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AV1 is more metroid AV2 is more vania Both are good but in different ways AV2 definitely feels more polished but that makes sense chalking it up to the dev being more experienced
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Jan 6, 2023 06:43
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playing Astalon now, and it's.. fine. it's fine so far. i've beaten the first boss. the complaints about the starting over from the first room don't hold up much because you literally spawn right next to an elevator, and i've also gotten a portal fast travel item within the first hour i wasn't expecting the game to feel so much like a puzzle-less Alwa's Awakening/Legacy though, that similar slower movement and jumping. without the puzzles though it's a bit more, plain? idk. i appreciate that the characters attack quickly but it's just auto and you hold the button. makes it not super exciting. i'll keep at it though. after this it'll be Ato and Ender Lilies (which i've also heard has bad combat)
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Jan 6, 2023 07:52
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I don't know if I would call Ender Lilies' combat bad. It's weighty and tuned around most stuff three shotting you, larger things will teo shot. You have to learn animations and be careful with it for sure but you have a parry and a dodge. You can't always cancel into those as early as you'd like, sure, but I liked it once I got ahold of the combat. It's definitely not amazing combat and the game is tuned to be difficult but you can pull off some cool feeling stuff against regular enemies and bosses. E: also I really enjoyed the simplicity of Astalon.
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Jan 6, 2023 16:26
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Oh lol Astalon is by the dev of Castle in the Darkness. That would explain the sudden spikes everywhere
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Jan 7, 2023 09:28
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Astalon owns, compelled me to 100% it. Incredible vibe
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Jan 7, 2023 09:35
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i finished Astalon. all-in-all it was a solid B-tier MV. the exploration was fun, combat was a little too basic and i didn't love the overreliance on spikes that Matt Kap seems to enjoy indulging in with his games. but I liked the humorous tone of the game, combined with the Dragon Half artist gave it a 90s fantasy anime feel (but without much in the way of comical expressions). solid music as well I played Ender Lilies for an hour and I don't love it. the combat is kind of weird feeling. I don't think it has anything to do with the attacks being 'projected' behind the character, it's just the impacts themselves feel weird and then the movement in general is clunky. Don't like the feel of the jumping, dodge feels weird. I dunno. This feels like it'll end up in my C-Tier. the early level design is a bit too basic as well I switched over to Ato knowing it would be another solid B-tier and it lived up to that. I like how condensed the game is. It almost feels like a Metroidvania boss rush game, because there's a ton of them, and very little in the way of regular encounters even in the second half of the game when mobs spawn into the world. so there's always forward action and little downtime. I like the optional upgrades, a lot of the puzzle/timed rooms are fun, even if the rewards are usually just a coin or a health fragment. i didn't 100% the game but i do feel like I got close, in just 3 and a half hours. Maxed out the health and got most of the runes. A good game. That leaves Transiruby (I expect to be B-tier) and Paradox Soul (I expect to be C/D) as the last ones for me to play this month, and I'll come back around to Ender Lilies later. The Steam Next Fest next month will also surely bring a couple of interesting demos my way as well.... The 7th Guest fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Jan 11, 2023 |
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Jan 11, 2023 21:07
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I've been playing through Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on my Steam Deck (and the rest of Metroid Prime Trilogy), and while I've owned this since it came out in 2007 I've never gotten around to really playing it since I wanted to finish Echoes first and it took me over a decade to slog my way through that game. Anyways, Corruption is ... great!? Unless there's something dreadfully wrong with the back half of the game I'm actually really liking this. They addressed a lot of the issues I had with Echoes and even the first Prime. I can understand some of the criticism levied against Corruption, but the general consensus would indicate that it's the worst of the trilogy and I think this is better than Echoes. At least, I don't feel like I'm slogging my way through it.
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Jan 11, 2023 21:41
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I recall enjoying Prime 3 maybe the most of the trilogy, especially going back and playing them. I haven't touched any in a long while, and it's real hard to top Prime 1 (outside of collecting relics nesr the end) but I definitely liked 3 more than 2. I can definitrly see criticisms about everything being divided between planets but even with that division I liked the environments in 3 a lot more than in 2. 2 isn't bad I just didn't like its gimmicks as much as Prime 1 as a whole and 3 felt really well refined and presented the whole way through.
