Recent reviews by Light Mode Moth

Fun once you actually get to the combat and exploration but the settlement building is genuinely horrid. A constant resource drain that doesn't even work right in a multiplayer world. Its such a massive part of it too, a huge stinking ugly freaky stupid part. It isn't engaging, It isn't rewarding, And it isn't fun. I know the core gameplay loop is around making a good settlement. I just don't understand why they have this really fun zombie shooter and decided to make the most important aspect of it be telling a duffel bag to be a bed and fridge.

summary at bottom:

Im just tired. I have too many complaints to really put into a full review.
The game is exhausting. It acts like its this massive sprawling thing with hundreds of unique enemies or bosses, then those areas are stretches of hallways, vertical shafts or really frustrating platforming. The enemies are variations of "guy who crawls on floor" and "guy who shoots at you in the sky and dodges when you strike"
The bosses are either too tanky, too damaging, too fast, and i lied to you because every boss is all 3 combined.
Its to the point where the true final boss needs to be "difficult" by just being fast and splaying the arena with 2 mask dmg areas while it attacks you.
act 3 is so hype at the start, then it turns out there is only 1 new area and you cant even return to it after you kill the boss, and every other "new" thing is either giving every enemy a single attack that they do sometimes and cranking their hp and dmg up, and the new bosses are just in small 1 room segments completely disconnected from the map. The bosses share the same problem in act 3, except being in act 3, they decided the difficulty should be from their speed and blocking your hits completely. Half the act 3 bosses do that.
Its such a large world, but it feels so small. Its so barren and the coolest looking area (coral gorge) was cut and replaced with 4 rooms in a stack of combat.
speaking of combat rooms, theres just too many.
Its like doom eternal, where they said they wanted to "avoid the arena shooter formula of 2016" and ended up just putting a few dreg or large enemies between arenas and said its more connected. It is exactly like that.
Its just exhausting, i dont know why the community is downplaying it. I assure you most people saying "get good" have not gotten past last judge and just wanna hop on the bandwagon, so dont feel bad if you arent having fun and see somebody mocking you for it.
It misses so hard. It really does. Theres so much they couldve done with act 3, with the encounters, with rewards with everything. A game shouldnt feel like youre playing it only to beat it, but this game has only kept my hours because i want to beat it. After i get this true ending, i wont touch it again. I do not recommend it to people who havent cleared pantheon of hallownest. That seems to be the target demographic at least.
swagever, who cares. 4/10. if its not fun, why bother
edit: ive finished the game lol. got the true ending. its pretty good, i wouldve liked some more shots of pharloom after everything ended, but seeing that character was really cool and helped alot with theories too i think. idk.

One thing i dont get is the motivation. Weve had so few scenes with lace. 3 to be exact, and 2 of them were a bossfight. I understand hornets motivations, but as a player i dont feel anything towards lace. I dont feel the urge to save her, i dont feel the urge to dive into the abyss for her. It seems hornet is really wanting to save lace. I know lace is the one who freed us from the cage. I would have enjoyed some exploration of her motivation or character past "You are weak IDIOT im going to try to kill you now." In my head it was to save pharloom, but lost lace's hunter entry and so many interactions in act 3 with her and other characters talking about hornet's desire makes me feel like some stuff was cut or they thought it would be a deeper connection. I dont think its helped by how long the game is that our 3 interactions with lace are split up by the entire length of marvel phase 1 movies combined (at least on first playtrhough). I wouldve enjoyed more with the knight, though it is nice to know what ending was confirmed and that theyre all just down there chilling in the void. It just doesnt feel enough for everything that happened. If silk mother joined in, i think it would be a bit cooler and climactic, but in the end it is just another lace fight with some attacks weve already seen from other enemies in act 3.

Summary: The world tells you it is this large sprawling thing, but it is massively empty. Such few secrets that feel rewarding, enemies that feel the exact same, combat that serves to frustrate or tire you, a final act that has more spectacle than substance, and topped off by a dissapointing final boss and moderately interesting ending. A sect of the community has decided to shame players who have reasonable problems with the game, making discussion of it a toxic fight club. Appealing to this group by making the game unbalanced and hollow(knight) has led to this just not being worth the time.

if you have 20 bucks then yeah sure go for it, you can just stop playing if you wanna. But for how long it took and how much was promised, i ultimately feel let down.

pretty good so far, combat feels kinda pointless as the only good drops are in chests (and enemies dont drop items enough to even bother + shops give garbage) and you can kinda overpower the entire first few areas just with a decent weapon and somewhat clever dodging, but it isnt unfun to play. ill revise when i play more

play on console with crossplay off

I am very upset at this game. I have not 100% it and have no desire to.

It is BEAUTIFUL. It is an absolutely stunning game, every enemy and room looks absolutely amazing. The bosses are (mostly) interesting and of course, look beautiful.

