-
It's Shocktober again and time for our slightly spooky version of a "what have you been playing" forum topic.
(https://cdn-image-f3580964b8e711e5b95f2ff191a1c838.baas.nintendo.com/1/4664ed38356c4aef)
When does this start?
Shocktober begins right now, and will last the entire month of October, ending after Halloween night.
What should I play?
Anything that falls under the classification of a "scary" game. Survival horror, action horror, a horror-themed FPS, anything with zombies, etc. In the interest of having fun, this can be more of a loose definition of what defines a scary game, and constitute anything that is more-or-less "spooky themed". Here are a few games that will come out this month:
- Little Nightmares 3
- Bye Sweet Carole
- Plants versus Zombies: Replanted
- Mina the Hollower
- Hannah
You can think of this as another Backlaugust if you want -- You've probably got horror games in your backlog, and it's time to play them. How many games you want to play is up to you, whether that's just one game or a few games. Any platform, doesn't matter. They can be new games, old games. Even horror games you've already beaten long ago and want to replay. You don't have to choose all of your games up front; you can if you want, but it's fine to just take it one-game-at-a-time.
Here are the previous years' threads:
[2024 (https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=72580.0)] [2023 (https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=70871.0)] [2022 (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=69115.0)] [2021 (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=67442.msg977670#msg977670)] [2020 (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=65946.msg971528#msg971528)].
-
Mina the Hollower releases on actual Halloween so if there are any arbitrary prizes, anyone who beats that game in October should win by default.
I don’t have a list. I didn’t beat Another Code: Recollection in August so maybe that one again.
-
Probably not much from me this month. I was planning on playing Silent Hill f, but Gamestop utterly failed when it came to securing the Steelbooks they promised so I'm inclined to just wait till Black Friday to pick that game up. I am picking up Tormented Souls 2 later this month, but that comes out on the 23rd so it's possible I might not be done with that game by the end of the month. The other stuff I'm playing this month isn't horror-themed, like Yooka-Replaylee; Xenoblade 2; and TMNT: Splintered Fate (which I've been playing since the physical copy arrived a few days ago).
Might be a good time to play that port of Fear Effect that came out a month or so ago, or to do a proper replay of RE6.
-
OK, change of plans: Yooka-Re-Playlee got delayed to December, and I won the local Silent Hill f GameStop preorder 2nd round lottery and got a steelbook. Also, my copy of the Gex Remaster Trilogy arrives tomorrow, though that most likely wouldn't qualify for this despite the obligatory Horror levels.
-
The only horror related game I have on my backlog is Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. It's not really a "backlog" game since I beat it on the Wii, but I have it on the Wii U and haven't really touched it. My current Wii U backlog game is Axiom Verge but I think I'm done with it so there is a free slot. Oh wait, while I'm typing this and checking things I have ZombiU on my Wii U backlog, so I'll go with that.
-
Mina the Hollower releases on actual Halloween so if there are any arbitrary prizes, anyone who beats that game in October should win by default.
Agreed, anyone who beats Mina in Shocktober will lift the curse of NWR!
-
Probably not much from me this month.I am picking up Tormented Souls 2 later this month, but that comes out on the 23rd so it's possible I might not be done with that game by the end of the month.
Might be a good time to play that port of Fear Effect that came out a month or so ago, or to do a proper replay of RE6.
I am also not going to finish many games this month so I might do a lot of first impressions instead.
One on my list is RE7!
-
Oh wait, while I'm typing this and checking things I have ZombiU on my Wii U backlog, so I'll go with that.
I feel like that was a past Shocktober game for me...yep, last game of the month in Shocktober 4 (https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=70871.25) back when I was still able to export proper screenshot from Wii U. Definitely a fun game and perfect for this forum topic.
-
A couple of days ago I kicked off Shocktober by beating the story mode in The House of the Dead: Overkill on Wii. It had been a while since I got to use the Wii zapper and honestly it was not as accurate as I remember. I think it works better with a smaller TV and with non-rechargeable batteries, both things that have changed since I last fired one of these off.
The game itself is quite short, with the story mode only having about 7 chapters and lasting less than 4 hours. The game is gratuitous in more ways than one and reminded me of the Robert Rodriguez film Planet Terror. I am now seeing that according to the the Wikipedia article for the game, the film was an inspiration for the developers. There is a nice upgrade system and during the campaign I was able to fully upgrade the default weapon as well as acquire one more. The Director's Cut is now unlocked and there are some in-game achievements/unlockables that will make this one I can revisit for a long time.
