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I liked and finished thise ridiculous platforming challenges. 
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Sep 1, 2023 12:22
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Put about 3 hours into Blasphemous 2 so far. Game is great. - The presentation is still on point - really great art, fantastic music, interesting imagery. The Spanish VA is baked in this time and effectively mandatory as far as I’m concerned. - I know folks in here were worried about damage numbers and immersion from the trailer; you can choose those, the original game’s health bars, or neither via options menu. - The game backported a lot of the first game’s QoL enhancements; a minor amount of secret hunting so far has gotten me a “warp back to the hub city from any save point” upgrade. - Enemy knockbacks are now attack/size appropriate, so running into a smaller enemy in midair now will hurt you but not send you flying backwards. - Spike pits now just do a large chunk of damage but aren’t guaranteed instakills. (There’s an achievement for falling into one and living as a nod to how brutal they were in the first). - They now divide prayers between quick-casting verses and long cast major effects, and you equip one of each, so prayer use is more versatile. - There’s some interesting new character build options that mean that you’re less forced to rely on extremely limited rosary slots for 90% of your build customizations. - The new weapons are really neat - different focuses, different elements, different moves. The big morningstar style censer can’t even block or parry but swings multi-hit and you can do some combo/move cancelling tricks with it, and you can get added effects spending Fervor for example. - In tandem with the above, each of the weapons has a map-pertinent exploration/traversal gimmick, which means that depending on your starter weapon, the shortcuts/puzzles/secrets you can access early on are going to be different. I chose the censer, which means I can do any puzzles that involve ringing bells; until I found the rapier/dagger in the map, however, I couldn’t use mirrors for short distance teleports. It’s a cool way to differentiate the early game experience. Definitely looking forward to playing more, but it feels like the dev took what worked as of the time they finished DLC 3 for the first game and just immediately kept iterating.
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Sep 5, 2023 00:35
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I’m at ~80% map completion nearing the end of Blasphemous 2. It is very good but lacks some the creepy weirdness of 1. Losing the pixel art cutscenes is a bummer. The build options are a huge improvement. I started with Verdedicto (the censer) and have mostly stuck with it. Satisfying as hell to swing. I’ve tried the 2 swords a bit but can’t imagine how to make them as good. They lack range AND damage AND stagger.
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Sep 5, 2023 03:01
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ultrachrist posted:I’m at ~80% map completion nearing the end of Blasphemous 2. It is very good but lacks some the creepy weirdness of 1. Losing the pixel art cutscenes is a bummer. Offhand I’d imagine you would have to lean hard into the lightning gimmick, though I haven’t unlocked the tier 2/3 skills for it to see what happens. Censer is just really fun to use and the sword is basically just an upgraded sword from B1. At least the dual wielding set has blocking.
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Sep 5, 2023 03:06
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ultrachrist posted:I’m at ~80% map completion nearing the end of Blasphemous 2. It is very good but lacks some the creepy weirdness of 1. Losing the pixel art cutscenes is a bummer. I'm with you on the first part, I really enjoyed this game but it still felt just a tiny bit uninspired compared to the first one. On the second part, I also started with Veredicto but I played around with the other two when I was doing some of the late game clean up and was pleasantly surprised that the dual swords can actually tear through health bars like crazy at level 3 charge. There is also an altarpiece combo that fully charges them every time you use a bile flask which was essential for me, I'm not good enough to not get hit. Ferrous fucked around with this message at 09:01 on Sep 5, 2023 |
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Sep 5, 2023 05:46
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I talked about my playthrough for great lenghts in the Blasphemous thread, so I'll recap quickly - there will be spoilers, I'll mark the more glaring ones B2 felt a lot more streamlined, like mentioned, you unlock the teleport to hub pretty early and later on can unlock travel from savepoint to another which makes it even easier plus the devs have a pretty good grasp on when you need a savepoint, because very often after a tough section or a challenge room there was one waiting for me. I really liked the three weapons, sufficiently different, and all of them a different movement ability. The altarpiece system is also a great addition and you can really define your playstyle with it. It's also a bit less gritty and dark. But I guess we had enough of that in B1? I also agree that I missed some of the huge bosses from B1, and they were a bit on the easy side (until the second to last one, where I struggled a bit). I started with the Veredicto, but pretty soon switched to using Ruego Al Alba. With the right buffs the blood pact just annihilates enemies plus if you combine with the time stop prayer, it's quite effective. However because it was a bit more streamlined, I felt like there could've been an optional area/boss or two. Now every area was basically one you go through with the plot, and the later half of the game is very linear. All in all I enjoyed it a lot, a worthy sequel in my opinion.
