Coelacanth

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.

It’s not really a point and click adventure, there are no puzzles in Pentiment and no item-based interactions or anything like that. It’s purely a visual novel.

Also I had such a hard time with Pentiment. There are parts I adored, like the art and the characters and writing (mostly), but man is it slow and boring at times. Maybe I’ve just been brainrotted by modern pace of information but the commitment to authentic portrayal of the world and times sometimes led to sitting through absolutely mind numbing conversations with uninteresting farmers. The pacing is also a bit rough, it felt like a slog at times, especially in the third act. I was very close to being unable to push through the third act.

At the same time I think the payoff was great, the journey Andreas goes through is great, and some of the moments related to his personal struggles and doubts were very impactful and moving. In the end I am glad I played it and I think it’s an objectively good piece of art, despite my gripes with it.

It’s actually unreal how good it is. It does have Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam but yeah, this should be a smash indie hit and not a hidden gem. How far in are you?

Looks very Doki Doki coded. How do they compare?

Oh damn I missed that in the OP text! -_- Shame on me for skimming. Happy birthday!

I’m not a huge fan of the excessive use of exclamation points in the writing, and there is also something about the entire thing that strikes me as off. I don’t think this author actually likes video games. Especially as the cited illustrious examples of video game excellence at the end are more art pieces than games, and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with that (I also like that genre) I think there is more to gaming than simply making slightly interactive movies.

A good example is the discussion of Celeste compared to Getting Over It. The author acknowledges that repeatedly performing the gameplay loop in Celeste feels good and is fun, but then immediately dismisses it out of hand as having “no meaning”. Again I think this author is too firmly stuck in purely narrative and artistic media. The operative verb in gaming is “play”. It is closer to dancing in that sense. Why do people dance? It has no meaning either. But it feels good. We enjoy exercising our hand-eye coordination, we enjoy moving to a rhythm, we enjoy learning and executing patterns. These are all elements of gaming too.

There is space in gaming for art, and I think there is something to the suggestion that a game that is purely narrative and/or artistic does not need a gameplay loop. But I think it’s also important to not lose track of the fact that games can exist in a pure “medium is the message” state akin to sports or dancing or whatever else - playing an instrument. We don’t play a pickup game of basketball with our buddies because it has a higher meaning, and we don’t denigrate it for lacking that meaning either.

Gaming is just something we do with our free time. It can have a “higher meaning”, or it can just be the pure dopamine of clicking heads and watching them explode in Doom. Both types of games are valid. Either way we’ll die eventually and that time will have meant just as little whether we played another hour of Doom or spent it reading Dostoevsky.

You will not regret it! I hope the sequel sells millions of copies because this guy needs to be let loose on a AA budget. I was completely shocked when I found out he composed the OST himself (apart from one track and one Bach piece). Some people are just too talented.

Haven’t had this much fun exploring a dangerous and interesting world filled with weird ass NPCs since Dark Souls 1 all those years ago.

I finished Withering Rooms a few days ago, having done both a full first playthrough and a quick run through NG+ to get the ending exclusive to NG+. Since then I’ve been in that odd spot where I’m kind of having trouble moving on to the next game. I just keep thinking about Withering Rooms.

This game was so amazingly good, it is seriously unbelievable it is the work of a solo dev. Especially since he also composed pretty much all the music - and the music is as phenomenal as the game. I don’t think I’ve been this impressed with a solo dev since Lucas Pope and Obra Dinn.

If you vibe in any way with what you see on the Steam page, I heavily encourage you giving it a shot. It is one of the most unique games I’ve ever played, which is funny because it simultaneously wears its inspirations on its sleeves. But the influences never end up leading to derivative end product, instead they are just the foundation for the very distinctive artistic vision of an auteur developer that is doubtlessly doing his own thing.

