As glad as i am i started a fan-site about games in the vein of Demon’s Souls, i have not exactly been active in updating it.
Which is fine, i’m in it for the long run, labor of love and all. And i certainly still love the genre.
There’s much on my backlog. Here’s what’s in my drafts, a quick low-effort dump, with some scattered thoughts:
Shadow of the Erdtree was exhausting. Where to go from there? It invalidates most of the huge kit it provides. Rather than treating the much-maligned Malenia fight as an excess, it is treated as a baseline. There is much to love about it, but it’s a design dead-end. There is certainly room for a Kaizo souls, but this was not the venue for it.
Nioh games, you know i love those. They’ll get their writeups. I’d like to write about the politics of their highly exculpatory self-insert historical fanfic mode of narrative.
But as for the Team Ninja post-Nioh games? The A-team of Nioh 2 had the bright idea to split itself into three C-teams. They couldn’t hack it. Maybe that of Rise of the Ronin hacked it: i do not have the console, but footage was not enticing. Stranger of Paradise was a shitshow, but you could blame Squeenix: action gaming is entirely contrary to their DNA. But Wo Long was nothing more than a Nioh downgrade in every way—with a beautiful combat system concealed under layers of bullshit. I’ll certainly have a longform writeup on Wo Long soon. And about Stranger of Paradise less soon.
After writing first impressions about the Enotria demo on my fansite, I have finally played much of it. A beautiful game sent to die by its developers. I’ll have a longer writeup soon. There’s much to love about it, nonetheless. I hope the company will survive its poor release and persist.
The other Italian Puppet Souls game, Lies of P, was obviously great, except for the whole Denuvo fuck you surprise. It will get a writeup.
On Lords of the Fallen (2023): yes, i’m still angry i have to call it (2023). What a terrible move! I want to have a writeup about the game in general soon, but i’d like to finish Lords of the Fallen (2014) first, as it’d inform the writeup, and (2014)… wasn’t a very good game.
Thymesia was fantastic. Very limited in scope, intently: the game knows its strengths. The late game fights were excellently tuned. A lot of positive to say about it. It’ll get a writeup eventually. It’s a common theme a writeup is incoming because my plan is to write about every game. That’s why i made a website. To publish things on it.
I’ll want to write about the Surge games eventually, but i’d rather complete both before writing about the first. You have to admire a game that dares to ask question “what if capitalism was actually a bit messed up? It makes you think about society.” Shame about the gameplay.
I gave a quick try to Bleak Faith Forsaken today. The atmosphere is on point. The graphics so dark I can’t see shit even playing at night. I might end up having much to criticize, but it is the work of a tiny team trying out ambitious ideas, so i am hopeful that even if it might be jank, it will be interesting.
Mortal Shell first resisted my attempts to buy it (a Steam representative told me it was the developer’s fault that it was the fault of Steam), then resisted my attempts to enjoy it. Animations feel stiff, and it didn’t grip me. It deservers an honest try, another time.
On Steelrising, much to like, much to dislike. It’s a common theme with all those companies making their first game in the genre! Writeup incoming, you know the deal.
I snatched on sale a few games to complete my collection in the genre. Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Pascal’s Wager and Outward.
Of the more core From Software games, there is no reason to hear much from me, my focus is on more obscure games. The first i’ll write of the Dork Souls will probably be to write about big overhaul mods. I’d also like to write about the sound design of the Bluepoint remake of Demon’s Souls.
Little about Monke Souls seemed exciting to me, so i skipped that one, it’s certain to go on sale within a year. Have you seen the lighting during some of the boss fights? As in—the complete lack thereof? I’m not dropping sixty currencies on amateur hour aesthetics.
Likewise, Crab Souls is a “wait” for me: the aesthetics do not appeal to me to the tune of its MSRP.
And the Remnant games will probably not satisfy me with their focus on ranged combat.
If Stellar Boobs stops being a PS5 exclusive, i will certainly give it a try, though it seems to be more in the vein of Platinum than Souls games at this point. Boobs are cool, i don’t do boob shame; i did shame boobies game Code Vein for its attitude about women but for deeper reasons than boobies.
Some that will permanently have no place in my collection are the Star Wars games in the style: i’m not rebooting to windows then installing 50 rootkits and third-party launchers to play them.
Another permanent pass from my collection is Little Witch Nobeta: while it looks very solid and innocuous as a game, the developers are pretty intent on sexualizing that kid in supplementary material, from revealing DLC outfits to outright promoting adult art on their twitter page. No wonder the review page has more pedophilic dog whistles than people who engaged with it as a game.
And that’s it for this little dump of drafts. I might have forgotten to mention a game or two, but rest assured they are all on my radar.