CodeX96 最近的评测

Classic Silent Hill Formula
- Boring Combat that isn't actually the focus of the game
- Amazing writing, atmosphere, music, tension, horror, etc
- Decently challenging puzzles and one or two what the hell?? moments if you put puzzles to highest difficulty.

Very fun demo, style on the combat is nice without being too overwhelming visually. Here's some critiques for going into the full release!

Movement:
The character feels a bit stiff and floaty when not in combat. The platforming is a little unresponsive, especially without any form of ledge grab.
Given how much enemies move around, moves that launch you towards enemies or pull enemies to you would be greatly appreciated. Often combat encounters ended with me awkwardly chasing after one enemy halfway across the arena, and the dash doesn't propel you far enough to chase them, especially without a sprint after it.
Some moves kind of cut off in ways that feel a little unintended when they have long pauses for style after a combo, or have a bit of a build up on the skill, but since you have to dodge or parry a lot, it leads to animations just canceling. Making movements flow into each other more could turn this into an absolutely top notch character action game on feeling alone.

Combat:
The parry could use a bit more feedback. The little flash and quiet sound effect is nice because it's not too distracting, but it also makes slower bigger enemies feel less... impactful. Parrying a smaller hit and just flipping through it is fine, but bigger impacts should maybe give a bit more feedback.
Some of the special skills take a little too long to trigger or get their full effect off, given the speed of attacks in some of the more cramped fights and the boss fight at the end of the demo.

Minor Nitpick: Not tutorializing the sudden bullet hell dance section with the miniboss and the demo boss is... a strange choice. Tutorializing basic controls but not a sudden gameplay style shift with new systems just felt a bit odd.
Also, during the tutorial, the UI was completely off the screen. I could only see a few letters of the tutorial text. Unsure if this is because the game is limited to 16:9 resolutions, but I was playing on a 21:9 monitor. The central UI still worked fine and the combat stuff was all visible so it wasn't an issue other than visuals.

Overall though, enemies react well to combat, and the moves are telegraphed generously so people can enjoy both parrying and dodging without feeling pigeonholed into one or the other. The overall gameplay was fun, if a bit stiff at times out of combat, and a nice slice of what the whole thing will be like on full release! Looking forward to it!

This is everything I wanted from a sequel to Hollow Knight, and I cannot wait for the expansions to come out so I can explore this world again. I can't wait to face whatever Dreams and Nightmares await us in the future, and I give a full round of applause to Team Cherry for one of the best experiences I've had with a game in recent years.

Is this game hard as hell? Sometimes, yeah. Does it reward you for facing that challenge, for exploring, for not giving up, and give you tools and abilities to meet those challenges head on in a style that suits you? Absolutely.

This game was worth every year I waited for it, and hats off not just to Team Cherry and their wonderful art direction and minimalist writing, but also to Christopher Larkin for a soundtrack I'll be listening to while working on my own art for years to come.

Update: I've had to sit with my thoughts for a while. As much as it PAINS me to do this... I have nominated Expedition 33 for GOTY over Hollow Knight: Silksong. Congratulations you magnificent bastards, it was well earned.


There's so much I want to say, but genuinely just play this masterpiece yourself. I've sat with my thoughts for a month to make sure it wasn't just the recency bias of playing. I still think about this game almost daily. It is, without a doubt, one of the best, if not THE best Turn Based RPG I have ever played. Story, art, music, acting... every single touch in this game is a stroke of beauty and masterfully done in a way I've rarely seen. Everything comes together like a symphony.

Recommending this game is a hard choice for me. Short version, game is rough around the edges, as to be expected from the small (solo) dev team. Nearly a decade in the making, and it shows in ways both positive and negative. If you enjoy a game more for its atmosphere and how it makes you feel, you'll probably get a lot out of this title. I recommend explorer mode in that case. If you are someone more in it for the gameplay looking for the next Metroidvania to sink your claws into, maybe check out some others first though.

Let's start with the positives. Aesthetic, atmosphere, voice acting, music, and visuals. While there's nothing crazy animation wise and enemies can feel kind of samey at times, the world is breathtaking to look at, and the limited soundtraack really comes in strong when it plays. While there's no song I found myself humming or memorized, they are very much somber ambiance style tracks, and in this regard, they nailed it.

The visuals are intriguing, and I often found myself walking slow or just pausing to take in the look of a place, how it felt, how it sounded to move through it. Lots of little details to love here if you want to get immersed in a world. Voice acting too, as in many parts of the game, if you do take things slow like this, you'll find your character (Blue, as many often call her later on) will stop to comment on things, or talk to herself or whatever is around her. The inquisitive voice they lend make me think they're learning about this world, same as we are. I wanted to know more, but the game seemed at odds with this desire, not always in a positive way. More on that later though.

There's a lot of interesting ideas here. The charm system is similar to hollow knight, and you also level up like a castlevania style game. Despite the blaster arm, unless you are making a build exclusively for ranged combat, expect to be swapping a lot or even doing primarily melee damage. That's because the blaster does more damage up close, and as you fire, it begins to overheat. Once overheated, it sputters out and will be inneffective... but your melee weapons are now superheated and deal at least double if not more damage compared to normal. This also helps vent heat, so you're encouraged to swap often... though it leaned far more towards melee in my experience without building towards the gun.

