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51

General Gaming / Re: Shadow of Mordor: A Mean-spirited, maybe self-aware game

« Last post by Khushrenada on October 05, 2026, 04:18:20 AM »

I’m also ascribing to the Khushrenada ethos that “not everything needs to be added to an all-encompassing general thread.”

I need to get around to the Arkham trilogy at some point.

Same. Kept hoping the games would be ported to Switch and then I waited until I could get it at a low price I wanted which was just a couple months ago. Now to just actually play them. Less concerned with the third game but the first two are supposed to be pretty good.

As someone with an affinity for Tolkien’s works

Personally, I've just never really been that big into the Middle Earth scene. I read The Hobbit and then followed that up by reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy while in High School and grade 9. That was the time I was really into trying to read all sorts of classics in literature and knew they were considered great works. They were a different experience from other things I'd read at that point in time but I found they could alternate between being really engaging and being kind of boring and pushing myself to get through some portions. With the Lord of the Rings, I found the Frodo, Sam, Gollum parts more engaging than the Pippin, Merry, Aragorn stuff once the party splits up. I felt the ending of the Frodo portion at Mount Doom nailed it. Was less concerned about Aragorn's ending and his taking of the throne. Never re-read any of the books. Tried The Silmarillion but bounced off of that after a couple chapters. Just seemed to be all the passages I didn't care for in LotR with lore full of all sorts of names I didn't recognize or care about and nothing compelling to keep me going. It was very soon after that the movies then came out but I wasn't the cinephile I am now (I still hadn't even seen any of the Star Wars movies at this point in time) and didn't get around to watching them until around 2012, I think. I remember the place I was living in at the time and know I saw them a before The Hobbit movies came out so that seems right to me. Overall, I thought they were good adaptations and did quite well in streamlining the story and I was better able to see and understand the reasons why people consider it a bit of a World War 2 allegory or at least the allusions one could make between the two. But they were also kind of silly too me as well and hard to take that seriously. Particularly The Two Towers first half with all the running around done by the characters and the amount of enemies this small group can slay and are just seemingly unstoppable no matter the odds. I was less bothered by the additions and and the expanding of the story for The Hobbit trilogy perhaps in part of not being that attached to the source material. In fact, it was part of The Hobbit movies that I have ever seen a second time. They were playing on TV a few years later and checked in for the portion of the meeting of Smaug and on to his demise but then moved on. Have never rewatched the LotR films but maybe someday. That is my engagement with Tolkien's works. I've never really paid much attention to Middle Earth video games or played any of them. As such, this game wasn't on my radar. So, I'm not going to have much to offer this thread beyond this post.

That said, I'll still read anything you write about on these forums even if the topic isn't a big interest to me. It gets me to expand my knowledge of other games my taste in games may overlook or not know anything about. On that note,

You’re goring enemies on the regular, terrifying them with fire, mounted beasts, or “brutalize” prompts, and probing their minds for valuable intel (or branding them, a mechanic I’ve yet to unlock). The game is wont to focus on these actions, which are flashy and brutal in their design, and rewards you for engaging in such behavior. You can explode heads, for goodness sake.

That information right there tells me these are a couple games I'll never play. The old ultraviolence is just not something that appeals to me. It's sort of like how horror movies are my least favorite genre of film (or at least tied with documentaries for that rank). I just hate how horror movies will try to play some weird morality about character deaths as though a person being kind of vain or a jerk or having sex justifies them getting mutilated and suffering a horrible death. Try killing someone for that in real life and see how it goes in court. On top of that, when you have stuff that involves magic or the supernatural, there's so many questions it will bring up that are unanswered and silly logic that will make it hard for me to care or take seriously and just further adds to the impression that it's just about being awful to people. Going back to the slasher style picture, I'm just not thrilled by seeing the killer hunt and kill someone. Likewise, I'm not really interested in then playing like one in a videogame either. Just not my scene.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 7: NWR 3D

« Last post by broodwars on October 04, 2026, 03:11:30 PM »

Fascinated by your take on Onimusha. The demo did not really appeal to me despite my recent Capcom kick so to hear it turns into a more open-ended experience is interesting. I felt the game’s combat from the demo felt like I was juggling too many balls, personally.

It's worth noting that in the interest of being a demo, the devs give the player a bunch of mid-game abilities that you won't have when you play through that section of the main game. So if you think the combat is over-stuffed, it really isn't. It's just that the demo dumps a bunch of systems on you at once where the main game trickles them out. You can't even upgrade your character or unlock abilities at that point in the game, so no ranged deflection; no blazing state; no chain issen; etc. They also apparently updated the demo to include part of the open world area, though I didn't play that version of the demo.

