(not sure if i'll do an official entry tonight, but here is a floating nopon glitch i found the other day)
#Shalmplay (shalmons' game warbling corner)
still coral
https://youtu.be/CBontCoS5E8
(and here is my current fave track; i am very biased towards snowy music & early 90's Elfman score vibes)
uneven oracle
as a fellow snow lover
yes this song is gud
also love shulk, used to play him a lot in smash 4
still coral
yesss ❄️
with the Japanese audio on, i'm so used to hearing "Shuduku" now lol
before i forget about it, here are a couple of similar vibes i've noticed between Xenogears & Blade (gears on left, blade on right)
(at least aesthetically, 'cause tbh i barely remember who golden dude on the top left is;; )
(looked up the wiki on golden dude; of course he was an important character; i think my brain is just running out of room for stuff lol )
lofty mica
I don't have much to say but looking forward to following along
uneven oracle
is xenosaga also part of this series?
lofty mica
They're all spiritual successors right?
I think we tried Xenogears ages ago and it was very weird
uneven oracle
I'm gonna try it sometime soon
lofty mica
I only got it by proxy, I think my brother played it
uneven oracle
already installed alundra tho
lofty mica
Yesssssss
still coral
from what i understand, xenoblade started as just an homage/spiritual successor, but it seems like later they started directly bringing in some characters & plot devices from Gears/Saga
i have extremely mixed feelings on Gears, but it's definitely charming in its own way
one of those things that endured so much production hell that it just becomes an interesting mess to examine
(i was so bad at alundra! 😭 i want to give it another try though. i remember thinking it looked super nice )
gray gull
Wow, yeah you're already quite a ways into the game!!
A big part of the fun for me was discovering all of the surprising new wild areas the game threw at me, but also i don't know if anyone reading this post was conxenosidering playing the games at some point so maybe it'll get someone to try it
still coral
nothing like a little seasonal depression to help blaze a trail into a famously long JRPG 😂
still coral
that's another one i need to try again
all the anti-hype was making me like it more than i expected to, but i lost motivation at ye ol' damage-sponge boss
could've been doing something wrong though 🤔
lofty mica
I hated it the first time I played, but now that I know what it is, I'm having fun. I'm also playing on easy hehehe
never finished, and never got to the sequels, so I'm looking forward to those too
still coral
ohh right difficulty modes
if that can be changed mid-playthrough, maybe i'll try that lol
still coral
a highly abridged "Story So Far" -- since we're starting mid-game,** spoiler warning in general**! *(also warning that i will be much more slapdash & informal than Mazzy's LP style lol ) *
Long ago, Meat Giant & Robot Giant fought to the death*(?)*. They got old & moldy, and now the moldy spawn known as Homs & Mechon continue their angry legacy atop their scenic corpses (also Nopon and Entia, but the narrative is very Hom-centric, smh 😔 ).
Our hero Shehulk personally hates the mechon for fridging his girlfriend, but they didn't kill her, they just made her a mechon! Uh, sort of? And she's not the only one--Significant Others all over Bionis are getting robo'd for mysterious purposes. Plus, it turns out the enemy continent/corpse Mechonis is home to friendly robofolk as well! Shulk wonders if xenophobia is really the answer.
But it's time to find Egil, the metal man behind these abductions, and ask "hey man what's going on, whatchu doin' to our Homs"
also we're probably going to beat him up, since his dad asked us to
now, an intro to the current party in all their mismatched armor set glory:
-Shulk is our protagonist. That famous red sword is the Monado, a weapon made by an ancient giant, and the only thing that can cut through Mechon unassisted. Somehow, Shulk has a mysterious affinity for it. He likes engineering & Fiora.
-Dunban is Fiora's older brother, and the former wielder of Monado before it ruined his arm.
-**Reyn **is Shulk's long-time buddy, he has abs.
-Melia is High Entia royalty & helped the Bionis trifecta of races to get on the same page in regards to uniting against the Mechon. She has tacked-on feelings for Shulk, because passing the Bechdel test is forbidden to the residents of Bionis.
-Sharla (or is it Karla? really sounds like 'Karla' in the Japanese voiceover… Which is weird since I'm not familiar with sh -> k being a thing between English & Japanese accents? ) is here to remind you that Reyn is just like her totally-not-doomed fiancé, and she has the most frighteningly unstylish armor sets I've ever seen in my life…
-…with Fiora's being a close second (although her default roboutfit was actually fine). Fiora is the aforementioned girlfriend who got mech'd & there's been a mysterious voice living in her head ever since that all went down.
-Riki is a comic-relief Nopon and is clearly the winner in terms of armor set aesthetic. Little man is a tiger, yes he is!!
(On armor sets: Xenoblade mercifully gives you the option to have secondary armor sets for preferred appearance. I will probably arrange some customs to have everyone look decent if I reach the endgame, but for now I will live with the consequences of my actions 
)
uneven oracle
(On armor sets: Xenoblade mercifully gives you the option to have secondary armo...
this is so cool! I've never actually seen a game do that
still coral
yeah i think i have only ever seen it in MMOs! Xeno has a few MMO-ish things in it
what's also nice is an armor piece stays in your aesthetic collection as long as you've found it once, so you can feel free to sell everything
lofty mica
Yeah FFXIV does that with glamors
It's wonderful
You have to buy or craft the glamors, which I think is a cool diegetic way to do it
still coral
oo i played enough of FFXIV to get an Intro to Glamors quest
but eventually it reeeaally wanted me to play with friends, so i stopped lol
me not getting what the MM in MMORPG is for
lofty mica
Yeah I was just playing an ORPG
still coral
ok incoming actual LP dump
(in various pieces since i want the caps & text in the right spots. too many pieces;; maybe i should do a blog next time & link to that instead 🤔 )
Looks like Fiora learned a skill, so I'll check that out & switch her to something new.
