Braving the BacklogJekyll2023-07-13T06:03:35-05:00https://bravingthebacklog.com/Braving the Backloghttps://bravingthebacklog.com//favicon.png/rsslogo.jpghttps://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1892023-06-23T00:00:00-00:002023-06-23T00:00:00-05:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-189/#ParadiseKiller">Paradise Killer <em>(PC)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="ParadiseKiller">Paradise Killer <em>(PC)</em></h3>
<p>Holy moly, the aesthetic in this game is absolutely wonderful, and it makes a
killer first impression with its jaw dropping intro sequence.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/PbFnpVl.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/PbFnpVlm.jpg" alt="this game" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/nuvdMPI.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/nuvdMPIm.jpg" alt="intro sequence" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Paradise Killer is a 2020 detective game that gives you the freedom to
investigate a grisly murder case how you see fit. The world is open for you to
explore from the very beginning, and you’re free to collect evidence and speak
to suspects at your leisure, and you can choose to take the case to trial
whenever want. There’s a suspect already in custody before your investigation
begins, and you can even choose to believe the official report and not
investigate anything if you want. There’s even an achievement for speedrunning
the game and finishing it in under 10 minutes. I don’t recommend doing that, at
least not before playing the game properly, but it’s really cool that it’s
designed in this non-linear way.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cZG3Qxi.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cZG3Qxim.jpg" alt="Paradise Killer" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/OxjJHmO.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/OxjJHmOm.jpg" alt="speak to suspects" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ysNIHSq.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ysNIHSqm.jpg" alt="a suspect already in custody" /></a>
</figure>
<p>You play as Lady Love Dies, a member of the immortal alien-worshipping cult The
Syndicate, brought out of exile after thousands of years to solve the crime to
end all crimes on Island Sequence 24: the mass murder of the entire Syndicate
Council. With your trusty investigation computer Starlight in hand, it’s up to
you to investigate the secrets of the island and determine who’s guilty. As you
may have noticed from the use of the phrase “immortal alien-worshipping cult”
earlier, Paradise Killer has some deliciously weird lore to offer, full of
demons, psychic energy, and ritual bloodletting. At the beginning of the game,
you’re dropped in and given free reign to investigate, but it’s not just the
murder mystery you’ll want to figure out, there’s also have a whole island full
of lovecraftian-inspired lore waiting for you out there. The lore is almost like
a second mystery for you to solve, and makes exploring the island and talking to
the residents even more interesting as you start to understand more of how The
Syndicate and the island sequences came to be.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/btv6dCk.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/btv6dCkm.jpg" alt="Lady Love Dies" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/HfWYhbB.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/HfWYhbBm.jpg" alt="weird lore" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/KiYto2R.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/KiYto2Rm.jpg" alt="The lore" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The mystery at play here is really deep. There’s a lot of things to figure out
from the beginning, with more interesting twists popping up along the way. My
prime suspect changed several times as I found new evidence and heard new
testimony, and there were a lot of characters I was suspicious of at various
times for one reason or another. Due to the open-ended investigation mechanic,
there was a long list of leads to follow up on for a long time, and it seemed
like each one I followed kept splitting off into more leads and more secrets to
find, which was super cool. Gradually, I began to piece together might have
happened, but I still didn’t feel content to go to trial until I’d followed most
leads to the end, and I’m glad I waited because then my picture of the truth was
even clearer when I headed to trial.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/7qKLl8W.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/7qKLl8Wm.jpg" alt="suspicious" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/H50MHC0.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/H50MHC0m.jpg" alt="long list of leads" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/FDshoyy.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/FDshoyym.jpg" alt="picture of the truth" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Exploration is really satisfying too. There are a few minor metroidvania
elements in the form of Starlight Upgrades that allow you to access new areas or
new pieces of evidence from hacking computers. There are even some movement
upgrades to unlock from several foot baths around the island, like a mid-air
dash and a double jump. The baths cost 5 Blood Crystals to use, which definitely
put me off using them at first as it wasn’t clear what benefit, if any, they’d
provide. When I had more money later on, I finally gave one a try, and I can
tell you they’re definitely worth it if you have the money to spare. The mid-air
dash was especially useful. You can use it to increase the height of your jump
by dashing upward in the air, allowing easier access to some collectibles and
areas, but it was also a really good way to move around the island quickly. By
looking slightly downward and jumping and dashing repeatedly, you can really zip
around! The game also feels a bit like a metroidvania in that you’ll have to do
a bit of backtracking, whether it’s to go back to someone you questioned before
to ask them about new evidence or about something someone else told you, or you
might have to go back to a computer you found earlier after you improve
Starlight’s hacking ability. You hear about an area called the Dead Zone early
on, a quarantined part of the island infected with demonic corruption. You can’t
enter it until you find a few Starlight Upgrades, which you probably won’t have
when you first find the entrance. Once you get the upgrades and get inside
though, it’s a really cool moment. The music in the Dead Zone is heavy and
foreboding, and the area itself is likewise foreboding and oppressive. As soon
as you step foot in there, you just <em>know</em> you’re going to find something
important to the investigation, it’s just a matter of finding out what.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ffs68k8.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ffs68k8m.jpg" alt="Exploration" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Dl0C4kd.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Dl0C4kdm.jpg" alt="movement upgrades" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/JHYXXDo.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/JHYXXDom.jpg" alt="the Dead Zone" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/JHYXXDo.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/JHYXXDom.jpg" alt="the Dead Zone is heavy and foreboding" /></a>
</figure>
<p>On that note, the entire soundtrack really elevates the experience. The OST is
heavily inspired by city pop, and ranges from jazzy, upbeat bops to slower,
wistful electronic tracks. It’s the perfect soundtrack for a tropical island
with a dark history. I love the juxtaposition of this island paradise and upbeat
music with the often grim practices of The Syndicate. I listened to the OST a
lot before I ever played the game, and it played a large part pushing me to pick
it up in the first place. There’s a setting to change whether the music plays
from the speakers scattered around the island or from Starlight. Having it play
from the speakers might be more immersive since the music will fade in and out
based on how close you are to the nearest speaker, but I’d recommend having it
play from Starlight so you can listen to it all the time.</p>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/brv5Qzv.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/brv5Qzvm.jpg" alt="save point" /></a></p>
<p>One thing that might turn some people away is this game’s fast travel system.
You can fast travel around the island from any save point, but unlocking fast
travel at each of them costs money, and it also costs money each time you fast
travel. I didn’t like this at first. In the beginning, I didn’t have much money
to spare, so I never used fast travel because there were far more important
things to spend my Blood Crystals on. That’s kind of the point of designing fast
travel this way. Early on, it’s far better for you to walk everywhere as you
reach new parts of the island the first time or pass through earlier ones again,
because you’ll probaly find hidden secrets or evidence that you missed before.
By the end of the game, I had more Blood Crystals than I knew what to do with,
and had already bought everything I possibly could, so I was fast travelling a
lot at that point. If you give this game a shot and find yourself annoyed by its
fast travel system, give it a chance. It really is designed to deter you from
using fast travel in the early game for a good reason.</p>
<p>As the developers themselves have said, Paradise Killer takes some inspiration
from the Danganronpa series. In the end, the two games aren’t really all that
similar. Even if you like Danganronpa it’s not a guarantee you’ll enjoy Paradise
Killer, but there’s definitely a few similarities between them. Exploring the
island reminds me of exploring Danganronpa’s Hope’s Peak Academy, because both
have you exploring a 3D environment in first-person to find clues, and the
characters show up as 2D cardboard cutouts. There’s lots of items to find around
the island, some of it’s evidence that will be added to your case files, but a
lot of them are blood crystals (the island’s currency), or optional collectibles
like Relics or additional music to listen to. Finding these collectibles sort of
reminds me of finding hidden Monokuma dolls in Danganronpa 2, and the relics are
a lot like the gift items from the MonoMono Machine. You can also periodically
have a non-investigation related chat with each character using the Hang Out
option, which is sort of like Danganronpa’s Free Time Events. Each time you do
this, your relationship with them will increase, and as you grow closer to them
they may divulge secrets they weren’t willing to before, adding valuable
evidence to some of your case files. You have to wait a little while before you
can hang out with them again, I’m not sure if this is based on a timer or if you
just have to leave and come back though. One last similarity to note, instead of
having full voice acting, characters just have short voice clips that play
during dialogue. But while Danganronpa has full voice acting during its class
trials, the short voice clips are the extent of the voice acting in Paradise
Killer, but due to how the trial system here is designed it doesn’t really lend
itself well to full voice acting anyway.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/7GvBc3n.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/7GvBc3nm.jpg" alt="Relics" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/66smKRl.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/66smKRlm.jpg" alt="additional music" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/WudRkZ6.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WudRkZ6m.jpg" alt="the Hang Out" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The trials themselves are pretty interesting. I didn’t know what to expect going
into it. Would it have Danganronpa style mini-games or debates? It turns out,
no, it doesn’t have anything like that. Instead, you go through each of your
case files one by one, and you can choose to accuse whoever you want for each
crime. Then you present the evidence you gathered, and Judge will decide whether
the accused is guilty or not based on that evidence. Anyone deemed guilty is
sentenced to death and executed at the end of all the trials. Whether they
<em>truly</em> committed any crimes is another story. That’s all up to you to figure
out based on how thorough you were in gathering evidence. Although, some people
will confess to things after being convicted, so there is some direct
confirmation that you made the right choice, but it depends on the case file.
You can also deliberately choose <em>not</em> to present evidence for some of the case
files if there’s anyone you don’t want to implicate in any crimes. I played
through the trials twice, and the first time through I presented all the facts I
had gathered, and fully explained every mystery to Judge in court. In the end,
that resulted in guilty verdicts and executions that I believe were true to the
facts, but not morally correct. So, I played through the trials a second time,
and this time chose <em>not</em> to present some of the evidence I’d gathered for
certain case files, avoiding those executions that I didn’t feel were necessary.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/p6HDOug.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/p6HDOugm.jpg" alt="The trials" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ChFhN5g.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ChFhN5gm.jpg" alt="your case files" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/48SGY10.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/48SGY10m.jpg" alt="Judge" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/SQsZ8jj.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/SQsZ8jjm.jpg" alt="the trials" /></a>
</figure>
<p>That leads me to my one nitpick about Paradise Killer: you don’t really get a
good sense of how your choices in the trials are going to affect the world.
After the trials, you can say farewell to characters who survived without
getting convicted, or choose to exile or execute them at that point, evidence be
damned, and then you leave the island forever to head to Island 25, and the
credits roll. I would have really liked to see some sort of epilogue for each
character or something, just something to give your actions a sense of weight.
Or maybe additional dialogue based on evidence you’d found, like some way to
tell characters, “hey, I found all this evidence but I let you walk free, what
do you think of that?” The consequences of your actions in this world are left
almost entirely up to your imagination and gut feeling. Still, even with this
lack of in-game resolution, I felt better about the outcome the second time I
played through the trials compared to the first, just due to my own feelings
about the characters, so maybe it is better they left any kind of concrete
epilogues out of the game.</p>
<p>Paradise Killer is a great detective game. The setting is really interesting
with an intriguing murder mystery to solve, and the investigative gameplay is
super addicting. I’m probably going to be listening to its soundtrack for a
<em>long</em> time, and every time I do I’ll be reminded of all the cool moments I
experienced on Island Sequence 24. I highly recommend giving it a try if
scouring its open world island for clues sounds like your idea of a good time.
My final time was 13 hours 8 minutes.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cWilqUn.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cWilqUnm.jpg" alt="Paradise Killer" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Sf7FDTs.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Sf7FDTsm.jpg" alt="a great detective game" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-189/">What I'm Playing - No. 189</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on June 23, 2023.</p>
I finished Paradise Killer this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1882023-06-07T00:00:00-00:002023-06-07T00:00:00-05:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-188/#Voxelgram">Voxelgram <em>(PC)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="Voxelgram">Voxelgram <em>(PC)</em></h3>
<p>Released for PC in 2019 and for Switch in 2020, Voxelgram is an indie 3D
nonogram puzzle game. It’s very similar to Nintendo’s Picross 3D. Both games
take traditional 2D nonogram puzzles, and move the format into the
third-dimension with spectacular results.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/mZuaRMQ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/mZuaRMQm.jpg" alt="Voxelgram" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/skcd3qc.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/skcd3qcm.jpg" alt="with spectacular results" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The premise is simple: you start with a box made of cubes, and the numbers on
the cubes’ faces tell you how many in that row or column belong in the finished
shape. From there, you logically mark blocks that should stay and remove the
ones you don’t need until you’ve solved all the clues, and the finished object
is revealed. You’re basically solving a bunch of 2D nonogram puzzles at once,
stacked on top and intertwined with one another. It’s really fun! If you’ve
played any Picross 3D, you already know a bit how these go. At first, the 3D
nature of it all is a little brain-bending. That’s the way I felt when I first
played a little bit of Picross 3D, and when I first played Voxelgram. But after
you get used to moving around the puzzle in 3D and toggling through the layers,
you start to realize a lot of the strategies you’d apply in regular old 2D
nonogram puzzles still apply here. If you’ve marked some cubes at the top or
bottom and there’s a clue for those columns or rows, then you can go ahead and
complete that section since you already know where the marked cubes will start
and end. Figuring out things like that makes the process much less daunting, and
before you know it you’ll be tackling massive 3D puzzles without breaking a
sweat.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/6recI0C.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/6recI0Cm.jpg" alt="logically mark blocks" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/L4wOmft.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/L4wOmftm.jpg" alt="the finished object is revealed" /></a>
</figure>
<p>If you make a logical error in marking or removing a block, it tells you right
away. For instance, if you remove a cube and leave too few marked in the column
or row based on the clues available, you get a red highlight letting you know so
you’ve made a mistake there and should undo it. However, you might remove or
mark some cubes that seem right at the time and don’t lead to any immediate
logical errors, only to find out that you’ve messed up later on when you don’t
have any way to complete another section. In that case, there’s the helpful Load
Valid State button. This will automatically reset the puzzle back to before you
made that first mistake. I definitely needed this in some of the puzzles, some
of them I messed up multiple times and had to keep loading valid state until I
figured out the tricky parts. Some of those difficult ones took me over 50
minutes! Luckily, you don’t need to complete a puzzle in one sitting. You can
quit whenever you need to take a break and your progress is automatically saved
for when you come back, which is really nice on the more difficult puzzles!</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/CuVYkQR.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/CuVYkQRm.jpg" alt="Load Valid State button" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/NF2ms6v.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/NF2ms6vm.jpg" alt="a puzzle" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The main mode is the Diorama mode, where the puzzles you solve turn into little
voxel objects in a tiny room, like a kitchen. It’s a very cute way to theme
things, I like it. Generally, the puzzles in each Diorama seem to get more
difficult from left to right. You can do them in whatever order you want, and
you can even do the dioramas in any order. You don’t have to unlock them by
clearing other dioramas first or anything. Besides the huge number of puzzles
included in Diorama mode, there’s also Steam Workshop support with an Editor to
create and share your own dioramas and puzzles. The editor for creating the
dioramas isn’t built-in, but instead uses the free MagicaVoxel editor for
creating the voxel-based diorama and puzzles. Then you can import them into the
game and it generates clues for them automatically. If by some miracle you were
to complete every single puzzle from the Workshop, and you’re panicking thinking
“how am I going to play more Voxelgram now!?” Don’t worry, it’s going to be
okay, because there’s also a Random puzzle mode, where you can play randomly
generated puzzles. You could literally play this game forever and never run out
of puzzles.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/DdvnlkO.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/DdvnlkOm.jpg" alt="the Diorama mode" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/fqWVmO7.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/fqWVmO7m.jpg" alt="the dioramas" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/FYneO6S.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/FYneO6Sm.jpg" alt="diorama" /></a>
</figure>
<p>My final time to complete all the puzzles in Diorama mode was 25 hours 31
minutes, but I’m still playing this game thanks to the Workshop support, and
I’ll probably be playing it off and on for a long time.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/73vcX5Q.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/73vcX5Qm.jpg" alt="the Workshop support" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ia3gfA6.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ia3gfA6m.jpg" alt="probably be playing it off and on for a long time" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-188/">What I'm Playing - No. 188</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on June 07, 2023.</p>
This week I finished the 3D nonogram puzzler, Voxelgram.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1872023-05-31T00:00:00-00:002023-05-31T00:00:00-05:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-187/#Sackboy:ABigAdventure">Sackboy: A Big Adventure <em>(PS5)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="Sackboy:ABigAdventure">Sackboy: A Big Adventure <em>(PS5)</em></h3>
<p>Imagine you <em>are</em> Sackboy. You’re rolling around, living your best life, when
all of a sudden this evil jester guy Vex shows up, kidnaps all your friends, and
sets his world domination plan in motion. What do you do? You go on a Big
Adventure to stop him, obviously! And there’s one sound reverberating through
your mind the entire time. That’s right, it’s Britney Spears’ 2003 hit single,
“Toxic.”</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/lpUEzae.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/lpUEzaem.jpg" alt="Sackboy" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/1yJiCnk.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/1yJiCnkm.jpg" alt="Vex" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cnd8nHe.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cnd8nHem.jpg" alt="Toxic" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a 2020 3D platformer released for PS4, PS5, and PC.
It’s a very cute 3D platformer spinoff of the LittleBigPlanet series, but one of
the things I’m going to remember most about it are its licensed music levels.
There are only a couple of these in the game, so they’re more the exception than
the norm, but you don’t play through a platformer level set to Bruno Mars’
“Uptown Funk” and forget about it. These levels basically take the New Super
Mario Bros. “enemies-dance-to-the-beat” concept and crank it up to 11. The
entire level bops along to the beat, and the cannon flowers that shoot you to
the next area even wait for the beat so that everything’s still synced to the
music. These levels feel like a weird fever dream sometimes. Like I mentioned in
the intro, there is a level set to Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” that’s real. The
concept might sound gimmicky, but these were actually <em>really</em> fun, you can’t
help but get a little hyped during these and it almost feels a bit like a rhythm
game. The only downside of all these songs being in the game is that it’ll
probably be a nightmare for games preservation someday. I can easily see it not
being available digitally at some point due to licensing agreements expiring,
unless Sony Music has pulled some strings or something and that’s the magical
loophole that protects Sackboy from the licensed music curse that’s affected
many games in the past (RIP original Alan Wake release).</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/GdD8fnL.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GdD8fnLm.jpg" alt="the LittleBigPlanet series" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/wHAKrOI.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/wHAKrOIm.jpg" alt="licensed music levels" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Alongside the memorable music levels, there’s a very solid and enjoyable 3D
platformer here. It’s a lot like Astro’s Playroom, but it also reminds me of
Super Mario 3D World in a lot of ways, like how there are a few optional levels
that can only be played in co-op. On that note, it also has full 4-player co-op,
including local co-op, which is increasingly rare these days. It’s not too
difficult, this isn’t Super Meat Boy or any other hyper-difficult platformer,
but the platforming mechanics are fun. Sackboy has a flutter jump you can use in
mid-air to stay airborne a little longer to get a bit more lateral distance. He
also has a dodge that becomes a roll if you keep pressing the button, and you
can pick things up to carry and throw them, including other players if you’re
playing in co-op. You can also grab onto certain sponge-like surfaces, usually
rotating or moving ones that you’ll have to jump off of with the right timing.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/dx1bp6A.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/dx1bp6Am.jpg" alt="levels that can only be played in co-op" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/WthPbyv.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WthPbyvm.jpg" alt="grab onto" /></a>
</figure>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/ehvIc3b.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ehvIc3bm.jpg" alt="Vexx" /></a></p>
<p>Side note: whenever I saw Vex or heard anyone say his name in the cutscenes, all
I could think of is the early 2000’s 3D platformer “Vexx,” with two X’s. I still
remember playing a bit of that game on GameCube back in the day and collecting
some corrupted hearts, or whatever its primary collectible was. Shoutout to all
the people who knew about Vexx <em>before</em> Matt McMuscles covered it on “What
Happened?”</p>
<figure class="center">
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0v9R_VD7h9Q" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>There are plenty of collectibles and secrets in the levels, and some of them are
quite well hidden so you really have to keep your eyes peeled to spot them. The
costume pieces and emotes are all optional, although I would recommend
collecting at least a few so you have more things to mess around with in
character customization, but you are required to collect at least <em>some</em> of
Dreamer Orbs in the levels because you need them to unlock the gates before the
boss of each world. You can’t get past them unless you’ve collected at least a
certain number of Dreamer Orbs. I thought these limits for these were very
reasonable, there was never a gate I reached where I hadn’t collected enough
Orbs yet. It’s balanced well enough that as long as you’re making some effort to
find and collect a few pearls in each level, you shouldn’t get stopped by any of
these gates along the way. But you don’t need to worry about finding all of them
in every level if you don’t want to, especially since some <em>can</em> be very well
hidden. Was there a level that I completed without finding any of the Dreamer
Orbs, despite trying to find some? Yes, yes there was.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/0rlzTcd.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/0rlzTcdm.jpg" alt="character customization" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/108XBLG.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/108XBLGm.jpg" alt="limits for these were very reasonable" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/RXHpz8o.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/RXHpz8om.jpg" alt="yes there was" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Sackboy: A Big Adventure is fairly short, with only five worlds in its main
story and a sixth post-game world that unlocks after the credits roll. But
within those five worlds, you have a fun variety of levels to play through, with
a mix of basic platforming levels, auto-scrolling chase levels, and more, and
the variety combined with the short runtime keeps any of it from feeling stale
before you reach the end. My final time was about 7 hours to beat the main
story. I didn’t try to do any of the post-game world because I saw immediately
that I wouldn’t have enough Dreamer Orbs to get very far, but I imagine that
could easily add a few more hours onto the experience.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ERvWdKH.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ERvWdKHm.jpg" alt="only five worlds" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/TnU7q9s.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/TnU7q9sm.jpg" alt="fun variety of levels" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/zUCoe4L.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/zUCoe4Lm.jpg" alt="My final time" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-187/">What I'm Playing - No. 187</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on May 31, 2023.</p>
I finished Sackboy: A Big Adventure this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1862023-05-15T00:00:00-00:002023-05-15T00:00:00-05:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-186/#DeusEx:HumanRevolution-DirectorsCut">Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director’s Cut <em>(PC)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="DeusEx:HumanRevolution-DirectorsCut">Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director’s Cut <em>(PC)</em></h3>
<p>I’m sort of playing through the sci-fi immersive sim genre backwards. I started
with Prey, and now I’ve played through 2013’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution -
Director’s Cut. Maybe next year I’ll finally play System Shock 2.</p>
<figure class="half center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/h8uSMyF.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/h8uSMyFm.jpg" alt="Human Revolution" />
<figcaption>Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut</figcaption>
</a>
</figure>
<p>Deus Ex: Human Revolution first released in 2011 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, and
an enhanced Director’s Cut edition released in 2013 for the original platforms
as well as Wii U, and this is the version I played on PC. It’s the third game in
the Deus Ex series, and a prequel to the original Deus Ex, but you don’t need to
have played any other Deus Ex game before jumping into it. This was my first
foray into the series, and it might be the best place for new players like me to
start. I’m sure there’s little references and nods to the earlier games in the
series, but you definitely don’t need to have played them first to enjoy this
one. I don’t feel like I missed out on anything not having played the OG Deus Ex
before this. The only reference to it that I was even aware of is a post-credits
scene, and the only reason I think it has anything to do with the first game is
because the achievement for seeing it has the original Deus Ex guy’s face on it
pulled straight from the box art.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/OtSFo91.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/OtSFo91m.jpg" alt="the Deus Ex series" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/q0ikius.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/q0ikiusm.jpg" alt="the achievement for seeing it" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Before we get more into it, I just want to say I can’t believe I missed out on
this game during its original release window. I guess I was too busy playing
Skyrim or something, but that came out a whole 2 months later, so what I was
playing in August 2011 that kept me from hearing about this game? To be fair, I
was playing a lot of Xbox 360 games back in 2011, less so in 2013 when
Director’s Cut came out, but maybe I just had enough on my backlog at the time.
I mean, I really don’t remember hearing about this game or seeing it on store
shelves or <em>anything</em> at the time, but it was 12 years ago so I probably did see
it on store shelves somewhere and I just don’t remember. It got <em>rave</em> review
scores from critics too, so I guess I just wasn’t that tuned in to gaming news
at the time, and this release just flew under my radar. That’s a real shame too,
because I probably would have still really liked it even back then. I had played
Dishonored in 2013 thanks to a recommendation from my friend Brad (thanks Brad!)
and loved it, playing through it multiple times to try non-lethal only runs and
whatnot. I ended up doing pretty much the same thing with Human Revolution. As
soon as I finished my first playthrough, I started a second playthrough on New
Game+ right away to go for a Pacifist run. It’s really <em>that</em> good.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cyEpaAk.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cyEpaAkm.jpg" alt="I was playing a lot of Xbox 360 games back in 2011" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cdXyCBR.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cdXyCBRm.jpg" alt="less so in 2013" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Set in 2027, the story takes place in a world where humanity has made major
strides in human cybernetic augmentation over the last few decades, changing the
face of the world forever and causing the very definition of what it means to be
human to shift. You play as Adam Jensen, an ex-SWAT officer now working as head
of security for the cybernetic augmentation company Sarif Industries. He’s not
augmented at first, but that all changes when Sarif Industries’ lab is attacked
by a mysterious group of heavily augmented soldiers, and all the researchers are
killed including Adam’s ex-girlfriend Megan. Adam is nearly killed himself
trying to protect Megan, but they’re able to save his life by installing a bunch
of augments, giving him cybernetic arms, legs, eyes, whatever it takes to keep
him alive. A few months later, a rebuilt Adam returns to work for the first time
since the accident, and begins his hunt for the ones behind the attack. Adam is
such a cool character. I love his capable, gruff demeanor, and the voice actor’s
voice is really distinctive and fits the character perfectly. Nothing will ever
be as cool as his cybernetic sunglasses. The story is <em>really</em> good too, full of
equal parts sci-fi and corporate and political intrigue with a healthy dose of
conspiracy theories. It gets pretty dark sometimes too, especially a section
towards the end of the game. The calibur of writing is so strong that the story
is just as good on repeat playthroughs, as you’ll no doubt notice little details
and pick up on bits of foreshadowing that you missed the first time around.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/nHiODOs.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/nHiODOsm.jpg" alt="human cybernetic augmentation" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/zwIn3dh.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/zwIn3dhm.jpg" alt="conspiracy theories" /></a>
</figure>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/MH8uNjW.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/MH8uNjWm.jpg" alt="feel like a secret agent" /></a></p>
<p>Gameplay-wise, it plays as a 1st-person stealth shooter, but switches to
3rd-person during dialogue, when taking cover, and during a handful of other
actions like climbing ladders. I found the switches to 3rd-person pretty jarring
at first, but you get used to them pretty quickly, and I’m actually really glad
it switches to 3rd-person when taking cover, because then you get to see the
cool cover switching animations. They really enhance the stealth and make you
feel like a secret agent, at least when you don’t mess up and switch cover when
enemies are looking right at you. It can be a pretty challenging game at times.