And it’s not just about the story and world building and art direction and atmosphere, but the gameplay and build variety is also really good. All the gameplay systems are so well designed, the puzzles are intuitive and the game has so many thoughtful little touches you wouldn’t expect from the first game of a solo dev, especially on the QOL front.

The combat itself is a little clunky, but you do get used to it and there are several ways to build both melee and spellcasting, there is a ranged weapon build that leans more into consumables, you can sneak around and place traps, you can be a summoner… Probably more that I didn’t think of yet. And using all these different tools is a lot of fun.

Having played this I am unbelievably excited for the sequel, which enters Early Access this year.

I tried playing it last year and really wanted to like it as it’s a classic and the comedy, art direction and vibe are all great. It just felt like the gameplay was ass. I don’t think it’s aged well.

If you want something with a bit more story I will keep proselytizing for Chrono Ark. If you enjoy roguelike deckbuilders like StS then this is one of the best ones from a pure game mechanics perspective, and it also has an entire visual novel baked in with a surprisingly interesting story.

Management games, strategy games, point-and-click games and isometric RPGs can all be played one-handed. Some might need spacebar (or whatever the pause button is) to a mouse thumb button for maximum comfort but that should be fine. Do any of these genres sound interesting?

EDIT: Card games should work great too, there is a vast ocean or deckbuilders out there!

Motorsport Manager is a banger, it’s a classic. Definitely recommend it if you’re into management games.

Totally. I wish I had some friends to get that experience more often. Closest I’ve been have been online discourse when playing certain games around launch, like Blue Prince, E33 and Elden Ring.

D: !!! Damn. Alright, I’m in. everything sounds pretty great.

I’ll be curious to see if you feel the same, but it’s this thing where the game has a very unique and distinct voice and art direction, the characters are all slightly odd, the game has a lot of little systems and secrets and details that make you go “oh that’s cool”. I dunno it’s totally vibes-based but it gives me a similar emotion. I guess the exploration focus in a dangerous environment also plays into it I’m sure.

Please don’t let me discourage you, I’ve played some more today and the game is amazing - it’s just not a game you play for the combat. It’s not like Sekiro or Ninja Gaiden or Rise of the Ronin or something where you’d be like “damn, I just want to get in some fun fights today”. Withering Rooms is all about exploration, story, world building, mood, atmosphere and light horror and so far it really shines there. The setting is really cool and it has a very unique vibe to it, almost hitting me the same way as the unique vibe of Dark Souls 1 hit me the first time I played it. So if you were itching for a roguelike and this is your vibe I think you’d like it a lot.

At the same time, I also really enjoyed Enotria too. I don’t know what it is with me and somewhat janky AA games with a lot of heart, but it’s a weakness I think. Greedfall was similar for me (though unfortunately I’ve heard the sequel is not so good 😓). I hope you don’t run into too many bugs, I know there are still some in Enotria unfortunately. But I had a good time with it. Really pretty and well designed environments, cool setting and Commedia Dell’Arte theme, good music too.

Just set your expectations at “charming AA jank” and not “Lies of P level polish” and you’ll be alright.

I’ve seen enough to tell you that this will be quite a whiplash after Sekiro, that’s for sure. This is more Dark Souls 1 than anything, although without the stamina. It’s slow, it’s clunky, you run away and kite a lot. If you unironically liked the combat in DS1 you might enjoy this.

But that being said, I think there is also a bit of a design choice in making the combat clunky and difficult. You’re playing as a 14-year-old girl and it’s a horror game. Enemies are supposed to be scary. You’re not supposed to easily go toe to toe with everything.

Though in fairness I’ve also barely scratched the surface, and it looks like the game is both full of tools to use for combat and that this is the intention - use whatever you can to survive. Again goes with the horror. Spells, decoys, temporary invisibility, even a flamethrower according to the trailer. Plus hit and run attacks, hiding and backstabbing and so on.

We’ll see where I land on it, but so far the rest of the game has been so intriguing that I don’t mind the combat regardless.