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Comment on Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?

Extra long post today, so I’m experimenting with spoiler tags to not take up too much space. Let me know if it’s a good idea.

Blasphemous

I finished Blasphemous. I didn’t go through the DLC as I apparently missed the chance for the True Ending by not doing it early anyway, so I couldn’t be bothered as I wasn’t really enjoying the game that much. Also I’ve heard it’s even more annoying. I’ll save it for a hypothetical second playthrough. I did beat the one optional DLC boss I had access to - Isidora - and the difference between the main game and the DLC is staggering. I first tried the last two bosses in the main game, but Isidora took me probably 50ish attempts. And I’m not sure it was “fun difficult” either, that second phase sure was something. My notes remain the same: terrible platforming (and an overabundance of it) and design elements that are deliberately meant to waste your time and/or piss you off hold back what could otherwise have been a great game. I respect the artistic vision, I just didn’t have a lot of fun playing it.

LIMBO

As a palate cleanser I played through LIMBO, which I bought solely because it is supposedly an indie darling and was being delisted on GOG. I didn’t really like it. I don’t enjoy platformers, and this is a mediocre puzzle platformer. Despite being assured otherwise on here I did not think the “vibes” were enough to carry it. In the end it’s like a 6/10, and I’m glad I only paid a dollar for it. Maybe I’d think otherwise if this was 2010 and it was my first artsy indie game, but for contrast literally just the other week I played through GRIS. In my opinion that’s an artsy puzzle platformer that’s worth it on vibes alone. I hope INSIDE is better as I foolishly bought both.

After that I was in a mood for something different, and after realising how easy setting up Xemu was I went headfirst into Ninja Gaiden Black. I played Ninja Gaiden (2004) on the original Xbox as a kid back in the day, but I never finished it and always wanted to go back. With Ninja Gaiden 2 Black being released recently-ish and Ninja Gaiden 4 on the horizon this felt like the perfect time to play the definitive version of the best game in the series.

Now, I don’t know whether I’ll be able to finish it. I’m playing on “Normal” and not “Ninja Dog” (the easy mode). I’m 8 chapters in now and so far so good, but I’m well aware of the game’s reputation as being prohibitively difficult. And I never did beat it back when I still had teenage reflexes.

That being said, I’m loving the ever-loving shit out of every moment so far. There is nothing like Ninja Gaiden combat out there, the relentless nature of every single encounter with extremely aggressive enemies constantly forcing you to push yourself to the limit and use every tool and trick at your disposal is satisfying like nothing else. It’s extremely fast, but at the same time measured, deliberate and precise. You can’t get away with button mashing, you have to consciously use actual combos and you have to use the right techniques and right weapons at the right times. The essence mechanic is also unique and offers constant mid-battle decisions.

The story is… it’s there I guess. It’s pretty terrible, truth be told. And the voice acting is hilariously bad early 2000s style. But let’s face it, nobody plays NG for the story. At least the environments are cool and well designed, as are most of the monsters and characters (let’s not talk about Rachel). The futuristic mashup with traditional Japanese ninjas and samurai is a very cool setting.

The graphics also need to be shouted out. Sure, I turned up the rendering resolution by 6x in Xemu, but still. Barring some low-res ground textures and the like the game looks phenomenal for a 2005 console release. What Team Ninja were able to extract out of the scuffed ass original Xbox hardware is just black magic. Character models still look great and the animations are fantastic.

Definitely recommend checking it out if you like character action games. NGB is considered by many to be the peak of that genre and it’s easy to see why.

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BurntWits@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Personally I’m a huge fan of both Limbo and Inside, solely because of the atmosphere. I much prefer Inside but I also really enjoyed Limbo too. I hope you enjoy Inside more than Limbo, but your complaints about Limbo will be more or less the same in Inside.

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- Coelacanth@feddit.nu ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  If either the puzzles are better or there is more of a story to it I can see myself liking INSIDE more. Most people seem to prefer it, after all.
  
  Any puzzle platformer will face an uphill battle with me though as it’s just not a genre I enjoy. Sometimes - like GRIS - they come through, but often not. I also really liked The Unfinished Swan, if that counts as a puzzle platformer.
  
  LIMBO had a couple of good puzzles (the antigrav one with the boxes near the end comes to mind) but also a huge amount of either forgettable ones or frustrating and/or outright bad ones. A few too many relied on trial-and-error instead of observation and deduction, which I don’t find fun or interesting.
  
