[polishgenius]

I think I might end up liking Silksong even more than HK, though only replays will tell - it's so rewarding, and once you get past a certain point you get way more customisation and ways to engage with the difficulty than the first game ever gave you. But it does take a lot of blood sweat and tears to get to that point, and there is one questionable decision in the game's structure that is definitely gonna put a lot of fans off.


Like, I don't think it's actually more difficult than HK, but the ways to mitigate the difficulty are harder to find than the difficulty which you just run face-first into.


It's very, very satisfying though. Hornet moves like a dream.

[champ]

Tiste Simeon, on 25 September 2025 - 06:17 PM, said:

champ, on 25 September 2025 - 02:10 PM, said:

I don't say this lightly but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the greatest games I've ever played.

The story, the music, the combat and gameplay mechanics, I am just totally blown away. It's one of those games that everyone should play and if you cannot play it, watch a playthrough of it.

It'll be a tragedy if it doesn't win GOTY though I think Hades 2 could have something to say about that.

I've seen some gameplay for it and I think it looks stunning but I would be TERRIBLE at the combat. I may just watch a full gameplay of it like I would watch a TV show or something.

I wouldn't rule it out straight away.

There is a story mode (easy) and it is designed for beginners to be able to pick up and play through the game. It makes any dodge/parry window very forgiving and with some levelling half the time enemies don't even get a go as it's still turn based combat.

Watching it would still be an awesome experience though if you preferred not to play.

[Tiste Simeon]

Thanks man I think for me it'll be a "keep an eye out for it on sale" type thing!

[Maark Abbott]

polishgenius, on 25 September 2025 - 07:01 PM, said:

I think I might end up liking Silksong even more than HK, though only replays will tell - it's so rewarding, and once you get past a certain point you get way more customisation and ways to engage with the difficulty than the first game ever gave you. But it does take a lot of blood sweat and tears to get to that point, and there is one questionable decision in the game's structure that is definitely gonna put a lot of fans off.


Like, I don't think it's actually more difficult than HK, but the ways to mitigate the difficulty are harder to find than the difficulty which you just run face-first into.


It's very, very satisfying though. Hornet moves like a dream.

I actually played HK very close to the release date (started roughly in April) and the difference in the early game is very pronounced - it reminds me to some degree of Metroid Prime 2 which is noticeably harder than Prime 1 (given it expects players to know what they are doing already), but at the same time the difficulty curve in Prime 2 is more of a steady incline with a couple of spikes here and there (the infamous one is the Boost Guardian, although he's never given me any issue personally). The comparison is not great, I'll admit, but it's the best I have. A lot of the issue with Silksong is that because the opening is so very punishing, it felt like exploration was discouraged (a common thing in romhacks to gate players out of areas the developer doesn't want them in yet is to just make it horrible to go to that area), and so I never felt like I could go off of the beaten path without being slapped for it. For some context, the first part of HK I found sweaty was the Mantis Lords - but I still got past them first try, then went straight into Deepnest. With no upgrades. Because I didn't find that city place until after I had the monarch wings and the crystal dash.

It does bring back the dialogue around difficulty options, I guess - whilst I'm not interested in Clair Obscura, seeing that it has a mode that makes it at least accessible to play for people who don't really care about parry based gameplay is neat. I would have liked it if Silksong had done that but in its current state it was the least fun I have had in a game in a very, very long time, and given that HK was as good as it was it's a very bitter aftertaste left by that. Maybe I'd try it again if the developers made it more reasonable on the early game difficulty, but in its current state? No chance.

Anyway, on my end I'm in my retro PS2 horror era. About to starty on the second Fatal Frame game. The first was neat, if janky as heck, so I'm looking forward to the second.

[QuickTidal]

I have pretty much finished HOLLOW KNIGHT now (I have the Grimm Troupe Nightmare King fight left, have not collected the flames; oh and I still have to take a stab at Trial of Fools in the coliseum)...I think last I checked I had about 96%? The White Palace (to get the other half of the king soul, and then the VoidSoul in the abyss) took me days, but I managed it...used hive blood to make sure I had pretty much unlimited tries at certain areas.

