RAVE: GRIME

     "And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you"

  - Friedrich Nietzsche

    I play videogames and occasionally I like to write reviews. Most of my reviews fall under a couple categories, RANT (which I do not like), OKAY (a decent affair, has good elements but also some problems I can't ignore), Rant (a great game, very few faults but missing the secret sauce) and RAVE (the highest recommendation and everything I want in a game). After a couple of just 'Rave' this year we have finally arrived at our first RAVE for this year and a game that is quickly becoming a favorite of mine along the lines of Darkest Dungeon I and II, Inscryption and Risk of Rain 2 (which all previously received RAVEs). This is my review of the dark, mysterious and completely engrossing GRIME.

    Get Bitten

    GRIME is classified as a metroidvania (mv) with Souls-like combat developed by Clover Bite/ Team Malignant and published by Akupara Games, Team Malignant however is the main force behind GRIME and for a relatively small indie studio of six developers and some back up teams, what they have accomplished is a true mark of dedication to your craft. GRIME looks amazing, its aesthetic is second to none, being alien and foreign but at the same time oddly familiar and the fact they made it all with the Unity game engine blows my mind. So many times when I was playing it I had to just marvel that they used the same engine that so many others used and it looks nothing like I seen done before. For an indie studio, they have some visuals up their with esteemed double A studios and the eerie and haunting atmosphere is why it was one of my first Steam Deck purchases. At that time, Grime was a PC only so I knew now that I had a PC, it would be one of the first games I bought for it and well, I'll save the story behind what happened next for a upcoming section. Coming back to Team Malignant, another reason why this game is so amazing is on the road to the 'Definitive Edition' which I am reviewing, GRIME was a labor of love for them and they constantly accepted feedback and made changes based on their passionate community. GRIME went through 3 named revisions 'Colors of Rot', 'Tinge of Terror' and 'Parting Shade' and each one added more content, more updates to the gameplay and more secrets and the craziest part was all of it was for free. It is why this whole section is dedicated to them because they deserve their flowers and I want to make sure I give it to them. Sure, it isn't unheard of in the indie/ double AA space to do free updates but still in a current market where most new releases are now $80 plus and live service this and season pass that, it is nice that some companies still want to just release content for free and to reward you for playing their game. This passion also extends into their game design as well.

    Hard as a Rock

    Released back in August 2021, GRIME is self described Action-Adventure RPG in which you crush your foes with living weapons and consume their remains with a black hole to strengthen your vessel. However to describe this game to gamers, GRIME is a metroidvania/ Souls-like. I have spoken before about my experiments with the metroidvania genre in my review for Ghost Song (which got an OKAY) but I've also completed other metroidvanias like Blasphemous, Shadow Complex and I have given some of them a try (the more popular ones like SteamWorld Dig 2, Hollow Knight and the father of the genre, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night). Overall, as a genre, I enjoy metroidvanias but they are not my favorite genre. I have definitely latched on to some more then others (Blasphemous vs Hollow Knight for example where I loved Blasphemous versus that I really did not 'get' Hollow Knight). One of the key corner-stones of metroidvanias is the exploration and just getting lost and I will not lie, I am usually not a fan of getting lost. For most of the Soulsborne games which I love, I usually have a walkthrough or a guide on hand so I explicitly do not get lost, it is just the way I programmed. I think it is why it took me a while to connect with metroidvanias in the first place. However now I understand why mv are structured the way they are and getting lost is part of the 'fun'. Metroidvanias are also structured around 'upgrades' like a air dash or a double jump and one of the best parts of mv is when you returned to a previously inaccessible area and you can now traverse it with your new upgrades. GRIME even make it more organic by making it apart of its story and the main character named Akhlan by some and Endgiver and Spiral Heart by others, uses the black hole it has for a head to absorb its defeated enemies to gain these new upgrades. Without a doubt, when you first start GRIME and you have barely any upgrades, Akhlan feels incomplete. They are slow, they have no stamina and they died instantly when touched and die you shall because GRIME is hard, rock hard even (pun intended) because whilst GRIME is definitely a metroidvania on the combat side it pulls directly from the Souls games. GRIME has a dodge, a stamina meter, a corpse run mechanic, a level up system similar to all Souls-like and top it off with challenging regular enemies, mini-bosses and some spectacular bosses all which can kill you with a touch (even the lowly cannon fodder have literal teeth), all hallmarks of the Souls-like mini genre. Also like staying true to Souls, there is no difficulty slider, the game starts hard and only gets harder (no pun intended this time lol) but so does Akhlan. As the endgiver grows in strength, they are able to wield stronger weapons, tank bigger hits and dash through the most dangerous attacks but one of the elements that makes them go to the next level is arguably my favorite mechanic in the game. GRIME has a parry mechanic and IT... IS... AMAZING. As a man who loves parry mechanics in his game, this is probably my favorite part of the game

