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Last week I beat the Lies of P DLC, but didn't write anything because I was a bit lazy. But today I'll write down some thoughts. Full thoughts below:

Was it as good as any Fromsoft expansion? The base game 100% succeeded on being an amazing souls-like, on par with the masters themselves. And I 100% can say, yes, it was. It didn't do much new, but it gave us more of what we already liked. Cool new weapons, amazing bosses and an interesting story perspective.

Some of the new weapons were awesome. The wolverine claws felt fast and great to use for any technique build. A giant rapier that works as a flamethrower was so much fun. But nothing compares to the Pale Knight. A greatsword that has a gun attached to it. Not even the final boss weapon, I fucking love this thing. A literal gunblade that feels so damn good to use. That combined with the new shotgun arm turned Krat into America, P practicing his second amendment.

The new locations were interesting as well, more of the same really as we were only in the past version of Krat. But I quite liked the carnival where you could actually participate in some of the minigames. The carcass hospital/jail had some real research hall vibes.

The story was interesting as well. We went back in time and followed around the legendary stalker as she tries to save her apprentice from a serial killer puppet. I liked some of the character stories as well, getting to meet the real Alidoro was a pleasure. Solving the dark mysteries of Krat was cool as well, although a bit heartbreaking. Nothing is like it seems.

The bosses were kind of a mixed bag. I wish there had been more of them, but 4 main bosses is neat. The giant alligator wasn't difficult at all, but a nice introduction. Markiona was the first real challenge, and honestly a really cool implementation of a duo fight in a long time. Such a fun and clever fight. Two faced overseer was really cool, especially since I got to fight him with Alidoro. The Anguished Guardian was a spectacle of a fight. Didn't take too long to beat him. You get the Pale Knight weapon from him, so bless that boss. Lumacchio was a... Pain in the ass. But not as difficult as some people put it.

Now the final boss. We meet Arlecchino in the main game where he takes to role of the master of riddles. Through him we find out a story about a puppet that gained consciousness and then became a murderer. In the DLC we get to meet Arlecchino at his peak and he's a monster. An entertaining monster, he's honestly a really well built up villain. His boss fight is so over the top and cool, makes me wonder what kind of technology allows him to do all that. It's a tough fight. For story and "cinema" I ended up beating him with Lea. Soloing that guy will take hours upon hours to learn all his combos. Maybe one day.

Overall, Lies of P Overture is great. It adds more what we like and takes a step further when it comes to action and bosses, all the while revealing some secrets about Krats past. I can only wonder what the Lies of P sequel is going to be about. Will we still play as P? Or a new character? I look forward to it.

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I tried the DLC for Lies of P today, and even with lowered difficulty it kicked my ass. The first enemy encounter alone killed me like 4 times. It's a tough game. I think NG+ with lowered difficulty is like base game, not sure. The fist boss wasn't too bad. Took me like 5 tries to beat it, almost beat it on my first try. It's funny that your first try is always the best. I almost beat the boss, but on my second try I died within the first 10 second.

Some enemies kill you in like 3 hits, especially those elefant mutants. But so far the DLC is cool. I love the wintery setting, and exploring Krat zoo. I bet it's going to be tough, like the main game, but adrenaline is what I'm here for.

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Yesterday I finally beat Tainted Grail, and gotta be honest. The game kinda ended with a wet fart. But it wasn't all bad, in fact a large chunk of it is really good! So keep reading for more thoughts. Although there might be story spoilers, so be warned.

Tainted Grail Fall of Avalon is the first true "scrolls-like" I've played. It makes me wonder why there are so few games that try to mimic The Elder Scrolls formula, it's real good. Tainted Grail nails it and is even better in some aspects like combat and overall game feel. Side quests are pretty good as well (sadly not Oblivion good, goddamn why were the side quests so good in that game) and exploration felt good and rewarding.

The world of Tainted Grail is based on Arthurian legends where long ago King Arthur escaped his homeland, fleeing from a plague to start a new kingdom in a land called Avalon. That kingdom being Kamelot. But now Avalon is all messed up because of Arthurs meddling and there's an otherworldly force called the "wyrdness" that destroys everything and twists life into various monstrosities. The player character is a test subject that was captured by a faction known as the Red Priests who experiment on people and torture them on an island asylum. The player character escapes thanks to some outside help, and you conveniently encounter Arthurs soul who then hitch-hikes inside your head as you travel from place to place fetching parts of his soul.

