Beating Games

[FelixSH]

After Koudelka and her friends destroyed an undead insect lady, Koudelka is done. What a weird, interesting game.

Leveling up worked somewhat similar to FF II - you level up weapons and spells, after you use them enough. Except there are also regular levels, which increase your regular stats. But there are, like, 12 weapon types, and a bunch of different spells, which all can be leveled up to level 3.

The game was a mix of a horror take on Resident Evil (in how you explore the monastery, and find key items) and a JRPG (in the sense that you have random, turn-based battles). There are quite grotesque, interesting monster models to be seen. The three party members are all kind-of jerks, with the priest being of the "poor people deserve to be poor and ill, because they are awful" variety, and Edward and Koudelka are snarky jerks to each other, too.

Also, you know how the series would go on to have historical figures incorporated into itself, when it became Shadow Hearts? Well, this starts here. Edwards full name is Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany. He was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist, writing for example The King of Elfland's Daughter, which seems to be an early fantasy story. According to Wikipedia:

Although the novel fell into obscurity after its initial release, it found a new readership when Ballantine Books re-issued it as part of their Adult Fantasy series in June 1969. The novel has since become widely recognized as one of the most influential and most praised of the genre. Many critics,[1] including L. Sprague de Camp,[4] described it as being on par with The Lord of the Rings in terms of its quality and influence. Arthur C. Clarke felt that the novel helped cement Dunsany as "one of the greatest writers of this century".

And now you know, that in his youth, he helped save the world from an unholy abomination.

But he is not the only one. There is also the NPC Roger Bacon. A medieval English philosopher who studied nature through empiricism (according to Wikipedia, of course). Oh, and he lived from 1220 - 1292. But being a warlock (this time, according to the weird nonsense that is Koudelka), he survived until the early 20th century, and is quite a jolly fellow, despite looking like he is an undead himself. But he seems to have been a cool dude, looking at this part here:

He is sometimes credited (mainly since the 19th century) as one of the earliest European advocates of the modern scientific method, along with his teacher Robert Grosseteste. Bacon applied the empirical method of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) to observations in texts attributed to Aristotle. Bacon discovered the importance of empirical testing when the results he obtained were different from those that would have been predicted by Aristotle.

Also, he seems to be the first in Europe who recorded the formula for gunpowder (which the game seems to acknowledge, we blast a door open through nitroglycerin, that he creates).

Well, that was quite interesting. And as far as I know, it only gets weirder. I think the first Shadow Hearts starts in Russia, where we fight against Rasputin, or something? I'm looking forward to more nonsense.

 

[Purple]

After Koudelka and her friends destroyed an undead insect lady, Koudelka is done.

Psst, that's the bad ending. The good ending is when you get destroyed by the undead insect lady, so you might want to take a moment to go back and do that. Should be easily doable from the last save you have, unlike the 3rd ending/nonstandard game over where you don't ever grab that protective pendant Koudelka drops in the fountain during the intro and consequently everyone dies before you actually get to the final boss.

And you know, I say "good ending" but I really mean bittersweet melancholic ending, which is what's canon for every ending choice in the series

What a weird, interesting game.

I'm really happy to see how people seem to finally be getting around to it the last couple years. For the longest time it was this weird little gem I couldn't convince anyone to take a chance on, AND people had this weird habit of trying to declassify it as part of the series/insist there's no connections between it and the later games.

Well, that was quite interesting. And as far as I know, it only gets weirder. I think the first Shadow Hearts starts in Russia, where we fight against Rasputin, or something? I'm looking forward to more nonsense.

Nah, Rasputin isn't until Covenant. Nobody tends to talk about Shadow Hearts no subtitle but there's still some neat stuff in there.

 

[Lokii]

Lord Dunsany is great.

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN EAR-RINGS​

It may be that I dreamed this. So much at least is certain—that I turned one day from the traffic of a city, and came to its docks and saw its slimy wharves going down green and steep into the water, and saw the huge grey river slipping by and the lost things that went with it turning over and over, and I thought of the nations and unpitying Time, and saw and marvelled at the queenly ships come newly from the sea.

It was then, if I mistake not, that I saw leaning against a wall, with his face to the ships, a man with golden ear-rings. His skin had the dark tint of the southern men: the deep black hairs of his moustache were whitened a little with salt; he wore a dark blue jacket such as sailors wear, and the long boots of seafarers, but the look in his eyes was further afield than the ships, he seemed to be beholding the farthest things.

