I finally got around to playing 1000xResist. I don't know why I waited so long, because it immediately grabbed me (and my partner) as soon as I started playing. We've been devouring it and are in Chapter 9 now. The writing and voice acting are just so good, and it packs an emotional wallop. Amazingly powerful game, especially given the limited budget for animations, textures, and the like.

Also started Queen's Domain. I never played the King's Field games this one is a spiritual successor of, but as a Dark Souls and Metroid Prime lover, this game is really incredible. The gameplay is shockingly slow, especially at first, but it's deliberate and there's a rhythm to it. The result is a game that makes you consider every room and encounter carefully. Then there's the world design, which is dense with looping pathways and secrets; I'm early on but so far this is Dark Souls 1 tier of level design. I have no idea how big it actually is, but I'm definitely going to crawl over every inch of this game.

I felt similarly about the new main character, and the start of the game wasn't great in that regard, but his arc gets better as the game progresses. By the end I really liked him as his own character and as a part of the larger narrative.

I'm also digging into Control Resonant. I just love the weird and wacky style of this game and the original. The combat isn't a pushover, but when you start chain moves together you feel like a badass, even early on. The movement in general is buttery smooth, feels great to just pick up and play.

Yay, glad to have you back. Thanks for taking up the mantle again.

Hell yeah, I recently finished Dusk too! Be warned, the configuration menus for SoH are much rougher than Dusk, they set a new high bar with that one.

I'm sure the graphics will be a big point of contention, since there aren't a ton of changes otherwise, and in that regard I don't mind them too much, though some of the characters look wonky and inconsistent.

I'm more disappointed it appears to be a 1:1 remake. Between that and the way the the gameplay video talked down to the audience ("this is how you jump, wow!" and "we kept loading screens to make you nostalgic"), this just isn't for me. It makes me sad that this seems to be happening more and more with Nintendo.

Fortunately, I just played Ship of Harkinian last year and had a great time. It already includes a lot of the QoL improvements (e.g. free camera movement), and with an HD texture pack it looks good without compromising the original style. Plays on the go with on a Steam Deck too!

I've been playing a lot of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. As someone who enjoyed the Zero Escape games but had never played a Danganronpa, I was unsure about this one, but the demo really gripped me. It plays great on the Deck. The back buttons have been nice for skipping through the VN portions since my A button has gotten loud and clicky.

That game is really long and I'm trying to pace myself though, so I've now also picked up Mina the Hollower. I didn't like the demo, and am not a fan of the retro aesthetic, but I downloaded it to try it out based on the glowing reviews. I don't know what all they changed from the demo, but I was hooked almost right away. It's hard starting out, but satisfying and snappy to play, and the GBC-style graphics are better (more readable) on the smaller screen of the Deck than on a TV.

Nothing really hits the same as Outer Wilds unfortunately. I'll second Curse of the Golden Idol as another game to check out. Similar to Obra Dinn, but I liked it better in some ways.

I don't think Wheel of Time would be that hard to adapt if you just made it animated (to avoid insane photorealistic CGI budgets) and aggressively streamlined the middle books (which are a slog anyways).

How does it run on the Deck? Seems like a great fit so long as the framerate holds up.

The article says Saros will be PS5 only now :/

"Developer promises Next Game will be a regression"