#i ended up replaying pretty much all of doom eternal. i love that game to death but the way it was made was so messy

[jayvikyaoi]

i really need to post more here. despite this being my main and my mutuals not giving a shit i feel like i should only be posting about mcyt and i haven't been keeping up with any mcyts recently

[tumbling-odyssey]

Games I played in 2020

Just felt like getting my thoughts out on all the games I played this year. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for years but I always let it pass me by. Well not this year! Fuck you laziness! 

I played the first half in 2019 but finished it in 2020 so I guess I'll count it. DQ11 was my intro to Dragon Quest and what a good starting point. I'm not exaggerating when I say this is one of the best traditional JRPGs on the market. Characters, story, combat, it all clicks in just the right way to make a flawless game... until the end credits roll that is. 

I have no idea what happened with the post game but by god does it dive off a cliff. It undermines everything you worked to do in the main plot. The characters act brain dead and it shamelessly reuses events from the main game. Please pick up and play DQ11 but for the love of god just stop when the credits roll.

Doom is a game I knew I'd like. The heavy metal ascetic and soundtrack were right up my alley, but I just never found the time. With Eternal on the way though and having found it on the cheap at a pawn shop I figured there was no time like the present. Needless to say but I was right. I loved everything about this game. The thrill of combat, the screech of the guitars, and the silent take no shit attitude of Doomguy. Make no mistake though, I SUCK at this game. I played on easy but still got my ass handed to me on the regular. But I don't care, I was having way to much fun.

I flipped my shit when this game got leaked at the tail end of 2019. Zero 3 is my all time favourite game. To celebrate this getting announced I went and 100% Zero 3 as I hadn't done it on my current cart, and Zero 3 was still the first thing I played when I got this collection! I love that game to death and I’m glad to have it on modern consoles again. As I was under a bit of time crunch with other games releasing soon I only played 2 other games in the collection Zero 4 and ZX Advent. Until the DS collection those and 3 were the only Zero/ZX games I had so I have a lot of nostalgia for them. 

Zero 4 hold ups better then I remember. Not as good as 3 but a damn solid game with tweaks I honestly wish hit the series before its end. I remember having issues with the stage design and ya it’s not perfect, but it’s far from as bad as I thought. For ZXA this was the first time I beat the game on normal difficulty. For some reason the ZX games have always given me more trouble than the Zero games, so finally beating one on normal was very exciting. Maybe I can now finally go and beat ZX for the first time...

The Mystery Dungeon series rising from the depth to punch all those unexpecting in the face was a very welcome surprise. I had a lot of hype going into this one as I have very fond memories of my time with Red Rescue Team and even more with Explorers of Darkness. And the game lived up to it! The remastered music is great and crazy nostalgic, the 3D models are well used and don't feel as stiff as they do in the core series, and the QOL changes are near perfect... So why did I drop this game like a rock once I finished the main quest? 

Anyone familiar with Mystery Dungeon will know that the post game is the real meat of it. The story is short and all the really cool shit comes in after it's done. But I just couldn't bring myself to put more time in after I finished said story mode. I'm definitely chocking that up to me just not being in the mood then an issue with the game. Here's hoping we get an Explorers DX sometime soon. That will fucking hook me for all it's got.

Second verse same as the first. I loved this game and sucked at it horribly. Out of all the games I've played this year Doom Eternal is the one I want to go back to the most. I was not the hugest fan of some of the changes made and retained a stance that I liked 2016 better. First person platforming has never been a fun experience in my opinion and Eternal did little to change that. And I know this a lukewarm take at best but fuck Marauders!. They are so unfun to fight and ruin the pace. The Marauder in the last mook wave took me so long I was worried I wouldn’t be able to finish the game. But the more I've seen of Eternal after my playthrough makes me think I was being far to harsh. I haven't played the DLC yet either. Mostly cuss I haven't heard great things about it. Gonna wait for the rest of it to come out to see if it's worth getting. Might just replay to whole game at that point to see if it clicks with me better.

This was my second favourite game of the year, and was going to take the top slot until a certain other game came out. Addressing the elephant in room right away, I hated the ending. But I was expecting something like that, I think we all were. I won't let the ending ruin the rest of the game though. Not gonna let 1 segment colour everything that came before it. We have to see how the later parts play out to truly see if this ending was trash or not anyway. 

It took Square over a decade but they finally got an action RPG battle system that works and feels good to play. This may be my favourite battle system in an RPG period honestly. All four characters are a blast and it only gets better the more time you spend with it. Figuring out the nuances of each character’s skills and how to combine them not only with the skills of the others but how to enhance them with the right Materia set. This makes fights thrilling and satisfying when you finally best whatever was giving you trouble. Tis was the best way to bring 7′s mechanics into the modern landscape while also fixing the BIGGEST issue the OG had. The fact every character feels the same aside from Limit Breaks. 

All this on top of graphics that just look fucking stunning, a few glitched out doors aside. Fuck I still feel blown away looking at the characters models (mostly Tifa) and see how god damn pretty everyone is. Also Tifa’s Chinese dress is gift from the Gods and I still haven’t picked my jaw up from the floor after I first saw it.

In my circle of the internet there was a lot of hype for this game. So much so that I ended up buying it to see what all the hubbub was about. I had never played a Streets of Rage game before and my only experience with beat'em ups was playing a LOT of Scott Pilgrim and last year's River City Girls. Turns out Streets of Rage plays quite a bit different and it kicked my ass! So sadly I had to switch to easy to make it through but I still had a fun time with it. 

I started playing mostly as Blaze but once Adam hit the scene oooooh fucking boy. I didn’t play anyone else. There's a deceptive amount of content in this game. You can unlock almost every character from the previous games and all of them rocking their original sprites and moves. If I had more of a connection with this series I'm sure I would have gone nuts on unlocking everything. I stopped after my one playthrough and I was happy with that. Always glad to support a long overdue franchise revival.

To properly talk about P5R I think I need to air a lot of my feelings on the original game and the importance it has to me. You see, prior to 2017 I barely played games, only sticking to specific franchises. AKA Pokemon and Mega Man/Mega Man like games. Until 2016 though I still bought a lot of games. Eating up Steam sales and deals I found at pawn shops. This lead to a Steam library and shelf filled with games I've never touched outside of maybe an hour or 2. So in 2016 when I took interest in the newly released Kirby Planet Robobot I made a deal with myself. I could get the game but I HAD to beat it.  And I did just that, gaining not just a new fav Kirby game but a new rule for game purchases. If I knew I wouldn't beat a game I was not aloud to buy it. Now what does ANY of this have to do with P5 you may ask? Well... almost everything.

