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Dec 11th, 2022 at 09:04:06 - Slay the Spire (PC) |
Slay the Spire is amazing. I pumped it up to some friends last night when we started talking about card games. It's a deck-building roguelike and has influenced a ton of other games since its release a few years ago. I've known this, but since I hadn't played it, I didn't realize the influence. I own two of its offspring, Monster Train (haven't tried, wanted to play Slay the Spire first) and Ring of Pain. I now understand what Ring of Pain borrowed from Slay the Spire and how it innovated, and it makes me appreciate it even more. But Slay the Spire is certainly the more meaty game.
In Slay the Spire, you choose a character for your run through four floors ("Acts") of the titular spire. At first, the Ironclad is your only character option. He's a straightforward warrior class. And at first, you can complete three Acts to reach "the end?" It took me 3 attempts to beat the game my first time with the Ironclad. Then, you unlock the Silent, who is a rogue-type character focusing on combos and stacking poison. I won my first try. Then, you unlock the Reject, who is a unique one! It's like a magic-type character where you stack passive buffs. Beat the game on my third try with him. Then...you unlock the fourth character, the Watcher. 10 attempts, still no win! The Watcher is a high-risk high-reward character who can do insane damage, a glass cannon. If you screw up, you also will take insane damage. Her unique mechanic is switching "stances." In one stance, you do 2x damage, but also take 2x damage. You don't want to get caught in this stance. In another stance, you do 3x damage for this turn. Another is defensive and forward-thinking, which grants you 8 defense when you enter it and 2 energy when you exit it. So far, I've just lacked the ability to adequately defend, or to kill fast enough, with her. I need to learn to plan ahead better. I'm not even sure I've made it to Act 3.
After you win with the Reject (or perhaps after you win with all three main characters or after you attempt a run with the Watcher), you can collect three colored keys in a run and continue to Act 4, which is the actual ending. So after banging my head against the spire with The Watcher, I decided to try getting to Act 4 on Ironclad, and guess what? I beat it first try. In fact, I annihilated it. My deck, my relics, my luck...everything was stacked. So clearly, I just suck with The Watcher.
The game has tons of replay value, and it's so dang fun, I would like to keep unlocking stuff and going for some achievements. Next, I'll try to beat Act 4 with the Silent and the Reject, and then I'll go back and focus on the Watcher again. There are also daily challenges that provide three modifiers. I tried one once and died on the last boss; it was fun and chaotic with the modifiers. So, I definitely want to beat one of those. Then, the final goal (and I probably will drop this one) is playing "Ascension," which makes the game harder every time you win. I think I read it goes up to Ascension level 20! I'd like to win a couple of them to see how they work, but I'm under no impression I'm going to spend time going all the way to 20.
The last thing to mention at this point is my current strategy for choosing paths through the Acts. In each Act, you can see the map to the boss, and there are like 2-5 criss-crossing paths with events containing regular enemy combat (rewards: gold and a card, choose one of three options); elite enemy combat (gold and a card, plus a relic, which generally range from "it's fine" to "oh my god, amazing." Relics provide passive bonuses for the rest of your run. Here's an "it's fine" relic: Dream Catcher - Whenever you rest, add a card to your deck. This is "fine" because you actually don't want to build a big deck with tons of cards; that reduces your chance to get the great cards in your deck that you want to see often. Also, at rest sites, you can rest (gain some % of your total HP) or smith (upgrade a card), and while resting is useful because healing is rare, upgrading a card is definitely the better long-term strategy (beyond healing keeping you alive). Here's an "oh my god, amazing" relic: Shovel - You can now dig for relics at rest sites. Speaking of things you can do at rest sites...get more relics. I had this for the first time during my Ironclad Act 4 victory, and holy moly, I chose paths to maximize rest sites and dug up like 6 or 7 additional relics, which is a zillion times better than 6 or 7 cards.
So, the other spots along the paths are the rest sites, as mentioned, merchants (purchase cards, potions [one-time use benefits], and pay to remove cards from your deck [like curses or weak starting cards], and "?" events, which are my favorite. These are random events that can yield a variety of rewards or detriments. They can be regular, elite, or even boss battles, special event relics, gold, max HP, potions, and so on. You have a decent chance to lose life or gain a curse though, and sometimes even more irritating things like a relic (Bad Face [I haven't gotten Good Face yet]), which slaps you with one Weak upon combat start. The Weak debuff decreases your damage by 25%, so this relic means that on your first turn every combat, you do 25% less damage, a terrible opening!