If I remember right, Skills are basically passive abilities that you can either select temporarily, or keep with enough accumulated SP. "Daring" "Courage" and "Zeal" represent the skill trees that you select to be active at the time (Captain Planet style, they're different for each character).
There are also "Skill Links" where you can spend "Affinity Coins" to share a party member's skills. (This will be a bit of a recurring complaint, but the skill system is one of the many systems in Xeno that I have trouble "feeling" while I play. Like, oh I'm getting an EXP boost now? Hm well I'll take your word for it.)
The current Story Memo
Bottom right of the screen has a hide-able story & side-quest memo. Each one brings up a dotted line on your minimap that you can follow to your destination. (This game has a ton of side quests that imho are great zone-out fodder when the ol' brain chemicals aren't getting along.)
??? what's all this then
These are collectibles that show up as little blue orbs all over the place. Each area has its own set that grants rewards for finding them all. They're random & regenerate, so you can always come back a little while later if you want to find any missing pieces you didn't get on the first pass.
and this is the collectopaedia menu for keeping track. (btw, you only need one to log into the collection--any others you pick up can be sold or traded to NPCs. You might want to hang on to some for side quests, but the game has its own little gimmick for letting you know which ones could have some future use.)
sometime it'd be fun to doodle a bunch of these, lol
another one, Dubious Dunban's Smoke Cylinder
and now it's time for my fave thing in Xenoblade, funny enemy names!
For the LP I'll probably be capping any new enemy I find anyway, but I just love all these goofy names
aw who called you that : ( was it Shulk?
It's good etiquette to leave behind gifts after being mercilessly destroyed by invading forces. (those beacons are actually really helpful for when I occasionally forget to loot)
How nice, they gave us some Jack Daggers, are they good for Fiora?
Hm, some pros & cons for sure. I'll leave them in the Maybe pile (looks like I did actually swap out something in Fiora's Appearance set, I think I just liked what this helmet did to her hair lol)
next, we find some Blood Oil (so metal)
and then run into these guys... I'm not too keen on fighting an entire month right now. Luckily, these guys appear to have sight-based initiative, which means I can….march right past 'em 😎
we sneak on by & find a blue root. xeno is trying very hard to make veggies appealing
Time for a selfie at this cool bridge (the blade thingies wave around--not enough to be dangerous though)
and then we find this. oddly enough, mechonis has a pest problem 🤔
made it to another landmark
Video capture of my fave thing, fatal fall damage 8|
Fatal falls send you back to your last checkpoint, so it's time to retrace my steps for this entire LP entry
Good news is you always keep your EXP & loot between a fatal fall (or battle) and your last checkpoint. Just a weirdly unnecessary disruption imho. (but I guess it's to prevent falling into a place you can't get out of?)
Here's what quest pop-ups look like--I'll probably go ahead and cap most of these since writing out what's actually happening isn't among my skills
hard to see in this cap, but you'll occasionally run into enemies with sparks flying around their name. These are optional bosses--some are attached to side quests, some are just there to get in your way & be challenging. In any case, they have decent loot & you'll probably recognize their opening battle riff from Smash: https://youtu.be/7wtm_aeW8gM
but I'll be skipping this guy for now
Mining, Xeno-style. mining spots look like this on Mechonis, but back on Bionis the mining points are just big pretty crystals.
This is admittedly one of the many features in this game I personally haven't found much use for. So many of the things you craft with these show up in loot drops already, and I haven't had much difficulty getting through the game ignoring them. So I'll have to see if it stays that way. 🤔
more story quest
Shulk you can't just rummage through someone's raw, private thoughts & call it out as offensive, that's just not fair
but anyway, we've done the thing
Egil probably heard that & told Smithers to release the BEASTs
The BEASTs left me with a new weapon for Reyn & it seems like a decent enough tradeoff. The third panel is showing a list of gems that you can socket into your equipment. These are the things you can use mined resources to make, but I've literally gotten alllll of these from drops, it scrolls for a while… I suppose I can craft better ones, but again, I've had no difficulty progressing through the game as-is. Maybe it's more helpful for Expert Mode, which seems to be a thing.
More battles, here's what an in-battle "Vision" looks like. Shulk having future visions from the Monado is part of the plot, so they've made a battle gimmick out of it by interrupting things & telling you when the enemy is readying something nasty. It tells you who it'll happen to & whether it'll inflict a status or kill them or what.
You then get a chance to warn one of your other party members, which pauses the fight to let you select one of their actions--you'll want to pick something that has a good chance of de-escalating what you saw in your vision.