I was playing on normal difficulty and there were a lot of times I failed at
stealth, got into combat with enemies and died soon after when I couldn’t escape
or find cover. All the deaths felt fair though, it just meant I needed to look
around my environment more to figure out how to sneak through better, or
otherwise just be a little smarter about my approach.</p>
<p>A lot of elements here remind me of the immersive sims I’ve played so far. The
inventory is grid-based and is set up pretty much exactly like in Prey, and I
think in both cases they were probably inspired by System Shock. There’s several
skill trees that offer many different ways to approach the game, and there’s
multiple paths through levels, ensuring you can complete missions regardless of
how you’ve built your character. If you need to get in to an apartment complex
locked down by a private military company, you could try shooting your way in,
and that might be a viable strategy if you have the firepower and armor for it.
Or, you can take a stealthier approach, searching for a vent to gain access
instead of using the front door, and sneaking around once you’re inside to avoid
detection. I’ve never been so happy to find an air vent in a video game, because
in this game it means you can get somewhere interesting by crawling through the
vent and seeing where you come out on the other side. There’s also a whole
hacking skill tree and a hacking mini-game, which are also elements Prey has. I
took a number of hacking perks in my first playthrough to make sure that I could
hack pretty much anything in my way. Hacking can open up a lot of doors, and
hacking security terminals lets you disable cameras and security robots, so it
was a useful skill to have. You can also hack into computers to find emails that
might reveal useful passcodes for other doors, or just to get some of that
patented immersive sim worldbuilding. I found this one particularly amusing.
Like in Dishonored, completing the game without killing anyone is also <em>very</em>
possible thanks to several non-lethal takedown options at your disposal,
including the stun gun and the tranquilizer rifle, and completing the game this
way in my New Game+ playthrough was a lot of fun.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/H9SdKJ0.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/H9SdKJ0m.jpg" alt="inventory is grid-based" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/yJ2hJvD.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/yJ2hJvDm.jpg" alt="security terminals" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/3oiTODR.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/3oiTODRm.jpg" alt="I found this one particularly amusing" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/3mxbvOl.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/3mxbvOlm.jpg" alt="without killing anyone" /></a>
</figure>
<p>In true immersive sim fashion, player freedom doesn’t just include the flexible
level design or skill trees. You’re also free to <em>choose</em> which objectives to
complete and how to complete them, and NPCs will react to your choices. For
example, in the game’s first real mission, you have a side objective to find and
rescue the hostages, but it’s not marked by an objective marker or anything. You
actually have to go looking and <em>find</em> them. In my first playthrough I forgot
all about this and just completed the main objective, and at the end of the
mission everyone was like “good job Adam, too bad those hostages are all dead
now though.” However, I <em>did</em> manage to save one woman who was held hostage by a
terrorist leader by talking him into giving her up and running away by picking
the right dialogue options in that negotiation sequence. The woman was grateful
at first, but her husband was one of the other hostages so when she learned he
was dead she wasn’t so happy. Fast-forward to my second playthrough, and this
time since I’m more familiar with the level and the objectives, I go searching
for the hostages, and I’m able to find and save them. Now, this playthrough was
also my Pacifist run, where my goal was to avoid killing anyone. But when I came
up against the terrorist leader again, I had a dilemma. I didn’t want to
negotiate with him again, since I’d already done in my first playthrough, but I
didn’t want to kill him either since it would ruin my Pacifist run. So instead,
I picked the option to fight him immediately, exiting dialogue, and before he
could react and shoot his hostage, I just zapped him with my stun gun. I
honestly couldn’t believe that worked, but it did, and now both the woman and
her husband were alive, and I was able to let them both know that the other
survived. It was a really cool moment, and it’s little details like that that
really make this game and the entire immersive sim genre special.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/kfuC8LD.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/kfuC8LDm.jpg" alt="the flexible level design" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/6dN4Dx5.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/6dN4Dx5m.jpg" alt="a terrorist leader" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/1CCr12L.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/1CCr12Lm.jpg" alt="let them both know that the other survived" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The skill trees in this game each correspond to one of Adam’s cybernetic
enhancements, allowing you to upgrade anything from his legs to jump higher or
eliminate fall damage, his arms to punch through weak walls, or installing
upgrades that allow him to do personality profiling on people and have an easier
time convincing them in conversation. The upgrade to eliminate fall damage was
pretty useful, but beyond its practicality it also has a really cool animation
that triggers whenever you fall far enough, it’s sick. There’s also the Smart
Vision upgrade that lets you see enemies through walls like the Dark Vision from
Dishonored. One of my favorite upgrades was the Stealth Cloak, which you can
toggle on to become completely invisible until you run out of energy, letting
you slip past enemies as long as you can make it past them before your energy
runs out. This ability made stealth really fun, and it was especially cool to
play around with at the beginning of the game in New Game+ since all your
unlocked abilities carry over, but even then you still need to be smart about
sneaking since you can only remain invisible for a limited time, and enemies can
still hear you moving around if you’re not crouched. Your energy slowly recovers
on its own over time, but you can also eat CyberBoost energy bars to replenish
it instantly, and I love the mental image of Jensen sneaking around and just
downing granola bars to stay invisible for longer.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/SBiuyTk.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/SBiuyTkm.jpg" alt="The skill trees" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/o4u8bzv.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/o4u8bzvm.jpg" alt="a really cool animation" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ksVXtrA.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ksVXtrAm.jpg" alt="the Stealth Cloak" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The game is split into two types of levels. Some are mission-centric areas where
you only have story objectives to complete. These are somewhat linear, although
there are still multiple ways through each part of them and optional objectives
to consider from time to time. These tended to be the more action-packed
segments, involving shootouts or stealth depending on your play style. The other
levels are city hubs, which are more open and feature optional side quests
alongside the required story quests. Most of the time, the side quests are made
pretty obvious and many quest givers approach you directly. But there are some
side quests you’ll only find through exploring and talking to people, and the
NPC chatter can sometimes be a clue to help you find them. I’m a sucker for side
quests, so I ended up doing quite a few of these. They were a good excuse to
explore the city hub levels more thoroughly and gain a better appreciation of
the level designs and the multiple paths through them. Some of these side quests
did involve some backtracking back and forth, which could be a little tedious.
The default sprinting speed is a little slow, so going back and forth across the
map can get old, especially in the Hengsha area where I kept getting lost. But
again, one good thing about getting lost is that I found more paths through the
level this way, and tucked those away in the back of my mind for my second
playthrough.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/3bnaqtn.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/3bnaqtnm.jpg" alt="city hubs" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/2GCfu4L.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/2GCfu4Lm.jpg" alt="many quest givers approach you directly" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Several hidden side quests I didn’t even find in my first playthrough. As I was
scrolling through the locked achievements after finishing the game the first
time, some of the quest locations I missed became pretty obvious. Like The Hive
bartender, I knew where that was so I was able to find that quest easily in my
next playthrough. But some of the others I had <em>no</em> idea where they would be,
and even after my second playthrough I still don’t know where the Tallion A.D.
side quest is. But I was able to find and complete both Cloak & Daggers and the
Bar Tab sidequests during my second playthrough, and it didn’t require looking
up a guide or anything like that, they were both perfectly reasonable to find
through normal gameplay, although I wouldn’t have known to go back to the
bartender for his sidequest if I hadn’t seen that achievement in the list.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/KTxfyYf.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/KTxfyYfm.jpg" alt="The Hive bartender" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/EPAFslz.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/EPAFslzm.jpg" alt="find and complete both" /></a>
</figure>
<p>One thing that makes Human Revolution feel very different from Prey or
Dishonored: boss battles. Several times throughout the game, you’re pitted
against a boss character. In its initial release, these were one of the biggest
criticisms of the game, because it basically meant that if you were a
stealth-focused character you might be soft-locked and unable to defeat the
bosses in the 1-on-1 direct confrontation that you’re put into. The Director’s
Cut version addresses this by adding additional ways to deal with these bosses,
ensuring that you’re able to make it past them regardless of your character
build. My build wasn’t super combat focused, so these battles were pretty tough
in my first playthrough! I died more than once to each of them, but I really
enjoyed these fights nonetheless. They were like a fun puzzle, because I knew
there had to be <em>some</em> way to make it through with my current skills and
equipment, I just had to figure out how. I managed to just scrape by some of the
bosses in my first playthough, but when I faced them in my New Game+ playthrough
I had both the advantage of having a bunch of skill upgrades, and knowledge of
the battle arenas, both of which made the fights a lot easier. I played on
Normal difficulty for both playthroughs, but I definitely could have turned the
difficulty up a bit for my New Game+ one to balance things out more.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/XlqBVPh.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/XlqBVPhm.jpg" alt="boss battles" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/U1VJftZ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/U1VJftZm.jpg" alt="a boss character" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Another thing included in The Director’s Cut edition of the game is The Missing
Link DLC. I knew it was part of the Director’s Cut edition, but I didn’t know
exactly what that meant, because when I finished the game I was like, “wow, that
was really good, now I want to play The Missing Link episode and see what that’s
like.” After failing to find a button to play it on the main menu, I did some
googling, and it turns out The Missing Link episode is completely integrated
into the campaign in Director’s Cut. I had already played it, and I didn’t even
realize because it just feels so natural. Looking back, the only clue that The
Missing Link chapter was different than the others is that you lose most of your
equipment and skills at the start, and don’t get them all back until you finish
it. That made for a nice challenge though, and allowed me to re-spec my
character a bit to deal with the immediate obstacles in front of me. There is a
bit of tedious backtracking in the chapter that made replaying it during my
second playthrough a little annoying, but other than that it’s not a bad
chapter. It sheds extra light on things that are pretty important in endgame.
Plus, it features a nice little twist that ended up being one of my favorite
story moments in the game. No spoilers here, though!</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/gdA9WF5.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/gdA9WF5m.jpg" alt="The Missing Link DLC" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/wZfYfQP.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/wZfYfQPm.jpg" alt="The Missing Link episode is completely integrated" /></a>
</figure>
<p>One bad thing about running this game on a modern PC: you may experience
stutters and screen flickering. I started running into these the first time I
entered a city hub. The flickering was especially awful, but luckily some tips
on the Steam Community forum lead me to disable the game’s in-game Vsync and
instead force Vsync in my graphics card control panel. That cleared up the
flickering, and following another tip on from a different thread I changed a
registry key setting for the game and that seemed to reduce the stuttering a
bit, but it still seemed to stutter when loading new areas, particularly in the
city hub levels. The stutter wasn’t a dealbreaker for me, but it’s definitely
noticeable enough that I wanted to make note of it.</p>
<p>Deus Ex: Human Revolution was fantastic. It’s definitely left me excited to play
more immersive sims in the future, but also to play more of the Deus Ex series
and see what other cool, cyberpunk narratives it has to offer. I mean, I already
own them all on Steam so I might as well play them! My next step in the series
will probably be 2016’s Mankind Divided, the sequel to Human Revolution and the
most recent entry in the series at the time of recording. I am really curious
about the first Deus Ex game too, but I’ve heard it can be a bit clunky,
especially the default keybindings for some things, so the more modern game
comes first. My final time for my first playthrough was 19 hours, and my New
Game+ pacifist playthrough was 14 hours for a total combined time of 33 hours.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/HuvXKfo.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/HuvXKfom.jpg" alt="Human Revolution was fantastic" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cw5A5Ua.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cw5A5Uam.jpg" alt="I already own them all on Steam" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/5YhpmbO.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/5YhpmbOm.jpg" alt="a total combined time of 33 hours" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-186/">What I'm Playing - No. 186</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on May 15, 2023.</p>
I finished Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1852023-05-05T00:00:00-00:002023-05-05T00:00:00-05:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-185/#HorizonForbiddenWest">Horizon Forbidden West <em>(PS5)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="HorizonForbiddenWest">Horizon Forbidden West <em>(PS5)</em></h3>
<p>It wasn’t that long ago that I played Horizon Zero Dawn. Its sequel, Horizon
Forbidden West released in 2022 for PS4 and PS5. My wife and I picked up a copy
just a few months after launch, and while I didn’t play it right away my wife
did. I watched parts of her playthrough, and I remember thinking the story
sounded okay, but not as good as Zero Dawn. After playing the game myself, and
experiencing the story in its entirety, I think I’ve mostly changed my mind. I
still think Zero Dawn’s story is the better of the two, but both games have very
good stories. Zero Dawn tells Aloy’s incredible origin story and offers more of
a sense of mystery and discovery in its narrative, while Forbidden West features
more sci-fi elements and sets the stage for the next game in the series nicely.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/MW1JuLq.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/MW1JuLqm.jpg" alt="Horizon Forbidden West" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/yb3dszq.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/yb3dszqm.jpg" alt="Forbidden West" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Many things from Zero Dawn return in Forbidden West, with a few tweaks and
additional polish. Most noticeable right away are the graphical improvements.
Zero Dawn was already a gorgeous game, and Forbidden West somehow manages to
improve the visuals even further. This game is stunning. Many times I had to
just stop and take in the scenery for a while. And this was with the settings
set to performance mode rather than quality, and it still looked beautiful!
Plus, it has a photo mode, which I always enjoy messing around with, and the
photo mode is better than ever, with a bunch of new silly poses to mess around
with.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/1tHaCWh.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/1tHaCWhm.jpg" alt="take in the scenery" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/n2tR0PL.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/n2tR0PLm.jpg" alt="the photo mode" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/I0ZvTcP.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/I0ZvTcPm.jpg" alt="silly poses" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The Shieldwing is one of my favorite new additions to Aloy’s kit, it’s awesome.
I loved being able to jump from whatever height I wanted and glide safely back
down to Earth. Another cool new tool is the Pullcaster, which Aloy can use in
mid-air to pull herself to anchor points. On the ground, the Pullcaster serves
another purpose, and lets you pull down fragile structures marked with a
distinctive pattern, and you can also use it to pull around crates that you
can’t reach otherwise. The Pullcaster is used in a bunch of puzzles in this
game, and it was a nice addition that added extra variety to those sections.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/F5FI1yQ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/F5FI1yQm.jpg" alt="The Shieldwing" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/PTBKxv5.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/PTBKxv5m.jpg" alt="glide safely" /></a>
</figure>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/dpz7NO8.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/dpz7NO8m.jpg" alt="the Pullcaster" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/RvWn6Jc.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/RvWn6Jcm.jpg" alt="anchor points" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/qFw2u0e.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/qFw2u0em.jpg" alt="pull down fragile structures" /></a>
</figure>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/GpkCiOd.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GpkCiOdm.jpg" alt="a machine swimming your way" /></a></p>
<p>Aloy isn’t limited to exploring just the land anymore, and she can now take to
both the seas and skies too. You can freely dive underwater, and once you unlock
the Diving Mask you don’t have to worry about oxygen anymore and can fully
explore the watery depths of the Forbidden West. Underwater gameplay is pretty
limited though, you can’t fight machines while swimming so it’s limited to
exploring and sneaking. Not being able to defend yourself underwater really
changes things when you see a machine swimming your way though, and it was cool
to have the power dynamic flipped like that.</p>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/y8QVAxB.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/y8QVAxBm.jpg" alt="how stunning the game is" /></a></p>
<p>Very late in the game, you unlock flying mounts, and can override the
pterodactyl-like Sunwing machines and fly around. It’s understandable why you
unlock them so late, because being able to fly lets you to skip significant
parts of a lot of stuff around the map, like Tallnecks and Relic Ruins. Flying
was wonderful though, it shows off how stunning the game is from a brand new
perspetive.</p>
<p>Combat has undergone a lot of adjustments in this game. Melee combat is hugely
overhauled, with several different melee combos available to unlock in the
Warrior skill tree. There are also several new elemental statuses including acid
and purgewater, which means a lot of new weapons capable of using ammo types
specific to those elements. There are a number of brand new types of weapons
too, like rapid-firing Boltcasters and armor-piercing Spike Throwers. Weapon
Techniques are another big addition to combat. You unlock these for each type of
weapon by acquiring the associated skills in each skill tree. Using them
requires weapon stamina, which replenishes over time, and these are <em>very</em>
useful in battle. Hunter Bows for instance, offer the Arrow Volley skill, where
Aloy quickly shoots several arrows into the sky that rain down on a small area.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/c8NY2PJ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/c8NY2PJm.jpg" alt="Spike Throwers" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/c0SDXWI.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/c0SDXWIm.jpg" alt="Weapon Techniques" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Melee Pits offer a place for you to practice the new melee combos, including
challenges that serve as nice tutorials for chaining attacks together
effectively. Each of the Melee Pits includes a challenge battle against the
pitmaster after you’ve cleared the other challenges, where you’ll want to use
what you learned to take them down. Clearing all 3 Melee Pits in the Forbidden
West unlocks the final melee challenge: a battle against a legendary fighter
known as the Enduring, who’s trained several of the greatest Tanakth warriors.
The Enduring’s identity is played up as a pretty big secret, so I won’t spoil it
here, but the battle with them was <em>awesome</em>. The rest of the Melee Pits hadn’t
been too hard to clear, I cleared most of them on my first or second try I
think, so I went in to the battle with the Enduring assuming it would be just a
<em>little</em> tougher, maybe it would take three tries or something. Oh, how wrong I
was! I lost to the Enduring many, many times. On normal difficulty, Aloy can
only withstand about three of their attacks before losing, they deal <em>so</em> much
damage. When all was said and done, I think defeating the Enduring took me
something like 30 tries, at least, but I finally did it. That fight really gave
me a new appreciation for the melee combat in this game, the combos you can
chain together feel really fluid and it’s a super cool fight.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Q1G7rGP.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Q1G7rGPm.jpg" alt="Melee Pits" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/9MLc7C3.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/9MLc7C3m.jpg" alt="the other challenges" /></a>
</figure>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/RO0uVOn.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/RO0uVOnm.jpg" alt="dialogue" /></a></p>
<p>In Zero Dawn, characters were pretty stiff during dialogue a lot of the time, but here they’re much more animated and conversations are more interesting to watch as a result. Once you make it through Utaru territory after roughly the first quarter of the game, you unlock the Base. This is a nice place to chat with Aloy’s allies on her journey. They have fun dialogue amongst themselves that you’ll overhear when passing through the Base’s common area. It’s through this dialogue that you learn Erend, one of Aloy’s companions and a returning character from the first game, has gained an appreciation for heavy metal after discovering it in the Old One’s data. It’s a fun little detail, and a really great character moment for him.</p>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/KeDB8Ih.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/KeDB8Ihm.jpg" alt="Machine Strike" /></a></p>
<p>The 10 Commandments of Game Design state that every serious open world video
game series must have some kind of in-game tabletop game. I’m happy to report
that Horizon has cemented its place as a serious open world series by
introducing Machine Strike. I’m pretty bad at it, probably because I got
impatient, never finished playing the tutorial, and jumped straight to harder
opponents. I love that it’s in the game though. It’s a little tabletop strategy
game where you collect Strike pieces, buying them from shops and carvers, and
each piece is based on a different kind of machine and has its own stats, like
movement range, health, and attack. Then you use your pieces to try and
outmaneuver your opponent and knock out enough of their pieces to win while they
do the same to you. Like I said, I was bad at it, but that didn’t stop me from
playing against the lower difficulty players a few times and scraping out a
couple wins.</p>
<p>Gauntlet Runs are basically Horizon Kart. It’s a kart racer mini-game, you
collect items, mostly arrows, and you can attack the other racers and use the
arrows you picked up to shoot them. After finishing my playthrough and looking
back on the experience, I thought I enjoyed this mini-game. There’s 4 difference
race tracks, and I didn’t have any real problems with the first two tracks the
first time I played them. Sure, it was a little stressful trying to win the
race, I felt like I was always mashing some button or another to shoot other
racers with arrows to keep them from pulling too far ahead, or to recover after
getting hit by an arrow myself, but I managed. The final two tracks were a bit
rougher, one because I kept losing and then fell through the ground during one
of my attempts, and the other because I <em>really</em> had to focus in order to win,
and it was very nerve-wracking. But still, after all that, I somehow came away
from the experience thinking “that was a fun mini-game.” But then, I replayed
the first two tracks on my wife’s New Game+ save file to help her get the
achievement for completing them, and it was awful. My mount kept coming to a
complete stop for some reason when I was trying to aim my bow sometimes, leading
to me mashing the run button and shouting at it to move. That experience brought
back the memories I’d repressed from the races in my playthrough, of the times
when I had similar problems with my mount stopping during the races. Gauntlet
Runs are a stressful experience, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/0j0uiID.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/0j0uiIDm.jpg" alt="Gauntlet Runs" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/8qQxlUV.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/8qQxlUVm.jpg" alt="kart racer mini-game" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/hmjymqs.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/hmjymqsm.jpg" alt="fell through the ground" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Just a few weeks after I finished the game, the Burning Shores DLC released
exclusively for the PS5 version of Forbidden West, featuring a new adventure for
Aloy in a brand new explorable area. Having thoroughly enjoyed the Frozen Wilds
DLC for the first game, I was looking forward to this extra content in the
sequel. And…it was alright. The environments are beautiful, with landscapes
that are just as breathtaking as the base game. There’s a really cool final boss
battle. It’s quite a setpiece, I think it makes for a better final boss than
what the base game had, it’s definitely much more of a spectacle during the
battle itself. There’s also a Jurassic Park type region added in the DLC. The
T-Rex statue has to be an homage to the visitor’s center scene at the end of
Jurassic Park, you can’t convince me it’s not. But other than that, Burning
Shores was just alright. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy my time playing it, but
it seems a bit light on content compared to Frozen Wilds. I also didn’t
particularly like main new character it introduced, Seyka. I think you’re
supposed to like her, she accompanies Aloy on all the main quests in Burning
Shores, but she just didn’t click with me. It feels like they were trying <em>too</em>
hard with her, I guess? It doesn’t help that you really don’t have much time to
get to know her, because there’s not very many main quests in the DLC.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/rsGt21I.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/rsGt21Im.jpg" alt="the Burning Shores DLC" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/1ostOki.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/1ostOkim.jpg" alt="a new adventure for Aloy" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/kLQk7Ss.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/kLQk7Ssm.jpg" alt="The T-Rex statue" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/VuFvaZe.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/VuFvaZem.jpg" alt="Seyka" /></a>
</figure>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/8FajtiL.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/8FajtiLm.jpg" alt="new skills added" /></a></p>
<p>Purchasing the DLC does unlock some cool new abilities for Aloy that you can use
both in the new area and in the base game. There’s a couple new skills added to
the existing skill trees, but the coolest new addition was the Grapple Strike.
This lets you use the Pullcaster to hookshot yourself toward a downed enemy and
give them a good stab. It’s fun to use, cool to see, and it does a bunch of
damage, so it’s a win-win all around.</p>
<p>Here’s a fun fact about Burning Shores: the main villain is played by Sam
Witwer, who also played the main character in Days Gone, Deacon St. John. I
guess I’m a fake Days Gone fan, because I didn’t recognize him at all on my own,
and instead found out thanks to a Reddit thread on the Horizon subreddit. I
couldn’t stop seeing his character in Horizon as Deacon St. John afterward, even
though they’re nothing alike besides sharing Sam’s likeness and voice.</p>
<p>Horizon Forbidden West is a real gem of an open world game. It’s a blast to play
through, and also paves the way for Aloy’s next adventure in Horizon’s
machine-riddled world. I’d easily recommend it to anyone who enjoys open-world
action RPGs, especially if you already played the first game. Burning Shores
isn’t such an easy sell for me. It was fun, but I don’t think it adds any new
must-play content to the game. Whether or not you should buy it depends on much
of a Horizon diehard fan you are, I guess. My final time for Horizon Forbidden
West was 49 hours 36 minutes, and Burning Shores added add additional 7 hours 14
minutes on top of that, for a total final time of 56 hours 47 minutes.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/xOgcrcK.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/xOgcrcKm.jpg" alt="Horizon Forbidden West" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ROmnLMk.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ROmnLMkm.jpg" alt="Burning Shores" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-185/">What I'm Playing - No. 185</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on May 05, 2023.</p>
I finished Horizon Forbidden West this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1842023-04-04T00:00:00-00:002023-04-04T00:00:00-05:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-184/#PiczleCrossAdventure">Piczle Cross Adventure <em>(PC)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="PiczleCrossAdventure">Piczle Cross Adventure <em>(PC)</em></h3>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/K8WAPQd.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/K8WAPQdm.jpg" alt="Piczle Cross Adventure" /></a></p>
<p>Piczle Cross Adventure is a 2020 indie nonogram puzzle game in the same vein as
Nintendo’s Picross series, but unlike Picross, this game is also an RPG
adventure! It was made by just one person, which is always impressive. It’s got
a few rough corners, but they don’t detract from the experience too much and
it’s a really solid game overall. There’s a <em>lot</em> of puzzles in it too, and it’s
incredible that a solo developer created so many nonogram puzzles in addition to
designing and programming the rest of the game. I played it on PC, but it’s
available on Switch as well.</p>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/jE8gm45.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/jE8gm45m.jpg" alt="not a serious story" /></a></p>
<p>This game’s fusion of adventure game and nonogram puzzles reminds me of Murder
By Numbers, but unlike that in that game, this is not a serious story at all.