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Sep 5, 2023 14:28
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Edit: removing me being puzzled by the simplest platform ever. Blasphemous 2 is great fun. Less fluffy/grim than the previous one, but the weapons are cool and things are a bit more cleanly done. Serephina fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Sep 6, 2023 |
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Sep 6, 2023 03:52
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One thing I’ve had a lot of fun with in B2 so far is seeing how I can sequence break; I remember in the first game how some quests panned out differently depending on how you pushed the progression. Turns out if you don’t actually deep dive on the first three boss regions and instead just pick up your missing weapons and leave, you can go find a ton of secrets based on the different weapon environmental tricks. This not only gets you some extra loot early on, but if you sequence break and find/kill a different boss much earlier than intended (not easy, mind you), you get access to one of the new mobility powers far sooner than you probably should. Not only is this handy when you start finding the first three story bosses, it means when you actually make a serious run on their zones you can access even more secrets and items as a result. It’s been pretty satisfying.
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Sep 6, 2023 05:21
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Yea, I got the double-jump as my first boss fight. I refused to give up, probably took a few hours and I had to swap weapons to the censer since that mofo had so much goddamn hp. By the time I bothered to do the 2nd and 3rd mandatory bosses, I obliterated them on my first try, no healing potions needed - those extra upgrades are fierce. ----- Unrelated, but something I see a lot in both metroidvanias and even other platformers (like Tomb Raider etc) is the painfully obvious signposting about "you don't have this ability yet, come back later". Like man, try to put a bit of mystery to it or something, like the movement skills are organic and the hurdles blend into the background. Various games' double jumps are ok about this, but literally everything else is a neon coloured doodad or barrier that screams "come back when you have the McGuffin".
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Sep 6, 2023 06:23
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Oh Jesus Christ the penultimate (?) boss of Blasphemous 2 has an intro speech, which he repeats on retries, and has another upon entering his second form. It's unskippable.
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Sep 7, 2023 14:23
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Delivers the proper Mass experience, working as intended.
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Sep 7, 2023 15:13
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Realistically that seems like something they’ll patch out in whatever post launch release they have. Game has a few oddities like that - I’ve run into a periodic issue where I can’t do anything but run left/right (no jumping, item use, object use, weapon use, etc) until I try to cycle weapons a few times. Hardly dealbreaking but there’s a bit of cleanup for the devs to do.
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Sep 7, 2023 15:25
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Serephina posted:Oh Jesus Christ the penultimate (?) boss of Blasphemous 2 has an intro speech, which he repeats on retries, and has another upon entering his second form. Yeah I just cheesed that and the final boss with time stop. gently caress anyone who puts an unskippable intro before the hardest boss in the game.
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Sep 7, 2023 16:44
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I’m working on him now. The first phase is trivial. After you do it once it should skip to phase 2 on subsequent attempts. And yes skip the cutscene. It’s actually a cool fight to learn otherwise.
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Sep 7, 2023 16:45
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Serephina posted:Oh Jesus Christ the penultimate (?) boss of Blasphemous 2 has an intro speech, which he repeats on retries, and has another upon entering his second form. My initial read of this was that Jesus Christ was the penultimate boss
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Sep 7, 2023 17:15
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Well after you fight The Son, you have to fight The Father.
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Sep 7, 2023 20:05
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Serephina posted:Oh Jesus Christ the penultimate (?) boss of Blasphemous 2 has an intro speech, which he repeats on retries, and has another upon entering his second form. Yeah it sucks rear end. Especially as the second half felt way harder/faster than any of the other bosses up to that point
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Sep 7, 2023 22:42
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My biggest complains about Blasphemous 2 are that the music isn't as great as the first game's (subjective, I know), the fact that there's no unlockables(not even palette swaps!) and that it went the way of Dark Souls 2 and most of the bosses are just regular sized dudes and dudettes . Otherwise, it's an excellent game and more than a worthy sequel. I hope it sells really well, spanish high art is an underrated aesthetic for videogames.
