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parab0mb · 1 month

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So, now that I finished the game (again) and the DLC chapters, I'm going to ramble about Crosscode C:

This game is really bizarre in the sense that, to be completely 100% honest, there isn't any particular part of the game that I think is all that mind-blowing. But all the individual elements (heh) of the game come together so well that the resulting product ends up being so much stronger and memorable than the sum of its parts.

Like, most indie games have one or several notable flaws or shortcomings (and understandably so) but this game is such an airtight experience that I can't help thinking about it and just being like "the how HECK is this game so GOOD?!"

...I am of course just getting started, I've got a wall of text of things I liked and thought her just "meh" under the 'keep reading' if you're interested (you've been warned (also spoilers obviously)):

The combat is definitely one of the strongest elements of the game and probably one of my personal favorites; its brutally difficult and sometimes feels like bullshit (and maybe there is one or two instances where it actually is just bullshit) but once you get the hang of it is really is flashy and satisfying and makes you feel badass to pull off. Plus its got the whole easy to learn, hard to master thing going on (like most of it is just charging SP and pressing the space bar, but knowing what moves to use and when def play into things).

I dunno how much of a hot take this is, but I really liked the puzzles in this game! I won't deny that they can sometimes drag on and interrupt the pacing of a temple, but personally I didn't mind. And just like the combat they're so well constructed that, while you'll spend minutes staring blankly reminded that you're a simple-minded creature and that the human mind wasn't made for this and you should be foraging for mushrooms in the woods and risking death over your next meal, they rarely feel impossible to solve without having to resort to a playthrough and are really satisfying to finally figure out (not to brag but there was exactly one puzzle in the game where I had to look up the solution and another where I did solve it on my own but then looked it up cause I thought I cheesed it by mistake). At first I wasn't a huge fan of how fast/precise you have to be for some puzzles on top of just finding out the solution in the first place, but after a while you kinda get used to it (and there is an option to slow things down which is really nice of the devs to include).

The story is... pretty alright. Yeah. I honestly don't have much to say about it. Bit of a slow pace, does the job, and has it's share of twists and emotional moments, but the narrative itself doesn't really do anything mind-blowing either so... you know. I definitely think it's the characters themselves that are memorable and prop up an otherwise average story. I mean every single one of them is just the hugest goober and even characters who initially seem forgettable or one-dimensional end up subverting your expectations and being super endearing/compelling/layered. Oh yeah, and Lea is a character that can only say like 10 words and SHE DESERVES THE WORLD I WOULD KILL FOR H-

Also, since the DLC is brand new to me I do wanna say that the ending was the tiniest bit underwhelming. Like you break into Vermillion Wasteland, fight a (surprisingly easy) boss, and that's... just it. Like 20 minutes top. I dunno, it feels like... something was missing. Still thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing and it is nice for the cast to get their happy ending (not quite as emotionally impactful as the base game's end imo, but still great and I'm glad they gave us more time with these dorks).

The platforming and navigating the overworld is tedious, which sucks a bit since that makes up a good chunk of the game. Idk man, having to scale different elevations of platforms is made frustrating by the fixed camera and the fact that the different "levels" of platforms aren't distinct from each other at all, so its easy to get duped by the perspective and jump to something you can't actually reach (yes you can use projectiles to check but it still isn't fun). Even without everything blending into each other visually, trying to find which obscure paths from four rooms ago will bring you to a chest just isn't all that enjoyable (some of the later maps like Sapphire Ridge were okay though, if only cause they started to have actually interesting puzzles to do). Basically they're just... there, between the actually fun stuff.

The trading system and farming for resources is confusing and kind of a chore. That's all I got.

Guess I'll touch on the art/music since I don't have too much to say about them. To be perfectly honest I'm not actually super crazy about the artstyle (blasphemy!), but I won't deny that the sprite-work and overall aesthetic are still super-well done, even if they aren't my personal taste (tl;dr I'm neutral on it). The soundtrack isn't something I'd put on my phone and listen to in the car, but like the art it's still well-made and perfectly suits the mood of/drives the emotional impact of the game, and there are still a handful of standout bangers (Lea's theme will live rent-free in my brain of course).

One last thing I'll say (that I mentioned before) is that as fun as this game is, it feels like a commitment to get through at times. Even when I first played it and had more free time, sometimes this game just felt "imposing" to pick back up after a break. Idk its hard to describe, but at least for me it was hard to play any other games alongside this (especially with my limited free time) which kinda sucked a bit.

To wrap things up, if I had to give the game an arbitrary number rating, I have to give Crosscode a 0/10 because its an indie game that doesn't have a fishing game (smh honestly how could they make such an obvious mistake 😔).

#like I said I don't have any super deep analyses of the characters or the game to offer #just wanted to ramble about THE EXPERIENCE and what I thought this game did fantastically and slightly less fantastically #ya know #while i still got the brainrot #also reading what I wrote kinda makes me sound more critical of the game than I really am #i do wanna be clear that a lot of this is just me nitpicking #even the “worst” stuff in the game (*cough* the overworld) is still solid #also opinions #crosscode spoilers #crosscode #rambling #long post #game review (i guess)

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handsome-jacks-left-eye · 6 months

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Alright, let's talk about Easter in November, and by Easter, I mean easter eggs. The Borderlands franchise is chalk full of them, some obvious, some not. I'm gonna go over some of my personal favorites. Note, I'm not gonna go over EVERY easter egg, as that would take all day, so instead, I'll include the others in some future posts.

First easter egg I want to tell you about is in Borderlands 3. It's real easy to find, as it's a whole quest. Ever watch the best movie of all time, The Room, created by the best mind of anyone's generation, Tommy Wiseau? No? What are you doing with your life?

Well, regardless if your cultured or not, Tommy Wiseau makes a special appearance in his own quest "Buff Film Buff", located in Devils Razor. This quest becomes available once you've completed the main story quest "Blood Drive". The whole quest entails you helping Tommy Wiseau, or "Buff", get his film on the big screen for all to see, instead of the Calypso Twins propaganda videos.

Next easter egg is a smaller, more obscure one, but I still thoroughly enjoyed stumbling across it. In Borderlands 2, in the head hunter dlc "T.K. Bahas Bloody Harvest", you can come across a fun egg to classic horror films "The Blair Witch Project", "The Ring" and "Poltergeist". Scattered about the map are three televisions to find, and upon approaching them, little scenes will pop up referencing the films. They can be found in hidden, off the map areas.

You ever watch a movie and at the end, you sort of just sit there and think "what the hell did any of that mean?" Well, that was me watching Stanley Kubricks "2001: A Space Odyssey". So, imagine my confusion when I stumbled upon the all infamous monolith in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. If you head to Stantons Liver, search out the cave to the east of the map. It'll be chalk full of torks, so you'll know it when you see it. There will be a little opening towards the back of the cave. Hop in and follow the path, until you find it. The monolith. There will be some enemies in the area, so take them out, and then touch the monolith. You'll touch it about three times, each time taking you to a little area referencing different scenes from the film. At the end, you'll be greeted with a weapons chest, and that all too weird baby in space.

This particular easter egg is probably one the most known ones, but it's also one of my favorites. It first showed up in Borderlands 1, and even made a comeback in Borderlands 2, offering a little challenge if you go find it. I'm of course, talking about the hidden Claptrap of Fyrestone. In the town of Fyrestone, you can climb up onto a little fence when you first enter. Make it up to see onto the cliff, and you can find a green Claptrap unit waving and greeting you. Fast forward to Borderlands 2. Return to Fyrestone and follow the same path, however this time, you can approach the unit. Unfortunately, due to Jack destroying the product line, the Claptrap unit is now dead. However approaching it will reward you the challenge "Hey! Over here!" for 5 badass points. There's also a red chest waiting for you!

