I’m about 10 hours into Nine Sols 九日. After 9 hours, I might have told you that this was becoming as close to a perfect game as one could make in 2024. Then the game committed three game design sins in a row:
1. A boss with a surprise second health bar and a second phase nearly identical to the first
2. An unwinnable boss fight with a scripted loss
3. A mandatory stealth section without all the combat and movement abilities I had earned up to this point.
It’s still a fantastic game, but what an Icarus-like plummet after reaching such highs.
I’ve been meaning to get back to this after playing through the introductory section, it’s too bad that it sounds like it doesn’t have a lot of mechanical ideas to toss about. I’d been quite enjoying all the Scottish-ness, even if a part of me kind of resents having the dialog localized in the subtitles (I know what a numpty is, thank you very much).
I’ve been playing some Everblue 2 and it’s a nice time. I came across this article about edutainment games which reinforced some of my thinking about these sorts of things, and how I find it I guess refreshing to play games with a non-video game set of priorities. Just kind of energizing to have something you’re supposed to think about instead of procedurally trudge through. Speaking of which, I also picked up the Riven remake after reading enough assurances that Cyan swore of the generative AI junk, but Everblue 2 has been what’s sustained my attention (nothing against nu-Riven)
Metroid Prime update: Wow, the Phazon Mines are really bad - actively bad, I mean, not just “bad for an otherwise 10/10 game”. I really did not enjoy going through them for the Power Bomb. It would be fine, just about, if there were even a single Save Station or shortcut back to the surface, but there’s nothing for what feels like a solid hour full of enforced Thermal Visor (yecch) and difficult fights with upgraded Space Pirates. Then it ends with an invisible boss you can’t lock onto, who will destroy you in seconds if you end up there without much health (which I did, multiple times).
Oh, but it doesn’t end there, because there’s a tricksy little electricity maze to roll through before you can get the Power Bomb. It’s like c’mon, I did all that, I beat your invisible guy, just give me the stuff!
Thankfully it picked up again after that. Admittedly I could likely have mitigated some of the issues by backtracking and doing an item hunt, but it still seems like a very rough section in an otherwise excellent game.
This is the thing that frustrates me the most in FFX. With FFIX, for example, you know what you’re getting, and while it’s predictable and gets a little bit boring due to this it also gives some kind of comfort about what you’re getting at. Replaying FFX and FFXII was the opposite: since you don’t know which is next in your skill true, you don’t fully have control over which abilities you gain, which irritate me at some parts of the game (specially when you want to get some juicy spells).
To each their own faults, but I felt like PS2 FF’s games were bothersome to play with at some stages of the main game.
It also for me just hurts my soul trying to spec these characters because I come from MOBA games so I want to build the most optimal setup, but there kind of doesn’t really seem to be an easy line to follow. I really prefer the kind of skill trees where each level you pick one or two things or whatever. It just feels bad not feeling like I’m playing right.
aren’t the ffx sphere grid paths more or less linear until endgame? I remember it seeming like there were choices to make but except for kimahri it’s just go down the path until you can’t anymore
“More or less linear” is pretty much exactly I would describe it, yeah. There are sometimes very brief sidepaths along the linear route, but these are almost more like bonus stats you can grab along the way if you happen to have the required Key Spheres.
There might be a few sneaky places I’m forgetting where you can bust through a side path on one character’s path to take a backroom style shortcut to somewhere else on another character’s path, but these are functionally not available until late to end game since they tend to need Key Spheres which are quite rare or hard to get.
However, it’s really more like “go down the (mostly) closed loop until you return to the lobby in the middle which connects all routes on the Sphere Grid together.”
Sidenote but I like to put Khimari down Tidus’ path, because having two characters who can cast Haste is super OP for a lot of the early-ish and midgame. Once Tidus gets Hastega it’s not as useful but still.
Sorry charli xcx, it’s not a brat summer, it’s a Toshihiro Nagoshi summer for me. Started Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble and they’re chill games to hang out with. They work as companions for each other, Yakuza’s early game has a lot of pretty dense cutscenes with simple battles that lack in mechanical skill testing, so Monkey Ball’s easy ability to jump into a challenge is nice. And what Monkey Ball’s newest game lacks in being unique or having much of a story or presentational elements is made up by Yakuza having a ton. I see myself switching between these games a lot over the next couple weeks.
My new year’s resolution, for reasons I won’t get into, was to average playing one new release per week in 2024. And surprisingly I’ve already accomplished that, because I’ve had more free time than I expected.
So here’s fifty-two 2024 games ranked from my favorite to least favorite, if you’re looking for recommendations. Opinions are subject to change but this is roughly in order.
I’ve been playing Alundra. I think I’m having fun but not that much fun. I picked it up because I saw it on a list of horror themed games, and I didn’t think it was that. I guess it is a little spooky, but I dunno if I’d personally put it on any horror lists yet. It’s fun though. I’ll probably finish it unless it gets ridiculously hard or something.
I didn’t know what Harold Halibut was until seeing @Death_Strandicoot’s comment, so I googled it, and man it looks amazing. What a brief emotional rollercoaster I went on just now.
What made it a disappointment for you and @Magnanimous?
Clickolding is an interesting concept and worth at least watching a playthrough, which is only about 45 minutes. I just felt like they didn’t do enough with the premise and it got repetitive (by design, but still). It’s the type of game where watching the thirty-second trailer gives you the entire experience.
@whatsarobot I literally fell asleep while playing Harold Halibut, lol. It’s fine for a game to have no action or puzzles, but visual novels need compelling characters and writing, and this just didn’t hook me at all. Approximately nothing happens in the first two hours.
Agreed! It looks amazing, but has to be one of the most boring games to play. This game didn’t need fantastic writing. It just needed to be interesting in some way. It also doesn’t help that Harold controls like he’s wading through molasses.
The game went from my #1 most anticipated to almost no interest after playing the demo.
Eep… Well, definitely keep us updated as you approach the end of the game. Are you playing the original Japanese release or the Working Designs localization? Maybe that question alone is enough to know what I’m getting at lol