chaosh.at

Burying the Leda

2026-10-01T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

Some of these motherfuckers got too many names. It's like they needed a way to jam more proper nouns in here somewhere.

I think Leda is probably the most interesting unit in the game, and maybe in any Fire Emblem game. She has such a variety of what she can do from turn to turn, she's a very strong attacker, she can dance, and she has situationally powerful supporting Blaze Arts. She gives you a lot of optionality on how to tackle the fights.

Okay Leda 12 done. I have some thoughts about her story. Spoilers DUH.

[spoiler]

Leda Poisoning

2026-09-30T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

I'm still very much liking Leda's game although I do think it's going to end up feeling quite schizophrenic. The problem is in the structure of the game and the game's unwillingness to bend for her.

Right now the supports feel like a very different character from the mainline plot for her and that's a necessity because:

The game needs her to be happy and cute and fluffy and sweet. It's afraid to let her just be a very dark person.
The game can't really control when you see them either.
There are just not enough of them.

What Leda needs is like six supports with her core cast to show some level of arc, so you can see her baseline, then her succumbing to the darkness after she makes that pact with the Viuela, and then coming out of it (I assume, I hope, at some point on the other end). Three supports is just not enough to build that.

One is just a core structural problem. I think people won't like her if she is dark and a little evil, which maybe they need this to be someone that people are happy to fall in love with and slap on a shirt or merch.

Two is a problem where every character has the same treatment and so they're not willing to gate her support dialogues specifically. They all have to feel ephemeral and timeless because you could see them at any point. They can restrict you from viewing them too early but they can't ensure that you'll view them before it's too late in a lot of these cases, given the amount of tailoring that would need to be done.

They can't have a really dark part in C before that's happened in the story. Nor can they have it be sensible to be really light and fluffy if you're going to see it deep into her arc. The problem is they kind of do a little bit of both anyways but it suffers from that timing issue.

For 3 I think they could cut half of the recruitable cast and double the supports with the existing people and that would do the game a big service. That's so tough to do, though, because every character is going to be someone's favorite, so who do you decide to cut, right, especially after the fact when players have fallen in love with them? For me personally I could see some that's like, "This person is pointless. I don't need this person," but again someone's going to like that.

I think Leda is the character who suffers the most from the scope and ambition of this game. It's hard to invest so much more into her when this game is so big, and how many players are even going to play through her route at all? I think as the star of a standalone game she would really knock it out of the park.

Leda the way

2026-09-29T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

Leda makes a pact with a demonic entity and then is surprised when the bill comes due. COME ON GIRL.

This game has me thinking about why I play games. I find myself regretting that this game isn't harder to force me to reach deeper into the system and bag of tricks. Like I realized I never really use the second tier of Blaze Arts because well, I've never needed to. And how easy some of the Blessings can make the games (Aurora, Kalla).

But I could choose to NOT do those things and make the game harder. But I dont' want to. And I don't know why. So do I want it to be harder? Or why do some kinds of harder feel more legitimate? I've never been a person for arbitrary self imposed challenge modes.

Rogue is ruining my childhood

2026-09-29T00:00:00.000Z

Lately I've been playing a lot of the original Metroidvanias and it reminded me how much I liked these games. I'd really fallen out of love with the genre in the past few years. As I played them and had fun, I wasn't sure what it was that actually put me off the genre. I had played some newer ones, Spelunky, Dead Cells, Rogue Legacy, all popular and acclaimed games but they never felt right. So what was it? Had I outgrown the genre?

Looking back on it, the problem I had is that they're all from the rogue family. So what is it about stapling Rogue to Metroid that makes it worse?

In Metroid, or a Castlevania, there is a mastery loop to understanding these places, learning the layout, and steadily getting ACTUALLY more powerful instead of restarting from scratch. The backtracking, while maybe it doesn't hit the novelty dopamine button, does make that growth feel cemented. This thing that gave me trouble? Now I plow through it.

With roguelites, you do get a slow sense of accrued power and progression with permanent unlocks that persist from run to run, but it's not the same as getting the Space Jump or Screw Attack and that's because the Screw Attack can't be the Screw Attack in a roguelite. That level of power at the start of every run is cracked, it would trivialize the start, or the game has to be balanced around that, moving the goal posts. The Screw Attack isn't a cool thing you have for the last hour or so and then the game ends. It's a cool thing you have for possibly a hundred more hours.

One of my biggest dislikes about roguelites is that you can be walled by a boss that requires more grinding to be able to beat it. Once I figured this out it bothered me in all of these games because I'm never sure if it's a grind gate or a git gud gate.

Metroid bosses require zero grinding: by design you have what you need to beat them, you don't necessarily have the skill. While most players will have to retry a boss a few times they still know that it's doable, there's never a question of is it me, or have I not farmed enough? This ambiguity is one way that roguelites obfuscate the player's own growth arc.

Another way is that failure means starting the entire run over and it could be an hour or more to reach and require a few sessions to get back to that spot. This means it's difficult to practice, and with the variable equipment you pick up, it's hard to tell if you're getting better or if you just got insane RNG drops.

With the classic designs, I'm also getting something more tightly authored that respects my time more. Yes, a lot of these have stories, but they're piecemealed out for me over a lot more time. It's like filling a balloon with air. Yes, the balloon is bigger but I don't have more balloon, it's just stretched over more space. Roguelites give you more game, more value for money, by valuing your time less.

While I now understand what it was about the rogue games I didn't enjoy as much, I'm now interested to look at the games that came out in the meantime that I didn't try. Animal Well and Hollow Knight are things I'm going to have to take a more serious look at now. So maybe Rogue didn't ruin my childhood, it just hid what made it magical.