On a side note, with us getting a new Castlevania game this month, I am tempted to finally do a serious playthrough of Lament of Innocence on my PS3 since I still have that hooked up. But first, I think I'm going to raise my Fuse Box count with the Remaster of The Thing.

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General Gaming / Re: Shadow of Mordor: A Mean-spirited, maybe self-aware game

« Last post by broodwars on October 04, 2026, 03:07:44 PM »

Never got around to playing my Copy of Shadow of War (which, from what I've heard of the sequel and its many post-release patches, was probably a good thing), but I did play all the way through Shadow of Mordor. Annoyingly, it's a game that some day I should go back to and Platinum, as I only had 2 trophies left in that game and both of them are annoying (doing a kill-streak while on the cat mounts and raising a non-story goblin from grunt all the way to Chieftan and then killing him).

I remember liking Shadow of Mordor but not loving it. At the time, Assassin's Creed was just starting its long directionless period that started with AC 3, and this was a decent enough "one of those" with Batman Arkham combat. At the same time, the Nemesis system was really the only thing altogether notable about it, so once you saw all its tricks there really wasn't anything left over the course of a rather long game.

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General Gaming / Shadow of Mordor: A Mean-spirited, maybe self-aware game

« Last post by Evan_B on October 04, 2026, 01:05:38 PM »

Tl;dr What are your thoughts on the Middle Earth duology? I detail some of the ways I find the game to be mean-spirited, though I’m hoping the developers were actually self-aware enough to notice how unhinged their protagonist is.

I’m about six-ish hours into Shadow of Mordor, which was recently released on the Nintendo Switch 2 in a duology package(and had a 50% discount for preordering: 35 dollars, what a steal!). As someone with an affinity for Tolkien’s works and a vague curiosity about video game adaptations of the legendarium, I was too tempted by the general public’s affection for the Nemesis system to resist snagging these games. One might say I was tempted by the power of the One Ring… I figured I’d put this in General Gaming considering it’s not a Switch 2 exclusive, per se. I’m also ascribing to the Khushrenada ethos that “not everything needs to be added to an all-encompassing general thread.”

A few things in particular stand out to me about the experience so far, which even in the span of an additional hour or so of play have developed a bit more. First things first, this game is extremely “2010s Parkour-coded,” reminding me of the slog that was Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag (the only Assassin’s Creed game I’ve ever played, so yes, I know I am biased) in how the movement system operates. Black Flag felt a bit more restricted in the way some of its scripted missions allowed you to use parkour and how the parkour system worked with (or rather, butted-up against) nature, and the way Shadow of Mordor’s environments are structured feels a bit more free: mind you, there’s very little natural vertical structures and the game pretty much exclusively uses plateau cliff faces, but the amount of strongholds and ruins that pepper the landscape makes parkour feel like an always-accessible tool. With that said, it is somewhat surprising how freely you can move as a Ranger. Stealth and parkour really feel like integral elements that take cues from the aforementioned stealth action game and the momentum built upon the success of Warner Bros.’ other big video game adaptation of the time: the Arkham trilogy. At least, that’s what I’ve picked up from some stories from the game’s development. I need to get around to the Arkham trilogy at some point.

Second, the other aspect that echoes that 2010 game design is the combat. For a game so heavily weighted on combat, it doesn’t make a great first impression- you’re essentially mashing your attack input until you knock down an enemy and then switching to another enemy, considering the takedown mechanic and animation take a bit too long to execute in combat. This first impression is somewhat inaccurate, however, as a quick glance at the upgrade screen reveals the myriad input methods you can layer into combat. Executions reward your focus on mashing attack and reacting to parry opportunities, different forms of stuns and AoE attacks enter the fold, and finally, options for interacting with the Nemesis system reveal themselves to you. These upgrades are rewards for following the main narrative missions, so despite the game’s open world design, you are encouraged to try sticking to a main path. Given the play estimates featured on certain aggregate sites, the game doesn’t suffer too much from open-world bloat.

