#or really difficult platformers/metroidvanias

[sergeifyodorov]

when hockey players have hobbies outside hockey it's always like, pop songs on the acoustic guitar or the same video games they've been playing since juniors or cooking something slightly fancier than eggs. learn to knit for god's sake

[cobcannonfan1997]

The real issue of calling games "metroidvanias" is not that it is a stupid name, it is that "metroidvania" as a genre does not exist. There are Castlevanias and there are Metroids and everyone's trying to make a Metroid because none of the game dev youtubers they watch as their only source of game design knowledge have ever played a castlevania game. (They've all only played Hollow Knight)

The only real similarity that Metroid and Castlevania have is that the old games had a map UI that looks almost the same if you ignore all the details beyond the map squares themselves. Castlevania is an action RPG franchise first and foremost with a focus on combat encounters and smaller tighter maps with a variety of weapons and where the actual progression is a minor element, whereas Metroid is almost solely focused on making the progression feel smooth and generally much more designed around the platforming challenge of it all and actually finding your way around. Finding your way around in castlevania isn't generally all the challenging, the challenge is mostly in the enemy encounters.

With indie metroidvanias, you'd think they would be taking more cues from a variety of sources and thus making it less clear-cut and adding meaning to the genre, but no it's all hollow knight or super metroid. When you say metroidvania those are the only games that people think of because, frankly, nobody has made another good one yet because they're all stuck on these two.

Hollow Knight DOES have good combat, however that does not make it a Castlevania. It doesn't have that sort of character customization that symphony of the night and the 'vanias after it did that I think is crucial for the vibe of those games. Neither do any of the other indie metroidvanias really, cause we're in an age where tightness in design is above all else. If you have like 30-40 weapons that act slightly different that makes things difficult to balance this enemy type to work exactly the way you want it to work for every player! If a player's moveset is smaller then by default it's going to be much easier to design things that are way tighter and impressive for that one exact moveset. God forbid there is a sequence break or, even worse, a bug that lets the player play the game in a way that is unintended by the developers.

In conclusion: Super Metroid gives you a wall jump that you're never required to use, people (read: youtubers) praise this as good design. If you did it today, those same people would call it bad design. And thus "metroidvanias" cannot afford to be inspired by neither Metroid nor Castlevania, because people just want Hollow Knight 2. Well I want a good version of Order of Ecclesia

[eldritch-elrics]

i got animal well as one of my christmas presents to myself, and i'm really enjoying it so far!

it's pretty much a perfect contrast to silent hill 2 remake, so i'm having a good time playing both concurrently. no story, no handholding, lots of movement. i always love being tossed into a game and challenged to figure it out as best i can. animal well not only creates a beautiful, spooky, atmospheric world - it also creates, through its gameplay, a sense that you're intruding into a system that is strange and haphazardly connected. take the functionally useless fast travel system (i'm five hours in... perhaps better fast travel will be introduced later?) or the countless unexplained items and mechanics (i love you weird eggs). works well thematically with its central motif of surreal wild animals.

it's just a great metroidvania too. the upgrades are VERY fun and unique. also, the platforming is more difficult than i expected? i mean, it's forgiving as far as platformers go, but the general "fuck around and find out" feel of it creates this fun/frustrating sense that i could softlock myself at any moment (even though i know i won't). it's kind of hard to explain, but it scratches a similar itch as hollow knight room randomizer for that reason.

i've tried not to learn too much about animal well, but i have heard that it's chock full of secrets, and that will be very fun...

[corvidgames]

#20 Animal Well

Animal well is a beautifully animated pixel adventure, and the only metroidvania I’ve ever played and beaten.

I have, in no uncertain terms, an absolutely horrendous sense of direction, and even then, wandering around the map and getting lost the entire time, I still had a great time getting to explore new environments and see more of the art that makes Animal Well stand out. Its colour pallet is vibrant and bright whilst remaining just muted enough to not be hard on the eyes, and the simplistic character design of the player character allows for a real appreciation of everything around them.

Enemies were varied and unique… even if the dogs drove me up the wall every time I had to deal with them… and the boss puzzles were all individual enough to feel memorable without straying from anything too difficult to figure out. At times, I will admit, the environmental clues to puzzles can be a little obtuse, but with enough trial and error everything was possible in the end without too much stress. My subpar platforming skills made the P. flame and final boss quite difficult, but that made it all the more satisfying when I finally got a perfect run to out-path them.

The music was also good! Nothing too standout to distract from exploration but fitting enough to the world that you don’t really notice it until you start paying attention specifically for it.

The less you know about the game going in, the better, as half of Animal Well’s appeal comes from going in blind, so I don’t recommend looking too far before you begin. Getting lost in discovering the world as you run around is the most satisfying part of the whole game, at least in my opinion. It’s definitely worth a try!

Date of completion: 31/08/2024

Genre: Metroidvania

Time to beat: 9hrs 51min

Level of completion: Main story + some side content

Trophies/Gamerscore: 13/21 (I plan on hopefully going back to get the platinum for this later when I feel up for a collectathon)

1-100 rating: 75%

Platform: PlayStation 5

[maryaustria]

top 5 metroidvanias? (no metroid or vania allowed)

:)

5. Kung Fu Panda (DS)

This is a half serious, half joking pick really. I am not joking about being a metroidvania though. For some unknown reason they decided to make the DS version of this game a proper metroidvania. It follows the plot normally (with a bit of stuff added to fill in some gaps obviously) where you mostly run around the world and play as po. You get new movement/combat abilities by rescuing the furious five.

I can't actually speak on how good it is, since I mostly played this as a child. It wasn't too hard though, which is to be expected from a licensed game. I mostly put it on here since it was one of if not the first metroidvania I ever played. It was very enjoyable though from what I remember. Can't say if it's worth checking out nowadays, since it IS a DS game and you play it exclusively with the touchscreen. Honestly it's on this list for the most part since I have some nostalgia for it and because it helped me discover this genre that I love so much.

4. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Does it count as cheating if I pick this one lol. It's the spirutal succesor to the igavania style of metroidvanias. It plays most similar to symphony of the night with the castles structure and it's movement, while taking the "magic" system from the aria/dawn of sorrow games with the shards just being the souls. The variety in weapons and shards is pretty good too. I also like the cosmetics and costumization you can add to miriam :). The only thing I can say I dislike is that end game grind is pretty dragging. Also sometimes it feels a bit too difficult out of nowhere.

Can't really speak much for the story and characters much though. They are fine, but nothing outstanding to me. The bosses are pretty fun though design wise.

