#*cue boss battle guitar music*

[a-a-lost-munchkin]

“My boyfriend’s husband’s back and you’re gonna get in trouubleeee-”

- Penelope @ the suitors, probably

[postgamecontent]

'Keylocker | Turn Based Cyberpunk Action' Switch Review

I'll do that thing I sometimes do and drop the main point of this review right away. If you make an RPG with timing-based elements that are virtually necessary to succeed in combat, it is vital to ensure that the game has minimal input lag. I have only played the Nintendo Switch version of Keylocker, and I can only speak to that experience as a result. But there is obvious lag in when you need to press buttons and the visual cues that are meant to cue those presses, and while you can get used to it after a while, it's very annoying.

Okay, now on to the rest of the review. Keylocker is a cheeky little RPG with a cyberpunk theme. You're a musician in a world that will not abide that, and you'll have to use the power of music to overthrow your oppressors. And by "power of music", I mean beating them over the head with your virtual guitar. There are some occasional dalliances with rhythm game elements, including an homage to Guitar Hero, but they're short-lived sequences. Most of the time, you're either walking around the world or engaged in turn-based battles. The former is done well enough, but not exceptionally so. The world and its characters are interesting enough to stave off boredom, but not really memorable. Except for Save Dinosaur, anyway. I would die for Save Dinosaur.

The combat is the key here, and it has all the tools it needs to be a very satisfying experience. Sometimes it is! Positioning is critical, and you're always having to think about where you're standing and which attacks will reach where. You also need to consider the balance between your life points and electricity points, and how you'd like to damage the enemies. You'll also need to keep on top of those aforementioned timed presses, both to enhance your own attacks and negate damage from the enemies. It's a solid system, and you can see all of its potential in some of the more intense boss battles where every move counts.

Most of the battles in the game, and there are a lot of them, are regrettably virtually mindless. I played as the Samurai job class, and just about every encounter was best resolved by using whatever skill would put me in the best defensive stance and counter attacking non-stop. Even the regular battles tend to drag out a bit, and with how frequently you're getting jumped, it can get to feeling like a real slog. It's especially bad when you keep getting caught in the spotlights of the sentries flying overhead, something that can happen even when you're doing things like talking to people or interacting with an object. Worse, you can sometimes get hit by the spotlight immediately after finishing a battle, pulling you back in again.

It's a lot of these little things that keep Keylocker from reaching its full potential. I can see a really good RPG in here, and I think there are many times during the run of the game where it is just that. The biggest problem in this Switch version is that input lag, and I do hope that is somehow addressed with a patch or something. There are other aspects that could certainly have been handled better, but if I would say that if you like the look of it you might want to give it a punt. It has a lot of personality and when the battle system gets properly pushed, it really sings.

Score: 3.5/5

[louisbarcadegame]

Arcade Game Research 3

Brawler Games:

-Double Dragon

Double Dragon is an old arcade brawler game from 1987. You play as martial artist brothers trying to rescue a kidnapped girlfriend from a gang. You fight through levels, punching, kicking, and using weapons. It's known for its two-player cooperative gameplay and is a classic in the beat 'em up genre.

-Final Fight

Final Fight is an old arcade game from 1989. You pick a character and fight through the city to rescue a kidnapped girl from a gang. Using punches and kicks, you battle enemies in side-scrolling levels. It's known for its fun gameplay and memorable characters in the beat 'em up genre.

-Streets of Rage

Streets of Rage is an arcade game from 1991 where you pick a character to clean up city streets full of bad guys. In side-scrolling levels, you use punches and kicks to fight through thugs and bosses. It's known for its fun multiplayer and cool graphics and music in the beat 'em up genre.

Interactive Games:

-Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is a dance game in arcades. Players step on arrows on a dance pad, matching their moves to on-screen cues and the music. It's fun and energetic, offering different songs and difficulty levels.

-Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero is an arcade game where you use a guitar-shaped controller to play along with songs. Hit buttons on the guitar neck as notes come down the screen to feel like you're playing a real guitar. It's a fun way to enjoy different music.

-Time Crisis

Time Crisis is an arcade shooting game where you use a gun to take down bad guys on the screen. You can take cover with a pedal and need to shoot strategically to progress through the levels. It's fast-paced and has a story that unfolds as you play.

[steelmarrow3dprojectmusic]

Music Themed Games

Here are some videos I watched one how music can be best used in video games:

From this I have learnt how music plays such a crucial role in enhancing the overall gaming experience, helping to set the mood, convey emotions, and immerse players in the game world. Some key examples of this could be to: Boost Competitive Play - In multiplayer games it gets players excited and involved like in Overwatch. Convey Emotions - It helps players feel what the characters are feeling. In The Last of Us the music reflects the emotions in the story as it progresses. Make Games Recognizable - Iconic games have music you instantly recognize like Super Mario or Zelda. Enhance Boss Battles - In games like Dark Souls it makes boss battles more intense and satisfying when you win.

10 Music Games:

Beat Saber - is a virtual reality game where you use lightsabers to slice through blocks in time with music. You can choose songs of various genres and difficulties. The game's challenge increases with the complexity of the music, and hitting blocks to the beat earns you points. Visual and auditory cues provide feedback, making you feel in sync with the music. Below is the trailer showing off how this games unique rhythm based movement system is used.

Pistol Whip - is a virtual reality game that combines elements of rhythm, shooting, and on-rails action (Constantly moving forward). Players move through stylized environments, shooting down enemies to the beat of a dynamic and energetic soundtrack. The game's levels are synchronized with the music, and players must time their shots and movements to the rhythm in order to be successful.

Just Dance - is a popular video game series that revolves around dancing to the rhythm of hit songs. In this interactive and social game, players follow on-screen dance routines performed by professional dancers and attempt to replicate their moves using motion-sensing technology.

BPM - is a unique first person shooter roguelike that links gameplay with music in an unique way. The game's rhythm based mechanics require players to shoot, reload, and maneuver in sync with a dynamic heavy metal soundtrack. Each levels layout, enemy placement, and even the firing rate of weapons are tied to the music's beat, making it crucial for players to time their actions to the rhythm.

Geometry Dash - it is a rhythm-based platformer game where players navigate through a series of increasingly challenging levels filled with obstacles and hazards, and the entire game is synchronized with an electronic soundtrack.

Guitar Hero - is a music-based video game that revolutionized the rhythm game genre. Players use a guitar shaped controller to simulate playing along with various rock songs. As the notes corresponding to the music's guitar track scroll down the screen, players must strum and press the corresponding fret buttons on the controller in perfect sync with the music.

Undertale - designed the music to match the game's emotions, changing based on what's happening. Each major character has their own theme, and the game cleverly reuses musical themes to connect different parts. The music isn't just passive; it reacts to the player's choices and the state of the game. Sound effects are also carefully used to make the game more immersive.

[ar-firstpersongame]

Core Research - 10 Music Themed Games

Friday Night Funkin

Friday Night Funkin is a music-based matching game similar to Guitar Hero. The main premise is that you have to match your opponent in a rap battle consisting of 4 directions; up, down, left and right. You win the game if you can match more than a certain percentage of the directions that will appear on screen. It's by doing these levels that the player will make the music by just beating the opponents.

2. Melatonin

Melatonin is a rhythm based game where the player must press a button in rhythm to the music and according to the visual cues on screen. The game is similar to Rhythm Heaven where it consists of different levels with different music to make the level either easier or more challenging than the last.

3. My singing monsters

My singing monsters is a mobile game similar to that of Dragon City, but with a twist. In My singing monsters, the player buys, breeds and unlocks new monsters to place on their island. The twist being that each of these monsters acts like an instrument, so as the player is collecting these monsters, the backround music will further be developed according to which monsters they own. Some of these monsters may add something small to the soundtrack like the occasional snare - others will have their own guitar solo midway through the song. There consists of many different islands each with its own soundtrack to be built up as well as a composer island for people to make their very own songs.

4. Bullets per minute

Bullets per minute is a FPS mixed with a dungeon crawler where both the enemies and player attack in time with the music to enhance the original soundtrack. The player's different abilities act as different parts of the music, like how most of the guns will provide the track with a snare, the dodging will add a high pitched sounding note to the track and the fireball the player can shoot will add more of a lower pitched note; all that stacked with all the enemies' attacks.

5. Billy Bust Up

Like a mixture of Friday Night Funkin and BPM, Billy Bust Up is a platformer where the you fight bosses as they are singing. The bosses will mention attacks they will perform in their song before it happens to warn the player beforehand. The attacks they do can also add to the song as something like two giant hands smashing down will add a bit of snare to the track.

6. Parappa the Rapper

Parappa the Rapper is similar to Friday Night Funkin where you have to mimic the actions of your opponent to win. By matching their actions, you're character starts rapping to the song, like in Friday Night Funkin. The game also has unique 2D sprites in a 3D environment, so you'll usually see your character start twisting as they're dancing to the music.

7. Rhythm Heaven

Rhythm Heaven is a rhythm game where you must perform actions according to the in-game cues that will enhance the music playing in the backround. There are many levels that each have a small minigame for the player to complete as well as its own track to go along with it. The game is split into different segments with multiple levels in it and they will finish with a level that combines all the previous minigames and tracks into one big level with a unique soundtrack to go along with it

8. Incredibox

Incredibox is a sandbox game where you can create your own music using different beatboxers to recreate different instruments. The game has different themes to it, such as dystopia, to add more variety to the game.

