Nagi is a strong contender for best character IMO. Although it takes a while before he gets fleshed out at all.
What are you Playing?
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Still pretty early into Xenoblade Chronicles X, though this exchange was amusing.
Nagi: I would never force or coerce anyone into joining BLADE if they didn't want to.
Me: Chooses option to not join BLADE
Nagi: Guilts me into joining BLADE by saying I would've been frozen in stasis forever if not for them
You gotta love those occassions where a game presents you with choices that basically lead to the same conclusion..
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Nagi is a strong contender for best character IMO. Although it takes a while before he gets fleshed out at all.
I'm surprised you didn't say Vandham. Or Professor B.
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I dunno what the *&)ba%3 you're talking about.
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After loving Ys VIII, grabbed a handful of the older games on PC. Definitely show their age–moreso than even other RPGs of the era--but there's a certain charm to it all, plus a great sense of mobility. VIII seems to have been the first one where it all clicked, but they're all enjoyable.
Also picked up Trails of Cold Steel to give the other side of the Falcom equation some play. Veeeeery slow start, but think I see the appeal.
Seven was the first to do the party system, and it does feel clunky compared to VIII. I & II can be hard to go back to with the bump system, especially I. I played all the various Ys games again before VIII, and I is almost unbearable. II at least has a magic system that makes things a little better. Oath and Naphistim are both pretty solid with the gameplay and are overall pretty short. Origin is pretty good as well, taking place long before I & II and while all three campaigns take you through the exact same areas, I found each play style kept me interested through each play through. One thing for sure is all of the games have those tunes that keep me going.
As for Trails, those games are indeed very slow. Cold Steel to me is the longest game of the ones available, which first time through took me 80 hours. You will get through a large chunk of the game with no main plot in sight, with nothing big happening for at least the first 30 hours of the game, depending on your speed. If you want a game that slowly builds up the world and characters before jumping into any larger plot, the trails games give you that. While I prefer the Sky games, this one is easier to get into for a lot of people. The big thing I gather is the combat is faster pace so that helps a lot of people get through the game. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts as you get farther in.
XSeed recently released another Falcom game, Zwei: The Illvard Insurrection, with the other Zwei game coming out early next year. If you have an interest in dungeon crawling type games, I'd suggest giving it a go. The system that sticks out in this game is using food to gain experience, which allows you to decide how hard you want to keep the game by staying under level.
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@The:
Cold Steel to me is the longest game of the ones available, which first time through took me 80 hours. You will get through a large chunk of the game with no main plot in sight, with nothing big happening for at least the first 30 hours of the game, depending on your speed. If you want a game that slowly builds up the world and characters before jumping into any larger plot, the trails games give you that.
That does seem to be the crux of the matter so far, but it's not annoying yet. From what little I've read, part of its appeal is that even the various NPCs have character and arcs, and that does seem to be case. In some ways, it's Persona without the near-constant stress and time pressure.
The big thing I gather is the combat is faster pace so that helps a lot of people get through the game. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts as you get farther in.
One thing I love about the Ys games is all the nods towards keeping things connected smoothly, like the fantastic warp/map mechanic in VIII. In Cold Steel, so far, I'm loving the turbo-button. A little easy to over-use it, but certainly cuts the usual quest-running slog to a minimum.
So, yeah, this looks like it could be one of those games where it finally gets so complicated managing the 800 systems that I get bored and quit, but it's hooked me so far.
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That does seem to be the crux of the matter so far, but it's not annoying yet. From what little I've read, part of its appeal is that even the various NPCs have character and arcs, and that does seem to be case. In some ways, it's Persona without the near-constant stress and time pressure.
That's one of the many things for me that really adds to this series. Only in my most recent play throughs did I really talk to the NPC's, but seeing them have their own lives that you at most do a small quest for and their main issues they sort out themselves is a really nice touch. Cold Steel has the advantage of having the academy as a central hub between chapters, so characters are around a lot longer to flesh out their own little arcs.
