The cruise ship strain was, unfortunately, that very strain that has human-to-human transmission.

I know the struggle. Well, not so much about rotation as I tend to play one game at a time but the backlog. It’s beginning to stack so high now it’s been officially classified as a significant landmark by the government.

Noted! I might pick them up at some point if I need a cozy game. Also, talking about this again makes me want to go dig up my old copy of Who Will Comfort Toffle?. Was my absolute comfort book as a kid, favourite bedtime story.

Errr… Court, right? This one. Anyway, I hope it’ll resonate with you, for my it’s likely to be a personal GOTY contender.

Ooh I loved INMOST. Played it on PC though. Great art, great music, great vibes. Story was also good although the ending could have been more subtle.

Ah damn, I had no idea! Which one would you say is better?

Played Titanium Court. Its great. You should play it. Don’t look up anything about it, just put your trust in the Steam refund window. You will know if it is for you or not within the first 2hrs. I am still struggling to describe it in an enticing way without spoiling anything, because this is a game that delights in constantly surprising you. Disregarding the gameplay (which is completely different) you could say Titanium Court is a little bit like Undertale for adults? That’s what I felt, at least. If you want a little bit more then this short sort of captures it.

After finally tearing myself away from Titanium Court I began playing AI Limit. It’s an anime-styled Soulslike, and while I’m not huge on anime I’d heard a lot of good things about it. So far it’s been pretty solid. It has its flaws, but it was made by a small team after all. I wish the art direction was a little stronger and more distinctive - anime post-apocalyptic modern sceneries seem like they’re dime a dozen, especially paired with mutated fleshy alien matter. There are plenty of sceneries here that may be competently designed in isolation, but just feels like I’ve seen before. The graphics are also very uneven and some textures look terrible - again, small team I guess.

Combat is pretty decent though. There is no stamina, instead there is a combined stamina/mana bar called Sync that also depletes when you get hit and recharges when you hit enemies (or parry them). Normal attacks and dodges don’t cost any Sync, so combat has a distinctly different feel from most Soulslikes. You also deal more damage at maximum Sync, but your special attacks stop working at lower Sync. If your Sync is totally depleted you get into a vulnerable state that often means death. It’s an interesting twist that makes combat feel a bit different.

EDIT: Also forgot to say, but I’ve missed these threads! I hope you’ve been well @chloyster@beehaw.org and I’m glad you’re back!

Is there a new one or the Melody of Moominvalley? That’s actually been on my wishlist for a bit, I grew up on Tova Jansson and it has great reviews too.

Perhaps you haven’t caught on but I like talking to you, XD don’t apologize.

Hah, I don’t think there is anything that can make me stop apologizing excessively! I’ve had that bad habit for as long as I remember between social anxiety, general insecurities and difficulty reading social cues (am on the spectrum 👋). I can’t help it, although in truth it’s probably something I should go to actual therapy for.

Anyway, I’ve said it before too but I also enjoy talking to you, of course. I always look forward to the weekly thread on c/Soulslike like “oh nice, a chance to chat with Grant again”.

Sekiro is probably the best game I have ever played, and hearing some one with your gaming resumè depriving themselves of the experience because of some self doubt seemed insane to me, I desperately wanted to knock some sense into you… Super healthy on my part, I know.

Look, I am not one to talk when it comes to trying to shove games I love down the throats of others, so I totally get where you’re coming from. And I mean, to a certain extent I think you’re right. And also, I’m sure Sekiro is not as hard as it’s made out to be. I just remember when it was released and all the game journalists that couldn’t actually beat it for their reviews. And I know the final boss is like a 4 phase test of concentration or whatever, and those are definitely my kryptonite. Like I alluded to before with DS3: I already hated Sister Friede (going against majority opinion there it seems) because it’s like a 12 minute slogfest or whatever, and Demon Princes was the same thing. It’s one of the things that has made me go “you know, maybe this genre isn’t for me anymore”.

Even if soulslikes are not your main thing, you are highly skilled and Sekiro is really not that hard.

I don’t know about “highly skilled”. I get by I guess, but I wouldn’t say much more than that. AI Limit was supposed to be on the easier side of Soulslikes but I’ve been stuck on Hunter of Bladers for the past hour or so…

Enotria felt harder to me a couple of times. :P

Really? Which bits of Enotria were harder than Sekiro? Also, keep in mind I might well have had an easier time with them since I was using mask lines and elemental stuff a lot. Which again is the thing with Sekiro, right? No shortcuts. No magic, no leveling no nothing. You get it or you don’t.

your fears for Sekiro just lost all credibility with me. XD I kid, I kid.

