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I swear I'm back in high school again, my gaming habits for the last couple months have literally been nothing but Pokemon and Halo
Halo Infinite's campaign has been tickling that dopamine funnybone I've needed tickled for a long time, and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond I've already dumped almost 200 hours into
I got back into:
Animal Crossing New Horizons, since now I have an SD card. I spent like 4 hours flattening the island
Hyrule Warriors AoC: Fun, somewhat brainless button mashing, but with BotW characters
Breath of the Wild: Restarted and have just been going through really slow, trying to get all the armor, shrines, and memories. Not all 999 Koroks lol
Hey, guys. How was your year? During 2021, I found myself looking into and playing non-Pokémon games more than usual due to decreased interest in the franchise overall. Here’s some quick reviews on notable new games I played this year.
Super Mario 3D Land (3DS): I picked this one up for $20 on the eShop knowing I (surprisingly) had yet to play this game and since the game turned 10 last year, I figured... what would be a better time to try it out? Compared to other Mario platformers (even some of the older ones), this game is... very, very short in length. The lack of length to the courses and the worlds in general tend to expand on the issues that it and 3D World already had. That being said, I still found that the game was a nice experience overall, and was one of few 3DS games I can think of that actually made good use of the new hardware at the time. The only other games I can think of that do are Kid Icarus: Uprising and maybe Mario Kart 7 if I’m being generous. 7 out of 10.
Persona 5R (PS4): My high school friends and Smash Ultimate’s DLC were what introduced me to this game series for the first time. I eventually decided to pick up a copy of the game in 2021, and didn’t end up playing through it too much. I found that it was rather difficult to navigate places at times, and excluding Pokémon, I have surprisingly little experience with “true” jRPG titles. The game’s length given my busy life as a college student made it so I didn’t have much interest in dedicating this much free time into unfamiliar territory. None of what I’ve said here is to harp on the game itself, though. For what it’s worth, Persona 5 is able to be a fun and surprisingly relatable jRPG experience for the right audience. That’s the thing, though- if you aren’t the kind of person interested in this genre, the game doesn’t do as much as I’d like to help new players learn and adjust, at least from what little I played. 5 out of 10, provided the score would be higher if I played more.
Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4): Fantastic console background theme aside, I’m also not much for open world titles outside of maybe 3D Mario, but, like... does that even count? What I will say is that unlike most open world titles, the main characters actually caught my interest pretty quickly. The cleverly named “Aloy” serves as the game’s protagonist, and in the beginning stages of the game goes through a series of childhood events that most games don’t often show. I find that I can more easily sympathize with characters like her who at one point or another felt alone and isolated, as a person who lives on the spectrum. Similar to Persona 5, though, I find it difficult to want to play a game more when tutorial sections are extremely vague. Exploration of the game world is enjoyable, and the visuals only add to the experience. 7.5 out of 10, with potential for a really high score if I can get myself to play past the first couple of hours.
So I felt like also making a summary of the new games I played in 2021. Ports included.
It's a biiiiig list, so be patient.
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (PC): 8.5/10
The first game of 2021 is the last game of 2020, except on a different platform. And with the same level of enjoyment. Unfortunately (for both versions), online was basically DOA thanks to Tetris Effect and Puyo Puyo Champions, but do you see me bothered about it?
Rise of Nations Extended Edition (PC): 7/10
We now go to the first game I just... forgot to keep playing. It's unfortunate because I did like its mechanics as a hybrid of Age of Empires and Empire Earth. Perhaps it was hurt by the fact I also have Age of Empires II Definitive Edition and that Age of Empires IV arrived later in the year, but if some day I remember to resume playing it, I'm sure I'll like it.
Sid Meier's Civilization VI (Switch): 7/10
I already had it on PC (first through the Epic Games freebie, then I got the game and its two expansions on Steam) and I liked it. To the point it's one of the few non-Puyo Puyo games where I broke my promise to not get a game on multiple platforms and purchased it on the Switch as well. And... there's little to say about this version in particular. It works, like the PC version. It's fun, like the PC version. The hardware limitations of the Switch don't really make much of a difference (which is fortunate), and I'd say it's the more stable of the two versions nowadays.
Two Point Hospital (PC): 7.5/10
Another game I enjoyed that I simply forgot to keep playing. It's the spiritual successor of Theme Hospital, a game I really enjoyed... and also forgot to complete, so it was basically meant for me. And it works just like that one, so if you played the old game you'll find transitioning to the new one very easy.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity (3DS): 6/10
The first of the two "new" 3DS games I played this year. Gates to Infinity is seen as the weakest of the main entries of this series and I can see why: it's literally halfway through Explorers and Super (second-best and best game in the series, respectively) in both release date and gameplay... and it has the weaker parts of them - the former's slow pace (not helped by the slow text speed and the fact you can only do one mission at a time) and a storyline whose second half is identical to the latter (and equally rushed), while also being a very short game.
Still, it's a fun game, and it has a cast of jerks that is surprisingly unusual for the franchise. Also, Axew is a starter and it's the only Pokémon Mystery Dungeon where there is no possible dog starter. That is a massive boon.
Pokémon Y (3DS): 6/10
XY were the only main series Pokémon games I hadn't played yet. When they were released, I had no 3DS and there was naturally no good emulation. By the time I had a 3DS, Sun and Moon were about to be released, so I skipped Y.
After a long time, I decided to play it, and I decided to approach it as if it were new: that is, only use reptiles introduced in Gen VI (which ironically means that, in the game that introduced Mega Evolutions, I didn't use Megas at all).
I can see why there was some disappointment over this entry, as it's... quite average. Almost completely average. The Exp. Share is good and I will never not like it, some of the Pokémon introduced in this game look simply fantastic (e.g. Fletchinder and Heliolisk), but both the cast and the gameplay kind of... falls flat. The Regional Pokédex is huge but unevenly distributed, the characters are simply unmemorable (Korrina being the only one that is memorable for all the wrong reasons, as she forces you to use a Lucario no matter how much you don't want to) and there isn't really that much content compared to prior or following entries.
Also, whoever designed navigation around Lumiose City... I hope you end up thrown into the middle of that city one day.
Game Builder Garage (Switch): 8.5/10
When a Nintendo LABO trailer announced the fact you could program your own toys, I was livid. "Why would they focus advertising on pre-programmed Toy-Cons instead of the MUCH superior ability to make your own?". Game Builder Garage, to me, is an apology.
And honestly, it does its job really great. True, if you're used to traditional programming some things can look cumbersome or ambiguous, but for the target audience it sure works really well.
My only gripe is that I am in kind of a chronic creativity block and could not come up with anything to make on my own. On a personal level and not because of its qualities as a game, it was the GOTY of 2021.
Divinity: Original Sin II Definitive Edition (PC, Switch): 8.5/10
A very pleasant discovery I did. I had never played one of these semi-tabletop RPGs (or tabletop RPGs at all, for that matter) so the fact I ended up getting it is a big surprise, and an ever bigger one that I enjoyed it to the point of getting it in two platforms.
