What Are You Playing, Part 3: The Assassination of my Wallet by the Cowardly Sale

[Man_Over_Game]

It doesn't attest to their originality, but rather their success, though. You can define both games with just as much descriptors as any other game, and the only thing that would be stopping you would be their avid fans going "no, but it's so much more than that!".

I agree. I've played games that were almost identical to Dark Souls in gameplay on the PS1. Difference is, Dark Souls did well.

Slay the Spire is probably a lot more original in that regard, as few developers really ever considered "Card Video Games" to be all that serious outside of some big brand name backing it. Making your own single-player card game system, and making it work in a video game, took a lot of guts, and it paid off. Even if it's not the most difficult game type to conceptualize, I haven't really seen nearly as many competitors to the genre until Slay the Spire became a known name. The only thing that I think really filled that design space before StS was Hand of Fate, and it was such a clearly niche concept that nobody really had much...incentive (?) to copy it. Slay the Spire, on the other hand, perfected what became a very solid foundation for future generations of games. I've played about half-a-dozen different roguelike deckbuilder games, and while they still felt unique enough to justify being a separate game, they all followed the same base patterns as Slay the Spire, and nothing before it.

[Rodin]

It doesn't attest to their originality, but rather their success, though. You can define both games with just as much descriptors as any other game, and the only thing that would be stopping you would be their avid fans going "no, but it's so much more than that!".

The same is true for the other games too. Metroid wasn't even close to being an original concept*, and the "-vania" tag was only added because the next generation of players were more familiar with Symphony of the Night. Diablo is a Rogue-like with real time combat and random loot. Insert "but it's so much more than that!" here.

The tags get their names because the games are an instantly recognizable comparison point. Being successful is required for a game to inspire its own tag. Whether or not a game was the first is irrelevant. Heck, the Diablo-like genre doesn't even take its cues from the first game in that series!


*I was playing games with similar mechanics back on the venerable BBC Micro.



Edit:

The true marker for me is if there are "clones". Games that are total ripoffs of the source material. Path of Exile is unashamedly this for Diablo, but there were many preceding it. The same is true of Slay the Spire, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, etc. A truly original game doesn't create a new genre if it isn't popular, hence why there are no "Hand of Fate-likes". Mario Kart isn't an original idea either, but "Kart racing" is very much a genre because of how many competitors have aped it over the years.

[warty goblin]

I for one welcome the Soulsalike genre tag, because it contains a number of mechanics I really, really dislike (mostly the world-resets-on-death/rest and corpse run stuff), so having a label makes it that much easier to avoid.

And by dislike I don't mean don't enjoy but will tolerate, ala crafting. The whole bonfire mechanic is sufficient to straight up ruin a game with mechanics I otherwise quite like.

[Cespenar]

The same is true for the other games too. Metroid wasn't even close to being an original concept*, and the "-vania" tag was only added because the next generation of players were more familiar with Symphony of the Night. Diablo is a Rogue-like with real time combat and random loot. Insert "but it's so much more than that!" here.

The tags get their names because the games are an instantly recognizable comparison point. Being successful is required for a game to inspire its own tag. Whether or not a game was the first is irrelevant. Heck, the Diablo-like genre doesn't even take its cues from the first game in that series!


*I was playing games with similar mechanics back on the venerable BBC Micro.

Diablo isn't a rogue-like, but that nitpick aside, fair enough. That was my point as well.

I for one welcome the Soulsalike genre tag, because it contains a number of mechanics I really, really dislike (mostly the world-resets-on-death/rest and corpse run stuff), so having a label makes it that much easier to avoid.

And by dislike I don't mean don't enjoy but will tolerate, ala crafting. The whole bonfire mechanic is sufficient to straight up ruin a game with mechanics I otherwise quite like.

Normally, I like to have control of my saves to minimize any repetition and waste of time, but for Soulslikes alone, it kinda works for me. It meshes well with the gritty mechanics to make each stretch its own challenge.

Some soulslikes could do with a bit better bonfire placement, though.

[Rakaydos]

Last time, on Hollow Knight: Steel Soul....

So, knowing about the "safe spots" in Nosk's arena, the Nosk pale ore is actually relatively easy to get. With that, and the regular cleanup route, I got pure nail, and cleaned up the Collector and dream-Soul Tyrant, before gearing up to face the Wather knights again.

