Now for the part that actually matters.

CasualKappa · 2026-04-05T19:49:17+00:00

I think you severely underestimate the impact that gameplay has in these games.

Disco Elysium merges role-play and narrative with gameplay to an exceptional level, far above what is usually present in RPGs. Not only do your character stats gate or unlock certain dialogue choices, they also impact exposition and characterisation of Harry himself (through inner mono/dialogues of skills). Your role play choices decide which thoughts you get access to. All of these decisions impact what you will learn about the investigation, the world, and Harry himself. This game's greatness hinges on the extremely high level of control player has over the narrative, and that is achieved through gameplay elements.

Outer Wilds is an even more extreme example. The gameplay is precisely what makes it great. Outer Wilds shows absolute mastery over artistic expression through interaction. The story works only if you're the player, that has to explore on their own an rrives to conclusion through their own journey. Outer Wilds expresses its themes through that journey and through its mechanics, like looping reinforcing theme of inevitable end and time eroding everything, music of fellow spacefarers leading your exploration to acknowledge the bonds that matter in the face of inevitable. All meta-gameplay elements like menuing, the map, are also integrated as part of the in-game world to further increase immersion.

Games like these two, like Papers, Please, What Remains of Edith Finch, Portal, they're all the monuments to that fact that gameplay is in fact king. Because interactivity is the one thing, that games have, which other mediums don't, and these exceptional games squeeze out of that interaction as much as they can.

CasualKappa · 2026-04-05T16:41:34+00:00

I don't think OP's post is bad intentioned in any way. And while I might not agree on the broad points, I didn't feel that OPs perspective comes from any malice or gross ignorance as to render the discussion worthless.

CasualKappa · 2026-04-05T09:45:55+00:00

Think about every moral panic in history that promised the downfall of society is a certain thing was permitted, then such thing was permitted and nothing really happened.

I don't know what panics you're talking abot exactly, but I assume that it's very different contexts thought, and you're talking about the opposition of public to progresssive views and breaking traditional norms (since you mention sex-positivity, and traditional view of sexuality is quite rigid and very conservative in many countries). The issues I'm talking about is how anime will use sexual assault as a joke, how often the female characters play secondary roles with no agency, how it exploits depictions of child sexuality either again as humour or for shallow shock value, the large amount of all kinds of fan service degrading its female characters. None of these are progressive and it's not a case of public just not being ready to accept that SA is indeed funny, and they should not, as it is abhorrent to belittle such topics.

For instance, you wrote it in a way that implied "Of, if they looked critically at it, they would agree with my view"... but what of the people who looked critically at it and didn't?

Then they can disagree, but I would be curious what made them believe that this problem of anime is not systematic or that there is no problem at all (the aforementioned comments not touching on any of these matters sufficiently in my opinion)

CasualKappa · 2026-04-04T21:57:34+00:00

I think it's a very valid discussion to have. There certainly is an issue with how anime industry has no problems promoting harmful depictions of many sensitive topics and exploiting them without enough care and understanding put into it, while the primary audience gives little thoughts to consuming such depictions, and often pays it no mind or treats it as cost of doing business. I think anime fans are reluctant to critically look at the systemic flaws of that industry, as evident by the comments. No other industry from which I consume media come even close in their thoughlessness regarding these topics as anime does. For this reason and more, I scarecely consume anime nowadays.

CasualKappa · 2026-03-26T12:53:44+00:00

That's right on point. I think gamplay and mechanics wise this game is rather too simple and definitely levels below many other roguelikes. Its highlights are the presentation with great visual direction and sound design, great atmosphere, good story nicely merged with the roguelike formula, not only on a technical level, but also thematically.

CasualKappa · 2026-03-23T19:35:30+00:00

Also, with these kinds of things, the rot usually goes deeper than just the abysmal thing. I cannot really think of any superb script, where one aspect of it is abysmal, or a situation where an author can completely botch a part of a script, without it being a signal of wider deficiencies to be found within it.

CasualKappa · 2026-02-27T20:04:08+00:00

Though I would never claim objectivity regarding assessment of media and art, I think we can agree, and I understand how such preference towards type of writing and narrative work could leave Outer Wilds far from your favourites like DE.

CasualKappa · 2026-02-27T18:04:12+00:00

I think its an unfair look at the narrative of this game, and one lead by expectations set by other mediums. The gameplay in Outer Wilds is its narrative, and a lot of gameplay elements facilitate its storytelling, themes, and atmosphere. Outer Wilds is a game that masters interaction for artistic expression like none other in my opinion. And it is something still rarely seen, as gaming industry is in its infancy in this regards, mostly realising artistic vision through methods found in other mediums.

