Given their lawsuits, emulation is 100% the right way to piss them off. Lol

So… Indie scene saw how shit 2025, so we got E33 and Silksong, we’re even getting Hades 2? What a year.

I think what I’m getting is there more than one way to skin the bark of that boss. There’s a lot of ways to play the game, even as early as Splinter, but I stay a Hunter with the starting pins (admittedly with poison). My friend loves his needle traps, though. There is better, I think, though all tools remain viable for a long time. I wonder if anyone is going full beast mode, that looks fun.

Lol, of course this is after I did the parts they nerfed but honestly nbd. Splinter was only a problem until you realize you can nuke both adds and damage the boss with you special circular AOE move. I actually took no damage on my win.

I also got Moorwing late, cause of fleas. Those 2 damage environmental hazards did seem pretty awful though. I’m great at platforming so it wasn’t much of an issue but I imagine it giving some people a lot of grief. I didn’t even know the gears caused 2 points it damage until my friend told me, lol.

Oh, it was SoE. That’s… interesting. Wonder if true.

Btw, it is quite serious how you handle dev kits. Generally they’re held on premises for this reason (and SoA does a good enough job of it), so it’s a pretty wild mistake to dispose of them. It was really, really under lock and key prior to Switch 2 release!

There are exceptions, though, like demos at major events. I wonder if there was something like that recently.

Also… why now? BL games always get 90% off eventually, lol.

Can confirm, DQ5 (1992) had monster catching. Not sure if I’d call it summoning, but Pokemon took clear inspiration from that game in particular.

It’s been a while since I used their app but I vaguely remember some support (?). Although at that point you’re basically using GoG as DRM, but I appreciate the attempt to give Steam competition in that space. The whole concept of meta gaming in general is kind of monopolized.

Yes, can confirm that a major aspect of the genre is total exploration and collection of items. Hollow Knight, due to it’s difficulty and attraction to the “dark souls” adrenaline junkies, has added importance of achievements for things like Steel Soul mode (aka ironman, i.e. no deaths).

Also the genre has a long history of rewarding speed running. Metroid’s secret endings were hidden behind fairly strict time limits, for instance.

Well, yes, enough that gamification snuck into other sectors. That said, implementation isn’t always great, but at least in HK/SS (games focused on exploration and collection of upgrades) achievements are a popular acknowledgement of that collectathon.

I get too much anxiety to chase after speed run achievements, though. It’s really meant to be up to the users if they care or not.

It’s what happens when you copy someone else’s homework; the formula they tried to emulate with VII is Humankind, which actually is a good game, but they didn’t really understand the secret sauce that made it good. They just stole mechanics and called it a day.

I don’t mind Steam for my copy, but if you’re worried about achievements I can say they have in game ones to scratch that itch if you’re considering GoG for drm free experience.

I might just get two copies, depending how I feel after beating it. $20 USD is a bit of a steal.

Yeah, I’m glad most indie games don’t do that. My wife was surprised I wanted to preorder a game with no bonuses, I think she has worked for corporate a little too long.

Oh. So this might actually be a legit reason to do preorders, lol. I too got caught in payment progressing hell but I finally got it.

Y’know, from a risk assessment standpoint, you can’t be too surprised they over rely on data since AAAs cost so much to make an a flop can lose millions, and sometimes even billions of dollars. Mediocre can still sell, and you and I both know they aren’t doing it for art or expression.

I do want to make one other point about survivor bias, though… there are plenty of crappy indie games, too. We focus a lot on the greats (and trust me, I hunger for the Silksong) but it makes up a pretty small percent in a world where everyone can make something. I sometimes will spin up a random game from regrettable purchases (like, indiegala bundles or those “mystery game” purchases) and some of them are really, truly horrible. I try to give is as much respect as I can, and sometimes I do find a few gems that nobody has played, but like… not every passion project is Undertale, lol.

Although tbh, I like streaming a bad game for friends because they can watch me suffer, haha, so I still appreciate the, uh, effort.

Idk why people are giving you shit on that, you’re right. Not necessarily indie-level right, but people hired to do the next Mario or Zelda are given remarkable freedom. I read up on the BotW development and they pitched their crazy idea, got green lit, and when leading their team they took suggestions from every part of the team (quite literally, artists, marketers, localization specialists, etc.). If I could remember the link I’d share it, but it’s straight up good AAA management.

Though, to be fair it’s really team by team and it’s quite possible they got lucky with some of these. There are plenty of misses, after all. I’m kinda glad I’m off the Nintendo bandwagon after the whole Yuzu/Ryujinx legal crap.

Been in talks to run Star Ocean along with a friend so we could compare notes and talk about stuff. Hard to decide between the OG and the PSP remake, though.

Also kudos to starting Metroid, there’s so few misses in that series.

I thought it was gonna be a shadowdrop to, but yeah that makes sense. Two weeks might as well be today given how long we’ve all waited!

Oh! I’ve been putting it off because I wanted to play it along with a friend to watch but now I have an actual good reason to wait. It just seems so good!

I mean, inflation exists. That said, they just use dlc and other microtransactions to recoup costs (plus in some ways production is cheaper, just not overall).