3. Axiom Verge

This one is cheating again. This one is more inspired by the original metroid than the igavanias. Just looking over it you can tell that it takes a lot of it's visual design by the earliest metroid. It's level structure is also heavily inspired from metroid, with it's high pillar like rooms and it only consisting of alien looking caves.

The atmosphere in the game is great too. It feels isolating wandering the endless caverns of this alien world. You never met any nonhostile life forms either. Just these massive machines that I wouldn't really describe as the greatest company and even when you meet them, their encounters are far between you going around this world.

The story is pretty great too. It gets a bit complicated with it's terminology, but I could still follow it. Granted I've played through this game a bunch of times, so that might help.

The weapons are fun as well. None of them really feel like straight up upgrades (for the most part lol), and some of them are used as progression too. The upgrades feel very fun as well, but for progression and for traversal.

2. Timespinner

This is just a solid metroidvania all the way through. Most of it is inspired by the igavania type of games (like a lot of indie metroidvanias are), but that honestly is never really an issue to me since those type of games are really fun. The weapons, magic and the familars are all fun to use and to find. The level feels fun to explore and never really gets tiresome to explore.

My favorite part of the game are the character and the story. It feels engaging to get to know the characters and their motivations. It's also nice to do all the quests for the characters you meet since they are all likeable. The main character is likeable too and it's fun to hear what she has to say. It's been a while since I played it I should replay it some time.

1. Pseudoregalia

The only 3D metroidvania on the list and one of the few that isn't heavily inspired by either metroid or castlevania. This one is all about it's schmoovement. The moveset of the main character is so fun and the more moves you aquire the more complex stuff you can do. It's fun to run around the map and use your skills to try to get to different points on the map. The map itself is fun to explore and wander around in as well. It's fun to get lost in the map and slowly get a mental map of the whole place.

They added a bunch of stuff in some later patches that I'm unfamiliar with, since I mostly played on launch. I heard they added a map and time trials, but I can't speak much on it. If you want more in depth review I recommend the one by NitroRad. I watched it after playing it and I agree with all of his points.

The only bad part I can say is that I missed out on the Sybil plushy :(

[lord-shitbox]

oh okay wait gen q cus I've had a few ppl recommend hollow knight to me before but I've avoided it cus it's a platformer. as a fellow platformer... non-enjoyer?? what sets it apart from other platformers that makes it fun when a lot aren't??

um! honestly im not really sure... I quite like how the knight moves around and i got very used to it, I guess. my first playthrough frustrated me IMMENSELY but because it's one set world, when you've beat it all once you know how to get through everything and successive playthroughs are way easier.

It's a metroidvania so a lot of platforming challenges get easier if you fight an extra boss beforehand and such, and the platforming aspect of it isnt the main focus of the game so pretty much every challenge involves you weaving through obstacles to get to some shiny item and then hitting a switch that opens a bypass door or shuts all the obstacles off, so that challenge is done and gone for the rest of your time in that savefile. which is great imo. the world is 2d platforming but aside from the little challenges embedded into the world the platforming isnt meant to be super difficult

Also, if you fall into spikes or something the game usually sets you down on the platform right before that rather than all the way at the beginning of the challenge, unless you died and are coming back from a respawn point. sometimes the challenge is short enough that it doesnt do that but for the most part it does & i like that

from what i've heard from other players the big frustrating part of hk isn't the platforming but the bosses, because hk boss fights require you to memorize all their attack patterns & be able to dodge consistently throughout the whole fight. tanking does not work very well in hk. these things are the main focus of the game, i'd say— i recommend watching a boss fight playthrough to see if the combat style seems like something youd enjoy or not.

The game itself doesn't have cheats or accessibility features that make it easier to play, but ive heard there are infinite health & money mods if you're after story and soundtrack enjoyment alone ((hk has very good story and soundtrack imo!!))

Honestly with hollow knight i think i can attribute a lot of my enjoyment to sheer "got good" — i am one of the lucky ones who Figured it All Out and now theres one pesky little steam achievement in between me and perfect game status. but uh. i think hk is enough of a not-platformer for me to have enjoyed it !!

[groggydog]

Groggy's Favorite Games of 2022

Every year I keep a list of video games I played, and go over my top five regardless of the year they were released. But this year, I'd instead like to try honing in on my top three for the 2022 release year.

This is good, because it features a couple of interactive-fiction-esque games, but also because I only just started Elden Ring and I otherwise mostly just played so-so games this year. But let's go!

#1: Neon White

I've seen a lot of whinging about Neon White's dialogue, but to me this game represented a really fun late-90s, early 00s tone that was complemented by some of the most challenging, fast-paced, and satisfying gameplay I touched all year.

And you know what's wild? I did this game on Switch. And it still absolutely kicked ass.

#2: Citizen Sleeper

Citizen Sleeper is not a long game, but it is a fantastic one. Following the story of a person who wakes up with a near-fatal lack of memory on a massive station, you're forced to make difficult choices, fend off existential threats, and find a way to make a meager living.

The way the game transforms from a survival game into one more focused on story is a real treat, and makes every single storyline feel earned. I felt really satisfied with my first ending (which involved the Greenway) but played through every single one I could. And even the failures felt like satisfying endings.

This game was especially a great lesson in building solid IF games, and anyone who makes those would be well served by playing through Citizen Sleeper.

#3: NORCO

NORCO surprised the hell out of me. It is a beautifully rendered point-and-click game (and the first one I played on my Steam Deck) set in the real town of NORCO, LA in the near future. It is believable while also being absolutely wild in its storytelling, and had a beautifully affecting ending.

The mechanics of the mind map were an appreciated way to link the game's disparate bits together (and reminded my not a little of Outer Wilds), and the characters were super well-formed and well-written.

This is one of those sleeper games I still haven't seen a lot in other media discussions, but I can't recommend it enough.

Honorable Mentions from 2022:

Chocobo GP, which I took to Summer Games Done Quick and which is a shockingly fun game

Strange of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, which was more enjoyable than it had any right to be

Lunistice, which is a beautiful PSX-era platformer that is short and crisp

Marvel Snap, which has dominated my phone's battery for months

Honorable Mentions from not 2022:

This was the year of Metroidvanias for me: Hollow Knight and Ori 2 were two of my favorite games (and both might be top 5 all time for me), but games like Timespinner and Momodora 4 were fantastic. I also finally played through Castlevania SOTN and Super Metroid for the first time

Final Fantasy X-2, which is silly and quite enjoyable even if it doesn't hit the emotional highs of its predecessor

Final Fantasy 9, which I did an emotional playthrough of just a month ago

Thanks for reading, and happy new year! I'm excited to share more updates for The Familiar soon.