And I won. The way to the Hollow Knight is clear.

I'm camped at the black egg bench, with 85%. I intend to do a few practice rounds with my low% file, but I'm almost strong enough to facetank through Broken Vessel, as I recall from my attempts to beat Radience the first time around.

After that? Steel Heart achievement- 100% Steel soul. If I can beat Hornet 2, I can get an easy 11%- Hornet, Kingsbrand, Hive mask shard (completing last mask), hive knight, Hiveblood charm, Abyss Shriek, the 15-blue-masks charm, the shadow dash, Sharp shadow charm, and the last 5 grubs for grubberslfy elegy. Also the deep focus charm I missed picking up TWICE, but it's not hard to get.

The last 4%? I dont know.

[Gnoman]

Diablo isn't a rogue-like, but that nitpick aside, fair enough. That was my point as well.

The original Diablo is very close to a real-time rouge-like. The only major departures from the genre are the high-level graphics (for the time), and the fact that dying doesn't delete your save.

[warty goblin]

The original Diablo is very close to a real-time rouge-like. The only major departures from the genre are the high-level graphics (for the time), and the fact that dying doesn't delete your save.

Whenever somebody talks about Diablo, they're probably talking about Diablo 2. Sort of weird.

[Man_Over_Game]

Whenever somebody talks about Diablo, they're probably talking about Diablo 2. Sort of weird.

It was really well made, had a lot of content, and took a decent amount of time to complete. It also was RPG enough for RPG gamers, but wasn't too boring for people that didn't like turn-based games.

I think you could have bought the game new in stores for like 20 years straight, which is really saying something. Even all of its big competitors (Titan Quest, Path of Exile) still felt so similar that they were effectively knockoffs. It's probably the first real game my dad played, and he played it through most of my highschool years (unfortunately to an unhealthy degree).

It might not be one of the best designed games, but probably up there with most played relative to the % of time spent gaming. Right up there with UT2004, I'd wager.

[Rodin]

Whenever somebody talks about Diablo, they're probably talking about Diablo 2. Sort of weird.

I went back and played Diablo + Hellfire this year, and it really brought home that it is in a different genre to everything that followed. Diablo did not create a genre - in fact, there were only a couple of attempts at recreating Diablo's success (Darkstone is the only one I recall).

Diablo II was an entirely different beast, and every game that followed was mimicking Diablo II.

I'm still waiting on a game that has the same feel as the original Diablo. I'll probably never get it, because the world has spoken. They want more D2, not D1.

[Man_Over_Game]

I went back and played Diablo + Hellfire this year, and it really brought home that it is in a different genre to everything that followed. Diablo did not create a genre - in fact, there were only a couple of attempts at recreating Diablo's success (Darkstone is the only one I recall).

Diablo II was an entirely different beast, and every game that followed was mimicking Diablo II.

I'm still waiting on a game that has the same feel as the original Diablo. I'll probably never get it, because the world has spoken. They want more D2, not D1.

I'm still divided between whether that's due to the fact that D1 was ahead of its time and people would generally prefer something stable (D2) vs. something dictated by chaos or random chance (D1), especially if you had to pick one to be "first", or if it's simply because D2 was just less claustrophobic and monochromatic.

It's kind of ironic. D1 felt very same-y, despite having a randomized playthrough each time you played. However, D2 felt more diverse, despite basically falling into the same ruts. Maybe it's because D2 is so long with so many character options that it's nearly impossible for the casual gamer to suffer from burnout by rotating playstyles.

[Cespenar]

The original Diablo is very close to a real-time rouge-like. The only major departures from the genre are the high-level graphics (for the time), and the fact that dying doesn't delete your save.

In my opinion (though not entirely mine), about 70% of being a roguelike is the save deletion.

[Anonymouswizard]

In my opinion (though not entirely mine), about 70% of being a roguelike is the save deletion.

I've had people try to convince me that Roguelikes can have cross-character progression.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

[Cazero]

There is stuff like unlocking more starting options.

[Cespenar]

I've had people try to convince me that Roguelikes can have cross-character progression.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

Many roguelites have (arguably it might even be the definition of the changed suffix), which may have been the source of their confusion.