I began the game maximizing fighting elites for the guaranteed relics, but learned to be discerning about elites; they can kill you if you aren't ready. I just looked up elites online and found that they have somewhat predictable patterns...interesting! And, there are three specific elite types per Act, so you know what is possible to face. Now, I maximize elites if I know my deck is strong, or if I have the relic that decreases elites' HP by 25%, making them easier to deal with. A couple elites, the ones that spawn adds in Acts 2 and 3, give me extra trouble too, so I'm more likely to attempt elite encounters in Act 1. I've spent most of my runs prioritizing ?s because the payoff is usually great. Sometimes, however, bad luck on the ?s can ruin your run, either because you are actively harmed or because the ? is a waste and you miss out on rewards from other event types too many times. Recently, I've started prioritizing rest sites because of the ability to upgrade cards. The more I play, though, the more I realize that the best strategy isn't about sticking to an event hierarchy, mapping a path at the beginning of each Act and continuing down it no matter what. No, Slay the Spire is about adapting based on the situation. You may start the run thinking "I'm going for max ?s," but then get that "elites have 25% less HP" relic, and go for elites, or get that "dig for relics at rest sites" relic, and start going for rest sites, or get that "gain 1 energy each turn, but you can't acquire any more gold" or "no more resting at rest sites" and so you avoid merchants or rest sites. Flexibility is key!
I'm sure I have lots of synergies and combos left to find, playstyles to refine, and cards, potions, and relics to discover. This will surely be my "while eating lunch" activity for the foreseeable future. I just have to stop when I'm done eating and not say "let me just finish this run..." lest lunch last 2 hours.
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Dec 7th, 2022 at 15:10:53 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (WiiU) |
Holy moly, this epic game is finished. I decided to knock it out over the next week, but it wound up just taking one evening. I had no idea I was so close. All I had to do was pull a sword from a rock, clear Hyrule castle, and kill Ganon. Surprisingly, Ganon didn't kill me once! The lion dude, however, at the gatehouses in Hyrule Castle, did a number on me. But I finally killed him (before realizing he was optional).
I could have spent another hundred hours in Hyrule exploring its secrets, but I’ve been playing this game off and on for over two years and just wanted to end it. Plus there’s a sequel coming (on a platform I don’t own). Since it’s been so long, it’s hard for me to summarize my thoughts on the game. My play happened in spurts over the past two years. When I was able to devote sustained attention to it, I got sucked in and loved every minute. When I only had a little time to dabble, and had to relearn controls, remember what I was doing (like last night), it could get frustrating, feeling like I was opening this wonderful toybox but could only take out one toy. I don’t want to play with one toy; it’s better if I can have the whole box.
This is monumental because it’s the last game I have on the Wii U, which will now be cleaned, packaged, and sold on eBay. Then it’s on to PS4 games, of which I have accumulated roughly 10 unplayed. Some of them are also really long (an Assassin’s Creed game, the first Horizon game, a Yakuza game). I’m going to try and tackle one over winter break (or two…how much gaming can I squeeze in?).
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Dec 6th, 2022 at 10:13:32 - Rayman Legends (PC) |
I’m almost finished with this one, which may actually be two games in one (?). As you complete levels and rescue Teensies, you unlock remastered levels from Rayman Origins, like tons of them. So, at this point I’ve completed every Rayman Legends level and every Rayman Origins level except the final one (and except something that requires you to 100% the game, collecting 700 Teensies [I have about 500]).
