What Are You Playing?

[Aazealh]

By the way, how far in are you guys?

I've just reached the Citadel but haven't had time to play today. Anyway, despite your insistence to the contrary, it still very much feels like Hollow Knight to me. Really not sure what you were expecting for you to be so disappointed.

 

[Goat]

Going around on Act 1. It's more HK, with MUCH better mobility. The only thing I'm not loving so far are the boss fights, with some being a little bit mechanically dirty (minor mobs, abundance of spam). But for the rest, it's pretty much what I was expecting: I'm really liking it so far.

 

[Walter]

I’m having a lot more fun with Silksong than I did with Hollow Knight, and it’s got everything to do with the evolving maneuverability.

Currently around 4h in, at Greymoor. Just finished the reaper area. My son and I are playing two saves together, and I’m helping him through some stuff, but we’re in parity as far as progress.

 

[Scott Rugeles]

I agree that for some reason I'm having more fun with Silksong that Hollow Knight and that my expectations were met.

The only thing that fucking riles me up

Spoiler

is the path to the Last Judge. I mean why do I have to go through a platforming gauntlet every time? Damn.

Edit: Seems like the boss had another surprise for me. It explodes on death and I died and I have to redo it. LOL

 

[Lawliet]

I can't say I'm enjoying Silksong more than the original, to be honest. I didn't change my mind: I still like it a lot; once I fire it up, I can't put it down. But whereas the original was pure gaming joy for me, Silksong is half-misery too. They made it really frustrating with this one: every (major) enemy and its mother does double damage in a game where you can basically take three of those hits before you die (so far I only got 6 masks), the mobs and cheap shit that's constantly pulled, and so on. The double damage bit is even more annoying when this is a game that still employs the ridiculous and outdated aspect of you getting damaged merely for touching the enemy, even if it didn't attack you. I hated that in the original, and I still do here. There's a reason this genre abandoned this stupid feature, because it's bullshit (I've since played dozens of side-scrollers since I last talked about this issue, and most of them don't punish you for being in the same frame as the enemy). Those boss fights more or less demand you to be perfect, and God forbid you accidently get double damage because you touched the boss' butt cheeks. And then there are the damn run backs to the boss, which are usually long and annoying to do over and over.

Seriously, fuck this game. But it's also really good. How's that for a mixed reaction?

EDIT: Like others said, the mobility is awesome, so there's that going for Silksong. But there are other parts that I don't feel so thrilled about: like the narrative. The story so far is pretty meh...just another "religion = bad" tale as far as I can tell. The tone too is more one-note here: the original was melancholic, but this one is just miserable - everyone and everywhere is fucked and even the background music is mostly depressing. Meh. We'll see how it goes from here.

 

[ahwala]

Well, I gave the game several chances, because I like Hollow Knight so much (and that took a while as well to fall in love with), but I think I'm finally done with it. I just don't like any of the changes they've done to the formula. I don't like how linear it is compared to HK, I don't like the quest system, I hate how many of these enemy gauntlets there are, it takes way too long to have any real power progression or build choices, and the difficulty starts to become unenjoyable mid Act 2. I like difficult games, but Silksong is bullshit territory, there's no room to breath, everything is try-hard crap later on.

 

[Goat]

I can't say I'm enjoying Silksong more than the original, to be honest. I didn't change my mind: I still like it a lot; once I fire it up, I can't put it down. But whereas the original was pure gaming joy for me, Silksong is half-misery too. They made it really frustrating with this one: every (major) enemy and its mother does double damage in a game where you can basically take three of those hits before you die (so far I only got 6 masks), the mobs and cheap shit that's constantly pulled, and so on. The double damage bit is even more annoying when this is a game that still employs the ridiculous and outdated aspect of you getting damaged merely for touching the enemy, even if it didn't attack you. I hated that in the original, and I still do here. There's a reason this genre abandoned this stupid feature, because it's bullshit (I've since played dozens of side-scrollers since I last talked about this issue, and most of them don't punish you for being in the same frame as the enemy). Those boss fights more or less demand you to be perfect, and God forbid you accidently get double damage because you touched the boss' butt cheeks. And then there are the damn run backs to the boss, which are usually long and annoying to do over and over.

