Dark souls 2, Scholar of the first sin

Good Lord this one took a while to get through.
I liked the world (for the most part) and the exploration of it just as much as in DS1. Unfortunately, that was all I liked.
I had known this game is “flawed”, but I was still surprised on just how much.
• The hitboxes can be utterly nonsensical.
• The grab attacks are almost hilariously bad.
• The enemies can hit you even though their attacks, or animations, got interrupted.
• Archers can hit you in between your eyes from a kilometer away and their arrows curve in mid air towards you.
• The sheer inconsistency of agro-ranges
• The lock-on has a tendency to screw up (and I am not talking about ultra-great weapons)
• The AI ranges from surprisingly good to brain-dead-suicidal.
• The NPC invaders are too numerous and too strong for the beginning of the game.
• The bosses are, for the most part, disappointing (I managed to defeat several of them on my first attempt)
• Every second area became my “least favorite area of the game” as long as I was there.
• There are many, so many little things that just annoyed me.
I haven’t bothered with any of the DLC areas, I finished the final bosses and saw the ending and I’m fine with that for now. Maybe I’ll return to the DLC later, but for now, I need a break from this patience-trying game.

I agree. Plus, the DLC are awful (seriously, don't go back! XD) and most weapons feel entirely useless. I felt like I was doing damage only with the big clubs pancake "strategy". Basically, cosplay Havel and stunlock everything to ease your pain. A game I'd never return to.

Just beat Trek to Yomi which I recently got from PS Plus. I felt like beating a short and simple title and that's exactly what I got here. Oh, and it was fun to go into a game without knowing practically anything about it in advance. The biggest surprise was probably that this very Japanese game was actually developed by Polish studio Flying Wild Hog, heh.

It's frankly just an okay game all the way around though it scored some bonus points with me for feeling like a modern PS2 game in a way. The game is really just a simple samurai brawler but what makes it stand out is its format / presentation. The obvious part is that the game has monochrome graphics and film grain and artefacts in reference to old samurai movies. But what I really appreciated was that the game uses "cinematic" camera angles as we have barely seen them since the likes of Ico and the original God of War games. The game does regularly utilize them for really interesting shots, probably the most striking being those where characters end up fighting behind shojis or on rooftops at night, turning into silhouettes. Admittedly the camera angles are quite often impractical but I do think that the camera work is the game's most impressive aspect and I presume that aficionados of samurai cinema will find a few references here.

Besides that nothing impressed me particularly about the game, though I also found nothing particularly jarring. It's a simple blend of 2D combat and exploration. The "exploration" is very basic: a bit like in the aforementioned Ico and God of War you walk around predefined camera shots and keep your eyes open for secret passages and little pickups (which are highlighted with a white sparkle that is strongly drowned by the game's monochrome / film grain effects). This way you will find health and stamina upgrades, ammo for several ranged attacks as well as lots of meaningless collectables with some interesting historical and mythological information, though. It's just functional but welcome filler between the fights.

The fighting itself is... also functional. Frankly I was instantly let down by the wooden animations or rather character movements and the combat mechanics themselves just aren't particularly strong. You have access to a ton of attacks but it's one of those games where parrying is the answer to almost everything, alternatively you can also just spam a heavy attack that stuns almost all enemies in one hit and which allows you to execute them for some health. There is probably a little bit more to it but at least on Bushido difficulty (which seems to be this game's "normal') that's pretty much all you need to know. There are also a few boss fights but I found that the only difference there was that you have to roll instead of parrying. Now, slicing enemies is actually quite satisfying here in itself so I was entertained for the ~5 hours it takes to beat this game but it is frankly pretty shallow and repetitive.

And I did like the story and atmosphere here, though it must be pointed out that the game features pretty gruesome depictions of defenceless civilians getting slaughtered and mourning their dead - it did make me feel very uneasy though that might be a good thing. The story is actually very simple but there are interesting elements to it and it gives you a bit of insight into the historical and mythological context of the game. And the production value is a bit uneven but it gets the job done.

Oh yeah, one thing that I find bizarre and annoying: there is apparently no chapter select in this game. Even though it's a linear affair with constant points of no return and lots of collectables you apparently have to start over if you want to max out the game.

Anyway, that's Trek to Yomi for ya: A decent 5-hour ride if you want some simple 2.5D samurai action.

Shadowhand, Jun 25 (GOG)-Been wanting to play this for a while and I'm glad I finally did. Its not going to wow anyone but its a solid solitaire game with some fun mechanics and quite a few difficult challenges. Its got a silly story and a lot of content. If you like solitaire games with a bit of a theme and some twists its pretty good.

Full List

Soul Hackers 2 (XSX)

The most recent Atlus RPG that isn't a remaster or a port. It's actually not a bad place to start for someone that wants to try out an Atlus game without going down the full Shin Megami Tensei or Persona pathway. Soul hackers 2 doesn't quite have the full day by day social simulation of the Persona games and it also doesn't quite have the depth of the SMT games. What it does have going for it is a more linear fixed story and a shorter and more focused experience. Instead of being 120 hours like Persona 5, this one is around 40-50 hours.

