It’s been a minute since the last update, so just quick and dirty game impressions from the last 5 months

(May 8-July 31)

• Ratchet & Clank - Huge fan of the R&C series (despite only having played the PS2 games), so enjoyed this quite a bit. Good remake of the original game with some nice quality of life improvements. Wasn't too keen on the story changes, but some of the different weapons (which I hear were from the PS3 titles) were fun to play with.


• Horizon Zero Dawn - Good setting, fun gameplay, but very limited inventory/weapon system. After coming off R&C that had a weapon wheel and about a dozen weapons to choose from on the fly, being so limited sucked. There were unique weapons to play with (trip wire, gust gun, anchor wire, flamethrower, etc.) but only ever allowing 4 equippable felt unnecessary (especially since most of the bows had very minor differences)


• Forager - Fun and very addicting game to turn your brain off to and manage. Biggest downside was at the time of playing, once you started getting off the ground, everything became too easy (since playing, there is a new, harder mode that I haven't touched). Farming for some items at the end did take multiple hours, but I feel like if you make enough machines to automate stuff, it might be expedite the end-game items


• Knights of Pen/Paper 2 - Never played the first Pen/Paper, but did enjoy this one. Never took itself seriously, and had some nice classes to play around with. Biggest downside I felt was the limited skills per character. If there is a Pen/Paper 3, I hope they allow for more choices when leveling.


• Teslagrad - Fairly standard metroidvania - Didn't really bring anything special to the table. There were only a few upgrades, most of which were maneuverability to get around puzzles. In fact, I feel like this was more of a puzzle game than a metroidvania, as there weren't really any combat encounters. (also, game crashed and corrupted my save right at the end, sooo can't speak on the final boss/ending)


• Batman: Telltale Series - In a large part, I enjoyed it. It was no where near as good as Tales from the Borderlands, but was still a very solid story that had quite a few interesting takes with the classic Batman characters. However, I must add once again to these telltale games the caveat of "illusion of choice". And it seems even more apparent in this than in Borderlands, as on multiple occasions, I made specific choices, only for other characters to act as though I had chosen the opposite path (ie Alfred getting upset at brutalizing a thug, despite my choice to specifically not crack the guy's skull in a prompt; or deciding not to tell a cop about something, only for Dent to act as though I did)

(August 1- October 20)

• Stories: Path of Destinies - Starts off alright during the first few paths you take, but ends up getting very repetitive after about the 5th or 6th path. They keep adding new enemy types to challenge you, but button mashing works for just about everything, even moreso when you begin to level up the slowdown abilities. At that point, you are just trying to rush through the levels to reach a "new" ending/to unlock a part of the key for the true ending (which again, is the same level every...time)


• Forma.8 - Surprisingly good metroidvania with an actual challenge. Certain chase areas give you little room for error, and in the actual overworld, enemies pack a hell of a punch, KOing you in a few quick hits. Well designed, although I do wish that there were faster methods to travel. You get a few upgrades to increase your speed, but it still feels rather slow


• Rime - It touts itself as an adventure/puzzle game, but to me, felt more like a walking sim with interactables. The story itself was well done, with some aspects of the narrative being rather subtle (get the collectibles). The puzzles, however, never really required any real thought, as it feels like it is guiding you the whole way through.


• Tearaway Unfolded - Charming little 3D platformer. Geared towards children, so never really any challenge (aside from the optional gopher sidequests, which aren't too brutal), with checkpoints-a-plenty. Keeps adding new abilities to keep things from getting stale, and is very creative with the use of papercraft for everything (take a hint, Lego, who use non-lego objects in their games!). There is even a good amount of customization, with the game asking for you to cut/design certain objects that will appear all throughout the game. My only real gripe with the game was that all the confetti you gathered had no real purpose outside of stickers/camera filters. In a 3D platformer, you expect the collectibles to be useful for... something (level unlocks, abilities, alternate paths, etc..), but in this, whether it is from completing quests or 100%ing a level, it is always the same confetti, and never gets used for anything outside of cosmetics.


• Yoku's Island Express - I am no pinball wizard. In fact, it's probably been about 20 years since I last played a pinball game, so for that reason, I was totally expecting to get frustrated at this game... And yet, found it to be surprisingly forgiving with the shots it required to reach certain areas. Even someone like me was able to get into the groove of the "machines" fairly quickly. There are certain areas that do require a bit more precision, but for the most part, those are for the optional butterfly "collectibles" (which as far as I know, don't do anything, and the one achievement I didn't go after).


