TheSambassador

I mean, you kinda gotta finish everything in order to get to Act 3, right?

But it cold and I don't want to bundle up like that kid from A Christmas Story.

The story gets better, but it's paced really weirdly and has some major issues. There's a lot that's not explained and the characters often just don't react to what's happening. The visuals and music are GORGEOUS though.

The crank folds down into an extremely satisfying magnetic dock that it can sit in while not using it.

Also... These aren't classic Gameboy games, they're modern games made specifically for the device. The unique control mechanism is the niche, and it's surprisingly fun to use. You just also CAN emulate Gameboy games on it. There's people who have made e-readers for it too... Though... That's where even i draw the line lol

Sounds like this isn't your thing though, there are lots of Gameboy emulator powered handhelds if that's all you're looking for. If you want extremely unique gameplay by tons of small indie developers (including Lucas Pope of Papers Please), super easy to make games for (I've made 2 just for friends), really easy side loading, and something just fun to show people, it's a super easy sell.

I've gotten easily $200 worth of value out of it, and if mine broke I'd buy another one. Sometimes niche things deserve the extra price. It's more of a problem of the world draining everyone's disposable income for niche things like these.

Is saying "not everyone is shitty" toxic positivity? I'm not denying the presence of malicious humans, but the first step to becoming a bad person is believing that everyone else is too.

What's your end goal here - what are you trying to communicate? Just that the world is bad and people should agree with that fact and do nothing?

I don't really mean to say that you can't express your feelings on the Internet or that they aren't valid, but I do just want to kinda poke people who seem to be in this "people are awful" mindset and point out that our psychology and our information ecosystem are all heavily biased towards the negative, but it's not the complete picture.

Hey look at this guy! He's met every human that's ever existed, ignored all the times that humans have been good and caring, and has decided that we're completely cooked!

But for real, I get that misanthropes are "in" right now, but if you look for the helpers, you will generally find them. Most people in the world are not out to cause pain - actively malicious people are rare. We just focus a shit ton of our attention on them.

The male loneliness is that feeling of having the burden of all your relationships in your shoulders, knowing that if you don't go after people people won't ever go after you. And that can be devastating with time.

I don't know if I've ever seen it put so succinctly. Maybe this isn't everything, but it is the root of the feeling for me. I'm constantly reaching out and checking in and it's more rare for the reverse to happen (though it's really important to notice when it does, which is something I'm trying to do more now).

If you aren't sure, why comment this? I get that AI is making everything seem like it's getting more soulless, but accusing everything of AI just puts more despair into the hearts of creators.

I fly several times a year and haven't really noticed that? I usually sit towards the back anyways though.

Absolutely. Procedural generation is not the same as AI generated. Spelunky's level generation is great and the different combinations of hand-created rooms with smart rules on how they connect. Unexplored (that's the name of the game) is a full on multi-level dungeon with puzzles and combat. Proc gen gives these games their life, but designing a good proc gen system is level design unto itself.

Definitely agree with everything you said... Except that Souls games are Metroidvanias. Backtracking is really the only thing that most souls-likes share with Metroidvanias. Unlocking gameplay abilities that also function as environmental keys is the main defining feature of Metroidvanias IMO.