winter_bird_22 Posted September 2, 2021 Share Posted September 2, 2021 On 8/28/2021 at 9:56 PM, Cassylvania said: Did you know otters use their poop to communicate with each other? It even has its own name. Spraint. Scientists can tell a lot about otters by smelling their spraint! Don't tell me you never learned anything in this thread. That's... something I didn't really need to know. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted September 3, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 3, 2021 (edited) On 9/2/2021 at 0:26 PM, winter_bird_22 said: That's... something I didn't really need to know. You never know when you might be alone in the wild and need to know the population density of otters. This information might just save your life! And now for something that isn't shit... Platinum #270 - The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep Skara Brae is burning, Skara Brae is gone, One day I'll be returning, until then I must be strong. I started this thread four years and almost 200 platinums ago. I've always regretted waiting as long as I did because there were a lot of games I played pre-August 2017 that I would've liked to talk about. One of those games is Heroes of the Monkey Tavern, which you probably never heard of. It's very similar to an old SNES game called Eye of the Beholder that you've also probably never heard of, which was similar to the Atari game Dungeon Master, which you most certainly never...OK, we could do this all day. All of these games were first-person 3D dungeon crawlers in which you controlled a team of adventurers through mostly turn-based combat. Typically, your characters would be restricted to a narrow grid and so would your opponents. Skills and spells would have a specific range, so a character standing in the back left corner might be safe from attacks from an enemy standing on the right side. If that enemy wants to attack you, they'd have to waste time or part of their turn to move that enemy to a different position. In some games, getting flanked or attacked from the side would put you at a significant disadvantage early on, as all of your squishy characters could end up on the front row. (If all of this sounds like Darkest Dungeon, that's because it was clearly inspired by these older games.) Somehow this is the fourth game in The Bard's Tale series and the first I've ever played. But these are the kind of games I like reviewing the most: the obscure and the old-school. Let's actually do this like a professional reviewer today. I'm feeling cheeky. Graphics. So, I had to look it up to see when this game came out. I was sure it was a late PS2 or early PS3 game that had been slightly remastered. But no, this is actually a 2019 release. I wouldn't say the graphics are bad ("passable" is the word I'd use), but you can tell this is a low budget title. That's a bit disappointing for a fantasy RPG. It doesn't help that even the "open" areas of the game feel like dungeons, as every path seems to have invisible walls that keep you from exploring. This is done mostly I think to prevent you from cheesing puzzles, but it can be distracting when all you want to do is cut a corner or step over a small rock in the ground. Definitely not the prettiest game I've looked at. Music. Ignore that last paragraph. Fuck graphics. I don't even mention music in most of my reviews, but this is the best soundtrack I've heard all year. The Gaelic themes that start playing when you're exploring an area or in the middle of an intense battle are haunting and beautiful. This is music I didn't know I needed in my life. In fact, the voices in this game are great too. You know how I talk shit about Skyrim all the time, despite liking the game? One of my biggest complaints about that game is the voice acting. They only have like four actors doing every line and I rarely feel they're doing anything more than reading from a script. The Bard's Tale IV feels like a bunch of really passionate friends got into a room together and poured their souls out, which shows in just about every aspect of this game. This is why I've been so adamant on indie games lately. They just feel different. This game also has this hilariously awkward and yet charming live action video every time you start a new game or continue where you left off, where Russell Crowe plays a harp for a group of hairy men and tells them what to expect next on your adventure. Story. You're the chosen one and you must stop the ancient evil from destroying the world. Who cares? Have you heard the music? I could be delivering otter pelts to the local tannery and I feel like I'm on my way to fuckin' Mount Doom. Gameplay. OK, so what do you do? Well, first, you have to pick your class. You can choose from a Fighter, Rogue, Bard, or Practitioner (which we're going to call Mage because we're not assholes). There's only one right answer. If you're in doubt, look at the title of the game. "But C-dawg, I don't want to be a bard," you argue. Did I mention that bards have the ability to chug beer and then, with an additional skill point, throw their empty mug at the enemy standing directly across from them? Yeah, now I have your attention. Getting drunk is an actual status condition that doubles your strength, but then leaves you stunned for a turn. You only have so many opportunity points per turn, so you have to decide if that's a trade-off you want to make. That's why I would say this as much of a strategy game as it is an RPG. Positioning is everything. For example, mages get an ability called Levitate that will move anybody (except giants) to any space of your choosing. If the enemy is charging up an attack, you COULD move Mr. Squishy out of harm's way...or you could pick up the enemy and gently place him behind his own teammate to initiate some friendly fire (and by "gently place," I mean you hurl him into the air and then slam him down into the ground, which just about made me piss myself laughing the first time I saw it). There are a ton of ways to play this game. Every class has a variety of skill trees and every skill has its uses. You start out with a maximum party size of four, but you eventually unlock a fifth and sixth spot, and you can choose any combination of characters and classes you want. I just chose all the default characters (benching the second bard you get because you really only need one), but you can also create additional characters and presumably name them and customize them to your liking. I never tried it. If you use the default characters, they'll occasionally talk to each other, but not to the degree of Dragon's Dogma. Just some lighthearted banter here and there. While we're on the subject, the trash-talking is great. Enemies will constantly make fun of you, tell your bard to stop caterwauling, and shake their butts at you. There's some light puzzle solving (like, literally... a lot of the puzzles involve lighting crystals or getting beams of light to reach certain areas), but most of the game is exploration and combat. You can also apparently disable some of the puzzles in the options menu, but I didn't bother. (I also didn't remember.) Difficulty. This is actually a fairly difficult game, even on the default setting. I actually had to drop it down to Easy during one of the mid-game bosses. The problem is that sometimes it feels you NEED the right team or skill composition to win certain fights. For example, one of the later enemies are skeletons, which will resurrect if you don't kill them all on the same turn. If you're facing six of them and only have enough opportunity points to perform five attacks, you probably can't win. Enemies that heal can put you in a similar situation. If you don't have enough DPS, you're screwed. Even worse when they summon minions EVERY TURN, forcing you to split your damage or quickly getting overwhelmed. Haernhold (which might as well be called the post-game dungeon, even though there is no post-game) is also significantly harder than the rest of the game. You'll need to abuse either the bard's song that causes an enemy to dance for a couple turns or the fact that mages are ridiculously overpowered. Trophies. No guide on this game, which was scary at first, but you most of the descriptions are self-explanatory. If you're going to try this, though, I want to mention the bullshit that is Challenge Seekers. This trophy is a triple middle finger. First, let's read the description. "Defeat the final boss with only 3 party members." What they DON'T tell you is that if you start the final dungeon, you have no way of going back to change your party. The save system in this game is a little crap (basically, depending on the difficulty you play on, you can usually save at any time, but your saves eventually get overwritten if you don't "lock" them). If you start the final dungeon with a team larger than 3 party members and don't lock an earlier save, you could easily force yourself into a second playthrough. That's only the first middle finger. The second middle finger is that it means you must not only defeat the final boss with 3 party members, but every group of enemies you encounter in the final dungeon with only 3 party members. Hope you pick a good team. Ready for the biggest middle finger of all? There's also a trophy for beating the game, but the developers didn't program it right, so it might as well read, "Defeat the final boss with a team of MORE than 3 party members." Yes, that's right. You have to beat the final dungeon/boss twice because of this, so you could ALSO lock yourself out of a more basic trophy by not managing your save files correctly. Terrible foresight there. Apparently the ability to respec your characters is new, but it was a godsend for Haernhold and the final boss. Verdict. There are two notable drop-offs in the game. The first is when skeletons appear. I wouldn't say it's because of them that the quality drops, but that's when I noticed combat was starting to get a little stale. At that point in the game, you've pretty much figured out your team composition and unlocked most of the skills you want. Experiences begins to dry up and most of the battles begin to feel the same, since there isn't a huge variety of enemies. The second drop-off is after you reach the point of no return. I don't feel there was a good reason to lock the player