Those are just some of my favorites, but I don't want to make this post *too* long, as I could write all day. I'll make posts about other easter eggs in the future. In the meantime, I'm working on a thesis of sorts as to why Handsome Jack isn't as terrible as he may seem, and also a detailed telling of his entire backstory, working through all the plot inconsistencies that have shown up throughout the games.

#tales from the borderlands #borderlands blog #borderlands 3 #borderlands 2 #borderlands #handsome jack #im doing this for my own amusement #tiny tina #tiny tinas wonderlands #easter eggs #claptrap #video game blog #blog #video games

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falmerbrook · 1 month

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what are your tes 6 expectations?

hmmm interesting question.

Firstly, it sounds like it's basically all but confirmed to be in Hammerfell based on analysis of that one "please shut up about TES 6" trailer by people who know more than me, and the fact that ESO has kinda avoided dipping their toes too substantially into the province despite covering the rest of them pretty thoroughly. On one hand that's sorta meh because if so it'll be the third game in a row to focus on a human province, but on the other hand ESO and Redguard have kinda gotten me into Hammerfell, so I won't be sad or disappointed if it indeed is. I've seen some say they think it will or want it to focus on the the Iliac Bay (so both High Rock and Hammerfell), but I think that's a bit of a cope.

In terms of everything else, I'm gonna be honest, I don't really have any expectations. I'm by no means a gamer, and the TES games are pretty much the only ones I play, so from my time poking around TES communities, I don't think I have as high or complex of expectations for my gaming experience as someone who plays games beyond just being weirdly obsessed with a particular game series. I'll also admit that I can be a bit of contrarian, so seeing people get genuinely angry at things they assume will happen with TES 6 as if they have already been confirmed to be happening has made me sort of be overly optimistic about it by default. I think by not having expectations I'm less likely to be disappointed if it is disappointing (which, once again, it sorta hard to achieve by my low standards), and I won't be too burned by being optimistic since no matter what, I'll probably just enjoy running around a part of Tamriel either way. It'll probably be fairly similar to Skyrim, but hell, I'm not a game developer. Who am I to say what direction they'll take.

If Oblivion supposedly had a lot of influence from Lord of the Rings, what might TES 6 have inspiration from? Maybe they'll see how well BG3 did and lean in that direction (writing wise) more? The new Dune movies have come out right as its started proper development, so maybe they'll take from that (y'know, deserts)? Maybe they'll just do their usual of building off of new systems they implemented in their last game (which would be Starfield, which I haven't played and don't know what new things they played around with, so I don't know what it will be) and/or the DLCs of the last TES game (although maybe it's been too long since Skyrim for that).

The one thing I am tentatively hoping for is that these like 4 years of pre-development shows in the worldbuilding and writing. But like I said, I'm not expecting much. Just trying to be contrarily optimistic.

Also I made this post awhile ago about what I hope they change about Redguard history if TES 6 is in Hammerfell. Not the same topic but I thought I might as well include it

So tldr: I don't really have many expectations period, positive or negative, but I'm cautiously looking forward to it. I don't really know what to expect outside of the typical Bethesda open world structure.

#mine #ask #tes 6 #for going 'i dont have expectations ' over and over again i sure wrote a lot huh

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theidlefurry · 15 days

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can you tell us your feelings on shadow the hedgehog

shadow the hedgehog is the very first shit stain on the sonic franchise. he represents the first time sonic went from being a simple game series that could be enjoyed by everyone to something a little bit weird. people might say that sa2 is the best and most iconic sonic game and that might be true afaik but this matters very little to me because i can't play it or even watch gameplays because shadow is there the whole time. he is a loser and a whiner and he has a stupid cringe character design that makes me almost as mad as rouge's character design because it's so stupid. people are also very horny for him and this pisses me off very badly, not only because i'm sick and tired of the tasteless yaoi that started plaguing the franchise the second he stepped in but also because he is just not hot. i don't understand what the deal is and i get angry at what i can't comprehend. his fans, of which there are many, explode with joy whenever he shows up in a game. chances are if you put that thing in a game or add a mod related to him or make a dlc about him, the fans will go crazy. i do not know why. he doesn't add anything good. he took over knuckles' role, he just keeps getting more and more annoying, he loses all the goddamn time, he is short, he looks like he was designed by a 12yr old, his backstory is dumb and the way it was handled was so ridiculously out of place for the tone of the franchise, and it brought in a bunch of naruto fans, ruining the fandom ecosystem so thoroughly that to this day we haven't recovered and we will not recover. he should've just stayed dead. if he had stayed dead and was never brought up again, maybe i would forgive him, but alas. he's still here and he makes waves whenever he shows up, when he is just an ugly loser. it's all very absurd. i hate him so bad. if he existed i would get a car just to run him over

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shima-draws · 1 year

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Why?

Why are the pokemon games becoming more and more of a clusterf*** as we proceed through gens?

I wouldn't go so far as to say THAT;; The last couple gens certainly have an abundant amount of flaws but there's a lot of replay value in them too. To this day I'm still mystified as to why people hated SwSh so much, I know some of the graphics were lackluster but? Honestly imo the actual towns and routes in SwSh are better designed than the ones in SV, especially when you're looking at Hammerlocke and Ballonlea. And the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra DLCs were a blast to play through if you decided to pay for them. SwSh's story was super lackluster but so far SV's storylines have knocked me flat on my ass with how good they are.

Pokemon has always been hit or miss, it really just depends on what aspect of the game you like the most that will determine how "good" it is in somebody's eyes. As for me, I love games that are more story driven, so yes I definitely prefer SV and SM over SwSh and XY, whose plots don't really fit my standards of being a well-written story arc. Some people just like games that are more fun, so they might prefer XY and Swsh for their mechanics over other games.

I definitely do think that SV was rushed, at least on the graphics front; they could have easily let it bake for another year and released a gorgeously rendered game, but we can't win at everything lol. And yeah, there's a good handful of designs in Gen 9 that could use some improvement, but there's a lot of designs that absolutely slap too.

The main issue now is that Nintendo and Gamefreak KNOW that Pokemon is the most popular franchise in the world. They're going to make money off of their games no matter how, or when or in what condition they release their games in. So obviously they're going to rush development at the cost of quality, and at the cost of their own employees, so that they can make bank every year with a game release. At least, that's what I think is the issue? When SV's release date was announced I know a lot of people said holy shit, THAT soon? It was definitely rushed. That's why there's so many lagging and rendering issues lol

But, my philosophy has always been this: You can thoroughly enjoy a piece of media and still criticize it for its flaws. SV may be buggy and glitchy as fuck but I've had an absolute blast playing through it. I already know I'll be starting a new file and replaying it sometime down the road. The problem now is letting Nintendo know that yes, we love Pokemon, we're going to play Pokemon no matter what, but at the very least we should get a say on how much work should be put into these games. (And, in SV's case, it was clearly not enough.)

Anyway sorry for the super long ramble lmao I clearly have some Thoughts about this. But idk. I'd rather be spending my energy enjoying myself and having a good time than being super negative and trashing on the game at any given chance. And yes I do have some criticisms but that's just how these things go

#Shima answers questions #Pokemon #Pokemon Scarlet and Violet #Pokemon SV

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midorisudachi · 9 months

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"The Herald of Andraste"

So, have I told you how much I love the Dragon Age series, especially Dragon Age Inquisition? I adore it dearly...to me, it is one of the best games ever made (besides Skyrim and Witcher 3). The details & environments are gorgeous; I could run around forever just admiring the different sceneries/climates. Also, the interactions in the DA games are just the best, and I love how you can create relationships. I recently beat DAI for the 2nd time a couple of weeks ago. I'm always sad when I finish a game, especially one I thoroughly enjoyed. Do you feel that way, too?

