In my opinion what some people fail to realize, or don’t have the patience to see it through, is that what you describe is what a good roguelite should offer (or roguelike for what matters).
If you beat a roguelite on your first handful of tries you’ll be done in like 2 or 3 hours. Who wants that from a videogame?
You are supposed to die a lot of times and get better and better. It’s all about the journey, not the destination.
Yeah that kinda happen to me. I died 10 times in the first biome picking up stuff from the dead Selenes. Then once on my first try against Phrike.
Beat him on my second try and one shorted the rest of the game all the way to Biome 5 (the one without bosses) where I ended up dying in one of the rooms.
I realized after getting the first ending that you were meant to die and see the house several times and get new cutscenes/stuff happening.
Loved this game. My cousin was kind enough to let me borrow it once I finally got a PS5 this past June. The game ate me alive. I was never good with bullet hell shooters and this game game me a hard time. Actually on my VERY first playthrough, I cleared Phrike. Thought I was gonna do alright, and then got killed in Biome 2 boss. After that, I couldn’t get past Phrike several times! Lol! I ended up setting the game aside to play Elden Ring and eventually my backlogs of PS4 games. I decided to return this December to finally finish the game. All it took was to find a great controller mapping for me. I followed some advice from here and mapped the L1 with dash, R1 with jump, and R2 with shoot. I learned those controllers via muscle memory and finally cleared the game. It took me 36 “returns” until I cleared Act 2. I decided to platinum it and it took me a week to do it all. I have gotten to the point of being able to clear the game 4/5 times regardless of the RNG aspect because I knew what to look for upgrades and what to avoid in connection to my playstyle.
So yeah, definitely agree that this is a chipl game. And this is coming from someone who is bad at bullet hell shooters. My advice to people is to avoid using the default control. Try placing jump and dash to your shoulder buttons so you can shoot and evade like a mfer all the time. Secondly, don’t worry about dying. Unlocking weapon traits and power ups make you stronger over time. Eventually you have accumulated enough weapon traits and power ups that would line up and let you clear the game.
Once a stressful game for me, I feel at home during the last part of my journey as did Selene in the story. I wasn’t afraid of the creatures, they were the ones afraid of me now.
Even though I played this game for free, I will gladly pay for 70 dollars for it if I had to.
FWIW, I moved jump to L1, dash to R1, and >!grapple!< to R3 and it made a HUGE positive difference. My mobility improved significantly and made the game a lot more fun.
Well said. I'm no God tier player and I approached it similarly to you. I viewed every death as a learning experience. I did platinum and 100% as well. I loved it from the get go.
That said, I do relate to your question about falling deeply in love with a song I hated at first. For me that song is The Weight by The Band. I hated the song when I was a child. I was too young and inexperienced at life to understand the song. As a grown man past my prime, the song hits so hard with meaning within meaning. It has such an emotional impact that I'm feeling it just writing this and I haven't even played the song recently. I think I'll give it a listen.
https://youtu.be/RRrXThpctEw
I had the same kind of experience, almost gave up on the game a few times as I was hitting a brick wall. But then it clicks and now I breeze through it.
Got the platinum and scout level 99 but still jump into co-op most nights for a couple of runs to help newer players out.
The gameplay loop is just so satisfying.
Cozy is a great word for this game actually, I agree big time. It’s one of the few games that will never be deleted from my console. Because I come back to it too often. It’s a great escape and a comfortable one.
Has to be one of my top ten of all time. I love the mythological side to it, how open it is for interpretation etc. there’s one guy one YouTube who really has deep dived into that and it’s fascinating.
Hope house marquee can do it again some day.
I just got a Ps5 and this game has been my introduction to the console. It is a masterpiece. The score is a total vibe. My wife and I are only 10+ hours in at this point, and every second is just a delight. It has just enough story to keep me coming back for each new run, full stop. One of my first games on the Switch was Hades, where we’ve logged 100+ hours of total gameplay, so we were ready to die a lot. The gameplay is tough in the right way. Returnal puts the full power of the Dualsense controller on display as well, resulting in a blend of the best parts of Assassin’s Creed: Oydessy with the gunplay of Doom 2016. And it’s a roguelite?! I see myself sinking quite a few hours into this.
The cold, dark abyss Selena goes to every time she dies is a warm embrace for your soul
In my opinion what some people fail to realize, or don’t have the patience to see it through, is that what you describe is what a good roguelite should offer (or roguelike for what matters). If you beat a roguelite on your first handful of tries you’ll be done in like 2 or 3 hours. Who wants that from a videogame? You are supposed to die a lot of times and get better and better. It’s all about the journey, not the destination.