(https://www.nintendo.com/eu/media/images/10_share_images/games_15/wii_24/SI_Wii_TheHouseOfTheDeadOverkill_image1600w.jpg)
-
Well, I completed Gex; Gex: Enter the Gecko; and Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko from the Gex Trilogy release, and after some consideration I decided to count them as Shocktober games. For one, a huge chunk of all 3 games are taken up by the Horror Channel (or horror-adjacent 3's Egypt and ghost cowboy-filled Western Channels), probably at least 1/5 the content if not 1/3. For another, in Gex 2 and 3 Gex is wearing costumes themed to the channel, so it's in the Halloween spirit.
I never played Gex 1 before now, and it fucking sucks. It's an absolutely wretched experience, between the gotcha deaths; slippery controls; the long, labyrinthine levels (with no indication of where to go, naturally); and the hidden bonus stages you HAVE to perfectly complete in order to unlock the final world. This game is basically unplayble without save states and rewind, which this collection has. It is kinda neat that Gex can stick to walls and ceilings both in the foreground and back, but it's just not enough to make this game remotely enjoyable to play. Dana Gould is also probably his most annoying in the entire series in this entry. How? How in the world did this spawn a franchise?
Gex 2 was a game I played a ton of back on the N64, and it's still a pretty enjoyable game now. By far the game's biggest issues are a stubborn camera (typical of the era) and repetition. There are 6 themes spread out across 13 levels, each level having up to 5 remotes to find (3 of which will send you out of the level), and that's not counting the bonus levels. You just see way too much similar content, but what is here is still fun.
And no, this release is based on the PS version, so you don't get the N64-exclusive levels, though they are present in the collection in video form so they weren't forgotten.
I never played Gex 3 back in the day, and playing it now I'm torn on whether I like it more than Gex 2, as it does some things better and some worse. On the bright side, there are 11 levels, and they're each a unique theme. No theme gets re-used, outside of the bonus stages. The game also adopts a bit of the Banjo-Kazooie hub world structure, with levels accessed from themed areas instead of just generic TVs in a generic hub.
On the downside, the levels are surprisingly long for what they are, and while hidden remotes are gone this time the collectible remotes have gotten more annoying than they should be. You could just blast through levels in Gex 2 if you knew where you were going, but Gex 3 is a very plodding game by comparison. Instead of collecting just a set number of collectables (but not all of them) for a remote, there are 100 fly coins in each level and you have to find them all. This includes coins dropped by enemies, and there is no wiggle room. They're basically the notes from Banjo now, because everyone loved collecting those. -_-
If you're going for all the remotes, it just makes the game a slog. I ended up just giving up at one point after the particularly awful Mythology level (which is different than the N64 version that came later) and just skipping the final 4 levels, going straight to the final boss.
Overall, Gex 2 and 3 aren't the most amazing games, but I had a decent enough time with them.
Currently playing through Silent Hill f, which is...different. I'm not sure yet whether I like it.
-
Dana Gould is also probably his most annoying in the entire series in this entry.
I only know Dana Gould from writing on the Simpsons. I haven't actually seen his stand up or know his voice that well. Is it a case of bad writing, bad performance, or both?
-
Dana Gould is also probably his most annoying in the entire series in this entry.
I only know Dana Gould from writing on the Simpsons. I haven't actually seen his stand up or know his voice that well. Is it a case of bad writing, bad performance, or both?
It's the Bubsy problem, a typical issue with platformers of the day. He just never shuts up. As for the performance, I find it hit or miss in all the games.
-
Earlier this week I finished Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling. I'm going to count this since some of the enemies you fight are spiders and spiders are an icon of Halloween. There's also some Jake O Lantern enemies in the game along with Zombie Insects as well. One of the major sections of the game is also a Fall setting with the tree's being red and brown and leaves falling so it fits the season in several ways
Anyway, for anyone that doesn't know, this game is a Paper Mario clone that plays like the first two games in the series. The only real difference is this game gives you three characters to control in battle at a time instead of two like in Paper Mario. Of course those three characters you have are the only characters you'll have in the entire game, which kind of surprised me since one of the things Paper Mario fans would always praise about the first two games is all the different unique partner characters Mario gets in those two games. So here's a Paper Mario clone made by fans of the series and it only has 3 total party members that you use the entire game. Just make me have a chuckle when one the the biggest complaints about Sticker Star and Color Splash is the lack of unique party members and here's a Paper Mario clone aimed at the fans of the first two games, and it has a lack of unique party members.
