Kingdom Come Deliverance Episodes 6-10

This week concluded the introduction portion of the game, judging by the credit sequence I got in the middle of the week. And thus, the real game begins!

I'm definitely enjoying the atmosphere of this game. It's one of the more grounded games I've played, due to a combination of historical setting and overall tone. The main character is just a guy, living in a politically complicated landscape, trying to figure out how best to live. That makes for a pleasant departure from the often "special, saving the world" type of hero story that we see so often in games. It's actually kinda similar to what I love about the start of Guild Wars: Prophecies, now that I think about it...

Kingdom Come Deliverance Episodes 1-5

Like I mentioned on Friday, I've decided to start playing a new game this week. Specifically, I've decided to finally start playing Kingdom Come Deliverance, a historical first-person RPG set in Bohemia at the start of the 15th century (1403, specifically). It's been pretty interesting thus far. The game also provides a pretty extensive codex with lots of historical information, so be prepared for some reading!

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 51-55

I spent this week working my way up Taejin's Tower, only to be confronted by a rather frustrating boss fight. I spend most of the Friday episode analyzing the game's design, before very narrowly coming to the decision to take a hiatus from the game.

There's a lot of combat in these episodes, as that's what's emphasized at this point in time with this game.

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 46-50

This week, I made my way into Taejin's Tower and began the process of ascending it. This results in a lot of battles, both as part of advancing, but also because my characters desperately need to be stronger, and getting CP from defeating enemies is an important part of that. I also find the balancing of this game to be very weird.

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 41-45

This week was all about exploring Gran Pulse, and getting familiar with it. A few new systems are introduced, I meet two Eidolons, and the difficulty curve feels out of control, with some enemies being very difficult and others being quite reasonable.

Of course, we also get more backstory, especially about Vanille.

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 36-40

I spent a lot of time in the Fifth Ark this week, making my way through groups of enemies and looking for plot. I find some from Cid Raines, then a massive amount of progress happens when the group defeats the Eidolon Bahamut and leaves Cocoon for Gran Pulse. What a way to end the week!

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 31-35

The plot really ramped up this week, as the entire party finally got together (Fang, Snow, Sazh, Vanille, Lightning, and Hope) and the leader of Sanctum revealed himself to be a fal'Cie in disguise. He explains our heroes' focus to them, but not before beating them up a bit. The characters now have to figure out what to do with this information...

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 26-30

Two-thirds of the group had met up at Hope's father's place by the start of the week, but they didn't get to rest long before PSICOM caught up with them and the game transitioned to focus on the remaining one-third of Sazh and Vanille. Massive stuff goes down with them involving Dajh, Sazh's son, and the events surrounding the boy becoming a l'Cie. However, Sazh and Vanille ended up captured. The rest of the team learned of this and went to rescue them!

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 21-25

This week saw part of the party united in Palumpolum, as Snow and Fang rescue Hope and Lightning from the military. I also spent a bunch of time trying to figure out why I have been disliking the combat system so much.

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 16-20

I spent a lot of time this week making my way through the Gapra Whitewood. I also spent a lot of time talking about my thoughts on Final Fantasy XIII's design.

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 11-15

This week, the party slowly made its way through the Vile Peaks. Sometimes they were together, more often they were apart. Also, the game is continuing to introduce new mechanics. To be clear, this is fine, but it does feel like it takes a while for it to add all of the core combat mechanics.

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 6-10

Final Fantasy 13 continues this week (and likely for many, many weeks to come). Most of this week takes place on the crystallized Lake Bresha, but I do eventually leave there by the end of the week!

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 1-5

This week, I started playing Final Fantasy XIII for the channel. This is a game I've been wanting to play for a while now, so I'm glad to finally get started playing it!

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 31-35

I beat Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night this week! I completed the main story, anyway. I then spent an episode analyzing and reviewing the game, then concluded things by wrapping up a few known loose ends of exploration. I expect the game will come back on weekends, likely when I get access to new playable characters.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 26-30

I continue to wander around while lost. I ended up taking a bit of an interlude in the middle of the week to get ingredients to cook a bunch of new recipes. Once again, I end the week by looking up the barest hint of information on how to progress, and find a bunch of it as a result. I overall like this game, but it has a bad habit of hiding its late game progress a little too well.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 21-25

I spent much of this week searching for progress. I eventually gave up and took a peek at a barebones walkthrough that pointed me in the direction of the Aegis Plate. I do find and collect a lot of stuff during my search, though!

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 16-20

I find a couple of very useful abilities in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night this week. The first is the ability to sink in water, which proves most useful. The other is the ability to invert Miriam's gravity, which has some very interesting visual implications. Both open up a bunch of exploration!

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 11-15

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night continues! The most significant advancement was in the last episode, as gaining the ability to (sort of) swim really opened up a lot more areas. This week also marks the beginning of some experimentation with thumbnails. I'm curious to see if the seem to have an impact.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 6-10

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night continues! I found a lot of movement abilities this week, and figured out about how more systems function. Also, this game continues to make me hungry!

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 1-5

I was a backer of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and now that the game has released (just a few days after I recorded this, anyway), I'm excited to get to finally play it!