Dark Souls, the famous franchise to bring testicle-crushing difficulty back to contemporary gaming, with deadly bosses, unforgiving worlds and a dash of story-telling obscurity. As the saying goes “Show, don’t tell. Like, really. Almost never. You have to be a detective to figure it out”.

I haven’t played the original Souls trilogy, but I am a big fan of Nioh, Hollow Knight, Elden Ring, Sekiro and Bloodborne. So, here’s 3 mini reviews of amazing games, threaded through their shared “Souls”-ness. Skipping Hollow Knight because my review for that is right here! As for Elden Ring, stay tuned on that for another day.

Will I ever play Dark Souls? Maybe! I may get it bundled with Fruit Ninja, but that’ll probably be a long time from now considering how vast Elden Ring is, so feel free to treat yourself. This blog isn’t sponsored, but I’ll advertise any of the games you can get at the Go2Games store!

Samurai Souls, as they say. Nioh was my first love with “soulslikes” or “recursive sprawlers” for my fellow Yahtzee fans. Chose it because the gameplay seemed faster-paced than Dark Souls, but not as high-speedy as Bloodborne.

Now that I’ve actually played Bloodborne, I actually think Nioh is a much faster game, though it’s still an amazing time.

The vast variety of unlockable weapon arts spice up gameplay. Ninjutsu and magic skills are powerful and similarly unique. The story may be frustrating in it’s lack of character for most of it, but gameplay is visceral and strategic while making you feel like a badass with every boss slain. Check the Go2Games store if you want the game, or The Nioh Collection including Nioh 2.

Sekiro is amazing! In a strange way, while many Souls games reward caution and fear with a hit-and-run combat style, Sekiro rewards bravery and aggression in it’s unique parry system. The comparisons to rhythm games are not just for show.

The shinobi prosthetic arm is a stroke of design genius and ripe for an incredible amount of creativity, both in the finished game and in any possible future games.

For more interesting content, VaatiVidya’s Sekiro art competition winners video and my own offering may be worth your while.

I only have two complaints: Leveling up is a lengthy process and farming at the Fountainhead Palace is pretty boring at times. Second, the combat arts are limited and highly situational only really work wonders against non-boss enemies. This is where I think Sekiro should’ve copied some of Nioh’s homework, giving the player access to multiple combat arts at once to sell versatility in combat instead of having to pause and re-equip different arts.

I’m relatively green at Bloodborne, but I beat Daddy Gascoigne and one optional boss on a bridge. The trick weapon system is fantastic, because you’re basically getting two weapons for the price of one. I’m fond of the sword-cane sword-whip hybrid and the Kirkhammer. I think between Nioh’s stances and Bloodborne’s trick weapons, there’s a hybrid mechanic between them waiting to be realized.

Don’t have a lick of a clue on how to parry, but nothing a quick google won’t fix.

The atmosphere is suitably horrific and nerve-wracking. This game is one of the few times (besides Hollow Knight) that the “detective” storytelling style works for me because hey, Lovecraftian demon gods beyond human understanding turning people mad? When in Rome!

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The post Memoirs Of a Souls Fan Who Never Played Dark Souls first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Controversial BOILING Hottake incoming, but Hollow Knight is a great game! Yeah, an indie darling that got good reviews definitely needed the input of a random Breadtube Leftist 5 years after release.

Jokes aside, I’m glad to be writing about this game. If I had to sum up Hollow Knight in one sentence: Complex without being complicated.

A Beginner-Friendly Soulslike? In my humble opinion, Hollow Knight is a great combination of Dark Souls difficulty and user-friendly introductions to mechanics. You still have to use a healthy dash (literally and figuratively) of creative thinking with the mechanics to progress at times, but every basic skill you learn is tutorialised in a fun way. The only thing the game doesn’t explicitly tell you is holding down the jump button longer or shorter is extremely useful for dodging many boss attacks.

As you explore the world, movement throughout it also becomes more viscerally enjoyable. Discovering dashes, wall-climbing and more skills drastically influences your gameplay style, like adding a new topping to the proverbial digital pizza!

First learn stand, then learn fly: You start off with nothing but a sword and ‘soul’ gauge. Hitting most non-boss enemies pushes you away from them slightly in a way that encourages a pattern of forward-moving rhythmic slashes at first before paying more attention to attack patterns as time goes on. Every time you slash some unfortunate chibi bug-creature, your soul gauge fills up a little. On a full tank (upgrades notwithstanding), you can heal up to three ‘masks’ (your healthbar system). I like this system because although you won’t be able to get through parts of the game without hitting a certain skill ceiling, it encourages exploration of the vast world. Exploration leads to finding useful items or skills. Useful items and skills lead to you becoming more powerful. Let’s talk about those items, shall we?

