#two different ways to making the player to retry

[alexandriaisburning]

041: What makes Zeroranger special, anyway?

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Developed over a decade and layered in mysteries, Zeroranger is a shooter that’s received acclaim from both STG* fanatics and first-timers for the ways it bends genres. But for all its talk about the ways it pays homage to the genre, and the insistence that it’s something special, Zeroranger almost never gets talked about in plain terms, out of fear of spoiling the surprises that await first time players. That level of caution from its fans is almost admirable, but it leaves what makes the game special undiscussed, and makes it hard for both curious players wondering what the big deal is, and leaves Zeroranger’s best ideas unappreciated. 

With that in mind I’ll be doing a deep dive into Zeroranger’s design, with no limitations on what I talk about or spoil. 

On a basic level, Zeroranger is a vertically scrolling STG that borrows ideas from a variety of genre classics, paying homage to them through bosses, stage layouts and game mechanics. After each stage you’re given a choice between one of two weapons, each which will become useful in the next stage, but in different ways, with variations between the two playable ships. After the first stage you get a choice between back and side firing weapons, the second unlocks a lock on laser or chargeable shot, and the penultimate boss fight--against Grapefruit, the ship previously thought to be destroyed during the first attack on the enemy--unlocks a mech transformation with a powerful melee weapon that stacks damage and protects you from enemy attacks. 

Each weapon allows varied interactions with the level design, covering different areas of the screen and allowing you to approach enemy patterns in a new way. Since you can’t have both weapons of each tier, you’ll have to choose which weakness you’ll accept, and pair it with other weapons that can cover that weakness. It encourages repeat playthroughs to try different strategies and learn the stage layouts, which is good, because Zeroranger will demand repetition. 

At the core of Zeroranger is the theme of karmic cycles, repackaging long standing genre concepts in a way that ties them to the ongoing narrative. Like Neverawake, Zeroranger plays with the concepts of Loops--second playthroughs that remix the original stages--but here it acts closer to something out of the Nier series. The initial playthrough is only setup, with a repeat playthrough being the de facto second act, with altered context that builds on your original understanding, followed by a third and final act that brings a proper conclusion. 

The karmic themes even affect the meta progression of Zeroranger. Score contributes towards earning the next of nine total continues, used to retry a stage from a checkpoint after death. Continues are represented by the nine orbs that fill out a wheel at the end of the run, which itself resembles the Wheel of Samsara, often used by Buddhists to describe the cycle of existence that mortal beings are subject to. 

By framing each attempt as another cycle or reincarnation, it implies that each death has in fact happened, and the only way to escape the cycle is with enough perseverance and knowledge. It blows up the scale to a cosmic degree, and makes your journey to the end of the game, and the knowledge you build of its world, into a form of mechanical and narrative progression. 

This knowledge of the world becomes integral to the second loop, which introduces major changes to the patterns and layouts of the first loop, but allows you to return with all your weapons. With these previously unavailable weapons you can easily dispatch enemies that were hard to deal with, and details that seemed mysterious on the first loop fall into place. One of my favorite examples of this are the enemies who appear in the background, before flying into the foreground to attack. On the first loop they seem like a cool, decorative detail, but on the second loop, with the lock-on laser available, suddenly they’re targets you can pick off before they get a chance to attack.

The final act begins when you meet the Grapefruit for the second time and reveal your mech form, allowing you to have a proper duel where they’ll whip out several abilities, including more powerful versions of your own weapons, revealing why they were the first choice in dealing with the enemy. 

After defeating Grapefruit you’ll once again face the final boss, but this time instead of the boss rush of the first loop, they’ll give up and offer you another power up. 

Here Zeroranger shifts into its final act, requiring you to solve a series of puzzles before gaining access to the true ending. Grabbing the powerup shows you the “ending” and puts you into a loop where you’ll replay the first stage in Final Boss mode, leaning harder into Zeroranger’s CAVE** influences by changing out your default weapons for a Dodonpachi style barrage of bullets and bombs. Completing the stage and grabbing the powerup puts you into another brief minigame before glitching out and returning you to the title. 

To escape this you’ll need to reject that final powerup, either within the Final Boss stage or before, during the boss room where the boss rush takes place. By rejecting the offering you gain access to Despair, the real final boss hidden beneath the facility, who naturally has several phases to complete. The first phase is a puzzle itself, requiring you to carefully observe the orbs emitting the attacks, and time your own attacks to destroy them close to simultaneously, or otherwise be stuck helpless in yet another looping trap. 

Completing the first phase reveals the true form of the final boss, Despair, a suitably terrifying challenge with a massive suite of attacks whose design could inspire its own essay. Compared to the cerebral challenges preceding it, this final form is more straightforward, but learning the complexities of the patterns often felt as hard as the combined challenge of every obstacle met on the way here. 

Defeating Despair reveals the true final boss challenge--a sequence that reveals the origins of Zeroranger’s world, and connects several unresolved narrative threads. Not only must you complete it completely stripped of your previous arsenal, but you’re given a single chance to do so. 

Not quite understanding the gravity of what the game was implying there, I took on the final challenge after an exhausting struggle with Despair, desperate to finally see the ending--only to have my save deleted after I failed. 

Not only do you need to scale the mountainous challenge of defeating Despair, but you need to complete it with continues to spare, as each continue orb becomes a health point for your final confrontation. In addition, you have to quickly adapt to playing without any of the weapons you’ve built familiarity with during your playtime, and learn the new boss patterns on the fly while unraveling how exactly you can damage the boss. Practice runs are impractical, as you’ll have to complete the whole game at least once before returning, making the minimum time between attempts nearly an hour, if you’ve complete mastery of the rest of the game. 

So I cheated. I downloaded my save from the cloud, backed it up, then went back and completed it on my third try, after restoring my save twice. As I finished the final challenge, Zeroranger left me with the same message it began with:

May you attain enlightenment. 

By circumventing the challenge, by failing to persevere in the face of disaster, I’d arguably failed this goal. I’d given in to my material desires and skipped the suffering necessary to achieve the knowledge needed to break free of the cycle. Fitting then, that Zeroranger’s conclusion is one that’s hopeful, but open ended, implying that this current cycle has been broken, but the events that caused it may one day repeat themselves. 

Then Zeroranger deletes your save. 

Records carry over, and the color palette and story change to reflect your achievement, but progress unlocking stages is once again reset. You’re free of the meta trappings of the story, but are given one more reminder of how temporary progress is, and challenged one more time to complete a run to get the complete credits sequence. 

It’s a novel approach to player progression in a STG that not only reframes common genre ideas with a thematic approach, but slowly pushes players towards goals that the genre diehards naturally shoot for. By visually indicating the progress towards extra lives and continues through its score counter, it alerts players towards the importance of scoring for continued survival as well as the leaderboards, and encourages them to look for opportunities to maximize score. 

The harsh requirements to witness the ending almost guarantee that a player will be forced to start over, and unless they cheat (guilty), forces them to learn the stages and scoring systems to quickly earn back their progress. That process, and the need to hold onto as many continues as possible for the finale, pushes them closer to attempting the 1-credit clear, what most STG players consider the first major milestone in learning a game. Simply put, it’s a run where you complete all the stages in the game without using up a continue, and often denotes mastery. 

The parade of secrets and homages, alongside the narrative driven recontextualization of game mechanics and premise shifting final acts create  a novel approach for both genre veterans and newcomers, upending expectations with each new twist. Zeroranger’s revelations mark it as equal parts mystery and action game, and asks you to dig deeper, coming to an appreciation of its layered design in the process. 

Personally, as much as I respect the final act’s commitment to delivering on Zeroranger’s themes of struggle, persistence and reincarnation, the harsh penalty of deleting your save was demotivating to a degree that I didn’t feel was worth the tension it imparted. I can only imagine how a less experienced player might feel, struggling for hours to reach that point, and possibly being unsure if they could reach it again. Zeroranger’s patterns and stage design are often less demanding than most of its contemporaries, but they come with harsher penalties for failure. 

Even given that, it’s not hard to see why Zeroranger captured the imagination of so many. Designed intentionally to be approachable, with enough mystery to satisfy the lore hungry theorycrafters, Zeroranger provides many entry points. Paired with its striking two color palette and memorable soundtrack, it paints the picture of a greater world beyond its borders. The drawn out finale demands you engage Zeroranger with your entire attention, and its dramatic set pieces and score bring an emotional climax that the more traditional arcade style titles often can’t spend the runtime on. 

Even after the credits roll, Zeroranger leaves plenty to discover, both within its boundaries and outside. Its themes of karmic cycles and open-ended conclusion invite you to explore it further, and its homages and secrets point to other games and worlds whose influence helped bring it to life. It’s an introduction to the mindset of a genre fanatic, an homage for all those who’ve already journeyed through the genre to arrive here, and an invitation for those who haven’t to share in that same passion. 

