Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: roguelike-lite

Have a Nice Death–A Quick Look, part two

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Hi. This is part two on my quick look at Have a Nice Death (Magic Design Studios). Will there be more? Maybe. Here is post one in which I talk about the basics and then wander off as I tend to do.   I just played a few rounds, and–well, let me put it this way. Hades II (Supergiant Games) just came out in Early Access–a shadow drop (on PC), that has me immensely excited. The original game also had an Early Acecss period that lasted nearly two years. I did not jump into the game until it was released from Early Access.

I must admit, I was not instantly enamored with the game. I could see it was well done and nicely crafted. It had great graphics, and I love Greek mythology. But, something about the gameplay wasn’t quite clicking. Again, it wasn’t the game as it was very well made. It was me. Do you want to know why I kept playing? Because of the interactions with the NPCs in the House of Hades and throughout the games. And the relationships between Zagreus (the protagonist) and various NPCs.

There are roughly 300,000 lines of dialogue in the game. I was seeing new dialogue even as I hundo chievo’ed the game. I found things that none of the reviewers mentioned beacuse they did not get that far into the game before reviewing. You have to beat the game something like 10 times to get the true ending.

I nearly didn’t make it to the first time I beat it beacuse the last boss was so hard. I could have used God Mode (makes game easier with each death), but I was too stubborn for that. When I finally beat the last boss for the first time, it felt like beating a FromSoft boss, almost.

Here’s my point. That game grew on me, obviously. The unlocks were meaningful and even though there were only four weapons, each one played significantly different. Especially as the unlocks made each weapon markedly different. The game was very elegantly designed, and one of the few knocks I had about it was that the combat got too hectic at some points. Which is something that many of these games do, including Have a Nice Death. There are so many things flashing on the screen that it’s sometimes impossible to actually focus on the enemy you’re trying to attack.


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Have a Nice Death–A Quick Look

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I am looking for a new game, and Ian suggested Have a Nice Death (Magic Design Studios) on Game Pass. It’s a 2D roguelike-lite (my term for any game that is like Binding of Isaac) in which–wait. First of all, I thought I had played the demo for the game, but it was another game in which there is a cute Death character. And it also reminded me of Death’s Door (Acid Nerve) a bit, but probably just because of the word death in the title.

I just looked up the other game for which I played the demo. It was Death and Taxes (Placeholder Gameworks) in which you decide who lives an ddies. It’s not grim, though. It’s kind of perky and cute. At least, I think that’s what it was supposed to be. It didn’t hit me that way, and I quit after half an hour or so.

Anyway, I really liked the graphics in Have a Nice Death. It’s cute, but not cloying. It feels moody without being oppressive, either. I’ve included a trailer below (still deciding which one to include). Much of the background is in shades of black and white. There are flashes of color in the different attacks and such. Which, actually, is one of the issues I want to discuss later on. In general, the look of the game is one I like and gel with.

I will say that after playing for several hours a few days ago, my game was lost. Whether it was a glitch of the cloud save or me pressing Y to delete the save, I cannot say for sure. If it’s the latter, I would say to make it much clearer that you’re actually deleting a save because I was unpleasantly surprised when I booted up the game the next day and it turned out I had lost all the progress I had made the day before.

Side note, kind of: I have been thinking to buy this on Steam to support the dev. When I found out that I lost my game file, I thought that would have been a good time to buy it on Steam. Instead, I started up again on Game Pass and got back to where I had been in about an hour instead of two or three, and I beat the first big boss for the first time to boot.


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A Quick Look: Cult of the Lamb

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Possessed individuals glowing red
Nothing can go wrong with this.

Excuse me, but might I interest you in our Lord Lamb? Hey, where are you going? Don’t you have a few minutes for your eternal damnation salvation?

I am playing Cult of the Lamb by Massive Monster, an Australian developer, and it’s glorious. I’m only on Day 3 or Day 4, but it’s already showing a lot of personality. In the beginning, I’m killed by people who are guarding a big bad buried under the earth. Apparently, I am someone who can wake up the big bad and the guardians don’t want that. They kill me!

Game over, right? Nope. The big bad brings informs me that it can bring me back to life if I will serve it. Will I do it? Here’s a hint of the humor: My choices are ‘yes’ and ‘absolutely’. I choose absolutely, and I’m brought back to life.

The graphics style is cartoony and completely adorable. It’s in direct contrast to the twisted things that are happening, which is one reason I love this game. It’s been compared to Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (Edmund McMillen) into which I’ve poured more hours than how much I’ve played the FromSoft games combined, and it’s a fair comparison in very specific ways. The cartoon look and the irreverent attitude towards religion, specifically. The random dungeons, the different items and skills, and the different starting items for each run. There are five different areas (for runs), but for now, I only have access to one.

The combat is my least-favorite part of the game so far. It’s adequate, but it hasn’t clicked. It’s X for melee and Y for ranged. Left stick for walking and right stick for camera. The enemies are the same throughout the first area (so far), which is ok. Again, I emphasize that I’m only in the first area, so I can’t comment on the latter enemies.

In the sim part of the game, the basics are to get followers, make them do my bidding, and build up the cult. There are the normal sim things of chopping wood, mining stones, and picking berries. But there is also collecting devotion from the followers (not quite sure what the white fluid is–best not to look at it too closely), giving sermons (me), and doing rituals (also me).

There is an overview map, and I can go visit, ah, Ratau (had to Google it) to play Knucklebones, a dice mini-game. Ratau is a mysterious guy who claims he was once in my position. I don’t trust him, but I do appreciate the guidance. If he’s the last boss, I won’t be surprise, which is what I’m saying.


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Going full Mulan Rogue

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I need to stop playing Going Under (Aggro Crab) because I’m really starting to hate it. I’ve finished with the main game and have wrung every ounce of content out of it. And more. So why am I still playing? I’ll tell you why and there are spoilers now. There is a mode of the game called Imposter Mode that is not run in any of the main dungeons. It’s accessed from Jackie’s pod (home) and it’s by jumping through her mirror. She had met the imposter earlier in one of the dungeons in the second half of the game (apparently random?) and I ‘defeated’ her in that dungeon. I put defeated in quotes because of course she was coming back and of course it was going to be in her own mode.

I’ve explained before why I don’t like this mode or the big boss fights in the main game, but I’ll briefly recap. In the main game, you go into a dungeon and there are three floors before the boss floor. You pick up skills and other perks along the way. From the beginning, you can equip one ‘mentor’ (coworker) and one skill. The best mentor by far is Swomp who gives the twin benefits of him stealing an item for you in every store and starting each floor with allies. Oh, there are also Swomp Cubes with better items, but they break more easily, which is not usually a trade I want to make. Although, in Imposter Mode, I am all about more damage. The bigger benefit, however, is that there’s a Swomp’s Chill Zone every second level of the dungeon. Sometimes it doesn’t show up and I’m not sure why, but it’s supposed to be there. If you chill with Swomp, then you regain all your lost health. You can do this once on the floor, though apparently in early access, you could do it multiple times. I think once is fair.

Randy, the CEO, would have been the best mentor because he gives you his credit card and you can charge the items you need to it. Except. One, there’s a limit to how much you can charge, and two, you have to drag around a ball and chain of debt with you that grows larger the more money you owe. It hinders your movement which is so key in this game. Also, his other benefits are meh at best. Well, he does let you take his sweet whip out for a drive at the start of the dungeon until you beat it up enough for it to explode, which is maybe a floor or two. I really like how they make the benefits match up with the narrative, by the way.


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