The story is fine but I can live without it (though if you have a Lizard character, the scene of the Red Prince with Sadha at the caravan can be really funny). The main part is the gameplay. There are A LOT of possible builds and most, if not all of them, are really fun to use and actually quite straightforward in behavior. Also, the game seems to present itself as open-world but it's actually heavily linear (albeit it's a multiple branches kind of linear) so that makes it enjoyable, as I'd have probably given up if it was open-world. While it looks like you can go anywhere, unless you have an OP build like Telekinesis... you have to take on things in a certain order.
The Switch version, save for to-be-expected load times, works very well, and I'd dare to say the game has better controls with a controller than with keyboard and mouse. Also, it has cross-progress, though saving from the Switch side is oddly slow at times.
There are three problems with it, though: first, that enabling the Gift Bag disables achievements; second, that, when playing with a controller, there's a very useful option that lists all interactable items nearby, but it's absent when using the keyboard; third, that Arena mode is really boring. Oh, and there are two enemies in Bloodmoon Island that can crash the game if they cast a certain spell.
A bit of context: until July, I had never even watched a single second of Digimon media. It was only upon seeing some really cool Digimon designs that I thought "hey, this is the scalie paradise, let's watch the first anime series!". And I liked it, so I decided to buy the best-rated Digimon Game (so far). And I liked it. To the point I reached the last chapter of the main story... and forgot to complete it.
It's not great: the story is dull, the maps are unnecessarily mazey (and with very restricted movement that is not apparent at first), and it's very grindy if you want to get a safe group of Megas (especially those with exchangeable forms, or the Royal Knights), but the battle system works quite well, which is why I don't give it a bad rating. And I'd actually like Pokémon to get some cues that you can make a fun game themed around multi-battles...
Monodramon is a cutie.
Automobilista 2 (PC): 7.5/10
I love how, in the recent years, PC got a large influx of realistic racing games that I felt were really missing in the early 2000s. Automobilista 2 does not disappoint, at all, with a good driving engine and a wide variety of tracks and cars.
The only one that disappoints... is me. I'm sorry, but even after two years of owning a racing wheel I can't complete a lap without either going at a snail's pace or getting off-track. I like these games, but I suck.
Horizon Chase Turbo (PC): 7/10
Hotshot Racing (Switch): 7/10
I got these two games almost simultaneously. Being racing games inspired by the ones of the times I grew up as a kid, I was naturally interested. And they are fun and surprisingly different to each other despite the similar themes.
Perhaps these games would be a lot more fun in multiplayer, but... well... it's not like I have anyone to play them with =|
Pokémon UNITE (Switch): 5.5/10
Played once, found it was okay, and didn't touch it ever again. I don't have anything against MOBAs, as they are on paper really entertaining games. But I just can't get hooked into them. And I've tried pretty much everything popular: DOTA, LoL, Heroes of the Storm, UNITE...
A quite predictable one. These are the only games in 2021 that I flat-out strongly disliked. I was like "Hey, a game where dinosaurs have a big role! And there's a demo!", so I downloaded the demos...
... and uninstalled them before completing them. My impression of them (and their strong focus on exploring -and crafting-) was THAT bad, to not be able to want to complete the demo. Seriously, they only get a 2 because of the few dinosaur designs I saw.
I recommend against playing them.
Madness: Project NEXUS (PC): 7.5/10
The long-awaited 3D Madness Combat game has finally arrived... and it makes me dizzy! I don't know why, but it's very difficult for me to play on extended playtime sessions.
Which is really sad because it's a great translation from the much older Flash game. Everything that applied then applies now. Including the humor, gore and weapon variety. Shooter beat 'em ups do not come out very often...
Diablo III Eternal Collection (Switch): 6.5/10
When Diablo II Resurrected was announced for the Switch and that it would have cross-saving, I instantly thought "Perhaps it would be worth playing there!" but, to be sure, I had to play Diablo III to see if the control scheme works well.
And yes, it truly translates correctly. It does have the same group of flaws as the PC version (plus the lack of cross-progress), but the port translates so well I'll give them the same rating.
Diablo II Resurrected (PC, Switch): 6/10
Diablo II Resurrected is exactly what I expected... which means it kind of comes short in some aspects. It remains faithful to the original game to a fault - because it includes bugged sets, lack of balance and, while it does have some QoL features, they are in a big dearth. Not to mention the big server issues that plagued the game early on.
On the good side, though... it's still Diablo II. It's a fun game that is easy to pick up and learn. It has cross-progress which means I can play it on PC, have an urge to go to the bathroom, grab the Switch and keep playing as if it were nothing. It does not have cross-play, though, which is a bummer... but then again, none of the friends that said they would also play the game actually did, so the difference is nil.
It REALLY needs infinite free respecs, more stash tabs, an in-game recipe list, and stacking of potions, gems and runes.
Tetris Effect Connected (PC): 6/10
If the fact that I own four different versions of Puyo Puyo Tetris, as well as Tetris 99 didn't give you the hint, I really like Tetris (though not as much as Puyo Puyo), so I decided to try out Tetris Effect Connected.
As a Tetris game, it's really good, as always, but there's one, non-Tetris related part where it falters: the visuals are nauseating. It's the only falling blocks game that made me feel dizzy, even on minimal graphics settings. And I can't let that slide in this case.
Mario Party Superstars (Switch): 7/10
I got it as a birthday gift. And I'll give you a simple question: Party game plus having no friends to play it with. What's the answer? Less than two hours of gameplay, that is.
Apart from that, the game is fun, but I'll rate it a little lower than Super Mario Party because a lot of games are button-mashers, and that feels bad for my fingers.
Football Manager 2022 (PC): 8/10
While the differences are small, they are satisfying enough to make FM22 one of the best entries in the series. The match engine has showed little issues since the beta (something rare), and the addition of things like Dynamic Youth Rating makes long and experimental saves a lot more tempting...
... which ironically means I've spent more time in the pre-game editor preparing an experimental database than actually playing the game itself. Funny, isn't it?
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Switch): 6.5/10
Also known as "I didn't remember Diamond was that bad!". No, seriously, I had fun in the game while using 42 different Pokémon at the same time (Exp. Share and Box Link are MARVELLOUS features for the main story)... but playing through it made me realize how many big flaws the original game had that I was shocked.
To the point that I don't feel like training any of my 7 teams for the rematches, or anything for the Battle Tower at all. Then again, I got the game semi-for free so... I guess I'm not that disappointed.
But it could have been better, even if without adding the Platinum features.
Best Games:
- Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (PC)
- Game Builder Garage (Switch)
- Divinity: Original Sin II Definitive Edition (PC, Switch)
A quite predictable one. These are the only games in 2021 that I flat-out strongly disliked. I was like "Hey, a game where dinosaurs have a big role! And there's a demo!", so I downloaded the demos...
... and uninstalled them before completing them. My impression of them (and their strong focus on exploring -and crafting-) was THAT bad, to not be able to want to complete the demo. Seriously, they only get a 2 because of the few dinosaur designs I saw.
