Underneath my yellow skin | A Banana Peeled

The Ultimate FromSoft list

Posted on April 24, 2025 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

I have two lists of my favorite games. One is my favorite FromSoft games and another is my favorite non-FromSoft games. In honor of Nightreign coming out in a month (their co-op action adeventrue multiplayer game, which I’ll talk about more later), I decided to rank the FromSoft games I’ve played. I’ve done it before, but who knows? Maybe I’ve changed the position of some of the games. I’ll do it in ascending order, starting with….six, I think?

I’d like to emphasize once again that this is not the ‘best of’ list, but a list of my favorite. I don’t believe in best of lists because it’s really hard to make any kind of objective list about subjective art. I mean, it’s clear to see when something in good or bad, but when it’s at the top echelon, it’s hard to differentiate between excellent and stunning, for example.

I will say that the bottom two are easy.

6. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Look. This one is always going to be divisive. I have gotten so much pushback on this, even when I state that it’s my least-favorite FromSoft game, not the worst. I actually think it’s a fantastic game that is gorgeous to look at and the story is probably the easiest to understand of all the games. I love the main character, the Lone Wolf, and I would shag him in a heartbeat. Emma is a great NPC as are Isshin and Genichiro. Kuro is a serviceable plot point/mover, and I don’t mind that he’s the focal point of the whole game.

The ending I got is the hardest to get and the most involved. It’s also the most hopeful and complete, and it’s the one that many people thought was going to be the springboard for the sequel. The sequel which never happened. No one knows why, but my unfounded theory is that FromSoft did not want to work with Activision again beacuse the latter was too micromanager-y.

This game is brutal if you can’t get the deflect, which I could not. I was able to perform it maybe a quarter of the time, and not with any consistency. When I mentioned that I beat Genichiro without deflecting, my nibling’s spouse commented, “I didn’t think it was possible to do that.” My response: “It is, but it’s not enjoyable.”

That was my feeling about the whole game. I could do it, but it wasn’t enjoyable. Even less so is that there is no summoning in the game. I get why, thematically, but it made me realize that it’s the one From game that I will never plat because there is no fucknig way I can solo all the bosses two more times. Plus the two new bosses I would have to fight and beat for the Shura ending.

It’s pretty heart-rending to me that I will never be good at that game and that I will not be able to beat that game again. That’s just the way it goes, though.

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%.

Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit–A Quick Look, part two

Posted on April 16, 2025 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

Let’s talk more about Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit (Spry Fox). By the way, I don’t know when the 2 was dropped from the title and why. My hunch is that Netflix wanted it dropped because they did not want it emphasized that this was a sequel. I have no evidence to back it up, but it makes sense. Netflix is new to games and it seems to me that they want to make their mark. However, they don’t know how to do it as evidence by the fact that they opened and closed their AAA game development studio without actually producing a game.

I don’t want to tell them to stay in their lane, but I don’t NOT want to tell them that, either. I don’t know how the movie-renting business is going, but it’s gotta be going better than the games business (which is in shambles right now). Again, I don’t blame Spry Fox for taking that mad Netflix money (which I’m sure was hefty), which I wrote about in the last post.

I will be candid. I was disappointed to hear it was a mobile game because I don’t play games on my phone. I don’t do anything on my phone other than surf the web. In addition, as I mentioned in the last post, grinding for the plat in the first game and the glitches in the DLC really cooled my ardor for the game.

Is it fair to judge this game by the last one? I would usually say no, but…and again, I’m going to be very honest. While this game is a sequel, it’s more like a reboot/remake of the first game. To be fair, all the bears are different and new. New stories and new abilities. But.

I feel very churlish for waht I’m going to say because I loved the first game so much, but I have to be honest. This game–ok. I’m going to build up to it. First, I menioned yesterday that Spry Fox went too hard in the other direction when it came to the resources and how available they are. In the first game (and, yes, I will be comparing this game to the first game because they are very similar), it was very slow going to get the resources you needed because the game had a real-time 24-hour cycle. Things only showed up during certain seasons and for certain times. The first few weeks were excruciatingly slow, and I despaired that I would ever get enough resources to build up my island.

Of course, I did. And by the end of my time with the game, I was swimming in everything I could possibly need. And, weirdly, it felt a bit hollow. Like, I could do buy anything I wanted, so there was no reason to actually do anything. I’m not complaining because I wrung every drop of content out of the game. That’s the way I do when I really like something. I just keep at it until there is nothing left.

That’s not the best way to start this game, however. Because I had played the first one so thoroughly, this game fell flat for me. This is the curse of the sequels, by the way. When a game really hits you, you want the sequel to have the same things that you love about the first game, but you also want there to be enough differences to, well, make a difference. This was something that got rehashed ad nauseam when Dark Souls II came out (and I won’t get into it again here), but I maintain that there was no way the sequel was going to live up to the hardcore fans’ expectations.