The story was pretty good and kept me engaged, even though most of it was just solving other peoples problems in order to get the mcguffin. I also liked Arthur as a character and loved conversing with him. Sadly I got a bug in the game where Arthur decided to fall radio silent in the second act. He didn't say anything in the final act either. A problem I had with the story was that I felt like my decisions didn't really matter. In act 1 I sided with Galahad and One Eye and his gang got slaughtered, but I never saw Galahad again and there were no consequences for doing that. In act 2 I gave the menhir to Kamelot, once again nothing. In act 3 I had to help the Dal Riata, even though I had been mostly pro-Kamelot. I could sabotage them at the end, but decided to wake the giants to march against Kamelot instead. According to the ending they got conquered, hah! My main character was very morally gray that playthrough.

I enjoyed the first two acts greatly. Act 1 being probably the best, having a lot of fun things to find and sidequests. Exploration felt especially rewarding and I enjoyed the Celtic inspired setting. Act 2 was great as well, there was tons to find and see, and some really neat quest lines that lead to secrets. It felt more medieval than the first act. Act 3 however was kinda bad. It was Norse inspired, taking place in a snowy mountainous region, but there was barely anything to find.

I had already heard that act 3 was bad, but holy cow I wasn't prepared. There were a ton of bugs, even in the main quest line, like characters having no voice acting, subtitles didn't match what they were saying, or dungeons leading you to strange places. I exited one dungeon and came out at the outskirts of the map where the cave I entered wasn't even in. The worst part was that exploration wasn't rewarded at all. I go to a cave, find a few enemies in it and a chest that has a bit money and a bottle of mead in it. In fact I don't remember finding any armor or weapons from exploration. I found an amulet in one dungeon. Neat.

I played as a melee dual wield build, focusing on strength and endurance and honestly I felt like there were barely any gear meant for my type of build. I only used both duel knight sets that I found from some weird boastful NPC's, and in act 3 I took some armor from a bandit that didn't even have special skills. I got two swords in act 2 that I used for the rest of the game. Not a single new weapon for my build in all of act 3. I even got King Arthurs armor, but guess could I use it? No. You need at least 6 points in all stats. I didn't use magic, so of course I didn't put any points into the magic stat. It felt like everything I found was for some other build than mine.

I also find it weird that the major quest lines that span all the acts, like the Children of Morrigan and the Alchemist Guild didn't have any reward at the end of them. I do all this work for an achievement? Like some reward would be nice, goddamn. They're a far cry from the guild quests in Elder Scrolls games.

While the game is really good, especially act 1 and 2, it has some flaws. But it is the closest indie game to a genuine Elder Scrolls title. Honestly the game really is worth it for the first two acts alone. If I replay this game again one day, I do wish they add more to act 3. Make exploration rewarding, and fix all the bugs and missing dialogue.

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I'm still playing Tainted Grail and loving it, but daaamn they shadow dropped the Lies of P expansion during summer game fest. I'm so far in Tainted Grail that I feel like I can't stop, but I'm so tempted. Lies of P was amazing, the best souls game to come out so far.

And you know what? I like that they introduced difficulty selection. My main game is in NG+ and I heard that the DLC is really difficult in NG cycles. I'm not sure if I feel like replaying the whole game before the DLC, but I heard it's more manageable on a lower difficulty if you're in NG+. So I'll definitely play this next, when I finish TG.

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Last Friday a game called Tainted Grail Fall of Avalon fully released and I've been playing it almost non-stop. It's really good. It's one of the few games out there that try to copy the Elder Scrolls formula, and so far it does it very well.

The world of Tainted Grail feels like a much darker version of Oblivion, while based on Arthurian legends. The first act is more celtic inspired and I think that's neat. The combat feels great and I quite like the side quests. Not all of them, but there are some really interesting ones and some hilarious ones. Like a quest where you investigate an old druidic shrine in hopes of some hidden power, and turns out it was just a prank, then you get ridiculed by a couple druid ghosts. Or you discover a random entrance and you find an undead chef inside it who's obsessed with herring and cheese. Do his quest and you get a spell that turns enemies into cheese.

