not unlike the 5th elder scrolls game (which they were open about being inspired by), i played for like 40 hours nonstop as soon as it released and got my fix of it. i'm good, don't really have a desire to return.

but, unlike that other "see that mountain, you can climb it!" ass game, i look back fondly on my (perhaps limited) time with it. initially, i felt as if it was a return to form for the old ninty, up there with a link to the past and metroid 3, but these days i'm not so sure. still stands as one of the better examples of the post 2010ish triple-ehhhh open world experiences, which is something i'm kinda lukewarm on, favoring a tighter, focused experience almost unanimously. good for them tho i guess

(currently in the middle of it all, more like some comments about the ongoing experience rather than a review of the total experience, that will come later, trust)

yeahyeahyeah i do guess it's a bit trite to state the impact this has had on interactive media as a whole in the decade or so since its release, but DAMN, a very, very special sort of slow-burn dungeon drudge. bringing the contiguous level structure of king's field (2 and 4 specifically), the build and playstyle variety of armored core together with a combat system that is not unlike nintendo's 3D zelda games (spoiler: it's way better than any 3d zelda game) absolutely was the key to bringing from software's long-standing uncompromising design sensibilities to the minds of (relative) normies. it didn't do anything new, but what it did do was executed with a staggering degree of cohesion. the world itself: exploring it, seeing it unravel and fold back into itself as you work your way across lodran, comes first, as it should in any sort of adventure. the dodgeroll simulation is a very, very distant 2nd to the world. no matter how mechanically sound the combat is, no matter how satisfying it may be to finally understand an encounter and execute it victoriously (or more often than not, just barely survive through it), the dungeons themself will take precedence over all, and, like king's field 2 and 4, this game is basically one contiguous, focused, dungeon. sure, it's fun to dodgeroll through the swings from enemies of all sizes, but i'm gonna want to have fun on my way to all of that, time and time again, too. (i have a hunch that, after bloodborne, all of the wizardry-loving folks were long gone, and the focus shifted from mostly dungeons to mostly dodgerolls, and i am hoping that they haven't become too lost in that dodgeroll sauce.... we'll find out for sure late this august)

it really feels like a culmination of every single thing they've learned from the 50ish games they made prior to this. say less to the player, let them figure their way through and leave the rest for them to infer, perhaps ad infinitum.

[if it turns out folks (who have probably either: not played, or not liked any of from software's games that are essentially fiendish mazes composed of like 2 repeating textures that sometimes don't even tile properly) are trying to gaslight I and others about the 2nd half: well.... that wouldn't be surprising, honestly. stranger things have happened.]

classics of mid, the goofy lightgun mainstay of bowling alleys and movie theater lobbies. there really isn't much to it but it's always a silly joy, much better with a friend (which could be said for just about every lightgun game)

But!

then there's kronn hunter mode, which is visually (at leaston the arcade version, one of the home ports looks completely different) at least 25 years ahead of its time. +1 star for kronn hunter alone.