16.10.16

Little things aside, I continued with, and finished, Momodora. I don't really have much to add to yesterday's impressions. Spent a fair amount of time backtracking today, getting the little things I missed or couldn't get to before. There's plenty reason to do so, as Momodora offers a little more than most Metroidvanias in this regard - the items you collect are usually desired by some NPCs for a little extra content, story, or unlocking the true end. I also want to say that the attention to detail in so many parts of the world is a rather rare thing to see.

There are also reasons to re-play the entire thing. Higher difficulty levels don't only tune the damage numbers and hitpoints of enemies higher, but also rework enemy placement in many parts of the world. There's 20 bugs (not the software kind, mind you) scattered around the place, and while I achieved 99% map completion and checked every nook and cranny I could possibly bother, I only found 5 of them. I'm not sure if there's a special reward for gathering them all, but it's highly likely. And apparently there's also rewards for beating each boss without taking damage. And then a mysterious door I have no clue what's behind.

I'm not going to bother re-playing it. I did enough backtracking for my own liking. But regardless, I really enjoyed the game, and would definitely recommend it.

And on a completely different note: I found the rare urge to play some KSP tonight. I probably won't finish this in the near future, but since 1.2 requires relays to effectively pilot unmanned crafts, I figured I'd make a relay that can transmit to the entire Kerbol system. Going to plant one or two of these in low Kerbol orbit, and they should suffice for going anywhere except Eeloo. (That is, using the DTS-M1 antenna on the receiver ship. I could always use something beefier for an Eeloo trip.) Now, this is only the portion that will carry it after I reach Kerbin orbit, and even then I think I'm a little light on fuel, but I'm definitely sticking to the design, because just look at this thing.

15.10.16

Started the day by remembering that EVE Online was going F2P on the 8th. So I figured that since I had a starter pack lying around, and there wasn't any pressure to spend my time in there efficiently once I could play for free, I activated it, and flew around for a couple hours. Not much really happened, and I haven't the slightest what I could or should do, but maybe I'll bother playing enough one of these days that I'll start to understand the game. In any case, it's as big of a time sink as I want it to be, and I don't have all that much to spare for it, so you probably won't hear about it again in the near future.

Rest of the morning went on Dungeons of Dredmor again. Got two Dark Mirror Shields for a fancy 100% spell reflection, also happen to have 100% block chance, 50 armor, yet still dealing 60-70 damage a hit (critical included). Noticed I had amassed half a million Zorkmids, and got that rare Clockwork equipment achievement. So this is actually turning into one of my better runs in the past year or so.

And last but not least for the day, played some Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight. It's kind of a Metroidvania with Souls' influence, and I really like it. Really has been a while since a game of this genre has managed to catch my attention for several hours that passed without even noticing them. It's not terribly long, being maybe 6 hours if you rush through it, 10 if you want to backtrack and find mostly everything you missed. And I'm a little more than halfway through.

The pixel art is both really cute and a little creepy, and animations are particularly excellently done. Didn't even know you could have that amount of emotion and facial expressions with so few pixels. The music is also nice, as is the layout of things on the map.

The amount of enemies between bossfights and new enemy types is just right, being enough that you are forced to learn their attack patterns and how to counter them, yet not so much as to render fighting them tedious. Bosses are a rather frequent sight, which is good because fighting bosses feels so much more rewarding than fighting through a few waves of regular enemies. Sadly, rapidly firing your bow is a cheesy and easy way to beat them. I'd much rather be forced to use my "sword". But that is about the only problem I had with the game.

I'll almost definitely finish this tomorrow, but they can't possibly screw up the end badly enough for me to not recommend this game. It's really good, and you should try it if you like these kinds of games at all.