One thing I love about the Ys games is all the nods towards keeping things connected smoothly, like the fantastic warp/map mechanic in VIII. In Cold Steel, so far, I'm loving the turbo-button. A little easy to over-use it, but certainly cuts the usual quest-running slog to a minimum.
So, yeah, this looks like it could be one of those games where it finally gets so complicated managing the 800 systems that I get bored and quit, but it's hooked me so far.
Cold Steel does have a little more going on compared to Sky, but it's not too hard to get the hang of and at least for me can be fun at times. You do have a few extra things like team attacks later on, but those are pretty straightforward. The orbment system allows for customization and is pretty easy to use. The only thing that is a problem is both 1 and 2 are easy to break after a certain point in the game. Fie is a beast to use, and in the second game, I had late game bosses that almost never attacked because she could attack 3 to 4 times before the enemy. Add on her ability to make enemies attack later, I could attack a boss a dozen times before they landed their first hit. So I highly doubt you'll find it complicated, but with characters changing chapter to chapter, you might get a little tired of having to switch out.
XSeed added the turbo button, and it is a God send. Cutscenes are unskippable, so being able to rush through them is nice if you have to go through them again. Out of curiosity, where are you currently at in the game?
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@The:
XSeed added the turbo button, and it is a God send. Cutscenes are unskippable, so being able to rush through them is nice if you have to go through them again. Out of curiosity, where are you currently at in the game?
Oh, I'm barely scratching the surface, just a few hours in. I've only gone in to the Persona Dungeon–er, Old Schoolhouse--once. Taking it slow, trying to talk to everyone, but when every single character gets new dialogue every transition, I can see that dying pretty quick.
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Oh, I'm barely scratching the surface, just a few hours in. I've only gone in to the Persona Dungeon–er, Old Schoolhouse--once. Taking it slow, trying to talk to everyone, but when every single character gets new dialogue every transition, I can see that dying pretty quick.
Yeah, talking to all the NPC's after every story event can be grinding, especially for a new person. I generally in my first playthroughs would do minimal talking and my second time through would talk to NPC's to get more out of it. Only bad thing is if you are adverse to using a guide on a first playthrough, not talking to everyone can get you to miss out on some quests. In the end, if you decide to skip talking with the NPC's, you won't be missing out on a whole lot of stuff. It's like Ys VIII, you miss on some small details, but you can still appreciate a lot of the main plot without those small details.
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@The:
It's like Ys VIII, you miss on some small details, but you can still appreciate a lot of the main plot without those small details.
Except that, so far, Trails seems to have a much better story (or at the very least, much better localization) than Ys and slightly less interesting gameplay, so I might reverse the relative amount of time I spend on the two.
I'll let you know how it's going once I'm a bit deeper in the game. Probably in the actual Trails thread, since, well, I'm currently derailing WAYP.
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Except that, so far, Trails seems to have a much better story (or at the very least, much better localization) than Ys and slightly less interesting gameplay, so I might reverse the relative amount of time I spend on the two.
I'll let you know how it's going once I'm a bit deeper in the game. Probably in the actual Trails thread, since, well, I'm currently derailing WAYP.
This will be my last post here on this subject and save more for the actual thread. Ys is more gameplay focused while Trails is a lot more story focused, so that's a huge difference. Ys VIII was localized by NISA rather than XSeed, and a lot of people found NISA's localization to be less than ideal, to put it lightly.
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This might be a highly unpopular opinion, but I actually quite enjoy Ac: Syndicate. I like the characters, the setting, the gameplay, and overall think it's a well-made I game I'll happily replay.
Unity, on the other hand, can just… delete itself. Just... no...
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This might be a highly unpopular opinion, but I actually quite enjoy Ac: Syndicate. I like the characters, the setting, the gameplay, and overall think it's a well-made I game I'll happily replay.
Yeah Syndicate was deceptively good even in spite of a couple of flaws.
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Yeah Syndicate was deceptively good even in spite of a couple of flaws.