My OC for DAI was the female human warrior, from House Trevelyan. I named her Bryony. I always try to make the characters look similar to myself, but I've got such odd features that I can never create a character that looks like *ME*. Of course I had to make Bryony go for Cullen. Cullen is so dreamy. He's hot for a video game character. ;-D I did make Bryony go for Dorian until it was discovered Dorian was gay! (So tempting to create a male character to get the relationship with Dorian. :3 ) But I adored the relationship between Bryony & Cullen. The 2nd time I played the game, I actually had all the DLCs, which are amazing additions to the game and overall storyline. I was stoked when Byrony got to marry Cullen. Made my fangirl self feel tickled to death.

The armour Bryony is wearing is a "heavy armor" schematic I crafted using Stormheart. Stormheart makes for pretty armour with the iridescent blue-pink-purple colours. The sword was a "Strong Brutal Claymore" schematic I used, also with Stormheart, equipped with the "Superb Corrupting Rune". I couldn't figure out how to make that effect as I drew it (it looked more like flames than the actual effect), so I actually "cheated" by using a smoke brush in Photoshop Elements to add to the sword. I drew this entire fan art before I equipped Bryony with that badass "Armour of the Dragon Hunter" (obtained from the Jaws of Hakkon DLC) and the Sulevin Blade.

Every other Monday [starting from today], I will be posting this specific kind of DAI fan art until I finish all 10 playable characters, which means it will be a countdown until Dragon Age Day (December 4th)!

Drawn with Sakura Pigma Micron pens, then coloured in with a mix of Copic Markers & Ohuhu Markers. White accents were done with a gel pen. The Inquisiton symbol, stars, dots, & blooms on the trees were done with a gold Golden Paint acrylics, but the scanner killed the gold and it looks "flat" (in real life, the drawing looks awesome with the super metallic gold). Font done in Photoshop Elements.

Fan artwork © Jacqueline E. McNeese

Dragon Age Inquisition/Trevelyan © Bioware & Electronic Arts

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #da inquisition #da inquisitor #dragon age inquistor #dragon age inquisitor fanart #dragon age inquistion fan art #bioware #electronic arts #countdown to dragon age day #inquisitor trevelyan #herald of andraste #dragon age embrium #my fanart #traditional art #copic markers #ohuhu markers #dragon age fan art #dragon age fanart

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madeimpact · 8 months

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Finished the DLC yesterday here are my thoughts and theory crafting under the cut. HUGE FUCKING SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE STORY obviously.

I love Kieran. Absolutely fucking nobody is surprised

I hate how the narrative treats him ( and by extension also kinda the protag ) though. You're given no option but to lie about what's DEFINITELY this kid's special interest, causing a whole downward spiral for him, and then the game has them fly back to Blueberry Academy without giving either you or him ANY fucking closure. No option to go and talk to him or anything. And THEN they cut to that scene in his room where YOU are the sole reason for him basically having a mental breakdown?

It's a very frustrating instance of Pokémon having a story it wants to tell and not really giving any branching story paths in order to get to its endpoint. Normally that doesn't really bother me, but maybe it's just because I'm the person that can't stand picking the mean options in games that this time in particular it really rubbed me the wrong way.

Overall, I enjoyed the story though. I'd commit crimes for Ogerpon's happiness. Kieran deserved better. Carmine reminds me of Asuka, but also, girl, you implied you're not a teenager anymore by saying you "never let teenage angst get to [you] that bad", the fact that you remind me of a teenage girl is oof! ( Love to hate her tho. She does her job in the narrative. )

However, having discussed all the canon material, time for me to put on my tin foil hat and share my main theory at the moment: Kieran is being influenced by either the Loyal Three or some other Pokémon that is going to be revealed in part 2 ( maybe this guy from the signboard art ). Or maybe some cryptid from Area Zero but that's more just my RP headcanon brain going apeshit

Carmine and their grandpa kept hammering home the point that stealing the mask was VERY out of character for Kieran, to the point of even scaring Carmine a little, and stealing the mask at all is the same behavior exhibited by the Loyal Three with the other masks. He also exhibits greed in his bid to be the one to catch Ogerpon, and even says himself that he knows it's selfish. And don't think for a SECOND I didn't notice the lights in his eyes periodically going out!!

Could I be wrong and grasping at straws to defend a character that is actually deeply selfish? Yeah, probably! But until we see otherwise I'm thoroughly convinced some sus shit is going on and Kieran isn't currently entirely himself.

#anyway kieran muse coming soon to a neg near you /j /probably /i shouldn't kid myself #teal mask spoilers #sv dlc spoilers #scvi dlc spoilers #❛ worldbuilding: pokemon.#yeah sure why not i'll tag it with meta tags #❛ ooc: shut up neg.

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yakool-foolio · 5 months

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I think I like Rain Code more when it isn’t just focusing on Yuma and Shinigami tbh.

I think I'll have to agree on that. Yuma and Shinigami's relationship is undeniably important to the overall theme of 'no one is alone,' but it pales in comparison to the encompassing dynamic of the NDA as a whole. They are one big, dysfunctional, loveable support system. It's not just the interactions between two people that matter most, it's all of them. It's what makes the DLCs worthwhile, because we get to see more of the inner-workings of their companionships without Shinigami's witty remarks wedged in every conversation.

I thoroughly enjoy the game more when it goes out of its way to explore characters outside the bounds of Yuma and Shinigami's influence. It's pretty much why a majority of my rambles are dedicated to Yakou/his wife/Yomi/Hitman Zilch's narrative foiling and parallelism! I'M THE SUS BITTER EXES GUY! And if that is to be the only impact I leave on the world of character analysis, I'm cool with that! That particular aspect of Rain Code is something I love deeply and want to dig into as far down as I can go until I fall into lava and lose all my diamonds. And I think that their dynamics are worth rambling about cause I fuckin' love it and hope others interested in these characters will too!

I've already ranted ad nauseam about my chapter 5 fix-it, so I'll keep it brief by simply saying that Rain Code thrives through the NDA functioning as a weird, but caring, found family. It's not just Yuma and Shinigami that carry the weight of the game's main theme. They all connect to create a small lead cast that shines brightest when working together and showcasing their camaraderie.

#as the wise vin diesel once said: “family”#master detective archives: rain code #rain code #rain code spoilers

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flecks-of-stardust · 1 year

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A summary and analysis of my thoughts on Rain World: Downpour

Since I've beat the game pretty thoroughly now, I can actually do this. The short version:

Campaign whose gameplay I enjoyed the most: Artificer, by a long shot Campaign whose lore I think fits into the preexisting world best: Gourmand Most interesting story concepts: Saint Heaviest hitting story: Three way tie between Rivulet, Saint, and Artificer, all for different reasons. Honorable mention to Spearmaster Cool specbio possibilities: Spearmaster

I definitely enjoyed Downpour as a whole, both as a DLC and for the additional lore it provides even if some things may not be objectively canon; some things have more wiggle room than others, but considering Downpour is essentially Videocult endorsed, I'm willing to put stock into certain aspects. The new mechanics were fun to learn and mess around with, the stories were overall very interesting, and I had a lot of fun losing my god damn mind over these slugs. There are some major issues I have with Downpour though, one of the most major being how some campaigns diverge explicitly from the core theme of the vanilla game. I appreciate what Downpour added, but this is definitely not going to be all cheers and praise.

The rest of this will be going under a cut cause it's gonna be long.

This will be split into sections for easier reading and for easier writing for my poor sleep deprived brain. Saint's campaign broke me, yall. I've been operating on 5 hours of sleep all day.

