Rave: Remnant 2

PREFACE: Opening Salvo.

After two previous blogs about Remnant 2 (which I recommend you checking out since you are also reading this one) we have arrived at our 'review'. For people that is new to RANTS & RAVES, the way I review a game is after I complete it, I normally give it one out of 3 potential rankings. Not arbitrary numbers like 9 or 7.5 out of 10. No, I normally rank it if it is worth your time and if you are interested in this game, will you enjoy it. On that note, things can be either RANT; something I did not enjoy and if anything I am annoyed I invested time in it, OKAY;  as the name implies, it is good but at the same time there are some clear faults and flaws in it that takes away from the overall experience and the top ranking, RAVE. As you can see from the title of this blog, Remnant 2 gets a RAVE but at the same time, its not a high RAVE like some previous games we have played and reviewed. Remnant 2 gets a Rave hence the lowercase. Whilst I enjoyed the game and I am still enjoying it, it only met my expectations and it did not go beyond it. It is a shame because this was arguably my most anticipated game of this year and now I can say it was just good.

STORYTIME: Getting to the Root

Remnant 2 is the sequel to Gunfire Games sleeper hit Remnant: From the Ashes. It is a direct continuation of it in that it shares a lot of the same characters, same worlds and a lot of the same mechanics that made the first game so fun. I've previously discussed my history with the franchise so I will not go into it too much but the main point is I loved the first game. I enjoyed playing it co-op with good friends and I enjoyed playing it solo as well. It had tons of elements that appealed to me. I love Souls-likes, this was described as Dark Souls with Guns, I like post apocalyptic world settings, this had that in spades. I like fantasy elements but at the same time I like science fiction and some how this game was able to combine both. It was melding pot of everything I was looking for and every session I played either solo or co-op was a great time. I used to stream and I streamed it consistently for at least 10 or more long sessions. I still have the archives. It was a great time so when Remnant 2 was announced I was 100% down for it. A lot of this is already explored in my first blog 'Fire on High' about the game. Also as mentioned in those initial impressions, the first couple days with the game was rough to say it lightly.

Even through the game was 'Steam Deck Verified' (a rating that has since been removed due to the game not performing well with the default SD graphic card), starting out I had a rough time. The initial cinematic that used in game graphics was very blurry and areas lacked smaller details. The frame rate was very choppy and during the first boss fight I was surprised it did not crash. Worst was a nasty glitch which seemed to affect the default configuration buttons which caused me to not have a healing button. My character would heal once and then every subsequent heal I would have a melee attack instead. It was frustrating and also time consuming and as I looked for a solution to fix it, I fixed the graphic config where the compromise is good enough that it doesn't look amazing but it looks good enough and the frame rate is capped at 30 (which while not ideal is still playable despite what some folks say). Despite all this I am not giving it a low Rave because of that. I am the one trying to play a next generation game, Unreal Engine 5 powered game on a Steam Deck after all and I know despite its strengths it is nowhere near as capable as a top of the line PC or a PS5. First impressions do last through and it did sour my initial experience with the game especially since I paid full price for it which is something I normally do not do unless I really want the game day one and I was told it was 'verified' by Valve and Gunfire themselves so I did not expect all these issues.

However enough about my own personal storyline, the story of Remnant 2 (warning possible spoilers) picks up many years after the original. The world has moved on and characters have grown up before our eyes. One of the most important characters is Clementine, the star of a previous Remnant DLC 'Subject 2923'. She saves us and our companion Cassandra early in the game and brings us to Ward 13, her home. There we meet a lot of familiar faces from the first Remnant. Riggs; the armorer. McCabe; the mod expert, Reggie the merchant and many others. We even have some new faces and each person plays their role. Ward 13 has gone from a small hub to a full on environment of its own. It has secrets and multiple NPCs you can chat with. Some of these NPCs have even grown up in between games (despite some characters not aging at all, kind of weird but go along with it). We also meet Commander Ford again (from the original Remnant) and it is him that sets us off on our real journey, as we re-discover the World Stone; a device that allows us to travel between worlds, some crazy stuff ensues and before we know it, we are at the center of all the conflict and the main enemy from the first game, The Root has only got stronger and needs to be finished for good.

