what am i doing

Game? Dragon's Dogma 2 (PS5)

Feather, fire, and fall damage? So many feathers. The chickens are harmless, but griffins and harpies are plentiful enemies. A few enemies, not the griffins and harpies, have the ability to set you on fire and some weapons have fire properties, as well as there being a way to enchant weapons with fire for a short time. There are many campfires throughout the map, and while it is possible to burn yourself jumping directly into them, you can't really set yourself on fire with them, nor with any of the fire you control.

Fall damage is a thing and it can be deadly. I used more revives resurrecting myself from a fall I miscalculated than for anything else the entire game.

Animal companion? There are no animal companions in this game. The pawn system is back from the first one though, and the pawns can be beastren, a lion/human hybrid.

Character options? The look of your character can be customized with no impact on character stats. This game introduced the race of beastren, a lion/human hybrid, so you can be either a human or a beastren. Your pawn can also be customized in this way.

Play style character options are tied to what this game calls vocations, or classes. There are 4 to choose from in the beginning: archer, fighter, mage, and thief; with 6, more advanced, vocations that can be unlocked throughout the world: mystic spearhand, magick archer, sorcerer, trickster, warrior, and warfarer. Each have their own weapons, armor, abilities, and skills that can further customize each vocation and play style.

The HUD & menu layout? The HUD is relatively clear. The lower right has a quick guide to the buttons for combat and traversal. Personally, this part was so light and I rarely actually needed it that it just started to blend in after a while. The health and stamina bar are at the bottom of the screen and the mini map is in the lower left with a guide to the pawn commands right under it and to the right.

Pausing opens up a pretty comprehensive menu imo. There's a basic map overview with the time of day, your currency, the currently tracked quest, a guide to the controller, a quick overview of your character and any pawns you have hired, and the options for the items, map, quests, equipment, status, history, and system submenus. There's even a photo mode.

some opinion? There are very clear quality of life improvements from the first one. Unfortunately, I haven't played the first one in so long that I can't articulate exactly what those improvements are. Inventory management felt easier than it did in the first game as did travel. Fast travel is still limited, but there were ways around that, and when there wasn't, the world still felt interesting enough that I didn't feel too put out about having to traverse the map again.

I only really had two major complaints about the whole game. First, as with a lot of open world games, I had cleared basically everything before I got around to working on the actual quest, which meant the final boss felt very easy. I think this is an ongoing in the open world genre in regards to pacing and such than just a Dragon's Dogma 2 problem tho.

Second, the story seemed to have lost some soul since the first one. Dragon's Dogma was janky as hell, but it had a good story I could get invested in and enjoy. Dragon's Dogma 2's story was bigger and higher stakes and it tried to go for political intrigue, and I feel like what compelled me about the first game's story disappeared in this attempt to make things bigger. The story itself was solid, if not amazing.

Game? The Last Faith (PS5)

Feathers, fire, and fall damage? There are very few feathers here. Most things with wings are instead leathery. Fire is a damage type, but I was never able to set myself on fire with my own abilities. Fall damage is only ever a problem when falling into an area that has nothing below it which only really becomes a problem as you reach the higher parts of the map.

Animal companion? No animal companion, but lots of animal enemies.

Character options? The game starts with offering four character classes to choose from which determine your beginning stats. Further character customization comes only through deciding what stats to build up when leveling up.

The HUD & menu layout? The HUD is pretty minimal. Weapons and resource wheels are in the lower left. Health, magic, and ammo are in the upper left. I've already forgotten what this game calls their version of souls, but those are counted in the upper right. The menu has the basic character, inventory, equipment, map, and records tabs.

some opinions? I found it to be a rather basic metroidvania, but where it did deliver was the Bloodborne vibes, which is why I was there in the first place. The pixel art was beautiful and haunting and there were honestly times where I would enter a new room and just stop to look at the set pieces in the background.

Game? Hell is Us (PS5)

Feathers, fire, and fall damage? There is luckily no feathers or fire to contend with in this game. There is fire as set pieces, but you can't set yourself on fire as I am wont to do.

There is, however, fall damage. Since there is no jump button, it isn't always a problem as any predetermined falls when following a path are usually small enough to keep any fall damage from happening. It's when you've locked on to an enemy and dodge straight off a cliff like I did at least once, that fall damage becomes a serious issue.

Animal companion? No living, breathing animal companion, but you do get a drone that docks on your shoulder and gives off bird vibes.

Character options? You play a predetermined character, so there is no character creation. The minimal character customization comes in the form of various ball caps you can find throughout the world and have the character wear.

The HUD & menu layout? The HUD consists of a health and stamina bar in the upper left, your special weapon attacks in the lower left, and your drone special attacks in the lower right. The meter for your special weapon attacks is also in the upper left, directly below the health and stamina bar.

The menu is a little more complicated. When opened, it looks like the character opens up a tablet, which I thought was clever, and there are quite a number of tabs to look through.

The main tab is the quest tab. Hell is Us doesn't have a map, so the quest tab almost doubles as the map in a way. Each quest has a branching web of characters and locations and items that you've discovered that can help you figure out where you need to go next for that quest.

There is a tab for your loadout, where you can equip weapons, quick slots, weapon special attacks, and relics that can give you passive and active abilities. There is another tab for your drone where you can equip special abilities for that as well.

The next tab is for items. There are a number of sub tabs in this one tab, which range from equipable items, quest items, lore stuff, weapons, weapon bonuses, drone items, and a few others.

The final tab is for more side content stuff. Throughout the game, you'll find NPCs you can do things for. This keeps track of those, although it only does so with a tiny picture and a title that may or may not actually help you remember who you needed to talk to and what you need to do. The same goes for a tab on puzzles, although these are at least split up by region. The last side content stuff does have a little more information, but not much.

some opinions? Overall, it is a really good game. It's got the jank of a game made by a smaller team, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the atmosphere and the gameplay kept pulling me back again and again. I think the atmosphere was the biggest part of that.

The only major issue I had was with the background story going on in the world, i.e. the civil war. The world the main character runs around in is in the throws of a civil war between two religiously ethnic groups living in an Eastern European country.

With the added supernatural manifestations of emotions, its obvious that the developers were going for the war is bad and both sides do bad things moral. However, as this game was made for a wider audience, I believe the message gets stretched too thin and ends up crossing over into the realm of a problematic allegorical portrayal of real life conflict. I feel like this is spread even thinner as it's revealed that this conflict is just another chapter in a long story of back and forth genocide for the country and its people.

If you're able to overlook this misguided story, there is a good game here. Combat is simple, with just enough variety to keep it from getting too stale. The puzzles are challenging without being too difficult and if you do find them too easy or difficult, you can adjust the difficulty of just the puzzles. I was able to keep the difficulty the same throughout my playthrough and I only had to look up one answer which I am still not 100% how to arrive at, but shout out to walkthrough writers for getting me through it.

Exploration is rewarding and satisfying. The lack of map does make things tricky and there is a lot of backtracking, which is further complicated by the lack of fast travel, at least within each area, it also made me feel accomplished when I was able to find my way somewhere or successfully double back after an epiphany about a puzzle.

The best part is that is doesn't over stay it's welcome. The story can be completed in around 20 hours and while there is side content, it doesn't bloat the world and feels relevant to getting to know the world and the people around the main character.