You play as Score-chan, who is developer Score Studios’ mascot. They’ve made a
few other Piczle games featuring Score-chan actually, but you don’t need to know
the story of those games to enjoy Piczle Cross Adventures. The story here is
very simplistic: the evil robot under_SCORE has been zapping objects out of
existence around Piczleshire, so it’s up to Score-chan and her sidekick Gig to
go around town solving nonogram puzzles to put everything back to normal. It’s a
very basic premise, but the writing can be pretty funny. There’s one time when
the main character is asked to help restore someone’s shop, and she remarks how
she doesn’t like helping people but she will this time because she was promised
free stuff. It’s a light-hearted story for a casual nonogram puzzle game, and
that’s all it needs to be.</p>
<p>The nonogram puzzles themselves are solid. There are puzzles in a variety of
sizes and difficulty, although after a certain point in the game most of the
puzzles are 15x15, with some 20x15 puzzles sprinkled in mostly in the last few
areas. A lot of the small, early puzzles I was solving in under a minute, but
things ramp up over time and a number of the 15x15 puzzles took me 5 minutes or
longer to solve. There’s also a large range of options to tweak the experience
the way you want it, including settings to have it auto-correct your mistakes
(this is off by default) if you need extra help. There are a lot of options for
the puzzle solving interface actually, and I think it’s really great that the
developer went out of their way to make the puzzles as accesible as possible.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/BQ2W3rd.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/BQ2W3rdm.jpg" alt="nonogram puzzles" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/uv5dUox.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/uv5dUoxm.jpg" alt="puzzles" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/P53zQjG.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/P53zQjGm.jpg" alt="mistakes" /></a>
</figure>
<p>In addition to the individual puzzles, there are also combination puzzles. These
are the same as the “Micross” puzzles in some of the later Picross games, where
you’ll have to solve a bunch of puzzles to reveal squares of a larger object one
by one. After you finish the last square, the entire object will finally be
revealed. It was always fun to see the massive object restored at the end, like
an entire car, tree, or building, and have it pop back into existence.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/6m3JUIe.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/6m3JUIem.jpg" alt="combination puzzles" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/dEvwNUi.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/dEvwNUim.jpg" alt="a larger object" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/iB0ULA5.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/iB0ULA5m.jpg" alt="pop back into existence" /></a>
</figure>
<p>There’s also really good music that plays while solving puzzles, it really gets
you in the zone. There’s several different tracks, so you’re not just listening
to the same thing for every puzzle, and they’re all just catchy enough to bop
along to while still promoting the focus needed to solve puzzles like a real
piczle pro. One thing to note about both the music and sound effects though,
there’s no volume control for either of them in-game, and they’re a bit loud so
I always turned the volume down on my PC whenever I launched the game.</p>
<p>Although Piczle Cross Adventure does so much right in its puzzle solving
interface, there is one wrinkle: the mouse controls during puzzles can be a
little sticky. Sometimes when I was moving the mouse quickly and clicking I
ended up marking the wrong tiles by accident. You can play using a controller,
and those controls worked flawlessly, but I’ve gotten so used to playing Picross
on DS that I prefer to solve nonograms with a stylus or mouse. The mouse
controls are hardly unplayable, most of the time I didn’t notice the issue, but
it is worth mentioning since it cropped up from time to time throughout the
game. Other than that, the only gripe I have with the puzzles was area-specific.
In the theme park area there’s crowd sound effects like laughing and screaming
in the background, Rollercoaster Tycoon kind of stuff, but it keeps playing when
you’re in a puzzle. It was way too distracting, so I had to mute the sound
effects in that area just so I could concentrate. Luckily, you can easily toggle
sound effects off from the pause menu of any puzzle!</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/lZFT5To.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/lZFT5Tom.jpg" alt="the theme park area" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/YLEMs7J.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/YLEMs7Jm.jpg" alt="toggle sound effects off" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Though you’ll spend the majority of your time solving puzzles, the RPG and
adventure game mechanics are fun too. Between puzzles, you move around town to
find objects that have been zapped and solve puzzles to restore them. You’ll
sometimes run into obstacles that require a specific item to bypass. For
example, one time there’s a log blocking the path, so you need to find the
chainsaw and use it to cut your way through. Or rather, so your follower Gig use
it to cut a way through while Score-Chan takes a nap. The level up system is
very barebones, some puzzles just require you to be at least a certain level
before you can play them. Each puzzle you complete gives you experience towards
the next level, and the Level Up screen after you reach it has joke “stat
increases,” like Booksmarts + 5, etc.. These don’t affect the game at all, but
they were amusing sometimes.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/UIqqqXv.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/UIqqqXvm.jpg" alt="require you to be at least a certain level" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/UsZa9cN.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/UsZa9cNm.jpg" alt="the Level Up screen" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Progression through the adventure game portion was straightforward most of the
time, there was only one instance where it became pretty obtuse. There’s a
sphinx riddle part near the end that was a little annoying. It’s a cool concept,
you have to look through your logbook to find the puzzle that answers the
riddle, and then give its 3-digit puzzle code to the sphinx. The problem is,
there are a <em>ton</em> of puzzles in the game, and scrolling through the logbook was
a little tedious, made worse by the fact that the scrollbar was glitching out
when I tried to drag it around. Eventually I figured out what the riddle answer
was supposed to be…but I hadn’t completed the puzzle for it yet! I tried
wandering around a bit on my own to find the puzzle I’d missed, but eventually I
gave up and searched the Steam Community forum to see if anyone else got stuck
here. I stumbled across this thread about fishing which lead me to the answer:
you have to play the fishing mini-game until you catch a Red Herring in order to
unlock the area the required puzzle is in. I had missed that area entirely,
because I hadn’t been able to figure out how to get past the bear when I went
through the woods at the beginning of the game. I just assumed the area wouldn’t
be required to complete the story, and assumed it would unlock in the post-game
or something. I had found the fishing mini-game <em>much</em> earlier in my
playthrough, and I even had fun playing it for a little bit and catching a few
other fish, but I never would have thought it was required to finish the story.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/kghphTk.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/kghphTkm.jpg" alt="a sphinx riddle part" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/XNtpATM.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/XNtpATMm.jpg" alt="a Red Herring" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/oUBtVTN.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/oUBtVTNm.jpg" alt="get past the bear" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Despite a few flaws, this is a great puzzle game. I got pretty hooked on it
while I was playing and couldn’t wait to play more! I don’t think it’s as good
as Murder by Numbers, but it’s still a very charming puzzle game worth playing
if you’re a fan of adventure games and nonograms. And hey, I liked it enough
that I got 100% completion, finishing every puzzle in the game as I went, and
then finding a few secrets and finishing a few puzzles only available after
completing the story. My final time for all that was 22 hours 14 minutes.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/w34YPnB.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/w34YPnBm.jpg" alt="a great puzzle game" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/7CmPwRM.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/7CmPwRMm.jpg" alt="finishing every puzzle" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-184/">What I'm Playing - No. 184</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on April 04, 2023.</p>
I finished Piczle Cross Adventure this week!https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1832023-03-27T00:00:00-00:002023-03-27T00:00:00-05:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-183/#HogwartsLegacy">Hogwarts Legacy <em>(PS5)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="HogwartsLegacy">Hogwarts Legacy <em>(PS5)</em></h3>
<p>Hogwarts Legacy is the type of huge RPG set in the Harry Potter universe my wife
and I have been dreaming about for <em>years</em>. It features a lot of common
mechanics from modern, open world action RPGs, like equipment, level ups, skill
trees, and a bunch of collectibles scattered around the world. The largest thing
that sets it apart from other open world games is its Wizarding World setting,
but the IP isn’t the only thing holding up Hogwarts Legacy. It’s a very solid
game in its own right, with a fast-paced, combo-heavy combat system, and a
really cool traversal mechanic with its flying brooms.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/zjYW7uT.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/zjYW7uTm.jpg" alt="Hogwarts Legacy" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/wiMlzqi.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/wiMlzqim.jpg" alt="equipment" /></a>
</figure>
<p>You play as a character that you create and name. They’re starting Hogwarts
late, entering as a fifth-year, for reasons that are never explained. I assume
it’s meant to be left up to your imagination for role-playing purposes. On your
way to Hogwarts, things get dangerous very quickly. A dragon attacks your flying
carriage, you’re whisked away to a coastal ruin by a Portkey, then you and
Professor Fig get locked in an ancient Gringotts vault. Through all this, you
and Professor Fig discover that you can see traces of ancient magic, and find an
artifact relating to it within the vault. You also learn that a dangerous goblin
named Ranrok is now after you, and he has an army of loyalist goblin supporters
ready to fight to take down wizardkind. Just normal stuff for a 15 year old
wizard to deal with, really.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/KN81PNx.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/KN81PNxm.jpg" alt="character that you create" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ag7DQ4P.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ag7DQ4Pm.jpg" alt="you and Professor Fig discover" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/xAizzv5.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/xAizzv5m.jpg" alt="Ranrok" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/iz9KkGR.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/iz9KkGRm.jpg" alt="normal stuff" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Once at Hogwarts, you pick which of the four houses you want to be in, which
changes a few things throughout your playthrough. The most obvious differences
are, of course, the trim color on your school robes and other house-themed gear
you’ll find, and that you’ll only have access to your house’s common room. You
can find the entrances to the other house common rooms around Hogwarts, but you
won’t be able to go in. I chose Ravenclaw for my character, while my wife chose
Hufflepuff, and the biggest change we noticed was in one of the early game main
quests. We both had <em>entirely</em> different quests to do at one point, involving
different NPCs and locations. The main questline returned to a single path after
that, but it’s cool that there are some quest differences depending on the house
you chose at the beginning.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/dwoQdDI.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/dwoQdDIm.jpg" alt="pick which" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/PSRZC4o.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/PSRZC4om.jpg" alt="other house common rooms" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ykhj9pP.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ykhj9pPm.jpg" alt="I chose Ravenclaw" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Hogwarts itself was one of my favorite parts of the entire experience. This will
depend on how strong your Harry Potter nostalgia is, but I loved seeing
locations from the books and movies brought to life and reimagined for Hogwarts
Legacy. Places like the Great Hall look like they’ve been pulled straight from
the films, and walking through them was so cool, it was almost surreal. There
are also some random events you may witness when exploring the school that help
liven up the environment, like Peeves playing pranks on students, or students
playing pranks on eachother, or even the headmaster scolding students for some
of these shenanigans. It’s clear the artists and designers have a lot of love
for the source material, because Hogwarts is <em>packed</em> with little details. It’s
easy to get lost in too. Even after finishing the game, I still don’t really
have a good mental map of the place, but that might be because you don’t
actually have to spend much time at Hogwarts.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cmyF3yZ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cmyF3yZm.jpg" alt="Hogwarts" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/602LjBH.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/602LjBHm.jpg" alt="the Great Hall" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/MeZt9Vw.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/MeZt9Vwm.jpg" alt="Peeves playing pranks" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Some early main story quests take place in the school or on its grounds, but
after that the remainder of the main story missions largely take place in the
surrounding area. You’ll have to return for a class now and then to learn to a
new spell, and there are a number of side quests that pop up around Hogwarts as
you progress through the game, but I found myself spending the majority of my
time in Hogwarts Legacy outside of Hogwarts. It might have been cool if there
was a school drama side arc, maybe something like a bully around the school who
could have served as the main antagonist of some Hogwarts-centric plotline.
Unless…<em>you</em> were the bully all along? That said, there is still plenty of
stuff to do around Hogwarts. It’s an incredible, multi-layered area with lots of
little secrets to find. I just wish it was a bit more involved in the main
questline instead of mostly being relegated to one-off side quests.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/zLoUl9z.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/zLoUl9zm.jpg" alt="the bully" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cgF3k0n.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cgF3k0nm.jpg" alt="plenty of stuff to do around Hogwarts" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The open world has plenty of stuff to do, but not so much that it feels
overwhelming and the map doesn’t feel cluttered either. It helps that not all
the mechanics and collectibles are available right away. They gradually
introduce new collectibles like Ancient Magic Hotspots, Demiguise statues,
Beasts, and more as you progress through the main quests. My favorite thing to
do in the open world was flying around on a broom, hopping on it and taking off
into the sky whenever you want is awesome. My first time flying back to Hogwarts
after buying the broom in Hogsmead was extremely memorable. Seeing Hogwarts in
front of me with the Black Lake stretching out below was breathtaking.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/R4U1aZh.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/R4U1aZhm.jpg" alt="the map" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/0kpHEf4.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/0kpHEf4m.jpg" alt="Beasts" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Instead of levelling up by defeating enemies and gaining experience points, you
gain experience by completing and making progress in Challenges. Challenges
consist of a <em>wide</em> range of activities, including standard things like
defeating enemies, but there are also exploration-focused goals like Field Guide
pages around the world, and a bunch of them are around Hogwarts and Hogsmead
too. It’s cool that you’re rewarded with XP for more than just combat, it really
makes it worth pursuing all the different systems and collectibles in the game.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/hPYpGMs.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/hPYpGMsm.jpg" alt="exploration-focused goals" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/kge1DEI.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/kge1DEIm.jpg" alt="Field Guide pages" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Combat in Hogwarts Legacy feels very good. You have a basic cast attack that
does a little damage, and you build combos using a mix of this basic cast,
spells like Accio or Levioso to stun your enemies, and damaging spells like
Diffindo. Those spells all have a cooldown after use, which you can speed up by
landing more basic cast attacks. All attacks also charge up your Ancient Magic
meter, and once it’s charged enough you can mix things up further by using
Ancient Magic throws, which are basically Scarlet Nexus psychokinesis attacks
where you grab and throw a nearby object. When the meter is even more charged,
you can use Ancient Magic Finishers to instantly defeat weaker enemies and
seriously damage stronger ones. Sometimes enemies will put up color-coded
shields which you have to break by using a spell that matches the shield’s color
before you can damage them with other spells. You can also block incoming
attacks and counterattack if you guard with the right timing with a pretty
generous window, and it does the spidey-sense thing before the attack hits you.
There’s also a stealth mechanic where you can become semi-invisible by using the
Disillusionment Charm. Enemies will still see you if you’re close enough to them
in their line of sight, but if you sneak up behind them while hidden, you can
use Petrificus Totalus to stealth kill them. All this makes for a solid combat
experience similar to other modern action games like Spider-Man or Shadow of
Mordor, but this time yer a wizard.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ZyTPY7W.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ZyTPY7Wm.jpg" alt="Combat in Hogwarts Legacy" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/3bYUqSF.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/3bYUqSFm.jpg" alt="Ancient Magic Finishers" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/27mhZ2S.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/27mhZ2Sm.jpg" alt="shields which you have to break" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/bQ1AmAE.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/bQ1AmAEm.jpg" alt="it does the spidey-sense thing" /></a>
</figure>
<p>There are a number of dungeons throughout Hogwarts Legacy, most of which are
involved in quests. These dungeons are separated from the overworld by a loading
screen, and often feature a few puzzles requiring the use of specific spells, in
addition to combat and boss battles. Most of the puzzles were pretty easy to
figure out, a lot of them are solved by finding a box you can levitate and climb
up to reach a higher area, or locating a few switches to hit with a spell and
open a door. But some of the main story dungeons had a neat mechanic where you
pass through an archway and things around the room change depending on which
“side” of the archway you’re on. It’s tricky to explain, and it probably makes
more sense seeing the gameplay, but this made for some fun puzzles and these
were my favorite dungeons to go through. It reminds me a bit of at least one
other game I can’t think of right now, where there were time travel mechanics
and you had to flip between past and future to solve puzzles. If you know what
game I’m trying to remember, please let me know!</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/jwZsXue.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/jwZsXuem.jpg" alt="dungeons" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/X13AZMz.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/X13AZMzm.jpg" alt="box you can levitate" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/GndQgD1.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GndQgD1m.jpg" alt="archway" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Besides the main story and the numerous one-off side quests, there are also 3
relationship questlines with characters who become friends with your character
over the course of their questline. There’s one of these with Natty, a
Gryffindor, Sebastian, a Slytherin, and Poppy, a Hufflepuff. For some reason,
there’s not one for anyone in Ravenclaw, so you don’t get to know any of the
Ravenclaw NPCs very well as a result, even if you’re in Ravenclaw like my
character was. It makes me wonder if a fourth questline for a Ravenclaw NPC was
planned at some point, but had to be cut during development or something. These
relationship quests are optional, you can complete them independently of the
main story for the most part, although there are points where you need to
progress in the main questline before the next relationship quest becomes
available. I completed all three of these questlines, and they were all pretty
enjoyable, but I have to say my favorite was definitely Sebastian’s. In the
movies, Slytherins are painted mostly as the “bad guy” house, so it was really
nice to see a more fleshed out Slytherin character like Sebastian, and his story
arc was the most impactful of the three.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ZmaWOGB.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ZmaWOGBm.jpg" alt="Natty" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/CFLrPsx.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/CFLrPsxm.jpg" alt="Poppy" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/dZB8xe7.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/dZB8xe7m.jpg" alt="the Ravenclaw NPCs" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Q4UUEya.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Q4UUEyam.jpg" alt="his story arc" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The Room of Requirement is your customizable home base in Hogwarts Legacy. You
can conjure up and place objects purely for decorative purposes, and others that
have practical uses like potions stations to brew potions to use in battle, or
gardening stations to grow magical plants to sic on your enemies. After you
unlock beast taming, the room expands with areas to let the beasts you’ve
captured roam around, and here you can feed and brush them to get materials that
you’ll need to upgrade and enchant your equipment. I didn’t get much into the
decorating, I tried out a few decorative items but I wasn’t inspired to try and
make my Room look particularly aesthetic. I placed the maximum number of potion
and gardening stations though, and returned to the room periodically to resupply
and upgrade my gear.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/JFwP5h0.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/JFwP5h0m.jpg" alt="conjure up and place objects" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/tV9ORUh.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/tV9ORUhm.jpg" alt="areas to let the beasts" /></a>
</figure>
<p>When you learn new spells, there’s a spell learning minigame where you have to
press buttons at the correct times and move the joystick along a path to trace
the wand movements of the spell. This was a very nice nostalgic reference to the
spell learning minigames of the first few Harry Potter games, and it kind of
feels like a blend of how you learned spells across the various platforms the
tie-in games for the first two movies released on. As a kid, I played Sorceror’s
Stone on the Game Boy Advance, and Chamber of Secrets on the PC, and looking at
those two games it’s easy to see similarities to the minigame in Hogwarts
Legacy.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/WQOSWf8.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WQOSWf8m.jpg" alt="spell learning minigame" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/BfWFApb.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/BfWFApbm.jpg" alt="similarities" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The one complaint I have about the experience overall is that NPCs feel a bit
dead sometimes. Like I mentioned, there are some cool scripted interactions they
can have, like how your may randomly see a student being embarassed by the
delivery of a Howler, with a few student onlookers nearby. That’s a really cool
little detail! But students don’t really react to you most of the time. People
you’ve done side quests for will have something to say to you, but many other
NPCs don’t react to your presence at all. You can cast Incendio right next to
them and they don’t flinch or even remark at all. This is hardly the only open
world game like that, I’m pretty sure Horizon Zero Dawn is similar in that NPCs
don’t react to you swinging your spear right in their face. It’s not something
that you’ll notice for the vast majority of the gameplay though.</p>
<p>Hogwarts Legacy is a remarkable showing for developer Avalanche Software. The
studio was owned by Disney for a period of about 10 years, and during that time
they made a bunch of tie-in games for Disney movies, and also made the Disney
Infinity games. So to go from that to developing a game as massive and ambitious
as Hogwarts Legacy is incredibly impressive. They’re still working on getting
the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch versions of Hogwarts Legacy ready for release, but
I’m really curious what their next project ends up being. With the huge
financial success of Hogwarts Legacy, I think some sort of Wizarding World
followup is guaranteed, maybe it’s story DLC for Hogwarts Legacy, maybe it’s
Hogwarts Legacy 2. Only time will tell, but I’m excited and hopeful for the
future.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/3DWeGmS.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/3DWeGmSm.jpg" alt="owned by Disney for a period" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/8mWrZxa.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/8mWrZxam.jpg" alt="Hogwarts Legacy" /></a>
</figure>
<p>My final time was 38 hours, which includes completing the main story, the 3
relationship questlines, and a handful of side quests and collectibles. If you
play the game and focus only on the main story, you could get through it much
faster.</p>
<figure class="center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/GHv43BJ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GHv43BJm.jpg" alt="only on the main story" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-183/">What I'm Playing - No. 183</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on March 27, 2023.</p>
I finished Hogwarts Legacy this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1822023-03-11T00:00:00-00:002023-03-11T00:00:00-06:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-182/#PreyMooncrash">Prey Mooncrash <em>(PC)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="PreyMooncrash">Prey Mooncrash <em>(PC)</em></h3>
<p>Prey: Mooncrash is DLC for Arkane Studio’s Prey. It released in 2018, and
features the mechanics you know and love from Prey with a new setting, new
playable characters, and rogue-lite gameplay mechanics. You play as Peter, a
hacker in a satellite orbiting the Pytheas moon base. The moon base recently
suffered a Typhon outbreak similar to the one on Talos I during the main game,
and you’ve been contracted by KASMA Corporation, a competitor to TranStar who
built the moon base, to piece together exactly what happened during that
outbreak by running through virtual reality simulations of it using recovered
data and memories from five people who experienced it.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/L47Fce5.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/L47Fce5m.jpg" alt="Mooncrash" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/0rR7ctn.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/0rR7ctnm.jpg" alt="five people who experienced it" /></a>
</figure>
<p>You only play as Peter between simulation runs for brief story sequences. Once
you’re in the simulation, I guess you’re still technically playing as Peter, but
there are five different playable characters, each with different skill trees to
give them a unique play style. Some characters have powerful psychic abilities,
others have none, some characters have more health, and so on. You only have one
character in the beginning, and unlock a 2nd after completing the tutorial run.
After that, you have to complete a few specific objectives during your future
runs in order to unlock the rest of the characters. Each character’s run ends in
either escape or death, and your ultimate goal is to unlock all the characters,
complete each of their story objectives, and then escape with all five of them
in a single instance of the simulation.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/dYZqPn6.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/dYZqPn6m.jpg" alt="Some characters have powerful psychic abilities" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/2mP2yH4.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/2mP2yH4m.jpg" alt="one character in the beginning" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Icg9HWw.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Icg9HWwm.jpg" alt="ultimate goal" /></a>
</figure>
<p>What makes this a roguelite comes down to two main things. First, although the
layout of the moonbase is the same in every run, elements within those areas can
change from run to run. Maybe a door is broken in one run, requiring repair
before you can enter, or maybe it’s locked and you need to find the key card on
the body of whoever last used it. Maybe one area is without power, shutting down
all the electronics in that area and forcing you to make your way to Power
Control and either divert power from another area or find two Control Modules to
install in order to restore power. Maybe the only working escape pod is in
Moonworks in one run, but the next run it’s in Pytheas Labs instead. Changes
like this force you to think on your feet, and they add enough variety to each
run to keep things interesting. The loot you’ll find in containers and on dead
bodies is also randomized each time, so you might find different weapons in each
run and that also helps keep things fresh.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/xmjI6BU.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/xmjI6BUm.jpg" alt="the key card" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/0H90dIz.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/0H90dIzm.jpg" alt="without power" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The second roguelite element is the progression. During each run, you gain Sim
Points for a bunch of things like defeating enemies, collecting important items
like keycards or fabrication plans, and completing objectives. After the run
ends, you can spend your Sim Points to start your next character with a better
loadout, filling their inventory with extra weapons, healing items, or
Neuromods. Just like in the main game, Neuromods are the points used to unlock
things in each character’s skill tree. What’s cool about these in Mooncrash is
that while everything else on a character resets at the end of the run, Neuromod
abilities you unlock are unlocked permanently, so if you unlock a health bonus
or a cool typhon power on a character, you’ll have it unlocked for every
subsequent run as that character. You can also find Neuromods within the
simulation, but they’re a little rare, so it’s way faster to spend Sim Points to
get extra Neuromods to gain abilities.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/o0MSRbG.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/o0MSRbGm.jpg" alt="gain Sim Points" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/yayhuN8.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/yayhuN8m.jpg" alt="spend your Sim Points" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/iW7mD4t.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/iW7mD4tm.jpg" alt="Neuromod abilities" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Whether you escape or die as a given character, they will become unavailable for
your next run. The next character you play as will play through the same
instance of the moon base simulation. Any doors you unlocked or things you
repaired or hacked as the previous character stay that way for the next one.