The platforming is made easier by being coded properly and falling in spikes is no longer an instant death, unfortunately the platforming is watered down and barely exists in levels that aren't at the center of the map.

The enemies are the most unfun things to fight ever. They WILL powerstance you even if they play the stun animation, and there are entire groups of enemies that exist for the sole reason of dealing contact damage (The worst part of blas 1).

There are some bosses that are terrible in the 2nd half. The confraternity of salt boss exists to stress you out with enemy spawns that clog the map if not dealt with immediately and also shields. The severed tower boss is tedious and annnoying to learn. The two moons boss floats around the arena and shoots a beam down at you occasionally. And, being the end to a quest starring a repeat character (i want to cover yerma in oil) felt like the biggest let down ever. The final final boss is barely anything and has only 1 attack that actually puts you on your toes. It's like the only boss that you can powerstance through.

The areas are amazing. Until you reach the 2nd half, then the only interesting area is the basilica. Cathedral of salt is incredibly unfair with its enemy placement and just enemy attacks in general. and is only composed of staircases and horizontal hallwals, Severed tower tries to evoke charred visage from blasph 1 but ends up having nothing notable besides a ladder covered in fireball launchers and enemies that out range you in front of the fireball launchers. Mother of mothers just has the same enemies with a few frustrating blood knight fellows who do not stagger and also out range you with very poor telegraphs. Two moons doesn't do anything special with its mirror mechanic. It is literally just a flipped version of the map with 2-3 different walls.

The worst part of the game is by far the exploration/discovery. It is entirely on rails. There are exactly 2 moments where I remembered returning to a previous area after getting an upgrade, the rest is discovered as you get the upgrade providing very little reason to go back to previous areas, as a great many collectibles are just things that give you a lot of tears and the rest of the collectibles are bought with those tears.

Speaking of tears, the final 100% grind is literally a grind to 100%. Most final spells and statues are BOUGHT, not found. The statues themselves are neat, but also kind of a waste of time unless you want some endings.

Speaking (again) of endings. There are 3, but it's very different from blas 1 where you actually need to go out of your way. Because of how the game progresses and areas are unlocked, you will DEFINITELY happen upon exactly where the secret things are your first time going through the area. The hardest part is finding the streets of wakes challenge because they're hidden in walls. Cleverly and (imo) opposed to being a secretish ending, there's singing wherever a daughter is prompting you to rub your polecap on every wall in the room where you hear it if you have the sense to think "there's something here isn't there?" which every metroidvania player thinks when a room has ambiance lower than a unique tune. Then you just gotta equip the statues you get and they burn away into a key item, that's ending B.

Now ending C.
You know how ending C was free? This isn't. The true ending is pay-walled. BEHIND 11 DOLLARS. 2 new areas and bosses, but one of them is just a guy with a sword. brother asterion is just a guy with a big sword and like 3 attacks that aren't him swinging his sword and a few attacks are just esdra's from blas 1.
Comparing the final boss ending variations, blas 1 did it better too. Blas 1 had the normal ending where you sink in, ending B had a special interaction (climbing the ash was a very rewarding reveal), and ending C had the unique final boss form and set piece.
Here its just, kill final boss with key item or mea culpa equipped and see a new ($11) cutscene.

My last note is the cutscenes. I can appreciate the art style and I know how much work goes into art itself, but i really do prefer the pixel cutscenes. The fully drawn cutscenes take me out a bit when it flashes to a completely different art style and then back to pixels. They look beautiful, it's just jarring.

Overall, if you're in it for the art and environments you'll love this. If you like swinging sword at things you'll enjoy this a bit. If you played blasphemous 1 and want a similarly engaging or awe inspiring experience, play blasph 1

i crode i crode so hard i crode myt eyes out icrodse

WE WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK! TO EARN THE RIGHT TO WORK!

i lob cat

h hoooly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

people glaze the first but honestly, ds1 is the most boring clunky unfun game in the series with the only winning aspect being the world exploration. it feels worse to play than the original demons souls
dark souls 2 is alot better, adp and lifegems being the only real bad things
that all being said, ds3 takes the best part of everything and then covers the world in a thin sheen of wet clay
it plays better, it feels better, it runs better, just a fitting end to the series with some beautiful endings. but they covered every texture in wet clay so its kindaaaaaaaaa ugly? just kinda, irithyll is a step up but everything else is just covered in clay and kinda brown. its baked HARD into its era of graphics but it doesnt look BAD, just kinda weird sometimes.

looking back, the dark souls series is crazy. each game is so loosely tied to the previous with just names and some descriptions and homages in small textures off to the side. But every game FEELS like dark souls, it just feels like dark souls yknow? Its crazy how a series of 3 games did this well, had such strong cultural impact, and kept the same vibe throughout.
Good game, do buy even if its kinda dead now, still worth it and you may find some people anyway. With the bloat of elden ring and quick irrelevance of nightreign, its nice to go back and play a simpler game like this