Thanks again for the recommendations. Blue Prince looks refreshingly good and different. I did hear quite a bit about Clair Obscur, but turn based gameplay never appealed to me. I did not play Baldur’s Gate 3 for the same reasons, in spite of it being so well received.
I agree with your criticisms about Ghosts of Tsushima, and have made similar observations as well. However, Ghost of Tsushima and Spider-Man are my comfort games where I just soak in their music and atmosphere while I do something else like talk with someone.
Clair Obscur has active combat elements injected into turn based combat. Attacks require QTEs to pull off successfully and most importantly - enemy attacks can be dodged or parried in real time. It feels much more like playing Dark Souls than a traditional turn based game. The gameplay designer uses to be a Sekiro speedrunner, and it shows. I will again almost insist on you giving it a chance, it’s very rare for games to come around that are works of art in this manner.
For what it’s worth: I don’t think BG3 is as good or as important to play. I think BG3 has a lot of flaws and doesn’t deserve the hype of “best game of all time”. It’s a fun game to play, but that’s it. It’s writing is “okay for a videogame” territory, but nothing more. It also falls apart in the third act in several ways.
Clair Obscurdoes imo deserve the hype. It is gaming as an artform in a manner that’s rare to see in a AA+ budget format. It also has a very strong prologue, which should fairly easily fit under Steam’s refund window. I suggest giving it a shot.
No problem, I love to espouse my opinions as I’m sure you can tell and I love talking about games in general. I especially love getting to recommend great games to other people, I get such second hand enjoyment from it every time.
To circle back to the very start of this conversation: I did eventually cave today and started NG+ of Mandragora. It’s so much more enjoyable than grinding out the last couple of areas of Blasphemous. Though now I worry my lack of discipline will lead to me never coming back and finishing it.
Very curious to hear your thoughts on Clair Obscur, for me it was one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had the past decade or so. It won’t beat Disco Elysium as my favourite game of all time, but it might well make a strong case for the number two spot.
Disco Elysium is my favourite game from the last decade (maybe even beyond, but I have a soft spot for old games).
To me, it is a case study of how well games work as a storytelling medium if done with the right mindset and people. Everything including the art style, music, game mechanics worked for the story, and it was a joy to experience that.
It is a shame what took place behind the scenes, and I wish there is a better way to show my support to the original developers.
P.S. I could not find a way to save/follow your profile here. So, I did the next best thing, and tagged you and saved your comments.
I actually often say - only somewhat facetiously - that Disco Elysium is barely a game. In many ways it’s more of a visual novel, but one that uses game mechanics as narrative devices.
Still, it’s story wouldn’t be told more effectively and its moments wouldn’t be as impactful if it was using any other medium, I think. So I guess that qualifies it as a game? I still feel weird calling it that since approaching it as a game is more likely to hurt your experience of it than help it.
The implosion of ZA/UM is a travesty, but apart from Kurvitz losing the rights to the IP I think for me Kurvitz and Tuulik falling out is the real tragedy. Knowing what they created together from teenage years to now it makes me sad to think they won’t collaborate anymore. We have a bunch of splinter studios now, but I’m not sure any of them will recapture the lightning in a bottle that was DE.
P.S. I could not find a way to save/follow your profile here. So, I did the next best thing, and tagged you and saved your comments.
Yeah unfortunately Lemmy doesn’t let you follow individual people. But I post about whatever I’m playing pretty much weekly both here on [email protected] and on [email protected] in the weekly threads. And I don’t know that I’m all that worth following beyond that, anyway.
approaching it as a game is more likely to hurt your experience of it than help it
That is well put. Thinking of it as a game with objectives to compete and making progress towards the end, is somewhat detrimental to the experience. Akin to watching a movie to complete it rather than experience it.
Thanks again for the recommendations. Blue Prince looks refreshingly good and different. I did hear quite a bit about Clair Obscur, but turn based gameplay never appealed to me. I did not play Baldur’s Gate 3 for the same reasons, in spite of it being so well received.
I agree with your criticisms about Ghosts of Tsushima, and have made similar observations as well. However, Ghost of Tsushima and Spider-Man are my comfort games where I just soak in their music and atmosphere while I do something else like talk with someone.
Clair Obscur has active combat elements injected into turn based combat. Attacks require QTEs to pull off successfully and most importantly - enemy attacks can be dodged or parried in real time. It feels much more like playing Dark Souls than a traditional turn based game. The gameplay designer uses to be a Sekiro speedrunner, and it shows. I will again almost insist on you giving it a chance, it’s very rare for games to come around that are works of art in this manner.
For what it’s worth: I don’t think BG3 is as good or as important to play. I think BG3 has a lot of flaws and doesn’t deserve the hype of “best game of all time”. It’s a fun game to play, but that’s it. It’s writing is “okay for a videogame” territory, but nothing more. It also falls apart in the third act in several ways.
Clair Obscur does imo deserve the hype. It is gaming as an artform in a manner that’s rare to see in a AA+ budget format. It also has a very strong prologue, which should fairly easily fit under Steam’s refund window. I suggest giving it a shot.
I wasn’t aware about the similarities with Dark Souls, and about the designer’s previous interests.
I guess what I needed was a strong recommendation. Just purchased the game on Steam after checking for its compatibility on ProtonDB (it is platinum).
Thank you for the recommending the game, and for taking away the chore of deciding what to play this weekend.
Again, I am really glad we had this conversation.
No problem, I love to espouse my opinions as I’m sure you can tell and I love talking about games in general. I especially love getting to recommend great games to other people, I get such second hand enjoyment from it every time.
To circle back to the very start of this conversation: I did eventually cave today and started NG+ of Mandragora. It’s so much more enjoyable than grinding out the last couple of areas of Blasphemous. Though now I worry my lack of discipline will lead to me never coming back and finishing it.
Very curious to hear your thoughts on Clair Obscur, for me it was one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had the past decade or so. It won’t beat Disco Elysium as my favourite game of all time, but it might well make a strong case for the number two spot.
Disco Elysium is my favourite game from the last decade (maybe even beyond, but I have a soft spot for old games).
To me, it is a case study of how well games work as a storytelling medium if done with the right mindset and people. Everything including the art style, music, game mechanics worked for the story, and it was a joy to experience that.
It is a shame what took place behind the scenes, and I wish there is a better way to show my support to the original developers.
P.S. I could not find a way to save/follow your profile here. So, I did the next best thing, and tagged you and saved your comments.
I actually often say - only somewhat facetiously - that Disco Elysium is barely a game. In many ways it’s more of a visual novel, but one that uses game mechanics as narrative devices.
Still, it’s story wouldn’t be told more effectively and its moments wouldn’t be as impactful if it was using any other medium, I think. So I guess that qualifies it as a game? I still feel weird calling it that since approaching it as a game is more likely to hurt your experience of it than help it.
The implosion of ZA/UM is a travesty, but apart from Kurvitz losing the rights to the IP I think for me Kurvitz and Tuulik falling out is the real tragedy. Knowing what they created together from teenage years to now it makes me sad to think they won’t collaborate anymore. We have a bunch of splinter studios now, but I’m not sure any of them will recapture the lightning in a bottle that was DE.
Yeah unfortunately Lemmy doesn’t let you follow individual people. But I post about whatever I’m playing pretty much weekly both here on [email protected] and on [email protected] in the weekly threads. And I don’t know that I’m all that worth following beyond that, anyway.
That is well put. Thinking of it as a game with objectives to compete and making progress towards the end, is somewhat detrimental to the experience. Akin to watching a movie to complete it rather than experience it.
Noted. Thank you.