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spacevixenmusic · 10 months

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Unfairly Maligned Games, Vol. 3

Games I loved that got low scores, review bombed, or have some other weird negative stigma attached to them that I think is unfairly earned.

NOTE: I don't believe in giving games a number score or a letter grade. Maybe I'm just bad at criticism or very easy to please, whatever.

Indivisible [2019]

Mostly only known as the "from the makers of Skullgirls" game, Indivisible is another prime example of a game that was crowdfunded as one thing but turned into another, and gets a bad rap for its association with the ever-present controversiality of Skullgirls' creators. That said, I still think - as always - that it's crucial to view a game for what it is, not what it isn't. And what it IS is an extremely engaging mish-mash of genres and endearing characters, oozing with style and appeal, that fills a very particular void left behind by some of the most classic RPGs of a bygone era.

At its core, Indivisible is a 2D Metroidvania/RPG hybrid with an unusual battle system that plays similarly to an old PSX game series called Valkyrie Profile. During combat, each character's gauge will fill up, allowing them to take action(s). Your four party members are each assigned to one of the four face buttons on a controller (e.g. A, B, X, Y), and pressing that button will - in real-time - execute an attack on the enemy. Using it in combination the D-Pad allows for several different types of attack. All party members' attacks can overlap simultaneously, allowing you to string together combos to really rack up the damage, or juggle enemies to prevent counterattacks and break their defenses. The Metroidvania and platforming portion comprises the rest of the game, with a heavy focus on using those same action skills to scale massive environments, solve platforming puzzles, and dodge spikes. Typical Metroidvania stuff.

Story-wise, in our modern world of RPGs that is dominated almost exclusively by Japanese and Scandinavian narratives, Indivisible is breath of fresh air that focuses heavily on South and East Asian mythology and themes. Heavy inspiration is taken from the cultures of India, Tibet, Mongolia, and the South Pacific. This is reflected not only in the characters and their various ethnicities, but in the game's approach to spirituality, reincarnation, second chances, and being a teenager hellbent on destroying god. Our main protagonist Ajna is a teenager studying martial arts who isn't quite as in touch with her spirituality as her mentor would like her to be. When war strikes the land and burns her home to the ground, she gets pissed and sets out on a quest for retribution, discovering in the process that she actually does possess certain godlike powers of destruction, and also that she can absorb certain people into her head, which is just a cute way of lampshading having a Party System.

I've seen Reviewers and big Opinion-Havers on the internet criticize the game's writing for having a bull-headed protagonist who boldly rushes into confrontation, unleashing her wanton destruction without first considering the catastrophic consequences for civilians. It's almost like they've forgotten what being a teenager and making poor choices is like. But I say fuck 'em. I say we need MORE stories about uninformed teenagers with immense godlike powers and no sense of nuance making rash decisions and fucking up royally. That alone is crucial to understanding the rest of the game's themes about atonement, reincarnation, and understanding why you believe what you believe in. That's what Indivisible is all about. In many ways, I feel like Ajna shares a common story arc with Korra from the Avatar series, and it's very cool to see how she learns to deal with the damage she's caused and what insight that gives her when facing down the Big Bad.

Of course, what is a good story without characters to flesh it out? The characters in this game are absolutely charming and multifaceted, coming from a wide array of different cultures and personalities, many of which are vastly underrepresented in not only RPGs but video games in general. Personal favorites include, but are not limited to, big booba water mom Thorani (based on a buddhist deity of the same name), Leilani the Hawaiian sharknado (spins around in a cyclone attack using a leiomano, a Hawaiian shark-tooth sword), lesbian pirate mom Baozhai (based on the famous Chinese pirate Ching Shih), and of course, local nihilistic swamp witch Razmi (a loose mishmash of Korean and Persian Zoroastrian shamans). The full cast of characters is enormous (well over 20 playable ones alone), and each one comes with a unique moveset and playstyle that not only keeps gameplay interesting, but matches their personality and the role they play in the story.

But if there's one thing I truly want to focus on when I gush about this game, it's this. Indivisible has one thing over most other games of its genre, something that modern RPGs in particular suffer heavily from a severe lack of, and that's its strong commitment to multiculturalism. Indivisible made a clear decision to not only feature characters from around the globe, but to blend their cultures together in interesting and exciting ways that don't diminish or water them down. Every character is allowed to shine in their own way without diluting what makes them stand out in the first place, which is why you can have a game that features a gunblade-wielding cowboy, a Namibian songstress, an armless Chinese dancer, a Kamen Rider knock-off, and a Mongolian archer who people keep mistaking for Pearl from Steven Universe. This sort of melting-pot cultural stew used to be common in classic anime and 90s RPGs, but kind of fell out of fashion with the rise of gacha waifu games and Elder Scrolls derivatives. Now more than ever, I feel like Indivisible is exactly the sort of injection the gaming world needs to rekindle those flames of pure imagination that the old classic era brought us.

All that said, one of the biggest reasons Indivisible will always have a dark mark next to its name is of course due to the fact that its lead designer (the studio head) was involved in a sexual harassment case that resulted in everyone on the team either quitting or being laid off, and the rights to the work and characters getting lost in the shuffle. Additionally, the game was still finished and released as intended, but did not feature any of the guest star characters that were promised during crowdfunding, most of whom were indie darlings of the time (Shovel Knight, Hyper Light Drifter, and Super Time Force to name a few). Naturally, this has left a sour taste in many folks' mouths, so it is somewhat understandable why the game would have a negative stigma attached. There are also a few bizarre and possibly off-putting cameos hidden among the NPCs (a few outdated meme references and Zone-tan, of all people), but these are entirely skippable and serve only as background extras.