[Lord Raziere]

in pokemon fangame news, I've been playing Pokemon Reborn and it has done brave things that the main series never will: give you a challenge and a darker story. Your a trainer that arrives in a polluted and economically screwed up region in the pokemon world known as Reborn. At the beginning you get to choose from any starter across all seven generations made at the time from charmander to popplio. this is the only kindness this game gives you. from then on you start off in the rundown districts of a city with little places to catch a pokemon the normal way: go out into the grass and just get them?

nah dude, this is Reborn you gotta EARN your pokemon by searching out the places where they actually gather amid the urban jungle, beating trainers to earn the right to go in the few places unpolluted and safe to catch things like bug grass or water type, or beating gangs and streets punks so they don't bother you while you walk around the back alleys for dark and poison types, or find these little events where you have help out other people with a pokemon thats in trouble like healing a skitty, or protecting a pokemon from criminals only for it to be given to you because the person who last owned it isn't a fighter and wants the pokemon to be safe with you because you'll actually make it strong enough to defend itself, or just finding a pokemon thats lost and taking it along because there probably is no one else to care for it. you basically have to search out the little side things that aren't obvious to be able to get some pokemon at all and do sidequests that get you being attacked by all the wrong sorts to earn the pokemon, a most stand out example being a fisherman selling a rare pokemon for 500 dollars, but when you try to get knowing its probably just a magikarp but you want it anyways because its probably one of the few water types you'll get amid all the poisons and bugs...but then the pokemon is stolen before you get it, so track down the thief....who sells it for 500 dollars but it turns both the seller and the thief were in on it, it was a scam to make 1000 dollars from you but the pokemon is real, but was stolen from the thief, prompting a long chain of tracking people down to get this one pokemon for who knows how long probably just to get something normally considered extremely common, because you still don't know what that pokemon is.

the pokemon selection itself is interesting: the creators seemed to go out their way to focus on less used or less remembered pokemon while making sure your a beggar not a chooser, thus prompting you to use different pokemon than you normally would to progress. I've used two bugs types on my team to win many battles, when normally I don't even use ONE.

money? you get less than normal games. most of the trainers I've fought give out pittances compared to other games and you have learn to actually manage your money while traversing the city. an inventory that normally gets bloated and hard to navigate is kept small and limited and the items you get become precious.

the gym leaders are harder: each one is a team of six pokemon, not all of them them the same type and taking advantage of a custom terrain effect that powers up their moves so that they still have a theme. I've only beaten the first one and it was a challenge, normally fighting the first gym leader is easy if a bit rougher than most because of your weak pokemon and moves being limited, but here a gym leader is no joke, they will tear you a new one if you think you can go in and just sweep 'em with a type advantage. of course, the first gym leader is electric type, and you get no ground types or ground moves. I had to do multiple tries on her and train up my mons a bit so that they were higher than hers to win and even then I only won because I had the lost mon standing. the criminal team leaders have their own nonsense, I had to beat a tangrowth that got powered into this mutant form that gave it tons of health/defense that could sweep my entire team even when using a fire type against it, I only got past it the second time because I abused sleep status and fury cutter. If you ever play Pokemon Reborn: Don't try to nuzlocke this. you will quickly run out of pokemon with little in the way of replacements and you need to conserve your items and money because you won't get as much.

as for the story, it is darker. the lake the city is beside is polluted brown, many of the trainers you face are street thugs, punks, criminals and homeless people living in run down sections of the town, the place that was supposed to be this region's company is long shut down and replaced by Devon and Silph Co. the criminal team does things like bomb threats, kidnap pokemon out of their homes, scam people by kidnapping the day care people and locking them away so they can take the pokemon themselves, and the events of a crisis happening is played out realistically and seriously with authorities locking down areas and common people being distraught about their loved ones. But its not edgy, because your rewarded for being a good person. many of the pokemon you get are because they are lost and need someone to care for them, you can shut down the factory that making that pollution, tell a mother where her child is and you will get something good out of it, give up a good healing item to someone trying to heal a pokemon and you will be rewarded with a pokemon you'd otherwise not get. save that day care couple and they day care will work again. despite the dark atmosphere and the jerks around you, you can make a difference for the better as long you look for it. its not going to automatically brighten up everything and become cheerful but it will be a difference, it feels meaningful and I respect that.