Which is perhaps good, because… well, outside of “hunting and gathering” side missions, combat is really the only thing this game has to offer. Sure, there’s stealth, timed, and stamina-focused side-missions that add a bit of variety to the mix, but it’s not enough variety to feel substantial, and it’s all in service of highlighting the various messed-up things you can do to Orcs and Uruks. This leads me to my main point, which is that this game is quite mean-spirited. You’re goring enemies on the regular, terrifying them with fire, mounted beasts, or “brutalize” prompts, and probing their minds for valuable intel (or branding them, a mechanic I’ve yet to unlock). The game is wont to focus on these actions, which are flashy and brutal in their design, and rewards you for engaging in such behavior. You can explode heads, for goodness sake. It makes me wonder if the developers were fully cognizant of how evil their protagonist is being portrayed. I’m assuming they do, seeing as the sequel tackles some ideas and gameplay mechanics related to power dynamics that feel like a further extension of moral corruption present here. I don’t know if I feel Tallion’s quest for vengeance justifies his wonton slaughter of Orcs, or if I’m supposed to take glee in watching him do so, but the more brutal the means of execution become, the more I feel that maybe this is a deliberate choice to signify how revenge is never truly satiated. I believe Celebrimbor himself says something similar, and this perhaps speaks to the placement of the game within the timeline of Tolkien’s legendarium.

Speaking of bad segues, this game’s most legendary element is most obviously the Nemesis system, and… yup. I get it. While I do feel this genuinely novel concept is somewhat hindered by the way encounters spawn and advance through time, I can’t help but be charmed by its execution. The first time I had an orc whose head I had cleaved come back with a gnarly battle mask and some nasty flavor text, I was smitten. I don’t know to what extent I’ll be able to push the limits of the system in this first game (as I still haven’t unlocked branding and I know the sequel has even more expansive interactions) but it’s novel enough in this smaller-scale environment that it makes coming across new nemeses continually surprising and enjoyable- even if the end result tends to feel fairly one-note.

I’m curious if others have experienced these games and what their thoughts might be. To boil it down to some specific talking points, did anyone find their experience to be similar or unlike the following…?

• Simplistic combat with many options but rarely significant outcomes
• Free, 2010s-era movement that emphasizes stealth
• Revenge… bad?
• Fun recurring Nemeses as the core conceit

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 7: NWR 3D

« Last post by Evan_B on October 04, 2026, 10:13:36 AM »

Well, I’m planning on finally tackling Fatal Frame 5 this spooky season, as it seems now is as good a time as any to cross it off my backlog. I very much enjoyed the demo when I played it way back on Wii U and I wonder how it will play sans-gamepad viewfinder, though I’m sure you can achieve similar effects with gyro controls.

Fascinated by your take on Onimusha. The demo did not really appeal to me despite my recent Capcom kick so to hear it turns into a more open-ended experience is interesting. I felt the game’s combat from the demo felt like I was juggling too many balls, personally. But I have been sinking an unruly amount of time into Elden Ring and I do agree that some of its boss animations and statistics are unhinged and made me resort to cheese too often. That game is macabre enough to feel fitting for the month.

I know I have some other horror-themed games in my backlog: Kentucky Route Zero, Hellpoint, Labyrinth of the Demon King, and Darksiders 3 and Genesis, but the recently released Horripilant looks very appealing to me, and Soma is presently on sale for an absurd amount but I’ve already had the game spoiled for me so I fear much of the disorientation and mystery would be lost on me. While I will definitely pick up Horripilant, I have been craving a Resident Evil style game that isn’t bullshit like Crow Country or Signalis for some time. Maybe enough to get the original REmake, or maybe I’ll just replay REvelations Console Edition for old-time’s sake.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 7: NWR 3D

« Last post by broodwars on October 03, 2026, 03:09:18 PM »

I wasn't sure how popular or successful Onimusha would be but sounds like it is doing alright. I think Capcom released some positive sales results and it even got a 10 from IGN. I guess focusing on making the combat and boss fights solid covered for the flaws with others as well. I heard from someone on a podcast that they did quit on that final boss. Do you know what your total play time was?

I believe when I looked at my save file, it was around 80 hours, but bear in mind I was basically 100%-ing the game twice between my original "Action" playthrough and my New Game + "Carnage" playthrough. I believe my first playthrough was about 45 hours long.

And yeah, that final boss is a hard one. He has 3 phases with no checkpoints, and you can only damage him in his 3rd phase when you're in Oni form. He also has a pretty damn lethal grab; a trio of unblockable attacks; and a super move in his 3rd phase that on Carnage will insta-kill you if you don't i-frame through it or counter it (I always chose to rely on i-framing through it with an Oni weapon attack). And just to add insult to injury, when you die he dances on your corpse. Also, the first time he grabs you he guts you while giving a long speech, which gets oh so fun by your 5th time redoing the fight.