The story of the Remnant series (including its prequel game Chronos: Before the Ashes) has always been a well written, well planned arc. There are some good lore videos on Youtube which I highly recommend checking out if its your jam. It uses some Dark Souls story telling elements too by hiding some deeper lore in the item descriptions flavor text and it pieces together a good yarn. In regards to that, I have nothing but praise for it. The NPCs in this game all have detailed stories too and each main world has a long detailed quest for you to accomplish before you can proceed in the game. When ether it be killing a elf king or the protector of a world whom has gone mad, each character has stories (not just a story) to tell and it deepens the experience. The story is not why most people play Remnant through, it is the gameplay that is it's real draw.

GAME FEEL: So Anyway... I Started Blasting.

A lot of this 'review' will be focus in this area so grab some snacks. Remnant 2 embodies the old idiom 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Everything that worked in the original Remnant is back, the dodge rolls, the shooting and feedback, the healing mechanic but they also kept some of the problems like melee attacks (where you can not lock on for some reason but when shooting you can, go figure) and some infuriating lag especially when trying to aim after a roll. They also kept the main appeal of the previous one. Exploring procedural generate worlds? yep. Different playthrough with different paths to explore and different enemies including bosses along the way? yep. Tons and tons of loot? Hell yeah. Puzzles with complex solutions and cool rewards at the end? Even better in this one. Not resting on their laurels, they changed some things though, mostly for the better. Remnant 2 has now classes and tons of them. They called it Archetypes and each one of them have their own unique benefits and customizable skills. There are even some hidden ones, one particularly one requiring you to 'see the Matrix' pun intended. These are great and really play into making your character you want to be, rings and amulets return and their are the extra pieces you need to really finish out your build. Later on, you can even combine two Archetypes and get a really strong character and the combinations are endless.  Armor set bonuses are no longer a big factor so you can mix and match sets like in most Souls games and not be afraid you'll lose some special bonus. Relics aka your healing item has been changed and now the game has multiple types of relics which you can use based on your build. You want faster healing but at the cost of less relic charges? The Enlarged heart is your friend. You want your relic to fuel your mods (special functions attached to your guns) instead of healing you? They have one for that as well. They also have added special add-ons for the relics called 'Relic Fragments' which work hand in hand with your relic to give you more ammo drops, less spread on your weapon, more health etc etc. The relics are not the only thing you can upgrade too with all weapons either having a built in mod or a custom mod you can put on it yourself and you upgrade it level by level to make it better. On top of that (I know its getting a lot but it make sense when you are in the game) each weapon has a 'mutator' slot which can be upgraded too and those give you extra perks like faster reload time, does more critical damage and other things as well. When it comes to instruments of destruction, you will have a big tool box however we now reach an big issue I have with it. The games upgrade economy.

Remnant 2 unfortunately has a real bottle neck way of making you focus on only certain things. This extends beyond the weapons too but we will come back to that later. I recall reading early on that the games upgrade materials at the very end is very stingy and that currency you need to upgrade them with ,which is called scrap also becomes a lot more scarce later on if you are not actively farming. Out of the 3 main weapons, I currently have a fully upgraded long gun, hand gun and melee weapon and that seems to be the best I can do in this playthrough. Even using the game's built in system to re-roll worlds to get different experiences and fight different bosses, I am not able to branch out and try different weapons or try new builds without feeling woefully underpowered. My current situation right now with 111 + hrs into the game is try my new build and weapons, get slaughtered in every new area but eventually get to the mini-boss (not even a main one) and barely touch them, after a couple frustrating tries, switch back to what had carried my whole game and go on my way. All this business of trying new approaches are gone because the game has now over-leveled everything to my weapon level and because I need to max them out to play the game, non fully levelled weapons don't stand a chance.  In a way, even though the game encourages you to keep going after you beat the final boss I feel it honestly pushes you into a new game if you want to try a new build/ weapons. Having under-levelled stuff will be to your determent. With the games limiting upgrade economy you are left with a very few fully leveled weapons and tons of cool alternative sitting in your menus like a museum of sorts. Its rather sad.

