Thanks for the feedback, I'm considering buying the game for my wife (she's a casual gamer who misses Wii Sports). I'll buy it as soon as it goes on sale.
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Nintendo eShop - August 2018
- Thread starter tolkir
- Start date
Thanks for the feedback, I'm considering buying the game for my wife (she's a casual gamer who misses Wii Sports). I'll buy it as soon as it goes on sale.
I still have to disagree. For me, a good metroidvania is about wandering and getting lost -- clawing at the walls looking for answers. The fact that Hollow Knight isn't very cryptic is probably my only real criticism with it.
I beat ROM 2064 and thoroughly enjoyed it. I like pretty much everything about the game and I hope Midboss revisits this style of visual novel/adventure game in the future. The only disappointing thing was the extremely short length of the Switch exclusive punks chapter. I think it is literally less than 5 minutes long. Otherwise, great game with excellent presentation and enough drama and creativity to make a pretty standard sci-fi story interesting all the way through.
I think it's the DS death mechanic & how there could be more means of fast-travel to which it may come off being not as "time friendly."
I'm currently in a zone that has Electricity traps- there is a mythos somewhere & it's not well explained. What is the Hero's goal? To find those caterpillars?
It is open in its design, in that sense it can never be as straight forward as a linear game. However it all depends on how you tackle it, if you want to explore every nook and cranny and get sucked into the world you can do that. But if you just want to finish the game I think it is pretty obvious what to do when and where and you can do it in a relatively short time. I do agree that there could be more fast travel points and you should get one of the powers (you know which) earlier though.
In many cases, I don't believe a video game is required to respect the player's time. As long as it doesn't aggressively disrespect the player's time, it's all good. I don't feel Hollow Knight is guilty of this at all.
I don't mean cryptic in a story sense. The story is delivered slowly and effectively. The answers to your questions will become clear eventually. By cryptic I mean the game is easier to progress than I would prefer. I want harder puzzles and less clarity. The world is massive which is great, but it's very easy to never get stuck, which is the only disappointment with the game I have. It's just a bit too easy.
"(Not) respecting player's time" is such a nebulous, mostly meaningless thing anyway. What does it even mean. Having to explore a lot in a game situated in a genre all about exploring? You either enjoy playing the game or you're not, parts of the game are either engagingly designed or not.
I think it refers to things like over-the-top grinding and backtracking that is clearly implemented to pad out the game as much as possible.
Grinding, filler content like boring fetch quests, overly time consuming design that serves no purpose, things like that.
I still feel that's a poor way to describe this kind of stuff. Really not a fan of the whole "respecting time" thing in a "lazy dev" sort of way. It implies something 'malicious' (neglect, laziness, deception) on the side of the game, and by extension, devs. Case in point Hollow Knight - one person says "game doesn't respect my time" but to most others it is a key element of what makes the game for them. How can that then be labeled as not respecting the player's time when it's simply "a thing I don't enjoy doing." I've first heard this used less than a decade ago on some podcast or something. To me it comes across like a symptom of just wanting to get through a game and needed clear signposted milestones on the path forward. Dunno, easy to drag this out lol (hey irony). I think in the old place we had a big thread about backtracking specifically that comes to mind here...
Well, the concept is subjective which is the main problem with the phrase.
Cosmic Star Heroine actually uses the phrase in its eShop listing:
Features:
- The best of classic and modern RPGs!
- Brisk pacing that respects your time! Save anywhere!
- No separate battle screen! Battles take place directly in the areas that you explore!
- 2D visual style straight from the height of gaming's 16-bit era!
- Animated cutscenes reminiscent of the early CD-ROM console era!
- Soundtrack by HyperDuck SoundWorks (Dust: An Elysian Tail, Precipice of Darkness 4)!
- Over 100 minutes of music!
- Multi-character combo techniques!
- Innovative turn-based combat system that focuses on flow & strategy!
- Your own spaceship! Recruit new agents to help your home base grow!
I agree that it's mostly a term about enjoying a game's ruleset or not. Although regarding Hollow Knight, I think these might be better examples of not "respecting a player's time":
* Want to save to play some other game? You must first find a bench to sit on. Haven't found a bench yet in your area? Keep searching. Consult the 'net if you need to know.
