Time for some rambling about my gaming habits lately:
I continue to bounce from game to game wildly, though I have been making progress.
Finished Ori and the Will of the Wisps last weekend. Gorgeous game and a great sequel. I was a little off put at first because some of the changes they made to combat and controls, but they grew on me over time. Also had issues with bugs at the beginning, but most of those have been patched out. Only issue I found since starting back up is sometime the menu hangs up for a bit, but it's nothing major. As for the story, it was yet again heartfelt and a bit of a tearjerker at times. There's one side quest that is particularly heartbreaking. The ending was great, and worth all the build up. The boss fights were pretty fun, but also kind of easy. 100% completion was pretty easy to do, and follows typical metroidvania style of "if you can't get it, wait until later when you get the right move." I did feel like this one was a bit easier than the oringal, but I haven't played on the harder difficulty yet. I'll try this out eventually. Going to be a game of the year contender for me.
Continuing to play Binding of Isaac. Getting really close to the 1000 hour playtime milestone. I have completed all completion marks except for greedier mode with all characters up to The Lost, and the majority of marks with all other characters except The Keeper (that guy's IMPOSSIBLE). Working on Mega Satan with Lilith now. After playing a bajillion runs to finish the lost, it's hard to switch to other characters. I feel like I'm relearning a game I play almost daily.
Making steady progress on Pokemon Sword. I've beat 6 gym leaders, and my party is mid 40's. While I do have some issues with the game, overall I don't think it's as bad as some people made it out to be. I'm addicted to Surprise trade yet again. Seeing some odd trades here and there where someone will send me a lvl. 100 shiny holding a master ball. Had this happen 3 or 4 times. Not sure if they're hacked or just ads, because the name or trainer name is always a simple URL. Oh well, free master ball!
Playing Animal Crossing too. Paid off all my loans, and just slowly building out the island now. Really wish i could get more table options, but other than that I'm just doing daily tasks and hoping for new recipes.
To fill the platforming hole left by finishing Ori, I started playing Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair. Really fun love letter to Donkey Kong, and I can't recommend it enough. Controls are great, levels are fun and unique, and all the ideas from the first Y-L game have been expanded and fleshed out so much better here. The first game allowed you to expand each world to add more stuff to do, but here, you apply some kind of effect to each level to change it. For example, one level you freeze, which changes the whole layout. Another you accidntally add a ton of enemies to the game, changing it from a slower romp watching out for dropping enemies to a frantic dash to avoid getting overwhelmed by stuff chasing you. It's got a highly interactive hub world and collectibles that are used to unlock powerups and progression. Most of the power ups I've found are cosmetic, changing the look of how the game plays out (4:3 resolution, classic TV mode, video filters, etc). Finally, you start the game at the end, attempting the Impossible lair for the first time. While you can beat it here, Jirard the Completionist said this nearly broke him and took the majority of his total play time. Once you lose here, you then collect bees, that are basically extra hits you can take when you challenge the lair again. You can collect them all, or challenge the lair any time you see fit. Really cool concept in my opinion.
Finally, I started playing West of Dead this week. Picked it up on Game Pass, and I really like how this one works. It's an isometric twin stick shooter that has cover mechanics and a light mechanic that only allows you to shoot enemies that are in the light. It's a fresh take on Roguelites, taking some features of other games and twisting them a bit. It's got small rooms of enemies with safe hallways interconnecting them, kind of like Enter the Gungeon. Weapon and character upgrades work a bit like Dead Cells. Weapons and Special items can be found in chests or in hallways, as well as in a store on each floor. You get two weapons and two specials. You can also find shrines to enhance your abilities, and you get 3 choices to increase at each one - health, gun damage, and special damage. It doesn't have the green/red/purple thing Dead Cells does, but other than that it works the same (taking more in one category decreases the % of how much it increases). You also get a break between areas to redeem Sin for permanent unlocks, and refresh your health/healing items. The real twist is that this game is highly story driven, and as you progress, you complete chapters of the story that stay permanent as you figure out what is going on and how to stop the (un)death loop - basically you're in purgatory and no one can cross over. Very Western themed and the art style is great. If I had any complaints, it's that the camera sometimes does some goofy stuff, but it's never detracted from the gameplay. Also, this game might still be in beta? The version says .9.x.x.x.
That's it for now, gotta get back to work.
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