#Shiny Trapezohedron

[vangold]

Here we have the #prompt in this Creeptober challenge that - to be completely honest - I was most afraid I wouldn't get right - and of all things, I managed to get this piece on paper in less than 2 hours. Hopefully I did it in a form that qualifies as the Shiny Trapezohedron it's supposed to be 😬

Lovecraft doesn't say much about its shape, he just describes it as absurd. So, to get the thing drawn, I spontaneously and without much thought poured colour onto the paper - yes, partly with my eyes closed - and added lines, corners and edges to the blob that came out to make it look polished.

In keeping with the previous day, it is said that the stone can be used to call Nyarlathotep and - if you look deep enough into it - you can see parts of Yogh Sothoth's memory…. and you'll probably go mad if you do. You know the drill :D

Creeptober-Promptlist by @creep-tober

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[aths-art]

Ori

Commission work inspired by Ori from Ori and the Blind forest/Will of the Wisps and Sundered games Shining Trapezohedron

[weatherman667]

Sundered

A Metroidvania platformers with beautiful graphics, smooth action, and... rather boring.

First off, the game gives you no idea who you are or what you are doing.  You walk through a sandstorm and get swallowed up by an eldritch  abomination, a nefarious-sounding Trapezohedron grants you power.

Are you invested yet?

The main character, Eshe, is female.  My first thoughts were that this was going to be incidental, like, say, Metroid, that it’s obviously patterned off of.  Well, one of the first things you do is run into a Valkyrie ruins.

Now, they are obviously not using the word in the Nordic Mythological sense, if for no other reason than the fact they are obviously trying to craft their own mythology, but don’t give you the slightest context for what Valkyrie means.

How about combat?

Well, instead of giving a small collection of enemies that are interesting to fight, they have swarms of enemies that ignore terrain.

Game designers need to learn that enemies that break the rules of the game are only interesting in small doses.  Instead they send constant swarms of them, making you have to button mash.  They also give you a regenerating shield, to the point I honestly don’t know when I’m taking damage most of the time.

They add a skill tree.  Skill trees are good?  Except when it’s nothing but minor stat increases that you pay for by find-the-shiny.

Still playing it, though.

[miloscat]

[Review] Sundered (PS4)

What better way to round off a run of Castlevania games than with a modern Metroidvania with a different kind of horror theme?

I actually started this some time ago, playing in co-op with my brother. We chose hard mode and it was a satisfying challenge. Part of the game is choosing to embrace the dark powers of the elder gods, or resist their influence and rely only on human technology. Story-wise the only change is a different final boss and ending, but mechanically you get different upgrades to your abilities depending on your choices. Anyway, we chose to resist but afterwards I did an “embrace” run on Normal and ended up preferring the movement possibilities of the corrupted powers.

I’d describe the game as a Metroidvania/beat-em-up, making it similar to the Guacamelee games which we loved. Unlike those, the maps are semi-procedurally generated (the world map always has the same shape and there are certain pre-designed rooms, but most of the game world is randomised). This tests your reactivity nicely but can require risky checks of the map to make sure you’re heading the right way. It’s risky because you’re almost constantly mobbed by hordes of spawning monstrosities.

The enemies are superbly grotesque, following the Cthulhu Mythos-esque theme. In the plot, our cypher-heroine Eshe finds herself in a surreal landscape, its three distinct regions the site of an ancient conflict between the technocratic Valkyries and the now twisted adherents of the Eschaton, the faithful of dark elder gods. The unreliable Trapezohedron, a mystical stone who talks in a harsh, guttural dialect, grants her its powers and tells these histories in an attempt to corrupt her. All this informs the style and tone of the game but as certain brothers can attest, it’s easily ignorable if you just want to explore and power up in the satisfying gameplay loop.

When you inevitably die in the labyrinth, you always return to the upgrade tree to boost your stats, swap out perks, and unlock new passive buffs in a big interconnected web of upgrade nodes. It’s nice to fill this out and get the cool shiny things, not to mention steel yourself against the rising tide of deadly foes, so you’re always seeking out hidden treasures while you’re exploring. The perk system also allows you to get more currency or enhance your preferred abilities at a cost, as there’s always a downside to these equipment.

Sundered scratched the same itch as Guacamelee even if it differs in significant ways with its deeper customisable upgrades, roguelite mechanics, and plot that is light in intrusiveness and dark in tone. I thoroughly enjoyed it both solo and in co-op (enabled by the “Eldritch Edition” patch which also added new puzzle areas and an endgame boss). It’s very cool.