Charmed to make your acquaintance: Throughout the game, you can buy or unlock charms. You can only use a limited number of them depending how many notches you have (which can be increased with future unlocks). Alternatively, you can ‘overcharm’ yourself by turning yourself into a charmed Everything Burger to use all the skills at once with the added risk of taking extra damage.

Different charm combinations offer different powers and advantages in gameplay, so I highly recommend experimenting with them. In addition, some bonus areas in-game can be unlocked by wearing a specific charm to a location, usually one that matches the aesthetic of your charm. Among my favorite charm combinations is the Defender’s Crest and Glowing Womb, which gradually drains some of your soul in exchange for a… Mutually beneficial explosion, let’s say.

I play for the plot… Wait- NO, not that one! Which is to say, most of the Soulslike games I play don’t have the best story delivery. Reading item descriptions can unfortunately feel like homework at times and needing that baseline knowledge to understand what the NPC locals are on about can be a pain, which is a shame because I really like story-based games. I imagine my mild story-based gripe with Bloodborne is because reading item descriptions can feel like busywork that’s cutting into your gameplay time, rather than a diegetic moment of exposition… So why on God’s green earth do I think Hollow Knight does that in a way that’s fun!?

Hard to articulate in a way, but I can’t express enough how much the world of Hollow Knight evokes a sense of wonder and curiosity. You have one brief opening crawl at the beginning, a hauntingly ominous cutscene where your character looks like a traumatized soldier, then boom. The music kicks in, you talk to the local (soon to be locals), and off you trot throughout the world. Finding a new character out in the wild really feels like an oddly wholesome affair, even when some interactions leave you dreading whatever’s being foreshadowed.

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The post Of Bugs and Men: My Hollow Knight Journey & Review first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Nintendo has announced it will be holding an online indie game showcase TODAY at Noon Eastern Time (that’s 5pm for us limeys)!

The stream should run for around 20 minutes (based on past similar showcases) and it’s expected to cover new indie games or which currently-existing indie games will be coming to Nintendo Switch. Sign up to our newsletter for a discount on our store, we’ve got plenty of indie and Nintendo games and nick-nacks right here.

There’s been some rumblings in the Twitterverse that Hollow Knight: Silksong may have a spot in the showcase, as us Hollow Knight fans have been starved for content for over a couple years. Fingers crossed the lads at Team Cherry have something put together for it. And while I’m gushing, I highly recommend giving the Hollow Knight Voidheart Edition a go! Tis a masterclass in worldbuilding and deceptively skill-based gameplay. And for any new players to Hollow Knight, give Windette a looksie if you want some hilariously helpful guides on in-game areas (explained in insults). More on him and other great gaming youtubers right here!

How to watch Nintendo’s Indie Gaming Showcase… Explained in Insults: Okay boomer, I know it probably took you 30 minutes just to get to this page, so feel free to get a pen and paper at the ready because chances are the alzheimers is kicking in early and my vain ass wants you to finish this whole article top to bottom. GOOD? Good! Let’s break this down.

YouTube! Not many people know this about me, but I suppose I have a passing interest in the platform. Nintendo will be streaming the event there, so here’s what you do: Click on THIS link to the Nintendo YouTube channel. You can watch the stream when it starts, but if you’re a big boi tech-wizard with a YouTube account, you can even click the little grey bell to notify you when the livestream is about to start. You’ll want to get there a few minutes early though, because YouTube has this strange fetish for playing adverts right before most re-entries into livestreams and I don’t want you clicking off this showcase because you thought it was Febreze commercial!

At this point, it has dawned to me I am writing this section for a type of niche that is simultaneously tech-illiterate enough to need regular explanations of how to work a phone while also being juuuust tech-savvy enough to enjoy video games on modern consoles. Okay, egg on my face, you got me Kronk!

Product Poems:

If Indie Brawlers bawl for bald ballers,  no indie Brawl baller need brawl for bauble borders.

“E’llo poppet, ow’s the misses“? Not bad lad, just doing dishes.

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The post Watching Nintendo’s Indie Game Showcase (Insult Explanation) first appeared on Get2Gaming.