I would call this game one of top five games I've ever played in my entire life. I adored the look, the gameplay (even when it was tough, I kept telling myself I'll get through eventually and I always did), the score, the story...all just top top tier....and I paid $15 for it. Just like Stardew Valley (also in my top 5) I am getting so much more for the money they want me to pay for it...for dollar value, you can't beat this.

I will 100% be buying SILKSONG in the next few weeks (I want to finish the Grimm Troupe stuff in HK...note I have no interest in the Radiant stuff...the dream bosses were hard enough)...and it looks like even that is only like $25? Amazing. I don't mind the steeper wall learning curve either...

[polishgenius]

https://store.steamp...20/Iconoclasts/

Iconoclasts is on sale, for anyone who hasn't played it. That's a much-underappreciated all-time classic, genuinely one of my favourite stories ever in gaming. It's also a metroidvania, but a much more story-driven one- Cave Story is a clear influence and Metroid Fusion a cited one for the creator, though it's a bit more puzzle-platformy than either and nowhere near as hard as Cave Story. Though it's no cakewalk. Anyway, highly recommended, it's incredible.

[Mentalist]

champ, on 25 September 2025 - 02:10 PM, said:

I don't say this lightly but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the greatest games I've ever played.

The story, the music, the combat and gameplay mechanics, I am just totally blown away. It's one of those games that everyone should play and if you cannot play it, watch a playthrough of it.

It'll be a tragedy if it doesn't win GOTY though I think Hades 2 could have something to say about that.

Hell is Us is GOTY for 2025 when it comes to non-AAA games, sorry.

(I kid, it's gonna be Silksong, b/c game journalists are as addicted to the hype as anyone else, and we'll both be disappointed).

We are still like 2 weeks away from the Steam NextFest, but there's so many demos for my wishlisted games coming thick'n'fast. Motorslice, Psycho Dead, now The Directorate: Novitiate.

Waiting on the release of Blood of Mehran next week. Picked up a bunch of stuff over the sale, pruned down my wishlist, grabbing most things that were over 60% off, or under 10 CAD.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 04 October 2025 - 01:43 AM

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 02 October 2025 - 04:07 PM, said:

I have pretty much finished HOLLOW KNIGHT now (I have the Grimm Troupe Nightmare King fight left, have not collected the flames; oh and I still have to take a stab at Trial of Fools in the coliseum)...I think last I checked I had about 96%? The White Palace (to get the other half of the king soul, and then the VoidSoul in the abyss) took me days, but I managed it...used hive blood to make sure I had pretty much unlimited tries at certain areas.

I would call this game one of top five games I've ever played in my entire life. I adored the look, the gameplay (even when it was tough, I kept telling myself I'll get through eventually and I always did), the score, the story...all just top top tier....and I paid $15 for it. Just like Stardew Valley (also in my top 5) I am getting so much more for the money they want me to pay for it...for dollar value, you can't beat this.

I will 100% be buying SILKSONG in the next few weeks (I want to finish the Grimm Troupe stuff in HK...note I have no interest in the Radiant stuff...the dream bosses were hard enough)...and it looks like even that is only like $25? Amazing. I don't mind the steeper wall learning curve either...

Oh yeah, just on the subject of dollar value for indies, because I got it in summer and have been digging into it since: have you played UFO 50? Absolutely absurd achievement in game design, and because there's so many games in it, and pretty much all of them are good, unless one has an aversion to retro/pretend-retro gaming in general, there's bound to be at least a few of interest.


The skinny for those not familiar: UFO 50 is a 'retrospective' collection of games from a fictional console developed by a fictional game company in the 80s. It tracks game development in that period in the most brillantly nerdy possible way, by both iterating on actual trends and developments of the time but also by taking ideas that were really later or more modern and stripping them back to the parameters of 80s development, essentially inventing fictional precursors for modern gaming trends. It also shows developing trends and running series within the company itself. Both directly in sequels to earlier games and in things like how Vainger is a metroidvania that iterates on a gravity-flip mechanic the 'earlier' game Warptank, or how Porgy and Divers are both '1986' releases focusing on diving and heading back to the surface as a gameplay loop, but with very different tones and styles.

There's several games in it that could genuinely have released as individual titles. Runs the gamut too, from strategy (quite a strong focus actually) and puzzles and more full, structured action games through to pure arcady type experiences of various sorts.