Sour grapes aside though, I wholeheartedly recommend Indivisible for anyone looking for a fresh take on action RPGs. The neat hybridization of Metroidvania and real-time RPG with fighting game mechanics gives it a very unique identity, and if the compelling spirituality of the story doesn't grab you, the charm of the characters absolutely will. It certainly took me for a ride. My only word of caution is to follow the game's own suggestion and get good at Blocking in combat as early as you can!

#unfairly maligned games #Indivisible #ajna #metroidvania

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legendaryvermin · 5 months

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top 10 video games:

not strictly new. but the stuff I enjoyed most this year.

1. Sea of Stars - JRPG by the folks who made the Messenger. perfect economy of storytelling, good combat that takes notes from Paper Mario and Chrono Trigger

2. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk - Tag and Grind that could teach Sonic a thing or two. amazing game, finished it twice!

3. Chants of Senaar - Puzzle game about language. You learn and translate 5 languages while climbing a tower. super satisfying to have breakthroughs in understanding.

4. Ninja 5-0 - Lost GBA gem. This game kicks outrageous amounts of ass, and has a cool grappling hook. what more could you ask for?

5. Skies of Arcadia - Steal this mana system. also, what a delightful romp, very Dragon Quest.

6. Jedi Survivor - This game learned so much from its predecessor! it switched from a Soulsborne lens to a more Metroidvania one and I think it really paid off.

7. Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon - Friendly enough to be familiar to people who haven't followed the series, adversarial enough to get you to try new bullshit. also, spoilers, but one of the bosses is a Roomba.

8. Tears of the Kingdom - It's Banjo Ka-Zelda: Nuts and Bolts, and that's a good thing. in any other year this might be number 1.

9. Ghost of Tsushima - A wonderful set of gorgeously told short stories let down by a trope-laden and western-gazey central story that seems to fundamentally misunderstand samurai in Japanese history.

10. Baldur's Gate 3 - I reserve the right to use this again next year because I'm literally still in the underdark. it's this low because it's still D&D, for good and for ill.

#video games #goty 2023 #goty #top ten #top ten 2023 #game design #sea of stars #ninja 5-0 #ghost of tsushima #tears of the kingdom #bomb rush cyberfunk #chants of sennaar #skies of arcadia #baldur's gate 3 #jedi survivor #armored core 6

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fishing-lesbian-catgirl · 7 months

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The problem is that there are so many good single player video games and yet I’d almost always rather use my time playing a game with friends because I’m lonely. Sure I have a dozen visual novels, half a dozen metroidvanias, and the entire pikmin series on my to-play list, but it’s not exactly easy to invite a friend to hang out in discord and chill in proximity to me while I play pikmin

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sorenblr · 5 months

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Prepare those calzones rojos and don't choke til you swallow that twelfth grape.

Any "best of '23" lists you wanna expose to this here tumblr audience?

I've waited until the very end to answer this, since my yearly vacation lines up with the last week of December, allowing maximum time to devote to "gaming like a monster". I still didn't play shit for new games this year, but I am confident that every title on this list makes Baldur's Gate 3 and Tears of the Kingdom look like a bunch of muddy, wet shit:

Heart of the Killer

The 8th and penultimate episode in thecatamites' Anthology of the Killer series, which in aggregate is the most compelling project to come out of the medium in recent memory. Follow zinester and aspiring murder victim BB as she navigates a strange world of maniac killers and maniac killer paraphernalia. Combines the warm trappings of pulp horror and associated genre schlock with the profound literary sense and humor of the author. Boasts the rare perfect art design.

This one features 'liminal spaces' and is about the regulation and dictation of desire. Oh shit!

Varney Lake

Another 'pixel-pulp' title by the Argentine LCB Studio, this time a King or Bradbury-esque portrait of mournful childhood nostalgia set in the summer of 1954. Three friends find a dracula in the woods and he turns out to be basically just a stand-up kind of guy. Sincere, intelligent writing and gorgeous CGA-inspired art that transcends mere imitation of that style.

Pseudo-sequel to the fantastic Mothmen 1966 and best enjoyed in sequence with that game.

Stomp Plonk

It's just good old-fashioned fun to stomp and plonk around in Marek Kapolka's wordless fantasy world. The character designs and animation here bring me a lot of joy. Sometimes a game just needs to be a collection of little cretins.

Pseudoregalia

Sharply designed 3D metroidvania based on an earlier game jam project. Strangely melancholic tone and a nice, expressive moveset. One of the more engaging translations of the genre to 3D.

You can tell the developer didn't expect so many eyes on this because the protagonist has her big goat ass hanging all the way out and they had to include a toggle for pants in the options menu.

Honorable Mentions:

Shards of God: point-and-click agatha christie murder mystery set on a dune-esque desert planet. good

Orbo's Odyssey: kinetic 3d platformer. movement funny... but good?? slay 4 golden draculas

Kowloon's Curse: Lost Report: any game with an explorable desktop w/ fake sites and shit is good

Tommy Gun Witches: if you haven't seen the main promo screen for this game, there's still time for you to correct that

DOCTRINESPACE: cool twine game about a future where crypto bullshit is king, and the doctrines are hotter than ever

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days: mostly about killing chinese police officers and any civilians foolish enough to enter your line of sight. kane and lynch are craaaaazy!

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2023 games that I would like to have played but couldn't squeeze in: Blasphemous 2, Crypt Underworld, Bahnsen Knights, Knuckle Sandwich, 24 Killers etc.

#ask #goty 2023 #goty #thecatamites #heart of the killer #varney lake #stomp plonk #pseudoregalia

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zehecatl · 11 months

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happy steam sale to all, here’s a 'little’ rec list for (primarily) indie games that, in my opinion, isn’t as popular as they deserve to be!

