Coelacanth

Yeah it’s a very funny game, despite also being serious a lot of the time. It’s an impressive balancing act in the writing.

The music is by a band called Sea Power, which Robert Kurvitz managed to convince make the OST! Some absolute bangers on that soundtrack, every time those horns hit when you step out of the Whirling…

It’s a wonderful game. It might appear depressing at times, but ultimately I think it’s a game about hope. Take your time with it, and don’t be afraid to be weird. This isn’t a game that punishes you for picking wacky dialogue options very often. And don’t be afraid to fail checks either, failure is a recurring theme of the game and it’s designed with a fail-forward philosophy. Some of my favourite moments actually come from failed checks.

Sometimes you want a game that makes you think and makes you feel things, sometimes you are too tired and just want to consume some slop. I totally get it. I couldn’t play something like AC all the time but I do occasionally get a craving for some open world slop.

Yeah I also prefer those. Tove Jansson was such a great writer.

And also I know that show! Well, “vaguely remember” is probably more correct. I used to watch it as a kid, but I haven’t since then. I wonder what I’d think about it nowadays.

I know the struggle. Well, not so much about rotation as I tend to play one game at a time but the backlog. It’s beginning to stack so high now it’s been officially classified as a significant landmark by the government.

Noted! I might pick them up at some point if I need a cozy game. Also, talking about this again makes me want to go dig up my old copy of Who Will Comfort Toffle?. Was my absolute comfort book as a kid, favourite bedtime story.

Errr… Court, right? This one. Anyway, I hope it’ll resonate with you, for my it’s likely to be a personal GOTY contender.

Ooh I loved INMOST. Played it on PC though. Great art, great music, great vibes. Story was also good although the ending could have been more subtle.

Ah damn, I had no idea! Which one would you say is better?

Played Titanium Court. Its great. You should play it. Don’t look up anything about it, just put your trust in the Steam refund window. You will know if it is for you or not within the first 2hrs. I am still struggling to describe it in an enticing way without spoiling anything, because this is a game that delights in constantly surprising you. Disregarding the gameplay (which is completely different) you could say Titanium Court is a little bit like Undertale for adults? That’s what I felt, at least. If you want a little bit more then this short sort of captures it.

After finally tearing myself away from Titanium Court I began playing AI Limit. It’s an anime-styled Soulslike, and while I’m not huge on anime I’d heard a lot of good things about it. So far it’s been pretty solid. It has its flaws, but it was made by a small team after all. I wish the art direction was a little stronger and more distinctive - anime post-apocalyptic modern sceneries seem like they’re dime a dozen, especially paired with mutated fleshy alien matter. There are plenty of sceneries here that may be competently designed in isolation, but just feels like I’ve seen before. The graphics are also very uneven and some textures look terrible - again, small team I guess.

Combat is pretty decent though. There is no stamina, instead there is a combined stamina/mana bar called Sync that also depletes when you get hit and recharges when you hit enemies (or parry them). Normal attacks and dodges don’t cost any Sync, so combat has a distinctly different feel from most Soulslikes. You also deal more damage at maximum Sync, but your special attacks stop working at lower Sync. If your Sync is totally depleted you get into a vulnerable state that often means death. It’s an interesting twist that makes combat feel a bit different.

EDIT: Also forgot to say, but I’ve missed these threads! I hope you’ve been well @chloyster@beehaw.org and I’m glad you’re back!

Is there a new one or the Melody of Moominvalley? That’s actually been on my wishlist for a bit, I grew up on Tova Jansson and it has great reviews too.

Modded STALKER Anomaly is worth a shout too. Some of the weather mods and sound mods make blowouts extremely intense and impressive.

Unmodded the AI in Civ is pretty bad. On lower difficulties you can have a good time just doing your own thing if that is what you want, just building cities and infrastructure and whatnot. If you’re interested you shouldn’t be intimidated by them, I’d say. Plus you can regularly pick up Civ for like 2-3 bucks these days.

I honestly can’t remember. I bought a couple of physical 3DS games semi-recently, but those were ordered online. I bought Rayman Legends on the PS4 for my sister from a physical game store like 12 years ago? Might genuinely be that.

For the longest time growing up it was Baldur’s Gate 2. Was such a formative gaming experience for me as a kid and several of those companions feel like reuniting with old friends.

More recently, Civ V on a medium difficulty is like Solitaire for me. You can just kind of go through the motions and enjoy building an empire.

For a different kind of relaxation-through-stimulation I also kind of find myself going back to Ninja Gaiden 2 recently. It’s hard to explain why this would be comforting (and the game can also be infuriating at times) but there is just something to the combat and the constant stimulation that can take your mind off things. Especially when you go back and just replay the best parts in chapter challenge as opposed to a full campaign.

The first death of the story and lore of MtG was the Gatewatch. Magic moved from localised and discrete stories with characters rooted in the specific worlds of the recent formats towards something more akin to Marvel movies or a Sunday morning cartoon. Instead it was Jace and the gang turning up every week and beating the enemy with the power of friendship. Maybe there was also some turnover in the staff around this time, because it felt like the quality of the writing declined as well.

This current era of Fortnite style IP mixing and complete sell out is just embarrassing though.

Ah I see! Yeah from my experience most builds are viable but you definitely need to specialise instead of being Jack of All Trades. The only exception being some spells like armour and Harvest Field that are great even without spell investment.

I actually went the Luck build initially and thought it was very powerful, but I went kind of all in on luck. I think I went 5 each in Vitality, Warding and Violence and then put the rest into luck, I think I had like 37 by the end or so? Enough so that with two rings with +% Luck from the labyrinth the crit and saviour ring had about 93% chance to proc. Then i put the rest of the points into Fortitude for the poise late game.

What build were you doing that wasn’t working?

And yeah the game just continues to surprise you, chapter 3 really blew me away too. Actually just finding the cable car in itself was a big wtf moment for me and then everything thereafter kept on being surprising. There is just so much game in this game, if you know what I mean? You think it’s this neat little mansion roguelike but oh no, it’s way more than that.

It also has two separate ways to make sure you don’t get stuck. I’m sure you found the Puzzle Oracles already, which is a great mechanic, and then on its webpage there are great two-stage hints for every puzzle/side quest in the game: first a smaller nudge in the right direction and then under a second spoiler tag the full explanation.This dev is so thoughtful it blows my mind.

I also like how all the game mechanics fit into the lore so naturally. The curse mechanic is one of my favourite game mechanics ever.

Ah, still so much to come! I loved that bit, you can really spend some time to perfect your build down there. The game just keeps getting cooler, doesn’t it. Whenever you think you have it figured out you discover some new surprise it throws at you.