Follow the Leda

2026-09-28T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

Why does everyone want so much sandworm meat and why is it so hard to get?

Also, so many of Leda's supports are locked, I assume they're for later when she'll be like "I'm so sorry I was a crazy person starved for revenge thanks for bearing with me."

Leda has to be the most...I've been saying "hit on" but that's not quite it. Flirtatious? Relationshippy? Her supports deal with her being hit on but also her teasing others. It's very interesting. I'd say she's likely not straight, but I don't know to what extent. Quite refreshing to see a character firmly put down the advances of others while also not being prudish.

Leda of the pack

2026-09-27T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

Leda is definitely the most complicated character of the three I've done so far so I'll be interested to see how they pull it off. There's obviously a terrible darkness to her but she's also a very nice and sweet person, so I'm interested to see how they reconcile this. Will it be believable as a unified whole or will it feel disjointed?

Her allies also feel the most...loosely aligned? Basically everyone on Cai and Theodora's runs were very highly on board with the plan and the vision. Everyone seems to be supporting Leda if not so much her goals. This isn't a problem, in fact I think it kind of builds extra texture for them.

Sirocco is the one I think I'm iffiest on, but I have a feeling we're going to learn something underlying that redeems him? He'll still suck though. Well and Buccar just seems...fine.

Theodora TheoDONE

2026-09-26T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

Missed one paralogue in Theodora's chapter 12. Man that's tight timing to get all of those done. Paralogues are another thing where I'm irritated by some QOL stuff. I dislike how easy it is to miss them, and then the timing requirements about it.

Also, it's weird how you can do Lilian's support things and she grows less money motivated and yet she just remains that way in the main story scenes because they have to assume you didn't do the supports.

I really like how Theodora's story has more traditional Fire Emblem lords and ladies leading nations in war with political intrigue.

Leda next.

God damn the tone of this one is so different, not just from the darkness but the interaction of the initial party members too. It feels like a wildly different game.

Theodora Rewinds Time

2026-09-25T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

Most of the way through, I think the Theodora MVPs are Bonaventure, Lilian, and Nezha (of course). None of them are really strong enough that I think I'd try to poach them for other runs.

Sirocco is also someone who I think I'd put in the B+ tier so far? Tobias is fine, but boring to me, and Lysander is quite whelming I think. Sofia is a boring character who I don't think I would bother to grab in any run. She's very one dimensional.

Theodora herself is strong, but seems less so than Cai. I made her into a guardian. Seemed most appropriate? Also, it really seems like the game is pushing towards a Theodora/[spoiler] relationship which I am here for. For a minute I was disappointed it wasn't Simon and there wasn't another support between them, but now I feel like I get it.

Oh my god I did the thing where I hit Restart Chapter instead of Battle. That's like 3 paralogues and 112 turns undone. Ugh I wish they made it harder to do that because it's the second time I've done it. Yes, maybe I should be less ADHD and more patient but I cannot help it. I feel like they could make you back out to the obelisk screen to redo a chapter or just do something simple and invert the Yes/No so you cannot do it just by tapping A.

Okay, I think I see what's happening here [spoiler]

(Theo)dora the Explorer

2026-09-24T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

Okay, you get kind of a ton of renown very quickly it feels like on a replay.

I'm really uncertain how much I want to commit to using new people vs old favorites. You do gain a benefit for reusing the old favorites, but I should give other people a shot.

Also there are not nearly enough supports for Theodora!

When I do bird time it reminds me of Eshmel and what a bizarre decision it was to include that in the game. Okay, make a character, get semi attached to it, then totally ignore it for potentially 20-60+ hours? Why am I going to care about this non character.

It would be one thing if bird talked to the other characters, or if it was just NOT bird time and maybe it was some temporal realm out of time where you could actually chat and bond. But nothing.

I also wish the game showcased the recruitables better. How am I supposed to like any of these characters beyond just "I dunno, they look cool." You get to see some of the retainers in some of the pre/post fight chats, but it's very little I feel like you got to see more of them in Three Houses and say "oooh, I need to poach this one."

We're ending today at chapter 10 of Theodora, right at the battle start. I might be getting a little burnt out. We'll see. I may try to do Leda and then assess how I feel. Doing act 2 might feel better than repeating the early game grind.

Speed Weaving

2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

I really can't emphasize enough how much better this game feels after one round through. It just feels like the actual correct amount of time between things.

I also think part of it might be that Theodora's overworld stuff is mechanically so much more interesting than Cai's. Sure, the mounts are cool but Theodora feels a bit like you're conquering the map. You're recruiting units, you're deploying them (to gather shit sure) but you're getting around and you're doing stuff.

Cai's Casuality: Altered

2026-09-22T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

Beaten Cai's final battle. It was good! Story was fine. I maintain Cai feels like a character in the wrong franchise and nothing about his story really changed my opinion of that.

Some spoilers: [spoiler]

[spoiler]

Overall I think subsequent runs will go much faster without all the side questing to do. Which, good! The game takes too long between major plot elements. I just wonder how much there will even be to do. I now know I don't need to recruit as much so there's kind of a double lessening of time pressure.

We're on to Theodora next. She seemed like the opposite side of Cai's coin. Going to try to reduce overlap with some of my characters from last time.

Oof, it is ROUGH to go back to level 1, three units, and intro fights. I think the overall tutorialization could be further reduced here.

Dyan sucks but we're laying it on a bit thick with the forked tongue? It's so hard to take this greaser with the pompadour seriously. He's so anachronistic. There's a lot of tell, don't show about the Saraminians being a sea people.

