Blogging the experience of gameplayhttp://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7957I dunno how to make stuff like this but I'll try my best!! My current party consists of a Protector, Landsknecht, Alchemist, Survivalist and a Medic. I don't know how to build my characters. So far my Landsknecht has been a pretty good damage dealer so I'm happy with that. I'm planning on making the Protector just one big meat shield, which is going well. I just finished the first floor. The jump in damage done by the enemies shocked me!! What do you mean the deer oneshots both my Protector and Landsknecht!! Not cool!!! I feel like I'll be stuck grinding to level up my characters or at least get more money to get better gear. Sighhh.. It's okay though, I gotta take it slow. Taking it slow is good :^) I have to build my Alchemist but i dunno as what. I either fuck around and find out or look up some stuff online. My medic's also just fine. I should try the other characters too for a change too. Overall fun :^) and very difficult :^( Very cool dungeon crawler with the map making mechanic. Useful and cool to do!!frythyriceTue, 02 Dec 2025 01:25:38 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7957&iddiary=13460http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7864The “toolbox” feel of Divinity: Original Sin 2 is incredible. I am barely through the second act, haven’t even left Reaper’s Eye, and have clocked nearly 30 hours. I’ve explored every bit of every area I can and have been flummoxed by locked chests, complex puzzles, and difficult encounters. Often, I have been stuck on something only to have an “a-ha!” moment. For example, I remember when I realized the value of the teleport spell. This spell is amazing. Cast it on an object and then select where to move the object. It works on most anything—chests, items, even enemies. Chest stuck behind a locked gate? Teleport it to your side. Enemy too close to you in combat? Drop it off a cliff. One of your characters needs to be on the other side of the battlefield, but is slowed and would take three turns to get there? Boom. Teleport him. There are so many abilities like this that have numerous uses that aren’t obvious at first glance. At some point, I realized that if I kept spare junk weapons in my inventory, I could use them to bust down doors. Since they’re junk, it doesn’t matter if they break. At some point, I realized that I could make great use of my undead character being healed by poison. So, I always keep a poison wand on him, all poison items go to him, etc., and he can always heal himself by attacking himself. At some point, I realized that it might be cool to put one point of Necromancer on each of my mages. Necromancer heals the caster by 10% of damage dealt (20% at level 2, etc.). So now all my mages heal for 10% of damage dealt. I am sure there are dozens more such discoveries to be had. This makes combat fascinating and extremely dynamic. It is based on elements—fire, electricity, oil, ice, poison, blood, steam, etc.—being manipulated on the battlefield. I mean, you can choose to ignore elements, but that would be stupid. You can use them to your great advantage, and accidentally to your great detriment, and enemies will use them too. For example, have a character hurl an oily rock that coats characters and surfaces in oil, then have another character launch a fireball at the oil. BOOM! Explosion. Have a character cast raining blood, which causes enemies to bleed if they don’t have physical armor. Then have another character use a lightning attack, which electrifies the blood. A character on fire? Cast rain to extinguish all the fire. But watch out for an enemy to blast the water surfaces with lightning and zap your previously immolated character. The number of interlocking effects and systems in this game is nuts. My party is magic-heavy. I have a summoner (my main character, the Red Prince), a fire/geo mage (Fane, the undead), an aero/water mage (Lohse), and a dual-wielding rogue (the woman who is possessed by a demon). The magic variety is awesome because I often have elemental control of the battlefield. But, if there are a lot of enemies with high magic armor, or a lot of physically strong enemies who can get up close, then I can have some trouble. Usually, my rogue can lock down any mages or archers who are around. The trick there is getting her to them quickly (hello teleport) so she can kill one and move on to the next. And my magic users obliterate melee enemies who tend to have low magic armor. The summoner is especially badass because his familiar acts as an extra character, and a strong one at that. Plus, he can summon totems that take a free shot per round at an enemy. The familiar and the totems also act as damage sponges; sometimes enemies will attack them instead of my main party members. I’ll often just summon the familiar out in front of the party to serve as a tank, then bombard enemies with spells from the mages, while the rogue runs around the edges of the battlefield disposing of mages or archers who might be sniping from above. The setup works pretty well! One drawback is equipment though; I keep getting all these badass two-handed swords, heavy armor, strength equipment, crossbows, etc., with no one to use them, and I only get so much equipment that is great for mages, with three mages to share it. Story-wise, I am loving the world and the characters in it. It’s dark, funny, deep, creative—extremely well written. It was just revealed to me that each of the main playable characters (there are six or seven playable characters, but you can only have four in your party; no idea what happens to the others right now) is chosen by a different god to become The One. It introduced conflict between me and my party in what was previously a collaborative venture! Now The Red Prince (me) is supposed to distrust