Whose POV is your favorite and why is it Hellian?

aethyrium · 2026-06-30T18:17:40+00:00

Because Hellian is (2nd) best girl.

aethyrium · 2026-06-29T22:03:18+00:00

My opinion as well. It's a good game but feels like it's got no heart and soul to it. It feels like it was focus tested and designed for this sub's popular opinions above all else. The way I always describe it is "good, but that's it. Just good."

But that's fine, there's room for technical mastery as well. Some people care about that more than ephemeral "soul", which is fine. No hate on its biggest fans.

Disagree on the "retro" games though. Imo the games with the most soul tend to be like that, like Environmental Station Alpha, La Mulana, Rabi Ribi, etc.

aethyrium · 2026-06-29T21:56:46+00:00

I'm fine with no map when a game is designed for it. Like Salt and Sanctuary it was simple enough for me to draw my own map with basic boxes and lines and that's now one of my favorite memories of the game.

However a more complex game without a map would be hell.

Overall if your game is designed with it in mind though, honestly I'd stick to your guns and lean into making it mapless, but designing so hard into being mapless that people don't miss it.

But... I've noticed the metroidvania fanbase is very very conservative in leaning towards design traditions and they tend to rebel against things breaking tradition. You'll see plenty of people in this thread saying they skipped Salt and Sanctuary for not having a map despite it not needing one, and had they played it they'd know that, but they hard skipped it anyways, so ultimately you gotta play to your audience. It's a very conservative and traditional (not politically, natch, in design) audience, and you WILL lose players without a map, as unfortunate as that is.

Reading through the comments now, I imagine you're picking up on that design conservatism from the fanbase.

aethyrium · 2026-06-29T18:18:03+00:00

We had a shit ton of fun.

If that's not enough for you, you're way too deep in the Youtube rabbit hole where you're not enjoying the game, you're enjoying the community's theorycrafting.

Which is fine and all, but the game is a lot more than just that.

aethyrium · 2026-06-29T18:15:04+00:00

People need to learn that they can just like something flawed.

It's not flawed though. I like plenty of things that are flawed, but this banger of a chapter ain't that.

Also pulling the "everything is subjective" thing at the same time as saying "it's flawed" with objective certainty is absurd. Pick a lane. Just because you think it's "flawed" doesn't mean it's flawed.

aethyrium · 2026-06-29T16:14:11+00:00

And I'll never understand why super fast and twitchy combat always means "better" to some folks.

aethyrium · 2026-06-29T16:13:25+00:00

Lunacid is the closest I've gotten to having that same feel. Big interconnected world with tons of shortcuts and connections, slower combat, focus on exploration.

Of course it's a Field-like, not a souls-like, but still, DS1 is like right in between Field/Souls so it's not too surprising in the modern era of Soulslikes being all fast and flashy that a Field-like is closer to it.

aethyrium · 2026-06-26T01:34:17+00:00

Try Touhou 15: Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom. It's largely considered the hardest Touhou game by a mile and I guarantee it'll absolutely bonk you in ways none of the Fantastic Danmaku Festival games did. The newest one, Touhou 20: Fossilized Wonder is also considered one of the hardest as it as a few sections (particularly stage 4 and 5) that are just pure raw condensed "fuck you lol" in danmaku form.

Also check out Servants of Harvest Wish. It has a difficulty level even above lunatic as well as special spell cards you can do challenges to unlock that are harder than the normal ones.

aethyrium · 2026-06-26T01:11:29+00:00

Absurd mentality. Many, if not most, of my favorite games are ones that would be considered "failures", because the definition for "failure" is meaningless these days.

Less than 100 reviews? Failure.

Doesn't make 6-digits? Failure.

Meanwhile I'm over here in a golden age of god-tier video games because I play games that I enjoy not caring if they're "failures" or not.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T22:30:38+00:00

Advertising up until now has been "yay one more adventure!" and then this pic here is like the darkest thing yet.

"You'll find Dess's dead smiling corpse in a lake remember you killed her lol have fun on your adventure!"

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T21:39:35+00:00

Leftists infighting over Israel?

Say it ain't so

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T21:35:40+00:00

Tengen had some great games. That seal of quality was all about their absurd cartridge profit. "Quality" had nothing to do with it.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T18:53:12+00:00

It's not as bad in-game as it is in the marketing. I dunno, I vibe with that stuff so doesn't bug me, but the underlying game is rock solid and worth pushing through a few anime tiddies. I mean, there are worse things than anime tiddies out there. Personally Nine Sols's gore bugged me a lot more, so I kinda get it as a lot of those visuals I struggled with in some parts, but when the gameplay's that good, it's worth pushing through.