--- Zeroranger is availble on PC. Homebrew ports are availble for the Switch and Linux based handhelds via Portmaster.

--- *STG: ShooTing Game, aka SHMUP or Shoot-Em-Up. A community term for the genre of arcade style shooters used to differentiate them from the more common first and third person shooters.

**CAVE: Developer of several major entries in the genre, and credited with popularizing the danmaku (bullet curtain) or bullet hell sub-genre. Their games are often marked by complex enemy bullet patterns, with a powerful player arsenal that can hit many parts of the screen at the same time.

[y2klostandfound]

Bust-A-Move 2 (aka Bust a Groove 2) on Game Players magazine Vol.99 (Video game magazine)(Hong Kong)(24/04/1999)

Translation in English:

ACT 2 Players MEM Corresponding ANALOG CONTROLLER (vibration) Manufacturer: ENIX Release date: On sale (April 15th) Price: 5800 Yen Capacity: CD-ROM Memory: 1 BLOCK

BUST A MOVE 2 - DANCE PARADISE MIX The original dancing music ACTION game is back!

Introduction

"BUST A MOVE", known as the original dance music ACTION work, was well received by the outside world when it was launched on PlayStation last year because of its novel gameplay and concept. However, after a lapse of one year, music-themed games are popular today, and the sequel of "BUST A MOVE" "BUST A MOVE 2 ~DANCE Paradise MIX~" is finally released. There is still a gap in the same type of work "Dance Dance Revolution", but the gameplay is definitely not inferior.so if you haven't encountered the BUST A MOVE series before, now is the best opportunity for you to experience the fun that makes it so different from the others!

Operate method

Arrow key - MENU selects or enters the DANCE COMMAND input. START button - game start, stop BATTLE or RETRY □ and △ button - DANCE COMMAND input X button - Deselects items, DANCE COMMAND inputs, and avoids interference techniques in EASY MODE. O button - cancels selection of items, DANCE COMMAND input, and use of interference in EASY MODE. R1 button - interference R2 button - Interference Avoidance

DANCE BATTLE

DANCE COMMAND Input method

← First beat → Second beat ↑ Third beat O Fourth beat

Three times

One time

※ Before the first three beats, you can input both in sequence or according to the rhythm; however, up to the fourth beat, you need to input both according to the rhythm or the time status.

Speaking of the basic gameplay of "BUST A MOVE", it is actually very simple, as long as you input specific commands within the time of four beats.The DANCE COMMAND BAR is composed of two parts, green and red.When the first three beats are in progress, the green part will appear three times. However, the player needs to input the arrow key commands displayed in the DANCE COMMAND BAR; as for the red part on the right, it will not appear until the fourth beat, which is used as an input arrow key or button, resulting in different COMBOs.

Example 1) When the instruction is → → ↓ ↓ O

-Enter in sequence in three times (beats)

-Need to enter at the same time as the glow (reaching the fourth beat)

stop

Example 2) When the command is ↑ ← O

-If the wrong number of direction key commands is not more than two, the above DANCE COMMAND can also be established

-On the other hand, if you input the wrong arrow key command three times or more, the DANCE COMMAND will be lost immediately.

DANCE COMMANDO SELECT

"DANCE COMMAND SELECT" is to select the way of inputting DANCE COMMAND, and there are three different levels of difficulty: "EASY", "NORMAL", and "MIX". Among them, "EASY" only requires the player to use the arrow keys as the entire DANCE COMMAND; "NORMAL" is the basic mode, which requires the use of the arrow keys (the first three beats), 〇 and X buttons (the fourth beat) at the same time; as for "MIX"The basic form is the same as "NORMAL", but DANCE COMMAND adds two more buttons, △ and □ (corresponding to the fourth beat), which makes it the most difficult.

When the DANCE COMMAND is continuously and successfully input, it will cause a COMBO, which will increase the DANCE LEVEL, and the input COMMAND will gradually increase and change the character's dance steps.

If the timing of the input button is just right in the fourth beat (the red part glows), you can get more points and go to a higher DANCE LEVEL.

Lucky SYSTEM

The new system in this game, there are red, blue and green color squares at the bottom of the screen, which represent "COOL" (green, more than 4 COMBOs), "CHILLIN" (red, more than 6 COMBOs), and "FREEZE" (blue, more than 8 COMBOs). As long as each side obtains more COMBOs in a row, the number of color squares for the corresponding level will increase, and if either side fills up the three color squares first, it will be able to obtain the BONUS POINT, and the special show will appear

Battle Tips Interference Technique

The attack means to prevent the opponent from scoring points, as long as the fourth beat in the DANCE COMMAND input, it will appear successfully, which can force the termination of the opponent's COMBO and DANCE LEVEL, all over again, mainly used in the SOLO PART to use, so that our side to achieve higher scores.

Avoiding Interference Techniques

When an opponent attacks with a interference technique, enter it in the DANCE COMMAND on the fourth beat after it appears to automatically avoid the interference technique, and the ongoing COMBO and DANCE LEVEL can also be saved.

Bounce interference technique

Just like avoiding interference skills, as long as you input the DANCE COMMAND on the fourth beat after the interference skills appear, you can return the opponent's attack to yourself, and you can also get points from the opponent at the same time.

Bounce interference technique scoring formula 1000+200 x (number of anti-bounce interference techniques)

The newly added system "Battle Opponent Divide" is based on the player's performance in each battle to determine the content of the subsequent battle or the opponent's performance.

When selecting a character, press the START or SELECT button to use 2P's special costume.

After completing the game with any character, you can freely choose the scene setting performance in DANCE VIEW

When you reach a certain number of points in each stage, the "FEVER TIME!" dance event will appear.

Corresponding! "Dance Dance Revolution CONTROLLER"

In addition, "BUST A MOVE 2 ~DANCE Paradise MIX~" also corresponds to the "Dance Dance Revolution CONTROLLER" dedicated controller for the KONAMI game "Dance Dance Revolution" launched at the same time. but the only problem is that it only applies to EASY MODE.

Simultaneous PART DANCE LEVEL COMMAND process

Basic Character

HEAT COMET STRIKE BI-O HIRO CAPOEIRA SHORTY KELLY TSUTOMU KITTY-N

Hidden Characters

Like the previous work, this episode "BUST A MOVE 2~DANCE Paradise MIX~" also has different hidden characters. In addition to the BOSS CHARACTERS "ROBO Z-GOLD" and the mysterious character "COLUMBO", there are also several undisclosed hidden characters. If you want to know how to use other hidden characters, please pay attention to the next issue of "Secret Technique Workshop"

ROBO Z-GOLD How to use: Complete the game with any of the six basic characters

COLUMBO How to use: Complete the game once with SHORTY

[fragileswift1313]

Need for Speed Unbound!

Or as I like to call it, High-speed Head-on Collision Simulator 2022

Kia ora, friends!

This is gonna just be a short one this week due to ongoing mental and physical health issues, but on that front I have some news: I think I’m slowly but surely getting better!

But anyway, I wanted to talk a little bit about Need for Speed Unbound this week because I have been playing it a lot over the last few weeks (when I have had the energy) and I can’t think of a game in recent history that has made me rage quit and want to throw my controller so many times but still is able to pull me back in. I love a good arcade racer; my favourite series in this genre is obviously Forza Horizon (and to a lesser extent Forza Motorsport, which I am still excited for in October), but I have been known to dip into Need for Speed now and then. This latest entry, launched last year, recently came to Xbox Game Pass, so I decided to check it out.

My first dive into this game was via Xbox Cloud Gaming and y’all, that service is great for some games, but for a game as fast-paced as Need for Speed Unbound, I absolutely do not recommend it 😅. Playing it this way, I was constantly crashing into things that I didn’t see because the frames fell out, so it didn’t take long for me to decide to make some space on the tiny Xbox Series S internal storage and download the game to play locally. Once I got that out of the way, I started to have a blast… for a while. My TV, which was 1080p, died a couple of months ago, so since then I’ve been using a TV I borrowed from my sister, which is 720p, and let me tell you, again for a game like this, it’s… a less than optimal way to play. Once I started getting into faster and faster cars, I started crashing into things again. A lot. This isn’t a failure of the game itself, I don’t think, I’m just playing it in a really stupid way 😭.

Apart from all the technical stuff I just mentioned, Need for Speed Unbound is really fun. I think my favourite part, though, has been customising my character, as well as the paint/wraps on some of my cars.

I wish I had more pictures of the different outfits I’ve had my character wear, (I haven’t had the time to go back to the game before writing) but I still really like this look. And oh boy do I love that car. It’s one of the cars the game gives you in the beginning, a Nissan GT-R from I want to say 1997 (or thereabouts), and it’s fast, great at drifting, extremely hot, but the best thing of all: I made it look queer and non-conforming as fuck.