It's an interesting idea, but honestly a bit annoying with how it interrupts the flow & piles onto an already chaotic battle environment, so I'm torn on it. 🤔
aaand a checkpoint! That'll be it for now, though the playtime was actually pretty short. Next entry hopefully won't have quite as much introductory/catch-up fluff.
may also brainstorm a different way to share these, since handling all the caps through discord is a bit clunky lol
still coral
I did a blogspot post for my next LP entry since it was feeling way too chaotic as a barrage of discord posts (especially when i had to delete & repost a bunch of times 'cause discord was being weird about images 🤔 )
https://shalmply.blogspot.com/2022/09/shalmplay-xbc1-2-it-is-he-of-little.html
these are much more comfy to make this way, and i think i made slightly more of an attempt at basic writing comprehension. writing silly stuff is weirdly stress-relieving, so i'm having fun despite not feeling like i'm cut out for this
i'm a little behind on the blogging scene, so if anyone has recommendations for places that handle image & text placement more flexibly & intuitively than blogspot, i'm all ears
i'm not sure why simply arranging stuff side by side on these things is always like herding cats. (also having a weird amount of trouble getting the alignment buttons to do what they ought to, but maybe i'm missing something obvious? 
)
still coral
next entry up, also fairly short:
https://shalmply.blogspot.com/2022/09/shalmplay-xbc1-3-when-are-they-gonna.html
(i'm glad i remembered google photos is a thing! these are coming together much faster now that i can wrangle & crop my caps more efficiently)
still coral
oh no worries!
chaotic nonsense kind of describes this LP
but yeah it's just been fun to try a new hobby!
still coral
https://shalmply.blogspot.com/2022/09/shalmplay-xbc1-4-wanna-see-exciting.html
another one;; i will maybe slow down when i'm out of that feverish trial & error phase
i had both better & worse luck with arranging things in a more pleasing way--i've got text side-by-side with some of the caps now, which i like, but it randomly decides to italicize paragraphs when i align them to the right?
also randomly decides to not embiggen some of the caps when clicked =/
so i'm still trying to figure that stuff out
(upon closer inspection, it seems to not allow embiggening for any caps that i aligned to the right side )
(btw, i am perfectly content to just be doing these for the fun of journaling--i don't want anyone to feel pressured to keep up with these as they pile up haha 😅 )
still coral
Shalmplay (shalmons' game warbling corner)
hmmmmm yeah i don't think i can keep up with making these 😓
so i will just rebrand this thread as my misc space for smaller-scale warbling about whatever i'm playing (and maybe stream alerts?)
still coral
i have been in "i should stream more" limbo for a while
i'm not interested in monetizing it either, so it's been more of a self-improvement goal for me (talking out loud is my Discomfort Zone)
finding a good time to have the mic on has been kind of inconvenient though (spouse works from home & we're in the same room)
but streaming off-mic to show off cool games still sounds fun to me, though maybe not as interesting for those who want more interaction (and also doesn't make me face my fear of talking)
uneven oracle
chill tiny streams are great
I gotta do them more but I need to clean the part of the room that's in the background
still coral
oh yeah camera i have not attempted at all 😭 i salute those who are brave enough
just have a gif of my chicken in the corner
uneven oracle
hmm you're good at modeling, you could make a vtuber-sona
also I hate that that word came to mind
language was a mistake
lofty mica
I've always liked those model thingies
still coral
lol sadly my modeling skill ends at making things that can be looked at 
the functional stuff still eludes me
but it's definitely something i thought would be neat if i could do it
still coral
well, speaking of
does anyone happen to know how to get the streaming status working on discord again 🤔
i always liked that feature as a visible & non-intrusive way to show that you're streaming
ideal for my general "you can come watch if you want, nbd" feelings towards it
but it never seems to work anymore & i've tried various suggestions
uneven oracle
I have no idea sorry
still coral
lol no worries, every thread i find seems kinda stumped by it
i'm actually not sure when i last saw anyone have a streaming status on discord 🤔 could be it's just not working for a lot of people
still coral
eyyy
i think i got it
silly me had not fully disconnected/reconnected twitch & discord
i had only been toggling it on & off
but a proper disconnect/reconnect seemed to do something
lofty mica
Ah! Excellent!
gray gull
Ironically, you have tried turning it off and on again
still coral
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1609143466
remembered that i can just use the highlight feature to share spooky moments i ran into during Buddy Sim
(but wouldn't recommend watching these if you ever plan to play it, somewhat spoilery & it's more fun going into this one blind.
spook warning: glitchy visuals/audio & spooky Long Guy)
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1609143470
this one's not spooky, just an interesting visual shift in the game
the game starts ||as a text adventure, then the 1-bit RPG style like in the other clip, and now it's 2.5D w/some color||
still coral
hmm
sad to say that Buddy Sim is kinda wearing out its welcome for me 😭 and it's only been a few hours...
non-spoilery issues:
-very inconsistent horror elements; at a certain point it feels like it completely derails into non-stop silliness (and i'm all for some silliness, but the writing is....not the greatest)
-NPCs start to feel very lolrandom in both design and dialog. doesn't seem to grasp how Undertale balanced its quirkiness with some semblance of a theme
-mood-whiplash flipflops between feeling appropriate & feeling forced
-does that thing where the game hopes you'll forgive some of its badness if they lampshade it hard enough 🙄
spoilery thing that was a major eyeroll:
||-when it starts to ape Undertale way too much & fake-crash the game at the climax;; i really don't mind games being inspired by Undertale, but there is a line ಠ_ಠ||
i feel bad whining at it so much; it honestly started off pretty decent & had potential, but gets lost along the way : (
i do intend to beat it, since it seems like i'm close & it's not hard (yet), but i don't think i'll be going out of my way for extras
still coral
i beat it
got the ""evil"" ending
i keep typing so much ranty warbling & then trying to shorten it, lol
but the way this game presents its messages on "friendship" feel so problematic to me
if the message wasn't "always be a doormat, so your emotionally unstable friend can feel better about themselves"
then they really should've made that clearer
'cause that's a bad message...???
