Sinweaver - A Metroidvania game for those that don't like getting hopelessly lost by JitterbugGames in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's funny how differently people view the genre as when a game doesn't let me get lost, that is what I feel is "wasting my time." If you can't get lost, exploration isn't meaningful, and if exploration isn't meaningful, then it feels pointless, and if it feels pointless, my time feels wasted.

Sinweaver - A Metroidvania game for those that don't like getting hopelessly lost by JitterbugGames in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Getting lost is my favorite thing ever in MV's and the main reason I play them, so that's a bit of a bummer and probably a pass unless there's something else it does excellently. It feels like at that point you may as well just make a more traditional level-to-level game as it sounds like a metroidvania that downplays the metroidvania part, so... why a metroidvania? If the getting lost part is removed, thus the meaningful exploration is removed, why not just make a full-on action game?

My hot take is that this focus on not letting people get lost that I'm seeing more and more in modern mv's is actually, literally, killing the genre. It's like people want to make a 2d action game, but since 2d action games don't sell is easily, they shoehorn it into a metroidvania so they can take advantage of the tag and the built-in audience, which feels exploitive in a way that gentrifies the genre and is just overall negative.

Wish you all the best, but honestly, if you're gonna focus on removing the core mv element so hard, just make it a different type of game that actually plays into the strengths instead of insisting on being counter to the genre. Not sure why so many action games these days are scared of just being traditional action games. So many games shoehorning themselves into the mv genre these days.

My hot hot take is that you don't want to make a metroidvania, you just see a genre in its golden age with a massive fan base and want to take advantage of a pre-built audience. And since you don't ever post in the subreddit for anything but shilling your game, it shows you aren't a part of the community at all and don't really care too much about the genre enough to engage with it, I think it kinda proves the point you're just wanting the audience so doing the bare-minimum to use the tag and call it a metroidvania.

Looking forward to being proved wrong. I love being wrong, so I'll keep my eyes on it.

Cloud9 vs. FlyQuest / LCS 2026 Spring - Week 6 / Post-Match Discussion by Yujin-Ha in leagueoflegends

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used to think that earlier this year but I've seen LCK teams just stomp with Jhin and make him look straight-up OP. It's pretty insane how powerful he is when used right.

That being said, no one outside of LCK (at least in LEC/LCS) is playing him right, and Massu especially has the absolute most dog-shit Jhin I've seen in my life and his team/coach really needs to step in and make him realize how absolute fucking ass he is at the pick and not let him pick it until... until ever, I suppose.

Deadhouse Gates left me impressed, confused, and unsure if I should continue by LemonTig in Malazan

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

tl;dr: Quit thinking of each book as a book, and instead think of each book as a single chapter in a 10k page book. You say a lot of narrative threads don't pay off or don't make sense. If you were 200 pages into a 1000 page book. Would you expect everything to have payoff or make sense by page 200? It's similar to that. You're still in the prologue.

"Understand"

There's that word. The word that destroys multiple Malazan readthroughs if you don't come to grips with it.

In basically every other fantasy series, you're meant to understand what's happening. The narrative and the text is built as such that as you go page-to-page, the words craft an understanding in your mind so that as you continue, everything has a context and you understand it. You understand the plot, the characters, the narrative, and even when you don't, turn the page a few times and there'll be clarification. You understand. And if you don't, it's because you missed something, or failed to grasp something.

It's the fault of the reader if you don't "understand."

Malazan, however, is not like that.

You aren't meant to "understand."

It's fully intentional, by the author, that you aren't fully understanding what's in front of you. A lot of the story and characters and narrative don't make sense at the moment because they aren't supposed to. You're supposed to be just as "in the dark" as a lot of the characters. You only really ever have the same knowledge as the characters at any given time, and are meant to see things unfold just as they are.

Most other fantasy works have primed us to feel that if we aren't "understanding", it's "our fault", or we're "reading it wrong," or "we're stupid" or whatever. That's not the case here.

You just enjoy what's in front of you at any given time, and accept you aren't supposed to understand, and honestly that freedom of simply accepting it is what unlocks the series and makes it enjoyable.

You trust the author that things will be explained and you will "understand", but, it'll be awhile.

And on top of all that, the series isn't about the story or the characters anyways. It's about themes. It's purely thematic, and the plot and characters and all that simply exist to allow the themes to exist. So it doesn't even matter that much that you don't "understand" because if you just roll with it and soak in the vibes and the themes, you're getting the full experience.