There are flaws, no doubt. But it has something Unity utterly lacked. A heart. I just wish games would stop taunting me with the obnoxious tutorial texts halfway into the game. I know how to the a Free-run-down, thank you, no need to remind me especially since I turned off everything in HUD except of the map
I wonder if I'll like Black Flag and Rouge. I've heard good things about both of those, and my ex was very fond of Kenway. I've actually started BF a while ago, but I was just full of AC games just having finished 1, 2, Brotherhood, Revelations and 3 back to back.
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I've recently gotten back into playing Diablo 3. Finished the Reaper of Souls campaign with my Witch Doctor. Got a Necromancer in Seasonal, though I'm still playing around with that class.
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Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm HD
It's really weird to go back and play this game after owning the original PS3 game along with playing it's sequels (or prequels) and see how much weaker by comparison this game is.
- No online mode
- A roster that basically excludes a good portion of the cast that would playable even in the PS2 era games so Hashirama or Tobirama (but you get them as supports).
- No chakra dash canceling.
- Ultimate Mission Mode being blown potential.
- The unnecessary minigames.
- Almost no one outside of Naruto and Naruto having alternate attire so, we get things like short haired Ino and Sakura by default.
- Naruto's Ninja Handbook still being the dumbest ultimate jutsu in the game which it synonymous with another flaw being that you can't change anyone's ultimate jutsu.
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Finished Halo 1,2 and just finished 5 about to start 3 and 4 soon
But halo 5…what a cliffhanger ending
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I have been playing Diablo 3 lately
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Playing the Shaman class in Grim Dawn for the first time. Feels kinda OP. Powerful pet. Lightning strikes down on multiple fows with every hit on one target. It's fun though :D
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Replaying Chrono Trigger on the SNES classic.
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Xenoblade Chronicles X continues to be pretty fun (though the recent difficulty curve at about Chapter 5 is kicking my ass somewhat), but the biggest pain-in-the-ass so far is the item/treasure fetch quests. It'd be one thing if the specified items could be found in any part of the region indicated, but no, some items can only be found in certain parts of the region and god forbid the game tell you or even give you a hint as to where they may be.
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Xenoblade Chronicles X continues to be pretty fun (though the recent difficulty curve at about Chapter 5 is kicking my ass somewhat), but the biggest pain-in-the-ass so far is the item/treasure fetch quests. It'd be one thing if the specified items could be found in any part of the region indicated, but no, some items can only be found in certain parts of the region and god forbid the game tell you or even give you a hint as to where they may be.
Yeah I've posted this before but this spreadsheet will be your new best friend.
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Recently got S+ on Rainmaker and Splat Zones on Splatoon 2 completing S+'s on the original 3 modes FINALLY.
Now trying to get it on the new game mode as well before I can finally start on this backlog of games that seasonal work has prevented me from getting to.
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Arghhhh, so close….
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@TLC:
! [qimg]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DSy9MFrXkAIpOQT.jpg:large[/qimg]
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Arghhhh, so close….
Did you get all 99 beads? And thus do that damned race? And did you do the three challenge caves?
My first time through the game I spent well over a hundred hours. I hunted for everything without guides and just wasted tons of time running around fields and across water for the hell of it.
Even my second time around I probably spent about 60 hours, though a lot of that was fishing and grinding for the poop ability.
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Currently playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Is anyone planning on getting Monster Hunter World?
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Did you get all 99 beads? And thus do that damned race? And did you do the three challenge caves?
My first time through the game I spent well over a hundred hours. I hunted for everything without guides and just wasted tons of time running around fields and across water for the hell of it.
Even my second time around I probably spent about 60 hours, though a lot of that was fishing and grinding for the poop ability.
I got like 60 but didn't want to use a guide. No way I was ever gonna get them by myself. What happens if you find all 99? Also are the challenge caves the ones with the Spiders cause I found 2?
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@TLC:
I got like 60 but didn't want to use a guide. No way I was ever gonna get them by myself. What happens if you find all 99?
