lithicdoesthings

[lithicdoesthings]

Finished another Art Fight reference sheet!

(I’m @Lithicality on Art Fight)

[lithicdoesthings]

They heard us! The fight is far from over, so celebrate now and keep on calling your senators, but IT’S WORKING!

THE ENTIRE WEST IS BEING PUT UP FOR SALE AND I AM BEGGING YOU TO CALL YOUR SENATORS

Trump’s budget bill has many, many things in it, but buried amongst it is the MILLIONS OF ACRES OF PUBLIC LAND FOR SALE.

This is the entirety of the Arizona state forests, the entire Cascades mountain range. Swathes of pristine desert around the national parks in Utah. On the doorstep of Jackson Hole.

THIS BILL IS BIG, BUT IT CAN BE AMENDED AND ABSOLUTELY MUST NOT PASS AS IS please.

If you have ever enjoyed the wilderness, we stand to lose it all forever.

CALLING your senators - NOT JUST IN THE WEST. ALL SENATORS, is CRUCIAL.

Outdoor alliance has a great resource for reaching out.

I don’t have a huge following but please, everywhere I have ever loved, the forests I grew up playing in, the land I got married on, is all at risk and I am begging.

[lithicdoesthings]

Silly little D&D sketch cause I was bored

[lithicdoesthings]

once i figure out how to do anatomy and facial expressions and proportion and foreshortening and basic perspective and color theory and composition then youll all be sorry

[lithicdoesthings]

Y'all ever think about the way video game bosses are designed to lose? How the bombastic soundtracks, the impressive displays of villainy, the teeth-rattling power of their attacks, are at once engineered not just to sell you on how unfathomably strong and vile they are, but also to make the player's inevitable victory all the sweeter?

Viewed this way, a boss battle is more like a choreographed dance - they call, you respond and counter-call. The trick is to learn the steps - once you know where to move, when to strike, when to defend and how to best allocate your resources, victory is not just achievable but actually almost impossible to avoid. You cannot help but recite the winning plays, over and again, because that is what the dance demands of you both - and is there not a savage sort of beauty in such a thing?

Is it any wonder then that we look back on these bosses so fondly, almost as if they were old friends? We danced together once, and oh what fun we had while doing it!

[lithicdoesthings]

Next Fest Demo Spotlight:

MIO: Memories in Orbit

Oooooh this is a good one. I'm a little hesitant to make my first real post here a super wordy game review, but Next Fest is happening and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to rant about how much I love this game.

MIO: Memories in Orbit is an upcoming metroidvania from French studio Douze Dixiemes. It was originally announced last june at a Nintendo Direct, and the demo was released on Steam last week. The game follows a small robot named Mio as she explores the crumbling and overgrown Vessel, uncovering its secrets and searching for a way to save it in the process.

!! SPOILERS AHEAD FOR MIO: MEMORIES IN ORBIT DEMO !!

A quick note before the actual review: talking about this game can be confusing, since the game itself and the protagonist share a name. For the sake of clarity, whenever I write MIO with all caps, I am referring to the game itself (Memories in Orbit), whereas Mio refers to the character. Apologies for any confusion!

First Impressions

Aesthetics

First off, this game is absolutely gorgeous, and I've never seen anything quite like it. Metroidvanias as a genre often lean towards hand-drawn sprites and pixel art, so MIO stands out with beautifully rendered 3D environments and characters. The game combines aspects of elegant sci-fi designs with vibrant plants, watercolor rendering, and a hint of what I can only describe as Cyber-Art-Deco. Similar influences can also be heard in the game's soundtrack, a soft-spoken mix of digital melodies, filtered vocals, and the occasional jazz riff. Combined, these visuals and music create an atmosphere of faded sophistication, hinting at the former glory and dignity of The Vessel before its collapse.

Narrative-wise, we still don't know much about the game's story quite yet. Not really a problem since it's a demo, but the more vague approach to storytelling in (what I assume to be) the earliest areas of the game suggests that MIO will most likely follow a narrative structure similar to something like Hollow Knight, with an emphasis on environmental storytelling over direct exposition.

Gameplay

Despite my comparison to Hollow Knight earlier, MIO is actually much more reminiscent of the Ori games in terms of its controls and level design, with a focus on movement, momentum, and platforming over combat and boss fights. Mio herself controls very similar to Ori: satisfyingly floaty without feeling uncontrollably light. She starts the demo with a fairly standard movement set and a double-jump, and later on acquires the Hairpin ability, allowing her to grapple to enemies and floating anchors from any direction. Based on the trailer, it looks like other abilities in the full game could include a short-distance glide, wall climbing, and an air dash, which I think supports the idea that the game's main difficulty will come from its platforming rather than combat. Luckily MIO nails the level design almost flawlessly in this regard; navigating the game's environments feels smooth and engaging, and the game takes many opportunities to show off its momentum-based movement, to the point that a few well-timed slides and grapples can send Mio flying across multiple rooms without ever touching the ground.

While there is combat present in the demo, it's fairly light. Enemies are generally spread out across each room, and there are some rooms with no enemies at all. The enemies themselves typically only have one or two attacks, making them fairly easy to defeat after a few encounters. Mio's main method of defending herself is a three-hit horizontal combo that can be done both on the ground and in the air. Aerial attacks have a pretty long hang time, keeping Mio in the air long enough to chain further attacks and grapples together, although the grapple can only be recharged on the ground. I personally like this decision a lot. Comboing flying opponents out of the air this way is very fun, and makes you feel like a badass when you pull it off, especially when combined with the game's aforementioned movement physics. Mio also has access to a module system that acts as the game's parallel to Hollow Knight's charms, which include standard health and damage upgrades, as well as quality of life features such as the addition of enemy and boss health bars as well as the ability to disable the HUD entirely. I've found that health bars in metroidvanias can be a pretty divisive topic, and MIO seems to have addressed the issue perfectly with this system. To be clear: the combat being light is not inherently bad, nor is it a guarantee in the final game. Despite Hollow Knight being known for its intense and punishing boss fights, its early-game enemies are just as straightforward as MIO's. So while MIO seems to be focusing on its movement more prominently, it would not surprise me at all for the difficulty of its bosses and enemies to ramp up in the full release.

Final Thoughts

After playing the demo for MIO, I am very excited to see more of this game. With its gorgeous visuals, intriguing worldbuilding, and satisfying gameplay, I believe it has the potential to become the metroidvania community's next indie gem, alongside games like Hollow Knight, Ori, and Nine Sols. Go check it out!

MIO: Memories in Orbit Final Score:

5 / 5

BONUS POINTS:

+1 For SILLY LITTLE GUY PROTAGONIST

[lithicdoesthings]

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