I’ll have to keep an eye out for those two. Now I just seem to be finding things on the other end of the spectrum, lots of bathtubs with skeletons and toasters. The apocalypse hit adorable and then slid back to tragic with an awful thud.

And I think you’re absolutely right; it’s a bit of a relic at this point, and I appreciate the developers saying that with its omission. I do, however, wish I would encounter (about 35 hours in, mind you) situations that are a bit more morally ambiguous. Most of the time it simply feels like: “Those people want to…

I miss the morality meter dearly (mainly because I liked the titles it gave and that extra bit of roleplaying).

Seems like the natural evolution of things in a world where we have trailers for when a trailer is going to be shown.

Find a friend to play with. I had CK2 sitting in my library for over a year without so much as an install, and then my friend found out I had it and we scheduled a gameplay session. 20 hours later on my first dynasty and here I am trying to convince people they should at least give it a try.

This comment is the future.

Maybe it’s a photography game like Pokémon Snap, where the player has to take pictures of as many heroes as possible before time expires.

I knew these games were an undertaking, but damn. I should probably go buy my copy.

While it does follow the trope of the apprentice traveling on a journey to essentially become a “hero,” by the end you are far from being an all powerful master ready to save the world. The characters are young, but not juvenile in the pejorative sense, and the writing is often very surprising in its quality.

I had the exact same experience with the first one. I would pick up my Vita, play for an hour, put it down for a few weeks, and then repeat. It just didn’t hook me from the start like most good JRPGs do. But just about 20 hours in everything sort of clicked, and I then was playing it every day until completion. If you…

Yes it does. Go get it.

What a lovely day.

It is hard to beat the rate of fire and quiver size of the first bow, but it was nice to see that items had a variety of features other than just better stats.

I was initially a little disappointed when I first start playing, hoping the combat would have a few more shades of variety to it (thinking of Chivalry’s mechanics). Then I got a bow that allowed me to lock-on to an enemy and have the arrow hit multiple skaven around them, and I realized the loot system is what makes…

the playful fiddles in Austin Wintory’s score

Glad to hear it. Have fun!

Same; I did have some fun, though, bouncing the musical balls in the game lobby before my crushing loneliness caught up with me.

Gonna drop the demo codes I have here because otherwise they’ll go to waste:

Tina, I will sincerely miss what you bring to the Kotaku readership and community. Best of luck in what comes next. Here’s one last star, all for you.