The Nintendo Switch

OK, played a bit of "Dead Cells." It's fun, but is the point just to see how far/long you can go? There's a lot it throws at you from the start, too. How important is it to figure out what everything does?

you can complete a run

and not important to figure out what everything does, because you'll figure that out naturally through dying and trying again and running across new items that you'll be forced to use

By complete a run, you mean ... just get past each level, right? But when you die, you go all the way back to the beginning, no matter what stage you're on? That's how it seems so far. Is the stopwatch timing it just there for entertainment purposes?

No there is an actual end. (I haven't ever gotten there myself, but I haven't put in the time.)

new pokemon snap

while brushing your teeth & jumping rope

OK, I'm getting into the rhythm of Dead Cells. It helps that it's different enough each time around that it's not totally annoying/boring. The music is great, too.

Conduct Together! is $0.01 again. It's a fun local multiplayer game with kids.

89p in the UK but I'm not churlish enough to object to that.

"Dead Cells" seems to be about going as far as you can go and getting as many upgrades and stuff as you can get before dying and getting sent back to the start again, which makes it sot of "Suicide Run: The Game." But I did seem to pass some sort of threshold today where it got a hair easier, or I got stronger ... right before some boss just kicked my ass because I apparently was armed with less than effective weapons.

it sorta sounds like this is yr first rogue style game but yeah it's really only a roguelike first bc it's a different genre but more importantly bc you do gain upgrades iirc that carry over between runs whereas in a true rogue game you start from scratch every time.

Yeah, I've never played a game like this before, but it's nice that at least a bit of the progress you've made generates back with you, even if it's all the way at the beginning again.

what if the real progress you make, was the *looks back at the path already traveled* progress you made

I’ve been playing Dead Cells again too! Enjoying it, I seem to be doing a lot better than the last time I picked it up.

i haven't played it in a while, but they rebalanced things quite a bit through patching for months after the release, so it's probably a bit different now than it was last time too

Yeah, I've never played a game like this before

I mean I know what you mean, but "trying to get as far as you can before dying and having to start all over" is kinda how every game worked for a while - Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., etc etc...

I bought mario party and hoo boy it pisses me off

i haven't played it in a while, but they rebalanced things quite a bit through patching for months after the release, so it's probably a bit different now than it was last time too

xxpost Oh for sure, it's like Pac-Man et al. in that sense. You die, you start over at the beginning. But this one *does* have (afaict) a story, and distinct level designs and different bosses and new challenges and the like, so when you die you have to do them all over again, in (so far) more or less order. If I had to start Dead Cells all the way back at the beginning each time, with nothing, a la Pac-man (not that there is any real progress in Pac-Man beyond time), I don't think I would come back to it. Super Mario Bros. at least let you continue at the start of the level, iirc.

(not that there is any real progress in Pac-Man beyond time)

untrue. take the ms pac-man story

pac-man and ms pac-man get chased by a ghost.
pac-man and ms pac-man get chased by a ghost and make love and get married

then ms pac-man chases pac-man, and pac-man chases ms pac-man, faster and faster.

then a stork drops off a baby. it is heavily implied that ms pac-man and pac-man had sex

act 2 is a metaphor for them having sex

in 1982 arcades! pretty subversive in my book

They should make a movie.

Vintage Tarantino monologue iirc

in 1982 arcades! pretty subversive in my book

it's why they changed their minds from calling it Miss Pac-Man iirc

And it all ties together if you consider the game's original name and why they reportedly changed it ...

Had a couple of better "Dead Cells" runs and have, well, run into a few particularly frustrating aspects of the game play. One is that there are some build-outs that seem to be a lot more effective, imo, like ranged attacks, but you don't always get a say what weapon you have at the start (afaict). Two, the mechanics of how all the powers work and interact (the mutations, the scroll upgrades, etc.) are kind of confusing (to me, at least), because three, the game is simultaneously fast paced but also unforgiving of speeding through. There are some parts that seem to reward zipping through as fast as you can, both to avoid enemies but also to get the timed rewards at the end. There are other places where you want to explore everything to get the most upgrades before progressing to the next part. But at the same time the maps is changing and moving around, which forces you to alter your strategy, which does keep you on your toes but also keeps the challenge level constant. You think you're getting good but then, ha ha, the map layout is suddenly a lot tougher to navigate and btw, now there are three of those scorpion things that have popped up.

Honestly, the biggest challenge/mystery I've faced so far is the way the tougher enemies seem to suddenly sprout up an impenetrable forcefield. Elite enemies and bosses, it's like it's not enough that they're tough, suddenly they get a forcefield as well, even as they teleport and follow you around and throw other enemies at you? I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong, but again, it's so fast that I don't have much time to experiment before I die. And along those lines, I wish there was some easier way to get some health back. Maybe that changes later? The game does seem to be evolving, which makes the very steep learning curve a hair more fair.

there's another creature (or some object? it's been a minute since i played) that generates the force field if you can prioritize killing them you'll bring down the forcefield for everyone else. also if you can draw the enemy out of the focefield monster's range they'll lose the protection - they have to be within proximity for it to go up.

