Orkestra

120 Days of Summer (more or less)

images

Hey there !

I admit that I didn't strongly commit to come here and review my backlog activity the last few months but, hey, aren't the last days of October as good as any time to make it up for my delayed posts ?

When I last wrote back in June I had lots of ideas about game I were going to play and unexpectedly I did play most of what I was willing to (I beat Four Last Things from my ABC-Challenge as well as Crossing Souls that was gifted to me a while back ; I also played a bit of Moonlighter although definitively not enough considering how good the game is!)

Considering three months have passed since my last post I don't have a lot of beaten games to report compared to my average rate of completion (but you know, holidays, vacations and friends happened...) and I indulged in way to many gifts and sales... meaning : I added so many games to my backlog I even lost tracks of many of those... Shame, I know, but a good reason to get back to work !

Games I played since June

    CROSSING SOULS
  • Crossing Souls
    Crossing Souls

    8 hours playtime

    20 of 32 achievements

  • SEMBLANCE
  • Semblance
    Semblance

    3 hours playtime

    11 of 13 achievements

  • SEASONS AFTER FALL
  • Seasons after Fall
    Seasons after Fall

    10 hours playtime

    16 of 21 achievements

  • FOUR LAST THINGS
  • Four Last Things
    Four Last Things

    2 hours playtime

    16 of 17 achievements

  • SETHIAN
  • Sethian
    Sethian

    2 hours playtime

    no achievements

  • HOB
  • Hob
    Hob

    9 hours playtime

    21 of 37 achievements

  • MINIT
  • Minit
    Minit

    3 hours playtime

    18 of 27 achievements

  • CELESTE
  • Celeste
    Celeste

    33 hours playtime

    30 of 30 achievements

  • DARK SOULS
  • DARK SOULS™: REMASTERED
    DARK SOULS™: REMASTERED

    20 hours playtime

    22 of 41 achievements

  • MOONLIGHTER
  • Moonlighter
    Moonlighter

    7 hours playtime

    11 of 57 achievements

  • LA-MULANA
  • La-Mulana
    La-Mulana

    20 hours playtime

    9 of 64 achievements

  • THE BINDING OF ISAAC: AFTERBIRTH+
  • The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
    The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

    363 hours playtime

    312 of 403 achievements

  • </li>

Stats

At the end of the month, there's 240 games (+15 since June !) on my steam account.

  • 131 Beaten (55%) (+1% since last month)
  • 90 never played (38%)
  • 14 unfinished (6%)
  • 5 won't play (2%)

What's next ?

I have so many games I want to play that it's hard to say for sure but I'd really like to make some progress on my ABC Challenge, that means Grow Up is on my list for November: Not on my ABC List but Moonlighter is still a game that I'd like to play in November: I left it after a few hours of having a lot of fun playing it... I really look forward to get back to it.

I'm not sure I'll find time to play any of these two games though, as my priority is always to play games that were gifted to me and I won a lot recently (don't get me wrong, I'm glad !) : Figment and Iconoclasts fall into the "gifts" category and shouldn't be too problematic to beat ; I've been digging myself into La-Mulana in October and should be close enough to beat it and maybe starta new addiction with La-Mulana 2 which I won a few weeks ago.

It's a hard life winning great games, haha!

Last but not least I fell again into The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirht+ trap ("addiction" is a more accurate description)... In the past, I completed the first Binding of Isaac and Rebirth but I quit after all was reset with the release of Afterbirth (or was it Afterbirth+?) ; I didn't want to beat all those challenges again and played goal-less for a time and eventually quit the game. I got back to it a few weeks ago just before they announced another big bunch of new stuff coming soon... Life's a bitch! But I started a new save and I'm focusing on beating every boss with every character and without bothering with the challenges. We'll see what happens when the new release is out.

See you in less than three month hopefully ;)

Gifted to me

Celeste

33 hours, 30 of 30 achievements
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVEHATEHATELOVELOVEHATELOVELOVEHATELOVE!!!!!!


Figment

0 hours, 0 of 23 achievements


Iconoclasts

0 hours, 0 of 11 achievements


La-Mulana 2

0 hours, 0 of 46 achievements


Minit

3 hours, 18 of 27 achievements
Nice game that falls a bit short at the end


Games I bought

A Hat in Time

30 hours, 0 of 37 achievements


Aviary Attorney

0 hours, no achievements


Battle Chef Brigade

0 hours, 0 of 25 achievements


Dandara

0 hours, 0 of 20 achievements


Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

0 hours, 0 of 38 achievements


Hidden Folks

0 hours, 0 of 6 achievements


Hob

9 hours, 21 of 37 achievements
Sort of 2D Zelda, good game!