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Jan 11, 2023 22:15
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Prime 3 is great, it just stands in the shadow of the original Prime. (And Prime 2 imho but I'm a sucker for light world / dark world gameplay)
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Jan 11, 2023 22:17
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ExcessBLarg! posted:I've been playing through Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on my Steam Deck (and the rest of Metroid Prime Trilogy), and while I've owned this since it came out in 2007 I've never gotten around to really playing it since I wanted to finish Echoes first and it took me over a decade to slog my way through that game. I'm also of that opinion, I'd say 2 is at its worst if you try to 100% it due to all the transition loading, 3 feels very snappy and I never minded the motion gimmicks sprinkled through it. Though I do get people not liking that beam upgrades replace instead of add on. I hated the beams having ammo in 2 as it felt more like a minor annoyance than an actual mechanic or limiter, more often I'd find myself low on ammo when needing to open a door rather than in the middle of a fight.
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Jan 11, 2023 22:52
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Hypermode is so broken I love it. I kept getting electrocuted by those fly-by guys on the ziplines in Elysia, then I remembered that hypermode gives you 10 seconds of invulnerability at no cost as long as you don't shoot--problem solved!
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Jan 12, 2023 01:06
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Played an hour or two of Axiom Verge 2 tonight. It isn't quite grabbing me but I'm willing to play a little more. Just got the power that let me blow up walls, and I'm thinking maybe I just dislike that whole area in general.
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Jan 17, 2023 05:02
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I really liked SHEEPO. It's a short metroidvania with no combat and a heavy focus on platforming.
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Jan 17, 2023 05:06
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ultrafilter posted:I really liked SHEEPO. It's a short metroidvania with no combat and a heavy focus on platforming. I 100%ed the followup game from that dev, Islets, last week. It's also extremely good, it's longer and has combat but it's fairly forgiving and has a lot of QoL features, and it's generally quite cozy.
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Jan 17, 2023 05:17
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Morpheus posted:Played an hour or two of Axiom Verge 2 tonight. It isn't quite grabbing me but I'm willing to play a little more. Just got the power that let me blow up walls, and I'm thinking maybe I just dislike that whole area in general. I would give it until you unlock the very obvious core traversal power, it really makes the game gel IMO.
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Jan 17, 2023 05:28
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Finished Transiruby last night. Another solid B-tier game, cute and relatively simple but involves plenty of (pretty much entirely mandatory) exploration. One of the passwords required for a certain objective was annoying to find (if you play the game and are similarly racking your brain, here's a pro tip, that pushable block can be moved back in the other direction) but otherwise I enjoyed it. i liked the last dungeon's gimmick of slowly expanding the map downward more and more as you reached certain points of progression. Earlier in the week I played Maptroid Worlds and it was cute, although I think it could've had a snappier interface/controls. just not as polished as it could be. this morning i played the demo of HAAK and liked it, although the secrets are a bit TOO signposted with those lanterns, idk if that's something they ease out as the game goes on but it's a bit too obvious. i also played the demo of Blast Brigade and it felt pretty generic to me, kinda plain and uninteresting 'comedy' writing and just OK feeling movement. eh i now have Haiku the Robot so that'll be my next MV, and then maybe Powerslave (same bundle)? then, either give Ender Lilies another shot, or maybe finally, finally, i devote a week+ to Hollow Knight. other remaining MVs in my library: Ghostly Matter, Aquaria, Soul Reaver 1 & 2, Outbuddies (not a huge fan of this one)
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Jan 22, 2023 03:23
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oh. I beat Haiku today. I didn't think it'd be as short as it was, as I was getting deep into it, on account of how hollow knighty it felt (complete with train station fast travel) but it ended up only being 5 hours long it sits somewhere between B and C tier, I think there's good aspects there, but it compares unfavorably to fellow limited-palette gem Kunai which had much more fun movement and combat. i appreciated how many bosses there were, the zipline is a fun way of reinterpreting that one Metroid ability. but I'm glad I got it as part of a bundle that's 6 metroidvanias beaten this month so I think I need to take a short break from them!!!! the next one would probably still be Powerslave Exhumed. i forget when 9 Years of Shadows releases but I guess that would be the first new one i'd be playing this year and I thiiiiink that's next month. so I can maybe take a 'breaktroidvania' until then
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Jan 23, 2023 00:48
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Hello Thread! 1) Glad to see a new thread immediately devolve into genre definitions 2 pages in, gave me a chuckle 2) Dark souls is just a bad Severance: Blade of Darkness rip off. Ergo, Hollow Knight is Conan-themed. 3) More seriously, are there any classic Castlevania games that are playable on the PC (and more importantly, *worth* going back to as a new player)? The only one I ever touched was Aria of Sorrow ages ago, which I enjoyed. 4) Likewise, Is Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) playable on PC? I loved all 2d Metroids (Fusion being the lowest point imo?) and have just heard of this title from wikipedia.