I’ve never played a Rayman game before and am pleasantly surprised. It’s really fun, a charming, challenging, platformer. Basically, you run, jump, and smash your way through a variety of creative and visually appealing levels, rescuing Teensies (cute little smurf-like blue creatures) and stopping the bad guys. Levels are grouped into larger themes, each with a boss at the end, such as underwater levels (a giant sea serpent), castle/hell levels (a dragon), a Dia de los Muertos level (a musical running-type event), etc. All the Legends levels had a musical level at the very end, which may have been my favorite things in the game. They also have special challenging versions of the musical levels that are in “8-bit” (aka, the resolution sucks, you play the level mirrored, and various other challenges). Oh yeah, I forgot earlier, one other level I never beat was the “8-bit” level that uses all of the 8-bit level tricks in one level: poor resolution, mirror, four screens, etc. It switches in between them, so confusing. Seriously, look at this craziness: https://youtu.be/yT6XOfy2gEE?t=1445
I’ll knock out that last Origins level at some point over the break and put a bow on this game. Good times.
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Dec 6th, 2022 at 09:58:15 - Hand of Fate 2 (PC) |
This is a sequel that obliterates the previous game. There is no reason to play Hand of Fate! This improves upon it in every way. Highly, highly recommended if you like tabletop games, card games, dungeon crawlers, RPGs. I’ve still never played anything quite like it.
The narrative is more cohesive this time: the Dealer slowly leaks clues to who you are, who he is, why you’re with him, and how you’re going to help him wreak righteous vengeance upon his enemy. This is accomplished through the campaign map, as you move from scenario to scenario, eventually assassinating the Emperor and escaping the pursuing imperial forces, before the final reveal, confrontation, and conclusion.
There are countless other stories woven throughout, which really bring a sense of place to the game. I felt like I was in a real fantasy world. You visit cities, mountains, forests, and fields, all represented on the map, as the Dealer moves your game piece here and there. Persistent characters (including your four companions) appear multiple times, like the High Priestess in the north, whom you first encounter in a scenario where you have to acquire blessings to enter her Ritual House at the summit of a mountain to gain favor with the Northerners. Acquiring 6 or more blessings gets you the gold token for the scenario (successfully completing all objectives), and acquiring less than that, and still beating the boss on top, gets you the silver token (completing the main objectives).
Each of your companions also has a story to discover, which all cleverly culminate in the conclusion, and each can live or die. Companion stories are told through card quests, which is how so many other fun stories are told in the game. Some cards have tokens on them. When you land on the card in a scenario map, you have a chance to satisfy its requirements and obtain the token, which moves the quest along, and you’ll get the next card in the quest. For example, Malaclypse, a mage and your first companion, as well as the only companion whose quest I completed, first asks you to travel with him to meet a friend of his from whom he needs a favor. If you flip the card in a scenario, you meet the friend, who asks for 10 gold as payment to consider the favor. If you have 10 gold, you can try the event; if not, try again later. So, pay up, and the friend requires a test of skill from you. In this case, the event is a dice gambit for each of three dialogue options you choose. I tried this event a few times; I think one of the options is the “correct one,” so first you have to choose the right one, then pass the dice gambit, before winning the card’s token and getting the next part of the story. There are probably a couple dozen quests like this, along with about 200 other Encounter cards.
Dice gambits mean throwing dice to hit a target number. Other gambits are chance card gambits (basically playing cups, same as the first Hand of Fate, and my least favorite), wheel gambits (spin a wheel of cards and try to stop on the one you want [if it’s going slowly enough for you to even see what the cards are!]), and precision gambits (my favorite, where you stop a pendulum at precise points). These can all be modified by companions (each companion gives you an edge in one type of gambit in exchange for being unavailable for the next three combats) and items. There was a handy ring, for example, that adds 2 to all dice rolls, and a helmet that lets you see the cards in the wheel gambit and duplicate one before spinning. These items, and the companion abilities, are extremely useful, because these gambits are not easy. You’ll lose a lot, which on the one hand is frustrating, but on the other heightens the tension so, so much. This is a game about games of chance (“games within games within games,” as the Dealer likes to say), so it’s purposeful, you can get better at three of the gambits (dice rolls are still just dice rolls, purely luck), and you can choose cards and use companions to maximize your chances of winning, and consequently minimize your chances of failure, which can result in some brutal outcomes if you’re really unlucky.