out of exploring or finishing side quests. The ending also feels rushed and the final dungeon is a slog to have to play through twice. This a tricky recommendation. I want to praise this game heavily because it's clear the developers care, and the first 30-40 hours were great. It's really only the last 20 that I have a problem with, and most of that is probably on me and my stubbornness. The game crashed on me several times, including twice in the first hour. I got caught on the environment more than once and had to reload an earlier save or open my song radial to break free. If you attack too quickly in battle, you have to wait for the animations to catch up. Sometimes the enemies will just stare at you for a few seconds before deciding how to spend their last opportunity point. Sometimes it's too dark to see what you're doing or to find that key on the floor. But then Russel Crowe starts playing that harp, that killer soundtrack kicks in, and I'm swept away on a grand adventure of imperfection. To that end, I don't mind if a game is unpolished. I see your passion and I appreciate it. Edited September 3, 2021 by Cassylvania 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winter_bird_22 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 1 minute ago, Cassylvania said: It's very similar to an old SNES game called Eye of the Beholder that you've also probably never heard of I played the PC version of that game, it was really awful and the final boss, the Beholder, was bad because I knew how dangerous those eye tyrants were! Sadly, I never got into D&D enough to meet one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally-Vincent--- Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 I played Eye of the Beholder on my Amiga, but dropped it because it wasn't what you'd call a pleasent experience. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 11 hours ago, Cassylvania said: Platinum #270 - The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep Great write up as ever!! I've been meaning to play this for ages - you and I kind have the inverse experience with The Bard's Tale. The only one I've played is the remaster of the PS2 era game - which is fantastic by the way and I totally recommend it. Now that you've played this one are you likely to play The Mage's Tale? It's part of the series apparently, which I didn't realise until I recently replayed the Bard's Tale Remastered and was looking to see if there were any other games available in the series. 11 hours ago, Cassylvania said: To that end, I don't mind if a game is unpolished. I see your passion and I appreciate it. Yep - that was enough to sell it for me. If everything else wasn't already. Above all else - usually at least, if I can see the genuine passion and effort that the developers have put in to try and make their game special. That usually goes a long way. 11 hours ago, Cassylvania said: This is why I've been so adamant on indie games lately. They just feel different. I think you're really onto something there. I like bigger budgeted games as much as anyone else. There is a very special charm that some of these indie titles have, that just can't really be ignored. Perhaps it's the small scale, with big ideas, or any number of things, but I absolutely agree with you that something about them just feels different. It reminds me how grateful I am that these days, as gamers we have more and more options open for us to explore. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted September 4, 2021 Author Share Posted September 4, 2021 11 hours ago, rjkclarke said: I've been meaning to play this for ages - you and I kind have the inverse experience with The Bard's Tale. The only one I've played is the remaster of the PS2 era game - which is fantastic by the way and I totally recommend it. Now that you've played this one are you likely to play The Mage's Tale? It's part of the series apparently, which I didn't realise until I recently replayed the Bard's Tale Remastered and was looking to see if there were any other games available in the series. I looked into The Mage's Tale, but apparently it's a VR title. I would need to see several more VR titles of interest and probably a bigger house before I'd even consider making that purchase. The Bard's Tale Remastered is a possibility, though. I might struggle with the PS2 era graphics, but I could see me getting into it. Thanks for the recommendation! Well, with summer FINALLY over (yes, I'm calling it now), we can get back into playing my favorite kind of games: the ones that fill me with terror. As you've probably noticed, I already got a headstart with titles like Cozy Grove, The Forest, Night in the Woods, Days Gone, and, as of tonight, The Mummy Demastered. (OK, only one of those is remotely scary, but I play games for the atmosphere.) It's very convenient that the recently announced Halloween community event gives me an excuse to add even MORE titles to that list. Can I actually get 13 plats in two months? I mean, we did it back in 2017. Sorta. The biggest issue I see is that Days Gone is going to be very long and probably fairly difficult to 100%. If I play it too much, I probably won't get anything else done. That's why I'm looking into my backlog now for some shorter, spooky or at least fall-themed titles. I could do Bloodstained: CotM 2, even though I'm pissed at 505 Games. TWD: A New Frontier is a possibility. Could even finish up the series. Momodora 4 is...an option. No plat. Looks hard. Probably will make me want to break things. We do need our yearly Resident Evil title. Oxenfree is a game I've been meaning to get to. Erica? Smoke & Sacrifice? Vampyr? Maaaybe Spiritfarer finally? So many options... Oh, and an update on my TV. So, I had to order a new stand because the TV I bought is too big. The stand was delayed (likely because of the hurricane), and then it came damaged (maybe because of the hurricane too). I put it together anyway. I'm fairly certain the TV won't fall and kill me or my cats, but I ordered replacement parts anyway. Waiting for those to arrive. In the meantime, I moved the stand in the other room because the TV sits too low on it anyway. Might have to buy an additional stand just so I can position the screen higher. There's about a 6" gap between the top of the new TV and the bottom of the one I have mounted on the wall for sports/movie watching. If I use the old stand, the new TV covers the little one. Maybe I do need a bigger house... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted September 4, 2021 Share Posted September 4, 2021 13 minutes ago, Cassylvania said: The biggest issue I see is that Days Gone is going to be very long and probably fairly difficult to 100%. If I play it too much, I probably won't get anything else done. That's why I'm looking into my backlog now for some shorter, spooky or at least fall-themed titles. I could do Bloodstained: CotM 2, even though I'm pissed at 505 Games. TWD: A New Frontier is a possibility. Could even finish up the series. Momodora 4 is...an option. No plat. Looks hard. Probably will make me want to break things. We do need our yearly Resident Evil title. Oxenfree is a game I've been meaning to get to. Erica? Smoke & Sacrifice? Vampyr? Maaaybe Spiritfarer finally? So many options... My humble advice: Oxenfree - yaaas!!!! Vampyr - it's cool, why not? Erica - ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted September 4, 2021 Share Posted September 4, 2021 16 hours ago, Cassylvania said: I looked into The Mage's Tale, but apparently it's a VR title. I would need to see several more VR titles of interest and probably a bigger house before I'd even consider making that purchase. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO *cough* OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Oh no - Well I'm glad you told me that it was a VR title, I'd looked at the page for it a few times, but had somehow never figured out it was one... I think I'll be skipping that one then. I will check out Bard's Tale IV though. Sounds like I'd love that. You might need a bigger house to factor into playing it. I'd need..... A whole new body - I did try VR once and it made me want to coat the entire floor in my stomach lining, so I - erm, don't think it's for me. 16 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Oxenfree - yaaas!!!! Vampyr - it's cool, why not? Erica - ? That's some sound advice. Although if I had recently purchased a new TV - I would buy a second cheaper TV if you were going to play Vampyr - just in case you y'know get the urge to kick a massive hole in it, when the game invariably decided to crash about fifty times.... If you're looking for atmosphere though Vampyr has loads of it. It's one of the things I think it does best, it definitely carves out it's own identity really well.... I need to get to Oxenfree soon myself. I don't think I've ever really heard anyone say anything bad about that game, so it's one I'm really looking forward to myself - I hope you enjoy it too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted September 5, 2021 Author Share Posted September 5, 2021 Good to know! I mean, Vampyr and Erica were free, so it's not like I'm losing anything by playing them. Oxenfree was always going to happen. It was just a matter of time. Hey, would you believe I started AND finished a new game since that last post? Platinum #271 - The Mummy Demastered This game was always going to happen too. I just needed a good excuse to get around to it. (Like, trying to platinum 13 games in two months.) So, yeah. This is a Metroidvania-style game developed by WayForward, the same people who brought you Shantae. The plot is ancient evil, destroy the world, last hope for humanity, blah blah blah, but there's an interesting mechanic that happens when you die. You have to recover your body, just like in that other game. The catch? Your body comes back to life as a zombie and will use your own weapons against you. This would be really neat, but there's a trophy for beating the game without dying, so you're not likely to see much of it if you're going for a single playthrough platinum. This game checks all the boxes. Good graphics, awesome soundtrack, solid gameplay, and a progression system that rewards you for exploration. I don't think any of the alternate guns are necessary for beating the game, but they sure make combat a lot easier than your starting weapon (which is the only one that has unlimited ammo). I used the harpoon gun for most of the game because it can travel through multiple enemies, but the flamethrower was nice too. The flamethrower is always nice. For some reason, the trophy guide says 5 hours for the platinum, despite only three people having finished it that fast. I have 7.5 hours on my save file, and that's with me having to travel back a long way because I forgot to enter a save room for the 100% map trophy. (I ended up having to beat the final boss three times because I kept missing rooms.) Either way, not a long game at all, but definitely worth playing. Difficulty feels just right. Other than not dying, nothing is missable, but I would recommend keeping a map next to you and crossing off the collectibles as you go. I usually do this in a paint program on my computer. There are 50 relics and several upgrades you must find, and I imagine it'd be a pain to scour the entire map looking for the ones you missed. The in-game map doesn't really tell you if you missed any secrets. Easy recommendation since the game is great. Just wait for a sale because $20 is a bit steep. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted September 12, 2021 Author Share Posted September 12, 2021 No platinums this week, but I have three announcements I'd like to share. First, I now have TEN (about to be eleven, as soon as this download finishes) active games on my profile. That is a record. I never thought I'd fall below 98%, but here we are. And it's only going to get worse. If I want to have any chance of completing 13 games by the end of October, I'm going to have to force myself to start a new game at least once a week between now and then. Would probably have if I finished one each week too. Let's hope the Halloween sale comes in clutch this year, because I'm not sure I have enough suitable games in my backlog to make this happen... Second, I'm one trophy away from 12k. That's pretty cool. I literally forgot about it until now. I know it's not officially a milestone, but hey, might as well make it something special. Third, and probably most importantly, I have finally played my first PS5 game. Even forced myself to get a trophy in it so I couldn't back out, like I did with Rise of the Slime. What game did I pick, you ask? Demon's Souls? Hades? Ryza 2? All too predictable! Instead, I went with... Actually, you know what? I'll let you guys look. Then you can tell me what you think about my decision. I think I've lost my mind. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rally-Vincent--- Posted September 12, 2021 Share Posted September 12, 2021 I have already seen it because I stalk some profiles for new games to get. Any particular reason for that? Or do you fear to burn through the entire PS5 catalogue otherwise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted September 13, 2021 Author Share Posted September 13, 2021 On 9/12/2021 at 4:08 AM, Rally-Vincent--- said: I have already seen it because I stalk some profiles for new games to get. Any particular reason for that? Or do you fear to burn through the entire PS5 catalogue otherwise? Eh, it was free. That's really the only reason, other than it looked interesting. I'm just not looking forward to dropping $70 every time I want to buy a new release. I did pick up Hades and Cris Tales for the PS5, though. Not sure when I'll get to them. Hades is a possibility for the Halloween event, but I think I have enough roguelikes going on right now. (I'm sure you've seen the ones I'm working on.) Well, football is back, and I'm sorry to our resident Green Bay fan. That was a terrible performance by Rodgers, who killed my fantasy team. At the very least, every NFC North team lost yesterday, so it was basically a wash. But Vikings are in first in the division because they had the only non-conference loss. Hooray. I'm really close to finishing The Forest and Night in the Woods, but I'm starting to regret that I don't write my reviews earlier. In both cases, that grind between the end of the the main game and the platinum has really clouded my memory and (likely) my judgement. You may have to take both reviews with a grain of salt because I don't remember disliking either game during the initial playthrough. It doesn't help that I'm tackling so many games at once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 3 hours ago, Cassylvania said: Well, football is back, and I'm sorry to our resident Green Bay fan. That was a terrible performance by Rodgers, who killed my fantasy team. At the very least, every NFC North team lost yesterday, so it was basically a wash. But Vikings are in first in the division because they had the only non-conference loss. Hooray. Not sure if that was a spite performance by Rogers or what, but ended up not watching the last quarter, was suppose to be a great match up too. I think Rogers basically screwed anyone that had him on their fantasy team. The Vikings game was pretty good despite the loss at least. Also excited for Stafford finally having a team that can support him, he's actually a good QB. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted September 18, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 18, 2021 Platinum #272 - Chasm I guess you could say I'm on a bit of a Metroidvania kick. About time, right? I don't know how obscure this game is. On one hand, I had never heard about it until I saw it on sale for dirt cheap about a week ago. On the other, it has twice as many owners as The Mummy Demastered, which I had heard about years ago. Well, you guys know how Metroidvanias work and you can tell from the platinum image what kind of graphics this game has, so what sets it apart from the rest? Not a lot, actually. It's standard fare for the genre. You play as a knight (who you can name), and you go around killing monsters and bosses in a variety of themed dungeons, such as an underground mine, underground garden, underground catacomb, and underground temple. You spend a lot of time underground. Each dungeon has a boss and an upgrade that allows you to access new areas. The map is somewhat procedurally generated, I guess, but I didn't notice a huge difference during my two playthroughs. The layout is just slightly different, with some rooms being reversed and some puzzles not having the same solution. I actually want to talk about the combat and in particular the enemy AI, as I feel it will probably go underappreciated by the average gamer. Every enemy in this game is cleverly and uniquely designed. They may only have one or two possible attacks, but the rate at which they attack and their movement patterns are almost entirely predictable. So is their amount of HP. What this leads to is a game where you're dancing with the enemies rather than fighting them. Let me use an example. The golem is an enemy you encounter midway through the game. The first time I encountered one, it took six hits with my weapon to kill. I could only get off three hits before it would perform its next attack, which would be one of two things: a boulder throw (if I was at range) or a stomp (if I was in melee range). This isn't a game where you just run up to an enemy and start hacking away. You have to be smart. So, the strategy was as follows: get close to the golem so it throws a boulder, run under the boulder, hit three times, move back, dodge the next attack (likely a stomp since I was just in melee range), and go in for the kill. If I just stood there and tried to get in all six hits in at once, I would likely take either a rock to the face or a foot to the groin. So, dodging is a very big part of the game. Food items are relatively scarce, potions are expensive, and there's usually a lot of space between save points, which heal you. Now, later in the game, I was able to kill the golem in less than three hits, so you're not forced to ALWAYS focus on dodging. This is good because backtracking is also a big part of the game. In fact, you'll be doing it after pretty much every upgrade, as there are lots of hidden chests, rooms, and NPCs to find. Weapons in this game are kinda neat too. There are no set "classes," but you can use any weapon you find and it's not necessarily best to use the one that does the most damage. Daggers, for example, tend to do more damage than any other weapon, but they have terrible range. I had much luck with clubs and axes, which are slower but have a much longer reach AND can hit enemies above and behind you. They also seem to knock some enemies back. You may not think that sounds like a big deal, but that knockback could be the difference between killing in an enemy with a second attack of taking contact damage. Anyway, all of that probably sounds either really fun or really tedious to you, and you're right either way. Once you know how to beat an enemy, it does become tiresome having to do it all of the time. Kobolds, for examples, are extremely annoying. It generally goes: bait an attack, attack, bait an attack, attack, bait an attack, attack. Or it WOULD, but you're likely to get impatient and just start tanking damage. Once you start encountering multiple enemies at once, it just seems like a better approach to take one hit in a shorter fight than risk multiple hits in a longer fight. So, the game's greatest strength in my opinion is also its greatest weakness. The game is hard too. You'll need to do two playthroughs because you have to play once on Mortal mode, which means game over if you die (and is only unlocked after beating the game once). I recommend playing the game the way I did, which was a Hard playthrough initially (go for 100%) followed by an Easy playthrough on Mortal. I didn't even need to back up my save file that way, but it is an option. Pretty cool game, though. I had 13 hours on my Hard playthrough and 4 hours on Easy, which was mostly a speedrun, so you're probably getting your money's worth if you pay $5.99 like I did. Just keep an eye out for the missables. There's one for killing any boss without taking damage, which you're going to want to do on the first boss -- not only because he's the easiest by far, but because you get a nice reward for doing so. I have no clue how you'd beat some of the other bosses without taking damage. The final boss is just a straight-up clusterfuck. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cassylvania Posted September 19, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 19, 2021 Platinum #273 - The Forest Before we begin this, a little shoutout to @DrBloodmoney for being able to write reviews for games he hasn't played in a long time. I finished the bulk of this game about two weeks ago and I can barely remember enough to write a paragraph, let alone a full review. I have no idea how he does it. The Forest is a survival horror game set in...well, a forest. You begin with a peaceful airplane ride with your son Timmy and you can guess how that ends. I actually found the intro to be a bit horrific the first time I saw it. The problem is I quickly become desensitized to things, so after rerolling for a new starting area a few times, I started laughing at the way my son ragdolled at the end. He survives the plane crash, but he's taken away by a mysterious man covered in blood. Or war paint. Or third degree burns. Kinda hard to tell. Either way, you awaken on the floor of the plane, grab the ax from the stewardess' body in front of you, and set off into the unknown to rescue your son. (Before you do so, though, you turn around and grab the plane's manifest so that you can track what happened to the rest of the passengers.) I don't THINK this is a spoiler, but you're not alone in the forest. If you stick around the plane long enough, some friendly cannibals will come to investigate. These are your main enemies throughout the game. And they are fuckin' horrifying. In the beginning, they study you from a distance and will run if you get closer, but they'll eventually work up the courage to try to murder you. Even then, and this is coming from somebody who loves manipulating enemy AI, their behavior is erratic and unpredictable. They can run away and then come back. They can run away and hide in trees to ambush you. They can surround you. It's very unnerving, especially in the early game. I don't know that you've ever felt fear in a video game until you've heard one of them shriek in the middle of the night while you're trying to find a safe place to rest. This is not a hand-holdy game. You're expected to die a few times. In fact -- again, not to spoil anything -- but the first time you "die," you're just taken to a new location. This actually happens every time you die, unless you die consecutively in a short period of time, which I guess gives you a game over? I don't know. Like Stranded Deep, you can only save at rest points, so you can always just load an earlier save if you get a game over. I didn't think this game was very hard. This has some of the best base-building I've seen in a video game. The entire map is handcrafted, from what I could tell. The only random part of it is your starting location. There's a pretty neat interactive map online that the community has put together, but I recommend exploring the world for a while on your own. Your first objective is probably going to be to build a temporary shelter and then eventually work towards a main base. You could build a fortress with lookout towers and traps. You could build on an island and have a bridge leading to the mainland or shuttle supplies across on a raft. You could have several smaller mini camps spread throughout the map. Or you could live like a gypsy, gathering resources during the day and then hunkering down in the forest at night to keep safe. It's really up to you. The cannibals do seem to get more aggressive as time passes, but there are lots of places in the game that they seem to avoid. You just have to kinda pay attention to their patrol routes. If you're not using the community map, it might be a good idea to stalk out a location for a couple of days to see how safe it is from cannibals. You don't necessarily HAVE to avoid them. In fact, building near one of their camps gives you access to a lot of resources. I had two bases during my main game. The first was Geese Lake, which I guess is a popular spot for a lot of people. I stumbled across it by accident. There's this little dirt nook in the back of the pond that requires either swimming or rock-hopping to reach. Cannibals can't swim and I never had any drop down on me, so you're basically safe there from everything except the cold. The pond gives you access to fresh water, there are lots of berries to eat (you just have to be careful because some are toxic), and you're surrounded by trees and plants. My biggest problem was falling into the water and then having to build a fire to dry off. I eventually built a camp overlooking Geese Lake, but the cannibals didn't like it. So I moved to what I THOUGHT was a good area, but...well, I had crocodiles as neighbors. I actually really liked that second base. It's not suggested on any map, but it's surrounded on one side by a river and has a tiny pond in the backyard for fresh water and fishing. I built what I think is called a Hunter's Lodge, which had a large opening facing the pond, and I had a few meat drying racks for all the croc hunting I did. They're actually fairly easy to kill if you get a spear and stand on top of a rock. I could kill one, skin it for lizard scales that can be worn as armor, and then cook up the meat. And even when a cannibal would follow me home or something, I could just hide in my house and poke at it through the opening. I had the lodge wedged between a rock and a log, so there was no way for them to flank me. So, aesthetically, this game is great. I judge my survival games by how immersive they feel. When it was cold in The Forest, I felt cold in real life. When the wind would blow or it would start raining, I actually felt like I needed to take shelter, which is not something I ever got with Stranded Deep. Those first few hours were also terrifying. The problem again is that I become desensitized too quickly. You're supposed to be horrified when you see bodies hanging from their intestines. I laughed. I started using them as piñatas. When the cannibals would shriek, I know it's supposed to make me jump, but it eventually had the opposite effect because I knew that meant they could never sneak up on me. It became like the second half of Alien: Isolation, where I was too accustomed to the alien AI to be scared any more. It's still a scary game, but I jump more when I play Minecraft. Those creepers don't make a sound until it's too late. Now, if you're anything like me, you've probably forgotten about your son by this point. There's even a trophy for ignoring your son for 100 in-game days, which is about 50 hours. You've also probably put two and two together and realized that if your son got kidnapped by cannibals, you're probably not going to like the state he's in when you find him. I don't know how the game expects you to ignore this fact. Especially when you see what happened to all the OTHER passengers. But there is a plot here and the narrative actually isn't too bad. I never expect much with survival games. I don't want to go much into the story beyond what I've already said, so I'll just say that there is a bit of a twist or revelation near the end, which some people may like and others may hate. I'm probably more a hater when it comes to that, but I don't think it lessened my enjoyment with the game. I guess we should talk about the trophies. They're annoying. You have the standard fare, finish the game, kill a few enemies, drink from a cooler with a severed head in it, yadda yadda, but then you have several trophies that require "completing" something, such as finding all collectibles, exploring all caves, and crafting all items. You're going to want to take notes. There's also another one of those bullshit trophies for beating the game without eating meat or killing animals. Yup, you know what that means. Multiple playthroughs. Fortunately, when you beat the game once, you unlock Creative Mode, which is basically God mode (with unlimited building material). You're probably going to want that for the trophy that requires chopping down ONE THOUSAND TREES, you monster you. Seriously, that's the dumbest trophy I've seen in a while. It's just going to be you laying down explosive wire traps and running into them for two hours. Unfortunately, this means you're probably best playing through the game three times, like I did. First playthrough is to learn the mechanics. I didn't even bother to beat it. I considered "end game" to be when I had crafted all items. Second playthrough is a speedrun for the Vegan trophy and to unlock Creative Mode. The game is actually pretty short once you know what to do and where to go. Third playthrough is on Creative Mode. No need to beat it again. Just get all the trophies you were too lazy to get legitimately. I think that's probably the best way to enjoy the game. Yes, it's annoying to not finish your first playthrough, but you're just making the game unnecessarily longer by having to play through it twice (or making it significantly harder by not eating meat). I don't know why trophy lists like this exist. If I'm making an open world survival game, you'd only need one playthrough and there would be no missable trophies. As far as recommendations go... I mean, this is the most popular survival game I've played, so you knew I was going to get to it. I wasn't disappointed. If The Long Dark is my gold standard for the genre, this is the silver, with Stranded Deep being the bronze. I think that's fair. This game is more polished than Stranded Deep and benefits a lot from having a handcrafted world and a decent combat system. I guess they're coming out with a sequel too, so maybe we'll try that sometime. I don't have a final count for the amount of time to platinum. The guide says 55 hours. I probably spent more than that on my initial playthrough. You could shave off some of that by ignoring the base-building aspect completely, as it's not really necessary to beat the game or get the platinum, and there are one or two trophies that may require leaving the game idle for a while. I'm going to guess I spent about 80 hours on this, and I don't feel like much of that was padded or wasted. That's pretty good for a survival game. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSamurai69 Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 Great reviews as always. Looking forward to the Night in the Woods review. Games that involve multiple playthroughs could definitely tarnish the experience in terms of trophy hunting. My first playthrough of that game was really positive but after....yeah...not as great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gruffiiti Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 Thanks for the review of Chasm! I had picked it up last sale for cheap as well. Looked to me to easily be worth $8 (moosebucks) so glad your experience was positive. I had planned on moving onto Undermine, Chasm, RAD after recently(ish) doing Children of Morta but South Park and now Monster Hunter World have grabbed my attention. Also need to work on some Halloweenie games for October but will likely add these in the mix somewhere. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted September 22, 2021 Share Posted September 22, 2021 On 9/19/2021 at 2:36 PM, Cassylvania said: You're supposed to be horrified when you see bodies hanging from their intestines. I laughed. I started using them as piñatas. Outstanding. That got a good laugh from me. Great review! I was on the fence about this one. Maybe I'll buy it after all, and toss it on the pile and get to it if this lousy completionist phase ever ends and I can just enjoy games again like a normal person... it really does seem like a great time but legit that trophy list sounds like ass? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted September 23, 2021 Author Share Posted September 23, 2021 On 9/20/2021 at 7:09 PM, DarkSamurai69 said: Great reviews as always. Looking forward to the Night in the Woods review. Games that involve multiple playthroughs could definitely tarnish the experience in terms of trophy hunting. My first playthrough of that game was really positive but after....yeah...not as great. NitW is the other game I'm playing right now that I wish I had already finished my review. My third and fourth playthroughs have definitely soured my opinion of the game. (I'm saving it for plat #275, even though it's not considered a PSNP milestone for reasons that continue to baffle me.) On 9/20/2021 at 7:32 PM, gruffiiti said: Thanks for the review of Chasm! I had picked it up last sale for cheap as well. Looked to me to easily be worth $8 (moosebucks) so glad your experience was positive. I had planned on moving onto Undermine, Chasm, RAD after recently(ish) doing Children of Morta but South Park and now Monster Hunter World have grabbed my attention. Also need to work on some Halloweenie games for October but will likely add these in the mix somewhere. I'm also playing UnderMine right now. I'm debating whether or not to use it for the Halloween event. I feel like it fits the theme, but it's a longer plat than I expected. It's always a gamble when you start a new game without a guide. 4 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Outstanding. That got a good laugh from me. Great review! I was on the fence about this one. Maybe I'll buy it after all, and toss it on the pile and get to it if this lousy completionist phase ever ends and I can just enjoy games again like a normal person... it really does seem like a great time but legit that trophy list sounds like ass? There are worse trophy lists out there. I'd say, among the more "realistic" survival games I've played, it has one of the better ones. Stranded Deep had some annoying ones that I did early on to get them out of the way and The Long Dark, for as much as I praise that game, had a few trophies that could absolutely ruin your experience (such as surviving for 500 days or finding all named locations). The Forest has that stupid trophy for "fully exploring" every cave, but at least you can refer to your notebook to see when you're finished with a cave. I'd be devastated if I didn't know what location I missed in The Long D or if I ran out of resources 400+ days into my 500 day playthrough. (That's the thing about that game. You're essentially on a death timer from the moment you start. It's not like most survival games where there are an infinite number of resources. From what I remember, you'll eventually run out of food or ways to start a fire. At least in The Forest, you could theoretically survive forever.) I don't know if I'd put Subnautica above or below The Forest. I think Subnautica was the scarier game, though. The Forest reveals its enemies to you, while Subnautica keeps you in the dark. I still don't know what happens in that game if you venture too far off the map. Anyway, no major updates right now, but I FINALLY remembered its the six year anniversary of my account. Six years ago on this day, Lara Croft opened a treasure chest and the world was never the same again. Coincidentally (I swear), Dark Souls came out on this day 10 years ago. Both are worth celebrating. Elden Ring in the near future? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted September 25, 2021 Author Share Posted September 25, 2021 (edited) Platinum #274 - The Walking Dead: A New Frontier I'm not sure how you review a Telltale game. There's not much I can say without going into spoiler territory. I guess I can just say I enjoy this series well enough to recommend it, but also seem to be content waiting two years between each season? Hm. Well, let's see what I can say without spoiling anything. First, the plot. You play as Javi Garcia, a disgraced baseball player with a gambling problem. Clem plays a much smaller role in this game, which I guess is why they didn't call this TWD: Season 3. Some people probably don't like the game because of that. I've heard complaints about what the writers did with Clem in the later seasons, but I don't know if they were referring to this game or the next. From what I could tell, Clem seemed fine in this. The bigger problem, I think, stems from the fact that Telltale games have a hard time telling a good story because they're too busy creating the illusion of choice. You can tell this game suffers particularly hard in that regard because it's the third entry of the series, meaning that the writers had to find a way to cater the story around the many possible choices you could've made in previous seasons (particularly the end of season 2). Now -- and this is where we maybe start getting into spoiler territory, but only so that I can discuss a little bit of the plot -- this game focuses around the tenuous relationship between Javi and his older brother David, who left his kids (Gabe and Mariana) and his wife (Kate) to become a soldier and fight back against the zombie invasion. The game begins about four years later, where Javi has kinda replaced David's role in the family, caring for Kate and the kids. This leads to a pretty awkward situation when David (this is the spoiler part, guys) comes back into their lives. The game wants you to struggle between siding with your brother or continuing to shag his wife, but anybody who has a brother knows you don't do that. I dismissed every one of Kate's advances throughout the game and sided with David every chance I got but I STILL got a crappy ending for David because apparently you have to kiss Clem's ass too...even though she and David have reason to be at odds. That annoyed me a little. I know it doesn't matter much because I can always watch the other endings online, but I feel like I had even less control in this game than usual. I also counted at least three instances where the game really could've benefitted from better dialogue indication. There's a reason most actors are told how a line should be read. If I select the line, "How are you?" and Javi responds, "How are you such a fuckin' asshole, you piece of shit!?" that's a problem. (OK, none of them were that bad, but I quit to the main menu three times to select a different option because Javi was a lot more aggressive than I expected him to be.) I liked the game enough that I bought TWD: The Final Season and actually plan to play it before 2024. Guess that's a pretty short review. How about another? Platinum #275 - Night in the Woods ... I sometimes feel when I'm writing these reviews that I've already decided whether I like a game or not and my entire post becomes about defending that position. It's not really fair. Every game I've ever played has had some things I like and other things I hate. I can be a real asshole to games that are extremely well-made just because there were one or two aspects that ruined it for me. Likewise, I can be a real jerk to advocate for a game that does almost everything wrong but still manages to charm me. I'll be honest with you, guys. At the time of writing this, I don't know how I feel about this game. It is completely unlike anything I've ever played before. I feel like if I start writing the way I usually do, I'm just going to instinctively decide how I feel about the game and every line after that is going to be used to solidify my point. So, we're going to play devil's advocate. Twice. I'm going to start by telling you why I like this game and then we're going to rip it to pieces. Ready? Let's go. The graphics are gorgeous. Everything is a clean, simple shape, like cardboard cutouts. For some reason, everybody in this world is a furry, but there's absolutely no reason for them to be. I actually really like this concept. King of the Hill, my favorite show of all time, is one of the most unique animated shows out there because it really has no reason to be animated at all. With only a few exceptions (usually dream sequences), it never utilizes the many, MANY advantages one has when opting for animation over live action. Every other animated show --The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, even Bob's Burgers, which is the closest thing to KotH these days -- uses animation as a tool, either to get away with something you couldn't do in live action or that would be far too expensive or elaborate to pull off in live action. KotH has always stood out to me because it doesn't let animation get in the way of storytelling. It uses it as a means. If that's too abstract to you, compare the movie Zootopia to the movie Sing, which both use cartoon animals to tell a story. Which one does it more effectively? Well, let's put it this way. Which one uses cartoon animals as a means and which one uses them as a cheap way to score laughs? (Zootopia