Feel like I haven't done a gaming update post in a while, so let's do that!
In Isaac news, I've started to get back into it after taking some time off. On average I'm doing a run a day for the past couple of weeks, working on Tainted Cain. For those who haven't played this character, his gimmick is that any power ups found turn into pickup items, and he uses the Bag of Crafting to pickup 8 items. These items determine what power up you can create, and with the mod that gives item descriptions, you can see the possible combos with the items you have grabbed and what's on the ground. Runs tend to get be on average more powerful because of this, but trying for the items you want eats up time, so the time based bosses are challenging to get to. I discovered yesterday that Dad's Key no longer opens the boss rush door, unless my game glitched. Really disappointing because I had found the item combo for Mama Mega, which still does AFIK. Still have that, Mother, Hush and Delirium to beat before I move to the next character.
Been putting some decent time into Final Fantasy X. Got to the water scene and it was great, and I'm currently running around in the Calm Lands, which in terms of enemy encounters, are anything but. I've been trying to level everyone evenly, and since they have to participate in each fight, the common encounters have been more stressful than the boss battles. I've only had one game over due to a petrify lock, but way more close encounters than I'd like to see. I was a little iffy on this game early on, but as the story progresses I've been getting more and more hooked.
I played through Unpacking about a week ago. Needed something real chill I could play, and found this experience delightful. No real pressure to this one, just open up moving boxes and put the stuff where it belongs. Controls are simple and intuitive, and there's some fun little easter eggs you can discover along the way. You go through the various moves of an unnamed female character, from a childhood move, to college, to moving in with partners, etc. It's fun to see what items stay through the years, and which go, as well as seeing the changes in tech from the 90's to present day. It may seem boring, but I found it highly enjoyable and well executed.
I also just finished A Hat In Time on my switch. Really fun game, and much more challenging than I expected. I got 101% in my stats, only thing I didn't do was the Death Wish stuff. Tried a few of them and found them a bit frustrating, so decided to skip that stress. Story is simple but full of charm. Soundtrack is great, and is heavily inspired by Grant Kirkhope and Koji Kondo. I thought Grant did the whole soundtrack, but turns out it was just the ship's theme. Controls are mostly good, though I feel this game sometimes suffers the depth perception issue present in all 3D platformers a little more than it should. My only major complaint is that I wish there were more of the Mario Sunshine inspired platforming levels. There's some fun movement mechanics in this game that I feel could have been utilized a little more here.
Finally, trying to finish up Horizon Zero Dawn. I just completed the Frozen Wilds main story part, just have to go kill 1 more Fireclaw and I think the side missions will be done, unless something gets added after that. I've done all the main game side and story stuff up to the Mountain That Fell quest. I think I just have main story stuff there to finish up, unless more side quests are added later. I do have the quest to get the special armor that needs power cells, I'm assuming you get at least one of the 2 I'm missing in the area for the next quest. For anyone looking to pick this up, here is my one piece of advice: get the ability to notch 3 arrow, and, here's the kicker, ACTUALLY USE IT!!! I went so long forgetting I had that, until I was struggling with the Cheiftain's trial in the DLC. Looked up a video and say how much extra damage it was doing, and it's quickly become my bread and butter.
