Darkwood is good as hell. you'll be able to tell, yourself, if you get an hour or so into it, but i assure you, your only thoughts will be "oh, this is One Of The Good Ones". it's Got It. the intangible something, the quality, the care, the passion.

now, going into it, one's initial impression would be "but... i'm not super into (x)". and, lemme tell you: i know. i felt and thought the same going in; and then it simply kicked enough ass that i kept playing it. and then i did it three times over.

horror? weird top-down angle? inventory or base management? extreme body horror? punishing, untelegraphed decisions with NPCs and the like which can have permanent and undo-able ramifications about characters or things you care about for the rest of the playthrough? didn't think i'd like any of it, either. was skeptical. but it looked too cool to not peer into, at least a little...

and now, i love it. so, my testament: you're probably going to feel the same.

cave story is one of my biggest inspirations, and i think the progenitor of my love for idiosyncratic, diamond-in-the-rough passion projects. i'd be a different person without cave story. textual themes and motifs aside, to me this game is ultimately about how cool it is to make art. mash all your favourite genres and tropes together and watch the magic that comes out! i love that more than anything. if i turn my game design brain on, i'd have issues, but who cares about game design when this world is so fucking cool?

...nicalis please fix the challenges on the steam version it's been 13 years

A fun, simple, yet atmospheric platformer, Cave Story should be given a lot more credit, over a decade after its initial release. This game still holds up tremendously well and is super inspiring. I love the lore, the character designs, the music, the gameplay variety! For only being about 8 hours or so, it’s paced really well on top of that.

Only problems I really have are with the crazy difficulty spike at the end. The normal three bosses were enough to have me frustrated, but this whole playthru I was trying to fulfill the requirements for the perfect ending. Fairly easily to fulfill them, but the problem is the final “cave” at the end with a boss fight that has three phases with no saving or health refills.

Yeah hell no. I’m good with the normal ending. I’ll just look it up on YouTube. 😭

Edit: okay I actually went back and replayed the entire game just to unlock the spur and do some extra side content. This game really allows itself to be replayed. I’d say it was worth doing for the spur alone this gun is sickkkk

Also doing the final sanctuary to beat Ballos was so hard but so extremely worth it. Such a fun boss fight

Looks and sound
MGSV came out in 2015 and still holds up very well visually while still being well optimized. Sure the textures aren't as high quality as games nowadays but it has some impressive art direction that has helped it age well. I do think some of the visual effects with the man on fire were a bit weird or the 'glare' surrounding large scale fire effects in general but that is pretty much my only complaint here.

One thing I think deserves some praise is the UI. Its by far one of the best UIs I've ever seen. There's not one intrusive or irritating element and the game lets you remove any of the UI elements to your hearts content while also providing with diagetic replacements in the form of certain item upgrades. While I personally prefer using most of the UI, it is fascinating to see how the game feels without no hud.

The sound effects are all very well done from the horse as it sprints, all the various guns and items ate your disposal, the helicopter and other vehicles, the voice acting in the cutscenes and throughout the world. It adds quite a lot to the immersion in the game especially when paired with the non-intrusive UI.


Gameplay
Stealth games don't tend to have the best combat. Most of the gameplay is themed around hiding and avoiding fights. This is for one a very difficult system to build because you have to make hiding around and moving slowly and silently actually fun. You have to make the AI seem smart enough at finding the player while not making it look like its blatantly cheating. Metal Gear has always pushed the boundries with what can be done here but V perfects it. I don't like to use words like 'perfection' because it implies there's nothing else to fix or work on but I think it works here. It has been eight years and there is no stealth game that manages to challenge the smooth controls, insane variety of approach through area design, weapons, items, vehicles, mechanics that this game has shown. I have played more than 60 hours and I'm sure I haven't even scratched the surface of everything that the player can do in this game.

Even if you're thrown out of stealth into a 'boss fight' you can still deal with it in a stealthy manner. And unlike the previous metal gear games, the shooting is decent enough that being thrown out of stealth isn't annoying as hell.


Story
Metal Gear has had an interesting story throughout the past few decades. I wouldn't call it a 'good' story because Kojima has a massive lack of understanding when it comes to basics of storytelling like tone, structure or pacing. He makes up for that with how entertaining it ends up being, and interesting social and political commentary. The commentary is still here in MGSV though it's a bit subtle, subtle for MGS to be clear, since these games are pretty direct about what they want to say. It does feel a bit unfinished or abrupt in its execution but the main focus for me here is the gameplay.