I know that it’s largely a mental block. Also you know, funny enough I never really liked rhythm games despite that, and never really got any good at them either. Though those are related I’m sure. And I’ve heard lots of people say Sekiro is a rhythm game.

And also like, I think the real block came from my DS3 playthrough grinding to a halt at the Demon Prince boss in the second DLC. I was just not having any fun anymore, and combined with some frustrations I was already having from ER (I played the DLC after Elden Ring) I was just starting to feel like you know, maybe this isn’t for me anymore. Maybe I’m being outscaled by Fromsoft in the skill/difficulty equation (and maybe combat design to an extent). And I don’t know, I have definitely started to feel less and less at ease with feeling like I suck over the past few years. What once was motivational now feels more disheartening. I don’t know if it’s age or general depression.

And so anyway, as long as I don’t attempt Sekiro I don’t have to feel like I can’t do it. It’s Schroedinger’s Game. I could do it. I don’t have to feel like it’s too hard for me until I try and fail. I know it’s stupid and I don’t know why specifically Sekiro has become this hangup, apart from all the people saying it’s the hardest Soulslike.

Anyway, whew, this became an impromptu unpaid shrink session apparently. Sorry about that 😅

damn, did we even play the same game? Hahaha. What level were you at by the end?

Oh I can’t remember. For the end of NG or end of NG+? I could reinstall and check for the latter if you want me to, for the former I have no idea.

But yeah, Jaws of the Chimera is not really balanced. It’s a super nuke with the gimmick that it has the slowest charge rate in the game. If you play it “fair” it’s probably fine: by the time you charge it the boss fight is almost over anyway - and it won’t be uncommon to fight bosses where it never even gets fully charged before it’s over. But who cares about that when you can pair it with three spammable fast-charge lines that each have a chance of instantly charging Chimera when you click them? You just fish for a proc with throwaway lines and then click Chimera and delete the health bar.

But don’t worry, there are other strong and less abusive mask lines too you can use if you want something more fair.

An easy enough rhythm one would think, yet somehow I was getting hit by the second to last shot every time. ( ˶°ㅁ°) !!

Maybe years of guitar helped with the rhythm or something for me? I can’t explain it. Take solace in the fact that I struggled continuously with a lot of other stuff in the game, especially some normal mobs like the halberd wielding automatons with their delayed overhead slam that would just merk me every time. Crabs too, but I feel like crabs are just demons in souls games. Both DS3 and ER crabs were my absolute nemesis, could never figure out how to handle them.

The gameplay looks pretty smooth, I have to give it that. Looks like it has potential to be fun to play. The rest of it I don’t know… I guess I haven’t seen enough of it to call it but for me it kind of feels like it is caught in between the random meme-game vibe and the played-straight action game? I need to see more I guess.

Ah I see! Doesn’t look like it has Deadly Reflex, but then I am not entitled surprised that my old go-to isn’t the cutting edge of Oblivion mods anymore 20 years later 😄

At least to me it’s that conceptually the game is really solid, has a strong identity, and that is beautifully suported by the art direction and a very good use of the unreal engine, plus all the other good stuff I mentioned.

Definitely, also on top of that I think the mask lines and elemental stuff was novel enough to charm me a bit, too. Like, a game where you’d deliberately afflict yourself with a status affliction is kind of cool. And I definitely found myself using both the items that afflict you with Dizzy and Wicked to buff myself for some fights.

Will be going for.a ranged build next time to see how that performs.

Ranged it strong, it just needs some skill tree building to ensure a constant flow of mask lines. Combine the node that fills lines when you drink an amber with the one that has a chance to fill all other lines when one is used and you can really sling some spells. If you want to retain any semblance of a challenge you probably want to avoid Jaws of the Chimera, it can one-shot most bosses even in NG+. Weapons wise you have like Vermilion Pastoral, Nethuns Finger, Warrior Deity and Waning Petal to choose from I think. If you want to commit to the full ranged build, that is. For me I had one of my masks as a fully ranged spell slinger and the other two as melee setups, and it worked out well. Lots of weapons with elemental scaling and a couple of them with ardor scaling too.

Also unrelated but you probably need to follow a guide on NG+ if you want the true ending. At least I did. I guess unintuitive NPC quests are a genre hallmark so… mission accomplished there?

Lastly, I remember you said you locked in on the parrying during the Spaventa fight, and I gotta say. if you managed to parry all his ranged shit, damn, I tip my hat to you sir!

