Tag: sequels | A Banana Peeled

More speculation about remakes, remasters, and sequels

Posted on February 23, 2026 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

I want to talk more about remasters, remakes, and sequels. I talked about it a bit in the past post beacuse I was ranting about PlayStation closing Bluepoint Games. I did not think it got enough ink because of what happened the next day (Phil Spencer ‘retiring’ and Sarah Bond ‘resigning’–from Xbox.) It never fails. Every time PlayStation fucks up, Xbox is determined to one up them. It’s as if Xbox could not stand to give up the limelight for a second, even if it’s for a negative reason.

I’m tired. It’s hard being a ‘gamer’ these days. I put that in quotes beacuse I have never really concerned myself a gamer. I mean, I play games, yes, but I don’t like the whole gamer life. Come to think of it, I don’t like any fandom. It’s not a Groucho Marx thing (does anyone know who he is these days?), but just that I don’t like to conform to other people. I don’t like people telling me what to do, and I certainly don’t like people telling me what to think.

In addition, I can usually see all sides to things, which makes it hard for me to be a team player. Some people say I’m contrary. Some people would be right. Though I’m not contrary on purpose. What I mean is that I’m not doing it to be a dick. I’m not doing it just to be contrary. I just see things differently. I try to keep it to myself most of the time because I know it’s not welcome in polite company.

Side note: I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I learned at a very young age to hide my true feelings. I buried that shit deep because the reaction if I didn’t was very negative. It’s one reason I live alone. I can’t let my mask down if there is anyone else around. Even online. I put it on so automatically, it’s just a part of me by now. It’s only when I’m at home alone that I can be myself. Or when I had my cat/s. They accepted me as I was (as long as I fed them and gave them love, obviously).

I had never felt as accepted as I did by my cats. They were very different, but they both had positive feelings about me. In fact, I lived with both Raven and Shadow for nine years and with Shadow for an additional seven+ years. I lived with Shadow longer than I have with anyone else. I used to say Raven was my heart and Shadow was my soul.

It’s only in the last few months that I’ve even thought of adopting another cat, but every time, I start casually looking, my heart squeezes and says no. I know some people adopt new animal friends soon after losing one, but I just can’t. I wish I could because I think I would like to share my space again, but I just can’t.

I heart Dark Souls III (part two)

Posted on April 23, 2025 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

Yes, I’m doing one more post about my favorite Dark Souls game–the third one. Third Dark Souls, I mean. This is the millionth post I’ve written on the subject. Here’s the lastest post I wrote on it (from yesterday).

Many people thought the third game was not as hard as the first one. I would disagree. While, yes, the mechanics were similar so combat was very familiar, the bosess were so much harder in general. In the first game, I can now get almost all the base game bosses on my own in less than five tries each. Many times, it’s just one try. That’s not the case in Dark Souls III. When I play the third game, I always summon now. The few times I couldn’t summon a human, it was sad times. This was in the second DLC, by the way. The last boss in that DLC. Man. So bad and terrible. I don’t mean terrible as in a terrible boss, but so fucking hard. One of the hardest bosses in the series. I could not find a human to summon, so I did the poison cheese. It took forever, but it worked.

Here’s the thing. I don’t play these games for the difficulty–I truly do not. They are secondary to why I play them–indeed, they often get in my way. I know many people who love that about the games, but it’s a cross for me to bear to get to the good stuff.

Yes, I did solo the bosses when I first started playing. I felt I had to do it because that’s what ‘the community’ told me. Even when people stressed that it was not necessary, there was still an undercurrent of “but you’re a pussy if you don’t.”.

This is one of my least-favorite parts about the community, by the way. How toxic masculinity seeps through every pore. All the ways you’re “not a real gamer” if you don’t do this, that, or the other thing. No matter how much I roll my eyes at the notion, it’s hard not to let it get under my skin.

This game looks great. There aren’t as many shortcuts as there were in the first game beacuse you can fast-travel from the beginning, but the ones that are there are terrific. It definitely has Miyazaki’s handprint everywhere. In the Cathedral of the Deep, there are two doors you can unlock–and you can also go up to go yet another way. That was a very elegant design.

