What are you playing?

[Kugelfisch]

It's the iconic one, has all the wololo and it looks crisp as fuck in HD. It really has its niche and is my favourite RTS to watch.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Not to mention dem animations. Looks sexy af even without the bloated 4k sprites.
Would be pretty cool if the hotkeys would actually show up on the icons, though. That's pretty darn handy in the other games.

[Kugelfisch]

I adore the new building collapse animations. Very satisfying!

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Some of the new civ-exclusive ships also have some lovely death animations.

[rabidtictac]

Shogun Showdown is a pretty fun little turn based strategy game. It's kind of a deckbuilder but not really. Kind of roguelite except meta-progression is of the Dead Cells variety. You start the game and you're given a character with a special ability and you get two basic "tiles" which are like cards. But there is no deck, you always have these tiles and they recharge on cooldown for x number of turns based on the tile. The tiles represent the attacks you can do. So if you start with the Wanderer hero, she (I think it's a woman, this is sprite art) has a circular sweeping attack that hits in front and behind for 2 damage, and a basic arrow shot that flies forward the full length of the screen for two damage.

Here's the thing though: like all proper roguelikes, *every* action costs a turn. Including equipping one of these tiles to your character so you can use it. When you make any move, enemies move, equip tiles of their own or attack. It has a very chess-like quality. Changing your facing? Takes a turn. Stepping forward or back? Takes a turn. It's easy to get completely obliterated if you try to spam actions. Enemies are all designed very carefully to be just annoying enough but not bullshit. When you're playing well, the game feels effortless and you're dancing through enemy attacks like you are Neo. Enemy attacks can damage enemies, so moving enemies or positioning yourself correctly can allow you to let them kill their friends.

I wasn't expecting much of this one initially, but it's legit. You can upgrade your tiles during your run (make your arrow do 4 damage instead of 2, etc) and there are some single-use items you can pop in combat to add buffs, healing or debuffs as needed.

[BloodKnightDollfie]

GUN SURVIVOR 3! Not like it's a Dino Crisis sequel or anything...

So... anyone still got a GunCon? or a CRT tv...
uwu

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Songs of Syx, aka the one Dwarf Fortress clone that doesn't actually simplify shit all that much for filthy casuals (and most of the simplification comes from having cursor controls since day one).

Some of the main differences with DF include that you will eventually be able to conquer neighboring provinces if you become powerful enough, and that the game kinda incentivise multi-cultural cities - for I think not exactly SJW-approved reasons, as the races have actually different stats* and different racial/cultural preferences for different lines of work. Just for a few basic examples:

• Humans are your most average-ish race, but they have a much higher interest in doing science stuff than any other
• Dwarfs are natural craftsmen
• Elves make for the best lumberjacks and animal herders
• Orcs make good farmers

Like DF, the game has various production chains to satisfy the part of by Krautian brain that reacts to Settlers and Anno, and the shit is even set up in a way to make for a realistic evolution of your economy:

• Hunting lodges are great as an early source of meat, but their production won't be able to keep up with your growing population. In the long term you're probably better off making huge aurochs pastures - which have the added benefit of producing meat and leather at the same time (hunters can only produce one of these at any given time), and if you have stored enough livestock to quickly replace them, you can just slaughter all aurochs at once for a huge one-time bonus of both
• Embrace grain. Sure it might not be the favorite food of most of your population, and it's the only food item that needs further processing before being usable (aka you need bakeries, which in turn can eat up a lot of wood or coal), but no other food source can produce as much food as a grain farm

Science is a tricky one. You need labs with scientists in order to produce tech points to invest into the tech priest. But scientists are kinda a permanent investment, since any given number of scientists can only maintain a certain number of total tech points - so you always need more scientists, and if you reduce your number of scientists you risk losing tech points (and techs) as well.

Politics are deliciously cruel. I'm just gonna be blunt and recommend you to invest as much of your production back into your population as possible. If you hoard too much shit your neighbors (who all start out more powerful than you) will notice, and will happily come knocking at your door asking for gracious "birthday presents".

*) This might sound weird af, but modern SJW tabletop writers hate it when a dwarf is naturally more durable than a dainty elf (who is in turn more naturally dexterous). They think all the non-human races are actually supposed to be stand-ins non-white human races, so every assumption that they might have different average attribute scores suggest problematic biotruths.

[Kugelfisch]

So... anyone still got a GunCon? or a CRT tv...
uwu

Of course. Who doesn't?

[Complicity]

Other games by the Blasphemous guys:



Stealth game in a Spanish monastery/asylum, the playable characters are patients.
I haven't played it yet, so i don't know if it's good.



Episodic Lovecraftian adventure game that came out before Blasphemous, i played the first season 10 years ago and only recently i've realized it was made by the same developers.
The graphics are a pixellated nightmare (tm), but the sound design, music and writing are pretty good.
The game doesn't directly rip off the Cthulhu Mythos, unless there's a dark bird god i don't know about.

Speaking of Blasphemous, here's a Christian themed horror metroidvania that doesn't look as good but plays better:



When i played it there was only 1 protagonist, but now they added his squire (with different abilities) in the game that can be played in co-op, or switched with the crusader like in Portrait of Ruin.
There are different endings based on moral choices, and it seems they also added a Contra-like future segment and ending.

[AdorableOtter]

It's a bit late but my GoTY2024 awards go to Intravenous 2 (best Luigi simulator in human history) and Crow Country (decent RE clone which does everything right if not particularly great).