like is this satire or what, i'm genuinely not sure
there's also a wildly unnecessary scene of|| a dog getting violently murdered||, that has no clear significance other than being edgy? (maybe some kind of Deep Lore significance, since this game seems to want to have that glitch horror Deep Lore, but man why would you make that your fun little Lore easter egg scene, that sucks. i honestly did try to skim the deep lore stuff and i still don't get why i had to see that)
man i hope i can be more positive with the next thing 😭
i did play Gris last week & i liked that, so
i'm not always this grumbly, i promise 🙃
lofty mica
no need to apologize, that sounds pretty miserable
still coral
lol i get self-conscious when i go into Critical Mode™️
plus this game is 94% positive on steam, so i am inevitably questioning my spicy hot take 😅
still coral
but anyway, i think i'll try Death's Door next, for spooky month
i've also been playing Okami on the side, which has been an interesting experience (first time)
lots to love, lots to be mildly irritated by
i don't think i ever knew that it was basically Zelda but with a dog; i assumed it was more of a straightforward action game with some motion controls
so Dog Zelda is a nice surprise
lofty mica
I enjoyed Death's Door, good times
uneven oracle
The Legend of Zelda: Light Princess
still coral
i am looking forward to it~
with a protagonist like that, i knew i had to get it
still coral
!!!
how could i forget
the big obvious zodiac motifs in this game, with the brush gods
means there will probably be a Big chicken at some point 
gray gull
I don't know where in the game you are
So i don't know if it's safe to comment on that yet
still coral
hm well i beat spider boss
who i think was the first boss?
now i'm looking for various dogs
old lady is trying to stab me
and i met princess...fuse, i think? her hair looks like cat ears
still coral
!!!
haha, yaaaay
(somehow this one in the first cap kinda looks like @nocturne tendon )
i'm happy the sparrow clan ended up being actual sparrows; i thought they were gonna be humans in sparrow-themed outfits
still coral
meanwhile in Death's Door
oops
i like this place, it weirdly gives me Little Nemo vibes?
assuming probably not intentional, but it kinda reminded me of this part
uneven oracle
woah wait
is little nemo a movie
in addition to a NES game
that might be why I always mix it up with the pagemaster
gray gull
It's also a long running art nouveau comic from 1905-1927 by Winsor Mccay
Don't know if that was before or after the NES game though
gray gull
The 'N' stands for Nouveau, like the art
uneven oracle
Little Nouveauemo
lofty mica
Oh yes really enjoyed Death's Door!
still coral
Little Nemo movie is one of my childhood fave nightmare fuel sources
i rewatched it as an adult & imho think it's aged better than people want to admit
animation is still pretty nice, considering Miyazaki bailed on it (there's an old animation test for it that he did)
still coral
oh wait, he didn't do the animation test i was thinking of, that was Yoshifumi Kondo. but Miyazaki was still in talks to work on it & left over creative differences
but then
i discovered another prototype that was done by Osamu Dezuki, co-founder of madhouse
i had no idea this was a thing
it's pretty similar to some scenes that ended up in the final product, but visually much more 80's anime, in a cool way
uneven oracle
now I gotta add this to the list, thanks
lofty mica
Ohhh this looks fantastic
I've never seen the movie either, guess I should get on that
still coral
a lot of people slam the movie over the "What Could Have Beens" that these pilots present, but idk i still like it 😅
(plus i prefer these designs of the actual movie's goblins to the weird clown things in the Dezuki pilot )
uneven oracle
those are good goblins
lofty mica
They really are
uneven oracle
I tend to prefer mammal-type goblins to reptile-type ones
something about being really hairy just fits the aesthetic
still coral
i had to make a paper mask
wrestled with my joycon drift to get this highly abstracted chicken head
frozen chicken??
spicy chicken
yaaaaaay 💯 💯
gray gull
That's the cousin i was talkin' about!
still coral
ah i thought so!
a good cousin
lofty mica
Wow that is a powerful cousin
nocturne tendon
such cousin
much wow
still coral
i had to check & there is indeed a "such amaterasu much wow" design
https://www.theshirtlist.com/much-comfy-t-shirt/
(oh right that meme is just called doge. much forget)
gray gull
lol
still coral
golden bird gave me sweet prizes
still coral
hooray i defeated yubaba grandma in two tries 🎉
still coral
tonight we tried the games i bday-gifted to cuth
this is the cartographers expansion (stands alone too, i think?)
it adds "heroes" which can help make monster markers less bad
Odin's Ravens, a "racing" game which took like 5 minutes to learn
which is always nice 💯
aesthetically pleasing too
and "piepmatz"
a little more confusing than the others & probably better with 3 or 4 people
nocturne tendon
shalmons trounced me in cartographers, but i got them back in the other two!
