I think the way people talk about FromSoftware's games online has completely poisioned people's brains.

I remember first realising this while watching the youtuber Joseph Anderson's review of Bloodborne where he states that he refused to use any consumable items during his entire playthrough, he then later on complains about dying to frenzy and posion, because he refused to use the items that cure it. What on Earth possessed this man to do this? What other game genre drives players to completely ignore key mechanics because using them is 'not playing the game properly'?

People have developed this weird sense of what beating a boss 'properly' counts as in Elden Ring, mostly based off of previous FromSoft games, and I think this has given people a warped sense of how difficult this game actually is.

Whats hilarious is how inconsistent the 'proper' way of beating a boss is. Using spirit summons obviously doesn't count, but applying five different buffs so that you kill the boss five times as fast is fine. Using damaging spells obviously doesn't count, but parrying half the bosses attacks is fine. Using a shield obviously doesn't count, but powerstancing two colossal weapons so that the boss is staggered after every single attack is fine.

If you are still refusing to use spirit ashes or spells or ashes of war or craftable items and then complaining about the difficulty at this point in the game I don't know what to tell you. The game is pretty clearly balanced around using spirit summons and at least one ranged ability or spell in your build. Elden Ring is not a game where you just dodge at the right time and hit light attack twice anymore. There's nothing stopping you from doing this, and it is possible to win while using this playstyle, but I don't think they are designing bosses around it anymore.

I only found two bosses to be frustratingly difficult, Rellana and the big greatsword guy near the starting area. Both of these were entirely self imposed by me because I had barely explored the map by this point and I could have easily come back later a few levels higher and found them much easier to beat.

I don't know who is making people embarrassed to use certain mechanics in these games. Play the game however your heart desires. Just because some guy on youtube beat every boss at level 1 with his fists while using an xbox kinect doesn't mean you have to.

Anyway this DLC, much like the base game, is a flawed masterpiece. Which is a completely pointless thing to say because all masterpieces are flawed. (except for Resident Evil 4 and my dad's chilli recipe).

FromSoftware must have a direct line to my inner subconscious because everything they design scratches an aesthetic itch that nothing else can really compete with. And the level and enemy design is top tier. I almost think that calling this 'more elden ring' is underselling it, the amount of new ways of playing the game this adds is immense. And in terms of sheer size this DLC by itself can take longer to beat than a lot of other FromSoft games, depending on how much side content you engage with.

The FromSoft winning streak continues. I hope everyone working at that studio gets some incredible head this weekend.

My first Castlevania game.

The movements were really responsive. Alucard isn't slippery, he doesn't gain a weird momentum as soon as he starts moving forward, or any other shenanigan. It just felt very smooth. The same can be said about the bat form.
It was such a sick ability btw, being able to fly wherever you want, dodging every enemy while backtracking. And I like the detail of the bat changing color depending on Alucard's outfit.

The soundtrack is extremely catchy. There are elements from multiple musical genres, including classical, techno, rock and metal. It fitted perfectly with the gothic aesthetics of the game. The atmosphere is just very charming.

The game has a good amount of teleporters that are well spaced between each other. I could reach any part of the map pretty quickly. It's too rare in those retro games.

While some of the Bosses were too easy, I still enjoyed them a lot overall. Many of them have a really cool chara design, like Granfaloon, Medusa, Scylla and Shaft. And honestly, I usually prefer too easy rather than too hard.
By the way, having to fight Doppelganger 30 minutes into my playthrough was a big surprise. It was probably the most difficult Boss in the entire game. Still a great Boss tho 👌

I liked the RPG aspect of the game, with the items you can drop on defeated enemies, or by finding them during your exploration. Whether it's weapons, cloaks or talismans to make Alucard stronger, or consumables to heal yourself and boost your statistics momentarily in battle. I wish we could use items without having to unequip our weapon or shield tho...

The sub-weapons I used the most were the knives for their ease of use & high damage, and also the stopwatch. I didn't use the other ones very often.

I like how there is a possibility of getting a bad ending if you rush to the top of the castle before doing the necessary to save Richter. I ruthlessly killed him even though he is a human, and immediatly realized my mistake.
Hopefully I was able to reload my save right away to get the true ending.

