Sientir's Blog

This weekend is one of conclusions, as it has had both the last episode of the Hollow Knight Epilogue as well as the final episode of the Dark Souls II retrospective. In the Hollow Knight episode, I give a try to beating The Radiance again, but I just do not enjoy the fight. I decide to go poking around at a few other odds and ends (such as the Coliseum of Fools), where I find some other stuff. But I think I've gotten out of this game all I care to, so it's time to go ahead and set it down. Speaking of odds and ends, that's mostly what the Dark Souls II retrospective episode covers. There's a bunch of smaller things I talk about in it. I end the episode with some of my final thoughts from the series. Direct video links: Hollow Knight Epilogue Ep. 11: Knowing When to Quit - https://youtu.be/dWzDZ-k__Ag Dark Souls 2: A Retrospective—Part 5: Odds, Ends, & My Final Thoughts - https://youtu.be/pdjJ0Jik3O0

A tragedy struck, and unfortunately a bunch of boss fights failed to get recorded. So this week's Hollow Knight episode is a search for all of the grubs. I find a lot of other stuff along the way, so it's got some nice exploration in it, too. The Dark Souls II retrospective episode (with a name change because a check on Google Trends has shone that "Dark Souls 2" gets searched for far more than "Dark Souls II" does) is about the world design and level design of the game, along with a bunch of adjacent concepts (like torches, enemy respawn limits, etcetera). Direct video links: Hollow Knight Epilogue Ep. 10: Hunting for Grub(s) - https://youtu.be/mSKVpdKKGDk Dark Souls 2: A Retrospective—Part 4: World & Level Design - https://youtu.be/OH_5Wbq3CJA

The Hollow Knight epilogue continues. Rather than continue to attempt to beat the final boss, I go after some of the DLC in the hopes of gaining additional tools to help me beat the final boss. The Dark Souls II retrospective also continues, this time with a discussion of game mechanics more closely associated with the player character. Direct video links: Hollow Knight Epilogue Ep. 9: A Grimm Quest - https://youtu.be/M6MQgBoWXAo Dark Souls II: A Retrospective—Part 3: Character Mechanics - https://youtu.be/HM64qg9l3og

In Hollow Knight this week, I challenge the final boss. Again and again and again. It really gives me a proper what's for! In the Dark Souls II Retrospective video, I gush over the level aesthetics. I generally avoid talking about the mechanical aspects of the level design, as well as the world design. Those are topics for future episodes. For now, join me in admiring the environment art of this game! Direct video links: Hollow Knight Epilogue Ep. 8: The RADIANCE! (kicks my butt) - https://youtu.be/rR05cYQtvlM Dark Souls II: A Retrospective—Part 2: Level Aesthetics - https://youtu.be/zGXJnJkum9M

There was enough variety in the content this week that it didn't make sense to me to try to make separate posts, so here's all of it! The first two videos are from a game called Airscape: The Fall of Gravity. It's a challenging platformer. I ended up deciding to not finish the game, as I wasn't interested in conquering the platforming challenge. I suspect part of the reason was lingering frustration with Hollow Knight's White Palace, even a week removed. Next comes a trio of Guild Wars 1 videos. To some extent, these are content fillers. That doesn't mean I think they're bad by any means, it simply means they aren't a proper Let's Play series. I'm still in a bit of a limbo, as many of the games I want to start are (as far as I can tell, anyway) longer RPGs, and I want to start playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for the channel the week it comes out (it releases June 18). I also don't want to interrupt a series. This makes figuring out ...