Recent reviews by flacula drow

The Soulslike that finally broke my brain and made me love Soulslikes. Hollow Knight definitely had a hand and primed me for the Souls grindset. Thoroughly enjoying this, and looking forward to going back through DS1-3.

Our bodies are given life from the midst of nothingness. Existing where there is nothing is the meaning of the phrase, "form is emptiness." That all things are provided for by nothingness is the meaning of the phrase, "Emptiness is form." One should not think that these are two separate things.

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So I was a huge fan of the original Samurai Gunn, it was in many ways the ultimate party game. Easy to pick up, difficult to master, all in the reflexes, coming back from behind to become the champ, playing dead, the original had a lot to love about it. Sometimes a sequel takes things too far (cough cough, Spelunky 2) but I really dig the balance they've struck on this sequel. It's a little content light, in that there are many fewer maps than the original (I say one day after launch), and the adventure mode runs out of road pretty quick too, but what is here is super solid, a perfect foundation to build toward a 10/10 1.0 release. Level hazards are largely removed, the Spelunky map can give you infinite procedural maps, and I think the different character abilities are well balanced. I loved that in the original, every character was identical, only skill separated players. Well, it's still that way, except the different character abilities mix things up just enough to keep fights feeling fresh. Losing against cleaver man? Switch to another weapon and punish their long windup, slow recovery and momentum. Honestly it's very exciting to see a game I love and adore given the long overdue update it deserves.

I was playing Lumines via PPSSPP a few days before this came out. I probably still will on handheld. This game is great in any form, but one that is native 4K, super smooth with some extra modes and skins? I'm down.

Well worth the $15. Incredible puzzle game with entrancing audiovisuals. It's challenging and teaches you via play. Now I'm super hyped for The Tetris Effect for a slightly more zen experience. Lumines can get extremely frantic, but the pacing of the levels is excellent as you get occasional breaks in the frenetic action that give you time to clear your board.

Oof.

It's like FTL and a JRPG had a baby, but I put the baby up for adoption. Sorry, baby.

Metal Gear...? It's a paradox in a (cardboard) box! One of Kojima's most and least polished games. It plays the best yet has the worst story beats of any numbered MGS. An impressive feat of technology, controls, open world sandbox design philosophy and yet I found myself yearning for the bizarre codec conversations and action movie cutscenes of MGS 1-3. The game flow is somewhat staccato as well, as you transition from menu to menu to menu to advance the story. Odd crafting and research trees cribbed from PSP's Peace Walker encumber the whole process as well. There's online stuff in here too, not that I'd know. All in all, it's a big, bold, final love letter to the series from its father, one that I wouldn't miss. Lots to love here, even if it feels a bit unfinished and rushed out the door.

A story of three jerks in a world full of jerks.

Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. SUCCEED. Repeat.

Killer soundtrack, tight controls, great color palettes, succeeds on every possible level. A pure, golden game. Bonus points for awesome couch co-op. A rare and beautiful game afloat in an ocean of half-assed games.

If you thought Bejeweled didn't have enough cutesy dialog to click through, this might be for you. Uses a pixel art style that's very cute and meant to evoke 90s computing, but has little internal consistency and doesn't quite capture the feeling. The puzzling seems okay, for what's it's worth, but I just didn't attain that zen'd out flow-state.

Somewhere between a dream and spoken word poetry, Kentucky Route Zero exists. There is really nothing else like it. Recommended for fans of old Twilight Zone reruns, AM radio stations half-received through static, Fleet Foxes, Twin Peaks and the smell of books.