meanwhile in battle, playing smart and having a balanced team is rewarded as the levels granted by badges that pokemon will obey you are more limited so you can't overlevel one pokemon and just beat up everything. rare candies are actually rare and expensive and you have common candies that make your pokemon go down a level so that they will obey you again in case they ever break a badge cap. thus your encouraged to box your stronger pokemon whenever they start getting near the cap so you can level up others to similar strength.

in general story wise Reborn a lot of stuff that pokemon doesn't focus on or examine in favor of being safe and happy, while gameplay wise is a lot of stuff that refine the experience so that its a game you actually need to think and strategize to win rather than mindlessly sweeping with a single move or endlessly healing your pokemon. I recommend it if you want a challenge from pokemon but don't want to nuzlocke, or if you want a grittier take on its universe. its not super hard, but it does have teeth that make it worth playing.

[Gnoman]

I'm still divided between whether that's due to the fact that D1 was ahead of its time and people would generally prefer something stable (D2) vs. something dictated by chaos or random chance (D1), especially if you had to pick one to be "first", or if it's simply because D2 was just less claustrophobic and monochromatic.

It's kind of ironic. D1 felt very same-y, despite having a randomized playthrough each time you played. However, D2 felt more diverse, despite basically falling into the same ruts. Maybe it's because D2 is so long with so many character options that it's nearly impossible for the casual gamer to suffer from burnout by rotating playstyles.

Diablo 1 had only 4 real environments, and two of those weren't that different. D2 not only had a lot more levels, but there was a much greater variety to the environments. Besides the obvious terrain differences between the five acts, there were multiple uniquely designed dungeons.


And yes, you could still buy it new in stores for 20 years. Quite literally - it came out in 2000, and my local Walmart still has copies on the shelf.

[factotum]

Diablo 1 had only 4 real environments, and two of those weren't that different. D2 not only had a lot more levels, but there was a much greater variety to the environments.

Apart from those interminable swamps in Act 3, of course...

[Rodin]

You can't boil down Diablo II being better than Diablo to just a couple things. D2 is comprehensively better. It's one of the largest qualitative leaps between two games I've ever seen. Diablo was the experiment; Diablo II was where they refined everything good about it and strained out the bad. It's considered one of the best games ever made for a reason, and I don't begrudge it's success. It gave me many an hour of joy in high school and college.

However, some things were lost when they made the upgrade. I grieve for what didn't survive. Diablo II feels dated and not particularly fun these days because so many people have picked up the torch and improved upon it. There's little reason to play D2 over Path of Exile, Grim Dawn, Diablo III, or [insert favorite here]. Diablo I feels even more dated, but the gameplay still feels fresh because nobody has revisited it.

I'd like someone to give a modern take on it. A claustrophobic horror-style game where being outnumbered even 3-1 is a dangerous situation. An isometric, real-time dungeon crawler where you advance slowly and don't charge into rooms willy-nilly.

I think you could make a really good game with that basis, but that isn't where the money is. The money is with the compulsion loop of ever greater loot. I don't need the loop, I want the tension.

[zlefin]

I agree. I've played games that were almost identical to Dark Souls in gameplay on the PS1. Difference is, Dark Souls did well.

Slay the Spire is probably a lot more original in that regard, as few developers really ever considered "Card Video Games" to be all that serious outside of some big brand name backing it. Making your own single-player card game system, and making it work in a video game, took a lot of guts, and it paid off. Even if it's not the most difficult game type to conceptualize, I haven't really seen nearly as many competitors to the genre until Slay the Spire became a known name. The only thing that I think really filled that design space before StS was Hand of Fate, and it was such a clearly niche concept that nobody really had much...incentive (?) to copy it. Slay the Spire, on the other hand, perfected what became a very solid foundation for future generations of games. I've played about half-a-dozen different roguelike deckbuilder games, and while they still felt unique enough to justify being a separate game, they all followed the same base patterns as Slay the Spire, and nothing before it.