Overall her story feels much more in line with a standard Fire Emblem, at least to start. A lord with a mission for their people. It also goes MUCH faster this time between story battles which is a good thing. Part of that is definitely me just knowing the ropes better, and part of it is just that by having done the other route a lot of things are just done for me.

It really feels like THIS is the way the game should be played. Although one caveat, don't go so deep in the paint on the karma shard prizes. They can really quickly trivialize the game and it's a one way ratchet: I can't reinstate 10% exp boost, now it's 30% or nothing.

Chrono Trigger Happy

2026-09-22T00:00:00.000Z

Chrono Trigger is a great game but while playing it I can see the seams. This feels like a game where there just wants to be more time and room to let the beats hit and show the characters. The campfire scene is so good and I wish there was more stuff like that in here.

I got the "bad ending" to Lucca's vignette and was so irritated and upset by it that I went back and redid the entire scene after looking it up (I couldn't figure out that they literally wanted me to input it with the buttons). I connected with this moment and this character so completely: just like Lucca, I rewound time to fix that tragedy.

Everyone is here, all at once, for once.

There's definitely room to add this stuff in. Chrono Trigger isn't an overstuffed ninety hour odyssey. It's brief and that's one of its strengths, it (mostly) doesn't waste your time. The characters exude personality, their silhouettes are so clear and crisp you can click with them very quickly.

It does a lot with that economy of time, but we can trade some of those instances where it runs overlong and instead get some more character beats. Give me more of these characters! Chrono Trigger is so trim that if we added a couple hours to the run time that time wouldn't feel bloated, I'd just feel like I got a more decadent and full meal.

And some of this additional characterization exists already! I wish the party was treated as more present. You can swap them out freely, which is a surprising and wonderful quality of life thing for a game of its time period (100% I expected to have to go back to the end of time every time I wanted to switch) but let's just treat them all as there.

There are so many cool character moments in the story but you only get to see how the current party reacts and I wanted to see more of that. I was dying for a fourth party member here just to be able to fit all my favorites in. Poor Frog riding the bench while Ayla and Robo soak up all the screen time.

The Hat canonical party.

I get that is a "replay the game to see" thing and that made sense when it came out and this was someone's only game until next Christmas and so they were going to replay it to death, but I'm an adult. Realistically, forcing me to replay the entire game to get a few scraps of alternate dialogue is the actual bloat.

Also under the "my time is valuable" umbrella, Chrono Trigger could also point the player better, there were a number of instances where you just had to keep talking to everyone until the correct person gave you the next breadcrumb as to where to go. That's just wasted time that we could be doing something interesting with instead of letting me flounder.

Some of the fat we could trim is in the Tyranno Lair or the Black Omen, the end of which I was ready to have fewer encounters. They feel long out of a sense of obligation to build to something more grueling and epic as the game builds toward the climax, not out of a fun maximization way. I would have quit the Tyranno Lair if not for the ability to use save states to wind back before the pitfalls to avoid doing the same fights over and over. It's not cheating, it's a game about time travel. I'm method role playing.

Taking some additional breaks would give the game more of a cadence. The comparison is obvious due to the Toriyama connection, but Dragon Quest does this really well, settling into a nice rhythm of go to place, do thing, get a beat.

Overall, Chrono Trigger is an all timer, everyone knows this. It's one that largely holds up in the modern era and that in and of itself is a gigantic accomplishment. The showbiz saying is to always leave the audience wanting more and Chrono Trigger does that a bit too well.

The sun begins to set on Cai's weave

2026-09-21T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

The paralogues are so good and they made me smile the whole time with how interesting and inventive they are. Some of the best fights this game has to offer so far and I just wish there were more.

For all my gripes, I think my biggest one is that I can't recruit Anatolia.

I'm getting close to turning off combat animations to speed it up. This game never totally recaptured the charm of the pixel art versions.

Ending a battle with the turn based boss mode is a cool idea...if the turn based jrpg battle thing was more interesting.

The restart chapter button really shouldn't be so close to the battle one...

Alright, we're on Cai's final chapter. Initially I had thought to play Leda next but now I'm not sure! I might want to save her for even later, when she'll be even more powerful. Bwahaha.

Weaving paralogues

2026-09-20T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

It's getting pretty interesting and I've gotten to the part where I've unlocked the paralogues.

One thing that I do find frustrating about this is just the recruitment requirements and I wish they would telegraph that stuff in advance: "Oh I need to save money" or "I need to be gathering these items out on the overworld to be prepared for it." That would just be a nice quality-of-life thing.

I do also really like the Roman Mediterranean setting and I wish Fire Emblem would do this stuff more. I thought it was such a cool breath of fresh air when we got Face and there was a Japan-inspired one. Why haven't we revisited that? Can we do more? Can we go to a Nordic-inspired area or a Middle Eastern-inspired area?

The first paralogue was really good. It was a three way battle with bandits and birds to collect treasure. Fun and interesting, so much better than your standard boring overworld battles.

Busily weaving

2026-09-19T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

The lack of a weapon triangle definitely I think removes some texture. Sure, it's just rock paper scissors, but it means Cai can't just tank EVERYONE, an axe wielder makes you think twice. And sure spears do more vs mounted units but you can dismount for very free.

I think I'm also not using weapon arts aggressively enough but the game doesn't make me so...

Bird time is the silliest mechanic ever. Every time I do it I just think about how dumb it is in fiction. Imagine being a bystander for this exchange.

