I picked up on the townsfolk talking about the crypt, but its a very weak hint for ‘you should go here first’, when there’s townfolk complaining about all sort of issues. I had loosely had the crypt in mind, as I was exploring, but I never found it before getting pulled forward by the Spark dropping into Septembersburg, and I just figured ‘if the game didn’t want me here, then it shouldn’t be possible to be here’. Which, I think is a natural assumption, considering how Zelda coded the game is visually and mechanically.

Its just, the game isn’t structurally a zelda game, so that was a bad assumption on my part. I just wish there was a bit more communication, that the game is structurally Elden Ring, not Oracle of Ages.

One of the first things I stumbled into in Septembersburg is the Wallower section, which lent itself well to the (incorrect) assumption that Trinkets are going to be a way the game mechanically gates sections (a la classic Zelda)

Edit to add: I still think Mina is a great game. But I think it fails in setting tone and expectations properly, for how it wants you to approach it. My favorite game of all time is La-Mulana, which is unflinchingly retro and cryptic. But I feel like it does a better job of communicating that. I’ve seen people say “don’t be fooled by its appearance, Mina isn’t Zelda, its Bloodborne”, which I think is very true, and that I would have enjoyed the game more had I went in with that perspective, instead of stumbling upon it.

Yeah, my favorite soulslike by far is Sekiro, which is mostly linear. Hollow Knight and Silksong are also fantastic, but I felt there, too, the ‘souls’ mechanic is kind of just unnecessary.

I’m in the endgame area (manor) with like 90% completion. Can’t be assed to do some of challenges (like fishing).

I like the game a lot, and love the pixel art, but the game lacks some tightness in some areas. The platforming, esp. big jumps and flying enemies, is frustrating a lot of the time. Lots of me not knowing where exactly I am or hoe I’m going to move.

There’s also a bit of a muscle memory problem for me, with how I kept thinking things would be grid-based, due to the world, but I’d often think I was line up with foes, only for my weapons to squeak right past them.

My last complaint is purely a me problem, but I hate charge weapons, which the game seems to use a lot of innthe various upgrades. I ended uo using basically only daggers, as all the other weapons just feel so shitty to me.

Biggest complaint, only thing that’s more than a quibble, is I really didn’t like the inclusion of both vague region order and the souls-dropping mechanic. Dropping your money on death punishes poking into places to look around, drawing you forward into challenges repeatedly. First area I beat, I was like, ‘fuck, that was hard. Does it escalate from here?!?’ Spoilered myself, only to learn I had just done the 3rd area, and the doing 1 then 2, they were easy enough with all my upgrades to kind of kill the fun. Really soured the whole first half of the game for me, and it feels solvable bt either having some clearer guidance on intended region order, or dumping the (imo unnecessary) ‘souls’ mechanic.

Still, all of those above frustrations didn’t ruin it for me, and I’d still give it a 8.5 out of 10 maybe.

Whether you touch type per the formal method or not, if you don’t know what the lines are for, ot means you weren’t taught (or weren’t paying attention) typing.

I was taught it in school in typing class, so the meme is accurate, but could be rephrased to something like: What do you mean you don’t know that the lines are for? Are they not teaching that in school anymore?

Yeah, exactly this. These ‘natural testosterone’ supplements are snake oil.

Umm lots and lots of kids, and some adults, have that kind of cereal for breakfast most mornings

Generally speaking, no.

I like getting out of the house, and I find I’m more efficient, better at focusing, in the office/field. Maybe That’d be different if I had a separate dedicated ‘work office’ at home, but I don’t have space for such a thing.

But, I do like having the option to WFH. Bad weather, car trouble, feeling a bit sick (but not enough to call off).

You aren’t wrong for liking what you like. But I love subtext, make me riddle out the meaning.

I know this isn’t all ‘non-subtext’ works, but I hate when theres a beautiful passage that neatly implies what a character is thinking and feeling indirectly… Followed by them just blithely stating their current emotional state out loud. Hits like a sack of bricks every time.

Nah, that’s silly. Asia obviously has the longest coastline.

Sure, based on that paradox, the specific measurement of a given coastline will differ. But if you pick a standard (i.e., 1km straight lines), Asia is easily the longest. Doesn’t matter what standard you pick.

The only way the paradox matter here is of you pick different standards for different coastlines. Which, os obviously wrong.

Engagement, voting on these makes the algorithm push their channel harder

Hm, I actually found the voice acting pretty not great. Some line reads were odd, and the different voices felt like they were recorded on different mics.

I made it to one ending, and really didn’t feel any desire to do another go around.

I know what you mean about ‘perfect’ though, I have my own small list of odd games that, to me, feel like they’re ‘perfect’ in what they’re trying to do.

It’s not that much slower. Our 20a outlets give 2,400w, while yours gove 3000w. And, it’s still faster than a stovetop kettle. Its more that we don’t make hot tea very regularly, while drip coffee was the dominant hot drink for so long.

Eh, apples to oranges.

A 60$ game today is so unlike a 60$ two or three decades ago.

No physical medium. Much larger market and (potential at least) sales volume.

Proliferation of game engines; games don’t need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ each time, or write machine code anymore.

On top of that, there’s many other revenue streams. Not that I think this model is ‘fair and good’, but look at the mobile market, where a sale cost of $0 is king.

Something to be said about ‘lower cost incentivizing bad practices’ (as the article discusses), and yeah, some games could raise their price. But it’s far fron 1-1, as ‘sales volume’ trumps ‘sale price’ in importance.

I never gave it a chance, as theit practice of paying for exclusivity is infuriating to me.

Make your shit better. Hell, make it comparable, and charge a lower cit (so devs make more), and I’d support then.

Paying to make the market more closed off sucks.

I’m talking about the stuttering, caused primarily not recalculating shaders. Something I just dealt with the entirety of my first playthrough of ER. But the fact that it still isn’t fixed really makes me not want to play, or to pay them money.

Yeah, I’m holding off for a sale on this one. I liked Elden Ring well enough, but the performance issues are infuriating. Baffling that it still isn’t fixed.

I don’t care for it. It does some interesting things, in base building. But having played it a lot mostly because my friend group likes it, it’s very janky. It does not feel close to 1.0. And, while there’s some fun to be had, everything outside the horde nights just feels like busywork in a way I didn’t feel with Valheim or Grounded.

I fully agree. If you read my first comment, I pretty clearly as much as the new ones are pretty bad (story wise), the two Jaffe worked on are even worse in that regard.

I mean, I too would be unhappy with the new games’ stories. They’re not very good stories overall.

But, they’re better than the vast majority of video game plots, because that’s a low bar.

Still, Jaffe seems to imply the old stories in GoW were any better, when they were pure drivel. I might still be very underwhelmed by the story in the two new God of War’s, but I at least like that they’re trying (even if I think the direction of relying heavily on animation and visual flair is the wrong one, as far as telling good stories goes).

Why is it “schizo edition”? Is that like, a real thing, or is sseth doing that abelist ‘schizoposting’ stuff?

Edit: man, y’all really hate people with schizophrenia, huh?