Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Smilies

exfauna @poisonjr.bsky.social · 10h

THE BAD NEWS: IT IS TOO LATE FOR YOU TO HAVE A PERFECTLY COMPREHENSIBLE LIFE.

THE GOOD NEWS: NOW YOU CAN BE BEAUTIFUL.

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 14h

in the end, i really wanted to like silksong more but i don't get the feeling the game felt the same about me. like someone else's in-joke that i'm not laughing at. at the very least, it brought it back in the end so i can't say i'm truly negative on it, but i am disappointed overall.

1

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 14h

the game really is beautiful. i'm really impressed by the side-by-side with the original, despite the very similar feel overall. there's an absurd amount of content, arguably it almost feels like they ran out of time and room for it in the game, somehow, despite the extensive dev time.

1 1

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 14h

despite all this, i found myself enjoying act 3 far more than 1 or 2 (which i had played pre-nerfs). as much as it in many ways was backtracking hell, i had fun with the bosses and for the most part the game just let me bounce between them fairly rapidly.

1 1

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 14h

"did they even playtest this?" is not an immersive question to ask, a question i found myself asking remarkably frequently. there's a reason all the environmental hazards got nerfed to 1 damage from 2, how the hell did *that* make it to launch?

1 1

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 14h

absurd runbacks, truly excessive backtracking, an unhinged in-game economy that encourages grinding, even basic things like your platforming maneuvers costing the same resource as your ability to heal, are all elements that build frustration rather than a feeling of immersive oppression.

1 1

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 14h

a lot of this player-hostility has been opined to be purely in service of a world that feels oppressive, and i largely have to disagree. in many cases, sure, but the unique feeling of an oppressive area a la Blighttown is lost when basically every area is some bespoke flavor of blighttown.

1 1

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 14h

silksong, I think, is a game plagued by an insular dev team that simply did not get enough outside opinions on what is or is not acceptable in their design space. this isn't about difficulty, high difficulty is totally fine, but several of these design decisions appear to be poorly thought through.

1 1

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 14h

finally 100%'d silksong. largely of two minds on it. was really annoyed for a significant portion of the runtime, despite largely not running into the same difficulty concerns many people had.

1 1

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 1d

it's pretty funny how when you boil it down like that, it's a pretty narrow definition for a genre but wow does it really apply to like all of them

most notable exception is probably sekiro which has very alive japanese guys you're brutally killing instead of undead guys

2

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 1d

soulslike is such a nonsense genre, largely divorced from any really calcified meaning other than "people ripping fromsoft off," that it's more of a secondary aesthetic genre rather than a specific gameplay one imo. and yeah, hollow knight is incredibly obviously dark souls inspired

1 3

Reposted by Smilies

Amazing Digital Carcass @amagire.bsky.social · 2d

this one doin numbers on mastodon but bsky doesn't let me have enough characters

@amagire@mastodon.social

elevated horror: what if you're grieving your loved one TOO MUCH?
folk horror: what if a child's disability could EAT PEOPLE?
supernatural horror: what if your childhood trauma could EAT PEOPLE?
psychological horror: what if your adult trauma could EAT PEOPLE?
body horror: what if your gender dysphoria could EAT PEOPLE?
slasher horror: what if a random guy was trying to kill you, instead of a cop or your boyfriend?

43 1.7K 5.8K

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 2d

swamp

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 4d

unironically me. every time there's something there, "of course there's something behind the waterfall," every time there isn't? "what do you mean there's nothing behind the waterfall!?"

9

Reposted by Smilies

Stellaween? @antlervel.vet · 4d

WHEN THERE’S TREASURE BEHIND THE WATERFALL: Oh wow. Yes, very clever! Waterfall treasure! No one’s ever done that before. Lazy jackass

WHEN THERE’S NO TREASURE BEHIND THE WATERFALL: Wow. Too stuck-up to put treasure there huh? Too much of a fucking ICONOCLAST for that? Piece of shit. FUCK you

120 2.2K 7.6K

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 4d

i came to the conclusion that the line between them is actually very thin. at a certain point i started reframing the feeling as dysmorphia and stopped trying to really separate out the two

1 3

Reposted by Smilies

Samsara Final Girl @eris.anarchogoth.rip · Mar 28

Me driving home knowing there won't be a second date but at least now she knows who Char Aznable is

1 130 520

Smilies @smilies.bsky.social · 8d

reminds me of etrian odyssey untold, where one of the principle cast, the cute tank lady, is inexplicably from post-apocalyptic canada and speaks in a canadian accent.

2

Reposted by Smilies

Peytral @peytral.bsky.social · May 7

Have you destroyed the Trojan Horse? Just use the Zakrello. Mass-produce the Big Zam. The Gouf can do it. Literally just use the Adzam. This is a job for the Gogg. Dude use the Zeong. It's a Bigro specialty. Use the Gelgoog. The Gelgoog can do it. Just send the Gelgoog at it. Deploy the Gelgoog to d