[ixcaliber]

Games of the month - June 2023

This month my hyperfocus went towards watching as many movies as possible, so it’s a pretty breezy games of the month

1. Haiku, The Robot

Neat little metroidvania about a little robot. It’s cute it’s pretty fun. My two big complaints would be

1) it felt pretty linear. i don’t doubt that there were probably other ways to get to locations than the ways that i took but the experience of playing it it really felt like each upgrade allowed me access to one new path which would lead me to the next upgrade and so on and so on.

2) i like boss fights better when each enemy has a little name pop up. the designs were cool and did some interesting stuff sometimes. i just wish i didn’t have to think of them in terms of like ‘the car battery one’, ‘the tv one’ etc. It makes them feel less memorable.

Otherwise perfectly fine metroidvania.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Chronologically this is when I finished Tears of the Kingdom but I’m not ready to tear into that just yet so lets move on to

3. Life After Magic

This is a free game available through steam or through itch.io. It’s a visual novel where you control Akiko, a former magical girl who has somewhat drifted through life after the big bad that she and her magical girl team fought against has been defeated. With y2k approaching something is wrong and it’s up to you to bring your girls back together and face one more threat.

Hey. I love this game. There’s a good chance this is pretty high up my games of the year list, if not at the very top. I love the girls. I love the trans and nonbinary inclusion. I love the homages to sailor moon, yu-gi-oh and probably some other stuff that I didn’t even get. I love the way the game plays with nostalgia and the way this narrative reaches a head. If you’re like one of the two or three people reading this I absolutely recommend you get and play this one.

4. Monuments To Guilt

This is a digital museum dedicated to hostile design as featured in the Jacob Gellar video Games That Aren’t Games. Throughout you can see a number of benches designed to be uncomfortable, off-putting or otherwise just inaccessible to homeless people and disabled people. It’s a short experience and it is interesting to see this insidious aspect of design presented in the prestigious format of a museum and to see it talked about openly. It’s an interesting little experience.

5. Down In Bermuda

Fun and simple puzzle game. It’s the kind of think that would be approachable for kids, simple puzzle concepts like pipe dreams kind of puzzles, hidden object puzzles, no towers of hanoi to speak of but lots of puzzles that feel like they’re in the public domain so to speak. Nothing too difficult and taxing.

6. Lone Fungus

Another metroidvania from the recent humble metroidvania bundle. This game is okay. I like the cute little aesthetic and the basic movement is fun. The big big Big criticism I have of this game is that so much of the side content is like these nether gates or these ladybird rooms. The first time you go in these you get a little popup or something to tell you just how completely optional they are and they would have to be. The difficulty of platforming going from the actual game to these challenges is a fucking sheer cliff wall both in terms of reaction speed needed and in terms of the sheer length of time you need to platform perfectly.

At one point in the game I got a new skill ability and accessed a little tutorial move about how to use it and it started talking about using it to propel yourself quickly by doing this one kind of dash into it and for the life of me I could not get it to activate properly. I felt like I was attempting to perform some complex speedrun tech and the inputs I had to do were like spread across four different buttons which all needed to be hit so quickly in succession. Impossible. This was about the time I gave up on exploration altogether.

And like... it’s a metroidvania. For me at least that exploration is the point of the video game. If you’ve put me off of doing it I don’t really know what I’m getting out of the experience any more.

Also frustrating is that the final (fourth of four) sword upgrades is locked behind completing every single one of the ladybird rooms. And like, if you’re good enough to manage that you’re not going to need the piddling 2 extra damage that the upgrade can offer. Overall it really felt like so much of the stuff you can find that’s optional is not worth it.

There’s like a relic system (like charms in hollow knight) but the way it costs out the various relics you can only really wear three at a time, probably only two if you want to use any of the useful ones.

And just as a minor nitpick on top of everything else, all the bosses are bigger versions of regular enemies that you fight in the area leading up to the boss. It’s not inherently negative when you do something like this in a game but when it’s every boss fight then it makes them less memorable and less interesting.

Also there’s like two ways to end the game, some npcs tell you to do things the proper way while there’s a couple who indicate this secret back route and imply that everyone else is lying to you. The thing is that like I finished the game and I would still have no idea how I’m supposed to escape through the backroute exit. The way the npcs frame it is like a skipping out on your responsibility to complete the tasks set to you for the rest of the game, but like if it’s weirdly more difficult than those tasks then something isn’t adding up.

I had a lot of complaints about this one. It’s fine if you put yourself into the right mindset, as I said up top the basic movement is pretty fun and the designs are cute. Difficult to recommend it if you like to experience this kind of game in the way that I prefer to though.

7. Growing Up

This is a weird one to describe. It’s a game, as the name implies, about growing up. The game’s like broken up into different aspects. During each turn you get the opportunity to learn new skills; you start as a baby and have to learn skills such as talking and walking but soon you’re in school and your skills become more academic focused. At the end of a turn you schedule these tasks, completing each one a specific number of times can master it which will give you bonuses to your attributes and knowledge points to help facilitate learning new skills.

It’s a very mechanically focused game. Maybe I’m being a little too in depth with my explanation. Okay lets try again.

Each turn has like three major components. Learning skills. Scheduling tasks and exploring the brain map. The brain map is like a little minigame where you move along a randomly generated kind of sphere grid sort of upgrade tree, trying to optimize the attribute gains and bonuses with the limited amount of brain points you have. Since you do it once a turn each turn it’s like ‘okay what do I want to focus on this turn’ and you might always try to grab the thing that upgrades the amount of brain points you can have at any given time, but also skew towards knowledge points if you want to learn something new. It does encourage you to be thinking ahead towards your goals and as you play through the game new kinds of tile are unlocked which add dramatically to the complexity of this minigame and how you play it.

I think this game is very good mechanically. I really enjoyed the loop of learning skills, mastering skills, playing the brain map to try to optimize my ability to learn new skills.

The weakness in the game is the way the narrative is delivered. Which isn’t to say the narrative is bad. In my playthrough I got to befriend some good girls and then date and eventually in the epilogue marry my best friend Alicia.

(Also something of a sidenote but should mention that I got this from the humble pride bundle. It’s great that it does allow for gay and lesbian romances but it doesn’t seem to facilitate playing a transgender or nonbinary character. I’d love to see something added to facilitate that in a patch or free dlc.

(At the birth of your character you’re given the option to pick gender or to let fate decide. If you choose to pick you get to pick male or female. I wouldn’t want non-binary or transgender options added here, but like when you get to an age where you’re going to school to have some pop up or prompt that asks you if you feel comfortable in your gender or something like that and that sets you off along a path of transition. Or to have it opt in, an object you can unlock that allows you to schedule ‘self reflection’ or something that can lead you to a path to transition.

