materwelonz
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November 2024 Channel Update – The Double Medieval Fantasy Marathon
🕑 Added 2024-11-24 19:37:36 +0000 UTCHi all,
The year’s almost coming to an end already!! Hope you and your loved ones are all doing fantastically in the near-holiday season ❄️ I’ve been doing good on my side – busy on all fronts as usual but I’ve hit a good stride in managing everything!
The past month was probably the busiest in the year for stuff I was interested in, but I got to basically everything I wanted to so I’m happy about that. We have two big RPGs underway now and it reminds me of when I did RDR2/Witcher 3 concurrently lmao. That was pretty crazy, but I’m better at managing both myself and the schedule now so no worries – I have it under control!
TL;DR
Finished: Silent Hill 2 Remake, LIS: Double Exposure, Slay the Princess Pristine Cut, Alan Wake II Lake House
Ongoing: Baldur’s Gate 3, Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Next Up: first looks & small games (Mouthwashing)
Finished Stuff
SILENT HILL 2 (Remake): Definitely my favourite horror game in recent memory! It could’ve been tightened up to be a few hours shorter but it was still fantastic throughout, thanks to the amazing narrative groundwork laid by the original.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure: My opinion of this didn’t really change with Chapters 3-5 sadly. Double Exposure seeks to change the future direction of the franchise, which might’ve gone over less controversially if at least executed well, and IMO it wasn’t. The poor handling of LIS1 endings is just a symptom and not the cause - the whole production is quite visibly rushed so I don’t believe this is even the version of the story the writers wanted to tell. There is clear setup for a sequel which I’m not super optimistic on but would still be open to check out.
Slay the Princess: Pristine Cut: Fantastic new routes & expansions on existing routes – I’m jealous of those who will get to experience all this together as complete package!
Alan Wake II Lake House DLC: (The last part will be published today) A story back in the Alan Wake world where Remedy makes their stance on the role of AI in art creation very clear lol. Just like Night Springs this one was a nice thing too, but very short and a tad reliant on document reading to bolster playtime. PS. Haven’t forgotten about Quantum Break – still interested to get to this sometime!!
We also checked out as first looks:
Rue Valley (alpha): An isometric RPG (think Disco Elysium) of an emotionally troubled man trapped in a time loop. It’s an interesting setting and the focus of the narrative seems to be on the man’s mental state and his running away from Horrible Past Sins rather than any grandstanding plot.
Current Stuff
Baldur’s Gate 3: We just finished up the Big Thing in Act 2 & will be moving onto Act 3 next week!
Dragon Age: The Veilguard: Much like Double Exposure this is another divisive sequel. Impressions a few hours in: it’s very streamlined, I guess partly to cut development costs, partly to welcome in new players. I do feel it’s somewhat alienating for returning players: on top of DA Keep choices not being imported, there are so many things I want to learn more about following from the previous games, but Veilguard often seems to want to move on to The Next Thing without expanding much further. That said, it’s far from unplayable. It’s actually quite technically polished right out of the gate.
Upcoming Stuff
BG3 and DAV will keep me occupied so I’d like to dedicate any remaining time (ie. a second video of the day) to first looks and small (<5 hour) indie games, starting with Mouthwashing soon. I’ll be flipping through recent releases to see if I passed on anything throughout the year that fits the bill too, so feel free to send suggestions my way!
All I've got for now! Thanks for your support as always, and have a great upcoming holiday season ☃️
Welonz
Comments
Materwelonz
I hadn't heard of it but it looks pretty interesting -- thanks, I'll keep this one in mind!!
Evan!!
Im curious if Arctic Eggs might be something you're interested in. From what I understand it's relatively short and has pretty interesting storytelling, albeit not in the forefront.
Captain Kashup
That Silent Hill 2 Remake playthrough was truly magical, you did extremely well with the story. I'm really hoping they do more remakes, as I'm sure you'd enjoy the tale told in 1 and 3.
Materwelonz
Bay people can wait for a sale, but I have trouble recommending this game to Bae people at all
J. G.
Thanks, for the update, Welonz, based on what you said, new Life is Strange seems to be... well, exactly what I expected it to be. What do you think, is it worth the full price, or should I just wait for a sale?
Ian Eborn
Happy holidays to you, Welonz! ^_^ And thank you for all of the wonderful let's plays that you've shared with us! ^_^ (I know that I, for one, have been thoroughly enjoying Baldur's Gate III in particular, and I'm excited to see what comes next there!) As to short indie games, I'm enthused to read that you'll be adding some of those to your lineup! ^_^ As to specific suggestions, hmm... I'm not sure of the duration of the game, but I'd like to nominate "The Excavation of Hob's Barrow". Think folk horror and cosmic horror in a point-and-click package, and with—I feel—a very well-wrought narrative. Speaking for myself, I know that I very much enjoyed it!
