If you enjoyed The Witness but wish it had more of a story to grasp onto like Braid, then you might find Tunic weirdly cathartic. This is a really special puzzle game that inspired a sort of lean-my-head-back-and-stare-at-the-ceiling-since-I-can't-comprehend-how-cool-what's-on-screen-is wonder that I hadn't felt in a very long time - not even while playing Outer Wilds.

There's also passable Souls-style combat if you enjoy that, but if you don't then don't be afraid to use the difficulty modifiers! The game's not perfect but it's worth the struggle - don't look anything up and if you do make sure it's a gentle spoiler free guide.

Also the soundtrack is god-tier. Lifeformed already had some bangers on the Dustforce soundtrack but they really outdid themselves here (along with Power Up Audio's gorgeous sound design). "Flux Is On" has been top of the playlist for over a year now.

More Breath of the Wild, warts and all.

The skinner box grind is still entertaining enough and I ended up completing more of the game (90% of shrines) than I expected given how little they did to address issues I had with BotW - lackluster dungeons, storytelling, and progression systems all remain. But it's impossible to deny the charm of even a phoned-in Zelda title.

I think my bitterness is more a reflection of Aonuma's claim that this is what the future of Zelda games looks like. It's neat enough and it has mass appeal, but the "every solution is valid!" nature of open-ended puzzle design in these BotW-era Zelda games means there's fewer "a-ha!" moments in finding intended puzzle solutions (not that any of the puzzles are remotely challenging anyway). So much of the game is (still) defined by the dominant strategy of climbing and gliding everywhere - and for being such a long game it's pretty sad that there's less modulation in your traversal and puzzle solving abilities than earlier Zelda titles. I just need to accept that Nintendo will never make a dungeon with the complexity of Stone Tower Temple again - especially not now that Zelda sells more copies than Mario. This is not a franchise to do weird experiments with, anymore.

As beloved as it is for its interconnected world design, I found this to be the most unnecessarily cruel and poorly designed Souls game. Even Demon's Souls didn't let me die with 10k souls from a boss before reaching the next bonfire (thanks Tomb of the Giants). Each successive FROM game has been better about explaining obfuscated mechanics and onboarding new players, but Dark Souls relishes in never telling you what kindling a bonfire does or the difference between hollow and human form. In my obdurate quest to avoid looking things up for the sake of experiencing this paradigm shifting game with fresh eyes, I had a miserable time getting stuck in dead end level design and mechanical time wasters. The pinnacle of which was getting the curse status effect while fighting one of the four lords – a status which persists after death and requires trekking across the world map to remove. To that I said, "f*** this," and put the game down for good.

Ornstein and Smough were pretty neat though. A shame the runback is so irritating.