This also includes items you’ve picked up and containers you’ve looted. If you
cleared a lot of supplies out as a previous character, then your next runs will
probably be a little harder since supplies will be more scarce, unless you
strategically left some supplies behind for the next character to use. There’s
definitely a trade-off in deciding how much to pick up as one character. You
want the character you’re playing as to survive and escape, but you don’t want
to consume so many resources and make escape too difficult for the remaining
characters. Also, once you escape through one of the five different escape
routes, that escape route will not be available for the remainder of the
simulation for the rest of the characters, so you’ll have to plan around that
when trying to get all five characters out alive too. Once all your unlocked
characters have either escaped or died, the simulation resets, and your next run
will be in a newly randomized version of Pytheas.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/qD7t38F.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/qD7t38Fm.jpg" alt="the same instance of the moon base" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/WAuTlrG.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WAuTlrGm.jpg" alt="repaired" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/4G6ilhg.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4G6ilhgm.jpg" alt="died" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Another thing to keep an eye on during runs is the Corruption Level, which
serves as a sort of time limit. As you’re running through the simulation, the
Corruption Level in the top right will slowly increase, and once it’s full, the
Corruption Level goes up by one. A higher corruption level means stronger
enemies will appear, making survival more difficult. Corruption Level 5 is the
highest level. The meter keeps rising once you’re at Corruption Level 5, but if
it fills up then you’ll be kicked out the simulation. There’s items you can use
to lower the Corruption Level meter. They can’t reduce the Corruption once it’s
increased a level, but these are really helpful to stay on the lower, safer
levels for as long as possible. The Corruption Level doesn’t reset until the
whole simulation resets either. Once it goes up a level, you’re stuck at that
level for the rest of the characters until they all either escape or die. The
Corruption Level definitely puts the pressure on to accomplish your objectives
and get out quickly. It doesn’t increase that fast in the beginning, but as you
get closer to the end of the game, it starts increasing slightly faster.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/U34SHv0.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/U34SHv0m.jpg" alt="Corruption Level" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/fpTehvQ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/fpTehvQm.jpg" alt="Corruption Level definitely puts the pressure on" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Each run starts in the same place, an offshoot of the central Crater area. From
there, you’ll make your way to the Crater, and deal with the first real hurdle:
the Moon Shark. This is a new enemy Typhon in Mooncrash that looks like the
Nightmare from the original game, but this one digs underground through the moon
dirt and hunts by feeling vibrations in the ground. Vibrations like your
footsteps. Anywhere in this crater area, if you step on exposed dirt, the Moon
Shark will start heading toward the sound. Even if it’s all the way on the other
side of the crater, if your feet touch dirt it will become alerted and starting
heading your way. Your best option is to avoid the dirt and jump from rock to
rock to avoid the Moon Shark’s attention, or maybe keep it distracted by using a
Typhon Lure and make a run for it. You could also try killing it, which there is
an achievement for, but it’s pretty strong so there’s a good chance fighting it
head on will lead to death. The Moon Shark was a fun element to plan around at
the start of the run. If you’ve got the jetpack, then getting around the Crater
without alerting the Moon Shark isn’t too difficult. There’s always a jetpack
near the start of the run, this is one of the few loot locations that isn’t
randomized, but if you grab the jetpack as the first character, you won’t have
it for your next run in this simulation, and you’ll have to figure out an
alternate way to evade the Moon Shark. This new enemy was really cool, the way
it tunnels underground reminds me of the graboids from the 1990 movie Tremors,
which I was a pretty big fan of as a kid.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/RBpPZem.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/RBpPZemm.jpg" alt="the Moon Shark" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/nNKvOtA.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/nNKvOtAm.jpg" alt="try killing it" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Besides the new Moon Shark enemy, there are also some new weapons in Mooncrash.
Some of these I picked up and never tried out, like the Typhon Spore. I
completely forgot about those whenever I had them in my inventory. But I got a
lot of use out of the new Psychostatic Cutter weapon, a laser knife that you can
charge up to send out beams of psychic cutting energy. I love this thing, it’s
so much more fun to use than the wrench for melee combat.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/JZUYDK9.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/JZUYDK9m.jpg" alt="Typhon Spore" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/j9lZ6qf.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/j9lZ6qfm.jpg" alt="Psychostatic Cutter" /></a>
</figure>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/reBzKZ1.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/reBzKZ1m.jpg" alt="Trauma" /></a></p>
<p>Though not exclusive to Mooncrash, Survival mechanics are another new addition
to gameplay. When Mooncrash released, these were also patched into Prey as a
setting you can turn on when starting a new game for an additional challenge. In
Prey, I never played with these on because they sounded tedious. But in
Mooncrash, they’re always on, so I had to play with them. They’re actually a lot
of fun! In addition to survival mechanics like weapon durability, there’s a
handful of different Trauma status effects, like fire causing a burn that
reduces your maximum health, or certain types of damage causing a concussion
that reduces your max SP and prevents you from spending Neuromods until it’s
cured. These can all be cured by either finding a Medical Operator or by finding
or crafting a cure for that particular Trauma, like how Dermaweb Skin Grafts
cure the burn status. These Survival mechanics add another nice element to the
gameplay that works especially well in Mooncrash’s roguelite setting. I’ll have
to turn some of the Survival options on in Prey to mix up my next playthrough.
Without Mooncrash, I probably would have never given them a try.</p>
<p>In addition to escaping, each character also has a Story Objective to complete.
These reflect the actual events that took place during the Typhon outbreak at
Pytheas, and these are a big part of how the story of Mooncrash is told. But
before you can start a character’s Story Objective, you first need to complete
another objective to unlock it. For example, to unlock the Volunteer’s Story
Objective you have to escape using the Mimic Portal in Pytheas Labs. It sounds
easy at first, but once you reach that point you realize the Volunteer can’t
complete the objective on his own because part of the Portal equipment is broken
and he doesn’t have the Repair ability. So to unlock the Volunteer’s Story
Objective, you first need to enter the simulation as the Engineer and have them
make the necessary repairs, then play as the Custodian to hack the computer, so
that when you <em>finally</em> play as the Volunteer, you can make your way to the Labs
to escape using the mimic portal. The Volunteer is the first playable character
unlocked, but his Story Objective was the last one I unlocked and completed
because of the other characters it requires you to unlock first. Things like
this regarding the order you have to play certain characters in the simulation
to unlock various Story Objectives reminds me a bit of Deathloop. It’s
interesting to think about how various elements they tried out in Mooncrash
might have influenced Deathloop’s development. Of course, Deathloop doesn’t have
as many roguelite elements as Mooncrash does though.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/PukgpzX.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/PukgpzXm.jpg" alt="complete another objective to unlock it" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/J3hX6Us.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/J3hX6Usm.jpg" alt="the Engineer" /></a>
</figure>
<p>I was surprised at how solid the story is here. I went into Mooncrash expecting
rogue-lite Prey, and I thought the only storytelling would be done through the
environment with audio logs and notes. There are still quite a few audio logs
and notes around, and you can learn a lot about the setting and characters from
them. But the way the characters’ stories intertwine through the Story
Objectives added a lot more to the storytelling than I expected. It was cool to
gradually piece together the events at Pytheas and each character’s role in
them, and there were also references to Prey and the events on Talos I. Besides
the Pytheas Moonbase story that unfolds during the Story Objectives, as you make
overall progress unlocking characters and completing Story Objectives, there’s
also a plotline outside of the simulation. Gradually, we learn a bit more about
Peter, the hacker we’re playing as, and his employer, KASMA Corporation. Peter’s
story is also a complete arc, and by the time I completed all the objectives and
the credits rolled, I was very satisfied with the whole package.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/iN6Ivf1.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/iN6Ivf1m.jpg" alt="quite a few audio logs" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Enz72wL.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Enz72wLm.jpg" alt="the Story Objectives" /></a>
</figure>
<p>My one complaint about Mooncrash is that you can’t keep playing on your save
file once you finish all the KASMA Orders. The story is over at that point, so
the game ends and if you reload that save you’re stuck in a story segment before
the credits and there’s no way to enter the simulation to do more runs. If you
want to play more, you have to start a new game, beginning the process of
unlocking all the characters again. Which is fine, but it’d be nice if there was
a way to keep playing on your late game save file, or a way to start a new game
with all the characters unlocked so you can skip some of the tutorial stuff. As
it is, if you want to keep playing through the endgame content, you have to
strategically leave at least one of your KASMA Orders uncompleted. The easiest
way to do this is to leave either one of the characters’ Story Objectives
uncompleted, or just make sure at least one of them dies during the simulation
to avoid escaping with all five.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/y90HDpM.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/y90HDpMm.jpg" alt="one complaint" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/yPTVPBd.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/yPTVPBdm.jpg" alt="unlocking all the characters again" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The gameplay in Prey: Mooncrash feels very familiar but the rogue-lite mechanics
and the new enemies, weapons, and powers change up enough of the experience that
it’s well worth playing and even replaying after you’ve finished Prey. Having
five different characters with different available skills means that unlike in
Prey, you never have one single character who can do everything. You’re forced
to think on your feet about how to get around obstacles, and you might run into
things you can’t get around as your current character. It’s a lot of fun, and it
makes for a great supplemental experience to the original game. If you played
Prey and you’re craving more, you should definitely check out the Mooncrash DLC.
My final time was 8 hours 44 minutes.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/P1Nd71J.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/P1Nd71Jm.jpg" alt="very familiar" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/n5qj7QS.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/n5qj7QSm.jpg" alt="My final time" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-182/">What I'm Playing - No. 182</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on March 11, 2023.</p>
I finished the Prey: Mooncrash DLC this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1812023-03-01T00:00:00-00:002023-03-01T00:00:00-06:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-181/#LifeisStrange:TrueColors">Life is Strange: True Colors <em>(PS5)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="LifeisStrange:TrueColors">Life is Strange: True Colors <em>(PS5)</em></h3>
<p>Life is Strange: True Colors is a 2021 adventure game, and the third main entry
in the series. I played it on PS5, but it’s also available on PS4, Xbox One,
Xbox Series, PC, and Switch. You play as Alex Chen, a young woman who who just
reconnected with her older brother Gabe, who she hadn’t seen in eight years, and
moved to Haven Springs, Colorado. Alex has the psychic ability to read other
people’s emotions, which she sees as colorful auras when they’re feeling
strongly enough. When they’re feeling <em>really</em> strongly, their emotions can even
infect her, taking over until she calms down. Haven was supposed to be a fresh
start for her, but before Alex even has a chance to settle in, Gabe is killed in
an accident. The plot largely focuses on Alex’s investigation into the
mysterious circumstances behind her brother’s death as she uses her power to
discover the truth.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/9l5fwDg.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/9l5fwDgm.jpg" alt="True Colors" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ea19Mda.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ea19Mdam.jpg" alt="Alex Chen" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/PeZZrvs.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/PeZZrvsm.jpg" alt="mysterious circumstances" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Gameplay consists mostly of exploring the town and talking to people,
ocassionally making choices that will have some sort of minor consequence
eventually. For the first time in the series, motion capture was used to capture
the actors’ performances, and it makes a <em>huge</em> difference during dialogue.
Characters’ faces look really natural during conversation, including the way
their eyes move, and it makes the dialogue much more engaging. It’s also just a
really pretty game in general, the visuals have seen a major overhaul since the
previous entry.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/vJJA3Jv.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/vJJA3Jvm.jpg" alt="exploring the town and talking to people" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/WBTyjUd.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WBTyjUdm.jpg" alt="making choices" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/2xyRYPU.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/2xyRYPUm.jpg" alt="motion capture" /></a>
</figure>
<p>As you investigate around Haven Springs, you’ll be able to use Alex’s power to
tap into the emotions of certain characters. Many times this is required to
advance the main plot and you’ll have to use her power on the main cast to help
them work through their feelings, which sometimes pulls you into a surreal
alternate reality reflecting that person’s tenuous mental state. But there were
also many opportunities to use her power on random NPCs around town. Sometimes
this is just for simple dialogue, but other times it unlocks an optional
objective for you to solve their problem, like helping someone find their lost
dog or something. The main optional collectibles in each chapter are tied to
using Alex’s power too. You can find objects scattered around town and use
Alex’s power on them to collect a special memory related to that item.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/73Nhm8E.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/73Nhm8Em.jpg" alt="use her power on the main cast" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/N9DXixe.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/N9DXixem.jpg" alt="helping someone find their lost dog" /></a>
</figure>
<p>True Colors also has a few mini-games sprinkled throughout, which is a fun touch
to help mix up the gameplay. You’ll play foosball as part of the main story in
one chapter, and there’s also an arcade game in your apartment you can play in
several chapters that’s like a mix of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. One of my
favorite segments in the game was the Live Action Role-Playing game you take
part in during the third chapter. Here, the game briefly turns in a turn-based
RPG, with the camera off to the side to give it the same perspective as battles
in the early Final Fantasy games. There’s a little battle music track playing in
the background whenever you enter battle with one of the “monsters,” who are all
played by Ryan. I really liked this part, the battles have very simple RPG
mechanics and it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose, but the whole thing
just has so much charm and it’s woven into the narrative really well. It makes
for a nice setpiece in the middle of the game.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/oHIBVd3.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/oHIBVd3m.jpg" alt="an arcade game in your apartment" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/keWqMGc.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/keWqMGcm.jpg" alt="turn-based RPG" /></a>
</figure>
<p>This game is pretty short, but it tells a really good story, so I didn’t mind.
It’s definitely smaller in scope than the previous game. The explorable areas
are limited to a handful of locations, and you revisit most of them several
times throughout the story. These include your apartment, the bar downstairs
from it, several other shops along the street, and a decently large stretch of
Haven Springs that connects these areas. These locations are where 80% of the
game takes place, so you’ll become very familiar with them over time. This whole
small town setting is a lot like the first Life is Strange. It gives the game a
very cozy feeling, and I think I prefer True Colors over Life is Strange 2
because of it. The choices in this one don’t really change the direction of the
story in any significant ways, but it’s still worth experiencing at least once.
My final time was about 9 hours.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/7VV2Eap.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/7VV2Eapm.jpg" alt="explorable areas are limited" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cxjC9KU.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cxjC9KUm.jpg" alt="small town setting" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/7d4fVpz.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/7d4fVpzm.jpg" alt="My final time" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-181/">What I'm Playing - No. 181</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on March 01, 2023.</p>
I finished Life is Strange: True Colors this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1802023-02-10T00:00:00-00:002023-02-10T00:00:00-06:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-180/#Moonlighter">Moonlighter <em>(PC)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="Moonlighter">Moonlighter <em>(PC)</em></h3>
<p>Moonlighter is a fun indie roguelite action RPG with a light management sim
mechanic where you run a store during the day. You play as Will, owner of the
shop Moonlighter. At night, you delve into randomly generated dungeons
constructed very much like The Legend of Zelda’s dungeons on the NES, defeat
monsters to get loot, and then sell that loot in your store the next day to make
money. Then you spend that money to upgrade your store and equipment, making it
easier to clear the dungeons. It’s a very addictive gameplay loop, it does a
great job getting you in that “just one more run” mindset.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cW31UNC.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cW31UNCm.jpg" alt="Moonlighter" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/PFLcPR0.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/PFLcPR0m.jpg" alt="You play as Will" /></a>
</figure>
<p>There are four different Dungeons, and your goal is to reach the bottom of each
one and defeat the boss to get its key. You’ll need all four keys to complete
your ultimate goal: opening the legendary Fifth Door and finding out what’s
inside. The Dungeons unlock one by one as you clear the previous dungeon, and
get progressively more difficult. Dungeons are always 3 floors long with a
mini-boss at the end of the first two floors, and the dungeon boss at the end of
the final floor. This structure reminds me a bit of another indie roguelite,
Going Under, which had similar fixed length dungeons. Initially, you will be
very underprepared to clear the first dungeon, but after repeated attempts,
you’ll have upgraded your gear enough that it will be a breese. If you’re
skilled and determined enough, you could probably clear the dungeon with the
starting gear, but that would be very tedious.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/sY2wer4.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/sY2wer4m.jpg" alt="Dungeons" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/rlJXy3n.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/rlJXy3nm.jpg" alt="each one" /></a>
</figure>
<p>For the combat, there’s several kinds of weapons to choose from, and you can
have two equipped at once to quickly switch between. I tried a few different
weapon types early on, but once I found a combo that worked, I stuck with those
weapons for the rest of the game. My weapons of choice were a sword and a bow.
During the first dungeon I used the slower greatsword, but I switched to using
the sword & shield during the second dungeon and liked the feel of that one much
better. You also have a dodge roll with pretty generous invulnerability, so your
timing doesn’t have to be super precise to avoid enemy attacks, and there’s not
a long cooldown on your dodge either. The dodge roll also reminded me of Zelda,
because you can move a lot faster if you dodge roll repeatedly which made me
think of rolling around constantly in Ocarina of Time because it was also faster
than walking in that game.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/q5vRXxO.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/q5vRXxOm.jpg" alt="the combat" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/DO0YxoI.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/DO0YxoIm.jpg" alt="several kinds of weapons" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ZcowYoL.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ZcowYoLm.jpg" alt="a bow" /></a>
</figure>
<p>When you’re down in the dungeons, there’s a few different ways your run can end.
Of course clearing the dungeon by defeating the boss at the bottom is one way,
and dying is another. But beyond those, you have several options for when you
want to leave the dungeon alive but you’re not quite strong enough to clear it.
The first one is the Pendant. The Pendant allows you to leave the dungeon
immediately for a small fee, keeping all your loot when you leave. It becomes
more expensive to use the deeper in the dungeon you are, and if you don’t enough
gold to pay the fee, you’ll be stuck. As you clear floors in the first dungeon,
you unlock new features too. One of these is The Mirror, which allows you to
instantly sell loot while in the dungeon for a very reduced price, but it can be
helpful in a pinch if your bag is full and you want to make room for better
loot, or if you don’t have enough money to use the Pendant. The Catalyst allows
you leave the dungeon and create a one-time portal for you to return right where
you left off, but it costs a <em>lot</em> more to use than the Pendant, and it’s also
more expensive on lower floors. The Catalyst was really helpful for clearing
dungeons quickly, because you can use it to leave right before the stairs down
to the next floor, heading back to town to sell your loot, restock, upgrade your
equipment, and then you can start right from where you left off and head down to
next floor right away. I really liked these mechanics. They allow you to end
your run without dying, which is a much better option since you get to keep all
your loot whereas you lose most of it on death. Plus, it just feels refreshing.
In many roguelites, your run only ends when you die or complete the dungeon, so
having the option to choose when to end my run in Moonlighter without dying felt
good.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/0LpmKTD.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/0LpmKTDm.jpg" alt="dying" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/skPMRoQ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/skPMRoQm.jpg" alt="the Pendant" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/e38BXOm.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/e38BXOmm.jpg" alt="The Catalyst" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Outside of the dungeon crawling, the shop mechanics were a lot of fun too. After
you’ve returned from a run with a backpack full of stuff to sell, you put the
items out on display stands and set the prices. You can set whatever price you
want, but each item has an ideal price. To find that price, you’ll have to watch
customer reactions when they’re viewing the item, and see how they react to the
current price. If the price is <em>way</em> too high, they’ll be angry, and that’s your
cue to cut the price by a lot, otherwise no one will buy it. Once you’re closer
to the proper price, customer reactions will change, and the set price and their
reaction to that price will automatically be entered in your Notebook to help
you track what each type of item should be sold for. You might work your way to
the ideal price from the other direction too by starting with a low price, but
if you set the price way too low customers will be <em>overjoyed</em> and buy it
immediately. After you’ve displayed an item once, whenever you put that item out
for sale again after future runs it will default to whatever price you set for
it last, so you don’t have to set the same price on things over and over or
remember the prices of dozens of different items. Just like with your equipment,
you can also upgrade your shop to add more displays and other upgrades. Once you
get the hang of running of the shop, it works really smoothly. It’s nice to have
a little break between dungeon runs to wind down before your next run, and
seeing the money roll in makes for a very addictive gameplay loop.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/kWTjrC7.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/kWTjrC7m.jpg" alt="set the prices" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/VroMwai.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/VroMwaim.jpg" alt="customer reactions" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/upYZEDM.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/upYZEDMm.jpg" alt="customer reactions will change" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Initially, I thought the shop sections were very slow, but that was just because
I was still learning the mechanics and how to run it efficiently. At first I
thought I should be selling items one-by-one instead of selling entire stacks at
once because I assumed customers wouldn’t be able to afford full stacks of
items, but that doesn’t matter at all. As long as the price per unit is fair,
customers will buy full stacks without batting an eye, no matter what the total
cost is. Once you figure out a good price for an item, it’s better to just sell
the whole stack at once to save time. One of the first Shop upgrades you can get
is a Sale bin that will automatically sell items in it at 75% off their value.
You don’t have to put things in there, but I liked to use it to easily clear out
the rest of my bag after filling the display stands with the more valuable items
from my last dungeon dive. For a long time I thought you had to figure out item
prices entirely by trial and error. It wasn’t until later that I realized the
Notebook includes price range information. It sorts items by price, and there
are markers for specific prices as you scroll through. By using those, you can
get an idea of how much more expensive one item should be than another, and how
it relates to the price markers in the Notebook. It took me until around the end
of the second dungeon or the beginning of the third to realize this, and I wish
I would have noticed sooner because keeping this in mind really helps find ideal
item prices faster!</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ZJkEzBw.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ZJkEzBwm.jpg" alt="no matter what the total cost is" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/YSJ5UGg.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/YSJ5UGgm.jpg" alt="a Sale bin" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ci6bHq0.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ci6bHq0m.jpg" alt="Notebook includes price range" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Moonlighter was a very good game. It’s not my favorite roguelite, but it was a
really relaxing one to play through. I played through it on the recommended Hard
difficulty, but it never felt like I was against impossible odds. Although, I
did play pretty carefully most of the time, not pushing my luck too far trying
to just barely clear the dungeons and instead prioritizing escaping with a full
inventory to buy as many upgrades as possible. It’s definitely worth checking
out if you’re a fan of roguelites, the shop management mechanic is an
interesting twist. My final time was 14 hours 16 minutes according to Steam, but
my in-game save file only lists 9 hours 58 minutes. I’m not sure what the
difference is, the in-game save might only count the time in dungeons, and
exclude the shop sections? I’m not sure, but either way Moonlighter is a pretty
short game, and won’t take up too much of your free time if you pick it up.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/lkwlG2y.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/lkwlG2ym.jpg" alt="Moonlighter" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/1ieMo43.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/1ieMo43m.jpg" alt="My final time" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-180/">What I'm Playing - No. 180</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on February 10, 2023.</p>
I finished Moonlighter this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1792023-02-05T00:00:00-00:002023-02-05T00:00:00-06:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-179/#FireEmblemEngage">Fire Emblem Engage <em>(Switch)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="FireEmblemEngage">Fire Emblem Engage <em>(Switch)</em></h3>
<p>Fire Emblem Engage is an extremely fun game. It looks great, with excellent
battle animations for things like critical hits and dodges, and nice character
models. The music is great, and the gameplay is <em>super</em> polished, featuring a
nice blend of series staples and new mechanics. Battles in this game might just
have the best turn-based strategy the series has ever seen. It feels like an
amalgamation of all the 3DS Fire Emblems: Awakening, Fates, and Echoes. It has a
world map like Awakening and Echoes, no weapon durability like Fates and Echoes,
and the ability to undo turns like Echoes (and Three Houses). Personally, I was
really excited to see the World Map return in particular. I’ve always really
enjoyed the Fire Emblem games with World Maps ever since I first played Sacred
Stones. Seeing your little character move around the map space by space is just
really charming. There’s also a nameable player character in Engage, who’s much
more like Robin or Corrin than Byleth because they’re not a silent protagonist,
although you can’t customize their appearance beyond choosing their gender. The
default name for them is Alear, but I named him Pepsiman.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/1PwR8CV.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/1PwR8CVm.jpg" alt="Fire Emblem Engage" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/lCNziwQ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/lCNziwQm.jpg" alt="an extremely fun game" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/1vk6VhZ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/1vk6VhZm.jpg" alt="choosing their gender" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The story is a pretty simple, good vs. evil adventure. Alear is a Divine Dragon
who defeated the Fell Dragon, Sombron, 1000 years ago, and then fell into a deep
sleep. Waking up after 1000 years, Alear learns that the Fell Dragon is stirring
once again, so they need to travel around the world to collect the twelve Emblem
Rings before the followers of Sombron get them first in order to prevent the
Fell Dragon from returning to power and taking over the world. It’s an enjoyable
adventure, somewhat predictable but there were still some moments that caught me
by surprise. My biggest complaints about the story happen late in the game, so I
won’t spoil them here, but there are some scenes where it tries to give some
villains an empathetic backstory, and those felt pretty heavy-handed. I think if
they wanted to develop their villains, they should have started doing it earlier
instead of trying to squeeze it into the closing moments of the game. Aside from
that though, I enjoyed the story for what it is: a fun adventure.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/B1ya0jS.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/B1ya0jSm.jpg" alt="The story is a pretty simple" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/UrceqrS.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/UrceqrSm.jpg" alt="Alear is a Divine Dragon" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Not only are the Emblem Rings central to the plot, the biggest new gameplay
mechanic also comes from them. Emblems are the spirits of heroes from other Fire
Emblem games, and they live in the Emblem Rings. Wearing one of the rings allows
a unit to summon the Emblem to fight alongside them in battle, providing them
with several bonuses. They can also Engage with the Emblem, temporarily fusing
with them for a few turns and changing their appearance while giving them access
to Emblem Weapons associated with that Emblem, powerful skills, and a special
attack that they can only use once per Engagement. For example, Engaging with
Emblem Marth allows you to wield the Falchion, and gives you access to the
Lodestar Rush skill, a multi-hit flurry of attacks. Some Emblems provide really
powerful skills while Engaged, like how one of Emblem Sigurd’s skills gives you
+5 movement while Engaged, letting you run practically halfway across the map.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/YkuYoE0.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/YkuYoE0m.jpg" alt="fight alongside them in battle" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/WxqXoHF.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WxqXoHFm.jpg" alt="fusing with them" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cTf2OzW.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cTf2OzWm.jpg" alt="Emblem Weapons" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Characters also have a Bond level with each Emblem that increases as they use
them, though you can also spend Bond Fragments at the Arena to quickly level up
Bonds. As a character’s Bond with an Emblem increases, they’ll gain access to
new skills and Emblem Weapons while using that Emblem, and they also have a very
simplified version of a Support conversation with the Emblem every five levels.