    This parry mechanics is not tied to a specific weapon either, you will always have access to it since it is built into Akhlan and thanks to their blackhole instead of parrying per say, they absorb the attack into their abyss. The absorb mechanic is also balanced well, you can even absorb projectiles and throw them back at their senders (always an amazing feeling btw) but not everything can be absorbed and certain attacks/ obstacles still need to be dodged and certain mini-bosses/ bosses can be absorbed up until a certain point and then you need to finish them the good ol' fashion way aka beating them down with your weapon of choice. All of this combined with some very challenging platforming especially when you have all the upgrades gives you a game that us Souls vets like to say, you need to 'Git Gud' or die trying. Bosses have multi-phases that actually change their battle plan and some of them require you to use your traversal skills mid combat to really test your reactions. The gameplay loop of GRIME is so addictive that I found myself sinking hours upon hours into it and as I got closer to the end I did not want the first run to stop and I started seeking out more secrets (which this game has plenty of), more hidden nooks and crannies that hid more items, weapons and armor sets. Thanks to community feedback, the final version of the game you can unlock fast travel a lot sooner and they have added more short-cuts to each major area so when it came to achievement hunting it was made much easier. You want more? In this game when you kill the regular enemies enough times, you can unlock their 'traits' which you can also empower and build a playstyle around it. Want to focus on parrying? There is a trait for that. However lets say you ain't me and you want to focus on dodging and damaging enemies that way? There is trait for that playstyle too. You want more? How about armor sets that can be practical (aka with the stats like more damage/ health/ stamina you want and playing to the strengths of the aforementioned traits) but you can cosmetically wear the one you like so you do not look like a mis-matched clown with no shoes ala Dark Souls. How about when you die, you actually do not lose your souls or in this case 'mass' so you can still level up even after failing, instead your lost mass is tied to a currency multiplier and gives you a extra heal to boot when you claim it. I previously mentioned spectacular bosses with challenging multi phase fights, well if you want to relive those fights, once you beat the game you can re-fight any of the bosses at any time just to learn their patterns and feel the rush all over again of conquering them again. I am currently enjoying new game plus, something I rarely do in most games outside of my favorites and GRIME even addresses the new game plus fatigue by creating a true different experience, adding a hidden boss and giving everyone some new tricks to completely mess with your muscle memory and also letting you start with all your abilities unlocked so you can access later areas much earlier to almost break the regular way to play the game. This game truly is a complete package and it is amazing just how much love was poured into it. All I can say is if its upcoming sequel follows this model, I will again be signing up on day one. Speaking of.

