I’m so, so sleepy. If I could just rest my head in my desk I’d instantly fall asleep inside the most blessed darkness. I can’t say my last night’s sleep was something along those lines, though.
By the way, Happy New Year! I don’t have any gaming plans for this year or something that I’m terribly looking forward to. I’m very curious about Metaphor: ReFantazio, but that one doesn’t come out anytime soon. What I’ll be doing this year in terms of gameplay is playing the games in my backlog and dedicate a good portion of time and attention to those.
However, I still can’t control my curiosity about games outside my niche and I enjoy browsing the PC Gamepass list from time to time just to see what I can experience before it’s gone. I decided to install Remnant II because I couldn’t see myself playing it otherwise. Persona 5 Tactica is there too, but I’ll most likely buy it at a later date on Steam. Remnant II, a soulslike with guns, as people usually define it, piqued my interest. I installed it, and after a lot of trial and error in the settings to avoid some annoying stuttering, I finally made it playable.
I wasn’t ready for the level of clumsiness that came after. It’s been a while since I’ve played a souls game because those tend to drain my energy to a point that I really can’t continue. That’s in part why my Dark Souls playthrough was cut right at the end and I have no wish of returning to it. I may have one or two DLC bosses to defeat and then the final main-game boss. It’s not much, I’m right at the end as I said, but I’m not feeling it. Now I can’t go back even if I wanted to because I sold my Xbox and will eventually sell the games too.
So, out of practice, there I went into Remnant II, completely oblivious about the story. I’m 6h in and I can’t say I know what I’m doing or what the hell is going on. Even without the safety net of a detailed story or of “handholding” I’m really enjoying my time there. I’m playing as a Handler and having a pet to rely on drawing aggro and reviving me is great. I’m using my traits in vigor because that’s what I’ve learned from other souls games I’ve played, and this way I can get away with more mistakes while I’m exploring.
I started my run at the Palace Courtyard and explored a bit in that area. Then somehow ended up in Ironborough. From there, I went to Hewda’s Clock, Butcher’s Quarter and Lemark District. In the end I reached the Great Sewers. At the end of the dungeon, I met the Bloat King. I didn’t like the boss at all, not because I was getting constantly killed, but because I had to juggle between the platforming, avoid falling into the gunk and get constantly attacked by slimes while looking at the map to find a ladder to the platforms again. While ascending the ladder I would get attacked by the Bloat King and die. Fun, right? Only once I got his health at about 1% and died anyway.
I tried to keep myself on the platform right when we enter the boss arena, dodge the orbs and the projectiles they throw at me, dodge the Bloat King’s laser or whatever that is, manage to heal (healing takes a lot of time in the heat of battle) and grab some ammo in the meantime while trying to shoot the orbs and the boss. With a bit of luck and repetition I could have done it. Unless there was another option. Jolly co-op! I set my dungeon to public and waited a bit. A marvelous good Samaritan with high-end gear appeared to help me.
I couldn’t say it was easier. For some reason he was always inside the gunk at first. I couldn’t understand if he was shooting at the boss, the orbs, or the slimes. Since I was on the platform everything targeted me. I think he probably had a strategy there but I’m just a beginner. Then, he had to climb up to revive me and he did so two times. The third time I was dead for good, and he managed to kill the boss anyway. It was a mess, I’ll tell you, but all worked well in the end. After the struggle he killed himself (because I was dead) and we returned to the checkpoint, just this time it wasn’t only him there but also another person. I thought the online part of the game would work like in Elden Ring and after defeating the boss we would get separated. But no, now I was with these two players with no clue about what to do.
I’d like to stress that I don’t know how a co-op game works. I only played online a couple of times and I’m as socially awkward online as I am in person, maybe even worse. I only choose to play online when I can’t overcome a challenge, so my experience is only circumscribed to souls games, meaning killing the boss and then leaving the area. At least it was how I played Elden Ring and Bloodborne.
It seems like I was in for the ride with the other two players in an area I hadn’t explored yet. That wasn’t what I wanted since I usually check all nooks and crannies. After going somewhere that I don’t recall we ended up in the Malefic Palace. There, we found a Jester that spawned flying tarot cards, whereupon hitting the walls activated the drawings etched there and transformed them into doors. There were about six of them and all seemed to lead to the same place. We kept trying and finally got inside a room with a statue that gave me the second mask necessary to open the large door at the Palace Courtyard. I said goodbye to my fellow players because this time I really needed to, first, go to bed, and second, explore on my own for a while.
I enjoyed this session and I think I’ve made some progress. I’m terribly bad at this game so far, so I’ll keep playing it.
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