I feel like this is less a problem with the games and more of your tastes in games. You can dislike more open-world-y exploration/crafting games, they're certainly not for everyone, but I think it's unfair to give them a low rating because you didn't like the genre they're in vs any of their flaws.
Unlike 2017-2020, I honestly didn't play too much this year (between dealing with personal life stuff and being busy with / settling into grad school) but I'll post what little I did play (haven't really been playing much this winter break either, trying to fix that in the coming days!)
Super Mario 64:7/10
(N64, got 70 stars)
Wrote wayyyy in-depth about it here. To summarize, it's held up a lot better than I expected, the movement especially is pretty fun, and I do appreciate the open-ended level design. Still, the camera really messes with your depth perception, and it's overall still a far cry from Galaxy 1 or even Odyssey. Good game though!
Katamari Damacy:7/10
(PS2)
Don't really have much more to say, it's quite fun and has a GREAT OST (the whole OST is worth a listen, but I'd say my favs are Main Theme, Moon and the Prince, Lonely Rolling Star, Wanda Wanda, and Cherry Tree Times). On the other hand, the levels take too long, which is especially weird the margin for error is pretty tight: You can barely miss the goal the first time around but then if you play just a couple minutes faster the second time around (the last level is 25 minutes long) you can absolutely crush the goal. The controls are also pretty clunky, especially at first, and while I do prefer my games to be shorter than longer, I feel like this game could go for a little more content.
Hades:8/10
(Multiplat, Played on Switch. Got the main ending, didn't get the post-game ending or the bonus Hades fight)
Hades is one of those games that I acknowledge is very great but...I don't know, I didn't really love it. I say that despite it being my most played Switch game and clocking in over 80 hours and 30+ clears. It's certainly a well-crafted game between its characters, story, art, and OST, but none of it really appealed to me and by the post-game I was sick of paying attention to the story and mostly just wanted to fuck around and do runs (which is a bit of a problem since I didn't end up unlocking any of the pets as a result lol). Except for Bouldy, I love Bouldy. The gameplay is well-crafted, but I think my problem is that it's way too RNG dependent; unlike One Step From Eden, you won't really converge to a build you're comfortable with over the course of a game, you have to roll with the punches you get. Which, I'm sure some people enjoy, but fuck that, I just wanna play as fast and recklessly as possible with a cast build (monke mode), but I can't consistently do that even if I use Aphrodite's flower at the start. The game is capable of being very very fun at times, but eventually I got sick of the post-game; I think fixed difficulty levels like in OSFE would've have been a bit more interesting too.
Tl;dr this game sucks, but it has Bouldy
Zone of the Enders:7/10
(PS2, Played the PS3 HD Collection port)
Wrote a looooot more about it here. For a quick summary, there's a lot of framerate issues on the PS3 port but it's still a cool 3D robot action game with some fun combat. The story, while nothing groundbreaking, is a ton of fun and nicely complements the gameplay journey. A bit unfortunate that the middle third is padded like crazy, but the first and last third are much tighter in pacing. Was hoping to play the sequel earlier this holiday break lol, but I guess I'll just play it in the coming days.
NEO: The World Ends With You:6.5/10
(Multiplat, Played on Switch. Beat the Main Story on Hard Mode Level 1, haven't touched post-game)
Ohhhhhh man. As some of you might know, I'm a gigantic fan of the original The World Ends With You on the DS, I'd definitely call it my favorite game that isn't a Pokemon game, and even then it might be my favorite game period.
NEO TWEWY is a game I had a fun time with overall, but there's a massive amount of issues that prevent me from calling this a great game...I'd even hesitate to call it "good". Attempting to give my thoughts on this game (even now as I'm writing this) always results in me writing massive walls of text, so let's keep it to bullet points:
There are too many enemies in combat at once, and your crowd control options and weapon cooldowns are significantly worse than in OG TWEWY
There is a way bigger emphasis on chain battles, which take forever and are unbelievably frustrating to clear
There is no camera control in-battle, camera is too zoomed in, and the targeting system doesn't always work the way you want it to
Enemies have a tendency to stunlock you
All of the above basically made combat, frustrating, a chore, and a general crapshoot.
I know I played on Hard Level 1, but Final Remix on Hard Level 1 is both far more fair and yet FARRRR more punishing (unlike Final Remix, it's rare that you'll get OHKOed in NEO and even 2HKOes are uncommon, and damage stacks up much faster in Final Remix)
To pad out the combat, there is annoyingly bigger focus on eating food to boost your stats. TWEWY's main story was balanced around you raising your stats infrequently.
There is a cool weakness system, there are maybe a few too many elements to go around, but the bonus damage is very significant even for weaker pins.
The boss fights are (mostly) great though! Absolutely LOVED the W2D7, W3D4, and final boss fights. NEO TWEWY's combat rules when you're not fighting a million enemies at once (which is only maybe 5% of the time...)
Idk, when I wasn't being frustrated by the combat I was having fun, but the frustration was very frequent, especially later on
Story:
NEO TWEWY is padded to hell and back, not just because the combat and frequency of it is a drag, but because there are constant roadblocks; there are hours of the plot literally spent trying to get past Reaper Game obstacles, and the time travel mechanic, as cool as it is, eats up a ridiculous amount of the game's runtime
It should be noted that TWEWY's pacing was SUPER tight. NEO is twice the length of the original but it doesn't feel like it had more going on
There is too much of a focus on having a "cool plot" and way less of a focus on character development, the complete opposite of the original.
So many elements of the game's narrative are in service to the plot rather than developing the characters (see the Reaper's Game rules)
Rindo is a good character but ultimately him and his arc is just a worse Neku. Have similar feelings with Shoka
Fret is a really annoying character whose development feels incredibly cheap, rushed, and doesn't make much sense. Even at his "best" he is just a significantly worse Shiki
Nagi is an interesting main character with fundamental flaws who does not see any character development in a video game series that is all about character development (Mick's boss from the original TWEWY gets more development than Nagi)
Some people mentioned this on Reddit and tbh I never thought about it until they brought it up, but Shiba being so easily redeemed is stupid as hell
Kubo and much of the returning characters are great!
The last stretch of the game is super messy, fanservicey, and "power of friendship"-y, but god DAMN did I have a lot of fun with it. I wouldn't have minded if the entirety of NEO was like this...but it wasn't. It's also weirdly much tighter in pacing than the rest of NEO.
