Been playing through Tunic this last week and I don’t think I’ve had a game leave me this conflicted in a while. I picked Tunic up on all the recommendations of it being classic Zelda with elements from Dark Souls and that’s definitely what I got, for most of the game at least. I also enjoyed the puzzle elements with the manual, trying to decipher what it was telling me based on the images and the odd English word. If there’s one thing the game does well it’s capturing that feeling of playing a game as a kid and not really knowing what’s possible. I had quite a few “Ah-ha!” moments where the game hinted at something just enough to let me figure it out on my own. But then you get to the end-game, the game takes away all your upgrades, and makes you go through a gauntlet of enemies to get them back. I get what they were going for here, but playing through it was just a slog. In theory, I like the idea of being powerless again and having to treat every enemy with caution, but in practice this segment just dragged on for too long,

Another mechanic that overstays it’s welcome is the “Holy Cross” mechanic. It’s neat the first time you use it and figuring out how to use it on all the sealed doors and golden statues I had seen was fun. But the issue is this is where the game completely changes genres on you, at least if you want to see the true ending. The Zelda/Dark Souls elements are now completely secondary to deciphering the manual and completing the Holy Cross puzzles. Enemies are just obstacles between you and where you have to go to solve the next puzzle, culminating in the Golden Path puzzle, which the true ending is gated behind.

I did enjoy everything up until that point, but once it became about this meta-puzzle and flipping through the manual to solve it I just lost interest. Yeah, I was stuck with the “Bad Ending”, but the amount of effort the game wanted me to put in for a cut-scene just didn’t seem worth it.

MTG Arena

Finally got around to trying Dwarf Fortress and I am in love lol. I’m really impressed with the UI changes the dev was able to pull off for the Steam release, I play perfectly comfortably using a custom config with my Steam controller.

I finished Pathfinder: Kingmaker after putting 250 or so hours into it and now I feel kind of empty. I still don’t think it’s a particularly great game, but after spending so much time on it you develop a sort of Stockholm syndrome. There are things about the game I enjoyed, but also endless frustrations. The ending chapters especially were an absolutely insane slog of numerous terrible Wild Hunt encounters that seem completely mindlessly thrown together to up the “challenge”. It’s a shame, really because there is a good game in there somewhere if you’d only scale back the bullshit. It could also do with some editing in general, I don’t think it justifies being so goddamn long.

Looking for the next thing to fill the void has been a bit of a challenge, I’ve been at it with Kingmaker for so long it’s been tough to switch focus suddenly. I started Weird West, which I bought on the last GOG sale and the beginning of it seemed alright, not sure if it will stick though. I also played through the first couple of levels of Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive which is an absolute classic that I never played back in the day. The AI is pretty dumb, but immersion breaking stupidity aside it’s still super fun to approach it as a puzzle and work around and abuse the dumb AI.

Still, my brain might still be in the CRPG frame of mind after two months of Kingmaker so I also installed Arcanum with the Multiverse Edition modpack. Perhaps this is the time I finally play through it.

I’ve been playing Fire Emblem Awakening. I had the dumb idea of playing hard/classic for the first time (having also not played much FE before), so a few of the last chapters have been a bit too challenging: I got stuck on chapter 17 for a couple of days. It’s been enjoyable, I think I’m near the end (chapter 21).

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth came out on PC, so I played that for most of the weekend, and I’m rather disappointed with a couple of things: the open world in the first area is the usual dull ubisoft-like checklist of chores. Luckily it doesn’t take too much to get past it, but then there’s my other complaint: the pacing and tone of the story feel off. There’s been a few too many breaks which IMO ruined the momentum. I’m now at Costa del Sol, and I’m already tired of the minigames.

Initially I had planned on playing Emio, since I played the demo and liked it, but the copy I ordered got delayed, the lost, so I’m gonna get it some other time.

Just grabbed Thronefall and have been playing on the Deck a lot. It’s really fun; tower defense meets RTS with great economy. You’re always debating defenses vs scaling and some of the challenges are downright hard

Of course, I had to run it back in Baldur’s Gate 3, Honor Mode, after I failed right before the finish line. This time I went four Fighters, two melee, two ranged. My run ended in Act 2, not because of my party comp, but I let Isobel die in Last Light Inn. I forgot to block a door and the enemy crit three or four attacks on her. I did survive the fight with all the zombies afterward, got into another fight and ended it there. I’ll do another run like this, but probably after Patch 8, when Fighter gets a proper ranged sub-class. No idea, what my next run will be, but it will have to wait a bit.

Then, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth finally released on PC. I’ve been looking forward to this, and just recently re-played the first part. I’m at the beginning of Chapter 4 and it’s good. The big zones are kinda meh, pretty empty, and I don’t think the devs ever used a Chocobo to run around. Unless you only follow the roads, there are small ledges everywhere, and your Chocobo either slows down or stops completely, which is a pain. I still have fun, although the constant short breaks are kinda annoying. Like in the first game, you need to wait for certain animations to finish, before you can go into the menu, or when you completed a “World Intel” objective there’s a 10-second jingle and animation you have to wait for. Often you also get a call from a dude, who tells you he’s found another one, and you just have to stand there and listen. Like I said, I still have a good time, so it’s not a big deal.

I am playing and forever willbe playing Hello Kitty Dream Village. It’s a shitty gacha game but I love it. I alos play Torn but I really don’t like it. I’m literally just signing in and collecting points. I don’t like that it’s centered around violence and drugs. No, I’m not mormon. I do belong to the Church of Mr. Rogers. ;P

Taking a break from Junkfood 4, I’m currently going through Chilling Reign - a wintery episode for Heretic. Also, Skyrim.

I just picked up Halls of Torment again and ended up some how playing around 10 hours this weekend…it is alright.

Xbox had a sale so I picked up “Ravenswatch”, an action rougelike game where you play as fallen versions of fairy tale characters. For example Red Riding Hood is a playable character, but this version is a werewolf.

The other day unlocked Carmilla, a dhampir based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella. I really like her playstyle.

Also been playing Monster Prom.

While I’m trying to rekindle my joy for FFXIV, been a enjoying some Delta Force and Marvel Rivals.