The inventory tell you what areas they're in so you can narrow down where they are pretty reasonably with a "it comes after this location but before this location" method. I found them all myself but that probably added an extra thirty or forty hours to my first game. There's one in the rafters in the opening village that you can get immediately with good jumping skills, (But is much easier with double jump) but took me foreeeeeeever to find. ANother one on one of those dolls where you paint its extra eye to pop it open just never occurred to me. And so on. There's also a couple challenging ones that are impressive to get… like one on the bridge that takes full ink bottles and vine swinging to get to. And then there's that damn race….
...or just look at a guide. Probably the better bet. But some of the most interesting challenges of the game are involved in getting those things. Including that damn race.If you get them you have the satisfaction of doing all the game's challenges, but the actual reward is it completely breaks New Game+. Makes you invincible, gives you infinite ink, and gives you 10x power. (And this is on top of keeping the end-game weapons.) You get the 100th last bead during the credits, so they can't break the first run. ANd any you got the first time carry over if you didn't get them all.
Also are the challenge caves the ones with the Spiders cause I found 2?
They're in the same locations I think but maybe don't start appearing until later, though you can do the spiders immediately once you can find the caves I think. They're devil gates that have you fight 10 rounds in a row where you fight powered up versions of basically every enemy mob in the game and they get really hard. If you'd done them you would have easily hit the money threshold.
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I have been playing Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 on Steam. I am really enjoying this game a lot. I love the humor, and honestly the humor is helping me with my depression that I have been having recently. I guess it is like they say "Laughter is the best medicine". Currently, I'm on Chapter 5 in the game, and working again on side quests; before heading to the next part in the main story.
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Decided to try Opus Magnum. The game's difficulty goes up pretty quickly. Had a hard time finding a decent solution to like the 4th or 5th actual mission after the tutorial. If there's one thing I've found annoying it's that the game has a time padding mechanic that automatically makes other arms wait if you have the actions set up a certain way and it makes it hard to do something things if you actually do want your arms out of sync. I'd prefer at least having the option to manually pad out time to better micromanage that kind of stuff.
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Currently playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Is anyone planning on getting Monster Hunter World?
Getting it .
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Got Tomb Raider: Underworld for free from Games with Gold on Xbox Live. The 2013 reboot was actually the first entry from the series that I played and since it was a pretty decent game imho, I decided to give this one a try as well.
I think it holds up surprisingly well for a 10 year old game and is surprisingly fun given its difficulty and atmospheric setpieces. My only complaint would be that climbable ledges sometimes are VERY hard to spot (had to look up video guides in order to advance at a couple points only to find out I had run past a climbable ledge multiple times) and there is no cover system, making combat kind of stiff.
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Little update on Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Finally finished Chapter 6 and got my Skell. And then I immediately proceeded to wreck and have the insurance replace. I've managed to wreck it two more times since and, from what I understand, I'll have to start paying for it from now.
Still, it's worth it since that thing is stupid powerful.
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Skells are great. Technically they can't match a good ground build, but they can still be ridiculous (with less effort). AI partners never miss the QTE for Skell destruction so if you give them a Skell when it still has at least 1 insurance point, it'll never wreck. Also if you are at 0 you pretty much might as well sell off the frame and re-buy a fresh one. Replacing insurance is so expensive.
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Currently dragging myself through Horizon Zero Dawn.
The first major segment of the game was fun enough, but after reaching Meridian? Feels like a slog. Sidequests and combat both feel repetitive, and there's little sense of character progression. Just lots of running and trying to jump up mountains with janky hitboxes (BoTW climbing system ruins games like this). Only determined to finish to see where the story goes, at this point.In the meantime, getting hyped for both Iconoclasts (PS4 indie metroidvania) and Celeste (Meat Boy/Wings of Vi-looking platformer on Switch…and PS4).
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Anyone else out there playing Celeste? I just got it yesterday and it is hella good.