Honestly, NEO should have just committed to being a game purely focusing on the aftermath of Final Remix or be a brand new game completely detached from the original's story (i.e. set it in a different city like NYC or Seoul or Paris or something)
And this write-up was still ridiculously long lol...just like this game
Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors:6/10
(Multiplat remake of a SNES game, played on Switch. Cleared with Kunoichi on Normal)
A well-regarded hidden gem on the SNES that ended up being a bit disappointing to be honest. It was kinda hard at first until I realized that spamming grabs wipes the floor with everything in the game, pretty mindless fun all the way to the end. There's some unlockable content in this port though, and both the spritework and the OST are quite nice as to be expected. Also the goodies my physical copy came with had typos, so that's pretty cool lol. Not much to say here, it's fun but unfortunately there's other 8- and 16-bit gems that are more worth your time
Sonic Advance: 6/10
(GBA. Cleared with Sonic on default settings)
Another fun timewaster, this game was actually a pretty basic and straightforward platformer for the most part, but for some reason Egg Rocket Act 1 is uhhh...really long and actually kinda hard? Really surprised me, thankfully Act 2 wasn't too bad (boss was a fun challenge) and the final stage was a bit of a joke. Again, not much to say here, a good fun way to spend my evenings before sleeping during Fall semester, but didn't leave a big impression.
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon: 7.5/10
(Multiplat, played on Switch. Beat Normal Mode on Veteran yesterday and Nightmare Mode Veteran today...so I think this counts?)
I've become a fan of Classic-era Castlevania in recent years (played 1, JP version of 3, IV, and Bloodlines) and I've always been a big fan of Inti Creates' Mega Man output (ZX1 is one of my favorite games of all-time, but 9 and Zero 3 are great too) though not really their post-Mega Man stuff, so I never got around to finishing this game despite buying it years ago. I was pretty impressed after finishing it though, this is a very solidly-made homage to classic Vania. This game is very clearly inspired by Castlevania III, given it has 4 characters that are pretty much equivalents of Trevor, Grant, Sypha, and Alucard, and its OST also uses VRC6. The level design is pretty good, while there isn't branching paths in terms of the levels you finish, the levels themselves have a ton of branching paths, with easier sections being made available the more characters you have alive. I'd say the level design better than Castlevania 1 and maybe on par or slightly below III. It's obviously nowhere near as inventive as the level designs of IV and Bloodlines though; it also matches neither the atmosphere of IV nor the sheer creativity of and aesthetics of Bloodlines.
The game isn't easy per se, but I unfortunately do think it's noticeably easier than any of the other classic Vania games I've played. Part of this is due to level designs not being as challenging, and when it is challenging there's usually an alternate path available that is much easier (Arthur's section of Stage 9 was a super fun challenge though!). Another part of it is that because your characters have separate health bars and their attacks are much more effective than the ones you have in most Vania games, you can much more easily get through enemies (see: the hallway at the end of Stage 6 in Curse of the Moon isn't too too bad, despite is clearly referencing the incredibly difficult, though satisfying, hallway right before Death in Stage 5 of the original Castlevania). To be fair, I think I would rather have a game be a smidge too easy to me as opposed to something like Castlevania III which really dances the line between "very hard but fun challenge" and "frustrating".
An issue I have with most Castlevania games (besides Bloodlines <3) is that the bosses, especially the ones prior to the endgame, are mostly a war of attrition in just spamming weapons and praying you can outlast the boss. Curse of the Moon's bosses, on the other hand, are VERY clearly made by Inti Creates and feel kinda like the insanity of Mega Man Zero/ZX bosses mixed with the repetitive patterns of Mega Man 9 and 10 (hell, the Stage 5 boss is eerily similar to the Pegasus boss from Zero 4). Considering how this game very much adheres to the controls of classic Vania, I'm pretty impressed that Inti was able to make bosses with fast, massive, and hard to dodge attacks that still feel extremely fair.
I think the OST is quite good, though I don't think it's quite up to the greatness of some of the other Castlevania games or Inti Creates' best works. This game tries to emulate JP Castlevania 3's sound by using the VRC6 soundchip, but Curse of the Moon's OST isn't arranged in the same way, it sounds like a more general 8-bit aesthetic. Between the songs being a bit too complicated, the overall sound not being particularly unique, and, imo, the mixing being a little too homogeneous (though this is probably the fault of my Switch speakers, the mixing of the full OST upload is a lot better), the melodies don't really stick in my head after playing. Conversely, in JP 3's OST, most notes are accented/staccato'd (which really helps in differentiating Castlevania III from other VRC6 OSTs all these years later), the songs are shorter, and the basslines are wayyy stronger. Again, this is not to say that Curse of the Moon's OST bad, considering that JP Castlevania III is like...one of my Top 2 greatest 8-bit OSTs of all-time LOL. Really enjoyed Malicious Intent (Stage 7), Soul of the Damned (Stage 9), and Exorschism (Secret Boss theme)
I'm glad this turned out so nicely though. I've only played a little bit of Inti's recent output (Gunvolt and Blaster Master Zero), but this is probably their best game since like...Mega Man 9? Do I think this game is better than Castlevanias 1 and 3? Definitely! Is it better than Super or (my personal favorite) Bloodlines? Nahhhhhhhh. I still really enjoyed my time with this game, just not 100% sure on my score.
Some other games I played a significant amount of this year, but didn't (really) beat or finished a previous year:
Sin and Punishment: 6/10
(N64. Cleared on Easy Mode, can't get past the halfway mark on Normal Mode)
As some of you might know, I'm a HUUUUGE fan of Sin and Punishment Star Successor, so I figured I should probably play the original. It's fun and it does indeed succeed in its goal of making clever use of the N64 controller, but it still doesn't play as tightly as you would hope from a Treasure game. The limited continue system is pretty dated and is the main reason why I haven't finished the game on Normal. The level design is overall a far cry from Star Successor, and the scoring system is nowhere near as intricate as Star Successor or especially its contemporary Star Fox 64. The OST is pretty good! (been a huge fan of Blood Infactor, also like Agave, Dying Peace, and Raid Blue), but again, it's no Star Successor and it's not really Treasure's best. Definitely one of Treasure's lower tier games imo.
(3DS remake of a DS game. Did Naoya Day 8 last year on a fresh file, this year I did NG+ Yuzu Day 8)
I didn't get a chance to write about this game last year so I guess I can talk about it now. OH MY GOD YOU GUYS THIS GAME IS SO GOOOOOOD. The story is super good. All of the characters/motivations are compelling and interesting to learn about. This game gets compared a lot to TWEWY and while I don't think they're all that similar outside of sharing some aspects to their premises, I really like how Devil Survivor, just like the original TWEWY and unlike NEO, focuses a lot more on driving the narrative through its characters rather than focusing on some higher story. I guess the characters don't develop quite as much as they do in TWEWY, but the characters themselves are still so interesting and have so many great moments that I still love them. The soundtrack, while maybe a little less good than Devil Survivor 2, is great, especially the track Sunset (big fan of Garuda and High Touch as well). And oooooh that gameplay, it's a great marriage between Fire Emblem strategizing and classic J-RPG gameplay. While it could've had a little more customization and level variation like Devil Survivor 2, I think the game's raw difficulty makes up for it. This game is hard as shit, but you don't really have to grind too much to beat it (save for the final boss); changing up your strategy and playing smarter is usually the real key to victory.
