Vidya Games Thread

[PleaseCheckYourReceipts]

Decided to grab a few other metroidvanias after I finished Ori 1 and 2, and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

After about four hours of Dust: An Elysian Tale, I've completely lost interest in it. I'm glad I got it on sale, because I don't think I'm going to bother finishing it. The combat sucks and the story is boring. I got to a part where some side character I never actually met died, and I just skipped the cutscene of his kid mourning and then the following cutscene of his funeral, because I just couldn't give a shit.

Dust probably is better if you'd played it before the Ori games. It really helped revitalize the genre for a lot of publishers, but I do get where you're coming from. The controls are a tad floaty/slow for the genre.

 

[Abomination]

Decided to grab a few other metroidvanias after I finished Ori 1 and 2, and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

After about four hours of Dust: An Elysian Tale, I've completely lost interest in it. I'm glad I got it on sale, because I don't think I'm going to bother finishing it. The combat sucks and the story is boring. I got to a part where some side character I never actually met died, and I just skipped the cutscene of his kid mourning and then the following cutscene of his funeral, because I just couldn't give a shit.

The first time I played Dust, I also quit before I finished it. I came back to it years later and started a new game because I figured I'd give it another chance. I ended up beating it that time around, but I honestly couldn't tell you much about it now. I don't remember much of the story or memorable moments in the gameplay. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't memorable either.

It's hard to find good metroidvanias. I need to start playing the ones in my backlog and see which ones I really like. Record of the Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth seems fun, but I need to play it more. I need to play through Gal Guardians: Demon Purge one of these days. I've actually made the effort to play Overlord: Escape from Nazarick, but so far it hasn't really grabbed me (that's probably just a question of not having had time to really play it). ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights seems good (as does its sequel ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist) but the formula for that one doesn't seem to be a strict Castlevania, more like Blasphemous and Blasphemous II. The reality is though, I usually just end up going back and playing Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. (Or Koumajou Remilia: Scarlet Symphony which isn't even a Metroidvania.)

Yeah, as much as I enjoy Metroidvanias, there are only a handful of really good ones that I've played. Looking at Steam, some Metroidvanias I've played are:

• Ender Lilies was good, but ironically, I got annoyed with how much backtracking there was because there were so many diverging paths that were closed off at early to mid game that I couldn't remember them all and had to rely on the map too much to go to each room with a blocked path to find the ones that I could finally open when getting a new power.
• Lost Ruins was okay, but nothing special. If I remember correctly, it has quite a few challenge modes you can do, including a mode where you play as some of the enemy characters in a run. I think I played through one or two challenge modes and got too bored of doing the same things.
• Strider is pretty fun. Combat is fast and fluid. Don't ask me anything about Touhou because I don't know shit about it, but
• Touhou Luna Nights is fun. I remember enjoying it while playing it, but for some reason, I've never beat it. Need to get back to it to do so because it has some fun gameplay.
• Guacamelee! and its sequel are great. Some of my favorite Metroidvania style games. They're not hard games, but the gameplay is fun, the art style is neat, some decent humor, and it's just good, light-hearted fun.
• Blasphemous is probably my favorite to have come out in a while. Fun gameplay, difficult at times, but not annoying. I have the second one, but haven't played it yet.

 

[RestlessRain]

There's plenty of oldfags on here that I know some of you will be excited for a new Castlevania game:



Thanks for looking out for fans of the franchise, Konami.

 

[agility_]

The last good castlevania was order of ecclesia. It think everyone's moved on and accepted the death of japanese vidya.
What is left anymore? Just episodic monster hunter, anime slop and gacha.

 

[UberSoldat]

The last good castlevania was order of ecclesia. It think everyone's moved on and accepted the death of japanese vidya.
What is left anymore? Just episodic monster hunter, anime slop and gacha.

Toss in FromSoft while we're at it

 

[Thomas Talus]

Yakuza is still pretty good, and they've settled on a formula of reusing assets in a way that the players accept in exchange for new games coming out more frequently than once every 5 years.

 

[Banana Hammock]

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't memorable either.

Yeah. I don't know if I'd really call it bad (aside from the story), but it's just... not good. When I started skipping cutscenes and thinking to myself how boring the gameplay was, I knew it was time to uninstall.

I was going to say that Timespinner seems pretty good so far, but I was looking over the Steam reviews and I think I'll probably end up dropping it. Apparently "the game's limited dialogue was more devoted to peoples sexual orientation/polyamory preference/gender than the actual story." Now I wish I had checked the negative reviews instead of just buying it when it went on sale because the gameplay looked good.

Thanks for looking out for fans of the franchise, Konami.

The last good castlevania was order of ecclesia. It think everyone's moved on and accepted the death of japanese vidya.
What is left anymore? Just episodic monster hunter, anime slop and gacha.

That's what Bloodstained is for.

 

[RestlessRain]

The last good castlevania was order of ecclesia. It think everyone's moved on and accepted the death of japanese vidya.
What is left anymore? Just episodic monster hunter, anime slop and gacha.

Palworld was an absolute banger and came from Japan. Can't believe that cost $6 million to make.

I'm pretty much over AAA gaming. Bring back the indie teams with a dream and a garage to work in.