This is only 1/5 of the entire map. Yeah its that big

    A Rocky Road

    As I previously mentioned, GRIME was one of the first game I bought when I got my Steam Deck. The minute I saw the initial trailer I was hooked and I always knew I would buy it because it gave me Blasphemous vibes which I previously played and loved on my PS4. Well the funniest story is when I started playing it initially I did not immediately connect with it. Sure, I've played metriodvanias before but each one I played after Blasphemous did not hit the same highs I did when I played them. It also did not help, most of my initial playthrough was an uphill battle and one thing you'll have to get used to in GRIME is your first playthrough is that you are very weak with barely any weapon options, limited heals and the game is relentless and unforgiving. I must have died on the first boss 'Amalgam' more times then I can count. All this combined with the fact I was playing it on the actual Steam Deck itself and not the set up I now prefer which is my Steam Deck hooked up to an external monitor with an external controller cause the Steam Deck controls do not cut it when you play something as intense as this. I think after getting lost for hours and finally finding a save spot at the 1/3 mark of the game I gave up and I started playing other games. I was still however entranced by the constant updates and content GRIME was putting out and I kept saying to myself, one day, I will try it again. About a year ago I completed my second metroidvania, Ghost Song and as per my review, I enjoyed it, especially the story but the game itself felt lacking and again, one of my biggest gripes with it was getting lost. Ghost Song had some other fundamental issues like horrible dodge windows, bullet sponge enemies, wonky controls in a game where precise jumps are always needed and artificially lengthening the game by making back tracking mandatory (something GRIME does not do thankfully) so I gave it my first OKAY rating. It was a recommendation but barely and once I beat the game and got all the easy achievements I was done with it. Ghost Song let me know I can finish metroidvanias and enjoy them if I stick with it. It however did not make me want to rush and play another one through so it truly did not make me a fan of the genre. All whilst this was happening, I still remembered I still had GRIME to play. I kept telling myself when I had the time for it I was going to give it a real try and that finally happened this month and man am I so happy I did because this game has ticked all my boxes, I not only beat the game, I am on task to beat the game again in new game plus even with the extra challenges, I am also not only easy achievement hunting, I aim to get all the achievements for it, I've watched lore videos to fully understand what is going on and its biggest compliment, it has made me a fan of the genre. Even while playing GRIME, when the going got good (and ironically it started happening after I gave up the first time lol) I started thinking of replicating this feeling in other metroidvanias. I am no longer scared of the challenge and getting lost in Hollow Knight, so now I want to see what all the hype is about, I want to unlock all the abilities in SteamWorld Dig 2 and see what you can do and due to Epic and Good Old Games (GOG) free games programs I have other metroidvanias to try like Death's Gambit Afterlife, Moonscars and Under Lillies at my fingertips just wanting to be played. GRIME biggest accomplishment is like what Dark Souls 3 did for Souls and Souls-like, it finally made me understand a genre that countless other people love and invest tons of time into. I finally GET metroidvanias and now I want to play more of them. However I do have one fear, just like how I compared Ghost Song to GRIME, will I now compare every mv after to it and will they exceed the mark like GRIME did? Time will tell.

Fallen for the Dark Side

    One of the darker elements of GRIME is it story. In typical Souls fashion, it is not told you to explicitly, letting you put together piece after piece by talking to NPCs, item descriptions and environmental storytelling. However you are able to piece together one consistent narrative, you are the villain. Akhlan is called the endgiver for a reason. Their goal is to absorb everything and anyone in their way and nothing can stop them. It is rare to play a game where the main character is fear, reviled but also at the same *MINOR SPOILERS* blessed and praised at the same time. Unlike my previous game that I reviewed earlier this month 'SteamWorld Quest Hand of Gilgamech' where I could not stand the main character, GRIME's protagonist/ antagonist pulled me into their vortex and by the end I wanted to see their mission to completion all without them saying one word. That is the power of a good character design versus a character where you feel shoe-horned into cheering for them and you just can not. The greater narrative of GRIME is definitely something you should look into if you are a fan of the game but all I can say is, do not expect sunshine and rainbows when the credits roll. It is not that type of game. However I must say, playing someone that people rightfully fear is definitely a power trip and another reason why this game is sticking with me so much.

    Stonewalled

    Now GRIME is getting my highest recommendation however it does have some small flaws which I am using this section to bring up. My biggest fault with the game is how long it takes for you to become the unstoppable machine you later become, as mentioned before the 1/3rd mark is where I gave up last time and by that point I was feeling like I was not getting anywhere and the frustration was getting to me. The game does not do a traditional map and only after feedback did they decided to add footsteps to help mark where you have travelled on a invisible at first map to help with backtracking to where you previously explored. Of course you get a detailed map for a area when you find a beacon but 90% of those beacons are not found until you have nearly completed the area, heck, one of these helpful beacons is even blocked by a very tough, challenging boss, so basically your access to the beacon is stonewalled. Another issue I have is actually much later in the game is once you pass a certain section, the game no longer has enemies other than the final bosses, everything just becomes a traversal challenge and whilst they are not bad challenges and real push your platforming skills to the limit, it really takes away from one of the elements I really enjoy about it, the combat. Speaking of traversal challenges, my final gripe is actually not a big one but I need to say it never-less, a lot of the high level traversal challenges normally end with decent loot, be it a weapon, armor piece/ set or a consumable with tons of mass to level you up but the challenge to get it does not feel proportionate with the challenges you faced to get their. Mind you, my current new game plus weapon is the weapon you earned for completing the hardest traversal challenge in the game and it is amazing so I guess sometimes it is worth it, however in new game + the same weapons/ armor are now just upgrade material which you should have plenty of. My only change here would be in new game plus to change the new items to mass to level up which will always be useful, no matter how early or late you are in the game. Beating the mini bosses and main bosses in new game plus however does give you some substantial rewards and in both cases they drop upgrade materials either for your weapons to become even more powerful and to enhance already maxed out traits to newer levels and just make Spiral Heart a even more dangerous foe. Again these a minor gripes and definitely does not take away from its final rating.