Ghostwire: Tokyo -60% the only triple a game you’ll see on this list, and my own all time personal favourite. if you like anime, japanese history and folklore, and bromance, you will very likely love this game. it also lets you explore Tokyo and pet the dogs! and cats! literally perfect game!!

Iconoclasts -70% i have been shilling this game, at every major steam sale, for pretty much four-five years. before Ghostwire, it was my all time favourite video game. it was in development, by one person, for around eight years. it is still, in my opinion, one of the most gorgeous pieces of pixel art in the whole damn medium. just. please check it out i beg

Angels of Death -40% rpgmaker game that absolutely excels at being a character driven story. it also got an anime adaptation? which i’ve actually never seen?? but if you grew up playing horror rpgmaker games, please do yourself a favour, and check this out. and if you didn’t- check it out anyway! it’s not super scary or anything, with a more psychological horror focus

Owlboy -65% tiny owl boy does his very best and will worm his way into your heart and then crush it because life is maybe a bit too cruel to him. also you can fly! did i mention you can fly??

Pony Island + The Hex -80% did you adore Inscryption? did you like the meta element? then oh boy, should you check out Daniel Mullins’ two former games! they’re good! probably has the same vibe as Inscryption! could not tell you i still have not played that thing! but these are both very good, and absolutely worth every cent

Underhero -70% it’s a bit rough around the edges, but man, this game has so much love put into it, and i think it deserves way more love than it got

My Friend Pedro -75% the action is definitely the high point here, but i have a personal soft spot for the lil’ bit of lore we do get. like, there is something there, and i want to dig my fingers in. also wacky banana is funny

Sayonara Wild Hearts -40% queer girls on motorcycles? in my rhythm game?? it’s more likely than you think!! (also, if you suck at rhythm games: me too, this is still worth picking up)

MO:Astray -50% the fact that seemingly no one on tumblr has played this... despite the fact that it feels like it’d be a right shoe in... criminal. there is a little CREACHUR! LOOK AT IT. IT IS A SLIME!!

The Messenger -75% i legit thought this game was way more popular than it, apparently, is, which i think just speaks volume of my opinion on it. it’s genuinely right up there with Shovel Knight as iconic retro throwbacks- plus! the devs are making THE most gorgeous indie rpgs, apparently set in the same universe. so that is another reason to check it out

This Strange Realm of Mine -90% an extremely weird little game that will likely not be for everyone, or even most people, but that i really liked. considering the price, i don’t really think there’s much to lose on buying this little gem

Darkside Detective -70% funny point & click game with very shipable protagonists! there’s also a ‘second season’ that i have not played (yet), but is very likely absolutely worth getting

Haiku, the Robot -33% it is, rather obviously, not as good as Hollow Knight, but if you’re suffering from ‘waiting for Silksong’, perhaps this little gem will tide you over

Transiruby -30% another small metroidvania! has really pretty pixel art, and is just a fun little time

Flynn, Son of Crimson -50% not what it was promised, but it’s a fun platformer with gorgeous pixel art, and a dog. it’s a good time, and isn’t that what we all want :]

Yomawari: Midnight Shadows -70% a cute horror game, with excellent enemy designs, and a whole town to explore. also the story is so good. i am still absolutely enamoured with this title. this is, technically, the 2nd in a series, but you can play the games standalone, and while i’m sure the 1st is just as good, i’ve only played this one. because priorities (also keep in mind!! that this is a horror game!!! i’d recommend looking up some trigger warnings, because, uh. horror game!)

A Short Hike -35% just an extremely cozy and fun little game. exploring every inch of this island was just such a good time, i still think extremely fondly of this title

Webbed -30% i am gently laying an hand on the shoulder of every bug enthusiastic on this website. you play as a spider. who is trying to get back her boyfriend from a bird. and there’s a really fun swinging mechanic. do you really need anything more?

Garden Story -60% i am once again shocked this game isn’t more popular. what do you mean a cozy adventure game with community restoration, foraging, and some fun combat with a grape protagonist isn’t one of the biggest sellers in cozy gaming spheres. there’s a frog. you can put on different hats. what else do you want!!

Donut County -70% funny little game about making holes and being a chaotic racoon. i have an extremely soft spot for the characters in this, i could not explain it <3

also Oxenfree is not on sale, but it’s cheap, and the sequel is dropping very soon! and you should absolutely check it out! because it’s really REALLY good!!

#indie games #video game recommendations #steam sale #steam summer sale #also yomawari isn't actually an indie game but the vibe is so squarely indie that i forgor and now i don't wanna edit the post further

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coelii · 3 months

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Hey! As a discerning Casltevaniac, I’m curious what your personal definition of the Metroidvania genre is. What would you say are the elements that MUST be present for you to feel good about calling any given game a Metroidvania?

For me personally, I say it needs to be a 2D platformer, it should focus on an expanding single space (you should be able to walk from nearly any point to nearly any other point without having to go to an overworld, map, etc.), the player’s progress should be gated by means of mobility upgrades or similar upgrades that solve problems you can see in advance, it should have a solid number of discretionary upgrades (ones that are nice but that aren’t required in order to advance), and it should incentivize returning to areas you’ve already been to.

That said, like any discussion of art, the only rules are the ones we apply to ourselves, so any part of that could of course be up for discussion!

So I take a pretty similar definition, but I would say that any game that successfully takes elements of both Metroid and Castlevania makes a game a Metroidvania.