everyone else because they’ve all been summoned by different gods, and my god told me outright to kill one of my party members (my aero/water mage, who is the healer!). I don’t want to kill any of my party members! I’m so curious about how these intertwining playable character narratives flow together, because any one of them can be you, the main character. That means that the game is a bit different every time, aside from the race/class/background stuff, because each character essentially has their own hero arc. I started off playing this co-op with a friend, which had its own cool features, though we only played through the tutorial together before I got busy, put the game down for a long time, and then just continued on alone. It was fun fighting together, as you can play off each other in terms of battlefield elements and coordinate in interesting ways. I would like to play some more co-op; however, given the narrative heavy nature of the game and all the inventory management slowing me down (probably the only downside), I don’t think I would enjoy playing co-op except for the combat. Anyway, I am almost off of Reaper’s Eye, and then on to the next act! Excited to see where this one goes. dkirschnerMon, 01 Dec 2025 21:06:47 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7864&iddiary=13459http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7956The game's premise is rather silly - you're a delivery guy who delivered a hatbox, but someone stole it, so you mount an entire operation to get it back, which involves developing an entire underground base with agents, research, brainwashing captured agents, a black market for items, and more. What's both fun - and a bit annoying - is that for each mission you pick an agent, and they have all kinds of quirks and problems that they (sometimes) eventually lose as you level them up. But, if they die - well, that's it! Agent gone! Also, you'll often get wounded and you need to pay to heal them, and it takes time. So, I've had a few "favorite" agents that died on the job and then I'm stuck using the wonkier ones, which is harder on harder missions because of their quirks. The gameplay itself is quite chaotic - which I deal poorly with since I'll panic - but I think more playthroughs will have me learning the quirkiness of the controls and mechanics and thus doing better? I've only played about 2 1/2 hours so far, so I think there's plenty to get through. Though, I have finished found two special hats.. as a sign of progress.jpFri, 28 Nov 2025 14:04:54 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7956&iddiary=13458http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7955I had the case and manual, but no game. So I bought the game. That seems kind of silly, but it is what it is. So, I had to test the game - to make sure the cart worked and all that. So far, it's pretty interesting! I played the first "mission" (it said the difficulty was easy) and it took me a bit to get used to Kirby's swallow-and-gain-special-ability power. Some enemies give you a special ability when you press a button after swallowing them. This is instead of just "firing" them. There's like three buttons and I still get them confused to be honest. We'll see what happens as I play more. The first mission has maybe 4-5 levels. And then it rolled credits! I was surprised of course - but I knew there was more game. The credits also rolled really fast which was kind of funny. And then it played a "of its era in terms of quality" CG cut-scene/movie. Weird. Now I need to explore all the other things that opened up. There's also a 2-player co-op mode...jpSat, 22 Nov 2025 17:34:15 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7955&iddiary=13457http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7954There's plenty to grind here - new characters, upgrade buildings, level up characters, etc. And it's fun - at least I've been enjoying it so far (I've made it to level 4 of the pit - the fungus world!). I think what I enjoy the most now is that a "run" (this is really quite the roguelike) is - when you succeed ~20 minutes. Shorter if you die sooner, of course. So, it feels like a nice "snack" game experience - I harvest resources, do a run, harvest again, and exit. It hits a sweet spot for me in that sense. Shorter runs would probably feel less interesting because not enough development of your within-run build (which upgrades have I picked up, etc.), and longer then becomes a proper sit down and play session.jpWed, 19 Nov 2025 21:19:10 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7954&iddiary=13456http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7952I am sure I played Silent Hill 2 back in the day, but I only have vague memories of some of the enemies, namely Pyramid Head and the nurses, and of running around the town itself (though that was also in Silent Hill 1 and others I think). I had heard that Bloober Team's remake was excellent, and so it was. This is a game that I didn't want to put down, but occasionally had to put down because my nerves would get too worked up (and I was often playing it at night and would eventually get sleepy or know I should go to bed because I had to get up early in the morning). But my sessions were regularly 3-4 hours. It's not a short game, took me upwards of 20 hours, and rarely dragged. The only part where I was like "okay, come on..." was the end of the Lakeview Hotel after you have to store all your equipment in a locker to ride an employee elevator. There is this really tense part where you have to navigate an employee area and solve some puzzles without equipment, while one type of really deadly enemy stalks the halls. I really didn't like those enemies! You encounter them before and after while running on grates. They cling to the underside of grates, monkey-bar-ing beneath you and lashing at you with their tongues. You