• Majin & the Forsaken Kingdom - Interestingly enough, despite appearances, this game kind of plays like a 3D Zelda/metroidvania. As you progress through the game there are collectibles to increase your health/magic, and after each major zone you get an upgrade that helps you defeat a boss, and allows for you to access previous areas' collectibles. The combat is decent, if simple, and despite the fact that your Majin gains "new combos" as he levels up, they never really change how combat encounters go. Puzzles, too, are never too difficult, usually just requiring you to use the new element you had recently gained to destroy/move objects. The final boss was probably the highlight of the game, with multiple phases that tested everything you had learned


• Telltale's Batman Season 2: Enemy Within - A big improvement from the first game (minus the graphical issues) in terms of story and gameplay - combat encounters actually felt more engaging. The dialog choices also felt more in tune with how Batman would respond to specific circumstances (especially how I was playing the Batman/Gordon relationship). The "illusion of choice" also seemed to not be as prevalent in this one as the first, with choices having a real impact on how the game progressed. The only exception to this was the very final scene with Alfred, which, funnily enough, despite all the other liberties they took with the Batman characters, seemed completely out of character with how he acted (no spoilers). And speaking of character liberties, the version of Joker that I ended up with (yes, there were multiple... Like I said, choices seemed to matter more in this game) was probably one of the most intriguing takes on him I have seen, and yet, still managed to feel true to how he would behave.


• Dishonored 2 - For the record, I never played the Dishonored 1 DLC, so some character interactions did seem a little more confusing than they probably should have. Despite this, the gameplay was extremely solid, and what I feel like every stealth game should strive to achieve. Multiple different paths to the same goal, multiple different methods to achieve it, extremely fun abilities that allow you to go about it in a multitude of different ways. Then there are bonecharms that further augment your character further to open up those choices even more... This game gives you choices, and they are given in spades, and that is just by default. Apparently in the options menu for difficulty, you can adjust enemy AI and other aspects even further. The only negative marks I can give, is that when you spec into a skill with runes, you are locked into that skill for the remainder of the game, with no way to respec. I feel like a game like this that allows for so much customization, you should at least be able to do so on the Dreadful whale (this way you aren't breaking the game, respeccing mid-level)


• Guacamelee 2 - A metroidvania that doesn't take itself even remotely seriously. I'm sure the humor will land for some people, but despite being a fan of referential comedy (I loved Evoland afterall), I can't say I enjoyed the writing that much (my only chuckle was from a temporary upgrade). The gameplay was solid, with some fun movement abilities, though overall was a bit on the easy side - button spamming my way to victory at almost every encounter. The only real difficulty came from the optional key areas, which was more of a platforming/quick thinking challenge - outrunning a gravity field while quickswapping between different maneuvers.


• Ni no Kuni II - Comparing this to Ni No Kuni 1;
  Pros: Improved combat encounters - In dungeons, no more 10 second transitions into/out of combat. It all happens instantly (overworld battles still have the transitions though); Improved Combat - Combat itself is now real-time, so no more quickly going through menus to choose attacks/spells; More weapon choices - Diablo-style loot system means far more weapons/armor to choose from, and on hard mode, enemies essentially become loot pinatas; Better main character - He's in no way perfect, but is no where near as annoying as that dense brick Oliver from the first game; Better sidequests objectives - In the first game, about half of the sidequests involved going out to find emotions (of which, you could only ever have 1 of each in your locket), in this, less than half require you to simply have a certain material, and again, with enemies being loot pinatas, you should almost always have the object required. The rest of the time, the sidequests involve combat against mini-bosses
  Cons: Worse story/writing - Just a poorly written mess. We have one main character who is transported out of his world for a reason (no spoilers), and is very laissez faire about the whole thing. You have another character that the writers desperately want to be the next drippy, but falls incredibly short. You have a majority of your team who feel more like background characters, never really supporting the story once they join (except for one of them). You have two massive biomes that are completely neglected/unused in the main story (I don't count the 3-minute fetch quest). You have an entire chapter's plot point seem to be thrown out the window by the end of it (seriously, wtf Hydropolis). Then you have a terrible ending that tries to be further explained in the DLC that doesn't even add much that wasn't already inferred; Much less voice-acting - It is actually quite jarring how much less voice acting is in this game. Important scenes will occur, you will get a single sentence from a character, then suddenly, animation gone and plain text; Lousy mini-game - There are two mini-games, one is a city-building minigame that, while simple, works as a nice way to get materials for crafting. I personally had no problems with this one, but can see why others would. The actual bad mini-game is that cheap attempt at an RTS, skirmish battles. Scattered throughout the overworld are dozens of skirmishes (some tied to sidequests) that are completely optional... But are also pretty essential for grinding through, if you want your skirmish-team to be an appropriate level by time the 3 or 4 required story-related skirmishes pop up (which, btw, has no effect on your regular fighting team); Much easier game - Even on hard mode, the game seems to be fairly easy. On insane, however, enemies will have no problem one-shotting you. There are a few difficulty spikes (broadleaf, for example), but it never seems to be too much to handle. In fact, because you can pause the game to heal yourself at any time, even if you encounter an enemy who hits you with a barrage-attack, you can take a few hits, pause/heal, then take the remainder of the barrage. The DLC further trivializes the difficulty with one of the "methods" you learn, turning your mages into complete monsters