Let's analyze Metroid real quick:

high paced action

bosses without a life bar

inventory and ability management

open map design - can walk from anywhere to anywhere in theory

special abilities or items are needed to progress certain areas

quick and easy movement

enemy placement is not generally scripted - can be attempted from different directions or ignored entirely

exploration and backtracking

And let's do the same thing for Castlevania (pre-symphony):

action is slower, clunkier, but more deliberate

combat has significant tension

bosses have health bars

Some inventory/ability management (sub-weapons)

stage based maps - set start point and set end point

differing routes based on decisions (some games)

movement and combat is not fluid

enemy placement is deliberate and scripted

As Castlevania moved into the Super NES and beyond you could tell the design team was looking at ways to make the action series more engaging and less punishing for players while staying true to its roots.

Movement and combat are usually the things most people would cite as their dislike of the NES era Castlevania games, but are often the things people cite as their favorite part of early Metroid (Super Metroid in particular).

By Rondo, the team had clearly found a good way to test this new movement and combat style by introducing Maria, who comes with a faster movement speed, double jump, and significantly faster attack animation. Richter was also given the ability to dodge backward in midair allowing for more skilled combat. Bloodlines similarly made both John Morris and Eric Lecarde much easier to control.

These were the last games to be released before the first 'Metroidvania' game, Symphony of the Night. Symphony really married the two concepts well, and even demonstrated the changing philosophy within the game.

The prologue shows you playing as Richter in the finale of Rondo where you have the final boss battle with Dracula. Dracula has a health bar, you have your sub weapons, and the combat is like the traditional Castlevania games.

Immediately afterwards you play as Alucard and everything is dramatically different.

bosses no longer have health bars

your own life bar is different and magic is added

combat is easier, but RPG stats make the beginning of the game harder and end of the game easier

stages are replaced with an exploration focused map

special abilities and items are needed to progress in areas

movement is much quicker and more fun

In a lot of way Symphony feels like a team of developers went "what if we made a Castlevania game in the Metroid engine?" and out came SotN. It worked because Metroid has a fast and fluid movement system, with good map design that rewards exploration with secrets, and engaging combat. Castlevania likewise has fantastic music, enemy design, and great tension-based combat. Together they make a game that is rewarding to play, but still frustratingly challenging.

So TLDR: I think to be a Metroidvania a game should incorporate the best elements of Metroid and of pre-SotN Castlevania.

To me the best elements of Metroid are:

rewarding exploration with an interconnected map

incremental upgrades that make combat or exploration easier and more fun (you should find an item and immediately realize where you were supposed to go back and use it)

The best elements of classic Castlevania are:

scripted enemy layouts

great sound design and art direction

atmosphere

high tension combat (like a lighter version of a bullet-hell game)

replay value with the games that offered alternative paths and multiple characters

Hope that answers your question friend :D

#coelii.ask #castlevania #metroid #infodump #coelii.info #gaming #retro gaming

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beevean · 5 months

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Want a really unpopular opinion?

Circle of the Moon is grossly overrated, it feels extremely amateurish in terms of design and the fact that many consider it the perfect blend of the series' classic and SOTN styles confuses me more than most things in life

I once saw someone say that the game's penchant for grinding shouldn't be criticized because Aria of Sorrow also has it, forgetting that Aria is easy enough that you can absolutely get by without souls anyway, since they're more like a cool extra to spice up combat encounters and help a bit against the occasional tricky boss, unlike Circle where you pretty much need Cards and good combinations of them so you have little choice but to spend a truck load of time grinding just to have a decent time in this hard as fuck game that doesn't even have a shop for healing items thus forcing you to grind for those as well :).

Agreed.

Most of the time, when people love a game I don't, I can at the very least understand what they like about it. I don't care about Sonic Adventure 2, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game: it simply does things, like streamlining the level design, changing the gameplay style in the middle of a story instead of having six storylines, incentivizing replay value through the ranking system, that appeal to others but not to me. It's fine.

But I genuinely can't understand the appeal of CoTM. Nothing it does seems to me remotely likeable.

Yes, it's hard, for the joy of Classic fans. But why is it hard? Because it cheats.

The movement is ass. You either walk at the speed of snail or you double tap to run. This was annoying in Richter Mode in SoTN, but even more so when it's the default state of the game. Guys, it's one thing to move slowly in a Classic game, because all you have to do is to follow a set path and dodge the obstacles, but in a Metroidvania, where you need to backtrack, I'd like more agility. What literally is the point of giving you the run powerup in the fourth room of the game? Why can't I start with it?

There is no shop, forcing you to grind for something as basic as healing potions, necessary for this kind of genre. This is mean.

There is no healing orb at the end of a boss, literally the only game in the whole series that does this, which forces you to run to the nearest save room to heal - fine most of the time, but after the grueling fight against Hugh, you need to dodge the strong and aggressive Dark Armors before you can get to safety. Oh, you died and have to fight that bastard again? Oh no, sorry, guess you can just go fuck yourself :) this is even meaner.

The castle is not well designed, aside from the excessive platforming. The rooms are copypasted without any significant landmark, and there are too many obstacles of the same kind, meaning that once you get a new powerup, you're going to fumble for a while before you stop finding Heart Max Ups and actually find your way through. Say what you want about HoD, but the sections are so visually distinct that you are going to at the very least orient yourself better.

As you said, the main gimmick of the game, the DSS cards, have an abysmal drop rate, meaning that you pretty much have to glitch in order to use the spells. I was very lucky during my playthrough that the first Ice Armor dropped the card necessary to become immune to ice: without it, the Underground Waterway would have been an awful experience. (with it, it was only extremely annoying due to the constant 5-second stop every time you hit a switch)

and that is not even mentioning the problem most gba games had, especially the earliest ones: screen crunch.

tl;dr: order of ecclesia is not my kind of game either, but i recognize that it's fairly hard, at least.