9. Sound Shapes

Sound Shapes is a platformer where you must get to the end of every level. Each level consists of different screens, each screen will have multiple things that make some kind of sound and at the end of each screen - one of those sounds will be added to the track of the level, further developing it as you move along in the level.

10. Hi fi rush

Hi fi rush is similar to BPM in a way that the game rewards the player for attacking and doing other actions in time with the music by increasing the damage the player's attacks do and the amount of score the player will earn. The main character's weapon is also a scrap metal guitar that he hits people with as well as the music player he has in his chest as well.

[derfisch]

Earlier today, one of my roommates was recommending some rhythm games to me (he's new and doesn't really know what I've played), mainly rhythm games because that's all he knows I'm really into. One of them was Crypt of the Necrodancer.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that I really, really don't like that game.

In fact, I've kind of noticed over time that aside from a few outliers, I don't really enjoy most video games. Sometimes Nintendo will release one of their major titles and there'll be something intrinsically rewarding about playing it, but aside from your Wild Breaths and Odd Marios, I can't think of many video games I enjoy that aren't either a rhythm game, or Rivals of Aether.

The biggest draw of rhythm games to me is how intense and intricate they can get. The flow state you get into trying desperately not to drop your combo in osu! is thrilling in ways I can't describe. Playing a song that you couldn't even pass just a month ago, and realizing that you only got a single miss, and if you just play it like 2 more times maybe you'll FC it. Thoroughly destroying one of the hardest songs in a given game, turning to the high score board, and thinking, "I bet I could do that." And then showing your friends who don't play, and hearing them ask, "how is that even humanly possible??" And all the while, only consciously feeling like you're just really good at listening to cues in music and pressing buttons to it. The dexterity just feels natural at some point, like you should've been able to do it from the start, like all you needed was to surpass a mental barrier.

Rhythm games have had a bit of a resurgence lately, but they've been mostly dead for a while outside of Japan. They're pretty expensive to make, legally confusing, and hard to export. Once Guitar Hero and Rock Band died, we basically had nothing new for years. So the latest trend has been to combine rhythm games with other genres, allowing for more minimal soundtracks and a greater focus on gameplay that western developers are more familiar with designing. We've got rhythm game, but it's a first person shooter; rhythm game, but it's a platformer; rhythm game, but it's a roguelike. It seems like every couple of years, a new one pops up, and the gaming world goes nuts for a new rhythm game (finally!)

But when you combine genres, you have to make compromises somewhere. And unfortunately for people like me, the intrinsically fun parts of rhythm games are the parts that are hardest to make fit in with another game without making it unreasonably hard. All the fun charting, quickly intuitive gameplay, is the first thing to get ripped out and replaced. No one wants to play a rhythm roguelike where the charting is insane but the combat is easy, secondary. It'd make you wonder why they added the roguelike elements in the first place. But when it comes to rhythm aspects, it's much easier to justify just adding that for extra flavor. A game's gotta have music, so it's not too far of a step forward to have the character just move to the beat.

But just pressing the buttons to a four on the floor beat does not make something fun to me. It doesn't match the music in any meaningful way, and I can't get into the flow of it because I'm too busy thinking about how to navigate around a dungeon I've played like, 15 times already, and I keep dying right before the frickin boss, and it stopped being fun after like the 3rd try.

I don't think Crypt of the Necrodancer is a bad game, or any of these other rhythm game hybrids. Clearly, a lot of people find them very fun. They often have very catchy music, commissioned exclusively for those games. Camellia did a track that you hear in the first level of Mad Rat Dead, and it is a total banger. But it gave a lot of people a very different idea of rhythm games than what a lot of us who already love the genre enjoy, and I can already see the effects of that among gamers who are unwilling to give pure rhythm games a try for being too hard, or too simple.

Luckily, there is hope. Friday Night Funkin' is super close to more arcade-style rhythm games like Guitar Hero, or DDR (its closest inspiration), mixed with some of the more approachable gameplay of games like Parappa, and all at a difficulty that any average person should have no trouble playing. Even the tougher charts are trivial to pass on your first or second try. And lots of people, especially younger gamers at just the right age to be forming their tastes, are in love with it. It's been such a massive success that the kickstarter reached all its (serious) stretch goals in just a few weeks, reaching over $2M raised by the end of its campaign.

I have no idea if they'll actually deliver on all their promises. That's an absurd amount of money, and an equally absurd roadmap they have to follow. But what that says to me personally is, regardless of if it's cartoon rap battles or something completely different, the west is ready for another big rhythm game to hit it, no caveats required. All we need is someone willing to make it.

[haha-nerrrd]

Tv show idea

Office is prepping for its annual picnic. A sign up/task sheet is put out and the MC kinda rolls her eyes when one of the newbies asks her about it during lunch. Every year it’s the same: the boss gives what starts as a fun speech that turns into a long winded rant, Bob charcoals the hamburgers, Jeff (an obnoxious ass who she also is competing with for a promotion) plays guitar and sings and sounds amazing and it inflates his ego to blimp sized proportions for the next week.

But the newbie still wants to sign up so they go over and MC distractedly scrawls her name down, watching as Jeff tries to charmingly chat up the boss and a group or coworkers.

And then they all come over and Jeff is going to sign up and says “oh MC there’s a mistake you put yourself down for music”

And MC, out of pure spite, says no it’s not a mistake, she’s gonna play the picnic this year and everyone kinda raises their brows and Jeff is ticked off so the boss, trying to mediate, says they can both play. Which of course, given their rivalry, means only one thing: informal battle of the bands.

Except...MC cannot play guitar, or do anything remotely musical. Cue her hastily assembling an office band, and all the hyjinks that go along with it.

[springawoken]