However, his attacks are fairly easy to parry once you catch on to how his fight works, and he has 2 attacks that are pretty damn easy to Issen after some practice. It's really that grab and a drop kick he's especially fond of that can catch you off guard. It's the excessive damage he does when he breaks your stamina that really kills you.

He's rough, but he's not the roughest I've seen in an action game. That would still be Sword Saint Isshin at the end of Sekiro, which is a 4 phase fight, or Melenia from Elden Ring (which is a truly bullshit boss). I never played the Elden Ring DLC, but I've heard the final boss of that is some real bullshit, too. And as tough as Onimusha's fights can get, even they don't pull out absolute nonsense like Sekiro's Instant-kill Terror attacks.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 7: NWR 3D

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on October 03, 2026, 02:51:20 PM »

I wasn't sure how popular or successful Onimusha would be but sounds like it is doing alright. I think Capcom released some positive sales results and it even got a 10 from IGN. I guess focusing on making the combat and boss fights solid covered for the flaws with others as well. I heard from someone on a podcast that they did quit on that final boss. Do you know what your total play time was?

I have really been struggling to finish games ever since August and being in the middle of Fire Emblem is not helping. I should still be able to report on a few I am playing. I am also looking at a Luigi's Mansion game for the month.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: What is your favorite game this year?

« Last post by ejamer on October 02, 2026, 02:56:45 PM »

On negativity:  One reason I still love these boards (even though don't participate much - I just don't have much to say) is that people tend to be painfully realistic. There are some Nintendo sites where people drink the kool-aid so hard, I can hardly stand visiting. NWR/RFN are pretty open when things are good, and equally open when they should be better.



As for the actual question, ask me next year. Pokemon Pokopia wins almost by default this year... but I'm betting that 12 months will be transformational for our opinion of Switch 2 here. Should be awesome. Not a great answer though, so I'll list a few games that have been great this year.

Most Played
My son and I have played a ton of Monster Hunter World (Steam). We're finding Fatalis a bit tough. Get to third phase, break both horns, but haven't been able to finish him off yet with just the 2 of us. This hasn't been my favorite game played in 2026... but the sheer amount of time invested, and the co-op nature make it a solid call.

Much Loved (by my Son)
- Hollow Knight: Silksong (Steam) was every bit as good as hoped, according to my son. A winner through and through.
- Mina the Hollower (Steam) probably isn't as good as Shovel Knight, but that's a high bar. Mina did stand out as a fantastic game! However, my son couldn't understand why reviewers said the game was difficult... It's not, and that assertion made him question whether reviewers who complained about difficulty are just bad at games, or don't have enough retro gaming experience to understand how Mina worked.
- Dokapon Kingdom (Steam) had mixed results; his friends didn't really get into the game, as the pacing was too slow... but we've had a good session with all the stupidity and spite you'd expect from this title that convinced him it was awesome when played with the right people.
- Palworld (Steam) still has some jank, even with official release 1.0, but does so much right that it's easy to forgive the problems. My son is putting a bunch of time into this now, enjoying it tremendously.

Greatly Enjoyed (by Me)
- La-Mulana (Steam) holds up as an amazing retro-styled game. Yes, some puzzles are simply too obscure. No, I don't feel bad about referencing online hints and tips when stuck (despite having beat the game years ago). Absolutely love this game.
- Undertale (Steam) didn't thrill me as much as it did others, but was enjoyable and worth playing. I only did pacifist route; seemed like the obvious hook for this game, and wasn't really difficult.



A Few Let Downs
- Claire Obscur: Expedition 33
- Okami


Some Games We'd Like to Try
- Monster Hunter Stories 3
- Xenoblade 2 and 3 (Switch 2)
- Blue Prince
- Kirby and the World Beyond
- Xenoblade Genesis

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: What is your favorite game this year?

« Last post by Evan_B on October 01, 2026, 10:02:00 PM »

You've been on quite a gaming Odyssey, Khush. Curious to hear your thoughts on Xenoblade 2 if you finally get to it. I'm not the biggest Ocarina fan but I'm biting on the remake because of some of the quality of life enhancements and... let's face it, it does look gorgeous. I also would recommend Echoes of Wisdom, which is a little rough around the edges but delightfully so. It also has a great Hyrule map.

