Starting up the second Utawarerumono game has been interesting. It does that Japanese thing where it replicates aspects of the first game in a way that feels like a reboot/remake, despite being a seemingly distant sequel. I think I'm more into this one.

It was bound to happen eventually. My backlog-shrinking streak came to an end in 2022 and it instead grew by 15. I beat less games (thanks to P5R & Elden Ring) and bought a lot more to justify the PS5. So now it sits at 75 in total. Time to get to it!

Plague Tale reminded me of how nice it is to play something with a limited scope and singular focus. Said focus being to take a stealth game with swarms of rats to its logical conclusion. And by logical, I mean fucking insane. I love video games.

I have ascended. I am now a new man, one with deep newfound hatred and respect for Devil May Cry. Took me 45 hours to do and like 100 deaths on DMD Nelo Angelo 3, but I did it. Save for DMD Mundus, because holy shit, that takes 8 minutes of perfection.

Start the fight with full DT, Spam Meteor 2 until it drains to stunlock, always jump away from the combos, taunt at every single opportunity to generate 3 full meters, pray the Summoned Swords don't go in a cross then go near him to cancel while...

Slowly reaching new heights. Hard Mode wasn't too bad, since I had access to every tool and could ignore collectibles. Certain encounter changes are borderline evil, but bosses were manageable. Onto Dante Must Die...

'Tis the season for jolly white-haired men in red coats, so I finally got all S ranks in DMC1. I learned a lot of cool stuff doing this, but it was a struggle. Some missions ask absurd efficiency out of you. But I got a couple of perfects!

My revenge run of The Evil Within is complete! With experience and guide-checking, I cut down my deaths from some 124 to like 38. The remainder can be blamed on all the unfair and unfinished jank. But holy hell is that the greatest magnum ever made.

Steamworld Dig 2 was a nice little metroidvania by way of Boulder Dash. The digging coupled with the resource management really forces you to commit to your decisions until the next venture. I must have dozens of games like this rotting in my wishlist.

I tried the style switching mod for Devil May Cry 3. It feels so wrong yet so right to SWORDTRICKSWORDROYALGUNSLINGERTRICKSWORDMASTER in that game. Makes Royal Guard a lot more inviting as well. Didn't stop me from eating shit once more though.

I still don't know how to get a summary thing, but I dumped like 340 hours into Elden Ring, so that's obviously on top followed by Persona 5 Royal, Forbidden West and Ragnarok. So many long games this year. My backlog is in shambles.

I survived the first day of my new programming job with sanity to spare. This one only took me two months to get compared to the 16 last time. Guess that makes me 8 times as powerful of an applicant. Feels good.

Oh wow, Forspoken just took a bunch of powers from inFAMOUS: Second Son. I approve. The demo felt like the fever dream of an 11-year-old girl in 2002 fantasizing about the future of video games.

I was horribly undersold on Forbidden West, this game kicked ass. It's better in like every single way. I suppose it has too much content and ask a lot of grind out of you for maxed gear, but those are acceptable flaws. Now to wait for some shiny DLC!

40 hours into Forbidden West and I've gotten a good taste of what the game has to offer. I'm overall quite impressed with all they've done to make tertiary content feel more special. Aside from enemy camps sadly, but those go by much quicker at least.

Ok, I need a second opinion here. I tested the different graphics modes of Forbidden West and I can't tell the difference in resolution despite having the correct TV. Am I blind or is it just a placebo for graphics whores who refuse good framerate?

Now that I'm past the tutorial area of Forbidden West I've noticed what they've improved. It's mostly the same, but climbing is better and less confusing, there are actual mini dungeons with puzzles and the progression systems aren't as restricted.

Being the prettiest game I've ever seen, Forbidden West serves its purpose well as justification for my OLED. Beyond that, it's really fun! I'm still in the prologue, but I'm feeling the formula doing its thing again. Machine Strike hurts my brain though

Soul Hackers 2 isn't "Persona with adults", but I think I prefer it that way. It's a lean 50 hours with just enough plot to justify all the unhinged grinding and minmaxing. Might even do NG+ once the DLC is on sale.I even got the true ending without help!

I tried to check if a different browser would allow me to upload images to the blog editor again and all I was rewarded with was access to Seymour's edit page.

Soul Hackers 2 update: 25 hours in the plot has ground to a halt while I'm busy tending to my party. I love how all of the systems intersect to create a really dense RPG experience with constant progression. And it even feels balanced correctly!

Amnesia Rebirth was better than I was led to believe. The criticism I've read about its boring opening hours are correct, but Frictional's way of writing and designing is so enthralling to me. The spooks are old hat, but the puzzles are fun!

Despite P5R making me question my will to live, Soul Hackers 2 has me hooked. Having an MC with not only a personality, but the gumption to counter-rap a boss 30 minutes after being born sold me immediately. It also starts super fast compared to Persona.

Adults with boring family need to make their own Christmas, so here is my Black Friday haul. Ghost of Sushi was a surprisingly hard bargain to find, I had to order it from a camera shop. One that sent me free candy to boot!

I'm officially on the Utawarerumono train now. I'm not much of a VN guy and Prelude certainly is 50% hijinks, but there's a bit of strategy combat that doesn't make my brain hurt and the game fucking assaulted me with non-stop twists by the end.