The game limits what you can write on your cars, I assume because it’s possible other players could see it, so it wouldn’t let me write ‘queer’ or ‘gay’ or ‘bitch’ or ‘fascist’ - those first two are kind of bonkers considering the amount of queer representation this game contains, but I digress. So I substituted ‘fascist’ with the succinct ‘fash’, and instead of ‘basic bitch’ I wrote ‘basic beach’, which the latter is honestly kind of better anyway.

The racing is fun, though frustrating sometimes thanks to the game only giving you a maximum of retries per in-game 24-hour period, but what really stands out to me is that there is so much queer representation here - like way more than I’d have ever expected from a Need for Speed. There’s one NPC racer you meet and race against named Justicia who is from Mexico and is openly transfem. There are signs around the city that say things like ‘love is love’, or simply have the pride flag on them. And as you may have noticed on my car in the pictures above, you can just put the pride flag and trans flag all over your car if you want - and not just that, they have every single type of pride flag I could think of, which blew me away. Seriously, more games need to be this open about supporting queer communities. There’s also a bunch of representation for people all over the world - the music in Need for Speed Unbound includes tracks in Arabic, Japanese, Spanish, French, and a few I couldn’t nail down just by listening, and it’s honestly super refreshing.

Anyway, that’s all from me this week. Sorry if it feels a bit like it was put together at the last minute because, well, it was, but I wanted to make sure I had something for you.

Thanks so much for reading, y’all, I appreciate it. As always, if you have any comments or questions, hit me up on the social links at the bottom of the page, or flick me an email! If you want to read more stuff from me, you can check out my Letterboxd reviews! This week I reviewed Robot Jox (1989), which I believe may have inspired some of the aesthetics of things like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Pacific Rim.

Stay safe and warm out there (or safe and cool, if you’re in the northern hemisphere!) y’all, and I’ll talk to you all again really soon. Ka kite anō au i a koe. 💚

Rebecca

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[yuzupia]

I originally made this tumblr because I wanted to talk about both manga and games but ended up mostly only talking about games... I read a lot of manga I swear! (just a lot of them are ongoing, maybe when I do some rereads)

But recently I just finished Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, I had a really good time with it! I was recommended it because I told a friend of mine I liked Obra Dinn and the Golden Idol games (Obra Dinn being one of my favourite games! Case of the Golden Idol is also excellent, the sequel is good too but not as good as the original). I came in expecting a similar sort of game with deduction and mystery though I realized quite quickly that the game wasn't exactly like the other two lol.

I will also likely talk about spoilers so don't read if you haven't finished!

The main thing that stood out for me was the atmosphere of the game was really well done, the mostly grey-scale colour scheme and fixed camera angles along with a pretty spooky mansion did a great job of getting me in the mood for the story the game wanted to tell me. I'll admit that I scare very easily so there were things that did scare me, though the game overall is not very scary. The sound design and the feel of the entire hotel was fantastic!

The puzzles were for the most part good, but I think my biggest problem with them is that a lot of them felt more like brainteasers/riddles, which aren't bad puzzles but I definitely had a different expectation coming in. I thought they would be more deduction based, similar to Obra Dinn and the Golden Idol games, so having to do math and a bunch of other various riddles surprised me. Some good, some I thought were either a little uninspired (which in some cases like the shortcut doors, fair enough) or a bit frustrating for inputs, which is a good segue into my other problem with the game.

I think my biggest gripe is that the controls while simple were a litttttle frustrating at times. The biggest one being that there was no cancel/back button, intuitively I usually hit a cancel button to get out of a menu but sometimes that would just put me further into a menu! This was also a problem with some puzzles where sometimes I wanted to reset, but to do that, I had to mash out a wrong solution before being able to retry the puzzle.

But with those gripes out of the way, what I really, really, really loved about the game was the way it told its story. I've always been a fan of these kinds of story telling methods where you essentially drip feed information to the player, even seemingly unconnected drips, but at the end they pool together to form a cohesive story.

I think this was a really powerful way to tell the story of Lorelei coming to terms with her guilt about the events of 1963, and the reappearing years helped me as a player make those connections. Seeing the years 1847, 1963, and 2014 come into play so often I think was a good way at not only providing almost clues/hints with puzzles, but as a way to help the player understand the story the game is trying to tell.

Funnily enough with Renzo's art piece being about interactive media, I thought it quite fitting that this game was a really good example of a story being told through interactive media. Taking control of Lorelei as she navigates her past in this way where there's so many different branches that you as the player have to connect help make it more impactful when you get to the end.

Overall though I had a great time with the game (even finishing it all in one weekend)!

[maarcade]

Creating A tile set and structures.

First I want to make a house.

I have looked at a few different designs and for my game I think the more detail in the house the better.

I first started by making a new canvas then I made a rough outline of what I want the house to look like.

I then had to think about what I want for coloring. I wanted something that is standout and makes the house recognizable.

I chose a classic red tile roof, for the actual walls I wanted a warn down plaster look so I chose an off white.

With some shading I really like how this came out and think it will look good in game.

I absolutely love how this looks in game I just need to make the character sprite line up with the world properly.

To solve this I just had to got to third person character and move the sprite down slightly now it works well.

Next I want to make a telephone pole and wire.

Most of them are the same with slight differences depending on country. They are long wooden pillars with metal spools on them.

I first made a line of brown for the pole and then grey dots for the spool things on to, then add a wire and texture.

I then made a few others with different wires so it could be modular.

In game they now look like this.

Next I want to make a car. I preferably want a side on car as I think it would work much better.

I have looked at many cars but I have decided to go with a family car as I think this represents that the fires are effecting all classes, even the poorer in society.

To make my car I started a new photoshop frame then I am going to make a simple shape. add the details then the colors. Finally I will texture it.

I like how this turned out but it took about 5 retries to make it look right. Then when I placed it in game I had to create a custom collision box around it as the standard one didn't work very well.

Next I need to find a way to make my player become elevated

With my house I want to make a way to go in and through the house. I want to make a modular piece that allows you to go through a door and come out the other side.

For this I need to make an attachment piece for the player to go through and come out of.

From earlier in my post you can see the house I made. I will build a modular extension for this. The tricky par it that the roof tapers so the extension must taper out. to fit the gaps. When I first did this and added it in the roof didn't line up properly. I have now adapted it using trial and error.

with a bit of careful lining up it looks good in game

I think I may fill in the door though.

Next I want to make the doors function, I want to split the main house in two and have them on different layers to make it look like he goes in and then comes out while going into the house.

I then literally split the house in 2 and saved as.

This worked

[sourcesandsignificance]

6. Celeste Game Mechanics and Narrative

I came across this game because it was very popular. It had great reviews on Steam and a lot of other positive feedback, so I was curious how a game with mechanics and art that seemed unoriginal could stand out among all the indie games out there. So, I started playing Celeste to see what all the fuss was about.

After a while, I got Celeste and realized how great it was. The game is about Madeline, the main character, who decides to climb a mountain called Celeste to figure out her current state of being because of some bad things in her life. It's a relatable story for gamers because it shows that everyone deals with mental health issues like self-doubt and depression as they grow up. The cool thing about Celeste is that it doesn't just tell a story; it uses gameplay and storytelling to let you experience it in an immersive way. Celeste's gameplay mechanics are exceptionally well-designed.

Here are three reasons why I think Celeste's gameplay mechanics and storytelling work so well together:

1. Gameplay Reflects the Main Character's Inner Struggles

The gameplay and Madeline’s internal battles are seamlessly integrated.

Celeste is a platform-jumping game similar to Mario, where the player must climb a high mountain using three core skills: jumping, sprinting, and climbing. You're bound to die countless times during the game, but these failures symbolize Madeline's struggles and resilience in facing her inner anxiety.

The game's user-friendly save point system further supports this. You can save at any point in the game, enabling the "death resurrection" method where you repeatedly retry failed sections. This design and the protagonist’s story make it clear that Celeste conveys an important message: frustration and failure are integral to growth.

2. Level Design Mirrors the Protagonist's Psychological State

One of the most exciting aspects of Celeste is how every level is designed to reflect Madeline's mental state. This immersive approach deepened my connection to the character and her mindset.

For example, in the Mirror Temple, the labyrinth-like design and mirrors symbolize the confusion and anxiety Madeline feels when facing her fears. This level also introduces Madeline, Madeline’s negative counterpart. Madeline is not only a boss the player must overcome but also represents the protagonist's inner turmoil. The game uses this duality to explore why Madeline's mind is split into two selves and how she can reconcile with her darker side.