Anyway the game is actually pretty good. The world is alive and full of charming NPC characters, and I felt it does a good job of matching the humor of Paper Mario games. I also love how the game gives you a medal at the beginning that activates a Hard Mode when you equip it. This actually made the beginning of the game better than the beginning of the first two Paper Mario games since you get a decent challenge at first. Of course the irony is by the second half, it becomes really easy to get badges that just break the game. Even though it was what the game considered Hard Mode, I still found the second half easier than actual Paper Mario games.
So this is a game that starts stronger then actual Paper Mario games, with having 3 characters in battle at a time and a higher difficulty to choose from, but kind of peaks early on and never reaches the highs of an Paper Mario. A good example would be how the boss fights in Paper Mario have some unique gimmick to each one that make it so you can't just use the same strategy in each one. In this game on the other hand, I was basically doing the same strategy for every boss fight and none of them really do anything to break that like actual Paper Mario bosses do to make each fight unique. This combined with the game having you use the same three characters throughout the entire game feel repetitive by the end.
Overall it's still a good game and I'd recommend it to anyone that's a fan of Paper Mario games, especially the first two. The world, story, and characters still remain good throughout the whole game, but the combat and puzzles kind of hit their peak in the first half of the game, with the second half feeling repetitive at times.
-
I quite liked Bug Fables, though it got a bit long in the tooth as it got near its end. Regarding the shoetage of party members, it was a crowd funded game working on a shoestring budget. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bug-fables-an-exploration-rpg-full-of-bugs#/ (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bug-fables-an-exploration-rpg-full-of-bugs#/)
-
I quite liked Bug Fables, though it got a bit long in the tooth as it got near its end. Regarding the shoetage of party members, it was a crowd funded game working on a shoestring budget. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bug-fables-an-exploration-rpg-full-of-bugs#/ (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bug-fables-an-exploration-rpg-full-of-bugs#/)
Ok that explains a lot. Very impressive what they did on such a small budget. Of course with such a small budget, I think they would have been better off making the overall games length smaller since the first half was great but the second half dragged on because of the lack of new idea's and combat variety. It feels like they were trying to make something in length to The Thousand Year Door, when they should have started with something more like Paper Mario 64.
-
Alright, let's talk about Silent Hill f. I've completed 2 of the game's 5 endings (the 1 ending you have to get on your first playthrough + the UFO ending), and...I find this game incredibly frustrating, and in the end I think it's a game I respect for its boldness more than I actually like. In fact, I kind of hate the game as an overall package.
Let's start with a familiar issue to anyone who played the Silent Hill 2 remake from last year: the combat is incredibly annoying and way too prevalent for how kind of bad it is, especially as the game nears its end. Even on the game's lowest difficulty, enemies hit like a truck and take way too many hits to down considering how fond the late game is of siccing 2-4 of them on you at once. The combat system, like those of the Souls games, is very much designed for one-on-one encounters with an emphasis on watching for enemy tells and countering. Unfortunately, enemies move extremely erratically and each type only has one move you can actually parry (and the parry indicator only appears if you are actively not doing anything), which to me made waiting for the parry an extremely unreliable strategy. Enjoy getting stun-locked and losing half your health when you misjudge an attack. I ended up just sticking to charging up a heavy swing on the axe and bashing enemies from a distance, but even that stopped being effective halfway through. There is a Witch Time-esque "perfect dodge" mechanic, but because enemies move so randomly I usually found myself activating it more by accident than by intention.
And all your weapons are breakable, so you're heavily encouraged to not even engage in combat until the game forces you to, as it pretty much does the entire second half of the game. And the game's 2nd half introduces an (I kid you not) honest to god Devil Trigger/Rage of the Gods mechanic that feels REALLY out of place in a horror game like this.
The game's atmosphere and exploration are truly exceptional (and the puzzles can be downright evil), but hampered by your character having an absolutely pathetically low inventory limit, which you can expand over the course of 2 playthroughs but still feels way too low even at max carrying capacity (especially since Med Kits take up an entire slot and you WANT those). What this leads to are many, MANY runs back to the nearest save shrine to sacrifice what you can spare to free up space and up your Faith currency.