Anyway, I’ve skirted around a clear explanation of how the game works. Before each scenario, you choose cards from your deck. Each scenario awards specific cards upon completion, so your deck starts small and grows. There are companion cards (usually you can bring one companion along), encounter cards, equipment cards, and supplies. Encounter cards are those that determine the events that take place in the scenario as you traverse the map and attempt to meet the scenario’s objectives. Encounter cards can result in combat, gold rewards, food rewards, equipment gain, blessings, curses, loss of max HP, all manner of things both good and bad, and often require you to choose dialogue options and attempt gambits that influence the outcome. These are the cards you strategically choose in order to get the stuff (gold, food, equipment) you need to survive the scenario. Equipment cards (weapons, helmets, rings, etc.) determine what equipment will be available to you in the scenario when you can get equipment from encounter cards. Choose equipment that is best for fighting the enemies you may encounter, or that provides useful bonuses (e.g., if you know there are a lot of dice gambits in the scenario, and lots of combat against thieves, then choose equipment and encounters that will help, like that ring I mentioned, and light weapons, which are best against thieves; if you know that the scenario map is huge, then you’re going to need a lot of food, so choose equipment that generates food, and encounters that offer food as reward). Supplies cards are the cards you begin the scenario with. You start only with some shitty options of rusty weapons, but eventually, you can start with better weapons and armor, some useful rings, extra food or gold, and even a bonus to your max HP. Again, depending on what you know is coming in the scenario, you can choose wisely.
Hand of Fate 2 has a wonderful set of filters to choose cards (don’t remember if the first game did this), which make it easy to find those that are the best for a scenario requiring high max HP or curse resistance or combats against Northerners or whatever. Each scenario tells you three pieces of information (e.g., Do not expect to be welcomed by Northerners while treading on their lands; Gain blessings to increase your chance of success; etc.), so you generally know what you need to prepare for. Of course, the game constantly throws curveballs at you, so you should always be prepared for anything. When your cards are ready, you begin the scenario.
Your character is represented by a game piece on the scenario map on the table. The map is literally made of cards (encounter cards you chose and other scenario-specific cards). You move one space at a time, flipping over the cards you land on and doing whatever the event/encounter happens to be. You progress through the scenario like this; typically, each scenario has a few levels, so you’ll reach some specific card (e.g., catacomb stairs, a river crossing, a combat encounter) and be whisked to another map of cards (e.g., the next level of the catacombs, the other side of the river, etc.), until you get to the end of the scenario.
And that’s it! The only other thing to mention is sort of like the white elephant in the Hand of Fate room: the combat. The combat sucked in the first game. It’s much better in the sequel, but is still not great. Now, you have companions who join you in combat (and you can trigger their special abilities), you have more special abilities through the use of artifacts, the controls are smoother, enemies can no longer hit you while you are in mid-attack animation, the equipment and enemy variety change things up a bit more, but it’s still pretty basic hack-n-slash. You can dodge roll your way to victory when in a hairy situation, letting your companion do most of the work. You can sit back and wait for attacks to counter. Enemies can be quite aggressive though, especially some of the thieves and boss types, and combats frequently have three (and later, more) types of enemies at once. You can be on the map with 15 or 20 other units, which is a lot to keep track of. You do have to learn to parry/counter and dodge, or else you will die. I died in combat a handful of times; it’s not always easy, and can also be frustrating, in part because you have to be quick with your button presses. I also ended a handful of combats with dangerously low HP, like one-more-hit-and-I-lose low, including the final boss, which took me maybe 5 tries. Gambits and combat both had me out of my seat yelling from time to time…I did have a combat bug for the entire game. One enemy type, the Corrupted (think zombies), was completely broken. The basic Corrupted enemies, upon combat start, walked to the edge of the map and skirted its circumference. This happened every time. They rarely attacked. They just, like the brainless zombies they are, looked like they were trying to leave the combat arena. Needless to say, I knew every combat and scenario featuring Corrupted was going to be pretty easy. I looked this up afterward, and it’s a known bug, but somehow has never been patched. I guess it’s cool if 15% of the enemies in the entire game don’t work right?
And that’s really it! Tempted to buy DLC and play a few more scenarios with new companions, as well as complete card quests, get gold tokens on every scenario (which requires completing every companion quest for the final scenario!), pursue unlocks and achievements, and so on, but of course, the backlog calls, and honestly, given how chance-based this game is, I can see it taking foreverrrrr to achievement hunt.
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