A lotta stuff I've put out recently has talked about trying to engage with stuff beyond surface level and I've had a few people asking me how, so like...
Firstly, don't stress out about this. I know I've been screaming like a hyena but it's perfectly fine to do something specifically to check out. That said there should be some things you care about!! But you can be selective we don't have infinite emotional energy!!
It shouldn't be Work. Don't be intimidated by all us Effort Posters...
Okay so I'm curious! You seem to have a lot to say about the impact of world design, so I'm dying to know if you have Thoughts™ with regards to Classicvania versus Metroidvania. Is one better than the other? Are there different considerations for both??
Obviously you can't quite put one over the other, though... I feel like classicvanias were far more powerful examples of their craft than most of the igavanias (obviously Rondo and SOTN place a lo...
All of your Metroid write-ups recently have been fantastic, and a great insight into some game design choices and thoughts about genres that I hadn't really thought of before (Seriously, "Metroid isn't about blowing up secret boxes" should be on some game dev's whiteboards in the top left corner as a reminder).
Curious thought, though, have you happened to play La-Mulana and or its sequel? I love them, but their design perplex me in a very un...
Heya! Really enjoyed reading your critique of Dread even as someone who really liked the game! Youve written about souls stuff before but i saw the swipe you took at Gael and now it has me curious about your feelings on souls style boss design. Got any favs/least favs?
So for me a great Dark Souls boss needs to be something or someone interesting, something whose existence tells a story, and who is engaging and fun to fight. For me it's rarely...
Going to try and keep this one as a reasonable, to the point Game Journal(Spoilers, I failed), but I'm glad I could play both these games after finishing that tome of a Metroid Dread review. At the end of this I'll have my "Dread Review Debriefing", but before that, let me talk about some things I actually enjoyed.
Metroid II gets better with age, and better when you come to it as a willing participant
My palette cleanser after Dread was Metroid II. I ended up using so many Metroid II examples that it felt appropriate to give it a quick play through. This time I played with the EJRTQ Colorization, which I quite liked. I kinda wished I played with Azurelore Korrigan's color Patch(you should read this page and other things she wrote, even if you're not planning on using it) as she's maybe Metroid II's #1 defender, but the patch I had did the job fine. Metroid 2 doesn't need color, but I've played it monochrome enough to justify a little experimentation. I felt like it actually added to the game and it made it clear that the world wasn't actually just the same grey tiles, over and over again? I think a case could be made that being less confused is actually a downgrade, but I think I was confused enough!! 😭
...Aesthetically though there is something about the pure monochrome look. Probably the best way to do a first play through.