3. Simple Yet Thought-Provoking Story and Dialogue

Celeste features only five characters, but their conversations are simple and impactful, with each line encouraging deep reflection.

For instance, dialogues between Madeline and Badeline prompt players to think about self-acceptance, the importance of inner dialogue, and how to approach oneself with compassion rather than criticism. Similarly, the conversations between Madeline and Theo, a fellow climber, offer insight into dealing with overwhelming anxiety and emotional exhaustion.

Conclusion

Celeste is not just a challenging platformer; it’s a game that resonates deeply with players by addressing mental health and teaching strategies for coping with anxiety. Blending gameplay and storytelling creates a physically challenging and emotionally profound journey.

The mountain in Celeste represents something different for each player, but the game’s central message remains clear: as long as we keep trying and accept ourselves, we can find our path.

Celeste is a testament to how games can combine mechanics and narrative to deliver robust, meaningful experiences.

Reference

Derek ex Machina (2019) 'Celeste and the symbiotic relationship with difficulty and narrative,' Derek ex Machina Blog. Available at: https://www.derekexmachina.com/blog/2019/5/05/celeste-and-the-symbiotic-relationship-with-difficulty-and-narrative (Accessed: [6 Jan 2025]).

Epilogue Gaming (n.d.) 'Playing the narrative: Celeste,' Epilogue Gaming. Available at: https://epiloguegaming.com/playing-the-narrative-celeste/ (Accessed: [6 Jan 2025]).

Point N' Think (n.d.) 'Celeste philosophy,' Point N' Think. Available at: https://www.pointnthink.fr/en/celeste-philosophy/ (Accessed: [6 Jan 2025]).

[allsonicgames]

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii)

Original Platform: Wii

Original release: 13th October 2009

Available to buy: No

A big improvement over the first Mario & Sonic title. This gives you all of the main events straight away, with the Dream Events being the main unlockables (but aren’t difficult to unlock). The events themselves also felt a lot more fun, with rules and controls that are simpler to understand and far fewer events where a single mistimed (or unregistered) Wii Remote shake can knock you out of the competition, or create a false start.

Skiing and Snowboarding are some of the main events, both with a trick version (jump for skiing and halfpipe for snowboarding) and a race. The controls are very similar (tilt to turn, pull back to slow down) except that skiing uses both the Wii Remote and nunchuck and the Snowboarding uses just the Wii Remote – although thankfully it doesn’t force you to unplug the nunchuck. Bobsled and Skeleton have you going down a long pipe, tilting the Wii Remote to stay within the optimal racing line.

Speed Skating I couldn’t properly get the hang of, the on-screen prompts are hard to see but luckily it’s not too difficult to get used to the rhythm needed to move the remote from left to right. It’s a good way to make it feel different to the other sports. Figure Skating is a “simon says” type thing which mostly works fine, except for a tilting action which I always failed at.

Ice Hockey is great fun. It’s a simple version of ice hockey, but as it uses buttons and analogue sticks, it feels very responsive. My only issue is that you can’t select to play one match, you have to take part in a mini-tournament with two matches. Curling is by far the worst event. The swing required for how powerful your hit will be is very unreliable, and it takes ages. I ended up just doing a full power shot each time, as without sweeping it’s actually a perfect short. To make matters worse, it’s also a mini tournament.

The Dream Stages are better than the main events, with races like Snowboarding and Skiing taking place on fancy tracks with loops, jumps, springs and items. They’re incredibly good fun, with other Dream Events following similar things. Dream Figure Skating is like a “Sonic on Ice” (or “Mario on Ice”) performance. The dream events feature some new ones.

Dream Gliding was not what I was expecting. It’s like the multiplayer from Lylat Wars/Star fox 64, a dogfighting game where you score points for hitting enemy units, or even more points for hitting opponents. I was expecting something like Monkey Target from Super Monkey Ball. This, however, does get a similar game in the form of Dream Ski Jumping.

The main campaign is called “Festival” where you play through various events and training exercises to try and earn the most points (although I don’t know how they work, as even though I lost a lot of events, only one opponent had a single gold medal). You don’t have to win to progress, they just add to your final score. Every now and then you’ll encounter a boss, who you do have to beat, although my main struggle was one race with Bullet Bill. Although I did have to retry a race against King Boo, but only because the game cheated and claimed he won, even though I crossed the line first (and even the replay showed this).

Overall, this is a much better party game than the original Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and the festival is even fun for a single player.

[helicoptersandcrocodilesfmp]

What are roguelite and roguelike?

To find out what makes a good rogelite I started by looking at different ways in which other games of this genre look and play to find out what makes them good and bad to ensure that my idea has the best of the two worlds. 

binding of Isaac

The rules of a roguelike are displayed well in Binding of Isaac where if the player loses the game progress, they are reset to the start. I find this to be a great way of building tension for the player as the game gets more difficult, as the further they get in the the game, the more they want to keep that progress in the game.

One thing I like about the game is it’s use of power ups that can be brought by the player. I find this brings another layer of strategy to the game, and makes the coins in the game feel like they are worth more, as they directly impact the game. This is not always necessary for a rogelike but is most often used.

Like most games of this genre, Cult of the Lamb punishes the player for dying in the level. The level is made up of different parts in which the player has to find their way around the level while fighting enemies.

In this game you find animals that are in danger that you can recruit, by doing so the player gets another person to help with their farm, another mechanic this added is happiness. The happier the people are in the cult, the more likely they are to pray to you, giving the player the chance to upgrade. Unlike most other roguelike games, this upgrade is permanent and does not fade when the player dies in the level.

This is the upgrade screen in the game. I find that it is a great way of adding choice to the player, I find this to be very different to the original idea of a roguelike, and I think it is a great departure from the original idea of a roguelike. I am thinking of adding a mechanic like this in my game but I wont have it be permanent like in this game as I don’t want the player to keep everything when they die. By doing so, the player will be under greater stress not to die.

In Just Shapes and Beats, when the player dies they have to go back to the start, but unlike most games of this genre you have a combination of checkpoints that can only be used a few times, and after you used all of the retries you just end up on the over world. Where the game play becomes more like what I am planning for my game is in the boss fights, which I have shown above, In the boss fights, when you loose you go back to the start of the fight, which is still different from most, as you have progress that is saved even after you are dead. By doing this, the game is more fun as it is les punishing on the player experimenting with game mechanics.

[koolfrogz]

Misconceptions Regarding MCC14

Recently there have been a load of misconceptions regarding many of the controversies that happened this MCC, especially on Twitter and Tiktok, so I thought I would make a giant post detailing these and why they are wrong so I can scroll through my dash in peace.

1. Hbomb purposely abused a glitch in HITW that got Illumina and Mefs banned from MCC on the practice server. 

This one can easily be broken down into three components: 1. Misinformation about the glitch itself 2. Misinformation about the Mefs and Illumina incident 3. When does abusing a glitch count as cheating?

Firstly, the glitch Hbomb used is actually very common in HITW and has been around since the game was first introduced. The devs know about it and have not made any complaints about it because the usage of the glitch itself is heavily luck based (depending on the ping of the player) and does not guarantee a win to any player who does get it. Take for example PearlescentMoon who has used the glitch repeatedly throughout many competitions (i.e MCC 11), yet has not gained any significant advantage through it because, again, there is still an element of skill required to use it. This glitch is not only known by the devs, but has been used before in HITW. It is not something new that Hbomb exploited as a means of getting ahead.

Secondly, the Illumina and Mefs situation is not at all comparable to the Hbomb one. Illumina and Mefs were using a completely different glitch which did guarantee a win to the player because it allowed the player to afk on the platform and allow the blocks to pass through them. They were not banned for exploiting this glitch, but rather reprimanded by Scott and the devs for not reporting it to them sooner. Mefs and Illumina are still allowed in MCC and only didn’t compete this time because the teams had already been formed.

Finally, in regards to the idea of cheating itself when using such a glitch, the idea that what Hbomb did counts as cheating is absurd considering past MCCs and the various glitches which have been abused as well. I’ve seen a lot of people mention the infamous Wilbur Glitch and I think its a perfect example. The Wilbur Glitch is from the game Rocket Spleef which was not played this MCC but certainly will be in the future. The glitch involves the player becoming stuck in a block and seemingly floating in the air allowing them to basically secure a win without admin intervention. This glitch is much more OP than the glitch Hbomb used, and we have even seen admins purposefully try to kill players for using it (i.e Philza MCC11). However, even when players have purposefully attempted to get it (Wilbur, Phil, Quackity, etc.), I have never seen the fandom react so negatively as to accuse them of cheating. It is not fair to accuse Hbomb of cheating when he abuses a glitch which has been in the game for ages and not do the same with your favourite creators who do a much more busted glitch as well. Personally, I don’t consider either of these cheating, but that���s my opinion.