have to walk on the grates, so you have to be wary of those monsters and try and avoid getting tongue-lashed. This particular time, they were walking normally in the hallways. Anyway, I had no health items (you stash those away as well) and was down to a sliver of health. I really didn't want to do the whole area again, so I looked up a puzzle solution so I wouldn't have to wander around anymore and risk dying. Right around that part, I kind of looked up two other puzzle solutions because I wanted to get out of that hotel. Every other puzzle in the game (and there are many), I solved without hints. Puzzles in this game are interesting because they often don't require a lot of thought per se; rather, they require you to collect various items, and then do something with them. The puzzles are definitely clever and mechanically intriguing though, even if solving them was usually just a matter of exploring everywhere. There is another part later in the game, when you are in the bowels of Silent Hill, where there is this (for lack of a better term) "dimensional cube" that rotates. You can rotate it every which way, and you have to figure out how to set it so that you can pass through it into the next area. You do this like three or four times and have to get through three or four areas through the cube, which are all dark, drab, terrifying places in the Otherworld. I was ready for that part to be over because I couldn't tell how far I was progressing and it was just like one brutal area after another. So, "tense" is definitely a good word to describe the experience of playing. Gameplay-wise, it's really standard survival horror, even stripped down to basics. There are no frills. You have a melee weapon, and you get in order a pistol, a hand shotgun, and a rifle. Two different items restore health, one a little bit and one to full. You also have a flashlight. That's it. No other weapons, no special moves, no inventory. Coming off of the irritating inventory management and frustrating combat of Alan Wake 2, I loved having few items to deal with and no inventory to manage. I regularly had over 100 pistol bullets, and by the end of the game (or at least before the last bosses), I was rocking nearly 50 health items. Yeah, I was basically invincible. /flex. It's just you and your few items and the hell that is Silent Hill. Oh, and a few other poor souls you meet along the way who also are there. There aren't many enemy types, though each type gets an additional subtype as you progress. The vomiting things later can explode upon death. The "legs" later can climb walls and ceilings (terrifying). The nurses develop a faster, more aggressive variety. Despite some lack of variety, they never cease to be dangerous and scary, especially those freakin' legs! So, the legs, imagine a pair of legs that walk with another pair of legs sewn on top of them at the hip, which can attack you like arms. These legs like to act as mannequins. They hide and jump out at you. I don't know how many times I was walking through an area and either would be totally surprised by legs jumping out at me or would spot legs poised in a corner or behind a piece of furniture or wherever, often noticing them just in time for them to jump out at me. Or, I would notice them, think I was really clever, creep up to them to shoot them, never knowing when they were going to leap for me. I think the legs were the scariest enemies in the game, followed by the monkey-bar grate creatures. The story is presented in a rather obscure way that made it feel good when you made sense of something. Everything seems to be a representation of something in James' subconscious, so if you can think about what the enemies might mean, you can make more sense of James' emotions and the story itself. I definitely had to look up "what really happened" after I beat it though because I still wasn't quite sure. All in all, this was a great survival horror mystery to play through. Definitely a highlight of the PlayStation Plus month and a strong recommendation for survival horror fans. dkirschnerSun, 16 Nov 2025 11:56:46 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7952&iddiary=13455http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7953Easily beatable in 2-3 hours, Sword of the Sea is by the same folks who did Abzu. It shows. This is another movement-focused journey (also akin to Journey) where you bring the ocean back to a desert (hello Journey), befriend a dolphin and a shark (hello Abzu), and fight an evil fire serpent (hello God of W...wait, no). Where the swimming in Abzu could be frustrating, the "snowboarding" in Sword of the Sea feels excellent. The level design is also much improved, especially readability in terms of where you need to be going. I was NEVER lost, which is saying something! I remember swimming around rather aimlessly sometimes in Abzu, though there were always beautiful schools of fish and whales and things to watch and interact with. Those fish are actually here in Sword of the Sea too, plus the rideable whales, turtles, and so on. There are flags, paths, beams of light, collectibles, good camera work in cut scenes, etc. that direct your attention to the right place. The game is beautiful to look at, with stunning landscapes that dwarf your tiny figure. I don't know what else to say about it really. If you like the Journey/Abzu brand of chill, exploration-heavy, environmental indie games, this is a no-brainer. It just guided me along for its runtime, and it's like I was unaware of time passing, totally absorbed in it. Great experience! dkirschnerThu, 06 Nov 2025 16:25:06 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7953&iddiary=13454http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7951This one was a trip. I had no idea what to expect. Some kind of psychological horror, I thought. It's a little bit of that, but it's