As previously mentioned, this bottle neck approach is carried over and one of the worst changes from the original Remnant, the games level up system, which is called traits. Traits are limited to 65 in any run. Remnant: From the Ashes had unlimited traits but Remnant 2 with infinite re-rolling system, multiple bosses and expansive areas only gives you 65 to work with. On top of that, these trait points must be found in world or by killing bosses and the game no longer levels you traits independently. Trait books used to be a new way of boosting your character in Remnant whilst in Remnant 2 it has becomes a necessity to find them if you want to really max out your character. This walk back from a previous, well received system is surprising and a lot of issues with this game are about how limited trait points are and how again we can see all these cool things that we can have but only in the menus. Sure unlike weapons, you can reassign the traits points at anytime with a now unlimited use Orb of Undoing (which previously costed your scrap and was changed in a Quality of Life update) but no matter what, your options now has walls and it is beginning to fill more like a closed garden then a wild wood. All this in a game with no PvP element. Remnant 2 is purely Player vs Environment/ Enemy aka PvE so why should anyone care if we break the system with overpowered builds? Its not like the world boss Sha'Hala is going to get upset and rage quit on us. We should be allowed to play how we like and unfortunately the game designers do not see it that way. They sound very adamant about the trait cap so I guess we should get used to restricted play styles.

Now I know, this can all be resolved with starting a brand new game and rebuilding but after a 111 + hr investment in my case, the prospect of having to go through all the growing pains of another playthrough where I am back to square one with under levelled weapons and traits all over again is not entirely appealing. I rather continue the run I currently have with all the cool stuff I have collected. However the restrictive upgrade economy (have I mentioned your healing relics are tied to your final upgrade material for your weapon? So you have to choose to either have more relics or maxed out weapons?) means in the end, a new game might be the only answer if you want to explore more builds and weapon ideas. You need good weapons too because the game becomes unforgiving in ways that are kind of strange and not player friendly at all. Buckle in, its time we talk about the bosses of Remnant 2.

BOSS DESIGN: Don't you know that Imma Boss? - NCT127 !MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!

Now I know certain folks do not like discussions about bosses in video games and some people even consider it spoilers to talk too much about them but there is a spoiler warning above as clear as day so now we are going to talk about them.

Boss encounters are a hallmark of a good Souls-like. After surviving an area, exploring every nook and cranny, you discover a hopefully big wide area or sometimes a 'fog wall'. Sometimes, not all the times there is save point near-by as well. Now if you played a good share of Souls game or Soul-likes you know what is about to go down. One of my good friends and fellow Remnant: From the Ashes enjoyer Blythe lives for boss battles. Heck, he will sometimes ignore everything even on a initial playthrough just to get the boss so he can fight them. He know it, we all know it, a good boss battle gets the blood pumping and really helps with your enjoyment of the game. I can talk about my epic boss battles with Lady Maria in Bloodborne, or the Delver in The Surge 2 or even big spoiler for Souls-like Thymesia, fighting myself. Boss battles really need to deliver if a Souls-like wants to succeed with fans.

It is on that sad note, that I relay, for me, personally, 80% of the boss battles are annoying in Remnant 2, 10% are just not memorable and a whooping 10% of them are actually fun. It is a rather sad ratio but for me, most boss battles really feel short of the mark of being a good time. To not over-state my case I will explore 1 horrible boss, 1 decent boss, almost good boss and 1 very very bad boss.

The horrible boss is called Primogenitor. This bosses mechanic is simple, its a little parasite that hides inside bigger bodies which you need to kill to expose it. After that they attack you directly (very badly) and after a very short flurry of confusion, it will run away and than comeback in another big body and the pattern resumes. The problem with this boss is compounded by the fact it is a bullet sponge and takes a lot of damage before it exposes itself and when it is exposed your time to hit it is very limited. It is also very small making hard to hit and all the while it is creating more ads (aka enemy goons) that accost you and then you add random explosions its throwing at you and much later you have multiple flying goons so it becomes a balancing act of finding the boss in which of 3 big bodies it can be hiding in, avoid the goons, explosions and a arena with a lot of random climbing in and out of pit falls. It is a miserable experience and under-levelled it took me a long time to kill and the whole time I hated every moment of it. Unfortunately, the goon gank squads, the micro-managing of tons of elements like explosions and terrain and almost crazy damage a boss does is par for course for most of the bosses in this game. The goons have an unlimited spawn count too, so you can never take them all out and make it where it is just you and boss. No the game wants you to deal with all this. Now, in a co-op environment, this might be fun especially in a well put together team where everyone knows their roles but for a solo player which what I am and have been for 95% of my playthrough, it was not fun. It is simply not designed for a solo person to handle and not everyone likes playing co-op games. 95% of my Souls experience was solo and I like it that way. This game is marketed at solo and co-op players but I feel when it comes to bosses, it definitely skewered towards co-op only.