#castlevania #circle of the moon #sorry for the salt #i did not have fun with this game at all #i don't want to touch it again

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magicalgirlagency · 2 months

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I know this is a magical girl blog, but since you've mentioned indie games, I wanna know which ones are your faves? I assume the list isn't a big one, considering how you dislike horror games...

Pizza Tower (has Horror elements, but it's overrall bonkers and with a bitchin' soundtrack! An update with The Noise as a playable character is in the works!);

AntonBall (and its upcoming sequel, AntonBlast, which it's more close to the Wario Land 4 experience than Pizza Tower);

Captain Wayne: Vacation Desperation (it's not out yet, but it's basically DOOM combined with One Piece);

Freedom Planet (I like how it started off as a SonicTH hack, only for it to grow into its own thing. Things get intense in the sequel!);

Spookware (WarioWare but spooky! And with graphics similar to Paper Mario, too!)

Thunder Ray (it's Punch-Out!! but waaay more intense! Like Shonen manga kind of intense!);

Fight Knight (DOOM combined with Punch-Out!! Also has an intense Shonen manga vibe);

Cosmic Boll (A colorful Beat 'Em Up with Sonic-y designs. Most likely discontinued/cancelled);

Kyle & Lucy: Wonderland (Yet another game with Sonic-y aesthetics and gameplay, combined with Felix the Cat. Looks like it has been discontinued/cancelled, sadly);

Friday Night Funkin' (the fact that this game has managed to help Newgrounds stay relevant after the death of Flash is quite an amazing feat!);

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore (What if CD-i Zelda were its own original thing? And what if it were actually good?);

Pulling No Punches/Punhos de Repúdio (this one's brazilian! A Beat 'Em Up where you fight against antivaxxers with Bolsonaro as the Final Boss!);

Spark the Electric Jester (Sonic, Kirby and Ristar all combined into one);

Hazelnut Hex (a short but sweet Cute 'Em Up);

In Stars and Time (a monochromatic RPG about being stuck in a timeloop);

Cavern of Dreams (N64-styled Collectathon where you play as a cute baby dragon);

Super Lesbian Animal RPG (used to be a MLP fangame, but had to be altered due to copyright issues);

Them's Fighting Herds (same as SLARPG, but as a 1vs1 Fighting Game à la SkullGirls);

My Friendly Neighborhood (okay, this one's actually Horror, but it has heart and passion put into it);

Cuphead (the amount of dedication and research put into the old-timey visuals is admirable. Even the Netflix series is stylish!);

Hades (the Greek Mythos kid in me V I B R A T E S);

Berserk Boy (Mega-Man lookalike with soundtrack composed by Tee Lopes!);

Penny's Big Breakaway (by the Sonic Mania devs! And Tee Lopes works on the tunes, too!);

Undertale (well, duh. Deltarune didn't captivated me as much, though...);

Hollow Knight (not a big fan of MetroidVanias, but this one's got beautiful visuals);

Melatonin (think Rhythm Heaven, but dreamier, pastel-colored and more grounded in reality).

And that's all I have so far right now. Might update this list if I remember something else!

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smolhoneybat · 3 months

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hi! i've been a fan for quite a while. i really admire how you seem to articulate, i found myself becoming more introspective with every video. also it's really nice to see someone talking about games and series i really love. aside from that, i wanted to ask if you had any recommendations like games, books, shows, movies?

hi hi!! thank you so much, pinning the words down is hard but worth it haha 💛

Ooh I have so many... obviously there's the games and shows I've talked about on my channel but standouts would have to be Darkwood, Nier Automata and Arcane but ALSO

Games: -A Space for the Unbound: chill fetch quests in a small town in rural Indonesia, finish your summer bucket list with your gf, pet cats, dive into the subconsciousnesses of your neighbours!

-Ender Lilies: metroidvania platformer with some tight controls like Hollow Knight, gorgeous artwork and music, you play as Lily, a young amnesiac priestess trying to purify the spirits of the dead and stop the plague ridden rain that won't stop falling, you're small and weak but you recruit different spirits to fight with you but it never feels overwhelming or bloated, really enjoyed it

-Signalis: survival horror as an android looking for her gf, she made a promise and she's going. to. fulfil. it. Dystopian future in space with lots of good old rusty machine body horror, strange senses of time and memory and there's some puzzles in there too.

-Sunless Sea: Victorian London was moved underground by bats. Don't worry about it. Go sail the seas and try and turn a profit without losing your mind from the Horrors ^.^ (deceptively a lot of reading in this, plays like a management sim meets VN)

-Omori: 4 years ago Something happened. Omori dreams his days away in his room, carefully not thinking about that Something. Some of the game is in his colourful dream worlds and some out in the real world. Fights are always tinged with emotional rock paper scissors as how you, your friends and enemies feel will affect the fight! He's about to move house and an old friend comes knocking on the door...

(-alsoPathologicisgoodyesI'moneofthoseyoutubers)

Books: -Va11-Hall-A: I...don't know whether to put a VN under games or books so I'm putting it between the two. You're a barista in a cyberpunk kinda world, you listen to patrons while making them drinks and chat. (It's chill but sometimes gets pretty heavy and has a lot of mature topics in it for the record.) -Deathless by Cathrynne M. Valente: an alternate history book that has one foot in the Russian Revolution and the other in fairytale. Marya Morevna marries Koschei the Deathless, and goes back to his kingdom. She makes friends with various folklore creatures, checks in on her sisters who all married birds and her old and new lives begin to collide.