* Want to continue to explore and see more of the story? You first need to beat this boss. How long will the boss fight last? The game will not tell. Consult the 'net if you need to know.
I've been totally hooked since picking it up a few days ago! I'm kinda glad I waited for the sale because it has some bugs (nothing gamebreaking so far) and I think it could be more polished in terms of controls and menus.
But the game itself is just wonderful. Great soundtrack, nice artstyle, really addictive gameplay of collecting/hunting/crafting and managing your health. I'm playing on Survival meaning permadeath and starting over if I die. There's some repetition to that, but you're able to transfer some items over to the next run and strategizing what to transfer over so you get a 'flying start' is really fun and helps remove the feeling of a slow start.
You can also play on Travel mode which has checkpoints instead of permadeath.
Overall definitely recommended if you like survival games.
For me, it's mainly QoL stuff. Like, being able to either save anywhere or at least have relatively easy access to a save point. Or not having to re-watch a long cutscene if you die during a boss battle. Things like that. A game like Hollow Knight is really big, sure, and there's lots of backtracking....but that's kind of the point of the genre. I guess you could argue it needs some more fast travel points, but I don't think it's egregious enough to claim it doesn't respect the player's time (and even if it doesn't, I don't think it's a very big deal, like I stated in my previous post). From a design perspective, I would have to guess the designers really want you to explore every nook and cranny of the world, so they decided to only place a handful of Stag Stations in the game in an effort to heavily encourage thorough exploration. There's a relatively late-game item that allows you to create a single warp point anywhere in the world, which I think alleviates the issue somewhat.
How long was the game for you? Howlongtobeat list around 10 hours, was that the case for you as well?
OP
OP
Game of the Day
VOEZ is a colorful rhythm game filled with beautiful visuals.
"VOEZ" is played by touching falling notes in time with the music.
Set in a fictional town named "Lan Kong Town", which is modeled after Yilan in Taiwan, the story is centered around 6 high school students who form a band that eventually achieves international fame.
Gameplay is simple, requiring players to touch vertically falling notes that have hit a bar on the bottom of the screen.
Depending on the song, the number of lanes for the notes increase and shift side to side, making the screen look as if it is dancing to the music.
There are over 100 songs in the library.
Three difficulty levels, "Easy", "Hard" and "Special" are available.
Players are able to choose difficulty levels according to their skill so they may enjoy all pieces.
Price: $25.00/€20.99/£18.99 - NA web - EU web - Trailer *Demo available*
Last 6 GOTD
08/19 - Smoke and Sacrifice
08/18 - Danmaku Unlimited 3
08/17 - Romancing Saga 2
08/16 - Splasher
08/15 - Mulaka
08/14 - Little Inferno
VOEZ is a colorful rhythm game filled with beautiful visuals.
"VOEZ" is played by touching falling notes in time with the music.
Set in a fictional town named "Lan Kong Town", which is modeled after Yilan in Taiwan, the story is centered around 6 high school students who form a band that eventually achieves international fame.
Gameplay is simple, requiring players to touch vertically falling notes that have hit a bar on the bottom of the screen.
Depending on the song, the number of lanes for the notes increase and shift side to side, making the screen look as if it is dancing to the music.
There are over 100 songs in the library.
Three difficulty levels, "Easy", "Hard" and "Special" are available.
Players are able to choose difficulty levels according to their skill so they may enjoy all pieces.
Price: $25.00/€20.99/£18.99 - NA web - EU web - Trailer *Demo available*
Last 6 GOTD
08/19 - Smoke and Sacrifice
08/18 - Danmaku Unlimited 3
08/17 - Romancing Saga 2
08/16 - Splasher
08/15 - Mulaka
08/14 - Little Inferno
In case you've missed it:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/morphies-law-and-other-nindies-updates-coming-in-few-hours.63038/
About 2 hours from now.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/morphies-law-and-other-nindies-updates-coming-in-few-hours.63038/
About 2 hours from now.
Nice, thanks for posting this! Looks really good. I never played Super Pang, but the art-style somehow draws to mind The Behemoth's games (Alien Hominid in particular). I can see the gameplay is a bit different, and the art style is not quite as distinctive, but I will definitely be on the lookout when it releases.