2. They removed Parkour Warrior because Dream was too good. That’s not fair.

Okay, this one is very simple as its just not true. This falls under the assumption that Dream was the only player to finish Parkour Warrior which is not true (PeteZahHutt completed the course twice and was the first to ever complete it in MCC 6). While the reason the Parkour Warrior map was destroyed in MCC 11 is said to be that EpicLandlord destroyed it because “he was annoyed at how good Dream was at it”, this is mainly a joke (think of the Ranboo being banned from MCC situation, while Ranboo isn’t in MCC there’s no actual beef and he’s not actually banned.) Secondly, if you weren’t around for Parkour Warrior when it was still in MCC, or have only ever seen Dream or Pete’s POV, you might not know, but Parkour Warrior was a miserable game mode (think Build Mart/Bingo but ten times worse because there was no chance to improve your placement other than just being good at Parkour). The game was 10 minutes of pure rage and frustration from competitors, which while entertaining at times, wasn’t the best for content when only two POVs in the entire competition were deemed watchable. This also wasn’t good for a competition because it meant that only two teams at most were progressing (and by a large amount) due to one player while the rest lagged behind. It gave the teams which had Pete and Dream a huge advantage and made the game unfun and unfair to everyone else, so they revamped the game (to Parkour Tag) to make it an even playing field where everyone had a chance to win (in the spirit of MCC). 

3. Scott had an unfair advantage in the competition and should be removed from the Dev Team or the Participants List.

This one is slightly more nuanced and may not have a definitive answer. Yes, Scott does have a slight advantage due to being a part of the dev team in every MCC. However, this MCC was definitely an outlier in that fact. Scott has been known to share info and tips with his teammates in past MCCs, but it has not truly impacted their performance on a significant level because the players knew a majority of the information anyways (the game rules, maps, etc). This MCC was unfair because Scott had a bigger advantage than originally assumed (it doesn’t mean he did it with malicious intent, it just means there was a severe oversight when designing the maps and explaining the rules to players). Also, the idea that Scott was guaranteed a win because he was part of the Dev Team is ridiculous and untrue. 

Scott has always been treated on the same level as any other player and has not been giving special privileges because he helped work on the tournament. Take for example MCC 8. Scott was teamed with Tommy, Philza, and Wilbur, and they were doing very well! Then came (wait for it), Ace Race. Scott experienced a glitch which allowed him to remain with his Elytra activated for half the course and allowed him to skip over multiple checkpoints and placed him in first. However, by skipping over these checkpoints the game corrected his placement and put him in last. This was seen as not fair at the time and the Red Rabbits did complain, to which Noxite responded that there was nothing they could do and Scott would just have to finish the round as normal. This glitch severely impacted the Red Rabbits standings and possibly led to them not being able to compete in Dodgebolt that MCC. Yet, Scott was never treated differently than any other player throughout the glitch despite being a part of the Dev Team.

For the next MCC, I certainly think that Scott should be allowed to play as normal. I truly believe this MCC was a fluke, and although I too felt a little salty seeing my favourite go from 2nd to 30th, I believe that it is not worth getting up in arms about it because at the end of the day there is a whole season of competitions where any team has a chance to win. 

4. They should have restarted the round and allowed the participants to retry the map.

While I too would have loved to see a rematch for Ace Rae, I would like to say that I, and probably many of the people playing, knew that it wasn’t going to happen. Noxcrew is very strict about the way MCC is run, it’s why I think it works so well. However, this means that they will not budge on these rules even in the face of something such as this competition’s Ace Race debacle. In the entire time of MCC, Noxcrew have only once ever restarted a round. This was in MCC 7 during Battle Box after there were server issues causing extreme lag for everyone (and Wilbur and Magistrex blew up their own teammates). It was unlikely that they were going to restart the round due to the mistake, and honestly, it might’ve caused more trouble than good to reset the points and the entire round of Ace Race. 

5. The Spirit of MCC

This last one is more of a general statement than a misconception, but I would like to say that I have seen a lot of newer fans confused and upset about this MCC’s outcome. However, I would like to remind everyone that at the end of the day MCC is a for-fun tournament which brings MCYTs of every background to compete and have fun. Yes, there is an element of competitiveness as it is a competition, but it goes against the very spirit of the competitions to be toxic and rude in spite of not winning or placing lower than you expected. At the end of the day, it is a MC tournament that has no monetary prize other than a golden coin. It is immature to slander, spread misinformation, or send death threats and harassment over such a tournament and I wish shame upon anyone who’s first reaction to not winning or their team not winning was to do such a thing. MCC is a brilliant tournament that has changed the game for how MC Competitions have been done, and it is disheartening to see the hard work Noxcrew and Scott have done be disrespected as such. I hope next MCC the fandom can come together and make this the lovely fandom event it once was. 

[vlad-the-lad]

My Critical Role Class Ideas are a touch different from some people's: I don't really have any hopes for a particular player playing a particular class (honestly, I have faith in them to kill it no matter WHAT they play). Instead, I just have classes that I hope SOMEONE plays, mainly: Artificer: These guys are PAINFULLY underrepresented so far: the only one we've ever had was Tary, and while I adore him, he was made when Artificer was essentially still in beta! These days, the class is more coherent and has way more sub-classes: plus, it's been, what, 30-40 years since Campaign 1 at this point? What better way to show how much more technologically advanced Exandria's become than with someone who uses that tech? Ranger Revised: Listen y'all, Vex is my favorite VM character; always has been, always will be. But poor Matt and Laura always had their hands full keeping her viable because PHB Ranger is ASS, and Beastmaster is a bigger stinkier ass: between all the magical items and having to dip into Rogue, I admire Vex and Laura for being such an effective character IN SPITE of their class, not because of it. As someone currently playing a Revised Ranger of a different subclass, I can confirm that, when not bogged down with PHB rules, Ranger can KICK. FUCKING. ASS. Plus, like Artificer, we've only ever had the one: more badass Ranger representation, please!

Sorcerer: I fully admit to being horribly biased here because Sorcerer is my all-time favorite class, but it's my favorite for a reason: in the right hands, that Metamagic can RUIN enemy encounters in the best possible way! And given how clever the cast has shown themselves to be with tactics, most of them could HAUL ASS as a Sorcerer! And they're in the same boat as the last two, as well, since we've only ever had one in Dariax (not counting Calianna since she was a guest character): more representation for a neglected class! Paladin: I know what you're thinking, "But this one isn't underrepresented! We've had two Paladins, one for each main campaign!" And you are correct! HOWEVER! Both paladins multiclassed INTO Paladin rather than it be their primary class! Not that I mind, it's a great multiclass option, but how cool would it be to have a fledgling Paladin in the party from the start? Let me answer that for you: VERY! Plus, the vows are ALWAYS good roleplaying and backstory fodder: I'd love to see what the cast does with one!

Blood Hunter: This one speaks for itself: the only Blood Hunter we've ever had in the party didn't make it far enough for us to really appreciate the class! Admittedly, we DID get to see a high-level Molly in VM vs. M9, but I would KILL to see a retry for one to get to a higher level in the party! (Plus, Blood Hunters are just SICK, man. You know it, I know it, we all know it. MORE PLEASE.)

[tf2workbench]

Fury of a Heavy scorned

Early this March, I wrote a post about using the Heavy’s MvM knockback rage in conventional gameplay. Although I fiddled with the actual effect, I strongly praised the introduction of the meter itself: it gives Heavy players and their opponents a big tactical choice, altering the flow of gameplay and bringing more depth to a class that is sometimes decried for being uninteresting. This is an important enough change that I’d like to see it applied to all miniguns in some form, giving the player more choices to make and the opponent more things to take into account.

In the last post, we discussed the rage meter granting two different buffs: 1) increased knockback and 2) knockback immunity. Earlier on, I also discussed such a mechanic for the Deflector, in which I debuted a similar idea based on the Medic’s projectile shield. Let’s branch out a little bit and explore other ways in which this rage meter could be used.

Iteration 1: Lifesteal (+) Damage dealt (up to 600) charges Rage meter. When Rage is full, activate to gain +4 health per shot for 6 seconds, but at the cost of dealing half damage. (-) -20% firing speed (-) -25% health from healthpacks

This is based on my exploration of Ludmila, a beta-tested version of the Minigun that could restore health on hit. As I discussed Ludmila, I found that it (she?) might often cause Heavies to hang back and pepper enemies with bullets from afar, making gameplay kind of passive. By making the health regeneration only a brief thing, I think this would be deployed a lot more judiciously.

