Moot_Geeza wrote:101. Touhou Luna Nights - Xbox One (3-4hrs) Saw this pop up on Game Pass recently and earmarked it for a go. Character movement and attacks felt good, so I pushed on past the 'maybe I'll come back to that later' zone and three hours later I was still going. It's a really solid Metroidvania clearly indebted to Symphony of the Night, but coming from someone who played both for the first time this year I can opine without rosetints: it's actually a smidge better than SotN for a non-hundo playthrough. Yep, one of the greats is actually comparable to a no-mark indie release buried in the deluge. That's not a dig at Castlevania - it's still a good game by modern standards and would've undoubtedly been fantastic at the time - but the indie scene these days is just chef's kiss divine. Indies, I fucking love 'em. Straight off the bat this introduces an interesting mechanic - Grazing - which grants a minor health/magic recharge for narrowly avoiding contact with an enemy. As save stations (telephone boxes here) can be quite spaced out, the ability to regain or farm health with an element of risk works very well. You can slow time, you can freeze time, and you'll acquire a few secondary weapons if you keep an eye out for hidden rooms. Standard attacks and sub-weapons drain magic, freezing time drains your clock, and attacks during frozen time feed on the clock rather than the magic bar. It's all pretty simple once you get going, and it's all well implemented. It's not an envelope pushing Metroidvania (this wouldn't be out of place as a late Saturn game), but it's well crafted, very playable and mercifully devoid of the I'M STUCK moments I tend to hate it map based/ability gated games. Having multiple sub-weapons and tonics selected by the bumpers was fiddly as you can only access one item at a time, but it's possible I missed a quick select wheel. Some of the music was a bit weedy too, despite the name of the tracks appearing at the bottom of the screen to suggest it's noteworthy. Plus it's a bit short, I can't see more than 7-8hrs on offer for anyone looking to mop up every last thing. Overall if you think you could enjoy a blue-haired girl witches anime style homage to Symphony of the Night without getting the weeboohoos at the cheek of it all I think you'd find a quality 2D action title here. One more thing: it looks superb too. [8]
Moot_Geeza wrote:Yep, look at him there with all his cunt pals. Took me multiple save states last night.
Moot_Geeza wrote:The DLC is 40% off on Xbox at the moment, which puts it at just over £20, but I'm reluctant to swallow that as the base game only cost me £12 new. I'll pass for now I think, but I did really enjoy that main campaign.
Yeah, I didn't use melee weapons much, except a super katana I found in one bit that sliced through anything. You need range too often to make it worthwhile. The basic kick was pretty useful though, obviously because you can follow it up with a shot.Moot_Geeza wrote:I really fancy Foregone, will treat myself at the first proper discount I think. I'm fine with repetition in 2D if it plays well, not so sure about the loot aspect but we'll see. Did you click with the melee attacks in Huntdown? It was one of the few elements that felt a bit duff to me, expected the baseball bats and so on to be a bit meatier but I decided to avoid them pretty early on.
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