What Did We Play Yesterday?

I beat Hades on my 15th run! It feels really good!

Ironically, I'd started this run thinking I'd take a break from the game for a while, and I almost quit early on because I felt like I got a bad start, but I snagged some complimentary boons that ended up being OP and let me focus entirely on dodging while spamming cast. I had no right to finish as strong as I did, but that's the RNG folks.

Normally, I try not to get too butt-hurt about my inability to beat certain games, but I always felt kinda bad I never beat Hades. As I mentioned before, I think I put about 30 hours into it on the Switch and I got to the fourth level, but I'd never gotten to the final boss. And unlike games like Hollow Knight or Silksong, this was a game I felt I should be within my reach. Now, I understand a big part of the problem was I wasn't approaching it in a strategic way. God mode helps in more ways than one, because I knew no matter what happened on any given run, I'd always at least get a little tougher.

I'm nowhere near "completing" the game or the story, but now that I've unlocked heats, which allows me to continue earning titan's blood, diamonds, etc., I think I can chill for a while and just play to watch the story unfold. I'm gonna focus on getting the keepsakes and boosting the friendship of a few favorite characters and go from there. Having an OP build was extremely fun and I'd like to learn how to make that happen more often.

The seasonal Steam sales are now my chance to rebuy games for different platforms. This time I picked up Hades, which I put about 30 hours into on Switch and never finished. This time, I'm being a lot more strategic about my boons, especially stacking status ailments, and I'm making much faster progress. Hangover and festive fog are my jam. To my surprise, the bow is my favorite weapon so far this go around, as I've found ranged builds to be the most fun.

Soooo I decided to keep playing this after all, with mods to tweak the difficulty to something more manageable. I'm continuing to have fun with it, and I'll note that the game did ease up during the start of Act 2. Some of the enemies (pilgrims) are recycled, so that helps.

Well, my Silksong journey is coming to an end, I think. I got stuck on the challenge room at Craw Lake, but I figured out I could actually explore Shellwood (before, I assumed I couldn't pass the water for some reason). I did that, but the difficulty ramped up a notch. I found myself avoiding enemies and dying more. I guessed (correctly) I'd be getting a wall jump ability somewhere in this area, so I held out for that (and it was VERY hard won), but at this stage the difficulty definitely feels more punishing than rewarding. Damage is stacked in such a way, if I make one or two mistakes I'm toast, and it feels... IDK, unwarranted?

I decided to explore some new nooks and crannies in the map with my cling grip ability, but I am starting to find the challenge rooms overwhelming and a bit too frustrating. I think if I could explore for a bit with less gated obstacles it would help, but it is what it is.

I really enjoyed the first eight hours of this game, though! I guess I could play through it with mods, but the mods just emphasize how the boss and challenge room setups run counter to what I find enjoyable about gaming and that's not fun either. I returned to Hollow Knight a few times, so I'm sure I'll eventually come back to this one, but it's kinda weird how within about a day, it was like a few levers were flipped and it simply wasn't that fun anymore.

Well, I beat Lace my first try this session, which was nice. I circled back around to Mooshka and had enough fleas to earn a bonus trip to other lands, and I was able to unlock an extra bell station and found a fucked up town... but I can't do anything to help yet, so bye for now.

Once I'd explored that area as far as I could, I was kinda stumped where to go next, so I retread the map again and realized I wrongly assumed I couldn't progress in Far Fields. I picked up the long-awaited drift ability, and got clobbered by Fourth Chorus.

My boss encounters always start the same way. First time, the thing clobbers me and I'm like oh my god this is impossible that's it I'll never get past it. Second time, I last long enough to say, oh, okay, here are the patterns. And so on. So I'm optimistic about beating her next time.

I beat the chungus (by luring him into the tunnel so he couldn't jump--score!) and got to the second flower area which is much more challenging. I did OK and found a flea there, but ultimately decided to seek out upgrades before trying again.

Speaking of fleas... I've rescued several and I still haven't returned to the circus. I need to do that.

Lace is proving a challenge. I was having trouble figuring out how much damage she was taking, and learned she gets dazed at the end of each phase, and during the third she has a new attack. So I've gotten that far, at least. I experimented with pogoing her, but the results were kinda mixed. It's probably better to dash attack and be really patient.

Welll maybe I'm not quite ready for Lace yet. I explored the map a bit more and found a sekrit area that needs a sekrit key (boo). I skipped the first little flowers section earlier, because I heard the red flowers were bedeviled, but I decided to give it a shot. The trickiest part, by far, is heading back up because you have to pogo-bounce, switch direction, and bounce the other way, and that did take a few tries. The biggest bummer of all? The hidden secret wasn't anything I needed.

I always try to spend rosary beads as soon as possible so I picked up the trap which is uhhh really useful? Yay!

After combing the map again, my paths forward are between two bosses, Lace and Big Chungus. More on this as it develops.

Continuing to have a great time. I've been finding these little fleas and freeing them, which reminds me I need to double back at some point and work on those quests I started.

I reached a few dead ends and realized I needed a way to cross lava, so I got the charm from Forge Daughter and shortly after got the extremely useful dash ability.

I stopped playing after Lace clobbered me a few times. This boss feels very doable, I just need to revisit when I'm fresh. So far, most bosses kill me the first time right out of the gate but by the third attempt or so I've got it. My issue is I often get impatient, because fighting bosses makes me nervous, and I need to just relax and take my time.