    Push & Pull

    This RAVE is getting pretty long so in this section I am going to just drop some quick facts and wrap up my final thoughts. The music by Alex Roe, a artist who seems to be a accomplished musician and has even made remixes of Dark Souls song, is really suitable for this type of game. He created a great menu song and the soundtrack is filled with some good tracks especially for the bosses, a good thing since if you are like me, you be dying a lot to them and restarting at the beginning, speaking of, I enjoy GRIME has placed boss and mini-bosses relatively close to their rest areas so the runbacks to them are not that long, especially if you unlocked the shortcuts and it gets you back into the action much faster. The sound effects are nice and crunchy with the right amount of emphasis on the right things, not the egregious sounds that Ghost Song made when your character ran out of stamina, the vacuum sound of your black hole when you are absorbing is especially satisfying and NPCs are voiced in their own unique language. 

    Speaking frankly; Blasphemous used to be my favorite metroidvania and I believe it will forever have a place in my heart. I also have very fond memories of Shadow Complex on my Xbox360 but other than those two, I have never had a metroidvania captivate me as much as GRIME. This is the game that made me finally get mv's and now I want more. As I said earlier I now want to play SteamWorld Dig 2 and actually finish it, I want to revisit Shadow Complex but maybe on Steam since its no longer exclusive to consoles. I even want to visit more dark indie titles in the vein of GRIME, like Moonscars and The Last Faith and see if they are hidden gems. I also want to give Hollow Knight a honest try and this time and see if it can connect with me on a second playthrough like how I did with GRIME, because GRIME is now my favorite metroidvania and if the other games can make me lock in like this one did, I know I'll have a great time again.

    I used the chapter title 'push and pull' for this final section because this game simply pushes you beyond your limits especially in the platforming challenges and some of the boss battles too but its pull is so magnetic that you want to just keep playing. I am actually want to complete this RAVE so I am jump back in and complete my new game plus run and get some final achievements along the way, GRIME has me in its gravity and I can not escape. I have stared into the abyss and it has stared back into me and I am no longer afraid of the challenges before me.

AV

Rave: SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech

     

    Imagine how cool this would be. You start a campaign of Dungeons & Dragons and you are familiar with the setting already. You know what orcs, elves and dragons are and the first game you play it is played to its strengths, roll the die, dungeon master, hero sheets and what not. However when you return the next week to play it again, the dungeon master says this week you are playing the game like a first person shooter instead of a dungeon crawler and asks you to play by completely different rules. Same setting tho, just everything else has changed and the week after that the rules changes again. Well this is what it is like to experience a SteamWorld game.

    Hailing from Sweden, the SteamWorld series of games are created by Image & Form in partnership with Thunderful Group. Each of the SteamWorld games share the same post apocalyptic setting, steam punk aesthetic and an old western look but every game that comes out through SteamWorld (unless you count direct sequels) are different genres every time. For example; SteamWorld Dig is a Metroidvania, SteamWorld Tower Defense is a *gasp* tower defense game, SteamWorld Heist is a tactical shooter and our game in this Rave is an turn based, deck-building Roleplaying Game. So far the SteamWorld games have made a decent impact and they are selling enough of them to warrant direct sequels to Dig and Heist and the games themselves have dedicated fanbases. I, personally stumbled into the SteamWorld ecosystem via SteamWorld Dig 2 and I enjoyed playing it for awhile and funny enough now I am enjoying Metroidvanias again I think I might even go back to it sooner than later. With SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech through I decided to finally not only play it but to complete it as well and now we are done I must say it was a very fun experience. However I did have some gripes with some of the systems so I can only give it a Rave not a RAVE (which is the highest recommendation I can give). A Rave is still a 'you should play it' recommendation through and I think if you enjoy the RPG genre, this unique take on it will scratch that itch for you.