"Bird, do you ever think I'll be better than my dad with a spear?"
Bird sings a song
"You're right, I'll NEVER be as good as him. I'M A FAILURE! ...so anyways, today's a perfect day for fishing, you wanna come along?"
It is currently the middle of the night.

If they want to rip off persona so much just do it harder in the dungeons. Make it a one more system. Make it at least mildly interesting.

The weaving continues at a rapid pace.

2026-09-18T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

Chapter 5's battle was the first one I felt I wasn't absolutely facerolling. It was a fun one, (but damn those chariots). The battle was so good, and so fun, and the plot around the main story stuff is so good and then there's just a lot of extra between me and the next part.

Cai is growing on me, but fighting alongside Theorora or Dietrich and their retinues, his friends feel woefully out of place. They're bog standard jrpg "kids save the world" characters in the wrong game.

This game is one that I do think benefits from a guide because there are so many options for every step of what I could be doing with my time that it's just paralyzing. And I guess to be fair, this game is so easy it really doesn't matter, but it feels like for advanced classes I want to be planning that out. And I personally just don't know enough to look at this and say "ah, Cai should do this, therefore I should do this into that."

As I play this game I'm reminded a lot of Tom Haverford in this episode of Parks & Rec where they're trying out food and Tom declined to eat something because it came with a dipping sauce. His reason: drizzle it on there for me! I'm not here to do work.

I feel like that a lot with a bunch of the mechanics here. Let me just skip the dungeons, press the button, get the rewards. Let me skip the overworld battles! Just make everything faster. It's not like there's actually good content here. Once you've seen it once you've seen it.

Having said that, I'm having a lot of fun. I've gotten as far as the chapter 7 main battle and I've managed to get a couple characters to the next level. I think some of the problem is a lot of QOL shit is gated, you get the fast travel stations waaaaay too late.

The weaving begins

2026-09-17T00:00:00.000Z

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave

Oddly futuristic. UI elements look so good. Read a helpful tips and tricks thing that says it's better to play the characters serially instead of in parallel.

I've decided to play as Cai first, the character I care about least, since if I fuck up any of the systems as I'm learning I won't care so much. His start feels very not Fire Emblem and just kind of bog standard jrpg stuff. I like the lords and ladies and the military paegentry and all that jazz.

Cai's story is really just fucking wild and random. His party members seem not very good so far or maybe he's just very strong. It's hard to keep a balanced party, they just don't deal good damage.

Settings wise I really like the Mediterranean/Romanesque vibe.

The turn based dungeon battles haven't really justified themselves to me so far. Mechanically it's very shallow and before I used to get all the stuff I needed via battles and the monastery and now I have to do this other second thing which seems bolted on and largely filler. Maybe they'll get better.

I'm also getting like...Triangle Strategy levels of nonsense between the actual story battles.

It's fine right now. I feel like there are so many systems and yet they don't bother to go very deep on any of them in explanation, even when some of the systems are actually deep. I'm not sure what to equip on who.

Alright I really don't know how I feel about this. The main battles are so good and there's SO MUCH FILLER between it. I wish it would just let me sim the overworld battles. They're extremely boring and sometimes you have to do them multiple times. Same battles, same map. Same boring.

And it's so easy. I'm playing on hard and it's still easy. But I also wouldn't want it to be harder because then the stupid repetitive overworld battles would just take longer.

I think I might have to let go of what Fire Emblem was/what I want it to be and evaluate my relationship with it now based on what it is. Which I'm fine with that. I don't want to come across as someone who fears change and wants stuff to be the same. I can evaluate it without the baggage of my hopes or what it was as a stand alone unit.

But I'm not sure what it is what I want out of it. Or at least not large chunks of it.

The eve of the weave.

2026-09-16T00:00:00.000Z

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

We beat this! It was very fun. I didn't go back and get all the maiamai or the heart pieces because I just didn't need to and it sounded boring.

I would say the difficulty on this is a touch too low and the game as a while suffers from optionality. The game can't punish you very hard because maybe you're a kid and you're bad at the game and you keep dying and losing your items and you can never afford to buy them outright so the poor stay poorer (perhaps this game is a scathing take on capitalism).

But in the last dungeon, very few items are mandatory, much less their upgrades because they can't know that you definitely have all of them, or that requiring all of them would put the player in this unfun loop where they have to rent it, then they die, then they have to go back and buy it, run back to the dungeon and try again, then die, repeat. A rent to own would have fixed this.

But instead they just make it not that hard.

There is the hero mode but my gut is that it won't actually reward what I want, it'll just ask you to be better at the base skills of the game (dodging, blocking, swording) instead of making it so enemies have weaknesses and you NEED to use the boomerang or something.

The game gestures at this some, there are definitely some enemies where the hook shot is really useful to rip shields away but that kind of cleverness isn't really necessary.

Fire Emblem: Binding Blade

Played this a little today as I had nothing to play this evening and maybe I had some pre-emptive Fortune's Weave energy. Played through the first map and a half. The waves of nostalgia at seeing old Eliwood and Hector were...intense. Might chip away at this some in parallel.

In which we Zelda and do nothing much else.

2026-09-15T00:00:00.000Z

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Another sage freed. One fun thing about this game is that you tackle it from a normal 2d top down Zelda perspective and then sometimes you remember to think with portals and you solve something you were stuck on. Oh yeah, I can cross that gap.

And it feels really good when you remember off the bat and you don't get stuck at all.

Another good design thing about this game is the Maiamais. I was a little disappointed earlier thinking I may actually want to try to grab them all, but it would be so challenging to look up which ones you were missing if you were stuck since you'd grabbed them all out of order. This is a common issue where you have to go back and say well dang, I don't remember which ones I got and you spend a lot of time backtracking to realize you did actually get that one.

