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There are a handful of phrases that could immediately make the ears of diehard roguelike fans like yours truly perk up with a fierce intensity, but “Smash inspired combat mechanics” is certainly one of them. If the central mechanic of the roguelike feels good to play and satisfying to master, it tends to be a hit, and there are very few other franchises that perfectly capture that feel other than Super Smash Bros. While on the surface it’s a party game, the competitive scene brings to the forefront a wide array of “tech” that makes it a joy to play and watch, from wave-dashing allowing for incredible movement to directional influence letting you snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. So when Spiritfall advertises itself as inspired by other Platform Fighters, well it’s not entirely unsurprising that I’ve racked up over 70 some runs over 20ish hours and that’s just with early access.
From Gentle Giant Games, Spiritfall has a straightforward story as any other roguelike. You, a chosen warrior (Omenforged) are tasked by the Great Spirits to seek what caused the world’s destruction. You don’t need to worry about death since you can come back and walk the path again and again and again until you have resolved the eternal conflict. But narrative has never been a Roguelike’s pure draw, although that said, the art direction and lore of the game is pretty incredible. The Omenforged evokes some elements of Dead Cells (floating head on a humanoid body) and Hollow Knight (cute mask) while still retaining its own identity. The six spirits available in the early access are managed to evoke a certain type of magitech stylization with glowing runes on large masked beasts. The wide variety of enemies in the three available biomes each have their own visual dictionary, which makes them easy to identify in the middle of the fray. Even in the post-apocalyptic ruin levels, there is an undeniable vibrancy and fluidity in the models skirmishing, which translates naturally to the actual combat.
While your Omenforged needs upgrades to fully get access to the iconic Smash tech that’s advertised, their core of the combat feels at home for anyone who’s ever touched a platform fighter or Dead Cells. As you enter a contained arena with a group of adds, you use your choice of implement (initially a hammer, before you get the option to select things like four floating fists, a run of the mill bow and arrow, and a pair of hooked blades that were repurposed from fishing hooks). Each has standard attacks and/or “launchers” that can be used to slam enemies to either create space or spike them against the wall. At the end of the level, a reward shows up that ranges from the typical meta currencies that let you modify the biomes, weapons, and the aforementioned character unlocks and weapon mods. While the majority of gameplay in Spiritfall resembles Dead Cells, the systems are actually much closer to Hades.
Your base kit includes the Attack, Launcher, Bolt, Dash, and Assist. The different great spirits offer six different styles of divine retribution (with clear hints at additional spirits coming later). It’s a pretty balanced spread between spirits that add negative status conditions to your enemies and ones that focus on buffing you. Like with Hades, Spiritfall wants you to mix and match the pantheon to allow for synergies and eventual specific boons that unify the playstyles, the ability to upgrade the boon potency, and relics that offer neutral benefits. I’m personally partial to the Ice’s skill tree for its good AoE options and slowing the opponents down. Although, it’s hard not to appreciate the sheer survivability of poised or Seahorse’s bubble shield assist.
The current Spiritfall build (again, in early access) features three distinct biomes, each comprised of a handful of rooms that you path on an overworld map. The nice part is that due to the frenetic nature of combat, each run in the beta to go through the three worlds and three boss fights only takes about 20 or so minutes. In my eyes, this puts it at an advantage over Dead Cells, a game I love conceptually, but find myself burnt out much faster due to the longer levels that require constant attention because of hordes of adds and exploration required. The contained nature of each of the encounters allows for a natural reset in cadence, much like a fighting game’s round, a fact that is even more evident in the Rift Levels which are loving homages to the original platform fighter.
This is one of the few times that I bought into the early access, and I’ve really enjoyed being in the active part. The last major Spiritfall update on May 24th added the hook blade fishhook weapon. The offered a drastically different playstyle and aesthetic (although, I still find myself going for the fists by default) and outfits that provide additional bonuses to further customize the Omenforged for the trials and tribulations ahead. And I’m very much looking forward to the new region and boss in June, and the new spirit and weapon coming out in July.
It’s been a joy having the weird Smash muscle memory carry onto this game. The satisfaction of wave-dashing away from an attack to charge up a spike and watch an enemy bounce on the walls like a pinball can’t be overstated. This game has such a strong foundation and is becoming a prime example of why the Steam Deck’s biggest draw for me is not the fact that you can play triple AAA games like Elden Ring on the go (although that’s still very much cool), but that the small indie games that you can play for hours play wonderfully.
Spiritfall’s polish in its entire package makes it a must buy already for me. When the full game comes out, don’t expect a full review, because I will be too involved in an endless cycle of reincarnation and these fundamental points aren’t likely to change: combat feels good, game looks wonderful, and it’s easy to jump in and find a rhythm. That’s pretty much as good as you could ask for in a roguelike.
All images courtesy of the Gentle Giant’s press kit.
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The post As Good as You Could Ask For: First Impressions of ‘Spiritfall’ appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
There are a handful of phrases that could immediately make the ears of diehard roguelike fans like yours truly perk up with a fierce intensity, but “Smash inspired combat mechanics” is certainly one of them. If the central mechanic of the roguelike feels good to play and satisfying to master, it tends to be a hit, and there are very few other franchises that perfectly capture that feel other than Super Smash Bros. While on the surface it’s a party game, the competitive scene brings to the forefront a wide array of “tech” that makes it a joy to play and watch, from wave-dashing allowing for incredible movement to directional influence letting you snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. So when Spiritfall advertises itself as inspired by other Platform Fighters, well it’s not entirely unsurprising that I’ve racked up over 70 some runs over 20ish hours and that’s just with early access.
From Gentle Giant Games, Spiritfall has a straightforward story as any other roguelike. You, a chosen warrior (Omenforged) are tasked by the Great Spirits to seek what caused the world’s destruction. You don’t need to worry about death since you can come back and walk the path again and again and again until you have resolved the eternal conflict. But narrative has never been a Roguelike’s pure draw, although that said, the art direction and lore of the game is pretty incredible. The Omenforged evokes some elements of Dead Cells (floating head on a humanoid body) and Hollow Knight (cute mask) while still retaining its own identity. The six spirits available in the early access are managed to evoke a certain type of magitech stylization with glowing runes on large masked beasts. The wide variety of enemies in the three available biomes each have their own visual dictionary, which makes them easy to identify in the middle of the fray. Even in the post-apocalyptic ruin levels, there is an undeniable vibrancy and fluidity in the models skirmishing, which translates naturally to the actual combat.
While your Omenforged needs upgrades to fully get access to the iconic Smash tech that’s advertised, their core of the combat feels at home for anyone who’s ever touched a platform fighter or Dead Cells. As you enter a contained arena with a group of adds, you use your choice of implement (initially a hammer, before you get the option to select things like four floating fists, a run of the mill bow and arrow, and a pair of hooked blades that were repurposed from fishing hooks). Each has standard attacks and/or “launchers” that can be used to slam enemies to either create space or spike them against the wall. At the end of the level, a reward shows up that ranges from the typical meta currencies that let you modify the biomes, weapons, and the aforementioned character unlocks and weapon mods. While the majority of gameplay in Spiritfall resembles Dead Cells, the systems are actually much closer to Hades.
Your base kit includes the Attack, Launcher, Bolt, Dash, and Assist. The different great spirits offer six different styles of divine retribution (with clear hints at additional spirits coming later). It’s a pretty balanced spread between spirits that add negative status conditions to your enemies and ones that focus on buffing you. Like with Hades, Spiritfall wants you to mix and match the pantheon to allow for synergies and eventual specific boons that unify the playstyles, the ability to upgrade the boon potency, and relics that offer neutral benefits. I’m personally partial to the Ice’s skill tree for its good AoE options and slowing the opponents down. Although, it’s hard not to appreciate the sheer survivability of poised or Seahorse’s bubble shield assist.
The current Spiritfall build (again, in early access) features three distinct biomes, each comprised of a handful of rooms that you path on an overworld map. The nice part is that due to the frenetic nature of combat, each run in the beta to go through the three worlds and three boss fights only takes about 20 or so minutes. In my eyes, this puts it at an advantage over Dead Cells, a game I love conceptually, but find myself burnt out much faster due to the longer levels that require constant attention because of hordes of adds and exploration required. The contained nature of each of the encounters allows for a natural reset in cadence, much like a fighting game’s round, a fact that is even more evident in the Rift Levels which are loving homages to the original platform fighter.
This is one of the few times that I bought into the early access, and I’ve really enjoyed being in the active part. The last major Spiritfall update on May 24th added the hook blade fishhook weapon. The offered a drastically different playstyle and aesthetic (although, I still find myself going for the fists by default) and outfits that provide additional bonuses to further customize the Omenforged for the trials and tribulations ahead. And I’m very much looking forward to the new region and boss in June, and the new spirit and weapon coming out in July.
It’s been a joy having the weird Smash muscle memory carry onto this game. The satisfaction of wave-dashing away from an attack to charge up a spike and watch an enemy bounce on the walls like a pinball can’t be overstated. This game has such a strong foundation and is becoming a prime example of why the Steam Deck’s biggest draw for me is not the fact that you can play triple AAA games like Elden Ring on the go (although that’s still very much cool), but that the small indie games that you can play for hours play wonderfully.
Spiritfall’s polish in its entire package makes it a must buy already for me. When the full game comes out, don’t expect a full review, because I will be too involved in an endless cycle of reincarnation and these fundamental points aren’t likely to change: combat feels good, game looks wonderful, and it’s easy to jump in and find a rhythm. That’s pretty much as good as you could ask for in a roguelike.
All images courtesy of the Gentle Giant’s press kit.
Want to get Black Nerd Problems updates sent directly to you? Sign up here! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram!
The post As Good as You Could Ask For: First Impressions of ‘Spiritfall’ appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
It’s been 31 years since Michael Keaton last wore the cape and cowl of the Dark Knight in Batman Returns. But after all this time, he’s back as Bruce Wayne in The Flash. As a way of celebrating his long-awaited return, Keaton was part of a special screening hosted by Empire Magazine of his 1989 Batman debut and the upcoming The Flash. At the Q&A, Keaton answered several questions about filming the original Tim Burton film, and how a certain iconic line was totally improvised on set. He explained the origin of “You wanna get nuts?? Let’s get nuts!” to the crowd.
“I don’t think ‘Let’s get nuts’ was in the script, that was me. That scene was never really that good as written, to be honest with you. That was one of the days when we went round and round. I think Kim [Basinger] is in it, me and Jack [Nicholson], nobody could ever find it. I thought, ‘Okay, pressure’s on, man. Pressure. Is. On.’ I thought he’d probably said, ‘Okay, I’m kind of cornered, I only have one way to go and I’d better let this character know that we’re gonna throw down.’
One of the other more famous things Michael Keaton invented for the big screen Batman is the idea that Bruce Wayne had a deeper, gravely voice when in costume. This was definitely not something Adam West did, and almost every other cinematic Batman has followed in Keaton’s footsteps here. Particularly Christian Bale in the three Christopher Nolan films. So what inspired the infamous Bat-voice? According to Keaton, it was really just logic.
“I actually bother people because I fall back to logic. And I remember standing there going, ‘Okay, how are we gonna do this?’ The scene was somebody standing right next to me and I said, this guy’s going to look at me and say, ‘Hey, it’s Bruce Wayne!’ It’s as practical as ‘How does the audience really believe that people don’t go, “clearly this is Bruce Wayne dressed up on a rubber suit…’ “
We are beyond excited to see Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader again The Flash. We can only hope it’s not the last time we see him in the black rubber suit. It’s an infinite multiverse, after all. And who wouldn’t want to see Keaton as “Old Man Bruce” in a live-action Batman Beyond project? To read more details on Keaton’s time making Batman, be sure to head on over to Empire Magazine for more.
The post Michael Keaton Reveals He Improvised Iconic BATMAN ’89 Dialogue appeared first on Nerdist.
Ahsoka on Disney+ is going to reintroduce some legendary characters from Star Wars past. Sabine Wren, Hera Syndulla, Ezra Bridger, and Grand Admiral Thrawn will all make their live-action debuts on the spinoff. We expect other familiar faces will join them in surprise cameos. But we now know there will be an appearance by someone we never expected to see. The series will feature one of Darth Vader’s elite Jedi hunters, an Inquisitor. Who is this mysterious Force user? What do they want with Ahsoka now? And most importantly, at what point in the Star Wars timeline will this Ahsoka Inquisitor show up?
Empire‘s latest issue provides new insights into what to expect from the Rosario Dawson-led series when it arrives later this summer. That includes how Sabine Wren will be dealing with the guilt of not finding her friend Ezra just yet. It also examines how Ahsoka Tano will be following a lonely path. But the most intriguing revelation from the magazine is the photo of a masked Inquisitor.
Inquisitors worked for Palpatine and Vader during the reign of the Empire. Typically seen using spinning double-bladed red lightsabers, the deadly Force-sensitive unit hunted down Jedi across the galaxy. They’ve previously appeared on Star Wars Rebels, in Cal Kestis’ Jedi games, and in live-action on Obi-Wan Kenobi. Known by numbers (such as Fifth Brother or Third Sister), many have died on-screen.
While the group’s numbering system indicates we have yet to meet all of them, it certainly seemed as though most (if not all) died by the time the Empire collapsed. None have ever appeared in a post-Return of the Jedi timeline. And that’s when Ahsoka will take place, same as The Mandalorian, so it is surprising to see the presence of an Inquisitor.
So how and why will an unknown Inquisitor appear on the Ahsoka series? (Their mask is unlike any we’ve seen before.) There are three logical explanations. The first is simply that not all of them died and stopped hunting Jedi after the Rebel Alliance won. It’s very possible at least one Inquisitor was still around years later, loyally serving her dead Emperor. (We know lots of officers did just that.)
They also might have sought vengeance against Ahsoka, who had many run-ins with Inquisitors. And with Grand Admiral Thrawn still alive, we might learn those leftover Inquisitors ended up working for him directly. They might even know about the plan to resurrect Palpatine.
It’s also possible this Inquisitor will appear in a flashback in Ahsoka, or that the show will begin at an earlier point than we expect. Ahsoka could open with a sequence set during the era of the Empire, which would more than explain why she would encounter an Inquisitor.
But the third possible explanation is the most intriguing. The show has teased a return to the World Between Worlds, a dimension outside of time and space. The appearance of an Inquisitor on the series might mean Ahsoka will go back in time to the past when the elite unit was operational. Or even that one of the Inquisitors will hop forward in time. That could mean this actually is an Inquisitor we met before and seen die.
Whatever the explanation, we’re excited that an Inquisitor is returning to the galaxy far, far away in Ahsoka. Inquisitors are always bad news for Jedi. But they do make for exciting television.
The post AHSOKA Will Feature an Unknown Inquisitor, but Which STAR WARS Era Are They From? appeared first on Nerdist.