Iteration 2: Speed (+) Damage dealt (up to 500) charges Rage meter. When Rage is full, activate to move at full speed while spun up for 4 seconds, but at the cost of a 25% damage penalty. (-) 20% slower spin-up time (-) -25% ammo carried

In January, I tested a minigun that let you move at full speed while spinning, but I ultimately judged it to be kind of iffy. I want to retry that idea, but with a rage meter, allowing you to get brief bursts of speed (well, Heavy speed) during combat. This is the result: a minigun that lets you really go on the offensive, attacking and repositioning with surprising speed. The numbers may not be wholly balanced, but I think this idea gives the Heavy a good way to overcome his slowness in a way that isn’t so counter to the class.

Iteration 3: Tank (+) Damage dealt (up to 800) charges Rage meter. When Rage is full, activate to gain 50% damage resistance and immunity to critical hits for 6 seconds at the cost of a 50% damage penalty. (-) -15% firing speed (-) -50 max health on wearer

Play it safe until you unleash your true strength, making yourself practically immovable. I purposefully designed this one to be weak to being pushed around and to backstabs, giving opponents a way to actually hurt you. And if they’re smart, they’ll focus on your teammates instead of you - if you’ll let them.

This is perhaps the one I’m least fond of, knowing that it can do a lot to slow down the game. Attacking this Heavy when their rage is full will likely be a losing fight, especially if they have teammates assisting; the name of the game may often be to force them to trigger it and then to retreat, which wastes valuable game time. That’s why I purposefully gave it weaknesses, especially including the health and damage penalties.

Iteration 4: Piercing (+) Damage dealt (up to 800) charges Rage meter. When Rage is full, activate to make shots pierce up to two enemies for 6 seconds. (-) -20% damage (-) Bullets lose 25% damage for each target they pierce

You can buy an upgrade in Mann vs Machine that lets minigun shots pierce enemies, but this rage meter is a different spin on it. Suddenly, you gain a lot of crowd control, turning the tide of team fights.

I’m often a little leery of piercing shots, since they often invalidate the time-honored strategy of letting the bulky classes take the point position. That’s why I made the bullets lose damage on piercing, letting squishier classes at least take less damage and encouraging smart positioning. I don’t think this is too much of a problem, but it’s always good to bear in mind.

Conclusion Overall, I’m beyond pleased with the addition of the rage meter. As I mentioned before, the Heavy’s gameplay can sometimes feel slow or boring, and I think that implementing a toggleable effect gives a lot more for players to think about. A binary effect like Ludmila’s two firing modes could also work, but I opted to pursue rage meters because they also bring in elements of timing and resource management.

The numbers definitely need playtesting - I don’t want the damage requirement to be so high as to make the meter never see use, but I also don’t want it so low as to be functionally an on/off switch. All the same, I think the core idea behind these miniguns is solid. Plus, there are even more opportunities that I haven’t explored here! Among the ideas I haven’t discussed could be a temporary damage buff, an incendiary effect, or even Ubercharge-like effects - there are lots of options, and I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[lemonadeflashbang]

Katana Zero Thoughts/Review

Almost two weeks ago I had the pleasure of playing through Katana Zero while conked out on my second shot. I waited before writing this post to fully digest what I actually thought of the game. It’s definitely a stylish game, and fits in quite well with other games published by Devolver, but I think it was likely held back a bit by its’ own ambition. For those who don’t know, Katana Zero is an action game where you play as a time controlling samurai who has to kill every enemy in an area before proceeding to the next room. Enemies die in one hit, but so do. The gameplay is twitchy and the concept is kind of anime as fuck, and when it works it works. There’s also a cool cyberpunk story, and for an indie it’s actually pretty well written. There’s a narrative system that allows you to pursue different dialogue paths, but you can also “get to the point” by spam pressing all the initial “rude” prompts. You can also choose to wait out a timer and reply with silence. Generally speaking though, even though I liked the story I felt like its’ focus was ultimately a detriment to the final game. The whole game is only a few hours long, and you probably spend at least half of that time navigating through dialogue. Tons of resources went into the writing and the cutscenes, many of which are lovingly animated, that I think might have been better served by being poured into the core gameplay loop. There’s a bit of a myth in gaming that games are the sum of their parts. For example, if you clone a game but improve the story, the game is objectively better. I believe that to be false. Take a Mario game, for example. Taking the quick “princess is kidnapped” story and replacing it with something epic- maybe from a JRPG or from something more western like Horizon Zero Dawn, wouldn’t result in a better game. And the reason is simple- the core gameplay of a Mario game is about the platforming. That’s the most fun part of the game. Even if you improve the story, so long as that story takes up more time you’ll find that your players will be having less fun on average simply because the story isn’t as good as the platforming segment, and now you’ve blown it out and made it more important. There’s a reason why these Nintendo games have such basic stories. Nintendo has no problems writing funny Mario RPG’s as any fan of Mario & Luigi or Paper Mario will tell you. They’re choosing not to so they can focus their energy on the most fun part of the game. Narrative and RPG games have a lot more room to play with long story segments, because story is part of the core value proposition for these genres. But that’s not true of all game types. So let’s loop back to Katana Zero. There are now half of your game sections that are about the narrative... but the narrative is short, raises more questions than answers, incomplete, and doesn’t give you time to get attached to most of the characters. And let me be clear- this isn’t because I think the devs did a bad job. But indie games are stretched thin, so creating content, especially cutscene and effects heavy narrative content that can’t be reused, is super time consuming. And at some point you just have to ask- are we going to be able to tell a story that’s as gripping and exciting as our gameplay? Does the story enhance the gameplay, like in a narrative or RPG game? Is the enhancement worth the time? I’d argue that it isn’t. Not that there isn’t a good story there, but that the story is way too big to fit comfortably in an indie package and get really attached to. Not without a genre shift, resource injection, or cutscene de-escelation. There’s a reason most RPG cutscenes look so donkus, even today. So in the end, you have a game where you spend half your playtime as a kickass time bending samurai, and the other half navigating dialogue trees that don’t result in alternate endings or secret levels or anything all that gameplay related, but tell the prologue to a story that may never have an ending. There’s a mismatch between your most fun thing, and the rest of the game, and the gap is big. Not because the story sucks, because the core gameplay is fun. Let’s talk more about the core gameplay though. Story isn’t the only place where I feel that ambition may have caused some problems. There’s a point in the game where you can play a single stage as a second character. Just the one. Why implement a character just for one stage? Why not bring them into more of the game? As an unlockable character choice to increase replayability, perhaps? There could be some level design constraints around that, but I don’t think it’d have been an issue with the alternate character that existed as it was. Finally, I feel like the level design starts to break down in the last third of the game or so.As you approach the last act, you lose freedom to express yourself in your approach and become more constrained by enemy reaction times and numbers. This isn’t necessarily a huge issue, but it also starts to force you to rub against the bits of randomness in the game. You might kick open a door only to get immediately shotgunned by the police officer across the hall, unable to deflect the bullets because the spread is random and two of them are too far apart to hit in one swing but close enough together to kill you during your attack’s cooldown. Maybe it’s not one shotgun blast but three or four pistol rounds, shot by enemies without friendly fire. Maybe they’re guarding a laser cannon with that will blast you unless you descend precisely from above. Maybe you retry a prior tactic, but it doesn’t work because when a level resets it doesn’t move enemies to a fixed position- and their different placements results in different AI behavior even when executing the exact same moves. Whatever the case, the game becomes significantly more punishing and less predictable. You may have to idle and wait for enemies to move into a good position again before retrying a tactic simply because it just won’t work in the current spawn position, which slows down the pacing of an otherwise fast game. Most importantly, the games difficulty increase has nothing to do with mechanics being harder- it’s just repeating the prior challenges but generally less forgiving. Increased mastery is good to aim for, however there’s a couple things you want to avoid. The first is shrinking the play space too much. If your increased mastery comes at the price of player freedom and flexibility, what will happen is levels devolve into rote memorization and the game loses replayability. It also starts to feel like farming, or a chore, even if it’s the first time you’re playing it. The second is you want to make sure that you maintain predictability- which is lost with the shotgun shell randomness and the variation in enemy starting placements. The game ends up feeling stale towards the end of its runtime, which is odd given how short it is. I think an extra mechanic or two to play with for the core gameplay could have taken it farther and let it keep its’ shine. The game was good, and is definitely a fun ride for an afternoon or so, but I can’t see myself wanting to go back to it- even with a DLC update. Generally speaking, I recommend it- but maybe on sale.

[verdantspringcourtyard]

Kyoto's Shop of Everything Event

Another 2-week long event, also know as Heian-Kyo Agency, that coincides with SP Aoandon's release. This event is like a much more newbie-friendly version of the Hyakki Yakou event, except it's a little bit more tedious. Consists of 3 major parts; Paper Doll Dispatch, Hyakki Battles and the Oniou Scroll.

