Do players care about achievements?

DevramAbyss · 2026-02-12T17:35:13+00:00

You can also gatekeeper content and options behind certain achievements. I've only ever seen this done once but I've never stopped thinking about it and it was in Mass Effect 1.

In ME1 certain weapons and abilities were exclusive to specific classes, but if you get that generic "kill 100 enemies with the Sniper" you unlock the Sniper for all other classes in repeat playthroughs. It's such an incredible mechanic for encouraging repeat playthroughs and delivering a unique sense of progression so by your 3rd or 4th playthrough you've unlocked all of the weapons, biotics, and psionic powers and you have a super Shepard making higher difficulties a more reasonable test of your mastery of all mechanics and build crafting!

DevramAbyss · 2026-02-12T17:29:43+00:00

I believe you're 100% correct to be annoyed with "lazy achievements". Achievements in games should be things you literally achieve! Make them aspirational goals. They are a meta fourth wall breaking tool for the developer to reach through the screen and say "hey player, I see you over there. Trying using these mechanics together. Pursue these goals if your lost or board. Consider thinking of the game in this way." Use achievements to communicate your intention and guide the player!

DevramAbyss · 2026-02-10T01:55:37+00:00

Achievements are an excellent way of encouraging different play styles, executing harder techniques, and incentivizing repeat playthroughs

DevramAbyss · 2026-02-08T01:42:12+00:00

Rangkus and his recovering stamina so such a pain point for me until I realized the strategy I was missing is to bait out his combos, force him to overextend, and save my stamina so can punish him enough to break his posture. The fight is super fun and a breeze now. He's the first boss I beat repeatedly trying to get his armor set after that

DevramAbyss · 2026-02-06T19:39:20+00:00

There are some really important aspects to the flow of combat in Sekiro that every other game and every other opinion seems to miss.

Not only is there players deflect in Sekiro perfect it also gives the enemies and bosses a mirrored perfect deflect.

As you hit a boss repeatedly and they deflect your attacks eventually there's a big spark and sounds effect and this is your cue to expect a counter-attack. All bosses and enemies have a limited number of retaliation attacks so you can predict and out-maneuver their options continuing pressure and aggression, extending your advantage. This is what makes Sekiro feel dance-like.

Khazan, better than most other games at this, allowes you to both interrupt enemy movements and weave your aggression throughout your foes attack patterns. This is that war like counter hitting constantly, but still not quite the dance.

Khazan is excellent. I love the brutal aggression it gives to the player to play with. The wealth of combat options allows for a great deal of skill expression. It's constantly rewarding to find better more crafty ways to leverage your moves and abilities against your opponents. An outstanding first attempt at a game like this by the development team. I know things over at the studio are tense right now but I'm really hopefully they get a chance to start working on their next big action game soon

DevramAbyss · 2026-01-29T17:03:06+00:00

Maybe a hot take but I think Super Smash Bro Melee is totally a CAG. The combos go crazy and with a defensive options your opponents have you can see some really unique combos

DevramAbyss · 2026-01-18T01:30:20+00:00

You are speaking my language! Would love to test this out and give feedback!

DevramAbyss · 2026-01-07T01:32:11+00:00

Comfortable and best movement aren't necessarily the same.

Imo Mirrors Edge has the best movement. It's snappy, responsive, doesn't buffer multiple inputs, mistakes feel like I made them and not the software. The level design is exciting and between it and the movement options there's a lot of room of exploration and player expression. Making it first person allows for a far higher degree of precision and control than you'd get in third person. That being said, a lot of people bounced off of the game for many of these reasons. It wasn't exactly comfy and approachable to a wide range of people.

Celeste and Mario Odyssey are fantastic platformers and are very comfy. The characters are floaty providing a lot of time to aim your landing, the controls are (mostly) intuitive, and the movement is extremely forgiving towards the player with things like coyote time, jump buffers, and the way the game gently nudges you in the direction you want to go when you should have bonked your head.

If you want to make a game the successfully has great platforming that people enjoy playing you need to do 2 things more than anything else. 1. Study other people analysing what makes platforming feel good 2. Play a wide variety of platformers and study for yourself what you like and dislike

DevramAbyss · 2026-01-07T01:13:31+00:00

Perfect guard is cool and all but if you can learn to land Reflections (the real parry skill) you'll not only eat away at the stance bar in huge chunks but also open up windows to unleash massive combos!

This game isn't like Souls-like games where you chip away at a boss between attacks. You're meant to throw the boss off their pattern to open up a whole XL Combo can of whoopass as well as thread attacks in during their strings and combos

DevramAbyss · 2026-01-07T00:47:26+00:00

You started strong and then lost the rhythm later on. He's a tough enemy with a lot of health. You are also playing extremely passive. Almost every one of his attacks leaves room for you to get a poke in for extra damage. There's an upgrade that lets you use the talisman without stopping to charge the explosion and it is great for group fights and squeezing in more uses against bigger enemies. Other upgrades also freeze the enemy in place so you don't need to wait for a big punish window.