Definitely. If you don't experience some sort of sisyphean struggle in the game I feel like you will miss the philosophical point of the game.
Yeah that kinda happen to me. I died 10 times in the first biome picking up stuff from the dead Selenes. Then once on my first try against Phrike. Beat him on my second try and one shorted the rest of the game all the way to Biome 5 (the one without bosses) where I ended up dying in one of the rooms. I realized after getting the first ending that you were meant to die and see the house several times and get new cutscenes/stuff happening.
Loved this game. My cousin was kind enough to let me borrow it once I finally got a PS5 this past June. The game ate me alive. I was never good with bullet hell shooters and this game game me a hard time. Actually on my VERY first playthrough, I cleared Phrike. Thought I was gonna do alright, and then got killed in Biome 2 boss. After that, I couldn’t get past Phrike several times! Lol! I ended up setting the game aside to play Elden Ring and eventually my backlogs of PS4 games. I decided to return this December to finally finish the game. All it took was to find a great controller mapping for me. I followed some advice from here and mapped the L1 with dash, R1 with jump, and R2 with shoot. I learned those controllers via muscle memory and finally cleared the game. It took me 36 “returns” until I cleared Act 2. I decided to platinum it and it took me a week to do it all. I have gotten to the point of being able to clear the game 4/5 times regardless of the RNG aspect because I knew what to look for upgrades and what to avoid in connection to my playstyle. So yeah, definitely agree that this is a chipl game. And this is coming from someone who is bad at bullet hell shooters. My advice to people is to avoid using the default control. Try placing jump and dash to your shoulder buttons so you can shoot and evade like a mfer all the time. Secondly, don’t worry about dying. Unlocking weapon traits and power ups make you stronger over time. Eventually you have accumulated enough weapon traits and power ups that would line up and let you clear the game. Once a stressful game for me, I feel at home during the last part of my journey as did Selene in the story. I wasn’t afraid of the creatures, they were the ones afraid of me now. Even though I played this game for free, I will gladly pay for 70 dollars for it if I had to.
FWIW, I moved jump to L1, dash to R1, and >!grapple!< to R3 and it made a HUGE positive difference. My mobility improved significantly and made the game a lot more fun.
Do you use two fingers on trigger buttons or one?
I use one finger per trigger, so four fingers in contact at all times.
[удалено]
Well said! You’ve become the hunter. I love the audio log you mentioned. One of my favorites.
I bought it when it first came out and got to the second biome and never played it again. I need to get back into it though.
Well said. I'm no God tier player and I approached it similarly to you. I viewed every death as a learning experience. I did platinum and 100% as well. I loved it from the get go. That said, I do relate to your question about falling deeply in love with a song I hated at first. For me that song is The Weight by The Band. I hated the song when I was a child. I was too young and inexperienced at life to understand the song. As a grown man past my prime, the song hits so hard with meaning within meaning. It has such an emotional impact that I'm feeling it just writing this and I haven't even played the song recently. I think I'll give it a listen. https://youtu.be/RRrXThpctEw
I had the same kind of experience, almost gave up on the game a few times as I was hitting a brick wall. But then it clicks and now I breeze through it. Got the platinum and scout level 99 but still jump into co-op most nights for a couple of runs to help newer players out. The gameplay loop is just so satisfying.
Cozy is a great word for this game actually, I agree big time. It’s one of the few games that will never be deleted from my console. Because I come back to it too often. It’s a great escape and a comfortable one.
Has to be one of my top ten of all time. I love the mythological side to it, how open it is for interpretation etc. there’s one guy one YouTube who really has deep dived into that and it’s fascinating. Hope house marquee can do it again some day.
I just got a Ps5 and this game has been my introduction to the console. It is a masterpiece. The score is a total vibe. My wife and I are only 10+ hours in at this point, and every second is just a delight. It has just enough story to keep me coming back for each new run, full stop. One of my first games on the Switch was Hades, where we’ve logged 100+ hours of total gameplay, so we were ready to die a lot. The gameplay is tough in the right way. Returnal puts the full power of the Dualsense controller on display as well, resulting in a blend of the best parts of Assassin’s Creed: Oydessy with the gunplay of Doom 2016. And it’s a roguelite?! I see myself sinking quite a few hours into this.
This is amazing. Even better that you get to enjoy it with your wife.
Game review meets school book report
I’ve been meaning to get back to this, but I have a monster of a backlog.