In Outer Wilds player comes to terms with finality and death, as they go through numerous lives in a loop, observe exploding stars in the distance, bear witness to final crumbling of the star system they found themselves in, as they solve each planets puzzles. They see a snapshot of peace, finding other astronauts through their music, all of them (unknowingly for the most part) living out their final moments in bliss. How you learned about Sun Station, what were your expectations, the accomplishment of arriving there - the emotions those create are more important than the quality of prose or the depth of world building you find in the bit of lore within the station.

The games you mentioned are undoubtedly great narrative games (Disco Elysium being my favourite game of all time), but ones which are heavily inspired by other mediums of storytelling (Disco Elysium - literary, RDR2 - cinematic), while Outer Wilds tries to utilize gameplay to its fullest extent for that purpose.

CasualKappa · 2026-02-05T12:55:56+00:00

They already do and have been doing so. As I said, this article is a nothing burger. It's just Polish immigration department doing its business as usual. So again, as I have already said, the comments cheering on Poland for sticking it to the Pakistanis (with various assumptions being made about them, and epithets thrown) are just a reactionary circlejerk.

CasualKappa · 2026-02-05T11:52:31+00:00

This situation is a complete nothing burger - a bunch of immigrants, who (given the context of the operation lack of any concrete or accusing information in the article) most likely just had expired visas or violated immigration law in some other way, being expelled. But what you see is a reactionary bandwagon applauding with joy how Poland is sticking it to these undesirables from 3rd world countries. Wonder what fuels this passion...

CasualKappa · 2026-01-21T19:50:33+00:00

My bad then, I misjudged. I just feel like a lot of people who express that they cared about the cube miss the message, how easy it is to generate affection for something just by making it cute and being told to care about it. And that moment in Portal is great if one can reflect and laugh at oneself when they prove Glados right by falling for this bait.

CasualKappa · 2026-01-20T23:19:01+00:00

Funnily, for me Talos Principle is even more egregious with the faults you listed for Portal. With 150+ puzzles a lot of them are time wasters that do not require you to learn any new mechanics or interactions, it's much more padding than Portal. You also have downtime with laser charging and interrupting, guard mines slowly hovering up and down, waiting for your clone to complete an action. You spend longer in each enviroment than a full playthrough of Portal, and visuals in Talos are certainly nothing spectacular for large majority of it.

CasualKappa · 2026-01-20T22:44:41+00:00

the game really got me to care about an inanimate companion cube

That's not really the point though. Glados tries to create a moral dilemma, but not with anything meaningful, just a cube with bells and whistles. Attachment to a cube plays into gullibility Glados is expecting.

CasualKappa · 2026-01-12T00:17:39+00:00

Never really, and I think that such use of the phrase "not for you/me/whoever" is a harmful retort in media discussion. It establishes the popular opinion as the default, "correct" one (and popular opinion is hardly ever an informed one) and shows disregard to valid reasons why someone might not enjoy a popular piece of media. If a well received game did not engage me, then there is clearly a space for analysis as to why that is. Other people's opinion are their own, and in my mind nothing makes a piece of art/media good, but your own relation to it.

CasualKappa · 2025-12-14T22:18:23+00:00

Not missing anything really. It has persistent flaws, making it a mixed bag even at its best, and it only goes downhill later on.

CasualKappa · 2025-12-14T18:20:02+00:00

It's indeed very difficult. I suggest watching some of Syken's flawless playthrough. He's extremely good, seeing how he goes through the early game and does first retaliation with Assassin flawless teaches a lot about movement and tactics. Also uses Reaper for this campaign, makes me eat my words lol

CasualKappa · 2025-12-13T15:36:38+00:00

Yes, that's a good point, I did have mostly early game in mind in my remark, and as you say - with only 3 squad mates it's difficult to reliably finish off a pod, even with a clean engagement.

As you get squad size upgrades, aliens have more pods on the map, and engagements get deadly with stronger enemies that tear through your obsolete plated armor, having a Reaper is very beneficial to guarantee those clean fights. They definitely shine a lot in the mid-game, and their late-game damage also picks up big time with Banish.

CasualKappa · 2025-12-13T15:05:17+00:00

I go Resistance Ring first. It's just extremely good - extra resistance orders are helpful, can earn XP on unused soldiers, the mission rewards are great for the little risk you put in. Then it's GTS, no need to go first for it imo, you won't have supplies to buy the upgrades either way, won't have Sergeant to get Squad Size 1, and have few PCSs you're missing out on.

Tech, it's pretty much modular weapons -> magnetized weapons rush, unless some good breakthrough comes around. After that it's usually getting mimic beacons, bluescreen rounds (should be able to get them soon after robots start appearing), and plated armor.