Morphblade

0 hours, no achievements


Rusty Lake: Roots

0 hours, 0 of 16 achievements


Semblance

3 hours, 11 of 13 achievements
Very cool (but short) puzzle-platformer


STEINS;GATE

0 hours, 0 of 42 achievements


Watch Me Jump

0 hours, 0 of 9 achievements


Celeste

33 hours, 30 of 30 achievements
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVEHATEHATELOVELOVEHATELOVELOVEHATELOVE!!!!!!

More

There's not really a lot of thing to say about Celeste : it's beautiful, the storyline is a nice add-up to an amazing gameplay and level-desing and the OST is great. It's definitively one of the best game I've played so far this year at least. The end.

If you want to know a bit more, let's divide the world in three categories :

  • Category 1 - those who don't like platformers : first, there must be something wrong with you... How can you dislike the greatest kind of game there is ?! Two, I'm not sure why you reading this, clearly Celeste is not a game for you.
  • Category 2 - those who love platformers, especially when they're hardcore : first, there must be something wrong with you... How can you be such a masochist ?! Two, I'm not sure why you reading this, clearly Celeste is perfect for you and you should already have read it everywhere, you should be playing it right now and forever, it's the best hardcore platformer created since Super Meat Boy at least ! The three best words to describe it are : Perfect, Perfect and Perfect.
  • Category 3 - those who like platformers but are afraid of hardcore difficulty : I would really advise to give it a try. Celeste is so good it would be a shame to not play it if you think that it may be your kind of game... And the main part of the game is challenging, yes, but manageable I think for everyone who have played and liked a platformer before.

Now that you have every keys in hands to decide if Celeste is a game for you, I think you should buy it anyway. Listen to me, it's perfect. PERFECT. PERFECT!!! AAAAAaaaaaargh!


Minit

3 hours, 18 of 27 achievements
Nice game that falls a bit short at the end

More

An "action"-adventure game in big, chunky, very-well-done black and white pixel graphics that obviously draws a lot of its inspiration from Zelda: Link's Awakening

You found a sword and now you suffer from a curse that let you die every 60 seconds. Oh no ! Thankfully, you'll respawn in your house after each death and the game will have save every item you'd have unlock before your death. You'll have to run against time to find new items that will help you unlock new paths and discover new checkpoints to progress in the game and try to beat the curse.

It's a weird mechanic and it sounds rather artificial (or too "videogamey") but it works fairly well in game and it's pretty fun

The world is quite small but lively and enjoyable, the devs created lovely characters for you to meet (I want to marry the lighthouse turtle!) and it's a lot of fun to explore, fight and die miserabily just before a new checkpoint or key item of the game

Minit isn't perfect though. It's short, very short, which souldn't be an issue as long as you know it before buying it, but it feels like it should have been more than what it is. The end is very abrupt unfortunately and left me in a bad state of "I whish there was more"...

Of course that last impression doesn't utterly ternish the overall good experience I had while playing but I felt like it should be noted.


Hob

9 hours, 21 of 37 achievements
A solid adventure game

More

A solid adventure game walking in the steps of the old 2D Zelda games.

The game is quite pretty and the monsters and friendly animals' design caught my eye too; gameplay-wise the fights aren't really difficult but they're fun and it's about the same thing for the puzzles. For the most part it's a very casual game where you'll find your fun by exploring and discovering the world the game is set in/ It's pretty linear but there's a lot of little bits and things to search for and discover in every new area you'll unlock as well as new abilities to backtrack and access parts of the world you couldn't before.

It took me about 8 hours to reach the end with a feeling of having seen most of the game content. I know that there's still a lot of things that I didn't discovered which should be enough for the completionist out there to draw out the most of the game during a few extra-hours of gameplay !

In short : a very nice game !


Semblance

3 hours, 11 of 13 achievements
Very cool (but short) puzzle-platformer

More

Beaten in a little bit less than 3 hours. The game is made of three big levels that you can explore at any time (even though there's clearly a preferable order to do so ; but that means that you can skip a puzzle for some time if you're stuck). You'll have to beat every puzzle of these three worlds in order to gain access to the last level, a tiny bit shorter than the previous ones and a little bit more based on platforming than puzzle (not hardcore platforming though).

Semblance is a puzzle-platformer where your character can hit some walls/floors/ceiling in order to create new platforms to stand on and jump from to access the orbs you'll need to access the endgame. As you'll make progress in the game you'll discover new interesting mechanics that I won't spoil here. Just know that the game as enough mechanics to keep you interested all along (well... if it wasn't the case in a 3 hours long game...)