I understand that that might be a lot of work though, as there are a lot of characters in the game and making custom conversations for each of them to acknowledge your transition might be quite time consuming)

The other thing I wanted to point out in regard to it being on the humble pride bundle is at the beginning you can pick your parents. I picked to have two moms. The game allows this and is fine with it. There is however an unintended consequence.

Very early on, when you’re still a baby, I learned how to speak and got this cutscene where one of my mom was encouraging me to say ‘Mommy’ as my first word. And so I did and then my other mom was disappointed that I hadn’t said her name first. Maybe this is a one off oversight, because later in the game when I started dating my girlfriend she did acknowledge that we were both girls, but here at least they’ve not disallowed you to have gay parents but they haven’t made any specific accommodations for it.)

So the way that the narrative works is that the game is sort of presented in a semi-roguelike kind of fashion. It tells you up front that every life is unique and I think what it means is that at each stage of your life it will introduce one new character from like a stock set of characters. I met Jake at like primary school, Alicia at high school and Felicity at like college or something. All the schools were using american terms for the school levels so idk.

You get choices in each of these relationships that can branch them into slightly different directions (i think) but like your control over that interaction is minimal. If I’d been given the option I would never have spoken to Jake again. Not because he did anything wrong but just because I would prefer to be talking to girls. But the way the game is set up these events just sort of happen intermittently as you play and aren’t really informed by any of your decisions in the actual game you’re playing.

And your relationship with your parents is limited to occasionally they’ll give you a goal that you can complete to get a special currency you can turn in for some rewards. They don’t really have characters or expectations or preferences for you. Neither of my moms had like a desire to see me do really well at sports for example.

The other weirdest part is how okay at some point in the game you get two bars to manage. Happiness is your own enjoyment. Get it high enough and you’re relaxed and can schedule extra activities, get it too low and you’re stressed and you can’t learn new skills. And there is parental proudness or something. Get that high enough and you can get perks from them and I don’t know what happens when it gets toward the lower end.

Each activity you can do has some effect on both these meters. Studying will decrease happiness but increase parental proudness. Playing games will do the inverse. In addition to your main academic skills you have stuff like sports that you can gradually gain access to. And they reduce happiness but increase parental proudness. I learned how to start along a creative writing course and that reduces happiness but increases parental proudness. Hell I fucking learned magic (partially because I really liked the magician NPC Daz) and that does the same; decreases happiness but increases parental proudness.

I guess I can see it from a balance point of view but it feels so weird to be playing as a character with no passion. Nothing that they try to do makes them happy. I really feel like you should be allowed to find, or develop an interest. Like when your character is unhappy because they’ve been practicing their magic tricks for too long clearly something is wrong, right?

The overall vibe I get from this game is... you know those posts that circulate on here sometimes where it’s like “If you’re hacking the rules of dnd to do what you want then something is wrong. The mechanics are supposed to lead to the storytelling and if they don’t then you should be playing a different ttrpg where the mechanics do support the kind of narrative you want to tell/experience.”

The mechanics are good, the narrative is sometimes fairly interesting. They are essentially entirely seperate from one another and that’s a shame.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

(some brief spoilers i suppose)

i don’t fucking know man.

its good. its undeniably a good game. better in some ways than breath of the wild, maybe a little too padded out. i never felt a great compulsion to fully explore the depths. It was neat that they were there but they felt so empty. Just large open stretches dotted with huge monsters I don’t want to fight and sometimes I’ll follow a treasure map down there and it’ll lead me to a colliseum full of lynels and I’ll be kerbstomped so hard that it drains my will to continue playing.

That’s how I felt towards the end. The game does the same thing as breath of the wild where the longer you play the more silver enemies it spawns in and though its more managable with the introduction of sages I never found myself wanting to engage in combat.

I genuinely do feel like the silver enemies ruin my experience of the game. I feel like I’m making progress, getting stronger, feeling more capable of dealing with threats. Now that I have my sages with me sometimes I’ll actively seek out a combat encounter and not hate it. There’s this sweet spot where that’s all true for a little bit, and then silver monsters start showing up and my enthusiasm ebbs dramatically. I never killed a single lynel in this game. By the time I felt that maybe I was good enough to start fighting them they’d started spawning in silver versions. 

All that said ascend is such a good ability that it sort of changed how my brain worked a little bit. Playing games immediately afterwards I would just keep thinking ‘oh i can just ascend up there’ and having to remind myself that no most video games do not allow this.

I think I had so much to say about Zelda. About how it feels like too much, about how sometimes you’ll just find yourself caught in a thing of not really accomplishing anything and come off feeling miserable, about the one afternoon where I spent literally hours in a pirate cave trying to solve a puzzle that didn’t exist. I think I’ve just exhausted all that in my brain and all my brain has left to offer is ‘just give me a fucking accessibility menu, let me turn down the damage and the health and turn what is a very good game that I sort of resent into an experience I’d actually like to play’.

[sylvanas-girlkisser]

So! Today I beat Convergence (The new League game starring Ekko). I have a lot of thoughts about the story, so that goes below the cut - or really its just "did it have to be so mediocre?" said with a lot of words.

As for the gameplay: it's fine. It fails to deliver on the exploration aspects of a metroidvania, but if you ignore that branding and approach it as 2d platformer instead, it's pretty decent.

It delivers well mechanically on what Ekko is like as a character. By essentially giving you rewinds, instead of hit points, fights all feel like the absolutely iconic "seconds" trailer: Rewind, adapt, rewind again, until you get it just right.

When the game is at its best, you feel absolutely untouchable, jumping and dashing around Zaun, beating people 4 times your size at lightning speed.

However, there are some absolutely Celeste level difficult platforming sections (especially once you unlock the air dash), except for Jinx and Warvick, every boss gets brought out at least twice, and most of the gadgets are just not that exciting.

Now as for the story: is it really so much to ask for, to have an actual character arch? Like I know its not gonna be on the level of Arcane, but between this, and Ruined King, it almost feels like there is some mandate from Riot Games, that the spinoff games aren't allowed to change the status quo.

Okay let's take it from the top:

One: Is future Ekko supposed to be the worst version of Ekko? The current Ekko taken to his natural extreme? Or his mentor/older brother in time travel? These are 3 very different characterizations, and you cannot keep swapping back and forth between them.

Two: What is it Ekko is supposed to learn in this story? Is it that you cannot save everyone all the time, or is it the necessity of finding the good solution rather than picking the lesser evil? Is his problem that he's a control freak or that he doesn't think things through?

