Looks like SOTN is 3$ right now on Xbox. Hell yeah. Will report back later once I've put a good amount of time into it.

Is that the one that comes with Rondo of Blood? Cause it's supposed to be maybe the pinnacle of old school action platformer Castlevania (or Castlevania 3 or Super Castlevania IV) and I keep telling myself I'm going to man up and beat it like a man but I keep sucking and then giving up cause trying is hard.

You know what?

*chugs*

Imma do it tonight!

The one I bought is just SOTN but now I know I also need to get Rondo of Blood at some point now, too. So far I'm about an hour into Symphony and I'm having a great time. This game really held up nicely.

They're different kinds of game if you're unaware. No Metroid or RPG influence, more like a Megaman game where you have a set number of lives and are trying to memorize enemy patterns and not die.

Rondo of Blood is cool as hell though cause it was from a console in between SNES and PlayStation so it's a visually fantastic platformer. But it's an old school endurance test where you only progress by getting gud.

I played a little bit of Dracula X on the Advanced Collection but not enough to form an opinion. I think I remember noticing the stark difference from the metroidvania style right away so it sort of turned me off a little bit. I'll probably wait until I get through the other metroidvania style games before jumping into X.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
 

Although it may not be fair to compare this to the game boy advance games, I honestly think that Symphony of the Night is my favorite Castlevania game out of the bunch. At least out of the bunch that I have played. Before I got the sudden urge to play the Castlevania games that I never got to play growing up, my only experience with the series was Circle of the Moon, which I've mentioned before. It's not that I didn't know that these other games were releasing, rather I just didn't have the funds to get the games. I was rather young at the time. Better late than never, though. So far, as I've nearly finished up the Castlevania Advance Collection and now going through Symphony of the Night, I have not been disappointed with any of the games that I've played for the first time. Which is basically all of them. It's actually made me want to compile a list of Castlevania games I haven't played, and just play them. Only one I have actually finished at the moment is Circle of the Moon, however both Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow are nearing completion. I just started Symphony of the Night.

It's really simple - Symphony of the Night takes everything that I've loved about the previous games I've played, and puts it all together beautifully in a beautifully crafted world along with some stellar looking graphics that really allows the game to hold up even to today's standards. I've beat one boss so far and I've gotten a pretty good feel on the combat, and even that is excellent. I really like the idea of finding new weapons from killing enemies and sort of customizing your build. The RPG element to this game is really neat and I honestly never would have thought these kinds of ideas would work well in a Castlevania game. Though of course, it's always nice to be proven wrong. Symphony of the Night so far with it's vastly improved combat from the Game Boy Advance games as well as it's beautifully crafted world is really shaping up to be a pleasant experience and I'm excited to get through the rest, much like I'm excited to continue on this quest to beat the Castlevania games that I've wanted to play for many years.

Symphony of the Night also has a great soundtrack, but that should be no surprise given that it is a Castlevania game, but the music really works well with this one. Makes everything feel natural and never feels like a song is being forced down your throat. It all goes along with the adventure. So far, I'd say Harmony of Dissonance is the weakest link when it comes to the soundtrack. There were times when I would be playing Harmony and was wishing the music would just be mute. As far as the other games go, I've been enjoying them immensely when it comes to the music. They always do a really nice job with fitting the music with the theme of the area you're in. Allows you to submerge yourself even more into the environment that you are trekking through.

I am also not surprised to find out that Symphony of the Night is touted as being one of the best examples of a metroidvania / platformer done right. And it's nice to know that it's getting the recognition it deserves. Aria of Sorrow is in much of the same league, and after playing a lot of it already, I can certainly see why. It's really interesting to see the progression of games and how things progressed and improved. And Symphony of the Night is a shining example of when everything comes together nicely. Creating a wonderful experience for the player.

I'm yet again excited to say that I will be finishing Symphony of the Night just as well as I will be planning to finish the Castlevania Advance Collection. I'm playing them all collectively just at different times. Depends on my mood. And who knows, I may actually look for more Castlevania games to play since I'm having an absolute blast with the ones I've been playing recently.

