Now playing (double): Skyrim + Aragami

Although I've been playing Skyrim Special Edition lately, I just got Aragami in the mail (signature version, because physical copies are awesome but the "digital" art and music is just stupid in the standard physical release. So... this is technically my first EU printed game. Cool, I think?). Thankfully it didn't take the odd estimation of "december 13-sometime in january" length. I'm sure I'll have some first impressions before I finish this article, so might as well make this a double feature while I enjoy the Aragami soundtrack.

Skyrim: PS4 edition

Might as well call it what it is. Each version of this game is kind of different, and sadly the PS4 suffers from the worst, but more due to Sony's bullshit this time rather than Bethesda. That being said, when I see a significant price drop around this time of season (skyrim weirdly suits christmas time) with a free hat thrown in, I had a hard time resisting. I've got the PC version on my low-end intel laptop, I've got the sloppy and original PS3 release, and now I've got something that mixes the best of both worlds. Mild mods from the PC and running on more solid performance, while at the convinience of my controller and TV... oh and it's the best I'll graphically get to see the game up until whenever I can get a gaming PC. Meanwhile the hat is fantastic, thanks for asking.

So in my crude justification for spending money on a game I didn't really need, I still wound up having a lot of fun. Not only that, but... I've barely bothered with mods. Some moments aside, I'm kind of appreciating what I love about Skyrim again rather than what I've bashed it for here in the past. I love this game for everything that isn't a slap in the face from its RPG mechanics. Adventuring, exploring caves for treasure, developing your sneaking skills, dealing with socio-political cultures during a civil war, and just enjoying the night sky.. it's all pretty awesome. I can still find some old reviews back in its release where people were so impressed by finding a book that tells you of a cool legend, then how you could go to the actual cave and find the treasure it was based on. How cool is that!? Well the game really has a lot of faults, especially back on release with the PS3 version, but for all its faults... it really is a truly amazing adventure game.

So for the time being, I've set aside any remarks, frustrations, or pain that came from the RPG parts. If that attitude stays or goes is a mystery, but for now I'm having a blast. I've made another Khajiit character, who's very opportunistic, sneaky, and bow + mace happy. However as time is going on I'm finding myself using magic a bit more, and I'm also trying to more actively approach crafting, shopping, etc. At some point I'm going to deviate from mods, but right now I'm just having fun deviating from my actual mission to meet the greybeards. The marketing is slightly off if you want to come in and feel like some super hero power-viking that always beats up dragons. Instead the game is at its best not when you're looting through pockets to number manage a dumb inventory restriction so you CAN go fight that dragon later, but rather it's best when you're actually out there just lost and... smiling. It's really about the journey rather than the destination in Skyrim... because that destination has some cheap mini-bosses, outbalanced stats, and a clumsy inventory. But the adventure face of skyrim is more like this little trip, or moments that look sort of like:

Aragami

This game came out of nowhere, and at first... meh. Dishonored 2 was going to be great, so why? But even though that came true, Dishonored left me wanting a tad bit more, and as I was drinking a Cherry Blossom lager one day I remembered this game and the CE copy in the store. Eventually this lead to me grabbing the game's full physical form. My skepticism was however a little present on the basis that this was a full "true" stealth game (instead of stealth action). That's code for contrived game that fails the player if you even blink off cue, and rips all the fun out of better stealth games that don't necessarily FORCE stealth. However this game has proven to be an interesting middle ground between what pure stealth fans probably like in forced challenge, but mixed with the open design and choices of players from awesome games like MGS, Thief, and Dishonored. The most obvious diversion it takes from pure stealth, is that your not sent back to a 10 minute checkpoint because the guard smelled you. You can actually directly assault a guard, it's just extremely unlikely you'll win and it's very counter-productive.

However in breaking away from genre labels and traditions, we might find the real truth is both better and worse. Aragami is a great game from a stylistic stand point, with beautiful scenery and art style, a great choice of theme with a shadow ninja in a fantasy Japan setting, taking interesting spins on surrounding influences by blending Dishonored style powers with Thief style light based hiding, and music that is so good. However it does have its share of faults around the edges, including one I'm real worried about: checkpoints. I've lost at least 15 minutes of planning, waiting, mapping things out, and picking off guards, working up a perfect kill counter for level 3, only to have it all undone because the stupid game goofed on where I was teleporting to (aimed at a river bank, it teleported me clipping into the floor, then threw me into the water where I "died"... and for the record the game never even hinted at water being a real obstacle either). I was in a good mood so I wasn't actually mad, but it was a busy night and between making progress in Skyrim or trying to fight with this 15-20 minute segment all over again, I took Skyrim so that I wouldn't be frustrated. Checkpoints in games are usually fine, but if you dare to put them in a stealth game you better not be an idiot who puts them between 20+ guards, multiple rivers and halls, and then send a player back (like the area I died in). These games are all about waiting, planning, and trial + error, and you're on a fast track to pissing people off when you rip away all that stalking and timing especially when one of the encouraged credentials of every level is stealthy mass murder. AND stealthy pacifism (meaning you have to either perfect the guard pattern to kill them all, or to avoid them all). Oh, and the other issue with the game is simple optimization issues... yes, even after the patches which supposedly fixed that.

