Enchanter is definitely a good one! I found the final battle a bit of a letdown after all the puzzling that led up to it, but the “climactic battle” vibe is hard to accomplish in IF. The sequels also struggled with that.
1 Like
I think Spellbreaker did it best. It was also the most difficult to get through, which may have helped.
Edit: which goes against the conventional wisdom that suggests that difficulty should ramp down near the end. I usually agree. Perhaps players who make it that far in Spellbreaker just enjoy the punishment. 
The vibe and genre are very different, but I have to say the climactic ritual to defeat the baddie at the end of Faeries of Haelstowne is I think the best implementation of that kind of showdown I’ve seen in IF.
4 Likes
Spellbreaker’s ending was cool, but I found the execution a bit frustrating. Specifically, making me type “Z” over and over again while the exposition happened.
Sorcerer, in my opinion, just kind of dropped the ball on the ending. The least satisfying of the three.
I’ll have to add that to my list!
1 Like
Yeah, I can dig it. My problem with waiting decreased in relation to my understanding of what was happening, but I can see it not working at all for others.
I was disappointed with Sorcerer in general, but I know it would be hard sitting between Enchanter and Spellbreaker
1 Like
I am playing through Descent right now and I’m very impressed with the level design. Even though the visuals are repetitive, there’s a large variation in room shapes and sizes that combined with the 360 rotation make each level seem like a real place.
Even at level 18 of 27 the designers still throw in new design gimmicks, with a weird network of cutout blocks in the floor that I had to navigate through toward the end.
There’s also just enough repetition to make navigation easy (for example, charge loops are always the same on the map, while three colored keys are always accessed in the same sequence).
I think I have only played a few other games where the drive to exploration (just one more room…) is as compulsive. Metroid Prime and the original Tomb Raider games are similar.
It is unfairly hard on the easiest setting though. I can’t imagine playing it without quicksaves. These are part of the game, but I am using retroarch + dosbox to rewind to my last save, which gives me the extra ability to undo quck saves and quick loads.
7 Likes
Outside of Stardew Valley- (which has been my little darling in the game shelf, seeing as I’ve clocked over 700 hours in it and still haven’t explored all of its content) I recently played LIMERENCE which was made by a friend of mine!
I’ve been spending some more time in Visual Novel spaces, (and wound up releasing a tiny one for a competition awhile ago- alongside some dabbling in mini solo TTRPG and journalling games, and plenty of Bitsy poems) and I met Kat through them. We often write together (in a D&D campaign-y, roleplay sort of way) and it usually features characters from Art Without Blood, which is the larger universe/game that LIMERENCE belongs to. So it was a nice little treat to see Aeron in action!
I’ve really enjoyed speaking to Kat about our very different game making experiences, (in part due to age demographics, expectations of monetization, different trends or broad genres, competitiveness, and all the rest of those confounding variables) since Kat’s a game design major who’s spent a lot more time around visual novels and JRPGs than my own purely hobbyist dawdling around with Twine and curious poking at other tools like Inky and Inform 7. It’s fun! I’ve spoken to them about the forums, and while they’re not much of a forums user, they are intrigued by the space and some of the work produced by people I’ve mentioned to them, like Russo’s Sting, Walker’s Fairest, Chen’s Pageant, Riemer’s Computerfriend, and blogs/reviews from people like Short, Russo, and Mathbrush.
6 Likes
I recently completed Soul Hackers 2, the newest game in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. It was disappointing. Its new “Sabbath” mechanic shows promise, but it isn’t completely baked. I think that it’s missing the risk/punishment excitement that SMT’s press turn system featured in its mainline games. Such a simple but rewarding mechanic.
Still, what really grabs me about these games are the fusion systems. I can’t help but invest time in SMT fusion. I love collecting demons and putting together a “dream team” that can thrive in any combat situation. That felt like something was missing, too, though I haven’t figured out what yet.
I got the platinum trophy, which took much longer than the game deserved, but because completing the demon compendium required an almost complete NG+ playthrough, I decided just to tough it out to the end. My feelings are quite mixed: since there are much better SMT (and Persona) games out there, I think Soul Hackers 2 is for diehard MegaTen fans only.
As a final complaint, the PS5 release doesn’t take advantage of the high-performance SSD in any way. It’s ridiculous to have load times on a game like this. Oh, well. I got my money’s worth.
2 Likes
The incredibly addictive Gimme Friction Baby by Wouter Visser is something I keep coming back to after years and years.
Perfect in its simplicity.
Still couldn’t get a high score of more than 13 or 14 though.
1 Like
I’ve been on a bender with Slipways in the past few days. Hands down the best “board-game-but-only-possible-in-digital” type thing I’ve ever seen, beating out Armageddon Empires and Solium Infernum, which stood at the top of that pile for many years.
P.S. Also started out as a pico-8 game on itch, so really inspirational single-dev kind of success story. (Success not in the monetary sense, though it is that, but “success” as "something awesome created by a single person.)
2 Likes
Since it’s been a while, I thought I’d give this a bump. What have you been playing lately?
After sending my game out for testing, I decided to take a break with the new Fire Emblem game. It is a return to form, with the classic weapon triangle and no class/calendar. I really dislike the design of the main character, and the writing isn’t so hot.
But the gameplay is great! Love FE.
This is in addition to the Planescape: Torment playthrough I’ve got going. I redownloaded it after @DeusIrae mentioned it recently. I’m about halfway through. A classic!
4 Likes
Ooh I might need to do that too. As mentioned in the one good thing thread, I got sucked into Slay the Spire again but I think I might be ready to move on again so this could be the next thing I queue up! I’ve never actually finished the game with Vhailor in the party so could be interesting to try that.
Even if I try I doubt I will succeed. Vhailor is a cop.
(Of course I have two games I’m notionally trying to finish writing this month, plus a good amount of testing lined up, so this might be more of an aspiration for March).
4 Likes
Since the shadow in the cathedral has been mentioned several times, can anyone point to a walkthrough or hints?
2 Likes
I don’t think there’s a comprehensive walkthrough or set of hints anywhere, but there are a couple of threads on the forum with folks looking for help in particular places. As I recall it’s generally pretty straightforward, so I’m guessing that’s why nobody’s felt the need to write anything formal up.
2 Likes
Currently playing Flattened London. It’s nice to already know the map (at least in broad strokes).
3 Likes
Recently, I’ve replayed the Ace Attorney original trilogy. I originally only meant to play the first game over Christmas break (it was seasonally appropriate… sort of…), but I got carried away and ended up replaying the other two games.
Killing Vhailor right after meeting him is always the correct course of action. (Well, after getting the stat bonuses out of him, at least.)
3 Likes
According to the itch.io page(here):
“Electron versions contain maps and hints and an easy executable for Windows, Linux, and MacOS.”
2 Likes
My first time through I figurd I’d give each of the companions a fair shake just to check them out. Then after I managed to redeem Trias – a moment of great personal importance to my Nameless One, given his own history of misdeeds – that $#%$# went ahead and murdered him. I was actually pretty upset by this, so arguing the tin-pot dictator into nonexistent felt intensely satisfying; killed by metaphysics wielded with malice aforethought.
3 Likes
My first time through I just reloaded the save and parked him next to the map entrance so that script wouldn’t trigger, but in retrospect arguing him into nonexistence instead would have been much more satisfying.
3 Likes