    First, it must be said that SteamWorld Quest (SWQ) keeps the setting from the other SteamWorld games but frames this one as a fairytale. This means steam punk-esque monsters, knights and more. The Western motif makes way for the typical swords and sorcery and it makes sense for them to do that. However it also changes the formula in some unique ways. The most obvious is that it goes the deckbuilding route and every character has a deck of cards they can pull from that you can change on the fly, upgrade existing cards and unlock stronger ones. More on this later but this difference changes the formula slightly and is one of the reasons I was attracted to this game since I am big fan of deckbuilding games such as Slay the Spire, Inscryption and many others. The second unique change is instead of a top down perspective that most RPG game use to traverse, SWQ decides to go with the side scrolling approach, more akin to beat 'em ups like Streets of Rage, Final Fight and other classics. This unique approach is another reason why it initially caught my eye and made me want to play it. It is funny now in hindsight that these two unique changes might be contributing to why this game only gets a Rave from me.

    Let us start with the elephant/ dragon in the room, the deckbuilding mechanic. So very quickly, you'll have a team of three characters and each of the characters have access to 8 cards they can draw from a collective pool. Some of the cards are free use and does not require the 'cog' mechanic which is what the system requires you to pull off stronger attacks/ cards based on how many cogs you have accumulated (if anything these let you add to your cog meter), most of the cards have a moderate cost of 1 to 2 cogs, that is fine as well. The very powerful cards tho require at least 4 cogs however more on that in a minute. My biggest issue with this mechanic is there were many, many battles where I will be stuck with useless cards that I could not use or because you have to constant attack and use up whatever cogs you built up you rarely get to use the powerful 4 cog attacks. Many times I put a 4 cog card in a deck hoping to use it at least once but by the end of the battle I just remove it because you never get the chance to use them. Sure, some characters can build cogs with certain cards but these require to use a turn just to 'power up'. Over the course of the 20 hrs I played I had many experiences where I was just spamming certain cards and get frustrated when certain cards did not show up even tho I built my deck around it. The game also allows you to 're-shuffle' not useful cards at least twice a turn but normally the RNG would not work in your favor and you'll get two more not useful cards. A lot of the times I would end a turn only playing one actual attack card, one buff card and not being able to use a third one because of all the bad options I was given. In extreme cases I even had whole hands where all I did was do some buffs with barely notice-able effects aka buff evasion and the enemy still hits you 90% of the time and I did no damage to the enemy. The enemy on the other hand always have attack options on deck and never miss their chance to attack you. Their attacks seem to have no cool down requirements and in one egregious example, would spam certain overpowered tactics over and over. The game also liked to encourage certain synergies as well, for example, if you use cards only from one deck/ character, the character will get an extra turn and perform what every skill is attached to the weapon they were wielding. However 90% of these effects are not even that great with an extreme examples being my favorite character Orik having 2 'chain' attacks which felt pointless. As mentioned before, the deckbuilding aspect is why I decided to give this game a try and after playing really good deckbuilders (Slay the Spire) and even competent ones (Tainted Grail: Conquest/ Indies' Lies) I was blown away by how un-finished this system felt. Personally I felt that each character should have a free cost block card to use if you ran out of card options. I built my decks, playing to my squad's strengths but due to the RNG nature, I seldom got the cards I needed, when I needed them and when that happens and you just hit have to move to your next turn after using only one attack card, it never felt good. This system SWQ implemented did not work as intended because this is the first deckbuilder where I constantly felt I had to just take hits from the enemies due to bad deck RNG. I know this is not just me too, I have seen many players complain about the same thing happening to them. I feel with a slight tweak and the addition of 'block' cards for every character (a mechanic used by pretty much every other deckbuilder) this could have been much less frustrating. So with this being the main hook of the game and it doesn't do it great, it is no wonder why I did not love this game as much as I wanted to.

All you need is Streets of Rage OST in the background

    The second change-up I was interested in was how you traverse in this game. Unlike every traditional RPG known to man, SWQ forgoes the top down perspective and allows you to explore the world in a side-scrolling perspective, much like the beat 'em ups of old. In this perspective, you can see the enemy encounters and you can either avoid them all together or if you are able to attack them before they see you, you can score a 'ambush' and deal some pre-emptive damage before the battle begins. The big problem with this however is there was a clear 'lag' felt when you hit the button in this mode to when it comes out and most of the swings come out way too late and the ambush mechanic just doesn't work as intended. The game also asks you to destroy scenery to earn extra money and open up pathways but even that felt weird and laggy. I would hit the button to swing at the log in front of me and many seconds later my character will do the action. Again, a good idea but it seems it was not implemented well at all. Also do not get me started on trying to avoid enemies, that never felt like that worked as intended either so you will find yourself fighting no matter what you try. Unlike the deckbuilding mechanics, I do not know what could be done to make these scenes less jank but in the end I just dealt with it.