Three: You cannot both sides did bad things your way out of the Piltover and Zaun conflict. Piltover is both directly responsible for, and directly benefitting from the state Zaun is in! Did Benjamin Netanyahu write this shit???

Fourth: Did you seriously have to name Redd's shitty boyfriend Chad? Were you afraid the player wouldn't otherwise get that this vaguely dorito shaped man who spends his entire screentime belittling Redd isn't a particularly good match for her? I'm not even against Ekko having a love interest outside of Jinx, but why dear sweet Sappho did you make the boy who shattered time a nice guy™ ?

Lastly: Pour one out for the wasted potential of a Camille - Ekko team up. Like, when you think about it, these two are basically each other's polar opposite. Ekko is young and idealistic, with a family that love him but can't provide for him. Camille is old and jaded, from a wealthy family that see her as little more than a tool to maintain their power.

Ekko is Zaun's protector, Camille is Piltover's. Ekko fights because he loves his city and the people in it. Camille had the love of her life, and her very ability to love, taken away so they wouldn't distract her from her duty.

[aestas-est]

An introduction to Mimosa and the Clocktower

A platforming metroidvania with a mix of time control and nursery rhymes.

It will be a very long post, so all info is under the cut.

What is Mimosa and the clocktower, you may ask?

Mimosa is a game that I've been working on since last year (2022). It is a cutesy platformer with metroidvania elements added to it and heavily involves nursery rhymes, both as personifications (twisted or not) and aesthetics.

Once upon a time, there was a world named Timesea, where the sky and oceans are filled to the brim with the illusion of clocks. The world was created by its Goddess, Mother Goose, who it's inhabitants worshipped every day. But, that night, she mysteriously vanished.

The following day, an egg had been stolen from the moon by a mouse named Hickory Dickory Dock, who plans to climb the ancient clocktower, and freeze all of the time on planet Timesea. Upon hatching from that egg, Mimosa, a magigon from Ciona, begins his journey across the planet, and meet new friends along the way, in order to stop the upcoming disaster that is about to happen, which only the clock of fate will tell.

Our hero, Mimosa, has the ability to eat berries to gain new breaths, and also to rewind time.

What engine are you using to make this game?

I use game maker for it. However, I largely rely on video tutorials since I am pretty amateur with coding the game right now. I am more than welcome to seek advice on how to move forward with this project, since working on a platformer feels a lot more difficult than I initially thought.

So for now, here's the only available footage of the game's prototype. There's nothing much going on here, other than moving around.

What inspired you to make it?

Game-wise, it was mostly inspired by Kirby, specifically Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, which was an unusual game due to the fact that it plays like a metroidvania. I've also played a few indie metroidvanias in the past, which led me to create this project.

The influx of those weird YouTube kids channels that involve... interesting versions of nursery rhymes had also led me to do my own spin of these popular kid's songs, such as Twinkle, Twinkle, little star. While it's not original to this franchise, the reason I chose to add the rewind mechanic (Which will be explained later) is because I really enjoyed the rewind mechanic that Fire Emblem introduced in Echoes (I never played it personally), since it makes the newer games a bit more accessible to play.

When will you ever finish it?

Right now, I consider myself to be amateur with game development, and I'm heavily prioritizing with making concept art and writing everything over actually working on the game. I am currently in the GameMaker server, so I'll do what I can to seek for advice on how to work on it.

I think I'll wrap it up here for now. I will post more about this game here, including art that I've never shared on this blog.

[kingdomoftyto]

Howdy! I got a a gift card for the nintendo switch for christmas but don't know what to use it on. Would you recommend any games? I know you play a variety.

Oh! Sure thing! I'm flattered to even be considered for something like that lol

Considering I finished playing it only minutes ago, the first thing that comes to mind is the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, which probably needs no introduction, but just in case: they're part visual novel, part puzzle/logic games where you play as a defense lawyer solving elaborate murder mysteries. Very funny, feels like watching a goofy anime except you get to solve the mysteries yourself.

Next, here's some great indie titles I personally have downloaded on my Switch:

Undertale (& Deltarune chapters 1+2): undeniable masterpieces. If you haven't already played them you really should. They're short, heartfelt RPGs with memorable characters, challenging but fun bullet hell-style combat, and stories so good they've basically had an effect on the entire video game medium. I love them from the bottom of my heart.

Hades: another masterpiece you've surely already heard of, but worth recommending anyway. It's a punishingly hard roguelike where you repeatedly try to battle your way out of the underworld, but the story and characters--all drawn from Greek mythology--are exquisitely crafted and incredibly rewarding to uncover. (I haven't technically played this one myself but I've watched my partner put hundreds of hours into it--plus there's a sequel on the horizon!)

Ori and the Blind Forest (and sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps): incredibly fun, fast-paced, and beautifully animated Metroidvania where you play as an agile little light spirit trying to save your forest home. Story's very dialogue-light but epic and emotional; you may cry.

Crypt of the Necrodancer: unbelievably fun rhythm-based dungeon crawler where you fight your way through monsters and undead by moving and attacking to the beat. The story is charming, too, but the gameplay and music alone make this one a must-try. (Note: if you prefer, there's a Zelda spinoff called Cadance of Hyrule that's a crossover with this game. Same type of gameplay, but a little more forgiving, and also Zelda flavored. :3)

CrossCode: wildly underrated action RPG about a girl who wakes up mute and amnesiac inside an MMO world and has to uncover its secrets with the power of friendship and punching things with chakrams. I love these characters so hecking much and the combat in this game is really difficult but also incredibly satisfying to master. Also features some great puzzles and tricky platforming.

Petal Crash: a charming little arcade puzzler where you move colorful blocks to make chains and earn points/clear the board. There's a story mode where you can play through as different characters, and they're all super cute and funny. (iirc, the dialogue is all written by the creator of the webcomic Paranatural, and it shows!)

Some other random indie titles that come to mind:

LIMBO: a short, atmospheric horror platformer with some memorably dark, unsettling moments and pretty satisfying puzzles for such a short game. I first played this back in high school and for some reason it still sticks with me after all these years. It's also like $2 in the eShop right now, so. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (I believe the game Inside is from the same studio, and I remember enjoying watching a playthrough of it years ago, but I haven't played that one myself.)

Stardew Valley: I've never played this one on console, but I currently have 225 hours logged for it on Steam lol. It's a farm sim, but it also has a pretty robust cast of townsfolk who are really fun to get to know, and plenty of other things to occupy your time as well. Mining, dungeon delving, artifact collecting, and a nice little story about sticking it to the evil corporate overlords and bringing your community together.