No One is As They Seem- An Analysis of Undertale’s Ruins

It’s no secret that Undertale is one of the most popular games of the last decade. It’s touched hearts, touched lives, and made fans all over the world recontextualize their understanding of what it means to play a video game. As anyone who has played the game will tell you, the reasons for this can only be gleaned by actually playing the game, so go ahead and buy it on steam for $10 and make your life a little bit more meaningful. This post will only cover the first area of the game, the Ruins, so you’ll be able to understand it even without playing, but I still recommend you play the game before reading. This piece is, at its most basic, an analysis of this area and how Toby Fox uses all the (free) tools at his disposal to create atmosphere in his game. The very first thing that stood out to me about Undertale as soon as I booted it up was the cheery chiptune soundtrack. Though the first three notes of the melody are simple, an octave up followed by a fifth down, we already hear dissonance creeping into the accompaniment with dissonant harmonies. These first few moments were far too subtle for me to notice on my first trek through the game, but in retrospect I see that the connection between the broader themes of the game and the musical choices is too spot on to be a coincidence, namely that people are not always as they seem. The melody established in this first number, called the “Undertale” theme by most, is elaborated on and experimented with throughout the rest of the game, but its theme is most often used at safe zones, or anywhere that feels like home. The brief introduction introduces you to the War Between Monsters and Humans, and explains that your character has fallen down a mountain into the Monster World. After this, you are escorted to the menu, where you name your character and, after a slightly unsettling transition, begin the game. You gain control of your character and are greeted by pixel graphics and utter silence. Past a hallway, you encounter a door, and a happy looking flower named “Flowey the Flower.” Immediately, super chipper music kicks in to let you know “Don’t worry, this guy is super nice and cool!” The theme is set in a major key, high above where music usually is played, to emphasize this. The theme also directly references the F.U.N. song from Spongebob, as if to further drive this point home. All seems to be going well until… well, until Flowey tries to kill you. The happy music is replaced with silence and aggressive text scrolling noises as Flowey laughs at your imminent death. Just as all hope is lost, though, you’re saved by the anthropomorphic goat Toriel, and are greeted with the best theme in the game, Fallen Down. Before we continue, let’s analyze the quick 1-2 punch that’s pulled with the music and character development here. Gamers are used to music playing over just about everything in an RPG, so its absence through the first room of the game is noticeable, or at least was to me. The silence is uncomfortable, just as it would be if you were to fall down a hole and wind up in a dark scary place. A talking, smiling flower would be a welcome sight in such a situation, and the music reflects this. Flowey’s betrayal is a gut punch because we’ve been trained, as gamers, to believe that what we’re shown through character design and music is what it seems at face value. In this case, though, the cute flower is evil, and the mildly creepy Goat Mom is on your side. Flowey bucks many trends when he stops his happy theme dead in its tracks and tries to kill you. When Toriel appears to save the day, her theme at first might seem like a trap as well, meant to lull the player into a second twist, but the music tells us otherwise. Whereas Flowey’s theme is obnoxiously cheerful after a while, due to the high tessitura, “Fallen Down” is played in a soothing middle register, with much softer instrumentation and a triple meter. The song is reminiscent of a lullaby, with plenty of repetition at regular intervals to comfort the listener. It is also more fully realized than Flowey’s stark, heavily EQed melody and accompaniment. After this encounter, Toriel leads the protagonist through the beginning of the ruins, where we hear the second most important theme in the game, what I call the “World” theme and ostinato. This theme is repeated and expanded upon throughout every area of the game, with one exception, as detailed in Jason Yu’s Undertale Leitmotif analysis (linked below). When we first hear it, though, all we can tell is that it creates a good deal of mystery. The melody is seemingly always ascending higher and higher, creating an atmosphere of constant anticipation. It creates a great background to explore and solve puzzles against as you navigate your way through the ruins, both with and without Toriel. This is the atmosphere we have throughout the entire first area, with the exception of a few joke tunes (brushing over them for time), and the battle theme, which we’ll get to now. Undertale has a slightly different encounter system than most other Role Playing Games. The gist of it, to wildly simplify things, is that every encounter can be resolved either through combat or through peaceful means. The challenge comes not from the attacking, but from the defending, which takes place in a “Bullet Hell” like screen where your heart must avoid enemy projectiles. The battles are always intense, and the “Enemy Approaching” theme demonstrates this. The tune is brisk, with a good old accent on 2 and 4 from the powerful percussion. It creates a constant feeling of anticipation, keeping you on your toes, ready for anything. This tune, though, is only the generic enemy theme. Boss themes are where things get fun. Your first boss encounter, after plenty of fights with frogs and butterflies, is with a sad ghost named Napstablook. As we’ve covered, no one in Undertale needs to die, and Napstablook is one of the enemies that sold me on that concept. In fact, it’s so hard to even take damage in his fight that the first time I played, I felt bad even thinking about killing him. His personality is so lacking in self-esteem that one would have to be truly heartless to do anything but cheer him up. This was coupled with his theme, “Ghost Fight.” This theme is a jaunty swing number, accentuating the fun of his battle, with a fascinating reverb effect on the off beats. It truly sounds like you’re fighting a sad ghost. As Napstablook does progressively sillier things, one can’t help but smile. After beating Napstablook, the emotional core of the game begins. The player reaches Toriel’s house, at which point she gives him a home, a bed, and some Butterscotch-Cinnamon Pie. The music that plays over this sequence, fittingly, is called “Home,” and utilizes the Undertale theme liberally. It is a gentle guitar track, almost like a lullaby. When the player finally goes to bed, the instrumentation changes from guitar to a music box. This instrumentation choice in particular was what struck me most about this moment, and genuinely made me tear up. The gentle nature of the track contrasts sharply with the severity of the moment. It brought to mind what this poor child must be feeling, having been given solace in a foreign land so far away from home. When the player asks her to go home, Toriel becomes agitated and runs to the basement. The music cuts away as the player descends and Toriel expresses her fear and concern for the player’s safety. She decides to seal the Ruins off so that the child can never leave. The only choice is to fight her. Right? Cue “Heartache,” my personal favorite track in the game. The motif of 4 16th notes followed by an 8th is repeated later in the game at another pivotal moment, but for now all the player knows is that things just got crazy intense. Part of this intensity comes from the fact that this is the first track written in compound meter, which immediately ramps up the interest curve for this fight. This track also is the most complex of anything we’ve seen in the game thus, with a virtuosic quality to its rhythms and incredibly quick harmonic motion. The most fascinating part of the track for me is the pseudo-ostinato Toby creates with the low bass tone every beat, almost emulating a heartbeat. This motif carries through the entire song, being present even as the supporting harmonies fly up and down the staff. This song is EPIC, and really makes it seem like Toriel means business now. As has been the case this whole game, though, things are not always as they seem. This fight is a crash course in narrative through gameplay, so let’s talk quickly about something that Toby Fox does to completely mess with the player and make Toriel a fully fleshed out character at the same time. Every enemy up to this point in the game has allowed you to spare them by dropping their HP low enough, and then hitting the yellow “Spare” button. With Toriel, though this is impossible. When you get her to about ¼ hp, your next attack will kill her no matter what. ACTing, which has been the other way to spare enemies in this game, also does nothing to turn the Spare button yellow. As it turns out, the only way to make Toriel sparable is to choose the Spare action repeatedly, until she gives up out of love for the player. Everyone I’ve ever met who played the game blind, including myself, killed Toriel on their first run because we couldn’t think of anything else to do. The plot twist that most of us realized on our second playthroughs is that, despite the epic boss music, Toriel will not attack you if there is any chance of you dying. This is something that triple A game designers might take note of. In Undertale, characterization and gameplay are one and the same. As we can see just from the first area, Undertale is a game that makes no moves lightly. Every choice, be it in the graphics, music, or gameplay, is a conscious choice that adds to the world-building and character development. This aspect of the game is what is so endearing about it, because everything, especially the music, feels like it was made with love. Unlike Wagner’s operas, which use rather heavy handed methodologies to enforce the meanings of their leitmotifs, Undertale’s messages are simpler and subtler, leaving far more room for interpretation while being simultaneously more enjoyable to explore. Those who fail to see video games as a consummate art form need only look to this classic game to see all the ways in which games can express our human condition.

Leitmotifs in Undertale: http://jasonyu.me/undertale-part-1/

Full Soundtrack on Spotify and at the following link: https://tobyfox.bandcamp.com/album/undertale-soundtrack

Purchase the game on Steam!

[tipsycad147]

8 Ideas To Inspire Your Magic

Avery Hart

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my Disclaimer for more info.

I know everyone loves the idea of witches who are super structured and committed to their practice. In our minds, the ideal witch is doing magic all the time, casting spells every few days, working with gods, doing magic every day, meditating like a boss, this witch supposedly has it all together. The problem is, I’ve never met one of these witches!

I’m sure they exist, somewhere, but as far as I can tell, the majority of witches fall into a very different camp. We do magic when we need it and are sometimes good and sometimes not about our daily magical practice. We might not meditate every day (or let's be honest, ever) and that’s IF our lives aren’t insanely busy at the moment. If things do get crazy busy? You can kiss the vast majority of that goodbye.

To a lot of people, in their minds, this makes them a bad witch. They don’t have that ideal practice so obviously, they’re just not giving it enough attention and being lazy. More often than not though, this isn’t the case! Our modern lives are busy and full of distraction. We��ve got jobs, and school, and partners, and kids, and hobbies, and friends, and, and, and… There’s hardly any time to breathe in between all of the other stuff we do, much less sit down for a half hour ritual!

I'm here to tell you that this is ok. Your life is important and unless you are planning to devote your entire life to witchcraft then nobody expects you to be pursuing it like it’s your Ph.D.

If you’ve been struggling with general life burnout and a lack of magical time, this is the blog post for you. Below you’ll find 8 ideas to inspire you to make your life a little more magical.

1. Do something simple

I know, this isn’t exactly groundbreaking but hear me out. A lot of the time when we’re discouraged about doing magic, we feel like we don’t have enough time to do magic that “counts”. This idea that magic has to take a lot of time or be drawn out to count as magic is unfortunately widespread. Have you ever wanted to do a spell and then when you realised you only had 10 minutes just decided to do it later and forgot all about it? Yeah? Quit that. Instead of putting off the spell until you have enough time, do an abbreviated version of it right now. 10 minutes of witchcraft may not be as potent as an hour-long ritual, but it’s still a hell of a lot more potent than not doing anything at all!

I don’t care how small your window of time is if you have ten minutes you can squeeze in a quick candle spell. In five minutes, you can charge a sigil or brew a cup of magical tea. In one minute you can grab a crystal to charge in your palm while you’re rushing out the door and if you only have 30 seconds you can pause, breathe in an intention that you want for your day and breathe out whatever is blocking you from getting it. Stop putting off magic because you don’t have enough time to do something big, the little stuff counts and it adds up to a life that is absolutely filled with magic!

2. Learn something brand new

Sometimes, our separation from magic is due to getting bored with our normal practice. I know, it’s practically sacrilege to say that magic can be boring but if you’re stuck doing the same routine over and over and over, trust me, it can lose that magical spark real quick. If boredom is what’s stopping you from practicing witchcraft, shake things up a bit! Go out and learn something totally new, whether that’s sigils magic, a new form of divination, or a technique you’ve never tried before, get out of your comfort zone and find something that makes you feel excited about your practice again!

3. Hang out with a witchy friend

If you’re just feeling uninspired about your craft, sometimes it can take a little bit of an outside nudge to get back into gear. One thing that nobody likes to admit about the craft is that sometimes it can feel really isolating. Chances are, the majority of your friends and family are not witches (if they are I need you to spill the secret to making that happen). This may not seem like such a bad thing at first but eventually, it can really wear on you. The people closest to you don’t share your worldview, your spiritual leanings, and many of them probably don’t even believe magic is real! Having to keep those things to yourself all the time can be incredibly draining and demoralising.

The solution is to make time to get out and be with like-minded people, grab your witchy friends and go grab coffee, loiter in your local metaphysical shop together, or hang out in a plant nursery and gush about how many of those adorable little herb plants you want.

4. No witchy friends? Go make some!

For those of you who are lacking witchy friends of any kind, figuring out where to find witches can be a struggle. Here are a few ways to get out there and start meeting like minded people.

Use meetup.com, search for local groups using terms such as witch, pagan, metaphysical, meditation, shaman, energy, goddess, and magic.

Check out your local metaphysical shop, crystal shop, or boutique herb shop. If they offer classes or social gatherings of any kind, consider attending.

Check out online groups. Facebook is full of pagan groups and if you’re in a very small town, online may be the most accessible way for you to go. Also check out what kinds of groups are present for your area though, many local temples and pagan groups host their meeting info on facebook.

Ask around. Again, hit up those metaphysical shops and ask the people who work there if they know of any groups you could join. The people working in these places are often really plugged into the local community and can help you get a foot in the door.

If it’s safe, talk to your friends and family about it as well. While they may not share your beliefs, they might know someone who does!

5. Pick up one new witchcraft habit

Humans are creatures of habit. The vast majority of our lives are dictated by a complex series of habits that we hardly ever even think about! If you really want to make witchcraft a daily thing, you have to make it a habit.

