Category Archives: Video Games

Thoughts on Elden Ring

I finished Elden Ring yesterday, which came as quite a surprise to me. I’ve tried several other souls games but always quit in frustration shortly after or before the first boss. But this time, after seeing everyone else talking about it I decided to give it a try, and it clicked. I surprisingly had a great time playing it and was still enjoying it after ~65 hours.

Gameplay

My usual issue with the Souls games is that I get stressed out from dying and losing my runes. But this time I largely avoided it. You could generally tell when a boss was coming, and when it was spend your “golden runes” to level up and leave yourself with near zero to lose when you fought the boss. Probably this was a thing in the other games too but I just didn’t understand it. I also notably cared less about dying the longer I played— in the start I would cautiously sneak through everywhere, reading messages and checking for enemies. By the time I got to the last dungeon I would just run past everything and rush to the next grace point. Continue reading Thoughts on Elden Ring

Utawarerumono: Masks of Truth and Deception

The other day, I finished playing the third visual novel I’ve ever managed to finish in my life, despite numerous previous attempts. (The first two were Fate / Stay Night and Tsukihime). I guess it might not count as a “pure” visual novel since it has some tactical RPG gameplay as well. But still, for a visual novel to hold my attention for 50+ hours (I’m not going to check the exact time because that’s too depressing) is quite an accomplishment.

Setting

I quite like the setting for Utawarerumono.

It is a hot mess. Continue reading Utawarerumono: Masks of Truth and Deception

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Just finished this and wanted to share some quick thoughts. Although I’ve only finished one out of three routes in Fates. And I still need to write something about Persona 5… (the problem there is I have too much to say)

Gameplay

I played in classic mode on hard and it seemed really, really easy. But I’m not sure if it was actually easier than other fire emblem games, or if it was just less frustrating due to the turnwheel.  Continue reading Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

This Cannot Continue: Thoughts on Nier Automata

Holy fuck that was a good game.

Story

My god. That was one of the most brutal games I’ve ever played. Every time you think “this can’t possibly get worse” and every time, you’re wrong. Sooo wrong.

Even a number of the sidequests made me cry.

The worldbuilding is amazing. It really makes you buy these characters and punches you in the gut over and over again. I can’t say too much because of spoilers… but the way it develops the robots is simply spectacular. Continue reading This Cannot Continue: Thoughts on Nier Automata

Tales of Berseria

This is a follow-up to my post on general Tales games from last year, so read that first if you haven’t already.

So, wow, Berseria totally blew me away. My favorite Tales game of all time, easily. What made it so great? The story. Last year I talked about how really, all Tales games had the same bland story about saving the world, with the only thing that distinguished the different games being the cuteness of the girls and the amount of bad puns. Well, those are still critical factors, of course, so let’s discuss them first. Continue reading Tales of Berseria