 I was immediately interested in P5 when it hit the west in 2017. I loved the 20 or so hours I but into P3 years ago and really liked the P4 anime I had watched around the same time. So of course with all the hype around it I wanted to dive into the series full force with P5. But I knew myself. Putting over 100 hours into a game was beyond me and I had a weird relationship with home console games as I was predominately a handheld gamer. Add in the fact I didn't even have a PS4 and I was convinced P5 would be something I always wanted to play, but never would. So when I went to the mall with a few friends and they showed me that P5 had a PS3 version, I had a dilemma on my hands. I knew I wanted to play it and I now had a way to do so. But doing that would require me to change 2 HUGE hang ups I had with games. Would I being willing to waste 60 bucks with so much working against me? Apparently I was. I immediately started going to town on this game. Making sure I spent no less then 2 hours a day playing NO MATTER WHAT. Which may not seem like a lot but it was to me... at the time.. I also had just moved to my current house, so coming home from my still relatively new job and going straight into P5 was the first real routine I formed during this heavily transitional part of my life. 

I of course ended up loving P5 and put 200 hours into it. As such my outlook on gaming was forever changed. Console games were no longer out of reach and I knew I could handle playing monster length game. I started playing way more games then I ever did before and trying out generas I never thought I would play. P5 is the main reason for this and why I'm able to make a post like this. To actually touch on Royal though? It's unarguably the better version of the game and Atlus learned all the right lessons from P4G. The new characters are great and the added section at the end is possibly the best shit Atlus has ever written. I only wish Yoshizawa joined the party sooner so I could play as her more. 

The release of this really came out of nowhere huh? Wayforward announced it was being made mid way through 2019, then there was its weird half release on the Apple store... and then suddenly it was out! Very little fanfare for this one. Is that indicative of the games quality? Luckily no. Seven Sirens is a solid addition to the series and follows up Half Genies Hero nicely. The game goes back to Shantae's Metroidvania roots and makes a TON of improvements. 

Transformations are now instant instead of having to dance for them (don't worry dancing is still in the game) making the game feel more like Pirates Curse in its fast flow. They also added the Monster Cards which take heavy inspiration from Aria of Sorrow's Soul system. A feature I'm happy to see in any Metroidvania since Aria is one of my all time favourite games. Sadly though the game does not take the best advantage of these improvements. 

Over all the game feels kinda empty. The dungeons aren't super exciting to explore nor are they challenging in any way. And the plot is very repetitive, with each dungeon repeating the same beats. Really this game feels more like set up for a better game down the line. The mechanics are all here and Wayforward has a solid art style with the sprites from Half Genie Hero. Hopefully they capitalizes on this for Shantae 6 and we get the best game in the series.

While it may not have been the most thrilling game, Seven Sirens really put me into a Shantae mood. So much so that I went back to play the 2 games in the series I had never touched. This being the first game and Risky's Revenge. Shantae 1 really is a hidden gem in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, it's the definition of jank, but there's a lot of heart to this game. The sprites are great, the soundtrack is good, and the characters are funny... but it's still on the OG Gameboy and that's a massive hindrance for any game. I'm hard pressed to recommend this with how poorly its aged but I think it's better then it looks. 

Risky's Revenge on the other hand was a game that shocked me by how little it had to offer. I know this game went through a hellish development and what we got was far from what Wayforward planned to make, but it's hard to imagine a world where this was the technical BEST Shantae game. It's not a bad game by any stretch... just a boring one.

For the record my ranking of the games goes Pirates Curse>Half Genie Hero>Seven Sirens>Original>Risky’s Revenge

Sword and Shield are mediocre games at best. I know, real steaming hot take there. I managed to make my Sword playthrough a lot more fun by not spoiling myself on the new Pokemon designs for the first time since Gen 3. Either way, I enjoyed myself enough that I didn't mind playing more of it with these DLC campaigns. Plus I love the idea of Game Freak switching over to this method as apposed to making a third version, so I wanted to support it. 

Klara is a fucking top tier Poke Girl both in design and personality and is probably the highlight of Isle of Armour. GF actually went out of their way to give her multiple expressions to sell her toxic bitch personality and I love every minute of it. She sadly drifts into the background for the second half of the DLC’s story which hurts an already rough section even more. Not more then having to grind Kubfuu all the way to fucking level 70 though! That put a serious hamper on my motivation to finish the story but I pushed through anyway. Having to solo the tower with Kubfuu was at least a fun challenge though, as was the final fight with Mustard. Fuck the Diglett hunt though. Ain’t no one got time for that.

Crown Tundra may be my fav of the 2 though even if there isn't a character as good as Klara in it. The hunt for the legendaries was just pure adventure and I had a fucking blast doing it. The joy I felt when I figured out Registeel’s puzzle put a smile on my face unlike any Pokemon game since I was a kid. The whole Regi stuff was honestly a nice Nostalgia trip to my times with Emerald. The story around Calyrex was enjoyable, even if I still hate its design. Not revealing the horses before release was a good call to as it gave an honest surprise. Having to chase down the Galar forme Birds in the overworld is a great way to evolve the roaming legendaries idea and I hope GF sticks to this. Plus the Galar forme birds are some of the best legendary designs since Gen 5 and I love Chocodos way to fucking much. 

Here we are folks, my GotY. I love Panzer Paladin so fucking much. A combination of mechanics from Mega Man, Castlevania, and Blaster Master? Sign me the fuck up! This game is tailored made for me and I knew I had to play it once it started making the rounds on social media. I'll admit though, I was a bit worried when the the first full trailer dropped and showed the weapon mechanics. Breakable weapons that you have to sacrifice for checkpoints and power ups? I'm not sure about that.... Luckily I was being a complete moron and those mechanics are near perfect. 

I love the set up of each boss being a mythological creature from different cultures. They didn’t just pull the easy ones either. A lot of these things I learned of for the first time here. I love how Grit controls. Using the upward stab as a double jump and being able to pogo off enemies Shovel Knight style just felt great and satisfying. Flame was limited but it made her sections feel tense. She does more damage then you think she could at first glance. Also the only way to heal Grit being to use pods that only Flame could access was a cool idea. 

I am begging you Tribute Games, you have to make more Panzer Paladin games. Slap some new upgrades on Grit and expand what Flame can do and you have an even better sequel  on your hands. Also maybe not have so many 'gotcha' moments with enemy placement. That's really my only complaint about the game. Great music, great sprites, giant robots, unique premise, and a reference to Canadian legends. The ultimate self indulgent game for me.

It felt super out of left field for Curse of the Moon to be getting a sequel. The games fucking amazing but it was really just a tie in for the main Bloodstained product. Not something I expect to get a continuation. Either way I was pumped. If this was even half as good as the original then I was in for a great time. Which held true... cuss this legitimately is only half as good as Curse of the Moon. I still like the game, quite a lot actually. I mean how could I not with a fucking Corgi piloting a Death Train Mech. 

Something was just missing here that never made this click like the first game. Maybe it was the stage design, maybe the bosses, maybe the fact that it's a bit to long. I'm not sure. All I know is I couldn't bring myself to play all the modes like I did in the original. . Stopping part way in to the one where you can get the first games characters. I want to go back some day... I just don’t know when someday is.

This was an announcement I never saw coming. A Gundam Verses game coming to the west? That hasn't happened in the entire time I've been a Gundam fan. I had played a bit of Full Boost on my old roommates PS3 thanks to him having a Japanese account and I played Force on the Vita a few years ago. But to have the latest version fully translated with open servers? Holy hell that's a dream come true. 