Terraria: ditto to Stardew Valley, also with about 200 hours in my Steam account. This one is a 2D adventure platformer with procedurally generated worlds that you explore for resources that you can build or craft into whatever you like: combat gear, homes for your NPC neighbors, forbidden magicks to summon alien horrors--you name it! Can be played kind of sandboxy like a 2D Minecraft, or there is a long series of challenging and interesting bosses to encounter if you feel like uncovering secrets!

Untitled Goose Game: short puzzle game where you play as a goose gently terrorizing a suburban neighborhood. You've seen the memes. It was popular for a reason though--very charming and fun!

Castle Crashers: a classic beat-em-up with humor as cartoony as its visual style. Play as colorful knights on a quest to retrieve four princesses from an evil necromancer. Leans a tad much on toilet humor and the combat can be a little repetitive, but overall very silly and slapstick and super fun to play with friends.

Wingspan: this one's a little out of left field but I just remembered this is on Switch! I have the physical board game this is based on, and I highly recommend that, so I imagine the digital version is worth a look, too. It's a card-based strategy game where you collect bird species to compete for the best sanctuary. Once you get the hang of it, you can play a whole game in 30-45 minutes. Also, the art's gorgeous and the developers are based in my home state!

Aaaand some other misc classics worth mentioning:

Katamari Damacy: roll a sticky ball around and pick up objects. Then pick up bigger objects. Bigger! BIGGER!

Portal & Portal 2: solve puzzles with portable wormholes and survive the attentions of a mad AI. Excellent puzzles and legendary characters and humor.

most old Final Fantasy titles are available for relatively cheap, including 7, 8, and 9! I'm a fan of all of them. :}

Okami: adding this one last minute because I didn't realize it had a Switch port!! INCREDIBLE action rpg where you play as a sun goddess in the form of a wolf, fighting epic monster battles and restoring peace to ancient Japan. Gorgeous, fun, iconic.

...

Uh, and that's all I can think of for now! I tried to include some lesser-known stuff as well as some classic gems, so hopefully something catches your eye! I'm a little surprised the list is so short, but when it comes down to it I'm actually pretty Basic when it comes to my taste in video games lol--largely Pokemon and Zelda outside of this list tbh.

Merry Christmas and have fun gaming, anon!!

[megafreak400]

2024 Media Thread - #45

Berserk Boy (12/11/24) -  Score - 7/10

Berserk Boy is a game that’s all about its gameplay. There is a story and characters, but honestly none of it really matters (though one late game plot twist was kind of neat.) In a lot of ways it's very much in line with games from the NES and SNES era. The plot is there but it’s only there to just justify the game existing. The main draw is the action platforming.

The game is divided up into several levels, with 3 levels per world. The main goal is to just reach the end and/or fight the boss. Berserk Boy’s main power is having access to several different forms with different powers, but you’ll only unlock all of them after beating several worlds. Similar to Mega Man, once you beat a boss you obtain their abilities. Unlike Mega Man most of these powers don’t involve any sort of shooting weapon.  The majority of your moves are gonna be more movement based, even a lot of the combat options. For example, the first Berserk power is LIGHTNING JUSTICE. The main way to attack enemies with this form is to dash into them to tag them, then press the b button to zap anything you tagged. It’s actually similar to the main power of the guy from Azure Striker Gunvolt, if that was actually fun to use. It’s also probably the best way to attack enemies, even once you’ve obtained later powers. What’s nice about this game is while there are enemies to beat, most of the game is more about movement. One of the later powers you acquire, while you can attack enemies with it, is a flight based power. Movement is key with this power for obvious reasons, and the game in general is designed with this in mind. In this respect switching between powers to traverse the levels can be a fun time. Unlike Mega Man, there is no meter to drain your power permanently. You can only use some moves so many times due to a meter, but it will also auto fill when you stand still. The result is that there is no reason not to experiment with different powers. Some aspects of the game can be a little janky. One of the later powers, an ice ninja, can be a bit tricky to use when it comes to his DK barrel blast mechanic it has with it. But luckily this only comes up a few times and later on you can use other powers instead so it’s not a game breaker. There is also a whole upgrade system which lets you add moves or improve powers but honestly it feels a bit pointless? I’m not gonna say it isn’t helpful but if it wasn’t there it wouldn’t be missed. It helps too that you can play this game in retro style (with a life system,) or a more modern style (Infinite tries.) Personally, modern is the way to go unless you enjoy pain. Granted I don’t think this game is too difficult even if you chose retro so you’ll probably be fine. It helps that the game is overall short, even if some of the levels I feel drag a bit too long. One aspect I’m indifferent towards is the ‘metroidvania’ aspect the game’s official page touts. Look sorry guys, having to go back to levels with your new powers does not a metroidvania make. Each level has several civilians to rescue as well as B medals to get. A lot of them you can only get once you get powers from later levels. Getting everything in a level unlocks an EX time trial style level, which is neat but not anything mind blowing. You will also need so many B medals to beat the game, but I got the required amount without any backtracking. I don’t hate this, but because you basically will never be able to 100 percent a level until the end, the result is just speeding through the level the first time and then doing a more completionist run the second time. I do like that this makes you play the game faster the first time through, which I think is the ideal way to play. Utilizing the games movement systems are fun and playing a level slow makes less use of them. That said I would argue you don’t even need to have collectables then? But it also doesn’t really hurt the game and if you don’t mind playing levels twice two different ways it works well enough.  The music also slaps, it must be said.

Overall, this is a fine game. It’s a nice breather game between longer affairs and you’ll have fun with it. It’s not going to be like anything you’ve never played before, but that’s not a bad thing. If you like these kinds of action platformer games, you’ll have a good time.

[duckyfruitbat]

Spongebob: Cosmic Shake

There I was in the store when I spotted a copy of this game on the discount shelf and with baited breath I said out loud "yeah sure why not."

The Cosmic Shake is the first Spongebob game by Purple Lamp studios since Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated. The story being that Spongebob bought a bottle of bath soap mixed with mermaids wishing tears from a mermaid who is described as a "snails oil saleswoman." She didn't think it would do anything until Spongebob started using it to try and grant as many wishes as possible. All these wishes create massive rifts in the fabric of reality that starts sucking nearly all of Bikini Bottom into multiple different worlds. Thus Spngebob and a now balloon Patrick must enter each world to save their friends and restore the town.

The game is set up like a metroidvania, each level has a main quest and many collectibles and challenges. There are multiple characters with set fetch quests in each level, there are challenges that can only be accessed by abilities learned later on. It gives you reasons to go back to each level, in a couple you actually get an optional quest after completing the story portion.