Still, Aragam is off to a fun start. One of the best parts of the game is that despite the checkpoint issue, the best moments can sometimes be just winging it and testing just how far you can push your movements around guards in split-second decisions. I've had such a good feeling from doing stuff like watching a guard walk a corner, teleporting to that corner he JUST stood by, and then as think you can get him... he walks just out of range and sits around a bunch of lights you can't be by. So... the second his feet touch the shadows, you phase a reinforcing pool of darkness and pop right up to take his head. Stuff like that is incredibly satisfying, and tense, and a part of why I love this game's pure stealth cycle... it's challenging sure, but it's got a lot of options, level designs, and you can actually fight your enemy in quite a few ways. One of those ways apparently includes sprouting a shadow dragon out of the ground, but I haven't gotten that far myself yet. So between the whole shadow ninja with Kitsune statues and cherry blossoms all over the place in this beautiful game, to the wide array of trying to dance around the shadows in secrecy, this game is a great new twist on stealth from an indie team I still know nothing about. Gotta give credit to these guys though and hope they continue to do awesome stuff.

From out of a time capsule, how will Team Ico do?

I'm shockingly excited for The Last Guardian's release, coming early next month... but not for the reasons you're probably thinking. I'm almost excited out of curiosity, or like a living experiment coming into play. The question hangs in the air, nagging my mind: Will people still love Team Ico's style? Personal feelings on the game itself are more... eh. It's a game I kinda want to try and hope to enjoy, but I just know this sort of game isn't my style. Then I think about it and wonder, is it anybody's style anymore? Obviously some will appreciate and love this game, but enough to be a success story like it was in the past?

Team Ico builds their games a little strange. They were almost a type of indie game, before the indie games of today. They worked within AAA constraints of the 2000's to make minimalistic, puzzling, enchanting, and carefully crafted games. These are the kind of game to appreciate for the patient ones, for the quiet types, and for those willing to put up with the down times and struggles for the good little moments within a grand adventure. It's the sort of person that will actually take the time to notice and appreciate the fact that all of Trico's feathers are carefully rendered, or who first wondered what that blackish blood gushing from the first colossus was about. That type of person was easier found and sold to back then for a profitable game, but now when we're all consciously aware of the tedious escort missions, we're holding radar guns to the framerate, we're constantly distracted with social media, and your best and worst sellers are online games laced with constant progression systems that spoon feed your constant achievements, and sale expectations are around 6-10 million at times, it's not hard to see how the landscape has changed. I don't think everyone is holding that sort of expectation to TLG, but I just know there's going to be some critic outlets that call it outdated, boring, or tedious. People eat this stuff up in indie circles for $15, but what about the bigger game that's asking $60? And that's all setting aside any doubts that it's dev hell status has some implications.

That being said, I'm not a doomsayer here. I think there's still going to be people out there to love this game, and a surprising amount of hope is in the air for it in the circles it's mentioned. As a matter of fact, fan's hope are probably what saved it. I can't speak too well for them since I'm not a big Shadows of the Colossus fan, but I feel like I get the general idea... and there's still quite a good number of people who insist it's their favorite game to have ever been made. That's no light acclaim, and in a world full of minimalist indie games compelling all sorts of people, SotC still stands out as something special, with occasional murmurings that Ico was also amazing. Yes, Ico, the other giant escort mission game that Team Ico made and named themselves after. So clearly there's more going on than just surface level stuff. You can't sit there and pitch someone the idea of Ico on "Well, there's this girl you have to pull around and traverse a castle with." Instead it's probably more suiting to give them an image like this, or this, and promise them it's an enchanted and yet haunting adventure that awaits them. Some will be more skeptical and questioning... probably like me, trying to find the mechanical interests. Others will just be guided towards that promise of adventure, and maybe they'll find something incredible.