Having the open betas every weekend leading up to launch was some much needed fun during this shit hole year. I had a lot of fun just fucking around with different suits and seeing what I could do with 'em. Absolutely trashing two Bael players as the Kapool is a memory I'll keep with me for a long time. Fucking danced on their graves. This gave me some new appreciation for suits like the Baund Doc and Hambrabi, the later becoming a lowkey fav as it was my main.

I've fallen off with the game in the last few months but I definitely want to go back. I hope to start learning the game and take parts in tourneys when cons aren’t death sentences anymore.

It felt like everything in my life was SCREAMING at me to start the Yakuza series. From 2 of my friends playing 0 recently, a youtuber I following live tweeting as he played through the WHOLE series back-to-back, and Yakuza 2 having a run at AGDQ 2020. Plus the constant pleas to play this series you get from following Little Kuriboh on Twitter. I finally broke and picked up 0 in the middle of August. Boooooooooy howdy did I not know what I was getting in to. And no I don't mean the content. I knew Yakuza was a series of wildly conflicting tones between the main story and side quests. What I mean is the length. I legit thought this was gonna be a 20-30 hour game. When i reached hour 30 of my playthrough and realized I wasn't even close to a conclusion, I think I knew I had bitten off more then I was planning. That misstep aside I ended up loving this game and want to play the rest of the series.... I just need to rest up first before I dive into Kiwami 1.

 Let's actually talk about the game for a moment here. Kiryu and Majima quickly clicked as likeable characters to me and I cared about their stories. Combat is fun and the multiple styles are all great.... though both the default styles take a while to get there. The mad rush I felt at the end was fantastic and the last bosses are a joy to fight. Only real complaint is the pacing of the side stories. I loved being able to just stumble into various different events while on route to the next plot objective. But this became less common as the game went on and side stories started getting more tucked away. Also hot take here, the host club mingame is more tedious then fun and I like Kiryu’s business stuff as I could do that in the background. I’m excited to dive into Kiwami and probably Kiwami 2 this year... Though I’m not sure when just yet.

Just gonna say it flat out, I think this is better the the 2018 game. The smaller scale helps in this style of game and Miles just naturally has a better move set then Peter. I'm not sure if they actually tightened up the combat system or if they just threw less bullshit enemies at you but fighting feels so much better in this one. Traversal is better too,  simply because they changed the button for tricks. In the original you have to hold down 2 face buttons to enter trick mode??? In hindsight that was such a bad call. 

Having both the heal and venom powers run off the same meter was a good idea. Making the choice between keeping yourself alive guaranteed or potentially ending a fight quicker/disposing of a problem enemy is super fun. The player having to make small choices like this during combat is what helps it not be brainless. I love all the different venom skills you get. While they all achieve the same thing in stunning opponents, how you achieve that goal is up to you. Do you want to just slug the bastard, throw 'em up in the air, tackle the shit out of them? The choice is yours. 

Only real big complaint is certain upgrades being NG+ locked. I know you want to encourage replays, but this is a shitty way to do it I feel. Also can we retire Rhino for the next game. Man has had 2 shitty boss fights now and I need a break. Between this and Spider-Verse, I'm honestly starting to like Miles as Spider-Man more then Peter.

I got this game more on a whim then anything. I was definitely interested when it was first announced for the west. Vanillaware's beautiful art style in a story about giant robots beating the shit out of Kaijus? Sign me the fuck uuuuuu-oh wait it's an RTS? I had never played an RTS's before, mainly due to the sheer concept stressing me out. So I let it fall to the wayside. The game started coming up again though towards the end of the year with GotY on everyone's minds.  This revived my interest, especially as what I HAD planned to be playing around that time was... well. Cyberpunk. Don't think I need to say much more. Also I had worried for nothing as the Real Time Strategy was not that Real Time. 

This game really lays on the analysis paralysis once you're out of the tutorial. Do you want to fight, do you want to do story, who's story do you want to do, what branch should you follow, how much should you play with this one character? It's very overwhelming at first. I decided to not go ham on just one character and swap around all the time. The twists in this game are equal parts exciting and infuriating. Learning something new always came with the caveat of more questions, or something you knew 'for sure' being disproven. Like when I learned 1 characters was actually 4 separate ones! Anyone that's played knows exactly what I'm talking about. 

Natsuno ended up being my fav and not just because of.... obvious reasons. BJ was cute if unfortunately named and her relationship with Mirua was my favourite in the game. Not that there was much competition except for maybe Ogata and Tomi. I ended up really liking the combat but I can see why RTS fans say it's the weakest part. It's far from complex and I had a winning strat by the third or so real fight. Aka spam turrets and have the Gen 1′s gank all the bosses.

One quick thing I want to share was how I beat the boss at the end of Area 2. The one where Inaba is singing. I had Hijiyama use the limit break skill to bum rush the boss right off the hop. I took out half its health in one hit but Hijiyama’s Sentinel was on death’s door. Only thing that saved him was sending in Amaguchi to blow up a bunch of missiles. Hijiyama took it out on his next attack but lost his Sentinel at the same time. It was a real clutch victory and crazy fucking anime. 

The best way to really describe Carrion is that it's a fantastic proof of concept. Can you make a game where you play as The Thing? Why yes, yes you can. Carrion just needed a bit more tweaking to really bring this concept home and be the A+ game I know it can be. As it is now the game is a bit empty. The level design is super samey and the lack of a map is fucking brutal at points. I know it would make no sense for a blob monster to have a map but somethings you just have to gameify for convenience. The level design must have done something right as even though I was completely lost I still moved from area to area properly. Hell by the time I actually looked up a map I had 1 more item to get and I learned I was one door away from beating the game. 

I love the idea of losing mass as you take damage and gaining more by eating people, but having abilities tied to size was a terrible idea. It just leads to tedium as I have to go and shed myself to the right size, do the puzzle, then of course I'm going to go back and rebuild myself to see if I can do the next segment at full power. Just make it so you can swap between abilities using the d-pad or something. I hope this game gets a sequel just so this sick ass concept can be fully realized.

[eljackinton]

Jack's End of Year Video Game Rundown

It's the start of a brand new year, that means it's time again for me to waffle a bit about the games I played and what I thought of them.

Assassin's Creed: Black Flag/Rogue

I've been out of the loop with Assassin's Creed for years, but since I was having computer problems last year I spent some time catching up on older XBOX 360 games.

Black Flag and Rogue are both two very intriguing games in very different ways, and its interesting to see the franchise stuck at a bit of a crossroads at that point. Black Flag is one of the best of the series, but it's also the one least concerned with Assassinations. Rogue presents a completely different perspective on the plot, calling into question the validity of the games as power fantasies.

I guess I'll catch up with the rest of the series another 5 years down the line or something and see where it goes from there.

Night in the Woods

An excellent game that hits upon some real struggles my generation faces in finding their place in the world. While it does have it's missteps, and some behind the scenes bullshit has tempered my enthusiasm over time, I still highly recommend it to anyone looking for depth in their video game storytelling.