You really can tell when Miyazaki does the design and when he doesn’t. As much as I defind the second game, I have to admit the level design is not as elegant as the other two games. I didn’t find it as egregious as other people did, but it definitely isn’t as intricate as the first or third game are.

I am solidly in the camp of this is the most polished of the Souls games (and I’m speaking strictly of the trilogy). It’s the greatest hits, and while it wasn’t the most innovative of the trio, it still did bring a few new things to the table. I mentioned some of them in the last post, and while they may seem like little things, they really made a difference. The new Ashen Flask was such a game-changer. And the weapon arts/skills were interesting, even though I didn’t use them. The graphics were very polished, and there was plenty to see and do.

Dark Souls III is still the best

Posted on April 22, 2025 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

Dark Souls III (FromSoft) is my favorite of the Souls game,s and it’s tied with Elden Ring for my favorite game of all time. This is a controversial take, but I don’t even care. I am very careful to say that they are my favorite From games, not that they are the best From games. The reason for that is because I have a very hard time putting an obejective value on any game because, well, it’s just so subjective.

I mean, it’s fairly easy to say that a game is good or bad. And, for me, it’s easy to say that all the FromSoft games I’ve played and finished (this would exclude Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon because I did buy it and played the first hour or two, but I simply could not play it. The combat was beyond my abilities. But, from what I’ve seen other people play of it, it’s easily a 9 as well.

Here is my post from yesterday, in which I outlined some of the improvements and innovations FromSoft made in the third game. I have heard it said that Miyazaki was not the main director on the game, but he is listed as the director. He was not the main director on the second game. I do know that he redid Lost Izalith, the worst area in the first game, to his satifsfaction. I mentioned that yesterday as well.

Anyway. I have played the three Dark Souls games, Sekiro, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. They are all easily 9+ games. I must say that I don’t give 10s. I don’t think anything is perfect. I know the reasoning behind giving a 10, but I just can’t do it.

Side note: FromSoft do banger music trailers for their games. The one I’ve included before is for Dark Souls III. I have not heard/seen it before (as I’ve said, I don’t usually watch trailers ahead of time if I’m going to play the game. And then I forget to do it afterrwards). The song is In the Woods Somewhere, and it’s by Hozier. I’m surprised because I only know the one song by Hozier, which I don’t like at all. This song, though, is fire. And this trailer goes hard–as all FromSoft’s trailers do.

My list is pretty static except for the top two games. I have moved them back and forth endlessly, so I’ve pretty much decided they are tied. I have played Dark Souls III fairly recently, and it definitely holds up. It’s hard to go back and forth between it and Elden Ring, but that’s beacuse FromSoft likes to fuck with the buttons, just slightly, from game to game. Since they added a dedicated jump button to this game (A), they had to change interaction to Y. And because of that, they had to change two-handing your weapon in your right hand to holding Y and RB at the same time. Or the one in your left hand with Y and LB at the same time.

Fourth and final post about sequels

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

I’m going to do one (hopefully) final post about sequels. Not because I don’t have plenty to say about it, but because I’m ready to move on. In the last post, I griped a lot about how irritating subs have become. This is not specific to video games, but just in general. Ten bucks here and ten bucks there, it’s really not worth it if you don’t watch a ton of movies and/or TV. There’s Netflix and then Amazon Prime (on which you have to sub to sub-subs to watch most anything), Hulu, and Disney Plus as the big four. But there are so many more tahn that, I’m sure. Amazon Prime is $139 a year (which is basically $11.50 a month). The cehapest Netflix membership is $7.99 a month. That’s with ads. Hulu is $9.99 a month with adds or $99.99 a year. Disney+’s cheapest plan is $9.99 a month with ads, and you can’t download the content.