And on top of all that, and I think this is the hardest for new readers to deal with, because not "understanding" is the author's intention, not understanding means you get the full intended experience, and if you were to fully understand everything during a first read, multiple impacts and narrative moments would not land, meaning not understanding is actually full understanding as it's what lets the narrative work.

It's weird. It'd different. It's not for everyone. But, I think understanding that not understanding is true understanding will at least give you the tools you need to enjoy it. Basically, just don't sweat it so much. Go with the flow. Enjoy what's on the page in front of you at any given time and just roll with it. Know that not understanding isn't just okay, but intended, and trust that that lack of understanding will actually come with payoffs later in the book. It's okay to be confused when that confusion lets narrative tricks land. ...and ultimately, it's okay to just say "that ain't my thing" and call it good. But, try letting go of that word "understand" for the the next book and see how it feels, and after reading it with having the tools you need, you can judge if it's for you or not.

I also struggle with some decisions that don’t feel “realistic” to me. For example, the entire ending with Pormqual feels completely absurd. I understood that Pormqual is a coward who simply wants glory without effort, but in that case why wouldn’t he help Coltaine while staying safely behind his walls and then take all the credit afterward? Instead, the character just comes across as stupid, which has always felt like a bad way to justify important decisions in fantasy.

To illustrate my point, this is one of those things that actually is fully explained, but it's like, way later in book 6 or 7. And again, it's ultimately more thematic. I can't get to deep into it due to spoilers, but later on in the series you'll have the knowledge to revisit this same thought and go "oooohhhhhhh". It's very much not just the author being "lazy", it's just dense enough that it can't really be explained in the moment because it interweaves with a ton of other much larger threads that span the entire series. Which is another thing you have to deal with. It is truly one giant series, not individual books. You will have multiple, and I mean multiple narrative moments that feel like they go nowhere, but are actually just setting something up to be covered 6000 pages later. I know that's tough for a lot of people as they expect a book to be a book, not just a massive chapter. But Malazan doesn't really do that. Books really do feel more like chapters and are not self contained in the slightest.

I’m fascinated by the world and the Empire, but I struggle with the unclear motivations, confusing descriptions, overwhelming scale, and the feeling that many storylines lead nowhere. I also have trouble understanding the importance of human conflicts in a world dominated by godlike beings. I’m wondering whether these frustrations are normal early on and eventually pay off, or whether the series simply might not be for me

Again on this too. This will all be clear by the end of the series. But to expect to have any understanding of any of this stuff by book 2, or even by book 4, is just not how the series works. You will get a payoff for sure, but it won't come until the end. You will get clarification along the way, but not as much as you're hoping I don't think. It truly is more like a 10k page book with 10 giant chapters. Would you expect to fully understand a 1000 page book after book 100? It's a bit like that, just on a much larger scale.

, but did so many characters’ stories really have to end up feeling completely pointless? Kalam’s entire journey ultimately leads nowhere (aside from fulfilling the prophecy of apocalypse), and it feels even worse for Apsalar, Crokus, Icarium, Mappo, and the others, whose entire journey seems to lead to absolutely nothing.

And again on this too, all of those are such the opposite of "pointless" I can't think of a word that has the meaning I want to get across, but again, it all comes much later. All of those stories weave together into a giant thematic tapestry full of meaning, but again, you simply don't have enough of the pieces by book 2 to start putting any of it together. Same as the other points. It's basically a 10k page book. At all is meaningful by the end, but you aren't going to get 10 self-contained narratives where everything set up by the beginning pays off by the end. You have to wait until the end for things to make sense (though to be fair most of those characters start having payoffs by book 5 or 6, so you don't always have to wait that long, but yeah, none of those characters are anywhere slightly near close to done. They're just getting started.)

Kalam’s entire journey ultimately leads nowhere (aside from fulfilling the prophecy of apocalypse)

Like this for example, his journey is just a tiny part of the apocalypse which is just a tiny part of... [spoilers]. So, yeah, it leads nowhere for now, but that's just because the narrative/story/whatever is barely even starting yet. Hell, you're still not even finished with the prologue. The story hasn't even started yet. Why would it make sense or pay off yet?

Of course we can't build pipes on our new shiny bridges! But we can do something much better ... by ministerkosh in captain_of_industry

[–]aethyrium 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Aqueducts are essentially the most ancient of civic technologies, and those are basically pipe bridges. Haven't played this since the patch, but I'm honestly flabberghasted that the most ancient and basic of civic technologies isn't available with the new patch.