Habit forming can seem complex if you’re new to it but with a little bit of knowledge about how habits form, it becomes incredibly simple. Habits are made up of 3 key pieces. If you want to establish a new habit, you have to have all 3 pieces in place or the habit won't stick.

#1: The Cue - The cue is what tells your brain it’s time to initiate your new habit. This cue needs to be something you are already doing every day, maybe it’s right after breakfast or your morning shower, maybe you use the moment you get back to your desk after lunch, or maybe you work it into your nightly routine. Whatever you choose as your cue, make sure it’s something you already do every day and make sure that you use the same cue every time.

#2: The Habit - This is the actual habit that you want to create. Whether it’s writing in your journal, meditating for 3 minutes, lighting a candle for your gods, or stirring an intention into your coffee, this is when you want to perform whatever action you’re trying to incorporate into your daily routine.

#3: The Reward - The reward is a crucial step in habit formation! Lack of reward is the primary reason why new habits fail to persist. You absolutely must follow your new habit with something that makes you feel good. Now, for many of you, this reward will be built in. Maybe your reward is the caffeine you get from your now magical coffee, maybe it’s the sense of peace and calm you get from meditating, maybe it’s just the chance to get a moment of quiet in your workday but whatever it is it needs to be consistent. If you’re the kind of person who sometimes feels great after meditation and sometimes doesn’t, then that feeling cannot be your reward! You’ll have to pick something else to reward yourself with. Even if the reward is smiling to yourself and giving yourself a quick “Awesome job!” after completing your new habit, you must find some way to end the habit on a positive note. The last thing to keep in mind, this reward needs to be instantaneous! Don’t reward your habit with the promise of chocolate later in the day, if you want the habit to stick have the chocolate as soon as you’re done.

6. Get out in nature

Sometimes the bustle of life just kind of drowns out the magic. If you’ve ever gotten to the point where you’re so worn thin that you couldn’t have felt the energies necessary to work magic even if you wanted to, you know what I’m talking about. There are times when it feels like that world of magic that we all love so deeply is about a million miles away. When this happens, one of the best ways to reconnect is to get outside. You don’t have to carve out a ton of time to go out and be by yourself in nature, even just 10-15 minutes of walking with a friend in the park can really help to reconnect you to your witchy roots. Get out, experience the raw natural world around you and don’t try to force anything. If all you can do is take a few minutes to appreciate some pretty trees and get moving, that’s plenty. You don’t have to reach a state of ultra-connectedness on this walk, just get out and experience it without needing to rush off somewhere or battling distractions!

7. Spend some time curating witchy music

Music can be an amazing mood modulator. Creating a playlist of nothing but music that makes you feel really witchy can be a great way to jumpstart your witchy mood anytime you want to. It doesn’t have to be stereotypical pagan music, you can skip the Celtic music if it doesn’t make you feel like a witch, and Stevie Nicks does not have to have a place on your playlist unless it makes you feel magical. Personally, I love listening to instrumental guitar music like Chon or putting on some Florence + The Machine. The only thing that you need to take into consideration here is whether or not it makes you feel witchy! Whether it’s rap, top 40’s, or Gregorian chanting, it just needs to get you into a magical mood.

8. Re-read your favourite witchcraft book, or pick up a new one!

When I’m really feeling stuck in my craft this is my go-to. I’m a big reader and find that my moods and interests are often very responsive to what I’m reading at the moment. If you have a favourite witchcraft book that you love, pick it up and re-read it! If you’re not big on re-reading, find something new. It doesn’t have to be a “how to” manual about the craft, choosing fiction, memoirs, or even historical accounts can be so inspiring! Below I’ve listed some of my most recent favourites in case you need a recommendation to get you started.

The Physick Book Of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe - This book is a fictional account of a modern day witch discovering her magical heritage. It pulls heavily from pre-modern American witchcraft and is a very fun read for those of you who like witchy fiction.

Witches Of America by Alex Mar - Witches of America is a memoir of the authors exploration of American witchcraft. She explores a myriad of subcultures including Feri, the origins of Wicca, and Thelema all while weaving a compelling narrative of personal growth.

A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray - The first in a trilogy of novels, this time set in 1895 England. This is a far less traditional approach to fictional magic but the magic, intruige, and danger that underpin the story make it a gripping tale and no less inspiring for the modern day with.

https://thetravelingwitch.com/blog/2018/5/24/8-ideas-to-inspire-your-magic

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Astral Chain Review - Anime Police Academy

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/astral-chain-review-anime-police-academy/

Astral Chain Review - Anime Police Academy

Seeing Astral Chain in motion may be what catches your eye, but the graceful execution of attacks is something you have to experience for yourself. Astral Chain delivers gratifying, kinetic, and inventive combat that goes beyond genre conventions–and it retains that excitement from start to finish. Couple that with an attractive art style brought to life through fluid animation and cinematic-style cuts in battle and you have yet another standout action experience from developer Platinum Games.

As an elite cop on the Neuron special task force, it’s your job to investigate the ever-growing presence of the otherworldly Chimera that threaten the world. Catastrophic incidents are abound as Chimera spill in from an alternate dimension, the astral plane, but of course there’s more to the phenomenon than meets the eye. To get to the bottom of it all, you simultaneously control both your player-character and a Legion, a separate entity with its own attacks and abilities–think of it as a Stand from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. This dynamic is at the heart of Astral Chain’s combat.

Astral Chain’s sense of style bursts at the seams with each battle.

It takes time to get the hang of it, but once you do, working in tandem with a roster of Legions feels seamless. You earn Legions over time, accruing a total of five, and each one offers their own set of skills and cooldown attacks to upgrade via a skill tree. While they can be sent into the fray to perform auto-attacks, swapping between them effectively to juggle specific abilities creates the satisfaction of tearing down the monstrous Chimeras.

Initially, there are so many variables at play that it can be daunting. You have chain binds to lock enemies down for a few seconds, timing-based sync attacks that unleash devastating blows, and showstopping sync finishers that top off the wild spectacle (and replenish your health to boot). You can even get creative with combos, like utilizing the AOE stun, gravity pull, and crash bomb–all from different Legions–to concentrate a ton of damage on. Even an unchained combo lets you briefly unleash two Legions at once. And if that already seems like a lot to handle, you’ll also have to consider executing special attacks from directional inputs when it’s best to use them.

When you dig deeper into Astral Chain’s systems, you see some of its lineage–particularly the chip system of Nier: Automata, the game which Astral Chain director Takahisa Taura was lead designer on. That system manifests as Ability Codes that you equip on each of your Legions to grant them specific buffs and perks, which can significantly change how they function.

Astral Chain isn’t about running head-first into fights against monsters that seek to destroy you, though. You have to be smart about positioning, dodging, and the limited energy of your Legion. Enemies are more than just fodder; they can overwhelm you with sheer numbers, size, or speed. Some may require you to meet certain conditions to defeat them, forcing you to use non-combat abilities in the midst of the chaos. And bosses come at you with unforgiving attacks that’ll test your skill as much as your patience.

You have options for creating your own cool anime cop, it’s too bad they never really talk.

With a multitude of factors and challenges at play, combat places much more emphasis on devising the right tactics for the right situation. Astral Chain provides a tremendous box of tools that are effective in their own right and an absolute joy to use.

If there’s a fault gameplay-wise, it’s that movement can sometimes feel imprecise–don’t expect the same buttery smoothness of Bayonetta. For example, the Beast Legion’s mount mode winds up in an unpredictable direction, and the pistol combo forces you to flip backward. It may result in falling off ledges or unintentionally getting in harm’s way. Thankfully, it’s an occasional frustration that doesn’t detract from the core experience.

Astral Chain delivers gratifying, kinetic, and inventive combat that goes beyond genre conventions–and it retains that excitement from start to finish.

If you watch gameplay carefully, you quickly see how slow-motion, camera cuts, and subtle audio-visual cues in combat serve to signify opportune times to make your move. These flourishes are also how the game cements its bold sense of style. Popular manga artist Masakazu Katsura lent his hand to lead the character designs, resulting in some of the best-looking anime cops around. And when your bombastic actions in battle are matched by visually-striking momentum and tenacity, it delivers a unique thrill that makes Astral Chain special to see in motion.

Further complementing the game’s grand spectacle is its soundtrack. The groovy house tune heard in the police headquarters is infectious and the somber guitar melody at the stray cat safehouse hits like a reprieve from the chaos that envelops the world. Tense instrumentals and hard-hitting rock remixes of songs seamlessly bounce between one another during some combat missions. Unrelenting metal tracks propel boss battles and an ethereal Nier-like theme plays in the astral plane. Sprinkle in some J-rock worthy of an anime OP and Astral Chain rounds out the musical spectrum to great effect.

Astral Chain isn’t just about flashiness and stylish action, though. You’re given room to breathe between combat scenarios that comprise its chapters (or Files, as they’re called). Structurally, it’s somewhere between the traditional open world of Nier: Automata and segmented stages of Bayonetta–chapters funnel you through hub areas where you’re free to take part in side missions or explore for optional activities. Not everything is laid out on your map, so it takes some detective work to unveil all the hidden content.

Astral Chain’s shortcomings don’t overshadow what it does best. It’s an incredible execution of a fresh take on Platinum Games’ foundation, standing among the stylish-action greats.

Investigation scenarios are peppered within the main missions, where you analyze the environment and talk to locals to solve the mysteries at hand. Piecing the clues together properly awards you with a top rank, and it’s no sweat if you get things wrong. You’ll often jump into segments of the astral plane, which feature the more intense fights, and these areas incorporate light puzzle/platforming elements that ask you to use Legion powers in different ways.