Heck, just talking about all of this and looking up screenshots to put here, has kind of reminded me why I wish I was more suited towards loving this kind of game. I love the sense of detail and imagination crafted into these adventures, I just hate linear puzzle solving. I don't think gamers have necessarily moved beyond the type of games Ico puts out, but I just think they're hard to come by and we're not exactly bringing up a generation that's likely to get involved with it. I'm also speaking from the idea of critics, and their lashing out. I feel like some people aren't going to be addressing their expectations right. I'm very interested, curious, and somewhat excited to see what really happens. But of course, in the end, it barely matters in the general gaming landscape. What counts, no matter how small or niche, is the group of gamers that really are ready and have their expectations set right. The type of people who do stop to admire Trico's feathers, or the details in the environment, or the mysteries of the cryptic story telling, and all the care that went into the AI of the characters or the subtle animations at work. These are the sort of people ready for a gripping adventure, the kind that only Team Ico can make. I hope it delivers that well, and somewhere out there becomes a new "best game ever" to somebody.

Nidhogg 2's incredible art style...

Nidhogg 2 is the sequel to a neat indie title that was all about one-on-one fencing type combat. It was simple, but lovable (according to those who've played it), and was especially good for couch multiplayer. The game seemed to be a great success, and now we're looking at a sequel coming out. Yay! However there's one unmistakable and strange decision that has some people a little concerned... let's see if you can spot the difference:

A little odd, huh? Well it's crazier in-motion. People are really off-put on the new look, and suggest it's like trying to imagine a nude homer rip-off, or the same for two sesame street characters, and then there's a comment even describing this as perhaps a Chinese bootleg copy of the original game. I can't exactly call any of that wrong either, because the trailer took me by surprise and had me thinking "WTF am I looking at!?" all the same. If this was done on april 1st, I think everyone would think it's a prank animation cooked up to look like the a laughable sequel. Meanwhile the original Nidhogg was just simple pixelmen, and it still looks tame and normal enough by now, complete with a slightly strange and neat artsy bleeding effect. However that's also what makes me go against the grain here, and just admire how incredible this all is. Incredible is truly the perfect word too, because it doesn't necessarily mean a compliment, but rather questions the odds. ...but it is also a compliment from me, because I also said that I admire it for doing just that.

I can point to Nidhogg and say "that's a game where pixel people fence each other" and we're done. I can compare it to atari graphics, or tell you it's another retro aesthetic indie game, and you generally know what camp to fall into with a game like this. The most interesting thing is that bleeding color that sort of paints the world. That's it. Now with this upcoming game, my explanation is more like... "bat-shit crazy weird naked cartoon doll things throwing axes at each other and bleeding their own skin color". There's no simple comparison in a world full of pre-defined styles, genres, and games. Sure a lot of it is mixing, but we always find a way to drag comparisons in. No, here, it's just Nidhogg 2 and that's all I can leave with on my mind, unless I try to leap to outside medias like earlier where I mentioned Homer Simpson.... and even that is vague. If you walk up and tell someone you've got nude homer clones beating each other with axes, swords, and bows, while avoiding death by giant worm, you'd be so confused and yet interested in what weird game the indie world has unleashed, or what it has to do with the Nidhogg name if you're somewhat familiar. Perhaps it's technically a failure of marketing when they're no simple pitch, but heck this is a sequel, so I don't think that matters so much. The worst thing to worry about is nagging purists, who would rather have Nidhogg stay as a "timeless" generic retro pixel game #874 on the digital store page. ...or you could be fucking incredible and have people's jaw drop in confusion as they see the game for the first time!

Look, it's weird, and yes it's ugly. I get that. It's absurd, it's silly, it's confusing, and it was revealed with no warning or clue; Yet I kind of admire that, and that's why I'm even here talking about it. I feel like the people disliking it, are the same type that would have fussed about Windwaker, or the ones calling the new Doom out as a generic Halo type game, but both games wound up being amazing and proving the vocal outcry wrong. People don't tend to have a very open mind about these things, and don't pay much attention to the finer details or disciplines. That's part of what always worries me about how vocal and dependent on the internet we are. What if they're really going to cave-in and change everything? I'd like to hope not, or they meet us half-way and find a way to actually implement a toggle graphics function or pixel character skins. Meanwhile though, I personally think this is a great step. They struck a more original style rarely seen, and I appreciate being actually confused and intrigued for once at a game all over again without it interfering with me knowing the mechanics. I can still tell this is a fast-paced one on one combat game like the first, but this time I have nothing to visually compare it to. No "oh it's just cell-shading, or it's retro, or it's going for semi-realism", no it's... it's just fucking Nidhogg 2. That's all it is. That's all it needs to be, and that's awesome. For better or worse, it's also technically incredible, and it has me talking about a game I would have otherwise just dismissed as a sequel to an indie game I might play someday. Well, now it's burned on my mind... so good job guys.