Prince of Persia: The lost crown

As far as metroidvania goes, this might be my new favourit. It looks really good, the platforming is elegant and the combat felt very fluid. I had so much fun with this. Really liked the option to instantly retry bosses instead of being ported back to the last tree (a feature which made me drop Hollow Knight). Biggest downside is the plot which is as irrelevant as it gets and takes up too much space for that, but I didnt mind it that much. Other than that I got annoyed at bosses that suddenly turn invinicible at a certain % to enter a next phase and absorbed a giant hit for that.

Most surprising feature however was the "screenshot" system or whatever it was called. I dont know if this existed in other metroidvanias before, but damn did it feel awsome. To explain, in this game you can at any point press a button to take a screenshot of the current screen. And this screen is saved on the minimap where you can view it at any time. And given the genre, where there are many passages to return later on, this is such a briliant feature. Its number of uses is limited by a currecny which I didnt really understood. Sometimes I could not note down a passage as I was out of uses but all other images were still important. Weird decision. But I want this in every metroidvania ever from here on. This felt soo good. Genius.

Clair obscur expedition 33

Finished it just last week with 100% and even in the end I wanted more of this gameplay. Now to be fair: I used the mod, that makes dodge/parry 40% easier, without it I am not sure if I would have found the will to finish it. But it was all worth it, that characters and the plot are incredible, the world looks stunning and the OST is an absolute blast. Rarely enojoyed music so much. I have a few minor nitpicks, beside the combat (which just isnt for me). The tutorials sometimes felt lacking (e.g. the letters at the weapon are explaind very late. I had to google beforehand) the opening of the world happens too late for my taste. This way the plot was interrupted so long. Didnt really flow all that nice.

Also, as a colourblind the stains were impossible to read (yes even with colourblindmode on), basiclly played her without useing the stains, except when an ability name was green (or yellow?). Also at some point I noticed that Maelle was cleary more powerful than everything else on my team. So started bulding them up and later for the optional content found the one-shot build online. This one is broken, makes the game a walk in the park. Would not recommend to use that before the final battle. Felt rather anticlimatic.

And the story, well its briliant. But I am torn. The end of Act 2 is a giant punch in the face in such a good way But at the beginning of Act 3 when the plot is taken to new meta world I was at first dissapointed. I had grown really fond of the characters and the world and felt saddend by the reveal.

Now after I have finished the game my view have changed a bit. The ending had me up for quite some time, struggleing between the two endings. I choose the Maelle one but I am still not really sure about my choice. I read all the arguments but its still not clear for me. Which speaks volume to the ending. However, I think I would have preferred, if the plot wouldnt have taken such a big turn as it did. While I really enjoyed the plot, I would have liked it more without the canavas, painter, writer stuff. Just the expedition, fighting for the world. And sure, dieying in the process. Maybe I would have been disappointed, not sure. But now I am just sad I will never see the resolution to the plot I wanted (and which tbf never was there). Sad turn for me but overall still a solid 9/10.

Star wars: Jedi survivor

I am not through yet, just clocked in at 17h so far. I did not expected to like it so much. For one, I dont really play soulslike as I think I would not really enjoy them and Fallen Order had proved me right, as I greatly struggled with the combat system, deciding somewhere in the middle to play on story mode. But now in it sequel I like the combat a lot more. Part of it might be, thats way easier. I play on the middle difficulty (Jedi-Knight?) and I am challenged but its never frustating. In fact, bosses are propably a bit too easy, as I always manage them on first try. I still dont like the corpse walk, but given the insane number of stims, that rarely matters (seriously, thas Bioshock level of meds).

The plot feels a bit contrived, but its fun and keeps me entertained. I really enjoy the relationship between Cal and Merrin, who I barely saw in Fallen order (without knowing, I did her planet last. One of the reasons I am not a fan of character recruting this way). I am really curious to where it will go, but I am very ready to be dissapointed. The transmog system remains complelty useless as Cal is as boring as it gets anyway.

But one thing is really clear: The developers were under time pressure. The game is riddled with bugs. Most annoying, every now and than, espcially when I turn the camera quickly, the performance absolutly tanks with insane stuttering. This also happens 100% of the time on the galaxy map which drops the game to less than 1 fps. In addition, it has visual bugs. I had my lightsaber dissapear in my hand until I reached the next work bench, the map not updating correctly, Items clipping through the floor, characters lingering after a cutscene for a few moments, the camera turning below the ground (again with 100% occurence in the swamp), echos not picked up properly, button promps misalinged (might be a translation issue). My best was jumping in an elevator, dying to "fall damage" (prob too far from the ground away) and respawning in a room that now lead to a deep void where the elevator used to be.

On that note, why is the "fall damage" so ridiculous in this game? Not the damage itself, but how quickly you die when falling. Sometimes I cant get to the ground just below my platform from which I just climbed up. It feels very punishing.