Just completed - The Bear and Badger

Blue Swirl

AndCallMeCharlie wrote:

will never understand the appeal of doom, claustrophobic and too samey for me

It's the 30 seconds of fun principle, to put it in Halo parlence.

Moot_Geeza

Paul the sparky wrote:

Backbone

Well that was something. Definitely doesn't go where I thought it was going. Loved it even though I'm not sure it all hangs together

Downloaded, hoping to start it tonight.

mistercrayon

Finished the Voice of Cards: the isle of the dragon. It's one of two new Square-Enix games which are extremely pared back RPGs. This one is the Yoko Taro one and if you've seen the video it's the one that looks like it is on a table with playing cards representing the map.

Now I finished it (it's doable in about 15hr) and I think it's a little bit disappointing but it's also a really cheapo game but it's also arguably a cheap game(is £25 a cheap game now?, it's a third of PS5 RRP which is about the same ratio as when we paid £50 a game). There are bits in the game that feel like they need a lots of months of polish (for example the movement and enemy encounter rate make the game feel horrible and slow and there is a plot element that seems to reward being nice but towards the end the plot element just ends up being objects you find in chests, so it feels like they ran out of writing time). One hilarious aspect is you can run away from battles but to match the aesthetic it rolls a pair of dice to see if you escape. Towards the end though I was getting messages saying I could escape on a roll of 2 with two dice, a cleaner game would avoid me having to roll the dice and all the associcated animation.

The gameplay is servicable - it's way too easy to accidently grind too hard and make everything a bit of a cakewalk and the strategic elements of a battle are pretty plain to see and completely transparent to unpick.

The story has some fun writing but it's all a bit standard - This guy is good but he's not when you learn stuff towards the end.

Overall it's a 5 or 6 out of ten at max but also breezy so not too irritating.

Tempy

Paul the sparky wrote:

Backbone

Well that was something. Definitely doesn't go where I thought it was going. Loved it even though I'm not sure it all hangs together

One of my faves of the year

Facewon

Fight in Tight Spaces on Second highest difficulty.

Arguable whether I'll aim to complete it with multiple starting decks, but will certainly aim to do the toughest setting with a couple.

I noticed a thing in the final section that leads me to think there is a heart equiv, so maybe there's more.

We'll see.

Still mint.

EvilRedEye

Metroid: Samus Returns - Nintendo 3DS: Haven't played the original but my understanding is this is a heavily reimagined remake of Metroid II for the Game Boy, by the makers of Metroid Dread. I can't honestly say I enjoyed this as much as Zero Mission. The controls don't feel perfect - selecting weapons via the touchscreen is a bit awkward and I think it would have been nice to have movement on both the analog stick and d-pad as the d-pad doesn't feel brilliantly utilised, while the 3DS stick is a bit imprecise-feeling for movement.

You'd expect a big part of the remaking to be sprucing up the graphics and sound but honestly neither of these feel particularly distinctive. I think there were similar critisisms aimed at Metroid Dread but at least you can credit the developers for the original game design in that case. The environments often feel uninteresting and repetitive.

The gameplay is still broadly fun with lots of decent level design but the remake as a whole feels a bit over-wrought (my clear time was 14:22 and the system-level play time which presumably counts game overs as well was nearly 20 hours - a bit long for one of these and it feels it). The new bosses in particular are an absolute grind.

Not bad overall but it was probably for the best that MercurySteam had the chance to cut their teeth on this before tackling Metroid Dread. A solid [7]. On to Super Metroid!

hunk

Inside-PC

Interesting indie title from the makers of Limbo. Limbo was good but the narrative here feels much more focussed. You're a young boy on the run escaping from mysterious persecutors. Gameplay is puzzle platform environment focussed (think Limbo/Another World). Controls are responsive and the puzzles aren't too complicated; estimated playtime is about 6hrs. The ending sequence is unexpected and also very sad/ entertaining. Great Halloween fodder.

A solid 6, almost a 7.
6.5 it is.

EvilRedEye

Something I forgot to mention re: Metroid: Samus Returns - MercurySteam introduced the melee counter with this but you can tell they've got way too carried away with implementing the idea. All enemies now do melee attacks and melee counters become the primary method of attacking to the point that the game barely feels like a shooter. Considering this is meant to be a remake, it's just way too much and makes it feel unfaithful to the original.

mrsmr2

yup

Facewon

Banners of ruin.

Rogue like. So really, you know. First run of many.

There's some definite gripes. And it would most certainly not be the place to start with deck builder Rogues, but for those looking to try sts variations, this is a very solid choice.

The painted characters, particularly throughout the non battle situations, are absolutely lovely.

Lots of characters, heaps of options. Lots to unlock.

Good stuff overall.

Blue Swirl

EvilRedEye wrote:

Not bad overall but it was probably for the best that MercurySteam had the chance to cut their teeth on this before tackling Metroid Dread. A solid [7]. On to Super Metroid!