Once again, I found it pretty easy, but I still had to pause and think for a bit on some of the 2nd and 3rd levels' puzzle.

As long as you acknowledge that Semblance is a short and casual game, if you're still interested, you're in for a very fine experience!


Seasons After Fall

10 hours, 16 of 21 achievements
Urgh...

More

I'm not sold. The story doesn't make any sense, the game is very blend gameplay-wise : not good enough as a platformer, not hard enough as a puzzle-game, the levels are mostly empty and it's never clear what you should be doing.

I used a guide a few time and it helped me go through the game without thinking too much about the lacks of Seasons After Fall but now that I'm thinking about it a few weeks after beating the game I really don't see why I would advise anyone to play it : yes, you could think that the beautiful graphics might make it up for the lousy gameplay and storyline but it turns out that after backtracking for the millionth time across the levels without noticing any variety in the landscape you'll find everything pretty boring…

That's a shame…


Crossing Souls

8 hours, 20 of 32 achievements
Let the 80's die...

More

Yes, it's true that the ten or so animated 90's cutscenes are very nice. Everything else in the games goes from okay to quite bad : the pixel-art graphics are far from perfect (a lot of copy-pasting, everything is too static (isn't that ironic?) and the sound design doesn't really stand out.

The storyline is, as you'd expect, full of 80's and 90's references (Back to the Future, Stephen King, Terminator and whatnot), unfortunately they also kept every bad cliché of that era : jokes about fat people, girls, geeks, confederates flags in the trailer park… The different playable characters are a group of friend with "Together… Always!" as a motto but they keep being extremely mean to each other and I couldn't feel attach to any of them at any point because of that. Their conversations never sound right and the game suffers from lazy writing all along.

Gameplay wise, it's not utterly bad but it's not very good either. The fights felt sloppy, the platforming is not one of the game strong side, the level design is dull and once again the puzzles are way too easy to be any fun.

TLDR : don't play that game…


Sethian

2 hours, no achievements
Arrival, the text-based video game

More

Sethian is a weird game. Basically you have landed on a planet (Sethian) where it seems that civilization once existed but has now disappeared. your in front of a weird computer-interface with alien-symbols as a keyboard and you have to try to communicate with an AI, trying to understand what happened there.

It's a game for linguists, interpreters or translators maybe. You'll have to get the grammar basic rules then you'll have to discuss with the computer and ask him about symbols that you haven't translated yet to understand their meaning.

After a while, you should be fluent enough to have a real-talk with the AI and understand a bit of lore.

Promising and very interesting during the first few minutes of the game I soon realized that learning grammar wasn't much fun for me. I decided to follow a guide because I was still curious about the lore but close to the end I was stuck again. I think I suffered from a bug keeping me from unlocking new lines for the AI… I had to read about the end in my guide…

Sethian clearly isn't for everyone and it would be hard for me to recommend it. Still, it's a very unusual experience I think and it was enough to keep me interested… it definitively won't be true for everyone...


Four Last Things

2 hours, 16 of 17 achievements
Beautiful, short and funny

More

A magnificent and absurd point & click that ends in less than two hours ? It's perfect for someone like me who usually aren't a big fan of this kind of game : the puzzles are funny and not so illogical and even when they are the world is tiny enough that you don't have to go round and round not knowing what to do for too long.

I'd almost regret that the game is so short !

The huge strength of Four Last Things are its amazing graphics made of cut and animated paintings from the Renaissance-era : it's vivid, beautiful, funny and that should be enough in itself to make you play the game just for the joy of admiring this animated masterpiece !


Dark Souls

32 hours, 36 of 41 achievements
BEST. GAME. EVER.

More

When it comes to Dark Souls, first of the name, there's no way I'm unbiased : this is one of the best game I played in my entire life. It's so perfect I don't even know what to say about it…

Let's be honest though, Dark Souls Remastered is mostly just Dark Souls patched for bugs and with a renewal of interest for online playing (at least around the time it was launched). This means that Dark Souls Remastered is still one of the greatest game ever made, in my always moderate opinion, but is it worth it for someone who already played Prepare to Die Edition ?

Honestly I'm not sure. I loved to be able to easily play online and find people to play with but I don't know how long this will last. I bought it has an excuse to play Dark Souls again (as if I needed one…) and I can't say that it was a reasonable choice. Still, have I already stated that it's one of the greatest game ever made ?