The activities you undertake outside of combat aren’t exactly groundbreaking, but they provide enjoyable ways to engage with Astral Chain’s vivid world. It’s a welcome variety that also helps the pacing from chapter to chapter. Astral Chain never sits on one particular element for too long; it knows when to move on.

Investigation is just one way Astral Chain breaks up the pace.

Now, style doesn’t always equal substance. The overarching plot touches on the conventions of evil authority figures who abuse the power of science for their own agendas, and it also relates to the nature of how you’re able to wield the power of Legions, which are tamed Chimera. However, these themes are hardly explored. Rather, Astral Chain relies on cliches within its story and exposition. As a result, the more pivotal moments feel a bit less consequential. While some anime-esque tropes are just plain fun to see play out, others are borderline nonsensical even in context.

While you choose to play as a customized male or female cop on a special task force, your sibling–who’s on the same team–becomes the narrative focal point with fully voiced dialogue. Your own character is relegated to being an awkward silent protagonist. It’s disappointing because Astral Chain has so much stylistic potential to build from in order to give its lead character a distinct attitude. I can’t help but see it as a missed opportunity, especially when both characters are voiced when they’re your partner. In the end, the narrative presents stakes that are just high enough that you’ll want to see it to the end, and, thankfully, every other part of the game remains outstanding.

Astral Chain’s shortcomings don’t overshadow what it does best. It’s an incredible execution of a fresh take on Platinum Games’ foundation, standing among the stylish-action greats. And its own anime-inspired swagger makes fights all the more exhilarating. You’ll come to appreciate the calmer moments in between that add variety and offer a second to relax before jumping back into the superb combat. After 40 hours with Astral Chain, I’m still eager to take on the tougher challenges, and I’ll be grinning from ear to ear as I hit all the right moves, one after the other, while watching it all unfold.

Source : Gamesport

[gamingtipsandtrickshacks]

Double Kick Heroes is an Homage to Metal Music Disguised as a Video Game

I remember the days when rhythm games were at the peak of its popularity. Franchises like Guitar Hero and Rock Band helped bring the genre to the forefront in a way that previously released rhythm games failed to do. Now it’s 2018, and the music-based genre is not as strong as it used to be with only a select few, such as Crypt of the Necrodancer, finding its way to a broader audience. Indie developer Headbang Club may be one of those shining stars with its rhythm action game, Double Kick Heroes.

At this year’s PAX East in Boston, I had the opportunity to go hands-on with the studio’s inaugural title. We were given about 20 to 30 minutes to check out the game and everything it has to offer.

Double Kick Heroes is both a rhythm shooter and an homage to metal; gameplay involves you taking out hordes of zombies with a machine gun mounted car to the beat of music inspired by the heaviest bands music history. When I was watching others play it, the game looked awesome, but I wasn’t quite sure how it would control. Once I got my hands on it, I was able to quickly wrap my head around it.

Once I went hands-on with it, the controls and gameplay were pretty easy to understand. A horizontal note path runs along the bottom of the screen; when a dot appears in the shaded area, you press the corresponding button. Every not you hit correctly will build your combo meter allowing you to do more damage, thus completing the level faster. This simple concept gets a bit complicated as you progress through each section when the song is more complex and when a second button is added. While I didn’t get to experience it, there is supposedly a third row of notes that will be added which, I would imagine, would be incredibly difficult.

“Double Kick Heroes is both a rhythm shooter and an homage to metal.”

If that wasn’t enough, there are also boss battles that bookend each section that requires you to move the vehicle and shoot while tapping to the beat of the music. This is where things get clunky. Unless you can do all the button tapping parts with one hand, you’re going to have a hard time comprehending everything that is happening on the screen. Not only do you have to worry about your rhythm but also your aim, as well as making sure you’re out of the bosses way when it inevitably attacks. There are visual cues that will help you along the way. However, if you’re too cautious and don’t defeat the boss before the song’s end, you fail. It provided an enjoyable challenge but one I could see players getting frustrated with.

Despite that, the controls, for the most part, felt great. Similar to the clicking of the strumming trigger on the plastic Guitar Hero guitar, the percussive clicking of the buttons is very satisfying as you play along to the music. If you do find it too difficult, there are five different difficulty options that cater to your level of play.

I should mention that the demo stations at Headbang Club’s booth all had arcade sticks which is the best way to play Double Kick Heroes. However, I understand that not everyone, including myself, owns an arcade stick. I can’t speak on how the game would feel with a gamepad or keyboard, but when I asked the developers, I was told it still controls well.

A rhythm game is nothing without good music. Fortunately, if you’re a metal fan, Double Kick Heroes has plenty of music inspired by many favorite metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Rammstein, and Meshuggah. Unfortunately, since it was on the loud show floor, it was hard to hear the exact beat of the music. What I could hear of it sounded great. As a metal fan myself, I want to see who the developer’s modeled their songs after.

Visually, Double Kick Heroes is a pixelated album cover in motion. There is a metal band playing music on top of a car with guns mounted on it traveling through a post-apocalyptic landscape mowing down zombies. Sounds pretty rad, doesn’t it? The designs of the bosses, which typically took up a majority of the screen, were unique and stylish. The colorful and bright palette gives an inviting feeling to the game making you want to go back for more. All of this fits the metal theme the game exudes giving it a lot of personality and charm.

“Visually, Double Kick Heroes is a pixelated album cover in motion.”

In a world where rhythm games are scarce, Double Kick Heroes is a breath of fresh air. After playing it, I wasn’t quite sure if I liked it. After playing a ton of games at the show and taking a moment to think about everything I played, this rhythm action game is sticking out as one of my favorites. Since the demo I played had an arcade stick – which is clearly the way to play this game – I’m unsure how well it will control with a gamepad or keyboard which may be problematic when trying to sell this to a broader audience.

Additionally, the boss battles may deter people from trying to progress due to the amount of skill needed to pass these challenging sections. However, with five difficulty options to choose from, a great pixelated post-apocalyptic look, and a killer soundtrack to listen to, anyone should be able to see the game through.

From what I played, I can’t wait to take out more zombies to the beat the thrash, heavy, death, black, and any other subgenre of metal Double Kick Heroes has to offer.

Double Kick Heroes will be available for PC via Steam Early Access on April 11.

[symbianosgames]

The best games are a slow steady learning process.

They teach and guide while they entertain and challenge. They push players to improve steadily — to master a mechanic not by forcing you to scale a metaphorical wall, but by compelling you to climb a series of metaphorical steps. 

This does not necessarily mean they have great tutorials — indeed, many games with awesome learning curves throw you straight into the experience proper. Nor does it mean that they have to dumb down their design. It's simply a matter of crafting progression systems that allow the player to get a handle on the fundamentals early and then to grow and improve at every stage after that. 

It's not easy to pull this off. To give you some guidance as to how you can execute a brilliant learning curve, we asked several designers to tell us what games they think do it well.

None of the seven examples that follow are easy games, but all of them meter their difficulty with a well-considered learning curve. 

From the moment the player wakes up in protagonist Chell's minimalist living quarters, Portal gently prods her forward. As Global Game Jam co-founder and Rochester Institute of Technology assistant professor Ian Schreiber notes, "the entire game is basically a tutorial on how to beat it, except it expertly frames the learning as gameplay." Portal challenges by crafting puzzles around new mechanics and new applications of existing mechanics.  

It allows all the time players need to get comfortable with the controls or to think about how to solve the next puzzle, and it scales the difficulty by simply incrementing the complexity.

What you learn in completing one puzzle is needed to figure out the next one, and you have environmental cues that indicate what you need to learn or do (though not how to do it). Some cues are subtle such as the position of sentry turrets, while others are obviously instructional like the warning signs at the entrance to each test chamber. And thanks to these cues there's a clear progression from using portals to walk through a wall to using them for high-speed platforming. 

TAKEAWAY: You can simultaneously teach and challenge players at the same time if you weave the learning experience into the environment and level design.

All of the Burnout games do a fine job of introducing faster cars and tougher races and challenges at a comfortable pace. But one deserves special praise.

"I absolutely loved Burnout 3," says Corey Davis, design director at Rocket League developer Psyonix. "The pace of acquiring more powerful cars lined up really well with my mastery of the boost system, crashing opponents, and track knowledge." 

Each new car is just the right amount faster and stronger than the previous one to maintain an even challenge level and not pull the player out of their depth. The crafted tracks and frantic high-speed tussles with rival racers grow more intense as the player progresses, and there's a rewarding and fun experience for anyone to find — veteran racing junkies, casual fans, and newcomers alike.  

TAKEAWAY: You need to constantly test players and push them to execute tougher maneuvers as they improve their mastery of the core mechanics, but there's a fine line to straddle here if you want to keep both inexperienced and experienced players engaged from start to finish.

Much like a real instrument, Guitar Hero offers an intensely satisfying learning curve. It arguably even outdoes a real guitar in this respect, as it provides more useful feedback and gave the player ways to play along to their favorite songs regardless of skill level — the chosen difficulty level affects the number of notes to play and fret buttons to hit. It also adds an extra layer of progression by dividing songs into a "setlist" of increasing difficulty — so the challenge ramps up song by song as well as by difficulty level. 

Davis praises this design decision. "I never felt like it was cheap; it felt purely like I needed to get better," he says. And the feedback loops both on the screen during play and intrinsic to the challenge of mastering the twin difficulty systems combine beautifully with the simple joy of making music — of mastering hit rock songs. 