Heat Signature

A random galaxy of random ships where anything can go wrong. I've sunk hours into the game but still haven't really finished it because it's more suited to short bursts. Still really good though.

Tyranny

When Obsidian released Pillars of Eternity, I found myself surprised that I didn't get that Baldur's Gate feeling despite it being a slavishly faithful spiritual successor. It's only after playing Tyranny that I realised that it was the feeling of 'new' that I was looking for.

While Pillar's was a great game, I kind of felt it was compromised by being too much, too fast. Tyranny, by contrast, is a tightly plotted tale that focuses purely on your character creating their own villainous legacy. It doesn't outstay it's welcome, but it really left me wanting more.

Halo: Anniversary/Halo 3/Halo: Reach/ODST/Halo 4

I've had a mixed relationship with Halo over the years, but I felt like a bit of a revisit/catch up. First up, while the original Halo still stands up as a classic, the updated graphics and soundtrack of the Anniversary rob it of it's charm.

Reach is probably the second best of the series, mainly because it's almost nothing like any of the other Halo games tone wise.

ODST is a weird outlier that has some interesting ideas but never really sticks the landing on any of them.

Halo 3 stands up better than I remembered.

Halo 4 does not. Way worse than I remember.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2

I've already gushed about the game enough. Everything that the first game was good at, better in every way.

Battletech

A teeth clenshingly tense turn based strategy game. Handling different damage types and stability really give it range and tactics that make you really use your noggin instead of poring over percentages. I loved it and I can't wait to check out the DLC.

Valley

A short, fun, Portal-esque puzzler with some great visuals. Feels a bit of a dry run for a better game down the line though. Would love to see the concept revisited.

Takoma

Take the well worn video game trope of exploring a post disaster environment, remove all combat and threat, focus everything else on a deep storytelling experience. That's Takoma. I loved the game, and I love it's take on a System Shock-type story but doing it purely from an investigative standpoint.

Another World

A classic that came highly recommended, and yet, I still haven't finished it. I just find it way too hard and my reaction times don't sit well with it. May get another review if I can force my way past the point I'm stuck at.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm/Life is Strange/The Adventures of Captain Spirit

I steered away from BTS because I wrote it off as an unnecessary prequel. Boy was I wrong. BTS stands on it's own as a story even better than the original LIS. I'd even go so far to suggest people play that game first.

So I enjoyed it so much I wanted to do a replay of LIS, still holds up despite some of it's problems.

Finally I checked out the free Captain Spirit. Really great and emotional narrative game that's just as long as it needs to be. Can't wait for a full playthrough of LIS2.

Fossil Hunters

A whimsical puzzle game that is surprisingly addictive. Played the whole thing from start to finish.

Hellblade: Seuna's Sacrafice

One of the best video game stories I've ever played, and the intense combat is no slouch either. Hellblade feels as though it wants to explore new places that video games can do really well but rarely touch.

Getting Over it With Bennet Foddy

Probably the best game ever made, or, at the very least, the one most focused on what it wants to be about. If you can face the frustration it's probably the greatest piece of art ever made exploring that emotion.

Wolfenstien: The Old Blood/The New Order/The New Colossus

I slept on the new era Wolf games and that was a mistake. While The Old Blood was a fun nostalgic romp that has some surprising depth, it's The New Order that is the main event. A story that really wants to hammer home the evils of fascism, all through a hyper-violent grindhouse revenge story. Near perfect from start to finish.

It's such a shame then that The New Colossus feels like a step down. Maybe it's that TNO was so good that a return feels like it's outstaying it's welcome, but it suffers mainly from wanting to tell a bigger, bolder, deeper story, and finding the confines of a traditional FPS a bad fit for it.

DOOM

RIP AND TEAR

Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition

The Icewind Dale demo was the first RPG I ever played and my introduction to the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Getting to play and actually finish the game feels like it's laying some ghosts to rest. Now if only someone could find the source code to IWD2 and give it to Beamdog and I can do the same from there.

As for the game? It's okay, the expansion Heart of Winter is a big improvement and its what makes the experience worthwhile really.

And that's it! I'll be speaking my mind on Prey this time next year since I haven't finished Mooncrash yet, but all in all it was a pretty good year for interesting games. Cheers for joining me.

[wozman23]

