The ending took a turn I genuinely wasn’t expecting and that really elevated it for me, and then it did it again in the epilogue-finale.

For me this is reinforced at the “first ending”, where a significant change occurs and M is *outside of it* and feels adrift, continuing to fight for a status quo that no longer exists in the same way, until pushing through that to realize the big change and understand that she’s breaking cycles.

Put another way, the theme feels like it’s about recognizing and understanding a need for change and ultimately embracing that change even through uncertainty, and by not providing a tidy reassurance that all will be ok, that theme is reinforced through the ending.

Notably, the game isn’t. It seems to start that way and a big part of the character arcs involve questioning it, to the point where the epilogue ending is straight-up about breaking the cycle and making massive changes. It’s not about what “might” happen, it definitively will per the actual text.

As a message, I found it compelling that M continues to help people even when her efforts are frustrated or don’t pay off. She’s very much not transactional and that shines through consistently.

I actually found Melinoë to be MORE compassionate than Zag, and with less judgement. Zag helps people who can help him, and only so far (Sisyphus comes to mind), Melinoë tries to help everyone she meets. There’s even a late-game convo with Prometheus where M wants to stop fighting.

—so she *breaks them*, not just for the people she’s close to, but for everyone, in a much wider scope than Zag. She’s even explicit in some late conversations with Hecate and Odysseus that she can’t make people change but she can give them the tools to help themselves.

It feels like we played a different game. The postgame finale changes things massively vis a vis the influence of the gods and it’s pointed out by multiple people that Melinoë was vital to that. Everyone is flawed and Mel is consistently frustrated that everyone is stuck in the same cycles—

The problem lies with making "parry" be a button you press that is "higher risk, higher reward dodge with extra requirements".

Don't have redundant buttons!

Spec into "parry" at tier 1 and you bounce off if you would take damage, now being active and attacking means it's also your defense.

Tier 2 and you recover faster, feels great.

Tier 3 and you unlock a powerful counterattack.

The whole time you're leveraging offense as defense.

I've never really understood why you wouldn't have "parry" be a subsystem of making attacks. It'd be a pretty straightforward system-- if you would hit an enemy at a time when they would hit you, you parry instead, and if you're using progression mechanics, you gradually make those instances better.

God that game is so good

Congratulations! That rules, and I appreciate you sharing the story— it makes me feel slightly less anxious about being in a similar situation.

I absolutely did not know these were even a thing. TIL

Way up in the top left: English Country Tune.

One of the things that worries me is the massive conflation between Jewish people worldwide and Israel specifically. They are not the same, but the messaging connecting them is rampant and is an intentional and terrifyingly effective bit of propaganda.

The first one is a 2D multiplayer platformer, the second is a 3D platformer, both use escalating difficulty over time to create a tension between moving on and powering up in a given area. Lots of unlocks, various paths to take, both quite fun in co-op.

Risk of Rain? Unless you were specifically throwing shade on Risk of Rain.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that Mom is lowkey deadpan hilarious and I just didn’t get the joke most of the time, oops