And I mean, <em>very</em> simplified, these Bond conversations are usually only two
sentences long.</p>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/zSn8Xqf.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/zSn8Xqfm.jpg" alt="I made old man Lindon into a warrior" /></a></p>
<p>Another thing characters will gain from increasing their Bond with certain
Emblems are weapon proficiencies. These are needed to change their classes,
either changing them to a different Base class with a Second Seal, or changing
them to an Advanced Class with a Master Seal once they’re at least level 10.
Characters have certain innate weapon proficiencies, and if those are the only
weapon proficiencies needed for a class they’ll be able to change to it no
problem. But if a character only has a proficency in lances and you want to
change them to a class that requires lance and axe proficiency, you’ll first
need to increase their Bond with an Emblem that gives axe proficiency at some
level, like Leif. This is an interesting way to handle class changes, it gives
you a lot of flexibility to reclass units to whatever class you want, but you
can also just ignore the proficiencies from Bonds and promote units to the
Advanced versions of their starting classes if you want. That’s pretty much what
I did, I didn’t drastically change the class of any characters I was actually
using. I messed around a bit with characters who weren’t in my main party
though, I had a good laugh when I made old man Lindon into a warrior.</p>
<p>I really like the nostalgia factor of the Emblems. I’ve played every mainline
Fire Emblem game that has an official localization, so seeing these classic Fire
Emblem characters brought back was awesome. Each Emblem has a Paralogue
available later in the game. In each one, they’ll talk a little bit about a
pivotal moment from their own adventure, and then Alear will have to clear their
trial which features a remake of a map from their game. It’s been a long time
since I played most of the games the Emblems are from, but I still recognized
several of these maps! It was really cool to see these maps and hear a little
about the story of their games again. It makes me want to replay them,
especially Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. For Sigurd and Leif’s Paralogues,
I haven’t played their games since they weren’t released outside of Japan and I
haven’t gotten around to playing the fan translation patches, but hearing the
characters talk about their adventures and seeing their maps makes me want to
play those games. It also makes me want a Genealogy of the Holy War remake or at
least an official English release! I mean, why else would they feature Emblem
Sigurd so prominently in the story if they weren’t planning on bringing
Genealogy back somehow, right? …Right?</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/x8kmu0m.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/x8kmu0mm.jpg" alt="nostalgia factor" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/QSmprXM.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/QSmprXMm.jpg" alt="the Emblems" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/u7HzcLg.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/u7HzcLgm.jpg" alt="clear their trial" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The weapon triangle of many previous Fire Emblem games makes a return here with
an interesting new twist: the Break system. If you attack an enemy with a weapon
that has an advantage over theirs, you’ll inflict Break on them, disarming them
until after their next combat. This means that they won’t be able to counter you
during the combat you inflict Break, and you can also get a free attack in on
them if you attack that same turn with another unit. This can be helpful to
strategically defang tough enemies. I only played on Normal difficulty, which
was pretty easy the whole way through, but I imagine using Break effectively is
very important on the harder difficulties.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/juZOn1s.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/juZOn1sm.jpg" alt="Break system" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/6pwD6kz.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/6pwD6kzm.jpg" alt="attack an enemy with a weapon that has an advantage over theirs" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Outside of combat, the place where you’ll spend the most time is at Somniel.
This is your base of operations throughout the game, and between chapters you
can return here to run around the area, talk to your allies, eat meals with
them, and play a few mini-games, including fishing, a wyvern rail shooter, and
several strength training games. The gameplay here is a little like Three
Houses’ Garreg Mach Monastery in that you’re exploring this 3D home base in
3rd-person, but other than that it’s actually more like a new version of My
Castle from Fates. Characters in your army will appear around Somniel to talk
to, but only some of them will ever have anything related to the story to say.
Most of the time they just have generic character dialogue, which can be fun too
although I was much less likely to talk to them towards the end of the game
since I knew they’d just be repeating dialogue I’d already heard before. The
last thing I want to mention about Somniel is your pet/mascot, Sommie. He’s this
cute little creature that follows you around Somniel, and his footsteps make
this adorable squishy noise. Plus, you get to dress him up, and I love that
you can give him a little Alear wig, it’s too funny!</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/zcq3Q8t.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/zcq3Q8tm.jpg" alt="a wyvern rail shooter" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/R6rIQMP.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/R6rIQMPm.jpg" alt="a little Alear wig" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Characters in this game come off as pretty one-note most of the time. They each
have their “thing,” and that’s what a lot of their dialogue and supports will
center around. Initially, I was a little thrown off by the simplicity of the
characters. They felt too flat. Many of their Supports tend to revolve around
their main character trait and nothing else. Céline has multiple C Support
conversations about tea, and I saw two of them in a row at one point. In fact, a
lot of the Supports between Firenese characters are about tea, and they’re the
first characters you get so Supports at the beginning of the game weren’t super
interesting. But after awhile, the characters really began to grow on me. Their
simple personality traits became endearing, and many of their Supports became
more interesting too, like Alcryst’s Supports with Céline about their shared
fear of losing their older brothers. Alcryst has several good supports, I think
on average his supports might be the best ones in the game, at least from what I
saw. My main point here is that if you give Engage a try and you’re not enjoying
the characters, give them a chance. You might find that your opinion on them
turns around later on like mine did, but even if it never does I think it’s
worth sticking it out for the gameplay alone.</p>
<p>One other thing about the characters in this game, a lot of them have really odd
quirks. Some of it is just overexaggerated anime cheese, particularly early on,
but then you have things like Clanne’s weird obsession with pickles. This comes
up in his C Support with Etie, and when I saw this Support, I was like “what is
happening right now?” I was similarly thrown by Yunaka’s introduction, where she
says things like “Zappy!” and “hiya papaya!” which come off really forced and
awkward, but I guess that’s kind of the point there, and she actually ended up
becoming one of my favorite characters. Some of the quirks can be endearing at
times, like Chloé’s love of disgusting-sounding folk food dishes. Overall, I
really did end up liking the characters, at least the ones I ended up using.
Although with Alfred it was kind of a love-hate relationship, because his quotes
like “My muscles are yours!” still got on my nerves at the end of the game, and
he didn’t turn out to be a very good unit either. He was pretty much carried by
Emblem Sigurd, the absolute chad. I would have stopped using Alfred, but I’d
already put so much time into training him and he was in a lot of story
cutscenes so I felt obligated to keep him in my party.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/fCYAbw6.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/fCYAbw6m.jpg" alt="weird obsession with pickles" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/apwiyYv.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/apwiyYvm.jpg" alt="the absolute chad" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Playing this game felt incredibly nostalgic, largely due to the Emblems but the
mechanics were also much more like classic Fire Emblem. I can definitely see
myself replaying it at some point. There’s so many characters I didn’t use, so
much potential for team building through class changes using Second Seals, and
pairing different Emblems with different characters opens up a lot of
possibilities too. It’s a very different game than Three Houses, its
predecessor, and it leaves me wondering which direction the series will go in
the future. Will the next game feature more social sim elements like Three
Houses, or will it have the more traditional gameplay loop of Engage? Or, maybe
they’ll continue with both types of games, alternating styles between releases.
I really enjoyed both Three Houses and Engage, so I don’t mind either way, but I
imagine some fans might prefer one or the other. Anyway, if you’re a fan of the
series or of strategy RPGs in general, I definitely recommend checking Engage
out. It could also be a good starting point if you’ve never played a Fire Emblem
game before too. You won’t have any nostalgia for the Emblems, but seeing them
might be enough to get you interested in playing some of the older games. My
final time was 51 hours 38 minutes. A large chunk of that was cutscenes and time
spent in Somniel, but I also completed every Paralogue, so if you just focus on
the main story you could probably finish the game much faster.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/WxeOL4W.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WxeOL4Wm.jpg" alt="this game" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/GjfNV3Q.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GjfNV3Qm.jpg" alt="incredibly nostalgic" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-179/">What I'm Playing - No. 179</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on February 05, 2023.</p>
I played through Fire Emblem Engage this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1782023-01-27T00:00:00-00:002023-01-27T00:00:00-06:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-178/#Hitman2016">Hitman (2016) <em>(PC)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="Hitman2016">Hitman <em>(PC)</em></h3>
<p>I played through the Hitman 1 campaign as part of Hitman 2. It was in the April
2020 Humble Monthly, and I think I’m able to play the Hitman 1 maps in it since
I also own it Steam. I’m not entirely sure, I’m just playing what I had access
to after installing it. Despite owning almost every Hitman game on Steam, the
only Hitman game I’d played prior to this was Hitman: Absolution. That was a
while ago, back on Xbox 360, but I remember enjoying it for the most part. It
got decent reviews at release too but it seems like the general opinion is that
it’s a bad Hitman game. Absolution may have been my starting point in the
series, but I don’t have any particular nostalgia for it and I honestly don’t
even remember much of it. The only nostalgic thing that hit me when playing
through Hitman 2016 was with Agent 47’s signature fiber wire. I remembered using
it in Absolution too and that was kind of cool.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/IG8a4lZ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/IG8a4lZm.jpg" alt="the Hitman 1 campaign" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/XLNklZ2.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/XLNklZ2m.jpg" alt="part of Hitman 2" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/lp31uJO.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/lp31uJOm.jpg" alt="Absolution" /></a>
</figure>
<p>At surface level, Hitman might sound like a serious game. It’s about
assassinating targets while blending in with the crowd, becoming a silent agent
of death. But once you get into the gameplay, you realize at some point that’s
not entirely the case. Hitman expertly juxtaposes its serious cutscenes and plot
with the absurdity of Agent 47 disguising himself as a chef and killing someone
with an expired can of ravioli. There are a bunch of joke costumes and weapons
like that scattered around the maps, and to me that’s a big part of what Hitman
is all about, at least this reboot series. Somber and dignified on the surface,
but a real goofball underneath. I’m not saying it’s all jokes, you could play
through a mission without ever using a joke weapon or costume and there are
moments when you’re sneaking around where you’ll really feel like a secret
agent. But even beyond the joke items, there’s a sense of levity in the game’s
presentation. Maybe it’s in the reactions NPCs have to your disguises, or maybe
it’s the fact that somehow Agent 47, this bald, emotionless killing machine, can
convincingly disguise himself as so many different things. He’s a chef, a
gardener, a male model. That definitely plays a role in keeping things a bit
lighter. I never got tired of seeing Agent 47 “blending in” while disguised
either, just look at this guy.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/CtGabjS.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/CtGabjSm.jpg" alt="serious cutscenes" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/4lKc6KG.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4lKc6KGm.jpg" alt="expired can of ravioli" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Os8C1A1.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Os8C1A1m.jpg" alt="joke costumes" /></a>
</figure>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/h7kg2Ck.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/h7kg2Ckm.jpg" alt="access parts of the levels without raising suspicion" /></a></p>
<p>In addition to being really amusing, Agent 47’s disguises also play an important
role in helping you take down your targets by allowing you to access parts of
the levels without raising suspicion. Knocking out or killing male NPCs allows
you to take their clothes to disguise yourself. For example, dressing yourself
as a security guard usually gets you access to a lot of places in each level,
but even a waiter or cleaning staff disguise can be useful. There are still some
NPCs who will see through your disguise though, these are marked by white
circles when using your superhuman senses and on the minimap as well. While
these characters can see you, their suspicion will slowly increase, and if the
meter fills up they’ll begin chasing you down and your cover will be blown if
they get close and stare at you for too long. Your cover is also blown if
someone sees you commit a crime, and in either case your status becomes
Compromised. That’s when you should start trying to find and put on a new
disguise without being seen, otherwise if NPCs see you while Compromised they’ll
panic, and guards will shoot you on sight. You could go loud and clear an entire
level while being Compromised by killing every guard you come across, but I
haven’t been very successful with that approach myself.</p>
<p>Your first attempt at each level will probably take quite a while as you begin
learning the level and probably wind up getting killed several times if you’re
anything like me. The goal of each one is to eliminate all your targets and
escape via one of several exits, and to do that, you have to explore these
incredibly fun, multi-layered sandboxes to find your targets and learn their
routine. One of the tools to help you learn the levels are the Mission Stories.
These guide you through several possible opportunities to take out one of your
targets, and are excellent ways to get a feel for level layouts and either when
your target will be most vulnerable or how to put them in a vulnerable position,
and some also set you up to eliminate them and make their death look like an
accident, which means less suspicion on you after the kill.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/CeesEN4.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/CeesEN4m.jpg" alt="Your first attempt at each level" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/qMJ3GyY.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/qMJ3GyYm.jpg" alt="Mission Stories" /></a>
</figure>
<p>After you’ve completed a level, you gain mastery experience for that level, and
unlock new options during planning. For example, you might unlock the ability to
begin a level undercover in the kitchen, saving you from having to start out on
the street and find a disguise in order to gain access. The starting locations
will probably be most helpful for casual players in saving time, but you also
unlock new smuggled item locations as you gain level mastery, allowing you to
pick up your chosen smuggled item from the selected location. That could be very
helpful too once you have a better handle on the level, but I didn’t use the
smuggled items much at all because I’m still only a novice Hitman.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/T5EDsIR.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/T5EDsIRm.jpg" alt="gain mastery experience" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/zvj97ii.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/zvj97iim.jpg" alt="unlock new options during planning" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/xNGxYGA.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/xNGxYGAm.jpg" alt="starting locations" /></a>
</figure>
<p>I really can’t express the depth these levels have. It feels like every time I
play a level I notice something new. An open window, a pipe you can climb up,
there are so many ways to approach these levels and that’s awesome. Aside from
the Mission Stories teaching you some potential ways to take out your targets,
there are also many Challenges in each level that task you with eliminating your
targets in specific ways, but don’t tell you how to get there. Some of these are
pretty broad and there’s many different ways you could do it, like assassinating
your target with explosives or poison, but some are more specific and you’ll
have to really examine your target and their surroundings carefully to figure
out how to make that method of elimination work.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/LqMENIy.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/LqMENIym.jpg" alt="Challenges" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/P0OAjFi.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/P0OAjFim.jpg" alt="method of elimination" /></a>
</figure>
<p>As a reboot, Hitman is an excellent starting point in the series. I definitely
recommend checking this game out if the social stealth gameplay interests you.
That said, how you get access to it will be changing very soon when the Hitman
reboot trilogy gets rebranded as Hitman: World of Assassination and the
individual entries in the trilogy get pulled from storefronts.</p>
<p><em>Edit:</em> Actually it’s already changed the day before this post went up.</p>
<p>But either way, it definitely gets a recommendation in my book. My final time
for completing each level at least once was 12 hours 12 minutes, although that
time also includes replaying some of the levels. There’s also pretty much no
ceiling for how much time you could put into replaying these levels either, with
a whole slew of other game modes available that I haven’t even touched. Maybe
I’ll get into those when I talk about Hitman 2.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/clIopzv.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/clIopzvm.jpg" alt="Hitman" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/iYWL4XR.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/iYWL4XRm.jpg" alt="excellent starting point" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-178/">What I'm Playing - No. 178</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on January 27, 2023.</p>
I finished Hitman (2016) this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/list/top-10-games-i-played-in-20222023-01-18T00:00:00-00:002023-01-18T00:00:00-06:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>In 2022, I finished 26 games. Or 27, depending on if you count the games in
Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Complete Edition separately. That’s my lowest count
since starting Braving the Backlog back in 2019, but I played a number of
lengthy games this year, including a few long JRPGs and open-world games. But
most importantly, I enjoyed my time spent gaming last year, and I plan to do the
same in 2023!</p>
<!--more-->
<p>I managed to play a few 2022 releases, 4 of them, which is actually the same
number of current year releases I played through in 2021. Speaking of 2021, some
of the releases I mentioned in last year’s video that I was interested in but
hadn’t picked up, I actually caught up on <em>this</em> year! Those are Deathloop,
Scarlet Nexus, and Tales of Arise, and don’t worry: you’ll be hearing more about
each of them later in this list.</p>
<figure class="half center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cKf1rAG.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/cKf1rAGm.jpg" />
<figcaption>All 26 games I completed in 2022</figcaption>
</a>
</figure>
<p>As far as other 2022 releases go, there are a number of games I’m interested in
but I either haven’t picked up yet or haven’t started playing. There are
probably more that I’m forgetting, but these are the 2022 releases at the top of
my list to play…someday.</p>
<figure class="half center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/TthFsvx.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/TthFsvxm.jpg" />
<figcaption>2022 Releases I Didn't Play</figcaption>
</a>
</figure>
<p>Before we get started with the list, I wanted to include a few extra honorable
mentions here. These were really great games, and I struggled trying to figure
out if they should take any of the top 10 spots for while. It was a close race!</p>
<h3 id="honorable-mentions">Honorable Mentions</h3>
<ul>
<li>Detroit: Become Human</li>
<li>Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Complete Edition</li>
<li>Going Under</li>
<li>Katamari Damacy Reroll</li>
<li>Murder by Numbers</li>
</ul>
<figure class="half center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/iHZUpxg.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/iHZUpxgm.jpg" />
</a>
</figure>
<h2 id="10-soul-hackers-2">10. Soul Hackers 2</h2>
<figure class="third center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/HEXwbSO.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/HEXwbSOm.jpg" />
</a>
<ul>
<li>Developer: Atlus</li>
<li>Release: August 26, 2022</li>
<li>Platform: PlayStation 5</li>
</ul>
</figure>
<p>Prior to 2022, the most recent entry in Atlus’s Devil Summoner series was 2009’s
Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon on the PS2. So, imagine the
MegaTen community’s excitement when out of nowhere, Atlus puts up a website
teasing a new project that seems to be related to Devil Summoner. Weeks go by,
and eventually we get the big reveal: Soul Hackers 2.</p>
<p>Some people are immediately put off by it. I haven’t played the first Devil
Summoner: Soul Hackers, game, but what Atlus was showing in the trailers left
the fanbase pretty divided on this new game. Still, I was excited. A new MegaTen
game from Atlus? Sign me up. I got <em>super</em> hyped for this game in the weeks
leading up to the launch, and when release day finally came I picked up my copy,
went home, and started it up. And…almost immediately, it was clear something
was a little off. The pacing in the opening exposition cutscenes was really odd,
but once the gameplay kicked in I was like, “all right, yeah, MegaTen dungeon
crawling here we come!” After finishing the game, I can say confidently: the
dungeon crawling is easily the worst part of this game.</p>
<p>Soul Hackers 2 is a good game, I really liked its story, characters, battle
system, and music, but its dungeons leave a lot to be desired, <em>especially</em> the
Soul Matrix. As a huge fan of Atlus’s MegaTen franchise, it hurts having to put
Soul Hackers 2 so low on the list. I still had a blast playing through it, but
of the MegaTen games I’ve played this is definitely the most underwhelming one,
with so much missed potential.</p>
<h2 id="9-the-quarry">9. The Quarry</h2>
<figure class="third center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/BoVcYL1.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/BoVcYL1m.jpg" />
</a>
<ul>
<li>Developer: Supermassive Games</li>
<li>Release: June 10, 2022</li>
<li>Platform: PlayStation 5</li>
</ul>
</figure>
<p>The Quarry was an awesome game for me and my wife to play together. We took
turns passing the controller back and forth, and seeing what wonderful, B-movie
horror nonsense these characters would get into next. We ended up playing and
watching a lot more of this game than I expected. We’d turn it on movie mode
while making and eating dinner and watch the story unfold, and it was always
interesting to see what different choices lead to.</p>
<p>We ended up logging something like 50 hours in The Quarry, a large chunk of
which was in movie mode so we weren’t really playing, but we did play through it
several times ourselves too.</p>
<h2 id="8-days-gone">8. Days Gone</h2>
<figure class="third center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/MhKiWgM.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/MhKiWgMm.jpg" />
</a>
<ul>
<li>Developer: Bend Studio</li>
<li>Release: April 26, 2019</li>
<li>Platform: PlayStation 5</li>
</ul>
</figure>
<p>Days Gone was the last game I finished in 2022. It was surprisingly good, and a
great way to cap off the year. It got a pretty average critical response, but
it’s much more just an average game.</p>
<p><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-176/">I made a post on it very recently</a>,
so I don’t really have anything more to say about it at this point. If you like
zombies and open world games, check out Days Gone.</p>
<h2 id="7-deathloop">7. Deathloop</h2>
<figure class="third center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/1mZhYFk.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/1mZhYFkm.jpg" />
</a>
<ul>
<li>Developer: Arkane Studios</li>
<li>Release: September 14, 2021</li>
<li>Platform: PlayStation 5</li>
</ul>
</figure>
<p>As a fan of the Dishonored series, I had to pick Deathloop up, so when I found
it for a good price for PS5, I grabbed it. I enjoyed it a lot more than I
expected. The dynamic soundtrack worked really well, and I enjoyed listening to
the level themes both when in stealth and in combat. The gameplay also hits a
lot of the same notes Dishonored does, while also bringing new ideas to the
table with the whole loop mechanic and how that affects player progression.</p>
<p>Granted, I played pretty much entirely in the offline single-player mode where
Julianna is controlled by the AI, so I likely had a very different experience
than a lot of people who played this one primarily or entirely online. Learning
the ins and outs of its levels and how they change over the course of the day
was a lot of fun. I tended to play it very similarly to how I played Dishonored,
which is creeping around stealthily and using Blink a lot, but it’s also a lot
of fun to go loud sometimes. Although I am <em>way</em> worse at playing that way.</p>
<p>I enjoyed Deathloop so much that I even played a little on PC several months
after playing it on PS5, and I’ll probably play more in the future too.</p>
<h2 id="6-ai-the-somnium-files">6. AI: The Somnium Files</h2>
<figure class="third center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Rk1pQ0E.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Rk1pQ0Em.jpg" />
</a>
<ul>
<li>Developer: Spike Chunsoft</li>
<li>Release: September 17, 2019</li>
<li>Platform: PC</li>
</ul>
</figure>
<p>AI: The Somnium Files is a rollercoaster. It has bizarre moments, suspenseful
moments, moments where it’s too horny for its own good, and moments that leave
you wondering “what the heck is going on here?”</p>
<p>This story was a blast to play through. It’s got a host of wacky characters and
a compelling serial killer mystery to solve, with a fun blend of sci-fi, anime,
and detective fiction as a backdrop. The narrative is structured similarly to
the Zero Escape series, with branching paths and some branches locked until you
play through other routes, and only when you’ve seen every branch of the story
will the whole thing make sense.</p>
<p>It’s executed really well, and I’m itching to get into the 2022 sequel, AI: The
Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative someday when the backlog allows for it.</p>
<h2 id="5-horizon-zero-dawn">5. Horizon Zero Dawn</h2>
<figure class="third center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/YoO5IJ5.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/YoO5IJ5.jpg" />
</a>
<ul>
<li>Developer: Guerrilla Games</li>
<li>Release: February 28, 2017</li>
<li>Platform: PlayStation 4</li>
</ul>
</figure>
<p>The world of Horizon Zero Dawn always seemed so interesting to me, and I’d heard
such good thing about it online that I picked up the complete edition digitally
a few years ago, and like so many other games in my backlog it sat there for a
<em>long</em> time.</p>
<p>The motivation I needed to finally play this game for myself was seeing my wife
play through it earlier this year. She loved this game so much that we also got
the sequel, Forbidden West, later in the year and she’d play through and enjoy
that game too. From watching some of her Zero Dawn playthrough, I finally
decided it was time to play it myself and I started my playthrough shortly after
she finished hers.</p>
<p>Playing this game collaboratively together was awesome. During my playthrough,
my wife would give me advice about what to do next or answer questions I had
about random things. Based on that experience alone, Zero Dawn would make this
list, but on top of the great experience we had playing it together, it’s also a
really good game, and I’m looking forward to playing through Forbidden West
eventually, maybe after the DLC comes out!</p>
<h2 id="4-tales-of-arise">4. Tales of Arise</h2>
<figure class="third center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/NGxfxSL.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/NGxfxSLm.jpg" />
</a>
<ul>
<li>Developer: Bandai Namco</li>
<li>Release: September 10, 2021</li>
<li>Platform: PlayStation 5</li>
</ul>
</figure>
<p>I’ve been a fan of the Tales series since Symphonia, and while I haven’t played
<em>quite</em> every main entry in the series, I’ve played a lot of them. I haven’t
bought a Tales game at launch since Zestiria though, so when Tales of Arise came
out, I didn’t get it right away. But when I picked it up a little over half a
year later, it was everything I’m looking for in a Tales game: a super fun
combat system with plenty of combo potential and over-the-top attacks, a lovable
cast of characters, and a long adventure you can really sink into.</p>
<p>This game was JRPG comfort food for me, and by the time I was done with it I had
completed the main story, the post-game content, and gotten all the
achievements. It was my longest single playthrough of the year , with my final
time clocking in at 71 hours 24 minutes.</p>
<p><em>(I did spend more total time playing Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, with a
total of 73 hours 11 minutes logged but that was from 2 playthroughs)</em></p>
<h2 id="3-hades">3. Hades</h2>
<figure class="third center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ocEd6wP.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/ocEd6wPm.jpg" />
</a>
<ul>
<li>Developer: Supergiant Games</li>
<li>Release: </li>
<li>Platform: PC</li>
</ul>
</figure>
<p>In the past, I was never very into the roguelites I’d tried. I always got a bit
discouraged when I was on a good run only for it to end and my awesome character
I’d been building up was just gone, and though there was some form of permanent
progression, it was never enough to keep me playing long enough to reach the end
of the game. Hades was different. I still had some disappointing runs, but it
doesn’t make you feel bad about dying because death is part of the narrative. In
his journey to escape, Zagreus <em>will</em> die (unless you’re some kind of prodigy),
and the story is written with this in mind. There’s <em>so</em> much dialogue in this
game. When you get sent back to the House of Hades between runs, characters
always have something interesting to say about your prior runs, or something
related to the story or lore. Another thing I really liked about Hades is how it
gets you to try out different weapon types by offering you bonuses for picking a
different weapon for your next run. I was enticed by this pretty often, and I
think it helped me progress faster since I was getting more resources during
that run just for switching weapons, and it keeps the gameplay loop during runs
feeling fresh too.</p>
<p>My biggest regret is that I played Hades through PC Game Pass as part of a free
1-month deal, and now that I’m no longer subscribed to Game Pass, I don’t have
access to Hades and I don’t know if I can recover my save file either. I’d love
to fire up Hades again someday, but I’d much rather own it on Steam than get it
through Game Pass again. My backlog is just <em>too</em> massive to justify paying for
a subscription service.</p>
<p>Hades does <em>so</em> much stuff right. It’s got a great art style, great characters,
<em>excellent</em> music, and really fast, satisfying combat. I really don’t have
anything bad to say about it. Much like The Game Awards in 2020, I thought this
would be Game of the Year. But as you can see from its place in this list, I
ended up playing some other games that I enjoyed even more.</p>
<h2 id="2-scarlet-nexus">2. Scarlet Nexus</h2>
<figure class="third center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Lk0pAlU.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Lk0pAlUm.jpg" />
</a>
<ul>
<li>Developer: Bandai Namco</li>
<li>Release: June 25, 2021</li>
<li>Platform: PlayStation 5</li>
</ul>
</figure>
<p>Scarlet Nexus’s aesthetic was always really cool. A futuristic anime action RPG
where you play as characters with psychic powers is right up my alley. But I did
<em>not</em> expect to love this game so much. The flow of the gameplay really landed
with me, especially when playing as Kasane. It looks fantastic, combos feel
great, and I love the SAS character cut-ins too, it’s just so stylish.</p>
<p>I played through Kasane’s story first and it was my favorite of the two, but I’m
glad I played through the game twice to experience Yuito’s route as well. There
are a few parts of the plot where there might be some inconsistencies, but it’s
such a fun ride that I didn’t mind and I was more than willing to go along with
it.</p>
<p>The soundtrack blew me away too. Before playing it, I hadn’t heard <em>anyone</em> talk
about the music in Scarlet Nexus so I wasn’t expected anything special but I
<em>love</em> this OST. The fantastic English dub also endeared me to these characters
even more.</p>
<h2 id="1-prey">1. Prey</h2>
<figure class="third center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/AmBoHCE.jpg">
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/AmBoHCEm.jpg" />
</a>
<ul>
<li>Developer: Arkane Studios</li>
<li>Release: May 4, 2017</li>
<li>Platform: PC</li>
</ul>
</figure>
<p>I had always enjoyed Arkane’s Dishonored series in the past, and that was one of
the reasons I finally decided to play Prey. This game has opened my eyes to the
immersive sim genre. I always knew I liked Dishonored, but I now realize that
one of the things I liked about it was its immersive sim elements. Prey has even
more immersive sim elements, and I was blown away by the freedom this gives the
player.</p>
<p>There’s so much potential for different character builds, and a multitude of
ways to progress through the story and areas. If you decide to spend points to
max out your Hacking skill, you’ll be able to access areas and deal with robotic
enemies in very different ways than a character who doesn’t have Hacking IV, and
likewise there’s other skill trees like Leverage and Repair that provide similar
unique advantages at various points throughout the game.</p>
<p>I also really enjoyed the story of Prey, and its phenomenal use of environmental
storytelling in many, many situations. That’s nothing new from Arkane though.