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Jan 29, 2023 09:23
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Just finished HAAK and it was great. I love exploration and finding secret areas and that is extremely HAAK. The combat/ boss fights weren't amazing but sometimes a game does one thing so well you have to give it a pass. woke kaczynski posted:I 100%ed the followup game from that dev, Islets, last week. It's also extremely good, it's longer and has combat but it's fairly forgiving and has a lot of QoL features, and it's generally quite cozy. Seconding this. Other developers should play Islets to see what movement can feel like. Surprising that it was made by the Sheepo team, which was pretty standard and forgettable imo.
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Jan 29, 2023 14:07
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Serephina posted:Hello Thread! The Castlevania advanced collection on steam is a pretty good official collection, it contains the 3 gba games Aria of Sorrow, Circle of the Moon, and Harmony of Dissonance. AoS is the best of them but I'm still fond of CotM tho the soundtrack got hosed on the gba. Dracula X (version of Rondo of Blood) is an okay way to play that game and Rondo is one of the best cvs imo. The CV classic collection is a bit more rocky and not quiet metroidvanias but honestly all fans should play Super Castlevania IV it's very good. Also ez 2 emulate being a snes game. For Samus Returns citra runs it quite well and I replayed it like that recently. Citra let's you bind buttons to the touchscreen as well. There are some mods out there to make it look less like rear end on a larger screen as well (gfx replacements)
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Jan 29, 2023 14:08
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On that note, how do Portrait of Ruin and Order Of Ecclesia stand up? I remember really enjoying the former, but that was on a handheld over a decade ago.
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Jan 29, 2023 17:29
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woke kaczynski posted:I 100%ed the followup game from that dev, Islets, last week. It's also extremely good, it's longer and has combat but it's fairly forgiving and has a lot of QoL features, and it's generally quite cozy. Islets looks awesome, thanks for the rec.
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Jan 29, 2023 17:32
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Serephina posted:4) Likewise, Is Metroid: Samus Returns (2017) playable on PC? I loved all 2d Metroids (Fusion being the lowest point imo?) and have just heard of this title from wikipedia. It's Nintendo, so your only PC option is emulation and :files:, and alternatively you could check out AM2R or emulate the original Metroid 2.
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Jan 29, 2023 17:38
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Cerepol posted:Dracula X (version of Rondo of Blood) is an okay way to play that game and Rondo is one of the best cvs imo. Rondo of Blood is great but I respectfully disagree w/r/t Dracula X being "okay."
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Jan 29, 2023 18:32
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It has some nice remixes of the music and you're not a real Castlevania fan until you've experienced the Drac fight in Dracula X lol
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Jan 29, 2023 18:40
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Fatty posted:On that note, how do Portrait of Ruin and Order Of Ecclesia stand up? I remember really enjoying the former, but that was on a handheld over a decade ago. Extremely well, still top tier games
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Jan 29, 2023 18:51
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Fatty posted:On that note, how do Portrait of Ruin and Order Of Ecclesia stand up? I remember really enjoying the former, but that was on a handheld over a decade ago. PoR has a lot more touchscreen usage since it was early on in the DS life but i got a soft spot for jonathon/charlotte. It also notably has varied environments did to using the portraits to to places. On most days I call Order of Ecclesia my favourite IGAvania and today is most days. Its just got a lot of good poo poo and i line the no damage medals. The refined power system from AoS and DoS and magnesis is so fun to travel with. Schwarzwald posted:Rondo of Blood is great but I respectfully disagree w/r/t Dracula X being "okay." You are right, sometimes I'm unfairly harsh on the changes, but it is also a great game. Just got a soft spot for that ol PC engine game
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Jan 29, 2023 18:52
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Rondo of Blood is sorely missing from the current Castlevania collections. It is part of the PS4 Requiem collection, but as I understand that's a PCE emulator running inside a PSP emulator and thus, bugs. The original Chi no Rondo is available on the PC Engine/TurboGrafx/CoreGrafx Minis, and as a classicvania title you don't really need to play a localized version of it. That said, the minis might be hard to find now. That said, there is a patched PCE ISO floating around out there that includes the English localization from the Dracula X Chronicles along with the updated German voice intro. At the moment, this is probably the definitive way to play Rondo of Blood. Limited Run Games announced an official localized Turbo Duo release of Rondo of Blood back in 2021, but nothing has come of it yet. Which is a shame as it would be an instant purchase for me.
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Jan 29, 2023 19:14
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Dang Haiku the Robot was so good. Highly recommend. Onto steamworld dig!