There's a lot to love about this game. Especially the setting and the art style. King Arthurs tomb looks like something out of an Alien movie, and I fucks with that.

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Freedom feels alright.

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Some time ago I beat a game called Mandragora, with a long subtitle I won't write down. It was another game that I backed on Kickstarter. It's a 2.5D metroidvania, but with deeper RPG mechanics and story. It wanted to be as deep as a Witcher game. Did it succeed? Keep on reading.

The answer is no. The game certainly has a much larger production value than most metroidvanias. Proper cut-scenes, fully voice acted and a clear story to follow. But it's not really as deep, or even as interesting as the stories the Witcher has to tell. The world of the Witcher alone is a lot more interesting. Mandragoras world isn't bad per se, but feels a bit generic. You're a part of an order of inquisitors that hold absolute power. The world is corrupted by some calamity and full of monsters, and you hunt witches. You kill one witch during an important meeting and you end up absorbing her soul and she eventually guides you throughout the game to stop the corruption and beat your master.

I do kinda like the characters and the voice acting, it's very good. Especially the King Priest as he's voice acted by the same guy that does Margit/Morgott in Elden Ring. One voice that stands out is the vampire lord, and not in a good way. His voice just doesn't fit. I don't know what it is about his voice, but it sounds too normal? Or mundane? He has a bit of an accent, but it's not exaggerated. He just sounds off. Your companions at the camp are great as well, I like their interactions.

Story and characters and blah blah blah, how about the gameplay? I enjoyed it, actually. I liked the feel of the combat and the exploration for the most part. There were plenty of secrets to find. The RPG mechanics are great, especially when it comes to creating your character. I made a melee + holy build, a bit like a paladin and focused on one handed maces. I feel like there's plenty of replay value with making hybrid or pure builds, there's a lot to choose from.

Bosses were pretty good too. Although I felt like there were too many repeat bosses. But the unique ones are great and have a wonderful design. The final boss is quite a leap in difficulty, so much so that a lot of people complain about it, but I didn't find it too hard. I do agree that the DPS race mechanic in the second phase is kinda ass though. Oh yeah, I just remembered. Pepper was a pretty shite fight. Your boss is so unthreatening that you gotta put one-shot pits at each end of the arena? I died purely by accidentally rolling too far, not to the boss itself.

Here's some random little things I liked: I really enjoyed the art style and overall look of the game. The ring crafting NPC was hilarious. Some areas were great, like the vampire castle or snow area. Certain side-quests were neat as well, like the one where you gotta taste test some bad ale. I like that our player character is also fully voice acted, and you have some choice on what to say. I like that I got to romance the witch lady a bit :-) Something I didn't like: who decided it was a good idea to make an NPC that's perpetually exhausted and talks painfully slow? I love you Rhys, but goddamn.

Here's some negatives overall: Fall damage was too extreme, the main character has knees of jelly. The crafting mechanic was a bit too much, I really wish you could find more armor and weapons by exploring. You always just find crafting recipes only to realize your stupid NPC isn't high enough level to craft the thing you just found for you. And NPC levels. You gotta use the NPC's to level them up, you can't do certain things if they're not high enough level. That sucks. Why was the unique looking boss Ferryman just a copy of the Caretaker mini-bosses? What a waste of an unique design.

There's quite a bit of negativity surrounding Mandragora. Is it the best thing ever? Not really. But it's a fun game. Maybe something you'd enjoy if you're into metroidvania titles. Maybe on a sale? A bit generic on some parts, but when it comes to RPG mechanics, it a bit more deeper than the rest.

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I just wanted to record down a funny little story, on how I learned the English word "illiterate". It was actually used to insult me back in 2009, or 2010. Can't remember exactly. I was a kid at the time, navigating Youtube, making Youtube poops and random videos. I was also super into gmod videos at the time, especially the ones with the TF2 mercs. If you know those, you're an og. Read the story below. Dunno why I wanted to go down memory lane like this, I just did.

There was one gmod Youtuber at the time that was quite popular. This was a time on Youtube when if your videos got more than a thousand views it was pretty huge. This guy had tens of thousands of views which was something else. His name was Toenninga. Amazing that I still remember that username. He was a fellow that was quite infamous for blocking anyone over the smallest slights, and sometimes for no reason at all other than he didn't like your face. Or your vibe.