got more of an experimental flavor. It actually merges two genres, a 2d pixel-art platformer and a full 3d third-person exploration game with steampunk vibes (like Syberia). I certainly didn't expect the former. The intro hooked me with an unexplained retro sequence that morphed into a great-looking Unreal 5 scene. Whoa. You play as Indika, a Russian Orthodox nun, who is tasked with delivering a letter to a monastery. On her journey, she encounters and travels with an escaped convict who is trying to go see a holy relic that he hopes will catalyze a miracle and heal his gangrenous arm. Her being a nun and traveling to see a miracle is tough because she seems to have the devil inside her. The game alternates between themes related to religious philosophy, absurdism, and surrealism. I suppose I would have expected the religious themes, but the game is funnier than I thought (also very dark). The soldier who can't aim was a good laugh. There are these moments where you are like, "Wait, what is this?!" Giant cans of fish in a cannery. Warped staircases and rooms that turn sideways. A puzzle about rearranging a bridge that made me laugh out loud and go "Whaaaat, no waaay!" in the best, most surprised fashion. The game oozes creativity, though in terms of gameplay it is pretty basic. It's more or less a narrative adventure, but with more interaction (and excitement) than the recently played The Invincible (playing Indika makes me want to knock The Invincible's score down a peg). There are puzzles, several of which stumped me. The reason they stumped me is because (a) they were far simpler than I realized or (b) I had just never encountered a puzzle like that and so I wasn't thinking in the right way. I really liked this. It's short, too, so no reason not to try it out. dkirschnerThu, 06 Nov 2025 16:06:25 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7951&iddiary=13453http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7946I didn’t quite know what to expect going in, aside from this is a well-reviewed metroidvania. There are so many metroidvanias these days, and that is a genre that I get burned out on. My last one was [checks notes] Ender Lilies, back in May, so I’ve had a nice break. That said, I have good news. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is phenomenal (way better than Ender Lilies), easily one of the top in the genre that I’ve ever played. Everything about it is slick. Movement is perfectly responsive, combat is complex and challenging, platforming is tight. Puzzles will have you scratching your head. And the map is revolutionary. I’ll tackle some of these aspects of the game in order. The combat shines and is far more complex than a typical metroidvania. Your sword-based melee attack is your go-to. You also get a bow, useful for annoying flying enemies or if you want to chip away damage from afar. You can charge both melee and ranged attacks (and both aid in platforming), as well as add fire to arrows with an amulet that you can find. Small enemies can be popped up into the air by pressing up as you attack. Hold attack here and you follow them into the air. There is also a downward attack and charge attack. You can sprint and slide, which will result in you kicking enemies back or up into the air, depending. By stringing together melee attacks, launches, arrows, and so on, you can land huge combos. There is no combo meter or anything, but combos are encouraged and can lock enemies down. There is also a parry and dodge (enemies have parry-able attacks and unblockable ones), and parrying is important to learn. I have found amulets that do various things upon successful parry (heal me, fill power meter, create time bubble that slows enemies), so I’ve tried to get good at it to reap those benefits. As you land attacks, a power meter fills, with which you can unleash special attacks, different ones at different levels of the meter. These are equippable, and I think I have unlocked most of them by finding special battles with alternate versions of Sargon, your character. This is one of my only criticisms of the game, and I’m probably only noticing because I’m playing on normal (which isn’t that hard). I’ve found no need to change these special attacks. I used the first level 1 one and the first level 2 one that I unlocked for the entire game, and I never even equipped a level 3 one (kept forgetting). The level 1 one is fine and I can’t see how any of the other ones improve on it. The level 2 one I’ve been using is a heal, which has saved me in plenty of fights. Basically, I will use it instead of a potion, thus saving a potion for a pinch later, and by the time the power meter fills back up to level 2, the ability is off cooldown and I can fully heal again. You can also use some other platforming tricks and special abilities in combat. These other special abilities are cool. One allows you to create a time pocket and basically “hold” any item or enemy. At any time thereafter, you can press circle to throw it. I always try to have something that explodes in reserve so that if I find a glowing yellow wall (which requires an explosive), I am ready. If you trap enemies like this, and shoot them back out, they are confused and fight for you for a few seconds, handy for dealing with multiple enemies. Another move allows you to create a copy of yourself, which you can then warp back to. In combat, you can drop a copy, fight as usual, and then when the enemy moves such that the copy is behind it, warp back to the copy and get some back attacks in, very useful for bosses. This is a puzzle-focused ability during platforming segments that allows you to reach places you couldn’t before. Later on, you get a “pull” ability so that you can rush toward enemies or yank them toward you. There are some others, and there are also your standard air dash and double jump. There are so many moves