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Jan 30, 2023 18:14
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I'm playing FIST and it's great, but man the performance is all over the place if you turn RTX on, even on my 3080. Somehow I can run CP 2077 at launch at 90fps but FIST crawls in the 60s with regular frame drops.  I assume they're not patching anymore if it was already a freebie on EGS, so oh well, will have to turn things down.
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Jan 31, 2023 01:02
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I like a lot of things in FIST but the combat was really bringing it down... I should still finish it though. It just feels like way too many moves lock you in animations and mess up your movement, while enemies get insane amounts of invulnerability on knockdown and stuff. I end up not wanting to engage with the systems and just spam boring safe moves.
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Jan 31, 2023 01:29
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Completed Axiom Verge 2 today. The first game was one of my favorite game in that genre in recent years (aside from Hollow Knight). Totally missed that the sequel came out in 2021 though. It's not as strong as the first game, even if it has a bit more character and uniqueness. The last stretch felt a bit short, and any challenges petered out by the mid game. Still enjoyed my time with it, and I'm still amazed at the amount of quality a single person can produce. I think Happ's best talent are his soundtracks though - AV's music always slaps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV7VoN3BNsg
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Feb 3, 2023 23:07
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I beat Ori and the Will of the Wisps yesterday. I grew a bit tired of the first one, and felt it was more of a platformer than a Metroidvania. The sequel however fixed pretty much every problem I had with the first. Fantastic game.
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Feb 4, 2023 02:00
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I got 100% on Islets earlier today after this thread's recommendation, and that game was fantastic. Sheepo was also good, but I vibed with Islets a bit more I think.
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Feb 4, 2023 07:16
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Holy poo poo the new remaster of Metroid Prime is ridiculously good.
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Feb 10, 2023 05:11
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Fuzz posted:Holy poo poo the new remaster of Metroid Prime is ridiculously good. I will probably be picking it up this weekend, it looks loving fantastic.
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Feb 10, 2023 08:18
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Finished GRIME, it was great. I really like that they went hard on the rock/earth aesthetic, that's not something I've really come across in games before. Combat's fun, there are some creative weapons, and at least one unique and memorable boss fight (not that the others were bad; quite the opposite). The main path through the game is fairly straightforward but there are plenty of optional areas / challenges, shortcuts to open, secrets to find, etc. There's very little for me to criticize in this game to be honest. Maybe the climbing/jumping animations look a little goofy but it doesn't actually affect the gameplay. It could also use some more characters, a bit more writing. It goes for the whole vague plot thing, but if you're doing that I think you gotta foster a stronger connection between the player and the game world in another way, for instance by having more recurring characters (e.g. Solaire/Siegmeyer, or Hornet/Quirrel, etc.). GRIME does do this to an extent, but not quite enough for me. Anyway yeah, the game does borrow heavily from Dark Souls and Hollow Knight so if you're tired of learning boss patterns, vague plots and having to find a It did make me think, though, that in general I'd like for these games to reward exploration and backtracking with fewer collectibles / consumables and more story and world-building (perhaps, ideally, both). And also give me a more organic reason to go back to areas. Hollow Knight does this well I think like when you need to power up the dream nail, but it's also in general not a linear game and you naturally go back-and-forth a lot and return to places for various reasons. Sway Grunt fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Feb 12, 2023 |
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Feb 12, 2023 13:07
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The 7th Guest posted:I’m playing Souldiers and I’m waiting for the shoe to drop on what makes this game have Mixed reviews, because so far it loving rules This is from a page (and 2 months) back but yeah, I'm playing it now and this game is excellent. I looked into it and apparently at launch it was riddled with bugs and later had a big rebalancing patch. When the guy in the second dungeon told me I was locked inside, I believed him, but apparently that was nerfed and you can teleport out since the rebalance patch, lol. Souldiers has some of the best pixel art I've ever seen. It's also staggeringly big. I'm playing as the mage and relying heavily on tactics I know the other classes can't use so I could see myself playing it again too. For cons, it's weird playing a 2d game where using the d pad to move isn't an option and the sub weapon system is a mess.
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Feb 19, 2023 05:16
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Souldiers was fun but it suffers the same problem as Phenotopia in that it just goes on for slightly too long.
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Feb 19, 2023 06:29
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Do any games in this genre make enemies in previously visited areas eventually stop spawning? It kind of seems like a common issue with these games that you eventually get tired of fighting the same groups of enemies every time while backtracking looking for items and such. Or a passive ability to make weaker enemies stop appearing like some JRPGs with random encounters have. Late-game super powered abilities like Screw Attack that trivialize most enemies aren't exactly the same thing since they still require a minimal level of engagement.
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Feb 22, 2023 08:37
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