I liked that guy, he made some fun stuff, I was a fan. I don't remember if I commented on his videos, or if I was annoying (very likely, haha), but one day I went on to his channel to find out that he had blocked me. I was shocked because I didn't even remember interacting with the guy at all, and I took it quite personally especially since it was a Youtuber I liked. I made a small "reaction" video showing my disappointment. Mr Youtuber man then showed up in the comments of said video of mine saying something in the lines of "I don't need to explain myself when I block illiterate children". At the time this guy was either a late teenager, or a young adult. Partially he wasn't wrong, I was a child. But literate enough to use Youtube and converse in English with people online while not being a native speaker. At the age of 12-13.

But I remember reading that comment and wondering what "illiterate" meant. I googled it and it meant "unlearned" or someone who doesn't have basic education. I just assumed that he was being an ass, and yeah, he was. My memories are hazy, but I do remember that exchange. He never did unblock me, or explain why he blocked me. My best guess today is that I was just an annoying kid online, and even though I didn't interact with him he didn't want me to be a part of his audience.

Haha, so yeah that's how I learned the word. Now that's what I call comprehensible input! It's funny how you learn these things over the years. I do wonder what this guy is up to these days. His channel isn't around anymore, but some relics still remain if you search Toenninga on Youtube. Mainly some small collab videos and some folks ranting about him, because he really was a bit infamous for his blocking habit. Just like back then, you found my video and commented on it. If you find this, today, because I mentioned you: Hi, how are you :-) Hope life is treating you well.

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I've been learning Latin for quite some time now, it'll be 5 years this November. Although to speak the truth, I haven't seriously studied Latin for 2+ years. I've mainly been following the Latin subreddit, reading whenever I get the chance and watching youtube content in Latin. And yes, that exists. There's an entire community of Latin speakers out there producing high quality content, these people are talented.

But I really do enjoy the process of learning a language. It takes time, it takes effort. But it's also so rewarding. I always wanted to learn another modern language, because some folks I know in real life think I'm "wasting my time" learning a useless language. Well that's not the only reason, obviously, it's also because I enjoy it. I thought long and hard what I'd like to learn, and eventually I landed on Italian. Am I taking an easy route, knowing both English and Latin? Kinda. There's so much of Italian that I can understand from the get go.

What I also learned was that Italian and Latin are so different in the end. The way the languages function are completely different, and most common words are different. To speak in Italian = parlare, but in Latin = loqui. Italian has a somewhat strict word order and it's not inflected, so it feels so much easier to grasp things than in Latin. The language does have its challenges though. The pronouns and the articles especially confuse me right now.

In the past few months my Italian comprehension has skyrocketed, being able to watch some native Italian content. I say only some, because I have the beginner problem where my brain kinda lags behind as I listen. Also native speakers speak really fast, so I still need subtitles. Seriously, some words get swallowed in that tidal wave of phrases. Not to mention the elisions. The pronoun lo, and the phrase l'ho sound identical. E and É. Dio mio.

It's fun, and being able to understand things in the language feels so good. When I watch a random short, or read someones comment and I get it, that's amazing. I previously mentioned that Italian and Latin are very different, but despite that I've realized that my Italian is starting to seep into my Latin. Like when I think in Latin I sometimes start putting articles in front of words, or using Italian words like anche to mean "also". I think this is because it's more clear in Italian, in Latin "also" can be etiam, but it has a bunch of meanings depending on context. Oh language.

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I bought a physical copy for Castlevania Dominus collection some time last year, and last Friday I finally got the game. Dawn of Sorrow is the only DS Castlevania I haven't played so of course I gave it a try first, and yeah, it's pretty fun! For the most part.

The soul system from the first game, Aria of Sorrow, makes a return and it's still a great mechanic. Every enemy in the game has a soul you can capture, it can either be a new attack/spell or something that gives you a passive boost. Like being able to eat rotten food, or something as simple as raising one of your stats by two. It's an amazing mechanic because it's always a surprise to see a new enemy, and it makes you wonder just what kind of a power you'll get from it. Plus some of the powers are really useful and fun to use.