For those who never played Dark Souls and think that they might like it… I think it's a shame that this Remastered version costs twice as much as the old one used to be…
Is Dark Souls worth 40$ though ? Definitively…

Well, I'm not sure what to say about this Remaster. One thing is for sure : Dark Souls and its DLC is one of the greatest game ever made and in the end, that the only thing that matters for me.


Far above the melee

Celeste

33 hours, 30 of 30 achievements
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVEHATEHATELOVELOVEHATELOVELOVEHATELOVE!!!!!!


Dark Souls

32 hours, 36 of 41 achievements
BEST. GAME. EVER.


Honorable mention

Four Last Things

2 hours, 16 of 17 achievements
Beautiful, short and funny


Hob

9 hours, 21 of 37 achievements
Sort of 2D Zelda, good game!


Traqie

I started playing Seasons after Fall yesterday and so far it does feel pretty dull, I’m sad to read the whole game is like that =/ It does have a pretty good soundtrack so far imo, fits the beautiful visuals.

Orkestra

Well hopefuly you’ll find some good sides to the game that weren’t obvious to me ! To be honest my review sounds more harsh than when I first wrote it a few weeks ago (but it’s an honest review nonetheless…)

devonrv

Small correction on your Celeste review:

Category 2 - those who love platformers, especially when they’re hardcore :

–then get the game on sale. You’ll be disappointed at how the game doesn’t have a difficulty curve and instead provides “variety” through one-time gimmicks like disparate stages made with a level editor.

That’s my main problem with Celeste: outside of the hidden stages you have to find (which is another genre entirely), the game only has lateral changes rather than properly building on anything it introduces, like that boss fight that lasts way too long. It’s a hardcore game that desperately wants to be a casual game, and the result is a confused product that can never fully appeal to either, hence the assist mode and B sides; it can’t really appeal to casual players without assisting them, and it can’t appeal to hardcore players without actually increasing the difficulty at some point, but they chose to do that in a way that rewards hidden object skill more than platforming skill (and, of course, hardcore players still have to slog through the easy parts before accessing the more challenging stages).

I’m not trying to rag on you for liking the game, but it isn’t perfect, either.

Orkestra

Ha ! You’re the first person that I read who isn’t extremely enthusiastic about the game haha !

Obviously my review is too biased to be taken that seriously (even though I do think that Celeste is - almost - perfect for a platformer) and some of the issues your pointing at are indeed issues you could find while playing the game : it is a game that, at least during the main playthrough, uses a lot of “lateral changes” and rarely forces you to use a mix of various mechanics to progress. I understand why you could see that as a flaw, but it felt natural for me.

Apart from that I disagree : I think the main game is not too hard so it may be played by casual platformers players but challenging enough to be fun for those in search for very hard platforming. Of course, this first part ISN’T the hardcore stuff but merely an introduction to gameplay mechanics for who’ll consider the real deal to begin with B sides and C sides. It only seems logical to me that the first part isn’t hardcore right away, even the first few worlds of Super Meat Boy are quite easy and the really hard stuff is hidden in that game too.

Even though I disagree I can understand that the game maybe wasn’t as good as you were expecting it to be, or just that you found some flaws that were too important for you to let you enjoy the game in spite of them but I think it’s extremely unfair to say that Celeste “rewards hidden object skill more than platforming skill”. It took me a little bit less than 9 hours to beat the main part of the game, collecting all the strawberries and finding all the B-sides along the way and about 22 more hours to beat all the B and C sides.
That’s at least 22 hours of pure platforming (and not easy at all) and I can assure you that most of my first 9 hours weren’t spend in seeking hidden objects but rather on beating platforming challenges.

I get that one doesn’t like to search for hidden objects and yes, it could be pointed as an flaw (and though it could be said to be a nice addition to the game by those who like to search) but it’s searching that’s really bothering you isn’t the simple solution just to go read a guide to know where you have to go ? You only need to find 8 tapes to access the B-sides and don’t even have to bother about the strawberries, I bet that it wouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to find each of those tape’s locations using a guide and you’d still have to beat the platforming challenge to get them by yourself anyway ?

devonrv

I think it’s extremely unfair to say that Celeste “rewards hidden object skill more than platforming skill”

To clarify: that statement was in relation to unlocking the B sides. Sure, there’s a bit of platforming in the secret room before you reach the tape, but the entrance to that room could be anywhere in the level.