Seriously, fuck this game. But it's also really good. How's that for a mixed reaction?

EDIT: Like other said, the mobility is awesome, so there's that going for Silksong. But there are other parts that I don't feel so thrilled about: like the narrative. The story so far is pretty meh...just another "religion = bad" tale as far as I can tell. The tone too is more one-note here: the original was melancholic, but this one is just miserable - everyone and everywhere is fucked and even the background music is mostly depressing. Meh. We'll see how it goes from here.

I think I'm exactly where you are, and I entirely quote the "Seriously, fuck this game. But it's also really good. How's that for a mixed reaction? " part.

But I needed to post a separate message to add some focus on another aspect: main mob + trash mob in a small room is never, NEVER a good idea. As far as I played they used this shenanigan in a main boss fight (main boss spawning trash mobs to help), but they spammed it in a lot of secondary boss fights, and I can't enjoy this: I don't mind having a good challenge, but this design choice can easily create chaotic situations where Hornet simply has no safe spots and is forced to take damage.

Anyway, on the other side, level design and variety are amazing until now, and the mobility is crazy enjoyable. That's keeping up the expectations, for now.

 

[Aazealh]

Silksong is half-misery too. They made it really frustrating with this one: every (major) enemy and its mother does double damage in a game where you can basically take three of those hits before you die (so far I only got 6 masks), the mobs and cheap shit that's constantly pulled, and so on. The double damage bit is even more annoying when this is a game that still employs the ridiculous and outdated aspect of you getting damaged merely for touching the enemy, even if it didn't attack you. I hated that in the original, and I still do here. There's a reason this genre abandoned this stupid feature, because it's bullshit (I've since played dozens of side-scrollers since I last talked about this issue, and most of them don't punish you for being in the same frame as the enemy). Those boss fights more or less demand you to be perfect, and God forbid you accidently get double damage because you touched the boss' butt cheeks. And then there are the damn run backs to the boss, which are usually long and annoying to do over and over.

Not having played Hollow Knight since I beat it back when it came out, this stuff basically reminded me of their approach then, although my memories might not be too accurate. But I remember thinking the devs were going for a pretty specific feel from back in the 80s where you essentially have to do rote memorization of the boss patterns until you know them by heart. They also do something I call "sensory overload" where they will add more and more shit on the screen (small enemies or other stuff) to get you frantic and that's not something I particularly enjoy, although it doesn't stop me from playing.

And of course there's the run-up like you mentioned, which, yeah that's also on purpose. As far as not having much health and the enemies being tougher, meaner, etc. I think this might be a side-effect of Silksong having started as a DLC: something for the more hardcore players. The fact it took so long to come out and became a sequel might have worked against it in that regard.

EDIT: Like other said, the mobility is awesome, so there's that going for Silksong. But there are other parts that I don't feel so thrilled about: like the narrative. The story so far is pretty meh...just another "religion = bad" tale as far as I can tell. The tone too is more one-note here: the original was melancholic, but this one is just miserable - everyone and everywhere is fucked and even the background music is mostly depressing. Meh. We'll see how it goes from here.

Honestly I feel like it's "more of the same" in the vein of the original Hollow Knight, but maybe I'm misremembering. And I wouldn't say the message is simply that religion is bad!

I don't like how linear it is compared to HK, I don't like the quest system, I hate how many of these enemy gauntlets there are, it takes way too long to have any real power progression or build choices, and the difficulty starts to become unenjoyable mid Act 2. I like difficult games, but Silksong is bullshit territory, there's no room to breath, everything is try-hard crap later on.

I don't know what you've done or found exactly, but I'd say progression is not so linear once you reach Act 2. There's lots of areas to explore, like Sinner's Road, Wormways, Bilewaters, The Slab, Mount Fay, The Mist, Sands of Karak... And the Citadel itself has a bunch of interconnected "hidden" zones and shortcuts like The Stage, the bath area, etc.

