Hey everyone! What have y’all been playing? I’ve mainly been running sts 2 a ton! I think next is Mario Galaxy 2. I picked it up since it’s my bday today c:
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.
kurcatovium@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I finished Pentiment yesterday. It’s fantastic. I was fighting with clunky controls a bit at the start, but I’m really glad I did not give up.
RPG elements (i.e. character progression) are very basic, gameplay-wise it’s like crossbreed between point and click adventure and walking (& talking) simulator. No action whatsoever, just walking and talking. And still it’s a great game. How? It’s all about the story, characters and your interactions with them. All writing is great, as we can expect from Obsidian. The entire game I wanted to progress further and further just to see what happens next, how people react to what you do, how tables turn and the game did not disappoint in this regard. Also art style, sound effects (writing sounds when dialogs roll) and fragments of music helps it a lot to get that “medieval” atmosphere.
I won’t spoil the story in case there are still people who haven’t played it yet. I’ll just tell the game has three acts, where first one is the most non-linear and open and each subsequent one is more narrow and linear as the story continues. And while it might look like it’s limiting, it fits the storytelling well, so no problem with me. There are quite a few story twists during the game so I honestly enjoyed it a lot and I didn’t know how it would wrap up to the very end.
The game gets 5/5 from me and I can highly recommend it to everyone seeking calm gameplay focused on story and characters. It is similar to games like Disco Elysium in this regard, although the gameplay is still very different.
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 2 weeks ago
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. 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.
kurcatovium@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
You’re right. It’s not point and click adventure. The controls resembles it though, you point and click and Andreas goes there. That’s where similarities end.
Also you have a point the pacing is really slow. The game I played before Sentiment was Amid Evil, which is old school fast paced boomer shooter, so the switch was pretty brutal. But in the end it felt somehow “relaxing”? So much shit happens so fast IRL so I found myself coming to the game to actually enjoy the slow progression. But I can see how people might dislike it. I like reading books and I read slow so I’m used to slow progression.