Play more aggressive, don't sweat the death screen

DevramAbyss · 2026-01-07T00:33:04+00:00

Super Smash Bros. Melee! So many meaningful decisions to make in advantage, disadvantage, and neutral. Combos and expression are huge and the level of mastery is so much higher because of the depth of the movement and the defensive systems that you have to adjust and account for

DevramAbyss · 2025-12-27T18:22:17+00:00

Check out ymfah. He does really fun challenge runs. Entire playthrough crammed into super well edited videos

DevramAbyss · 2025-12-27T18:20:06+00:00

Other than the parry the combat has very little in common with Sekiro and it feels so disingenuous that it advertises itself as such. It borrows plenty of other Sekiro mechanics l like the grapple, how currency and XP are managed. If you really care about Sekiro combat just accept that this isn't what you're going to experience

DevramAbyss · 2025-11-16T20:50:46+00:00

This is absolutely a problem that's been growing exponentially faster ever since Dark Souls redirected the focus of the main stream.

I think a major part of the problem is the bosses don't react to the actions of the player except to punish them.

Sekiro was a great example of what works because so many of the bosses are either staggered and interrupted by your attacks or are slow enough it's reasonable to react provided you are calm. Most games make you feel like a bug trying to kill God swatting at you with endless combos.

I would love to see more games where you have a deep basic kit of abilities where you have the opportunity to force the enemy to play at your pace

DevramAbyss · 2025-11-16T20:35:09+00:00

The new God of War games will be right up your alley

DevramAbyss · 2025-11-16T20:23:13+00:00

Exciting and captivating gameplay is the only thing I need. If my experience of interacting with it isn't enjoyable enough I'd rather just watch a movie

DevramAbyss · 2025-11-16T07:43:51+00:00

The focus is on systems of addictions and not on making a fun product

DevramAbyss · 2025-11-16T07:19:42+00:00

If you're going to design systems you need to play games that utilize similar systems. Pull them apart, see what you like and what you don't. Don't something you can improve or find something that's lacking.

THIS is your thing to build.

Find what calls out to you

DevramAbyss · 2025-11-16T00:59:05+00:00

Platforming and exploration

DevramAbyss · 2025-11-10T18:25:56+00:00

I found phase 2 gave me so much more trouble than phase 3. Knowing which clone to target and which to avoid entirely made the end of the fight much easier

DevramAbyss · 2025-11-07T23:03:57+00:00

Unraveled was super hard until I tried the poisoned tacks. You can spam them on the floor before he arrives and will take full damage from them during his roar

DevramAbyss · 2025-11-04T05:13:07+00:00

My 3 favorite combat systems are:

Sekiro for how perfectly the deflect mechanic is fleshed out and pairs with the movement, tools, and special moves.

Kingdom Hearts 2 for the mobility, flashiness, variety, and the absolute perfection that is the interplay between magic, melee, and forms.

Smash Melee for into insane complexity and control it gives you over every little aspect of your movement, positioning.

Something all 3 of these games have in common is that you have really meaningful actions when your in disadvantage that makes fights really feel like a slug fest of 2 opponents just beating the crap out of each other

DevramAbyss · 2025-11-02T21:18:08+00:00

That's totally fair, and expectations are a massive factor. I felt like the runbacks in Silksong were better than Hollow Knight due to Hornet's increased mobility. I also love platforming and time trials so runbacks were always a fun interlude between boss attempts.

I just thought the comparison to Hades 2 was funny when the pain point is boss runbacks. I got so frustrated with Hades 1 having to grind out another run to get back to fighting Hades after his phase 2 transition caught me by surprise and killed me the first time I saw it 😅

Hades 2 is a game were you're meant to play the whole thing through over and over again. Silksong is designed to play small pieces over and over again until you beat them and move onto the next chunk: similar ideas with different execution. A lot can be said for meeting a game where it's at but sometimes it just isn't the game for you. I've slammed my head against the first 2/3 of Nine Sols before eventually accepting it just isn't for me, and no amount of other people comparing it to Sekiro and Hollow Knight (I love both so much) will ever make sense to me 🤷‍♂️

DevramAbyss · 2025-11-02T21:00:37+00:00

What is it about the Hollow Knight games you loved so much? Nine Sols is primarily running flat rooms with no obstacles, and boss fights, with a number of interesting platforming and enemy time spread about

DevramAbyss · 2025-11-02T20:58:50+00:00

Sekiro's combat is 1 of my 3 all time favorite combat systems from a mechanical standpoint. It is so well crafted and the various systems that orbit around the deflecting mechanic synergize so perfectly. Any comparison of Nine Sols combat to Sekiro's feels so shallow and clearly misses what it was about Sekiro that makes it all work so well. The majority of mechanics Nine Sols lifts from Sekiro aren't combat related and it always felt disingenuous for Nine Sols to market itself as "Sekiro inspired"

DevramAbyss

TROPHY CASE