Still on the ninja grind, at this point I’m hopefully done with Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge relatively soon. Not yet, though.
I really wish this solid fundamental combat system wasn’t trapped inside a godawful game. I really truly hate everything the story and presentation is doing. The setting is shit, the narrative is shit, the QTE gameplay is shit. The levels are boring. The voice acting is bad, but not even in a fun and campy way anymore but just bad. And worst of all - unlike the previous games this attempts to be “story focused”. So instead of just getting a cutscene at the start and end of a chapter and then action in between you are non-stop engaging with the terrible garbage they’re serving.
And they even managed to fuck up executing the combat even though they have the most solid fundamentals in place of the entire series. I hate the Steel On Bone counters, and the combat is designed around spamming them all the time. It’s boring. QTE-ing a single SOB counter into multiple instant kills feels unearned, and so much less satisfying than deliberately delimbing enemies with specific combos in NG2 to set them up for instant execution.
Plus the bosses are actually even worse here. Some are okay, I know it’s infamous but the T-rex actually felt fine to me but stuff like the tank and helicopter bosses are just pure trash. I’ve also heard the final boss is a world record holder in unfair bullshit so you know, I have that to look forward to too, I guess.
Finished Persona 3 Reload. Overall it’s a good remake, although it’s not necessarily better than FES.
Started Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I don’t particularly like the combat system, I think the ones in the other games were more interesting, but I’m interested in the story.
Played Slay the Princess. I liked the idea and what it was trying to do, but never really vibed with it. Without spoilers, I have some issues with how you progress the game which made me feel detached from the characters.
Playing Citizen Sleeper. Haven’t finished it yet but I’m liking the stories.
Also playing a bit of Phantasy Star Online on the Ephinea server. Playing as HUnewearl, no idea what I’m doing but it’s fun.
Persona 5 still, if you can believe it. It appears to be a very long game I’m noticing 100 hours in, but I’m still enjoying it and invested in the plot.
Got a steam deck in preparation of Silksong, having fun playing Untitled Geese Game, the couch coop is awesome. Also thinking I will try to finally finish Portal, hopefully before Thursday
Very cool. I’ve got an old Dell mini PC running batocera and I very much like it. My only gripe is that scraping the art for a large library takes an obscene amount of time.
Playing a bunch of Crusader Kings 3 and Civ V. Have half a mind to learn EU4 right as (relatively) EU5 is coming out for some reason. Also played some Lost Eidolons which is kinda fun, the between combat stuff isn’t very fun however.
This past weekend Steam had a Darkest Dungeon 2 free weekend and I finally realised that those games weren’t roguelite deckbuilders (ohhh i hate those so much). So I finally tried them and they are…fine. The “I’m so edgy and dark” aesthetic gets stale really quickly, as does the slightly-but-deliberately-obtuse UX that appears in games that are supposed to be “difficult and unforgiving”.
I haven’t played anything recently but have been enjoying watching YouTube videos on the creation and history of classic games like Donkey Kong, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and others
I haven’t been sharing so much of these articles or interviews I’ve been doing here lately, mostly I think because it makes me look like I’m inundating the place.
But that’s so kind of you to say, glad you enjoyed it!
bin.pol.social
Aktywne