Raw gameplay enjoyment

This one definitely goes to Arti. Her movement is practically unmatched; while Riv goes really fast and Saint lets you climb a lot of surfaces, Arti's bomb jumping combined with her permanent spear pulling ability makes her able to traverse almost anything. This is the first time I've ever dared traverse the Underhang, one of my favorite areas, without bringing a grapple worm with me. It was honestly amazing.

Her whole campaign is also just really, really fun for me. I like fighting things, but being forced to learn how to fight scavengers was honestly a delight. This is the most fun I've ever had repeatedly dying in a game, and it was for a multitude of reasons too, be it a stupid platforming death (happened a lot while I was learning how to use her bomb jump), getting overwhelmed by enemies, or just cackling at some wild lucky hit by a scav. And even beyond scavengers, fighting other things that would normally make me shriek and run away as other characters just became... average, really. I took down my first king vulture in Arti's campaign, and all it really took was an explosive spear (and the KV wedging itself into the wall, but shh).

Mechanically she's just... fun. She's so fun. And! You have basically no consequence for dying anyway! You have food EVERYWHERE and it's extremely easy to kill things to eat, explosives thrown at point blank range do little more than stun you, and aggression is encouraged. So even if you fuck up and die 200 times (literally my count was 200+ in 27 cycles LMAO) there's like... zero bearing on your progress in the game. And I really like that. It was still brutal, don't get me wrong. I think around three quarters of those 200 deaths, probably more, were from scavengers. But part of Rain World's original difficulty was that losing karma would lock you out of traversing regions eventually, and Arti kind of... removes that restriction. I will say it's really fucking annoying to have to look for karma 5 scavengers if you're trying to pass a karma 5 gate, but I really only had to do that twice and that was because I wanted to explore. It's kind of just... natural, I guess, for the structure of her campaign. I'm not good enough at combat to really do it cleanly myself, but I imagine people who are even more confident in their ability to go full on warpath mode with scavengers had less of an issue with this.

Gourmand quite easily takes second place after Arti, with almost as much combat ability as her if you use their abilities right and the added benefit of being able to make like half the game's items if you have the right things. Their food requirement was kind of daunting at first, but I was almost always able to eat up to full food, and it really wasn't that much of a challenge. Mechanically, too, their body slam move is really fucking funny, and I will forever be sad they patched out the tendency of Gourmand launching enemies across the map when rolling into them. Shoutout to that one white lizard on the wall that I landed on and totally crushed the spine of without me even seeing it, because I was trying to go fast and was not expecting an enemy one screen down. The exhaustion mechanic didn't bother me too much and honestly made me more confident with the starving mechanic, which I'm grateful for; that was probably the only reason why I even tried to starve on Arti when I had to shelter because of the rain. And overall, Gourmand's campaign was pretty chill, a nice middle ground of difficulty between Survivor and Hunter. It was a good stepping stone after finishing my Hunter run.

Least favorite mechanically was Saint. It got really irritating really fast to not be able to throw spears, and not even to kill things. I can stun things with rocks, sure, but that doesn't help me if I'm in a narrow space (which Saint has a lot of) and the place I want to go to doesn't have alternate paths (which Saint has a lot of). It got so, so fucking tiring to have to wait for enemies to fucking move, especially with the ridiculous abundance of spiders and spitter spiders everywhere I went. This campaign was the one I used dev tools the most on because I genuinely just got sick of waiting, because not only did that mean I wouldn't get anywhere when exploring, I would also waste time that would otherwise be spent eating food—which is also harder to get because Saint is strictly vegetarian!—or finding a shelter so I didn't freeze to death. You can only get spawn camped so many times before you get annoyed and all. Except instead of spawn camping you get the same fucking enemies camping the same fucking pipes forever. Good luck trying to get anywhere if you don't have karma 10. My god. The tongue was fun, but again, it does Not help if you're in a cramped space.

Spearmaster and Riv were... eh. Average. Fun in that I enjoyed them, average in that they didn't invoke any particular feelings in me. Definitely irritating that they introduced Spearmaster's dual spear wielding gimmick and then. Took it away from you. Lmao. What the hell honestly. But I had fun with all the campaigns overall.

Vanilla Lore Compliance

Gourmand takes this one easily. I like it because it's one of the most removed from the iterators' stories, similar to Survivor and Monk's campaigns. While that's a little sad, I'll admit, it fits a lot better with the core theme of the game. You're not the protagonist. You're a slugcat, trying to survive in this hostile world that was never designed for your existence. You can stumble your way into the lives of beings truly godlike in comparison to you, but you're not even a speck of dust in the grander scheme of things. You're nothing.

But you are you, and Gourmand embodies that very well. Literally too fat to give a shit, good for them. Their whole journey is just to eat well and sleep well and that translates so well to both gameplay and lore, and it's lovely. Lore wise, I also really like that ascending Gourmand gets you almost nothing, and doesn't even count as a proper game clear, because Gourmand is so so removed from anything to do with the ancients as a whole, which is actually something i had a bit of an issue with even in the vanilla lore. Who gives a shit about ascending? You're a slugcat, god dammit. The only things you think about are food, shelter, and danger. And maybe shiny pearls. What does the cycle matter to you? You're just trying to survive. So I really like Gourmand's true, Outer Expanse ending, especially the story implications of the ending cutscenes if you also finish their food quest. You're just exploring this new land, looking for food and safe places to rest in, because you're a slugcat with a family. What more could you want as a slugcat?

Arti is also fairly lore compliant, mostly because she. Uh. Has like no bearing on the lore lmfao. Her story is the most isolated from those of the iterators; she would have done what she did regardless of Pebbles' input. (Gourmand too, but that's not relevant here.) But her story also doesn't really tie back into the original theme of the game, so I can't really comment much on her campaign in terms of lore compliance. Still loved it though! Really liked the reasoning behind letting Pebbles read pearls for you.

Riv and Saint are terrible in terms of lore compliance, and it's a big issue I have with both their campaigns. I'm sure everyone's thought along these lines already, but both of them go directly against the core theme of the vanilla game, which again, is that you are not the protagonist. Riv is probably worse than Saint in this regard, because the events of her campaign require her direct input to occur, while Saint, you can argue they're just an observer of the world in the distant future. But they're both really really bad on this. I still enjoyed the story, but seriously? You're going to tell me someone purposed a slugcat to intentionally go inside an interator to retrieve possibly the most dangerous item in this world to date? And apparently, according to dev notes, Riv wasn't created by an iterator. Which makes no sense and I've elected to ignore that piece of information considering Riv spawns in with the mark of communication and a pearl with schematics of the inner workings of iterator cans. This is peak protagonist behavior. It's nice to get character development on Pebbles, but this really is just... bad. Lol. For canon lore. I really don't take anything Riv does in her campaign as objective fact.

Spearmaster is kinda just there. Not implausible by any means, given Hunter's campaign, though there's some timeline inconsistencies with Moon's collapse if you look through the vanilla pearls and compare the years. It's not that big of an issue though.

Story Concept Execution

As much as I have issues with Saint's campaign, I have to give this one to them. From start to finish it's just shock after shock, blow after blow after blow of oh god, the world's so different. Every change was at least interesting, even if I don't approve of some of them; I liked piecing together that the rain cycle doesn't exist anymore, and rather it's now based on whether you're freezing or not. The little details in how the world has changed are really charming too, especially in how lots of things are now fluffy because it's bitterly cold. Though Riv, Spearmaster and Arti have marked world changes, none are quite as striking as those found in Saint's campaign. It's truly like exploring a new world, except you can still see the old one in it, and it's a strange, somewhat bittersweet, somewhat melancholy feeling to go through the various areas, especially when Saint's campaign naturally takes you through most of the regions. The Undergrowth as a whole, where it used to be Drainage System, really hammers it home I think. You're witnessing the world reclaim itself from what the ancients did to it, for better or for worse, and though it's sad to see the old world go, it's kind of a relief to see it start to push back.