still coral
the trouncing felt very accidental 😅
gray gull
You'll love Monster Hunter
"Here's two sticks of Dango. Now beat an enemy senseless with it
Cat themed comedy versions of regular weapons
nocturne tendon
i think we can even technically local multi with one of them. but i've played like 5 minutes D:
still coral
yeah we got 3 packaged with the used WiiU we bought, but i think it's a wonky crossplay co-op thing
so i found the 3DS version cheap in case we wanted to try co-op that way
still coral
this guy glitched & was just chillin'
felt a little bad to beat them up
blue bird goodies 
still coral
the hitbox on that mace goes around the world
at least they're optional
but yeah definitely much harder than the actual bosses, lol
i'm just surprised this one is taking so many more tries than the other one, i guess there's something actually different about it
still coral
ok there we go 😤
eventually realized i was better off running small circles around them instead of staying far away
gray gull
Vendrick Rules
(As in, similar rules apply here as they do to the hollow king, vendrick, of a different game)
lofty mica
I was gonna say Dark Souls rules haha
still coral
one of these days i will make it past Frank Capra in DS1 😭
rather i hope to make it, lol
lofty mica
Kill his goons (dogs) first
Haha
I actually had no trouble my first run, but every subsequent run I get stuck on ol Frank
still coral
the dogs do seem like a problem
as weird as that feels to say
lofty mica
Yeah if you can get em gone fast, he gets easier
If multiplayer was easier to set up I'd jump in with ya sometime
Though you might be able to summon randos as well
still coral
lol well if there is a word for rando phobia, i probably have it 😆
but i appreciate the offer
it's weird how tricky they make the multiplayer for some things
still coral
hmm that is true
Tetris 99 is one of the only things i play with randos
very hard to interact in that one
one time someone gave me a donut in No Man's Sky and i panicked, lol
i was so used to being alone in my corner of the galaxy that i forgot people could show up on those stations
but then i learned about the setting to turn off other players, which i appreciated 😂
lofty mica
Ahh that is a good setting
I actually played DS1 almost all the way through without realizing it could be multiplayer 😂
Hard mode baby
Or, non-easy mode? 🤔
Now I just summon at every boss, I don't have time haha
Elden Ring I'd give the bosses a fair few shakes and then if I wasn't making a dent I'd summon. I'm not normally a multiplayer person but Soulslike players have a sense of comeraderie
still coral
hmm, interesting 
maybe i should try that sometime
lol i've had a weird relationship w/multiplayer games in general
used to play them all the time with my brothers
but i could never do online w/randos
and these days co-ops stress me out if they rely on a lot of teamwork or strategic thinking (i have this mental block where i always defer to the person i assume is smarter & end up not really doing anything)
so ironically, even though i'm not a competitive person at all, it's usually competitive local multiplayer i enjoy most 😅
lofty mica
Haha that makes sense to me
still coral
(censors for final boss stuff)
||Lord of Doors, more like Lord of Floors;; 'cause that's where i knocked ur butt;;||
not sure if i'm going to go for the 100% ending, since i've never been much of a completionist
although if it legit feels like a continuation of the game & not just extras, maybe i should go for it?
or maybe take a break & come back after getting around to Titan Souls
lofty mica
Congrats!! I liked 100%ing this one! Though I'm a slight bit of a completionist hehe
still coral
hmm i did look up a bit about what it entails & it does sound like more than just "find the rest of the things"
i also heard about the|| Titan Souls connection||, so i'm kind of liking the idea of taking a break to play that & come back 👀
still coral
will be challenging my freshly Older self with an on-mic stream in a few 😭 cuth will also be there for support & a stronger voice
status will hopefully go purple when it's on
will be trying Osteoblasts
still coral
a gamewarble dump
but so far my fave thing about Steam Deck is the handheld experience making it feel less daunting to jump back into dropped games that i still kinda want to finish
so i'm doing that with Darksiders II. i still don't really have strong feelings about it, but it's decent fun & the voice-acting is surprisingly good. (would 100% listen to audiobooks by Death)
it's also not as halloweeny as you'd think (though that may be a point against it, idk), so i'll probably take that as an excuse to continue it into November
i think one reason i dropped it was mild motion sickness & not caring enough about the game to really push through it, but! the small screen experience seems to remove that entirely, which is a pleasant surprise. I'll have to try other games that were giving me the same issue & see if the deck screen helps.
also a quick summary of spookymonth game thoughts:
-did not like Buddy Simulator
-Death's Door i semi-completed & was good fun
-Graveyard Keeper i kinda bounced off of after a few hours, but may try again some other time. (but that's how i usually am with this genre)
-West of Dead is intriguing & maybe deserves more attention? third-person cover shooter with very Dead Cells-ish roguelite elements. it's got a great Mike Mignola aesthetic & they even got Ron Perlman to voice the main dude.
-Rats, Bats, & Bones is a cute li'l tower defense w/8-bit spooky aesthetics
-Osteoblasts has a lot more going on than i expected, very intriguing 🤔 various mechanics that i don't understand yet. not sure if i'm going to try & rush through more of it or save it for later
-Glass Masquerade 2 (the more halloweeny one) added more puzzles, so i jumped back into that. i will always stan the GM games, simple as they are. very chill, very pretty jigsaw puzzles, covering a variety of folklore.
gray gull
Can you elaborate on buddy sim when you have time? Trailer makes me think they've seen too many "the DARK secret behind this RETRO PIXEL GAME" and mistakenly thought that immediately makes a game scary
still coral
lol that's not too far off 😅
honestly i think whoever made Buddy Sim has a lot of potential, but the writing felt very immature/edgy to me & has kind of a problematic message (but i'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt that that's the immaturity talking)
(although i am always very hesitant to throw around the word "immature" because i hardly feel mature myself 😬 )
still coral
finally started Sable \o/
so far i love everything about it, even though i accidentally did the tutorial portions out of order?
and got inside the first temple in definitely the Wrong way, but still triggered the important stuff, so it's all good
but the aesthetic is 💯 & i love that it largely revolves around just climbing & wandering around
basically BotW: All Chill Edition
still coral
so far it is a Shalmons game as well
i did find some birds!
uneven oracle
finally started Sable \o/
so far i love everything about it, even though i accid...
