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Youef
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Well I started a new rotation and my boss told me I don’t have to show up, so I basically just got an extended vacation. Given that I can’t go out and see my friends or be a normal human being that means more single player video games! Here’s what I’ve been playing since around July.
Spider-Man and Horzion Zero Dawn:
Both of these games surprised me in their own ways. I realize I’ve developed a bias against open-world games these past few years, which I think deterred me from checking these out in the first place, but they both independently managed to draw me in and encourage me to explore their worlds through each game’s distinct mechanics.
Spider-Man was especially reminiscent of Spider-Man 2 on the PS2. Swinging was such a core mechanic in this game that I honestly think the game would have been completely lost if Insomniac didn’t perfect it. It was was dynamic and fluid, and it made the act of performing menial tasks like the various collectathons actually fun to accomplish. That in and of itself was enough to encourage me to explore the world and have fun doing so. The combat, though reminiscent of the Arkham games (which I do not think have aged well), felt a bit more involved than those games, although it does became repetitive and isn’t really the game’s forté. The story was adequate for a superhero tale, with some interesting characters. I’m looking forward to playing as Miles in the next installment.
Horizon Zero Dawn on the other hand pulled me in with its expansive world. I felt compelled to actually collect all the various items, do the optional dungeons, complete the bandits’ camps, etc because I genuinely wanted to see more of the game’s world. These generally encouraged me to explore the world more than its story, which felt rather short for something that takes place in such a massive world. That isn’t a drawback either, because the story itself is well-written and engaging.
Whereas Spider-Man enticed me with its controls that made exploration so fun, this game’s imagination and worldbuilding in particular inspired me to search every nook and cranny of the world to understand what happened in the history of this version of humanity. I found the events leading up to humanity’s demise to be especially compelling and I want to actually read a book about it now. This game’s backstory reminded me of Soma in a lot of ways, and I love that game’s story.
Both were engaging enough to get the Platinum trophies, and the requirements for said trophies were very reasonable. It isn’t something that I usually go for, but I think the trophy requirements for this game were adequately established for me to want to explore enough of each game.
Devil Survivor:
This game honestly broke me. I have such conflicted feelings. On the one hand, it’s Megaten and I love the monster designs, the fusions, etc. The story is fairly interesting with a number of interesting characters (except for Midori, who has such an inappropriately large amount of screen time ). The soundtrack is awesome if a bit limited in its track selection. And at times the game did pay off when I came up with the right demon combinations. There’s a lot of flexibility in terms of what you can do, which I great.
But this game is also so **** hard and can honestly feel like such a slog. I don’t often rage-quit single player games, but I did it too often with this game. Sometimes the game would throw in a ton of enemies at me out of nowhere when I thought I was done with a battle. Other times the game would hit me with absurd winning conditions (**** Kudlak). Oftentimes I just didn’t feel any payoff at all after defeating a boss because I had to resort to cheesing it. And it all culminated in probably the hardest boss I’ve fought in Megaten so far: Okuninushi. In hindsight, I probably would’ve had an easier time if I adjusted my team and my monsters’ abilities. But I already worked so hard to get the monsters I had, and I think at that point I wanted to just beat the game and move on, so I struggled my way through it, constantly resetting until I had the right RNG to kill him. Not efficient, and definitely not strategic, but I just didn’t care anymore. Besides I liked my team of Shiva, Amaterasu, Susano-o, Norn, Fafnir, Lakshmi, Black Maria, and Bishamon.
I enjoyed parts of Devil Survivor, but I also felt imprisoned by the game as a whole. After beating that game I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I will probably play Devil Survivor 2 given that the game has a grinding DLC and I am a total sucker with semi-completionist tendencies (and might be crazy), but that will have to wait a very long time. In fact, I’m taking a break from Megaten because I don’t want to get burned out from the series before SMTV and Nocturne’s remaster are released.
Anyways, those are my thoughts. I got back into Xenogears and am also playing Hades now. Also dabbled with Parasite Eve to get in the mood of spooky shenanigans for Halloween. All are great games.
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