The layout of the world on a more meta sense is also really, really cool. I loved the detail of the old Underhang-Five Pebbles The Region gate now being the link between Silent Construct and Frigid Coast. I loved seeing, despite how horrifying it is story wise, how Pebbles' can has decayed and changed after all these years, and how life has reclaimed his arrays and chambers. I also really really loved the fact that each area has been renamed to reflect its current state; going through Sky Islands (Windswept Spires) to Farm Arrays (Desolate Fields) to Outskirts (Suburban something, I missed the second word) and beyond... it's very haunting in a way I thoroughly enjoyed. It felt a lot like picking through shattered pieces of glass and trying to piece them back together into a coherent shape again, while also knowing that it's never going to be what it once was.

Additionally, I absolutely adored the monologue changes of the already existing echoes, just mentally comparing the differences between what they say in Saint's time and what they say to the other slugcats. And the new echoes too! I keep thinking about the Undergrowth echo, how they mention they never wanted to ascend. It hits you so so hard with how the old world the ancients built is nothing but rubble and ice now. How they, too, were just people, trying so hard to do what they thought would bring them peace, and some of them not finding it even after what they thought would be an eternal rest. It just adds to the overall melancholy feeling of Saint's version of the world.

I don't think I have a clear second place or last place campaign for this category. They all held up on story execution in their own right, but none stood out quite as starkly as Saint's campaign did. They did well to force you to play Spearmaster and Rivulet first before Saint would be unlocked; without the context of both Spearmaster's pre-collapse time and Riv's post-collapse, heavily Rot infested time, Saint's story wouldn't have hit as hard.

Story Impact

It's really hard for me to pick one definitive favorite for this category because all the Downpour cats have such good stories for such different reasons, but Arti, Riv and Saint's campaigns definitely gripped me really, really hard. Spearmaster's did too, but a little less so, and not for Spearmaster himself; I was in it for Moon.

Arti held my interest from the start. It's no secret I'm an avid tragedy and horror enjoyer, and Arti's whole campaign is painted in the blood of her pups. Besides just being mechanically fun, I found myself constantly on the edge for more of her story, always wanting to find out more about what happened to her, what happened to her pups, what happened to make her hate scavengers so much she committed to killing them all. Though the final execution of her actual story felt a little flat, I still really loved the ideas behind her story, and she was the first one to make me destroy my sleep schedule to try and finish her campaign. The whole concept of a mother's rage extending so far that it locks her out of a true release is so so sad and I love it. I love her rage, I love her grief, I love her ceaseless violence that only perpetuates the cycle further, I love how hard it hits when you kill the Chief Scav and how little you get out of that. Her story is an exercise in futility and yet you will root for her. It's gutting and it's beautiful. I also know most of what happens in her other ending, and that just drives it home even more, I think. That her love and her grief is so strong that it prevents her from obtaining a true rest, forever separated from her pups after fighting for them for so long. It's heartbreaking and yet it fits so well. Very fitting for Rain World's overall melancholy world.

Riv and Saint both went for my throat with Pebbles' state, but in different ways. With Riv you get to see the horror of how much the Rot has overtaken his can. It was a fun and horrifying moment to enter via the wall and drop down, and then get stunned by the fall to finally realize that wait, the zero gravity is broken. And then seeing the proto daddies at the end and then encrusted over the pipe that would normally lead to GSB, and also the gaping hole in the side of his chamber and him just sitting on the floor, dejected. He sounds so defeated from the start, so frustrated but in a way that's more just tired than angry, or angry at himself rather than at the world. How desperate do you have to be as something so powerful, wielding so much knowledge, to ask some random critter that flopped into your chamber to save your long time friend (whose state you yourself caused)? And to ask them to go deep into your systems and remove the power source keeping you alive, no less? It drives home the passage of time between Monk's campaign and Riv's, and really nicely shows how Pebbles has changed as a person, even if it took everything literally falling to pieces around him to finally get there. I really get it, though, the fear of yourself and your actions and knowing you objectively messed up, but being too afraid and ashamed to ask for help. It's very brave of him to even ask Riv to do what he did, when he spends the last six campaigns telling slugcats to fuck off in no uncertain terms because he's so certain he has to fix this on his own. And the post game too, when you go back to his chamber and he just looks sad and finally agrees that he doesn't have to do this alone? Gut wrenching. They really went for everyone's hearts with Riv.

Which is just driven further home in Saint's campaign, when you find him sitting out in the snow in the remains of his can, his chamber not even a chamber anymore, and with barely enough of himself together to greet Saint when they stumble into him. He has only his music pearl left, and even that is distorted by time, and if you take it to Moon she pleads you to bring it back to him because it's all he has left. Any of his former bite is gone, replaced only by stuttering curiosity and confusion, and he even thanks you for keeping him company if you return enough times. You spend so long seeing him as this unreachable, untouchable presence that gives you some directions in an aloof way and maybe helps you out a bit, just to see him in this state of ruin, barely alive. I've never had a more visceral reaction to seeing him than I did in Saint's campaign, nor have I ever been more determined to find him. Like, stepping into what used to be Shaded Citadel, finding the Husk and realizing Pebbles collapsed because of course he did, he tells you that when you play as Riv, realizing why it's not shaded anymore, and seeing the state of his can... it's heartbreaking. The fact that there's so little of him left is heartbreaking.

And then on top of that, you get to actively choose to end his misery. To grant him the one thing he spent literally his whole life toiling for. And to me, it felt cruel, almost. It didn't even feel like mercy. And you can choose to do the same thing to Moon, too. It's all framed in such desolate but clear terms: the old world is dying, and a new one is emerging. Is it better to leave Moon there and allow her to slowly decay? But is ascending her a good option either? Is Pebbles truly more at peace like this? And it just makes me think about how both iterators may have felt watching Saint start glowing and flying, and then suddenly their souls are wrenched out of their bodies. And then after you reach the end of Rubicon, if you ascended either one or both of them, you can find them at the end, talking to you and telling you, perhaps a bit vaguely, that none of this is real. That none of what you did has lasting impact, that Pebbles is likely still out there in the snow, that Moon is still going to slowly decay like he did, that Saint, despite it all, is still trying to do this over and over and over again, because that is what an echo does. I haven't cried this hard at a game in a really long time, and I immediately started sobbing when I poked my head into the chamber and saw both of them there, the way they looked when in their prime, just to be told that my actions meant nothing in the end. It was absolutely devastating, but that really just cements how powerful Saint's story is. And here I realize that probably means Saint has the most powerful story impact, but it's truly hard to compare to Arti's and Riv's because the impact is different for all of them.

Then you have Spearmaster, where you get to explore Moon before she collapsed. I sobbed when I got to Neural Terminus and saw Moon's gorgeous blue and pink interior with Reflection of the Moon playing, just mourning all that she lost, all that Pebbles took from her, and despite it all, somehow, she's still kind and patient. Getting to see her as powerful as we will ever see her, while also knowing how much she loses and that this is not even close to what she would have been like in her prime, was just so so gutting. We're never going to know what Moon was like before it all happened, but this comes close to it, and it hurts. In a sense, it's a nice juxtaposition to what Riv and Saint show of her and Pebbles, and also just draws on an objective fact. Before and after the events of the vanilla game, Pebbles and Moon were or will be different. We only get to see glimpses of it.

Gourmand really doesn't have any stock here. Their ending is sweet, for sure, I cried twice at their ending, but the impact of knowing how Moon and Pebbles change and also the impacts of Arti's grief and rage really stuck with me more.

Uh, a section just for Spearmaster?