If you're at all into J-RPGs and strategy games this is a must play. Physical copies are expensive, but this game is currently on sale (until I think Wednesday night?) on eShop for like $8, and it is ABSOLUTELY worth that price. Definitely one of my new favorite games.
Sutte Hakkun: 8/10
(SNES, emulated it. Cleared just over 50 out of the 100 puzzles)
A Japan-only puzzle platformer for the SNES! This one kinda usurped Mario's Super Picross when it comes to a game I play to just relax, especially since this game works nicely on a phone. This game slaps, it's a really fun puzzle platformer that's got simple mechanics that are easy to understand but provide an insane amount of depth. It also gets REAALLLLLLY hard, though in a good way obviously. The puzzle levels are very short and self-contained, and you've got infinite lives so-to-speak, so it's a perfectly fair challenge, no artificial difficulty here. In fact, some of the later levels are actually "simple" in that they only utilize a few objects, but even those are still incredibly difficult to figure out. There's some great QOL features, like a built-in quicksave/save state system, so if you're like me and don't like using emulator features it's got you covered, and hints if you REALLY get stuck, but the game discourages it of course. It's also a post-1995 SNES game so it looks absolutely gorgeous and has a pretty bopping OST.
On an aside, Nintendo co-developed and published this game, it's a perfect pick-up-and-play game, and you can grasp the mechanics without an English translation (though the fan translation patch is still recommended since the in-game tutorials are super useful). So, I'm really confused as to how the hell this game isn't available on Switch Online. Regardless, go play this game if you can. I'm probably overrating it a bit, but fuck it.
Honestly I think Lumiose City is really cool design-wise, but the camera sucks (tbf only one "joystick" made it harder) and the map to know where stuff is sucks.
First of all, I'd like to present (should I have to present it?) theme I've been playing to since the release of the first version of the game in 2014:
DESTINY
The first game was absolutely amazing, I started to play Destiny because it was created by Bungie. I'm a big fan of Halo so my opinion of the game might be biased.
But we're here to talk about Destiny 2. This game is a must have in my opinion, I'm still playing since the release in 2017. The PVE side of the game is very attractive, the fact that you have to grind to obtain what you want is a concept I really like in video games (hello, I'm a big fan of souls as well).
In addition to that, we have a PVP side on Destiny. It might not be the best PVP oriented game I've been playing to but even if I criticize a lot this part of the game, I really like to play it and spent countless hours of grind with my friends.
To finish, lately I've been playing to other games and tried to discover new games (via the collection) because I was a bit tired of the game.
Hopefully, a brand new DLC is coming late February and it looks super interesting.
The second game I'd like to talk about is a Souls look alike that imo is going to be a top 5 playstation game of 2022:
ELDEN RING
I don't have that much words to say about this game beside the fact that it's going to be released in late February as well.
If you've already played Souls look alike games, this game is made for you!
I really like the open world side they'll bring to this game, the fact that we can jump is also a brand new features in Souls games which is awesome.
This game is a must have in my opinion!
I'd like to share more games with you guys but it'll be too long to give my thoughts about every single game.
I hope that some of you also like these games or will maybe consider buying one of them or why not both!
It's a free and relatively new autobattler game that got pretty popular on twitch/youtube.
You can play it (for free!) on steam or on the itch.io page of the dev team if you just look up "Super Auto Pets" on google.
For anyone who hasn't heard of it I'm going to try and, hopefully succinctly, summarize the draw of the game. However, the best thing to do is probably loading it up in your browser and playing a few games - it's really really fun.
SAP is a game where you assemble a team of cute little emoji animals and battle your opponent's cute little emoji animals. Like all autobattlers, all of your influence is only during the preparation phase - your units actually carry out the fight automatically.
The game is generally played in an arena mode where you get a set amount of lives and need to win ten battles to win the whole run. You get a fixed amount of gold to spend each turn, and the units available for you to buy depend on what turn you're on in the run. Each turn, you are randomly matched up with an opponent who's at the same amount of wins as you, and you get no info as to what the opponent's team composition is before you fight them.
The base unit effects are all very simple to understand, and will either be conditionless or have conditions to activate that are simple and trigger commonly. Despite this, there's a wide variety of different effects, and each effect feels fun and different from the others. Having multiple units all synergizing with each other is also fun and powerful, but it's predictable, so you won't see interactions that are confusing or overly complex.
You get 5 slots on your team for animals, and the order of those animals affects which animals get buffs and how the fight plays out - the first unit on your team fights the first unit on theirs, and then when an animal dies the next unit moves up to continue the fight.
The main skill in the game is how you assemble your team. You need to make decisions about what to buy and when, and the gold system makes it so that each purchase or sell of an animal feels incredibly impactful. The turn an animal comes along, how strong the effect is, when the animal can be replaced with a better one, and the amount of lives you currently have are just some of the variables that you need to think of when making a decision.
For anyone who's already played, what do all of you like/dislike, do you have the expansion pack, and are there any standout wins you want to flex?
I like the game because it's very very enjoyable to think on your feet. It's basically unfeasible to force a build in this game, and the feeling of working with what you've got, knowing when to sit on a potential synergy, and knowing when to cut your losses and pivot to a new build is very enjoyable.
However I dislike the fact that most of the sell synergies are incredibly underwhelming (the shrimp is easily the worst unit in the game) and I think that there are certain synergies (turkey/tiger/fly) which are too powerful and can be frustrating to run up against.
I've personally bought the expansion pack, and I generally play with it on, but sometimes I'll play no pack against other no packs. The pack floods the early game with bad units, like the stupid ladybugs, but the more interesting mid/late game units like the bat and puppy make up for it.
Finally, I don't have the screenshot, but my most enjoyable win was a tiger hippo that I gave garlic and just destroyed like 3 fly builds in a row to get the win with. I felt unbeatable!
Ladybugs are super fine though, they're a fine tankier option for round 1 and get better at round 2/3/4 with allowing you to boost a pet + getting a stronger unit temporarily for the round so you dont feel loopsided.
shrimp is far from the worst lol. id say lobster is much worse than even rat (rat is good for quick decent statline and can in niche situations counter turtle / other summon builds), and the buff it bestows requires so much free space to properly take advantage of. There's also a couple of tier 6 animals that are much too hard to get off the ground / pivot to properly by the time they show up (looking at you, gorilla).
(speaking as someone who has every ribbon except for zombie fly)
the reason I hate on ladybug/shrimp is because in early game I vastly prefer to roll hard for units/fill my board rather then spend early turns buying food or buffing stuff that's probably going to go later. however i only have 16.1 hours in the game so I'm far from an expert. def willing to give those a shot.
i also didn't mention lobster because i literally forgot about it. it sucks. looking at the wiki I also just realized that I've never gotten an octopus past level 1, maybe I should try that out
the reason I hate on ladybug/shrimp is because in early game I vastly prefer to roll hard for units/fill my board rather then spend early turns buying food or buffing stuff that's probably going to go later. however i only have 16.1 hours in the game so I'm far from an expert. def willing to give those a shot.
i also didn't mention lobster because i literally forgot about it. it sucks. looking at the wiki I also just realized that I've never gotten an octopus past level 1, maybe I should try that out
how did you get sloth? just a lot of chocolate? also good job you're a gamer
Sloth from what i can tell has no ribbon / badge but that is hearsay. Ive only run into one sloth so far and tanked my run trying to carry it to 10 lol
and also the reason ladybug is so good early game is that the 1+1 buff is insane when u have like three ladybugs round 2 and u buy one apple. The value u net is incredible(basically it rewards restraint in immediate combining where other animals u want to do the opposite like otter). It feels balanced though since you also end up having to roll more to replenish foods early.