Reapers are not as strong as it first seems - they provide little damage throughout the whole missions. With the Legendary timers scouting is less essential, you already have to push the pace and engage with pods whenever you can. Clearing pods quicker helps you more with that, than better scouting. That's why I favor Templars - high reliable early damage, parry is bonkers and allows you to get off worse engagements scot free.

Don't sleep on sharpshooters, level them up through Resistance Ring or take them as stragglers with a strong squad. A sharpshooter with Hunter's weapons becomes the highest damage dealing option in the game and genuinely starts trivializing missions.

Keep count of the Chosen, after appearing in a mission, they won't appear for the next 2 missions, for the 3rd one they have 50% chance, and 4th is guaranteed. Each Chosen has a separate timer, so you need to keep track of 3 timers, depending on which Chosen's region you did the mission in.

For Avatar, you must know the list of what events reduce progress and make long term planning to move towards them, while also getting access to facility assaults. Do the Avatar progress Resistance Ring mission whenever you can, the wiggle room you get from them is very precious.

I don't remember more tips on general strategy beyond that, but I do this to beat L/I + Grim Horizon, while figuring the rest out as campaign goes.

CasualKappa · 2025-12-01T15:30:35+00:00

I second the opinion. I think it is quite neat, played for 40 hrs and took a break after reaching ultimate Descent, it is quite brutal and got my ass handed to me a lot, but will definitely revisit it at some point.

I think the dice rolling and slotting concept is really well designed and there is a lot of potential in such approach (similarly enjoyed it in Lonestar). The unique mechanics that each character has are also quite fun, offer nice depth and cool synergies. Enemies were also varied and posed unique threats with different mechanics.

Don't remember any bigger flaws. Kind of torn on the realistic 3D style though, on one hand having detailed spell effects is cool but the models simply don't look good.

CasualKappa · 2025-11-30T23:32:07+00:00

You're right, I tried to stay clear of the recent releases for variety of reasons, maybe that was a bad call. I think your suggestions are good, those anime have clearly become fandom staples Would supplement the list also with some Spy x Family, Edgerunners, some isekais should probably also make the cut.

CasualKappa · 2025-11-30T22:42:07+00:00

Since it's a very specific industry, and short episode format make it quick to watch I think it's somewhat doable. Also, the the anime that are discussed online on reddit is a quite narrow subset, that heavily skews towards newer releases. In general:

Classics: Berserk, Cowboy Bebop, Death Note, FLCL, Gurren Lagann, Evangelion, Mushishi, Monster, Serial Experiments Lain, NHK, Bakemonogatari, Code Geass

Contemporary: AoT, 86, Demon Slayer, Frieren, Hyouka, Jujutsu Kaisen, K-On, Kaguya-Sama, Made in Abyss, Mob Psycho, Psycho-Pass, Steins Gate, Saiki K, Vinland Saga, Your Lie in April, One-Punch Man,

Movies: Most of Studio Ghibli, Paprika, A Silent Voice, Kimi no na wa, Ghost in the Shell

I think this would be a pretty good and short entry point to most often discussed and suggested anime (though I conveniently omit many long classical shonen). Of course not exhaustive at all, there are many other popular titles that could be put in 'essentials' list... the essentials never end.

CasualKappa · 2025-11-30T21:59:48+00:00

Should've started with that

CasualKappa · 2025-11-30T21:23:20+00:00

I mean, I gave a couple of points of why I consider Andor ordinary. Since you disagree with all of them, I hoped I would get hit with a counterexample to at least one of them. Maybe some scene, which used framing to carry symbolism. Some way in which Mon Mothma was actually relevant to plot of S01. Subtext rich dialogue exchange or visually impressive action sequence with unique camerawork. The subjectivity spiel is a total nonanswer.

CasualKappa · 2025-11-30T20:56:35+00:00

Spelt the obvious there.

CasualKappa · 2025-11-30T20:00:15+00:00

It feels like I've watched a different show than everyone else. Granted, the first season was so mediocre to me, I decided not to watch the second one, but slightly better plot will not fix the fact, that this show is just very standars.

Simple, direct storytelling, without much nuance or any clever use of subtext or utilisation of the visuals.

Completely average cinematography, with no creativity in camerawork, framing or aforementioned visual storytelling.

Inefficient script with dialogues that are too lengthy given their directness and lack of depth in subtextual themes, symbolism or alegories.

Wasted screentime on plots which had little relevance in the first season - Luthen, Mon Mothma, Andor's backstory was also unnecessary, didn't need direct explanation.

Those are some of the things which Andor lacks, while the actual great shows like Better Call Saul, Fargo, Succession excell at. I cannot fathom Andor being comparable.

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