As you may have been able to tell from the analysis and summary above, I kind of didn't really think much of Spearmaster's campaign. I personally did not find it too hard (though I had experience dragging around two pups before that, so I was used to only having one active hand by then), but it's just frustrating to be introduced to a cool mechanic and then have it removed from you if you give a shit about the story. I do, however, thoroughly enjoy the concept of them as a purposed being. Why do they have no mouth? Why are they able to secrete spears? How and why do they have to eat from these spears? Why did Suns choose to create this creature? Wouldn't it have been easier to just take an existing slugcat and modify it like Sig did? So many questions. Their biology is funky and I enjoy it.

That's sort of it, though. While I did like Spearmaster's campaign overall, it really doesn't hold up to any of the other campaigns. Which is a bit disappointing, but oh well.

Downpour Overall

The concepts and stories introduced here were absolutely stunning, and I had a blast playing through all the campaigns, even if I did employ the use of dev tools a fair bit in certain campaigns (mostly Saint and a bit in Riv tbh), and I also turned on 'keep key items on passage' to speed things up. I do have a little bit of an issue with how certain parts of some campaigns cough Spearmaster and Saint cough felt very much like you'd need your karma to be high to be able to effectively traverse the map, while also really limiting your options for actually gaining karma, but maybe that's a bit of a problem on my end for not being a good enough gamer lmao. I dunno. I just don't enjoy karma grinding on something so story focused. On Survivor and Monk it's whatever, but I know the world and the story by now. I really hated having to just eat and sleep just so I could move on in the story, and eventually I just resorted to spawning food in with Beastmaster here and there so I could actually fucking save my progress. But overall? It was so so fun.

I am a little miffed that some of the campaigns directly go against how the vanilla game was structured, but I'm also delighted that we pretty much have dev approval for character development of characters like Pebbles and Moon, and to some extent Sig(!) and Suns. I personally work with the iterators a lot with stories, so I'm just piling up all of this information and shoving my face into it. I'm so happy about this asdkfgkklsdkl and generally, I think I'm just going to take the different timelines you can see with the various campaigns as snapshots of different moments in time. Do I honestly believe Riv could have achieved what she did? Do I genuinely believe Saint could or should have helped either iterator ascend? No, not really. Spearmaster I could believe more, but he's really a footnote in the broader story, an observer to this world that he really has no say in. I think that would capture the nature of Rain World better. You may not be the main character, but you can still view this world through the lens of something that exists in it.

Difficulty wise, it was okay for me personally, and mostly the dev tooling and assists were to help with me getting irritated more than objective difficulty I'd say? Like, I definitely could have done it legit, but it would take about three times as long and I just wanted to explore, for fuck's sake, and I wanted the rest of the story. Saint and Spearmaster were definitely harder in some respects, and Arti is a difficulty Cliff for some people, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't enjoy the game, especially with remix options now.

Remix is definitely something I really really love though. For the longest time, I could not securely recommend Rain World to people because of the glaring accessibility issues it had. It still has some, but it's a great deal improved from what it used to be, and I'm very glad about that. Rain World's never going to be an easy game, but it's a really great one that deserves to be enjoyed by more people, and Remix is a great option for those who need more help along the way.

Some of the new creature concepts are really neat, honestly. I loved caramel lizards, these goofy little red x green lizard mixes with six (six!!!) legs, and also tiny cute pretty strawberry lizards. The Miros Vultures, as much as I fucking loathed having to deal with them, are so so cool conceptually. I just wish they didn't chase you across rooms :/ and, while terrifying, MLL was cool. I like the progression of the Rot. It's just cool details overall.

Would I recommend Downpour to people? Absolutely, but definitely play the base game first. Downpour is, as other people have put it, sort of its own game that shares mechanics and certain aspects of lore with Rain World. It was a mod originally, after all. But I think the MSC team deserves the money for the sheer amount of work they've put into this. It was an experience that was well worth the price and more.

#rain world #downpour #downpour spoilers #EXTENSIVE spoilers yall don't read if you haven't finished all the campaigns #now i haven't played inv's campaign but uh #i'm just going to pretend that's not a thing. lmao.#also i shit you not this miros vulture hunted me ACROSS ROOMS. TWICE.#it was so fucking annoying #like what do you mean you can TELL which room i'm in fuck you

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quaddmgd · 4 months

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so i got the callisto protocol for christmas, which is cool because i always wanted to try it, but didn't feel like paying $20+ for it.

hearing all the criticism upon release made me even more intrigued, but obviously i got into it with low expectations

i ended up being pleasantly surprised by it! i played through the entirety of the game with my s/o and after each session we were hyped to see more of it! yeah, the atmosphere, acting, graphics and score are very good, but i didn't expect to find combat so enjoyable! and while the story is nothing revelatory, it was a joy to follow.

it has its flaws, obviously. aim-snapping during melee combat stopped being helpful after enemies started mutating, the prison half of the game kinda blurs together in retrospective, and i was really getting tired of the stealth section before the Arkas chapter - due to its length and tediousness of the game's cinematic animations. i wish there was at least one more chapter on the outside, even at expense of the prison section. it was the highlight of the game for me.

oh and they could cut the last cutscene by like 15 seconds instead of ending the game on a cliffhanger to sell me the dlc. i like my games complete. unfortunately, i could write a whole post about this game hiding features behind a paywall.

but overall, i enjoyed it thoroughly and i'm happy to report that most of my concerns were unnecessary

callisto's art direction and technical achievements are commendable and i'm going to post some pics i managed to shoot with its photo mode. it might be one of the best looking modern games i played.

#text.qd #the callisto protocol

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cacowhistle · 11 months

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crosses one game off my list. stares at the dozens of others beneath it. big sigh. anyways heres some games i highly recommend:

a short hike: in their words, "a little exploration game about hiking up a mountain." it rewards exploration. i went into it thinking it'd be like, a twenty minute experience? i played for at least an hour or two. very cute, very low stakes emotionally. i really enjoyed the graphics and characters :]

co-open: this game is genuinely the cutest fuckign thing i've ever played. you're a kid going to the store on your own for the first time. lotta queer characters. so much to explore. at first you're like "woah store" and then you somehow end up in the vents and then you're on the roof?? there is so much to this game. i love it. it's so cute. maybe an hour or two or three in playtime.

everhood: i will admit. i have not finished this game. however. it is so stylish. the graphics are so bright. the characters are WILD. the music goes SO HARD. the combat and gameplay is entirely centered around the music. they describe it as a "psychedelic musical bullet hell" and tbh that is literally it. the puzzles aren't too hard. i haven't finished it only because it feels, to me, like it doesn't really... tell you where to go? i get lost very easily if i'm not being funneled in a particular direction when it comes to these kinds of games, ones that aren't necessarily meant to be open-world. that being said. everhood goes fucking hard. play it. it slaps. i need to finish it. i keep fuckign thinking about it its that good.

dredge: this isn't like, an obscure indie pick. but dredge is so good. the story left me wanting a little more, but the gameplay is fun, the graphics are gorgeous (the style is so nice), there are some real good scares, and tbh there is nothing better than a good fishing game. it mixes exploration and inventory management really well! and i thoroughly enjoyed exploring every inch of the game and completing all the side quests i could. also theres a dog and you can pet it.

eronoctosis: put yourself together: this game is about being TRANS and DYSPHORIA and SEX!!!! it's a two-player game but it's free!! (there's a paid dlc you can get too but the base game is free) (the paid dlc includes sexual content, the base game does not). eronoctosis was really fun. my boyfriend and i were so bad at it at first (hi babe if ur reading this. we should get the dlc i wanna play this with u again). but once we got into the swing of things it was honestly really fun. the scares are REALLY good even when you know what you're doing. really makes you dread going around corners <3

two little bonuses are inbento and sudocats. it's literally just. a puzzle game. and sudoku. but in my defense. both games include cats. which makes them cute. very nice little experiences :]

#girl help i have too many games not enough oh my god tags canceled theres a cat outside #hes orange #and small #and sniffing around in the grass in the driveway #holy shit #HES ITCHING HIMSELF ON THE BUSHES #BABY BOY #i love him what the fuck #ok he left where was i #i still gotta play heartbound off omori little nightmares little misfortune pinstripe fuckin uhhhhh #indivisible.... gotta finish spiritfarer... wandersong and underhero. maybe replay transistor. celeste and inmost!!!#lots of games not enough time....... thats ok. ill get 2 em all eventually :]

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athenacorvus · 3 months

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On one hand I'm really enjoying all the Unova references in the DLC and other official content lately.