Dylan Hearts
I still remember fondly how you played near-holiday season last year This Bed We Made - it was charming, cute, exciting, poignant in its exploration. I'm a big BG3 fan and appreciate you playing it on the channel a lot, but it's worth to highlight how much throughout years you supported smaller, indie games by putting letsplays on your channel; there's already a whole library of them, and it's continue to grow which is admirable and awesome! Thank you! Have a nice time with two big RPG games, after all 2024 is The Year of Dragon, so it's all was destined lol
Xavier Cho
I'm reserving my judgment on Veil Guard when we're still so early in the game. But the fact that I'm watching a Let's Play of it - a long-awaited title from one of my favourite franchises - instead of playing it myself shows the level of my expectation of it. I've been enjoying it more than I thought I would so far. But I can't help but feel that it was a decent action RPG from a completely different series. I don't mind the streamlined gameplay that much, even though I also feel they might have overdone the flashy effects. After all, Dragon Age has been moving away from its cRPG origin with every title, but it didn't ruin the series for me. But what surprised and disappointed me so far was how little Veil Guard resembles its predecessors. It almost feels like someone who heard much of Dragon Age without ever playing it made the game. The art direction, overall atmosphere, and even how familiar characters like Varric or Morrigan look have changed. Heck, even Dark Spawns don't look like they did in previous games. However, the real shock was how little of the lore it retains. Sure, we still have a ton of CODEX entries of it. However, the real charm of the Dragon Age lore wasn't that we could read about it, but we could actually see and live inside its world. What made it so fascinating was not that it had big bad guys like Corypheus or world-ending events like the Blight. Practically every single RPG - with a handful of exceptions like Disco Elysium or Tyranny - relies on that age-old trope of "beat the bad guy boss and save the world". Instead, it was the fact that the same old story happened in a world full of diverse factions, traditions, and religious beliefs, and the believable conflicts between them made it feel real. And the important point is that they were shown instead of merely being available as CODEX entries. We know of the Chantry not because we read of it but because we've witnessed its all-encompassing influence over Thedas as we played the previous titles. The same goes for things like the conflict between mages and templars, what it means to be a Grey Warden, how the custom of Orlais differs from that of Thedas, and so on. But from what I've seen of Veil Guard so far, there's little trace of that intricately woven lore that the series was well-known for. Few even mention Andraste or what they think of the mages or templars any more. Although the title is supposedly centred around Fen'harel, the conflict between Elves and humans, or between the city elves and Dalish elves, isn't shown or mentioned. Instead, the focus seems to be entirely on beating the bad guy and saving the world part. But without such a living fantasy world full of lore, it feels like just another generic battleground to kill more monsters and get experience points, as so many other action RPGs have done before. === SPOILER BELOW === Usually, I'm not that bothered when a game shows PC elements. After all, Bioware was well-known for featuring homosexual romance options. But that "I'm non-binary" scene - which I happened to watch in advance - gave me a bad taste in my mouth particularly. It wasn't because of the subject matter. Inquisition already dealt with a similar theme even more seriously, but it didn't feel so out of place. It was because the character of Dorian wasn't all about promoting contemporary social messages that have little to do with Thedas. He was a Tevinter magister who happens to be homosexual, not a generic character invented to talk about a real-world social issue. I wouldn't be so annoyed by that scene if they didn't strip the lore so bare in Veil Guard. But when I can hardly see anyone talking of Andraste or The Qun anymore, I can't help but feel like those characters are not from Thedas but some teenagers in our world, playing a LARP in fantasy costumes. === END OF SPOILERS === Maybe I'm too harsh on the game when I haven't watched even half its contents yet. I'd be glad to be wrong about my impression, though, since it's far more important to me that at least some essence of my favourite franchise has survived in its latest instalment than being proven right in my criticism of it. I'll keep watching the series to find out. And I'm sure it'd be an enjoyable journey either way, if not for the game itself but for the witty and insightful comments Welonz usually provide.
Jan Ivar Carlsen
Suggestion for a small fun indie game: Minit. It's from 2018, on all platforms, and according to HowLongToBeat it's about 1h 40min (4h completionist). I enjoyed it a lot when I played it!
John Hoang
I can’t believe you’re juggling two RPGs including something as massive as BG3 lol. Don’t burn yourself out!
Materwelonz
Hi, welcome! Let's have good oral hygiene together 😂
Ulfenaar
As I'm writing this I currently have the DA: Veilguard credits rolling in front of me. I'll be very interested in following your experiences with this game going forward.
Elias Smith
I compared it to the recent Dune movies - first part is slower, focusing on building up the characters and the setting, second part is where the action hits. I think it just feels weirder for Arcane since its worldbuilding and character development is just so damn good
FudgyBrownies
New patron here, I'm very excited for your lets play on Mouthwashing! I am so scared to experience it again, but I happily will if it's your lets play! 🥰
Materwelonz
I have! congrats to all the sapphics more seriously: the pacing seemed really breakneck, but it's still a ridiculously pretty show so I think it can get away with a lot on that front
AngryAngryHippo
I watch pretty much all of your content but, right now, your BG3 Let's Play is still my favourite thing that I look forward to each day it releases! Act 1 and 2 down. Only Act 3 left to go, so you should be done right quick, no? *Holds finger to ear* Hold on, I'm being told that it's the longest act..? Never mind then.
Elias Smith
Have you watched Arcane S2 yet? If so, what are your thoughts?