The decent, almost good boss is the Ravager. This boss is a call-back to Remnant and storyline wise it even makes sense why you find him like this. He is a challenging boss but has clear tells before big attacks, a cheap move where he tried to suck you into a vortex which can be avoided and limited (but still annoying) ad spam. His arena is large with clear places and pillars you can hid behind and catch a breath before he slowly takes them away as gets closer to the end and gets more desperate. Add that this boss has amazing replay-ability with 4 different options with different loot for each option when you encounter him which also affects your storyline going forward too. If we had more bosses designed like him, the bosses in this game would not be such a low-light to me.

Our final case study is the actual final boss and this boss is really, really bad. The arena is restrictive in the strangest ways where you can get hung up on terrain, now the first phase can be challenging but thanks to some tells, you can eventually get used to the timing and get some good hits in. However it was when he switches to phase 2 when the game throws all it can at you, too and things just get messy. The whole game becomes a washed in red and gets all 4th wall breaking because the game goes between a digital world and the 'real world'. The boss now has full screen filling attacks, there are hostile obstacles on the ground and there is a new danger of rolling out of the boss arena and insta-dying. The boss continues to be able to absorb everything you throw at it and you are always one or two hits away from being killed. Finally, as an extra insult, when you think it becomes a 'oh shit' moment and the boss goes into phase 3, it becomes a very lame, easily beatable 'siege' moment which could have just been summed up in a cut scene. Fight Sister Friede in Dark Souls 3... that is how you do a third phase properly. As the final boss in the game (so far) it does not leave the best impression and it kind of reminds me of another Souls-like Mortal Shell where the last boss was arguably the worst boss in the game and I dreaded doing a final run to the boss. I dread doing multiple playthrough of this game due to this boss too.

What should be the one of the stand-out aspects of the game stands out in a different way and unfortunately it goes back to what I previously said where the game feels definitely co-op focused which is a shame because we have arrived at another big problem. For a game who obviously want you to work together it has no built in chat function. You have to use a third party like Discord if you really want to have voice chat with friends or be stuck with the limited built-in pinging and emote system. It is a rather weird choice and definitely something I hope the developers address at a later time.

My Endgame build.

THE FUTURE: The Best is Yet to Come?

Speaking of the developers, Gunfire Games so far has a shown they are fully invested with making Remnant 2 the best game it can be. Remnant 2 unlike Remnant: From the Ashes is a certified hit with lots of critical and commercial success. They even recently celebrated 1 million copies sold which is amazing and congratulations to them. The studio also definitely has an ambitious plan going forward with 3 promised DLCs (as mentioned in the Ultimate versions) and maybe even more after that. Hopefully it can help them address some of the quirks I have with it and it can become a RAVE (all caps). Just a couple quick pieces of feedback from me would be taking the 'accessibility' trait which governs overall movement (climbing ladders, vaulting and running) and just making it a built in benefit that levels up as you play the game, that alone will put points back in limited trait pool. Speaking of, I am not part of the group whom says we need unlimited traits but maybe at least above 65 so we can do more different builds. Adding to that, keep adjusting the upgrade economy (which they have done before so we know it is possible) so we can use more weapons and have multiple choices instead of locking us into some maxed out weapons and some mid maxed ones. This would open up this previously mentioned museum and let you experience multiple builds and weapons without always having to start a new game. 

Now you might think after reading all of this I do not like the game and I do. My future with this game is not grim. I enjoy playing it and I will eventually play more co-op and maybe that'll change my feelings about it more about it. This will not be my last blog on Remnant 2 and I'll probably enjoy doing Archetype reviews like I did with Risk of Rain 2 content. This game might reach the point where it becomes an obsession like my previous RAVEs like Risk of Rain 2, Darkest Dungeon or Deadbolt and I am actually very close to getting 100% on all the achievements too so I got that to aim for as well. I want to try out the harder difficulties too and getting the cool unlocks that come with that so this game has legs. I just wished I was not so restricted with how far I can run.