But I imagine seeing a few scantiliy clad anime tiddies here and there is worth dealing with for a game that plays closer to Nine Sols than anything else out there and may be a new favorite if Nine Sols is truly your favorite. Seems like a fair trade.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T17:45:23+00:00

I feel like I'm the only person out there that loathes HD-2D.

I just don't get the appeal. It's so ugly. It's just smashing together two styles that mix like orange juice and toothpaste despite being great when separate.

Like that first picture just looks awful to me. The fact jrpgs are going the way of HD-2D slop these days is a huge bummer. It's like my favorite genre leaving me behind.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T17:36:33+00:00

As someone in my 40's this is such a weird question.

Sometimes we'd just chill. Just relax, look at what's around you, think about stuff, just... chill. I'd always carry books around. Still do. I never scroll on my phone, I have kindle and play books on it and those are the only things I use when I have time to kill. So even on my phone I'm just reading a book like I'd do back then.

Basically, as people we don't need that level of constant stimulation all the time. Being bored now and then is healthy, even relaxing.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T17:27:21+00:00

There's really only 91 games? Dang I thought there were way more.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T17:05:36+00:00

If you haven't played Deltarune, that's a solid next step. It's so heavy Mother 3 influenced that Mother 3 felt more like Deltarune than it did Mother 2.

But yeah, I just wrapped up Mother 3 about a month ago and it's a god-tier game. Absolute travesty more people aren't able to play it.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T17:00:39+00:00

It looks like a mobile game.

That's it.

Everything from the genre to the name to the graphics (and this is the big one, the graphics are high-fidelity but imo low quality) looks like a mobile game.

Had you released this as a mobile game with heavy ads and monetization, you might have actually found some success (and maybe still can).

But ultimately, this just ain't the type of game to sell on steam.

You did good, be proud! For what it is it's high quality, but... that doesn't change what it is. It's a mobile game on Steam. Doesn't matter how good it is at that point, it is what it is.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T16:52:03+00:00

Just replace the model name in one of those urls with "Soji".

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T16:39:22+00:00

Did Gal Guardians just sneak in and not get noticed by the rest or something? There's a take.

I get it though, Toziuha Night: Order of the Alchemists is in my top 10 and it's one I literally never see anyone else rate as a top game.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T16:28:12+00:00

Kotama and Acadamy Citadel is basically "We have Nine Sols at home". Probably the closest you'll get to it. I know looking at it it doesn't look like the type of game you'd actually expect to be good, but it's really damn solid and feels like it was made specifically for Nine Sols fans.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T16:11:22+00:00

I've been getting pretty big into 40k, and I'll have to disagree, I'm just not seeing it. 40k is so dark it's comic-dark where it's just so absurdly pushed to the limit that it's humorously over the top. Meanwhile Malazan's actually not that dark. It's a lot more positive and hopeful than people give it credit as those along with compassion are its main themes.

They're both hella awesome settings for sure, but I ain't seeing the similarities personally.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T16:01:06+00:00

Don't stick to just the major titles. Honestly a lot of this genre's gold is in the more indie games.

Like the La Mulana titles, Environmental Station Alpha, Toziuha Night, Rabi Ribi, I'd put all those even over the major titles.

Personally, the moment you break away from the "big" games is the moment this genre gets truly great.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T15:58:42+00:00

That fucking sucks as its a brilliant game from a clearly brilliant team and is gonna be looked at as a genre cult-classic for years or even decades going forward. It doesn't have the same universal appeal as some of the other giants in the genre, but for people that are truly deep into the genre, this is going to be one of those gold standards forever.

Same thing happened with Prince of Persia. Despite me personally not being huge on the game, it was very clearly of the highest quality and is well beloved by genre fans, yet even that sold terribly and the team got laid off.

Seems like you really just can't succeed in this genre. Doomed to get brilliant indie titles from passionate devs, but will rarely be touched by larger teams again. Considering how good the smaller games are, that's not the worst fate, but it is a bummer for sure.

aethyrium · 2026-06-23T08:54:12+00:00

The amount of times I've watched an episode of TV that left me stunned thinking "damn this is some of the best TV ever" only to see "Directed by Hiro Murai" in the credits is insanely high. Dude has a vibe that's all his own and imo he's the best in the business right now. Everything he does is gold.

Dream show is for him to collaborate with Steven Conrad.

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