I think there were some small games that did that (by small I mean flash games, there were so many interesting flash games coming out in ~08-12). Of course theres so many flash games that they tend to cover alot of the things one might imagine for a game.

I think the popularity of the Dominion card game probably played a part in the history for slay the spire; as the Dominion card game spawned some other similar games and was well liked.

[Rakaydos]

Well, that's it. 100% Steel soul completion. I suppose I can finish out my practice file into a 112%, but I've heard that the pantheons are particularly grueling, even if I banish the troupe instead of try NKG.

For now, I'll sit back a bit.

[Rodin]

Well, that's it. 100% Steel soul completion. I suppose I can finish out my practice file into a 112%, but I've heard that the pantheons are particularly grueling, even if I banish the troupe instead of try NKG.

For now, I'll sit back a bit.

My run sputtered out before I got to the Pantheons, but from what I understand the Pantheons themselves are zero risk. The entire Gods DLC takes place in the dream world, which means you don't really die in there. As such, you can try them as much as you want.

However, the final boss of the DLC is not a dream and can wreck your face.

[Rakaydos]

I think I'll content myself with my sub 8 hour 100% nail-build Steel soul run, for now. Give me some time to unlearn what I have learned, before trying a proper spell-build run.

[Cygnia]

Bounced back to Gris today. Still on the Underground Tunnels level, made a bit more progress, but my lack of eye-hand coordination on the double-jump is STILL frustrating me (to the point of aggravating my index finger again in smacking the space bar quickly)

[Man_Over_Game]

About to beat BotW (I think I am, anyway, since I just got the last Divine Beast). Anyone got suggestions for another good game for the Switch? Something preferably a bit difficult, designed for an experienced gamer? Genre doesn't matter too much, as long as it's not a sport or racing game.

Spoiler: Thoughts on BotW

Show

Overall, I like the overworld stuff. Definitely feels fleshed out. I feel like there's a lot lost here, though. The narrative feels pretty bland compared to the previous options of:

• Young boy raised by elves finds out he's not an elf, travels into the world unprepared to face his destiny, finds out he's the chosen one destined to save the world, and travels forward in time to miss his window of saving the world to find himself in a new post-apocalyptic era. He continues to travel back-and-forth through these time periods to gather powers and equipment to save the world from both ends.
• Young man gets forced into a battle of Good vs. Evil when Evil takes his girlfriend hostage. He goes to fight the evil, gets cursed into a wolf, and then becomes the servant of an interdimensional being to get cured of his curse and to save the world.

Consider the 3 reoccurring children in Twilight Princess, and the fact that the closest equivalent you get in BotW is Beedle, a merchant that's obsessed with bugs (this doesn't have any real mechanical meaning, like selling him bugs for more money, it's mostly for theme).

The Divine Beasts are giant, environmental robot-monsters that massively influence the world...but they don't really do anything to/around you. Their environmental effects are only ever relevant in a 5-min puzzle-combat scene that you play through before entering them as a dungeon, and then fighting some weird Ganon-clone boss that feels more like a miniboss than anything (except the Gerudo/Lightning) one, that one was almost boss-worthy).

Heck, the Goron/Fire Divine Beast shoots magma boulders at you, but they seem to be programmed to only ever land directly in front of you, with no time to evade, but also no risk of being hit! It looks scary, but they don't actually do anything!

So every single one of these races/villages are all like "OMG, this monster is going to destroy our people", and the fact that it's a long-term slow-burn meaning of "destroy" really downplays exactly how terrifying and disasterous these monsters are. The Zoro/Water Beast literally just rains so much that it's going to destroy a dam, so....that's the environmental threat there.

Enemies themselves are okay. It's a thin line between "too easy" and "too hard", where the difficult enemies don't really telegraph enough to know what the heck you're supposed to be doing, yet you can spam the Master Sword at a Guardian nonstop and it'll be enough to kill and stun-lock it into a snore-fest.

It has a really weird difficulty curve, where the hardest part of the game is your first 4 hours, and then it flattens out into being fairly easy by abusing really effective workarounds (using the Gale jump to bypass mazes or climbing, using cooking formulas to have nearly endless HP and Stamina, use the second swing of big weapons to stucklock enemies, using upgraded bombs early on until you can get some mid-range weapons/gear, etc).