Instead of being set in modern-day Tokyo like most of the SMT and spinoff games, this one is in a cyber punk setting. It's a pretty decent game and has the usual Atlus style with its graphics and character models. As usual it's probably best to play with Japanese voice and subtitles in your native language.

Septerra Core

Took me awhile... started on first PC with Win98 in 2001?, got it from random gaming mag and tried my best. But the amount of random encounters was absolutely insane. God help you if you forgot something to do/use/pick/activate and enemies respawns when you leave.
So many mazes, so many encounters, so many switches to raise/lower/open/close obstacles it's nuts. Had to take break (shorter or longer) which can leave you in confusion since there's no journal.
Discovering CheatEngine to speed up animations years later was truly a blessing!

Got all special birds (except the one in the cementary, no idea how I missed it, had to get it near the end of the game), gained access to the tower and all that special loot.
Game become even easier.
Still missing some tarot card? Have to check the guides.

Glad it's over.
No more abandoned games "to come back later" in my backlog.

Finished a few games since last post:
- 05/24 - Dépanneur Nocturne: Not very interesting. You have to pick up things in a shop and... that's all I remember of that short game.
- 05/25 - Devil’s Kiss: A short visual novel from the Ben There Dan That developers. Short and interesting.
- 05/29 - Alone in the Dark: Prologue: I found out that a new Alone in the Dark was about to be released with this one. It's interesting and did leave me wanting more but I think it does not represent all the gameplay of the game.
- 06/05 - Syberia: A classic point'n click, a must have.
- 06/21 - Adios: A short walking simulator with really too much dialogue which was really not interesting...
- 06/29 - The Almost Gone: A short point'n click. Puzzles were good and well designed but the story is too vague.

Full list here.

Bloody Hell (free game)

For a free game, this one is quite good.
It reminds me of many other games, no doubt inspirations, like the old 2d Zelda games, Binding of Isaac and even Angry birds(due to the whole birds vs pigs motive).
The gameplay is a mix of exploration, light metroidvania (or Zelda) and bullet hell.
The story is run of the mill with a twist that most will probably guess from the very beginning.
It’s not a perfect game, there were a few gripes I had here and there, but I liked it overall and can recommend it (being free also helps).

The Walking Dead A New Frontier, Jun 29 (GOG)-I like the Telltale formula and I liked this. But it was definitely the weakest of the Telltale games I've played and I've played quite a few of them. There were some emotional moments and some unexpected twists. But the last 1.5 episodes felt very weird with characters saying they wanted to kill me one minute and then agreeing to my plans the next. Probably only necessary for big fans of Telltale's The Walking Dead otherwise you can probably skip it without issue.

Full List

Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy! HD

I had been meaning to play this little pirate point-and-click adventure ever since I discovered the 2007 freeware version on the AGS site back in the days. And I think I've even started it once or twice, only to get stuck or distracted. And after I bought the HD version a few years ago and gave it another try, once again I never finished it. Now I finally pushed through and did it, but I didn't manage to do it without consulting a walkthrough now and then.

The background is that the author, Alasdair Beckett, created this for his girlfriend Nelly back in the days, (mostly) on his own. And I have to say, I quite like the hand-drawn graphics and the writing. It's hardly ever laugh-out-loud funny, but it's witty and cute, if you like puns, at times referential to pop culture and adventure game classics, but also quite original. The HD version looks true to the original yet cleaner, but the most striking difference to the freeware version is that it has voice-overs now: the real-life Nelly voicing her alter ego and the author voicing everyone else - which sounds like a horrible idea, but actually works perfectly and makes the game all the more charming, because these two actually do a splendid job. When I saw that the 2016 sequel proudly advertised a range of professional voice-actors, I was almost disappointed, because I wanted more Alasdair Beckett in my game instead.

Now that I've played through the whole story, I think what kept me from finishing it before was that (a) there is more talk than puzzles, and a lot of the talk is just jokes, with little relevance to the plot, (b) the plot is very simple and not particularly gripping, and (c) the puzzle design could have been better. For example, one time, I had a pretty good idea what adventure game logic would probably require me to do, but the character was not ready for it yet. She first had to find a letter to give her this idea, and the letter just popped up in a screen that by that time I had already explored and no reason to go back to, and the game has a fast travel map on top of it, so I didn't even need to pass through that area. Some clearer hint would have been welcome here. Another time I was missing an item that I could just have picked up, but when I tried I was not allowed to and I thought it was a puzzle, but it turned out I had just clicked on it at the wrong time, then completely forgotten about it (due to all the talking distracting from the item and there being no obvious reason why I would need it in the first place). And the puzzle that I needed it for gave no hints either. Then there was a decoding puzzle I solved only by guessing, because I did not understand the clues I got for it. And so forth. It's understandable since it started out as an amateur/fan adventure, and not even one created for a bigger audience. But these things made me enjoy it a little less than I would have liked to.