Before Starting

Before you get access to the rest of the event, you must first create your paper doll. You can customise your paper doll's ribbon colour, give them a back accessory, give them front accessories, and most importantly - give them an adorable face by either selecting a preset or drawing them a custom face.

Once you've made your little paper doll, the levels for their 4 skills will be randomly be assigned. Whether you have certain achievements unlocked will determine how high their skills and what rarity they will be. So, if you're a new player you might get an R with mostly low skills, or if you're a long time player who has obtained most achievements you might get an SSR with one or two high-level skills.

Paper Doll Dispatch

This part of the event is a bit hard to explain. It’s a lot easier to understand once you experience it ingame.

The tl;dr version is: summon paper dolls > make them craft stuff > make them sell the crafted stuff > collect event currency they earned from selling stuff for you > upgrade paper dolls and remove ones with low skills > repeat.

Dispatch Area

In this area you see how much event currency you're earning per hour, the number of materials you have, how many materials you're "selling" or crafting per hour, a list of your paper dolls and their skills, and whether they're doing work or not.

Your overall goal is to have your paper dolls working non-stop. To do this you click on a paper doll in your list, then set them to either craft or sell items. Depending on their skills, they might be better at crafting or selling. When a paper doll is set to craft, sell or have finished selling materials they will take up 1 of the many slots in the collection area.

Your poor little paper dolls must work non-stop so you can constantly earn event currency. The only way to do this is to craft/sell all the sellable materials at different times of the day. You can’t just craft/sell one type of material.

In order of which materials take the least amount of time to craft/sell to the most: Fire > Wind > Water > Thunder. This is also the order of materials to craft/sell while you're online to when you don't play Onmyoji for extended hours or when you sleep (eg; sell Fire while online and craft while you sleep, sell Thunder while sleeping and craft while you’re online).

Collection Area

When a paper doll is set to craft, sell or has finished selling materials they will take up 1 of the many slots in this area. At shop rank 1 you start with 18 slots and increases to 30 as the shop ranks up. When all the slots are taken up, the paper dolls stop working. To free up slots you must manually collect all the event currency and shop EXP your paper dolls have worked so hard to earn for you. While doing this there is a chance a quest with a 2-hour time limit will appear. Oniou Scroll puzzle pieces and paper doll upgrade items can be obtained from these quests.

Types of quests:

Requests to sell materials

Bosses

Normal Bosses (no time or retry limit, must defeat boss in 1 attempt ie boss HP doesn’t carry over between attempts)

Daiyoukai Bosses (2-min battle, 4mil HP boss, the more attempts you take the lower the reward gets)

Netherworld Bosses (10 round battle, must defeat all 10 rounds in 1 attempt for max reward, no retrying)

Co-op Wanted Quests

These will not appear in the Wanted Quest menu.

Dispatch quests

There is no limit for how many times you can use the same shiki for dispatch within 24-hours.

Reward

If you get a pop-up quest, you will also have the option to remove it. Would recommend new players to completely ignore and remove the pop-up boss quests due to how difficult they are.

Summoning & Upgrading

In the dispatch area, you can also upgrade your paper dolls, summon more or remove one. Each paper doll can be upgraded 5 times. Upgrading them will randomly increase one of their 4 skills. When their skills reach certain levels, their rarity might change as well.

Paper dolls can be summoned with a summon book at the paper doll shrine. Summoned paper dolls are based off all the onmyouji ingame, it's also possible to summon paper dolls made by other players. At shop rank 1 you can only have 4 paper dolls, this increases to 10 as the shop ranks up. Summon books are restored every 7 hours, or you can buy 7 in the exchange shop every day. The exchange shop has 1 summon book for 3000 event currency, 3 for 30 jade each and another 3 for 100 jade each.

Hyakki Battles

Has normal and special battles, special battles are unlocked after reaching shop rank 3. Drop rewards for normal battles include crafting materials, some random evo materials and a few random 5-6* mitama/souls or EXP mitama/souls. The maximum number of times you can challenge the normal Hyakki Bosses starts at 30 and increases to 50 as the shop ranks up.

Special battles can only be challenged once per day, increases to 3 times per day as the shop ranks up. Before challenging it, you must pick 1 crafting jade you want to have as a drop reward, the other 3 jade will not be drops. Depending on which jade you pick, you'll get 1 of the 4 elemental kirin + 5 mini kirin as a boss, so if you pick thunder jade you'll get thunder kirin as a boss. Drop rewards are the same as normal battles, but you get whole lot more crafting materials.

For comparison; ~2-10 thunder jade can drop from one normal battle while ~124 thunder jade can drop from one special battle.

Oniou Scroll

Collect puzzle pieces by clearing quests that pop-up in the Dispatch Collection Area. Obtained puzzle pieces are automatically added to the Oniou Scroll.

The reward for completing 1 section of the puzzle is a blue summon ticket + a blue daruma, for 2 sections a blue summon ticket + 20 gold orochi scales, for 3 sections a 3* white daruma + blue summon ticket + gold, for all 4 sections is some story and a loading screen illustration + a blue summon ticket + 30 skin tickets.

Rewards

To unlock items in the exchange shop, you must increase the rank of the Shop of Everything by gaining shop EXP. You start at rank 1, and there are a total of 5 ranks. Shop rank also affects the paper doll limit, dispatch slot limit, and daily normal Hyakki Battle challenge limit.

The most notable in the exchange shop are: 7 Paper Doll event summons, 2 event icon frames, new Kujira skin, random SSR/SP, skin tickets, 6 blue summon tickets, orochi scales, demon souls, 3-4-5* white daruma, lots of blue daruma, black daruma, awakening/evo packs, 150 jade, lots of gold and AP, "Shop of Everything Packs", etc.

The non-animated icon frame is unlocked at rank 2, the Kujira skin at rank 2, the animated icon frame and black daruma at rank 4, the random SSR/SP and event packs at rank 5.

Note: The 2 icon frames are the same except one of them is animated. Note: If you don't get the Kujira skin during this event, it will become available again sometime during 2021.

Recommended Teams

Hyakki Battle (Normal)

2 AOE attackers + Oitsuki or Zashiki + Yama Usagi or Peach & Karashi and snow spirit Kiyohime

3 AOE attackers + Oitsuki or Zashiki + Yama Usagi or Peach & Karashi or snow spirit Kiyohime

3 AOE attackers + Kaoru + maneki/fortune cat Kujira

SP Iba + SP Tamamo + Enmusubi or Ushi + SP Shuten + Oitsuki 

Hyakki Battle (Special)

2 AOE attackers + snow spirit Kiyohime + Oitsuki or Zashiki + Yama Usagi or Peach & Karashi

SP Iba + SP Tamamo + Enmusubi or Ushi + SP Shuten + Oitsuki

Pop-up Quest (Normal Boss)

2 Multi-hit AOE + Oitsuki + Ushi + snow spirit Kiyohime

Pop-up Quest (Daiyoukai Boss)

Double Shuten + Shuranui + Ushi + Enmusubi

SP Tamamo or Takiyasha + double Youkinshi + Oitsuki or Enmusubi + Aoandon

Pop-up Quest (Netherworld Boss)

use same team you would use for Netherworld Gate

eg;  2 attackers +  double pull +  lighter

eg; Kuro Douji + another attacker + SP Shuten + puller + lighter

Some good choices for attackers: Ootengu, Ryomen, Takiyasha, Inuyasha, Kisei, Ubume, SP Ootengu, SP Tamamo, SP Iba, Ibaraki Doji, Orochi, etc.

Enemies in the normal Hyakki Battles are rather weak. So even if you're a new player that only has 5* attackers without 100% crit on them and a snow spirit Kiyohime with +50% HIT, you should be able to clear them. Since there is no time limit or penalty for quitting/losing, you can quit and re-enter if there's a boss you struggle with (eg; Mannendake boss, Shiro Mujou boss, Kingyo-hime boss).

New players should do the netherworld pop-up bosses, should try doing the daiyoukai pop-up bosses and ignore the normal pop-up bosses.

[emperor-of-blood]

This one might be a bit complicated, but we’re going to take a look at Jimmy Neutron himself anyways.

The rapscallion is the primary cause of conflict in his lovely town. Retroville has been an exciting place ever since he read "Baby's first science book". Always looking toward the future James here is always looking to invent something new. Pushing boundaries, helping his friends, wanting to be cool, and occasionally straight up spite are some of the things that drive him to do what he does. Our resident Fudge Head spends a surprisingly small amount of his time inventing but only because he's so good at it he finishes what he's doing in a fraction of the time it'd take a team of professionals to do the same. He instead spends his days goofing around with his friends, trying to one up anyone who dares to show any arrogance near him, and unfortunately, cleaning up his own messes.