Let's Talk About...Game Awards 2022
 

Let's Talk About...Game Awards 2022

So, unfortunately, I have not watched the game awards as a whole, yet, though I have done some info searching on the big things that were announced, and lemme tell ya, for me, there are a lot of things to be excited about. And while not everything blew me away right away, I can see a lot of potential in some of these that may end up being some really cool experiences.

Let's start off with one that I know I'm going to have a good time with, that of course being Dead Cells Return To Castlevania. Now, I love both Dead Cells and Castlevania, and it's kind of funny how I got struck with the Castlevania bug so suddenly a few days ago, and I've just been playing nothing but Castlevania games for the past week. Then of course we come to find out that Dead Cells is getting a Castlevania crossover, and my mind just blew. Both Dead Cells and Castlevania are respectively their own thing and certainly different from one another, but they also share a lot of similarities in the way that they both work really well as metroidvanias, only one is a roguelike and the other is a much more story based endeavor. Gameplay wise I can certainly see how these two could mix, and who knows, it may mix really really well. What I thought was also really neat about this reveal is that, again, with me playing through the Castlevania games so suddenly recently, I recognized the characters right away, and everything just flowed so nicely. No gameplay of it as far as I can tell, but maybe I'm just missing a video somewhere. I've only seen the animation they released for the reveal, but even that is enough to get the hype going. This one is going to be really interesting to go through and I am certain it will be good given that the devs for Dead Cells are very passionate, and Castlevania is a beacon when it comes to metroidvanias, so they will treat it as such.

Next up is an exciting reveal at the gameplay of Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. As one would expect, the gameplay as a whole is very similar to it's predecessor however there are some obvious enhancements that make the combat feel even more natural and fun to learn. I've played many countless hours of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, and recently played it again on Xbox One, and it's still a great experience to go through. Even years later. It's just a good game, though I know it wasn't for everybody. I'm excited to see what the sequel has in store, and if EA can pull it off again by just making a great game. They managed to do a remarkable job on Jedi Fallen Order, and I hope that same outlook and commitment remain true for its sequel. This one has the chance to be very good. Let's just hope they don't mess this one up.

One that I'm still a little bit in between on is Diablo IV. I mean, I absolutely love Blizzard and their creative masterminds behind the cinematic trailers that come with their releases. Even going all the way back to the RTS Warcraft days. So many great cutscenes and cinematics, and still is true for Diablo IV. However, there is also gameplay of this game, and while I have seen very little of it, I'm hoping to keep it that way until I have my own hands on the game. I feel like games like Diablo and Path of Exile need to be experienced on a personal basis. Watching somebody play them is fine and all, but the experience is so much richer when you do it yourself. And games like this are always fun to go through, at least for me. I still do love Diablo III but I have not played it in quite some time. I did play a lot of the re-release of Diablo II and loved it. So, a new Diablo game to turn on and play from time to time will be really nice. I'm excited but not anxiously excited.

I'm going to stop talking about reveals for a second and focus on something that I am very excited about. Y'know, as far as game of the year rewards go, it's all really just subjective at the end of the day. People like what they like, and people like what they don't like. However, in this case I think the game that got recognized for game of the year really really truly deserved it. And if you haven't seen the news yet, the game of the year award for 2022 went to Elden Ring. Again, I didn't watch the game awards as a whole, but I read up on the awards and quickly found out that Elden Ring had won game of the year. Though, at the same time, when you look at the competition it had when talking about game of the year, it's no question that it would win. All the other games on the nominees list are ones that I wouldn't necessarily consider game of the year anyway, so at least there's that. I am certainly happy they got recognized as such, even if I don't agree with some of the inclusions. Elden Ring is my favorite game of 2022, and still remains true even months after playing it. And I still find myself from time to time jumping into it and trying out new builds and characters, and it's just a fun time. The game is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and well deserving of the crown of game of the year. I am very pleased and happy to see that it won.

Going back to the reveals, or at least takeaway reveals for me, one that sort of surprised me was seeing a trailer for Hades II. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved and still love Hades dearly, and I had a really good time with it. Part of me thinks though that maybe instead of making a full on sequel, just make a really big DLC pack. This game is basically built for that with the way that it mixes top down perspectives with roguelikes. At the same time though, I understand that the developers know what they're doing given that Hades did extremely well. A sequel is pretty cool and it looks really really cool. Not sure if the gameplay loop will be similar to the first one or if it will feel like a whole new game, but I'll be playing it regardless. Soundtracks sounds like it will be of course great, but again, that should be no surprise.