It caught my attention in the Nintendo mini-direct and has gotten a lot of positive buzz since release, so I decided to pick it up. It's been a while since I've been this engaged in a new 2D platformer. The last time was maybe Rayman Legends? This one has some of the same design choices that made that game great, too, like dividing the action into rooms with their own challenges/gauntlets to complete and providing a checkpoint at the beginning of each one. There's also some I Wanna Be the Guy in Celeste's blood with some super tight platforming challenges (for the strawberries and especially the B-sides), and death counters to let you look back and marvel at how much you fucked up.
The gameplay focuses a lot on climbing walls and dashing, which makes each room sort of half about skill mastery (being able to make the correct inputs) and half about problem solving (figuring out the optimal paths). The levels have a lot of optional rooms and secrets to find, which makes them pretty replayable. The game even gives you checkpoints to jump to once you've completed a level, as well as a count of all the collectables and the order in which you find them, which is convenient. Most of the collectibles are the strawberries, which you only collect for completion, but they're each in tough to reach and/or hidden places making them fun gameplay challenges to find. Each level also has a B-side to find, which allows you to play through an incredibly tough gauntlet that pushes the level's gimmicks to their limits.
There's also an ongoing story, which doesn't seem too deep, but is pretty interesting. It's focused on exploring the main character and her motivations for climbing. Music, art and general presentation is also really good. I might have to track down the game's soundtrack once I beat it all. It's a testament to the thing that I can be dying to the same looping track for almost two hours and still not get mad at the thing.
So yeah, I'd recommend the thing. I'm having trouble staying away from the thing long enough to work. I've only finished up the first three chapters and I can't wait to see what else lies ahead.
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Anyone else out there playing Celeste? I just got it yesterday and it is hella good.
Definitely picking this up on Switch!
…as soon as I finish another indie, Iconoclasts (Gunstar Heroes meets Cave Story) -
Very interested in Celeste but will wait a bit. Towerfall may still be the best couch multiplayer game I've ever had, so it's got good DNA.
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@CCC:
Definitely picking this up on Switch!
…as soon as I finish another indie, Iconoclasts (Gunstar Heroes meets Cave Story)Oh yeah, that one definitely caught my eye, too, and I'll probably be on that in the near future (hooray for Mac versions).
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My question for Celeste is regarding difficulty. I have a fondness for platforming, but not quite as interested in things like Meat Boy, SMW hacks and the I Wanna Be the –- games, due to overall disliking being subjected to brutal repetition unless I perform something perfectly.
Where does Celeste fall in that scope? I've been eyeing it for a while, but I keep defaulting to that fear of winding up losing time to repetition from lack of extreme precision.
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My question for Celeste is regarding difficulty. I have a fondness for platforming, but not quite as interested in things like Meat Boy, SMW hacks and the I Wanna Be the –- games, due to overall disliking being subjected to brutal repetition unless I perform something perfectly.
Where does Celeste fall in that scope? I've been eyeing it for a while, but I keep defaulting to that fear of winding up losing time to repetition from lack of extreme precision.
Its base difficulty is easier than Meat Boy for sure, and you should be able to handle it just fine, though it is still challenging. It helps that the individual rooms are a lot shorter than the space between checkpoints in any of those games (even some of the Meat Boy levels are pretty long). The collectibles offer a way to modulate the challenge, since they generally require more precision and thought. The B-side levels hit I Wanna Be the Guy territory, and basically have you spanning the length of the level, but with a linear gauntlet of sadistic rooms based on the level's mechanisms and gimmicks.
On normal levels I've been averaging 100-200 deaths, which isn't that bad (a lot of that comes from going after optional stuff). On the one B-side I beat, I hit 853. As long as you're not planning on 100%ing it, so should be fine.
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The B-side levels hit I Wanna Be the Guy territory…
Oh baby I am there for that
…and basically have you spanning the length of the level
Wait no checkpoints? So like IWBTG on the highest difficulty!? When I only managed to complete babby pink-bow-on-your-head mode??? Maybe I'm not there for that. Hmm.