Even when I spoke to him he did not call home that look, but answered me dreamily with that same fixed stare as though his thoughts were heaving on far and lonely seas. I asked him what ship he had come by, for there were many there. The sailing ships were there with their sails all furled and their masts straight and still like a wintry forest; the steamers were there, and great liners, puffing up idle smoke into the twilight. He answered he had come by none of them. I asked him what line he worked on, for he was clearly a sailor; I mentioned well-known lines, but he did not know them. Then I asked him where he worked and what he was. And he said: "I work in the Sargasso Sea, and I am the last of the pirates, the last left alive." And I shook him by the hand I do not know how many times. I said: "We feared you were dead. We feared you were dead." And he answered sadly: "No. No. I have sinned too deeply on the Spanish seas: I am not allowed to die."

I’m happy he’s in a video game.

 

[Peklo]

Personally it was very valuable for me to give some time to Shadow Hearts after playing and loving Koudelka, just to see how embarrassing the series got immediately after and never recovered.

 

[FelixSH]

Psst, that's the bad ending. The good ending is when you get destroyed by the undead insect lady, so you might want to take a moment to go back and do that. Should be easily doable from the last save you have, unlike the 3rd ending/nonstandard game over where you don't ever grab that protective pendant Koudelka drops in the fountain during the intro and consequently everyone dies before you actually get to the final boss.

And you know, I say "good ending" but I really mean bittersweet melancholic ending, which is what's canon for every ending choice in the series

Oh, I know (but thanks for mentioning it). As I got further into the game, I started to orient myself on a Let's Play. I did get a bit tired of it with time, not with the mood and setting (which was always great), but with maybe missing things, so I made sure to get stuff like the pendant. To be clear, as time went on, I just was in the mood for something faster paced, or maybe just different. It's not the fault of the game, I'm very happy to have experienced it.

people had this weird habit of trying to declassify it as part of the series/insist there's no connections between it and the later games.

This is deeply confusing to me, but then, I know how gamers can be. I mean, I know it will go...places...but there is clearly a common fabric there, with the usage of historical figures, interpreted in advanturous ways, a setting in the early 20th century and other things that I only know vaguely about, because I haven't played the game yet. I'm looking forward to experiencing more of the series, in any case, even knowing that mood and atmosphere will change quite a bit.

 

[Purple]

I mean, specifically, the monastery, the Emigré Manuscript, AND Roger Bacon, along with the core themes of Koudelka are present across all four games, and you freaking meet Koudelka in Shadow Hearts but people are determined to disown it. I think it really just is that the words "Shadow Hearts" don't appear in the first game's title and/or people are too intimidated by the more experimental mechanics next to the rest hewing closer to Standard JRPG Stuff.

Really though I feel like the shift between Shadow Hearts and Covenant (the "OK now we're ACTUALLY developing this as a PS2 game from the start" point) feels like more of a sea change than the jump between the first two games.

 

[Rascally Badger]

I've never played Koudelka, but that was more about opportunity than intention.

 

[Sarge]

Koudelka was a fascinating playthrough. I like a lot of it, and the localization and voice work is pretty dang good for its era. Combat could have stood to be a little faster, but what's here is definitely worth a playthrough. The only Shadow Hearts game I haven't finished is From the New World, which seems to take the nice balance between darkness and humor of Covenant and dial it up way too much (kinda like Thor: Love and Thunder). At least from the six-ish hours I played it.

 

[Paul le Fou]

10 days late, but I finished up Disco Elysium. That was some good video gamin'. Mainly I thought the writing was excellent, the kind of writing that makes me think "Damn, I wish I could write like that" even if it's really not my style. But I also thought the skill system was really interesting, probably the best implementation of a social-skills Skill System I've ever seen in an RPG. I feel like despite its dice motif it's really more suited to a video game, or at least a very intricate entirely pre-written adventure, and would be a bit too fiddly for actual tabletop dice play. But still, really interesting stuff.

Found myself wondering about a replay with a different spec, but have decided against it. Not enough would be different enough, really, and I saw enough to be satisfied with the experience. I can look up differences on the wiki or whatever.

 

[Purple]

Koudelka was a fascinating playthrough. I like a lot of it, and the localization and voice work is pretty dang good for its era.

Is it technically localization when a game developed in Japan, which is set in Wales, is fully voice acted by native English speakers in its original release? But yeah I streamed it for people a couple years ago and everyone was just floored by the voiced dialog even existing let alone sounding so natural in a PSX RPG.

The only Shadow Hearts game I haven't finished is From the New World, which seems to take the nice balance between darkness and humor of Covenant and dial it up way too much (kinda like Thor: Love and Thunder). At least from the six-ish hours I played it.