Both of his friends, Carl and Sheen, mean the world to Captain Cranium. He's shown to spend pretty much every spare moment he has with them. Thankfully the feelings bring mutual has led to the trio being inseparable. His arrogance, while somewhat warranted, has led to an eternal rivalry with Cindy Vortex. Other than Jimmy she is for sure the smartest person in her class. Along with being athletic and moderately charismatic she had solid reason to think she was hot shit. The rivalry between these two was unavoidable the moment they met. It's such an important part of their relationship that it's become a plot point for quite a number of episodes.

More than anyone, Cindy, Professor Calamitous or any of the other villains I completely skipped over, Jimmies greatest enemy is himself. Whether he's unknowingly creating an army of super pants, crash landing on a deserted island, or creating sword art online a vr game that can kill you; he's always causing some sort of trouble. And being the genius that he is, he's just about the only one who can clean these messes up.

Now, looking at all of this, what is his classpect?

Lord of Heart

I don't use the Lord class lightly so let's get into it. Jimmy is without a doubt, a solo player. At some point I'll go over the Retroville sessions but for now, just trust me for now, Jimmy goes in himself. He is one of those types of characters that makes things happen. He isn't a reactionary character. He has his own goals and works constantly to achieve them. He is always working to clean up the problems that he himself creates. This man is constantly active. With the definition for the Lord class being that it is the most active class, the player being a solo player, and the class being one of the two most powerful, it only makes sense for him.

And as for the aspect, I’m not going to ignore the obvious. He is defined by his intellect. Without it he is nothing. That being said, smart people exist outside of the Mind aspect and that the aspect isn't defined entirely by intellect. I think the argument for Jimmy being a Heart player has a lot more backing it up than him being a Mind player. 

He already has splinters of himself, something characteristic of Heart players. Jimmy is super self-absorbed, thinking himself the protagonist of his story. He frequently retreats into his psyche to draw power during his brain blasts. He frequently ignores outside advice, choosing to believe in himself due to his pride despite obvious warning signs. I think he'd be angry that he isn't a Mind player and that he'd have to wear pink for his god tier but he really just screams Heart to me.

Jimmy's session is, for one thing, unwinnable. Not even his vast intellect can overcome so many trials without proper preparation. If you aren't a Time player you're going to need some way to subvert the session to win, like Calliope. While she didn't technically 'Win' her session she did survive and make it to the post-game two separate times. Jimmy will have to do something in a similar vein. Perhaps he creates a super bunker to survive the black hole of his session or creates another time machine to rewind and retry the game a different way? Whatever it is, you can be sure that James Isaac Neutron isn't out of the game just yet.

[seventeendeer]

Top five dark souls 1 bosses?

gonna answer this based on which ones I liked fighting the most! I have different opinions on the bosses as characters, but I figure that would fit better in a ‘favorite characters’ ask than one about bosses, so this is the angle I’m stickin’ to.

1. Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough

this fight was so intense and it was so amazing! I think it was the only fight in the game that felt outright cinematic to me, it was such an awesome experience. the fast pace and having to deal with two bosses at once made me feel like I was in a high-stakes fighting scene in an epic fantasy movie or something. since I built my character for speed and fighting in close quarters, it was the perfect test of my abilities and I felt so proud when I won! I think it took me upwards of a dozen tries to beat them, but the fight never felt impossible, so it was fun to keep going!

2. Knight Artorias

I think fighting Artorias was the most monstrously challenging bit in the whole game for me. I played the whole game never learning how to parry or riposte, and this was the moment it truly came back to bite me. while the rest of the game was obviously hard, I’d usually been able to get past most areas and bosses at a decent speed without needing to retry too many times (Ornstein and Smough had been one of the harder parts up until this point, and again, they took probably a little less than a dozen tries). I must have fought Artorias 20-30 times before I finally got him. despite this (and partially because of it), I was totally in love with the fight - battling against a character whose moveset wasn’t so different from my own, where our tactical choices matched one another’s more often than not, made it feel like a duel and a real test of my skills. there was no secret to winning, no real weak spot that I was able to exploit with the skills that I’d relied on, it was just a question of me having to get better. as with Ornstein and Smough, I feel truly proud that I was able to buckle down, learn what I needed to learn and pull through!

3. Black Dragon Kalameet

this guy was very difficult for me also, but by far the reason I loved his boss fight so much was that the way he moves is just so cool. the way the fight fully utilizes the fact that you’re fighting a quadruped with wings is awesome! it felt so different and challenging because Kalameet simply has so many different ways of moving and attacking that it took me a long time just to memorize all the ways he could kill me and which attacks to look out for at which angles. it was also totally hypnotizing watching him move around, his animations are so great. one of my favorite boss fights from when I was a kid just getting into video games was the final boss fight against Cynder from the first Legend of Spyro, and because of Kalameet’s design and moveset, it almost felt like I was fighting a harder, more extensively developed version of Cynder’s boss fight and it gave me such nostalgia. this was one of the rare fights that never felt painful or frustrating, simply because it was super fun. I was genuinely sad when I beat him haha.

4. Bed of Chaos

I know everyone (including the developers) absolutely hates this boss fight, but I personally thought it was fantastic? I thought it was so rad and creative that this one boss wasn’t about continuously damaging the enemy while avoiding her attacks, but rather puzzling out how to damage her in the first place. at first I got really frustrated because I kept dying and felt like I was making no progress ... but then I realized that each time I’d gone into the arena, I’d actually discovered a little more about how to beat her and none of my (many) deaths had been in vain! I thought it was such a cool twist, and a nice momentary change of pace from all the other bosses. as much as I love the normal boss format, I thought the idea of getting the player to use their smarts to beat a boss instead of just their reflexes was dope. it blew my mind when I finally beat her and I wouldn’t have wanted it to be different in any way.

5. Gaping Dragon

not much to say about this one except that it was a real wake-up call haha. fighting such a massive and aggressive enemy was super nerve-wracking so early in the game, and it was the moment I was thinking that maybe this game would be too difficult for me after all. thank god I kept trying. I thought its interactions with the arena were neat and the way to beat it felt really satisfying once I figured it out. just overall a really top notch fun and challenging fight in a game full of them!

[dumbfinntales]

So I just beat Remnant: From the Ashes.

A pretty fun, but somewhat flawed experience. I can totally see myself replaying this game for a bit to upgrade some weapons and see some extra content.

So at its core Remnant is a somewhat souls inspired third person shooter, which is also randomized. The souls inspiration is kinda there, but I feel like the game is different enough to have its own identity kinda like Nioh. The game relies more on player skill than the loot you got, although having good weapons does help. The randomized elements are interesting. Your first playthrough is going to be different from your second one. Bosses, items, enemy spawns and even side quests are randomized. This gives you just about enough incentive to play through the game again, maybe even on a harder difficulty.

One system that I loved about this game was how the bosses and boss loot was handled. At first I hated how each boss was accompanied with helping minions, but over time they kinda just became walking ammo carriers and they didn’t bother me so much anymore. Although almost every boss in this game would be a cakewalk if they didn’t have minions. Each major boss in the game has two ways to kill them, two special drops to get and two weapons you can make. Boss weapons are amazing and even if you do encounter the same boss again, you can just kill them in the special way to get something good. Although figuring out the alternate kill can be a pain, but I rely on wikis like any sane human being. The Defiler handgun that I got from one of the bosses was my favorite weapon in the whole game. Using it is so satisfying and its mod is so powerful. Imagine a shotgun packed into a pistol. The beam rifle and the Ruin rifle were really fun to use as well.

The game does have some design decisions that I feel like hold it back. Protecting NPC’s from enemies, especially if you can permanently fail till next playthrough suck major ass. The story related “protect root mother” was garbage and not fun in any way. I encountered a similar side quest later on where I had to protect two NPC’s, and this is where I failed permanently without knowing. One of the NPC’s died and I was locked out of getting the full reward with no way of retrying. I was beyond pissed off and felt like dropping the game there. Getting the same event is up to RNG, but at least I know better. I do feel like the game eases on bullshit around the time you leave from Earth, but those couple missions made me so sour.

Random generation has its flaws too. I started recognizing areas in the first map, and you’ll be seeing a lot of similar terrain in dungeons and the main world. Due to this nothing looks unique. There are very few awe inspiring sights in the game, and the rest is randomly generated. I ran through the same exact office building at least 5 times when I was exploring Earth. The game also has random open stretches of absolutely nothing that you have to run through. Why are they there? There’s no interesting scenery or anything to find, just a bunch of open space for the sake of it.

But yeah, gotta say that in the end the game impressed me. It’s a lot of fun, offers a lot of replayability, is fun with friends and is just a pretty well designed game. Despite its shortcomings. Remnant: From the Ashes gets a oh that was terrible/I’m in trouble!