yesss my thoughts exactly
still coral
i totally didn't get
mildly choked up
riding my new hoverbike through the canyon while Japanese Breakfast played in the background
uneven oracle
the best thing is going over a hill and dismounting so you just fling yourself
and the dust when you skid through the sand… gawgeous
still coral
meanwhile
my fave thing about Darksiders II is how Death is accidentally Just a Little Guy
the game always pairs you up with such massive things that i now have it in my head that he is simply Tiny
you frequently interact w/huge dwarves
one of them follows you on missions sometimes, for instances in which The Grim Reaper Himself needs to be yeeted over obstacles
you frequently ride on these big stone robot things
and get carried around by an even bigger golem dude
bosses are often huge
as if everything is designed to make you go "heehee look how little he is"
oh and his secondary weapons also tend to be way too big for his li'l body
gray gull
I've played the wiiu version partway through and felt the same
Death Platformzelda
Death is a little rayman smol bean
still coral
yeah the emphasis on puzzles was surprising
you go in expecting Death Metal Bloodfest but spend most of your time rolling a ball around
(which of course also contributes to making him look tiny)
still coral
ah i never finished the first one, i think i got stuck on a spider boss?
(maybe i'll try it again since Steam Deck is good for revisiting stuff)
i think i'm getting further in this one since it seems to have less of the git gud action stuff
still coral
oh i have one more silly Death observation
his mask puzzles me
i mean yea it's a stylized skull
but if u try to be anatomically correct
then wouldn't the teeth be starting way down there...?
i have to conclude that this skull was the only thing he could find before his first day at work & he broke the teeth off to look cooler
a tall skull mask also makes him feel less tiny
gray gull
he also stylized his old nickname 'teeth' into 'death' to sound cooler
still coral
oh i remembered another major thing that makes Death seem small
every chest & door in the game is too big for him to open
he has to summon a bigger pair of ghost hands to open everything
(it almost sounds like i'm making things up now when i read that back, but no that's really how it is)
gray gull
He also can't cut up his food himself, Death Daddy has to cut it for him and feed it to him while making airplane noisies
(i AM making things up)
still coral
could be real
maybe in the comics
anything can happen in comic canon!
gray gull
gray gull
for reading obituaries in the paper
still coral
well now i feel silly for saying D2 wasn't halloweeny enough
i have since been sent to SkeleCon 2012
so maybe i will save the rest for a spooky day 🤔
still coral
trying to jump back into Chasm
i am torn on Chasm, it's one of those "all polish, no charm" situations
well, the pixelart is charming, just by being very nicely done
but the art direction itself is very generic fantasy, giving it a "high-quality platformer asset pack" vibe
so it's fun enough to play, but the genericness definitely gets in the way of my motivation when i reach a harder part
i do have "bird hat" equipped, and that gives me a bird companion! so at least there's that
(actually, now i remember why i fell off Chasm -- Axiom Verge 2 came out lol. which had debatably less polish, but way more charm/intrigue)
uneven oracle
axiom verge 2 was super cool but I got stuck and stopped because I didn’t want to use a guide lol
I loved how ||there were no bosses. took me a bit to notice but it didn’t feel like it was missing anything without them||
the only thing I remember really not liking is how enemies will chase you to the ends of the earth and are better at platforming than you 😭
gray gull
I made it to the final boss of chasm but quit there
I think i couldnt be bothered to beat it
still coral
I loved how ||there were no bosses. took me a bit to notice but it didn’t feel ...
Yess, loved this choice! Even if it may have resulted in wonkier combat overall
I remember getting frustrated in the first half & eventually needing to look stuff up, but I thought the rest made up for it. Some cool lore stuff too
still coral
I made it to the final boss of chasm but quit there
I have a feeling this will happen to me if I even get that far 😅 it's a very ok game
still coral
found some cuties camping
Big cutie
birdies (they are shy & i couldn't get a good look at their faces )
new pant
uneven oracle
good pants
I liked the starting outfit more than most of the others, so I just wore it for most of the game lol
still coral
definitely looking forward to collecting more clothes for the fun of it, but yeah the starting one & the cover art outfit are both pretty solid 💯
still coral
i am finally trying Ori and the Blind Forest
first impressions:
-making saves a rechargeable ability is a pretty interesting way to shake up the save room formula, i dig it
-did not know this was gonna be one of those "die constantly until you get it right" games w/a death counter & everything. undecided on whether or not i dig that (although the save thing definitely makes it more palatable)
-i'm not sure how non-linear this game is trying to be, but i'm a little surprised that i already got stumped after wandering into some place i'm not supposed to be attempting yet (had to look up a guide to realize that) it just really felt like i was supposed to go there ¯_(ツ)_/¯
i have also confirmed some birds
lofty mica
Ori has such a good flow, really liked it
And totally agree on the save mechanic
Pretty fascinating
I almost made a new item in TWC for it 😅
uneven oracle
oh that would be cool
uneven oracle
that’s the sort of utility item that would get its own button in Zelda I think. like how shield, pegasus boots, and power bracelet usually get their own buttons
I have a sneaking suspicion they keep giving the shield a dedicated button because nobody uses it otherwise
lofty mica
Hah yeah
That's why TWC doesn't have a shield
If the sequel does, it'll be dual purpose like the mirror shield
uneven oracle
I’ve been theorycrafting a one-button moveset for maybe a small project
lofty mica
Wait, even fewer buttons??