Upon doing some research, it seems like it's been out quite a while on PS4 and Xbox, and was fairly well reviewed over there. It's a shame polished-looking games like this get drowned out in the din of releases on those platforms, and I'm glad it will be given a second chance on the Switch. These are definitely the kinds of games that thrive as Nindies!
Pretty much this.
I'm not saying HK disrespects your time, I just don't believe it respects it either. And that's not to say that isn't by design. Heck, I personally feel any good Metroidvania shouldn't respect the players time because that's the very nature of the genre - to get lost in whatever world you're placed in.
It's a damn shame that the performance of Dead Cells is as bad as it is. It's a good game, but the stuttering and small freezes is really hurting my enjoyement of the game. At least the devs said they are aware and are working on it, but it will take a while.
I've found this criticism of Hollow Knight to be incredibly weird given it's genre, especially if the person claims to love metrodivania's (not sure if you do). I've personally found metroidvania's incredibly frustrating because of how much they require you to wander (never finished Super Metroid) but Hollow Knight makes up for this in atmosphere. I felt every area had an appropriate payoff and build to it.
Cool games, but I'm only interested in Everspace and Slay the Spire.
Same here.
Same here.
Same here. There's also Element which already came out. Haven't bought it yet but intend to. It got an 8 from Nintendo Life iirc.
this is all incredibly poorly timed considering their summer sale that is STILL GOING this week and I haven't even bought all of the games I want from there ....
Prison Architect at 30 euro is quite steep, gonna need some impressions about the quality of the port first, probably shouldn't expect reviews?
It's 25€ on steam, both include all the expansions
30 on Switch is not steep
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20..._offered_at_brick-and-mortar_stores_in_europe
More exposure for great games.
More exposure for great games.
Three new NA eShop pages:
Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle (August 30, $13.99)
Mummy Pinball (September 7, $1.99)
Nefarious (September 13, $14.99)
Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle (August 30, $13.99)
Mummy Pinball (September 7, $1.99)
Nefarious (September 13, $14.99)
Haunted Dungeons, day one. The game looks so weird that I won't even read reviews, I don't care if it's good or not, I just have to buy it ^_^
Bad North looks like my kind of game, but I'm curious to see how much depth it has, how long the campaign is, etc.
Slay the Spire is freaking great. I'll prob double dip after a sale or if the region pricing is good.
Is Prison Architect just a mobile port or is it the console version?
Is Prison Architect just a mobile port or is it the console version?
Been a month or two since I checked up on the eShop thread. Bought an Xbox to supplement the smaller Switch games but am ready to take a break (starting Evil Within and RE7 next) and dig into some of the things I missed.
Grabbed Code of Princess EX. That game is tailor made for me. I love beat em ups and action based grinding. The story is whatever but fairly non-intrusive but I like the character designs and soundtrack. Actual gameplay can feel a bit clunky if you are just button mashing and I've gotten caught in some stun loops. If you learn your characters special moves you can alleviate these issues a bit and make it a lot of fun.
Also bought Pocket Rumble. Waited a year and a half to play that thing. It is brutal, the AI beats me every time unless I use the CPU easy mode. I love it though. Game feels great though I haven't tried online since I know I will lose. Hoping the difficulty doesn't eventually turn me off since it is obviously a high quality game. Satisfying hits and I find round lengths to be perfect since it isn't constantly dropping you back into a menu, and it is 3 out of 5. One of those 'it just feels good' type of gameplay experiences.
Grabbed Code of Princess EX. That game is tailor made for me. I love beat em ups and action based grinding. The story is whatever but fairly non-intrusive but I like the character designs and soundtrack. Actual gameplay can feel a bit clunky if you are just button mashing and I've gotten caught in some stun loops. If you learn your characters special moves you can alleviate these issues a bit and make it a lot of fun.
Also bought Pocket Rumble. Waited a year and a half to play that thing. It is brutal, the AI beats me every time unless I use the CPU easy mode. I love it though. Game feels great though I haven't tried online since I know I will lose. Hoping the difficulty doesn't eventually turn me off since it is obviously a high quality game. Satisfying hits and I find round lengths to be perfect since it isn't constantly dropping you back into a menu, and it is 3 out of 5. One of those 'it just feels good' type of gameplay experiences.