Renault on 27/3/2023 at 14:57
I'm playing Tchia on PS5 too, it's a good time, and my kind of game. I will say though, there's been a lot of Zelda imitators over the years, but this game really goes all in. In addition to the usual level/item progression routine a lot of Zelda clones use, this one also does sailing around a group of islands (Wind Waker), gliding/climbing w/stamina mgmt (Breath of the Wild), and using musical instruments to manipulate the world (Ocarina of Time).
It's OK though because the world is big and fun to explore and has a lot of character and personality. And it has it's own set of cool mechanics which change things up a little bit. I really like the way it uses the map, where (unlike most games) the map itself doesn't pinpoint your exact location, but forces the player to use landmarks and the compass to try to figure out exactly what your current location is. You can also click a "Where am I?" button, which will not give you an exact spot but rather will circle a vague area of the map that you're in the general area of. Like henke too, I really like sailing the boat around and acting like you're an actual sailor. I see myself putting quite few hours into this one.
Also, regarding the story, it seems all light and friendly most of the time, and the visuals and dialogue reflect that, but the story actual gets fairly dark. I was a bit horrified when I first visited the man villain, and he proceeded to actually eat the baby of one of the imprisoned villagers, right in front of them! Sheesh!
henke on 28/3/2023 at 16:59
Glad you're enjoying it Brethren! I just finished it. Yeeeeeah, interesting game! Not without its flaws. It copies the Ubigame formula to extent of even having enemy outposts you gotta clear and these are by far the weakest part of the game. The enemies are so toothless that you can just run circles around em while you look for explosives to throw at em. And the story, while certainly not short on unexpected and dark moments, like Brethren mentioned, is kinda poorly paced and not all that engaging. Feels a bit haphazardly thrown together and Tchia speaks so rarely I thought she was a silent protagonist at times. As for the good stuff, the movement and exploration is fantastic, the music is great, and there's some really fun minigames. The soul-jumping mechanic is great too, reminiscent of Mario Odyssey's hat-throwing or Prey's mimic-ability. Turn into a bird and fly to the top of a mountain, then turn into a boulder and tumble down the side of it. Need to cut some chains? Turn into a crab and snip it open with your claws! Need to dig something up? Turn into a boar and dig it up! Yeah, definitely one worth playing if ya got the PS+ game catalogue! :thumb:
Yakoob on 29/3/2023 at 22:36
Been playing Immortals Fenyx Rising and it's basically "Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but Ubisoft and greek." It's pretty solid, looks great, and the traversal + combat are fun enough. It's just... repetitive? I guess it suffers from the typical Ubisoft issue of having a million markers and side tasks. They're fun to do at first, but 10hrs in, I feel like I'm already doing the same shit over and over and it's starting to bore me.
Doesn't help you need to do the puzzle vaults to unlock more stamina and coins to purchase skills... I hate puzzles, ungh!
Aja on 30/3/2023 at 19:11
I finished
Resident Evil Village in VR, and it was probably the most intense gaming experience I've ever had, a combination of being new to VR plus, you know, the fact that most of the game has you getting chased by horrible monsters in cramped spaces. I loved pretty much every second of it, though. The pacing, which swung between horror and action, worked for me in that it would build up enormous amounts of tension that, at least at the start, while I was still getting used to it, felt almost unbearable, followed by the release of blasting away at hordes of slow enemies (the
Chris Redfield tactical ooh-rah part at the end being a great example) whereas pure horror throughout might have been overwhelming. I already felt overwhelmed enough with Lady D and the
baby. The environments looked stunning, particularly the dusty lighting and fog, and the 3D sound had me jumping at werewolves in the cliffs above me, with surprisingly accurate positioning. There was minimal VR jank although I did grab my map a few times during a frantic fight, and I never really learned how to throw a pipe bomb. Overall it was one of those rare gaming experiences (at least rare for me as an adult) of genuine wonder and awe, the kind I haven't really felt since, like, I first saw Mario in 3D or the first time I saw a PC game running at 800x600 and 60 FPS (it was (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBEzmkY5ifA) Moto Racer incidentally). I said this in the other thread, but it makes me feel like a kid again.
nicked on 31/3/2023 at 20:10
Just picked up Terra Nil, which bills itself as a "reverse city builder", in that you start with a desolate earth barren of life, and have to rewild it by cleansing the soil, irrigating, and encouraging the growth of forests, wetlands etc. culminating in reintroducing fauna, then recycling everything and buggering off into space. So it's simultaneously soul-soothing and faintly dystopian.
It's also far more of a puzzle game than it first appears, taking cues from super relaxy games like Islanders in the allocation of resources, rather than being a simulation. Enjoying it a lot so far!
henke on 1/4/2023 at 13:14
LUNARK just came out 2 days ago.
[video=youtube;mU1fn-uJULI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU1fn-uJULI[/video]
And I just finished it! 4h total. Neat lil Flashback-alike with a well-paced story, varied gameplay and a cool aesthetic. My only complaint is that the checkpoints are too far apart which made some sections are real pain. Overall tho, it's a good game!
Hit Deity on 2/4/2023 at 14:48
Pool of Radiance, 1988 DOSBox edition.. with the Companion add-on that keeps track of player characters and has combat map add-ons and overworld map add-ons. Very nice!
henke on 8/4/2023 at 07:48
Made it to the final boss of Metroid Prime Remastered but after trying it once I think I'm done, man. This damn game wants me to get back out there and do a super annoying section with infinitely respawning facehugging metroids and terrible platforming before I even get to replay the bossfight. A bossfight split up by unskippable custcenes between its many stages. I'm just gonna say it, ok: the combat in this game sucks. An unwieldy affair with clunky weapon switching. No skill required, it's just a hassle. After Skyward Sword this'll be the second Nintendo game in a row where I've made it to the final boss and then stopped playing, and in both of these games, the combat is the weakest part of the game.
While I'm complaining about things: the story is boring, too much backtracking, respawning enemies to put Far Cry 2 to shame, grappling hook that don't work 70% of the time, too tight FOV, in a bafflingly poor design desicision the map-view-controls are the opposite of regular controls, and its too stingy with the checkpoints.
Uhh, I liked the morph ball bits tho. Whenever I got to one of those sections I'd yell "I'M HAVING A BALL!" at my TV, and I would MEAN it!
Overall score: 7/10
Also, I got the weird urge to replay The Order 1886 so that's what I'm doing this weekend. A solid action adventure with great action (QTE's aside), a decent storyline, and it still looks great!
PigLick on 8/4/2023 at 09:59
We cant be friends anymore.
henke on 8/4/2023 at 11:19
I knew this was gonna happen yet I just had to run my DUMB MOUTH :(
I gotta say tho, it is a testament to how good Metroid Prime is that I mostly enjoyed it despite my many many many issues with it.