The Ultimate Gamer’s Magazine: A Profound Waste Of Time, Finally Back on Kickstarter

A lot of the time, most people feel as though they only get a hold of the end product when it comes to a game, we hardly see the in-between. Yes, here and there we’ll see the development, but we never truly hear about what it’s like to create a game or participate in the production of one. Whether they are a designer, programmer, artist, writer, engineer…you name it. The point is, this magazine gives us a glimpse of that and from different people. However, they also touch on everyday gamers like you and me, YouTubers and more.

APWOT’s magazine, A profound Waste of Time, received strong demand for a reprint and reached its Kickstarter goal of £40,000 in less than 24 hours, exceeding up to 43,000 as of recent times and counting. Anyone who missed the campaign can get a second chance at buying the magazine WITH the special items that can only be obtained through the Kickstarter Campaign, add-ons such as enamel pins, a game themed tarot card set, digital wallpapers and more.

Issue 1

As described on their Kickstarter page In Issue 1 has two editions, the standard edition and the glow in the dark edition. They have also listed what the magazine includes and who they include, which I’ve listed from their page in the following:

•  “Yacht Club Games – Shovel Knight, Cyber Shadow” 
•  “Jonathan Holmes – Destructoid, Nintendo Force, Sup Holmes”
•  “Toby Fox – Undertale, Deltarune”
•  “Ashly Burch – Life is Strange, Horizon: Zero Dawn”
•  “Ojiro Fumoto – Downwell”
•  “Dennis Wedin – Hotline Miami, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number”
•  “Adrian Bauer – Owlboy, Savant Ascent, D-Pad Studios”
•  “John ‘JJ’ James – 2064:Read Only Memories, Midboss”
•  “Temmie Chang – Undertale, Dweller’s Empty Path”
• ” Adam Heart – Killer Instinct, Iron Galaxy”
•  “Rami Ismail – Nuclear Throne, Ridiculous Fishing, Vlambeer”
•  “Hannah Nicklin – RPS, Twisted Tree Games”
•  “Kat Brewster – The Guardian”
•  “Adam Tierney – WayForward”
•  “Dant Rambo – Bit.Trip Runner, Choice Provisions”
• “Jake Kaufman – Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, Shovel Knight”

Issue 2

A fantastic follow-up to our debut issue, Issue 2 is filled with art and words from an incredible line-up of people, including Keita Takahashi, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Jenny Jiao Hsia and many more. This issue has an interview with Team Cherry, creators of beloved indie metroidvania Hollow Knight, along with a visual essay by internationally renowned photographer Liam Wong, exploring the parts of Tokyo that have inspired videogames.

Issue 2 also has two editions, the standard edition and the iridescence edition, which is a shiny rainbow glimmering type cover, the colours change as the reader moves the magazine around. Once again they have also listed what the magazine includes the people involved, which I’ve listed (originally from the kickstarter) below:

•  “Keita Takahashi – Wattam, Katamari Damacy, Noby Noby Boy”
•  “Laura E Hall – Boss Fight Books, Meridian Adventure Co.”
•  “Tetsuya Mizuguchi – Tetris Effect, Rez, Space Channel 5″
•  “Simon Parkin – New Yorker, Observer”
•  “Jenny Jiao Hsia – Consume Me”
•  “John Ricciardi – 8-4 Play, NeiR: Automata, EGM, NOM UK”
•  “Holly Nielsen – The Guardian, Royal Holloway”
•  “Joakim ‘Konjak’ Sandberg – Iconoclasts”
•  “Kris Piotrowski – Superbrothers Swords and Sworcery EP, Below”
•  “Chella Ramanan – Assemble with Care, PoC in Play”
•  “Ben Bertoli – Memory Card, Polygon, Kotaku”
•  “John ‘JJSignal’ James – 2064: Read Only Memories, Neurodiver”
•  “Liam Wong – TO:KY:OO, After Dark, Ubisoft”
•  “Team Cherry – Hollow Knight, Hollow Knight Silksong”
•  “Joe Sparrow – Amphibia, Homunculus”
•  “Camille Young – Fangamer”
•  “Keith Stuart – A Boy Made of Blocks, The Guardian”

And for both Issue 1 & 2, it doesn’t end there. The magazine is filled with much more to get your teeth stuck into. There’s a lot going and it’s for sure increasing in popularity, so you better get your hands on one while you can, the estimated shipping time is December, so if you miss your chance now, you may not get one until 2022. Why wait for something so amazing?

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The post The Ultimate Gamer’s Magazine! Grab one Before it’s TOO LATE first appeared on Get2Gaming.