Indie

Saturday Indie Arcade!

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I gave Sayonara Wild Hearts a full playthrough. It only takes about an hour to play, and it’s pretty easy (unless you’re going achievement hunting, that will add on a little extra replay value). The game features a kickin’ soundtrack that becomes easy to lose myself in. You start out skateboarding, then surfing on a tarot card, and eventually you’re sword fighting, riding motorcycles and shooting lasers. In a small amount of time you can do so much!

Afterwards I decided to revisit the Whisker Squadron Survivor Demo that I picked up during the last NextFest. They’ve been pushing regular updates to the game, adding in new features. I spotted some new powerups and a different enemy. All good things to discuss in a future post! 😛

Booty Quake!

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A couple nights ago I learned the art of Booty Quakin’! I’ve been making another lap around the entire island, still finding things that have yet to be found until finding them.

Aside from uncovering gems and abilities, I’ve also been tasked with finding buried statues with my new found power. That always seems to be the appeal with any of the Metroidvanias I’ve played thus far; you learn new things and then you get to go allll over the world again to find all the things that were juuuuust out of reach from you before.

I almost opened up Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon on my Deck, but slapped my hand and continued onward through Seven Sirens. It makes sense for me to continue while I still remember all the controls. Maybe if I get stuck at a certain point.

Revival Dance!

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If you haven’t been following my Mastodon feed – I’ve been plinking away at Shantae and the Seven Sirens for the last few days. It’s really easy to pick up on and put down, especially on Deck. The weather has been great these last few days, and it’s nice to go out and get a little fresh air while getting some achievements in. Aside from game to my heart’s content I did do a little more spring cleaning, this time through the wardrobe. I have a modest bag of things to donate, plus I got rid of any raggy looking items. I still have a few other things to go through, but I probably won’t be throwing away much else in terms of clothing. I’ve also been continuing the purging of my tea collection, though I’m not sure if it counts if I’m drinking it!

Maybe if I plink away a bit more at this game a little before bed I’ll play something else tomorrow… or be empowered enough to continue.

Kena: Photo Mode Edition

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Another adventurous evening was spent in the Pixar-Perfect looking world of Kena: Bridge of Spirits! I discovered Photo Mode and it all went down hill from there.

Hanging With The Fam

I’ve made more rot friends, destroyed the Wood Knight, and slowly mastering archery!

I’ve mostly been playing it on Desktop. It runs ok on Steam Deck, if you don’t mind playing at 30FPS. 99% of my gameplay has been with a controller, but for some of the trials I had no problems playing keyboard and mouse.

It’s nice to have the option to choose between the two.

Piercing The Soul

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Got to learn archery tonight in Kena: Bridge of Spirits. It was a fun reward for beating a boss battle.

The bow also allows you to grapple to unreachable places if you happen to notice a large blue flower. It helped me reach a nice meditation spot. Great for permanently increasing your health, AND a good spot to call it a day. There’s another boss up ahead that has convinced me to call it a night.

Conquering The Seven Sirens (Contains Spoilers)

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I’ve been having fun in Shantae and the Seven Sirens! They must have had extra money leftover to put some of these cutscenes together… I mean look at the intro video, it has so much energy:

Most of the cutscenes in game are pretty short, but they do offer a nice touch. I kinda want to see a Shantae anime now.

In Seven Sirens, you’re on vacation! Actually it’s for the Half Genie festival, where you perform other Half Genies with different powers… until all but Shantae mysteriously disappear.

FLOWER!!!

Now, I don’t want to spoil it for you… but the cause of the disappearance of the other Half Genies miiiiiiiight have something to do with these Sirens. This potted plant Siren was as irritatingly deadly as she was adorable.

After freeing one of your fellow sisters of fabulousness, they will reward you with a coin that will allow you to shapeshift instantly into a certain form. In this case I can become a newt and climb up walls, very similarly to the Monkey form in Half Genie Hero. So far I’ve managed to destroy two baddies and save two buddies!

I still have tons more exploring to do, but so far I’m really enjoying it! I even played a little more on my Steam Deck this morning. Next time I play it’ll be under the sea!

Saturday Aesthetic: Retro

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Been in an old-school aesthetic kind of vibe tonight. Getting closer to finishing my Lilac save, and I’m starting to get the hang of playing Neera.

I’ve played Tempest before, but tonight was the first time I tried Black Widow, and a couple of others. Amazing how these old games can still be fun.

Hello Down There!

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Neera admiring the view.

I have four different saves going in Freedom Planet 2 (one for each character) and decided to give Neera a bit of progress.She takes a little bit to get used to, but I’m starting to figure out her ice staff.

They were also kind enough to throw in an in game arcade game to play at the Battlesphere! I got sucked into it enough that I even got an achievement! Really like the little details devs put into these games.