TAKEAWAY: Multi-tiered learning curves can let players control their own challenge level and rate of progress, and also provide a clearer indication of how much harder the next stage will be.

To someone who's heard about but not played the infamously-difficult Dark Souls, it may seem like a strange inclusion in this list. But extreme challenge and a good learning curve are not mutually exclusive. "The difficulty escalates very nicely," says Red Hook Studios creative director Chris Bourassa. 

"Just as you start feeling overwhelmed, you find yourself back in Firelink Shrine," he continues. "It's a clever use of the town hub as a thematic downbeat, and works like a chapter break in the game. As you catch your breath, you can look forward to a meaty jump in difficulty as you set off to the next area, followed by another smooth curve."

Cthulhu Saves the World designer Robert Boyd made a similar point in his 2012 analysis of Dark Souls' design

TAKEAWAY: High difficulty does not necessarily equate to a too-steep learning curve, as Dark Souls exemplifies.

Bourassa also praises the learning curve of real-time strategy/action-RPG hybrid Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. Specifically, he was drawn in by its tension between threat and empowerment. It gives the player confidence to try things and to experiment with new combinations of strategies thanks to a steady trickle of loot and new units. "I always felt confident heading into the missions," says Bourassa, "even when that confidence was misplaced." 

The smaller-scale structure of Dawn of War II's campaign missions in comparison to traditional RTS games helps, too. Short missions with small groups of units battling other small groups (and little or no base building) reduce the need to master micro-management and instead allow the player to learn and adapt as the situation demands. The skirmish multiplayer mode doesn't share this well-balanced learning curve, though, as it's too different to the campaign for knowledge transfer and new players tend to get annihilated. 

TAKEAWAY: A good learning curve balances danger or challenge with player empowerment; it gives the player a taste of both failure and victory and makes either feel like a learning experience.

Ironcast is the rare genre-mashup game that gets the blended elements to fit together. It's a Puzzle Quest-inspired tile-matching puzzler with a touch of roguelite adventuring and steampunk-themed resource management and mech-bot warfare.

Bourassa notes that while it looks straightforward at first, it's actually a deeply layered experience. "They do a lot of interesting things with the mechanics at all levels," he says, "and I found the meta-game quite engaging." 

The player gathers resources from the tile-matching mode, which they soon learn how to use to engage in full-on turn-based mech combat that involves a range of abilities and strategic and tactical decisions. If they lose a battle, it's game over, but certain upgrades and unlocked mech pilots remain so that they can still feel a sense of progress. All the game's complexity is metered out in such a way that you have time to get comfortable with new mechanics before your skill with them is tested. And the upgrades enable new strategies rather than simply incrementing the power of your weapons and shields.  

TAKEAWAY: You can ease players into complexity and surprise them at the same time by starting simple then repeatedly upping the stakes and stripping back the layers underlying the gameplay systems.

The original Super Mario Bros remains a masterclass in game design, and a big part of that is the expert manner in which its difficulty ebbs and flows — a small spike at the beginning followed by a gentle upward curve that has additional spikes at the end of each of its eight worlds (as Mario nears and then battles the world boss). 

It's also a great example of how to teach a player without tutorials. "It introduced most of the core concepts in World 1-1," says Schreiber. It didn't explicitly explain anything, but rather left the player to explore and discover the mechanics simply by trying things.

You may not go into the game knowing that enemies die when you jump on their heads and that blocks with question marks on them give coins or items (or what those items do), but you can stumble on these concepts within seconds and extend your understanding of how they work over the duration of the game. 

TAKEAWAY: Classic games still hold great lessons in game design, and Super Mario Bros in particular is a shining example of how to quickly introduce the core concepts and then playfully explore their permutations over the rest of the game.

There's no point developing a great game mechanic if only a tiny percentage of players can figure out how to use it. If you're striving for challenge, be fair, and remember to allow players some time to acclimatize to their new-found skills. You need to both give your player the appropriate tools and teach them how to use these tools before you ask them to scale a cliff or make a seemingly-impossible leap. 

If you're not trying to make a difficult game, remember that great learning curves should have small spikes along the way to challenge players and test their mastery of the mechanics or to introduce new mechanics. 

Most importantly, consider that teaching people how to play your game is not just a matter of telling them what to do and then leaving them alone. Nor is it about micro-managing their experience. You need to let them play and experiment and to ensure that when they fail they can understand why. Mistakes and successes alike should improve their mental models of how your systems work. And they should drive your players to get better at your game, not to walk away. 

Thanks to Corey Davis, Chris Bourassa, and Ian Schreiber for their help with putting this article together.

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Astral Chain Review - The Platinum Rush

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/astral-chain-review-the-platinum-rush/

Astral Chain Review - The Platinum Rush

Seeing Astral Chain in motion may be what catches your eye, but the graceful execution of attacks is something you have to experience for yourself. Astral Chain delivers gratifying, kinetic, and inventive combat that goes beyond genre conventions–and it retains that excitement from start to finish. Couple that with an attractive art style brought to life through fluid animation and cinematic-style cuts in battle and you have yet another standout action experience from developer Platinum Games.

As an elite cop on the Neuron special task force, it’s your job to investigate the ever-growing presence of the otherworldly Chimera that threaten the world. Catastrophic incidents are abound as Chimera spill in from an alternate dimension, the astral plane, but of course there’s more to the phenomenon than meets the eye. To get to the bottom of it all, you simultaneously control both your player-character and a Legion, a separate entity with its own attacks and abilities–think of it as a Stand from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. This dynamic is at the heart of Astral Chain’s combat.

Astral Chain’s sense of style bursts at the seams with each battle.

It takes time to get the hang of it, but once you do, working in tandem with a roster of Legions feels seamless. You earn Legions over time, accruing a total of five, and each one offers their own set of skills and cooldown attacks to upgrade via a skill tree. While they can be sent into the fray to perform auto-attacks, swapping between them effectively to juggle specific abilities creates the satisfaction of tearing down the monstrous Chimeras.

Initially, there are so many variables at play that it can be daunting. You have chain binds to lock enemies down for a few seconds, timing-based sync attacks that unleash devastating blows, and showstopping sync finishers that top off the wild spectacle (and replenish your health to boot). You can even get creative with combos, like utilizing the AOE stun, gravity pull, and crash bomb–all from different Legions–to concentrate a ton of damage on. Even an unchained combo lets you briefly unleash two Legions at once. And if that already seems like a lot to handle, you’ll also have to consider executing special attacks from directional inputs when it’s best to use them.

When you dig deeper into Astral Chain’s systems, you see some of its lineage–particularly the chip system of Nier: Automata, the game which Astral Chain director Takahisa Taura was lead designer on. That system manifests as Ability Codes that you equip on each of your Legions to grant them specific buffs and perks, which can significantly change how they function.

Astral Chain isn’t about running head-first into fights against monsters that seek to destroy you, though. You have to be smart about positioning, dodging, and the limited energy of your Legion. Enemies are more than just fodder; they can overwhelm you with sheer numbers, size, or speed. Some may require you to meet certain conditions to defeat them, forcing you to use non-combat abilities in the midst of the chaos. And bosses come at you with unforgiving attacks that’ll test your skill as much as your patience.

You have options for creating your own cool anime cop, it’s too bad they never really talk.

With a multitude of factors and challenges at play, combat places much more emphasis on devising the right tactics for the right situation. Astral Chain provides a tremendous box of tools that are effective in their own right and an absolute joy to use.

If there’s a fault gameplay-wise, it’s that movement can sometimes feel imprecise–don’t expect the same buttery smoothness of Bayonetta. For example, the Beast Legion’s mount mode winds up in an unpredictable direction, and the pistol combo forces you to flip backward. It may result in falling off ledges or unintentionally getting in harm’s way. Thankfully, it’s an occasional frustration that doesn’t detract from the core experience.

Astral Chain delivers gratifying, kinetic, and inventive combat that goes beyond genre conventions–and it retains that excitement from start to finish.

If you watch gameplay carefully, you quickly see how slow-motion, camera cuts, and subtle audio-visual cues in combat serve to signify opportune times to make your move. These flourishes are also how the game cements its bold sense of style. Popular manga artist Masakazu Katsura lent his hand to lead the character designs, resulting in some of the best-looking anime cops around. And when your bombastic actions in battle are matched by visually-striking momentum and tenacity, it delivers a unique thrill that makes Astral Chain special to see in motion.

Further complementing the game’s grand spectacle is its soundtrack. The groovy house tune heard in the police headquarters is infectious and the somber guitar melody at the stray cat safehouse hits like a reprieve from the chaos that envelops the world. Tense instrumentals and hard-hitting rock remixes of songs seamlessly bounce between one another during some combat missions. Unrelenting metal tracks propel boss battles and an ethereal Nier-like theme plays in the astral plane. Sprinkle in some J-rock worthy of an anime OP and Astral Chain rounds out the musical spectrum to great effect.

Astral Chain isn’t just about flashiness and stylish action, though. You’re given room to breathe between combat scenarios that comprise its chapters (or Files, as they’re called). Structurally, it’s somewhere between the traditional open world of Nier: Automata and segmented stages of Bayonetta–chapters funnel you through hub areas where you’re free to take part in side missions or explore for optional activities. Not everything is laid out on your map, so it takes some detective work to unveil all the hidden content.

Astral Chain’s shortcomings don’t overshadow what it does best. It’s an incredible execution of a fresh take on Platinum Games’ foundation, standing among the stylish-action greats.