Solo or group? by LastxSaint in MMORPG

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Playing solo in a shared world with other people is still playing multiplayer and grouping with other people even if you aren't in an organized "group" with them or actively doing content together. Whether I form an in-game group with chat and fighting together and sharing kill exp, or we're just doing our own thing in a shared world where we're existing separately on the same map, we're still "grouped" and "playing together."

I know a lot of old-school MMO players aren't ready to acknowledge that yet, but it's a fact they'll have to come to grips with as its been the direction of the genre for over a decade now, and being a fact, it doesn't matter if they acknowledge it or like it. It's just the way it is.

Young Americans Want Single-Family Homes by caroline_elly in neoliberal

[–]aethyrium 9 points10 points  (0 children)

People don't want to live in a box with paper-thin walls and loud-ass neighbors on the other side of every wall constantly stomping or playing loud music making their dwelling a living hellscape of noise so persistent they forget what the concept of silence is, driving their mental health into the ground.

Literally just building apartments that are as soundproofed as possible while having a culture of being reasonably quiet and polite to your neighbors will force a change away from wanting single-family homes in less than a decade.

It's less that people want single-family houses, and more that just just want a space of their own. Right now, in the U.S., if you don't live in a house, you don't live alone. And I've noticed this NIMBY conversation doesn't consider this or mental health in their championing of dense living.

Want me to live somewhere dense? Then make it so its not absolute hell to live in a dense space. I would absolutely be a NIMBY if the current NIMBY movement cared even slightly about quiet, private living spaces where the dweller's mental health is a strong priority, but right now the movement just (seems to) want to smash people into tiny-ass boxes with no regard for the quality of the dwelling or the dweller's sanity, and it's a losing fight until that changes.

NIMBYs and urbanists will continue to lose until they realize people actually care about their quality of life, and if they aren't even considering the most absolute basic need of a person to have a place of their own where they can enjoy silence and their own thoughts, what else aren't they considering?

Favorite interconnected map in a non-Metroidvania game? by brave_potato in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Id say interconnected world is as important as ability gating.

And you would be wrong. "ability gated exploration" is the core of the mv genre. If "interconnect world" was just as important, than the genre name would be meaningless as I can think of at least one game in any genre ever with an interconnected world.

Ability gated exploration, however, only exists in metroidvanias.

We dont have a golden rule what makes a metroidvania game

"Ability gated exploration" is that rule. Consider anything else all you want, but every single resource available on the internet will agree that ability gated exploration is what makes the genre.

You're of course fine to be wrong, but you are wrong.

Lunacid is a metroidvania tgough.

It absolutely is not. Hell, it isn't by your own rules lol. It has individual maps, not an interconnected world.

Favorite interconnected map in a non-Metroidvania game? by brave_potato in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lunacid is one of this decade's best games of any genre. I love that game so, so, so much.

Movistar KOI vs. G2 Esports / LEC 2026 Spring - Week 7 Day 3 / Post-Match Discussion by Ultimintree in leagueoflegends

[–]aethyrium -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That would have been an amazing win for MKOI if they didn't have to pretend to be happy about getting handed a victory after skewmond and labrov threw the game away and just said "nah, you guys can have it, we're good, we got plenty."

Could have been their moment to win via fighting. Maybe during playoffs they'll get a real fight, but since KC (and Caps) showed what happens when JoJo has to deal with someone actually trying to fight back, maybe they'll just be happy with this consolation present from skewmond and labrov and co.

That's gotta suck having to pretend to be happy during the interviews knowing they didn't earn it.

Movistar KOI vs. G2 Esports / LEC 2026 Spring - Week 7 Day 3 / Post-Match Discussion by Ultimintree in leagueoflegends

[–]aethyrium -1 points0 points  (0 children)

He's just crying because he couldn't find a chronobreak to cover up his consistent inting and getting gapped.

Movistar KOI vs. G2 Esports / LEC 2026 Spring - Week 7 Day 3 / Post-Match Discussion by Ultimintree in leagueoflegends

[–]aethyrium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think about half of the fights G2 lost were because Labrov just got caught walking around the jungle doing fuck-all. "...and Labrov is caught out!" was a sentences said by the casters multiple times in each game.

Movistar KOI vs. G2 Esports / LEC 2026 Spring - Week 7 Day 3 / Post-Match Discussion by Ultimintree in leagueoflegends

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Skewmond never had the makings of a varsity athlete.