I'd also say build choices are fine, I mean I have like five or six crests (I only really use Reaper though) and a whole bunch of items... And I like the side quests too! I don't remember how Hollow Knight's quest system worked, but this one's fine to me. About the difficulty, yeah there's some punishing moments for sure, but wasn't the original like that too? I feel like that's part of its Dark Souls/old school sidescrollers inspiration. (There's that one optional boss in Whiteward I postponed for now, I'm 100% sure I almost got him many times but I kept failing right as he was near the end. Oh well, I'll get back to his ass soon enough.)

 

[Walter]

I'm around 10h in now. Just finished Widow and I've been using the new abilities to backtrack and explore and finish out some quests. Having a blast.

Act 2 sounds like it'll be when I hang it up, if it crosses into purely frustrating territory. This is one of the few games that I'd willingly select an Easy Mode if one were available, because I don't find boss fights very enjoyable (seems mostly memorization from repeated failures), but I absolutely love exploring and traversing new zones.

 

[ahwala]

I've beaten Cogwork Dancers and got the Clawline.
While it's true that the game seems to open up somewhat now in Act 2, all new areas I have access to are frustrating and feel more taxing than Hollow Knight endgame content, without much time to relax. I could backtrack again now with the new ability, or force my way forward, but I don't feel like it anymore.
Hollow Knight opened up immensely after Greenpath already (second area), and while it had its share of difficult bosses and challenging environments as well, those were mostly concentrated towards the end and postgame, the difficulty increased more smoothly, and the game always allowed you stretches of calm between frustration.
In Silksong everything is designed to be as annoying as possible, which I just don't enjoy.

 

[Aazealh]

I beat the game yesterday (well, I got one ending but there's obviously another "secret" one). I've still got a number of things to do, but I've explored a lot already so it's more like I'm running down the list of what's left at this point. I'm still having fun with it, and I still think it's exactly what one should have expected from a Hollow Knight sequel.

 

[Goat]

I beat the game yesterday (well, I got one ending but there's obviously another "secret" one). I've still got a number of things to do, but I've explored a lot already so it's more like I'm running down the list of what's left at this point. I'm still having fun with it, and I still think it's exactly what one should have expected from a Hollow Knight sequel.

Can you please roughly tell me at what % I am, considering that I have played for ~15ish hours and have explored what I think is most of Act 1: among all the areas I've completely visited, I can only access Sinner's Road (which I haven't explored at all) and I am trying to beat the Last Judge - that runback is brutal ?

 

[Aazealh]

Can you please roughly tell me at what % I am, considering that I have played for

I'd say about 25-30% of the game's full content.

I am trying to beat the Last Judge - that runback is brutal

Yeah it's a tough one! It's not entirely useless to get the hang of, though.

 

[Walter]

Silksong—I'm fully absorbed. It's a great little game.

Funny story. The whole internet has been grieving over the Last Judge, so it didn't escape my attention that this would be a tough fight. The furor over it reminded me of Ornstein & Smough back in Dark Souls 1, which at the time was regarded as an INCREDIBLY hard fight. I posted about this at the time, but knowing it was going to be tough, I played it extremely cautiously, taking them on one at a time, and ended up beating it in one round. I'm not someone who brags often, and don't mind gloating here, because I don't think I'm particularly great at games, so this was a big moment for me (let me have it!). It emphasized to me how if you really play carefully, don't rush it, pay attention to the enemy tells/movesets, anybody can succeed in these games.

Anyway, I told that story to my son as I stoically traveled up the path to the Last Judge. And it emerged from the shadows, and... my corpse exploded within about 10 seconds. We both laughed our asses off. I wasn't going to do this in one...

Spoiler: End of Act 1

I finally beat Last Judge last night after around what felt like 30 tries stretched across a few sessions. I wasn't bothered too much by the run back to it. I enjoy getting into a flow with platforming. That being said, until I found that flow, I was incredibly annoyed by those little spike-shooting birds that get in your way. I probably hate them more than the Last Judge, if I'm being honest...

For the fight itself, I feel like I quickly learned how to maneuver around the different moves. But then the timing windows get progressively shorter, and then they evolve one final time toward the end (ugh that spinning move...). Each of those changes tripped me up until I'd basically memorized exactly what I should do at any given instance. Even then, it wasn't easy, because just 1-2 mistakes means you are fucked. And you have to keep that perfection up, because it's a long fight (too long...). I ended with one little mask left, and yes I relied heavily on poisoned tools (boomerang and spike trap are my favorites). And in a few hours, I get to do it all over again on my son's save, so he can explore the Citadel, too.