Netflix was supposed to be that, but things have become so splintered in the past dacade or two. And now that they’ve made my tier ad-supported, well, it guarantees I will not watch anything on Netflix. I tried to after the change was installed, and I could not stand it. I have ad-blocker installed, and I will not watch anything with ads. And, yes, you could argue that I could upgrade for ten bucks, but it’s simply not worth it to me. $7.99 is barely worth it to me–and I’m actually thinking about giving it up.

Netflix says that I’ll be pleasantly surprised how few ads there are at this level. Um, no. I used to pay the same amount for NO ads, so any ads more than none is not pleasant. Look. I get it. They need to make money. I have no problem with that. I can even see (begrudgingly) why they added ads to their lowest tier. But do not try to make it sound like a positive when it is not. Had they said, “We need to keep up with the times and our profits are flagging. We’re keeping the $7.99 tier, but we have to add ads to that level in order to make us competitive.” I might not have believed them, but I would have at least begrudgingly accepted t hat they had to do what they had to do.

But do not try to pretend that you’re not adding a negative when that’s clearly what you’re doing. Any ads is more than no ads for the same price. That’s a negative for the consumer, no matter how you slice it.

Back to sequels. Dark Souls III is tied for my favorite FromSoft game (with Elden Ring). Here’s the thing, though. It is very much comfort food and the ‘best of’ album that an aging rock band puts out after twenty years of playing together.

Sequel to the third, yes one more post

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

I want to talk about sequels some more because I can. This is the fourth post about sequels, and I want to talk specifically about the Cozy Grove sequel. I wrote about my impressions of it (Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit (Spry Fox)), but I got stuck on the idea of sequels.

I went deep into the rabbit hole of the different Dark Souls II launch trailers, which I have not seen before, as I was thinking about sequels. FromSoft trailers always go hard, and one reason I skip them is because they give so much away. Yes, it’s hard to tell what is what without context, but still. They show late-game bosses, which is just wild. In fact, for Dark Souls III, the final boss was the box art.

I have not played more of Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit, and there are several reasons for it. But first, I’d like to reiterate that this is a mobile game. The only reason I played it at all was because I was somehow included in the Netflix beta, which I did not know until I went to Netflix for the first time in quite some time. It’s funny because I went there to cancel my membership (another post for another day), and to my surprise, I was able to play Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit on my PC. I was stoked because there was no way I was going to play the game on mobile.

By the way, in searching for the reveal trailer, I stumbled on a Reddit thread from Cozy Grove fans who were heartbroken than the game was going to be a Netflix exclusive AND a mobile game. A few people were scolding the people who said they were mad/upset/disappointed because games cost money! Yes, they do. And as I stated in my quick look at the sequel, I am not upset at Spry Fox for grabbing that Netflix money. They need to get paid and they need to eat.

However. I am also with the stalwart fans who are upset because in order to play the game, you have to keep your Netflix membership in perpetuity AND you have to play the game on your cell phone. With a teeny tiny screen. Someone pointed out that the cheapest subscription is $7.99 a month, which is $95.88 a year. It might have been a bit cheaper when the game came out because they raised their prices fairly recently, but it wouldn’t have been that much cheaper.

I wonder how many people have played the game versus the first game, but I don’t think it would be easy to find that data. I don’t think Netflix would be freely letting that out into the wild. Also, please stay in your fucking lane, Netflix. I mentioned this earlier as well, but I don’t think they are doing the right thing as they try to get into the games biz.

Sequel to the sequel about sequels

Posted on April 19, 2025 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

I want to talk about sequels in video games one more time. In the last post, I pointed out some positive things about Scholar of the First Sin, the sequel to the first Dark Souls game. I ended it by talking about a popular FromSoft content creator who was pissed as hell that Elden Ring was designed around spirit summons. I’m not naming the guy, but he’s someone I watched casually in the past. A few months after Elden Ring was released, this guy put out a video that said in time, Elden Ring would be considered the worst FromSoft game. Ever.

I laughed in bemusement because one, it was only a few months after the game had come out. Two, who the hell was this guy to be the final arbiter on what was the worst FromSoft game of all time? Three. He was just wrong–and it was sour grapes. Four. It very much reminded me of fans of a hipster band who got angry when that band got big. “I was a fan before they were popular!”