The big down side to this is that getting a soul is RNG based. And sometimes the odds are reeeeal low. I'm talking killing the same enemy for 30 minutes straight while gaining three whole levels. In Aria of Sorrow, if I remember correctly, the souls are optional. You can be a completionist and get them all, but you can get only a few souls that'll get you through the game. But Dawn of Sorrow has a weapon synthesis mechanic where you can sacrifice a soul to upgrade a weapon. All the best weapons in the game require soul farming to get them. In previous games you had to find the weapons hidden in the map, or maybe buy it off an NPC. To get the best version of the great sword I had to farm some REAL pain in the ass enemies. Mainly final guard. There's a lot of farming in this game. For souls and money. You want the soul farming to be easier? Farm 300k gold. And even then it can take you a while to get your wanted soul.

I honestly wasn't a big fan of that mechanic. And imagine my surprise when I found out that one of the end game souls is super fast and deals ridiculous damage, making your best weapon useless. Womp womp. But y'know still it's a fun mechanic and I'm glad they brought it back for the spiritual successor of the Castlevania franchise. Where's Bloodstained 2, by the way? It's been forever.

The monster/boss designs are fantastic and the sprite work is something to be admired. I love all the hidden secrets and little things in the game, like did you know you can lure out a yeti with some delicious curry? Or that you can buy a handgun and shoot mfs?

I'm not gonna comment much on the story. It's cool that it continues the story from Aria of Sorrow, and is one of the few Castlevania games where Dracula isn't the main villain. It's a real fresh breath of air. I really wanna see the game set in 1999 where Julius destroys Dracula for good. It's sad Konami hasn't done anything with that plotline.

Overall, it's Castlevania. You explore a cool castle filled with demons, search for secrets, decorate yourself with random clothes you find lying about and you kick a ton of ass. Oh yeah. The magic seal system is a real bitch. They just had to use something so silly for their DS game.

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The Switch 2 and its games pricing is seriously baffling me. The revealed price was about $450, but here in Finland it's 560€. Games cost 80€. What is the justification? Is there a real reason, or is it just pure greed, for your games to cost even more than PS5 games? I'm seriously reconsidering getting the Switch 2 on launch. Really the only game I want for it right now is the DK 3D platformer, and maybe Prime 4.

Financially I should probably just wait till Christmas or wait for the price to drop. I really need to be more thoughtful with my money, especially since my savings have started to dwindle.

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Actually, let's dial that hype back. I heard somewhere that it's going to be an online action game, "PvPvE"? If it's not a traditional souls-like game I'll be sorely disappointed because it looked so good, but I do understand. They wanna try new things after making souls games for 10+ years now. But still, damn... I would've liked another dark victorian souls-like from Miyazaki. But we'll see how this pans out, more info coming in a couple days.

I can't believe Bloodborne 2 is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2. I'm joking, but goddamn Duskbloods looks so good, and it's a brand new Fromsoftware souls game with a victorian setting. I wonder if they'll fully commit to vampires and werewolves this time? I wouldn't mind that.

I was in genuine awe as I watched the trailer. The similarities to Bloodborne just fueled my excitement. Bring on the new generation of Fromsoftware goodness!

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I can't believe Bloodborne 2 is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2. I'm joking, but goddamn Duskbloods looks so good, and it's a brand new Fromsoftware souls game with a victorian setting. I wonder if they'll fully commit to vampires and werewolves this time? I wouldn't mind that.

I was in genuine awe as I watched the trailer. The similarities to Bloodborne just fueled my excitement. Bring on the new generation of Fromsoftware goodness!

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I didn't even notice that the clocks were moved forward last night, to summer time, and I woke up at 9:20 AM. It was actually more like 8:20 previous time. And it's a day off for me as well. Perhaps one day I'll become one of those folks who are awake at 6 AM and I'll get all my shit done before anyone sane wakes up.

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Goddamn AI feels like cheating. I remember I had a course in my school where we learned making a website. HTML, CSS, PHP and all that jazz, and I remember how painstaking it was to get everything to work. But ooohh, nothing boils my blood like trying to place elements, especially divs. It took me some time to get my website done, but it was simple. Amateurish looking yeah, I am a student after all.

But now? We have a course on AI, because of course there is. We were tasked to use some AI tool to create a simple website and just test it. I "created" a fully functioning restaurant menu with a button to remove items from the list, in like 10 minutes. And the worst part? It looks alright. I know if I had done all this myself from scratch it'd have taken me hours. Just tell an AI to do it and it's done in ten minutes.