Their games are some of the few where I will actually read many of the in-game
notes and journals, because I feel like the writers for Arkane really breathe
extra life into the game through these little notes. Talos I was just an
<em>incredible</em> setting, and I never got tired of exploring it because there’s
always some new detail to discover.</p>
<hr />
<p>My favorite playthrough of 2022 was Prey, and I’m excited to try more immersive
sims sometime in the future, like the Deus Ex series and System Shock 2, and see
if they capture my attention the same way Prey did.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great 2023!</p>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/list/top-10-games-i-played-in-2022/">Top 10 Games I Played in 2022</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on January 18, 2023.</p>
My top 10 favorite games I played in 2022.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1772023-01-10T00:00:00-00:002023-01-10T00:00:00-06:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-177/#TheLegendofZelda:TheWindWakerHD">The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD <em>(Wii U)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="TheLegendofZelda:TheWindWakerHD">The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD <em>(Wii U)</em></h3>
<p>I still think of this HD version of Wind Waker as a new game, but it came out in
2013 so it’s actually almost 10 years old as of the writing of this post…wow.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/n8MDpBt.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/n8MDpBtm.jpg" alt="HD version of Wind Waker" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/GscfwM4.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GscfwM4m.jpg" alt="almost 10 years old" /></a>
</figure>
<p>When Wind Waker HD came out, I didn’t own a Wii U, so I missed out on it
completely. Now nearly 10 years later, I still don’t own a Wii U, but after
after watching a Wind Waker randomizer video, I got the itch to play it again.
So, of course I thought about just playing through the GameCube version again.
It’s the version I grew up with, it’s familiar. But after a little Googling and
asking my Wii U owning friend about the differences between the two version, I
decided it was time to play through Wind Waker HD for the first time.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/kGpbaAR.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/kGpbaARm.jpg" alt="Wind Waker HD" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Nw1rO3e.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Nw1rO3em.jpg" alt="time to play through Wind Waker HD" /></a>
</figure>
<p>I was always a bit skeptical of the visual changes made in this version. The
GameCube original has such a timeless, iconic look, and I think it still holds
up. But playing Wind Waker HD, it really does look great. I still missed the
original graphics sometimes, but I ended up liking the HD visuals too. In terms
of gameplay tweaks, HD is <em>so</em> much nicer to play. Updated grappling hook
controls allowing you to change direction without stopping first, streamlined
PictoBox DX acquisition and figurine crafting, the list goes on and on, but
there’s one thing that’s probably the #1 improvement for a lot of people: the
Swift Sail. It’s an optional item that was added to the auction on Windfall
Island, and once you get it you can toggle Fast Sailing by pressing A whenever
you’re at sea. Fast Sailing is about twice as fast as regular sailing, and it
automatically sets the wind direction at your back, making sailing so much more
streamlined. I can see how some purists might scoff at this idea, and I myself
find the default sailing speed incredibly relaxing at times, but the thing is
that the Swift Sail is optional. If you don’t like it, you don’t even have to
pick it up! Or, you can just keep playing GameCube Wind Waker.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/zD71t2o.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/zD71t2om.jpg" alt="the visual changes" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/jY9VI5y.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/jY9VI5ym.jpg" alt="Fast Sailing" /></a>
</figure>
<p>I forgot how much of a little gremlin Link is in this game. He makes the
funniest facial expressions, it’s great. This has easily got to be the funniest
Zelda game thanks to this little guy. But aside from Link, the other characters
are really memorable too. The Rito and Korok races are very distinctive, and the
character designs in general for the human characters stay stuck in your mind
too. I might not know that snot-nosed kid’s name from Outset Island, but I will
never forget him.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/IcpbI9o.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/IcpbI9om.jpg" alt="little gremlin Link" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/GuyqaRw.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GuyqaRwm.jpg" alt="Rito" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ECNhEP3.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ECNhEP3m.jpg" alt="Korok" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/McOK5KS.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/McOK5KSm.jpg" alt="I will never forget him" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Prior to this, the last Zelda game I’d been playing was Ocarina of Time, so
adjusting to Wind Waker’s combat again was a little jarring. I kept trying to
power crouch stab everything, but that’s not a thing in Wind Waker. I like Wind
Waker’s combat though. It feels much more cinematic than Ocarina of Time’s with
the way the musical stings come in when you hit an enemy, and the dramatic
counterattack animations. The bosses in Wind Waker are incredible spectacles
too, the way they tower over Link is really cool.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/4AxiBgT.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4AxiBgTm.jpg" alt="combat" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/QsayeEn.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/QsayeEnm.jpg" alt="The bosses in Wind Waker" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The dungeons in Wind Waker are pretty good. I don’t think they’re the best in
the series, but they’re well-designed and it was fun going through them all
again. I definitely remember the first three the most clearly, I must’ve played
through those a bunch of times as a kid and then started a new save file or
something. Those first two are definitely my favorites, there’s just something
about them that I can’t quite put my finger on. I do like how all the dungeons
in this game require Big Keys, especially when your path through the dungeon
takes you past the Boss Door before you get the Big Key, like in Dragon Roost
Cavern. I love it when the dungeons are designed to loop you back around like
that, it scratches the metroidvania-loving part of my brain.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/svklfU0.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/svklfU0m.jpg" alt="The dungeons" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/IFEZF6Y.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/IFEZF6Ym.jpg" alt="the Big Key" /></a>
</figure>
<p>I didn’t plan on doing many side quests, and for the most part I didn’t do a lot
of side stuff here. But I was surprised at a few of the side objectives I
completed simply because it had been so long since I played Wind Waker and did
those things, and I wanted to complete them and see if they were more
streamlined in the HD version. As a kid, I thought watering all the Korok
saplings was a <em>nightmare</em>. I’m pretty sure I did it like once, or maybe I never
even finished it because I didn’t have a guide and couldn’t find the last one.
I’m not sure, but this time I had seen several of the Koroks as I sailed around
the seas, and after a trip to Forest Haven to make some figurines (which is one
of my favorite things in the game, by the way), I was like “eh, I’m here, might
as well grab some Forest Water and go for it.” This time I used a guide for the
Korok locations, and I’m glad I did or I never would’ve found some of the Koroks
in time. The combination of the Swift Sail and the increased Forest Water time
limit (from 20 minutes in the original to 30 minutes in HD) made finishing this
side quest completely painless, but it is pretty annoying that the only reward
you get for finishing this pretty involved, <em>timed</em> side quest that takes you
all over the world map is…a Heart Piece.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/rocN5bT.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/rocN5bTm.jpg" alt="make some figurines" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/856cWa6.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/856cWa6m.jpg" alt="grab some Forest Water" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/c5KVvGr.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/c5KVvGrm.jpg" alt="the Korok locations" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Playing through the Wind Waker for the first time in so long was a wonderful
experience packed with nostalgia. The original is one of the games I grew up
with, so it holds a special place in my heart. Even after all these years, Wind
Waker holds up extremely well, especially the HD version. It’s not a difficult
game by any stretch of the imagination, but that’s okay. It’s a <em>fun</em> game, with
a sense of adventure in sailing its wide open seas that feels unique to the
series, with the exception of maybe Phantom Hourglass on the DS. It’s been a
long time since I played that game too, but I don’t think it captures quite the
same feeling as its home console predecessor. If you’ve never played The Wind
Waker, I definitely recommend giving it a try. Original or HD, I don’t think you
can go wrong, but the quality-of-life improvements in HD go a long way. My final
time was 17 hours, 30 minutes.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/4mVj9qt.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4mVj9qtm.jpg" alt="a wonderful experience" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/lPmOUFI.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/lPmOUFIm.jpg" alt="My final time" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-177/">What I'm Playing - No. 177</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on January 10, 2023.</p>
I finished The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1762023-01-05T00:00:00-00:002023-01-05T00:00:00-06:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-176/#DaysGone">Days Gone <em>(PS4)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="DaysGone">Days Gone <em>(PS4)</em></h3>
<p>Days Gone is a 2019 action-adventure game with an open world. It originally
released on PS4, but in 2021 it released on PC as well. In a weird way, it
reminds me a little of Red Dead Redemption with zombies. Oh wait, that already
exists. It’s like Red Dead Redemption with zombies and <em>motorcyles</em>. You play as
Deacon St. John, a survivor in post-apocalyptic Oregon two years after a global
pandemic transformed a large chunk of the population into mindless zombies. He
gives off a kind of outlaw cowboy vibe at first, and another character even
refers to him as a “biker outlaw” at one point, even if this is meant as a bit
of a joke. He <em>was</em> in a biker gang before the world ended though, along with
his friend Boozer, who’s basically like a brother to him, and even after the
outbreak the two continue to wear their biker jackets.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/HO45w1W.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/HO45w1Wm.jpg" alt="Days Gone" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Xuc3H3P.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Xuc3H3Pm.jpg" alt="Deacon" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/0bX4fc4.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/0bX4fc4m.jpg" alt="a survivor" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The game opens with a short scene when the outbreak is just starting. Deacon’s
wife, Sarah, is hurt, and Deacon makes the decision to put her on a helicopter
heading to a refugee camp for treatment. There’s no room for him onboard, so
they say their good-byes and the helicopter takes off. We then jump two years
forward in time, and find that Deacon and Boozer are both still alive, but Sarah
is nowhere to be seen. The story throughout the game largely revolves around
Deacon coming to terms with the loss of Sarah, and searching for a reason to
live in this broken world.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Gp0gpSE.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Gp0gpSEm.jpg" alt="put her on a helicopter" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Ut5nvQl.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Ut5nvQlm.jpg" alt="Deacon" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Honestly, this opening isn’t very impressive. It plays well on PS5 with an
excellent framerate, but the graphics in the opening during the city scenes
weren’t particularly impressive, and the story didn’t grab me yet either. The
graphics do a sharp 180 once you get into the main game though, and the Oregon
countryside looks <em>fantastic</em>. The intro also takes longer than I expected to
introduce the “zombies.” You don’t see them at all in the opening flashback.
Then after the time skip, you fight human enemies before you ever see any of the
Freakers. That’s what they call the zombies in this universe, Freakers, or just
Freaks. They look kind of like the Darkseekers from the Will Smith movie version
of I Am Legend: pale, bald, and violent. It’s probably around 20 minutes before
you encounter the first Freaks, so it’s really not <em>that</em> bad, but the pacing in
the opening did feel a bit off. Despite the game’s slow start though, once you
get through the opening section and its frequent tutorials and cutscenes, it
really picks up with very fun gameplay.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/YuvkTqf.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/YuvkTqfm.jpg" alt="the Freakers" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/yBIO9DJ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/yBIO9DJm.jpg" alt="the opening" /></a>
</figure>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/FVDRsc3.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/FVDRsc3m.jpg" alt="the zombie apocalypse setting" /></a></p>
<p>Days Gone features a semi-open world where additional regions open up as the
main story advances. If you try to go somewhere you’re not supposed to yet, the
game will tell you you’re leaving the game area to force you to turn around.
Combat is what you’d expect from a third-person action-adventure game in a
modern setting, offering up numerous guns and melee weapons to use, as well as
stealth kills if you sneak up behind an enemy without getting noticed. The thing
that really distances this from other games is the emphasis on motorcycles. For
some reason, no one seems to have a working car in this game. Deacon and every
other survivor you come across rely on motorcycles to get around. Your bike is
your life, serving as your main form of transportation, a save point, and you
also need to be near your bike in order to fast travel. When you drive around or
fast travel, you use up gas, so you need to keep a careful eye on your gas level
and refill the tank to avoid running out. Luckily, gas cans are plentiful, so
even if you run out of gas far away from a gas station, chances are you can find
a gas can nearby somewhere. There’s also a crafting mechanic, where you’ll pick
up junk you find lying around and craft medkits, molotovs, and other tools from
it. I enjoyed these survival elements to the gameplay, especially having to keep
an eye on the fuel level. It’s a novel mechanic in an action-adventure game like
this, and it works well in the zombie apocalypse setting.</p>
<p>Unlike some open world games, the world map doesn’t feel too bloated. There’s
enough stuff to do without it feeling overwhelming, and by the end of the game I
had completed many of the optional objectives around the map. Riding around the
world on your motorcycle is awesome. The world looks great, and there are a
number of random events you can run into like bandit ambushes and the like,
which really help bring this world to life. One of the best things to discover
like this are the Hordes. One time I found a cave. My curiosity got the better
of me, and I rode inside to take a peek. Well, I found a ton of zombies in
there, and they saw me right away, surrounding me as I tried to reverse out. I
didn’t make it out of there alive. Moments like that happen organically during
exploration, and it was a joy to experience them, even when I died. Maybe
<em>especially</em> when I died, since it really made the world feel dangerous. I
didn’t know it at the time, but what I’d run into there was one of many Hordes
spread throughout world. Hordes have some minor story significance later, and
they’re also the star of the optional side objective Horde Killer, where your
goal is to wipe out all the Hordes. Once you manage to defeat every Freak in a
Horde in one sitting, you’ll wipe out the Horde for good, and it won’t respawn.
Trying to clear a Horde is really only recommended when you’re in the late game,
but I was actually able to defeat one of the early game Hordes shortly after I
discovered it. Tackling the Horde at such an early stage was a challenge and I
died many times attempting it, but <em>finally</em> defeating that first Horde was a
great feeling. After I finished the main story, I spent a little time hunting
down Hordes with my endgame weapons. The Hordes in the game’s starting area were
trivial to take down at that point, but the Hordes of the later areas were
<em>much</em> larger, and they were still able to overwhelm me easily if I wasn’t
prepared.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Ay6kz42.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Ay6kz42m.jpg" alt="the world map" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/4fzk2m2.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4fzk2m2m.jpg" alt="when I died" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/c1qEoPh.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/c1qEoPhm.jpg" alt="Trying to clear a Horde" /></a>
</figure>
<p>There are moments when the experience stagnates a bit. You’ll have a wealth of
things to do when you progress in the main story and unlock a new part of the
world map to explore. But I tended to do pretty much everything available in
that area first before I focused on story missions, then I’d be left with just
one story mission to do, and doing it would unlock the next one. Missions are
not all created equal though. Some are interesting, and put you into cool areas,
but others are just “Story Jobs” where you go somewhere for a cutscene and
that’s the entire thing. You get some experience when it’s over and the next
mission unlocks. Some of the main missions revolve around stealth, and these are
also very slow. I didn’t mind using the game’s basic stealth mechanics during
regular gameplay, but when you’re forced to use stealth for an entire mission
and you fail if you’re discovered, it gets old pretty quickly. The plot moves
really slowly at times too. My wife even remarked at one point, “didn’t they
talk about this already?” during one of the cutscenes, and she definitely has a
point. The story tends to go in circles a bit as Deacon sorts through his
feelings about Sarah. But I still found myself invested by what was going to
happen next with these characters, and when the plot gets moving, it is really
good. Most of the time it was the gameplay that had me hooked on Days Gone, but
there were a few times I couldn’t put the controller down because of the story.
I’m also really glad it never falls into the “are you infected?” trope that so
much zombie media has already done to death. It never really focuses on how the
infection spreads or why the survivors we see haven’t been infected and don’t
seem worried that they may become infected. It’s honestly a refreshing change,
and leaves the story free to focus on other kinds of drama.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ifvV7i7.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ifvV7i7m.jpg" alt="you fail" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/FLYsEly.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/FLYsElym.jpg" alt="other kinds of drama" /></a>
</figure>
<p>On top of the lengthy main campaign, Days Gone even has a challenge mode. It was
added to the game post-launch as a free patch. The main game certainly has
enough in it that it didn’t <em>need</em> a challenge mode, but I actually enjoyed an
hour or two of trying its challenges out. I’m kind of into this sort of
score-based side mode actually, it reminds me of the Dunwall City Trials DLC
from the first Dishonored game, which I know a lot of people don’t like, but I
have some fond memories of trying the challenges out in that game casually and
having a good time, and my time in the challenge mode in Days Gone was similarly
casual. There’s 12 different Challenge missions in total, with several different
kinds of objectives: fighting Hordes, fighting waves of human enemies, and
motorcycle time trials. I also like that you can play as other characters in the
challenges too, including Iron Mike, the elderly leader of one of survivor
camps.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/MKq5Rc1.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/MKq5Rc1m.jpg" alt="a challenge mode" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/rA02bgx.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/rA02bgxm.jpg" alt="Iron Mike" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/7wztLRK.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/7wztLRKm.jpg" alt="the elderly leader of one of survivor camps" /></a>
</figure>
<p>I’m not sure if Days Gone will ever get a sequel. It got mixed reviews at launch
on PS4, and it reportedly didn’t meet Sony’s sales expectations and that
developer Bend Studio pitched a sequel to Sony but it was rejected. But
regardless of whether that story is true, I think it’s clear from the one of the
post-game scenes that they wanted to make a sequel of some sort.</p>
<p>We’re going to enter spoiler territory for a bit, so <a href="#after-spoilers">skip to here</a> if you want to
avoid those.</p>
<figure class="half center">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/PPcM1hO.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/PPcM1hOm.jpg" alt="spoiler territory" />
<figcaption>Spoiler territory below!</figcaption>
</a>
</figure>
<hr />
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/x6040Zc.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/x6040Zcm.jpg" alt="story cutscene" /></a></p>
<p>After you finish the main story, you can keep playing to finish up any optional
objectives or side stories. I did this for a bit, and I was pleasantly surprised
when there were a few more story cutscenes tying up the loose ends for a few
characters. The final one of these was with O’Brian, the NERO researcher from
the beginning of the game and who Deacon’s been in contact with throughout the
game trying to figure out what happened to his wife. So, the entire time you’re
in contact with O’Brian, he’s wearing a hazmat suit and mask, and you never see
his face. During this final scene, he finally takes off the mask for a big
reveal: he’s infected too, but with an evolved form of the virus. He’s developed
the same pale skin, bald head, and increased strength as the Freaks, but retains
his intelligence. He cryptically warns Deacon that the NERO higher ups knew
about this all along, and tells him “they are coming,” before jumping back on
his NERO helicopter and flying off. And…that’s it. As far as I know, that’s
the last post-game story cutscene. I really wasn’t expecting this twist, it
takes it in an I Am Legend kind of direction, the book version this time. How
would these sane mutated humans coexist with Deacon and the other uninfected
survivors? Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know. Bend Studio has expressed
interest in creating another game set in this universe, but a sequel to Deacon’s
story seems unlikely given the rumored sequel pitch rejection.</p>
<hr />
<div id="after-spoilers" />
<p>Days Gone was a very pleasant surprise for me. I picked up the PS4 version after
hearing online that it was an underappreciated gem of an open world game, and I
have to agree. If you’re into open world action-adventures and zombie games,
then Days Gone is definitely worth checking out. My final time as reported by my
PS5 was 26 hours, but I don’t think this is accurate. I was playing this game
regularly for just shy of two months, and there’s <em>no way</em> my total time was
that low considering how many optional things I completed. HowLongToBeat.com
lists the main story as 36 and half hours long, and Main + Sides as 50 and half
hours, so I’m guessing my time was somewhere between those two, probably
somewhere in the 40 hour mark.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/XtxlxNh.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/XtxlxNhm.jpg" alt="Days Gone was a very pleasant surprise" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/SUJ9P4T.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/SUJ9P4Tm.jpg" alt="My final time" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/InizSQb.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/InizSQbm.jpg" alt="HowLongToBeat.com" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-176/">What I'm Playing - No. 176</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on January 05, 2023.</p>
I finished Days Gone this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1752022-11-21T00:00:00-00:002022-11-21T00:00:00-06:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-175/#AI:TheSomniumFiles">AI: The Somnium Files <em>(PC)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="AI:TheSomniumFiles">AI: The Somnium Files <em>(PC)</em></h3>
<p>There’s a killer on the loose. A killer who removes their victim’s left eye
while they’re still alive. Detective Kaname Date with the MPD, ABIS division, is
assigned to the case due to his connection to the first victim. With the help of
his AI companion, Aiba, he desperately tries to catch the killer before they
kill again. This is the story of the New Cyclops Killings.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/dxdbbod.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/dxdbbodm.jpg" alt="A killer" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/KX66HOm.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/KX66HOmm.jpg" alt="Aiba" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/GI7wdQF.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GI7wdQFm.jpg" alt="he desperately tries to catch the killer" /></a>
</figure>
<p>AI: The Somnium Files is a 2019 adventure game developed by Spike Chunsoft and
released for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. The director and lead writer, Kotaro
Uchikoshi, also wrote for the Zero Escape series, and there’s definitely a
similar style and a few similar themes in this game. The flow of the story is
also a little like the Zero Escape series, with a flowchart where you can can
review where you are now in the story, see where it branches into several
different routes, and restart from a previous point.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/z5iqxNg.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/z5iqxNgm.jpg" alt="The Somnium Files" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/30OWCJ0.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/30OWCJ0m.jpg" alt="the Zero Escape series" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/lBR3uiK.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/lBR3uiKm.jpg" alt="a flowchart" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Gameplay is primarily a visual novel with some point-and-click sections, and the
Psync segments which we’ll get into later. You play as Date, and see most of the
game in first-person from his perspective. You can look around during these
segments, but you can’t move around the area. During these parts, you look for
clues and talk to people, with the occasional third-person cutscene for the more
action-packed parts. Some of these even have simple quick-time events. The
characters you’ll meet during the course of your investigation are an
interesting bunch, but Date and Aiba themselves are just as interesting, if not
more so. Date has a memory disorder and doesn’t remember anything past six years
ago. He also lost his eye in an accident around that same time. Aiba was given
to him by ABIS five years ago to be his AI companion, and her body is an
eyeball - which is convenient, since it means she can replace Date’s missing
eye. She and Date are linked via an artificial nerve while she’s in his eye
socket, allowing him to communicate with her just by thinking. Aiba can also
augment his vision, zooming in, and providing night, thermal, or X-ray vision.