By far the most frustrating thing about the game, though, is its story. Without getting into details, this game was written by an author that loves time loop stories, and accordingly you are only allowed to hear part of the story on a first playthrough. You HAVE to play the game AT LEAST 3 full times before the game will allow you to actually experience the full story with all the context left in. Other games like Nier have done this, but in Nier's case the gameplay didn't require nearly as much sheer commitment as this game, and even Nier only made you replay the 2nd half of the game multiple times (you literally skip the first half on NG+ runs).
To be frank, the way this story is setup and executed made me feel absolutely no emotional connection to the characters, especially with the story events set in this game's take on the traditional Silent Hill "Otherworld". As a first time player, you'll watch your character do some really bizarre, stupid **** in these Otherworld segments in a really cold, detached way. Yes, as someone who's beaten the game and knows what the game is doing, I get the message they're delivering. I still think those segments are cold and incredibly boring, and I don't give a damn about the player character.
Many people have and will complain about the overall message delivered in the first playthrough as a prohibitive strike against the game. Between the story beats and the monster designs, this may be one of the least subtle games in the series. I personally find the message of the game incredibly offensive, but if I found the story engaging and the characters compelling, I would be willing to meet the game on its own terms. But with the way the game plays keep away with its plot for the sheer purpose of padding out the lifespan of the game via multiple playthroughs, I just can't recommend it. Game developers are asking a lot these days for players to even finish one playthrough of their game. Not just expecting but demanding 3-4 playthroughs of a long game like this is just pure arrogance, especially when the player has exactly zero agency in that first playthrough.
That said, I kind of have to respect the commitment to the bit, and that first ending ends in a really unexpected way.
I'll pick away at the game just so I can see the full story, but I'm finding this game extremely unsatisfying to experience and frustrating to play. I also have severe doubts that this game was originally conceived as a Silent Hill game. The links to past games are tenuous at best.
-
I'm trying to work through ZombiU and am being reminded why my previous two efforts ended quickly. The controls are very stiff and the move stuff around with your finger on the gamepad screen is not accurate enough (for me at least). I don't know if that was intentional to make it more "horror-y" like the tank controls in early RE games or just poor design, but the frequent "cheap" deaths quickly sap my will to play it. My gaming resolution for 2025 was to finally get some of the over 10-year-old games off my backlog so I'll keep at it. For reference to anyone who has played it, my first two attempts stopped before getting to the supermarket. I have gotten farther than that this time at least.
I haven't played any of the games mentioned so far, but it's interesting reading about them.
And all your weapons are breakable, so you're heavily encouraged to not even engage in combat until the game forces you to, as it pretty much does the entire second half of the game. And the game's 2nd half introduces an (I kid you not) honest to god Devil Trigger/Rage of the Gods mechanic that feels REALLY out of place in a horror game like this.
Good to know since I did have some interest in this game. I've never played a Silent Hill game so the lack of connection to the rest of the series wouldn't bother me, but weapon degradation/breaking is one of my biggest gaming turnoffs.
-
I'm trying to work through ZombiU and am being reminded why my previous two efforts ended quickly. The controls are very stiff and the move stuff around with your finger on the gamepad screen is not accurate enough (for me at least). I don't know if that was intentional to make it more "horror-y" like the tank controls in early RE games or just poor design, but the frequent "cheap" deaths quickly sap my will to play it. My gaming resolution for 2025 was to finally get some of the over 10-year-old games off my backlog so I'll keep at it. For reference to anyone who has played it, my first two attempts stopped before getting to the supermarket. I have gotten farther than that this time at least.
I recall the game having a difficult start. As you stock up on inventory the cheap deaths seemed less frequent. I would say to stick it out if you can as the game is not that long.
-
I am playing quite few games right now with all being possibly completed by the end of the month. To avoid waiting until the end to talk about them I will give some first impressions on the game I am least likely to finish this month.
I have played the first hour or so of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard on Playstation VR (via PS4). I have only played RE4 and Revelations but enjoyed those. If not for the abundance of great games in other genres I would probably play all the mainline games at least. Of course it was the Virtual Reality option that enticed me to this one. I also have RE8 for PSVR2 but figured I should start with the earlier game.
The technical difficulties I was having with my headset seem ameliorated by playing seated, which is not typical for VR games I play. Also unusual is playing with standard controls i.e., the dualshock 4. It is probably better than motion controls would be in this case. The game just would not work with teleporting so you do move along in the usual way. The sluggish pace is actually helpful for limiting the motion sickness, not so much for escaping from all the baddies chasing me.