Now, I don't wanna talk about absolutely everything, but I'll talk about some of the neutral or negative parts here. I'll bullet point them, because I don't want to harp on the game's flaws, I want to see the dev learn from the mistakes in this game to make Ghost Song 2 something even better!
- Enemies feel extremely spongy for most of the game. Bosses and enemies often don't have much going for them beyond being very tanky, or just plain not really reacting to your attacks and repeating combos that force you to keep your distance for some time.
- Adding onto this, your only real dodge option is a dash that goes through enemies, or jumping over the attack. Movement is a little stiff, so often the dash must be used with larger enemies, but all enemies deal damage on contact. It'd be fine if it was a small amount of damage, but touching an enemy does just as much as if they hit you with an attack with a long telegraphed windup. It just feels bad to dodge through an enemy and then clip the very edge of their model, or have an enemy spin around and their sprite is now touching you, dealing a ton of damage.
- Adding onto this, many bosses are either fast and poorly telegraphed, or slow and rely on simply being so big that it's difficult to navigate around them. The ones that aren't fall without much of a fight to begin with.
- I don't think this was the game to try and do dark souls storytelling. NPCs wander the map, and while some are logically placed, others seem to go to random locations that I have no idea what the connection is, or go there at times that make it inconsistent with any path you'd be traveling through the game. Without a guide to tell me where to find NPCs, I would have missed out on roughly 70% of this game's story simply because of the decision to not have much in the way of map markers or anything. (Speaking of the map, often your sprite does not properly indicate your location on the map, it's misaligned in several zones.)
- The game balance is all over the place. Some charms are busted, others seem to do basically nothing and cost just as much or even more. One of the cheapest guns melts nearly every boss in the game, while one of the most expensive ones might as well be a pea shooter. More testing and more intuitive builds are definitely in order for the next game, because currently there just isn't much depth to the system despite having all the tools in place to make it complex and interesting.


Overall, it's a weak recommendation. I enjoyed the game, but not nearly as much as I wanted to. I eagerly await the sequel despite this. I have high hopes for this dev, and I know they can do better. I don't have the technical know how to tell you how to make this game better, but I've played enough metroidvanias to know that this one is above average, but also nowhere near the greats despite having the potential to reach them.

I'm rooting for you, Old Moon.

Still one of the funniest, most enjoyable co-op games that still manages to scare people ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Although there's a lot of stuff I wish the game did more, this was a delightfully fun, cute, and sometimes terrifying time. A nice short story with a lot of character and charm. The writing of the kids is top-notch. They're all likeable in some way, and really feel like actual kids. So often in writing, children don't act like kids, they either act like plot devices or mini-adults. These kids feel real, with just enough writing flourish to make them "always on" to keep things entertaining and allowing for a little bit of suspension of disbelief.

If another game like this is ever attempted by these devs though, I'd love to see the choices seen in some sections that aren't just branching path choices appear more often, and to just see more "classic adventure game/CYOA Book" style choices. Silly short bad ends or weird ends. I loved collecting all the words and the few choices that came up throughout the game, but it feels like this unique system was just underutilized for all the potential is had.

One of the most thoughtful, intricate, and compelling game and puzzle solving experience I've ever had. Highly recommend for those looking for an old school mystery and those who enjoy the secret-hunting aspects of old zelda games and soulsborne games alike!

Edit: There's nothing I can say here that hasn't been said. Elden Ring, alongside its expansion Shadow of the Erdtree, is a modern masterpiece of game design and story, and one of the best examples of a game that uses every last aspect of its design to enhance the narrative as best it can. Are there weaknesses to the genre that can hamper the story for some? Yes, of course. But I can guarantee this game will stand the test of time and remain as something people analyze, discuss, and play decades from now. If you somehow are interested in these kinds of games, or have never tried one of Fromsoft's action titles before, I implore you to give this game a chance.

Old Review from release year:

Having played this game to completion, I have to say this is the best, and most accessible Fromsoft Souls-like game out there. The game is tough, yes, but there's a million options for you to make it easier on yourself. Don't listen to the community saying "Git gud" or that it's hours of struggle or brutally hard. There's optional content that is tough as nails, but by the time you get to it, you should be to. If not, well there's a massive open world where you can go anywhere else to try and find better gear, level up, upgrade your weapons, or just explore so you're not hitting a brick wall you can't beat. And if nothing else, you can always summon spirit ashes, or summon friends to help, or if you really need to, look up stuff that helps. There's so many options that frankly I think anyone can beat this game if they're willing to take the time, explore, practice, and learn. There's a weapon, a build, a spell, an item, something out there waiting to be found that will help you, or make you find what works for you to succeed.

There's so much I want to talk about but frankly I don't know how to put it into words, and I'd rather get back into playing it more. (100% complete save file, at time of review I had ~160-180 hours into the game)

A product of love for the horror genre, in all forms of media. A delightful revival of the classic resident evil formula after the AAA-bloat disaster that was RE6. While this game does have a bit of trouble sticking the landing in terms of game length, opting to continue the story and go through two additional sections after what seems to be the climax of the game, it is still a joy throughout and aside from this slight pacing issue at the end, the rest of the game is incredibly fun and keeps the adrenaline and tension going at just the right levels. Worth getting the complete edition with all DLC when it's on sale. While the DLC can be a bit hit or miss depending on what you do and don't enjoy about the game, there's something for everyone, from a survival mode, to a new take on the classic mercenaries mode with a festive theme, to tense escape the room and stealth sequences, or even insane hard modes and additional campaigns that tie up loose ends of the story. And for a change of pace, there's even a card game mode with a Saw movie trap theme.

If you're a fan of horror, this game is an absolute must buy.