My 2020 in Gaming

I finished my 100th video game of the year yesterday. In a normal year that would be an embarrassing feat. By in 2020, pretty much stuck within these four walls for nearly nine months now, I'm really proud of it. The last few years, my gaming habits took a severe hit due to working too much. I was fortunate to have the finances to pick up the PlayStation VR and the Switch, but I couldn't dedicate a lot of time to them, and when I did, the joy wasn't there as much since I was often exhausted. In 2018, I still managed to get through almost 40 games, but last year that number fell to 25. There was so much I wanted to play, but I just didn't have the free time. And then 2020 dealt me a lifeline... When LA came to a halt, three and a half months into the year, I was only working on finishing Game #6. Since then, I've been on a tear. A large part of my efficiency came from two choices. In late April, I signed up for Xbox Game Pass for $1 for the first month. Then in June, the “Racial Injustice” Bundle with hundreds of PC games – about a dozen of which I really wanted to play - released on itch.io. Overall, it was a solid mix of AAA games and indie games, although I've skewed more toward indies for years now. There were big anticipated releases like The Last of Us, Part II and Doom Eternal. Splatoon 2 finally got the shrink wrap pulled off that it's been suffocating in for years. (It was fantastic, so I'm not sure why I waited so long.) There were massive games that I put dozens of hours into, like my 77 hours descending into the madness of Hades, or my 69 soaking in the world of Ghost of Tsushima, with a sizeable chunk of those hours being me just toying around with Photo Mode. (Props to the PS5 for finally telling you your playtimes via the OS.) There were dozens of small indie games that only took a few hours to complete – which is kind of my sweet spot these days. A few weighed in at just 30 minutes, like Swarm, a Steam game I found through Get Indie Gaming's Youtube channel, or Syphonia, a student project from ISART Digital that I was anticipating. There were games I replayed, like some of my favorites of all time, Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy and Alan Wake, as well as the remastered versions of Ghostbusters: The Video Game and the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro trilogies. There was great stuff I paid for, and a few awesome games that I got for free through the Epic Games Store, or via subscriptions with PlayStation Plus, Game Pass Ultimate, or the times I took advantage of free trials of Amazon Prime. And I even got hooked on an online multiplayer only game, which has only happened on a handful of occasions in the history of online play.A lot of people are going to look back on 2020 as a terrible year, but for me it's been a godsend. It's allowed me to enjoy multiple passions, with gaming being one of the biggest. Like any hobby, my gaming habits over the years have ebbed and flowed. Overall, the last generation I've been fortunate to own every major console for the first time in a generation. Yet – outside of a few phenomenal games like Horizon Zero Dawn, ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission on VR, and the other aforementioned PlayStation first party titles – overall I wasn't really impressed as much with the AAA offerings. The indie scene is only gaining ground. But with the PS5, the proper return of my all-time favorite franchise, Ratchet & Clank, and my Game Pass renewed until 2022, I'm optimistic about where gaming is headed. As for my favorite games that released this year, here's my list: 1. The Last of Us, Part II 2. Battletoads 3. CARRION 4. Hades 5. ASTRO's Playroom 6. Filament 7. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout 8. Bugsnax 9. Ghost of Tsushima 10. Ori and the Will of the Wisps The Last of Us, Part II The original The Last of Us was my favorite game of the previous generation, as well as the most impressive game of all time. It was mind-numbingly good, so much so that I really did not want a sequel. I didn't even want to replay it. It was one of those things that just felt complete. Nothing more needed to be said, and in doing so, there would be a large risk at ruining what made it great. Slowly, Naughty Dog eroded away at me, and I began to anticipate the sequel. Right before it I even replayed the remaster of the original. Part II is one of those rare project that manages to one-up what you thought was already perfection. It's like a 30 hour blockbuster movie that just keeps ramping up in intensity. So much of what makes it special is within the design of its details: the way it presents itself, the pacing, its message. Like many, key details were spoiled by online trolls prior to launch, but it really didn't matter. This post could be just as long and be only about The Last of Us, Part II. (I still may write something up at some point.) There's just so much of it to dissect. But it's impossible to talk about without spoiling all of its magical moments. It simply offers a masterclass in game design and narrative flow. I really don't need a Part III, but should one exist, I know damn well I'll be there. Battletoads I loved the original Battletoads. I even replayed it, and beat it with the help of the Rare Replay rewind feature right after playing the new entry. It's practically impossible otherwise. When there was talk of a new game I was hyped. But when it was finally revealed, with a completely different art style, I was taken aback. Because of that, I went in to the new entry not expecting much. However, that stylistic choice is exactly what put it in the Number 2 spot in my list. The original Battletoads concept was created to ape the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the original game felt much like the early TMNT brawlers. The new Battletoads doubles down though, expanding their empire to combat TMNT's cartoons. The game itself is a fairly straight forward 2D brawler, that looks and plays great, but the real stars are the cutscenes and the humor. It has this great Saturday morning cartoon vibe that I've never seen a game nail near as well. I don't watch a lot of the modern cartoons, but many have compared it to Rick & Morty. It's really quick, and silly, and feels exactly what a company should be aiming for if they wanted to create the next TMNT craze in the world today. Sure, the game itself is nowhere near perfect in all dimensions, but the way it tackles humor is really impressive and admirable. That's the main reason it occupies my Number 2 spot. CARRION CARRION reminds me a lot of INSIDE, typeset aside. INSIDE for me was this solid atmospheric game that at it's end became this awesome fever dream, but was over just when it was getting interesting. CARRION feels like INSIDE's spiritual successor. You play as this creepy creature, with all these grotesque tentacles, and you just run amok. It's just plain fun. Plus it's an insanely unique lifeform to play as, and there's nothing more I love than playing a game where you take on the role of some strange creature. Like many of the indie games I love, CARRION doesn't overstay its welcome. Over the few hours of its journey, it iterates, provides you with some unique challenges, they grabs its hat and coat and bids you adieu. There's nothing more I love than a game with that approach. Show me something cool. Make me play something that feels like something I've yet to experience in my over 30 years of gaming. Then get out of the way so that I can find another game that makes me feel that way. Kudos to Game Pass as well for partnering with the CARRION developers and offering the game on release day. I was looking forward to the game, but with so many games on my radar, I often simply can't get around to all of them. Had I needed to purchase CARRION, it might have had to wait in the wings for a while. I've played so many games on Game Pass this year that I may have otherwise never actually purchased, and many of them have found the ranks among my favorites from the last few years. Hades Up until now, I'd like Supergiant Games as a creative studio. I've played all of their games, and loved the artistry present in them. However, I've always felt like the gameplay was a bit lackluster. Not previously being a fan of roguelike games – although Game Pass has provided some great experiences there as well – I initially had no plans to buy Hades. But praise was unanimous, the Epic Store gave people a $10 coupon just for downloading Rocket League for free, and it was on sale for $5 off, so I scooped it up for $10. At first, I thought I had made a mistake. I wasn't really into it. But then it slowly started to sink its hooks into me. After about 30 runs, I'd finally vanquished Hades himself. And what was your reward: a brief encounter with your mother, followed by your death and cyclical return to The Underworld. And that's really where the brilliance of Hades comes in. In beating the game, you realize you have only scratched the surface. I played around 70 more runs. I got the full story from my mother. I tried out the different weapons. I played around with the perks and heat gauge. I maxed out the relationships with almost everyone. (I never got Demeter's final few dialog options to pop.) All along the way, I kept thinking, I'll quit after I do X, but then Y and Z would egg me on even further. I spent 77 hours in that world. Sometimes, with nothing to do during the day, I'd practically play all day long. No other game this year took up that much of my time. Few ever do. Not bad for a game I initially had buyers remorse for. ASTRO's Playroom I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get a PS5 at launch. I got lucky on release day thanks to the PlayStation Direct website. (Every other retailer is a giant hunk of shit, who doesn't care if they sell to an actually gaming fan or some asshole reseller.) Had I not secured an early PS5, it wasn't a big deal. Most of the games I wanted to play were coming to PS4 as well. The baked-in ASTRO's Playroom was the only exception. And there's always that extra special feeling of