The graphics obviously took a hit but that is fine with me as along with playing this with Japanese audio (talk about an anatopism!) I am happy for anything that can make this less scary. It's interesting how you hit a point when fun scary is just disturbing scary. Well I have hit that point. I am not sure about you all but the thing that scares me most is being held prisoner with violent people, well that is the premise here.
(https://assets.nintendo.com/image/upload/ar_16:9,b_auto:border,c_lpad/b_white/f_auto/q_auto/dpr_1.5/c_scale,w_700/ncom/software/switch/70010000054022/382035ff20623785a6b304c5825a91b552b7ce48016f4cdbb9a05cb0e7a3df79)
I will definitely continue on for now but with an average time of about 9.5 hours I don't see myself beating the curse this year.
-
Mina the Hollower releases on actual Halloween so if there are any arbitrary prizes, anyone who beats that game in October should win by default.
Agreed, anyone who beats Mina in Shocktober will lift the curse of NWR!
The Curse lives! Mina delayed to TBA :'(
-
Good to know since I did have some interest in this game. I've never played a Silent Hill game so the lack of connection to the rest of the series wouldn't bother me, but weapon degradation/breaking is one of my biggest gaming turnoffs.
What's weird is that Silent Hill keeps trying to make weapon degradation a "thing", despite players universally hating it, and yet the series keeps doing it. It was a thing in Silent Hill 4; Origins; Book of Memories; and Downpour, and now it's a thing in f as well. We didn't like it then, we still don't like it now, and yet I expect we'll continue to see it in future games...because. :rolleyes:
-
This week I was able to complete The Addams Family on NES. I was immediately struck by the curse when firing up my Retron to play the original NES cart. Apparently the required voltage was different than the AC adapter I was using and it will no longer work via HDMI. I was able to get it working using the component cables. I need to remember to check the voltage for some of these other plug and play consoles.
(https://i.imgur.com/rlDCtnv.jpeg)
I have the CIB version of the game and was able to take advantage of the paper instruction manual. While the game provides a few hints, I don't think I could have completed this in a reasonable amount of time without the manual. I am proud to say I did not use a game genie or look anything up online in the process.
The game is also on SNES with a password system where I am sure it is much more accessible. Overall it holds up well for an NES game and even has some light metroidvania aspects. A successful playthrough is only going to take 1-2 hours, but it took me about 10 hours to get to that point. In the game you play as Gomez and must rescue the eponymous Addams family. Once you rescue Morticia you are treated to a cute dance as shown in the picture above.
In other news, the curse has also claimed my PS5, which will no longer read PS5 discs. Since all my games are on disc, the console is quite useless at the moment while I wait for Sony to mail me a box to mail back to them.
I still have one more game that might cross the finish line before the month ends...
-
I want to thank everyone who joined in on Shocktober this year and wish a safe and happy Halloween to whole NWR community!
(https://assets.nintendo.com/image/upload/f_auto/q_auto/dpr_1.5/c_scale,w_900/ncom/en_US/merchandising/curated%20list/October%20Seasonal/2025/1920x1080_fun_EN)
You are welcome to report on unfinished business after today. For me, the Curse has kept me from finishing the last game I was planning on discussing so check for that in the next week or so. Also look for a topic for the annual NWR award nomination coming next month.
-
Despite me lack of confidence, I did manage to complete Cuphead on Xbox One before the month was up.
(https://i.imgur.com/AaumBvn.png)
I originally played through the game on the normal difficulty accepting any passing grade back in 2019. I finally decided to revisit the game and go for the 200% completion. A bulk of this is getting specific grades on levels and beating each level on expert difficulty. I think I appreciated the game more when replaying for these near-perfect runs. There are definitely still some issues that keep me from rating this game 10/10, but it feels more like a 9/10 now whereas it was an 8/10 in my first playthrough. I would prefer a more traditional level structure with the so-called "run-and-gun" levels being the focus and followed by some shorter versions of the boss battles. I am interested to see what studio MDHR does next and will probably pick up the DLC if they don't have a new game out in the next couple of years.
So with that game completed I do now claim that the curse of NWR is lifted, at least until next October... :-X
-
Well, I didn't come close to finishing ZombiU. I'll start with an exhaustive list of what I liked. It had more of a horror atmosphere than other games in the genre I've played. My wife doesn't like zombies and was legitimately scared a few times while I was playing (which was, of course, cool). Now a non-exhaustive list of what I didn't like. The stiff controls and unresponsive gamepad (my gamepad is fine, I don't have the same problems with other games). It felt like a I was pushing around in the dark, often off-track, doing the same hit-hit-hit-finish combo against the same zombies, until I was killed, probably because I pressed the wrong button or was stuck on something I couldn't see, and went back to the safe room. I'm not a fan of the rogue-lite game loop, so my impetus eventually sputtered out.