Did FromSoft take a different tack with this game than with their past games? Yes. Did they balance the boss fights around spirit summons/human summons? Yes. More the former than the latter, but they made it pretty clear that the game was very summon-friendly. They also made it harder to get invaded in that you had to be using the multi-player aspect in order to be invaded. In past games, you could get invaded simply by being human–and in the case of Dark Souls II, when you weren’t human, too. I haaaaaaated that about the sequel because I suck at PvP and was mad that there was no respite from being invaded in that game. In fact, I think the more curse you had, the easier it was to get invaded. So, the opposite of the other games.

It’s funny to me how people claim they want something different, but then insist on playing the games in the exact same way. I watched a video arguing that fighting the bosses solo in Elden Ring was playing on hard mode, and it was a choice players made for themselves. Before this game, I was someone who did fight all the bosses solo (with some exceptions, but I’m not going to get into that).

It’s funny how death changes you, though. Or at least it did me. When I came back form the dead, I was grateful to have another Miyazaki world to explore; I did not care about soloing. At all. I mean, I have done all the main bosses with just the spirit summon, which is this game’s soloing the bosses.

Anyway. Here’s my point. We rail at developers for putting out the same game over and over. And then we rail at them when they change things up. This has always been my observation about Dark Souls II. If it had been called something completely different, I don’t think it would have gotten half the shit it did. But as I said in the last post, it was caught between a rock and a hard place.

What makes a good video game sequel

Posted on April 17, 2025 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

Let’s talk about sequels. I did A Quick Look at Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit (Spry Fox), which was the sequel to Cozy Grove. Here’s the second part of that review. I only played a few hours because I just could not get into it. I was thinking about why that was because it’s essentially the same game as the first one, though not as good. I touched on a few of those reasons in the last post, but I wanted to flesh them out more in comparison to Dark Souls II/Scholar of the First Sin (FromSoft).

When Dark Souls II came out, it was proclaimed a disappointment and a failure by hardcore FromSoft fans. This is a gross simplification, but the essence is true. True fans would cite the million things they hated about it, and there were tons of videos on how the game was Not A Worthwhile Successor. So much (virtual) ink spilled!

There was a popular video criticizing the game, and one thing they mentioned was that when you left the swamp area and went up an elevator, you reached the lava area. The video pointed out how jarring this was because swamp to lava? Inconceivable! I read/heard this criticism over and over again, and I wanted to ask, “How many of you actually realized this as you were playing the game?” Because I sure didn’t. Oh hell. Let’s just tackle this now. The level design is not as elegant as the first game, no, but it’s not terrible the way some people like to moan. You know what? No. I don’t want to get to this now. I’ll tackle it later or in another post.

Before I get to that, though, I have to say that there were so many criticisms, FromSoft did a nemake of the game and released it over a year later–under a different name. The original was called Dark Souls II whereas the new version was Scholar of the First Sin. I played the latter first and then went back and played the beginning of the original game. I will say that SotFS is a vast improvement and that I did not finish the original. I’m saying this so it’s clear which game I’m talking about.

I will say that some of the big issues with the original game–I can see it. The hordes of enemies were off the chart and the lack of checkpoints was painful. I made it to No Man’s Wharf, and, I have to tell you, that’s brutal in the SotFS version. It’s ridiculous in the original.

I have to mention a really ridiculous bug in SotFS. Well, I’m not sure it’s a bug, but it’s ridiculous, anyway. It’s the one game that decided to get serious about durability (of weapons). Which, fine. Whatever. I’m not a fan, but eh. It wasn’t that big a deal in the first game. In this game, however, on the PC, there was a thing that made the durability degrade at an alarming rate. So in the aforementioned No Man’s Wharf, you have to carry two usable weapons (or have repair powder) beacuse one weapon will not be enough. You might be able to squeak by depending on how many enemies you kill, but if you’re me, you start worrying when the durability hits 25%.

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