I love indie games.
I could leave that as the whole post, but I won’t. I like me some Triple A games, obviously, as Dark Souls III is my favorite game of all time, but overall, I like indies better. There are Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall), Hades (Supergiant Games), Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games) and Cozy Grove (Spry Fox). Add to that Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (Edmund McMillen), my most-played game of all time.
In addition, there are plenty of indie games that I liked even if they’re not my favorite. Going Under by Aggro Crab. Death’s Door by Acid Nerve. Cook, Serve, Delicious! by David Galindo. All three of them, but especially the second one. Nuclear Throne by Vlambeer. Then there are the ones that I’m not good enough to finish, but I love so much. Dead Cells by Twin Motion, Hollow Knight by Team Cherry, and the aforementioned Nuclear Throne. I did beat the Throne a few times, but I don’t consider myself having beaten the game because there is so much more after that ‘final’ boss. Same with Dead Cells. I did finally beat the ‘final’ boss once, but that’s just the beginning of the game.
On any given days, if you set aside Souls games, I would rather play an indie. Yes, they have the chance to fail miserably, but they also can soar in a way Triple As can’t. They can be out there like Boyfriend Dungeon by Kitfox Games, a game that had a misstep at launch, but ultimately, was a worthwhile game to play. The way it portrays stalking is real–too real for some–and it’s an important thing to talk about. Plus, being able to date people of all genders is a nice touch. I hope there’s DLC, which I would happily play.
Then there are the indie games that I really wanted to like, but I just couldn’t for one reason or the other. There are some I couldn’t play because they’re first person, Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope, who made the brilliant Papers, Please), What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow), and Paradise Killer (Kaizen Game Works) are three that spring to mind.
There are some I just didn’t get on with, even though they should have been for me. Disco Elysium (ZA/UM) was a game I was willing to hang out in and try to let it warm up on me until a child said something so egregious, it stopped me cold. I put down the game and refused to pick it up again. Then there’s Unpacking by Witch Beam, who made the delightful Assault Android Cactus, which I didn’t realize until a month or so ago. Unpacking came out this year (2021) to much acclaim about what a chill and soothing game it is. I found it stressful when I misplaced things, especially when it was something that I couldn’t discern what it was–and it showed up in house after house. Both of these games have been praised to the sky and I feel like it’s something wrong with me that I can’t get along with either of them.
I am much more lenient on indie games than I am on Triple A games. In fact, I’m often blown away by how good the games are. There is a renaissance for hand-drawn graphics, which I deeply appreciate. I know some people don’t think graphics are important, but they are to me. Graphics and music both help to set a mood for the game, and I appreciate the thought and care that goes into both these categories. Again, in Triple A games, there’s sometimes a generic feel to both the graphics and music. It’s all very safe and sanitized, and don’t get me wrong. It can be a satisfying experience, but there’s something vaguely wanting in it.
When I played Assassin’s Creed, er, the one with the twins, I had a cracking good time for roughly thirty or forty hours. I went around taking over territories, 100%ing each area. It was the same thing over and over again, and I was fine with that. I became less and less satisfied as I went, but I was roughly 75% done, so I didn’t have much more to go. Then, they threw in a whole new area and I was done with the game. I was barely holding on to finish the game as it were. Giving me a whole new area where I had to 100% it (ok, I didn’t have to, but I was going to if I did it at all). I was so dispirited, I put down the controller and didn’t touch the game again.
It was a fun game. I loved Evie, but fuck Jacob. He’s an annoying twat. The game itself, however, is imminently forgettable. I vaguely remember liberating areas by freeing children and…profit? To be honest, I was more f focused on finding the things to jump through and all the collectibles than the actual game. It’s a popcorn game that is fun while you play it, but it doesn’t leave any lasting impression. At least not on me.
That’s not true of all Triple As, of course. Dark Souls III is my favorite game of all time. it has fantastic graphics and the music is terrific, too. There is so much to do in this game and I’m still playing it after all this time. I’m in NG+3 and went into the first DLC early because I want to cosplay as Sister Friede (the big boss of the DLC) and her scythes. I’ve never done a dex build before so why not give it a shot? I got a human summon for the fight, which continues to amaze me. I normally don’t do the DLCs until the very end, but you can get to the DLC as early as the Cleansing Chapel, which is roughly a fourth of the way through the game. So that’s what I did.
Sister Friede is one of my favorite fights in all the games, even though she’s also one of the most unfair and difficult fights. I did not beat her on my own the first time I fought her and I used the cheese of Dorhy’s Gnawing (miracle) to beat her solo many times down the road. I made her scythes in NG+2 before deciding I wanted to cosplay as her. In order to do so, though, I needed to beat her in the current NG cycle because that’s how the armor works in the game.
I also made the flail you can make with her soul as well. It boosts miracles and for funsies, I equipped the Lifehunt Scythe miracle that gives you lifesteal when you kill an enemy and is in the shape of a scythe. So it was scythes all the way down. It’s so much fun! This late in the game, I might as well make all the boss weapons and buy all the boss armors I want. I made the Dancer’s dual swords and bought her armor as well. Because I killed her early this cycle. On my own! She’s one boss who doesn’t have summons that often.
Ahem. Back to indies. I love them and appreciate them, but the one thing that has consistently fucked them up–well, let me be more specific. There’s a sub-genre of indies that I call cozy games. They are more about the story and the atmosphere than the gameplay, which is fine with me. Night in the Woods, Cozy Grove, and Spiritfarer all fall into this category–and they are three of my favorite games of all time. I love the music, the graphics, and the atmosphere of all three of these games. They each have a distinctive look to them that is immediately recognizable. I can and have spent hours in each game, just wandering around, delighting in the environments.
But. And this is a big but. The gameplay in each of these games is not great. I won’t say atrocious, but it’s…pretty bad. In Night in the Woods, it’s bearable because there isn’t much gameplay at all. The walking on the wires is…fine. I like the mechanic in theory, but it’s annoying in reality. In Cozy Grove, I just accept that the mini-games are going to be annoying. The fishing one, you have to line up the fishing line in different ways for different fish (some can be caught any old way). I don’t do the camera at all because I don’t understand what constitutes a valid composition and what doesn’t. The gathering is difficult because with resources so close together, it’s hard to get the one resource you actually wanted. Then there’s the insect netting mini-game, which is fine in general except for the annoying-as-fuck mosquitoes who fly faster than the net can swish.
The worst is Spiritfarer, though, because of the platforming. You don’t have to do any of the mini-games in Cozy Grove if you don’t want. You don’t have to travel on the wires in Night in the Woods if you choose to avoid it. However, in Spiritfarer, you have to do the platforming, especially in the last update. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again–a game that isn’t a platforming game shouldn’t have platforming in it. That would be my one plea to indie devs–keep your platforming in platforming games only.