I did, it took me a bit though. Also if it makes you feel better I died to his second phase the first time I saw it. Very embarrassing, I was still in surprise of the reveal and kind of chuckling and the little bastard punked me with bombs. But yeah I don’t know, the gunfire barrage has a rhythm to it, I don’t remember now but I think it was five shots. So you just go one-two-three-four-five on the parry button when it’s time. Maybe I was just having a good day. I don’t know. But I really enjoyed the Spaventa fight.

Is that the latest Deadly Reflex mod, or something new and different? I haven’t played Oblivion now for probably decades…

I have heard some murmurs about that game. Will be very interested in hearing your further thoughts on it, it does sound pretty interesting.

I am pretty much in agreement with you on Enotria, at least the sweeping takes. This:

Ifeel that this game was really close to being something great, jankyness and all,

sums up my thoughts too. It’s why I said that like, I can’t really give it more than 7/10 at a stretch, but I still liked it way more than most 7/10s. It has some Je Ne Sais Quoi factor and charms to it that are compelling.

The difficulty spikes I also felt, especially I think Vermiglio and Veltha were really hard for me for how early you ran into them. But then I think maybe later on I had a smoother time because I made more of a Battlemage build since I wanted to explore the game’s unique mechanics. And so just by virtue of having many more ranged options I probably had an easier time. The Nethuns Finger trident has a laser for a strong attack that I found very useful to keep distance and spacing. And some mask lines are extremely powerful too.

Also

Anyway, I’m glad you didn’t completely hate it! I’m always somewhat worried when I recommend games to people, and this one was especially so since it is such a flawed game… and yet there is something about it. I have played many smoother games with less jank that I think about less and have less desire to return to than Enotria.

The typical Fromsoft obfuscated and inscrutable lore and quests has definitely been part of building the mythos of their games. I think it kind of took off as it harkened back to older generations of games - to the type of games where you’d excitedly talk to your friends between class and say “did you know if you do X then Y happens!?”. Only now these interactions were online, but regardless, these types of games were largely a thing of the past when Dark Souls came out so I think it felt fresh and new for a lot of people.

But I don’t know. Just because something is disjointed and a major headache of a puzzle to piece together doesn’t mean it has to be good. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say “you love stories, you should play Dark Souls!”. The lore can be interesting yes, but I feel like both the storytelling and the stories themselves leave a lot to be desired. But this was never a focal point of the games, so we should just let them be what they are instead of trying to convince ourselves of otherwise in my opinion.

A separate debate can be had about whether a Souls game would be better or worse if it also had a coherent, compelling and understandably told conventional narrative layered atop the item descriptions and other bullshit brilliant narrative design.

I will probably play some more AI Limit this weekend, although I must admit I’m having trouble shaking Titanium Court. It’s still kind of living rent free in my head at the moment and I might instead try to find more people to watch play it, but there is unfortunately a severe lack of Let’s Plays and streamers.

Anyway, AI Limit is pretty good. Not too much to say about it, I’m about 6 hours in or so, killed a couple of bosses and currently finding myself in the Blight Town equivalent. Graphics are a mixed bag, some bits look pretty good and then you have the occasional texture that looks like dogshit - some of the mutated alien fleshy surface textures on the environment look
like they have resolutions from the 90s. The art direction is also a mixed bag - everything is greyish brown and post apocalyptic, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (I don’t mind it). Finally the characters are stylized like an anime. Meh. Not my thing, but I don’t care enough about it to not play it.

Mechanically it feels like a very competent Soulslike so far. The unique gimmick is the Sync bar, which is a sort of combined Stamina and Mana bar that also gets depleted as you get hit but fills as you hit enemies. Notably, dodging does not cost any Sync, so the combat has a quite different feel than many other Soulslikes, while aggression is encouraged in order to keep your bar topped up (you also deal more damage at maximum Sync, and take extra damage if it’s below a certain percentage).

Too early to give any final verdict, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played so far.

I genuinely wonder how well AC2 holds up. I remember it extremely fondly, but then again back then I didn’t have several decades of the same formula being used as a frame of reference. So I wonder how it stands on its own merits, were I to play it now.

But yeah, the whole Ezio saga was amazing at the time, and I can’t imagine they have aged too poorly.

I honestly can’t remember. I bought a couple of physical 3DS games semi-recently, but those were ordered online. I bought Rayman Legends on the PS4 for my sister from a physical game store like 12 years ago? Might genuinely be that.