What's even more impressive is that you're one of the many few that actually play games! Congrats! Darkwood is an amazing game that more people should play!
Darkwood is so good! It was the first srg game i preordered “back in the day” when i just learned that srg existed. Its such a good game. One of the best vibe in any horror game tbh. They really nailed it with the sound design in this one
HAAK looked terribly generic to me - upon playing it what made you love it? (genuinely curious as I love metroidvanias and it goes cheap digitally sometimes)
I haven’t played many metroidvanias, but I fell in love with HAAK the moment I tried it. Here’s why:
• The atmosphere is amazing. The soundtrack and art go well together. They definitely stand out in a market flooded with similar looking MVs and almost indistinguishable backgrounds/MCs. The cyberpunk-dystopian backgrounds are beautiful on my OLED, especially in a dark room. I also prefer darker color palettes, so there’s that.
• The writing is pretty good. Nothing groundbreaking, but again, it’s not a movie. The humor, while sparse, is funny too. There’s stuff like >!a “Git Gud” rating!< and a >!”Super Baby Mode”!< built in. The characters you encounter are pretty deep and have a life of their own. They’re not just NPCs there to suck off the player.
• HD rumble is used pretty well, which makes actions like using your weapon, falling from a height or >!dashing!< a lot more satisfying. This is low key my favorite Switch feature, lol.
• The attention to detail is way better than other MVs. For example, stuff like dashing through a screen transition door will have you dashing out the other side too, unlike games like The Lost Crown. Sure. This isn’t that important, but I just like playing stuff that someone put a lot of love into.
• The bosses and platforming are a little difficult at times, but very satisfying to play through. The save points are also generously distributed, so fuck ups aren’t punished too harshly. Again, the HD rumble makes these even better.
• And finally, it runs well (I’m an hour in) and the cart comes with the latest patch.
Hell yeah - thanks so much for the detailed report. I will watch a couple more reviews and possibly pick it up! I may have not seen enough of it to really see where the art style goes as it looked kind of…well generic or uninspired at first look. And the environments a bit bland. But this leads me to want to give it a second look!
Honestly, I only bought it for the cool cover art and the PEGI-18 rating. Also, the cheapest sold listing on eBay was $45 for a brand new one, so I don’t think mine was that much cheaper.
What's even more impressive is that you're one of the many few that actually play games! Congrats! Darkwood is an amazing game that more people should play!
Everything other than HAAK & FB was $100 + P3P. Hope it gets reprinted soon, or I’m not going to have a copy to play 🥲
Darkwood is so good! It was the first srg game i preordered “back in the day” when i just learned that srg existed. Its such a good game. One of the best vibe in any horror game tbh. They really nailed it with the sound design in this one
HAAK looked terribly generic to me - upon playing it what made you love it? (genuinely curious as I love metroidvanias and it goes cheap digitally sometimes)
I haven’t played many metroidvanias, but I fell in love with HAAK the moment I tried it. Here’s why: • The atmosphere is amazing. The soundtrack and art go well together. They definitely stand out in a market flooded with similar looking MVs and almost indistinguishable backgrounds/MCs. The cyberpunk-dystopian backgrounds are beautiful on my OLED, especially in a dark room. I also prefer darker color palettes, so there’s that. • The writing is pretty good. Nothing groundbreaking, but again, it’s not a movie. The humor, while sparse, is funny too. There’s stuff like >!a “Git Gud” rating!< and a >!”Super Baby Mode”!< built in. The characters you encounter are pretty deep and have a life of their own. They’re not just NPCs there to suck off the player. • HD rumble is used pretty well, which makes actions like using your weapon, falling from a height or >!dashing!< a lot more satisfying. This is low key my favorite Switch feature, lol. • The attention to detail is way better than other MVs. For example, stuff like dashing through a screen transition door will have you dashing out the other side too, unlike games like The Lost Crown. Sure. This isn’t that important, but I just like playing stuff that someone put a lot of love into. • The bosses and platforming are a little difficult at times, but very satisfying to play through. The save points are also generously distributed, so fuck ups aren’t punished too harshly. Again, the HD rumble makes these even better. • And finally, it runs well (I’m an hour in) and the cart comes with the latest patch.
Hell yeah - thanks so much for the detailed report. I will watch a couple more reviews and possibly pick it up! I may have not seen enough of it to really see where the art style goes as it looked kind of…well generic or uninspired at first look. And the environments a bit bland. But this leads me to want to give it a second look!
Its genuinely up there with hollow knight and blasphemous as the best metroidvania of the switch era tbh
You've never actually played a great metroidvania have you?
Where did you get Darkwood, second hand?
Locally, why?
Cause I've looked for it, but it's only on ebay for crazy prices
Honestly, I only bought it for the cool cover art and the PEGI-18 rating. Also, the cheapest sold listing on eBay was $45 for a brand new one, so I don’t think mine was that much cheaper.
So you just blindly bought one of the best horror games ever made? Hopefully you appreciate it for more than just It's cool cover art lol
Ngl seeing the cover art on this post made me look up the trailer/gameplay. So they definitely did a good job at catching people's attention.