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  - BurntWits@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Fair enough. I enjoy puzzle platformers, so I was going to like the games regardless, but I just absolutely love the atmosphere of Inside. It might be my favourite ever, not really sure why. But I’ve been looking for something to scratch that itch ever since, and have so far come up empty handed.
    
    Inside does have a story, but just like with Limbo, it doesn’t tell it to you, you have to figure it out for yourself. It’s all environmental story telling, and it doesn’t give any concrete answers to your questions. I still don’t fully know what was going on in that world but I’m okay with that. The unknown is an awesome creepy vibe I absolutely get on with, and is the main reason I love it so much.
    
    I’d love to hear your thoughts once you’ve played it.
    
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mohab@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Why did you stick with Blasphemous 😂 I remember you hated it a couple of weeks ago.

INSIDE is better than LIMBO, IMO—in terms of production and sound design, at the very least. Without revealing too much, some sections are more fun. Although the core gameplay is not much different, unfortunately.

My opinion on LIMBO and INSIDE hasn't changed since playing them: they're worth $2-3 each, not more.

Xemu is super easy to set up, yeah. I hope you enjoy the rest of your NGB playthrough, and you can definitely beat it, yes!

Word of warning about Ninja Gaiden 2 Black: it's more or less Sigma 2 reskinned, unfortunately. They called it "Black" for marketing, but it's not really the definitive version. You can pick it up and install the White mod, which brings it closer to OG NGII, but if you already have Xemu set up, might as well just play OG NGII—it's an incredible experience, but also get ready to experience a ton of NES bullshit moments in 3D 😂 It's downright hilarious how OG NGII just doesn't give a flying fuck about balance, but it's definitely part of the charm.

On Ninja Gaiden 4, it's a collab between Team Ninja and Platinum Games, which's exciting, but I'd say maybe adjust your expectations for a slightly different experience than the typical Ninja Gaiden.

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- Coelacanth@feddit.nu ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  Why did you stick with Blasphemous 😂 I remember you hated it a couple of weeks ago.
  
  I bought it and so I wanted to finish it, especially since it’s not all that long. And I don’t like leaving things unfinished 😂 And I did really like the art, story and world building.
  
  INSIDE is better than LIMBO, IMO—in terms of production and sound design, at the very least. Without revealing too much, some sections are more fun. Although the core gameplay is not much different, unfortunately.
  
  That makes me feel so-so about it, especially having spent I think around $9 on it (last chance before it getting delisted). I heard there is somewhat more of a story in it? That was one thing holding LIMBO back for me.
  
  Word of warning about Ninja Gaiden 2 Black: it’s more or less Sigma 2 reskinned, unfortunately. They called it “Black” for marketing, but it’s not really the definitive version. You can pick it up and install the White mod, which brings it closer to OG NGII, but if you already have Xemu set up, might as well just play OG NGII—it’s an incredible experience, but also get ready to experience a ton of NES bullshit moments in 3D 😂 It’s downright hilarious how OG NGII just doesn’t give a flying fuck about balance, but it’s definitely part of the charm.
  
  Yeah I’ve heard. Ninja Gaiden series really is a clusterfuck of multiple versions of each release that both add and subtract things. Original NG2 was on 360 unfortunately, and is trapped on that ecosystem. It apparently runs okay on Xenia Canary but I haven’t looked into it yet. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I’m currently thinking playing both NG2 and NG2 Black (those visuals look so good). But… that’s all contingent on me beating NGB first! I’ll definitely look into that mod, there is also the Ninja Gaiden Sigma Black mos, but I don’t know how much they’ve been able to restore considering the huge differences between Black and Sigma.
  
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  - mohab@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    
    I bought it and so I wanted to finish it, especially since it's not all that long. And I don't like leaving things unfinished 😂
    
    Understandable, TBH.
    
    That makes me feel so-so about it, especially having spent I think around $9 on it (last chance before it getting delisted). I heard there is somewhat more of a story in it? That was one thing holding LIMBO back for me.
    
    I think I paid about $12 or something, but that was back in 2018 maybe, and it was on Steam, not GOG—I always felt GOG has that DRM-free tax and sales don't go as hard on there.
    
    There is more of a story but not really because of the nature of the story… it's, uh, nonconventional to say the least. It's fantastically bizarre, but in a modern, industrial setting. Definitely more interesting than LIMBO overall. Best way I can put it: it's that scene in Eraserhead where he was walking home in an industrial hellscape, but stretched to a 5-hour game.
    
    It apparently runs okay on Xenia Canary but I haven't looked into it yet.
    
    Yeah, you're right! I forgot you'll need to setup Xenia to play it, but it's just as easy to set up as Xemu, and runs great.
    
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