All this advanced technology make Aiba something of a state secret, so Date
isn’t allowed to reveal her existence to anyone.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/2SxBywM.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/2SxBywMm.jpg" alt="a visual novel" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/GxwCUfX.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GxwCUfXm.jpg" alt="some point-and-click sections" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/tCmirUY.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/tCmirUYm.jpg" alt="simple quick-time events" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/d7QVVwN.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/d7QVVwNm.jpg" alt="her body is an eyeball" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The story here is fantastic. It’s many things at many different times: it’s
funny, it’s suspenseful, it’s mysterious. The brand of humor here might not be
for everyone. Some of the jokes are pretty sleazy, but it also relies a lot on
what I’d describe as “goofy” jokes, and sometimes it just gets so absurd that
you can’t help but smile. Depending on your actions at several points, you’ll
end up on one of several different routes to the game’s several endings. Each
route gives you new details and background information, and as you play more
routes these details slowly start to come together for the player. The overall
mystery and the details of each route are interesting in their own right, but
the payoff at the end of the final few routes is just incredible. I had pieced
together some bits of the plot earlier, but I didn’t know how they were
possible, and there were still some twists that I hadn’t anticipated. The way
everything comes together at the end is extremely satisfying. When you reach the
ending of the first few routes, you’ll have <em>no</em> idea what’s going on, so it’s
amazing how other routes add context bit by bit until finally you look back and
know exactly what really happened.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/cazPljY.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cazPljYm.jpg" alt="The story" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/XwTRcKd.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/XwTRcKdm.jpg" alt="so absurd" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/fbk1mqK.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/fbk1mqKm.jpg" alt="Each route" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/xfUHOrK.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/xfUHOrKm.jpg" alt="the first few routes" /></a>
</figure>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/k2ZIzPI.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/k2ZIzPIm.jpg" alt="wondering what would happen next" /></a></p>
<p>There were times when I wasn’t playing that I found myself wondering what would
happen next, and if there were any clues in anything I’d learned. There’s a
character Date calls “Boss,” she’s his boss at ABIS, and he’s called her Boss
for so long he doesn’t remember her real name. So, one time when I was somewhere
in the middle of the game, I was heading home from a McDonald’s run, and I
suddenly remembered that you learn Boss’s real name in one of the routes, and I
couldn’t stop wondering if that would be important (it wasn’t), but I also
couldn’t remember her name! I think it just goes to show how well AI: The
Somnium Files crafts its world and story that I couldn’t stop wondering about
random details within it as I went about my everyday life.</p>
<p>In addition to creating Aiba, ABIS also developed the Psync Machine, a device
that allows one person, called the Psyncer, to delve into another person’s mind
and explore their memories in a surreal dream world called a Somnium. As the
name of the machine might suggest, this process is called Psyncing, spelled with
a “P.” Psyncing is crucial to Date’s investigation of the New Cyclops Killer, as
it allows him to learn secrets and find leads that the suspects may be unable or
unwilling to reveal otherwise. The branches in the story always occur during
Psyncs, and most of them have two different outcomes depending on your
decisions.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/y1AK98K.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/y1AK98Km.jpg" alt="the Psync Machine" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/rsWObz9.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/rsWObz9m.jpg" alt="Psyncing" /></a>
</figure>
<p>During a Psync, you explore the subject’s Somnium in third-person by controlling
Aiba. This is the only time during gameplay where you can move around the
environment. The goal of the Psync is to make it past several Mental Locks by
exploring the Somnium and interacting with objects around it correctly. The way
forward isn’t obvious a lot of the time, there’s definitely a lot of trial and
error involved. There’s also a 6 minute time limit, and while time stands still
when you’re not moving to give you time to think, every action you take when
interacting with an object in the Somnium costs time, sometimes <em>a lot</em> of time.
This is where Timies come in. These are expendable resources you can use to
reduce the cost of an action. Some actions in the Somnium give you a Timie, and
using them carefully is key to making it through Somniums. If you use Timies
carefully, you can clear some Somniums on your first try even if you lose a
bunch of time trying to figure out the solution, and sometimes you might clear
them with just seconds to spare. Even if you mess up and run out of time though,
you’ll be able to retry from the last Mental Lock. <em>But</em> you only get 3 retries
per Somnium attempt, and if you use all of those you have to start over from the
beginning. Luckily, you can fast forward through dialogue and cutscenes, so if
you <em>do</em> end up having to replay one of them it’s really not bad. The designs of
the Somniums and the actions you can take within them are interesting, some of
them were pretty surreal. The Somnium gameplay itself was fun enough, it adds a
light puzzle element to the gameplay. There’s one big drawback to Somniums
that’s specific to the PC port, but more on that later.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Gg3sJah.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Gg3sJahm.jpg" alt="you explore" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/MZDXBJp.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/MZDXBJpm.jpg" alt="Mental Locks" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/h661pzc.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/h661pzcm.jpg" alt="interacting with objects around it correctly" /></a>
</figure>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/GTfO6fo.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GTfO6fom.jpg" alt="The designs of the Somniums" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/wxOqEzj.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/wxOqEzjm.jpg" alt="pretty surreal" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Listening to this game was wonderful for two reasons. First of all, it has a
great soundtrack composed by Keisuke Ito. I’m not too familiar with his other
work, but as the lead composer on The Somnium Files he’s crafted a great
soundtrack. My favorite was probably the music that plays when you’re in the
interrogation room trying to get answers out of someone. The English voice cast
for the game is also full of some great, familiar voices. My favorite was Erika
Harlacher-Stone as the voice of Aiba. She also voices Ann in Persona 5 and Kyoko
in Danganronpa, and I’d say her voice for Aiba is somewhere in between those two
characters.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Ze054RI.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Ze054RIm.jpg" alt="Listening to this game" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ispaljx.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ispaljxm.jpg" alt="Erika Harlacher-Stone" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Now it’s time to address the worst part about this game, specifically its PC
port: it tends to crash. This is usually during a Psync when you’re exploring a
Somnium, but I also had it crash when I was in the options menu once. The
crashes are a common problem on PC, with hit-or-miss solutions available. For
instance, after the first crash I read up on the Steam community page and people
recommended <em>disabling</em> Vsync in the game’s settings, which confusingly actually
turns on the game’s built-in 60 FPS cap, which supposedly makes it more stable.
I also turned the graphics settings down to Normal instead of Fantastic at that
point, and for a while it was fine and ran without crashing. But once I got to
the next Somnium, it crashed again. Following more advice from the Steam
community, I updated my graphics drivers and was able to make it past that
Somnium, but it was far from the last crash I’d experience. After repeated
crashes in a particularly troublesome Somnium, I finally tried turning Vsync on
using Nvidia Control Panel, and turned the game’s graphics quality down to Low,
and that <em>might</em> have fixed things because I didn’t get any crashes afterward. I
didn’t feel very confident in its stability given the number of crashes I’d
experienced in Somnium up to that point though, so I continued to save
frequently during these sections as I’d been doing since about the second crash.
It’s disappointing that these crashes were never fixed by a patch for the PC
port or something, but it speaks to the quality of the game’s story that I and
so many others were willing to struggle through these crashes on PC. The game
has a Very Positive review score on Steam! Given its positive review score on
Steam, you probably wouldn’t expect it to have technical issues like this, but
here we are. The last thing I’ll say on this is that it’s definitely a game
worth playing, but you may want avoid the PC version and play it on another
platform if that’s an option for you.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/iaSGm8r.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/iaSGm8rm.jpg" alt="it tends to crash" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/G0lbxDO.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/G0lbxDOm.jpg" alt="exploring a Somnium" /></a>
</figure>
<p>AI: The Somnium Files is a great game, despite its issues on PC. Its story is
definitely worth experiencing, and the music and voice acting are also
highlights. I highly recommend it if you enjoyed the Zero Escape series or if
you enjoy visual novels. My final time was 22 hours 31 minutes.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/fedCZ1T.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/fedCZ1Tm.jpg" alt="a great game" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ZRmCQtO.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ZRmCQtOm.jpg" alt="My final time" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-175/">What I'm Playing - No. 175</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on November 21, 2022.</p>
I finished AI: The Somnium Files this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1742022-11-01T00:00:00-00:002022-11-01T00:00:00-05:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-174/#HorizonZeroDawn">Horizon Zero Dawn <em>(PS4)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="HorizonZeroDawn">Horizon Zero Dawn <em>(PS4)</em></h3>
<p>Abandoned at birth and taken in by an outcast of the Nora tribe named Rost, Aloy
grows into a curious and determined young woman under his care. Her curiosity
takes her into the ruins of the Old Ones, whose technology far surpasses that of
the Nora and the other tribes. What happened to them? And where did the machines
that roam the world come from? Aloy’s journey will reveal the answers to all
these questions and more, if she can survive in this hostile world.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/c17nHbv.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/c17nHbvm.jpg" alt="the ruins of the Old Ones" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Y7ceYzP.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Y7ceYzPm.jpg" alt="the machines" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Horizon Zero Dawn is a 2017 open world action RPG developed by Guerilla Games.
It’s been on my backlog for a while, and after watching parts of my wife’s
playthrough of it earlier this year I had to play it for myself. It originally
released for PS4, but we both played it on PS5 where the latest patch allows it
to run at up to 4K 60 FPS, and it looks and plays fantastic. It also released on
PC in 2020. The version I played is the Complete Edition that includes both the
base game and The Frozen Wilds DLC, and I played through it all!</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/xYStkfR.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/xYStkfRm.jpg" alt="Horizon Zero Dawn" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/1Ly9kgi.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/1Ly9kgim.jpg" alt="I played through it all" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Something in Horizon Zero Dawn that stands out as soon as you see the box art is
the setting: tribal culture meets high-tech robots. It’s set 1,000 years in the
future, in a post-apocalyptic Earth where humanity has regressed to primitive,
tribal existence. But there was clearly a technologically advanced civilization
that lived before them, and of course, there are the highly advanced,
animal-like robots roaming the world, like the T-Rex-looking one on the original
box art. That premise is <em>really</em> interesting, and had me curious about the game
before I knew anything else about it based on that alone. The story is excellent
too, and answers all the big questions you’ll have about the world by the end.
It has a lot of lore in it too if you’re into that, in the form of both text
documents and audio, and these too shed more light on how Earth got this way,
adding to the world-building nicely. The cast of characters further rounds out
the world, with a whole slew of NPCs to meet and talk to. Aloy herself is also a
really strong character, and a joy to play as and listen to during
conversations. In the English voice cast, she’s voiced by Ashley Burch, who has
an impressive vocal range, because I’ve actually heard some characters she’s
voiced in other video games and I never would have guessed they had the same
voice actress. For example, she also voices Millium Orion in The Legend of
Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, who sounds <em>way</em> different than Aloy.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/rgYJgdB.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/rgYJgdBm.jpg" alt="robots" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/WnIfNbg.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WnIfNbgm.jpg" alt="a whole slew of NPCs to meet" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Combat is fun, and can be quite challenging. It’s mostly a third-person shooter
where you fight with a bow and arrows, but you can also use your spear for light
or heavy melee attacks and set several kinds of traps for your enemies. It
really pushes you to use all your available weapons and tools, and to use the
right ones to exploit the enemies’ weak points. Some machines are weak to fire,
so you’d want to use fire arrows against them, while others have components like
guns that can be knocked off entirely to make them less of a threat. Precise
aiming is also <em>very</em> important for damaging enemies efficiently. The machines
all have specific weak points, and if you’re not hitting those you’ll deal much
less damage. I was really inconsistent at hitting these weak points, even when
using the Concentration ability to slow time and zoom in. But even if you miss a
lot of your shots at weak points like I did, the enemy will go down sooner or
later, it’s just much faster if you can actually hit their weak points, and it’s
super satisfying when you do!</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Kv9Cf4w.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Kv9Cf4wm.jpg" alt="Combat is fun" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/4e3wKRE.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4e3wKREm.jpg" alt="weak points" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Stealth was also an <em>essential</em> tool in combat, at least early on. I was playing
on normal difficulty, and trying to take on enemies in open combat often lead to
Aloy’s death, sometimes <em>several</em> times in a row during a few quests. So, I
found myself sneaking through bushes and executing Silent Strikes whenever
possible. Silent Strike is a skill from one of the three skill trees, and after
you’ve leveled up at least once, I recommend using your skill points to unlock
it as soon as possible because of how useful it is. Weaker enemies can be taken
down in one shot with a single Silent Strike! There are other stealth skills you
can unlock, like Strike from Above or Strike from Below, but Silent Strike was
by far the one I used the most.</p>
<p>Aloy also has the ability to override machines. Unlike Silent Strike and
Concentration which are unlocked by spending skill points, overriding machines
is unlocked automatically at a certain point in the main story. When you first
unlock it, you can only override a few types of machines, but you can unlock
more overrides by completing the Cauldron side quests. You can only override a
machine when it hasn’t detected you, so you’ll do most overrides when hiding in
tall grass, but you can also sneak up behind machines to override them. Once
you’ve overriden a machine, it will become friendly for a short time and help
you fight. You can ride on the backs of certain machines, and this is probably
what you’ll use overriding for most of the time. Unlike other enemies, mountable
machines will stay friendly forever once overriden, giving you a way to travel
around the world more quickly.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/dwpwKwS.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/dwpwKwSm.jpg" alt="override machines" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/J2WjHzM.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/J2WjHzMm.jpg" alt="a way to travel around the world more quickly" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Exploration in the open world is excellent, helped in part by how good it looks.
There are plenty of things to do all around the map, from collectibles to find,
bandit camps to clear out, and of course side quests. Part of all this exploring
is a climbing system that’s similar to the Uncharted series. Aloy can only climb
certain surfaces that are brought to the player’s attention by either yellow or
white. It’s a fun and well polished system. Aloy will only move or jump when she
can reach the next handhold, so you usually won’t accidentally jump in the wrong
direction and fall to your death.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/baULny7.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/baULny7m.jpg" alt="how good it looks" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/yHlQQvl.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/yHlQQvlm.jpg" alt="the map" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Bq9ch5i.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Bq9ch5im.jpg" alt="bandit camps to clear out" /></a>
</figure>
<p>I haven’t gotten pulled into a western, open world RPG like this for a long
time. There are plenty of side quests and objectives to do aside from the main
story, and I ended up doing quite a few of them. It was a very comfortable
gameplay loop: find an NPC that needs help, talk to them, go through the
dialogue wheel to get backstory about them and their side quest, then go out and
do the side quest. It reminds me a bit of Skyrim or Mass Effect in some ways,
especially because of the dialogue wheel. There was plenty of other stuff to do
in the world whenever I wanted a break from quests, so the experience never got
stale either. If you’re a fan of open world games, then I definitely recommend
Horizon Zero Dawn if you haven’t checked it out yet! My final time was 47 hours
19 minutes.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/eDq6Dah.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/eDq6Dahm.jpg" alt="I ended up doing quite a few of them" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/5YHYa4d.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/5YHYa4dm.jpg" alt="I definitely recommend Horizon Zero Dawn" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/2RHkN6t.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/2RHkN6tm.jpg" alt="My final time" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-174/">What I'm Playing - No. 174</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on November 01, 2022.</p>
I finished Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1732022-10-11T00:00:00-00:002022-10-11T00:00:00-05:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-173/#ImmortalsFenyxRising">Immortals Fenyx Rising <em>(PS5)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="ImmortalsFenyxRising">Immortals Fenyx Rising <em>(PS5)</em></h3>
<p>A young shieldbearer named Fenyx becomes shipwrecked on the Golden Isle, and
after washing up on shore, realizes that the rest of the ship’s crew and the
inhabitants of the island have all been turned to stone. They soon learn that
Typhon has escaped Tartarus and taken over the island, stealing the powers away
from four of the Gods. With everyone else on the island turned to stone, it’s up
to Fenyx to restore the Gods to their former glory and defeat Typhon.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/wUrScj3.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/wUrScj3m.jpg" alt="washing up on shore" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/4zyqZ9W.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4zyqZ9Wm.jpg" alt="all been turned to stone" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/n83RzAa.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/n83RzAam.jpg" alt="up to Fenyx" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Immortals Fenyx Rising is a 2020 open-world action adventure game developed by
Ubisoft Quebec. I played it on PS5, but it’s available on pretty much every
current platform: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch, PC, and even Google Stadia
(RIP Stadia - 2019-2023). You can probably pick it up for cheap these days too,
I got my copy new on eBay for only US$7 plus shipping. It’s a really nice
looking game, some of the landscapes as you explore look fantastic. You choose
whether to play as a male or female character, and you can customize Fenyx’s
appearance.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/vsi0CwR.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/vsi0CwRm.jpg" alt="Immortals Fenyx Rising" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/OOBea19.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/OOBea19m.jpg" alt="really nice looking game" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/mr2op2W.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/mr2op2Wm.jpg" alt="customize" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Something you might have noticed from seeing the footage is that this game takes
a lot of inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. They share a
number of concepts: a stamina meter, the ability to climb anything,
self-contained dungeons with either a puzzle or combat challenge to overcome,
taming horses, gliding through the air, both games are open world experiences
full of these elements. They even have similar main story structures, where you
start in an isolated tutorial area but have free reign of the world after that
and need to rescue four powerful allies from the bad guy. While there may be
lots of similarities, playing this game doesn’t feel all that similar to Breath
of the Wild. Instead, it feels like a Ubisoft game with some Breath of the Wild
inspiration. I will say, it’s not quite as non-linear as Breath of the Wild
since you can’t just run to the final boss right after the tutorial. You’re
blocked off from doing so by Corruption Zones that drain your stamina instantly,
and you have to complete the four main questlines before those go away. One
thing I’m glad this game <em>didn’t</em> do is breakable weapons. All the weapons in
Fenyx Rising are made to last, guaranteed.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/pVM09a6.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/pVM09a6m.jpg" alt="open world" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/JcucMPK.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/JcucMPKm.jpg" alt="Corruption Zones" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Combat is surprisingly fun. You have a fast attack with your sword, a strong
attack with your axe, and your bow with a quiver that automatically replenishes
arrows over time. It starts off feeling a bit basic, but passable. You can parry
enemy attacks, and doing it with perfect timing will stun them. If you dodge
with perfect timing, time slows down, allowing you to land a lot of hits. Once
you unlock some of the combat Godly Powers, combat really picks up. After
unlocking all the Powers, Fenyx becomes pretty unstoppable in battle. The Powers
cost stamina to use, but with the right equipment you can replenish stamina
whenever you land a regular attack, so at that point you pretty much get an
infinite combo. I liked to rush in with Athena’s Shield, follow up with Ares’
Wrath to get myself airborn, attack a few times in the air to replenish my
stamina, and then repeat the cycle indefinitely. At that point, combat did feel
pretty button-mashy, but in fairness I was only playing on Normal difficulty,
and could have turned the difficulty up one or two notches for more of a
challenge. But I didn’t do that, because it was fun to just wail on enemies and
send them flying.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/yZB5QSd.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/yZB5QSdm.jpg" alt="Combat" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/o90KIvW.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/o90KIvWm.jpg" alt="your bow" /></a>
</figure>
<p>During the tutorial segment of the game, you’re limited to a small island off
the mainland. You unlock each of your main powers one by one, learning to use
each of them and getting a taste of the types of puzzles you need to solve
throughout the game. Some puzzles just require you to move blocks or heavy
objects onto switches, while others have you shoot arrows through fire in order
to light torches. There’s a decent amount of variety, and while most puzzles
aren’t too challenging there were a few that made me stop and think or required
some trial and error to figure out. One of Fenyx’s powers is Apollo’s Arrow,
which lets you shoot an arrow and control its path through the air in slow
motion. This is a cool concept on its own, but it’s also integrated well into
some of the puzzles. For example, sometimes you’ll have to guide the arrow
through a burning torch and then loop around or swerve in order to light another
torch. There are also Apollo’s Arrow Challenges scattered around the world map,
where you have to guide an arrow through a series of rings and into a torch at
the end. It’s a novel mechanic, it helped increase puzzle variety and using it
was always a fun time.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/O94FUgV.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/O94FUgVm.jpg" alt="move blocks" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Z4501fe.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Z4501fem.jpg" alt="shoot an arrow and control its path" /></a>
</figure>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/XgMzfT1.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/XgMzfT1m.jpg" alt="humor" /></a></p>
<p>Your actions throughout the game are narrated by Prometheus as he describes
Fenyx’s adventures to Zeus using his power of foresight. Prometheus takes on the
role of the serious type, and Zeus is the comic relief. The humor fell flat for
me a lot of the time, but it had its moments every now and then. One thing I
liked about this structure though is when Prometheus or even sometimes Zeus
would mention an interesting anecdote from Greek mythology. This is how I
learned that Zeus’ first wife was named Metis (at least in some accounts), which
I recognized as the name of a character from Persona 3 FES but didn’t know where
the name came from until now. Of course, I’m not saying you should believe
everything in this game is accurate, but it doesn’t seem to shy away the
gruesome details of Greek mythology. For instance, when Prometheus is
introduced, it’s explained that Zeus punished him for gifting mortals with fire
by having him chained to a mountain where eagles would peck out his liver every
day. As far as I can tell, that is in line with some accounts of Prometheus, and
it’s cool they represented it accurately.</p>
<p>I had zero expectations for Immortals Fenyx Rising going in. I was looking for
more games to play on PS5 at the time and it was cheap, so I picked it up on a
whim. It was definitely a worthwhile purchase! For what I spent, I got <em>so</em> much
out of it, and it was a really nice game for when I didn’t have a lot of time
because I could just jump in for a bit and do a vault or challenge. It doesn’t
do anything to shake up the “open world action game” sub-genre, but it’s still a
good game that I’d gladly recommend if you’re in the mood for some open world
adventuring. My final time was 27 hours 22 minutes.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Pp3tGfj.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Pp3tGfjm.jpg" alt="worthwhile" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/CSXaIdw.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/CSXaIdwm.jpg" alt="My final time" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-173/">What I'm Playing - No. 173</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on October 11, 2022.</p>
I finished Immortals Fenyx Rising this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1722022-09-11T00:00:00-00:002022-09-11T00:00:00-05:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-172/#SoulHackers2">Soul Hackers 2 <em>(PS5)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="SoulHackers2">Soul Hackers 2 <em>(PS5)</em></h3>
<p>Sometime in the future, the vast sea of humanity’s data has given rise to a
sentient digital hivemind called Aion. Aion exists as an observer of humanity,
learning from watching the world but never interfering in it directly. However,
when Aion calculates an impending apocalypse, it is forced to take action. Aion
creates two agents to intervene directly with the human world: Ringo, and Figue.