Here's a trailer, though it really doesn't get across quite what a nonsensical achievement UFO 50 is.

[Maark Abbott]

Picked up a neat little visual novel in the steam sale called The NONexistence of You and Me. Deals with themes of self, loneliness, reality. Pretty heavy topics and was done quite intriguingly.

[QuickTidal]

Finished ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST, which was a stunningly fun game to follow up HOLLOW KNIGHT with...only took about two weeks to finish it to 100%, but man what a lovely and calming ride. Gorgeous game.

And I needed another Metroidvania game to dive into, and NINE SOLS was on sale so I grabbed it. MUCH more challenging than ORI, but a blast to learn and the story and visuals are amazing. Can't wait to get properly sunk in.

EDIT: I was gonna grab ICONOCLASTS PG, but the NINE SOLS sale was like half price so it made more sense, I'll go for ICONOCLASTS next.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 21 October 2025 - 12:21 PM

[champ]

 Mentalist, on 04 October 2025 - 01:43 AM, said:

 champ, on 25 September 2025 - 02:10 PM, said:

I don't say this lightly but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the greatest games I've ever played.

The story, the music, the combat and gameplay mechanics, I am just totally blown away. It's one of those games that everyone should play and if you cannot play it, watch a playthrough of it.

It'll be a tragedy if it doesn't win GOTY though I think Hades 2 could have something to say about that.

Hell is Us is GOTY for 2025 when it comes to non-AAA games, sorry.

(I kid, it's gonna be Silksong, b/c game journalists are as addicted to the hype as anyone else, and we'll both be disappointed).

Is Hell is Us that good? I wasn't familiar with it until you mentioned it there. I'll take a look into it.


As soon as I saw all the praise for Silksong I did have a similar thought to you that it'll win.

[polishgenius]

 QuickTidal, on 21 October 2025 - 12:20 PM, said:

Finished ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST, which was a stunningly fun game to follow up HOLLOW KNIGHT with...only took about two weeks to finish it to 100%, but man what a lovely and calming ride. Gorgeous game.

And I needed another Metroidvania game to dive into, and NINE SOLS was on sale so I grabbed it. MUCH more challenging than ORI, but a blast to learn and the story and visuals are amazing. Can't wait to get properly sunk in.

EDIT: I was gonna grab ICONOCLASTS PG, but the NINE SOLS sale was like half price so it made more sense, I'll go for ICONOCLASTS next.

Nine Sols has a hell of a story too. I didn't ultimately enjoy it that much because even with excellent difficulty options it just focuses on a type of combat that I don't find as fun. But if you dig the combat it's a good purchase.


Definitely on the more linear side of the Metroidvania scale but then so is Iconoclasts. It's definitely aiming for that Cave Story tradition.

[QuickTidal]

 polishgenius, on 21 October 2025 - 05:10 PM, said:

 QuickTidal, on 21 October 2025 - 12:20 PM, said:

Finished ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST, which was a stunningly fun game to follow up HOLLOW KNIGHT with...only took about two weeks to finish it to 100%, but man what a lovely and calming ride. Gorgeous game.

And I needed another Metroidvania game to dive into, and NINE SOLS was on sale so I grabbed it. MUCH more challenging than ORI, but a blast to learn and the story and visuals are amazing. Can't wait to get properly sunk in.

EDIT: I was gonna grab ICONOCLASTS PG, but the NINE SOLS sale was like half price so it made more sense, I'll go for ICONOCLASTS next.

Nine Sols has a hell of a story too. I didn't ultimately enjoy it that much because even with excellent difficulty options it just focuses on a type of combat that I don't find as fun. But if you dig the combat it's a good purchase.

It's funny, combat in HK at the beginning felt so hard, but by the end I felt godlike in most encounters (I had every charm and skill mind you)...while ori only challenged me with puzzles and platforming, while bosses were largely non-existent or easy, so I think that's why I went combat-heavy....and I think I wanted the challenge on "parrying" being a default requirement in NINE SOLS to switch up what I'd just played in the other two games.

The story is messed up so far....people getting turned into meat sacks when they think they get to ascend? I'm still learning, and jump parrying the Red Slash attacks is tough...but I'm liking the distance between save/rest points not being too great.

