Also the Returnal UI is pretty terrible. Important information is semi-transparent or appears in tiny text. It doesn't draw clear lines between actions and consequences. Everything is described in percentage buffs/debuffs with no real context.
If you compare it to Hades the vice becomes clear. Hades is *always* teaching you about itself, asking you to use your weapons in slightly different ways, forcing you to combine new ideas, incentivising you to try things you haven't tried before. Returnal just says "I must try harder", and is done.
In a standard roguelike, a death is a chance to try something new - a new build, a new gameplay style, a new strategy, or at least a fresh prayer to the RNG gods. Returnal has none of that. The guns are barely different. Pickups don't offer new options, just stat swings on your current one. 🧵
I want to like Returnal but I don't think that I do. All the things it borrows from Metroid Prime are great - but the things it borrows from roguelikes are terrible, mostly because it misunderstands what makes roguelikes fun. 🧵
There's a few permanent upgrades - very few - but most of the time when you die it's just "git gud". Do the same thing again, but better. Which is where it becomes an issue that Returnal is ALSO terrible at teaching you to excel. 🧵
I don't give a damn about basketball but World Events have me really hoping the Knicks go all the way.
(I don't really know what going all the way means in this context or what they have to do to achieve it, but I'm rooting for it anyway.)
Also Problem Friend, Problem Girlfriend/Boyfriend.
To a lesser extent Problem Parent, particularly when there is actually no good reason to lie to the parent, but Rebelling Against Parents has a very different context to Lying To A Partner so it's not necessarily a bad trope.
Please stop writing stories with Problem Wife, who exists in order to disapprove of the fun and have problems, and who must be lied to and deceived in order for the story to proceed. It's misogynist and it also makes for a shitty story.