Honestly, I think on the whole Covenant is the goofier of the two. From the New World keeps the wacky stuff pretty well contained to just Frank and Mao. Who, granted, are both a lot to take in, and get a lot of screen time early on in the game, but the actual protagonist is so un-wacky people routinely forget he's even in the game, and the other four are also pretty straight-laced.

 

[Sarge]

I did not know it was voiced in English on initial release. Very interesting! But still, the professionalism is quite remarkable - very rare to hear voice acting of that quality in an RPG of that era.

 

[Peklo]

"For its era" is a qualifier that for me talks past the qualities that make Koudelka unique as acting in video games because you rarely ever saw its exact presentational aspects before or since in its specific combination. It didn't introduce motion capture to the medium, but the technology wasn't yet an industry standard at the time the game was developed with many contemporaries opting for hand animation, and the ways in which an entire game's worth of physical gesturing and acting lives in it differs from later works that could highlight or obscure their players' body languages with their cinematography and framing--for Koudelka, the static pre-rendered world that it offers exposes all its cast at every vulnerable or wildly exaggerated juncture, akin to observing a stage play from a constant viewing angle.

All the scenes are little dioramas of drama occupied by a small and intimate cast who bicker, snarl and prod each other with vocal deliveries that stammer, cut each other off and generally interact with the cadences and rhythms of the other people present, because they clearly were doing this in physically the same space, bouncing those performances off each other as their bodily motions were recorded; you are witness more to conversations than sequential, isolated line reads. Most of the cast are total unknowns in context of the larger industry, so you never run into the issue of superseding a character's written reality with a famous actor's established persona and vocal stylings.

Some other fringe works echo bits of these qualities--Silent Hill 2 being an evergreen example of voice acting that people are fond of because it's "off" in likely accidental ways that support readings of the game's themes--but I have never found anything that embodies what Koudelka pulled off with its cast of theatrically gesticulating mutterers and melodramatic orators (for these aspects, the PS2 Castlevanias are my second go-to, but even there you're dealing with a more "conventional" presentation), both for the performances themselves and how they were supported by the expression allowed by a very specific moment in presentational trends in the medium. It's heartbreakingly unique in that regard which feeds into and reinforces all the rest that it managed, attempted and fumbled.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Well, I think I beat Nier: Automata. But from context, I think that means that I'm only, like, 10% done the game because BOY was that an unsatisfying ending that left a lot of content conspicuously inaccessible.

 

[FelixSH]

If you got only one ending, you are certainly not done. Granted, I only know this from other people (never got a chance to play it), but I'm sure you are supposed to keep playing.

 

[Yimothy]

Rolled credits on Octopath Traveller. I know there’s a postgame thing that ties the stories together after several of the individual character endings hinted at connections between them, but I’ve got 65 hours on the clock and it’s time for something else.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Finished off Fight n Rage several times today. It’d be the kind of beat ‘em up I’d unreservedly recommend, except that there’s some pretty dang severe reservations about it.

The actual gameplay of running around and pounding the ever loving bajeezus out of a mutant army is exceptional, lots of branching levels piles of unlockables, great spritework and music, just one of the best games in the genre in terms of beeps and boops.

However

In a genre that’s rarely, if ever, treat female characters with any kind of respect, this might be one one of the worst examples. The character select screen portrait for the games only female protagonist is an extreme closeup of her crotch while she’s performing a high-kick. All the make enemies are beastly animal-men, every single female character is a human who is either a screaming victim in Slave Leia garb, or a sexy evil dominatrix (plus one optional cat girl boss, who, like every other woman in the game, is about 50% heaving bosom). Also several of the side paths through the game are determined by whether you can save a woman who is about to be murdered by that levels boss, and saving them is usually pretty obtuse, so their chances aren’t great…

So yeah… not giving this one a blanket recommendation

 

[Adrenaline]

The more I played Saints Row (2022), the more broken it seemed to get. I got to the end credits and decided to ignore the bonus mission that required me to grind/wait until I had a few million dollars to unlock it.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Got the Pure Evil ending in Infernax (as well as the “Nah, I’m out” ending), as, for one thing, it’s much easier to accidentally screw up getting the Pure Good ending, and also because I’d assumed the Pure Evil route would be Halloweenier.

Anyway, exceptional example of a Castlevania 2

 

[lincolnic]

I'm gonna say I've beaten Vampire Survivors. Finished the collection and unlocked everything, minus the last couple secret characters that you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to unlock. It's still fun when you want to watch a bunch of numbers go up, but unless they drastically shake things up in future updates I'm about ready to move on from this one. Still an exceptional amount of gameplay for the price!

