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May 13th, 2026 at 14:58:07 - Hollow Knight: Silksong (PC) |
Kicking myself for not writing an entry when I was playing this 6 months ago. I am cleaning up my wishlist, backlog, and etc., and the FEELING I get when I see Silksong "in progress" is anxiety. I had jotted a few notes in December, as follows:
"It’s true, Silksong is hard. Like, really, frustratingly hard. Like punishingly difficult. I hit a wall at the end of Act 1 trying to beat the Last Judge. The game likes to place benches far away from boss fights, such that retrying boss fights involves slogging back through tough platforming and other sections of the map."
I did kill the Last Judge and complete Act 1. I remember that took a very long time, and that after the Last Judge, I died a few more times and, probably, with shaking hands and rapid heartbeat, said, "I can't do this anymore." Actually, it may have been in one of those rooms with waves of enemies. This innovation is new and unwelcome to Silksong, rooms that lock upon entering and spill several waves of challenging enemies at you. Yeah, I think that is what got me, just being pummeled over and over in one of those rooms, getting tired of exploring the maze-like map, tired of dying, tired of corpse runs, just exhausted. The game became a chore.
Besides that, I loved it, haha. I was definitely into it for a while. It was sublime until it wasn't.
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May 12th, 2026 at 17:20:35 - Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (PC) |
I meant to quickly beat this back in April so I could have a "completion" for the month, but I got really busy after spending barely an hour one afternoon with Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, a bizarre little twin-stick shooter about a turnip...who robs a bank. The game builds off previous games in the series, which I have never played, in which Turnip Boy commits tax evasion and, according to this game at least, seems to have started a war. Work has slowed down for the first time in nearly two months, and while I wait for my next contract to begin, I figured I'd knock this out.
The whole game is silly. The world is populated by sentient fruits and vegetables. You are employed by a pickle / mafia gang leader to rob a bank of a garlic bulb / bad guy / killed your dad. You have a base, where you can get new weapon loadouts by bringing weapons from the bank (always try to return with something new or high-powered!), purchase progression items from the "dark web," and upgrade stuff at another vendor. You go on "runs" to the bank, which are timed (starts at 2 or 3 minutes, goes up to 5 or 6 with upgrades). Runs are over when you die or when you exit the bank. Die and you lose half the cash you accumulated in the run. Survive and you are handsomely rewarded. Upgrade stuff. Go back to the bank. It's a roguelite too.
The bank has a specific layout of rooms, but you'll encounter some randomized areas too, and enemies and treasure are somewhat randomized. Throughout the bank are tons of NPCs with little fetch quests that usually reward you with pictures (fun/ny to look at) or hats (fun/ny to equip). A blueberry might want you to find its wedding ring, a lime wants you to get divorce papers from her lemon husband, a scientist pineapple wants you to find a philosopher mango and ask it an ethical question about experimenting on fruits, etc. I had some good laughs.
In each corner of the bank is a boss. Boss fights were fun, but the most challenging were early on. Once you start upgrading stats, the game becomes easy. It definitely ends up being an "upgrade everything and go nuts on all the enemies!" type game, experience being overpowered.
I haven't played a twin-stick shooter in a while, and while this wasn't revolutionary or anything, it was fun and scratched the itch. I gotta get back to Divinity: Original Sin 2. I might have some extra time till my next gig, so maybe I can boot it up, remember what I was doing, and make some progress this week.
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Apr 13th, 2026 at 09:37:34 - Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (PS5) |
Just a quick mid-point update for this one. Or, at least I think I'm around midpoint (40 hours, chapter 7, Costa del Sol). I forgot to add this a month ago when I began.
FF VII Rebirth improves on Remake in every way. It's bigger, funnier, more polished, has better pacing, and has way more systems. It even has a charming kind of open world (initially to my chagrin, as I had just come off an open-world game and chose this specifically because I thought it wasn't open-world).
Remake irritated me a bit because a lot of the new story, deeper character exploration, and overly long dungeons felt like padding. I don't find that here. All the main quest beats have been interesting so far, streamlined--no slogging it through the sewers this time. I suppose you could say that the open world is padding, but Ubisoft this is not. There are standard tasks and challenges in each of the game's zones, but this is carefully designed such that everything provides a reward and works toward something greater, namely, Chadley's research. But, this is how you level up your party more, get summons, find recipes, discover rare shops and items, and so on, and it is a joy to explore the world.
The side quests are also FAR more interesting and usually multi-step. I am doing one right now where Yuffie accidentally cloned an NPC in Costa del Sol. The NPC is this surfer dude bro who bought an old inn and is renovating it. So there are all these "bros" who recognize that they are bro-clones and are gathering supplies to improve the inn. You find some items for them (which involves finding and getting to the tops of ziplines), clear out some monsters, then find a unique recipe to craft a part they need. The NPC clones are funny and their asks are varied. Another one I recently did involves one of the many great mini-games, challenging gym rats to a sit-up competition (after clearing out some monsters for them). I have yet to beat the hardest sit-up challenge. It's 90 seconds of repeating a button pattern with increasing speed and precision, and I haven't made it to 30 seconds before messing up. It seems like you have to do it perfectly to win on hard.
I am finding Rebirth to be so CHARMING. It's funny. It's quirky. I am smiling a lot while playing. OH, and there is a card game, which is strategic and fun. Final Fantasy card games are always solid.