BotW is cool, it just feels like we missed the opportunity for really cool.

[Zevox]

Anyone got suggestions for another good game for the Switch? Something preferably a bit difficult, designed for an experienced gamer? Genre doesn't matter too much, as long as it's not a sport or racing game.

Hm... looking at my own collection, there's really not many Switch games I'd call challenging. Cuphead is the clearest, if you haven't played that yet. Otherwise, there's Astral Chain, somewhat? It's the easiest Platinum Games title I've ever played, and definitely starts rather slow in that regard (and others), but it does pick up in the second half, and is pretty challenging by the end.

Edit: Oh, I know Devil May Cry 3 got released on the Switch earlier this year (download only). If you haven't played that, it's definitely challenging, and I can highly recommend it.

[Man_Over_Game]

Hm... looking at my own collection, there's really not many Switch games I'd call challenging. Cuphead is the clearest, if you haven't played that yet. ...

Edit: Oh, I know Devil May Cry 3 got released on the Switch earlier this year (download only). If you haven't played that, it's definitely challenging, and I can highly recommend it.

I'm familiar with both. DMC isn't bad, it just has always felt a little clunky for me. Like how your guns are always useless except as a means of maintaining an arbitrary combo. I do also have Bayonetta, so I guess I already have my fill on that sort of gameplay, and Bayonetta does feel a bit more technical to me.

Wasn't a huge fan of Cuphead. Played it with a friend. It was alright, but more frustrating than fun at the time. I think Hollow Knight accomplished something similar, while doing a bit better on the pacing.

[Zevox]

I'm familiar with both. DMC isn't bad, it just has always felt a little clunky for me. Like how your guns are always useless except as a means of maintaining an arbitrary combo. I do also have Bayonetta, so I guess I already have my fill on that sort of gameplay, and Bayonetta does feel a bit more technical to me.

Wasn't a huge fan of Cuphead. Played it with a friend. It was alright, but more frustrating than fun at the time. I think Hollow Knight accomplished something similar, while doing a bit better on the pacing.

Calling anything in DMC "useless" just means you don't know how to use it yet. Even Ebony & Ivory, the weakest guns in the game, have some power behind them if you get good at charging them while doing other things - though that does require using the Gunslinger style, which is one of the harder styles to be good with (Swordmaster and Trickster are the easier to use ones, Gunslinger and Royal Guard harder). That's true of many of the guns, though the shotgun, rifle, and Kalina Anne (rocket launcher) pack a solid punch even without Gunslinger.

Bayonetta is also excellent, but I don't think it'd be accurate to call either game more technical than the other.

As for Cuphead, okay. Personally I only ever started to feel it might be hitting "more frustrating than fun" difficulty was dealing with King Dice, entirely because his fight just has him using the same attack over and over and forcing you to get perfect at dealing with it (or figure out a way to cheese him, which fortunately does exist).

[Razade]

About to beat BotW (I think I am, anyway, since I just got the last Divine Beast). Anyone got suggestions for another good game for the Switch? Something preferably a bit difficult, designed for an experienced gamer? Genre doesn't matter too much, as long as it's not a sport or racing game.

Spoiler: Thoughts on BotW

Show

Overall, I like the overworld stuff. Definitely feels fleshed out. I feel like there's a lot lost here, though. The narrative feels pretty bland compared to the previous options of:

• Young boy raised by elves finds out he's not an elf, travels into the world unprepared to face his destiny, finds out he's the chosen one destined to save the world, and travels forward in time to miss his window of saving the world to find himself in a new post-apocalyptic era. He continues to travel back-and-forth through these time periods to gather powers and equipment to save the world from both ends.
• Young man gets forced into a battle of Good vs. Evil when Evil takes his girlfriend hostage. He goes to fight the evil, gets cursed into a wolf, and then becomes the servant of an interdimensional being to get cured of his curse and to save the world.

Consider the 3 reoccurring children in Twilight Princess, and the fact that the closest equivalent you get in BotW is Beedle, a merchant that's obsessed with bugs (this doesn't have any real mechanical meaning, like selling him bugs for more money, it's mostly for theme).