    So with all the negativity so far, why does this game still get a Rave which is the second highest recommendation this blog can give. Well, the plain and simple part of it was I enjoyed myself. Whilst the story was not ground-breaking in any way, it still motivated me to play to the very end and complete it. It tells a simple tale of a rag bunch bunch of misfits finding the true hero inside each one of them and the game even pointedly at the end * spoiler alert * makes you fight your inner demons in one of the biggest example of bad difficulty spikes. The combat system whilst not the greatest as mentioned above is still competent enough that I kept playing and upgrading my deck and building strong strategies. Because this game is paced in terms of acts, I actually play one, sometimes two acts a day and I never got bored and near the end I even did multiple acts together because I knew I was getting closer to the end and wanted to see the credits roll and I am happy I did. I was happy to see the conclusion of the quest and see the outcomes for Orik, Galleo, The twins, Tarah & Thayne and Copernica. Anyone whom has played the game might noticed a notice absence from the roll call I just did and it is time to address my last big gripe about the game, its main character, Armilly.

    I am going to call myself out here, I really do not liked Armilly as the main character. I think it was a combination of most of her dialogue being obliviously day dreaming or generic hype manning (is that even a word lol), she seriously had no depth as a character and to top it off, her skill set was very underwhelming. When I learned early into the game I did not not have to always have her in my main squad I quickly changed her out and I never looked back. Also for the longest time I thought she was a male character because of the way she was designed but it turns out she is a female. I actually have no issue with a strong female lead character and even ones that don't look girl-ish, King from the King of Fighters/ Art of Fighting is one of my forever videogame crushes and I not threatened by Marvel's Captain Marvel in anyway for example but her design was just... weird. I think Armilly might be my least favorite main character of all time and sadly that also brings down my rating of this game. I actually started believing the mentor character (like Auron from Final Fantasy X) Orik was the main character and I stand by it and he had a much more exciting tool kit compared to Armilly's generic sword and fire attacks.

Who is this? The true main character? I believe so.

    SteamWorld Quest is also a pretty good looking game, nothing too fancy but it definitely keeps the SteamWorld steam punk aesthetic but tailors it towards fantasy as previous mentioned. It is cool to see a massive mecha dragon ( at least the first time we fought him... it became old after the third re-skin of them) and other classic fantasy archetypes re-imagined steam punk style and the music was suitably whimsical and suitable with the exception of an ending song during the credits that came out of nowhere that was actually really, really good. The controls were good enough tho as discussed earlier the weird lag during the side scrolling segments was a bit weird. I was however not a fan that the game was not fully optimized for mouse, having to use the keyboard to access a item/ healing menu which was also behind another click was not the business or to reload cards (which you frequently have to do). I feel both should have had an UI option on screen which you could have used the mouse to click on it but that is a minor gripe. A much more major gripe was the lack of tool tips aka what it does which are essential in deckbuilders. I played 20 hrs of the game and I can not tell you confidently what the skill 'Flinch' actually does. This could have been fixed with a simple glossary which I could not find in-game.

    Overall, SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech was a fun experience, it was not too long but also had enough meat on it that it felt worthwhile to play. The story was decent but most of the characters (with the exception of one) had storylines I wanted to see to the end and the gameplay whilst it had many flaws was addictive enough that I kept playing it. If anything, this game has made me want to revisit other SteamWorld games like Dig because what Image & Form does is so unique I want to see what else they have under their sleeves. Not every Quest is an epic one but some are just a good time and enjoyable journey and a good enjoyable time was had by me hence why SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech gets a Rave from me.

AV

    

PIT STOP: Changes & Celebrations

     Darkest Dungeon II is celebrating its second year anniversary with tons of merchandise (thinking of getting a Mountain shirt myself) and they dropped this infographic to celebrate it.

    I purposely blew it up as much as I could because small text and all but it is really cool to see how far the game has come. On a personal note, I started playing Darkest Dungeon II just before it's first anniversary and it is now my second most played Steam game of all time beating, ironically, the original Darkest Dungeon. I am currently in my break from it but when I get invested I get invested in it and it is nice to see they still have more future plans for it so I have a reason to come back.

