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So I guess Steam denied this game...?!
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

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Haven't been able to play for a few days because of work and stuff, but after today I've got a three-day weekend and I look forward to digging back into this. Even now, the music is stuck in my head. I guess I'll be one of the relatively few to play through the original after this remake. Thing is, while the original clearly has better music I am a pretty big fan of how this newer one looks. This game is definitely giving me that feeling — that magical feeling you get from the best of videogames.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

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Agreeing w/ DAIS itt. I can see how a handful of really silly puzzles or hidden doors or things like that might seem like they undermine some of the more thoughtful archaeology, but I agree that it helps to keep in mind these obstacles are there to evoke a particular oldschool videogame aesthetic. I guess some are going to appreciate this and some aren't, but I don't see it as something that should keep anyone from playing and enjoying the game overall. There is a lot you can do without any sort of guidance. Most of it, if not all of it. Yeah, there are some pretty obscure secrets and puzzles, but I think that if you're relentlessly searching every detail of every room you can probably even do it entirely without outside help. I mean, somebody had to at some point. And yeah, the whole community participation aspect this game encourages is definitely where it's most similar to Dark Souls and such (Tower of Druaga, obviously). I'm pretty into that.

Bennett's idea that the game could become more G'n'G-ish as you progress is interesting, but that sort of very deliberate action and platforming is present from the start and, I mean, I dunno, I wouldn't expect this perilous place to suddenly welcome you as you approach the heart of it all. If anything it makes more sense that you're going to encounter the meanest puzzles later in the game. The bottom line is the game is just really fun to play, its challenges actually are interesting most of the time, and it looks and sounds wonderful.

(I do wish I could play Fez, too.)
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

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I couldn't help but notice the Michael Jackson glyph in the Moonlight Moonwalker Temple. It changes poses every time you return to the screen.

Still playing this, making my way through the Confusion Gate (aka Gate of Illusion, but I like the old name better). NIGORO have talked about how they view 2D games not as a "retro" thing, but as a once-forgotten form of expression differening from 3D games that had made a bit of a comeback in recent years, showing that the demise of this style was premature and there are still things to be done with 2D games. Even though they started out with a reinterpretation of a classic MSX game, with the remake I feel like I can buy that. That they also chose to make and then totally revamp this game that so clearly celebrates classic 2D games and have it be all about archaeology and forgotten legends is pretty interesting as a tidy little thematic package. It begs the question: what will they do next?

This image is probably one of my favorite screens in the game so far. Evokes a feeling reminiscent of everything from Castlevania and Super Mario Bros. 3 (there's even one of those bone-chucking skeletons that collapses and reanimates) to the Tower of Latria in Demon's Souls. I am really digging this game more and more as I keep playing.


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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

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There's a pretty cool Borges reference in the Tower of the Goddess, where beings called the A Bao A Qu pursue you up spiraling staircases and whose translucent bodies are revealed only once you've reached the top and found the Eye of Truth.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

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Don't be afraid of resorting to youtube LPs or FAQs or whatever if you find yourself stumped. Just playing it is pure goodness.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

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Man, I would like to know what the fuck Valve's deal is, but I might grab grabbed this new release anyway. Good on GoG.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam