this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
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cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/nonpolitical_comics/p/1657779/shen-comix-every-four-years

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[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 12 hours ago
[–] Scavenger_Solardaddy@lemmy.ml 6 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

For me it's Shattered Pixel Dungeon. I get this intense craving every few years. Will play religiously for a month or two and uninstall once I lose interest.

[–] jnod4@lemmy.ca 2 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Isn't that an android game? Could never get past the first level or two deep, I miss on something

[–] FunkFactory@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

The game has a few subtle mechanics that are not so obvious but more or less essential for progressing deep.

I haven't played in a few years, >!but IIRC it's extremely helpful to funnel aggro'd enemies through doors. Not only does it make it easier to fight only one at a time, but you get a surprise attack/crit on the turn the enemy enters the door frame and "discovers" the player.!<

[–] randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 1 points 14 hours ago

You have to explore every room before descending to the next floor. You will find items that help you on your voyage.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Nah, as much as Hollow Knight is a good game, it doesn't have Minecraft levels of hold on humanity and never will. He will return in couple of months stronger than ever.

[–] chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I miss minecraft. I stopped when it demanded a microsoft account

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I'm actively looking for a suitable minecraft replacement. It will be in my bio when I find it (if I'm still using this account at that time)

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 4 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

Hytale is probably what you are looking for then.

It is a Minecraft successor made by people who also despise Microsoft. It recently released in early access but has most of the survival stuff already in. Will have all the MC features you want eventually. But it is sponsored by Riot Games.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

Didn't Hytale just have some controversy about micro transactions?

[–] TheTimeKnife@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Ive been using luanti to play Mineclonia this week. Works pretty well imo.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Imma give luanti a couple more years to iron out the jank before I give it serious consideration. I am excited to see it improve though.

[–] TheTimeKnife@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

Fair enough, its got a few rough edges. Ive been liking it so far and I havent had any problems that arent easy to solve.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

There are...ways.

[–] snugglesthefalse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 22 hours ago

Yeah it's good but minceraft has way more content potential. Even before you start piling on the modpacks.

[–] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I played a few hours of the original Hollow Knight, trying to get into it. I just.....couldn't.

I played the shit out of both of the Ori games, though. God DAMN those games are beautiful.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

metroidvanias are not for everyone. It's okay.

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 3 points 13 hours ago

Ori and the Blind Forest is a metroidvania.

[–] BunScientist@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Just wondering, how far did you get? The begining is certainly the weakest part, Silksong does a better job on improving the general lack of movement and closedness of the map early on

[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Not op but I had the same issue

I think I played like 10 hours and nothing ever really clicked... I didn't really know what I was doing, why, what was happening or really anything at all.

And I'm no new guy in gaming. Been at it since like 2010.

Idk why I didn't enjoy Hollow Knight. It always seemed nice and still does.

[–] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

Thank God I'm not the only one. I was like "The hell am I doing? I feel like I'm just grinding to grind". Nothing felt interesting about the story and navigating the map felt like a chore of backtracking/figuring out where the hell I should go next. The gameplay was fine otherwise, but I just expected more from a game that supposedly "Redefined Metroidvania games".

I feel like it would have been improved with a quest and quest marker system. Some people enjoy exploring every nook and cranny, but I ain't got time for that shit.

[–] Wiwiweb@sh.itjust.works 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Personally I like metroidvanias for the exploration. If a game tells me where to go (e.g. Metroid Prime 4) it feels like the game is playing for me, robbing me of the fun.

You might like platformers more than metroidvanias specifically?

[–] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

I don't mind exploration. The problem was there wasn't a clear "where you should go next to progress the main story" in Hollow Knight, so I instead spent a bunch of time wandering aimlessly, hit a brick wall of progress, and got frustrated.

I liked Ori because it gave you guidance for a general "area" you can go to progress the main story, but still gives you the ability to explore with side quests when you want to get off track a bit. I completed 80% of the collectables in Will of the Wisps and explored nearly the entire map.

[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 1 points 14 hours ago

Hell, i like exploring nooks, but not that many

[–] snugglesthefalse@sh.itjust.works 2 points 22 hours ago

I got to the mantis bosses and stalled. I came back when skong came out and found out they were an optional boss. Now I've finished 2 acts of the second game so I guess I've come a way. The second one is so much more in every way though and you probably don't need to play the first before it but it helps.

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[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 57 points 2 days ago (5 children)

I loved the first Hollow Knight incredibly, and I really wanted to love the sequel Silksong just as much, but the problem, you see, is that I am Not Good.

The first game had an OK difficulty and plenty of charms to help so I made it to the end, but all the first game DLC was so crazy hard I couldn't even. And that made me sad.

I hoped Silksong would be a return to a more accessible place, but while it started reasonable it quickly got to a difficulty where I couldn't keep up, no matter how much I tried. Way more than the original game.

So fuck you, Silksong. I love your world and I love your music and I love your vibe and I want to love you but I hate you.

I've recently been playing a lot of Minecraft.

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

Just get a mod that alters the difficulty, there's no cheating in single player games. I played about a third of the game until I hit my skill ceiling. I could've insisted on practicing and getting better and endure another 6 hours of frustration and hand pain. I love overcoming challenges and the sense of achievement when obstacles are overcome. But I also have a job and a family life that also delivers both, in a non-optional way. At some point I just want to see what else is there in the game's content, not to struggle against a wall for hours. Now I'm near the final act and can say, it would've take me tens of more hours to get here that way. I ain't got that much free time in my hands that I want to invest on that.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 32 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I feel like Hollow Knight's difficulty was in the boss fights, you'd traverse pretty easily, then get stuck listening to a fucking Dung Beetle yelling "HOOOOOOOOYYYYYY!" while getting you're ass kicked for 45 minutes.

In Silksong I've gotten my ass handed to me by improper platforming & random nobodies more times than I can count.

[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 12 hours ago

dung defender is the game's easiest boss

stay at the edge of the arena where some attacks cant hit you, dodging the other ones

i defeated it 1st try

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[–] Flames5123@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It is a game that you need to practice. I spent 96 hours to get 100% in 2.5 weeks. I crashed out on more than one occasion. It’s like practicing anything. I loved getting better at it, but I understand that it’s not for everyone.

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 1 points 13 hours ago

Yeah, if I need to practice in order to enjoy it, I will just go play something else.

"Able to play Silksong" is not a skill that is useful enough to invest practice time into it.

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

The thing that makes me upset isn't that it's not for me.

I accept that plenty of games aren't for me, and that I shouldn't play them. I'm never going to get into Dark Souls or Elden Ring, because they aren't going to be my thing.

The part that makes me upset is that Hollow Knight very much was for me, and was a game I enjoyed and have very fond memories of. I was very much looking forward to Silksong, but the difficulty is so much higher that I can no longer engage with this world I once loved.

It feels in TV terms like watching Season 1 of a show and really getting into it, and then when Season 2 comes out, you excitedly start watching - episode 1, episode 2, but your TV somehow stops working every time you start the third episode. Or any episode after the third. Everyone is talking about how great the show is and you've seen clips and you want to experience it, but no matter how much you try, you can't.

If I hadn't seen Season 1, I'd just give up after those two episodes like "That show's obviously not working for me" - but I have seen Season 1. I'm invested, yet now I can't see it through.

That's why I'm upset.

[–] Flames5123@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you beat hollow knight, you can beat silksong! It’s about patience and practice. I was going in and greedily getting off many hits instead of learning each boss’s fight and tells. It’s like learning how to play a difficult song. You will mess up a lot. You will repeat sections over and over. It will be a little frustrating if you let it frustrate you.

And you know what? It’s a video game. Download mods if you want to give yourself more hearts or have the bosses do less damage. We all have limited time to play games so have fun with it.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It’s about patience and practice.

Lots of people don't want that in a video game. Which is perfectly fine because no game is going to have universal appeal.

[–] snugglesthefalse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 22 hours ago

Yeah I found I became my own worst enemy in silksong, whenever you get a new movement ability it just opens up a ton of crazy stuff you can do and for a while I was just fighting the urge to go too fast (and doing it anyway)

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[–] idunnololz@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

This is literally me right now (the minecraft thing) but its been going for 2 month :/. They actually added so much content since I last played I still haven't explored all of it yet.

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[–] Franzyd@fedit.pl 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Difference this time is it's Hytale instead of Minecraft

[–] sauce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

My friend group considered picking it up but one guy said it's probably best to give it some more time in the oven.. have you played it? Thoughts?

[–] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 2 points 21 hours ago

The game has more breadth than I thought it would, and the systems it does have (exploration, fighting, construction, farming) have wayyy more depth than Minecraft's it does not feel fair to compare. There's definitely enjoyment to be had for a while playing if the occasional random lag spike or disconnect is not a deal breaker for you.

But it's not yet a Minecraft killer. Minecraft still has a much higher gameplay variation. In a couple years though I don't think there will be much reason to play vanilla Minecraft except nostalgia.

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[–] Enkrod@feddit.org 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

whispers look up "Vintage Story"

i'm hooked

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[–] StuffYouFear@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Factorio is my goto once a year thing for a month

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