CONCLUSION: In The End

So with all my gripes, you would think this was a negative review and in all honesty it is not. I have a couple reservations and issues with the game but overall I like it. The action is amazing and when you are in the heat on the moment and your hitting your critical hits and rolling right before a big blow will smash you and come out of unscathed, the game feel is intoxicating. The well thought out puzzles that are better than your average action games, Remnant's puzzles involved using the brain and your environment (and a slight knowledge of music theory in some areas). Even on a Steam Deck the game looks great and I can tell they put a lot of love into each environment. From the now Root infested jungles of Yaesha to the pulled out of Aliens/ The Matrix N'Erud, each biome is filled with sights and wonders. The sound design is top notch again too, maintaining the fine line between the sound effects of a real life Chicago Typewriter to the more out there weapons you can find that channels the powers of the stars. The voice acting cast is top notch and whilst your avatar does talk a bit too much sometimes and at weird times, even that had been toned back recently following feedback. And therein lies my hope for the future, Gunfire has shown that they are listening to feedback and making adjustments accordingly so we might get to a point where the game's open sandbox will truly be open.

For now, this game gets a Rave and a recommendation especially if you liked the first game and especially if you have so co-op partners to support you. Me, for one, will keep playing too. Even with more than 111 hrs I have still not fought ever boss or explored every area, which is amazing and I'll provide updates as they happen. The Root won't stop and neither shall I.

AV

OKAY: Ghost Song

 So since the conception of Rants & Raves; we have always had one or the other. However as I was playing and even after I completed 'Ghost Song' I came to the conclusion it could not be one or the other. I liked it but there was definitely elements of it I did not, so for the first time, instead of a RANT or a RAVE we have a brand new category. So without further ado, lets talk about our first OKAY, 'Ghost Song'

'Ghost Song' is a metriodvania developed by Old Moon and published by Humble Games in 2022. One of 'Ghost Song' greatest accomplishments is that it is a very polished game for such a small studio. It was a kickstarter darling back in 2013 and it has been a long road but the game was released on Steam and multiple consoles including Xbox Game Pass (on PC) which is how I played it. This game caught my attention when Youtuber 'Skill Up' highlighted it during one of his indie showcases which he calls 'Put this on your Radar' and when I saw it was on Xbox Game Pass (XGP) I decided to give it a go. 'Ghost Song' is one of the first games I really used my XGP subscription to play and also the first game I finished.

Now story-time. I kind of have a strange relationship with Metroidvanias. The two games that inspired it I have not really played at all. I have never played a Metroid game, not even one. It began because I picked Sega consoles as my main console growing up so I've never owned any Nintendo consoles. Heck, I still don't own any Nintendo consoles to this day. So there is a whole bunch of games I never played which were exclusive to Nintendo consoles which includes the Zelda's, the Starfox's, the Smash Bro's and the Metroid's. However, being a gamer I still know of Metroid's influences on gaming in general and I know how most Metroid games work, especially the older ones.

The other game; I can be honest I've played and it kind of got lost in the shuffle of other games I was playing and I've never gotten back to playing it, that being the seminal Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I believe I did not mind it tho it didn't enthrall me like it did so many others. Half of me wants to go back and play it again and the other half is okay letting it languish in my PS4 backlog. So it is funny that I've kind of played Metroid-vanias but I've never actually 'played' Metroid or Castlevania, the inspirations for the genre.

On top of that, one of the most popular and lauded as one of the best Metroidvanias is 'Hollow Knight' and again I've played it but it did not connect with me either and after a couple nights playing it and streaming it, I found other games to play. So it is weird that the only real Metroid-vanias I've played and really enjoyed was 'Blasphemous' and I can honestly say, I LOVE 'Blasphemous'. If I was doing RANTS & RAVES back when I was playing 'Blasphemous' it would have got a long, detailed and gushing RAVE (much like my Risk of Rain 2 one) and of course I am eagerly awaiting it's upcoming sequel. The other Metroidvania I can say I whole hearted fell in love with was  Xbox Live indie game called 'Shadow Complex' and I can honestly recommend both of these games in a heart-beat. So whilst I enjoy some games of the genre, I do not always gravitate towards the genre.

