Now Playing Update

I've spent the past couple of days downloading the E3 video game zeitgeist directly into my brain--to the point that it's become more than a little overwhelming. I've yet to see today's Nintendo Direct but I'll be catching up on that this evening. I'm on social media blackout until that point in the hope that there'll be at least a couple of surprises. I'll update tomorrow with some of my thoughts on everything I've absorbed over the past few days, but in the meantime, let's talk about what I've been playing recently.

First up, I finished up a low chaos run of Dishonored: Definitive Edition. I didn't really play this type of game back when it first came out in 2013, but after finishing it, I was definitely pleased with the experience. I think it'll be a gateway toward more first-person games for me. I've traditionally had a real issue with first-person perspective games in general, whether they be shooters or something in the vein of The Elder Scrolls, because they've always made me feel a tad claustrophobic. I've played more of them these past couple of years, though, and I'm starting to become a lot more accustomed to them. It's easier now for me to get what makes them appealing.

In the case of Dishonored, it makes a lot of sense to play a stealth game from first-person perspective. Although I don't typically care that much about immersion, I can't help but feel captivated by leaping from rooftop to rooftop, blinking to far away locations to try to stay out of sight while looking through that character's eyes. There is a feeling there that third-person games just don't capture, even though it is occasionally disorienting. There's also the fact that aiming ranged weaponry and choosing spots to teleport to just works a lot better from that perspective.

I'm currently toying around with the DLC where you assume control of Daud, whose powers differ from Corvo's in a few important ways. I'll have more to say on that once I've played more. Although I was utterly pacifist in my runthrough of the game with Corvo, I've decided to be ruthlessly bloodthirsty as Daud for the sake of variety.

I also recently finished up the final (?) piece of DLC for Assassin's Creed Odyssey, a game on which I've already spent well over a hundred hours. The recently-released Torment of Hades takes Kassandra (or Alexios) to the depths of the Greek underworld, where she reunites with a few of her fallen friends. I have to admit that I wasn't as immediately engaged by this as previous AC Odyssey content if only because I'm burned out on the game in general. The gameplay is as solid as ever, but the grim, dark atmosphere of Hades didn't do much for me after becoming accustomed to the bright and beautiful fields of Elysium in the previous DLC chapter.

On a whim, I recently downloaded an indie game by the name of Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, a tactical RPG very much inspired by Final Fantasy Tactics. It's not the first game to make that claim, but it's a lot closer to the truth than with a game like Children of Zodiarcs, for instance, an excellent game that would have benefitted from not inviting that comparison. In the case of Fell Seal, I also see a lot of influence from Tactics Ogre, particularly with the way it handles some of its secret classes. I like the game a lot, but I don't think my opinion of it will be crystallized until I've finished it. Once I've done so, I'll talk about it a bit more.

Another game I finished recently is Gato Roboto, a charming little Metroidvania in which you take the role of a cat piloting a mech. At the behest of its lovable scientist master, it traverses a series of subterranean alien passageways in order to assist him with repairing his crashed ship. The game's design is much in the vein of Super Metroid, with elements that I assume must have been inspired by Blaster Master, since the cat can leave the mech and explore smaller passages on its own. The game design is tried and true, but it feels so good to play that I really enjoyed my time with it. I also enjoyed that it was only about a four-hour game since I've played so many 80+ hour experiences this year.

Finally, I also started playing Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, a game that I've been looking forward to for a year or more since I originally heard about it. I was worried I wouldn't be too eager to play it after sinking a ton of time into Etrian Odyssey Nexus, but the style of Q2 is different enough that it feels like a breath of fresh air. The visual style is so much more striking and memorable that it significantly enhances the experience. And of course I am in love with the music of this game. I'm very eager to play more and to write about it more as time goes on.