Gameplay is pretty straightforward and fairly easy to get into. For the most part it is building off of Battle For Bikini Bottom with some tweaks. There's the gliding move, which is a box of Krusty Krab pizza, a ranged bubble attack that stuns enemies, and a targeted karate kick that also acts as a way to move between platforms. The bosses are pretty fun, even if they are a bit simple and easy, King Gary forces you to use some strategy as he's sugar rushing. The final boss is a mutated Squidward that I'm starting to suspect was made using the scrapped Squidbot from BFBB. The most difficult one was against Pom Pom, a prehistoric Pearl, she has massive attacks that spread out across the entire arena and enemies spawn all throughout, things get busy.

This game does have a performance issue, at least on the PS4. There were many times when I'm going through a level, with no pop in, frame rate issues or glitches, when suddenly it freezes for a couple of seconds. This always made me very concerned, I was worried my play station was about to pop. It never crashed during those moments, so that was a relief, but it did like to test me with those freezes.

Writing wise, It is more of a piece of modern SpongeBob media, or in layman's terms, it's pretty up and down in writing quality. There were a few lines that made me laugh out loud, in the Halloween level there is some gag writing on a tomb stone for the persons famous last words, being "watch this!" A moment at the end of the western level had Mr. Krabs trying to stay until he started facing consequences for his actions and he turned on a dime.

You may have noticed that there is a lot of parody in this game, each level is parodying the genre it's themed after. For example there is a level that is a movie set for a karate movie, and each level also has its own version of the characters. The Squidward in this level is just Michael Bay, it fit his character really well. Each level does this in some way where it uses the setting to work off of the characters. It doesn't always succeed but when it does it's a lot of fun.

One place I want to point at where the writing falls a bit short is with the Glove World level. Here Glovy the park mascot is going a bit crazy from the isolation of falling into an alternate dimension. He kid naps Patrick in an attempt to get a friend all the while losing it. The level is full of pictures of SpongeBob and Patrick with Glovy's face pasted over SpongeBob's. My issue is that Glovy doesn't feel very unhinged. He's a bit too calm for someone who's supposed to be going insane. There are more scenes of SpongeBob going batshit insane in the actual show.

There are plenty of other writing issues like the continued flanderization of the characters, but the game is also very dependent on references. Sure all the games have plenty of these references, but this is getting a bit much. Sure they do stick out quite a bit, but they're gone as fast as they arrive, so it is not a deal breaker by any means.

It's not as good as Battle for Bikini Bottom, but this game is still pretty easy to pick up and play with plenty of fun to be had. If you can overlook some of the writing issues, enjoyment can be found here.

[jcmarchi]

Bō: Path Of The Teal Lotus Console Updates In Flux Due To Humble Games Layoffs

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/bo-path-of-the-teal-lotus-console-updates-in-flux-due-to-humble-games-layoffs/

Bō: Path Of The Teal Lotus Console Updates In Flux Due To Humble Games Layoffs

Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus launched to generally solid reviews on July 18, but those playing the hand-drawn action platformer on consoles will have to wait longer for any post-launch updates. Developer Squid Shock Studios revealed that last week’s sudden closure of publisher Humble Games has adversely affected its ability to provide timely support to those versions of the game. 

[embedded content]

In a statement posted to Twitter, Squid Shock Studios states that Humble Games’ apparent closure last week, which saw its entire 36-person staff laid off by owner Ziff Davis in what it calls a “restructuring,” has adversely affected its ability to provide post-launch support for the console versions of Bō. The studio states that this is due to the game’s porting and QA support being tied to its deal with Humble. The PC version doesn’t appear to be affected, with the studio currently working on updates for that version. Here’s Squid Shock Studios’ full statement:

We want to give you an update on Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus. We’re really proud of how the launch went and it has been great hearing all of your feedback on our game.

That being said, our launch hasn’t been without its challenges. Most of you will know that our publisher, Humble Games, has effectively shut down, laying off all 35 team members. This took us completely by surprise and, for a small development team like us, it was a critical blow to our post-launch support.

We are now in a difficult situation when it comes to updating the console ports, as both Porting and QA Support was tied into our deal with Humble. We are actively pursuing all available avenues to allow us to roll out updates to console versions, but we regret to say this may take some time to put in place.

We just want to reassure players that we will get this resolved. We are working on updates for the PC version and we want to assure you that these updates and fixes will come to consoles in the future.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

Given the number of games Humble published, both released and upcoming, this likely isn’t the only game or studio to have this kind of wrench thrown into the works due to the sudden layoffs. If you’re planning on picking up Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, PC seems like the best way to go for the foreseeable future. 

Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus is inspired by Japanese folklore, with players controlling a warrior named Bō who descends from Heaven to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Armed with his shapeshifting Bō staff, players traverse a dreamlike, Metroidvania-inspired world battling monsters. Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC. 

[if-you-get-this-let-me-know]

Soldado Solitario

Something a little different than the usual. This is an old project for a class I took once:

Soldado Solitario: A Western Roguelike

Overview:

This project really ended up being a very different image than what I set out for it. Originally, the vision for the game I wanted was something bold and new, a turn-based rpg but with an emphasis on style and flair. The idea was this combination of Persona 5, Pokemon, and the Mega-Man Battle Network Series, and it would’ve dawn musically from the latter two. However, as I began writing music and swapping between DAWS I realized that I wouldn’t be able to utilize my experience with real-life instruments nearly as much if I went for such a futuristic, electronic sound. Instead, I opted to pivot my hypothetical video game, and mash other games instead. This resulted in a strange amalgamation of Metroidvania and Red Dead Redemption, a Western-themed exploratory platformer I dubbed Soldado Solitario (Spanish for The Lonely Soldier).

The game is set in 19th-century South-Western U.S., during the peak of Manifest Destiny. In this world however, cowboys aren’t just over blown fictionalizations of ranchers; instead cowboys are monster hunters. Our character is a short but legendary cowgirl/cowboy, and we follow her/him as she/he traverses through ghost towns, monster-infested canyons and caves, and the occasional shoot out. The game is framed as a series of stories about one hero/heroine, and it also adopts elements from Rougelike games, where death is encouraged and expected. Each death is framed as the current narrator clearly getting something wrong about our legend’s tale, and each run through of the game is framed as another narrator, clearing up what the last one got wrong. This is heavily inspired by Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, where the main character is also the narrator, and insists upon each death that he is simply misremembering the details of his tale. Basically, I was going for if Rogue Legacy was set in the Wild West, and I wanted something somber, gritty and moody to fit with this concept.