So back to 'Ghost Song', it is strange that out of all the metroidvanias I have gravitated towards, this is the first one I've played, completed and even did some achievement hunting in. However as mentioned previously, I do have to say,  that whilst I like 'Ghost Song' I can't actually say I loved it. I enjoyed 'Ghost Song' but I honestly seeing myself deleting it off my hard-drive soon so I can have more space instead of holding onto to it like games I really like. It is a good game but due to some faults with it, I can't give it a RAVE but I still think OKAY fits it.

  One of the best elements and one of the main reasons I kept playing 'Ghost Song' was its story so let's start there. You play 'Deadsuit' a mysterious amnesiac girl in a powerful exosuit. She finds herself lost at the beginning after finding herself crash landed on a mysterious planet called 'Lorian' Along the way you meet a host of people and make friends especially with another group of crash survivors. These survivors need you to find parts for their sentient spaceship so they can escape the planet and you being the only person outfitted to survive the planet take it upon yourself to help them. 'Deadsuit' and a big portion of the NPCs are also voiced which is surprising for a small indie title and they really give their all. The voice acting is very commendable and again it made the story that much more compelling. Also a very nice touch is the main creator mentioned he was inspired by Dark Souls and made it that each NPC had their own side quests and the more missions you complete for them the more you are rewarded and their stories continue to their logical endings. This is great for their lore and actually drives you to keep helping them. With the game's true ending, which I will not spoil, I really felt it took me on a journey and it was a memorable one. The story is definitely one of the best things about 'Ghost Song' and as I said, by the end I was invested and I wanted to see it to its conclusion.

Visually, for an indie game, it stands out. It uses colors wisely, characters are animated nicely, enemies are a mixture of frightful and also some are kind of cute. Areas are distinctive but at the same time it is able to merge areas into each other and still feel like its part of one world, much like the original Dark Souls. Deadsuit has a distinctive look clearly inspired by the Metroid games but has a charm of her own as well, be it in the way she is animated to always seem deep in thought and almost hurting inside but at the same time driven and determined to accomplish her tasks. As far as avatars go, I related to her and I wanted to help her achieve said goals. Again, I love the look of this game and as a fan of science fiction I enjoyed this more lofi aesthetic. The spaceships look grand but rusted, suits look worn and weathered and the world looks like it has moved on but remnants of a higher society remained. 'Ghost Song' has been described as a melancholic experience, one of self discovery and finding ones place in the world and the visuals nail it.

Another area where it does it so well is its subtle but haunting (pun intended) soundtrack. The composer of the album Grant Graham (funny how I now have 2 indie music producers I've enjoyed with first and last names that start with the same letter; the Chris Christodoulou blog is coming next! I promise) provide the perfect soundboard for this experience. From the opening intro to the softer introspective moments when traversing to the driving beats when you face off against a boss, each song really draws you into this dark, mysterious, tragic world filled with brief moments of light and laughter. Some of the sound effects can get a bit grating but nothing horrible with the exception of you used your 'sprint' too much sound which needs a better sound then a squeaky door. Unlike my last indie review for 'Indies' Lies', I had the soundtrack playing at full volume every playthrough and it still sticks with me to this day. Audio and visually, 'Ghost Song' is a RAVE.

However, it is not a RAVE and now I will begin to explain why it is not. 'Ghost Song' game mechanics are solid. Like all metroidvanias you character starts weak and as you explore you find places you can't access yet. Places you need air dashes for, or double jumps or the ability to stick to walls. 'Ghost Song' does this competently and like many games like this, they are some simple restrictions they put on you based on your level. So the more levelled you are, the most 'perks' you can have equipped and some of the most important perks are permanently added to your suit which is the way it should be.