 

[Octopus Prime]

Up to and including the 2016 game, I think Prodeus is the video game that most understood, accepted, and adhered to what made the original Doom so damn good.

It is a true successor to Doom in all but name,

 

[lincolnic]

Picked up Inscryption in the Steam Halloween sale, polished it off today. It's a good game! You all already knew that!

 

[Violentvixen]

Picked up Inscryption in the Steam Halloween sale, polished it off today. It's a good game! You all already knew that!

Definitely check out replayable mode/Kaycee's mode. It was added to the game after I beat it so I'm not sure if it's available from the start for new players now, but I'm sure it's there now that you've beaten it. It's a lot of fun although gets quite hard!

Just started playing Fuga Melodies of Steel on Gamepass and am very impressed so far, there's some cool mechanics going on. Also clear that this will have some very dark times but the writing seems to be handling that well. Introducing the (I dunno if this is even a spoiler, it's in the first 20 minutes of the game and mentioned in a lot of reviews but might as well spoil it)super but permadeath weapon early and everyone losing the will to fight, then introducing a time rewind is a really interesting way to let the player know how this works.

A random thing that made me laugh though was how the tank picks up healing items. You just run them over. Like the tank treads show the change in elevation from going over the crates, then boom, they explode and you're healed! Why not?

Looks like there's a demo on just about every platform too if anyone wants to check it out.

I finished this! It was just great. And while I knew going in it was the same company that made Solatorobo I had no idea it was a prequel, so that was a cool surprise.

I never stopped finding it funny that the tank picks up items by running them over in a comically clunky manner.

 

[Voncaster]

I finished Death Stranding Director's Cut. I think Death Stranding is my favorite Kojima game; I played DS on PS4 and PS5.

MGS4 and MGS3 are other Kojima games that I like a lot.

I really like the zen gameplay of making deliveries from A to B. I also like the main cast of the game. A lot of personality and design infused into the main cast.

 

[lincolnic]

Definitely check out replayable mode/Kaycee's mode. It was added to the game after I beat it so I'm not sure if it's available from the start for new players now, but I'm sure it's there now that you've beaten it. It's a lot of fun although gets quite hard!

Yeah, that unlocks after you beat the game. Which makes some sense, for story reasons. I did try it, but found it too hard to be enjoyable. Having to constantly ratchet up the difficulty to unlock new things took some of the fun out the game for me. I wanted to try new things I never really got to explore during the main game (like an ant deck!) but I felt like they were asking me to jump through too many hoops to get there. Still, it seems like a great addition for people who wanted more after they beat the story.

(I'm also a person who never went past Ascension 1 in Slay the Spire, so make of that what you will.)

 

[Adrenaline]

I finished God of War Ragnarok over the Thanksgiving break. It's a good sequel to the last God of War and good conclusion to the Norse storyline. It's not going to change your mind if you didn't like the last one, but I liked it a lot. The story takes a while to get going, but it was worth the slow build.

 

[lincolnic]

I also finished the main game of Ragnarok last night and loved it. I want to make a thread but haven't had time yet.

 

[Adrenaline]

Teardown is a really fun little sandbox game where you mostly manipulate the highly destructible environment to set up the best possible route through a level to complete your objectives once you start the timer.

 

[Violentvixen]

I beat Wintermoor Tactics Club yesterday and really enjoyed the writing and the characters. There's a lot of great discussion of belonging, sexism and racism while still overall being an upbeat fun game. I especially liked a part where (spoiler for a sidequest about halfway through the game) a character who is Mongolian is recruited by a historical reenactment club to pretend to "invade like a Mongol horde". He says that's not how he defines himself and instead proposes a re-enactment as an art competition to highlight Mongolian art since people don't seem to know that part of history. There's a lot of other really well done interactions between the characters and even though almost all the characters are introduced as just tropes they end up having much more to them than expected.

The actual combat part is okay but not amazing. There's no way to rotate the stage and moving to spaces is often frustrating as the joystick seems to default to weird diagonals? But there's fun character skills and stuff to equip and I really loved the process of unlocking them, whether through the D&D-esque battles or the problem solving stuff. Definitely glad I played it and had fun.

 

[Octopus Prime]

That’s been on my backlog for a while; I was just waiting to see if there was ever going to be a patch that made the controls a little less awkward.

But maybe I’ll skootch it up a bit

 

[q 3]

Yeah, I played it for a while on Switch and liked it but the interface was unusually sluggish for a turn-based game. Would be nice if the status of patches for that sort of thing was announced or catalogued somewhere.