ManaJerk fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Sep 8, 2023 |
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Sep 8, 2023 02:37
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Blasphemous 2 chat: I think the boss we’re talking about on this page may be bugged for you all. I went in, he did his big unskippable speech, he had his phase transition 2 lines, and then on subsequent attempts at the fight he just lead off with his final line from the big speech and the phase transition as normal. Definitely see how the whole thing each time would be a problem though. So I beat the game effectively 100% and saw both endings. In general I liked it, but overall it felt like two steps forward, two steps back in comparison to the first game and a lot of the flaws became apparent as I got farther in. The gameplay is great. Combat still feels extremely good. The movement and traversal options are nice and address a lot of the clunky and rigid feeling of B1. Splitting character builds up between the rosaries and altarpieces is good, since you’re not reliant on super limited rosary slots for basic functionality. Prayers being divided into quick verses and larger effects also means you can integrate prayers into general gameplay more without having to constantly menu hop. Most importantly, the weapons are great. I like how the sword is basically just an amped up version of the first game’s weapon, then you have two distinct and varied styles with the dual wield set and the censer. I basically used the latter for 99% of the game and despite it having no block/parry I absolutely had a blast with it. That said, while the moment to moment gameplay, traversal and combat was really fun, there’s some broader gameplay and design issues that feel like a fairly big reversion. Gonna spoiler tag a bit here since it touches on later game features and content some. 1) Just this page I was talking about how pleased I was to do a movement upgrade sequence skip while doing act 1. It’s good I liked that because the later game actually goes weirdly linear and it was a real bummer compared to act 1 of this and the general flow of the first game letting you tackle zones and bosses largely how you wanted. 2) A lot of the unnerving and weird NPC and boss design and aesthetic was lacking this time. Part of why B1 was so memorable and striking was the sheer number and variety in ways in which the Miracle pulled a complete nightmare monkey paw scenario on the NPCs you interacted with; body horror, weird proportions, overly literal granting of desires, etc. This time around those moments were few and far between or just kinda retreads of the first game. 3) Quest design really sucked, honestly. Most of them were on rails; those that had some branching way to solve them didn’t matter regardless of what you did because you could just go to the Forgotten Patio afterwards and buy the alternate reward anyway. I know some of the quest triggers in the first game could be finicky, but at least solving those differently - or letting them fail - had actual ramifications. The only missable thing here was the bonus health and fervor upgrades tied to handling interactions with those NPCs correctly. Also, while the first game’s base ending split being tied to properly figuring out what to do with the guilt bead and confessor statues wasn’t great, I don’t think the right solution here was “make players find every single cherub hidden across the entire map to get one of the required items”. I don’t regret buying it at full price and I largely enjoyed it, but I was definitely let down by a lot of the broader considerations. Unfortunately unlike the first game, which improved markedly via the free DLC content additions (more boss fights, more cool collectibles and upgrades, entire new zones, etc), I’m not sure that post launch tweaks are going to be able to really adjust what feels wrong on this one. Hopefully I’m proven wrong.
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Sep 9, 2023 05:37
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Tortolia posted:Blasphemous 2 chat: I agree with most of your points, but I hope you're wrong about them not being able to fix it post launch like they did with the first one. I played B1 when it released, and then again a couple years laters after all the DLC was released and the difference was night and day (They even fixed sprites!). ManaJerk fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Sep 9, 2023 |
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Sep 9, 2023 16:28
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Man, the sniper fight in Death's Gambit is really cool. I got reminded to try the game by a podcast mentioning it in passing, and I'm definitely having a great time so far. Lovely pixel art, nice exploration, the writing is on the clunky side but still charming and the jokes hit more often than they miss. Solid B game, definite recommend for someone who likes this genre. I really appreciate the number of serious, interesting fights that you can still break if you want. The dopplegangers are an interesting melee challenge, with reasonably diverse movesets... but more often than not, I can jump on top of something and plink at them with arrows until my wizard has enough soul energy to summon orbiting bombs or cast a lightning arc. You can get a lot of mileage out of using your basic magic missiles to attack from a safe range, too... though I'm definitely starting to feel the weakness of their base damage power. I get the feeling that the last quarter of this game is really going to test me if I end up mostly sticking with my current tome+orbs+spellblade build.
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Sep 9, 2023 17:44
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Loving Blasphemous 2 gameplay wise. It’s an improvement in every way. Story wise though it’s really lacking. In addition to replacing the pixel art cutscenes with cartoons that don’t match the rest of the game which is still done in beautiful pixel art, the story is just a retread. Admittedly I don’t really know how you could make it different from the first game without taking away what makes it Blasphemous. But regardless it’s pretty much just “Remember how Catholic-land got ironically and poetically mutilated? Well it happened again.”
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Sep 9, 2023 20:10
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avoraciopoctules posted:Man, the sniper fight in Death's Gambit is really cool. I got reminded to try the game by a podcast mentioning it in passing, and I'm definitely having a great time so far. Lovely pixel art, nice exploration, the writing is on the clunky side but still charming and the jokes hit more often than they miss. Solid B game, definite recommend for someone who likes this genre. Death's Gambit is some good solid fun, it's got some nice moments to it. Worth a look, yeah. Puckanas posted:I agree with most of your points, but I hope you're wrong about them not being able to fix it post launch like they did with the first one. I played B1 when it released, and then again a couple years laters after all the DLC was released and the difference was night and day (They even fixed sprites!). I have hope too. The reason I'm a bit more dubious is the B1 DLCs had some obvious and easy things to lean into - QoL features and enhancements like the Prie Dieu teleports, more boss fights, and the entire DLC3 branching path and story, plus NG+ cycles and gimmicks. Some of that could be replicated here too, but some of the core issues I have don't seem like things that lend themselves to a rework via DLC, and they've already put some of the easy QoL stuff from the first game into the second. I'll absolutely check out what they release when that happens though.