Combat is also unique and in its own way a nice little micro-game. You have 3 main ways of surviving the harsh word of Lorian, you have your long distance gun, your special gun and your up close melee weapon. You can aim your gun to shoot certain parts and whilst its cool feature for precision aiming, it is anything but, it feels un-natural and a bit loose and wonky. I rarely relied on that. The game had a ton of variety of special guns too but sadly I only found myself relying on 2 to 3 gun types (out of multiple choices) because some of the extra gun add-ons felt like fluff. Also to equip multiple gun types, it'll draw away from your suit's power core which even when you are highly levelled is a limited resource and you are better investing it in the above perks I mentioned above. The melee weapons you can only have one at a time (which is a strange restriction) even tho again you were given multiple choices and those work in different ways too. Do you run with the heavy sledgehammer or the discus of death that you throw and it comes back at you like a boomerang. Do you rely on your big robot fist add-on and go all in or play it safe and jab them with a spear from a distance. This variety is also enhanced by one of 'Ghost Song' main innovations which is what I like to call 'Heat'. Using your gun causes it to heat up and your shots get slowly get less effective and drops off faster but if you switch to your melee weapon whilst your gun is overheating, your melee weapon will do much more damage because the heat has been transferred to it. This little back and forth brought some innovation to just shoot or slash, its a nice mechanic I appreciate to make the combat its own thing however sadly on the other side when it comes to getting attacked I feel the game really falls apart and it shows it flaws.

'Ghost Song' is a hard game but not in its like Dark Souls hard (which it was clearly inspired by). In Dark Souls, enemies have tells and very obvious ques when they will attack and give you adequate time to defend or to roll out of the way. If you get squashed, 90% of the time it is user error. 'Ghost Song' enemies have ques and tells too but here is the issue, you can't block in this game, there is no parry so your only really course of action is to use a 'slide' through as your dodge or jump and air dash out of the way. Both of these abilities have invulnerability but the window is so small it is barely noticeable. Early on, I found a perk for my suit that gave me more invulnerability for my slide and even then it was not enough and I felt myself still getting hit by multiple things and this cost me my power core to equip. I never un-equipped this perk because I could not see myself playing and enjoying myself with the provided slide.

This slide that never did want it was supposed to do lead to many cheap deaths and respawns at far away respawn places especially when it came to bosses (whom some are the cheapest of the cheap). Speaking of, quick aside, spawn places that a very, very far away from the boss arena are a thing of the past and should stay the past. From Software, the innovators of super long salty runback have even recognize that and both Elden Ring and Sekiro (their most recent games) now have you spawn almost directly outside the boss arena and that is the way it should be. When it takes up to of 4-5 mins to get back to a boss whom can kill you in 5-10 seconds, that is not fun game design. This was all compounded when I hit my first wall in this game, of the first most important parts was being guarded by a very aggressive boss who attacks constantly pegged me whilst I sliding through their attacks and sometimes one or two shoot me and then caused me to spend 5 + minutes to get back to do it all over again. This boss and another boss whom I'll go more into detail later are half of the reason why 'Ghost Song' gets an OKAY because fighting them was not fun at all. Normally a highlight in games are boss encounters, another thing Dark Souls has mastered but 'Ghost Song' every boss felt like they were over-tuned and most importantly made out of adamantium.

One particular boss, his name is etched in my memory was 'Elsom the Ogre' this particularly badly design 'boss' had you fighting in sludge which restricted your movement. spawned unlimited minions who all do big damage or slow you down if you touch them, they also put you a very small room and he used a weapon with a hit box the size of Texas. To top it all off the bullet sponge nature of this boss caused him to absorb hits that would have killed multiple enemies and he could kill you with 2-3 hits even with a maxed out life bar. He was a exercise in frustration and I ended up beating him by just face-tanking all his damage and going with a super OP weapon that was permanently overheated. No strategy, no well timed oh and ahs dodges/ slides and when I killed him I was not even that elated. I was just happy I never had to do that again. However this bosses ability to absorb obscene amount of damage is passed onto every enemy honestly. Every enemy felt they took 2 or 3 more hits to kill then it was supposed to and this was even after I had sufficiently over-levelled 'Deadsuit'. This confusing game design of making you as fragile as snowflake and all your enemies icebergs in the Antarctic is why I can't wholly recommend 'Ghost Song' to most people because I like dying in video games, its part of my slogan but even I was a bit over it after awhile. I see from a lot of other reviews from fellow gamers say that the bullet sponge enemies really are a problem with this game.