Of course it'll take a lot more work to make it look professional and getting more complicated functionality, but what the AI created in 10 minutes looks eerily close to something I made myself in two weeks.

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If you wanna watch a truly unsettling movie, give the Fourth Kind a try. Goddamn. I remember watching this movie a very long time ago, and it's one of those movies you never forget. It unsettled me a lot more back in 2009/2010 because I was a kid, but even rewatching it now gave me goosebumps.

I really dig alien movies, and this is probably one of the best alien abduction movies out there. I'm not gonna spoil anything, but it's really good. It raises interesting questions, the plot is captivating, the atmosphere is great and the spooks spook.

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I'm pretty much done with MH Wilds for now. I still kinda lost interest towards the end and didn't feel like grinding like back in the old days, but I still had to hunt Arkveld a little and a certain returning lil' fella ;-)

A long time ago I was a massive fan of the MH games. I started with 3 Ultimate and played it religiously. I then got 4 Ultimate that I played a lot, but not quite as much. I had a break from the franchise until World and I quite enjoyed that one as well, but something felt different. After beating the story and hunting all the monsters my interest kinda fell. I didn't feel like doing end game, or grinding all the coolest armor. I'd make a couple armor sets that suited me and beat the game with those. After Iceborne, which I got late, I started to realize that I wasn't as into the MH gameplay loop as I used to be. I eventually tried out MH Rise demo and decided to skip the game altogether. Honestly I had no interest in Wilds when it was revealed either.

Why did I get Wilds then? I watched a review and saw all the new monsters and they just awoke that old sense of awe in me, when I first set my eyes on 3 Ultimate. And honestly? I think MH Wilds has the most unique roster of new monsters. They're not all just dinosaurs or wyverns. I especially love LOVE the new octopus type enemies like Nu Udra and Xu Wu. I even made the Xu Wu armor set, even though farming his fangs was a pain. The new monkey Ajarakan was my favorite in the whole game. This is what I love about MH. Monsters. And hunting them of course. I never get excited for returning old monsters. I've already fought those. Honestly I'd prefer if the monster roster was 100% original. And I would not mind at all not seeing Rathalos' scaly face ever again. Uniqueness of the monsters is important too. Hard to get excited for the 20th dinosaur or the 50 wyvern type monster. How many monkeys do we have? Or toads? Octopi? Where are the snake wyverns? They introduced a couple in MH4U.

And I know I just said that I don't like returning monsters, but... I'll be a hypocrite and say I was happy to see Gore Magala again. Honestly, Gore Magala was cool as hell, and he still is. I bet Shagaru will make a return as well at some point, haha. Gore was a hectic fight and one of the few monsters in the game that carted me more than once. Wilds is kinda on the easier side right now. I didn't cart even once against tempered Arkveld, but nearly ran out of quest time. Still beat it, baby!

But yeah, you get me. The monsters are neat. The story is also even more involved than in World. Your hunter especially feels like a character, and I kinda like it. Instead of being a silent protagonist they take part in the story. It's not a mind blowing story, but serviceable.

I dig the open world structure as well. You can set out at any point and travel between each locale freely, and if you see a monster in the wild you can just hunt it. And it even turns the hunt into a quest, which is neat. I also liked how much easier it is to get rare mats from monsters this time around. I'm one of those blasphemers that didn't enjoy hunting Rathalos 20+ times for a single plate. Although my luck was pretty good, as I got gems from carves and quest rewards quite often even before the investigations.

Usually I main the Charge Blade, I have since 4U, but this time around I simplified my approach and used the sword and shield. Quite a fun and useful tool, no wonder it's considered very beginner friendly. I just like the mobility and that my movement isn't restricted. I did try other weapons like dual blades and longsword, and I feel the combat is somewhat improved. I also quite liked the wounding mechanic. It's a bit busted as you can just keep stunlocking a monster, but I enjoyed it.

MH Wilds is probably the best starting point. It has a lot of QoL improvements that purists hate, a very unique monster roster and a somewhat interesting story. Although no matter what they do with the story, most people are here to hunt monsters and not listen to drama about artificial life. Good game! I hope the new monsters they introduce later on are as unique.