No Soulslikes for me this weekend, I am still on the Withering Rooms kick I’ve been on for the last two weeks or so. I finished my first playthrough today, got an ending I think might be canon (considering the upcoming sequel) and then immediately went into NG+. There is an extra ending exclusive to NG+, and I’m curious to see what that payoff is like. So far the NG+ experience has been pretty remixed, so it feels somewhat fresh. Also feels snappier - certain puzzles and story beats seem removed in NG+ so it might play a lot faster. There are also some new and pretty cool mechanics introduced.

Overall I can’t say enough good things about this game. The world building, the exploration, the story, the art direction, the vibes, the mechanics… It’s such a good and unique game.

Håller med om kommentaren ovan. Både “bondlurk” och “bondläpp” skulle vara mest tekniskt korrekt, men båda låter något gammaldags nuförtiden (inte på ett helt obrukbart sätt, men skulle sticka ute lite). Lantis är något mer neutralt och inte lika laddat som orden ovan eller redneck, men skulle definitivt låta mer naturligt i modern folkmun.

Great game and an absolute steal at this price. Tight gameplay, good story and characters, very cool world building and setting and great atmosphere.

It’s a very fun series, they play very differently from a lot of other games so look up some video footage first maybe, but I think they’re fun. The missions are somewhat sandboxy and can make you feel pretty clever when you figure out how to set up a nice sequence.

On the one hand it intrigues me, but I’ve also heard it’s brutally difficult so that bit is scaring me off.

Same, but to be fair the Soulslike market is turbo oversaturated so I assume it’s tough out there. And I think Khazan possibly could be a weird edge case where it’s halfway between CAG and Soulslike and sort of fell short of pulling in either fanbase completely? Just spitballing here.

While I think Rise of the Ronin has the better combat, the presentation for the duels in Ghost is much better for sure. I loved the fight amongst the lanterns too, was probably the most memorable part of the game for me as well.

I’m still deep in the Withering Rooms trenches - almost literally now (although I can’t say more without spoilers). The game is just absolutely excellent, and I am even starting to get used to the janky and clunky combat. I’m in Chapter 4 now and starting to get some kind of idea of a possibile endgame, although I’m sure there are plenty of more mysteries and secrets and twists to uncover. I also know there are multiple endings, but I am still unsure what decides which one you get as I’ve just been playing blind and I don’t feel like I’ve locked into anything yet.

I know it’s a completely different game and a completely different vibe, but this game’s exploration is giving me almost similar vibes to back when I was first exploring Dark Souls 1. An interesting and dangerous world, weird ass NPCs, distinct art direction, mysteries and secrets, world building and story in item descriptions, locations that connect through shortcuts and link back to previous areas… It’s just great.

Next on the agenda is exploring the extremely cursed attic, but I think I might need a dedicated gear loadout for it as my default set gets overwhelmed by curse damage after just a couple of seconds in there. After that’s it’s the endgame, I guess? Can’t wait to see how it ends.

I played some Desperados last year and tbh they hold up pretty well apart from some graphics/UI stuff. I don’t think I ever played Robin Hood beyond the demo back in the day, but I played enough Commandos/Desperados to know it’s quality.

There is definitely an arms race happening that is not necessarily to my liking. Ultimately I think both styles should be able to coexist, and faster games like Nioh and Khazan that start bordering on CAG territory but with stamina can be released alongside slower and more tactical Soulslikes.

But the pace is only one thing, the actual moveset design is something I dislike more I think. This escalation of fakeouts and infinitely delayed attacks with increasingly small reaction windows is just not to my personal taste, and one of my major gripes with modern Fromsoft design. I understand that between their attachment to their image of creating really hard games and their audience getting more skillful over time they feel the need to escalate, I just don’t enjoy this particular aspect. These delayed attacks overemphasize memorization of patterns, which while it does add to the difficulty stand in the way of me being able to play in a flow state.

I also think the punish windows are getting too small, and sometimes it feels like you have to roll for like a minute straight for every time you earn the right to press R1 once, but I guess that is a separate issue.

One final subject i wanted too touch on is that this game makes me wish for a Robin Hood game.

I don’t know if it’s your type of game but Robin Hood: Legend of Sherwood is a classic.

What’s the AI like? The last playtest I played they were so braindead basic it wasn’t a whole lot of fun to actually play.

Strong light is the enemy. If the ceiling light is in it’s hard to do anything other than trying to actively look away from it at all times.

Hope this works out well for them and helps them finish up and polish the game. It looks cool but last playtest I was part of the actual gameplay was… not exactly captivating.

Rise of the Ronin is like Ghost but less cinematic and less graphically impressive but with better combat. I guess it depends on what you’re looking for exactly.

Can walkable neighborhoods work in America?

Why wouldn’t they? They work everywhere else in the world. American exceptionalism isn’t that exceptional.

Cool! I’m not in the market for a city builder at the moment, but I have always felt like mesoamerican themes are sorely underutilized in gaming.

The upcoming I Have No Change has a certain Papers-esque feel to it. You’re stuck in a kiosk doing mundane things, and narratives are told through the characters that visit your kiosk.

Pope also said he was more wary of releasing a major new game now because he enjoyed such critical success with Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn that he doesn’t want to let players down.

“There’s also the sense that I was pretty happy with Obra Din and Papers, Please and I don’t… you know, maybe I can’t do it again, kind of thing. Do I really want to maybe just go out on a high note? Why drag my myself down with the next thing that people may not like?

You know, I feel him there. I can’t even imagine how to make a successful follow-up after two games that were not just smash hits, but brilliant and unconventional too. Everyone is basically expecting a piece of genius (me included). Not to mention the step up from Papers to Obra Dinn was so huge in terms of production and scope that it’s easy to expect another escalation.

A Place To Bury Strangers have been dropping some new releases, so I’ve been listening to those. Which then invariably leads me to go back and also listen to their first two albums again.