I could say the same about this sequel. Not that Cozy Grove was anywhere near Dark Souls when it came to impact or reach. I’m just saying that for the fans, it was going to be hard to–well, wait. I’m not sure that’s true. I was going to say that for fans of the first game, it would be hard to top it with this one. I don’t know if that’s true, though. Cozy game lovers aren’t as brutal as hardcore fans, I feel. When I had issues with the Cozy Grove DLC, I went into the Discord and got some really good advice. And people were really nice and helpful. Unlike most FromSoft forums. Ahem.

I did not play the game today. Why? One. I felt overwhelmed. There is just too much going on. Yes, the pacing was too slow in the first game, but they over-corrected for the second game. There’s just too much. I was getting exclamation points (quests) faster than I could clear them. I don’t like that.

I also felt that I didn’t have to work for the stories the way I did in the first game. I came to truly care for the bears in the first game because their stories unfolded across the whole game. My favorite bear in the whole game was in the DLC, but that was because I related so hard to her, not because they gave me enough of her story to flesh her out.

To be completely honest, the DLC was when I lost my enthusiasm for the game. The glitch I had really impeded my progress and made me really frustrated. If it had just been a side quest, I would be fine with it. But because it was the main quest, I felt I had to figure it out so I could finish the DLC.

My biggest issue with this game is that there are very few innovations, and the ones that exist are not interesting to me. Also, they’re frustrating to do with a mouse/keyboard. As far as I can tell, you can’t use a controller to play the game. There are a powers you use (there were some in the first game, too) that are awkward as fuck. One is a pufferfish that you squeeze in order to wash dirty areas. Cool, but it’s backwards of what I thought it would be. You have to move it away from the object you want to clean in order to use it. Also, you have to double tap or hold down the left mouse button to engage it.

These kind of objects weren’t fun to use in the first game, but they were at least manageable. Not so much in this game. Another thing is the critter net, which was in the first game. In that game, you could cast it pretty far away from you. In this game, not so much. At least I have not figured out a way to do it if you can. So you pretty much have to be standing on the critter in order to catch it.

In the end, the game has left me feeling pretty empty. If you have not played the first game, this one will be a solid entry point. Still, though, I would actually go back and play the first game over this one. I liked what I played of this one well enough, but there’s nothing there to make me want to keep going, sadly. It pains me to say that, but there you go.

Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit–A Quick Look

Posted on April 15, 2025 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

Cozy Grove (Spry Fox) is…was one of my favorite indie games. It’s a cozy game, yes, but it also dealt with some heratbreaking issues. The main gist of that game (and this one) is that you’re a Spirit Scout who has to help deceased bears (who are people, but bears) move on to the afterworld. The interesting conceit of the original game (and this one, I think?) is that there are real 24-hour days in the game. If you do the quests you need to do for any given day, you have to wait a literal day to get new ones. There are daily chores you can do (harvesting, planting flowers and trees, digging, etc.), too.

When I heard there was a sequel, I was thrilled. Then, Spry Fox was bought by Netflix and announced a Cozy Grove mobile game, which is this one. Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit. Since it’s a mobile game, I ignored it. I don’t play games on my phones because I find it frustrating to do much of anything on my cell. I assumed there would be a real sequel to the game at some point down the line. Because Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit was a mobile phone game, I assumed it was not the sequel.

Apparently, I’m wrong, but I’ll get to that in a second.

Last night, I went to Netflix to cancel my membership because they added ads to the base membership. “You’ll be pleasantly surprised how few ads you get!” they said. I cursed at them because anything more than zero is not a pleasant surprise. Of course, I can upgrade to the next tier to remain ad-free, but I watch something maybe once every three months or so.

Much to my surprise, Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit popped up and there was a button I could press to play it. I decided to take a look. At some point, it said that it was the beta and blah blah blah. I pressed through all that quite quickly because I did not care.

Before I get to the game itself, I have to say that today, I went to look for the game so I could play more. Much to my surprise, I could not find it. I went to the Netflix games page, and while it was listed there, I could not play it on my desktop that way. I Googled it and found out that if you’re in Beta, there should be a game menu on the home page of Netflix. I did not have that. I told Ian about it and he said maybe there was a toggle button in my account settings. I checked it out, and a big noooope.

I shrugged and decided that I had been put in beta by accident. And maybe that was why I was allowed to do so much on the first day. I put it aside and then later, decided to try to do a bit more Googling. I found the direct link to the game that way, and now I have that link open in a tab because I don’t want to have to spend twenty minutes to find it again.