Patient Gamers

I finished Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree this week, and I had an absolute blast with it. I bought it because it was written by Bloodlines-writer Brian Mitsoda, but while the story ended up being serviceable at most I really loved the gameplay. It's very light on platforming - which I loved because I hate platforming - and the PoE inspired skill tree added a dimension to the 2.5D Soulslike that really tickled my brain just right. The Metroidvania elements were well done with lots of exploration, shortcuts and secrets and new parts of old areas opening up with each new method of traversal unlocked. Difficulty felt pretty good too, I'm starting to feel like I'm over the super difficult games and this never got too frustrating. Plus it does have accessibility options. In fact, I liked it so much I was extremely tempted to jump right back in and do NG+, and that is a rarity for me. I was thinking second playthrough first with a different playstyle, but I ended up really loving my build by the end.

Instead though I tried out Blasphemous. I got it on the summer sale at 90% off and thought it could satiate the same craving as NG+ of Mandragora. I'm about a third of the way through now though and... I'm not sure I like it. The world building is amazing and I do really love the atmosphere, story and lore. However, a lot of the gameplay design just feels annoying and unfun for the sake of it. I understand that it's supposed to be because the theme of the game is all about the virtue of suffering but... I don't know. My life sucks enough as it is, I don't need to hate myself more. Also there is an enormous amount of platforming for a game with clunky controls and janky detection for hitboxes and ledge grabs and whatnot. If I knew how much platforming it had I wouldn't have bought it, even for a dollar. We'll see how it goes but I'm very close to shelving it as I'm not really having fun.

As a palate cleanser today I played through GRIS, which was also 90% off on the sale. While I generally hate puzzle platformers, this is more of an interactive artwork than anything and thankfully the puzzles and platforming bits were very simple and forgiving. I enjoyed it a lot, it's an absolutely gorgeous game, a very short (couple of hours) emotional journey through grief with a fantastic score and some stunning visuals. Definitely recommend it. It's a perfect intermission game in-between longer titles.