MuttersomeTaxicab

I mean, it's not like Zavala is sitting us down and going through the ABCs. Also the opening sequence also sets some pretty grim stakes in the world.

Ultimately, I don't know that the aesthetics in Destiny are really kids' show fare as much as pulp sci-fi or maybe in line with Jack Kirby's work in comics.

While there's a fair bit of levity in some sections of the game, I don't buy that it's talking down to anyone or infantilizing the audience? If anything, the fact that there's some lightness to the dialogue in the face of the narrative is kind of needed, y'know? Personally speaking, I've long since grown sick of the grim-dark shtick games have wrapped themselves up in to appear "mature" and I'm old as shit.

Ayo, if there's a free spot: Genre Marrow #YPLOUUGU

Personally, the race to the bottom on indie game prices has been something I've worried about for the past few years. I've put hours and hours into games that were $15 at release and I maybe picked up on sale for a fraction of that. I typically play and complete and buy way more indie games than I ever bother with $60 to $80 AAA titles, and sometimes the content (especially in terms of quality) is comparable between AAA and indie. Even if it's not in terms of actual gameplay, then along the lines of something like Her Story, where I found myself thinking about that game a lot for long after I was "satisfied" with it.

It's harder than ever to make it as an independent developer, and there's not the same guarantee of income when/if you get folded into a bundle or steam sale. In that context, folks who do the armchair economist thing and take a prescriptive view of the market like "well, coming in at this price point is what other developers are doing so you should too" aren't really doing the developers any favours. The indie games market isn't what it used to be. The Steam storefront isn't what it used to be, and thanks to the saturation in that space, it's no longer a viable strategy to do exactly what everyone else is doing and hope that kinda works out for you.

So I'm glad to see more developers trying to come in at a higher price point from the jump. It gives them a little bit more room to incrementally come down in price over time, and hopefully it means that attitudes will start to shift in terms of valuing that work. Making games is hard. Making games is also profoundly expensive, and crowdfunding and crash sales and humble bundles do nothing but distort the realities of that situation. I'm not even saying that the Superhot developers are doing this in some kind of principled stand. The Canadian price point in particular is exacerbated by a wide range of issues with the economy that are well beyond the control of the developers.

To be clear, I backed Superhot on Kickstarter and even I was surprised to see the price point when it launched. Having played through a good chunk of the game so far, if I had picked it up at that price, I think I'd be satisfied with what I got. That comes from a lot of things. I really like ASCII art, I really like the in-mission aesthetic. I really, really like the mechanics. A lot of what this game does checks a lot of boxes for me that may not even exist for some people. That's kind of the problem with trying to push the game price vs. game content argument. It's tied to so many subjective aspects like taste and interest and how you spend your time that I'm fine with reviews that maybe bring it up as a side point, but it's real hard to build a sound argument explicitly on that metric.

It's super focused just on the survival mode.

As someone who played Quake 1 with a Rift a while back, the pace of the game is such that you'd basically barf before any psychological damage could occur.

Every time I beat my previous best in this game I feel like a dark god. To be honest, asking the devs to spend the time and resources on a campaign or other levels would be an absolute waste of their time. You don't have time to sightsee. You don't have time to drink in the scenery. Everything directs your focus to the task at hand, which is tough as shit but so rewarding.

Her Story

I'm in the same boat as you. I still haven't finished Persona Q. I think what I missed most from that game was side dungeons and exploring in the airship from EOIV. I get why that's not in there, but it means when I hit a wall, I've just hit a wall. I got to the post-game stuff in EOIV and was excited about some of the variety, but I haven't had a chance to go back to it. Kind of saving it for a weekend at some point. Especially since I think you can fight the dragons that periodically wreck house in the overworld.

