nex3
BACKER
2020
let me play as a girl dammit
2009
The culmination of my playthrough of all the Souls games and their FromSoft progeny, starting with Sekiro and working my way backwards chronologically. As I played through its successors, everything I heard about this game made it sound like a janky mess from which blossomed the pure brilliance that is Dark Souls. I was surprised to find that not the case.
In a lot of ways, Demon's Souls is more tidy than Dark Souls. Its linear world design invites a clear categorization that later games deny. (Players even refer to them as "1-4" and "2-3" like Mario levels!) The consumable (and easily-farmable) healing items give players more flexibility in how they move through the space than Dark Souls' bonfire-tethered estus flasks. Even the parries seemed easier to parse, although that could just be my own human skill improving with six of these games under my belt.
At the same time, though, about 70% of the brilliant weirdness that's usually attributed to Dark Souls appears here. The combat is almost the same (the lack of curved rolls shocked me at first but I quickly acclimated), the boss design is already stellar, and although the world design is linear each level within the worlds are pure Souls: layered, evolving, and hauntingly strange.
There's no doubt that Dark Souls' two key additions (the estus mechanic and the connected overworld) were excellent, and brought the formula to a new height of challenge. But this is the game that deserves to be considered the father of the genre.
In a lot of ways, Demon's Souls is more tidy than Dark Souls. Its linear world design invites a clear categorization that later games deny. (Players even refer to them as "1-4" and "2-3" like Mario levels!) The consumable (and easily-farmable) healing items give players more flexibility in how they move through the space than Dark Souls' bonfire-tethered estus flasks. Even the parries seemed easier to parse, although that could just be my own human skill improving with six of these games under my belt.
At the same time, though, about 70% of the brilliant weirdness that's usually attributed to Dark Souls appears here. The combat is almost the same (the lack of curved rolls shocked me at first but I quickly acclimated), the boss design is already stellar, and although the world design is linear each level within the worlds are pure Souls: layered, evolving, and hauntingly strange.
There's no doubt that Dark Souls' two key additions (the estus mechanic and the connected overworld) were excellent, and brought the formula to a new height of challenge. But this is the game that deserves to be considered the father of the genre.
You think this game is about ecofascism? You fool. You think it's about intergenerational conflict? You clown. Battling against destiny? You absolute goon! It's about TEENS making BAD DECISIONS because of their STUPID FEELINGS
2017
Doesn't really have that much to say in the end.
2020
Unsubtle and unabashed, this game goes for the jugular at every opportunity. If someone asks me fifteen years from now "what was living in 2020 like?" this will be my answer.
2020
Just gorgeous. The first game I've played in years that really feels like it's grappling with the artistic legacy of Twine games. Willing to be simple in its mechanical structure because it's confident in its capability and artistry within that structure.
2011
I mean. It's fucking Dark Souls
2018
turns out this dating sim has a pretty compelling action minigame attached
The brilliance of thatgamecompany's works has always been their tight focus on a particular mode of interaction. While Sky clearly comes from the lineage of Flower and Journey, it expands them outwards to support a free-to-play model and an MMO-esque world and in so doing loses the plot of what made them sublime. The result is a messy and often confusing game with multiple currencies and modes of interaction. That said, it's intriguing enough in its messiness that I'm not surprised to have seen it still teeming with players a year after launch.
2016
Certainly this is a series of actions you can take if you'd like to take some actions
2018
I don't like playing Werewolf-likes, and normally I rate games on my personal enjoyment so I was considering giving this a 2.5⭐. Upon consideration though, this is so fun to spectate and so clearly brilliantly designed that I'm breaking form and shooting for a rating of how good it is in the abstract rather than just for me.
you could not possibly make a game that's more My Shit than a mixed media real time sidequest-first anti-RPG with quietly tremendous influence on everything that came after it
2019
I was hoping for "Antichamber but with cool combat" and I got more "Bioshock Infinite but with good writing"
Inarguably a tighter game than Alan Wake, but honestly part of what makes Alan Wake special is its slightly-janky weirdness.
How can a game have SO MANY BOSSES and yet still have fewer genuinely great boss fights than Bloodborne, a game whose boss fights I thought were tailor made to annoy me in particular?