I do think winning in p2w is less consistent. it ultimately it comes down to the way animal effects interact and overlap in p2w being much more complicated to get running smoothly than in f2p. I do agree that compared to f2p, most of the early game units in p2w are much harder to carry with you to the end but I think that is just another part of the balance of p2w rather than a detriment necessarily
excited / scared for the new pack since it will mean i have to get more achievements :^ )
Does anyone here play TFT? Let me know if you play TFT. I started playing it two months ago and I love it. Looking for more people to queue with. I have a few but want some more! Currently I'm D3 but taking a break from ranked for a bit.
So I was considering picking this game up on PS4. Would you say it's worth $15-20 or not? Cause I been very conservative on game purchasing lately since I've got a lot of stuff on the backburner, save 3D collecathons (last one I played was Astro's Playroom last year; great game btw). Also, how obtrusive are the glitches (I've seen a decent amout of save corruption issues on the reddit and some glitches with audio and bungee jumping).
I didn't encounter any glitches myself, the game is just pretty janky overall.
I would say $15 is pretty fair, $20 is ok if you like spongebob, which is the ultimate deciding factor tbh. Unless you like spongebob don't get it period
I want to put down my thoughts on the Kirby and the Forgotten Land demo somewhere and figured this is as good a place as any.
WARNING: The trailer at the demo's end contains new footage of an important boss. Don't watch it if you want minimal gameplay spoilers.
Game Feel and Aesthetics
Controlling Kirby is pretty much perfect; he moves at a reasonable pace and jumping feels perfectly in line with past games. There's just one major problem: hovering is atrocious. You only get about an extra Kirby's worth of height out of it, and mashing to stay at that arbitrary ceiling feels terrible. It makes total sense to limit when a lot of challenges depend on verticality, but it's so miserable that I question whether it should be in the game at all. They could've handwaved it in the intro in the same moment as Mouthful Mode gets explained. Sure, the whole accessibility thing with Kirby is that you can hover over any tricky parts, but that tactic is just going to end up boring any kids here. Apparently dodge rolls are a thing and have cool slowdown effects but the game didn't explain guarding at all and I only found out from a Twitter clip. Invisible walls bordering everything are annoying considering the lack of visible distinction between level and background objects.
One of the most impressive qualities on display in this demo is sheer detail. Every piece of terrain is believable and woven seamlessly into the level, elevating the theming of a city overtaken by nature. The frame rate is less than perfect, but I'm more forgiving of that in a 3D platformer than Star Allies. The real hiccup is how enemies far from the camera get far fewer frames despite being perfectly visible. It's impossible to feel immersed when the camera goes out of its way for a wide shot and different enemies are moving at different levels of quality. Such corner cutting defines the Switch, but seeing it on such full display in a first-party game is still jarring.
Level Design
This is the other area where the demo blew me away. There's no wasted space, flow is perfect, and yet the world feels perfectly natural. The second level's ending, where you climb around a skyscraper and dodge bites from the roof's turtle in a bunch of ways, is the biggest highlight. I'll also shout out the placement of the bull enemies, whose charge can't be interrupted with attacks, a nice change of pace from mashing buttons through everything.
Copy Abilities
Big picture: Abilities seem simplified, which is fair enough given the lack of dashing and directional inputs, but I can't be sure because there's no pause menu explanation. A baffling omission given that some moves are fairly specific. The upgraded abilities you can play with after beating Gorimondo are an appreciated demo inclusion, but I don't really care for them. The game isn't hard, so they feel like super overkill, and the hats are overdesigned and unpleasant to look at. I'd rather keep to the simple aesthetics of the basic abilities.
Sword: 3D has made it awkward, especially since enemies are often charging at you from the front so depth is hard to judge for timing your swings. The aerial attack does pathetic damage and always resulted in me getting hit, for some reason.
Cutter: I like being able to hold it in place for charging it up and stylishly killing enemies on the return trip. Final Cutter felt finicky to pull off, wasn't sure it even existed anymore at first. Chakram Cutter is pretty cool aside from the stupid hat.
Bomb: Pretty much just as fun and mindless as in 2D, but needing to hold B for a sec to get an arc out of it is a pain.
Ice: You only get to use it against Gorimondo, but even there feels shallower than before. Where'd the air attack go!?
Mouthful Mode is pretty much Capturing from Mario Odyssey, and used equally competently. I still find it kinda disturbing.
Bosses and Combat
A common thread among the available abilities is that they have very specific ranges, so it's easy to keep missing when multiple enemies are chasing you around. Inhaling with vanilla Kirby seems the most viable a concerning amount of the time, especially for dealing absurd damage to bosses. Wild Edge is the only miniboss present, and it's... certainly Gigant Edge in 3D. Kinda boring and trivial. Gorimondo doesn't fare much better. You'd think from the trailer it'd be some thrilling stuff, but its attacks are super basic and easy to dodge if you keep your distance. There's not even a reason for it to be a gorilla, any humanoid thing could do attacks as generic as "throw boulder" and "sweep arms". I hope not every boss falls to the "run away in a wide circle" tactic, but they give you so much space I'm not optimistic.
While the finer details have much room for refinement and suffer from Kirby being babby gaem (so expectations are in check), I'm convinced that Forgotten Land is worth checking out. I'm glad we'll have a properly satisfying Kirby on Switch after all.
I want to put down my thoughts on the Kirby and the Forgotten Land demo somewhere and figured this is as good a place as any.
WARNING: The trailer at the demo's end contains new footage of an important boss. Don't watch it if you want minimal gameplay spoilers.
Game Feel and Aesthetics
Controlling Kirby is pretty much perfect; he moves at a reasonable pace and jumping feels perfectly in line with past games. There's just one major problem: hovering is atrocious. You only get about an extra Kirby's worth of height out of it, and mashing to stay at that arbitrary ceiling feels terrible. It makes total sense to limit when a lot of challenges depend on verticality, but it's so miserable that I question whether it should be in the game at all. They could've handwaved it in the intro in the same moment as Mouthful Mode gets explained. Sure, the whole accessibility thing with Kirby is that you can hover over any tricky parts, but that tactic is just going to end up boring any kids here. Apparently dodge rolls are a thing and have cool slowdown effects but the game didn't explain guarding at all and I only found out from a Twitter clip. Invisible walls bordering everything are annoying considering the lack of visible distinction between level and background objects.
