Game:

Shovel Knight (2014)

Duration: 24:45

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1

Do you somehow find yourself bored with the so-serious ennui of battle? Need some witty repartee? ...sorry, you'll have to settle for us blathering on instead:
https://youtu.be/R_Qe52X-mEA

Dig in, don't be shy!
twitter.com/yuugijoou
discord.gg/bKT9pRW

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If we definitely play a fair number of games that don't NEED to be done over Parsec... but network testing and mad science (or theoretical cheapness! ...or not wanting to buy yet ANOTHER version of the same game all over again, as multiplatform games happen to run...) make it the proper course of the day's events, THIS game is certainly one where there's no other option.

I mean, unless YOU know three other Shovel Knight fanatics and know how to lock them all in a room and make them play a REALLY specific side game.

One that totally deviates from the mold of pure retro platforming action... and turns it into a suspiciously familiar archetype of game. But with all kinds of twists, turns, and exceptions! What's next, a puzzle dungeon crawler?! (With local multiplayer only! ...next you'll tell me it's going to be about a card game or something.)

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Full disclosure: I. Love. This game.

Yacht Club seems to have a direct line to whatever makes my blood pump with chivalrous nonsense and insane combinations of... STUFF... all going on. (I'm still searching for hidden cameras!)

... ... ...that said, its BIGGEST "problem" is... there's SO MUCH going on, despite how seemingly "simple" its execution feels.

Everyone has a handful of game functions to ply... far fewer and more seemingly arbitrary than you'd find in a more "standard" platform fighter, actually... but also multiplicatively more than you'd get in a faux-retro platformer like Shovel Knight, at least without getting into the arcane details of your inventory screen that you obviously can't pull up like you would in a more focused solo affair.

For my nondescript sacks of looted treasure, the single MOST emblematic feature itself demonstrating this overall fixation on things that make you both short on action economy and very particular about the complexity of that action... is the fact that your ONLY dedicated defensive option... is a parry. Which can be difficult to learn on its own, much less with all the chaos surrounding you.

So, it simultaneously feels underwhelming to some and ultimately overwhelming for all. Makes sense?! No! I can't handle this!

Part of me wants to immediately dig deep and dive straight into all the details! ... ... ...but then... that's definitely not going to work for most people, I gather. There's just too much going on!

...maybe later. Please understand. I appreciate your sacrifice.