Writing the Tunes:

I bounced between ProTools, LMMS, and Ableton Live for this project, but settled upon Ableton because of its relatively friendly interface, and because a roommate of mine happened to be quite savvy with it’s ins and outs. For the most part the creative process including selecting a piece of the game I wanted to write for, and then sitting back and noodling away on my acoustic until I found something that felt like it fit. From there, I recorded myself live via my iPhone’s microphone in a music practice room, threw it into Ableton, and fiddled with other backing tracks like melodies and percussion until I was satisfied with the product. Really the Ableton side of the project is what took longest and was most difficult, as the Ableton standard library didn’t really have all the sounds I was looking for such as whistles and harmonicas, but that also inspired me to just take sounds from the existing library and really mess with the guts of the sound clips to get the sound I was looking for.

            Despite the difficulty though, the Ableton half of the process was just as sporadic as the writing on the guitar. Some of this included me vocalizing against the backing tracks I had written and using a tuner to find the notes that I was vocalizing. The rest was me improvising with my guitar over top of the tracks, and then using the tuner to transfer these notes to the instruments in Ableton. I used a lot of my own favorite bands as inspiration for the pieces I wrote, including The Black Keys and The Avett Brothers. They’re not particularly western per se, but they have a very down-to-earth, gritty style that I wanted to imitate. If there was any one tune that inspired me most, it’d be ‘Little Black Submarines’, and had I written a combat theme, it would’ve probably sampled the manic energy from the back half of the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k8es2BNloELinks to an external site.

The unstructured parts of the process made for interesting strokes of inspiration and they were what came most naturally. I didn’t initially intend to write each piece, but some just came to me, so I had to find a place for them in the listing somehow. The ‘Loss Sting’ came to me while writing the opening cinematic theme, and I just knew there had to be some dramatic way to squeeze it in. This part of the writing process was heavily dependent on my knowledge of acoustic guitar. I’ve been playing for four years, and I’ve focused primarily on rhythm guitar and finger style, which really helped in formulating the rustic sound that this project is going for.

Conclusion:

In some ways I'm kind of disappointed that I stuck really closely to the music I understand outside of video games, as that made my vision of this project do a total 180 once I got using my DAWS, but at the same time, I think I was able to produce something that actually has a better end quality. 

Opening Cinematic- In my head, I envisioned the narrative of the game being framed by you stumbling across a camp fire in a prairie between towns, and as you sit down by the fire among other vagabonds, one begins to tell the tale. This theme plays while the screen shows a couple of stills depicting this campfire scene, and the main menu title opens up on the closing note.

https://soundcloud.com/user-590017810/opening-cinematic-soldado-solitario/s-0rxMBLinks to an external site.

Main Menu- Here I think I was actually most inspired by Dearly Beloved, from the Kingdom Hearts series. I wanted the Main Menu to be pensive, and allow the player respite, much like this campfire story is meant to be to all those who are listening.

https://soundcloud.com/user-590017810/main-menu-soldado-solitario/s-XlxU4Links to an external site.

Pause Menu- I really like when games have recurring motifs and establish a consistent theme using them, so I softened up the Main Menu theme, removed the percussion, and added some more strings to create the pause menu theme. Again, the idea being that in both places, you can stop and rest.

https://soundcloud.com/user-590017810/opening-cinematic-soldado-solitario/s-0rxMBLinks to an external site.

Loss Sting- Though this is only two chords this is actually one of my favorite pieces I wrote for this project. It was incidental when I was writing the Opening Cinematic theme, but it really carries that western flair, and emphasizes your loss without over exaggerating it with a full-blown theme. It's a roguelike after all, death is certain, but it should make you want to pick yourself back up.

https://soundcloud.com/user-590017810/loss-sting-soldado-solitario/s-5G65hLinks to an external site.

[foxstens]

steam next fest demo thoughts!

mendacium - i wasn't even going to try this bc for some reason the screenshots didn't grab me, i was content to just add it to my wishlist, but it was received very positively so i tried it. and honestly? kind of the best demo i played lmao. it grabbed me so fast! it feels so good to play!! the music the visuals the controls all of it it just works. the only thing i don't love is the extreme knockback you get when attacking, and it also seems to happen when you're standing on a platform and pressing attack but not actually hitting anything. but absolutely amazing i think the devs know what they're doing and the game is going to be great

umbraclaw - i tried this on a whim not noticing it's by inti creates beforehand and it was pretty nice. i've tried multiple games by this dev which have all been misses for me but this one seems a bit different and i really liked what i played of it, will def check out the full game.

ultros - probably the best-received demo, and with good reason. it looks great, the concept is great, the in-game mechanics are also nice. however i can't say i was exactly blown away. there's just something about the controls that felt a bit off to me, especially the way the retaliation works. couldn't get the hang of it at the time and also sometimes it's a bit difficult to tell what you can interact with. but still good, one to keep an eye on for sure.

tales of kenzera - oh look an AA metroidvania. kind of inspired by the new prince of persia; looks great, i love the premise, the voice acting is also nice. but i barely played any of it because you can't rebind the movement keys freely and i literally can't play with wasd. it also runs pretty badly on my pc. i'll keep an eye on it, hopefully they change some things in the full game.

crypt custodian - yet another well-received one bc the developer has some experience, their previous games were also pretty good apparently though i have yet to play them. yeah, it looks really nice, it's very charming, the movement feels good and an isometric metroidvania is bound to be an interesting experience. i just hope it won't be too short.

phosfi - definitely inspired by hollow knight, i love the art and the colours and it's another one that grabbed me instantly. i do feel like it needs some more polish for the full game to be successful but i will be playing it regardless.

william and sly - the first game is one of my favourite games ever so of course i had to try this. AND IT FEELS SO GOOD. ohhhhh my god you go so fast, it should feel weird and uncomfortable and hard to control but somehow it doesn't? it feels so nice to play and it looks so good and it runs surprisingly well on my pc. i love this game and i hope it'll be long :')

there's also some other games i found unplayable bc of controls you can't rebind n stuff. also steam now has this thing, this weird ass popup that tells you to grab a controller and kick back. apparently the intention is to make pc players understand that you can relax when playing on pc as well? which is nice but. i fucking hate the popup. it showed up during some games that play perfectly with keyboard and it's so freaking annoying especially if the game also has a screen that tells you it's 'best experienced with a controller'.

ew. i know yall only test your games using controllers for some reason but how about you let me decide.

but anyway yea, pretty nice, and since so many of these games are expected to be released this year, i think it's gonna be a good year for indie games and especially metroidvanias.