What Did We Play Yesterday?

I fired up Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which I actually played a lot more than I blogged about, but it's been long enough I had no idea where I was or what I was doing (I need the mist ability to progress, and hell if I know where to find it). Soooo I decided to try something new instead.

I've been wanting to play a Shin Megami Tensei game but was never sure where to start. Players look favorably on Nocturne, and I understand the somewhat recent remaster wasn't very good, so I got PS2 running on my SteamDeck and gave it a whirl. Until now, I've mostly limited emulation to pre-PSX for the most part, so being able to dig more into PSX and PS2 really opens up my options to explore.

I went into this not knowing what to expect beyond "demons" and it's pretty damn compelling. The graphics have aged well and the atmosphere and mood is awesome. I wanted to set expectations, so I read a little more and according to HLTB this is about a 50-hour game. It has multiple endings, and the dungeon crawling is very crawly, and I think people got annoyed about getting a mediocre ending which, for a game of this length, is very understandable. Definitely not a "put down and come back 2 weeks later and still know where the hell you are" type of game. My gaming threshold tends to be 30 to 40 hours at the very best of times, so we'll see how it goes!

I picked up a couple of Suikalikes I thought might have interesting mechanics. I'm on the fence about Spicy Fruit. I really like how the fruit's facial expressions change, but the gimmick--feeding a fruit a chili so it becomes spicy, so merging gives bonus points--is kinda eh. If you can manage to merge 2 chilis (which requires spicy-fying a fruit, then dropped 2 chilis on top of it, which isn't as common as I'd like) it becomes a hungry fruit and it grows and creates explosions until it eventually pops and sets everything on fire.

The game is super polished, runs great on Steam Deck, and has a bunch of different themes. So if you just wanna Suikaround a bit it's a solid choice. But there's not enough going on there to keep my interest beyond the occasional "my brain is too fried for anything else" play.

I finished Golden Krone the first time on easy mode with the soldier disguise. When you reach the 11th floor, you're advised you can't enter without four rings. The rings are obtained from the various side areas. A couple of those battles, especially the sirens, were pretty tough, but timely switching between human, vampire, and werewolf forms served me well.

I uncovered additional lore, including that when vampires marry they exchange 5 rings. The lore books are permanently unlocked, so you can go back and read through it at any time.

The game gives a lot of little hints as to the relationship with Arobase and Fane, so I wasn't surprised by the reveal, but I WAS surprised by the fact that I was locked in a room with him and apparently had no option but to attack. I actually looked up a Let's Play to see if I did something wrong by snatching up all the gold before talking to him, and I'm still not sure.

I can see myself returning to this one to play the many different classes. I like the streamlined aspect and the vampire/human mechanics a lot. I wish the NPCs interacted more, it's always kind of weird to be attacked by a vampire and see a bunch of mercenaries just standing around, but I headcanon everyone's freaked out and just trying to stay not-undead.

Continuing to die in Golden Krone Hotel and uncovering more bits of lore about the main vampire guy. Around the 6th or 7th floor the baddies get a lot tougher, but I'm continuing to avoid looking things up and just try to wing it.

Golden Krone Hotel is a streamlined turn-based roguelike that focuses on human and vampire classes and has a neat sunlight mechanic. It plays perfectly on Steamdeck, and it's great for a quick run. I've unlocked maybe a third of the classes, and I went into this one blind so I'm gradually figuring things out through trial and error (which, in a roguelike, generally means dying a lot!)

I appreciate the ways it is streamlined. Equipment is automatically equipped if its better than what you have, and exchanged for gold if it isn't. The main items are potions, which provide effects, and grimoires, which teach spells. As in Brogue and others, potions are unknown when you first find them, but in GKH you are given a list of possible things it could be, so if you're in a corner and need to take a gamble, it's a bit easier.

Your gameplay varies depending on if you are a human or a vampire, and you can switch between the two which is a lifesaver if you're a vampire trapped in a sunny room. Humans gradually become vampires, and must quaff potions to keep it at bay and eat food to avoid going hungry. Vampires can slurp up the puddles of blood left around, but they can't read so they can't use the grimoires scattered about the hotel. Depending on which state you're in, you can talk to or fight the various mercenaries and vampires in the building.

