obviously…

There are no alphabets in Japanese language.

Totally. There are some excellent AAA developers too (e.g. Naughty Dog, Remedy, Santa Monica, FromSoft, Kojima) but I’d say the biggest surprises for me have come from AA studios and indie developers – Animal Well, Clair Obscur, Returnal, Silksong, Crypt Custodian, Celeste, to name a few. I mean, there are tons of crappy indie games too, but the amount of creativity and quality in the indie scene is stunning.

Can’t recommend Bandcamp fridays enough.

There’s never been such an abundance of games and consoles as there is now. There are more games than anyone could ever play, both new and old. Releasing another poorly made remaster doesn’t mean no ones making new original games. I don’t think there hasn’t been a year I didn’t play an original, engaging and creative new video game. It’s literally the golden age of gaming.

Japanese and Italian. What is life without katsukaree and pizza?

Also in Fromsoft games runbacks are a deliberate design choice that forces the player to take a quick break after dying to a boss.

Absolutely. Hollow Knight is a soulslike metroidvania. That’s two genres known for their difficulty and punishing mechanics. The developers themselves said Silksong will be harder than Hollow Knight. To me it seems a lot of people got the game because of the hype around it without really knowing what they were getting. It’s not designed to be pleasant experience but a daunting gauntlet that tests your skill and persistence. But I of course understand the disappointment of those who were looking forward to a chill bug game.

Buy a game that’s supposed to be hard

Surprised pikachu face when the game is hard

Removed by mod

Sorry for the cliché, but many Silksong players need to just get good. I know I need to. Love it so far. It’s everything and more I hoped for since it’s more challenging than Hollow Knight. I feel like this time I have to play smarter too, use every tool I have in my arsenal and adapt. I’ve played Silksong for about 12 hours or so and a third of that has been dying to the same few bosses. I feel like many of us have forgotten how hard Hollow Knight was all these years and playthroughs ago…

I’m playing it on PS5 and highly recommend taking screenshots as means to take note. A new shop? Screenshot. Not enough currency to open something? Screenshot. A locked gate? You get the idea. I never have to backtrack to a store just to be reminded an item is still too expensive.

The couple of things I wasn’t so sure of are double damage and angled pogoing. Double damage makes the game, especially the bosses, harder and getting your first new mask (sixth) doesn’t feel as rewarding as it should. Pogoing is weird because everything in Hollow Knight has become muscle memory. Pogoing klicked for me after getting

For the whiners, there’s an easy solution to all your problems: get the game on PC and download all the mods you need to make the game easier.

A dream with spiders.

Porcupine Tree - Blackest Eyes

Mew - She came Home for Christmas

Blasphemous 2 is more enjoyable than Hollow Knight

Blasphemy!

Blasphemous 2 never dethroned Hollow Knight.

“Welcome home, good Hunter. What is it you desire?”

The first one is my all-time favourite, the second one is alright/watchable and I absolutely detested 28 years later. The first act seemed interesting enough and I liked the “Junji Ito” slug zombies, but it was all downhill from there and I just felt weird watching it. What a mess.

Yes. Both are brilliant and although I’m not sure, I feel like the former had a big influence on Cameron’s Avatar (much more so than Pocahontas tbh). Hard to pick a favourite but I really like the Western shore trilogy.

Immediately thought about Le Guin. Probably my all time favourite author. So many great novels and short story collections to choose from. Even her YA novels are thoughtful, wise and the prose is pretty much flawless. OP, let me know what you’re in the mood for and I’ll recommend a few books.