The bad game design unfortunately continues post lack luster boss battles too. Once you defeated bosses you normally get one of the parts you need to fix the getaway spaceship however the game decide that once you have one of these 5 parts, it will artificially inflate the game time for you by disabling the fast travel option so you need to make your way all the way back to the crash site camp and sometimes the part was found 20-30 mins away from your final destination. Along the way it'll purposely throw some of the most annoying regular enemies at you too and they come in droves. Die on the way back and most of the time you will because you exhausted all your healing items on overpowered bosses and well you better hope you were close to one of the rather sparse save spots. Doing this runback/ drop off once or twice might have been a change in your game plan and made you go, this is a challenge but making you do it 5 times was just un-necessary and a slight against the player and disrespect of their time. It truly felt like a way to make the game longer and it has been used before in other indie games, Mortal Shell comes to mind but in Mortal Shell, the runback was shorter, you had to do less of them (3 to be exact) and the challenge wasn't as hard because unlike 'Ghost Song' you could actually dodge things and not die. Yes, in hindsight, this oversight and design choice and some of the other things I will mention really took 'Ghost Song' from a RAVE to just OKAY.

More contributing factors were certain side quests did not have decent pay-offs for the time invested in them (going back to Elsom, killing him did not even give you an important part but just a perk for your suit WTF), some of the achievements seem half-baked and un-inspired and 'Deadsuit's overall clunk-ness when you were traversing really drags the game down. In Metroidvanias you need to nimble and be able to make and time perfect jumps and cross ledges and 'Deadsuit' would sometimes be aiming and jumping in the wrong direction and certain jumping challenges were very frustrating when that happened. The first 2 are kind of nit-picky I won't lie but the last one is very important to the feel of the game and it just made you feel clunky and took away from your enjoyment.

In conclusion; I enjoyed 'Ghost Song', the fact I played it for free thanks to XGP definitely contributed to me giving it a chance and playing it for as long as I did. Its atmosphere, the music and the narrative are all top notch and the fact it was made by such a small team is commendable. You could tell this was truly a passion project and the fact it took so long to come out showed they took their time with it. However it gets so many of the fundamentals of a good game in this genre in this game wrong. No matter how strong you make your character, you still die to small hits and the enemies on the other hand are overpowered. It would be cool if despite being weak you could still avoid said life stealing attacks but the game is clunky and un-responsive to the point you need to un-matural reflexes, spent a lot of time playing it or just plain luck on your side. Half of the fun in a metroidvania is growing stronger and traversing to new places and even the traversing feels restricted and you truly do not feel like you are in control of your character. If you could play it for free like I did, I would say definitely give it a go especially if you enjoyed these type of games but for a lot of people I'll say, definitely do your research before investing in it. I even recommend playing the game at a 'easier' setting so the enemies might not be as tanky. I picked the default difficulty and I won't lie, 3/4 through my playthrough I wish I did not. 'Ghost Song' is a haunting, beautiful sober journey and it wears it inspirations proudly and at its core it is a good game but not all will enjoy it and honestly even through I finished it and enjoyed myself, it was just OKAY to me.

AV

Mini-Update: More Risk of Rain 2 and Roguelite blog

 Keeping up the my unspoken commitment to myself to blog at least once a week.

I've dived even deeper into Risk of Rain 2 (RoR 2) and now I've gotten even more invested. I'm taking on all the hardest trials, unlocking alternative movesets by completing some individual tasks and even playing the game on its hardest difficulty and looked what I got.

Yep! I've beaten the game on Monsoon (the hardest difficulty) and unlocked the alternative skin for Captain. Mind you, I did not 'beat' the game per se, I obliterated myself at the Obelisk but that counts as a 'Mastery' and a skin unlock. The Captain is now my favorite survivor but I really relate back to Skill Up's RoR 2 review where he said ever character he tried out later on became their favorite once they got the hang of them. Speaking of, tonight I also beat the game for the first time (on drizzle of course) with the Artificer and I must admit I enjoyed using her too. 

I am aiming to give every character a legit try so I have many more playthroughs and tons of extra challenges left. The Loader looks particularly fun to use and the Bandit interests me as well. Also Acrid has been described and playing as the poison Hulk so I know that'll be fun too.

On that note, a much longer RAVE is coming probably be the end of this week, beginning of next where we discuss my new found love for the Roguelike/ Rougelite genre. I've played a couple now and I think I figured which ones I enjoy and which ones I did not.

Also speaking of Roguelike and also Risk of Rain 2 because of my heavy investment in RoR 2 I am now very interested in Hopoo's upcoming Risk of Rain Returns which is a complete remake of their first Risk of Rain with tons of improvements. I might even get into streaming some of my early runs and really get involved in the RoR community.