The full quote with commentary: “it can’t appeal to hardcore players without actually increasing the difficulty at some point [the B sides], but they chose to do that in a way that [how to unlock the B sides] rewards hidden object skill more than platforming skill [finding the hidden rooms is more necessary for unlocking the B sides than actually being good at the platforming is]

go read a guide

I’ve never understood that mentality. If a reasonable player has to look up a guide, that’s always a failing on the game’s part. Even setting that aside, if you miss a secret and want to go back and get it (whether it’s a strawberry or a tape), you have to replay the platforming challenges while also looking around for where the secrets might be; the genres just don’t mesh well together. (Plus, an opening in the floor could be a secret, or it could be death, or it could be more floor that’s placed just off-screen; the game doesn’t even do the hidden object stuff well).

this first part ISN’T the hardcore stuff but merely an introduction to gameplay mechanics for who’ll consider the real deal to begin with B sides and C sides.

and THAT’S something I REALLY don’t understand. The entirety of the main campaign; all seven A side levels; all those literal hours; that’s just the introduction to the gimmicks? Even if we set aside the fact that the game frequently introduces gimmicks in hazardous environments, that’s a pretty crappy introduction. I feel like most players would be able to wrap their heads around the gimmicks after the first couple rooms rather than needing an entire level devoted to introducing each one (then promptly dropping said gimmick when it’s time for the next level). Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer “first parts” to be the first few screens of a level rather than an entire campaign.

You see, it’s not just the searching that bothers me; it’s that the main game can’t stand on its own, yet the levels that actually build up the difficulty are locked behind the gameplay of a completely different genre.

for who’ll consider the real deal to begin with B sides and C sides.

and besides, that explanation of yours doesn’t quite work since even the B sides introduce new gimmicks (jumping out of dash-through-blocks in stage 2 or dash-wall-jumping in stage 7). If the A side levels are supposed to be the introduction, why didn’t they introduce everything? It’s not like they weren’t long enough.

Orkestra

I have the feeling that we’d soon turn this into a syntactic battle if I were to follow up which is certainly not the point.

There are some mechanics of Celeste that you think were bad and pointed out, I can understand why you disliked those mechanics even though in my own opinion those are not flaws. I think that’s it :)

LastM

Celeste ❤️ I still listen to that soundtrack.
What are the changes from DS:remastered and DS:PtD edition, besides being easier to find people online? I might be stingy, but $40 is a lot of money for just that. T_T

Orkestra

I “only” paid 20$ for the Remastered because there was a deal at launch on steam (don’t know if it’s still the case) : if you had the original game in your library, you could buy the remastered at 50% off.

I definitively wouldn’t advise anyone that played the original version to buy the remastered full price though.

I guess you could find a list online of every thing they add/changed : I think it’s mostly improvements regarding online play (it works like in Dark Souls 3, it’s easier to find friends, etc.), 60fps (without the bugs you had using DSFix), including fixes for bugs without having to use DSFix (Yes, those kind of patches should be free…), “improvement” on lightning effects (I use quotation marks because I’m not sure I didn’t like the game better before, but it’s not a huge modification anyway)…

If you don’t have any problem with your current vanilla DS:PtD edition aren’t really interested by online play, I think you can easily pass ;)

Orkestra

Oh… and of course : at launch they had fixed Boss-souls-duplication’s glitch and the mods for DS:PtD edition wouldn’t work on the Remastered version. So that may be a huge “No, no” for you. The mods might have been ported on to the new version of the game since then though, and I’m sure the community would have find new glitches in game, haha !

LastM

I don’t mind that. I never used any glitches while playing DS. At $20, I’d definitely consider buying it. I hope they bring this deal back soon. :/

Orkestra

Not that I want to make you spend your money but I just checked and I think the deal is still on : on steam when I search for Dark Souls the thumbnail says $39.99 for the price but if I click and go to the game’s page the discount is applied and the price is $19.99 ;)

LastM

Just saw that as well. It seems namcobandai’s sale just started.

EvilBlackSheep

Late comment is late… Which game is the banner of this post made from? Celeste? (please be it something else, please be it something else…). It looks super pretty.

Congrats on your progress, both completing Celeste and beating Dark souls is already impressive, and then add all the other games. Sorry to read you didn’t like Seasons after Fall, I had good memories of it (but then again I only like softcore plateformers, not masochist ones)

Orkestra

I’m very sorry for you but yes, the very pretty banner of this post comes from Celeste… :/

Orkestra

I can share a few gifs with you if you want…

But don’t be too sad, there’s plenty of games with great visual and a gameplay for you (sounds like after-breakup-advice haha) !

EvilBlackSheep

hahaha totally does. It’s really pretty to look at though, thanks for the gif :3