Indie

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!

Indika Is An Interesting Game

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Indika.

One day while doomscrolling through the Fediverse I came upon Indika; A game about a young girl named Indika, who happens to be a nun in an alternate 19th century Russia. She goes on a journey of self discovery, and meets an unlikely companion along the way. Indika is an indie title with a team so dedicated to finishing their project that they (10 out of 14) had to flee their homeland of Russia in order to finish it. That alone made me curious to see what this game had to offer.

Indika gathering water from a well to fill a barrel for a cunty nun.

When you start the game it doesn’t take too long to realize that Indika is an outcast amongst her own. She’s forced to reside along a coven of bitchy babushka nuns, and performs tasks her sisters give to her. All the while she is narrated by The Devil himself, who is also a voice in her head. Eventually Indika has to leave the church to go on a journey of self discovery. When Indika isn’t wandering the frozen lands looking for items for basic puzzle solving, she relives childhood flashbacks in a more pixelated environment.

Indika having a flashback to a time where she raced her father on an oven powered bicycle.

When the game starts she actually falls through space, and later she has a flashback with her father and their oven powered bicycles. The game also gives you the option of collecting points that don’t do anything… or do they?

Indika being eaten by the big bad wolf.

So far it has been a interesting, unique adventure. Like if classic Resident Evil centered around a nun who goes on regular acid trips. It has the right level of intrigue and horror for me to recommend checking out during Spooktober!

Descending Into Darkness

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Played a bit more Amnesia: The Dark Descent tonight. Powered the lift that took me to the next area of uncharted territory. So far I’ve managed to stay out of sight from all the spooks., been lucky with my choice of hiding places. I had to resist the temptation to continue, the night grew late for me pretty quickly.

The First Time In Infinity

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After cycling through my library to see what my brain would fancy I stopped on Infinity Runner. One of the many games in my library that went unplayed… until tonight.

A large monitor showing an even larger space ship called The Infinity.
The Infinity.

You awaken aboard a spaceship that you’ll later on learn is called The Infinity, and your job is to go streaking throughout the spaceship without dying in an attempt to escape. The only time you’re able to control your character is when you need to jump, slide or press left and right to get over certain obstacles or pick up data packets. So far I’ve only played it with a keyboard and mouse, next time I’ll see how a controller performs.

A large display with a woman on the left explaining that you're a werewolf, with a rotating picture of a werewolf on the right side of the screen.

Once you have a basic rundown of how the controls work, you’ll start to learn that you’re actually a werewolf. Anytime you come in contact with a syringe gun you’ll automatically transform. This doesn’t really mean much though, other than you no longer have to press buttons during cutscenes, at least until you revert back to your human form.

Overall the story is pretty basic, but has a certain charm about it. Every time I’ve glanced at the store page on Steam it always has a status of mixed reviews. I bought it during a sale for about how much it goes now, so I can’t really complain about what I’ve experienced so far. One of the commonly reoccurring complaints I’ve noticed is how short the game is. We’ll see how long I can drag this one out!

Come Chill By Da Fountain

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It’s Oct 1st, and you know what that means? IT’S SPOOKTOBER!!! The month where I knock the cobwebs off of the spookier titles in my library in an attempt to finish them., or at the very least put a dent in some progression. I spent the final hour of my evening immersing myself in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, where I’ve managed to successfully outrun the invisible Water Creature and arrive in some unexplored territory.

Found multiple journal entries and notes, helping to further along the story. I’m currently trying to get some sort of elevator working, just found a key to the machinery room before calling it a night. I found a few cogs, but there are a few other parts of the machine that will require another evening of proper investigation. There’s a reality awaiting me in the morning that I must return to, the Derp Descent awaits.

This Is My Final Form?

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Every night before I go to bed. I’ve been playing some form of Castlevania, or Shantae. There’s just something about playing these games at night, during the witching hour that brings out the perfect mood in me to commence the grinding. I even got an achievement/trophy the other night for destroying a druid at midnight! I didn’t even know that was a thing! Now that I’ve achieved Shantae’s final form for this game (that I know of) I’ve been circling back and looking for all additional items that can only be received with the proper abilities and power-ups.

If I finish this before they release Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution I’ll probably have to shell over a few schmeckles on launch day.  The release date has yet to be announced, so who knows? If I finish the game and it still hasn’t been released I still have plenty of other Metroidvanias to tie me over. 😛

Shantae Sunday

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Spent some time in bed today with my Steam Deck to keep me company. Finally getting around to playing Shantae: Risky’s Revenge. One of the many games I kept starting but never really did anything with it. I used feeling unwell in bed as a good reason to delve into it. 😛 So far I’ve unlocked the Monkey Dance, and a couple of other buffs from the item shop.

It was a toss up between this and Pirate’s Curse. But since I’ve barely touched this one, and I’m a good ways into Pirate’s Curse I wanted to explore new territory. It looks like it follows a similar playstyle to Half Genie Hero, in which you collect different power dances to explore new areas. My only complaint is remembering to press the B button to confirm menu options, usually it’s A. I’m guessing that’s because it was originally released for the DS? Either way it’s not a deal breaker for me.

Atop The Mountain Of Outland

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Gave my Steam Deck some much needed love tonight after I got home. I haven’t been taking it to work much, and even when I have I haven’t really been playing it. I either don’t have time during lunch to play, or have been so interested in reading on my tablet that all gaming activities can just wait until I get home. It just felt nice plopping down on the bed and playing a bit of Outland. The last time I played was back at the start of the year, my how time flies…

I gained a couple new abilities, and even thwarted a boss battle. I only died a couple times, then continued to die multiple times more during my adventures. Tonight I finally unlocked the launchpad ability! I’m looking forward to visiting past areas to see what I’ve missed. Might find more hearts and orbs to make me stronger, who knows?

Looming In Fog and Shadow

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My weekend of zen is going great. Cuddled with an orange cat this morning, made a healthy Japanese style breakfast, sorted through some video footage and played a little bit of Aragami 2 while enjoying the last of my sakura green tea (it’s almost like there’s a theme going on, or something). I haven’t played since July, but it was easy to pick up where I left off, controls and all. Completed an assassination mission without any detection.

My latest success means that I’ve finally unlocked a forge! The visit alone gave me a couple achievements. I bought a few support items and crafted another mask, but instead of wearing it I went with the old tried and true, for old times.

While they have changed a whole bunch since the previous game I do admit I like the new features. They still have the Classic mode option, which I’ve yet to play. That will have to wait for a future session. I’m thinking of making this one of my October games to play – it would be perfect for spooky season.

Whisker Tango Boxtrot

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It’s been awhile since I’ve checked in with Whisker Squadron Survivor, they’ve changed quite a bit since I’ve last flown. They added some more power-ups, tweaked the level design and added some new character art (for Gigi at least). I wasn’t successful in tonight’s run, but I made it to the 2nd tier of the campaign before getting annihilated by an elite swarm.