mohab

I spent about a year eyeing Gori: Cuddly Carnage from afar until I picked it up a few days ago thinking I’ll just beat it in about 8~10 hours and go back to playing Homura Hime… I’m 17hrs in… beat the game and going for the 100% because it seemed very doable and the game is fun.

I don’t even know who to recommend it to… technically speaking it is an action game, but does not play like any other action game I know. The platforming isn’t exactly Tony Hawk Pro Skater/Jet Set Radio either… it’s not even Rollerdrome… so IDK. It is fun though… just requires some suspension of belief and embracing it for what it is.

Halfway through Homura Hime. It’s pretty fun albeit a little too easy for my liking on the highest difficulty.

I picked up Ikaruga. I can feel the input delay, but it’s still fun.

Half way through my second Hi-Fi Rush playthrough. Game is fantastic.

Depends on what you’re looking for. I’d confidently recommend against buying it if you’re looking for an action game. There’s at least 10 better, cheaper candidates on Steam.

So in attempt to expand my taste and library, and against my better judgment, I picked up 4 games over the past 2 months I wouldn’t typically pick up: Death Stranding, The Surge, Scarlet Nexus, and NieR:Automata.

I regret doing that.

I hate RPGs so much. They are so boring. My personal idea of gaming hell is fetch quests, escort missions, item farming, skill trees, and grinding XP.

Death Stranding: I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that bad, and I actually had some fun collecting resources to build bridges and whatnot. Also, it’s nice to boot up the game and realize someone else finished that bridge you’ve been trying to build. Driving can be fun too.

Game definitely overstays its welcome though… and I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the story. There’s no scenario where I can see myself revisiting it.

The Surge: God, I should put all the clips I have of all the buggy and awkward combat BS I ran into in this game. It’s just sad.

I hate souls-like combat. It’s so slow, all the skill goes into character builds, and this game’s take on it doesn’t exactly shake it up. I felt as if I was using 5% of my brain in every combat situation. A lot of wait-and-bait over and over again, and I just can’t see myself ever enjoying this. Never revisiting.

Scarlet Nexus: This one actually tries harder to bring action mechanics and ideas to an otherwise RPG experience, but goddammit the RPG bogs it down so hard. And that last stretch of gameplay was insufferable, by-the-numbers RPG BS. Spongy, high-leveled enemies for days, which aren’t even that difficult to beat… just chunky health bars, which seems to be action RPGs only idea of challenging combat: chunky health bars with big, often quick, attacks that can 2-shot you—once you figure out how to deal with the attacks, it becomes nothing but a battle of endurance. Just mundane, repetitive shit.

I may revisit to play the second campaign and 100%, but most likely will not.

NieR:Automata: OK, so this one has OK an combat system with combos, animation canceling, launchers, parries, counters…etc. but all of it locked behind a lot of RPG, and none of it matters if you don’t level up and dish out higher DPS anyway; otherwise, it’s yet again another battle of endurance. Fun locked up behind misery.

It’s also a nearly infinitely replayable RPG, which I find nightmare-inducing.

For the first time ever I have a “Regret” section in my library… goddammit. I will, however, still give Nioh a shot at some point. This will be the last step I take outside of my comfort zone for a long while. Back to action games, fighting games, and shmups—games I actually have tons of fun playing and can infinitely enjoy.

Windblown from Motion Twin (Dead Cells devs)

No couch co-op though, in case this is what you're looking for.