I appreciate that Season 2 is introducing even more logic puzzles; I do hope (as with last season) they get more complex over time.
Thinky Dailies 2-3
How Big is this Place?
Solved in 0:44
thinkygames.com/dailies/puzz...
Oh yeah, Minishoot' Adventures has the sauce' and is the twin-stick Zelda I've been waiting for. I knew it was good back when everyone told me about in 2024; I'm glad I finally got it off the backlog.
More games should run with absurd premises, so long as they get around to working out the details later, as TMS did.
"One of the finer, more refreshingly creative RPGs of the 2010s, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE imbues its showbiz fantasy with remarkable diegetic texture. In the vein of the Persona series, dungeons give physical shape to psychological phenomena and power structures: Consider the level that explores the relationship between photographers and their subjects, with vaguely Escherian architecture that evokes the disorienting effect of being captured on camera. Then there’s combat: While party members in turn-based RPGs often strike nonsensically flashy poses during and after battles – who are they stunting for? – our crew here hams it up with professional purpose as fights unfold beneath bright lights and before a voracious audience. When characters execute cross-team combos they call out the name of the next companion in the queue, as though introducing a guest on a track. And worry not: Every attack in a chain nets you cash or an item. All labor is rewarded generously, each worker spared alienation. That’s praxis."
really happy to share my first piece for Unwinnable, looking back on Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE for its 10th anniversary. a game whose absurd premise and world (complimentary) take root thanks to a surprising commitment to diegesis
unwinnable.com/2026/03/05/t...
I will never understand this debate. Someone else skipping dialogue In a single-player game has no effect on YOU, so who cares?
I'm struggling with genre bloat. A popular game creates a subgenre--mascot horror, anomaly, bullet heaven--and then the market is flooded with similar, derivative stuff. Too many studios pass off a new release for a new experience, and it gets wearying to discover it all feels the damn same.
Sticking with it!
Thinky Dailies 2-2
From Far Away
Solved in 1:17
thinkygames.com/dailies/puzz...
I also appreciate that Opus Magnum gives you some range. I toyed around with a dense, low-area mechanism for one solution, then decided to go low-cycle (but big) with another. If you're not consulting a guide, players will come up with very, very different solutions, and that's beautiful!
Much appreciated. I'll give it a shot at some point!
I gave Monster Hunters Stories a try to see if the upcoming third entry might be worth putting on my radar and I just need someone to tell me if it's worth sticking with past the very slow first three hours. If it's just meant for kids, that's fine, I can move on.
What I appreciate about Zachtronic games, but especially Opus Magnum, is that you can get through levels even with really, really terrible designs. Trying to figure out what other people did to use less money, area, and cycles is where it starts to get tricky.
In advance of the surprise upcoming Opus Magnum DLC, I'm diving back into my old save file to try and remember what the hell I was even doing and, well, I don't think this is terrible?
(Also, can I just say how cool the GIF-maker tool is? Makes me actually want to try optimizing.)
Criticism isn't an attack. All criticism is subjective, so even a negative write-up might let someone know about a game they'd like more than the critic did. You're also trying to critically survey a broader culture, which means considering the parts of it that don't quite work for you and why.
Treasure media that makes you fucking feel. Tell everyone about it.
We are so back!
Thinky Dailies 2-1
Making a Connection
Solved in 0:52
thinkygames.com/dailies/puzz...
"We are punching them while they are down, and that's exactly as it should be" is a line that you couldn't script to be any more craven.
I am not telling anyone not to use ex for old! Just trying to refine my own sensibilities. :)
Is it ex boss or ex-boss? (That distinction matters.)
I didn't know about the Chambers PRE, but I still (personally) wouldn't use it because I can't think of a current in-language use: "Pre going to work, I'm showering."
That said, I accept the convention, I just personally couldn't justify it.
One interesting discussion from the stream last night was on the use of [old] to indicate EX. It was late, so I might not have been thinking clearly, but to me, that's "old/former romantic partner," not "old" alone. Would we accept other prefixes this way, like PRE for "before" or UN as "opposite"?
Yeah, using the USB cord from the mic. If there's a better one out there, I'm all ears for recommendations. It's an older model from I think 2023; I only see the one USB port on the back. (I don't even know what an "aux cord" is because I'm a hardware dummy.)
After disconnecting the USB device, I unplug my Blue microphone because there's no ON/OFF switch on it, but about 75% of the time when I next try to plug it in and use it, my computer hits a USB-read error. Any thoughts on what's causing this? Recommendations for a different microphone?
Meet the new take
Same as the old take
Won't get fooled again
"Sustainable player base" suggests to me that players are essentially livestock for a video game farm. Rethink game design that requires your game to need a constant stream of players to make it playable and profitable.
It is fascinating to me that the same studio puts out Ys and Trails, because the latter keeps finding new ways to play in a very dense, fascinating world, whereas Ys feels locked in. It's not a distaste for action either; I loved The Legend of Nayuta. Maybe Nordics is just so big it shows the seams?
I was more taken by Monstrum Nox, where the surprising plot had its hooks in me, and everything seemed to feed into that. Nordics feels like a inverse of Lacrimosa of Dana (only without the neat time travel): instead of being restricted to one giant island, you travel a bunch of less distinct ones.
The island-hopping also yields a lot of standalone subplots AND redundant settings; Fuling Island plays out just like every other island, which makes its heartbreaking twists lose impact. The new EX quests on Oland also end up feeling like just another place to grind/practice: it's all the same.
Missed out on Ys X the first time around, so rented a copy of Proud Nordics for Switch 2 and--it's Ys again. Each game has a decent hook or gimmick, but sailing doesn't do it for me, and it's irksome to keep "saving" islanders with the same puppet fights.
On tonight's cryptic crossword stream (twitch.tv/thatcrypticguy), ~9:00 Eastern:
- Crossweird debut from Carrie Z & Jake Eakle
- Kyle Dolan midi
- Catan-based @therackenfracker.bsky.social
- @longyfan.bsky.social's December @gnomoncryptics.bsky.social
- something from @unchcrosswords.com #2
hope he can't stop scratching it and is forced to wear a dog
hope he can't stop scratching it and is forced to
hope he can't stop scratching it
hope he can't
hope