I feel like, from EOIII to EOIV there was more and more story added to the games. I found in those two games you're still just wandering the labyrinth, drawing maps, fighting monsters. Occasionally you'll come across an NPC and chat with them. At the start there's some exposition from whoever's running the town and occasional dramatic infodump after you beat a major boss. I didn't get deep enough into vanilla EOII to see how much of that was present. You can pick classic mode in the untold games, which, I suspect, means you won't have party members jabbering at you, since you'll be making your own party. Picking story mode in the untold games obviously adds a lot more text and dialogue and direction, but in EOU2, I haven't found the direction to be heavy handed. When you hit the second stratum, there's a sizeable chunk of a side dungeon you can explore, or you can push into the 2nd stratum. Nobody's really forcing you to do one or the other. Edit: I should note that I haven't tried classic mode in either Untold game, but with the extra save slots, I'm seriously considering starting a second playthrough.

That's really cool re: Atlus mixing it up w/map layouts. I knew that some maps were reasonably different in the Untold version. Was curious about the effect that might have on someone who played the original game.

Re: talking heads in an Etrian Odyssey game: yeah, I know what you mean. I want to say the dialogue is a bit better in EOUII? Or at least, there's some effort to make those sections a little more engaging if you're not feeling the writing or characters. I'm only on the 2nd stratum right with EOUII.

Re: Grimoire stones: one of the biggest changes for EOUII is that you open up and run a cafe within the city. In part, it serves the same function as the mansion in EOU, but it's also where you can develop new dishes which have different effects on your party (i.e. increase speed, increase material yields, add volt damage for the first round of attacks, increase poison resistance, etc.). Like the weapons, you get ingredients by killing monsters and harvesting, but they occupy a different space than monster parts that you sell at the shop. So you have to "solve" recipes by reading their descriptions and guessing the right ingredients. You can then advertise these recipes to different parts of the city to get more entals (which, thanks to the dialogue in EOUII, is apparently what the currency is called). Another aspect of this cafe is that it serves as the place where you can equip grimoire stones on your party (up to 3 slots unlock as you progress through the game) but you can also trade the random grimoire stones you receive in battle for higher-level versions from visiting adventurers. I think there's also a way to sell or break down unneeded stones, but I haven't had a chance to take a closer look at that. All of this rolls out slowly over the first stratum. Plus, I just feel like grimoire stones drop at a much more frequent rate.

Now that you mention it, yeah, there's way more opportunities to interact with your crew, and also pick how your character responds to things/voice how they feel about things. Plus, sometimes when you rest at the inn, there'll be a story beat where you get to know a character a bit better. They're all still mostly fantasy/anime tropes, but charming enough. It doesn't look like the dialogue options necessarily tie in to an approval meter or anything, but a few of the scenes reminded me of hanging out with friends in the Persona games, so I wonder if that might be on the table for EOV.

EOIV is the first of these games I managed to actually "finish" and I really liked it, but that required some on-and-off attention for over a year. I'll burn through a stratum or two and then let it ride for a bit and then come back. If it weren't on a portable device, I don't know that I'd have ever beaten it, since I could play while watching a movie or doing other stuff.

I'm really impressed with this package. I never did get a chance to play much of Etrian Odyssey II, and what I did play was incredibly difficult. I played Etrian Odyssey Untold, which was an interesting remake of the first game, but the grimoire stones stuff didn't feel like a great addition. The story was also fine, but generic, and there was only one save spot, so I had to pick up front if I wanted the story or "classic" mode and would have to delete my save if I wanted to switch.

EO2U adds a stack of save slots, refines the grimoire stones, makes the learning curve completely manageable, and adds some really cool cooking/recipe mechanics, along with town building elements that were in Etrian Mystery Dungeon. If this is the track they're on, I'm curious to see how they're going to approach Etrian Odyssey III with the Untold series. Also, really pumped about EOV, whenever that comes out.

I know the grid-based dungeon crawlers aren't super popular 'round these parts, but anyone else check this out? I can't really find much chatter.

I haven't felt this way at all, but I really like the Etrian Odyssey series, so Etrian Mystery Dungeon is still chewing up a lot of my time, and I grabbed Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold last week (it's way better than the first Untold). I haven't beaten Persona Q or Majora's Mask yet, and I still play Monster Hunter on the regular. By the time the new Fire Emblem comes out, I'll probably be ready for some more.

Oh also Streets of Rage 2 came out, so, y'know, there's that.