was made by Disney and Sing was made by Illumination, the creators of Minions. That should tell you everything you need to know.) The point I'm trying to make is that Night in the Woods stands out because the same story could be told if every character was a human, but the developers deliberately went with cartoon animals, if for no other reason than that makes them memorable. Need more proof? Remember The Busy World of Richard Scarry? Of course you do, because it had memorable characters. But do you remember a reason why anybody in that show had to be a cat, a worm, or a hippopotamus? How much more relatable was that show to children, despite the main characters (the whole cast, in fact) not even being the same species? So, props right away for the graphics and the characters. In NitW, you play as Mae Borowski, a young 20s something with anger issues and depression. That's probably a redundant statement. The game opens up with her returning to her home of Possum Springs after deciding to drop out of college. The entire game takes place over the course of fourteen days, I believe, where you have the option to spend each day with your friends Gregg, Angus, and Bea. Think Persona 5, but way less cool and action-y. Mae lives in a very mundane life. Most of the activities you do with your friends are very basic mini-games, like playing the guitar and eating pizza. (Yes, eating pizza is a mini-game. So is grabbing a can of soda from the vending machine.) Why is this under good stuff? It shouldn't be. I'm just telling you the plot so you'll understand where I'm coming from when I say the plot is actually fairly interesting. See, there's some weird shit going on in Possum Springs. There may or may not be a ghost. Mae may or may not murder someone by the end of it. There's a tension to this game that's actually really good and well-paced, IN MY OPINION. You're told just enough about Mae, her friends, and the past to keep you playing, but the game always seems to be holding that carrot just out of reach. One of the things I really like about the world is how it's clearly supposed to take place in western Pennsylvania, where I live. They don't even try to hide it. Possum Springs used to be a mining town (that's actually a very big plot point), the weather turns to shit in October, the local football team is called the Smelters... It's suburban Pittsburgh, guys. They captured the ordinary very well here. People will complain about their jobs and then take new ones they hate, businesses will come and go, you'll see people going through the same routine day after day... The world is constantly changing and yet everything feels the same. It's depressing and familiar, but to reference yet another TV show (also set in Pennsylvania!), "There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things." So, what do you actually do? That's one thing I never understood from all the reviews I watched. The game is...sort of a platformer with a few very basic mini-games (some that you can't even lose), but it's mostly a story-driven game. During your first playthrough, you're going to want to hang out with either Gregg or Bea at every opportunity. (Well, realistically, you're going to pick Gregg because Bea is a Bea-atch.) This will lead you to a trophy and also give you a slightly different story in the second playthrough when you befriend the other. I actually liked both storylines, but Gregg's was probably better. I don't want to go into spoilers, but I think it probably would benefit you to understand a little about these characters if you're at all interested in the game. Both Gregg and Bea have grown up since you last saw them. Bea has probably grown up too much (she had a lot of responsibility suddenly thrust upon her), and Gregg probably hasn't grown up enough (he's still very immature but he's trying to change). There are other minor characters, like Germ and Lori M, who you can hang out with from time to time too, and they present another unique way of looking at the world. The writing is excellent. Like, some of the best dialogue I've seen in a video game. None of the characters are voice acted, which is fine, but they're all believable and feel like real people. I particularly like the banter between Mae and Gregg. They have this back and forth where they say they hope the other dies in increasingly horrific ways, which I guess is how friends talk to each other these days. Now, the bad. The pacing is slow. I know I said it was fine for me, but come on. I find growing corn to be exciting. I could see someone playing this game for an hour and being like, "What the fuck is this shit?" (In fact, I could see someone saying that line at ANY point in the game.) If you play for an hour and start to get bored, just stop. It's not one of those games that's going to "get better." I personally liked the first couple of scenes (with the janitor and then in the playground), but if you aren't into it by then, I don't know that you ever will be. This is definitely an acquired taste. Mae is EXTREMELY unlikable. Her view of the world is interesting, but she does some terrible things that are out of your control and she treats her friends like crap. I don't know that her friends are any better either. I could complain about Bea for an hour, but Gregg has issues too. The only reason he comes across as more likable is because he's always happy to see you. The trophies Seriously? and Maestro do not belong in this game. The developers even admit to never getting Seriously? in the trophy description. To get it, you have to unlock every sketch in Mae's notebook, which requires FOUR playthroughs (technically two full playthroughs and two partials). I'm not even sure two playthroughs of this game is a good idea. I liked the first playthrough, but the second wasn't different enough to warrant a full playthrough. In fact, the only difference is who you spend time with. Every other scene plays out the same from what I could tell. You can speedrun the partial playthroughs in under an hour, so they're not THAT bad, but since there's no way to actively track which sketches you have already gotten (since the game resets upon finishing it), you could easily force yourself through a fifth or even sixth playthrough. Maestro might be worse. To get that, you have to do "pretty good" on each of the three Guitar Hero-esque mini-games. The first two are easy, but the third took me about 100 tries. I don't think that's an exaggeration. You can miss maybe ten (?) notes and still get the trophy, but there's one section near the end where my fingers just can't keep up with my eyes. Between this and the characters talking like angsty teenagers in Life is Strange, I feel about 20 years too old for this stuff. The payoff is not worth it. Like I said, if you're not into this game in the first hour, you probably won't be into it in the final hour. I don't know that this game has a message that it wants to tell. I feel like there are a lot of good ideas that are explored here, but too many things are left unresolved by the end of the game. Huh. Well... I said everything I wanted to say, and I feel I came out much stronger saying all the reasons why I liked the game. I'm just a little bitch when it comes to trophies, I guess. So, yeah. NOW I can be bias. Now I know where I stand. I recommend this game. It's good. It's unique. Not everything hits the mark, but if you ask me a year from now if I remember Night in the Woods, I'm going to say yeah, it's that furry game set in western Pennsylvania with those asshole friends. That's more than I remember about Toren, and I played that two months ago. Edited September 25, 2021 by Cassylvania 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted September 26, 2021 Share Posted September 26, 2021 On 9/24/2021 at 11:53 PM, Cassylvania said: I recommend this game. It's good. It's unique. Not everything hits the mark, but if you ask me a year from now if I remember Night in the Woods, I'm going to say yeah, it's that furry game set in western Pennsylvania with those asshole friends. That's more than I remember about Toren, and I played that two months ago. What a splendid review! I quite liked the journey you took us on there ?, all I knew about Night in the Woods prior to reading your review is that it received a whole lot of praise for being the rare actually "good' teenage/young 20s individual compared to games like Life is Strange for example. At least that's what Shammy told me. I'll be honest and say despite the positive conclusion your review didn't really stir me to motivation though given the 4 playthroughs + one very annoying specific mini-game trophy but perhaps I'll get around to it one day if it goes very cheap on sale. Aside from that, I disagree strongly with your Chasm review (I did NOT enjoy the combat in the game as the soldier felt cement-footed when attacking and the dodge was pretty crappy). I also noticed you popped a single trophy in Genshin Impact. ? That's quite a commitment. Though I guess Indivisible and Ys Origin ruined the mystique of that 100%. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winter_bird_22 Posted September 28, 2021 Share Posted September 28, 2021 I think that Night in the Woods was interesting. I'm not going to get into it, because I am not a fan of slice of life games which are slow-paced, but there are people who die for that stuff. Also, if you struggled with the platinum, I would probably give up on the first trophy. Yeah, not going to ever play it. I once platinumed Life is Strange and it was really upsetting to me because of how boring some parts were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted October 4, 2021 Author Share Posted October 4, 2021 On 9/26/2021 at 8:28 AM, realm722 said: I also noticed you popped a single trophy in Genshin Impact. That's quite a commitment. Though I guess Indivisible and Ys Origin ruined the mystique of that 100%. I played it for like an hour on PC first to see if it's something I could see me playing for hundreds (potentially thousands) of hours. Wasn't really enough time for me to fully grasp what I was getting myself into, but I like what I've seen so far. Besides, with games like Terraria dropping DLC six years later, 100%'s may never be safe again. On 9/28/2021 at 10:46 AM, winter_bird_22 said: I think that Night in the Woods was interesting. I'm not going to get into it, because I am not a fan of slice of life games which are slow-paced, but there are people who die for that stuff. Also, if you struggled with the platinum, I would probably give up on the first trophy. Yeah, not going to ever play it. I once platinumed Life is Strange and it was really upsetting to me because of how boring some parts were. I think NitW was significantly more boring than LiS (and I liked both games). At least with LiS, there was general intrigue with what was going to happen next. NitW is all about the mundane. Platinum #276 - The Walking Dead: The Final Season First of all, obvious spoilers ahead. At least with TWD: A New Frontier, I could kinda sidestep the story since it was more of a spin-off than a continuation of the first two seasons, but there's no getting around it here. I also don't know how much of this is going to be relevant to every playthrough or is largely dependent on the choices you make. It's been five years since I played Season 1 and at least a couple years since Season 2, so I didn't bother to import my save (or they didn't ask). I just picked what I thought I had picked at the time, with one exception. I saved Jane at the end of Season 2. I've always regretted that. I saved Kenny this time. Turns out...yeah, I guess it didn't really matter, since neither are barely mentioned in this game and likely will never make an appearance again. Anyway, onto the review! At this point, you've already played the game and don't need the plot rehashed or you've stopped reading because you don't want spoilers (or you're the kind of monster who isn't bothered by them). In either case, I guess all you really need to know is that the story largely mirrors Season 1, except Clem has taken over the role of protector, despite not being much older than AJ. Your decisions in the game (allegedly) impact the kind of person AJ grows up to be. Do you want him to be a killer? Do you want him to show compassion? Well, if the community results are anything to go by, 80% of the world thinks murder is perfectly justified. I don't know, guys. I feel a bit alone here when I'm in the minority thinking that Clem would want AJ to grow up to become a good person. The main choice I'm referring to is near the end of the game where AJ asks Clem if she trusts him to make the hard decisions. The trophy list makes you play through both outcomes anyway, but I actually think the "better" ending is the one where you say yes to AJ, even though I felt it's pretty clear up to that point that AJ is NOT ready. (Of course, maybe that's because I based most of my decisions on what I thought Clem's maternal instincts would allow.) I also totally hooked Clem up with the girl. No surprise that I'm with the majority there. I'm still not seeing why people are hating on Clem. She's my girl. The game is designed, I imagine, so that all of her major decisions will be called into question, but she always seems to have AJ's best interest in mind. I also liked the ending, which was much more upbeat than I was expecting from a zombie game (even if it admittedly had some obvious plot holes). It does make me wonder, though. Does TWD ever explain how some dead people become walkers and others don't, or why it takes longer for some people? It just seems largely because of plot armor at times. Anyway, this is the part of the review where I was going to walk you through my thought process with every major decision in the game, but I kinda already did by telling you that I wanted AJ to become a good person. (Or rather, I wanted Clem to want AJ to become a good person.) I generally told AJ not to shoot people, not to steal, and not to act out. I did, however, have him give a massive burp at dinner. It was even better the second time. I'm also glad there was a dialogue option for making fun of Marlon's hair. It may have been the first time in a Telltale game that a dialogue option was exactly what I was thinking at the time. Obvious recommendation, as are the other TWD games. Aren't they making a movie out of this? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted October 10, 2021 Author Share Posted October 10, 2021 (edited) Platinum #277 - Spiritfarer I was nice enough to spot @realm722 a few days before I finished this game, so you might as well just read his review. It's much nicer and more detailed than the one I'm going to give. Also, possible spoilers ahead. This is a heavily story-driven game. First, what is Spiritfarer? I watch a lot of reviews before playing these more obscure (is this obscure?) games, and usually I go into them with some background knowledge of what the general gameplay loop is going to be like. I'm not sure that was the case here. I knew it was a resource management game, but I didn't know where it would fall on the farming/survival/crafting sim spectrum. It's probably a cross between Animal Crossing, due to the fact that all of your companions are animals or at least take the spiritual form of animals, and the classic Harvest Moon games, which didn't shy away from themes about death and loss. And since HM is the video game series I'm the most knowledgeable about, you could say this was right in my wheelhouse. Heh, wheelhouse... ship... OK, so, in this game, you play as STELLA. You also have a cat named Daffodil, who can apparently be controlled in local co-op (although I'm not sure what benefit that would be). Much of the main plot is left up to interpretation or revealed later in the story, but the basic idea is that Charon, the one who ferries souls to the underworld in Greek mythology, is getting too old for that shit and turns the reins over to you. You're given a ship and tasked with finding spirits and caring for them before they're ready to be taken to the Everdoor. There are eleven spirits in the game (12 now, with the Beverly update) and each of them has their own personality, background story, and mini-game (more on that later). My favorite was Alice, who reminded me of my grandmother who recently passed away, and watching her physical and mental decline in the game was heartbreaking. I should point out now that these spirits are very picky. You have to feed and shelter them. But every spirit is unique, just like people in real life, and they won't just eat anything you give them. Each character has a category of food that they like, one that they love, and at least one that they will refuse to eat. (The one exception to this might be Atul, who will eat anything -- but again, that's part of his character.) None of this feels unnatural. Alice, for example, is a sweet old lady. Of course she would love old-fashioned cooking and desserts. She's not going to want your hipster chai latte. Bruce & Mickey are boys from Boston who knock heads for a living. They want greasy French fries and fish sticks. Summer is a vegan. Save that meat pie for someone who gives a shit. None of them will eat the same meal twice in a row either. This can be AGGRATAVING because they get hungry often and you'll need to learn their tastes, but then you realize that's kinda the point of the game. Also, you can hug them. They'll like that. How do you feed them? Well, you'll need a kitchen. That's where the next part of the game comes in: the building. I'd say you spend about 90% of the game on your ship, which is fully customizable. You can increase its speed, size, and abilities, which you'll need to improve to access later areas in the game (e.g. a stronger bow that lets you break through ice or a lantern that lets you sail through mist). You can also build structures that let you farm or craft. One of the most remarkable things about this game is how easily you can move structures around. I didn't mention the graphics yet, but everything in this game is beautifully hand-drawn, and the ability of structures to naturally conform to any position you put them in is a level of detail I wasn't expecting. Sometimes this is done by completely redrawing certain sections of a building, such as turning a slanted roof into a flat roof if another structure is placed on top. Ladders or stilts are placed to connect the structure to whatever is below, and you'll likely be moving structures around throughout the game as you unlock new farming/crafting areas and houses for your spirits. (Because yes, every spirit will get their own house.) You'll also need food to feed them. In fact, you'll need a LOT of resources to advance in the game. That's why, even though you'll spend most of the game on the ship, you should always be sailing somewhere. There are islands and resources scattered throughout the map, and you'll constantly need to visit these to chop wood, mine rocks, or pick berries. You can also buy seeds for planting. Your ship can only sail during the daytime, so nighttime is good for gathering resources (if you reached an island before nightfall) or crafting. You can also fish off the back of the ship. Now, this is where the mini-games come in. These are SLIGHTLY more advanced mini-games than the ones in Night in the Woods, which were about as bare bones as you can get. You don't really need instructions on how to do these. You'll probably fail or twice until you see what you have to do and then never fail again. For example, cutting a tree is as simple as moving the joystick to the left and then to the right. Crushing materials is just spamming X for Jason. Smelting ore is...kinda annoying, but basically you just need to keep the needle between the two lines, which only becomes tricky when you get the higher level ores that force you to wait a little longer so you don't overheat the furnace. None of them are difficult, but some of them will give you better results if you actually do a good job. Most don't. The character mini-games are a little harder. You'll be chasing lightning or bugs around the ship. I imagine building placement plays a big role in the difficulty here, but I never found it necessary to reorient my buildings so that I'd have an easier time with these mini-games. You can do them at any point, even when the spirit associated with that mini-game leaves, and...well, that leads into my biggest problem with the game. The gameplay is not very good. Gating is the culprit here. This isn't something I've seen many people complain about and it may just