On the other hand I'm really feeling almost nervous about the looming prospect of possible gen 5 remakes.

It's kind of funny to think back to the days of "Hoenn confirmed" memes and how thrilled everyone was when ORAS were announced, compared to the general mood I'm seeing now (and that I share) that we don't really need gen 5 remakes, honestly.

Correction: It's not just funny, it's also sad how the Pokémon Company has so thoroughly ruined many people's excitement for new games. People used to go crazy about remakes of old gens. Then BDSP happened. And now everyone's like "we don't need any more remakes, thanks."

It hurts to think like that because gen 5 has always been my fave and I used to be really excited for possible remakes one day but now... uhm please don't touch those games :'))

#pokemon #pokémon #the indigo disk

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lostanddancing · 11 months

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Stray Kids 5-Star Review

This album did not disappoint, but I think that phrasing has become pretty cliché when talking about Stray Kids. I've loved almost everything they've put out, so I was a little nervous that this would be the one that did let me down.

I should know better. These guys are still amazing, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every song here. The S-Class MV is spectacular, and I can't stop watching the choreography, it's mesmerizing.

That being said, here's my reviews of the individual songs:

Hall of Fame

Love this album starting out with Seungmin's voice. This man deserves more of this. I also like the call back to Changbin's Doodle. Originally not one of my favorites, but it's growing on me the more I listen to it. All in all a fun track, but not their deepest and that’s ok, it doesn't have to be to hit hard.

S-Class

These. Boys. This song is a killer and they know it. Love the contrast of Seungmin and Felix's voices. Changbin never disappoints. I.N. on the bridge is angelic. This sticks in my head so bad, all day. They described the sound they were going for as "funnily annoying" and they hit it and I can't be mad. Dang.

Item

This song just shows off the musical humor that absolutely endeared me to Stray Kids from the beginning. I adore how they play with the game sounds and references. The whole thing is ridiculously catchy. People keep comparing it to Domino, but to me its more like Cheese. Just a great, funny, confident clap back at their haters and I love it.

Super Bowl

God's Menu, but sexy. I'm glad they went with God's Menu first, it's definitely the better song, but this is a fun sequel. Like, how many food/restaurant related lines can we stuff into a song and still make it sound sultry? Also, I LOOOOVE what they've done with the rhythm in this one. It's unique and delightful.

Topline

Aside from the not quiiiite there vulgarity, I love this one. The beat is incredible, they clearly love it and it shows. The lyrics are fairly typical "I'm awesome so don't act like you're as good as me", but they have some clever moments. I loved the reference to "rolling my waves" on the "grand line". There's also a sense of "Yeah, we're good, but we're not resting on our laurels. There's more to do" that I like.

DLC

Look, Changbin's intros are legendary, but this time he's SINGING? Yes, lets go! Love that for him, he needs to sing more often. This one is so dang catchy, and I know I'm going to be singing along a lot. It's got a sad undertone of loneliness in pain, but there is hope there, a desire to escape the prison by doing something you love, and I get that.

Get Lit

Feels like a sequel to DLC, but with a lot more confidence. I loved the line "we're not gonna die young", and reference to playing the music on your phone even after the speaker dies gives a feeling of "keep going, keep dancing even when things are tough." Also just so dang catchy.

Collision

This is a very different style for them, and they pull it off beautifully. I hope these guys have healthy relationships one of these days. The lyrics are gorgeous though because of course they are since Han wrote them.

FNF

This may very well be my favorite track. For all that it's a catchy, driving chorus, the pathos of this can't be denied. They use Seungmin, I.N., and Felix's voices to perfection to drive home the desperation of helplessness in watching something terrible happen to a place you love. It leaves you with a feeling of hope and recovery, but not without feeling deeply their pain and loss.

Youtiful

Aside from the slightly cheesy portmanteau, this song really is sweet. I think it may be the first fully English original song on an album, and the reasoning behind it is kind and comforting. On top of that, we get to hear all the guys flexing their vocals, and I am ALWAYS down for that. In this instance VocalRacha and Hyunjin really shine, but they all sound amazing. It's great to hear Felix singing more and with greater confidence as well.

The Sound

This one never fails to hit hard, and I think it may be one of my favorite "translated" pieces. I usually struggle with these because my brain gets used to whatever language I heard it in first, and anything else feels weird, but this one feels very natural. Maybe it's just because I love the song, but I'm not arguing.

Time out

Fun, summery, delightful. This one will always have a place in my playlists.

I love all of the songs, and they deserve all the hype they are getting for this album. There may be a day when Stray Kids disappoints me, but it is not this day!

#stray kids #5 star #skz #s class #bang chan #lee know #changbin #han jisung #hyunjin #lee felix #seungmin #i.n.

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scorndotexe · 1 year

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☕: Scorn?

oh you wanna hear me talk about scorn? i'll talk about scorn (mild spoiler warning)

scorn is a fucking incredible game. the visuals and art design are gorgeous and exactly my level of fucked up. absolutely astounding visuals. while i love indie games and don't think games need to have good graphics to be good games, it's certainly something to see such a disgusting (complimentary) world in such high quality. nearly everyone agrees on this and the ones who don't just call people freaks for liking it.

everyone blows the "combat issues" out of proportion. sure, i can see how it would be bad if you had to fight all the time, but the thing is you don't have to. it's discouraged. in my opinion, the first step is letting the creatures move out of the way while staying back a little. the second step, if the first one fails, is running away. the last resort is fighting, and often it fails. i briefly got pretty good at the combat before realizing i could just run away from most of the creatures.

but less than smooth combat is a staple of survival horror! while scorn may not be traditional survival horror, it does have some of those elements (just as it has some puzzle elements without being a full on puzzle game).

the puzzles were fine. i'm gonna be honest i looked up walkthroughs for most of them because i'm terrible at puzzles in games despite thinking the genre can be amazing but i didn't feel like it detracted from my experience. however, that doesn't mean that i would have preferred an absence of puzzles. i enjoyed their presence and didn't mind them, though in some cases they could have been better integrated into the world. but that's not a major complaint.

i do think the boss battle is definitely the weakest part of the whole thing. it was a little too long for my taste and the fact that i had to do it, albeit a shorter version, again was annoying. however, it made up for it quickly with some wonderful body horror and narrative. the last few moments of the game were some of the strongest.

speaking of the narrative, holy shit. scorn is so different to every other game you can find, and the way the narrative is presented is no different in that regard. i thoroughly enjoyed it. the wordless storytelling was such a breath of fresh air. too many games these days (and older ones too--thinking of you, alan wake) overexplain every single aspect. it was wonderful to have a game tell you nothing and show you everything you need to be shown. i don't think every game needs to be wordless, and despite my near-constant bitching about cinematic games (and fucking david cage), i don't have a major problem with cinematic games. i do think some just want to be films and don't do enough to be games except drag the story on further than you want them to, but cinematic games are. fine. games with words are also great, you can't just separate "games with words" into its own category. but there's something to be said about how scorn presents itself to you. there's something to be said about how it's on you to observe and interpret and figure things out. a lot of games don't want you to figure them out. they want you to follow the objective markers and watch the next cutscene. it gets tiring, and i don't even play that many games like that nowadays. scorn uses its medium to its advantage.