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I can't NOT go for 100% so I wonder how I'd feel about it. I'm okay with challenge as long as it's fair. Even I'm not masochistic enough for sudden invisible blocks or completely unforseeable traps.
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You guys I just spent all that money on the Steam Winter Sale, you can't do this to me.
(Both those games sound super good and up my alley, thank you / curse you for alerting me to them).
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@CCC:
Wait no checkpoints? So like IWBTG on the highest difficulty!? When I only managed to complete babby pink-bow-on-your-head mode??? Maybe I'm not there for that. Hmm.
That's more in terms of level length. Each room in the level is a checkpoint, but if you quit the level to go back to the map, then you'll have to start over. It's not that insane, haha.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
I can't NOT go for 100% so I wonder how I'd feel about it. I'm okay with challenge as long as it's fair. Even I'm not masochistic enough for sudden invisible blocks or completely unforseeable traps.
The challenge is all pretty fair, but the highest difficulty stuff so far is still on the side of perfect inputs. The only times I've really felt cheated was due to having trouble telling what the joycon's stick registered as straight or diagonal, but that can be avoided with arrow buttons or a better controller.
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I will also pick up Celeste, already loved the first trailers of it, but right now iam playing SMB and after that again a hard indie platformer..mhh i may wait a month and get a better deal and a fresh mind :)
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…Started Celeste last night, made it through worlds 1-3, and 1-2 B-side.
Game is good. Movement feels great and there's this comfy looseness to what it demands of you. An almost cartoony elasticity.
Only one spot so far that I'd say demanded pixel-perfection.
Some of the B-side stuff is brutal, but no segment is more than, like, 15 seconds (once you pull it off), and I think the longest I got stuck on a single screen was about five minutes. -
I did about as much of Celeste as well, though I'm leaving the b-side untouched for now.
The game is seriously fun, the only main thing that keeps frustrating me is doing diagonal dashes when I mean to dash straight, but that's not so much a problem with the game as with the Switch pro controllers d-pad.
! Also got to that bit where you find the original game in a computer, and went through that entirely thinking it was part of the level. Level 2600 in particular took me a looong time, but it was ultimately a great distraction that nevertheless made the level exhaustingly long for me. Knowing now that it's optional, the hotel level is a bit more reasonable.
! Oh yea, and I LOVED the bits where the evil mirror girl follows you for entire sections, mimicking your inputs. Probably my favorite section of the game so far. -
! Also got to that bit where you find the original game in a computer, and went through that entirely thinking it was part of the level. Level 2600 in particular took me a looong time, but it was ultimately a great distraction that nevertheless made the level exhaustingly long for me. Knowing now that it's optional, the hotel level is a bit more reasonable.
! Oh yea, and I LOVED the bits where the evil mirror girl follows you for entire sections, mimicking your inputs. Probably my favorite section of the game so far.! I seriously hope getting all the stroobs in the 1-bit version isn't required for some sort of 100%. I gave up on those around 2000m :P
! And yeah! Evil clone chase sections are always awesome, going back to Mario's cosmic clones/purple coin dealies, and wayyy way back to the final level in Rayman (1). Dark Rayman wrecked my shit so much but there's something really satisfying about "outsmarting" that gimmick. -
Glad you're all enjoying it!
! I ended up quitting out of the original game, because I accidentally jumped over a strawberry near the summit and ended up on the next screen, effectively locking myself out of it. I learned later that those strawberries don't matter and quitting out of it means you have to restart it from the beginning. RIP me.
! I've done through level 4 and completed the B-sides on 1 and 3. The B-side on 3 was the first I found and that was pretty brutal. 1 felt like a cakewalk in comparison, though it's still plenty tough. Level 2 in general is my favorite of the bunch. Great central gimmicks, cool art style and great music to boot. I agree that the mirror thing is awesome and it's what took me from enjoying the game to loving it.
! I've been pacing myself going through it since I know the B-sides can be long and will take a lot out of me. Not looking forward to the one for level 4. I feel like I might break the thousand death mark on that one.