I remember being stuck at some point, and I found a clue while looking at the tactic for Dracula, in the Librarian's Shop. When you watch this tutorial where Richter is fighting him, you can see that he opens a secret path at the very beginning, right before the fight. So I was able to go there myself, and I found an item that helped me to progress. I just think that was a cool way to proceed.

At first, when I reached the Reverse Castle, I was excited about the idea to go through the same map but upside down.
But when I realized that many of the rooms were now filled to the brim with enemies, I decided to keep using the bat & mist to breeze through the map and reach the Final Boss a lot quicker.
This last segment in the Reverse Castle felt like padding to be honest. It wasn't as great as the rest of the game.

Still, I had a very good time with the game overall. I enjoyed it more than Super Metroid which I played right before SOTN. (I mention it because I saw that there is a heated debate between the fans of both games to decide which one is the best 😂)
Anyway, if I play another Castlevania game in the future, it's gonna be Aria of Sorrow! 👍

----------Playtime & Completion----------

[Started on May 8th & finished on May 10th 2024]
Playtime: 13 hours
I was at 88% after getting the first ending.
And at 150% after getting the true ending.

This is my first Metroid game.

Samus movements are a bit clunky. First, I never became truly comfortable with the Spin Jump. I couldn't get used to the momentum of this move, and often ended up slipping off platforms.
Figuring out how to use the Wall Jump wasn't obvious at all. I had to train on a wall for a few minutes to get a good grip of it.
And worst of all, the Space Jump: Underwater, I was able to perform this move without any issue, but outside of that, I was never able to chain them consistently. The timing is just so weird and unintuitive, and that's the reason I had such a bad time in the last area, Ridley's Lair. You need to fly across rising lava as quickly as possible using this move, and that was terrible.

Also, this isn't the game's fault, but I don't vibe with the sci-fi/alien/futuristic setting... Different strokes, right?

There are some items that are fun to use. I liked being able to freeze the enemies to use them as platforms, thanks to the Ice Beam. Swinging myself around with the grapple beam was also kinda fun.

I didn't like the abundance of hidden paths. Having to stop constantly to use the X-Ray kinda ruins the pace of exploration. It's the biggest issue in the game for me.

I enjoyed the boss fights for the most part. They aren't too easy nor too hard. I do want to note that I was using save states. So whenever I died against a Boss, I could respawn in front of it and retry immediatly.
Crocomire was pretty cool, the fact that you need to push him into the lava rather than reducing his HP to 0. And the way he comes back as a skeleton to scare you one last time was neat.
Draygon was my favorite Boss in the game, and I also had a good time with Golden Torizo.

Using the Power Bomb in Maridia to break the glass tunnel was such an Eureka moment for me. I was stuck for so long, and it felt very satisfying to finally figure this out!

As I said earlier, I kind of had enough once I reached Ridley's Lair. I got stuck at the 2 Ridley's Guards.
I didn't have enough ammo to deal with them, and I was really fed up with this area, so I didn't have the courage to backtrack to gather HP & ammo. The lack of teleporters is definitely a deal-breaker.
So I stopped here and watched the rest of the game on YouTube.

Honestly, I had a good time in the first half of the game. Before I reached the last quarter of the game, I thought about giving it 3.5 stars, or even 4 stars. But it became really tedious near the end, hence my final rating.
I'm still happy I played such an iconic game, it was about time I played this series! I feel like I would have more fun with Metroid Dread tho?

----------Playtime & Completion----------

[Started on May 5th & stopped on May 7th 2024]
Playtime: 18 hours
I stopped at the 2 Ridley's Guards.

It’s bizarre that a game that teaches you how to cope with grief from so many different angles and characters left me so emotionally devastated at an ending that ties its themes together so perfectly. I’ve been crying for like 12 hours, I can’t seem to get over it.

Forever grateful for the video game gods to deliver this remake to me at the peak of my Persona fandom. It's everything I could've ever wanted and more. I have notes... there are some really weird plot and pacing issues... but I can't bring myself to care when I had such a great experience overall. For a third time, Persona became my second life, and a home away from home. It's a little concerning how I managed to play this in two weeks though, so I think I'll be able to handle the long wait for Persona 6.