Gaming

Early Trick or Treating

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A Minecraft Blockdude wearing Hatsune Miku hair, a Cyborg wearing Yugioh hair, and a robotic fox wearing googly eyes and a Princess Crown. All enjoying a night of Trick or Treating.

It’s a bit early, but we did some trick or treating in Resonite! Still exploring quite a few worlds, this was the last one we stopped on. You had to go up to different houses and use voice chat to get the doors to open, then they would hand over sweets, plushies or cursed items. We also did a scavenger hunt in another world. What better way to start my current vacation?

Late Night Spooky Adventuring

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We did some cozy world exploration in Resonite this evening. The theme was Halloween, and they have quite a few Halloween/Horror worlds to explore. We visited a corn maze, went trick or treating for the elements of Halloween, did some literal soul searching, and found some nightmarish optimizations along the way. A pumpkin spiced chai would have made the evening more complete, but I’m on a green tea kick still. Meh, oh well…

Don’t Eat The Messenger

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It's a lovely day to be a ninja.

Another evening, another metroidvania to try! Tonight I decided to play The Messenger! You play a ninja that has to carry a scroll to its destination, while slaying demons along the way. In some ways the controls are pretty basic, and the boss battles aren’t over the top hard, but still leave room for error if you die. What I like most about it though is the writing. It has a brilliant sense of humor that ties it all together.

After defeating the evil sorcerer they say: It's over, this evil thing is clearly not working out for us, no matter how many skulls we slap onto ourselves.

On the surface this game looks like a typical old school platformer from pixel art all the way to music, but then you read the dialogue provided by the characters and it takes you by surprise. From the shop keeper to boss battles – The Messenger shows its sense of humor.

In an otherworldly looking shop, a mysterious shop keeper tells the end of a tale: I don't know, it's a fairytale for kids, I just thought the idea of death trapped in a pear tree was interesting.

Throughout your adventures you can pass through a portal to the shopkeeper, where you can not only purchase upgrades, but listen to some odd stories as well. The shopkeeper can also give you (not so) valuable advice on boss battles. So far I’ve destroyed two, and only died during the first boss battle. Oh yeah! That’s another thing…

The Messenger meets a tiny demon that saves his life. They say: The ghist if it is, I have a magic ring that allows me to control space and time.

When you die you’ll meet this tiny demon by the name of Quarble who saves your soul, for a price. They save your life in exchange for however many points they decide to steal from you, they’ll even follow you around with a notepad until they’re either satisfied or bored.

The Messenger standing in the trees, waiting to pass a large spiky ball and chain.

I’m pretty happy with it so far. In fact I might continue the party on Steam Deck before calling it a night. There’s just something relaxing about curling up in a blanket with some tea to slaughter a few demons, or at the very least convince them to be less evil.

Little Shop of Annoyances

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Kaname (Left) was just rescued by Shinobu from a giant Demonic Venus Flytrap.

Since I’ve been doing well at progressing at Metroidvanias as of late – I’ve decided to return to Gal Guardians: Demon Purge to take on a boss that left me raging back in May. Tonight I return to The Little Shop Of Horrors to destroy the Karen of Venus Flytraps. I still died a bunch, but I did eventually destroy the damn thing.

Made it to the library, but as usual it’s getting late just as the gettin’ gets good. I miiiight sneak in a tiny bit more on Steam Deck before fully passing out though. 😉

Return To Trick & Tear!

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Returned to the battlegrounds of Trick & Tear! Finished a couple of levels before calling it a night. I’ve spent so much time Quakeing and Castlevainiaing that I haven’t given myself time to go over this deadly wad of deadliness. As usual there are more pictures in my post over at Mastodon, or your choice of Fediverse.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon First Impressions

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After last night’s long ass battle in Castlevania I wanted to take a break from the series… kinda. I’m still in a Metroidvania type mood, and when scanning my library of infinite entertainment I landed on Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. Unlike Ritual of the Night, Curse of the Moon stays closer to the old school.

In Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon you play as Zangetsu, a demon slayer who doesn’t take too kindly to demons or anything/anyone inhabiting demonic energy. He bears a deep grudge and seeks a powerful demon in an evil castle. As Zangetsu travels the unforgiving lands he later meets up with characters that also hail from Ritual of the Night.

Curse of the Moon is neither a sequel or a prologue to the first game, but rather a spinoff. At the time of writing I’ve only beaten the first stage, and now that I’m playing a more modern retro-like game I’m not able to rely on save states. I’m not sure how long this will take me to finish,  I can’t help but admire how much effort they put into making this look and feel like something that should play on an NES. If I put my mind to it I’m sure I can beat it!

Castlevania PUT BLISTERS ON ME FINGERS

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I was determined to kick Dracula’s ass… and after a few hours of bitching out the screen in constant failure I succeeded! The worst part was Dracula spawning on top of me, but eventually I psyched him out until I got him to show his final form. The second part was actually pretty easy to do compared to Dracula’s teleportation bullshit at the start of the boss battle. But now I can finally say that I BEAT CASTLEVANIA!!!… and I have the achievement to prove it! Sooooo glad I could use save states.