But then I remembered the game divides them into zones, so worst case scenario I'm sure something exists that tells you where they are, divided by zone, and it's easy to check that way.

I also thought I got some of the Master Ore in the Lorule Lost Woods dungeon but I didn't. Maybe I got it but died and never re-got it.

Lava turtle khezu dungeon also done. One to go.

I kind of dislike the item system in this game a bit. On one hand, yes, it lets you have a lot of freedom. On the other, I feel like the boomerang is so totally gapped in usefulness by the bow? The bow is just better boomerang 99% of the time.

Final dungeon complete, Master sword upgraded. Yes I have played a lot of this. It's very good.

Look at me, I am the Metroid now

2026-09-15T00:00:00.000Z

Metroid Dread tells you, right from the title, that it gets it. We're here because we want that feeling of exploring a space station alone. We're frightened and everything has gone to shit but there's no way out but through, and through we'll go. Like Ellen Ripley, Samus is a survivor. She'll find a way. Metroid Dread masterfully dances between making you feel powerful and powerless, flipping between Alien and Aliens effortlessly. That's what makes Metroid Dread the best Metroid game.

Let's start with Alien. The EMMI zones are the pure essence of being isolated in a cramped ship with a xenomorph. They're everywhere and nowhere at once, jumping out at you from unexpected angles. You can hide only for so long before it's a full on sprint for the exit where the door slams shut with the monster right on your heels. The EMMI design itself understands what makes things creepy. They're humanoid but they don't move like humans, they're so, well, alien.

It's the most powerless Samus feels in the series, regardless of how far you've come in the game. The EMMI zones make you reconsider, "do I really want to go through here?" You feel the namesake dread whenever Samus returns to them.

Even when you're able to fight them, charged up with the Omega Cannon, it's tense. Do I stand my ground, will I be able to break through the shield? Or do I need to abort this attempt and try to find a new angle, even though that's an opportunity for it to catch me? It's the slow charging of the final weapon while the movie monster creeps forward, its victory is assured, your doom inevitable.

"Get away from her, you bitch!"

Then you defeat it, cathartically blowing its head off and draining the Omega Cannon's power. It's reminiscent of countless action movies when the hero collapses after a fight, tossing their weapon away, it and themselves spent. It's in these moments where Samus and the series best mirror their clearest inspiration, an exhausted Ellen Ripley taking a moment to gather herself after another close call with a xenomorph. This is Aliens territory. Yes, you've defeated this one but your awesome power still wasn't enough to end the threat.

At the same time, Samus feels the most powerful she ever has here, we're in full Aliens action movie mode. She controls like a dream, the analog aim stick here lets you pick things off with precision compared to the clunkier d-pad only games. The melee counters feel strong and impactful highlighting Samus's bravery and strength against the unknown. She moves so well, the platforming here is the best in the series, allowing you to navigate with precision. The controls work with you, like a well calibrated power loader.

The Varia suit is truly a triumph of miniaturization compared to the 1986 version.

The game is able to show you Samus's growth better than ever not only through the cutscenes where we can see her own awe (and a bit of fear) at her new power, but just in how everything is presented in game. The Omega Cannon feels powerful. The Super Bombs look and sound earth shattering.

I wrestled for a long time with where this one ranked for me in the grand scheme of Metroid games. It repeats some design issues I had with Samus Returns (most notably the Aeion block detector mechanic which I won't relitigate here, go read that piece for more). It's too hand holdy, blatantly cutting off routes to funnel the player in the right direction instead of letting you get lost a bit. There's one section early on where half of the map is just lost to you, you must move forward into the fire zone, no grabbing any pickups you didn't get.

For a long while, it was chiefly that (and probably a bit of a hipster streak) that made me want to keep this game out of the Canon in favor of Fusion. Fusion is the game that better respects the player learning the design tells of the world, figuring out how to navigate, which blocks are breakable and which aren't. The SA-X is the precursor of the EMMI and a better version of the horror of it. What is more terrifying than an alien version of ourselves, here to replace us?

But where the SA-X does Alien better, Dread is again both Alien and Aliens. You get the inhuman monster, you get to fear that it will find you and hate how weak you feel in front of it. And all that builds up to the joy of blowing it away. And then you get to experience it again in a new way. You gain new powers, like the ability to turn invisible, and the EMMI, like any good implacable movie monster, evolves with you, finding new ways to be scary, getting faster or freezing you.

Ultimately it's this synthesis of everything Metroid can offer that makes Dread the best. Other games do certain elements better, but nothing else does all of them this well. Where Fusion is one note, Dread alternates and it gives you highs and lows.

Dread has merged these two halves together, like Samus and Metroids and like her, it IS Metroid now.

Deep in the dungeons

2026-09-14T00:00:00.000Z

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Alright, needed something short and sweet to fill the void between now and Fire Emblem.

This game IS very addictive and fun.

Every Zelda apparently needs a water temple. They love those puzzles.

Ravio, you can't credit me the amount I put down to rent for my own? COME ON DOG. This game does do a really good job of making money feel worthwhile though. I feel like in a lot of Zelda games it's whatever.

I really like collecting the Maiamais. I'm not going to find all of them but it's such a nice treat and its a little reward you get every once in a while.

We are three sages down. Man that ice dungeon is annoying.

Double victory

2026-09-13T00:00:00.000Z

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

Two more bosses down, we're pretty close to the end here. Found my wife statue, not entirely sure why she can't just be unrocked like me. Overall I'd say I'm pretty disappointed in how long it takes to get the wife back especially because it was billed as such a huge, monumental choice.