Still, I'm glad I finally got to experience the full game, and it was worth it mostly due to the voice acting, cuteness/silliness and last but not least, the soundtrack by Mark Lovegrove.

Beyond Blue

I'm a bit torn on this one. In part I loved it, because it was relaxing, beautiful, and educational, felt like my beloved Subnautica but without the horrors and repetitive crafting, where you calmly explore the real, terrestrial oceans instead of fictional alien ones, and care for the sea instead of exploiting it. It was awe inspiring in a completely different way, a theme that is similarly humbling as Space and which puts a perspective on the egocentricsm of mankind.

Gameplay-wise it was more of a "Swimming Simulator". Not much to do in the diving sections but go from A to B and click on things while taking in the views and listening to the narrative. Areas were open but small, and there wasn't much point in doing anything else than what the game told me to. Between the dives there were a couple of things to look at in the sub, some short documentary clips about the work of RL marine biologists (which I liked), and beyond that mostly just book titles meant as environmental storytelling or reading recommendations and then audio calls with two scientist colleagues and the main character's little sister back home.

Nothing about the story was truly exciting, but I thought for a calm game like this the plot about the whale family and potential issues in the ocean was interesting enough. The calls with the sister also introduced some personal issues though and themes like the grandmother's dementia that had little to do with the ocean and that to me felt more like "that's what indie games need to do nowadays". I didn't really see the point, to me the ocean was enough of a topic already and the rest unnecessarily distracting. Maybe it was meant to draw a parallel between whale families and human families, but I did not think it very convincing. It hardly seemed to play a role anyway. The ending was pretty abrupt and quickly wrapped up things in a way that didn't feel satisfying to me at all. I've had bigger hopes for the storytelling, but it ended up as little more than just a glimpse into the life and work of the main character, as a means to get some ecological points across and maybe promote the BBC series Blue Planet II.

But since there are so few games about the (deep) sea, I still appreciated the experience, despite the game's shortcomings.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PS5 PS Plus)

Really fun adventure. I know that some people lament how the series has gone away from the mix of platforming and combat that the older games were. Now it's just your regular Sony cinematic over the shoulder 3rd person action-adventure game. However, despite all of that it is still the most enjoyable of all recent Playstation games as far I'm concerned. It has the Insomniac sense of fun, ridiculous weapons, animation quality up there with the best and runs perfect. The collectibles make a difference to your stats and are actually fun to search for.

It comes to PC soon, but in the meantime, the PS5 version is really good. It has quality and performance modes, plus raytracing. Like always I felt the ray tracing was a waste of space and the game looked better at higher resolutions with regular lighting, so I turned the RT off. I don't see why anyone would select the high quality 30 fps mode for this highspeed type of game. The game also has a setting to make use of 120hz TV's for its performance mode- that is how I played it. Insomniac are, without doubt, Sony's most talented in-house developer in my opinion. I wish they would make Sunset Overdrive 2.

Yakuza 3 Remastered (Xbox Series X)

A solid open-world game with a lot of content, especially rich in minigames and side content. It had a very interesting story too, and I didn't mind the long cutscenes. It's a story about a yakuza trying to get by while also dealing with running an orphanage, with plenty of missions relating to the daily interactions with the kids. It has its wholesome moments.

While the combat is generally enjoyable, the gameplay has its crude moments. The enemies have a tendency to turtle almost constantly, and it gets pretty annoying as the game goes on (and it is a combat heavy game). There are also some instances where waves and waves of enemies are thrown at you, while you are constantly surrounded and knockbacked. It gets better as you level up and get more abilites and ways to deal with the blocking, but it can really drag out certain fights. The bosses play the same way, and they tend to have several health bars too.

One of my favorite aspects about these games is the side content. I completed about half of the substories, and spent a lot of time just going around playing darts, fishing, going to clubs, and other minigames. It¨s basically a Japan simulator. It can be a very relaxing game to play for a few hours while just disconnecting completely.

I had about 30 hours blank on my save upon completion. If you just focus on the main story it's not a very long game at all. I would sincerely recommend it, despite the tedious combat. I did play on hard difficulty, which may have contributed a bit, but I've seen the criticism elsewhere too.

Now on to Like A Dragon: Ishin.

A Plague Tale Requiem, Jul 2 (Xbox Game Pass)-I'm not sure if I liked this more than the first game. Its definitely a lot buggier with lots of stuttering and choppiness and several crashes. It culminated in repeated crashes with less than 15 minutes left in the game so I had to watch the ending on youtube which really soured it on me. The gameplay was the same as the first game with some added equipment in a crossbow and more companion interactions. There was also a bit of an incentive to use stealth or avoid killing guards if possible but it was pretty minor. The story was on par with the first game, I can't decide which I liked better. A fun but frustrating experience due to the bugs and crashes.

Full List

Dordogne (XSX Game Pass)

A short narrative driven experience where you unlock the childhood memories of the protagonist. The artwork and sound cannot be faulted. For me the story didn't quite work out to very much in the end, but it was a nice journey getting there just the same.