 

[XionHorsey]

Still in the Nikkiverse after all these years. Beyond that, Clair Obscur and getting back into Lies of P.

 

[Aazealh]

Quick update (and probably final one) from me on Silksong. I'm at over 90% completion at this point, trying to hunt down whatever few items I've missed. Not sure how long I'll keep it up as it can get tedious and I'm not the type to use guides, plus I've got a busy couple of weeks ahead and then Hades II comes out.

With that being said, the game has been stellar to me. I had a great time with Hollow Knight when it came out, but I never understood the cult following it developed, so I wasn't waiting for Silksong with bated breath.

I've played a lot of games in this genre over the years and basically saw it being created, but despite that I have to say that Silksong exceeded my expectations and even managed to surprise me a few times, which is not something that happens very often.

I understand why it took six years to develop. It's a big game with a lot of content and attention to detail. It completely fulfills its promise as a sequel by doing more, better. You can feel the care that was put into it. I'll be fine waiting another six years if that gets us another game of this caliber. Kudos, Team Cherry.

 

[Xenoskell]

Quick update (and probably final one) from me on Silksong. I'm at over 90% completion at this point, trying to hunt down whatever few items I've missed. Not sure how long I'll keep it up as it can get tedious and I'm not the type to use guides, plus I've got a busy couple of weeks ahead and then Hades II comes out.

With that being said, the game has been stellar to me. I had a great time with Hollow Knight when it came out, but I never understood the cult following it developed, so I wasn't waiting for Silksong with bated breath.

I've played a lot of games in this genre over the years and basically saw it being created, but despite that I have to say that Silksong exceeded my expectations and even managed to surprise me a few times, which is not something that happens very often.

I understand why it took six years to develop. It's a big game with a lot of content and attention to detail. It completely fulfills its promise as a sequel by doing more, better. You can feel the care that was put into it. I'll be fine waiting another six years if that gets us another game of this caliber. Kudos, Team Cherry.

The cult following is because it was an extremely good, polished game, and it had a huge amount of content, done by only 3 or 4 people and yet it only cost 15 dollars.

Also it added the characters done by backers into the game in a meaningful and coherent way.
They feel like they actually belong in the universe, so much that at first I thought all of the characters were completely done by Team Cherry.

So I think this built a nice, "intimate" relationship with the fans.
Then they've spread the word to other people (be it on subreddits, Youtube or by sharing fan art) and now the franchise is widely recognized by a lot of people.

Anyway, about Silksong, it's one of the best MVs I've ever played.
The amount and the quality of content is top notch. Level design is very creative and keeps pushing you into different situations from beginning to end.
A lot of events that can happen differently on each playthrough.
Awesome soundtrack and visuals, one of the most interesting lores I've seen in a MV as well.

There are a few games on this genre who are on par with it, IMO : Super Metroid, the original HK, Environmental Station Alpha and SOTN. If we include 3D MVs then there's the first two Metroid Prime games (with the 2nd Prime being my favorite between both).

PS: forgot to add but all of the DLCs from HK were completely free. Team Cherry is truly one of a kind.

 

[Aazealh]

The cult following is because it was an extremely good, polished game, and it had a huge amount of content, done by only 3 or 4 people and yet it only cost 15 dollars.

Also it added the characters done by backers into the game in a meaningful and coherent way.
They feel like they actually belong in the universe, so much that at first I thought all of the characters were completely done by Team Cherry.

So I think this built a nice, "intimate" relationship with the fans.
Then they've spread the word to other people (be it on subreddits, Youtube or by sharing fan art) and now the franchise is widely recognized by a lot of people.

See, this kind of response makes me want to say that actually it was just alright, the controls weren't great, the Kickstarter characters were mostly segregated and felt like exactly what they were, and so on. And this is a game I got 100% on.