The monsters that change your party tactics need to be removed from the game. It's a cute thing the first time but it's purely a time waster.

We beat this too. Okay, so meeting your mom and then losing her didn't land as well for me. I think there is an issue where the story isn't as resonant due to lack of voice over and real cinematics. The wife also has shockingly little to say.

Speaking of, I consistently feel like this game could/should run twice as fast most of the time. The sage's stone is essentially broken.

The victory lap here is much too manual.

I think this is primarily a let down of expectations and in hindsight it never could have capitalized. The ds is just not going to be able to execute on it. There are great ideas here but the end result falls short.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Beat it today. I did use a cheat to just help me over the hump. I just wanted to see it through.

I think this game is fine. The Castlevania series is much weaker for me overall compared to Metroid. I think the backtracking is possibly weaker because the verb gaining is much weaker. In this game for example, you get paries and wings so late and there aren't many other traversal powers beyond the double jump.

Also getting weapon upgrades is pretty underwhelming. Once you have all the variety it's mostly just getting the slightly more powerful versions. And for me at least, not much got better than rapiers. They deal so much damage so quickly.

Getting close to finishing (and unfinishing)

2026-09-12T00:00:00.000Z

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

Alright, I had to grind to get both parts of this dragon eye. I did turn on a cheat to do 4x exp gain because I find grinding offensive to my valuable time. We're close to the end here and well, I'm ready to be over it.

DQXIS was definitely more captivating. The mechanics here are a little thin. I thought the monster recruitment might be more interesting but it just isn't because you ride with Slime Knight so long and the rest are just okay, and then the kids come in and they're better than everyone else.

I also think this game is pretty good story wise but like it's gated through optional party talk. Sometimes I'll be playing and then I realize I should just be checking in with the kids or the wife or whatever.

Which is another weird strength/issue with this game! There are stretches (pretty long) where there's nobody to talk to and check in. That chat is awesome but they just don't let you do it.

Hollow Knight

Lily wanted to watch me play a game on the big tv and when I was scrolling through Steam she saw this and wanted me to play it. Okay sure.

I ended up doing like an hour or so of this, I beat two (1.5?) bosses and had fun. I've owned this forever and played it a little and then bounced off it for some reason? I'm not sure why.

I do dislike all souls like oh no you died you lost all your shit hahahaha get wrecked but other than that it's pretty fun. It does extremely minimal handholding which I understand is it being a throwback to the genre but I think I like mine a little more authored.

If anything causes me to abandon Order of Ecclesia (and not start Portrait of Ruin) this is it, but according to HLTB it's just way too long for that.

STAR WARS Zero Company

I think I'm going to just officially put this on pause right now. I'm not going to have time to finish before Fortune's Weave and I don't have a ton of desire to anyways.

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Well, they announced a new campaign for this so I guess I have to try it? But I'll probably just have to replay the whole thing?

Ugh, why did they drop this like right before Fortune's Weave?

BE STRONG. FINISH SOME GAMES.

There's a metaphor for parenting here...

2026-09-11T00:00:00.000Z

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

The kids after being weak, ineffective, and an overall drain on resources are now coming into their own and pulling their own weight.

I almost quit this game tonight. I finished up the Zenithian thing, needed to leave to find the gold orb and had to go back through Diggery Pokery. Like come on man, let me evac, is that not what this spell is for? I did not want to walk back through this mine cart nonsense. Legit almost decided I've seen enough!

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

We have made it to Dracula's castle. Every time I kill a boss and it doesn't have a cool new ability drop it makes me angry.

I'm really uncertain I'm going to finish this. I think I've seen enough to make a real judgment on it and it's "cool ideas kind of okay execution." What might get me to push through it is that I'm so very close to the end and Fortune's Weave is around the corner so am I going to start something NEW? Probably not. Although I'm so close to the end of this and DQV I'll probably have some left over time before Weave.

It's about family

2026-09-10T00:00:00.000Z

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

Debora kind of sucks right now but Mr. Briscoletti is awesome as hell. So much love from that dude.

Enjoying this overall. I don't think it's as good as DQXIS but how could it be? It's just missing a ton of QOL stuff and improvements learned over the decades since. I also miss the big skill tree in XIS a lot. The progression is definitely lacking in this game and yet it still remains fun.

I think the choice to have basically no party members just monsters for long stretches is highly questionable. It's also a little frustrating that the recruit rate is so random. I feel like this game would be so much easier with one of those cureslimes and I spent a good hot minute trying to get one.

Also thank the lord I'm playing this emulated, the ability to fast forward is so nice.

God damn some dramatic stuff happens in this game. Got the kids though.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Rescued all the villagers baby. Still having a moderate amount of fun here. I think I'd say this slots in under Dawn of Sorrow but maybe only just?

MORE METROID?!

2026-09-09T00:00:00.000Z

AAAAAH METROID RAVENOUS AND IT COMES OUT SO SOON INFINITE HYPE

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Okay, so the type matching and resistances thing is a cool idea but if you're going to do that I feel like I need more slots for glyph loadouts. I gotta switch between slashing and smashing and poking and then I want something that's a bit more ranged and then I want a magic one.

It's just very annoying and breaks flow to have to be like "fuck it's a skeleton let me switch my sword glyphs for hammers."

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

How on earth was I supposed to know to go get Maria to get in the tower? It's also very annoying that the monsters don't listen to you. I get that they eventually will but it sucks. Also this old ass man wouldn't let me take the portal back to Coburg at night for no apparent reason?