people have said it's a walking simulator. (bizarrely they've also said the combat was added to stop people calling it a walking simulator. cause that makes sense.) it is not a walking simulator. it has puzzles. it has combat. the story isn't happening at you, you're part of the story.

and personally i love the story. the dynamic between scornguy and the parasite is so compelling to me, and i do think the ending was perfect. the alternative would have felt much cheaper and unearned to me. and i do love tragedy.

lastly, i don't understand how people actually want a sequel or dlc. did you see that ending. did you understand the themes. what do you think they'll add?? a different ending if you pay 15.99? new guns for 9.99? the "loads of cut content" (there isn't that much--the artbook mostly shows concept art and there are two cut areas, only one of which was cut due to time and financial constraints) for 29.99, messing up the pacing entirely? because it's a well paced game, with a few exceptions.

it's not a perfect game, but which game is? and it's not my favorite game of all time or anything, but it's definitely a memorable experience. i wanna recommend it to people but also i know i shouldn't. please play scorn if you like weird fleshy games. pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease

#thank you for this #i've been wanting to talk about scorn #this is so long and not even that detailed #but i have a lot to say about scorn #scorn #asks

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dogshit-enchantment · 11 months

Text

thoughts about totk

i dont know if its just me, but does anyone else feel like the story direction for this game is kindve ... bad? like the actual plot itself was interesting at first but everytime the characters try to deliver a serious line of 'my secret stone' I can't help but laugh at them. It sounds like a mistranslation you would see in a 90's port of a game, not a multi-million dollar triple A title in 2023.

Not only that goofy nature of it but like, why is Zelda so british? No one else is, not even her dad. Why did they chose a VERY british direction for her voice and no one else? It's so distracting and every time she talks I don't pay attention to what she's saying cuz I wish she would just stop talking. (I still hold a grudge over her for feeding Link a fucking frog and then people have the audacity to be like 'oh theyre in love' like no thats fucking sibling behavior at best.)

There's so many aspects of the game where it feels like they want a very specific series of events to happen and there's a very intended player experience. But then... you can go anywhere. Do anything. You can EASILY miss important things (I missed several of the Dragon's Tears because I wasn't aware there was something I was supposed to be grabbing from them I just thought it was scenery) and you can easily find yourself in areas you're not meant to be in yet. "Just teleport out!" Why didn't they just make a linear game that wasn't built as a wanna-be DLC expansion pack?

Having to re-explore a world I'd already put 200+ hours into is frankly tiresome. And to make it THREE TIMES as large??? Exhausting.

I wanted to like this game so much. I preordered it. I went to the midnight release. I played it for six fucking hours the first full day I was able to play it. And after leaving the Great Sky Island all I'm left feeling is... frustrated.

Frustrated at the unclear, hidden direction of where you're supposed to go. Frustrated at the massive size of the map that doesn't have That Many Changes to make it worth going through the nooks and crannies. Frustrated that they turned botw -my favorite climbing simulator- into a gimmick-based game that doesn't like you to use its own gimmick.

The constructs break apart too easily. If you build a flying construct that works well it breaks after about a min and a half of flying. If you build a car to traverse the land it despawns if you hit any cutscene trigger - which are often invisible and unavoidable.

This felt more like a Zelda game in the general flavor of it; you get the classic enemies back, you get actual bomb flowers again, Link is wearing green for fucks sake, and you get actual temples. But the actual heart of it doesn't feel like a Zelda game. The plot feels sloppy at best, rushed at worst, and the voice acting is so genuinely bad it's distracting and embarrassing. The only voice actor I didn't hate was Rauru (Chris Hackney, Legend) and Tulin (Christina Vee, also a Legend), even Sidon felt incredibly stilted.

It feels like the game punishes the player for using the mechanics it gives you to use and play with. Even the fuse mechanic feels like such a back-hand. "Oh we heard the players got frustrated at weapons having a limited usage, so instead of extending it or offering a repair service, we just made Every Weapon Shitty" like wtf. And even for the fuse mechanic theres only ONE PLACE that lets you unfuse and it's through a clunky dialogue menu! (my favorite!!! totally not the reason I stopped playing acnh!!!!) I played for 50 hours and was positive you couldn't unfuse weapons. Wow.

botw was fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it and the fact that your tools were simply on a cooldown. totk feels like a resource-scavenger except the resources are so hard to actually acrue. Not only that, but I've seen other ppl complain about how much harder it feels to upgrade your equipment. As if they needed some way to bloat the game even more.

This is just me rambling about my feelings and maybe talking in circles about it but I feel annoying trying to actively discuss my feelings with anyone so I guess this will do.

I've only beaten half of the bosses and 3 of the temples, but I don't know if I'll be able to keep going. I got stuck at the fire temple boss and I would argue its the worst temple in the game and I haven't even gotten to the Gerudo one. That's just how strongly I feel about the fire temple. I hate the minecart layout, I hate the lava puzzle mechanics, and I literally rage-quited after my 10th attempt at the boss. The water temple boss was annoying but it was mostly just learning patterns and having good reaction time. The fire temple boss is JUST rng.

which sucks cuz the wind temple was sick!!!! it was so cool!!! and the boss was probably one of my top 20 bosses!!! and then I did the water temple and Sidon kept glitching out and wouldn't accompany me for half of the trip up to it, and the GRAVITY!!!! UGH!!!!!!

I'm trying to think of points of the game I've truly enjoyed and I think the highlights of it have been: got to keep Epona from my botw save. But then that turned out to be a nothing burger since you can't have her tow anything. (also the fucking towing minigame that feels so insulting. "please take us to the great fairy!" YOU COULDVE JUST WALKED ITS LITERALLY A FIVE MINUTE WALK)

uhh, other good points uhhh, the new armor is pretty cool. I really like the Ember and Miner set. I really like the cave system. (shouldn't really be a feature but whatever) and uhhhhhhhh, yeah idk. I'm struggling to find points I truly enjoyed past the introductory level. like yeah building a car is cool! ... until it despawns and you lose 40min and work, and yeah I know autobuild can rebuild it but I'm not made of spare parts. And like, the korok puzzles were cute! Until you find one every 15 min and they take at least 10 to get them to their friend.

I think the most enjoyable minigame was the one with the sign dude on the side of the road where you help him hold it up. That was one of the better, more enjoyable parts of the game for me so far. It felt like it actually tested your building skills while not being truly punishing. Just start over if it doesnt work.

botw was a strong like 8/10 for me, and I think totk is gonna unfortunately be like a 5/10. The direction is janky at best. The gimmicks of the game are viable for most of the game. Exploring the same world with minor changes is frustrating and boring. Exploring the Depths makes me want to personally throw up since I have a phobia of dark, open spaces with Things lurking inside. Exploring the sky is fun but I didn't realize you could *reuse* the sheikah tower until 45 hours in because why would I think it would let me do it again??? So it felt inaccessible and frustrating.

The ability to fuse anything to anything and have it run and work well is a technical marvel! I'm not saying its not. But does it make a good *game*? Does it make the story direction work? Does it make the boss fights and dungeons work? imo... no. It doesn't. It makes a good tech demo. It makes an impressive piece of programming.

maybe i'll have more thoughts but I just needed to get all that out.

if you read it all thanks if not you wont be seeing this lol

#rambling #truly the one time that tag is actually applicable #totk #i have complicated feelings about it

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