Comment on [Discussion] What games are you playing on your Deck or Machine? - September 2026
Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 18 hours ago
I’m still mostly playing Dragonsword Awakening. Really fun game, and a great value for it’s asking price. Plus the devs have been quick to patch bugs (including steam deck specific bugs) and add in quality of life changes. There’s also a lot of free content updates planned.
Also have been playing through Castlevania Symphony of the Night. Pretty good game, although I had to look up advice on some of the puzzles/breakable walls I missed.
I’m holding off on getting into any other games that are too large at the moment, want to make sure I’m not tied up when Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter releases later this month.
EvilBit@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
As a Rather Old Person, you shut your damn mouth. That game is a masterpiece.
Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 12 hours ago
To be honest it was a weird hole in my gaming history. I’ve played later Castlevania’s, and I’ve always been a huge Metroid fan.
I think I’m largely judging it by comparing it to Super Metroid. Both games were ones I returned to after playing newer titles in their series (mainly on GBA and DS).
Playing SotN for the first time, I find it good, but it feels like it hasn’t held up as well as super metroid. When I went back and played super Metroid for the first time, I found it to be a great metroid game with slightly outdated controls. Going back to SotN after playing newer Castlevania games has felt rougher. SM is famous for how it guides players with an invisible hand, but SotN progression often seems more obscure, I’ve been trying to play without guides, and while I’m doing great at finding health/heart upgrades, I’ve been struggling to find the actual abilities for progression. The game also likes destroyable ceilings/floors for a game that doesn’t give great options for attacking up or down.
Anyways it’s good, I’m enjoying it, but playing it with no nostalgia and no prior knowledge on patching/puzzles has involved a lot of meandering around the map.
EvilBit@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Fair enough. I always felt like it was just tricky enough that it didn’t feel like you just railroaded from one upgrade to the next and instead needed to put some effort into finding the next move. And honestly none of the later ones ever stuck with me the same way. I found that by the end of SotN, I knew the map pretty well. In newer Castlevania games, I was checking the map constantly.
Metroid has always felt like a different beast to me, and weirdly a little less compelling despite my preference for sci-fi over fantasy. No hate, they’re great games and I’ve finished several. Just less transformative to me.
I always thought it was both unfair and a hilarious testament that SotN was so good it spawned the genre “Metroidvania” when the formula was basically just “Metroid” to begin with.