Extremely frustrating fifteen minutes of gameplay.

I finished the prince's quest extremely glad I never wasted any seeds on this mofo and then got my cat back.

Also got through picking my wife. After consulting THE INTERNET I went with Debora. Kind of crazy that the ds exclusive wife is considered the best written and the best mechanically? If I replay again I'll pick Bianca.

Final Fantasy Resonance

Finished the demo! It was fun. I look forward to the rest. Emma is clearly the Maria of this game. It's really right down the middle, it's just everything you would expect from this and it's kind of a love letter to the series.

STAR WARS Zero Company

Picked this up for the first time in a while. It's still fine. It's kind of uninteresting. I'm hoping if you push through you get some cooler units or upgrades or SOMETHING.

Introducing the Hat Canon

2026-09-09T00:00:00.000Z

I listened to a podcast recently, Triple Click, and they had the concept of a canon that they would come back to: ten games that are an example of what they like in games so someone could understand their perspective. I thought this was a fun idea! Another thing I liked was that this was a living document, it was meant for you to come back and update it to show how you've changed.

So I'm going to do that here. I'll list my ten games and why they're on here. In future posts, I want to document why some things were on the cutting room floor, but for now, let's commemorate our first ten games!

Baldur's Gate 3

I think Baldur's Gate 3 is quite possibly the best game of all time. It had to be on this list. I was blown away by the ambition of this game and how well it executed. The game really feels like D&D, you can solve problems creatively and the devs somehow found a way to work that idea in, even the dumb goofy ideas you'd come up with your friends.

The other amazing thing is that while the story itself isn't anything too insane, the other party members are so well done. They feel like real characters and have the kind of depth you and your friends wish you could pull off at a home play session.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk is the 1B to BG3's 1A. What this game does is make it feel so much more intimate through the first person perspective, something I never really liked as much in other rpgs. Johnny Silverhand, your friends, your enemies, they're all talking TO you. Even though V is voiced, I don't know if another game has felt so immersive to me in that aspect.

Also, I love the setting. I really like cyberpunk settings because they hold up a mirror to our society and what it could be and is already becoming, in all the best and worst ways. It's a setting filled with awe inspiring advances and shows us that those things won't fix our problems. In fact, it just might make them worse.

Fire Emblem: Awakening

There was a lot of competition for this spot. Blazing Blade or Three Houses were both worthy candidates, but neither of those has the exact right balance Awakening does. Awakening has a strong story and great mechanics. We keep the weapon triangle, the right amount of class changing and character building, and the kids mechanic is one of my all time favorites. I love the added layer of considering how to build your characters in the present to set up their kids for success.

Monster Hunter Rise

Monster Hunter games have such a tightly well refined loop that really makes me feel like I'm the one getting better, not just my character. Sure, you get gear, and maybe that's doing a lot of the heavy lifting, but no amount of gear is going to keep you from carting. You have to learn the fight, the monster's tendencies, and then take it down. And then you do it over and over in the search of rare materials and in the process you master that fight. Rise wins for now, as the one I've put the most time into so far.

Metroid Dread

Dread reminds me what I like about the genre so much, that sense of exploration and gaining power and strength. This game does the best narratively with Samus, not just in the actual narration, but in subtle moments where you can feel her fear, or her power that surges. While Metroid Dread might not be the best Metroid in every aspect, it controls the best and has the best balance of story and mechanics and how those things interact to immerse you in the atmosphere of the setting.

Final Fantasy VII Remake

This game is the best a remake can do, it takes the old game and updates it for a modern era with an abundance of love and care for the source material throughout. The combat system is fast and dynamic while still paying homage to the original. Most importantly, the characters are here and alive in the way we imagined them when we played it all those years ago. A stunning tribute and a damn good game. Watch this space for when I actually beat Rebirth though.

Crusader Kings III

Plenty of options here for a grand strategy game but CK3 is the one that feels most personal to me. The scope of the game being a pretty narrow slice of history (compared to say, Civ) and the fact that you're really managing a family, not just the concept of a civilization helps feel like you're really in it. Someone taking your territory feels like more of an affront, how dare you, that was my second favorite child you just took! It's less detached, less being some omniscient being from up on high.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Thousand Year Door is and was a revelation for me. It was the first turn based game that really clicked for me and replaying the remastered version now really cemented how good this is. The real time button presses still hold up as a fun but simple way to keep engaged with the game after you've selected your attack and during the opponent's turn. The badge system lets you be really creative with how you build Mario, you can go all in on hammers, jumps, regular attacks, special attacks. The game is also just witty and fun and creative. Making the battles take place on a stage and then having the audience interact with the game is a great idea.

Pokémon Pokopia

Pokemon Pokopia is here because of what a surprise it was to me. When you told me it was a cozy Pokemon game where you played as and became friends with Pokemon, that idea sounded wild to me. It turned out to be incredibly cute and cozy and the progression in this game feels fantastic overall. It's full of tiny little moments you want to show your friends and family to show how cute this game is.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2

I love Spider-Man and yes I know that's not a unique stance. Spider-Man 2 managed to show both Spider-Men and realize why the web crawling superheroes can be so much fun. It's an open world game where the open world feels alive and the events worth doing because it fits with the character and the story. Peter Parker is never too busy to stop and help someone in need on his way to bigger things. It makes you feel like him in essentially every aspect, his braininess, his sneakiness, and then how easily he can beat up on bad guys. When you master the systems here you feel like Spider-Man.

That's all of it folks. Watch this space for updates, it's something I'll likely reassess periodically, or as a new game demands to be on here.

Throwing monsters in my wagon.