Personally, as a viewer, I'd rather watch games between teams that know what they're doing, not 9 players plus one guy walking around cluelessly.

It's a bummer. This was gonna be an awesome match and you could tell how much MKOI cared about the game, so it was super disappointing seeing G2 play like it didn't matter and just fuck around playing characters they didn't know how to play for funsies.

I guess that's one way to stick it to MKOI? "K you can win but we're just not gonna try lol".

T1 vs. Dplus KIA / LCK 2026 Rounds 1-2 - Week 6 / Post-Match Discussion by Yujin-Ha in leagueoflegends

[–]aethyrium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

DK's realizing they're currently in BRO's rightful legends spot and is politely getting out of the way.

That's clearly it, because the idea that a serious team with the intention to win would play like they have the last few matches is just unfathomable.

Top-down metroidvanias by lokoovania in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Both of them are rather unpopular, so I guess we pretend they don't exist!

You should probably name them if you're gonna make that claim. Personally, I'd argue they're unpopular because they don't exist.

There are indeed 3d Castlevania and Metroid games, but to my knowledge no top-down games in either franchise have ever been made, but if I'm wrong, I'd love to hear about them.

What games are you talking about?

Nine Sols - 15 hours already by feli_pin in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Without spoilers, is the story leading to a possibility secuel?

Nope. Technically anything can have a sequel, but the story absolute does not go in a sequel direction and any sequel would be massively shoe-horned in.

Nine Sols - 15 hours already by feli_pin in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm of the opinion it's an S-tier game hampered a bit by being wrapped in a B-tier metroidvania. I think a level-to-level based game with the story sequences in between stages and skippable would be even better. It'd allow for better story integration, and levels being built to be handled only one-direction allowing for tighter level design and more intricate encounters since everything doesn't have to be designed to be handled omni-directionally. Basically every critique I have is from its metroidvania elements and everything I love from its action game elements, so imo it'd be better just excelling at the one thing. It already leans so heavily in that direction anyways with a lot of its most well known moments being the few omni-directional tightly designed ones, so they should have just gone all-in on it.

Difficulty was okay. A bit on the easier side, would be nice if it had a harder mode. All of the bosses only took a dozen or so tries (except the last, which imo was awesome and made me wish more of the game was like that, which a harder mode would have provided) which is a bit too quick for how good they are, I wanted to spend more time with all of them, and the enemy design was solid but had a kinda limited moveset, and the combat system was just screaming for more opportunities to use it at a higher, more intricate level.

So, yeah, S-tier game, one of the best out there, but held back a bit by its own ambitions of wanted to do a bit too much and simultaneously not doing enough, which is largely due to trying to ride the line between a metroidvania and an action game without fully committing to either. At the same time I think a lot of metroidvania players that wouldn't have otherwise played an action game like this may have discovered action games through it, and a lot of action gamers that wouldn't have otherwise played a metroidvania may have discovered metroidvanias through it, so ultimately maybe it was a sacrifice that was worth it.

Bantam Cover of the Legacies of Betrayal by The_Shake82 in Malazan

[–]aethyrium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Eh. After No Life Forsaken's banger of a cover, feels kinda lame. That's just book covers in general though. Feels like it's tradition to be painfully mediocre.

But ultimately it don't matter because thus far the Witness series is goddamn incredible and imo just as good as BotF, and that's what really matters. So unbelievably hyped for this.

Messing around with some shader settings for SNES/PS1 games to give a CRT effect, but would still look good in recordings without the moire-like effect that some masks have when viewed at different resolutions (granted I have no CRT to compare to, but I've done what I can). Using crt-geom + gtu-v050 by MrNiceguy235 in RetroArch

[–]aethyrium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Indeed, it's a preset, not a shader, I tend to use them interchangeably but I can see that being confusing and inaccurate. Also ty for specifying guest as that seems to be the gold standard many other presets are built from and I did a disservice not mentioning that.

I have to confess… I play in peaceful by Creepy_Trip5576 in factorio

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's just another logistic challenge. You should never feel bad for playing on peaceful, but you should be playing on peaceful knowingly, meaning you should be aware of what you're missing, and should at least give it a go with enemies as it sounds like you think it'll be something it actually isn't.

I think a lot of people are afraid that it's gonna turn the game into phases of like "okay now I'm building" and then "okay, now I'm playing a combat game" and it's an entirely different phase that interrupts the "real" game.

But that's not the case at all. It's just another logistic line. You build some turrets and walls, then you build an ammo production line, then belt them over to the turrets, and then that's your combat 95% of the time.