Investigation scenarios are peppered within the main missions, where you analyze the environment and talk to locals to solve the mysteries at hand. Piecing the clues together properly awards you with a top rank, and it’s no sweat if you get things wrong. You’ll often jump into segments of the astral plane, which feature the more intense fights, and these areas incorporate light puzzle/platforming elements that ask you to use Legion powers in different ways.

The activities you undertake outside of combat aren’t exactly groundbreaking, but they provide enjoyable ways to engage with Astral Chain’s vivid world. It’s a welcome variety that also helps the pacing from chapter to chapter. Astral Chain never sits on one particular element for too long; it knows when to move on.

Investigation is just one way Astral Chain breaks up the pace.

Now, style doesn’t always equal substance. The overarching plot touches on the conventions of evil authority figures who abuse the power of science for their own agendas, and it also relates to the nature of how you’re able to wield the power of Legions, which are tamed Chimera. However, these themes are hardly explored. Rather, Astral Chain relies on cliches within its story and exposition. As a result, the more pivotal moments feel a bit less consequential. While some anime-esque tropes are just plain fun to see play out, others are borderline nonsensical even in context.

While you choose to play as a customized male or female cop on a special task force, your sibling–who’s on the same team–becomes the narrative focal point with fully voiced dialogue. Your own character is relegated to being an awkward silent protagonist. It’s disappointing because Astral Chain has so much stylistic potential to build from in order to give its lead character a distinct attitude. I can’t help but see it as a missed opportunity, especially when both characters are voiced when they’re your partner. In the end, the narrative presents stakes that are just high enough that you’ll want to see it to the end, and, thankfully, every other part of the game remains outstanding.

Astral Chain’s shortcomings don’t overshadow what it does best. It’s an incredible execution of a fresh take on Platinum Games’ foundation, standing among the stylish-action greats. And its own anime-inspired swagger makes fights all the more exhilarating. You’ll come to appreciate the calmer moments in between that add variety and offer a second to relax before jumping back into the superb combat. After 40 hours with Astral Chain, I’m still eager to take on the tougher challenges, and I’ll be grinning from ear to ear as I hit all the right moves, one after the other, while watching it all unfold.

Source : Gamesport

[gamingtipsandtrickshacks]

Double Kick Heroes is an Homage to Metal Music Disguised as a Video Game

I remember the days when rhythm games were at the peak of its popularity. Franchises like Guitar Hero and Rock Band helped bring the genre to the forefront in a way that previously released rhythm games failed to do. Now it’s 2018, and the music-based genre is not as strong as it used to be with only a select few, such as Crypt of the Necrodancer, finding its way to a broader audience. Indie developer Headbang Club may be one of those shining stars with its rhythm action game, Double Kick Heroes.

At this year’s PAX East in Boston, I had the opportunity to go hands-on with the studio’s inaugural title. We were given about 20 to 30 minutes to check out the game and everything it has to offer.

Double Kick Heroes is both a rhythm shooter and an homage to metal; gameplay involves you taking out hordes of zombies with a machine gun mounted car to the beat of music inspired by the heaviest bands music history. When I was watching others play it, the game looked awesome, but I wasn’t quite sure how it would control. Once I got my hands on it, I was able to quickly wrap my head around it.

Once I went hands-on with it, the controls and gameplay were pretty easy to understand. A horizontal note path runs along the bottom of the screen; when a dot appears in the shaded area, you press the corresponding button. Every not you hit correctly will build your combo meter allowing you to do more damage, thus completing the level faster. This simple concept gets a bit complicated as you progress through each section when the song is more complex and when a second button is added. While I didn’t get to experience it, there is supposedly a third row of notes that will be added which, I would imagine, would be incredibly difficult.

“Double Kick Heroes is both a rhythm shooter and an homage to metal.”

If that wasn’t enough, there are also boss battles that bookend each section that requires you to move the vehicle and shoot while tapping to the beat of the music. This is where things get clunky. Unless you can do all the button tapping parts with one hand, you’re going to have a hard time comprehending everything that is happening on the screen. Not only do you have to worry about your rhythm but also your aim, as well as making sure you’re out of the bosses way when it inevitably attacks. There are visual cues that will help you along the way. However, if you’re too cautious and don’t defeat the boss before the song’s end, you fail. It provided an enjoyable challenge but one I could see players getting frustrated with.

Despite that, the controls, for the most part, felt great. Similar to the clicking of the strumming trigger on the plastic Guitar Hero guitar, the percussive clicking of the buttons is very satisfying as you play along to the music. If you do find it too difficult, there are five different difficulty options that cater to your level of play.

I should mention that the demo stations at Headbang Club’s booth all had arcade sticks which is the best way to play Double Kick Heroes. However, I understand that not everyone, including myself, owns an arcade stick. I can’t speak on how the game would feel with a gamepad or keyboard, but when I asked the developers, I was told it still controls well.

A rhythm game is nothing without good music. Fortunately, if you’re a metal fan, Double Kick Heroes has plenty of music inspired by many favorite metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Rammstein, and Meshuggah. Unfortunately, since it was on the loud show floor, it was hard to hear the exact beat of the music. What I could hear of it sounded great. As a metal fan myself, I want to see who the developer’s modeled their songs after.

Visually, Double Kick Heroes is a pixelated album cover in motion. There is a metal band playing music on top of a car with guns mounted on it traveling through a post-apocalyptic landscape mowing down zombies. Sounds pretty rad, doesn’t it? The designs of the bosses, which typically took up a majority of the screen, were unique and stylish. The colorful and bright palette gives an inviting feeling to the game making you want to go back for more. All of this fits the metal theme the game exudes giving it a lot of personality and charm.

“Visually, Double Kick Heroes is a pixelated album cover in motion.”

In a world where rhythm games are scarce, Double Kick Heroes is a breath of fresh air. After playing it, I wasn’t quite sure if I liked it. After playing a ton of games at the show and taking a moment to think about everything I played, this rhythm action game is sticking out as one of my favorites. Since the demo I played had an arcade stick – which is clearly the way to play this game – I’m unsure how well it will control with a gamepad or keyboard which may be problematic when trying to sell this to a broader audience.

Additionally, the boss battles may deter people from trying to progress due to the amount of skill needed to pass these challenging sections. However, with five difficulty options to choose from, a great pixelated post-apocalyptic look, and a killer soundtrack to listen to, anyone should be able to see the game through.

From what I played, I can’t wait to take out more zombies to the beat the thrash, heavy, death, black, and any other subgenre of metal Double Kick Heroes has to offer.

Double Kick Heroes will be available for PC via Steam Early Access on April 11.

[symbianosgames]

The best games are a slow steady learning process.

They teach and guide while they entertain and challenge. They push players to improve steadily — to master a mechanic not by forcing you to scale a metaphorical wall, but by compelling you to climb a series of metaphorical steps. 

This does not necessarily mean they have great tutorials — indeed, many games with awesome learning curves throw you straight into the experience proper. Nor does it mean that they have to dumb down their design. It's simply a matter of crafting progression systems that allow the player to get a handle on the fundamentals early and then to grow and improve at every stage after that. 

It's not easy to pull this off. To give you some guidance as to how you can execute a brilliant learning curve, we asked several designers to tell us what games they think do it well.

None of the seven examples that follow are easy games, but all of them meter their difficulty with a well-considered learning curve. 

From the moment the player wakes up in protagonist Chell's minimalist living quarters, Portal gently prods her forward. As Global Game Jam co-founder and Rochester Institute of Technology assistant professor Ian Schreiber notes, "the entire game is basically a tutorial on how to beat it, except it expertly frames the learning as gameplay." Portal challenges by crafting puzzles around new mechanics and new applications of existing mechanics.  

It allows all the time players need to get comfortable with the controls or to think about how to solve the next puzzle, and it scales the difficulty by simply incrementing the complexity.

What you learn in completing one puzzle is needed to figure out the next one, and you have environmental cues that indicate what you need to learn or do (though not how to do it). Some cues are subtle such as the position of sentry turrets, while others are obviously instructional like the warning signs at the entrance to each test chamber. And thanks to these cues there's a clear progression from using portals to walk through a wall to using them for high-speed platforming. 

TAKEAWAY: You can simultaneously teach and challenge players at the same time if you weave the learning experience into the environment and level design.

All of the Burnout games do a fine job of introducing faster cars and tougher races and challenges at a comfortable pace. But one deserves special praise.

"I absolutely loved Burnout 3," says Corey Davis, design director at Rocket League developer Psyonix. "The pace of acquiring more powerful cars lined up really well with my mastery of the boost system, crashing opponents, and track knowledge." 

Each new car is just the right amount faster and stronger than the previous one to maintain an even challenge level and not pull the player out of their depth. The crafted tracks and frantic high-speed tussles with rival racers grow more intense as the player progresses, and there's a rewarding and fun experience for anyone to find — veteran racing junkies, casual fans, and newcomers alike.  

TAKEAWAY: You need to constantly test players and push them to execute tougher maneuvers as they improve their mastery of the core mechanics, but there's a fine line to straddle here if you want to keep both inexperienced and experienced players engaged from start to finish.

Much like a real instrument, Guitar Hero offers an intensely satisfying learning curve. It arguably even outdoes a real guitar in this respect, as it provides more useful feedback and gave the player ways to play along to their favorite songs regardless of skill level — the chosen difficulty level affects the number of notes to play and fret buttons to hit. It also adds an extra layer of progression by dividing songs into a "setlist" of increasing difficulty — so the challenge ramps up song by song as well as by difficulty level. 