Rabid behavior is just annoying to the average person. For HK specifically, it always felt to me like commentary from 12 yo whose first "big" game it was, boosted by vapid "video analyses" from Youtubers who were in-between From Soft games. Ohhhh the lore, the loooorreeeee. Insufferable. It's like the Rick and Morty people.

If we include 3D MVs then there's the first two Metroid Prime games (with the 2nd Prime being my favorite between both).

The heinous term "metroidvania" had truly reached new levels of meaninglessness if Metroid Prime gets included in the genre. Man, I'm gonna need to go meditate after reading this post, I'm borderline triggered over here.

...Anyway, I'm looking forward to playing Silent Hill f and Hades II when I get the time. Oh and I promised a friend I'd do "Hell is Us" too. Busy end of the year for me on the gaming side.

 

[Xenoskell]

See, this kind of response makes me want to say that actually it was just alright, the controls weren't great, the Kickstarter characters were mostly segregated and felt like exactly what they were, and so on. And this is a game I got 100% on.

Rabid behavior is just annoying to the average person. For HK specifically, it always felt to me like commentary from 12 yo whose first "big" game it was, boosted by vapid "video analyses" from Youtubers who were in-between From Soft games. Ohhhh the lore, the loooorreeeee. Insufferable. It's like the Rick and Morty people.



The heinous term "metroidvania" had truly reached new levels of meaninglessness if Metroid Prime gets included in the genre. Man, I'm gonna need to go meditate after reading this post, I'm borderline triggered over here.

...Anyway, I'm looking forward to playing Silent Hill f and Hades II when I get the time. Oh and I promised a friend I'd do "Hell is Us" too. Busy end of the year for me on the gaming side.

I understand you but I got a very different view.
I got the game when it launched, it wasn't very popular and I didn't know about the background or anything.

I just played the game for some time and liked it.
However, I lost my save and lost the interest in playing it from beginning to end.

In the meantime (from 2017 to 2024), I played (or re-played) a lot of Metroidvanias, from known titles such as all of the Metroid games, all Igavanias (Bloodstained included) or unknown ones such as ESA (I love this game). Also played a lot of Super Metroid and Zero Mission hacks (there are some which are very good).
Then, I decided to go back to HK...and I started liking it even more than before.

Interesting.
I'm surprised to see that you didn't like the controls, since it's one of the things I like the most about it.
Same thing about the level design, the music, the art and the story.

There are a lot of criticisms I have with the game, such as the map not being detailed enough and some of end game bosses which are pretty lame...the game is definitely not as consistent as Super Metroid, which in my view, is almost "perfect".
I can understand why someone wouldn't like it or find the game just alright.
But overall, it's one of the best games I played. Can't do nothing about it.

Currently I'm chasing 112%, I did the Path of Pain as well (more than once), but I find P4 and P5 pretty difficult to do, don't know if I'll ever beat them.

Now about the term "Metroidvania", initially it was used to describe "Castlevanias made in Metroid style". Which made a whole more lot of sense.
Nowadays the term is more used for convenience : every game that resembles Metroid is called "Metroidvania", even when the "vania" isn't present.
And it's ironic to see the term being used for the Metroid games itself...which is a thing I don't like.
But for convenience sake, I'm gonna call Metroid Prime a "3D Metroidvania".

 

[Aazealh]

I understand you but I got a very different view.
I got the game when it launched, it wasn't very popular and I didn't know about the background or anything.

I just played the game for some time and liked it.
However, I lost my save and lost the interest in playing it from beginning to end.

I see. I got it when it launched too but I played it to completion. Did everything in it.

I played (or re-played) a lot of Metroidvanias, from known titles such as all of the Metroid games, all Igavanias (Bloodstained included) or unknown ones such as ESA (I love this game). Also played a lot of Super Metroid and Zero Mission hacks (there are some which are very good).

I played all of these games when they came out, on their original platforms. It's funny you're talking about "Igavanias" since the term Metroidvania was coined to describe Castlevania games that followed the Super Metroid formula. That was the original meaning of the term. So they're the same thing, strictly-speaking. Of course nowadays the word has lost all meaning.

Interesting.
I'm surprised to see that you didn't like the controls, since it's one of the things I like the most about it.
Same thing about the level design, the music, the art and the story.

