What Did We Play Yesterday?

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.

Silksong continues to delight. The Bell Beast ended up being a really doable battle but also a glimpse of what's to come, because ultimately it's "just pattern memorization" but if I made 1 mistake, say on the beast's dive maneuver, I could easily lose half of my health or die outright. Bell Beast has really obvious pattern signals, but I know later bosses will be a lot more subtle and my reaction windows will be a lot narrower both in terms of time and space.

One change in this game is it seems to be a bit more open in terms of paths to take. And this is a metroidvania, so if you reach a path where it seems impossible to go forward, it is, you need an item or ability. This game also has quests. Some are simple, like donate shards, and others require you to bullseye 12 whomprats on your T-16 back home or whatever.

Unlocking the subway system (I'm not sure what it's called in this game... maybe the bell system?) has been useful, and I'm continuing to make a point of spending rosary beads as often as I can to avoid losing them to death.

I wasn't going to get Silksong because I knew it would be too hard. I figured I'd watch a playthrough. But then I decided... fuggit we roll. I'll just treat it like I treated the first one and bumble along until I need a break.

So far, it's awesome! I love the art, the characters are fun, and the difficulty has been manageable. This game gives you a way to store currency (stringing rosary beads) so the death penalty isn't as harsh. I've been going around in a loop, exploring all the maps I have access to and trying to buy up all the things. I attempted to fight the worm in the bell room and was immediately clobbered, so when I get to a good place in terms of rosaries I'll try again.

I've been playing the heck out of this game but keep forgetting to take screenshots and/or blog so here's a few.

I actually started a new game with the goal of solving rooms in an orderly fashion so I could better keep track of my progress, but by the time I got to the later islands that sorta fell apart and I'm back to hopping around doing what I can. Fortunately, the map has been updated (I think?) and shows icons on islands where you have unsolved puzzles, which helps.

There are a few puzzle types I don't like (noooot a fan of ice), and I find the little wind elemental things confusing to use, but I've made very decent progress on most of the islands. There are a few puzzles, like the one for the green relic, where I feel the mechanics aren't adequately explained and need better visual cues, but I've been able to experiment my way through most of it with minimal hint hunts. And actually, getting hints on this game is kind of a pain because the developer continues to refine the puzzles and I found the puzzles I had the most trouble with had outdated solutions online (yay).

There are puzzles that are impossible to solve if you haven't unlocked certain powers, and sometimes it can be difficult to tell if that's the case, but after scratching my noggin repeatedly on currently unsolvable puzzles I've sort of gotten a feel for looking at a puzzle and recognizing there should be a certain element present, and I probably need to unlock something and come back.

For an "oh, that looks cute!" impulse buy, this has been a brainburny, good time. I've put in about 30 hours which is definitely at the high end, considering I haven't completed everything. People can be anecdotal assholes about this sort of game ("I 100% it in 10 hours" sure whatever Steve) but there are 12 of each collectible and 109 stars, so if you're a better than average puzzler you can probably complete it around 25 hours.

I'm not sure how far I'll go, because I'm happy with the experience and I'm not sure I want to hem and haw too much over the more tedious puzzles, but historically I get tired of games around 40 hours so that's probably when I'll call it.

I sorta forgot there was an event going on, so now I'm making it Muh Business to get in there and get those unlocks. I hit level 80 which unlocks the mines. I appreciate they wanted to do something different. I'm not sure how I feel about it, though. I also unlocked a horn decoration? I'm not really sure what that's about.

On the plus side, I unlocked water lily pathway yesss.

I also realized I wasn't utilizing my second house at all so I filled the entryway with all the crafting furniture.

Popped back into Farm Together just in time for a new pet-themed holiday. I want the stuff! Buut I don't want the grind so I'll see how far the 100 crops a day goal gets me.

The kids have a camping trip with bad curry and tent hijinks, and the stage is set for the next victim, Rise, an idol who we saw waaaay back at the beginning of the game in a commercial. I took a moment to upgrade Kanji's equipment and fuse some personas.

I fell off the video game wagon for a bit but I'm getting into it again. Played some Persona 4, which is primarily socializing and stat building as I wait for the next kidnapping.

Still hanging out with these idiots.

We're still boxin! I still haven't figured out the one pictured. I've caught a glimpse of the special item this level, which is a pair of flippers, so that helps me gauge if a puzzle is yet solvable or not and this one clearly is I'm just smooth-brained.

Kanji is fast becoming my favorite.

One issue I'm having with the easy mode is I am able to finish a dungeon during one visit and don't have to grind, which is good because I hate the dungeons, but it's bad for pacing because I have days and days and days where all I'm doing is socializing or choosing activities that boost stats, to the point I want SOMETHING to shake up the game flow but obviously not the terrible dungeons.

The translation seems kinda iffy, sometimes I'll be presented 3 dialogue options and feel I'm somehow missing something, or a character will react in a really unexpected way to a response that I thought was fairly innocuous. That aspect is starting to wear a bit.