Although I have not played it yet, Stray got some awards for independent game and debut indie game which is really cool to see. Also nice to see that Tunic and Cult of the Lamb got some nominee attention though I would not have been surprised to see those winning as well. Indie developers brought a lot to the table this year, and so many of them are award winning. Vampire Survivors for instance deserves to be up there.

It is nice to see that the new Legend of Zelda game is getting a lot of hype and rightfully so. It won most anticipated game for the game awards this year, and I among many many other people are eagerly waiting for it to release. Breath of the Wild is still tops and one of my favorite games of all time, and I just want the sequel to be good if not better than its predecessor. And it seems like it will be with what we know about it so far. I am really excited to spend some quality time with Link again in the humongous world that he finds himself in. Really curious to see how the story progresses from the first one as well. I also just looking forward to having a really good time with it.

There really isn't much more worth mentioning at least things that I'm excited for. Some notable mentions would be that God of War: Ragnarok got a lot of awards despite it being released so close to the awards show. But, congrats nonetheless. I have not played it yet, and I don't really have any immediate plans to do so, but I'm glad to see it got recognized. I loved the first one a lot. Death Stranding 2 was also teased though it was interesting to see the people's reaction to this one given that the first Death Stranding did god awful. It was seen as a empty world with fetch quests one after the next. And the gameplay style just didn't fit the way the game was meant to play as a whole. Will be interesting to see what they learned from that and how Death Stranding 2 will do overall. I certainly want it to do well, but who knows. Don't even get me started on the Super Mario Movie. I'm sort of on the fence of whether I'm going to give it a chance or not, but I've watched the trailer for it a few times and it looks cool, but also looks really cheesy. I don't know. Maybe I'll watch it purely out of curiosity. Sonic The Hedgehog did pretty well and the sequel did pretty well as well. So video game adaptations can be done well. But, Chris Pratt, Mario, no.

Anyway, that's all for now. Overall some really cool things to look forward to and again, very excited to see that Elden Ring took the crown for game of the year. It really deserves it for so many reasons. I've done a post about it as it is my own personal game of the year as well. So it's fitting that it truly did win that title.

High On Life - First Impressions Review
 

I'm only a few hours into High On Life, mostly due to it being released in the past few days, but I've already had several moments where I had to stop and just look at what laid before me. Though maybe that has something to do with my *ahem* state of mind when I play this game. I mean, the game is literally called High On Life, so it's only right to play the game in its entirety while high. And that is precisely what I'm doing.

The game is created by Justin Rolland whom you probably know from Rick and Morty famously, and even though I have yet to see a full episode of Rick and Morty (besides a few clips I've seen here and there), I still appreciate the style of comedy that is going on there, and it is very much the same style of humor that you will get with High On Life. I do want to find the time to actually watch Rick and Morty but it just never seems to happen. In the meantime, I suppose I can enjoy a game that is on the same caliber if not funnier in some cases.

Yes, you read that correctly. High On Life is a comedy style sci fi first person shooter. Basically take Borderlands as if it were written by Justin Rolland himself. And lemme tell ya, it ****ing works. And it works great. When the game was first teased and we saw the style of gameplay that they were going for, mixed with the talking guns, I though I would get a little annoyed with the commentary by the guns, only because I wasn't 100% sold on the idea just yet. But after watching Justin Rolland in interviews and rewatching teaser clips etc, I started to get a little more excited about the game. To the point that I had it preinstalled for release day. Upon playing it for the first time, it's evident that Justin's style of comedy works really well in a game setting such as this. It completely changes the formula in regards to what developers should do when making a first person shooter like this or Borderlands. And that's not to say Borderlands didn't have some witty comedic moments, in fact I'd say that originally changed the formula as far as these style of games are concerned. But we're talking about High On Life, not Borderlands.

What really seals the deal for me is even when you're just traversing the world around you, the music and everything in the game are there to not just add to the gameplay, but to add to the overall "woah man" feel. And it's done really really well. It doesn't feel cheesy or out of place or anything because along with how funny the commentary is at various times throughout, the game just looks incredible, and a game doesn't always have to have good graphics to sell me on it, but the fact that this game also looks as good as it does only helps it succeed even more. Throw in the fact that it's made by a small team of people, you've got yourself a pretty great game here.