One of the most impressive qualities on display in this demo is sheer detail. Every piece of terrain is believable and woven seamlessly into the level, elevating the theming of a city overtaken by nature. The frame rate is less than perfect, but I'm more forgiving of that in a 3D platformer than Star Allies. The real hiccup is how enemies far from the camera get far fewer frames despite being perfectly visible. It's impossible to feel immersed when the camera goes out of its way for a wide shot and different enemies are moving at different levels of quality. Such corner cutting defines the Switch, but seeing it on such full display in a first-party game is still jarring.
Level Design
This is the other area where the demo blew me away. There's no wasted space, flow is perfect, and yet the world feels perfectly natural. The second level's ending, where you climb around a skyscraper and dodge bites from the roof's turtle in a bunch of ways, is the biggest highlight. I'll also shout out the placement of the bull enemies, whose charge can't be interrupted with attacks, a nice change of pace from mashing buttons through everything.
Copy Abilities
Big picture: Abilities seem simplified, which is fair enough given the lack of dashing and directional inputs, but I can't be sure because there's no pause menu explanation. A baffling omission given that some moves are fairly specific. The upgraded abilities you can play with after beating Gorimondo are an appreciated demo inclusion, but I don't really care for them. The game isn't hard, so they feel like super overkill, and the hats are overdesigned and unpleasant to look at. I'd rather keep to the simple aesthetics of the basic abilities.
Sword: 3D has made it awkward, especially since enemies are often charging at you from the front so depth is hard to judge for timing your swings. The aerial attack does pathetic damage and always resulted in me getting hit, for some reason.
Cutter: I like being able to hold it in place for charging it up and stylishly killing enemies on the return trip. Final Cutter felt finicky to pull off, wasn't sure it even existed anymore at first. Chakram Cutter is pretty cool aside from the stupid hat.
Bomb: Pretty much just as fun and mindless as in 2D, but needing to hold B for a sec to get an arc out of it is a pain.
Ice: You only get to use it against Gorimondo, but even there feels shallower than before. Where'd the air attack go!?
Mouthful Mode is pretty much Capturing from Mario Odyssey, and used equally competently. I still find it kinda disturbing.
Bosses and Combat
A common thread among the available abilities is that they have very specific ranges, so it's easy to keep missing when multiple enemies are chasing you around. Inhaling with vanilla Kirby seems the most viable a concerning amount of the time, especially for dealing absurd damage to bosses. Wild Edge is the only miniboss present, and it's... certainly Gigant Edge in 3D. Kinda boring and trivial. Gorimondo doesn't fare much better. You'd think from the trailer it'd be some thrilling stuff, but its attacks are super basic and easy to dodge if you keep your distance. There's not even a reason for it to be a gorilla, any humanoid thing could do attacks as generic as "throw boulder" and "sweep arms". I hope not every boss falls to the "run away in a wide circle" tactic, but they give you so much space I'm not optimistic.
While the finer details have much room for refinement and suffer from Kirby being babby gaem (so expectations are in check), I'm convinced that Forgotten Land is worth checking out. I'm glad we'll have a properly satisfying Kirby on Switch after all.
I noticed a lot of the same things, especially that this reminded me of Mario Odyssey. Unfortunately, I had a big issue with Odyssey that this demo gave the impression it was going to repeat: the core moveset is underused and has nearly no areas designed around it despite having a lot more potential than all of the one-off gimmick movesets. Comparing to other kirby games, having another moveset for a lot of puzzles felt best with the robobot armour, which had a full basic moveset of its own. I don't think we'll be seeing any puzzles designed around the chain bombs despite there being a lot of potential, just because the game can't guarantee the player will have it at any particular point. It kind of feels like mouthful mode is a band-aid fix to the problems with variant abilities, which are in turn a band-aid fix to the lack of moves each regular ability has.
Gorimondo having such basic patterns also really stuck out to me. Even the first bosses of recent games had some interesting attacks, and I've considered boss fights to be a strong point in the series.
I'm willing to reserve judgement until I've seen later parts of the game, but the demo didn't fill me with confidence.
It kind of feels like mouthful mode is a band-aid fix to the problems with variant abilities, which are in turn a band-aid fix to the lack of moves each regular ability has.
I agree, as one of my main criticisms with what the demo showed is the lack of moves for each ability. Exploring the movesets and combos of the abilities was one of my favorite parts in past kirby games, and I was sad to see none of that in forgotten land. I really hope that the full game will have expanded movesets, unlikely as it may be.
i got the cuphead game a couple weeks ago and finished it on normal. let's talk about it! also i'm down to talk if you disagree with any of it for whatever reason.
And by talk I mean complain. Why? Besides it being easy and fun, that is. I'll explain.
I kinda don't know how to look back on this game. It's not my normal type of game, but I loved the looks and got the impression it was like a masterpiece, so I gave it a shot. It's... a good game? I don't know. Not a masterpiece imo. Most of what I hear about it is praise, so I won't belabor the points you already know. Gorgeous visuals, very creative bosses with tons of personality, and the general fun of a well-executed... whatever genre this is. Third person shooter? Idk. I'll poke at the flaws instead because I see them discussed less often. Just don't get lost in the weeds, I consider this still probably at least 8.5/10, 8/10 at worst. And sorry if these are more common knowledge than I think, I'm not like a deep fandom enthusiast here.
I didn't go in blind by any means, but it's not like I've been preparing or studying bosses, and I got a few surprises still. I haven't done Expert Mode so obviously I won't be talking about it, yeah? If you're curious, I used primarily Spread/Lobber/Peashooter with Coffee/Whetstone and Super 1.
#1 problem has to be the Charms. They're bad. Bad. I understand the accessibility benefit of making the game easier with Smoke Bomb and Hearts/Twin Heart. Maybe Parry just doesn't click with you, so I understand P-Sugar making it less likely that this somewhat unusual mechanic becomes your eternal roadblock. I'm not upset these 4 exist. But they don't really... make the game deeper. It's the same play but made more forgiving in some way. If you really want to, I guess you can argue the Smoke Bomb broadens your engagement if you deliberately use it to tackle obstacles in ways Dash doesn't let you, but this conceptually feels pretty shallow and cheesy, and that's also the impression I got from watching casual play with it. I didn't touch it.
One remaining option is Coffee, which is a passive benefit (still not interactive, unless you do some careful research on planning phase transitions or something). The other is Whetstone, which... I equipped it for most of the run for memes, and I'm not sure I ever actually saw it activate. So yeah. For my playing experience, the charms may as well have not existed.