Hmm. How am I supposed to know what's generating the force field? Is that the fire hydrant looking things? Anyway, there was one Elite Zombie that had a forcefield generated between what looked like two gems. Each gem took several seconds of attacking before they broke, and when they broke they gave me what felt like a 3 second window to attack the zombie before they generated again and I had to start the process over. It took what felt like a couple of minutes to take down that one enemy, but it didn't involve strategy or anything, just standing in a spot throwing shit. It felt like taking down a dragon with arrows in "Dark Souls," but ... much less satisfying.

because three, the game is simultaneously fast paced but also unforgiving of speeding through. There are some parts that seem to reward zipping through as fast as you can, both to avoid enemies but also to get the timed rewards at the end. There are other places where you want to explore everything to get the most upgrades before progressing to the next part.

never play Sonic the Hedgehog

on second thought, this idea seems fundamental to every platformer. most people just try to survive the first time, skipping what they can. they save exploration for 100%'ing or just squeezing some new challenge out of the game later.

the balance btwn speed + thoroughness is a critical & key part of how the game works

haha, yeah. and like sufjan is saying, fundamental to many games and even genres. balance between going as fast as you can and still doing well is kind of fundamental to being a human, whether you're doing manual labor, doing homework, or playing a racing game

How am I supposed to know what's generating the force field? Is that the fire hydrant looking things?

for this part though, i'd recommend just playing again and taking your time in that area. edge around the area, from the top or below, and get a look at what's happening. you'll figure it out

in the truest form of the rogue genre the only progress you make between runs are the knowledge + skills you've earned in previous runs

So far "Dead Cells" doesn't seem to be much of a platformer. That is, (so far) there are not many places to die from falling off, and there's really been no real precision jumps or anything. What sets it apart from other games remotely similar (from memory; I've spent much more of my life not playing video games than playing them) is the ultra-aggressive enemies that will follow you and fuck with you even when you retreat. In other games, those are the sorts of novelty enemies that show up later in the game to keep the challenge high. Here they seem to be there almost from the start. Also, I've only fought one boss so far (afaict), and it's unusual to have the bosses regenerate when you come back, too. So you have to fight them again. Definitely high-stakes and precarious! Am I right that to finish this game is akin to doing a start-to-finish game run?

But anyway, as far as platformers go, even from my limited experience and vantage I have relatively recently played Hollow Knight, Shovel Knight, Ori, and even Celeste, and this is nothing like those, imo. So far. (I've never played Sonic.) So far I'm definitely getting better at this, but it's kind of 1/2 step forward, two steps back, and it remains to be seen how compulsive I find this frustrating-by-design rogue rhythm.

hey what is the best way/site to track if switches (specifically the switch lite) are in stock at various online stores?

I used stockinformer.co.uk and it worked a charm, but I think it only tracks UK stock

thanks - looks like there's a US version too

dekudeals.com also good and for eshop sales as well.

OK, had a great run in "Dead Cells." Made it to the bell tower, killed absolutely everything, powered up like crazy and then ... no idea what to do next. There's a locked door that requires a key, can't find the key. Look all over for something I missed, and as far as I can tell I made it to every spot I can reach with the powers I had. I start looking at my watch, because it's time to start dinner, but there is of course no way to save (in theory you can just stop, but you have to leave the game running). Just searching and searching for some clue and ... nothing. So I give up and look it up online, and it turns out I have to ring these four far flung bells in order of pitch, which a) I never would have figured out and b) *even after learning that* I couldn't navigate my way around the map to find all the bells again. And then I got bored and had to make dinner and thought, well, it was fun while it lasted, and quit the game. It's totally on me, and maybe some of you more hardcore sorts were like, duh, that's a reference to Metroid 2, but me? I thought it was pretty annoying, which makes me think this game, for all I like about it - the humor, the weapons - might unfortunately just be Not For Me.

two thumbs down: way down

I had forgotten that you need to TURN IN the blueprints you collect. Don’t want to know how many I inadvertently never registered.

Oh I guess all I have to do is talk with the collector between levels? Suppose I do that everytime anyway, n/m.

i see josh is "in chicago" again

xpost I was about to say, holy shit, I had to *turn in* all those blueprints?!

You don't need that key to progress to the next level, you just need it to get the Punishment shield blueprint (which you should only ever have to do once).

I couldn't get out of that level. What did I miss? I was stuck there, as far as I can tell. There was no exit. Or can you go ... backward, to the previous level?

I think you’re just missing it, I’ve never had trouble exiting a level