I mean I said I had a great time with the game in the post you replied to. I don't think you got my meaning about the whole rabid/cultish fanbase thing. Anyway, yeah the gameplay was its weak point. Silksong nicely improved on it.

Now about the term "Metroidvania", initially it was used to describe "Castlevanias made in Metroid style". Which made a whole more lot of sense.

I'm well-aware of how the term came to be and how it devolved. But it's no excuse as far as I'm concerned!

 

[Rhombaad]

I got a taste for historical Japan playing Okami, so I went back to replay some old favorites.

Onimusha: Warlords: The very first game I bought for my PS2 back in March 2001. At the time, I hadn't played any Resident Evil games, so I didn't realize this was basically samurai Resident Evil. While dated, I still had a blast revisiting it. It's pretty short; I think I beat it the day I got it. It only took me a few hours a weekend or so ago to finish it this time around. I missed one Fluorite, though, which kinda ticked me off. I got 'em all and beat the minigame back in 2001, but still...

Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny: I remember being so excited for this one back in the day, and so bummed when it didn't have the Japanese language track like the first one did. I got over it quickly, though, since this does everything a sequel should do: it's more of the same but bigger and better. The gift system is a little unintuitive, but I experimented with it enough back in 2002, so I felt justified in using a guide this time around to try and focus on one character over the others. Another great game and about four times as long as the first, so well worth it in my book.

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege: I loved the first two games, so I picked this one up right when it came out in April 2004. I never finished it, though, so it was great to play through the whole thing this time around. It bugged me back in '04 when Jean Reno stopped speaking French midway through the game, and it bugged me this time around, too. The man speaks English; why not have him do both voices? Oh, well. Even though this one took place across time, I think I enjoyed it the most. The 3D backgrounds were a welcome upgrade from the pre-rendered ones (the first two games started out as PS1 titles, but switched after the PS2 was announced) and the opening FMV choreographed by Donnie Yen looked as amazing as I remembered it being. Took them two years to make it, too.

Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams: Got five minutes in and said, "Nope." Didn't like the look of it and the music was so, so bad right off the bat, I figured it was time to move on. I was pretty Onimusha'd out, as it was.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay: Shockingly good! Much better than the movie it was designed to promote (I liked Pitch Black, though ). A weird mixture of stealth, FPS and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out that works really well. I could've used a longer third act with even more missions, and the lack of a final boss was disappointing, but the game is short, sweet and to-the-point. Looking forward to playing Assault on Dark Athena.

I'm currently working my way through Ninja Gaiden Black. Damn, it's good.

 

[Xenoskell]

I see. I got it when it launched too but I played it to completion. Did everything in it.



I played all of these games when they came out, on their original platforms. It's funny you're talking about "Igavanias" since the term Metroidvania was coined to describe Castlevania games that followed the Super Metroid formula. That was the original meaning of the term. So they're the same thing, strictly-speaking. Of course nowadays the word has lost all meaning.



I mean I said I had a great time with the game in the post you replied to. I don't think you got my meaning about the whole rabid/cultish fanbase thing. Anyway, yeah the gameplay was its weak point. Silksong nicely improved on it.



I'm well-aware of how the term came to be and how it devolved. But it's no excuse as far as I'm concerned!

Well not everything ; you said 100% but there's more than that.
Including 2 more endings that require you to do the Pantheons. So unless you do those and other specific things, you didn't finish the whole game (though almost).

By the way, one of the characters done by backers have
an important item that is very meaningful to the secret ending of Silksong, which is the Delicate Flower..
I think that is a major reason for having a passionate fanbase ; I don't agree with the notion that the characters were mostly "segregated".

Yeah I already talked about the origin of the term:

initially it was used to describe "Castlevanias made in Metroid style". Which made a whole more lot of sense.

I was talking "Igavanias" in that sentence because I was specifically referring to the games made by Koji Igarashi, including Bloodstained Ritual of the Moon.

Anyway...I respect that you didn't like HK that much, I have some other friends who think the same.
Though we (maybe?) mostly agree about Silksong, whereas most of my friends are hating it (the game does have some things which can made it frustrating).