The only thing I dislike is how complicated the combat is. I have six characters right now (three in a party), each with a different play style and unique moves. Cloud is a melee fighter and can switch stances from "regular" to a slow and powerful one. Barrett is a ranged fighter and has an overcharge ability that builds up. Aerith has "wards" she can cast on the ground that give different buffs, as well as a little familiar she can summon. Etc., etc. Then, of course, they have weapon abilities and all the spells from materia. And there are like partner abilities (synergies). Skill trees. Blocking and countering mechanics. Air and ground combat. Summoning. Limit breaks. Special synergy abilities. And you can manually use each characters' abilities and control any of them, too. It's too much for me to keep track of! Combat is fun, but feels chaotic.
That's it for now. Looking forward to seeing where the story takes me, remembering nostalgic bits, and continuing to learn the combat.
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Mar 25th, 2026 at 10:00:19 - Road Redemption (PC) |
This was actually great! I was skeptical because I'd never heard of this random Epic freebie and because of low-ish reviews. It's like a spiritual successor to Road Rash, which I loved as a kid. It was nostalgic playing this, remembering being 10 years old, kicking other bikers and whipping them with a chain, that straightforward racing violence.
Road Redemption channels the same energy. You play as a member of the Jackals biker gang, and the game is basically you progressing, in rogue-lite fashion (which was a surprise), through three other biker gangs' territories, racing them to kill an assassin with a huge bounty on their head. You get there first, your gang gets the cash.
You choose a motorcycle and a rider. The default motorcycle is actually the best through the entire campaign, perhaps until you unlock some others late in the skill tree, but at that point I had beaten it already. Riders have different bonuses, penalties, and weapons. Once I unlocked the one that gives bonus money and experience and gives you a heavy melee weapon to start, at the cost of 50% health, I kept him the entire time. Once you learn how to play well, you won't miss the health.
You have four weapon types: sword, other melee, gun, and explosive. Sword is a sword. There is only one, but it can be upgraded for more damage (as all weapons can). The point of the sword is to attack enemies who don't have a helmet. You decapitate them, which is endlessly entertaining. If you get a sword kill, you get double cash (and maybe double nitro). "Other melee" is a heavy weapon and a long-range weapon, which you can cycle between. Once I started using the rider who starts with a heavy weapon, I never used the long-range one again because, around then, I had learned how to avoid damage, so I didn't need the protective range; I could get up close with the wrench or the bat with spikes on it. Guns include a pistol, a shotgun, a grappling hook (slows enemies down?), and a machine gun (the best). Some levels feature a lot of ammo pickups. On those levels, you can go crazy with guns, which is fun. Then, explosives include mines that you drop in the road, C4 that you attach to enemies (endlessly entertaining watching them blow up), and like a grenade launcher or something that I never really used because you get access to it in the final area.
The key to using all the weapons well is memorizing where they are on the D pad and learning to see which one you have equipped at any given time without ever looking at the weapon selector icons. There is a lot going on in Road Redemption, and if you are busy looking at the bottom lefthand corner of your screen choosing weapons, you will (a) get annihilated by other bikers, (b) get annihilated by oncoming traffic, or (c) otherwise run off the road.
Enemies are no joke, especially later on. The first gang is easy. They are slow to attack and don't have special gear. Lop their heads off with the sword, or bash them with other melee weapons. By the end of the first area, I believe you also have a gun and some C4. In the second area, enemies are more aggressive and have more weapons. A slip-up here can end your run. By the third area, they are vicious, some have extra armor, and there are various types who come out in force to annoy you, such as the mine dropping guy and the "shield" guy who blocks all melee attacks. You have to shoot him, blow him up, or kick him (kick with B, endlessly entertaining) into oncoming traffic/into a light post/off a cliff/etc. Once you get good at dispatching enemies and avoiding damage, you will be golden. When you kill an enemy, you get cash, nitro, and health, so killing more enemies if you can is always a good thing.
Each gang's area has maybe like 6 or 7 levels. Levels are randomly generated and can vary among objective type. In some, you have to place third or better. In some, you have to kill x targets. Some are a time trial. In some, you just have to survive till the finish. At the end of each gang's area is a "boss fight" where you have to kill one especially tough enemy, and then after that is a "rooftop escape" where you flee that gang's territory and go to the next gang's territory. The bosses are easy enough, usually just heavily armored. I fought the last boss two times. The first time I got to them was after like 3 or so hours of gameplay. I got my ass handed to me, then didn't see them again until nearly 5.5 hours, at which point I handed their ass to them.
What happened between 3 and 5.5 hours that changed the last boss difficulty? I learned how to play better sure (Don't ride right next to enemies! Use "A" to block! Swerve to enemies and attack, swerve away, swerve back and attack, swerve away! Slow down or speed up [and save nitro to do this] if you get stuck in a pack! Or just put some C4 on someone and watch the pack explode!). But I also dumped tons of experience points into the persistent skill tree, so I had more health, more ammo, more damage resistance, more money (you can purchase items after every race), started with better weapons, etc., etc.
After you beat the game, there is a campaign + mode and a campaign ++ mode, which I can only assume is horrifically difficult. This was definitely fun, a straightforward callback to Road Rash, and it scratched that Burnout itch too. I love vehicular destruction. And I got my completion in for March! Back to Divinity: Original Sin II, which I might be able to finish in April.
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