#2 is the Run and Gun levels. I did not like them! Forest Follies and Funfair Fever were fine but very easy. Treetop Troubles was not. It killed me more than any boss bar one. They weren't fun deaths. Offscreen enemies and projectiles ambushing you is not fun, especially when they combine with other obstacles to create surprise traps that inescapably punish you for advancing. Later levels have some offscreen shenanigans and other problems. Advancing through them was generally not fun. Often, hordes of continually-spawning enemies or projectiles encouraged annoyingly slow trudging. Also common were autoscrollers. One enemy type is literally a wall, and it's also janky to get past, and you must get past them while other enemies constantly spawn in. (Actually, there's at least three types of wall enemies.) Another enemy type constantly fires slowly-falling spikes around, and you must get past them while flying enemies constantly spawn across all altitudes and quickly sweep across the screen. There's also specific things, like changing gravity in Funhouse Frazzle being slow and committal, again encouraging slow trudging. They honestly felt either amateurishly-designed or trying to evoke parts of 80s/90s platforming I'd call "bad design" by modern standards. Overall, I probably would have enjoyed the game more if R&Gs weren't included.
#3 is late-game difficulty. No, I don't mean it was too difficult. I kept track of how much every boss killed me. See if you can find the difference between Island 3 / Inkwell Hell's death counts and those of Islands 2 and 1.
Island 1: 0, 2, 2, 3, 5
Island 2: 5, 11, 14, 15, 16
Island 3+Hell: 2, 4, 6, 8, 17, 21, 23, 25, 49
Island 1 was pretty consistent; all pretty easy. Island 2 was all medium-grade for me besides one easy one. Late-game, though, jumps all over the place. Some bosses felt almost silly and others were actually hard with no clear rhyme or reason. It's especially jarring because, though I listed the numbers from lowest to highest for your convenience, that order wasn't my experience. I did Werner and died 2x, then went to Kahl's Robot and died 49x, then went to Sally Stageplay and died 6x. What is the game trying to tell me? No, it's not just "git gud with airplane", since I did Cala Maria in 4 tries.
There were also lesser difficulty spikes and variances. This gets extra subjective, but I'm just calling it like I saw it at the time during my individual experience. These
felt way too much for Island 1, and they're a luck roll to appear at all, which is extra janky. Baroness von Bon Bon's minions differed dramatically in how much it took to get used to them. Same for Djimmi's first phase options. Both are also just luck.
#4 problem i have is idea development. Here I can get into a little more nuanced and hopefully interesting criticism.
One important thing all games do is subtly teaching us and training us to build foundations for more complex/hard/punishing actions. Let's take a classic example.
This is Super Mario Bros 1-1. These two obstacles are basically the same, but one has ground in the middle, and one has a death pit. If you're bad at this game's basic jumps and fail the first jump, you can easily keep practicing without having to restart the level, which subtly makes sure you're prepared for the more punishing second obstacle (and hopefully won't have repeated unfun, frustrating punishes).
Let's talk about Cuphead, specifically Wally Warbles phase 3, and Undertale, specifically Undyne.
Cuphead Airplane levels and Undertale fights have the same basic gist. You freely maneuver in a box and avoid obstacles. However, both Warbles-3 and Undyne change things up in dramatic ways without advance practice. You have to make time-sensitive pushes into danger, either into and out of WallyChild's egg ring or into the direction of Undyne's spears. Face danger head on, and all that jazz. Trying to move away will get you beat.
Undertale gives you hints. It locks your movement, has Undyne tell you to "face danger head on", and plays a loud informative "ding" when you correctly face a spear and avoid damage. If you take a while to understand the basic idea, it's very unpunishing. You start the boss fight over if you die, but if you don't' get the basic idea, you won't have made it very far anyway. Once you get it, the fight trains you, going from slower to quicker patterns.
I'm not expecting Cuphead to use the same techniques. Bosses don't have in-fight dialogue or loud dings here. But the fundamentals of "hint, train, and make punishment for failure proportionate to how generous hinting and training were" are not always there. Let's reference Warbles phase 2.
Warbles phase 2 gives you the opposite of the right advice. The distance between feathers (and your space to move around) is largest the farther you are from the boss, encouraging you to stay away. In phase three, however, the eggs travel ground more quickly the farther they are from the boss, meaning you have more effective speed and range when you're close. I don't want to give the wrong idea; suddenly changing the strategy to engage a boss isn't always bad. Here's why I think Warbles's philosophy is bad.
These are Wally's phases in order. In a vacuum, Phase 1 being first makes total sense. The goal in Phase 1 is to stay away from the boss, similar to other airplane bosses, but with novel projectile patterns and a novel focus on hugging one side of the screen. Building on the existing foundation with new aspects to change it up. Totally normal. The problem is, though, that you have Phase 1 and Phase 2 being "normal stay away from danger" before the Phase 3 twist. That means, every death you suffer to the Phase 3 twist, you have to trudge through the familiar territory of Phase 1 and Phase 2 every time. First off, there's no hints. Second, having to trudge through two phases every time and possibly suffer damage makes it hard to train with the twist and learn how to beat it (dive in and out of the egg rings). The time lag makes each "training" session farther apart, and taking damage limits how long you can train for. All of this makes the punishment of trudging through those first two phases feels (and felt!) very unfun and unengaging.
This is an alternate phase order I think would be more smooth. The new and unusual phase comes first for two reasons. If you die because you don't understand its unusual nature, you can immediately return to it, which makes it easier to train and the punishment less severe. Second, new bosses are expected to have new surprises, so forcing a new strategy fits right in.
"Won't the transition from WarblesChild to WarblesTouhou still be jarring?" Not as much as before. "Run away from the projectiles" is a more natural instinct and one the game has trained you with more, so you do it more readily. Original Phase 2 better hints "run away" than Original Phase 1, which is why it's still second; the projectile pattern is more standardized. Remember how I said "Original Phase 1 is great first because it takes your "run away" instinct in a slightly novel direction?" The improved phase order ensures Original Phase 1 is still preceded by "run away" priming.
While we're familiar with Warbles, let's highlight a problematic instance of idea development across the broader game, not just within one boss. (Yes I know the devil image looks stupid. It took me like ten minutes to get so deal.)
When I saw the specific Devil attack on the right, I instinctively thought of Warbles Phase 3. Revolving danger circles surround a target in the middle. In both cases, the broader pattern moves from side to side. It seems like the Devil pattern also has some element of "obstacle ring contracts and expands", but it could be an optical illusion, I'm not sure. Anyway, they're similar enough that I instinctively applied my lesson from Warbles Phase 3 to the Devil attack; move in and out with targeted pushes to best avoid danger.
Nope! The parry fireball and its Super Card reward, rather than being a hint to jump into the ring for better dodging, is a challenge prize for doing the suboptimal dodging strategy of jumping in. It's actually easier to dodge this attack by staying on the ground when possible. Trying to hug the ground in normal play is equivalent trying to hug the bottom screen, or maybe the left screen, in Airplane battles. Ironically, there's a Warbles phase that trains you to hug the left side of the screen, but it's not the one the Devil reminded me of, so I never thought to carry that lesson over. If priming me was the goal, it failed.
I eventually figured out this correct way to engage the Devil's obstacle, but the game got in my way for no particular reason by giving me bad priming, which was an unneeded annoyance that didn't add any fun type of difficulty.
There are other things I might talk about but it's late so I'll post this.