The Divine Beasts are giant, environmental robot-monsters that massively influence the world...but they don't really do anything to/around you. Their environmental effects are only ever relevant in a 5-min puzzle-combat scene that you play through before entering them as a dungeon, and then fighting some weird Ganon-clone boss that feels more like a miniboss than anything (except the Gerudo/Lightning) one, that one was almost boss-worthy).

Heck, the Goron/Fire Divine Beast shoots magma boulders at you, but they seem to be programmed to only ever land directly in front of you, with no time to evade, but also no risk of being hit! It looks scary, but they don't actually do anything!

So every single one of these races/villages are all like "OMG, this monster is going to destroy our people", and the fact that it's a long-term slow-burn meaning of "destroy" really downplays exactly how terrifying and disasterous these monsters are. The Zoro/Water Beast literally just rains so much that it's going to destroy a dam, so....that's the environmental threat there.

Enemies themselves are okay. It's a thin line between "too easy" and "too hard", where the difficult enemies don't really telegraph enough to know what the heck you're supposed to be doing, yet you can spam the Master Sword at a Guardian nonstop and it'll be enough to kill and stun-lock it into a snore-fest.

It has a really weird difficulty curve, where the hardest part of the game is your first 4 hours, and then it flattens out into being fairly easy by abusing really effective workarounds (using the Gale jump to bypass mazes or climbing, using cooking formulas to have nearly endless HP and Stamina, use the second swing of big weapons to stucklock enemies, using upgraded bombs early on until you can get some mid-range weapons/gear, etc).

BotW is cool, it just feels like we missed the opportunity for really cool.

That's what happens when you make a game an open world sandbox with crafting. The world of BotW is beautiful and expansive and great to explore but it's just so dang empty. Post-Apocalypse Hyrule wouldn't be so bad if there was more to do between all that empty space and if the Shrines weren't both utterly boring and derivative by the 50th one while also doing more for you than upping your stamina or health. Increasing weapon durability or something similar would have been a nice perk imho. In fact that's the one thing that's missing from BotW that a lot of modern sandbox games have, a skill tree. I guess they felt that wasn't Zelda but neither was reducing the dungeon crawling to four really short Divine Beasts and making the shrines do all the heavy lifting. The biggest thing is barely anything you do is of any actual consequence. There's no reason to do all the Shrines, it gets you some ok armor. There's no real reason to max out your armor, there's no reason to get all the fairy shrines, there's absolutely no reason whatsoever to getting all the Korok seeds. It's all just the same sandbox slough of seeing numbers go higher.


As for good games on Switch, with a challenge. Fire Emblem: Three Houses isn't the hardest Fire Emblem game (or so I'm told) but it's got enough of one on the low difficulties to warm you up for the higher difficulties and it's just generally a great game.

[Anonymouswizard]

Calling anything in DMC "useless" just means you don't know how to use it yet. Even Ebony & Ivory, the weakest guns in the game, have some power behind them if you get good at charging them while doing other things - though that does require using the Gunslinger style, which is one of the harder styles to be good with (Swordmaster and Trickster are the easier to use ones, Gunslinger and Royal Guard harder). That's true of many of the guns, though the shotgun, rifle, and Kalina Anne (rocket launcher) pack a solid punch even without Gunslinger.

Ebony & Ivory also suffered from the large environments of DMC2 having made guns far more powerful. The Shotgun retains it's usefulness due to still knocking enemies down and having decent damage, and later guns are also good, but E&I don't have the punch they had in the first game.

Although I would also like to note that I hate Mission 19 of DMC3, because of the boss rush with few Green Orbs to refill before then. I can beat every other stage in the game on Normal, although Vergil sometimes gives me trouble, but I just don't have the health to work through them with my coordination difficulties.

[Lacco]

Objects in Space.

Yes, graphics are less than stellar, but they fit to the modempunk theme. Yes, it crashes. Yes, its controls can be clunky.

I just can't stop.

And it got me thinking about ordering some arduinos and building the damn ship at my home...

For those who do not know the game, imagine Elite with ships that run on much older tech. Combat is submarine-style with evading torpedos by shutting your systems to run silently and hiding in nebulas, you are your ship's engineer, pilot, gunner and manager.

It made me want want to play Traveller again.

I just can't stop. And already ordered my first arduino module. I'm going to start with the RCS system...