Looking at what I've played this year so far, it's a mixed bag. I'd say moment to moment, my favorite games this year have probably been Pragmata (new) and Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta. Other games have done neat things that I feel were worth celebrating, and while I loved Pragmata very much upon playing and completion, I look back on it and say "that was very fun," though not necessarily worthy of the glowing rating I gave it at the time. Maybe it does. I was very generous.

Meanwhile, Ys Memoire is just a super solid RPG with some very fun customization systems. It doesn't hold you hand and it also doesn't waste your time with ton of bloat. A rarity these days. I've played a fair few smaller indies, but I'm a bit disappointed to say that a number of glowing recommendations haven't quite hit the mark for me.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 7: NWR 3D

« Last post by broodwars on October 01, 2026, 07:14:29 PM »

I suppose i might as well start with a game I just finished off this afternoon on my lunch break:



I finally completed my platinum run on Onimusha: Way of the Sword by beating the game on Carnage difficulty and then beating all the bosses of the game again in Boss Rematch on Carnage difficulty.

Incidentally, the in-game rewards you get for doing this are a sword that gives you the same Issen attack frames in your normal form that you have in Oni form, as well as an outfit that makes your bow stronger and automatically draws in souls like your Oni form. Not sure what use you would have for the outfit when you've already beaten the hardest challenge in the game, but whatever. At least the sword gets to be immensely useful in Boss rematch.

Man, what a game. i haven't played through such a collection of excellent boss fights in an action game in years, maybe not since probably Sekiro, this game's spiritual successor, or Lies of P. Nearly every boss feels hard but fair in a way that Fromsoft seems to have forgotten how to make. Just about every attack is extremely well-telegraphed and can be parried; deflected; dodged; or countered (via an Issen, where you attack at the last possible second). Only 1 boss, the last one, starts pulling out the anime ninja **** FromSoft's become so fond of lately, and even he's an outstanding fight once you figure out how his kit works. The game even manages to make so-called 'gank fights' (where you're forced to fight multiple bosses at once) work in a way that FromSoft has never managed, as whatever enemy you're not fighting tends to be mostly passive in the background aside from occasionally rushing in to catch you off-guard.

While I wouldn't call the game's presentation especially noteworthy, I would note that the facial animation on Mushashi (the main character) is absolutely outstanding. The way his mouth and eyes shift during cutscenes and even mid-battle during clashes is extremely expressive and gives him a lot of character.

Unfortunately, the game isn't without some major problems, which I imagine will really hurt it come GOTY awards season. While the game's linear sections are generally excellent (particularly the Underground Lab, which features more legit horror than Resident Evil is willing to feature these days), the bulk of the game takes place in the small-ish "East Kyoto" open world area. And just about everything about this area sucks: the copied & pasted enemy trash mobs; the copied & pasted "rift' encounters; the whopping TWO mini-bosses that get recycled the entire game (but especially here); and the boring sidequests. And it takes an eternity to get anywhere since the city is designed like a maze with locked doors, areas you have to crawl under debris to get into, and even entire streets you can initially only access by crossing through several houses.

it was a chore to come back to this area and have to constantly re-explore it for randomly-spawning chests and rifts to close for crafting components. A handful of the sidequests are passable at best, but most are just generic "go to this spot on the map and kill some guys". And if you do New Game +, you need to do just about everything all over again because none of your sword; health; or gauntlet upgrades carry over. Get to grinding!

Enemy variety is also especially lacking. There are maybe half a dozen different mob enemy types that get re-skinned at least once each (several twice), and I already mentioned the whole TWO minibosses recycled the entire game. Also, for as well-designed as the boss encounters are, i didn't really enjoy any of the beast fights. This is a game about studying patterns, deflecting, and countering. The beasts, perhaps fittingly, tend to attack rather randomly. i could never get into a rhythm fighting them, especially since only 1 really has attacks that you can parry to trigger your Blazing state and obtain a major attack buff.

Overall, an excellent game but i hope that if Capcom makes a sequel or DLC that they just scrap the open world idea entirely. It doesn't add anything to the experience and is just there to triple the length of the game.

in other news, I'm currently playing Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon HD on my Switch 2. I played through this game before on the 3Ds and didn't particularly care for it, but I'm in the mood for this sort of thing right now and I am enjoying it more as a "pick up and play" game than I did trying to play such a repetitive game straight through back in the day. Up to the 2nd Mansion in that game.

There are more fitting games I plan on playing this month, but Onimusha was a considerable investment. I spent nearly the entirety of September playing through that game twice, it's a very hard game, and I need to detox for a while. Playing that Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight DLC tonight, which I don't imagine really qualifies for this.