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. 😛
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.
Cerberus is set ablaze by Nathan’s endless whipping.
We had a lovely summer like day today – too nice to waste at my desk, so it only made sense for me to take my Steam Deck from its case and venture into the Castlevania Advance Collection!
It’s kinda funny to reflect on, when I was a kid I didn’t really think much of Metroidvanias. As a child my Gameboy Advance mainly received Mario platformers, and one Mario Kart game. Apart from my GBA I didn’t grow up with any Nintendo, the closest I ever got to Nintendo consoles was through visits to friends and families houses who were lucky enough to have acquired them. Even then, they never had any Castlevania or Metroidvania games. It was always Mario Games, Final Fantasy and Mortal Kombat.
It also didn’t help that back then Metroidvanias weren’t really as common on PC, which had plenty of other genres going on, but very little in the way of Castlevania/Metroid likes. It would be several years later when I really begin get into the Metroidvania genre. Better late than never I guess?
Learning to double jump.
Thanks to Metroidvanias like Dust: An Elysian Tail, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and of course, the Shantae Series; I’ve started to appreciate the genre and have come to understand it enough to brave the old school. In platformers you’re used to getting from Point A to Point B, whereas in a Metroidvania there is a lot of backtracking after you acquire different abilities and equipment. Tonight in Circle of the Moon (Castlevania Advance Collection) I learned to double jump, possibly one of the most satisfying abilities to learn in a good few of the Metroidvanias I’ve played thus far. There’s just something awesome about double jumping to areas that seemed unobtainable before, and in Circle of the Moon it felt like I was able to get this ability faster than the other Metroidvanias I played where it took me a good while.
Which one is Mummy Dearest?
Another thing that took me a good while to get was the control scheme. Tapping the D-Pad allows you to dash (if you have the dash boots), and holding down the action button lets you twirl your whip around like a fan of destruction. Until I figured that out some of the monsters felt cumbersome, but now that I’ve learned how to properly navigate the game even the poison worms are easy to avoid. The bones from the bone throwing skeletons on the other hand…
I had just scratched the surface of the castle before calling it a night. But I’m glad to have made a nice dent in the game. I’ve made Nathan stronger with extra hearts and jugs, uncovered a good few secret walls and even bested Cerberus himself. Overall I’d say a jorb well done! I’ll have to see about playing more of these during Spooktober! 😀
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?
Finishing Shantae and the Seven Sirens wasn’t what I planned to do to kick off my weekend… but here we are! I still need to go back to 100% the game, but somewhere between my Desktop and Steam Deck I finally beat the game. When I left off months ago I didn’t realize how close to the end I was!
I still need to go back and 100% the game (only got 80% on my first playthrough), but much like Half Genie Hero I had a great time playing. My only complaint is the 60 FPS lock, but on Steam Deck it doesn’t really matter, and to me anything above 60 for a Metroidvania is cherry. Since I’ll have to replay it to get the remaining achievements and missing items I may consider streaming this one, when I can finally be bothered to stream! 😛
Hey look! A game that isn’t Horizon Zero Dawn! Decided to give my Steam Deck some love while doing an SFM render. I got 100% in Hollow Grove and Thornfelt Swamp, now I’m uncovering new ground in Black Root Burrows, or I was just starting to… but it’s getting late for me. My iced tea is ready for tomorrow, a nice Watermelon Oolong with enough caffeine and flavor to wake me up tomorrow.
Speaking of work, a co-worker of mine has been delving more into Linux lately, and he’s actually been taking a liking to it! Although I’ve had to help him with a few things. On Saturday he was complaining to me about how much gaming sucks under Linux still, and it turned out he never even enabled Proton, the compatibility layer for playing Windows games and a large chunk of why the Steam Deck is able to rival so many other handhelds. I’m sure he’ll give me an update the next time I see him. 🙂 It’s nice seeing more people tinkering with Linux, and I own a good portion of that to the Steam Deck! Now gamers will slowly learn Arch commands! :v
My desktop has been rendering the last chunk of animation for the Skyrim video, so I’ve been making some more progress in Ori and the Blind Forest on Steam Deck. It’s actually kinda funny to think that last night I was playing a Playstation game, and now I’ve shifted over to an XBox game, and I don’t even need to own both consoles! 😛 I mostly ventured through Black Root Burrows., and doing what you would typically do in a metroidvania and circle back to older areas after learning new abilities. Mostly finding life and ability cells, and opening up sealed off areas. Fun stuff.
Was actually having a conversation about this at work the other day with another co-worker bud. One of her fave genres is metroidvania, we actually talk about Bloodstained Ritual of the Night on a few occasions, and I’ve also shared other ones with her like the Shantae series and recently Dust. She plays on Playstation, though we do like to dish out on games in general, among other subjects. It’s nice having a few work friends to help the day feel less hellish.
Another evening, another game conquered. I finally made it to the end of Dust: An Elysian Tail. Still have some missing achievements, but I’ll save that for another day. The ending was bittersweet, not only for the ending itself, but knowing I finally reached the end with no further story to continue. I’m glad I savored this one over the years, this was easily one of my fave Metroidvanias to have played.
I think we’re finally getting our summer weather! We almost hit 30 C today. It gave me an excuse to dust out my desktop, it’s been in a dire need of a cleaning. Also got a little sun and Steam Deck time in, played some Gal Guardians and made it through an area that could have drawn inspiration from Little Shop of Horrors, or even have added to it. I had to make my way through a garden that has become most evil, some of the plants try to eat you, and they drink only the freshest blood from sprinklers, or you if you’re not careful.
I did end up having to take a break when I got to the boss battle, kept getting endlessly skull fucked by a Venus Fly Trap and its friends. The game was generous enough to give me some hints after dying one too many times.
Last weekend I installed Decky, a plugin manager for use in Game Mode on the Steam Deck. It’s pretty handy! I’ve already installed Decky Recorder and a few other oddball things. Up at the top is an additional HUD I added called MangoPeel. If you’ve used MangoHud under Linux you probably already know what it is, but it’s a very versatile overlay that allows you to not only view your framerate, but other system statistics as well. Quite handy for watching how much resources are needed for certain games, and how much battery it’s drawing.
It’s supposed to be another hot summer like day tomorrow. Might have to fondle my Deck some more. 🙂
After work today I decided to unwind with just me, a controller and a TV – where I would go on to die a couple hundred times and STILL somehow move the plot of Ori and the Blind Forest. Making my way through Mt. Horu, which has taken much patience and even more teeth gritting. It was either going to be this or Horizon Zero Dawn, but I figured I’m getting closer to the end and wanted to push things in the right direction, enough to give myself another break from it. 😛