uneven oracle
where you press to attack, hold to shield, and leave unheld to charge a special move like final fantasy adventure
uneven oracle
it’s jank but I love it
lofty mica
Maybe also for TWC sequel lol
uneven oracle
TWC could get away with not having combat imo
lofty mica
It really could
uneven oracle
proof: the existing protodungeons
lofty mica
It's going to, but I have ideas for noncombat games
uneven oracle
yeah your sword animations are too good to waste
lofty mica
Aw thanks
I'm pretty sure next big project will be a magic school RPG with social elements and heavy exploration
No combat
still coral
ooo
i may or may not have been scrawling ideas for a Tegwyn Saga spinoff in that vein, so that definitely sounds fun to me lol
(much further down the list of things i want to attempt though. mostly i'd like to attempt some sort of small game project in between making endless art assets for main game like something in one of those engines that is kinder to people with no code brain )
lofty mica
Haha yeah, I know what you mean
Well I have code brain, but the other parts still apply
uneven oracle
I'm pretty sure next big project will be a magic school RPG with social elements...
I’ve had Magical School Lunar on my list for a while. it’s a game gear RPG, and those three words together can’t not grab my interest
still coral
moggles!
uneven oracle
something about the battle screen just speaks to my soul
it might be the lack of any healthbars
lofty mica
I'm very unfamiliar with them
still coral
ohh it's literally a Lunar game
looks like it never got a wacky Working Designs translation though
uneven oracle
looking at my genesis backlog. it’s so tiny
just a couple Wonder Boy games, Lunar and Phantasy Star stuff, Sonic CD, Popful Mail, and Beyond Oasis
genesis aesthetic is really good tho
dare I say I like it more than SNES?
still coral
yeah it seems like there's a lot of neat stuff
i was a SNES kid, but i'm seeing the appeal the older i get
for one thing, the soundfont. i think i used to hate it, but now i think it's rad
i'm a little tempted to upgrade my switch account for the genesis stuff, but there's currently a lot of overlap with what i have already on the steam classics collection. but i'm hoping they'll do like the nes/snes libraries and add some obscure things
lofty mica
Oh the SNES compression and echo? Love it to death. Done a lot of research on it and even made my own instruments
still coral
oh wait
once again, my thoughts came out jumbled
i meant the genesis font took a while to grow on me, lol
lofty mica
I thought that's what you meant after I wrote of my undying love for SNES music
but didn't want to call too much attention to it
lol
rather, was too lazy to change it
still coral
ohh ok lol
but yeah snes sound is very good
though my ultimate nostalgic bias is for amiga soundfont (amiga was weirdly my first exposure to video games; i don't know why we had one since it was more of a UK thing)
still coral
it is very good
pretty sure i briefly wondered why the commodore amiga seemed big in the spanish-speaking community
then i learned some words
still coral
in ori news
i spent way too much time perfecting a thorny wall jump
finally made it
turns out it's also somewhere i'm not supposed to be 🙃
but that was kind of a relief, since now i know the game isn't expecting that much precision from me
eventually i found the right path & got the double-jump, the classic 'vania dopamine hit
lofty mica
Yesss
still coral
lol
lmao
4 hrs in, 200 deaths
i'm at the part where you get the bash ability & the next section of the game is "it's BASH time, b-tch!!!"
well i'm certainly getting the hang of using it
i'm still enjoying it though, mostly just amused that Cutie Pie in the Wonderful Woodland is such a brutal game
still coral
getting sidetracked with Alba
gameplay-wise, you definitely get that "oh this was made for young kids" feeling, but imho the charm still carries it
so far my only specific complaint is how the game weirdly ignores your photos? you have the option to save them to your computer, but otherwise it seems like you never see your own photos in the game again. once you photograph a new animal, the space in the book just gets filled with pre-made artwork. & that artwork gets applied to other things you need photos for, like the damaged wildlife signs. just seems like a missed opportunity for the player to put their own creative spin on things, and imho dampens incentive to try taking better photos.
nocturne tendon
oh... that is a huge missed opportunity. why??
still coral
maybe it happens later?? very weird choice
i played the snap-like Maravilla island not too long ago, so the omission feels pretty glaring
in that one i was definitely trying to get the nicest shots for my book
still coral
ok i beat alba
cute, lacking in substance
and still puzzled by the lack of incentive to be creative w/photos
i will say that it manages to not feel as short as it is
possibly because it sprinkles NPC interaction & other random tasks to do throughout (whereas similar games like Maravilla Island focus solely on photography, and that game in particular felt quite short)
you're allowed to keep going after the ending, but there is exactly one thing i couldn't find & i don't feel quite motivated to keep looking for it (literally every other animal is relatively easy to find, so idk what the deal is with this one)
i feel like i'm being too negative, but overall it's still a nice kid-friendly game. i don't regret chilling with it for a few hours, especially since i got it for free
still coral
idk what i'm going to do with ori though
i respect this game, but i am presently not having fun
i'm stuck with one health on the escape sequence in Forlorn Ruins
which essentially means i have to execute this entire slippery spike-ridden obstacle course perfectly
the only thing easy mode does is add a single checkpoint to these sequences, but on 1 health i need significantly more checkpoints than they are offering 
gray gull
Wish i had anything useful to say about that. I got to that point in guacamelee too where the special move button combos to get through one hit kill platforming sections became so terrible
I finished that game out of spite just to get it done
still coral
yeaaah i think i briefly chatted w/you about guac before, but jaguar javier was where i got stuck 😭
i should probably check where Ori drops me off if i actually exit the game & come back, but if it's that same no-exit spot with my 1 health, then i'll probably move on to something else in my switch pile
(although i did already partially move on to try Lumines & that's been pretty fun)
gray gull
I saw you play that! I have no idea how it's played but i only heard good things about that. Is it playable with a controller?
