quacker

I liked the plot and story. There are plenty of unique/memorable moments. It gets off to a lethargic start, unfortunately, though. The first like five hours at least are quite dull, and I don’t blame anyone for dropping the game based on that. But it improves massively after the intro, and the story is what kept me going.

The writing and storytelling are not good. There’s way too much dialogue and it’s constantly changing tone. One second there’s a meta 4th-wall-breaking joke and the next second it’s serious or sad. It takes me out of the world and many moments lose impact because of this.

The characters are mixed. The two protagonists have zero personality, which is partly a symptom of them being entirely interchangeable. But most other characters have great backstory and some are quite interesting

The combat and gameplay did its job, but lacked depth. The weapons and armor were just simple stat changes, and the stats are pretty standard (hp, mp, phys atk/def, mag atk/def), so character progression was uninteresting. The magic/type locks in battle were sort of more tedious than fun, but I appreciate that it requires some thought and is something unique.

I like the world design and the verticality that gives some interest to running around the world. There are unlockable shortcuts so that you don’t have to repeat long sections again, and there are plenty of rewards to make exploration somewhat worthwhile.

The artwork is amazing. There’s a ton of unique detailed pixel art. Admittedly, I do think some animations are a little rough or are simplistic - like a static sprite bouncing up and down - but this is pretty minor.

I’m mixed on the music. It’s technically great, but I don’t really want to listen to the soundtrack again, honestly. One thing that’s impressive is the music changes seamlessly during night/day cycles so actually every song has like two renditions (or something) which is kind of crazy.

The ending is rushed, though I only really felt it’s the last area (the tower) that’s rushed. You get to the top and the final boss is one fight with space shooter mechanics (???) incorporated, and then the game ends right after. It’s too quick. That actually did motivate me to unlock the true ending, because I felt like there must be more. And unlocking the true ending didn’t take me all that long, but it does suck that it’s a collectathon.

Overall, I enjoyed it a lot, but wouldn’t play through it again. It’s like a 7/10 for me.

Judgement - this is basically just Yakuza Kiwami reskinned as a light detective game. I love the Yakuza games so I’m enjoying this. I wish the detective elements were a bit deeper, but they always do a great job stuffing the world with different weird side quests and characters.

Stellaris (console edition) - first time playing. This is Civilization in space. There’s a learning curve of course, so I started out on easy. I like the bit of detail they add in descriptions of strange sci-fi events, although this probably gets repetitive after your first game. They did a great job with the controls for console. Overall I’m enjoying it but it’s very much like Civilization where AI civs hate you for no reason.

Sea of Stars - this is good. I’m around 10-12 hrs in. The story picks up a lot after the dull intro thankfully. I’m slightly disappointed with the music. It’s fine, but none of the tracks are something I really want to listen to again. I’m impressed with the amount of detailed artwork and animation. I like the verticality of the world which adds interest to running around and provides good ways to hide secrets. The battle system is good. The only thing is I wish there was a bit more to the character customization. It’s pretty standard physical/magic attack and defense and there are very few armor and weapon choices so far. Overall, I’m enjoying it a lot.

Why do you go into other communities to complain about someone’s posts? An entire condescending post dedicated to complaining about something that has zero effect on your life - why bother? You could just ignore it, or even downvote it, and then just move on.

Having or not having children is a significant life decision. Maybe people want to talk about it? That’s why this community exists.

I started Dead Cells because it came with PS Plus Extra (I think).

I played for three hours which I guess is a good sign. Actually my first run was probably unusually good. I picked up a fire blaster from a gold statue and that weapon pretty much one shot and burned everything up to the first boss, but I died in the next area.

My main gameplay complaint is fuck those bombs that explode into more bombs.

My other minor complaint is it’s a little too meta. I’ve already seen a bunch of obvious to blatant references to other indie video games, which detracts from its own world and identity a little.

I don’t know if I like it enough to keep playing. The areas can be pretty long. I made it past the second boss and into the castle area, and those enemies were just annoying. The clock tower was annoying enough. Even cheesing through them with repeated frost, I took a ton of damage from just a few enemies. So it is challenging, but I’m not sure how much I want to grind up to that skill level. I was sort of more frustrated / bored than having fun unfortunately. There are ten million things to unlock so maybe I’ll circle back to it at some point.