-The Locked Tomb trilogy by Tamsyn Muir: sci-fi necromancers vie to become the next right bony hand of God, first book is a murder mystery, second is a grim tale by a survivor of the first but something is Wrong and you know it is, third is an oddly domestic political tragedy and I loved them all so much, cannot recommend the audiobooks in particular enough (as the first is a murder mystery, all the voices the narrator does are both incredibly well done but let me pinpoint exactly who was speaking even when I couldn't remember their names, also she voiced Daniella in Haunting Ground!)

-The Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch: small orphan becomes a conman in fantasy Italy. Ends up being drawn into some political intrigue and fucks around finds out, frequently!

-Children of Time: Spiders! Once upon a time an arrogant scientist decided to infect monkey with a virus that would encourage rapid evolution within cooperative species but...it reaches jumping spiders. They have their own form of sign language with vibrational tappy patterns against the ground and wiggling their palps! Scientist's consciousness has melded with an AI and is waiting for her monkeys to become intelligent enough to contact her

Misc: -Dungeon Meshi: do you want to learn about the ecosystem of a dungeon while also figuring out how to cook the creatures inside and watch a guy with a monster special interest live his absolute best life? Yeah you do! (I'm really enjoying this rn so ye)

-Mabel: podcast about a home health carer for an old lady who's only living relative, Mabel, is missing. Anna, the nurse, starts leaving her voicemails like a diary and slowly gets drawn into family secrets, fairy logic and goes exploring places she shouldn't (this one does not shy away from heavy topics including serious child abuse and its effects so if that's not for you then leave this one be)

#sorry this took a while to respond to I was chewing on what to recommend!#I'm sure I like some cheerful things too but I cannot for the life of me think of any #I mean A Space for the Unbound is pretty nice for MOST of it but the last section made me cry a lot

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halt-kun · 3 months

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My Hero Academia Chapter 415 - Rejection

Deku is all alone in his head again but what will happen inside Shigaraki's mind ????

It's scary to think we're getting very close to the end of the series

VERY CONFUSING

Tsuyu nearly made me think we were changing perspective again hahaha

I'm currently listening to cavetown latest songs and it's a pretty nice vibe with all this mind fuckery

I'm getting emotional, I nearly teared up

ALL MIGHT IS HERE TOOOOOO

A strange recap is happening but I like it

We're sooooo gonna save this boy

URGHHH

accept the saving Tomura

You're getting weaker too

that's a reverse metroidvania boss battle where you loose everything as the fight continues (or maybe just like Samus in any game beginning, losing all her powers for some reason)

I mean do I even need to say once again how good Horikoshi is at drawing

WHAT WHO ????

a hater now who wants Japan to be fucked forever

GOOO best character Mei !! ! !! ! ! !

I LOVE HER

(my favourite characters are Mirko, Nagant, Tamaki and Kiri actually but all this is fine)

give them some love my guys

*vegas theme start playing*

LET'S GOOOOOO

I'm so hyped up

OMG no, who let the baby escape

she's going to be a hero too

I'm tearing up nooooo

hug her and bring her to the danger (with the other child soldiers)

but please be safe kiddo

shjcb dbcshcbjbcsbcjs

why is it the end now

and a break next week too -_-

Anyway, cook something good Horikoshi and don't you dare hurt Eri

I really hope JJK and MHA won't suffer the Naruto and Dragon Ball treatment with endless spin offs

I want these authors to take a break and bring about a new universe full of good things

hoping they make something even better !

Anyway see you in two weeks

#mha 415 #mha liveblog #mha manga #mha spoiler

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bonefall · 11 months

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you mentioned the netflix castlevania series, have you ever played any of the castlevania games? that's the shit that rewired my brain

My reaction time isn't good enough to play metroidvania games :( My greatest Gaming Achievement is beating the entire endgame boss rush of Kingdom Hearts 1 on my first try

And also being a fucking CHAMPION at Waterskip Slider in Amazing Island

#I tend to play sandboxes like Spore and Minecraft #bone babble

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pixies-and-poets · 8 months

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Funfact Rayman Origins apparently started development in late 2008 which as you know was during the time when the Rabbids supposedly “stole” the Rayman series.

It was headed up initially by a small team within Ubisoft Montpellier who wanted to make a 2D Rayman game with some consulting from Michel Ancel as he was busy with BG&E 2. Then he took a break from BG&E 2 to finish up and expand Rayman Origins and developed Rayman Legends afterwards.

So really Ubisoft was never ignoring Rayman during the height of Rabbids popularity.

Exactly! It was always an exaggerated narrative, and the gaps in which Rayman has been "gone" are really nothing compared to some franchises, anyway. I think a major problem is that people really just want him to have a 3D platformer again, which I totally understand, that's how he really gained prominence. But that often comes coupled with the idea that 2D platformers in the modern era are "lesser", that they inherently must be lower-budget or lower-effort or worthy of less respect or whatever, which is a mindset that is still really prevalent and makes me so upset! My favorite game of all time is a 2D platformer and I will always love a good one (or Metroidvania or what have you). So, even though Origins/Legends are artistically beautiful and up there with the best in their genre, there are STILL people who see them as evidence of Rayman being on the backburner and getting less attention than he deserves, making his hiatus seem longer.

#alter answers #rayman

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randomboo256 · 3 days

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BotW and TotK, Revisited

So it's Tears of the Kingdom's anniversary already.

I ended up replaying the game a few months ago. I'm not sure if I've ever played a game so rife with good ideas and great potential that failed so hard to take advantage of any of it.

This will be long, please stay with me.

Before we talk about TotK, we need to talk about it's predecessor: Breath of the Wild.