A spot on summary, but I'd probably rate it higher than a 7. Worth dusting off your 3DS for, fellow badgers.

mrsmr2

No it's not.

monkey

Yeah it's mediocre. The melee is especially tedious. You're fully powered up at the end and still need to wait for the lowliest of alien vermin to do their attack so you can counter and do some damage. Twice as long as it should have been. No variety. It's about 7 hours in before any thing interesting happens. It's not bad bad. But it's not good and there's so much better out there in that genre that you could be playing.

Aaroncupboard

The Forgotten City

This has absolutely enthralled me over this past week. It’s brilliant. It is essentially an interactive mystery with a wide cast of interesting characters, an excellent setting and just insanely good world building.

Some of the mechanics are a tad clunky (arrow firing for example) but they don’t get in the way of the story or the incredible reveals as you slowly unravel what is going on. Some of the reveals are just incredible.

I loved it.

Moot_Geeza

Backbone. Really enjoyed it once it got going. Credits rolling now, it has a touch of the Kentucky Route Zero legitness about it (Red Strings Club is worth a mention too). Quality stuff.

yourfavouriteuncle

I started that just last night but I think I’d be further on if the text didn’t keep changing to Russian (I’m presuming Russian but can’t be certain). Happens to the whole game too, including in the menus so it’s pretty difficult knowing the correct tab to click to change back.

Genuinely thought the game was meta trolling me at first.

Moot_Geeza

It's LB on the Bone, I have no idea why the dialogue change is an option. It probably is Russian now that you mention it but for some reason my first thought was 'made up dystopian animal language'.

Blue Swirl

Well, on the Samus Returns versus Dread front, I never wanted to snap my 3DS in half when playing SR.

acemuzzy

Tbf tho that would have been easier what with the hinge n all

Blue Swirl

So that's why Nintendo made the 2DS.

Facewon

Fights in Tight Spaces: The purist settings with Counter deck.

So that's the vanilla difficulty settings all done.

Have been started trying the daily. Which seems much tougher and very cool. It appears to be where all the replay will be.

There is a character that you see in the end game stuff that I'm yet to actually fight, so there must be something I'm missing in amongst the events or something, but other than that, game has been pretty well hammered. Thoroughly recommended.

RamSteelwood

RDR2

Rooting, tooting, and lots of shooting.

AndCallMeCharlie

Just finished unpacking (piss poor pun intended)
It’s exactly the sort of game I have no time for but fuck I loved it - has that Tetris thing about apply order to a mess which is a real hook.
The “story” is a fine example of show don’t tell and the way the levels become more difficult as the character amasses more items through her life was very clever.
Can’t remember the last time I wished a game was longer rather than “oh can this be over already”.
9

regmcfly

I'm on the last stage and you've nailed my feelings.

yourfavouriteuncle

It’s brilliant but it’s got my kinda game plastered all over it.

yourfavouriteuncle

Backbone is also pretty great now it’s spurting Russian at me.

mistercrayon

finished Dungeon Encounters, completing an unlikely duology of square enix cheapo RPGs in later 2021 (the other being the Yoko Taro Voice of Cards).

It's kind of a fun game up to half way then it becomes trivial if you're broadly dilligent and therefore a lot boring. You get to the final boss and you beat it in two rounds and that's that. I'm sure there's a post game but I don't think I am ever arsed with those and I'm not starting now.

There's a neat brutality to the efficiency of its systems, almost taking the piss out of RPGs to a certain extent, deleting as much as it can leaving you with just mechanisms. If you're patient you can override the mechansims too easily and all the battles are trivial so it messes up its one thing a little bit. But maybe that's also true for all RPGs that allow grind.

Bollockoff

mistercrayon wrote:

Finished the Voice of Cards: the isle of the dragon. It's one of two new Square-Enix games which are extremely pared back RPGs. This one is the Yoko Taro one and if you've seen the video it's the one that looks like it is on a table with playing cards representing the map.

Now I finished it (it's doable in about 15hr) and I think it's a little bit disappointing but it's also a really cheapo game but it's also arguably a cheap game(is £25 a cheap game now?, it's a third of PS5 RRP which is about the same ratio as when we paid £50 a game). There are bits in the game that feel like they need a lots of months of polish (for example the movement and enemy encounter rate make the game feel horrible and slow and there is a plot element that seems to reward being nice but towards the end the plot element just ends up being objects you find in chests, so it feels like they ran out of writing time). One hilarious aspect is you can run away from battles but to match the aesthetic it rolls a pair of dice to see if you escape. Towards the end though I was getting messages saying I could escape on a roll of 2 with two dice, a cleaner game would avoid me having to roll the dice and all the associcated animation.

The gameplay is servicable - it's way too easy to accidently grind too hard and make everything a bit of a cakewalk and the strategic elements of a battle are pretty plain to see and completely transparent to unpick.

The story has some fun writing but it's all a bit standard - This guy is good but he's not when you learn stuff towards the end.

Overall it's a 5 or 6 out of ten at max but also breezy so not too irritating.

I hated the demo. Like it was designed to be making a joke of JRPG tropes but the punchline never arrived.

AndCallMeCharlie

Yeah not the most persuasive of demos, distinct feeling for wtf is this?

mistercrayon

The demo, I heard, follows a different set of characters.

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