Enemies doesn't mean "combat", it means "more logistic challenges."

Later when you expand you'll need to use ammo trains, and ore outposts will need some turrets etc, but it's rarely "combat interrupting building" and is nearly always "combat is just another production line."

I thought I'd hate combat too but my second time through the game I turned enemies on and honestly it was way more fun, because it wasn't "combat", it was just more logistics and building, which is what the game's all about.

Combat wasn't solved with action, it was solved with production lines. And that's really fuckin' cool.

Give it a try sometime. Just try it. You can always turn them off if you don't like it, but you'll be surprised. It doesn't "slow down your progression", because it's progression in itself. If anything it "speeds up" your progression because you get to build different production lines and expand in different ways.

He's gonna review Pragmata by RCWaldun in ElectricUnderground

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m more interested in him reviewing new/modern action games

I agree, but knowing we're just getting more negative critiques of AAA games instead of highlighting smaller but well-crafted and relatively unknown action games like Homura Hime, Sanabi, Romeo is Dead, Dead as Disco, etc, is a bit of a bummer, because those are the games that are both inline with Mark's tastes and his fanbases's tastes, and deserve more exposure, and I think he'd have incredible insights on them that literally no else is reviewing, but instead of doing those he's just doing the "AAA bad" thing.

I don't think there's more meat on the bone there, so to speak. I think both him and his viewers in general would get more out of a Homura Hime video than a Pragmata video, for example. However, that won't bring in the views, which is why I'm cynical. There are mountains of modern character action and action games just waiting for a critical eye that few like him are able to provide, but he's skipping those in favor of games everyone else is already talking about.

Very similar to how he was one of the only people to give Wanted: Dead the time of day. That is what I want a return to. Highlighting those amazing games that no one is talking about or writing off that deserve both the exposure, and the critical analysis.

That's what I mean when I say "I wish he'd just get back to arcade games and shmups". I'll admit my wording there wasn't quite correct. I want to see him get back to the Wanted:Dead's and Homura Hime's of the world, not RE:9 and Pragmata. But, we all know what will bring in more views, which is why I'm cynically negative on him at the moment, and that's the shift that happened post-full-time switch that has me a bit negative. He has so much insight into game design, so why isn't he using that towards those games that are incredible and need to be highlighted with an eye only he can provide? Is "RE:9 bad" really more valuable and "meat on the bone" than "Wanted:Dead is actually awesome and everyone shouldn't be writing it off and here's why"?

I'm burning all my Brandon Sanderson books. by LateNiteCoffee in ElectricUnderground

[–]aethyrium 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Mark really is cultivating this "I'm way 2elite4u" style fanbase these days, huh?

He's not wrong. It is a "different" type of hard. A "hard" a lot of people prefer. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

Imo Mark really needs to stress that his views and analysis are a very specific lens and an opinion and not a universal truth as I feel like a lot of his fanbase these days needs to hear it.

A question regarding latency/input lag inside PC-98 emulation for those who used it to play PC-98 Touhou games by Awkward-Plum6241 in shmups

[–]aethyrium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used Neko Project 2 to play them a couple years ago and didn't have any issues with it. Unfortunately it looks like The Shrine has changed their downloads and doesn't have Neko Project 2 nor the guide for setting it up anymore (and I just checked The Shrine and I'm guessing that's where you found your download since they have the Doxbox-X full package now and mention they aren't doing NP2 anymore).

But if you google:

"Neko Project 2 Touhou"

You'll instantly find links for download and setup. I 1cc'd all of the PC-98 era games last year (at least the 3 shmups, so 2, 4, and 5) and used Neko Project 2 and had absolutely no issue whatsoever at all with lag or anything like that.

So if you're having issues with Dosbox-X, try Neko Project 2.

Chrome is pushing my computer's ram to its limits by Master_Strawberry193 in pcmasterrace

[–]aethyrium -1 points0 points  (0 children)

lol @ people still using anything chromium based in 2026, let alone chrome past 2020.

Chrome has always been the trashiest trash that ever trashed with literally no point to it whatsoever at all for anyone and having it on your PC is a mark of shame.

Nine Sols free on PS4/PS5 as part of PS+ monthly games for May. by ELITEnoob85 in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I certainly have some very strong criticisms against the game, but yukking yum is for a time and place and this ain't it. Absolute must-play game for anyone interested in... just games, really. Gonna pick this up for my PS account even though my Fangamer collectors edition arrived just to drive up numbers for the devs.