I like to remind people that they’re taking advantage of a thing called consumer surplus. In short, any given person will spend X amount of dollars for a product, be it $60, $30 half off, or $120 collectors edition, etc. Hell, “free” gets the most heads, hence how mobile market works.

Flat $60 (or the shift to $80) will inevitably cut off anyone unwilling to pay that price, which at a certain point is bad for business and why you get sales. Plus, most sales are digital now, so it’s not like there’s a per unit overhead. Keeping a dynamic pricing structure is simply better in spite of inflation, which obviously this former boss apparently doesn’t get.

Looks like quite a few completionist achievements, too. Totally my thing (with a guide) although people who don’t wanna grind for a day at endgame might just want to go for the “beaten” status. Lol

That’s wild, I was just thinking of a replay. Do you know about RetroAchevements? The achievements kind of give me goals which have helped me actually finish these games.

Edit: I wanna add that I was thinking it’d be good to play with my 3yo, I don’t think she can mess anything up playing as the dog lol

The original creator moved on from the series a while ago and I don’t think came back, but I’m happy to see nonetheless.

I thought I read it was both, but either way it’s good not to assume it’s always American. The whole world is problematic at times.

Supposedly the organization pressuring the payment companies are actually Australian, but it’s mostly a fuck hypocritical Christians moment.

For a second I was worried this was an Unpopular Opinion post but then I realized no one has ever actually thought this ever.

People shit on the franchise because they did kind of rush production, but honestly they hold up if it’s what you’re into. It’s just kind of sad they can’t all be AC2 quality, that was probably the best of the lot in terms of storytelling, intriguing exploration, etc. I still remember climbing into that girl’s place in the opening as Ezio.

Oddly, 4 does have a few cities in addition to the nautical stuff. They aren’t big name cities, but Havana, Kingston and Nassau of that period. Kind of interesting, especially right when Pirates of the Caribbean was popular.

I hadn’t even thought about it until you brought it up. Kind of disappointed in people jumping on this like flies on shit but like… it’s 2025, so bigger things to be upset about.

In any case, apples and oranges. And PSA, if you need a Switch 2, grab em on the rebound. There’ll be used ones, likely hackable in 6 months and none of that goes to Nintendo. Don’t forget what their legal department has done in the past few years.

Piracy and emulation is inevitable, although we’ll see if it’s months or years. I’m boycotting Nintendo over their legal practices, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to play their games. It’ll be extra juicy to be able to emulate it eventually, although buying used is technically an option too.

I’ve been using Launchbox, especially since I play emulator games. They’ve improved the efficiency of large libraries and added support for RetroAchievements, although I manually toggle completion status since I don’t always use it to launch my games so the time tracker isn’t accurate.

More importantly it let’s me hit randomize, so if I’m feeling adventurous it’ll pull a game from my backlog I might have got from anywhere.

Same, but given the time sink I’d like an abridged experience. I heard they doing that with DQX so why not FFXI?

Couple other things to add to this beautiful list others have: meta gaming and chat.

They barely added achievements and only for a couple games, while steam has that, guides, community art, and even a newish notes feature in case you’re playing an OG game that makes you track stuff. Guides have kind of been better than more traditional sources.

Chat is… better on steam, although discord kind of supplanted it. Game based emoji, stickers, etc. It’s actually very good, though, with support for couch coop stream gaming, etc, with voice comms.

One could also point to the generous family sharing function, but I’m not sure what Epic does in that regard. DRM is DRM though. Do keep in mind, though, the philosophy behind Steam is to make DRM palatable by adding features. Epic philosophy (on paper) is to give devs a higher cut, although I’ve heard devs feel more supported by steam-- especially since they aren’t afraid to throw obscure indie games into a users discovery queue.

A steam deck lite would probably dominate, lol

At this point I want Switch 2 to flop so hard they go the way of the Sega and start licensing their IPs on other platforms, giving up on consoles. A shame, too, since their tech is little kid hand friendly and the PC market doesn’t seem keen on tiny screen handhelds.

Reminds me that Nintendo had help lines you could call for stuff like Zelda secrets, and they may have intentionally added things like secret caves to incentivize that lucrative service.

You want the absolute “guide damn it” example? Try playing the OG Dragon Quest games. They’re nonlinear by nature and there’s a spot in 2 (or was it 3) where you need to literally check an unmarked floor for an item. No indicator, save maybe a vague NPC dialogue in another part of the planet that didn’t get adequately translated in English so you’re truly aimless.

Ugh. I hate this timeline.

My 8bitdo story, back when they’re we’re just starting to put joysticks on their SNES style controllers, I used mine to the point that the joysticks were falling apart. I sent them a support email, and even though it wasn’t covered by any warranty or anything, a very nice Chinese person working there sent me a spare set of joysticks in the mail, plus words of encouragement (in somewhat broken English) since I wasn’t shy about fixing the thing myself.

Can’t imagine that today, but it was a nice gesture and I’m glad they’re still making stuff today.

Concord

Haha, just kidding.

Honestly, all the good news these days are from people giving him and Trump shit.