come down to personal tastes, but this game suffers heavily from repeatedly blocking the player from advancing further into the game until the right checkboxes are completed. This led to a very good early game, a slog of a middle game, and an underwhelming and mostly uneventful late game. Let me explain. I'm good at time and item management games. The Atelier games have prepared me for this. In the early game (let's say the first 5-10 hours), I was a machine. I had two kitchens and three farms going around the clock. At dawn, I'd ring the bell to wake up my crew, set our course for the day, and then do my rounds. I'd feed everybody on the ship and water plants as soon as the bubble appeared. At night, I would disembark, gather all the resources I could, craft whatever items I needed, and then fish until the sun came up. Rinse and repeat. By that 10 hour mark, I had enough food and crafting materials that I honestly don't think I needed to do anything again for the rest of the game, if it wasn't for the fact that I still didn't have access to some of the later game materials. At that point, I quickly came to realize that this was a slow burner. The difficulty comes not from juggling many things at once, but in gradually advancing each storyline until a new area can be unlocked. This was...not fun, honestly. The latter half of the game was just me sailing from island to island, using fast travel whenever possible and ignoring everything but the story quests. It's about then when you realize most of the game's mechanics are optional most of the time and have no long-term consequences. Not feeding your crew members or sheep, for example, has little impact on the game. Sure, they won't like it, but they're not going to die or abandon you. I guess the sheep will resort to eating your crops if they get hungry enough, but they can't if you lock them up, and it's not like you'll need crops or wool after a while. I didn't even need the cow or chickens. Your crew members have perks that are enabled when their happiness is high, but these generally amount to buffs to other crew members or free items from time to time, which...again, are not really necessary late game. If you're really into item management, you might as well max out each character's happiness once (for the trophy) and then let them starve. But only if you're a monster. You're not a monster, are you? The trophies are fine. Most will come naturally. There's one that requires a backup save or second playthrough, which is dumb, and the trophy for maxing out every character's happiness is utter bullshit if you don't read the requirements for Elena carefully. I don't know what the devs were smoking when they decided that one of the last characters to join your ship should be impossible to please if you upgrade her house or don't have the right spirits on board. This is NOT the game that lends itself well to a second playthrough. Would I recommend this game? Boy, that's a hard one. I didn't praise the animations enough in this review. This looks as good as Forgotton Anne and the movement is MUCH more fluid (even if the platforming can be kinda janky and Stella's animations during dialogue could use a few more frames). Once you unlock all of Stella's abilities and build some of the traversal structures, it can be really fun to zip around the ship. The fact that there are no long-term consequences (other than the aforementioned Elena) means that this is actually a very relaxing game. You have the option of sleeping through the night, but I found it easier just to put the controller down or casually craft items while I check my phone or surf the internet. I may have even written some of this review while doing that. It does make me wonder how I'd change the pacing of this game if I had that power. Would I want it to be more stressful? I don't know. I will say that I gave Night in the Woods a recommendation and this is a significantly better game in every way -- in its characters, design, story, and execution. There was also a payoff here, which NitW was lacking. So, if NitW gets a recommendation just for being a unique game with an interesting premise, then Spiritfarer certainly should. I only hesitate because I'm not sure who this game was made for. You might say, "Well, kids, obviously," but then I point you to characters like Bruce & Mickey who cuss like sailors. They don't censor it either. There's something very off-putting about seeing the word "shit" in a game like this. Funny, but off-putting. This also isn't the game for somebody who wants action (there's zero combat), and I'm not sure it qualifies as a true crafting game. It's not as complex as Harvest Moon and it doesn't have the level of customization as Animal Crossing. It's a jumbled and watered-down mix of genres, but it works for the most part. You just need to know what you're getting into first. I was going to end with some fanart, but I'm a little worried about what DeviantArt will produce with this one, so let's play it safe with this adorable picture of Stella and Daffodil. Edited October 10, 2021 by Cassylvania 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted October 10, 2021 Share Posted October 10, 2021 11 hours ago, Cassylvania said: I was nice enough to spot @realm722 a few days before I finished this game, so you might as well just read his review. It's much nicer and more detailed than the one I'm going to give. Also, possible spoilers ahead. This is a heavily story-driven game. Marvelous review Cassy. I think you did a great job on touching on a few points that I didn't, and one of the things I love about playing games relatively in-sync with y'all is I can actually have a discussion about them without having to go through my cobwebbed brain in order to recall how I felt about it. 11 hours ago, Cassylvania said: None of them will eat the same meal twice in a row either. This can be AGGRATAVING because they get hungry often and you'll need to learn their tastes, but then you realize that's kinda the point of the game. Also, you can hug them. They'll like that. I personally love the fact the developers did this. Too often in games like this, once you figure out what a character loves, if that resource is easily attainable - that will end up being THE ONLY THING you ever gift them until you're done with your social link. Obviously, it's a bit annoying, especially in the case of a Bruce & Mickey where they DEMAND complex meals (2 ingredients minimum) which means you need to constantly be cooking something they like, but it kept the characters more real to me. I would say cooking does eventually take a drop in priority once you get your first orchard, and for the majority of residents, they'll be fine alternating between a cherry and an apple for the rest of their life on my ship. 11 hours ago, Cassylvania said: The gameplay is not very good. Gating is the culprit here. This isn't something I've seen many people complain about and it may just come down to personal tastes, but this game suffers heavily from repeatedly blocking the player from advancing further into the game until the right checkboxes are completed. This led to a very good early game, a slog of a middle game, and an underwhelming and mostly uneventful late game. Let me explain. I think all this criticism is very fair. I did not touch on this (I just... kinda forgot lol) but there are absolutely periods in this game, where you've essentially done everything you can within your current skillset, are waiting to get that last spirit to leave to unlock the last spirit flower in order to explore that new section of the ocean, and the game simply isn't progressing fast enough and you're just sorta left waiting for things to happen. It happened to me 2 clear times in my playthrough, and it felt especially weird given the fact the game always has you "chasing" that next resource. Of course, as you pointed, all that chasing is of the player's own creation. You could NEVER feed your spirits, abandon all your animals, fish for 30 straight days, and there would be no consequence. The day/night cycle only affects your movement at night but it doesn't actually have any long-term ramifications. I started to realize this eventually about 60% of the way in and said "um... why am I spending so much time running around my ship sheering my sheep and feeding them every day? Will the game ever really require me to make use of this 100+ wool I'm holding? I doubt it. i then paid the exorbitant copper/plank price for all 5 sheep corrals and ignored them for the rest of the game. I somewhat fell into the habit towards the very end of entirely not feeding my spirits (sorry Buck) since there was no need to waste time to do it. Obviously I don't think this game would benefit if the crew got pissed at you and said "screw this you're a bad commander Stella IM OUTTA HERE" given the wholesome intentions of the game, but you can see some of the cracks in the veneer the game presents. 11 hours ago, Cassylvania said: You might say, "Well, kids, obviously," but then I point you to characters like Bruce & Mickey who cuss like sailors. They don't censor it either. There's something very off-putting about seeing the word "shit" in a game like this. Funny, but off-putting. This also isn't the game for somebody who wants action (there's zero combat), and I'm not sure it qualifies as a true crafting game. It's not as complex as Harvest Moon and it doesn't have the level of customization as Animal Crossing. It's a jumbled and watered-down mix of genres, but it works for the most part. You just need to know what you're getting into first. I'm glad you also brought this up. Yea, I don't think this is a kid's game. Kids could absolutely LOVE some elements of it. The mechanics are all simple enough for them to learn. But when Gwen is talking about her daddy issues or as you said, a random curse word drops, they may say "huh?". It has mature themes for adults to enjoy. But not really the gameplay to keep someone more mechanically inclined for the full runtime. I think the best way to pitch this game is: "hey do ya like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing? If yes, you'll probably find something you enjoy here." and leave it at that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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