I also think this game came out at the perfect time, not just because people are staying inside more due to it getting darker earlier or the fact that it's ****ing cold here, it's also just nice to play a game that isn't trying to punish you or scare you or frustrate you. It's there to make you laugh. And again, although I have not sat through an episode of Rick and Morty, I have found myself laughing at the dialogue between characters, whether it's your gun talking, or the npc talking. It's written really well and when you choose your own dialogue choices, it can make for some really interesting chit chat between characters, and again, funny dialogue. Add also the fact that the voice acting is fantastic. You can definitely hear the Rick and Morty influence very early on, but again, with a game setting like this and wrapping everything altogether, the comedy just adds to the game. It's honestly got a lot of great things going for it, and it makes me want more each time I put the controller down.

I'm excited to continue on with my playthrough of this game and perhaps once I finish it, I will revise this review and do a full one at some point. I'm definitely enjoying it, and I highly recommend it to anybody looking for a sort of more laid back first person shooter with stellar writing and really funny comedic moments thrown in. It's familiar but still feels unique in its own way. And it's god damn beautiful.

Vampire Survivors OST [pt.1]
 

Vampire Survivors has a killer soundtrack and I can't stop listening to it [pt.1]

I think the last time I listened to a soundtrack for a roguelike was back when Dead Cells was first released and I was just loving every second of it. I still listen to that soundtrack from time to time, hell I've even met the guy who made the soundtrack, and it's still quite good. Vampire Survivors however is on a whole different level I think.

I've talked about Vampire Survivors in this journal before so I won't go too far into it other than simply, if you haven't played it yet, pick it up and do yourself a favor and play just one round. You'll instantly be hooked by the gameplay mechanics as well as the stellar soundtrack that fits nicely in every situation you find yourself in during your playthrough. I want to talk about that here today:

It happens a lot, honestly. Roguelikes specifically have a way about them where the gameplay and the music always seem to fit nicely together. But I mean this sincerely, Vampire Survivors just brings it to a whole new level. Every track that I've heard so far is catchy and fits the theme of the level that accompanies it. Some of my favorite ones are ones that you'll hear in the first few levels of the game, which is just a testament to its quality. It reels you in right from the get go. And for a long time, the music for the first level was a constant play for me:



Then I got to the 2nd level and realized that this was my new favorite song from the OST:



^Lemme tell ya, this was my favorite track for a long time and I constantly went to the level just to hear a good solid half hour of this song on loop. All these songs do it well, as far as looping is concerned. It never feels overdone or anything because you have so much going on in the gameplay aspect that you hardly notice. You just vibe to it, and it's a good vibe. However, despite the previous two being personal favorites of mine, I have another new favorite that surpasses even these 2, and this one is one I will surely have on loop for weeks to come:



^This one in particular I think is one of my favorite tracks on any gaming ost that I've heard in a long time. It's got everything. A good vibe, great instrumentals, and it's so god damn catchy that you can't not listen to it for hours on end. Hell I have it playing in the background on my tv in the living room right now.

Vampire Survivors in a nutshell (Screenshots)
 

Vampire Survivors in a nutshell
Screenshots from past runs

If you're curious about my thoughts overall on Vampire Survivors, you can read that here

Simply put, Vampire Survivors is a game that is far more beneficial to you if you are playing it yourself. However that hasn't stopped me from trying to take some screenshots of some of the crazy antics that tend to happen in a single 30 minute run of Vampire Survivors. Believe me, the screenshots don't do it justice. It's such a fun and addicting game to play and I wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone interested in the auto battler roguelike genre. Anyway, here's some screenshots of some runs I've had over my course of playing this game:

https://i.imgur.com/cGzSXqr.png

https://i.imgur.com/e2D1cev.png

https://i.imgur.com/H9VC9MQ.png

https://i.imgur.com/ZX0I49P.png

https://i.imgur.com/K7NgEQv.png

https://i.imgur.com/opmq6u4.png

https://i.imgur.com/Gd0Tdmm.png

Synergies, synergies, synergies!

That is all.