Davis praises this design decision. "I never felt like it was cheap; it felt purely like I needed to get better," he says. And the feedback loops both on the screen during play and intrinsic to the challenge of mastering the twin difficulty systems combine beautifully with the simple joy of making music — of mastering hit rock songs. 

TAKEAWAY: Multi-tiered learning curves can let players control their own challenge level and rate of progress, and also provide a clearer indication of how much harder the next stage will be.

To someone who's heard about but not played the infamously-difficult Dark Souls, it may seem like a strange inclusion in this list. But extreme challenge and a good learning curve are not mutually exclusive. "The difficulty escalates very nicely," says Red Hook Studios creative director Chris Bourassa. 

"Just as you start feeling overwhelmed, you find yourself back in Firelink Shrine," he continues. "It's a clever use of the town hub as a thematic downbeat, and works like a chapter break in the game. As you catch your breath, you can look forward to a meaty jump in difficulty as you set off to the next area, followed by another smooth curve."

Cthulhu Saves the World designer Robert Boyd made a similar point in his 2012 analysis of Dark Souls' design

TAKEAWAY: High difficulty does not necessarily equate to a too-steep learning curve, as Dark Souls exemplifies.

Bourassa also praises the learning curve of real-time strategy/action-RPG hybrid Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. Specifically, he was drawn in by its tension between threat and empowerment. It gives the player confidence to try things and to experiment with new combinations of strategies thanks to a steady trickle of loot and new units. "I always felt confident heading into the missions," says Bourassa, "even when that confidence was misplaced." 

The smaller-scale structure of Dawn of War II's campaign missions in comparison to traditional RTS games helps, too. Short missions with small groups of units battling other small groups (and little or no base building) reduce the need to master micro-management and instead allow the player to learn and adapt as the situation demands. The skirmish multiplayer mode doesn't share this well-balanced learning curve, though, as it's too different to the campaign for knowledge transfer and new players tend to get annihilated. 

TAKEAWAY: A good learning curve balances danger or challenge with player empowerment; it gives the player a taste of both failure and victory and makes either feel like a learning experience.

Ironcast is the rare genre-mashup game that gets the blended elements to fit together. It's a Puzzle Quest-inspired tile-matching puzzler with a touch of roguelite adventuring and steampunk-themed resource management and mech-bot warfare.

Bourassa notes that while it looks straightforward at first, it's actually a deeply layered experience. "They do a lot of interesting things with the mechanics at all levels," he says, "and I found the meta-game quite engaging." 

The player gathers resources from the tile-matching mode, which they soon learn how to use to engage in full-on turn-based mech combat that involves a range of abilities and strategic and tactical decisions. If they lose a battle, it's game over, but certain upgrades and unlocked mech pilots remain so that they can still feel a sense of progress. All the game's complexity is metered out in such a way that you have time to get comfortable with new mechanics before your skill with them is tested. And the upgrades enable new strategies rather than simply incrementing the power of your weapons and shields.  

TAKEAWAY: You can ease players into complexity and surprise them at the same time by starting simple then repeatedly upping the stakes and stripping back the layers underlying the gameplay systems.

The original Super Mario Bros remains a masterclass in game design, and a big part of that is the expert manner in which its difficulty ebbs and flows — a small spike at the beginning followed by a gentle upward curve that has additional spikes at the end of each of its eight worlds (as Mario nears and then battles the world boss). 

It's also a great example of how to teach a player without tutorials. "It introduced most of the core concepts in World 1-1," says Schreiber. It didn't explicitly explain anything, but rather left the player to explore and discover the mechanics simply by trying things.

You may not go into the game knowing that enemies die when you jump on their heads and that blocks with question marks on them give coins or items (or what those items do), but you can stumble on these concepts within seconds and extend your understanding of how they work over the duration of the game. 

TAKEAWAY: Classic games still hold great lessons in game design, and Super Mario Bros in particular is a shining example of how to quickly introduce the core concepts and then playfully explore their permutations over the rest of the game.

There's no point developing a great game mechanic if only a tiny percentage of players can figure out how to use it. If you're striving for challenge, be fair, and remember to allow players some time to acclimatize to their new-found skills. You need to both give your player the appropriate tools and teach them how to use these tools before you ask them to scale a cliff or make a seemingly-impossible leap. 

If you're not trying to make a difficult game, remember that great learning curves should have small spikes along the way to challenge players and test their mastery of the mechanics or to introduce new mechanics. 

Most importantly, consider that teaching people how to play your game is not just a matter of telling them what to do and then leaving them alone. Nor is it about micro-managing their experience. You need to let them play and experiment and to ensure that when they fail they can understand why. Mistakes and successes alike should improve their mental models of how your systems work. And they should drive your players to get better at your game, not to walk away. 

Thanks to Corey Davis, Chris Bourassa, and Ian Schreiber for their help with putting this article together.

[symbianosgames]

A musical score is a great way of guiding the player’s emotions. It can offer important clues about the world the player inhabits and indicate the severity of the obstacles being encountered. The 2D action-adventure title Hollow Knight, developed by Team Cherry Games, is an excellent example of this.

In the game, you play as the character Hollow Knight who must explore a ruined kingdom buried beneath the ground. Along the way you’ll collect power-ups, discover new areas, and defeat ancient evils, with your actions underlined by a hugely atmospheric soundtrack by composer Christopher Larkin.

The music for Hollow Knight presented many challenges for Larkin. The most significant being how to create an evocative score with distinguishable leitmotifs. He employed several solutions to achieve this, like using dynamics and varied instrumentation to differentiate tracks from one another, maintaining contact with the development team to ensure the score matched their interpretation of the characters, and taking the time to listen to a variety of influences for new ideas. 

According to Larkin, the initial brief that he received from Team Cherry was to compose a soundtrack demonstrating a sense of "dark elegance using minimal instrumentation”, but that remained “classical and melancholic.” 

The score includes numerous tracks featuring little more than piano and strings, though there are certainly sections where he felt it was possible to add some intense sounds and instrumentation into the mix.

“We definitely started with the soft piano and viola in the opening menu and "Dirtmouth," but we pull out all the stops for the boss battles.” says Larkin.“That said, the melancholy and a certain sadness is still evident in a lot of these, underneath the crazy runs and shredding.” 

“There are some areas that have very unique instrumentation,” he adds. “We have harp, marimba and other earthy tones for "Greenpath." We have very Gothic, cold-sounding organ for "Soul Sanctum," and we use Kalimba, wine glasses and guitar harmonics to give the shiny, crystal sound for Crystal Peak." In these situations, the visual qualities and the context of the areas have a large impact in the choice of instruments and sounds.”

Some of the tracks required additional musicians and live instruments in order to bring them to life. On "City of Tears," for example, Larkin employed the talents of soprano singer Amelia Jones to achieve its ethereal quality. While, across the soundtrack, Timothy Cheel’s viola playing contributes a variety of emotions.

Soprano Amelia Jones can be heard on the "City of Tears" track.

“Adding live playing gives the score an element of human touch, and a certain organic sound,” suggests Larkin. “But I think what it really does is give an extra dimension to the musical content. A new interpretation of a melody or idea which I otherwise wouldn't have done.

He elaborates, “Where I couldn't get the live performance in, I try to always sculpt my sequenced score to imitate live players. I'm always thinking about how and where the players need to breathe, or change their bow, even if it is the computer playing it back.”

The impact that this has is that it makes each theme feel more individual, as performers can contribute their own nuances to the piece.

While writing the soundtrack, there were several occasions when taking the time to exchange ideas with others helped to improve the finished score. One clear example he notes is with the boss theme Hornet. 

“The team and I would always discuss the layout and the character of each area at length," says Larkin. "But even then, things didn't always go right the first time. In the case of Hornet for example, I sent the team a sketch of the track which, while it sounded cool, had quite a heavy bass riff."

The dev team noted that Hornet's character is quite sophisticated, elegant and swift despite her deadliness. By better understanding Hornet’s character, how she moves, and how she behaves, Larkin was able to alter the track to better suit the animations and the artwork that the development team had put together.

This comes across in the completed version of the track, as her movements are matched by a more elaborate string accompaniment that implies her speed and grace.

This wasn’t the only input on the soundtrack however. Larkin listened extensively to multiple composers while creating music for the game, including contemporary and classical artists.

“Joe Hisaishi has always been a big influence,” Larkin says. “You can definitely hear that in the piano and strings pieces. Same with James Newton Howard and his beautiful romantic cues from King Kong.” He continues, “Classical music also finds its way into my work, especially Mahler and Rachmaninov in developing long themes, as is evident in the White Palace.”

Referencing a diverse selection of music was extremely important for Larkin. It led him to try out lots of new ideas during the process of recording. The "Mantis Lords" theme is a notable example of this.

It was intended as a deliberate nod to the music of Vivaldi and has a sound unlike anything else on the score. This can be heard by the prominent use of harpsichord and its frantic arrangement. These qualities contribute significantly to the characterization of the Mantis Lords, giving them a particularly threatening and regal presence.

The effect of all these measures is a soundtrack evoking a proper sense of place and character, while also fostering an emotional response from the player. Though the score is clearly linked by its elegiac tone and recurring piano, you never really hear the exact same combination of sounds or a similar intensity from the individual tracks.

It’s because of this that Larkin’s score can be considered a success. By drawing from a wide range of voices and inspirations, and making intelligent use of equipment available to him, he managed to insert a great deal of personality into the score. His leitmotifs add greater detail to the world, and also to facilitate the game’s storytelling.