2026-09-08T00:00:00.000Z

Final Fantasy Resonance

God damn I did not expect this to go so hard in the feels right away. [spoiler]

Like everyone else, I also find the switch to the Vision powers being 3d cgi really jarring.

Also did not expect the guy in a white labcoat and name badge.

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

I found a slime knight! And now we're investigating the happenings at Harry's old house.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

I'm not a giant fan of how I have to do these little quests to then get the upgrade. I am not really feeling this one currently.

I really don't know how I feel about this one. It's different and it's trying things. I feel like it's hard to get into a good flow with the glyph weapons and I'm not sure I like this early on distributed structure of the locations. I guess I do like having a hub it's relatively easy to zip back to.

Why is this game so bright and yet so dark?

2026-09-07T00:00:00.000Z

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

Alright, we made it out of the childhood act. God damn this game gets dark as hell. They are not pulling any punches with the "boy it must suck to be a child slave for ten years." It's so random and feels out of place with the brightness of the look.

We got to the monster recruiting part and it’s still fun. My biggest issue so far is just the aimlessness of it. Just point me at things better. I feel like I just need the outline of a walkthrough. Go here, talk to this dude next. The game is just willing to let you flounder for a while until you get to the right spot. I ain’t got time for that!

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

The progression curve on this feels weird. I don't feel like my weapons are strong enough currently.

Undone: The DQXIS article

2026-09-07T00:00:00.000Z

If you want to destroy my ~~sweater~~ story, Pull this (plot) thread as I walk away. -- ~~Weezer~~ Me

When the credits roll, DQXIS is wrapped up in a nice bow. Its story of hope in the dark is best shown in the transition between acts one and two, where we're getting the band back together.

Sylvando shows us the power of optimism when we're at our lowest, things may be bad, but that doesn't mean we can't make it the best possible. His hope lifts up the community in doing so. Erik commits everything for the promise of fighting another day. He may lose his memories, but if he's alive he can make more. His hope allows him to persevere. Jade fights for others because it's right and she's okay with the possibility of failure because others will take up the fight. Her hope inspires others to fight with her.

Rab declines a false paradise in order to make sure his body is ready for the next opportunity. He's given the option to check out to an ideal world, Dundrasil still standing, his family together, celebrating a birthday. Surely if anyone is worthy of laying down their burdens it's Rab, but he declines. To accept paradise while others suffer would be tragic. Instead, he trains relentlessly to prepare for the next shot at fixing the world. Even though it's bad, he remains hopeful that it will get better and he's ready to seize that chance.

Serena is the best example here. She loses her twin sister but bravely holds herself together because she knows Veronica's sacrifice wasn't so she could be sad about Veronica, it was so she could finish the job. She not only picks herself back up, but becomes the most powerful mage in the party, carrying her sister's power within her. Serena goes from the most boring, empty character to one of the most compelling as she battles through her grief to become stronger for everyone around her.

We've had our big emotional moments, the catharsis of beating the villain, and possibilities for the future. So what do you do when you decide you want to tell more stories?

You have to pull at the bow.

When the hero chooses his own personal New Game+, he unravels everything that happened before.

Going back to our best examples, the hero chooses that paradise and leaves his friends and family behind to pursue it. I don't want to get too timey wimey/multiversal about it, but he literally leaves them behind over their protestations. It is a selfish act as he explicitly takes the out Rab refused.

And why does he do this? So Veronica can come back. Ostensibly noble, textually insane. Veronica made the sacrifice to allow her friends the slim chance to fix everything for her, because she believed in them. Her belief was paid off in spades. Choosing to undo the Doctor Strange 1 out of however many million for the chance of "but what if it was better" is the height of hubris. I guess the hero read the script.

We undo most of the cast's growth, except for Serena whose hair grows back as the rest of her growth is undone. She returns, meekly, to her much more flamboyant and bombastic sister's shadow and dutifully gives up her new powers as she does so. Her grief is gone and so too is anything interesting about her.

Then we try to redo the growth, Sylvando, Hendrik, Erik, all get similar but different beats. This is where Lucas would say "it's like poetry, it rhymes" which makes us ask why even do this? All of the sacrifice, the beats are cheapened by this. It's seeing the funhouse mirror version of what we did already, grotesque and distorted.

The story descends into nonsense as a result. The character can't speak and tell the other characters what's happening, so we all blithely follow the possessed king of Heliodor to a party that must obviously be a trap. The hero can't even tell Serena that he liked her hair better short and must make a wish to make it happen (which is also weird from an agency perspective).

There's so much effort here in making something half new that I wonder what they could have done had they just...continued the story with the post game and showed our heroes tackling the challenges of building a new world post ruin, rebuilding Dundrasil perhaps, a more policy oriented Sylvando parade of happiness.

So as I faced down the Crystalotl and got absolutely demolished, I found I had a choice. I could grind it out, come back, and fight this beast to plow deeper into this warped reality of what I had liked, or I could pull the ripcord and take the credits as my exit. Yes, I'd miss the Calasmos fight and the resolution of the story, but really the story I wanted had resolved fifteen hours earlier. No use throwing good money after bad.

That's the ending of my game, and it was really rewarding and cathartic. I wish I hadn't sunk another chunk of time into figuring out that I should have taken that off ramp, but it's an ending I can be okay with. All that stuff happened and I don't think it's good, but I think DQXIS is good and worth playing despite that. I don't want to let the devs off the hook, but it's a way for me to be sane here, opting out of the parts tacked on that didn't work.

I suppose at the end, I'm going to take the paradise while everyone else suffers in the real ending.