that it feels like a fighting game. The animations for the special attacks, and the boss special attacks, give this feeling too. Some platforming sections and puzzles are devilish. The difficulty ramps up as you get more abilities. I found some special platforming challenges in the main hub, spent about 20 minutes working on the first one, another 20 on the second one, and then was like, “I have to actually play the story through, not spend all day on platforming challenges!” They give 100 time crystals, which was a lot earlier in the game, but not much later. I would like to come back and conquer all these challenges because they are so hard but so clever and fun. As I got later into the game, regular platforming parts (especially those hiding secrets) got tricky too. There is one type of platforming challenge where you try to get a coin (useful for buying and upgrading items). The coins are hovering in midair and the trick to these is that you don’t get the coin until you touch the ground. So, you usually have to platform while remaining in the air (or on walls), and figure out how to get to the coin and return safely to the ground before you actually “get” the coin. I found a side quest toward the end of the game that requires you to get THREE items in the air before setting foot back on the ground. I could get two and actually never found the third one. Since I was so close to the end, I didn’t bother. If I have time left on my PS Plus subscription, I will consider going back to this and getting closer to 100%. I got 88.09% completion. The coolest thing about the game though is the map, seriously. It’s a standard metroidvania map except for the fact that YOU CAN TAKE SCREENSHOTS and save them to the map. These are called “memories.” This is in addition to regular map markers you can drop to indicate treasure or a boss or whatever. So, if you come to an area with a challenging puzzle or a path you can’t cross yet, you can capture a memory, then look on the map and see the screenshot, so you know exactly what the obstacle is or whatever it is that you wanted to remember about that spot. Whenever I got a new ability, I went through my memories checking which paths were newly crossable. I understand that the same thing could be accomplished with map markers (e.g., a yellow marker or a bomb icon or something for every yellow wall that requires an explosive to break), but this is much more interactive and you have more control over what to screenshot. Every game with a map should include this feature. It’s amazing. Could you imagine this in an open-world game? Do other games have this?! So, this was a big surprise. I thought it would be good based on reviews, but it’s great. Like, one of the best metroidvanias I’ve ever played. It apes a lot from Hollow Knight, but it’s far more accessible with many quality of life features. There’s no Souls-like death or resource loss to worry about and checkpoints are more generously placed. If you die on a boss fight, you have the option to retry it right there. I didn’t have much trouble on normal difficulty. Given how much I explored, poked and prodded for secrets, my Sargon was a beast by the end with tons of health, 5 health potions, maxed out amulets and weapons, etc. This is a must-play metroidvania, especially if you bounced off Hollow Knight because of its high difficulty or amount of backtracking. dkirschnerWed, 05 Nov 2025 16:44:13 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7946&iddiary=13452http://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7950I had never heard of this (the book or the game), but picked it up on PS Plus because it sounded interesting. Indeed, it is. It’s a walking simulator (sorry), aka narrative-heavy first-person exploration game. You play as an astronaut who wakes up near her camp and can’t remember what was going on. Explore around a bit and find out that your crew are dead or missing. Eventually, you make comms contact with the crew’s supervisor, whose title is “Astrogator,” which obviously would make anyone think of an alligator with a space helmet. Sadly, he is a regular person (although I haven’t actually SEEN him…). You follow clues to search for your crew, find out what happened to them, figure out what a rival nation was searching for on the planet and what happened to that crew, learn about the strange biology of the planet you’re on, solve the mystery of why you keep passing out, and try to get off the planet. The whole time you learn more about your mission, and things get worse. There are a few tools you have with which to interact, such as a metal detector, some binoculars, a map/journal, and that’s about it. You’re really just following a trail of map markers the whole game. Doesn’t sound terribly exciting, but I dug the atmosphere and the story. It is a slow-paced game; I had trouble playing it at night because I would nod off as the characters talked. There is a lot of talking sometimes. The two main voice actors are great, but there is another guy introduced toward the end whose voice didn’t seem to fit, so I didn’t find him too believable. Apparently there are 11 endings, but I really would like to know what happens after! Maybe I’ll check out this book. And either I’m getting old or the default text is really small. Go accessibility features! But, there are bugs. My character, or the rover if I was driving, got stuck several times on the terrain. I had to reload once from getting permanently stuck. Other times, the “interact” icon would fail to appear until I walked around the object from all different angles and back. Interesting game, wouldn’t recommend though unless you really love a hard sci-fi story and don’t mind the slow pace. Later Astrogator (actual quote from the game). dkirschnerWed, 05 Nov 2025 16:18:07 UTChttp://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7950&iddiary=13451