[Felix]

I wasn't planning on it, but I think all the enthusiasm has gotten to me. Probably buying later on today. Do they basically just give you a non-drm'ed exe, or what?

[Felix]

I've played the remake (never played the original) about three times now for about an hour each and I still can't figure out how to make any progress at all. I'm pretty impressed, but not with myself.

[Felix]

so I'm finally making headway in this thanks to some long flights. I had to look up how to get the darn grail because I was totally confused and dispirited, but I've been kicking it ever since! two guardians down, and I have the bronze mirror.

I think it's a little too hard to refill your health once your max is >128 and you make the mistake of saving with <20 left. I guess I shouldn't be saving with that little health, but still.

[Felix]

christ. are you kidding?

I remember NPCs talking about a hot spring when I first started but I never found it and must've forgotten.

well, that makes a big difference. I guess this is somewhere between the translator software and the holy grail in terms of missable stuff that you really really ought to get a handle on within the first 30 minutes. oh well. onward!

I think I sort of like the axe better than the chain whip even though the former seemed easier to get.

[Felix]

okay, I've now beaten Viy (knew I was saving my pistol bullets for something) and I'm pretty sure the game is approaching the level of "too baroque." I was really enjoying myself for a good while there, and the new scenery continues to delight and impress, but I'm pretty durn confused by the paths available to me and I'm almost certain I'm going to faq this eden puzzle as I can sort of tell what the game wants me to do but don't really want to do it.

[Felix]

sigh. at any rate, I'm saving the rest of the game for (too much) work travel throughout January, as it's one of the only things I'm currently in the middle of that runs happily on my laptop, and I really need to be playing it on a plane to prevent myself from FAQing it.

[Felix]

[Felix]

That wasn't the first thing I had to look up -- by and large I'm okay with having to peek at the wiki now and again, as if nothing else it's a lot more fun than reading a FAQ in that it doesn't tell you point by point where to go so much as what you need to get where.

It was, however, the stupidest, and it puts a bad taste in my mouth when the game has more or less walked a fine line of being brutally oblique up to now. The last couple of pages of this thread have given me conflicting reports as to whether the game keeps on being this stupid in its second half (which I feel as though I'm now roughly into); while putzing around not being able to make progress a little while ago, I came upon eight tablets in the Temple of the Sun meant to have been left by my father, detailing what appears to be an endgame collectathon which I'm also not looking forward to. Meanwhile, I seem to be missing a whole heck of a lot of lock-and-key items, if the bottom left chunk of my inventory that contains only the scanner and the serpent staff is any indication...

It's still pretty close to being my GOTY as well -- only competition is new XCom and ME3.

[Felix]

fwiw "gave it a good try, then gradually started overusing the wiki, then gave up after the 5th boss" was exactly my experience with the game, but I'm still psyched at the idea of a sequel.

[Felix]

dammit, keyboard input is still broken in Wine like in the first one

I've literally never encountered this before and I don't know what crazy dev tools they could be using