playing something right when it comes out. It's funny to think that the best PS5 game is given away for free with every console, but that is just the case. Much like ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission, which did wonders for showing off what PlayStation VR could do – it was my 2018 GOTY - ASTRO's Playroom shows off what the PS5 can do, primarily via the advancements of the DualSense controller and the solid state hard drive. I've never been one to care for graphics, and the PS5 will surely evolve over time, but those two details are what makes the device feel truly “next gen” so far. The way the triggers adjust tension is so wild. I really don't know how much they'll be used, but it's a cool option to have. And loading times are practically non-existent. (I've since went back to the Xbox One for a few more Game Pass releases, and loading times feel jarring.) As far as ASTRO goes, he's a terrific mascot in an age where mascot platformers aren't really a thing anymore. The experience relies heavily on nostalgia, as you collect relics of PlayStation's past. Also scattered throughout are other bots dressed up to reference other franchises. Dozens of franchises are represented, from characters like Crash, to Ratchet, to Kutaro from Puppeteer. It's really a lovely homage to PlayStation that any longtime fan will enjoy. Plus, it's a really fun game to play, with beautiful tech themed worlds, some infectious earworms, and some cool mechanics. Japan Studio has been a bit of an enigma for a while now. But the ASOBI Team is knocking it out of the park with ASTRO. ASTRO reminds me a lot of Iota from Tearaway: they're both cute mascot characters, crafted with a lot of love, from terrifically artistic games that did an excellent job of showing off new tech. I can't wait to see what ASTRO is up to next. Filament This one sat  near the top my Steam wishlist for nearly the entire year before I finally grabbed it about a week ago when it went on sale. I love a good puzzle game. Basically, you control a bot that tethers out a string-like filament that you use to interact with pillars. Sometimes you just make sure you graze the line by one; other times you loop around one. Sometimes you're simply turning a pillar on. Other times they must be linked in pairs, by color, or a specific number of times, just to name a few of the options. That's really where Filament glows. What starts of simple grows insanely complex by the end. You'll be combining mechanics in some rather brain-busting puzzle. And the game does very little to explain things to you, or help you along the way, yet it feels very inuitive. Still, many times I simply hit walls, where I was almost convinced the puzzles were impossible. In a few instances, it took a while to understand new rule sets. Eventually I solved every single puzzle without resorting to help. And it took me about 48 hours. (Granted I think my stat tracking was probably counting some idle time where I had the game running but walked away to do stuff like make a meal.) It's a surprising amount of content for a puzzle game that can easily be reduced to: solve puzzles by drawing lines. One other thing I appreciated was that I found myself taking notes and drawing things out on paper. That's a tactic I don't pull out often, but love when a game pushes me in that direction. One instance in particular even had me cut up squares of paper to piece together one of the secret text logs. By the way, I missed a ton of those logs. After completing the few I found, I did look how to unlock the rest, and some of the stuff there was absurdly complex. There's really not a lot to compare Filament to outside of The Witness. But if you like a really challenging puzzle game with a ton of content, give this one a look. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout I don't like online multiplayer games. They rarely hold my interest. I put quite a bit of time into Rocket League, Uncharted 2, Resistance 2 Co-op, and Fat Princess, but that's been about it. And in some of those cases, the main reason I spent a good amount of time with them is because I was unemployed during their reign. Overall, I'm not one to interact with people online. And I don't like the idea of a game dictating when I play it. But when Fall Guys was included with PlayStation Plus, I liked the look of it enough to give it a try. Getting a win took a while, but after the first one, I started to become pretty consistent with my runs. Much like Hades, I thought, “I'll just play until I get the trophy for 7 wins.” Then I set my sights on 20. Then I got hooked on collecting the costumes. By the time I'd finished my first stint in Season 1, I'd reached the max Level 30 and had every trophy except for the one requiring five wins in a row. I've given up hope there. Sony says I logged 40 hours with it, which equates to a lot of rounds. One day I went back for Season 2, and enjoyed the new levels, even though I was getting eliminated since I was sight-reading them. I don't know how much time I'll be putting in with it in the future should I find gaps in my list of games. Usually with multiplayer games, the focus fades once I unlock all the trophies I can. And I'm not sure how much time I want to dedicate to becoming proficient at future season. But the fact that Fall Guys even got that much attention from me to begin with is a testament to how much fun it is. Bugsnax Bugsnax could have been a joke. The previous game from Young Horses, Octodad: Dadliest Catch was just that: a silly romp that equated to little more than just a goofy control scheme. Bugsnax was the butt of many jokes upon reveal, reaching meme status in which it became the Schrödinger's cat of games. When someone talked about it looking good, you weren't sure if they were being honest or a hipster. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was intrigued. It's another fine example of a list of stellar games that have been given away for free with PlayStation Plus. Would I have played it otherwise? Who knows? But I'm glad I got to. It is silly, but the silliness works in unison with what turned out to be a very fun game to play. The world and its characters are weird. Everybody has a laughable name, Filbo Fiddlepie, Chandlo Funkbun, and C. Clumby Clumbernut, just to name a few. ( I wonder what the C stands for?) The Bugsnax, which are part bug, part snacks, follow suit, with the burger inspired Bunger, the french fry spider, Fryder, or the popsickle, Bobsickle. The most delightful part is when you catch one of the bugsnax and you hear them say their name from the speaker in the controller. Hearing “Weenieworm” never got old. Any sound coming from Bunger put a smile on my face. Feeding the bugnsax to the other characters was a blast as well. Certain bugsnax resulted in sheer silliness, while combinations could provide interesting fashion statements. But past all that silliness was a fun game too. You're given a few different tools to capture bugsnax, and are sent to figure out how. By the time I was reaching the end, having done all there was to do, I was sad to see it end. It was simply a joy to platinum the game, and I'd definitely be down for more Bugsnax adventures. Ghost of Tsushima I love Sucker Punch to death. Sly Cooper is one of my favorite series. On the other hand, I've never been into the world of the samurai, or watched any samurai movies. But Sucker Punch is a studio I'm happy to support, and I figured I'd be getting a good quality game, so I was in. (Plus, I had the free time. At the time, I thought it might be my gaming binge swan song as I thought we'd be coming out of this pandemic in July. Boy was I wrong!) The world of Tsushima is breathtaking. The partnership of style and graphical fidelity creates beauty in every square inch of the world. As far as the game is concerned, it what I would expect from a AAA open world game. There are main missions, and side missions, and things to upgrade, and all kinds of places to explore. It's fairly predictable in that regard, although I did enjoy some of the ways it tackled many of those side missions. The haiku system was a relaxing alternative to combat missions. Foxes and birds always encouraged me to meander from the main missions. And shrines provides some nice platforming challenges. Combat was unique, and being about to cater it to your preferred combat style was appreciated. It did wear out its welcome a bit after dozen of hours, but I appreciate its simplicity. Still, most impressive was just that living, breathing world. I spent a lot of time in photo mode. A LOT! I could easily spend an hour or two just traveling around finding beautiful vistas to tinker around with lighting and effects. In the end, most of my complaints really just boil down to the fact that it's a large AAA game, and comes with the tropes and restrictions of the territory. Otherwise, it would be higher up the list. Ori and the Will of the Wisps Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a great game, but ultimately it's just more Ori. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It just doesn't really subvert expectations. Everything that made the first game great is here too. It looks gorgeous. It's fun to traverse and explore. But looking back, it doesn't stick out as fondly in my memory as many of the other games in this list. Some of that could be the fact that it released early in the year. It was the game I was playing when the world crapped the bed. But it could also just be that I prefer the intrigue of new IP over sequels. Even so, it's hard to discredit just how well it plays and how beautiful and rich that fantasy world is. Honorable Mentions (that released this year): Carto, Lightmatter, Swarm, Symphonia, Bartlow's Dread Machine, Doom Eternal, Control's AWE Expansion Honorable Mentions (I played that released years prior): Bomb Chicken, SUPERHYPERCUBE, Dead Cells, Moonlighter, Songbird Symphony, The Messenger, JUMPGRID, ETHEREAL, Spring Falls, Unruly Heroes, Celeste, Lonely Mountains: Downhill, Splatoon 2, My Friend Pedro, A Short Hike, Future Grind, SOMOS, A Plague Tale: Innocence, The King's Bird

[josephlrushing]

The Outer Worlds for Nintendo Switch Makes a Hot Mess of a Great Game

The Outer Worlds from Obsidian Entertainment was my favorite game of 2019, and I already replayed it on PC in early 2020. It was an excellent role-playing game with tons of great shooter and melee combat, fantastic writing and characters, and storytelling. It has now arrived on the Nintendo Switch as an absolute hot mess of a full-priced port.

I recommend you avoid it until significant patching and price drops occur — unless you only have the Switch as a gaming option, in which case you might still love it as much as I did despite the warts.

Here are the basics about The Outer Worlds:

The Outer Worlds is a new single-player sci-fi RPG from Obsidian Entertainment and Private Division. Lost in transit while on a colonist ship bound for the furthest edge of the galaxy, you awake decades later than you expected only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy the Halcyon colony.

As you explore the furthest reaches of space and encounter a host of factions all vying for power, who you decide to become will determine the fate of everyone in Halcyon.

In the corporate equation for the colony, you are the unplanned variable.

Story: Obsidian Entertainment is known for producing the best and most interesting stories in the role-playing world. They were formed by people with resumes, including the legendary Baldur’s Gate and Fallout games of the 90s, and have themselves created most of the best-written role-playing games of the past 15 years. These include Neverwinter Nights 2, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout New Vegas, Tyranny, Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2, and more.

The Outer World jumps right in with a compelling premise and a wild set of characters. You will never be bored from a lack of exciting quests and interactions. As always, with Obsidian, your choices have consequences, and you can align yourself in a variety of ways to get to several possible outcomes and endings.

To me, the story was what kept me engaged and coming back for more. Obsidian delivered more of their incredible characters and companions, each of whom has their own backstory and motivations and will try to either influence you or seek your approval for their own desires. Fortunately, the game we got on the Switch is complete and has all of the characters, quests, and story intact.

Graphics: How do I say this politely? The graphics on the Switch port are a mess. I am not a huge critic of graphics in portable versions of games – I will be very forgiving to get a game ‘on the go.’ Plenty of Switch ports of PC games such as Doom (2016), Wolfenstein II: New Colossus, Diablo III, Civilization VI, and of course, the recent The Witcher 3 all look great while each had to make small compromises.

For The Outer Worlds, the compromises were VERY significant, particularly when playing in handheld mode. When playing, docked things are significantly better, but still a significant step-down from playing on PC or consoles. In handheld mode (my preference), textures are mushy, details are washed out, the color palette is squashed, and the open areas suffer from significant pop-in of not just details but enemies and other characters.

As a result, it is possible to run down the road that looks empty and suddenly find yourself in the midst of a battle with enemies who popped in out of nowhere. This also happens to buildings and signs – you will just see blurry blobs until you are right on top of things. As I said, it is better in docked mode – but still not great because of performance.

What bothered me even more was that the graphic quality and performance was inconsistent throughout the game. You get used to the game looking like it was a decade old or more, then suddenly you see a few gorgeous areas with butter-smooth performance, which just makes it more jarring when you come upon a sign that you can’t read until it is right in front of you.

Performance: Porting house Private Division said they were targeting 1080p docked and 720p in handheld mode with 30 frames per second locked. It turns out that it was more like ‘wishful thinking.’ I have already discussed the mediocre graphics, but the bigger problem was all of the frame rate dips as I wandered the world. Not only could enemies pop in, but as the game lagged trying to catch up with frames, you could take loads of damage waiting for the sluggish controls and also waste loads of precious ammo.

The game doesn’t feel like it was polished enough to release. There was a ‘day one patch’ that helped things compared to previews I have seen/read, but it feels like a long way to go to have a satisfying game. While playing the game, there was another patch bringing the game to 1.01, which also helped a bit. But unfortunately, the game remains ‘fully up to date’ at the 1.01 patch. In comparison, my PC version has already had the 1.04 patch for a while. To make matters worse, Obsidian & Private Division even said, “Patch 1.4 has been released to all employees” when announcing it on Twitter – and has not made any comments on the Switch patch or responded to questions. The last communication was in late June, saying ‘working on it.’

Based on this, I would say that we need to assume that the 1.01 version is ‘end state’ for the Switch. And that is sad because while the game was one of my favorites — not just for 2019 but in general for recent years — but on the Switch, it is pretty tough to recommend due to performance and graphics.

Gameplay: The Outer Worlds is a combination FPS-RPG (first-person shooter and role-playing game), and in the manner typical for the genre, when you enter combat, your success is based on your personal ability to aim and time strikes and blocks, and also modifiers based on your characters skills and attributes. So you could play the game with a melee-focused brute and find your pistol much less useful than if you were a smaller, more dextrous character with skills focused on aim and concentration.

Aside from the performance issues, this style of game adapts pretty well on the Switch – and along with the story is the reason I played it to completion in handheld mode! Once I worked out a system to deal with enemies appearing spontaneously, it became fun to try out a variety of weapons and techniques – and since each enemy has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, it is critical that you develop an understanding of how to address those before you end up dead.

Because of the complex three-tier attribute/skill/perk system that all interact and influence everything you do, there is a need to focus on a couple of combat and non-combat areas to ensure success in all but the easiest play mode. For example, in my main playthrough, I was a science-focused melee combat character with high levels of diplomacy. That allowed me to maximize a cool science-based melee weapon (and getting that was a quest item itself!) but meant I wasn’t very skilled at opening locks or hacking computers. My gun skills were also very weak, but fortunately, you can bring along up to two companions on missions, which allows you to have a ranged sniper and hacker with you to complement your skills.

Controls: The Outer Worlds plays like a fairly standard first-person action-RPG. Using FPS-style console controls, most gamers will recognize augmented by the Switch’s gyroscope controls, which themselves can be tweaked to your liking. I will always prefer the keyboard & mouse control system, but whereas earlier handheld systems had inferior controls, I never felt like the controls in The Outer World held me back.

Conclusions: I wrestled with whether to title this review ‘even inconsistent graphics and erratic performance couldn’t kill my love for this game.’ But what I realized was that if I didn’t ALREADY love this game —and know it was worth working through the issues — I would likely have quit after a few hours and lamented the money lost in the purchase.

And that is how I end up calling this a ‘hot mess of a great game’ – yes, The Outer Worlds IS a great game, even on the Switch. There are so many classic gaming moments to explore – pretty much everything with Pavarti is a gem – and the breadth and variety of things to do, explore and destroy just make it a blast. BUT … you DO need to get past the graphics and performance – and that means fundamentally changing how you play the game compared to other systems. And – that is something it is hard for me to recommend.

Source: Personal Purchase

Price: $19.99 for The Outer Worlds from the Nintendo eShop.

What I Like: Excellent story; Intuitive control scheme; Tons of quests; Many hidden items/unlockables; Great skill trees; A variety of play styles and difficulty levels increases replay value to high level

What Needs Improvement: Inconsistent graphical quality and performance; Overall performance leads to difficult fights and adaptive strategies; Patches lag way behind PC and consoles

The post The Outer Worlds for Nintendo Switch Makes a Hot Mess of a Great Game first appeared on GearDiary.

from Joseph Rushing https://geardiary.com/2020/09/28/the-outer-worlds-for-nintendo-switch-makes-a-hot-mess-of-a-great-game/

[betweengenesisfrogs]

OTCHS FOLLOW-UP #1: HEARTS AND MINDS

So, Tumblr seems to have eaten the message, but re: my last post about the nature of the self, someone messaged me pointing out that I completely neglected to mention the Heart aspect, which basically represents the very thing I was talking about: the ur-Self! Which inspired some great reflections, so let’s touch on that before I drop eleven pages of Gnosticism on you later tonight. If that was you, please let me know so I can give you credit!

