a bit and kinda zone out to. Right now I’m just feeling like I’m overwhelmed so I don’t know how much longer I will stick with it. I guess it all depends on when I’m able to get another game from my list of Switch games I want to play.
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For what it’s worth, I found Stardew Valley to be a bit of a drag for similar reasons, but I have been playing Spiritfarer for the last week or so and I’ve found it to be much more satisfying. The on-ramp is nice and slow so you can work to grasp the systems, and I personally found the characters and story arcs much more interesting. There is a little bit of a guessing game to finding what a person’s favorite food is, but you can usually hone in on it once you know their preferences, and it doesn’t impact the story arcs or anything significant.
It seemed interesting based on what Austin was saying about it on the podcast last week. Also watching videos of the gameplay it seems to be much more manageable. I also really like the art style. I just don’t know if I’m really interested in these types of games or at least not enough to dive into another one right now. Maybe I’m just feeling the pressure of going and playing all the games I “missed” since I didn’t have a Switch at the time of their release, and don’t want to take another chance on a game when there are games like Mario Odyssey and others that I know I will like for sure. I’ll probably check in on my farm every now and then and see if it clicks or something as time goes on, but for now Stardew isn’t catching me as hard as I thought it would, which is ok. Thank you for the recommendation though. I’ll put it on my list!
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