[Mentalist]

Nine Sols has an easy mode if you use the talisman that explodes on its own after a while, without holding down the button. Then it becomes a medium-hard rhythm game.

As soon as I unlocked that, I switched to it, and never looked back.

Some really fun bosses in it.

And yeah, the overall story is really messed up, once you get all of it.

champ, on 21 October 2025 - 01:16 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 04 October 2025 - 01:43 AM, said:

champ, on 25 September 2025 - 02:10 PM, said:

I don't say this lightly but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the greatest games I've ever played.

The story, the music, the combat and gameplay mechanics, I am just totally blown away. It's one of those games that everyone should play and if you cannot play it, watch a playthrough of it.

It'll be a tragedy if it doesn't win GOTY though I think Hades 2 could have something to say about that.

Hell is Us is GOTY for 2025 when it comes to non-AAA games, sorry.

(I kid, it's gonna be Silksong, b/c game journalists are as addicted to the hype as anyone else, and we'll both be disappointed).

Is Hell is Us that good? I wasn't familiar with it until you mentioned it there. I'll take a look into it.


As soon as I saw all the praise for Silksong I did have a similar thought to you that it'll win.

Combat is meh, atmosphere and setting is bleak AF (it's a civil war inspired by the Yugoslav wars and Rwanda), and the overall story is.... bland.

But the worldbuilding and the layered history you gradually uncover is top notch; dungeons have some really good old-school vibes to them, and yes, you WILL have to take notes to solve everything. 100%ing it is not super-difficult (I had to look up like 2 things that I couldn't spot myself when exploring the levels pretty thoroughly), but it does require that through, exploratory mindset. It's a game that wants you to work at piecing things together, and if you're not into that, it's gonna suck; but if you are into those things, then yeah, they did a very good job at making that type of game.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 03 November 2025 - 12:43 AM

[Cause]

I got dispatch. My first story focused game. I am enjoying it a lot. In fact I can’t wait for the next two episodes to drop tomorrow. Strange conceipt to drop parts of the game like a tv series.

The dispatch gameplay loop is actually fun. It could be a whole game into itself. You make decisions and get pretty quick feedback and it hits that dopamine.

The story so far is interesting and I’m enjoying it a lot.

However I’m 4 episodes into the game out of I understand a total of 8. There are a few major decisions that seem to impact the story, binary decisions which mean only 1 of 2 characters will become a focus.

However outside of these choices which themselves are not changing the path of the story just the cast, I am not sure any other decision really matters. I am getting the impression you could fail every dispatch and the story will still just move forward. The minor choices I make which people will ‘remember’ have had no obvious pay off as yet. Maybe the payoff will only happen later but I’m starting to worry the gameplay is just a layover on what is really just a linear story with minor story beat changes.

[Tsundoku]

Are you referring to this?

https://www.thegamer...ion-voice-cast/

Sounds more like one of those "choose your own adventure" type stories done a few years back in TV series. Didn't Black mirror do something like that?

[QuickTidal]

Mentalist, on 03 November 2025 - 12:36 AM, said:

Nine Sols has an easy mode if you use the talisman that explodes on its own after a while, without holding down the button. Then it becomes a medium-hard rhythm game.

As soon as I unlocked that, I switched to it, and never looked back.

Some really fun bosses in it.

And yeah, the overall story is really messed up, once you get all of it.

Hah, I just saw this. But that's exactly what I did and it made the game much more enjoyable. I was able to finish it and yeah the story was messed up but very rewarding. That level after first encountering Eigong and you have to escape and kill enemies while the screen slowly moves was insane but SOOOOOO much fun.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: Yesterday, 01:09 PM

[Cause]

 Tsundoku, on 05 November 2025 - 10:53 AM, said:

Are you referring to this?

https://www.thegamer...ion-voice-cast/

Sounds more like one of those "choose your own adventure" type stories done a few years back in TV series. Didn't Black mirror do something like that?

Yeah that’s the game. The story and animation is actually. Really good and I’m really enjoying it. Been a great break from work.

My only complaint as I said is that I think it’s more tv show than the game. So far and now 3/4 through I don’t think any decision has had consequences beyond cosmetics

Instead of relatability you can probably just watch the different scenes on YouTube.

This post has been edited by Cause: Today, 03:22 AM