 

[Aazealh]

Well not everything ; you said 100% but there's more than that.
Including 2 more endings that require you to do the Pantheons. So unless you do those and other specific things, you didn't finish the whole game (though almost).

I mean I did everything there was to do at the time. I don't remember the actual percentage or even many things about the game to be honest, and I've no interest in replaying it.

What I can tell you is I finished Silksong with 96% a week ago or so, and I might try to get whatever I missed after I'm done with Hades II, assuming I still care. I'm not making any promises because there are lots of games to play and my time is limited. Can't say this conversation has been a good use of said time either (no offense).

EDIT: Well I couldn't get Hades II on release day so I went and got 100% completion on Silksong instead. I'd missed Voltnest somehow, was too focused on checking the tower for a super jump and missed the obvious. There was also a last quest for Gilly I hadn't done. And with that, I'm done for good, although I do miss 3 enemies in my hunter's log still, plus a couple of trinkets for the collector, and apparently one ending achievement. But I don't care enough to get those.

Yeah I already talked about the origin of the term

You're still not using it correctly though, which was my point.

 

[Aazealh]

Started the Final Fantasy Tactics remaster on Switch 2. The game's as fun as ever, although I wish they'd fixed some of the camera angles. Won't have time to play this week but I'm looking forward to getting more time with it.

As always, playing with the Japanese voices and the English text does bring to light just how loosely the Square Enix translators treat the material, ever trying to turn into it into a pseudo-Shakespearean drama. It lengthens cutscenes and turns them into a chore. Unfortunate.

I may switch to the French translation to see if it's better. I might also just turn off the voice acting since it also slows things down. I'm fine with reading. I do like to hear the original text, though...

I guess I should also mention Hades II, which I played through over the past couple of weeks. I had a good time with it, and yet I can't help feeling a bit underwhelmed. It really is just more of Hades, only with a new story, characters and weapons. I loved the first game and I played it till I got fed up, which may explain why this one's kinda falling off my hands. Perhaps they're too similar.

To be clear, it's still very fun and addictive, but like its predecessor I feel that the post-game content is lacking. I'm at Night 40 currently and I have a 20+ winning streak (or would but for that one awful run where I still almost killed Typhon but got fucked, grrr). I first beat Chronos on the 12th attempt and never lost to him since. It then took me about 4 tries to get Typhon. After that, well I progressed the story and got to the main ending, did two out of three of the Oath of the Night challenges, a bunch of the Chaos trials, played some more... and now I haven't got much to look forward to. It doesn't help that the weapons aren't all that unique in terms of gameplay. The exoskeleton one in particular feels like a gimmick and not much more.

Part of the issue to me is that the story is a big part of the game and a key motivator to keep going, it mitigates the fact you're repeating the same stuff again and again with overall minor variations. The narrative justification for you to keep going after the end in this one is particularly contrived I feel like (Melinoë spent her whole life dreaming of being reunited with her family, but in the end doesn't really seem to care that much... and instead has to keep slaying "remnants of alternate realities"... Sure...). It also feels in this one that they expected people to spend a lot more time on failed attempts than I did, or at least it seems so because I haven't had time to progress the side characters relationships all that much, even though I did it dutifully every night. And to be clear, the perspective of romancing Nemesis or to discover the truth of "Dora" and Prometheus' relationship isn't enough to keep me playing mindlessly. Nor is the prospect of eventually finding the Fates after 30 more nights or however many are needed.

Now for all my complaining, I do like the game a lot and I don't regret getting it. I had a blast with it and may return to it after FFT, if only because it's a great way to spend 30 minutes. But I wish they would have been more ambitious with this sequel. Especially after seeing what Team Cherry did with Silksong!

 

[Walter]

I really enjoyed my time with Hades 2, but it was short-lived. Once I unlocked all weapons, I realized that I didn't gel with any single one, which really killed my interest in continuing to play it. But those first 5 hours or so... Very fun!

I've since moved on to FFT, just like Aazealh, and I'm loving it. It's a great remake. Looks fantastic, the voice acting is good, but the dialogue is indeed overwrought... That's okay, it's still one of my favorite stories in any game, and I think it still holds up very well despite being almost 30 years old.