I played this game when it came out, and for what it's worth I thought it was decently fun. However it lacks a lot of the design that made previous games work. Before you ask, no I'm not nostalgia blind. I played the entire Zelda series for the first time in 2016, and I played BotW just a year later. If anything, I'm just as nostalgic for old Zelda as I am for BotW itself. This is just an honest critique of the game's design.

BotW is a game that felt like a rough draft of what a modernized 3D Zelda game could be. The idea of making the world larger, more open, and more inspired by the 2D games is a brilliant one. The execution however felt less like 2D Zelda and more like every other open world game.

What BotW mainly suffered from was bloat. The world was too large and less rewarding. Your main reward for exploring a Zelda game are new items and heart pieces. When you relegate all of those to copy/paste shrines, you're removing the main incentive to actually engage with the world.

In old Zelda, you had no idea what you could find! Any random chest could have a heart piece or even a brand new item. Any sidequest could give you an awesome reward. That's what made it so much fun and so compelling to do everything you can! Old Zelda also loved to show you something you wanted, without telling you how to get it. Often you'd have to come back WAY later. It makes you remember that location, and when you can grab it it's so satisfying. Metroidvanias are like entirely built on this principle.

However, BotW's map is simply too large to be constantly engaging like this. The devs can't ensure you'll find the upgrades, important NPCs, and discoveries without just telling you. In old Zelda, the devs can naturally guide you to all of that with level design. To remedy this, BotW tries to give you items and upgrades constantly, but they do so in a way to make sure that it makes no difference if you missed them. That's how we get things like interchangeable swords that break instead a permanent sword upgrades (I'll get back to that).

It doesn't help that BotW pushed it's nonlinearity too hard. It wanted to make everything in the game accessible immediately as well as completely skippable, which ruins most sense of player progress as well as obliterating any form of a difficulty curve. BotW never has that "Oh, I can get that now!" moment. You know, I actually don't mind the weapon system in concept. I love resource management in games. The problem is that enemies are optional, and killing them is rarely ever worth the swords you broke. Other games with resource management don't allow to just effortlessly ignore every enemy. The worst part of BotW's over-nonlinearity is the dungeons. Dungeons have always been the heart of this series, even in the original game. In BotW, they were simplified down to "do these 5 points in any order" and it's just really boring and underwhelming.

On top of all of this, I haven't mentioned the stamina system, which quite literally just exists to waste your fucking time. By stripping out so much of Zelda's game design in favor of interchangeable everything, it just all adds up to a game that's very repetitive, often boring, and not as satisfying to play as the older titles. If BotW had a map half the size, it could let Nintendo actually pack it to the brim with something interesting and engaging to find in every step you take. Combine that with a return of the old item/heart piece system and a bit of linearity, and it could be great. The happy medium between old and new Zelda is basically just giving the game a more Metroidvania-esc game design logic, as I alluded to earlier. It's a simple fix, but I think it would make everyone happy.

However, TotK took a different route....

Finally, the topic of the today's post. I played Tears of the Kingdom right around launch, and again for what's worth I thought it too was decently fun. However while I could be a little forgiving of BotW for its various missteps, this game doubled down on all of BotW's worst issues.

Instead of removing bloat, TotK TRIPLED it. We have a mostly empty and boring sky and a mostly boring and empty depths. What's left is the shamelessly reused map from BotW. So now everything in the game is either something you've already seen or something you don't care about. This choice is baffling, to be frank. Of all Zelda games, BotW especially is all about exploring the map.

Like, it literally didn't have anything else!!! Why would I want to explore this map again?!!! I've seen it already!!! There wasn't that much there the first time!!!

cough cough

Getting back ahold of myself....

TotK's main excuse to explore the map is the introduction of caves (which somehow weren't in BotW). Caves certainly add a ton of life to the world design, but we still run into a problem of them too getting very stale by the end. On top of that, they removed any challenge in the physical effort of exploring the world. While the stamina system in BotW mostly sucks, it's main strength is that you can't just climb to the top of every mountain. You gotta look around and be a bit more clever. In TotK, towers alone shoot you up a million feet, so you can just glide everywhere. It's faster, I guess, but what's the point of having world map if it's smarter to just fly over it? It's like they knew that exploring again would be boring so they just let you skip over it.

Well exploration is mostly a bust, but what else changed?

Well to start out positive, I adore the weapon fusing system. I already enjoy resource management, so adding whole fusing layer on top of it is super fun. However, I still rarely have a reason to actually fight. By far the most fun part of TotK were the Proving Ground shrines. When I walk into one of these shrines, it's like the game comes to life with so much fun and energy. It's like I'm teleported to a world where the combat clicks and is insanely fun and in-depth. It's funny, because all those shrines did was limit my weapons, limit my healing, make enemies more punishing, and forced me to actually beat them.

WHY WASN'T THE WHOLE GAME DESIGNED LIKE THIS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Well we know why. By making the enemies unrelenting, the weapons and healing limited, and forcing you to fight, the game is limiting what you're capable of. Working around and with limitations are the core of what makes, not just video games, ALL games fun. However, the modern Zelda games are so allergic to the idea of limitations in general that they're sabotaging their own carefully designed combat system at pretty much all times. The only way to enjoy it is for the player to decide to place the limit themself, which is a lot to ask of us.