EDIT: Ah, I figured it out! It was homeschool-winner! Thank you for the terrific message! :)

So, in the past I wasn’t much for classpect analysis ‘cause I kinda saw people trying to use them predicatively, like “this will happen because Character X has Y classpect,” and there was always just such a wide range of interpretations available that any claim to certainty seemed a bit dubious. But now that Homestuck’s over, I find I’m fond of them, not as predictors but as tools for understanding all the weird symbols in Homestuck’s hyperflexible mythology.

I totally agree that Heart represents the Ur-Self. It clearly represents the soul, as Calliope tells us, and we see it on full display with Dirk’s ability to suck out souls (and put them in something else). He’s the Destroyer of Souls, and possibly also a destroyer by means of souls (by accidentally creating the Calsoul and thus Lord English? By duplicating his soul in the form of AR/Hal, whose soul is real enough to be part of a kernelsprite and the Calsoul?) Dirk fucks things up with/for souls. That’s pretty clear.

But these souls also seem to carry enough of their person’s qualities to represent their Ur-Self. LE certainly has qualities of all the people in the Calsoul. It seems pretty reasonable to interpret Heart as relating to people’s Self. That would make Dirk someone who destroys or suppresses Selfhood. Makes sense; Bro was certainly able to suppress Dave’s self, as we see it emerging by the ending. And LE’s Hal definitely comes out in Doc Scratch’s manipulations, which serve to rob others of their agency. So it checks out.

I really love the way souls are represented in the SBURB Glitch FAQ/Replay Value AU (which is an awesome AU, btw, y’all should check it out), where they’re nicknamed shinies, and basically everything has one. They’re the code for rocks or grass or game objects or people, and Heart Players can mess with them as one of their means of exploiting the game engine to compensate for bugs like the debug menu in a Bethesda Game. It’s awesome.

Imagine a game engine that calls up individual manifestations of you, which behave like different entities but they’re all called from one base file that’s copied and modified for different circumstances. That might be the kind of game we’re working with here.

But no classpect is ever just one thing, right? That’s what’s fascinating about them, they’re often multiple meanings fused fluidly together. Light is Luck, but also Information, Knowledge. Even Time and Space have subtler qualities. So I think we need to look at the Leijons as well.

When we first hear about Heart, it seems like it might be a silly, power of heart aspect, right? Because we (all too easily) dismiss Nepeta, and see Heart as just meaning love, meaning Nepeta’s shipping.

But I’m gonna say that Shipping, Self, and Agency all roll together into one concept called Heart. By pairing people up, Nepeta is exploring compatibilities among archetypal versions of people. Terezi fits with Dave in some ways, and Vriska in others. A Rogue of Heart might be able to move people around to their benefit to find better combinations. (A Thief of Heart would of course ship people for her own benefit rather than theirs, a classic seducer and heartbreaker...but maybe she’d also be someone who could steal a literal soul.) Meulin does this too, but more directly, as matchmaker more than shipper (the Mage at work). Heck, I think Davepeta’s very existence is a strong argument for this, right? The fusion of Nepeta and Davesprite’s souls created one hell of a positive, affirming combination. Like a bird and cat-themed Garnet. Meanwhile LE’s souls amplify a monster.

So yeah, in Homestuck Heart means: Soul + Self + Agency over Events+ Compatibility + Love.

Thinking about Heart also got me thinking, interestingly, about Mind. They’re an obvious aspect pair, right? One is the soul and one is the brain, duh. But I was never able to explain them on a larger level than that.

And then just now I got it. Because Mind in Homestuck means Choice. We see this everywhere in Homestuck. Terezi’s Mind abilities allow her to see what choices people will make and how to get the best results from them, to the point where she can use people’s choices to defy luck. Her retcon arc (which I will talk about in so, so much depth later) is about rewriting her own choices, or really giving herself the freedom to make new ones. Meanwhile, Latula uses her own choices as a shield but can easily interpret the choices her peers made as the Ancestors.

So, like Time and Space, Light and Void, and so on, Heart and Mind are a balanced pair where the further you go from one, the closer you move into the other. Heart is your Self and your role in the cosmos altogether. Mind is the individual choices you make to differentiate yourself from all your other selves! Heart is what’s consistent across all timelines, Mind is what makes individual timelines exist! Heart is Dave-ness; Mind is the difference between Doomed Dave, Dave, and Davesprite. Heart is what’s unchangable about you; Mind is what’s changing. Every self matters, but so, too, does the eternal Self

You could almost think of it as if Heart’s your base stats in a video game, and Mind’s the stat boosts you gain a long the way. Say, Pokemon. I bet Terezi would be really good at EV training. >:)

Hell, this even gets spelled out for us! Remember how Karkat introduced the concept of different game sessions to us?

CG: TRY TO THINK MORE ABSTRACTLY. CG: THINK ABOUT VIDEO GAMES. CG: WHAT'S AN EARTH GAME YOU LIKED TO PLAY? CG: NAME ONE. EB: ummmm... EB: crash bandicoot? CG: OK I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS, BUT I HAVE A FEELING IT'S A REALLY LAME EXAMPLE, BUT THAT'S FINE, IT'S NOT THE POINT. CG: SO LET'S SAY YOU PLAY YOUR BANDICOOT AND I PLAY MY BANDICOOT. CG: THEY ARE ESSENTIALLY THE SAME BANDICOOT, SAME APPEARANCE AND DESIGN AND BEHAVIORS. CG: BUT THEY ARE STILL COMPLETELY SEPARATE BANDICOOTS ON SEPARATE SCREENS. CG: SO WE BOTH HAVE OUR OWN ASS BANDICOOTS TO OURSELVES, THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT. CG: OUR JACKS ARE THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT TOO. CG: SAME GUY, DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES AND OUTCOMES.

Think of all the Dersites and Prospitians, and all the different roles they take on. Jack and all his gang and even WV and PM at different points in their history. Funnily enough, in many ways the players of the Game have a lot in common with its NPCs.

We are all our own individual Bandicoot, yet still part of the much larger Bandicoot that makes us who we are.

Which means that Heart and Mind aren’t just any other aspects. They tie very directly into one of the biggest thematic concerns of Homestuck itself!

That’s so freaking cool!

So yeah, thanks so much for this insight! :D

(PS: Also, I really dug the point that the ur-Self could be described as the Platonic Self, that the “archetypes” I keep talking about really resemble Plato’s theory of Forms. A connection that’s worth checking out, especially when Dirk, Prince of Heart  has the username timaeustestified, a reference to a major Platonic Dialogue. Dirk is the Platonic Form. It’s him. Thanks for that insight, too!)