-
I managed to get 2 more games that fit the season done by the end of October.
Blasphemous 2
I played the original game 3 years ago for Shocktober and my thoughts for that game are on that years tread.
https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=69115.25
So like I said back then, I really liked the first game but it had some issues that annoyed me, which is why I was really excited for a sequel that would hopefully improve them. Well for the most part, I'd say this sequel did just that and delivered something closer to what I was hoping for.
Now the first game made a stronger first impression, with the level design in the early area's having better challenge while the 2nd game starts out easier, I'd imagine to be more player friendly then the first game was. But unlike the first game, which peaked in its first half and the second half felt kind of tacked on, this game actually keeps building up and gets better and better throughout.
It's helps that this game actually gives you abilities that change the way you can play. You gain a Double Jump around the half way point, and then receive and Air Dash after that. This allows the devs to create more platforming challenges in the second half to help spice things up, as well as the bosses in the second half being designed with players having these abilities which make them feel like a nice step up over the bosses in the first half. I like having a nice progressive difficulty in 2D action games where they keep building things up, unlike the first game that because very inconsistent in that regard.
Oh and like the first game, if you want the True Ending you'll need to do DLC content and basically use a guide as well. It's not as obtuse as the first game, but still pretty annoying. One of the requirements is needed 4 different wooden statues, and one of them requires you finding all 33 Cherubs. Now most of these Cherubs are pretty easy to see as you explore the map but some of them can easily be missed if not paying attention, and with how big this worlds map is, if you end up with about 31 by the time your at the end game, having to go back and find the last 2 was supper annoying. Even using a guide took me about 2 hours since I basically had to go to every area of the map to retrace all my steps.
This is why it's so annoying hardly any Metroidvania's do what Metroid has been doing since Fusion where after you first beat the game, they'll tell you how much of each item is missing in each area, so when you go back for 100%, you don't end up wasting your time in sections of the game that you've already found everything in. This is why actual Metroid games are still the best of this genre since they actually make it fun to look for 100% items, while so many of the games that are inspired by it still make going for 100% so tedious and boring by the end because they refuse to implement something actual Metroid games did over 20 years ago to solve this exact problem.
But other than the intro being not as interesting as the first and the final fews hours becoming a boring slog to get the True Ending, the rest of the game was great and what I was hoping for in the sequel.
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
This is a top down Souls-like game that only took around 10 hours to beat. I don't really have much to say about the game other then it was OK for what it was. It's got all the usual Souls troupes, grim dark world, stamina meter, dodge roll etc. It's actually pretty easy for a Souls-like. Most of the enemies can be easily avoided and you get weapons that give you such a wide range of attack that as long as you don't get overwhelm by a large group, it's pretty easy to handle what going on. The game also doesn't make you loose anything when you die so you never have to do any corpse runs, which makes it very forgiving for a Souls-like as well.
The second half of the game does start adding enemies that bump up the challenge and make you play more carefully but it's still nowhere near the challenge of other Souls-likes I've played. The bosses are pretty good though, and the only reason I feel the game is actually OK. I mean they're not the best thing in the world, especially when compared to better Souls-likes but still pretty fun for the most part. Some of them were a decent challenge and took a few tries to beat so they made the overall experience a nice way to end the month of October.
I'd only recommend this game for people who're fan of Souls-like and are looking for a more bite sized experience they can complete in a few days. If you see it on sale for super cheap you might find it worth a playthrough.
-
On the subject of Blasphemous, the creators of that series made the recent Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, which is excellent. I highly recommend it.
Nothing really to add for this last month in terms of horror games. I got wrapped up in a bunch of other games like Shinobi: Art of Vengeance (also a very good game), the 2 Mario Galaxy games, TMNT: Splintered Fate, and Xenoblades 2 & 3 (I'm happy to say my 8 year Odyssey with the underwhelming Xenoblade 2 is finally over). I also knocked out a few more endings in Silent Hill f, which feels like an increasingly frustrating and pointless endeavor.
On a positive note, I'm very happy with Xenoblade 3 so far. It's basically what I wanted and didn't get from 2.
.