Outside the upgraded combat system, the main difference between BotW and TotK is a new move called Ultrahand, which strangely a reference to an old Nintendo toy. Ultrahand "functions" by letting you grab any physics object, twist it around, and then stick it to other physics objects. If you're thinking "that just sounds like the fucking Psychics Gun from Garry's Mod", then correct! The only difference is that the Physgun actually works properly. For what it's worth, it's pretty impressive technology, however that doesn't mean much when it's not actually fun to play. Moving an object around with Ultrahand feels extremely stiff and awkward. As for the glueing aspect, it's even worse. With the controls alone it's hard to make anything, but what's worse is that you can't detach one item at a time. If you glue one thing on wrong, shaking it loose will probably make it all fall apart. As you might imagine from a system where any two things can be glued in any way, it's all extremely fucking janky.

When the game's systems for Ultrahand are properly flowing and working properly, it can be pretty fun, but for every "pretty fun" Ultrahand moment, there's a thousand annoying moments.

In a way, Ultrahand is basically just an upgraded and reskinned Magnesis, a move from BotW. Magnesis also barely worked, but it wasn't used nearly as much. Ultrahand meanwhile is literally the entire game. I'm not exaggerating. Pretty much every puzzle and a majority of side missions are about Ultrahand. Ultrahand is this game's gimmick. You know, like how Ocarina of Time's gimmick was time periods, Majora's Mask's was a time loop, Wind Waker's was the ocean, Twilight Princess was the wolf, Skyward Sword's was motion controls, and Breath of the Wild's was extreme nonlinearity. Tears of the Kingdom's gimmick is Ultrahand, and wow holy shit is it the worst 3D Zelda gimmick so far.

Honestly what sucks is that Ultrahand could've been a lot better. On occasion, they do have some really fun puzzles with it. However, because these modern Zelda games don't have difficulty curves, the Ultrahand puzzles won't get more challenging over time. The majority are just too easy, and I'm spending more time thinking about how awful the controls are at doing what I want.

As for the dungeons, well don't get your hopes up. They're identical to BotW, except now with Ultrahand gimmicks! Well, that's not totally true. They do have two big changes. Firstly, every dungeon has a long linear segment leading up to it. These sections are genuinely great, and they feel more like Zelda dungeons than the actual dungeons. However they are just short preludes to the lackluster main event. As for the other change, this game reintroduces companions.

Companions are classic aspect of Zelda that BotW sorely missed. They're usually small and out of the way. They exist for three important reasons: For one, player guidance. They'll occasionally chime in with hints on where to go and what to do. For two, they add worldbuilding. You can freely talk to them and sometimes you can learn some interesting details from them. For three, they give Link a voice. Link is barely a character, so having another character follow him around and speak for him in cutscenes is a great way to remedy that. Of course, they could just... let Link talk but HEY HEY let's not get too crazy.

Unfortunately TotK once again dropped the ball on this. This game has four companions that you unlock over the story, and they're not small. They're full human sized NPCs that constantly follow you around and get in your way. Now honestly, I could forgive that. I love Final Fantasy VII Remake, and those games have that issue. I don't really care that my party members get in my way in those games, because they're great characters and they're constantly chiming in with fun dialogue. However TotK somehow didn't think to do that. Your "party" never chimes in at any point. Neither in gameplay OR cutscenes. What a huge missed opportunity! They're just lifeless robots that follow you around.

You might be thinking, "I thought the whole point of Zelda companions was that they'd talk. If they don't talk in TotK, what do they do?" and that's a good question hypothetical-person-I-made-up. For one, they fight in combat with you. That sounds fun, but you can't control them at all. They're completely AI. For two, each one has a special move you can use by walking up to them and pressing A. This means they essentially act like a dungeon item. That's a huge improvement for the quality of the dungeons. But remember, they get in the way constantly. Combine that with the strange controls, and you will be constantly setting off your partners without wanting to. Did nobody playtest this???

Giving Link party members is a fucking amazing idea, but they botched the execution of this so hard that most people just turn the party members off. What a waste of an idea. I hope they revisit this concept. I'll be really sad if they don't.

So all in all, Tears of the Kingdom is a really upsetting video game to me. It didn't do the one thing I was hoping, and that was "make a version of Breath of the Wild that took more advantage of it's concept".

On top of that, it kept piling on new great ideas that they also fucked up. Like adding caves, sky islands, and depths to an open world Zelda. Yes! Great idea! However, they were really fucking boring and repetitive. They gave the game an amazing combat system, and then punished you for using it. They gave the game a complicated physics puzzle gimmick, but it was really fucking janky and overused. The added fun build ups to dungeons, but still skimped out on making the actual dungeon part. They gave Link party members, but they're boring and get in your way.

When I look at Tears of the Kingdom, all I can see is the insane amount of missed potential this game had. They could've done so much. They TRIED to do so much. But they didn't do any well at any of them! I can't help but think this all just comes down to a case of some extreme overambition. They tried to do so many things, on top of having an insanely large open world. BotW's map was way too big. TotK's map is insanely oversized. That's why my number one prayer for the next Zelda is that they SCALE THIS SHIT DOWN!!

Overall, Tears of the Kingdom isn't a bad game. When it works, it works very well. However it works so occasionally that I really wish Nintendo stops doing this new modern formula. It seems like Nintendo just doesn't know how to improve upon BotW. With TotK, they just figured "Well if we take BotW and just shove more shit into it, it'd be good right?". Well, it's not good. It's fucking mid.

As for what I want Nintendo to do instead? Well I hope that the next Zelda is just something that's radically new. You might not have expected me to say that, huh? Well honestly, I don't really care if old Zelda ever returns. If it ever did, I'd be happy for sure, but it's not like those old games are perfect either. The reason we're even in this mess is because Skyward Sword was so hated that Nintendo backpedalled so hard in the opposite direction that they fell off a cliff.

At this point, all I want is a new Zelda game that I can love again, and these modern ones just aren't it.

#gaming #review #legend of zelda

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