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Sep 9, 2023 21:07
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I heard death's gambit was unfinished and bad when it first came out. Is it worth playing now?
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Sep 9, 2023 21:29
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Owl Inspector posted:I heard death's gambit was unfinished and bad when it first came out. Is it worth playing now? The version on Steam is called Death's Gambit: Afterlife. It seems to have had a lot of improvements compared to the original game. For me personally, it's a B-grade game. I could think of lots of nitpicks if I wanted to, but I am legit enjoying my time. Definitely worth giving a shot and refunding if you don't like the first hour, but I wouldn't call it an essential experience.
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Sep 9, 2023 22:08
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avoraciopoctules posted:The version on Steam is called Death's Gambit: Afterlife. It seems to have had a lot of improvements compared to the original game. For me personally, it's a B-grade game. I could think of lots of nitpicks if I wanted to, but I am legit enjoying my time. Definitely worth giving a shot and refunding if you don't like the first hour, but I wouldn't call it an essential experience. Yeah, Afterlife was a fairly hefty free expansion; I didn't play the original but concur that the enhanced version of the game is a solid B tier.
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Sep 9, 2023 22:28
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What was the thread consensus on Afterimage and 9 Years of Shadow? Both are available in this Fanatical bundle ~$7 each: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/prestige-collection-build-your-own-bundle
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Sep 12, 2023 03:20
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9 Years of Shadow is the basic metroidvania formula done very well. You'll only be disappointed if you're looking for something innovative.
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Sep 12, 2023 03:30
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Afterimage contains 20 hours of good content. it is 40 hours long.
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Sep 12, 2023 03:38
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Owl Inspector posted:Afterimage contains 20 hours of good content. it is 40 hours long. Where is the 20 hours? Front-loaded or end-game?
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Sep 12, 2023 03:57
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highly frontloaded. the rest isn't outright garbage or anything like that for the most part, it just loses all of its momentum over the second half as the polish goes down over time, the story goes from confusing to incomprehensible, the difficulty gets really inconsistent, and very little of it has any memorable impact by the end. Afterimage doesn't suck and you will definitely get your money's worth somewhere out of that entire package, but it's hard not to be disappointed at how diluted the game becomes next to what an absolutely banger game it could have been if the devs had set stricter limits on themselves. I wrote more about the specifics here.
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Sep 12, 2023 05:04
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Oh yeah, now I remember wishlisting Afterimage after reading that post months ago but there were a lot of games that came out and it blurred away. I'm fine to keep waiting for a deep sale, though.
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Sep 12, 2023 05:23
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GrandpaPants posted:What was the thread consensus on Afterimage and 9 Years of Shadow? Both are available in this Fanatical bundle ~$7 each: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/prestige-collection-build-your-own-bundle IMO 9 Years of Shadow is extremely boring. There's nothing out and out wrong with it but I lost interest in going back to play more.
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Sep 12, 2023 11:09
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Not a Metroidvania, but there was a lot of praise for Aeterna Noctis earlier in the thread. I guess they went and made a Roguelite version. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1815230/Summum_Aeterna/ https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256960650/movie480_vp9.webm Will give it a try and report back if anyone's interested.
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Sep 14, 2023 21:00
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Fatty posted:Not a Metroidvania, but there was a lot of praise for Aeterna Noctis earlier in the thread. I guess they went and made a Roguelite version. Please do.
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Sep 14, 2023 21:09
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I played the early access some time ago. It was a nice early effort, but it felt like it was missing a hook at that time. I'm interested to see how it worked out.
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Sep 14, 2023 21:14
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The layout reminds me of dead cells
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Sep 15, 2023 08:53
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There's a new MV on steam that's getting some good reviews https://store.steampowered.com/app/1441240/Paradiso_Guardian/ I'm not gay or into hentai, but I would play a gay hentai game if it was good (and like half the price in this case.) There's a few other hentai metroidvanias on steam with very positive reviews, but I don't know if that's because the games are good or just because the reviewer jerked off to it This one cums out next month: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1748620/FlipWitch__Forbidden_Sex_Hex (sexy goblin nsfw warning.) That pixel art looks amazing (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Sep 16, 2023 21:49
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Dude if you wanna play some H-games you don't have to make excuses for it
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Sep 16, 2023 22:05
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GrandpaPants posted:What was the thread consensus on Afterimage and 9 Years of Shadow? Both are available in this Fanatical bundle ~$7 each: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/prestige-collection-build-your-own-bundle I went through Afterimage last weekend and had about 30 hrs till I finished. If you like exploring this game is great! The combat is kinda meh and I ended up face tanking most of the late game bosses. I would recommend it to others. I only got it myself since it was on sale for $15 and I was bored. ghostinmyshell fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Sep 16, 2023 |
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Sep 16, 2023 22:17
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