    First is the third Kingdom module which will be Crimson Court themed and well that might be fun but also remembering how much the Crimson Court kicked everyone's butt in the original it might also be a real challenge. Also the upcoming Hero reworks are still planned and I hope we get some improvements for people like Runaway (a different flame build perhaps so she doesn't get completely negate in the fire zones), Duelist (just make her not as squishy is all I ask) and Leper (a way to move to the front faster or even let him move 2 spaces forward instead of the measly one) and for aesthetics, we are also finally getting the Hero origin skins which will be awesome. Nun Vestal and healthy Leper come to mind for sure.

    Their celebration post also asked what is the biggest highlight for us, the players in this second year and I have to say it really is the return of the Abomination. 'A-bomb' as I affectionately call him is a great addition, real fun to use and I enjoy how they created a real back-story for him and with his transformation, you technically get 2 characters in one.

    All of this, is stuff to remain excited about and since this blog has always focused on Darkest Dungeon (1 and 2) I feel we should get in on the celebration too.

    

This shirt tho.

        So with the Celebration out of the way, lets chat about the Changes coming to this blog. It is nothing big, I still aim to blog at least twice a month going forward even if its not a RANT or a RAVE. You regular readers might be getting more PIT STOPs (like this one) and just general blogs about whatever crosses my mind. Regular readers might also notice I have been slowly updating the side bar of this blog a lot as well. Of course we are keeping the UPDATES, which I basically call my twitter without having to actually use twitter (still not calling it X) however we have added to recent additions I want to draw attention too.

    First is R/R Quickies. This one is simple, R/R is of course an abbreviation of Rants & Raves and this lets me review things quick, sometimes even with a score. This will be update periodically so keep your eye on it. Quickies will also review things I enjoy but I do not have the time or energy to write a full blog about it so TV shows, movies and smaller games will get their shine there. I aim to refresh it at the end of each month. Quickies will also probably be accompanied by a UPDATE as well so I can give my 2 cents instead of just scoring it.

    The second thing is also a minor update to the side-bar where we will now be including the books I am reading as well and books will be signified with a * before it. For example right now I am finally reading Imajica by Clive Barker. This book has a story behind it but we will discuss that when the time comes but yes, books are now included on my 'Currently Reading/ Playing' side-bar.

    On that note, I am still playing both Grime and Steamworld Quest and enjoying both of them (early prediction; I think one is definitely going to be a RAVE and the other might be a Rave tho things can change and it can be updated to a all CAPS Rave).

AV

PIT STOP: I am conflicted about ER: Nightreign

    As the title implies, I am very conflicted about Elden Ring: Nightreign. Part of me loves the characters aka the Nightfarers. Each character appeals to me and out of the last 2, the Executor seems tailor made for me because they seem to be the samurai/ parry-based class. I also love how its just not new DLC but a completely different gameplay experience.

Oh when will we know more.

    This overview video also talks about different objectives that unlocks more lore/ cool stuff, being able to customize your Nightfarer and even throwbacks to previous armor sets from Dark Souls. All this sounds amazing and the cheaper price also lessens the blow compared to everyone charging $80 for new games now. However we have reached where I am anxious about it and conflicted as well.

    First, a lot of the feedback about this game has been mostly negative especially online. Be it the game reuses to many assets, that it is a battle-royale trying to cash in on the BR craze and even that it isn't that pretty and the graphics look outdated which is fair but the fans of From Software games do not play the game for graphics, we play it for the art design. Honestly non of the previous points affect me at all, no it is the almost forced team aspect of it.

    As a person who enjoyed playing FromSoft games on their own with next to know help from real players, this aspect of the game is what gives me the most pause into picking it up. Sure, I have heard you can play solo but the game is not designed for that and I believe it might be like a Remnant 2 situation again where playing solo is to your detriment. I have a couple friends who like FS games but a dedicated group to play with does not sound viable so I will be forced to team up with randoms which I really do not want to do.

    If Nightreign was a dedicated solo game with optional co-op this would be on my day 1 list of games I would love to play. I like rogue-lite games, I like FromSoft formula and so much of it appeals to me but deep down I have a feeling I will be let down because I can not play the game how I like and combine this with a general 'meh-ness' from the general public this might be a miss for FromSoft which is a real shame. Hopefully I am wrong and I'll post a blog later this month when it gets released that I love it and it is do-able solo but still I am conflicted in a way I have never been about a FS game.

AV