Their mission: stop the apocalypse, and save the world.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/on5SAXD.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/on5SAXDm.jpg" alt="apocalypse" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ppO6R0W.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ppO6R0Wm.jpg" alt="Ringo" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Soul Hackers 2 is a 2022 JRPG from Atlus. I played it on PS5, but it’s also
available on PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC. It’s a spin-off of the Megami
Tensei series, and serves as a loose sequel to Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers,
which originally released in 1997 for the Sega Saturn and was ported to the
Nintendo 3DS and released in English for the first time in 2013. You don’t need
to have played that first game to enjoy Soul Hackers 2 though. In terms of
overall feel, I’d say it lands somewhere in the middle between Persona and Shin
Megami Tensei. You fight with a team of human party members in battle, but
there’s a heavier focus on gameplay rather than story. The presentation is also
<em>very</em> stylish, like the smooth transitions to battles where Ringo brandishes
her sword and sweeps across the screen.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/gcfou1x.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/gcfou1xm.jpg" alt="Soul Hackers 2" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/6Zy5Vpj.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/6Zy5Vpjm.jpg" alt="the smooth transitions to battles" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Though the story takes a backseat compared to the gameplay, it is still quite
good. In the beginning, Ringo starts by trying to track down a few key
individuals who will be important in preventing the end of the world: Arrow,
Milady, and Saizo. However, by the time Ringo catches up to each of them,
they’re already dead. She doesn’t let that stop her though, and uses a power
called Soul Hacking to bring each of them back to life. Alongside her three new
allies, Ringo begins to investigate how they can prevent the impending
apocalypse. It’s a good setup to the story, and while the plot is pretty basic
for a while afterward, it becomes much more interesting around the halfway
point.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/GkiP75j.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GkiP75jm.jpg" alt="Soul Hacking" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/jiGsdFD.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/jiGsdFDm.jpg" alt="Alongside her three new allies" /></a>
</figure>
<p>One of my favorite parts of the gameplay was the turn-based combat. Though it
doesn’t use the Press Turn or One More systems from SMT or Persona, it’s still
really fun. Instead, battles use the Sabbath system, where hitting enemy
weaknesses adds to the Stack. The higher Stack you have the more bonus damage
you’ll do with an extra attack from your demons at the end of your turn. Unlike
in SMT, there’s really not much of a penalty when an enemy attacks your
weakness; the attack deals more damage than usual, but that’s it. It’s
definitely a more straightforward battle system than SMT, but it still
encourages you to hit enemy weaknesses, which I’ve always enjoyed in these
games. There’s also a lot of party banter during battles. Your teammates will
have something to say about pretty much everything you do. I wasn’t sure how I
felt about this chattiness in the beginning, but it really grew on me, and I
like how it allows the characters’ personalities to shine during battle. Seeing
the demons was also really cool. They look great, and while I was familiar with
most of them from other MegaTen games, there were a few I’d never heard of
before, like Turbo Granny.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/5zrvUde.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/5zrvUdem.jpg" alt="turn-based combat" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ehvS7oG.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ehvS7oGm.jpg" alt="an extra attack from your demons" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/1zQD3jp.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/1zQD3jpm.jpg" alt="Turbo Granny" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Recruiting demons uses a very simplified version of the negotiation system from
SMT. You also don’t recruit them during battle; instead, you send your current
demons out to perform Demon Recon when you enter each dungeon. Then you’ll find
them standing around the dungeon waiting for you, and they’ll give you items,
heal you, or give you a chance to recruit a new demon. The recruitment process
consists of just a single request from the demon, usually for money or an item,
and if you’re able to give it to them, they’ll join you. Brief as these
negotiations are, it was still nice to see them included in some capacity
because it’s always amusing to see what some demons will say.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/6n4c5rq.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/6n4c5rqm.jpg" alt="the negotiation system" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ztZdLmZ.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ztZdLmZm.jpg" alt="amusing to see what some demons will say" /></a>
</figure>
<p>You equip demons you’ve recruited to Ringo and the rest of your party to change
their resistances, attacks, and stat bonuses. Interestingly, you can’t switch
demons during battle at the beginning of the game. I was really confused by this
at first, and thought it was maybe an effort to add strategy, like encouraging
you to always have a balanced party of demons equipped so you don’t get
blind-sided by an enemy with resistances you aren’t prepared for. But once you
unlock the Commander Skill “Conversion” around the time of the 2nd main story
dungeon, you’re able to change demons during battle, but you can only change one
party member’s demon per turn at first, although later on you get the “Master
Conversion” skill which allows you to change the whole party’s demons at once.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/spZpDjE.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/spZpDjEm.jpg" alt="equip demons" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ILQWUkY.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ILQWUkYm.jpg" alt="Conversion" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Demon fusion is also present, and functions very similarly to how it does in
Persona and SMT. You take two demons and fuse them together to create a new
demon that inherits some of the skills of the demons that went into it. At
first, you only have four skill slots for your demons, which felt <em>really</em>
restrictive and I always struggled to decide which skills to keep during fusion
when I had more than four options. Later on you can unlock Summoner Skills for
Ringo that give you a fifth skill slot on your demons, and then eventually a
sixth skill slot. Having five skill slots available was <em>much</em> nicer, but even
with six skill slots it’s still fewer than I’m used to having from other MegaTen
games. In any case, I always enjoy the fusion mechanics in these games. Trying
to fuse strong demons is always a lot of fun, especially when you’re able to
create a demon that has no weaknesses by having it inherit the right passive
skills. There’s also a good number of demons in the game, and I like to try to
fuse as many as possible, so it was fun coming back to see what new demons I
could fuse whenever I leveled up.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/4HrWkQA.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4HrWkQAm.jpg" alt="Demon fusion" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/pBqUFuT.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/pBqUFuTm.jpg" alt="unlock Summoner Skills for Ringo" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Sm1GQOU.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Sm1GQOUm.jpg" alt="new demons I could fuse" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Soul Hackers 2 also looks and sounds great. The soundtrack is really good,
ranging from crunchy guitar tracks to smooth electric piano ones. Character
sprites and models look fantastic. The characters are cel-shaded, but some
textures have a slight water color look, which looks really nice and keeps them
from looking flat. The character sprites that appear during dialogue also have a
lot of different expressions, and they’ll change mid-sentence to fit the emotion
of the scene too. It’s a really nice touch, and helps breath more life into
these characters. There’s a sprite of Ringo where she’s smirking, and it is the
absolute best.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/65XFFVD.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/65XFFVDm.jpg" alt="looks and sounds great" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/tpJjinf.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/tpJjinfm.jpg" alt="smirking" /></a>
</figure>
<p>A large part of the gameplay is the dungeon crawling, which reminds me a bit of
Shin Megami Tensei IV. There’s no random encounters, which I appreciated.
Instead, enemies appear as distorted figures as you explore, and will chase you
for a while if they see you, starting a battle if they catch you. You can either
run or hit them with your sword to knock them down, causing them to despawn
after a few seconds, or giving you a chance at free bonus damage at the start of
battle if you run into them while they’re knocked down. The dungeons are pretty
basic, but occasionally feature small puzzles/gimmicks. It doesn’t hold your
hand to solve them either, there’s no forced dialog from companions guiding you
toward the solution. It’s all up to the player to figure out how to proceed by
exploring carefully and examining the map when needed. I really like this
hands-off approach, it feels very true to SMT.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ZJoKf6G.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ZJoKf6Gm.jpg" alt="dungeon crawling" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/RbMQF9N.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/RbMQF9Nm.jpg" alt="The dungeons are pretty basic" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/Pg27W3M.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Pg27W3Mm.jpg" alt="very true to SMT" /></a>
</figure>
<p>There’s two separate dungeon crawling experiences here: the main story dungeons,
and the Soul Matrix. The Soul Matrix is optional for the most part, and serves
as a secondary dungeon you can explore at your own pace, though you will get
blocked off at certain points based on main story progress. The main story
dungeons are pretty short compared to the Soul Matrix. The Soul Matrix is split
into three separate dungeons, one for each member of your party besides Ringo,
and each one has five floors, each of which is rather long. Making your way
through the Soul Matrix can be a little tiring due to all this, especially since
the floors and dungeons all look the same. It would have been nice if the floors
had something to differentiate them visually, or maybe something to
differentiate dungeons by character. In any case, since you are free to tackle
the Soul Matrix at your own pace, I tried to do it in small bursts so I didn’t
get burnt out on it, and it was fun when I managed to stick to this routine. I
wouldn’t have minded if the story dungeons had been longer and the Soul Matrix
shorter though.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/EujcM4h.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/EujcM4hm.jpg" alt="the Soul Matrix" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/lpMgbS1.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/lpMgbS1m.jpg" alt="Soul Matrix can be a little tiring" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The final dungeon also could have been a little longer. The parts that were
there were cool, and when I started it I thought to myself, “this is the best
dungeon in the game,” but I was a little underwhelmed when I reached the end of
it. I wish it had been longer and featured more mini-bosses along the way. It
had a few bosses in the middle, and these were really cool, but I wouldn’t have
minded some more mini-bosses along the way. You know, pit me against a few cool
high level demons or something, like Saturnus or a few of the archangels. The
final dungeon just didn’t have the <em>impact</em> that I’ve come to expect from final
dungeons in MegaTen games. It pales in comparison to final dungeons in other
spin-off games like Digital Devil Saga.</p>
<p>Without spoiling the story, I will say there are multiple endings here. In
general, the Soul Matrix is optional, though the main story does take you there
a little bit. However, if you want to get one of the endings, you need to have
cleared floors 1 through 4 of everyone’s Soul Matrix dungeons. Progressing
through the dungeons requires you to meet certain Soul Level thresholds with
that character. Soul Level is a concept introduced early on, where you gain
points towards a character’s Soul Level based on your dialogue choices in some
of the cutscenes. It shows you exactly whose Soul Level will increase and by how
much when you’re making the choices, which helps you keep their Soul Levels
balanced. In order to clear the floors needed for this ending, you need to have
at least 100 Soul Level with each character. You can do this in your first
playthrough if you’re careful about your dialogue choices, and I was pretty
careful, <em>but</em> I still ended up 1 point short with Arrow. He was stuck on 99
Soul Level when I first finished the game, and it was only after that I learned
about the multiple endings. I loaded up my last save before the end of the game,
and started scrambling to figure out how to get that last Soul Level point. My
save file was already past all the dialogue choices that give Soul Level points,
so I needed another option. Throughout the game, after meeting certain
conditions you unlock Hangout Events with your party members and you can meet
them for drinks at the bar for a short conversation with them, and usually a
Soul Level point or two. These usually unlock after completing specific side
quests, and you’ll meet your party and have a short scene talking about that
quest. Luckily, I was able to unlock one of these Hangout Events for my whole
party by completing a side quest I’d missed. With that, Arrow reached 100 Soul
Level, I was able to complete the 4th floor of his Soul Matrix dungeon, finish
the game again, and get the ending I was shooting for. That might all sound a
little tedious, but I actually enjoyed figuring it out, and I enjoyed this
ending a lot more, personally.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/TRZb6HM.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/TRZb6HMm.jpg" alt="multiple endings" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/9oG4IUt.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/9oG4IUtm.jpg" alt="Soul Level" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/OnaPnvH.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/OnaPnvHm.jpg" alt="Hangout Events" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The English voice cast again featured several familiar voices. This is another
game where Cup of Tea productions handled the English voice acting. Megan Taylor
Harvey, who voiced Hanabi in Scarlet Nexus, voices Ringo in this game and she
does a fantastic job. There’s also several other voice actors I’ve heard in
previous games (see below for a few examples), and listening to them bring these
characters to life in English was wonderful.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/od5xpXE.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/od5xpXEm.jpg" alt="Megan Taylor Harvey" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/R0hJAkt.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/R0hJAktm.jpg" alt="several other voice actors" /></a>
</figure>
<ul>
<li>Erica Mendez
<ul>
<li>Figue (Soul Hackers 2)</li>
<li>Bernadetta (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)</li>
<li>Kasane (Scarlet Nexus)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Zach Aguilar
<ul>
<li>Arrow (Soul Hackers 2)</li>
<li>Male Byleth (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)</li>
<li>Luka (Scarlet Nexus)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Erica Lindbeck
<ul>
<li>Milady (Soul Hackers 2)</li>
<li>Shionne (Tales of Arise)</li>
<li>Futaba (Persona 5)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Griffin Puatu
<ul>
<li>Saizo (Soul Hackers 2)</li>
<li>Dohalim (Tales of Arise)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Edward Bosco
<ul>
<li>Raven (Soul Hackers 2)</li>
<li>Machias (The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Chris Hackney
<ul>
<li>Kaburagi (Soul Hackers 2)</li>
<li>Dimitri (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)</li>
<li>Yuito (Scarlet Nexus)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Kira Buckland
<ul>
<li>Ash (Soul Hackers 2)</li>
<li>Kirumi (Danganronpa V3)</li>
<li>Ryouko (13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Patrick Seitz
<ul>
<li>Victor (Soul Hackers 2)</li>
<li>Jeritza (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Laura Post
<ul>
<li>Flamma (Soul Hackers 2)</li>
<li>Catherine (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)</li>
<li>Kasumi (Persona 5 Royal)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="image-right"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/Utkhh6z.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Utkhh6zm.jpg" alt="loading screen tips" /></a></p>
<p>A few random tips if you’re playing Soul Hackers 2 yourself: first, increase the
text speed. “Default” is way too slow, the voice lines will often outpace the
text appearing on screen, and this was really annoying in the opening of the
game! I increased the text speed as soon as I had access to the options menu
after starting the game, and it feels <em>much</em> better set to “Fast” speed. Also,
you’ll want to change the setting for loading screen tips. With loading screen
tips set to the default “Auto Advance” setting, the game artifically increases
the loading time so you have time to read the tip on-screen. Luckily, you can
turn the tips off or set them to require a button press to advance. Both
settings remove the artificially inflated load time, and this can <em>drastically</em>
improve loading times depending on the platform you’re playing on which really
improves the experience.</p>
<p>Despite my complaints, I had a lot of fun playing Soul Hackers 2. It’s not a
perfect game and there’s a number of things that could be improved, but it also
has elements and moments that are really great. If you’ve already played and
enjoyed a bunch of other games in the MegaTen franchise, then I’d definitely
recommend Soul Hackers 2. Or, if you’re a diehard RPG fan, then Soul Hackers 2
is also worth a shot. I hope Atlus makes more spin-offs like this, they used to
make a lot more MegaTen spin-offs during the PS2 era, like the Raidou and
Digital Devil Saga games, and it’d be really cool if they started doing that
again. Anyway, my final time for this one was 43 hours 20 minutes.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/tNMNLbv.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/tNMNLbvm.jpg" alt="I had a lot of fun" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/JUNAjQA.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/JUNAjQAm.jpg" alt="my final time" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-172/">What I'm Playing - No. 172</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on September 11, 2022.</p>
I finished Soul Hackers 2 this week.https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-1712022-08-28T00:00:00-00:002022-08-28T00:00:00-05:00bsinkyhttps://bravingthebacklog.com
<p>Welcome back to another weekly wrap-up of the games I’ve been playing over the
past week!</p>
<p>Click a title to skip to that section. Games contained within this post:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/weekly/what-im-playing-no-171/#ScarletNexus">Scarlet Nexus <em>(PS5)</em></a></li>
</ul>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="ScarletNexus">Scarlet Nexus <em>(PS5)</em></h3>
<p>The people of Earth are facing a crisis unlike any they’ve faced before. Bizarre
monsters called Others attack the few remaining cities, hellbent on eating human
brains. In this world turned upside down, there’s only one way humanity can
fight back: Psionics. Those with strong psychic abilities form the OSF - the
Other Suppression Force - and with their power, they’re able to keep the Others
at bay and defend their home. Kasane Randall is one of them, scouted by the OSF
due to her strong psychokinesis power. She joins the OSF alongside her sister,
Naomi, wanting nothing more than to protect her. But shortly after completing
her training, she meets another OSF rookie named Yuito, who seems convinced
they’ve met before, and she’s haunted by strangely realistic dreams where a
woman warns her not to let go of the red strings. What does any of it mean…?</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/044d6aT.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/044d6aTm.jpg" alt="Others attack the few remaining cities" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/QcJrUo2.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/QcJrUo2m.jpg" alt="Kasane Randall" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Scarlet Nexus is a 2021 action RPG from Bandai Namco. I played it on PS5, but
it’s also available on PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC. In addition to the
expected action RPG mechanics like fighting enemies and leveling up, it’s also
<em>dripping</em> with style, with an aesthetic it describes as “brainpunk.”</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/347Bfnp.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/347Bfnpm.jpg" alt="Scarlet Nexus" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/X3UV1Is.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/X3UV1Ism.jpg" alt="fighting enemies and leveling up" /></a>
</figure>
<p>There’s two main characters to choose from: Yuito, and Kasane. At the beginning
of the game, you pick who you want to play as, and you’ll follow the story from
their point of view for the entire game. It’s the same plot regardless of who
you pick, but they each see different parts of it. They do cross paths several
times, so there are scenes that are the same in both routes. Yuito and Kasane
both have the same psychokinesis power, allowing them to move and throw objects
with their mind, but they do play <em>slightly</em> differently in combat since they
use different weapons. Yuito uses a sword, and Kasane uses three daggers
controlled with psychokinesis. A quick side note, I played through Kasane’s
story first, so most of the footage you see will be from Kasane’s route since I
recorded more during my first playthrough.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/eCTHtjc.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/eCTHtjcm.jpg" alt="two main characters to choose from" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/XmojxEq.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/XmojxEqm.jpg" alt="psychokinesis power" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/e3l4bGN.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/e3l4bGNm.jpg" alt="Kasane uses three daggers" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Combat is fantastic. It’s fast, but it feels more calculated than button-mashy,
and has a really fun pace and flow. Kasane’s attacks are a bit slower than
Yuito’s, but have a longer range. Attacking with a combo and then winding up a
psy attack at the right time so that when you throw the object at the enemy,
you’re ready to launch into another followup attack right away. Landing those
combos just right feels great. You can’t just spam psy attacks from a distance
either since using them drains your psy meter, and you need to land weapon
attacks to replenish it. Once you level up enough and buy the perks to fully
upgrade your psy meter, you will have enough psy to throw several objects at
enemies in a row before you need to use melee attacks. Using that later in the
game to run around enemies and avoid their attacks while pelting them with cars
and other objects using telekinesis was awesome!</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/48IvjWp.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/48IvjWpm.jpg" alt="Combat" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/mGyY0WE.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/mGyY0WEm.jpg" alt="attacks" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/JfawMkR.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/JfawMkRm.jpg" alt="awesome" /></a>
</figure>
<p>While you can have up to two party members on the field fighting alongside you,
you can only control your main character, either Kasane or Yuito depending on
who you chose at the beginning. But you’re not limited to only using their
psychokinesis power thanks to SAS. The SAS system allows you to borrow your
teammates’ abilities for a limited time. This isn’t limited to just the two
teammates on the battlefield either, you can borrow the powers of anyone in your
party. Borrowing their abilities drains the SAS gauge for that character over
time. It only recharges when you’re not using it, so you can’t just borrow their
abilities all the time. Using the right SAS powers against the right enemies is
crucial to taking them down efficiently. Breaking through enemy armor is much
easier when borrowing Kyoka’s Duplication ability, and defeating enemies that
retreat into their shell is nearly impossible without using Kagero’s
invisibility or Arashi’s hypervelocity. Everyone’s power has its own particular
strengths, and switching between them as needed during battle feels great. You
can also borrow multiple powers at once if you buy the right perks.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/pPe1VRs.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/pPe1VRsm.jpg" alt="The SAS system" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/efH1xyC.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/efH1xyCm.jpg" alt="your party" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/y9wKlJa.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/y9wKlJam.jpg" alt="hypervelocity" /></a>
</figure>
<p>There’s also Brain Crush moves that instantly defeat an enemy. You have to
deplete their crush gauge first by attacking them repeatedly. Once you’ve done
that, a button prompt will appear for you to execute the finisher. These are
<em>awesome</em>. The animations are stylish and cinematic, and I never got tired of
seeing them. You can turn them off in the settings if you get sick of them
though.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/gxjs1us.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/gxjs1usm.jpg" alt="Brain Crush" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/IFEs9ds.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/IFEs9dsm.jpg" alt="animations are stylish and cinematic" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/lJ4QqUk.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/lJ4QqUkm.jpg" alt="I never got tired of seeing them" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Another cool combat thing: there are sometimes special objects you can interact
with during battle using psychokinesis. Some of these are barrels of water or
oil you can use to douse enemies and make them more susceptible to electricity
or fire, but usually they’re just another way to deal decent amounts of damage.
There’s one area with buses you can use, and your character jumps on top and
steers the bus using psychokinesis, allowing you to run over a bunch of Others.
It’s fantastic, I loved this part in both of my playthroughs.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/K19PQuA.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/K19PQuAm.jpg" alt="special objects" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/T6RE9wk.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/T6RE9wkm.jpg" alt="jumps on top and steers the bus" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Some of the bosses are quite challenging. When I was playing on Normal for my
first playthrough, there were many bosses where I wouldn’t have survived if I
hadn’t been so well stocked on healing items. I got a Game Over on at least one
boss. You can adjust the difficulty at any time between Easy, Normal, and Hard,
but the challenge is there for those who want it. I appreciated the balance of
Normal difficulty, it wasn’t too hard outside of boss battles most of the time,
but it was nice to run into a boss that kept me on my toes every now and then.
For my second playthrough, I played using New Game+ and carried over my levels
and equipment, so I turned the difficulty up to Hard to somewhat balance things
out a bit. I was able to steamroll through most enemies for a lot of the game,
but some encounters and bosses were <em>still</em> a bit challenging by the middle of
the game, even with my party already at the level they would be at the <em>end</em> of
a playthrough.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/WEMpXxk.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WEMpXxkm.jpg" alt="the bosses" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/2uB54t5.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/2uB54t5m.jpg" alt="my first playthrough" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/vNbmr4K.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/vNbmr4Km.jpg" alt="my second playthrough" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Between chapters, Standby Phase lets you hang out at the hideout or go back
through previous levels to fight enemies and complete side quests. I really only
used this phase to spend time with my teammates though. This is kind of like the
Social Link system from the Persona series. You can give your teammates gifts to
raise their affinity with you, and there’s scenes called Bond Episodes as you
level up your Bond with them. Leveling up your Bond unlocks new abilities and
actions when using SAS with that character. They decorate the hideout with the
gifts you give them too, and sometimes you’ll see them using a gift you gave
them previously. That was a really nice detail to see! It was always fun to see
them randomly using something I gave them a few chapters ago.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/1R6AGNx.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/1R6AGNxm.jpg" alt="the hideout" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/2O3CY3f.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/2O3CY3fm.jpg" alt="unlocks new abilities and actions" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/xIGUndu.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/xIGUndum.jpg" alt="using something I gave them" /></a>
</figure>
<p>The story in Scarlet Nexus is great. It consistently maintains interest by
creating mysteries about the world and characters, answering these questions
over time, and then presenting new questions and twists that keep you wanting
more. The pacing does fall off a bit here and there, but the gameplay holds up
the experience well when that happens. There were some plot points that seemed a
little weak, but it’s a fun ride nevertheless.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/2yJQ2wo.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/2yJQ2wom.jpg" alt="The story" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/GwntRVR.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GwntRVRm.jpg" alt="mysteries about the world and characters" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/ttExPE3.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ttExPE3m.jpg" alt="twists" /></a>
</figure>
<p>A big part of how much you enjoy the story will come down to how you feel about
how most of its cutscenes play out. For some key moments, Scarlet Nexus has
fully animated cutscenes. But for the majority of the scenes, they’re told
through a series of still images using the characters’ in-game models. They’re
still fully voiced acted, but when characters speak during these cutscenes,
their portraits appear in a little rectangle and their mouths just do “lip
flaps” rather than being accurately lip-synced. I found this style of cutscene
rather charming myself, they remind me of skits from the Tales series. But your
mileage may vary, and if you can’t <em>stand</em> this cutscene style then you’re in
for a rough time, because it’s used heavily throughout the game.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/hOB6mdz.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/hOB6mdzm.jpg" alt="its cutscenes" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/9M8Qkoz.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/9M8Qkozm.jpg" alt="fully animated cutscenes" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/O8czCmS.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/O8czCmSm.jpg" alt="these cutscenes" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Something I didn’t hear a lot of hype about before playing this game is its
soundtrack, but I’m not sure why that is because the OST is really good. It
works very well, I was bopping along to the catchy tracks regularly while
playing, but there are also excellent calmer tracks for the more somber and
emotional moments. It definitely has its own unique sound, but if I had to draw
comparisons I’d say it reminds me of a mixture of Danganronpa, Digimon Story
Cyber Sleuth, and Persona soundtracks, with maybe a little Blue Reflection in
there too.</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/WnDSTqK.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WnDSTqKm.jpg" alt="this game" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/mnsKrVk.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/mnsKrVkm.jpg" alt="unique sound" /></a>
</figure>
<p>Another thing that helped endear Scarlet Nexus to me was its English voice cast.
There’s <em>tons</em> of overlap with Fire Emblem Three Houses cast. Practically the
entire cast of Three Houses is in Scarlet Nexus. I mean, just look at how long
this list is! This overlap is probably because the English dub for both games
was done by Cup of Tea productions. It’s a great cast, they’ve done good work
here!</p>
<figure class="half">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/WGnJdRh.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/WGnJdRhm.jpg" alt="Fire Emblem Three Houses cast" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/wutV4sk.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/wutV4skm.jpg" alt="in Scarlet Nexus" /></a>
</figure>
<ul>
<li>Chris Hackney (Dimitri, Yuito)</li>
<li>Erica Mendez (Bernadetta, Kasane)</li>
<li>Xanthe Huynh (Marianne, Tsugumi)</li>
<li>Nathan Hendrick (Balthus, Gemma)</li>
<li>Zach Aguilar (Male Byleth, Luka)</li>
<li>Mark Whitten (Seteth, Shiden)</li>
<li>Chris Patton (Linhardt, Kagero)</li>
<li>Griffin Burns (Cyril, Nagi)</li>
<li>Kyle McCarley (Gatekeeper, Wataru)</li>
<li>Salli Saffioti (Hilda, Haruka)</li>
<li>Laura Post (Catherine, Kodama)</li>
<li>Kirk Thornton (Additional voices, Joe)</li>
<li>Allegra Clark (Dorothea, Wakana)</li>
<li>Armen Taylor (Miklan, Karen)</li>
</ul>
<p>If you’re planning on trying Scarlet Nexus for yourself, I recommend playing
through Kasane’s story first, like I did. With Kasane’s story, I feel like you
get more important information on the big picture than you do with Yuito’s
story. Either way, if you’re into anime action RPGs, then I definitely recommend
checking this game out. I really enjoyed my time with it. My first playthrough
as Kasane was great, but I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed my second
playthrough as Yuito as well. I didn’t have a very high opinion of Yuito from
playing Kasane’s story, but he really grew on me over the course of his story. I
still like Kasane and her story more though. My final time after completing
Kasane’s story was 26 hours 26 minutes, and my final time after completing both
Kasane’s and Yuito’s stories was 46 hours 50 minutes.</p>
<figure class="third">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/jCcJ9bL.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/jCcJ9bLm.jpg" alt="Scarlet Nexus" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/RfZEH41.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/RfZEH41m.jpg" alt="My final time after completing Kasane" /></a>
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/TvxEwCt.jpg"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/TvxEwCtm.jpg" alt="my final time after completing both" /></a>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com/weekly/what-im-playing-no-171/">What I'm Playing - No. 171</a> was originally published by Braving the Backlog at <a href="https://bravingthebacklog.com">Braving the Backlog</a> on August 28, 2022.</p>
I finished Scarlet Nexus this week!