Hollow Knight - the first one, Tempy is forgiven - The Bear and Badger

mrsmr2

Boughted. But not playing it until I’ve completed Ori

Olimite

Had a short go on it, but I was crap and it was late. Definitely going back.

mrsmr2

Played an hour to test it out and impressed so far.

Very polished and amazingly, a PoS Unity game that isn't a PoS. Not noticed many stutters at all.

It could do with a bit more colour though music, levels, voices, controls are top notch.

Dark Soldier

This fucker has its claws in now

tigersgogrrr

I'm feeling the aesthetic but not the game, so far.

Dark Soldier

The gameplay is superb I find, suitably punishing at times and opens up as you progress

Syph79

I'm at the end. I may be at the end for some time.

tigersgogrrr

Dark Soldier wrote:

The gameplay is superb I find, suitably punishing at times and opens up as you progress

I think it's likely I'll get into it if I push on, but I just have so little time I put into gaming at the moment and this is not that kinda game.

AndCallMeCharlie

The controls are tight as fuck

mrsmr2

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Agree with the combat niggles but I was a huge fan of the insta death bits.

Slight Ori hijack:
I liked the first one but the Forlorn Ruins part is shit. No skill involved just trial and error, with lots of screen shake, vibrations, and particle effects making it difficult to work out where you actually are on screen.

Moot_Geeza

Youtubed it and remembered getting squashed by a rock a few times. Still enjoyed it but it's the weakest escape iirc.

Subbax

It took me about 10 tries but I've finally

Spoiler:

tin_robot

Subbax wrote:

It took me about 10 tries but I've finally

Spoiler:

beaten Trial of the Conqueror. My thumb hurt by the end of it. Trial of Fools next and I'm not looking forward to it.

Bloody everything takes me about 10 tries. (sigh)

Stumbled into the...

Spoiler:

Last night, then took a long meandering detour, and I have literally no idea where I am now.

Spoiler:

Moot_Geeza

Tempted to start this tonight. When you're saying 10 tries, how far back are we talking for checkpoints?

tin_robot

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Tempted to start this tonight. When you're saying 10 tries, how far back are we talking for checkpoints?

That's a slightly difficult one to answer. There's usually a checkpoint not too far away from a boss, but you may not find it. Certainly you can expect to have to fight your way back through a fair few lesser beasts before you can take on whatever killed you. There's no Meatboy style put-you-back-in-at-the spot-you-died stuff here.

That said, I'm not sure 10 tries is remotely the norm for everyone, and even with my faded reflexes it is usually just boss/miniboss battles that result in multiple deaths. (I haven't got to Subbax's spoilered bit, but it sounds like a different level of challenge again, and likely optional.) Most other minions just require a bit of study and strategy and they're easy enough to overcome. So the exploring remains pretty fun - but there's a constant tension between "will the next room be the one that lets me save, or the one that kills me?" going on.

Moot_Geeza

Interesting. I played for 45 minutes earlier, managed to bag myself

Spoiler:

Early days, but I think I'm going to enjoy it, phew.

One more question regarding the money - is it a spend it or lose it kind of thing? Like you're gambling by holding onto a big stash rather than spending it on something you get to keep (as death empties your wallet?).

Dark Soldier

Death is same as in Souls, you die it will leave behind some spectre thing you need to kill to get it back. If you don't kill it before next death, a new spectre appears with whatever you were now holding and other one is gone.

So spend like a motherfucker

Tempy

There is a way of getting a big stash later

Moot_Geeza

Ah, so that's what I killed earlier. Sounds like the sort of thing they tried to do in The Mummy Returns, which wasn't really suited for it.

Subbax

Yeah my spoiler is entirely optional unless

Spoiler:

Spoiler about your shade.

Spoiler:

Moot_Geeza

I spent all my money on all the map pins without realising

Spoiler:

Oh well. Game is great so far, never played a Dark Souls so I'd have to describe it as a Metroidvaniaiden (tm), given that it's doing the Metroid/latter day Castlevania thing, coupled with the Xbox Ninja Gaiden thing where mini men can merk a man. Everything seems to be a danger the first time you face it, but now

Spoiler:

Tempy

Do I have to write the whole "it is barely Dark Souls" thing again

Dark Soldier

its 101% dark souls

Tempy

only if you're only smol brain thinking

acemuzzy

- swords
- shields
- lots of death
- reclaim souls
- dark theme
- minimal exposition
- seems hard but then you git gud

DS gets it

Tempy

I am not saying it doesn't have elements of the Souls series, at all, but only two of those things in your list Muzz are actually native to Souls - the recovery and the minimal exposition. The rest are as applicable to Axiom Verge or Symphony of the Night.

I mean I wrote an article on this, I think primarily it takes the narrative ideas of Souls and finally returns them to a traditional Metroidvania game, almost fulfilling a sort of inevitable cycle which is where the strongest scent-of-Souls comes from but I think after that it's just people clutching at the most recent thing in memory.

acemuzzy

Yes correct they are also souls-like

acemuzzy

Dark Soldier

not comparing every game to souls in 2018 smh temps

FM is the dark souls of football management

Tempy

Dead Cells is only like... 7 letters away from Dark Souls? And you can roll in it?!

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