still coral
very simple controls, so i don't see why not! (i've only been playing w/joycons since they are only slightly more stable than my switch controller )
(which reminds me that i need to actually test out my xbox controller adapter for the switch that i got for this very reason)
it is strange how in all my life i have never had as many controller problems as i've had with the switch 🤔
gray gull
Oh that's weird. Maybe something is jamming up the signal
Once i got a pro controller i was all good. But then again, i am a pro gamer
And yeah i meant it as in controller vs touchscreen
If pokemon cafe game was controller-playable i'd probably be playing it
Although i understand why a game about swirling and stirring coffee is touchscreen-based
still coral
ohhh right, yeah i don't know if it even has touch controls, so all good there!
i think mine are just suffering from the infamous drift problem, kind of the switch's less-bad version of the red ring of death
gray gull
I hate drift
still coral
i didn't know what people were talking about for the longest time & then mine started to go 😔
gray gull
"Hmm why is my camera panning slightly to the right"
still coral
nvmnd, I have succeeded 😤 thankfully exiting the game put me back at the start of the sequence with full health.
gray gull
That's the true will of the wisps
still coral
My efforts have been rewarded with ||tragic owl backstory||
still coral
ori and the blind forest: a summary
still coral
i am trying various things in the Epic Games pile & Mages of Mystralia commits the cardinal sin of having fatal water in-game & then showing your character swimming in a cutscene 😑
uneven oracle
idk if I’ve ever encountered that 
that’s horrifying
maybe it means there’s a way to swim later on?
still coral
for now i can make ice-bridges
otherwise, instant drown unless the plot needs me to swim 🤔
still coral
played through Behind the Frame in one sitting; main game + bonus content is under 2 hours
but i got it bundled w/other games, so eh, it's fine
and the game is fine, it's mostly showing off its art (which is very nice) & the rest is pretty basic point & click stuff
story/vibe was a bit schmaltzy for my liking, but i have pretty low schmaltz tolerance lately
gray gull
I looked up some screens and it does look schmoaaltzy
still coral
all about the type of artist that i find hard to relate to, lol
perfect rustic aesthetic everywhere, unshakeable drive to constantly paint
like they get moody about romance or whatever, but never too depressed to move
gray gull
Dumbass writers clinging to the 'unrealistic artistic ideal'
In our relatable accurate game about an artist, there are many chapters about playing tetris99 in bed depressed and convincing yourself to please take a shower or make some coffee
And several about trying out a piece and constantly deleting files you've already sunk 4 hours into because you can't make the stupid eyes happen
still coral
heh heh yes
it was definitely going for a ghibli thing, but kiki's delivery service captured the whole art vs. moods challenge much better
gray gull
Ghibli is so often misread as cottagecore while it should be read more as lamentingmankind'shubriscore
still coral
i misread as "lamenting mankind's shrubs"
but there is even some of that as well
gray gull
(Watching only one scene from grave of the fireflies left a permanent grim mark on teen lobster) omg this is so aesthetic
still coral
oh man i watched that once
i feel like it bears rewatching now that i'm older
but......cannot 😭
gray gull
Wow that was a x2 Blanket Statement multiplier
still coral
maybe third time will be charm
first time playing BG was a multiplayer attempt that did not get far
2nd was singleplayer attempt that did not get far
this time is Enhanced Edition, so i can at least flip on story mode if i can't be arsed to get good enough for a fight lol
still coral
i am "borrowing" someone's golden pantaloons
and have already made use of Story Mode to skip a fight lol
forgot how the beginning of this game has an assassin in every other house & a common wolf enemy is Very Hard
gray gull
Lol, amazing that you got a custom portrait
If i had to actually engage with the combat system i would probably not have left the first room
still coral
I resized & dropped some art i already had into the portrait folder! It has definitely enhanced the experience
I picked the old lady voice, which sounds the most like a chicken
Yeah that seems to be the least fun element of the game, so I don't feel bad at all skipping it.
still coral
Cuth finally got me to properly co-op the first Wildermyth campaign
(i initially bounced off of it 'cause i often struggle with co-op decision making, but now that i understand the non-combat parts of the game better, it wasn't so bad. i'm sure i'd have a great time soloing it, so i'm looking forward to that as well )
one of my characters got some good/weird quest hooks
(and a cat)
anyway, this is a good one for gamedev observation since i feel like it's the thing that our game is inevitably going to be compared to (both graphically & mechanically)
i'm enjoying it a lot, but my only major complaint is, weirdly enough, the music??
for such a colorful/quirky fantasy game, idk why they decided to have a slow funeral cello playing the entire time
really sucks the energy out of the room, so i recommend turning it off and/or putting your own music on
still coral
returned to Romancing Saga 3 after completing another Picross S volume
i'm never 100% sure what's happening in a SaGa game, but i feel like that must be part of the appeal
i wish these Squenix remasters were of better quality though
or were more straightforward ports
the mixed resolution of the different assets in this version is kinda ugly
i think this was before the recent series of FF pixel remasters, so maybe they've learned some lessons since then (there are still some things about those that i don't like the look of, but it's still a step up from this lol)
i've also run into an issue where overworld enemy sprites will vanish whenever i'm walking, it reminds me of bad emulation