There are plenty of secret areas. The Baths provide sanctuaries which give stat upgrades, but they also have pools of sirens that can absolutely wreck you. There's a menagerie full of wild animals, a green house, and other secret places.

I enjoy this one the way I enjoyed Unexplored. Golden Krone has definitely rekindled my interest in this type of turn-based roguelike.

I was kinda in a Suika Game mood, but did NOT want to break out my Switch, so I tried out this free Suika-like where you drop Pusheen-style cats on each other. I really like the special abilities (you can "poison" and remove cats, teleport cats, and remove cats with various fish-shaped items). It scratched the itch (pun not intended but ok!) but I'm still on the lookout for a Suika-like for SteamDeck.

Yesterday I poked at Auto Rogue again. This is a running programming game where you are being chased by Mama and must set up skills and conditions to beat the enemies in your way. I don't generally like programming games (somewhat ironically) but this was a cute impulse purchase. It still hasn't grabbed me; wins feel like black magic, and losses are equally black-magicky. But I may return to it another time.

The carnage continues. I figured out I was underutilizing tractors, which are rechargable actions that can be summoned when the action bar is full. I've been experimenting with using a controller, which makes it easier to shoot and till/plant at the same time since the actions are mapped to triggers, but aiming can be a little wonky.

Sometimes, things just get out of control. I've come to dread the worm boss, who is an absolute bastard, and yesterday I got cooked by these aliens that kept setting my crops on fire. I hesitate to say it was a bad run because I learned the power of parallel planting. Previously, I always opted into the seasonal plant boxes, but I think the option to plant in rows can be more useful.

I've also begun focusing more seriously on trying to plant quadrants of one type, which will merge into a large plant.

Okay, I'm having a lot of fun with this one, so here's a proper post.

Atomicrops is a roguelike post-apocalyptic farming game in which you defend the last garden on earth from various radiated baddies. The loop consists of exploring the wasteland during the daytime, when crops are safe, followed by defending your crops at night. You gather seeds to plant, as well as various upgrades and special times. After a day/night cycle you go back to the town, where you can re-supply, make friends for special bonuses, and go back to do it all again, interspersed with the occasional boss fight.

The flame thrower is EXCEPTIONALLY fun, but the game is just fun in general. The goofy graphics and general chaos keep things interesting, and as you progress you reach a point where you have enough turrets and offensive helpers holding off enemies you can focus more on actually farming. You recruit chickens, pigs, and cows to help with weeding, digging, and watering, which makes the sprawling farm less overwhelming.

I had my first long game last night and unlocked a few extra characters and the ability to have permanent upgrades. I was kinda bummed by the game length until I realized belatedly you can save when you're in town, which means you could potentially play in bursts of several minutes. About 15 minutes tends to be a sweet spot for me in games like this.

Really looking forward to checking out the new characters and upgrades. The devs released several free DLC as well as a few paid ones. It sounds like the paid ones change things up and add some variety.

uhhh I might be getting a little addicted to this one. I quickly learned the squirrel is a terrible weapon so um don't do that.

Like basically everyone, I snagged this at 99c out of curiosity, intrigued by the premise of a walking (crawling?) simulator that goes at a snail's pace. You can also jump infinitely (necessary for finding some secrets), wear hats (2), and say hello and goodbye. You unlock new hats by exploring. You also unlock like 20 achievements within the first few minutes of play, but there are over a hundred so you have a ways to go.

I'm kind of into it, and my kid immediately got into it. The game benefits mightily from coop, as the snails move faster when they're near each other. The devs regularly host snail parties and I'm curious about that, so I'll have to make sure to attend the next one.

Atomicrops is a farming tower defense game. Tower Defense games stress me the eff out and this one is no exception, but I've always been drawn to the graphics and the apocalyptic farming concept. There is definitely a bit of a learning curve. I'm not sure the game ever explicitly tells you how to harvest crops, and I only figured out after I checked the keybindings.

The difficulty ramped up really fast for me, so it will definitely require some experimentation, but I'd like to play around with this one a bit more.